Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

ungrateful and rebellious, but when they refused to listen to the
voice of God in His created works and in the warnings and counsels
of His word, He was forced to speak to them through judgments.
The priests and the soothsayers urged the people not to imitate
the stubbornness of Pharaoh and the Egyptians and thus bring still
greater afflictions on themselves. These religious leaders now
proposed a plan with which everyone agreed. The ark, with the
golden trespass offering, was placed on a new cart, to avoid all
danger of defilement. Two milk cows that had never worn a yoke
were attached to the cart. Their calves were shut up at home and the
cows were left free to go where they pleased. If the ark returned to
the Israelites in this manner by way of Beth Shemesh, the nearest
city of the Levites, the Philistines would take this as evidence that
the God of Israel had done this great evil to them. "But if not," they
said, "then we shall know that it is not His hand that struck us--it
happened to us by chance."
When they were set free, the cows turned from their young and
took the direct road to Beth Shemesh. Not guided by any human
hand, the patient animals kept on their way. The divine Presence
accompanied the ark safely to the very place chosen by the
Philistines.
The men of Beth Shemesh were reaping in the valley, "and saw
the ark, and rejoiced to see it. Then the cart came into the field of
Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and stood there; a large stone was there.
So they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt
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