him what gold and silver could not have purchased, the favour of the LORD, and the esteem of mankind. We are likewise instructed, that the fear of GoD, and a serious regard to his authority, is the best preservative against criminal indulgencies; that adversity often proves the means of exaltation; that the proper use of power and riches is to employ them in promoting the general happiness of mankind, and of our relations in particular; and that a stedfast reliance on Divine Providence will support the mind under the most afflicting evils that can possibly befal us.

SECTION LVI.

THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE ISRAELITES.-THE BIRTH OF MOSES.

From Exodus, Chap. i. and ii.

AND Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.

And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it came to pass that when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.

Therefore they did set over them task masters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and Raamses.

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour. And they made their lives bitter, with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born to the Hebrews, ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

And there went a man of the house of Levi, whose name was Amram*, and took to wife a daughter of Levi, whose name was Jochebed t.

And the woman bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a godly child, she hid him three months.

And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

And his sister tood afar off, to wit what should be done to him.

And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river: and her maidens walked along by the river's side: and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it..

And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and behold the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.

Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee.

And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.

And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.

And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son, and she called his name Moses; and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

ANNOTATIONS AND REFLECTIONS.

The kings of Egypt were all called Pharaoh, thought they had names besides: the monarch, in whose reign Moses was born, came from another country, and had conquered the Egyptians: this accounts for his paying no respect either to the memory of Joseph, or the lawful establishment which the children of Israel had obtained by a royal grant from a former monarch; nor can we wonder that this king should be jealous of a people, who multiplied and flourished in so remarkable.

a manner.

The original word here translated task-masters, properly signifies tax-gatherers; and the burdens are afterwards mentioned as distinct things, under another name: so that the resolution of council was, to lay heavy tributes upon the Israelites to impoverish, and heavy burdens to weaken them. Among other laborious works, it is supposed they were employed in building the famous Pyramids, in testimony of the splendor of the kings of Egypt, and as repositories for the dead bodies of those proud and cruel monarchs.

The treasure cities, mentioned in this section, are said to have been the places in which the kings of Egypt, agrecably to the custom introduced by Joseph, laid up

their stores of grain; but others conjecture that they were fortified cities.

What an inhuman wretch must Pharaoh have been, to command little innocent babes to be thrown into the river, unmindful of the pangs of their afflicted mothers!

The method which Jochebed employed to save her infant, proved, that she believed in the omnipotent power of GoD; for it was very unlikely that his life should be preserved in an ark of bulrushes; especially in a river filled by an inundation, which, perhaps, was at that time daily increasing, and of which the direful crocodile was an inhabitant. Scripture teaches us to regard Jochebed in this instance as an example of faith *; and we may conceive that we behold her"With invocations to the living God, Twisting together every slender reed,

And with a separate prayer each osier weaving t”

What her sensations were, when she consigned her dear babe to the watery element, let the fond mother imagine!

It must be regarded as an interposition of Providence, that Pharaoh's daughter should come to the place just at that juncture; and that she should commit the child to the care of his own mother. It was a great act of mercy in this princess to run such a hazard of incurring the displeasure of her cruel father, and the censure of the public; but the babe wept, and she could not resist the eloquence of its cries and tears: she kindly redeemed him from the waves, and resolved to nurture him as her own, though he was of a mean and ignoble birth, and sprung from a race of strangers despised by the Egyptians.

* Heb. xi. 23.

+ Miss More's Sacred Dramas.

With what transporting delight must Jochebed have received her son to her arms, after the terrors she had suffered on his account! By being reared under her eye, Moses had the advantage of learning, from the dawn of reason, to worship the true GOD. The name which the princess gave to this her adopted son, signified drawn Moses was born in the year of the world 2434, and was about nine or ten years younger than his sister Miriam.

out.

We are told in Scripture *, that Moses was afterwards educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Many arts and sciences are supposed to have been highly cultivated in Egypt at that period, particularly arithmetic, music, and hieroglyphics, otherwise called enigmatical philosophy. An ancient Jewish author + informs us, that Moses was instructed in all these; and another says, that he was remarkable for the beauty of his person.

From the sufferings of the Israelites, related in this section, we may learn to be grateful to Divine Providence, for placing us in a land of freedom, under a mild government, where we have no tyranny to dread.

We may also learn, that no situation of life is so dangerous, but that the Divine power can effect a deliverance. In the present state of the world, mothers are not under the hard necessity of exposing their infants, like Jochebed; but so numerous are the perils of childhood, that, without a firm trust in GoD, the lives of parents must be a state of unremitting apprehension; they should therefore fortify their minds with the comfcrtable persuasion, that God is the parent of their offspring; that He constantly watches over children with tender love, and guards them from numberless unseen + Josephus.

* Acts vii. 28.

t Philo.

N 6

dangers,