MOSES' BURIAL AND GRAVE.
By Latrie
“And he buried him in a valley, in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor; but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day.” Deut. xxxiv, 6. “No man knoweth of his sepulcher!” When the warrior dies, his comrades, with muffled drums and reversed arms, show banners taken, tell of battles won, and rehearse his noble deeds. Amid the first and most honored of the land—sages, poets, and statesmen—they lay him to rest, where costly monuments of bronze and marble speak to a world of departed greatness. But Moses, the man of God, the bravest warrior, the most truthful sage, the inspired poet, and the greatest philosopher that ever earth knew, sleeps in a nameless spot, By Nebo’s lonely mountain,
On this side Jordan’s waves.
Moses, whose life, from his very birth, was one of hardship, struggle and toil; who religiously refused to become the heir of royalty; who meekly declined the honor which God designed should be bestowed on the saviour of Abraham’s children; who, under God, safely delivered them from their cruel bondage, and the tyrant’s power; who patiently listened to the complaints and bore the reproaches of the children of Israel; but who, finally, provoked to anger, at the rock at Meribah, incurred the displeasure of the Lord, and forfeited his entrance into the promised land, whose fertile fields and pleasant rest had been the goal of his hopes, for more than forty years—this friend of God was permitted only to view the land, and then called to rest in his unknown grave. Beloved friend and mourner, do you grieve that your husband, your child, or your friend, lies in an unknown spot? Do you weep because you cannot plant myrtles, and strew flowers above the unmarked grave, and sigh that no marble speaks of the worth, and guides to the resting place of the departed one? Remember that he who, favored as no other has been, talked with God face to face, at the same time the greatest and the meekest man, has, for thousands of years, lain where man knoweth not his sepulcher.—Latrie.