1. The next time that Joshua comes into notice is not so flattering to him. It is on that occasion when the Spirit descended on the seventy elders who had been appointed to assist Moses, and they prophesied round about the tabernacle. Two of the seventy were not with the rest, but nevertheless they received the Spirit and were prophesying in the camp. The military instinct of Joshua was hurt at the irregularity, and his concern for the honour of Moses was roused by their apparent indifference to their head. He hurried to inform Moses, not doubting that he would interfere to correct the irregularity. But the narrow spirit of youth met with a memorable rebuke from the larger and more noble spirit of the leader-“Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!”
2. The spirit which was exhibited by Joshua in this incident was that of the martinet, and, if it had not been checked, would have been the jealous and envious spirit in the commander of an army; and in Canaan both would have been fatal to his influence and success among the hot-tempered princes of Israel and the fierce people. But, whatever be the reason, Joshua had got rid of all this weak, jealous, and martinet temper when we find him in Canaan. No complaints, no cabals, such as those which were made against Moses, were made against him. What Moses said to him when he carried his jealous tale about the unauthorized prophets-“Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord's people were prophets!”-Joshua would have said to any one who reported to him an unauthorized deed of war by one of his companions as dangerous to his supremacy-“Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord's people were chieftains in war!”
Cardinal Manning, who regretted the alienation of Cardinal Vaughan (then Bishop of Salford) from other than Catholic workers, urged him to visit some of the Salvation Army Shelters. Vaughan did so, accompanied by Mr. Wilfrid Meynell, who gives the following account of the visit: “In one room sat a number of women, mostly old women, at various sorts of needlework. ‘Are any of my people here?' asked the Bishop, addressing the assembly. And, dotted about the room, aged dames, in the dignity of Poverty, stood up for their faith. Then the Bishop turned on the Captain: ‘And do these attend Protestant prayers?' ‘They attend the praises of God every evening.' ‘And what do you preach?' ‘We preach Christ and Him Crucified, and we shall be very pleased if you will stay and so preach Him this evening. We are quite unsectarian.' This was too much. ‘Well, but if I told them that unless they were baptized they could not be saved?' ‘I should tell them that it was not true,' said the Captain. ‘And I should tell them that it was not true,' echoed Cardinal Manning when we told him the story an hour later; ‘I should explain to them the Church's doctrine of the Baptism of Desire.' Manning's Thomas More-like love of rallying whatever seemed too grave and too formal-a fashion of mind and speech which increased with the passage of years-was much in evidence that evening. Herbert Vaughan's great gravity offered a tempting target for the darts and sallies of this Most Eminent Puck, who greeted his return with the hope that Herbert, who had always been so good a Catholic, would now, after his contact with the Army, be also a good Christian! But the Bishop insisted on a ban, not banter. He went straight to the point. ‘You are quite mistaken, my Lord, in thinking that the work of the Army is undenominational,' and he told the test case about Baptism, with the result already named. The more sanguine the Cardinal about the good done by the ‘other sheep,' the more sore became the Bishop. ‘I know,' he said, ‘you would labour and love out of mere humanitarian motives. They would be enough for you, but not for me. I could do it only as a duty, the duty of a Christian Bishop. The natural man in me has no love for the world.' ‘God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son-but that is a detail.' ”1 [Note: J. G. Snead-Cox, The Life of Cardinal Vaughan, i. 481.]
