gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field: for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die." It would seem that though the king set himself so obstinately against the Lord, there were some among his people, who believed. They had observed that whatever the Lord told Moses to threaten, always happened, so they took warning now, and drove their cattle home before the storm came. Now let us take notice, that when men don't believe and obey God, it is not because they need to see or hear anything more, in order to enable them to believe; it is just because they will not. Pharaoh's servants neither heard nor saw anything more than he did himself, perhaps not so much, yet some of them could believe, and he would not.

You remember the Roman officer who was standing near the cross, when our Lord was hanging on it? That man had an honest mind, and he believed, just from what he saw and heard; and he said, "Certainly this was a righteous man,” Luke xxiii. 47; “Truly this man was the Son of God," Mark xv. 39. But the chief priests, who saw all that the officer did, and who ought to have believed sooner, because they had read about Him in the Scriptures; would not, but mocked and insulted Him in His dying moments. Why? Because they would not have Him to reign over

them. Why wouldn't the king of Egypt believe the Lord's message by Moses? It was because he didn't choose to do the Lord's will, he did not choose to obey the Lord's command, -that was why he hardened his heart against the Lord's message. You know that faith always leads to obedience. The servants directly took care to house their cattle when they were warned. They believed first, and then obeyed. It is always so. Saving faith comes from the heart, not the head. If men were willing to leave their sin, they could believe, for they would ask God to give them true faith; but because they are not willing to part with some favourite sin, they tell you they can't believe; they don't see their way to it. My friends, our way and God's word won't go together. If we will do the one, it shews that we don't believe the other. It was so in king Pharaoh's time; it is so now: and the king of Egypt is not the only man who has destroyed himself, because he liked to go his own way, better than to obey God's word. Let him, in his pride, and in his fall, be a warning to us, how we let our hearts be hardened, through the love of some deceitful sin!

We see very plainly here, the difference between faith and unbelief. Faith obeyed, unbelief did not: "He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: and he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his ser

vants and his cattle in the field.

And the Lord

said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout all the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground: and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation." We can hardly understand what an awful and tremendous judgment such a storm would be in the land of Egypt. At Heliopolis, where king Pharaoh lived, the weather has very few changes, rain seldom falls, and the sky is commonly pure and clear. Fancy, then, how the people must have been astonished and terrified by so uncommon and violent a hurricane; a storm that would have been terrific in any climate; for we read that "the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail."

The Lord takes care of His own people. He does not let His messengers, the hailstones, fall in their land, and the thunder and lightning

don't come

near them to hurt them. He shewed plainly that the same arm which was stretched out in power to punish His enemies, was stretched over His people in mercy, to keep them from harm.

The storm caused terrible destruction through the land of Egypt, and immense loss of property, as well as many lives; and the king seemed to take it more to heart than he had ever done before. "And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer." He was ready to promise anything just then, that so dreadful a judgment might be taken away; but Moses knew that he could not be trusted. He saw that Pharaoh was not penitent, but only terribly frightened; and that, as soon as the hurricane was stopped, and the sky clear again, he would go back from his word, more hardened than ever.

And yet Moses promised to beseech the Lord for him, and said, "As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord's." Though the Lord had brought sore judgments on Pharaoh, He had

shewed him as many mercies in taking them away; yet Moses has to say, "But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God." And then we read what mischief the hail had done to the growing crops: "And the flax and the barley was smitten; for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled." They lost both food and clothing; the Egyptian flax was particularly good, and the fine linen they made from it, was famous through the civilised world for long after. "But the wheat and the rye were not smitten, for they were not grown up." "And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh," (he was not afraid of going out into the tremendous storm, for he knew whose hand was guiding it), and he 'spread abroad his hands unto the Lord; and the thunders and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured out upon the earth. And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, and the hail, and the thunders, were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants." He sinned yet more: he broke his promise; he had made it only because he was frightened at the punishment, not because he was sorry for his sins. There was no repentance about Pharaoh; so everything that came, mercy as well as judgment, only made Him the more hardened, and his courtiers also. They were perhaps enraged at the losses they had to bear, and so were ready to follow their master's example. "And the heart of Pharaoh was har

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