Childhood

'And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse it for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her. Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said. Because I drew him out of the water.' — Ex. ii. 1-10.

'Moses!' Full four and thirty centuries have sped their flight since that melodious name was first pronounced by royal lips over an infant head; but can you mention any other, after Abraham's, that shines more lustrously on the historic page of the Old Covenant? It is within the truth to say, that one religious system in this world claims Moses as its founder; for the members of three different communions have been striving which could weave the fairest wreath for Moses' brow. The Jew, even to this day, with no less pride than that shown by the Pharisees when Jesus walked this earth, exclaims, 'We are Moses' disciples!'1 The Mohammedan considers him as one of the most eminent among those who preceded and prepared the way for the great prophet he acknowledges. The Christian, too, most heartily inscribes, beneath the statue of the lawgiver, the words of praise first written by a sacred penman: 'He was faithful in all his house, as a servant.'² Moses, the great interpreter, the confidant, the special favourite of God; Moses, the master-mind, whose heaven-supported leadership transformed a most debased race of slaves into a nation of God's kings and priests; Moses, whose noble figure towers as far above those round about who lived in his own time, as Sinai rears its head above the lower hills surrounding it: could any one of us remain in this man's presence without feeling a desire, as Peter did, to build a tabernacle for the man of God?³

Well may we say that, as the history of Moses is among the most remarkable, so is it, too, one of the most instructive in the Book of books. Even looked at by itself, it may at once be classed among the best biographies that ever came from the historic pen. How strange a life, begun upon the perilous waves, and ended on the mountain top; now at the royal court, then in the shepherd's tent, and later in the deserts of Arabia; but almost always one of constant change, of strife internal or external, full of toil and grief! But specially, when we take up a higher, and the only proper standing-ground, and when we look upon this history as showing us God's mode of dealing with His friend, we often fail in finding words with which to praise the love and faithfulness, the wisdom and the holiness, the majesty and power of Him who deigned, in an especial manner, to become the guide of Israel's chosen leader in the wilderness. 'Blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help:'⁴ such are the words sung by an Israelite of old, in holy ecstasy. But may we not repeat the words, thus slightly modified, ' Blessed is he that hath the God of Moses for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God!' Yea, well may we be thankful that, in the first half of Scripture, there is scarcely any life so much presented in detail as his; and we may readily affirm that what was said of Paul may also be applied, in its own measure, to this Moses: 'He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.'⁵ Even the sufferings which he, no less than Paul, endured for God, but serve to raise him all the more in our esteem. Is it not just the crown of thorns he wore so long that makes the mediator of the Old Covenant so much more like the Mediator of the New 't

Of this important history (what designation shall we give to it? — a history of miracles; or part of universal history?) the first page lies before us now. Let us suppose the early part of Moses' life was quite unknown to us; do you not think that fiction would have done her best to make a picture with the brightest colours possible, by telling us about extraordinary miracles, appearances of angels, and such other revelations of the mind of God? But oh, how far the simple truth surpasses even the highest flights of poetry! And when we read with ordinary care the brief account of Moses' rescue, who could fail to see and feel its truth, so plainly is it taken from the life? Although no single letter of the name of God were written here, — even though there were as little mention of the name as in the book called after Esther, which records a like deliverance, — the finger of the Lord will yet be manifest even to the simplest child. But possibly that narrative, so well known to us all from early youth, is far too insignificant to claim express regard; our tastes, too, may be so depraved, that simple beauty fails to charm and to attract. We hope much better things of you than that: we rather fancy you will thank us in your inmost heart, if, in an hour snatched from the bustle and the toil of daily life,⁶ we introduce you to a Jewish family well worthy of- your deepest interest. Though we knew nothing more of his whole history than what this chapter tells us, we should still have perfect confidence in representing Moses as the child of special Providence. And how could we content ourselves with standing still in contemplation of this incident, instead of rising to much higher views, and seeing in the family of Amram how the God of Providence at all times deals with those for whom He shows a special care? Come, follow us, as we conduct you in this contemplation; and while we point out to you what God is towards those who are His own, we shall, besides, show what they ought to be to Him. A special explanation of the well-known history is what you neither need nor ask; but what you, no doubt, are most ready to accept will be a careful re-perusal of the whole, while the attention is alternately directed to the persons herein named, — especially to God, — and to yourselves. We need but follow Moses step by step, as he describes the history of his own early days, to see unrolled successively before our  eyes a picture of (a) his constantly increasing trials, (d) hidden straggles, (c) wonderful deliverance, (d) careful training, (e) slow preparation for his great life-work.

