Miriams Schooling and Other Papers | Page 7

that it should be carried in a new
cart by two milch kine on which there had come no yoke, and that their
calves should be brought home from them. Then if the kine of their
own accord took the cart to Bethshemesh, it would be known that it
was the God of Israel who had plagued the land; but if they refused to
go, then it might be chance which had done it. The Ark was placed in
the cart, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon the kine. Remembering
their calves, they nevertheless went straight along the road to
Bethshemesh, lowing as they went, and turning not aside to the right
hand or to the left, and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto
the border of Bethshemesh. The men of Bethshemesh were reaping
their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes, and saw
the Ark, and rejoiced to see it, and the cart came into the field of Joshua
the Bethshemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone, and
they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine as a burnt-offering.
And the Levites took down the Ark, and the coffer that was with it,
wherein the jewels of stone were, and put them on the great stone, and
the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offering and sacrifices. When
the Philistines had seen all these things, and when they knew that the
plague in their land was stayed, did they acknowledge the Lord God?
How should they, seeing that they were not His elect?
The children of Israel continually turned aside to the lewd gods of the

heathen, and at times it seemed as if the whole earth would be given up
to the abominations of the Canaanites. The Lord had brought us out of
Egypt, and through the desert. He had appeared to us on Sinai, and had
given us His commandments, by which alone we could live. He had
revealed unto us that we should be pure, and separate ourselves from
the filth around us. He had roused up Moses, and Joshua, and the
Judges, all of whom strove to preserve and ever build higher and
stronger the wall which was to protect us, so that the sacred Law and
the service of the one God might continue. Israel was but a handful in
the midst of Philistines and Amalekites, nations which worshipped Baal
with fornication and all kinds of uncleanness, and Israel was ever at the
point of mingling with them. Then it would have been forgotten as they
will be forgotten; but if it will only abide in the Law, as given in
thunder and lightning in the wilderness, it will be great, when, except
for their struggles with Israel, the recollection of Amalekite and
Philistine shall have perished.
I often was alone amidst a people which had well nigh all gone astray,
but I remembered the voice which I heard in the Temple when I was a
child. I sought the Most High day and night, and He came very close to
me, and it became clearer and clearer to me that all things were as
nothing compared with the Law, and that everything was to be set aside
for its sake. Alone, I say, I testified on His behalf, but He kept me.
Neither women nor wine have I ever known when men were given over
to women and wine: His Vision has filled me, dedicate to Him ere I
was born.
The Lord chastised Israel through their enemies, and I besought the
people to turn away from the Philistine gods and their iniquities. I
gathered them together in Mizpeh: the Philistines heard of it, and came
down upon Mizpeh, thinking that now they could wipe us out from the
face of the earth. Kings have had their captains, but I had none, and was
not a man of war; the people were in a panic; their lascivious idolatry
of Baal had destroyed their strength, and the enemy lay opposite us.
That night I did not sleep, but went to the Lord in prayer. If I had had
nothing but my own strength which I could trust I should have fainted,
for what could I, unlearned in battle, do against such an army, and with

no soldiers save a frightened mob, which knew that it deserved God's
wrath. I wrestled with the Most High as Jacob wrestled, and I implored
Him to remember His promise to our fathers. I called to mind that day
by the borders of the sea, when His angel which went before the camp
of the Israelites removed and went behind them, and the pillar of the
cloud went from before their face and stood behind them, and