"By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible." ----"HEB. 11: 27.

THE first instance of the triumphant faith of this ancient servant of God is, that when he was come to years of dis

cretion, that is, to proper age, he refused to receive the honors that belonged to him as the presumptive heir of the crown, and refused them under a divine impulse; and accepted an humble and a lowly place in preference to being called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose affliction because it was set in piety, rather than prosperity and honor which necessitated sin.

We are told, in the next place, that he esteemed the very reproach of Christ,-the reproach incurred by the maintenance of Christian principle, and adhesion to Christ's people, though darkening the path of duty,-in preference to the pleasures of sin that sparkled like gems in the path of worldly prosperity. And lastly, we are told, "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king." Moses thus held fast a sustaining principle throughout a principle which we need not merely to be convinced of; for convictions in the intellect are often like icicles, only doing mischief where they do no good; what we need is the conviction, fixed by the Spirit of God in the heart, and then it will prove an element of indomitable power, a spring of inexhaustible virtue in the life, prompting not only to do, but to think what natural men have never dreamed of, and to do what natural men have only thought of, and to triumph where natural men have attempted, and have failed.

Moses being dead, yet speaketh. By faith he left Egypt. True faith cannot live where it has a divine notice to depart. A Christian will struggle with difficulties in the position in which God has placed him, and if it be possible he will triumph over them; but, if the necessity of sinning is inseparable from the place he holds, then, like Moses, by faith he quits Egypt, and endures, as seeing Him who is invisible. At the same time, we must not gratify indolence under the pretence of obeying Christian prescription. Some men leave a place, whether it be power, or rank, or office, or dignity, or influence, or

trade, because they say they cannot honor God in it. But it has often turned out that they were too indolent to make the experiment. We must not leave the place which God in his providence has assigned us, if it be possible. As I understand it, the Great Captain of the faith has placed us as sentinels here, and here it is our duty to watch and wait. But, if it be impossible to keep our post without doing and sanctioning what is evil, then by faith we must forsake Egypt. But let each of us make the experiment first, and then, if we fail, we have the satisfaction of knowing that we have tried by God's grace to do our duty.

We read that the parents of Moses feared not the king's commandment, —and in that they showed true Christian faith; but Moses showed himself to be possessed of a yet stronger faith, for he, it is said, feared not the king's wrath. He feared not man, he feared not a king—the greatest of men; he feared not a king's wrath, that is the most powerful and formidable wrath of all. And this not fearing the wrath of the king was not the result of insensibility. Some men are calm in danger because they are stupid, other men appear to be heroes when really their heroism is iron nerve and insensibility; but it was not so with Moses. He had a heart open as day to all that was fair, and tender as woman's in time of It was not insensibility, but Christian faith, that enabled him not to fear the king's wrath, because "he endured," we are told, and here is the secret of his fearlessness, — not that he did not feel, "as seeing him who is invisible." There are men on the field of battle who do not fear, just because they do not think; there are men who do not fear, simply because they are strong and invincible in their physical constitution; but there are other men who can see with an eagle eye all the perils of their position, but who, in the exercise of that which in human nature is nearest to Christian faith, can remain unmoved, and occupy a com

sorrow.

manding place, and put forth a controlling power, because they have faith in something higher than man, and in the possibility, if not in the certainty, of victory and of success.

When Moses fled from Egypt, not fearing the king's wrath, he did not depart because he was a criminal. He had quarrelled, it is true, with the Egyptians, but he did not flee because he had violated their laws; for the verse tells us that the spirit of his fearlessness was his appreciation of a present God. If Moses had fled as a criminal, the natural history would have been that he had fled in terror. A criminal is always in a state of terror. His own shadow frightens him; the rustling of a leaf alarms him. But when one flees from a country, composed, and calm, and self-possessed, and in nature not insensible, but the very reverse, he must have a Christian principle within him, a consciousness of a Christian duty in which he is engaged; a grand hope before him, and a good cause behind him. Without this, Moses would not have left Egypt, not fearing the king's wrath, but seeing him who is invisible.

When Moses left Egypt, he did not leave it as a rebel. At the first blush, when reading such a history, one might say, "What right had such a man, in the midst of such a country as Egypt, with its proper laws, to raise up a mighty multitude, somewhere about five hundred thousand men, who were originally the king's subjects, and without asking the king's leave?" Certainly, if any man were to do so here, he would be guilty of rebellion. But Moses showed credentials from the King of kings, which settled his right, and irretrievably proved that his was not a rebellion, but a lofty Christian enterprise. It is asked, What credentials? He authenticated his divine mission by the divine works, or supernatural miracles, which he wrought in the presence of the king and his people. Now, those men who want to imitate Moses must take care that they have Moses' credentials. You must

not act upon this precedent unless you can show that you have the very same position, and the same credentials, and can do the very same works, that Moses did. Until you can show the same supernatural or celestial commission, we shall denounce you as a rebel in trying to originate a movement for which you were not sent, and which was not obviously designed for you.

When God has anything great to be done, he is sure to raise up a suitable agent to do it. There is something very beautiful in this, that, whenever God has a work to be done in the world, he invariably finds men to do it, and often men who appear to us very unlikely to succeed. Moses, forty years before this, wanted the Israelites to march out from Egypt, but they did not; and it was well; for he was not then trained and disciplined as he needed to be for so great, so trying, and so vast an undertaking. The crisis was not ready for the man; or, rather, the man was not ready for the crisis. But, as soon as God's predictions were finished, and the era of Israel's deliverance was come, and all things were ready, then Moses presented himself, and he was found the man made for the crisis. God did not interpose too soon; he would not delay too late; but, the hour having struck for their exodus from Egypt, the chief who was to lead them forth came also. And so it has been in all the past history of God's dealings with mankind. Paul, the apostle, was just the man fitted to reason with the subtle and accomplished Athenians, schooled as he was in all the syllogisms of a masterly and cunning philosophy, and with the warlike and educated Romans, open as they were to the influence of demonstrative and indisputable facts. Peter was adapted to the Jews; Martin Luther was fit for the Reformation in Germany; Knox, for the same in Scotland; and Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer, for their great mission in England. And, at a subsequent period, Whitefield and Wesley did their work;