all the ancient philosophers, astronomers, chronologists, and historians have taken their respective data; and all the modern improvements and accurate discoveries in different arts and sciences have only served to confirm the facts detailed by Moses, and to show that all the ancient writers on these subjects have approached or receded from truth and the phenomena of nature, in exactly the same proportion as they have followed or receded from the Mosaic history. The great fact of the deluge is fully confirmed by the fossilized remains in every part of the globe. Add to this, that general traditions of the deluge have been traced among the Egyptians, Chinese, Japanese, Hindoos, Burmans, ancient Goths and Druids, Mexicans, Peruvians, Brazilians, North American Indians, Greenlanders, Otaheitans, Sandwich Islanders, and almost every nation under heaven; while the allegorical turgidity of these distorted traditions sufficiently distinguishes them from the unadorned simplicity of the Mosaic narrative. In fine, without this history the world would be in comparative darkness, not knowing whence it came nor whither it goeth. In the first page a child may learn more in an hour than all the philosophers in the world learned without it in a thousand years."

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THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

CHAPTER I.

Q. Explain the title of this book.

A. "The title of this book is peculiarly appropriate, Exodus means departure; and this book contains an account of the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt: an event which is the foundation of their whole history as a nation, and which is more frequently referred to than any other in their subsequent history." (Rev. B. E. Nicholls.)

Q. Verses 11-14.-How had this rigorous bondage of the Israelites and their ultimate deliverance from it been foretold to Abraham?

A. The Lord God had "said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their's, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterwards shall they come out with great substance." (Gen. xv. 13, 14.) Dr. Taylor, in writing of the early history of Egypt, remarks that, "among the cruelties inflicted on the children of Israel, their being employed in the manufacture of bricks is particularly mentioned under the burning sun of Egypt, the process of wetting, tempering, and working the clay previous to its being moulded, was so painful and unwholesome, that it was usually the work of slaves and captives. We find on the monuments many representations of those unfortunate beings whose lives were made bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field:' and we see that 'all their service wherein they made them

serve was with rigour:' for the task-masters stand by armed with rods, and those formidable whips, made out of the hide of the hippopotamus, which are still used as instruments of tyranny in Egypt by the taskmasters set over the unhappy Fellahs." (Manual of Ancient History, page 29.)

CHAPTER II.

Q. Verses 1-10.-Notice separately the various events by which (accidental as they seemed) the providence of God was manifested in the preservation and bringing up of Moses.

A. Moses was born at the time when Pharaoh's cruel edict for the destruction of the Hebrew children (mentioned in the preceding chapter) was in full force. We are told in this chapter, that "he was a goodly child," or as it is elsewhere said, "exceeding fair;" (Acts vii. 20) and this seems to have been the first link in the chain of providential circumstances which encompassed his whole history. Our general experience of our own feelings, not less than our observation of others, will convince us of the truth of the divine assurance, "Man looketh on the outward appearance" (1 Sam. xvi. 7) and the beauty of the infant Moses seems to have had its weight even with his mother, since it is especially written that "when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months:" and again it is written, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child." (Heb. xi. 23.) The principle of faith was assuredly of God's implanting, and the beauty with which his providence had endowed the child awakened the impulse which urged it to action. It was God's providence that preserved the frail ark from the inroad of the waters, and from the still more dreadful inroads

of crocodiles and other monsters with which those waters abound. By his especial providence, also, it was ordered that at that particular time, and while yet "his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him... the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river," &c. Had any myrmidon of the king discovered "the ark among the flags," the destruction of its little inmate would probably have been instantaneous. Had any person below the rank of "the daughter of Pharaoh" made the discovery, in vain might it have been that "behold the babe wept, and she had compassion on him." And who can doubt whence came the impulse which prompted his sister to say "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?" Could Jochebed herself for one moment doubt the especial providence of God over her son, when "the maid went and called the child's mother?" Could she doubt for whose service she was really to bring him up, when "Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages?" May we not be well assured that she watchfully and prayerfully implanted in his young mind the great truths of her own religious faith? the more watchfully, and the more prayerfully, because she must have felt and feared the peculiar danger to which that faith would be exposed in the idolatrous court of Pharaoh. Doubtless it was her care to bring up her young "son in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Eph. vi. 4.) Doubtless it was with many a faithful prayer that at last "she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son."

We shall be able, as we proceed with the history of Moses, to trace the depth of those early religious impressions which we have reason to believe that he thus providentially received; and in doing so, we may naturally be led to reflect upon the importance of the

charge which is usually committed to mothers and to other female teachers, viz, the early training of the mind of man. The words of Pharaoh's daughter may be strikingly applied to the real responsibility of such a charge, as derived from our universal Father. In this light, no doubt, the mother and grandmother of Timothy regarded it, and hence "the unfeigned faith" which they were careful to transmit to him, and the joyful remembrance of which drew from St. Paul the exhortation, "Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. i. 5, and iii. 14, 15.)

Q. Verses 11-14.-Explain, by references to the New Testament, the motive which prompted this conduct of Moses.

A. St. Stephen in that beautiful summary of the Jewish history which he addressed to the high priest and council, immediately before his martyrdom, declares of Moses, that "when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them." (Acts vii. 23. 25.) From this we may infer that it was by the special inspiration of God that it came into the heart of Moses to visit his brethren; and that, by the same inspiration, he knew that he was ultimately to become their deliverer. This inference is confirmed by the words of St. Paul, "By faith Moses when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: esteeming the reproach of Christ greater