same labors as the Israelites described in the Bible; and no one can look at the paintings of Thebes, representing brickmakers, without a feeling of the highest interest.''

The intensely interesting nature and illustrative character of these extracts, justify the long quotation I have given.

CHAPTER II.

BIRTH OF MOSES. A MOTHER'S CARE. THE ARK.

SENTINEL. PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER FINDS MOSES.

THE SISTER

HIS MOTHER

IS APPOINTED HIS NURSE. HIS SYMPATHY WITHI HIS OWN
OPPRESSED PEOPLE. HIS INTERFERENCE.

MIDIAN. HIS WEDDING.

THE WELL AT

You will recollect the statement, recorded in the previous chapter, that a law was passed by the Egyptian tyrant, that every male Hebrew child should be put to death as soon as born, because he feared, or pretended to fear, that, if the Israelites grew up and became numerous, they would depose him, and appoint a monarch, of their own race, to sit upon the Egyptian throne. We now enter on the wondrous biography of an individual, over whom especially were the overshadowing wings of Providence, and in whom were great destinies. He had an important and illustrious part to play in the future history of God's ancient people, in the preparation for the Messiah, and also in the establishment of that Divine economy which made way for, and unbosomed by degrees, the gospel of Christ.

It appears in this record, that, when Moses was born, his mother saw "that he was a goodly child," or, as he is called by Stephen, when remonstrating and reasoning with them who were about to murder him, "exceeding fair"— hv ảoTεTOS T Oε — that is, "beautiful before God;" and the Apostle Paul, in alluding to the same event in the Epistle to the Hebrews, ascribes the hiding of Moses to faith, and the reason that prompted his mother, Jochebed, to hide him

from the assaults of Pharaoh, to some bright signature on the infant's brow. We read in Hebrews xi., "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child," or, as rendered in the Acts of the Apostles, "exceeding fair;' "And they were not afraid of the king's commandment." Now, what this "fairness" can have been, it is impossible, with accuracy, to say. No doubt every mother thinks her own child the fairest; but on this child there was some Divine signature; some aureole around his head; some bright evidence of a destiny before him more than human; and of a relationship that predicted something in his character and history greater than ordinary. And therefore, on this account, as well as from maternal instinct, strong enough in ordinary circumstances, she took him, and resolved to hide him three months. But when the hiding of him longer than three months became impossible-perhaps from the searchers of Pharaoh, or perhaps from the fears she entertained lest some one should inform of the circumstance, she made her election, and chose to trust her dear babe rather to the mercy of the crocodiles, the winds, and the waves, than keep him any longer within reach of the cruel tyrant who then occupied the throne. Mothers of England, how privileged are ye! She therefore, with all the inventiveness of maternal instinct and love, collected the papyrus, which no doubt was the substance out of which the ark or basket was made, and out of which boats are still constructed on the Nile- and fastened its different parts together with "slime," or bitumen, and lastly, the outside of it she covered with pitch, to protect it from the ingress of water. She then placed it, not upon the river, where it would be borne with the current to the sea, but among the bulrushes that is, at some distance from the banks, but not far enough to come within the current, and be carried down with the stream. But not satisfied with these pre

cautions, she resolved to set a sentinel to watch the child, probably to give the alarm should any wild beasts approach, or, still worse, should any persons, searching for male infants, threaten to come near. She therefore placed the sister of Moses (of course the female children were not obnoxious to Pharaoh) "afar off, to wit," or ascertain, “what would be done to him." Having thus placed this sentinel, whose guardian care was increased by affection, and whose watchmanship was made more secure by the inspection of the distant eye of the mother herself, both watched through weary days and nights, till, it is said, "The daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river." This is

not the exact description of her purpose. Her object was, to perform some religious rite. The river Nile was the most sacred thing in Egypt; and most of their religious rites and ceremonies were connected with the river and its sacredness. Her "maidens," or ladies in waiting, "walked along by the river's side;" the strange object caught her attention; and, when she saw the ark among the flags, "she sent her maid to fetch it." You can well conceive what was the terror of the sentinel sister, and, still more, the agitation and alarm of the sentinel mother. "And when she had opened it, she saw the child; and, behold" - the world would say, accidentally, but a Christian must say, by the good providence of God- "the babe wept." This was a spectacle too touching for Pharaoh's daughter to resist; and, therefore, with true womanly feeling, in language so plain that it indicates the truth of the narrative, "she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children."

Making the best of the emergency, the sentinel sister, who stood by, ran up to Pharaoh's daughter, and, not telling what was untrue, but not stating, as she was not called upon to state, what was all the fact, she said, "Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may

nurse the child for thee?" As it happens to be a Hebrew child, and of very tender years, you would, no doubt, like a Hebrew nurse for it. Will your royal highness, therefore, trust me to find one for this child, whose beauty so charms you, whom you have picked up accidentally in the river? Well, the thought was so very natural and reasonable, that Pharaoh's daughter said instantly, "Go. And the maid went, and called the child's mother." Here is a specimen of Christian stratagem that is, stratagem warranted by Christian principles. It was in no respect, that I can see, inconsistent with the sincerity and candor of Christian character. Forthwith the mother came; and Pharaoh's daughter said to her, little suspecting she was the mother, "Take this child away, and nurse it for me;" and she added, "I will give thee thy wages." The mother could have said, what the safety of the babe prevented her saying, "I want no wages; my reward will be the privilege of nursing this babe;" but, with thorough tact and management, and yet with the propriety and consistency of a Christian, she took the child, and, without a word about the wages, silently and thankfully became its nurse; " and he became," by adoption, as customary in Egypt, the son of Pharaoh's daughter. "And she called his name Moses," from the Hebrew verb Mashah, which means to "draw out." The Egyptian lady gave the Hebrew babe a Hebrew

name.

He

"And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown" according to the statement in the Acts of the Apostles, when he was forty years old—"that he went out unto his brethren." You see where his heart was. was in a royal palace, where, as an adopted son, he was treated exactly as if he had been one of the king's own children; and yet his heart seems to have grown more and more insensible to the splendor, dignity, and equipage of a palace, and to have had its deepest sympathies with his poor