When such a child of Providence has spoken thus, to strengthen us in our most holy faith, he will not leave us till he has presented to our notice maxims, drawn even from his earliest experience, to regulate our heart and life. O God of Moses, Thou who art the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, let none of us depart without receiving Thine own blessing from above!

1.

We now transport ourselves, in thought, to fertile Goshen, where the seed of Abraham for some time past had dwelt. How great a change has taken place since Jacob first set foot upon that hospitable soil, the honoured head of seventy souls! Nay, surely Joseph, on his deathbed, had not dreamt of such a sad fulfilment of his latest prophecy, 'God shall surely visit you.' Where now is Egypt's gratitude for what the Hebrew regent had unweariedly performed in her behalf.? Though Egypt still retains his dust, his name she has dropped out of memory, — ungrateful as the butler whose immediate honour and advancement he foretold in prison. Could the twelve patriarchs again have raised those heads on which their father's blessing came, they scarcely would have recognised their sons. The race of shepherds, once quite free, seems now to have become a race of slaves; the guests seem strangers, enemies — nay, beasts of burden, too. See how they toil as brickmakers and bricklayers, doomed every day, as if with their own hand, to forge another link for their already heavy chains! Here rises up the city Raamses, in all its vast extent; there, too, the towers of Pithom rear their heads; strong fortresses, not only for restraining foreign enemies, but also checking mutiny at home, — walls made of brick, but built with blood and tears! ' What else is all the land of Egypt now for Israel but one vast brick-kiln, burning day and night? By dear experience they learn that Joseph's memory is now no longer honoured by the reigning family; false policy but silences the voice of yesterday, to vex itself with fancied dangers of to-day. The rapid increase of the Israelites, — quite unexampled in its way, — by which God's promises to Abraham were strikingly fulfilled, makes Pharaoh's heart beat with solicitude. What if those strangers, should a war break out, join with the enemy? — or, in a time of peace, when they grow strong and arrogant, expel those who at first inhabited the fertile valley of the Nile? The tree is now too strongly rooted in the soil to be destroyed, both root and branch, without great danger every way; but it will be enough to stop the growth of new fruit-bearing branches, and thus let it die, stripped of its leaves and fruit. The burden laid on Israel increases every day; some say that even the pyramids, those palaces made for the dead, that still continue to excite the wonder of the living, must in part have been erected by those Jewish hands. Next is matured the secret plot, by which the innocents are doomed to cruel death just at their birth; and when even that is frustrated, cold-blooded tyranny is not ashamed even to order publicly that all male children shall be cast into the Nile. If the elders have no heart to carry out the ordinance, there must be had a multitude of executioners. Hark! there resounds a voice in Goshen, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning; and the waters, in their detestation of the horrid cruelty, blush crimson with the blood of innocence! And though all this astonishes, what is the most astonishing of all is, not the cry of hundreds, but the reticence of One, who yet had promised Jacob at Beersheba, ' Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation.'