THE SUNDAY SCHOLARS MAGAZINE

JANUARY, 1815

THE INSECT ARMY:

BUT though Pharaoh said that if God would remove the plague of the frogs, he would then let the people of Israel go out from the house of their bondage, he would not fulfil his promise. This was adding sin to sin. And when God speaks again and again to any one, and he goes on, and does not mind what God says, his heart gets harder and harder, and more wicked. Thus the bad thoughts, which he delights in, bring forth bad words and actions, which are sin; "and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death," James i. 14. 15. So it was with Pharaoh.

He was so

He now became worse and worse. angry with Moses, that he would not see him. Most likely he bade his servants shut the palace gate, and not permit him to come in any more. And so, perhaps, he vainly thought that he should not be troubled again about the people of Israel. But God made known to Moses where he might meet with him.

The Lord told him to get up early in the morning. Those who wish to gain knowledge, that they may be useful, and make the best of life, will rise early, and will not need the command of a VOL. XXI.

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maater or a parent to do so. They know they must give an account of their time, and they will not waste their precious hours in sloth. God informed his servant Moses, that Pharaoh would go very soon the next morning to the river Nile, to worship it as one of his gods, and that he might meet him there, though he would not suffer him to come into his palace. The Lord not only knows what every one has done, but also what he designs to do. Each may say, "He knows my going out, and my coming in, my lying down, and my rising up. There is not a word on my tongue, or a thought in my heart, but he knows it altogether. I cannot go from his Spirit, or flee from his presence. The darkness and the light are both alike to him." Before him, "the light shineth as the day."

And Moses went to meet him. He did not say, I dare not go; perhaps he will command his guards to throw me into the river, or to kill me. No, he put his trust in the Lord, and he did not care what the king might do to him. It is the slothful and the wicked man, who, when God tells him to do any thing, says, No, I cannot ; "there is a lion in the way!"

And Moses found Pharaoh where God said he would, on the brink of the river; and he said, "Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me; else, if thou wilt no let my people go, behold I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses. But there shall not be any flies in the land of Goshen, where my people dwell;

to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth."

The flies which God said he would send were, no doubt of all kinds; as bees, wasps, gnats, and hornets; for we read in the book of Psalms, that "he sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them." Psalm lxxviii. 45.

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And the Lord did as he said he would by his servant Moses. For, at his call, there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into the houses of his people, and into all the land of Egypt: and the land was corrupted by reason of them." There is nothing too hard for the Lord to do. And there can be no peace to the wicked. But who are they? They are all those, whether high or low, rich or poor, who will not obey his holy commands.

But none of these dreadful swarms were to be found among the people of Israel. No one could have built a wall to keep out the flies; but God bade them not go into the land of Goshen ; and they heard his word, and obeyed it. And he did so, that the king might know and feel that the Lord was the great Ruler in the midst of the land.

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LAME JOSEPH.

ELLEN, my child, what ails you this evening? I thought you were playing with your cousins."

'Nothing, dear grandmother; but I feel dull, I don't know why. If it won't fatigue you, grandmother, I wish you would tell me something that happened when you were a girl; I don't mean any