Numbers 13:32-33 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched to the children of Israel, saying, The land… I think it was Henry Ward Beecher who used to relate how when he was a boy there was no stove in the church which he then attended. Some of the worshippers began to think that they might be better with a fire, but they were opposed by others, who thought that a stove should have no place in the house of the Lord, indeed that they could not get to heaven from a church with a stove in it. but, despite their fierce opposition, the elders by a narrow majority ultimately decided to have it, and accordingly it was procured and placed in the church. On the following Sunday the doubters mustered strong. Some complained of being very warm, and others declared they were nearly stifled, while a few boldly pronounced that the stove had no right to be there at all, and together they made a rush for the offending piece of furniture, to turn it out of the building, when lo, to their surprise, they found it was empty. These people were very bad reasoners, but had a great imaginative faculty. Parallel Verses KJV: And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. |
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