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Israel at that time? A people completely subjugated, having authority at all, seems to be a paradox.

MRS. M. Though their condition in Egypt had become very discouraging, and might almost preclude every ray of hope, yet many of them would doubtless confide in the promise, that they should in due time become an independent nation. To this end it was necessary, that they should be held together by some peculiar regulations, otherwise they must have been lost in the course of several centuries among the natives of that country. These would naturally be dictated by the heads of their tribes, or principal families, who were in all circumstances, honoured and obeyed in ancient times. They are here called Elders, and were the representatives of their nation, when they acknowledged the goodness of God, in sending Moses and Aaron to their relief.

The acquiescence of the chiefs being secured, the ambassadors repaired to the king, and demanded, in the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel, the liberation of His people, that they might go into the adjacent wilderness to sacrifice. But the demand was rebellion! Possessed of absolute power, and satisfied with his own sufficiency, the king of Egypt recognized no authority in the voice of Jehovah ! " Who is Jehovah?" said the imperious despot, " that I should obey his voice?" Vainly then did Moses and Aaron repeat his command, and urge the necessity of obedience-a sacrifice was but a pretext to indulge the idleness of the Hebrews, and their advocates were the instigators of insurrection! New burdens were therefore added, and their tasks were encreased beyond the possibility of performance,

From the circumstance of their being " tasked in making bricks," and employed "in the erections of cities," there seems reason to believe that this oppressed people were now labouring in the erection of the pyramids, those stupendous monuments of Egyptian greatness. They had hitherto been furnished with straw, a necessary ingredient in the manufacture of bricks, of which a certain number had been required daily at their hands: but now they were obliged to gather straw for themselves, whilst yet the usual number of bricks was exacted! To enforce the impracticable order, measures of the severest rigour were used by the overseers, until the anguish of the sufferers broke out into passionate complaints against Moses and Aaron. The monarch being still deaf to entreaty, they saw no prospect of the promised liberation, and in the ambassadors of Heaven, only the odious cause of accumulated evils!

Repeated interviews with the king of Egypt, and reiterated demands for the freedom of the afflicted Hebrews, producing nothing but contumely and defiance; the arm of Moses was now stretched out and sustained and directed by the God of nature; miracle upon miracle astonished the infatuated monarch, and overwhelmed with distress his devoted subjects. Their waters were turned into blood, and frogs and vermin infested the whole land. Their cattle were swept off by disease, and the people groaned under the anguish of loathsome boils. Tremendous storms of thunder and hail destroyed vegetation, and the beasts of the field. Swarms of locusts covered the whole face of Egypt; and a darkness impenetrable obscured the light of the sun for three whole days!

In vain the servants of Pharaoh besought him to release the Israelites, and deliver them from these intolerable evils. Deceived awhile by the arts of his magicians, who were permitted to imitate some of these preternatural effects, his proud heart was hardened. Sometimes overpowered by the cries of his people, and his own aggravated sufferings, he was ready to submit to the Hand that inflicted them, and expel the people for whose sake it was displayed, with all that was required. But again exasperated by seeing the district of Goshen, their habitation, exempted from these accumulated horrors, he detained them and withstood the plainest manifestations of the Divine will.

One judgment remained-one more severe than had yet tried the obdurate Egyptians. The angel of death stretched out his destructive arm over their whole land-and the silence of midnight was disturbed by the cries of grief and horror! The cup of anguish is now indeed filled to the brimloud lamentation proceeds from every house, and parental love discovers one tangible nerve even in the inflexible heart of Pharaoh; for the heir of his throne is laid low, undistinguished among the dying multitudes the first-born of every family, from the palace to the prison !

Touched on this tender string, he now felt that there was a power capable of subduing even him! And uncertain where the angel would stay his destroying hand, he called hastily for Moses and Aaron, who were employed with their brethren in the celebration of a solemn feast, and turned them out of his dominions. "Get you forth," cried the distracted prince, " from among my people, both ye, and the children of Israel; serve the Lord, as ye have said; take your flocks and your herds, and begone, and bless me also."

CHARLES. Pharaoh then was truly humbled, when he would condescend to ask for the prayers of his enemies?

MRS. M. His own heart was still his greatest enemy. You will presently see, that his transient submission was extorted by his fears alone, and was not the effect of genuine faith and repentance.

FANNY. What feast was that, mother, you just now mentioned?

MRS. M. The feast of the Passover, instituted on that memorable night, and handed down to successive generations, as the memorial of their deliverance from the "house of bondage."

Whilst the Hebrews were engaged in this act of obedience, they were urged to depart from a place upon which, every moment of their stay, seemed to bring additional evils. Before the day appeared, therefore, without time to prepare food for their journey, they were obliged to set out. This deliverance, however, was not altogether unexpected. The gracious promise given to their fathers, had led them to look for the appointed time. In full confidence of its arrival, the body of Joseph had been embalmed and kept in a coffin, and was now, agreeably to their engagement, carried with them out of Egypt. (B. C.

1491).

CHARLES. Their coffins must have been of more durable materials than ours, otherwise, they could not have removed the remains of Joseph, perhaps a century after his burial.

MRS. M. Nearly a century and a half had elapsed since his death. I follow our common translation in using the word coffin, but we must not associate with it the idea of a receptacle like our own. It is perfectly well known, that the sepulchrés of the ancients were vaults hewn with immense labour, out of the solid rock, and so imperishable, that they are shown at the present day, amongst the curiosities of the Holy Land.*

The "land of Goshen," the habitation of the Israelites, lay near the north-western termination of the Red Sea. From hence, they might, by an easy journéy, have reached their promised land, but much was yet to be done before they were prepared to enjoy that repose.

Born and educated in slavery, and amongst an idolatrous people, they necessarily partook of the moral debasement incidental to that unhappy condition. To ameliorate their manners, therefore, and qualify them for the high and conspicuous rank they were about to assume as an independent nation, and God's peculiar people, they were led into the wilderness of Shur, and there instructed by a constitution framed especially for their government.

You remember the prophecy delivered to Abram, while he dwelt in the plain of Mamre-" that Sarah should be the mother of nations-that his posterity should be afflicted in a land wherein they were strangers-that they should be delivered from servitude in the fourth generation, and afterwards their oppressors should be judged." And here you see the exact accomplishment. The family of Jacob consisted of seventy persons, when they came into Egypt. They returned with six hundred thousand men, besides women and children. They were subjugated and treated with excessive rigour-and now were brought out, exactly 430 years after their entrance into that country.

* See Clarke's Travels in the Holy Land.

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