cal title of the book. So now, the Book of Exodus begins, "Now these are the names." The Hebrew for this is, Weeleh Shemoth, and this book, therefore, which we call Exodus," is called by every Jew, These are the Names. But the name "Genesis" was given to the first book by what are called the Septuagint translators, who were accomplished scholars, appointed by Ptolemy about three hundred years before Christ, to translate the Old Testament for the use of Hellenistic Jews scattered throughout the whole of Egypt. The name "Exodus" denotes "the going "Genesis" denotes "generation," or forth," as 66 creation," and "Deuteronomy," "the other Law," or the second edition of the Law. The names, therefore, given to the Pentateuch are comparatively modern, that is, they were given about three hundred years before the birth of our Lord; but they are still retained as being sufficiently expressive of the meaning and the contents of each book.

This book Exodus is a description of the increased multiplication of the children of Israel, of the attempt of the Egyptians to crush them, and of the result of that attempt in their majestic exodus from Egypt to Canaan their promised land.

In the beginning of the book all the different names of the tribes are given; and it is said, "All the souls that came from Jacob were seventy souls." Now, it may give some illustration of the rapid increase of the Israelites, when we state that when they marched out of Egypt there were six hundred thousand men capable of bearing arms, besides the accompaniments of women and children. How very sad does that verse read, "And Joseph died, and all his brethren!" All their envies, quarrels, misconceptions, fears, love, all perished in the sepulchre; and their souls emerged from their earthly tenements into the presence of God and of the Lamb. Joseph, the good, noble, and excellent, died. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, died. Their bodies went the

way of all the earth, and their souls went the way of all spirits. And so we, too, must die.

We then read that as the children of Israel increased, "there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." The expression, "knew not Joseph," is a Hebrew one, and denotes, "approved not of Joseph." For instance, in the first Psalm we read, "The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous;" that is, he approves of it. And again, "The world knoweth us not ;" that is, doth not approve of us. And it is not said, "another king," but "a new king," and evidently implies that a new dynasty then took possession of the throne, and exercised jurisdiction over the land of Egypt; and this new dynasty, having received no special blessing from Joseph, was ungrateful for the blessings that he bestowed upon a previous dynasty, and persecuted the descendants of him whom the former kings of Egypt felt it alike their privilege and their duty to patronize and to honor.

Now this new dynasty was evidently afraid of the growth of a powerful people in the midst of them- a sort of imperium in imperio; and although, if the Jews were what they should be, they could have had no evil designs against the reigning power, yet the Egyptians, evil, and ever thinking evil, said, “Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land." Hypothetical offences have generally been the ground of the persecution of the people of God. It has rarely been for a crime proved, but generally for a crime possible. And this dynasty, in the exercise of what it thought a very far reaching diplomacy, but really a very wild and foolish hallucination, determined to persecute, and gradually crush, the children of Israel. The result proved that the wisdom of man is folly with God. Whatever is undertaken that has no sanction from

God, never will have any real or permanent success before men. All success is temporary and worthless which is not the product of enlightened principle, pure motives, and noble aims and objects. Therefore, whether it be dynasties in power, or rulers in a land, or whatever it be, let us always be sure that we are doing the right thing, in the right way, from right motives and for right ends; and then God, our own God, shall bless us. But attempt any thing, however wise it looks, or talented it appears, yet if it be not inspired by principle, it is a rope of sand - it has no cohesion - it must fall to pieces. Let us, therefore, ever feel that we never can do wisely, unless we do well, and that the highest principle is ever the purest and best policy. The dynasty that succeeded the ancient Pharaoh did not know this. They thought they could extirpate God's people. They might as well have tried to extirpate the sun from the firmament, or the fruits and trees of the earth; for the everlasting arms are around all them that love and fear God; and they are an immortal people who are the sons and daughters of the Most High. The Egyptians found here that the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied. They were like the burning bush, for the more it blazed, the more it shot forth its branches: it was indestructible.

They resolved on a cruel plan, by forcing female lovingkindness into cruelty against the Israelites' very existence, and endeavoring to extirpate them by fraud and the most infamous and profligate means, since they dared not publicly assail and attack them.

66

"See

In verse 16, the Hebrew word translated "stool," is properly a trough a vessel of stone for holding water. them" is, see the children," not the mothers; and the real meaning is When ye see the new-born children laid in vessels of water for the purpose of being washed, ye shall destroy the boys. The midwives did not drown the Hebrew boys: they feared God, and so God honored them.

But before the Egyptians did this, it is said, "They made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick.” Now it has been objected to this, that if the pyramids, as some have supposed, were the production of the children of Israel in their bondage, as they are not built of brick, this statement cannot be correct. But the Pyramid of Fayoum is built of brick; and thus, whilst all the pyramids may not have been the production of the children of Israel, some of them may have been so. But it is singular that on the Egyptian monuments there have been discovered portraits with peculiar hieroglyphic characters, showing strangers or foreigners, proved to be so because they wore beards, digging clay and making bricks; and Egyptians, evidently so, because they have no beards, standing over them with rods and whips, lashing them when disobedient; and the impression has been produced by these remains of other days, that they are bonû fide Egyptian records, referring historically to the very fact recorded in the 14th verse, that "they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field." It is most striking to see how, as antiquity is examined and explored more and more, fresh light is cast upon the sacred page, and new confirmatory proofs of its truth are discovered. It has also been ascertained, although this matter is more disputed, that there are evidences on Egyptian monuments of a new dynasty being introduced into Egypt, just at the very period alluded to in this chapter, when it is said, "There arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." These are interesting facts; and it is evident to us that, by and by, the infidel and the sceptic will have scarcely a single argument to wield. He has now but very few and very feeble ones; but he makes the most of what he has; but as the day advances, as science makes progress, as evidences come round, as discoveries are made, as ancient remains are ransacked, there will grow more and more the irresistible and conclu

sive proof that this Book is what we Christians, in our hearts and consciences and firmest reasoning believe it to be God's inspired and holy Word.

Josephus speaks thus of the period of Jewish history referred to in this chapter: "Having, in length of time, forgotten the benefits they had received from Joseph, particularly the crown having come unto another family, they became very abusive to the Israelites, and contrived many ways of afflicting them, for they enjoined them to cut a great many channels for the river, and to build walls for their cities. They set them also to build pyramids, and by this means wore them out."

How lowly are the beginnings of the Church of Christ! How easily does God make the place of the persecution of his sons a nursery of their graces!

The following interesting remarks are, I think, worth extracting, from Dr. Hawk's " Egypt and its Monu

"After the death of Joseph, sixty-five years elapsed before the birth of Moses, according to the chronology of Dr. Hales. The author of the Pentateuch distinctly informs us, that, during this interval, all the sons of Jacob and the men of their generation, had died; and, toward the latter part of the interval above named, the fact meets us that 'there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.' This is a particular of Egyptian history, in the explanation of which confusion has arisen, from the fabrication of the pretended Manetho about the leprous Israelites under Moses, and their recall of the shepherd kings, to which we have already adverted. Some have thought that the monarch of this new dynasty was the first sovereign furnished on the reintrusion of the pastoral invaders. In opposition to this opinion, we are met by the fact that these shepherds are represented by Manetho (the only authority