⁷ Look down, thou sainted patriarch! see what has here become of thy posterity, increased now fourteen thousand fold; nay, see, Thou God of Abraham, what has become of Thine inheritance, how they have watched and prayed in vain! It actually seems as if Jehovah had become like one of those divinities, worshipped in Egypt as in other lands, to which the mocking language well applies, 'Eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not.'⁸ God speaks no longer unto men; He does not now appear to them; there is no effort made even to preserve, in downcast souls, the fading knowledge of the one true God: yes, now or never seems the time to make the sad complaint, 'The Lord hath forsaken, the Lord hath forgotten!' And this continues, not for years, but centuries, each year of which seems in itself a century! Just like the fierce Nile crocodile, Pharaoh devours the seed of Abraham; and now the promises and hopes of centuries seem likely to be wholly swallowed up in that vast watery grave: 'Verily, Thou art a God that hidest Thyself!'⁹ Why do we speak so rashly of the darkness of our path, or why impiously accuse God, when, far from reaching to our lips, the water but comes to the knees, or even no farther than the feet? With such a scene of sorrow in his view, the most unfortunate among us well may cease complaint; and he who has to some extent learned to observe God's dealings in His providence, may have himself already marked how, in the present case, an old-established law in God's government is set before us in the form of a most touching incident: the Lord ofttimes makes everything as dark as they can possibly become, just that thereafter and thereby the light may shine more brilliantly. Ishmael must faint beneath the shrubs, ere Hagar shall be told about the well. Joseph must even be left to sigh, not merely in his slavery, but in imprisonment and deep oblivion, ere he is raised to his high dignity. The host of the Assyrians must stand before Jerusalem's gates, ere they are smitten by the angel of the Lord. The prophet Jeremiah must be let sink down into the miry pit, ere he is placed upon a rock. Did not a violent persecution of the Christians precede the triumph of the gospel.'' In the night of mediaeval times, must not star after star set ere the Reformation dawn arose? Yes; is not Israel's history in this respect also the history of God's own people in succeeding times, even in the present day? They suffer persecution, are oppressed, ill-treated, and opposed through a mistaken policy; all kinds of force are often used for their restraint under the sacred name of liberty; yet still they stand, and take deep root, and grow, expecting better times will come in spite of these fierce hurricanes. Nay, verily, the Lord has not forgotten to be gracious, though He sometimes seems to hide His face; nor does He cease to rule the world, though He delays to interpose. The father watches and preserves his child amidst the fiercest fires of persecution; and although the furnace of the trial through which he comes be heated seven times more than usual, every degree of heat is counted, measured, regulated by the Lord Himself. Though He permits injustice, and even lets it grow to an extraordinary height. He yet employs it for a purpose that may well command our adoration and regard, — the purifying and the perfecting of those who are His own. He lets the wickedness of men increase for a brief period, that He may suddenly abase them all the more; His words of comfort are withheld, just that, in His own time, He may speak far more forcibly by deeds. While Pharaoh builds his treasure-cities, he is working his own ruin, though unconsciously: while Israel totters on the margin of a yawning gulf, Moses is born!

