driven away by two of his own countrymen as a meddler with other people's matters. He therefore naturally asked, "Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" So Paul said, in the prospect of preaching the Gospel, "Who is sufficient for these things?" A truly great mind will always feel most humbled by the prospect of a solemn, an arduous, and an important duty.

"I am

God then revealed himself to Moses, and said that the Name he should use, when asked who sent him, was, that I am." See what a magnificent portrait is here! This is God's autograph, God's definition of himself. There is no such definition in the pages of Paganism; no such idea ever entered into the human heart. It is the violation of all grammar; it is evidently language sinking and breaking into pieces under the weight, pressure, and magnificence of a Divine and glorious thought. John in the Apocalypse ses it, "He that was, and is, and shall be," clothing these words in language utterly ungrammatical, but evidently designedly so, in order to embody, as far as possible, a Divine and infinite thought. And I know not a greater proof of the essential Deity of our Blessed Lord, than this. When the Jews were about to stone him, he said, “Before Abraham was," not ¿yú hv, I was, but “¿yú eiμı, I am," that is, assuming to himself what every Jew felt was the intransferable Name, Jehovah "I am hath sent me unto you." It is not improbable that Jesus alluded to this very definition of essential Deity in this chapter.

The next passage I will notice is the 18th verse, where God tells Moses to say to Pharaoh, "The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us; and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God." Some have said that that was not stating the truth; at least, the whole truth. It is

quite true that God meant ultimately to emancipate them; but it is no less true that his first step was only to let them go so far into the desert. The Israelites themselves did not expect they would not return to Egypt. But God told Moses that the king of Egypt would not let them go, until, in consequence of signs and wonders, his fears should prevail over his policy, and he should be compelled to let those go whom he would otherwise retain.

The last verse has been very much misconstrued: "But every woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment; and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians." Now, it happens that the word here translated "borrow," does not mean strictly that. It is the same word as that rendered "ask," in the second Psalm: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance." It is the word shaal, and you will find in the Lexicon of Gesenius, who was not over prejudiced in favor of the Bible, that it means, "to ask, demand, or insist upon." It is also stated, that God would give them favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they should give them what they asked. But why should they ask jewels and gold? If a Hindoo goes to his temple, or an Eastern to his mosque, he always arrays himself in his most splendid robes, and puts on his best jewels. This being the universal custom in the East, when the Jews told the Egyptians that they were going to sacrifice to the great God, "I am that I am," they would feel that it was their duty to go with all the signs of dignity and rank, and therefore they gave them what they asked, never expecting back again the "jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment." Or, the Israelites might not be sure they were never to return to Egypt, and might ask Egyptian jewels, intending to restore them.

The scene described in this chapter is a meet preface to the events that follow. It was the Divine consecration of Moses; the solemn inauguration of a work, in comparison with which the retreat of the Ten Thousand is trifling, and the Crusades puerile.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE MISSION OF MOSES. HIS HESITATION. GOD'S CONDESCENDING ASSURANCE. INSTANCES OF DIVINE POWER.

MIRACLES,

We must often be struck, on reading the history of God's dealings with his ancient people, how much obstinacy in the human heart required to be overcome, and what a fearful amount of unbelief needed to be removed, before his most gifted or favored servants could be induced to undertake the mission that was assigned them. Moses naturally saw that to march the Hebrew Helots from the midst of Egypt across the desert without any visible and proved supply of food, or caravans, or accompaniment of any sort that could be a reasonable presumption to them that they should not perish from hunger by the way-side, would be almost an impossibility; and when God asked him to undertake the mission, his heart fainted, and his strength failed, and he anticipated the evil that did more or less actually occur, "They will not believe me." How will these degraded slaves believe in the possibility of a heavenly maintenance? How will they listen to me, seeing the only experiment I made to do them good was a failure that gave no peace to them, and brought trouble upon my own head? They will stoutly deny that which I have witnessed this bright and glorious apocalypse of thyself in the burning bush; and they will tell me, "The Lord hath not appeared unto thee."

Now what step did God take, not to persuade them, for that was to be a subsequent act, but to persuade Moses to undertake what God commanded? How sad that he should need any additional sign! How sad that he,, having seen God, and heard him speak from the bush, should yet doubt that God would give him strength for his journey, and success in the enterprise that he had assigned to him! To make sure that any duty you engage in is clearly God's will, and instantly to engage in it in God's strength, is far higher humility than to hesitate for fear that you will fail if you undertake it. God then showed him what he would do for Israel, and how much of his almighty power he would make actual before them, in order to persuade them that Moses had a divine commission. He would convince them by these unequivocal credentials - by these acts full of omnipotence. He said to Moses, "I will give you an instalment and instance of what you shall do. Cast your rod on the ground." And it became a serpent. "And Moses," being frightened, "fled from before it." How true a picture is this of human nature! How like is this to what we should have done in the same circumstances! How much of the angel and the animal are struggling in man! He who inspired this book, and recorded this history, recorded fact, and inspired truth; and what is here written is so true to nature that the story proves its own truth, and He only who made the human heart could have so delineated its feelings. Moses then took the serpent by the tail, and it became again a rod. This was done to encourage him.

Again, God bade him put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, it "was leprous as snow." That is elliptical language, the meaning of which is, that it became white as snow, which was the color of the leper. This was to persuade Moses what God would do and could do before the Israelites, in order to persuade them that Moses was sent from God, and their instant exodus their duty.