Miriam would tremble lest they should see it and tell the king's officers about it, and so have the baby killed or drowned.

But Pharaoh's daughter was not so cruel as her father, '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 the princess was sorry for the infant, and said, 'This is one of the Hebrews' children.'

When Miriam heard the princess speak so kindly, she came out of her hiding-place, and said, 'Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?' Pharaoh's daughter said, 'Go.' And the maid went and called the child's mother. And when Jochebed came, the princess said to her, 'Take this child, and nurse it for me, and I will pay thee thy wages.'

How glad the baby must have been to be in its mother's loving arms once more! How thankful the mother must have been to have it there again! How hard she must have found it not to fall at the princess's feet and say that she would gladly nurse the babe without wages at all, for it was her own child!

But this might have made Pharaoh's daughter leave the infant to its fate, since she wished to adopt it as her own; so Jochebed said nothing, but she and Miriam joyfully took the little Moses home again, and nursed him as they had done before, only now they could do it openly and without fear.

After a few years, when the child had grown, his mother brought him, as you see in the picture, to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son, and then she was pleased when she remembered how she had saved his life, and she gave him the name 'Moses,' which means 'Drawn out,' as she said, 'Because I drew him out of the water.'

Then the princess made the wise men of Egypt teach

Moses all they knew, so that he became very wise. She wished also to give him great riches, but he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.' And this is the lesson that we should learn from the boyhood and youth of Moses, that it is wiser and safer to choose our friends from those who serve God, though they be poor and lowly, and to shun the companionship of the wicked, even though they be richer, and greater, and grander than ourselves, and even though they may flatter us and be anxious that we should join them.

Moses had been too well taught by his mother to be able to worship bulls, and calves, and other animals, as the Egyptians did. He loved his own kindred too well to be able to live happily in a palace, while they were treated as slaves by the servants of Pharaoh, so it was not long before he had to flee out of Egypt, because he had killed an Egyptian who was ill-using one of the Hebrews, and then Moses went to dwell in the wilderness of Midian.

There God appeared to him in the bush that burned, and was not consumed, and there He prepared him to be the deliverer of His own chosen people from the bondage of Egypt, and to be their leader in their way to the promised land; and He bestowed on him the high honour of giving to them the commandments and laws of God.

The Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are full of the doings and sayings of Moses, in his long life of one hundred and twenty years.

The end of that life was as remarkable as the beginning. God did not allow Moses to enter into the land of Canaan because he had been disobedient in striking the rock, but from the top of a high mountain He showed him the beautiful

D

'opened the doors of the house of the Lord,' so that the people might come in to worship, and offer the sacrifices.

In earlier times, God had often spoken in man's voice to His servants, as He did to Moses on Mount Sinai; but when Samuel was a child, the word of the Lord was precious in those days, it was so very rarely heard. So we cannot wonder that when God spake to the little child-priest Samuel did not at first understand it.

What a picture in words' we find of the calling of Samuel in the Holy Book! It is night, but the morning is drawing on, so that the lamps which were kept burning in the temple began to get dim. Samuel is lying on his bed asleep. Suddenly he is awakened by hearing his name sounded in his ear. He ran to Eli, and said, 'Here am I; for thou calledst me.' Eli, thinking, perhaps, that the child had been dreaming, said, 'I called not; lie down again.' He went and lay down; but again the Voice called his name, and the boy ran to the aged priest, only again to hear that Eli had not called him.

The Lord called Samuel the third time, and he went to Eli, with the same words as before on his lips. Then Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child, and he told him what to say when next he heard the Voice. So when, the fourth time, the Lord said, 'Samuel, Samuel!' the child looked trustfully up to heaven, and answered, 'Speak, for Thy servant heareth!'

And what did the Lord say to Samuel? He told him that sad and terrible sorrows were to come on Eli and on his family. Eli had two sons, who were very wicked men, and God was angry with them for their sins; and He was angry with Eli, too, because he had not punished and restrained them.

When Samuel had heard these words from God, he must