2.

'Moses' — Do you not fancy that you see a brilliant sunbeam breaking through the pitchy darkness of the heavens ^ Yet think not that, because of this, the last cloud is about to be dispelled; when we but cast a glance upon the hidden struggles mentioned in the narrative, it seems as if the contrary were true. It is quite easy to transport ourselves, in thought, into the middle of a blooming family of one of Levi's sons. Amram and Jochebed have twice already had bestowed on them the highest blessing of a married life; and, for the third time now, the wife hopes to become a mother soon. Who shall presume to fathom the deep floods of tears poured forth in silent hours, when there arose the thought that this pledge of her love might fall a victim to the cruel mandate of the king.? Who can declare how earnestly she prayed her fathers' God that she might bear a daughter rather than a son? But the Lord provided something better with regard to her than such an answer to her prayer, so eminently natural. The first cry uttered by the new-born babe sounds in her ears like a death-sentence; every smile that shows itself upon the infant countenance pierces her inmost soul. Poor mother! why present your breast; thus constantly to lips that soon shall have much more than they require of water from the Nile? But no, the wretched mother cannot but use these tender words: 'Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?'¹⁰ The child, too, is so beautiful, — much more so than even Aaron or Miriam, — it seems to beg to be allowed to live; ' it is beautiful to God,' as the expression stands in the original of Stephen's speech,¹¹ as if it were a more than earthly, yea, a heavenly beauty that was meant. Is it not likely that the elders, long familiar with God's ancient promises to the posterity of those who were His friends, found in that very beauty of the child what led them to expect something, of which, nevertheless, they scarce could give account, even to themselves? At least, it well deserves to be remarked, that the concealment of the child is represented in the Epistle to the Hebrews¹² as an act of faith, from which it is quite evident they did not fear the king's command. May we believe the testimony of Flavius Josephus, that Amram, some months previously, in answer to his earnest prayer of distress, had been informed by special revelation that this child was destined to deliver the oppressed race? Is it possible that the recollection of the precise time stated in a communication made of old to Abraham¹³ proved so much the more powerful as an incentive to the presentiment? But we need not raise conjectures, just as if the long concealment of the child would not admit of explanation otherwise. What mother could be found that willingly gave up her suckling into the assassin's hands? or what daughter of Israel that could not frame some artifice against the cruel force that threatened lives of innocents? Nay, verily, the fatal truth must be concealed as long as possible; more carefully than ever must the joyless dwelling now be closed against all prying stranger eyes; each sound that might arouse suspicion must be stifled on the mother's breast: meanwhile, all Israel must call upon their fathers' God, that He may influence the tyrant's heart. What countless multitudes of sighs must certainly have ended in such prayers; and with what terror must the wretched — yet happy — mother have observed the first few hours, that followed the decisive point, increase into as many days, the days to weeks, the weeks to months! How frequently she must have been aroused in terror from her dreams by even the slightest rustling sound; and how the tide of hope regarding Israel's deliverance must have arisen when the child, as yet unnamed, was born, but only to descend thereafter to the lowest point when ninety days had brought no signs of change! One would not judge from the appearance of the anxious Jochebed — when she presents a cheerful countenance, as far as possible, to those she meets, and speaks, perhaps, of the approaching hour when she is destined to become once more a mother — that so much is dependent upon her. Nor would one venture to suppose, of those who have poured ointment on their head and washed their face, to make a fair show to the world, that there is frequently contained in their full hearts a world of pain, and that it is with difficulty they, against hope, still believe in hope. But how often has this been the very mode in which God in His providence has dealt with those for whom He shows especial care, — that He not merely made for them a cross that might have served for multitudes besides themselves, but also opened up for them a special course of life, known only to the angels up in heaven! But has not your experience been similar to what these parents felt? The Lord bestowed more blessing, but through this there came more care. One prayer was heard and answered; but, as it appeared, just that the other might be utterly refused. A single star now shone aloft, and shed a light to comfort weary souls; but soon it showed itself to be no more than a misleading jack-o'-lanthorn. Yesterday, it seemed that the Destroying Angel had withdrawn from a bedside at which we watched; but to-day he has returned with his two-handed sword unsheathed. It seemed as if, at last, there now would be an end of cares and fears; but, lo, after the rain has ceased, new clouds return, and she who had but recently rejoiced as Hannah did, is suddenly bereaved, just as Naomi was. Those thirteen anxious weeks in Amram's family, how many hearts and homes do they most fully represent! And who has never known of hours that dragged their weary length, when we scarce dared to look before, when naught was to be seen but darkness, when we could do naught but wait? What shall we say when for us too, as for that wretched pair, without are fightings and within are fears? Shall we express our deep astonishment, as if some strange thing happened us when we are so oppressed? Surely each one of us is well aware that the right path which leads to peace, let it be short or long, has ever passed through conflicts that are hazardous, and which often must be fought alone. Jacob does not become an Israel without a wrestling through the night; the woman of Canaan does not obtain the restoration of her daughter ere she strives in faith and prayer; Peter does not become the rock on which the Church is built before sinking in the deep waters. Shall we complain, then, when the Lord's way does not seem to us quite right? or shall we, in the calmness of despair, deliberately put our hand within our bosom? Nay, like this pious pair, we will keep silence in the presence of the Lord, so long as we are still unable to rejoice in our adversity; and we will patiently await the advent of deliverance such as we cannot possibly anticipate. We will not leave neglected any single means which heavenly Wisdom has placed within our reach to comfort us when we are sad; and we will wrestle on, even to the limits of our strength, although we do not see that we advance a single step. With Amram and Jochebed, we will not yield, even to the strongest enemy: only for this are we afraid, lest our own faith should fail. He that believeth shall not be afraid, and just as little shall he be put to shame. The safety which the lovely infant no more finds upon his mother's breast, he finds — how wonderful; yet true! — upon the restless bosom of the Nile.

3.

