Notwithstanding my love for the rich and beautiful vegetation of Brazil, I do like the seasons here, and the sort of feeling of expectation that winter, dark and dreary as it is, gives of the welcome return of spring with all its beauties.
12th., Sunday.—My uncle, in conversing this morning about the peculiar situation and circumstances of the Israelites, said that the beneficence which graciously condescended to detail all their smaller duties in the law, might be compared to the cloud which continued to be their daily guide in the wilderness, directing them when to halt, and when to advance; for the law was their sure guide to lead them blameless through the journey of life, could they but have been obedient to it, and restrained their unruly and stubborn dispositions.
“But, perhaps,” he continued, “there is not any where in the history of man a stronger proof of the corruption of his heart, and at the same time of the perfect free will bestowed on him, than in the simple facts recorded in the history of the journey of the Israelites across the desert; when at the very time they were under the immediate guidance of God, they so frequently murmured and even rebelled against his commands. Thus exercising their own will, notwithstanding the threats and prohibitions, as well as the promises, conveyed to them by Moses.
“The book of Numbers, you know, is so called because it contains an account of the two numberings of the people; the first of which took place in the second year after their departure from Egypt; and the second, in the plains of Moab, near the conclusion of their wanderings. It comprehends about thirty-eight years; but the principal historical events which it records happened at the beginning or the end of that period,—such as, the death of Aaron, and the very interesting narrative of Balak and Balaam’s insidious attempts. It also describes the consecration of the tabernacle, and recapitulates the forty-two journeys of the Israelites in the wilderness, under the miraculous guidance of the cloud.
“This book also contains several instances of the prompt severity with which God punished the rebellious murmurings and ungrateful seditions of the people. But amidst the exemplary terrors of those judgments, it sets forth on every occasion the continuance of his fatherly mercy and goodness, in providing for their wants, in protecting and defending them, in holding out the consoling offer of future restoration to his favour, and particularly in the beautiful and comprehensive blessing which he appointed to be pronounced by the priests, and to which, lest any body should despise it, because uttered by a mere mortal, he annexed this gracious and distinct promise, ‘and I will bless them.’
“The blessing[A] probably extended in its full meaning to after-ages, and seems to be capable of a more comprehensive interpretation than what appears in our translation. For it is very remarkable, that the name of Jehovah, which is three times repeated, has each time in the original Hebrew a different accent. Some commentators think that this refers to the three persons of the Trinity; and that it has a strictly parallel signification to the form of baptism which our Saviour established in ‘the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’
“The three parts of this benediction, they say, will be found to agree respectively with the attributes of Three Persons. The Father being the source of all blessings and preservation, temporal and eternal. Grace and illumination coming from the Son, through whom we have the light of all true knowledge. And Peace, that is, the peace of conscience and inward tranquillity of mind, being essentially the gift of the Spirit, whose name, St. John says, is the Comforter.”
13th.—Every thing relating to the interior of Africa is so interesting now that such efforts are making to explore it, that I think you will be amused by a few lines from Mollien’s Travels about a kingdom called Fonta-diallon.
He says, that the villages are like camps; there are but few cattle, and those of diminutive size; horses are unknown, and the ass on which Mollien rode, spread terror through the country. There is not sufficient prey to invite the lion; and the surrounding mountains have never been crossed by the elephant: but hyenas and panthers are abundant; and monkeys people the woods.
The riches of the inhabitants consist in slaves, and they have some very singular establishments for them, which seem to shew a much greater degree of humanity than we find in any other part of Africa. I will copy Mollien’s own words.