Numbers 14:7

7. They spake unto all the company of the children of Israel Literalists like Colenso find an insuperable difficulty here. “No human voice, unless strengthened by miracle, of which the Scriptures tell us nothing, could have reached the ears of a crowded mass of people as large as the whole population of London.” But the President of the United States performs a greater feat, standing on the east porch of the capitol and delivering his inaugural address to the whole country, with incidental remarks to all mankind. King Solomon at the dedication “blessed all the congregation of Israel.” 1 Kings 8:14. Even the children in the Sunday-school soon learn to understand that “all” has its reasonable limitations when they read that “Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, were baptized of John;” as they do when they read that all New York is taking an airing in Central Park. See Exodus 9:6, note.

Exceeding good land Hebrew, good exceedingly exceedingly. The minority report is more emphatic in its praise than the majority report is in its dispraise of Canaan. The eye of unbelief had seen the dark cloud, the eye of faith had seen both it and its silver lining. A craven fear had tinged all the observations of the one with a sombre hue, while an unfaltering faith had, to the eye of the other, tipped every hilltop with light and filled every valley with splendour. These opposite reports from an observation of the same facts resulted from the difference in the spirit and trust of the men who reported.