How must your thoughts anticipate our words, when we now come to speak about the wonderful deliverance, which even Moses, in his later years, surely could not describe without becoming deeply moved! I shall not venture to depict the storm that rose within the mother's heart, when it at last appeared that the concealment of the child had now become an absolute impossibility: four lives were constantly in danger on account of one. I leave it to yourselves to picture the condition and the frame of mind of that unhappy mother, who in solitude avails herself of what is now the last, but almost hopeless means of saving that frail life, exposed to dangers manifold and imminent, as she prepares that wicker ark, and, when it seems quite safe and dry, besprinkles it with showers of bitter tears. I follow, but far off, that loving pair, who, all unseen by human eyes, betake themselves in haste to yonder river's brink, where, days before, perhaps, the safest spot has been sought out; and now, with trembling hands, — yes, and with trembling hearts, — they come to lay their precious burden down among the thick-set reeds that lift their heads above the glassy stream. Is not the frailest reed far stronger than the slender thread by which that infant life still hangs? Oh that they might be let remain and watch — at least, be not far off! But no! if Jochebed continued waiting at the river's side, suspicion might- be speedily aroused; Amram, if he remain too long, may have to fear and feel the lash of the oppressor, and — would there were nothing worse than that! But what is more, the safety of the child, already problematical, will be impossible if it be known wherefore and how the babe lies here. Is not the God of Abraham also here, — the God who once restored the promised Isaac, even as from the dead? Ye mothers, say, what else can it have been than strong, unshaken faith, which gave that woman's hand the strength to push the basket from the shore, and turn her back on it, leaving her darling there, the plaything of the flood? If there was any parallel, besides the one already pointed out, on which she pondered in her solitude, perhaps she thought of Noah's ark, bearing most precious freight, and safe within the haven of rest, after the waves had failed to find an entrance to that place of refuge from the storm. Our arm is far too short to sound the depths of suffering within that mother's heart; and Jochebed may possibly have learned that silence in the hour of danger is the greatest power the soul can exercise. But it is youthful Miriam whom we should most have wished to see, watching with eagle eye lest yon frail craft should float away, and vanish from her sight. It must needs be that very princess — whom tradition names Thermuthis, and of whom it says she had been married, but was childless — who, attended by her maids, comes down to bathe in some safe place; but little does she think there is a reason why she must come to this very spot. It must needs be that very child, whose cry for help falls on her tender ear, and who now stretches out his little arms to her, as if entreating for some other kind of nourishment than tears and water from the Nile, — who now, too, is restored to life, when she exclaims, ' This is one of the Hebrews' children! ' But no! we cast aside the pencil from our hands when Moses has assumed the pen; we know, too, that you will within your heart commend us, when we quite refrain from colouring or touching up the picture of the text, so beautiful and clear, that it appears as if it had itself been taken from the limpid stream. Now that we stand, then, by the Nile, surrounded by such multitudes of reeds, say, was ever stately wood, with here and there an altar for thank-offerings interspersed, so beautiful as this? and does it not appear as if you here beheld the very footsteps of that God who is supreme above the great ones of the earth? Well may you fancy that you hear the purling waves repeat the joyful song, 'The Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death! ' But deeply should we be constrained to pity you, did you feel hesitation in acknowledging the hoary past to be a mirror of the present, with its blessings and its joys, and if it were but with unwillingness that you could make these words your own, 'The Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save.'¹⁴ I grant that we are not at all times able to perceive such striking interventions of a special Providence; yet who is there that does not tremble at the simple thought that Pharaoh's daughter might have come but one hour sooner, or one hour behind? Neither do I forget that many a beloved child is torn from hearts which certainly prayed no less earnestly than Moses' parents that its life should be preserved. But may I not as fearlessly affirm, on the other hand, that those who have been specially delivered and preserved in tender youth are probably more numerous, by far, than we believe or know? Your parents, probably, have not told you, as Moses' parents told their son, or else you may have quite forgotten what great kindness was displayed to you by God, while you were still too young to comprehend your danger, and much less to ward it off. But if it were required to mention here the names of all who must have perished long before, had He not sent His angel, that they might not dash their foot against a stone, surely no ancient monument could be discovered high or broad enough to bear the list of names, however closely they might be inscribed. Yes, God saved and still saves in countless instances, just when our human wisdom fails, and human aid is vanity. He saves just at the proper time, — as formerly upon Moriah, when the sacrificial knife was lifted over Isaac's head; as later at Jerusalem, the very night before the sword of Herod was to end the life of Peter, then asleep. He saves, not without using means, but by the use of means; and even the simplest means that are employed under dependence on His aid soon are evidently blessed. You see there are no miracles performed for even a Moses, when the ordinary means are quite sufficient to accomplish God's adorable designs; but every heart, like that of Pharaoh's daughter, is quite at his service, and He guides and drives them where He will, just like the waters of the Nile. Why do we speak of 'chance' or 'fate,' when, at such times as this, we see the finite and the Infinite so closely intertwined? Let but the little vessel leak, or let the princess, for some unimportant reason, and for once, omit her daily bath, and the whole history of Israel, of Egypt, and perhaps the world, shall then exhibit quite another character! Why do philosophers affirm that it does not become God's dignity to care for even the smallest thing? But let that weeping child be hidden from the eyes of God, and the means for Israel's deliverance will have escaped His hands. Why does the heart with little faith tremble even at the thought of danger? Moses, in helpless infancy, has a Protector better far than even the clever Miriam: He that keeps Israel sleeps not, and slumbers not. God does not willingly afflict or plague the sons of men; and even though affliction's flood may seem to know no bounds, yet, like the Nile, at God's command it shall return within its limits, and leave after it a fertilizing mud. Not even a single word of this great promise, made to all God's own, has ever fallen to the ground: 'When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.'¹⁵ 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies!'¹⁶

4.

'With loving-kindness.' How this was learned experimentally by that same child whose careful training is now set before us in the narrative! There stands the scion of the royal house before us still, surrounded by her maids, the emblem of a gracious Deity, protecting the forsaken and oppressed. She does not hesitate to take an interest in the babe, though she may readily suppose her cruel father will indeed be wroth, when she thus sides with the despised, whom one stroke of the pen had now consigned to death. But first of all, who shall now give the babe what it most pressingly requires? As quick as lightning, through the soul of Miriam there flashed a thought, for which she must have afterwards thanked God upon her bended knees: what if she could not only bear the tidings of her brother's safety, but bring back the half-lost child some other way to its own mother's heart? The angels must have listened, when, after emerging from her hiding-place, she asks in bashful tones, 'Princess, shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that may nurse the child for thee? ' She did not wait too long for further orders, lest the first command to go should be rescinded for some other one. As if on wings of wind she hurried home, called her astonished mother, and by all that is most sacred prayed her not to let herself be known. The mother understands the princess's command, 'Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.' 'Thy wages!' Did it never once occur to you, Thermuthis, that you have deposited far more than the most precious treasure in the arms of that poor Israelite, who bows in deep humility, but finds no words for overwhelming thoughts? But Jochebed is even already gone; and now she is presenting on her family altar what was certainly the first, the only pure and unalloyed thank-ofiering presented to the Lord within three weary months; she thinks... But what shall we add further to the simple story, 'And the woman took the child, and nursed it; and when it was grown, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son '? You must already have admired the love of God, who sent three years of unalloyed maternal joy after three months of sorrow indescribable; and then you must have thought upon the words, ' His anger endureth but a moment; in His favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.'¹⁷ But have you not yet felt, besides, strong admiration for the Lord's deep wisdom, which the thoughtful mind of Amram must have speedily perceived, when he discovered why the Lord had ordered things just thus, and in no other way? There is a higher destiny for Jochebed than that she should be merely nurse to her own child, for she is also to become the early guide of him who shall be Israel's guide. With His own hand the God of heaven and earth here fastens, to a single individual, the threads uniting Moses and the Israelites for life, — yea, must we not say for eternity? And though he soon must needs be trained in the Egyptian schools, his mother's milk will, to his opening mind, be antidote enough against the superstition of the heathen land. As with that mother's milk, — who shall decide how closely joined the soul and body are in their development? — he shall imbibe a love for Israel; and the first name he learns to lisp will not be those of Isis and Osiris, but the name of Him who is his fathers' God. According to the custom of those days, he would be taken from his nurse when three years old and brought to court, — a sad farewell, and yet how much less painful than the former one! But will the princely foster-mother not most readily permit the lovely child sometimes to pay a visit to the nurse, who shall but seek to fan into a flame the spark of love for true religion and for liberty that smoulders in his youthful heart? Nor will he leave her ere the grand traditions of God's covenant with His friend, of Jacob's death, and Joseph's last command, of Canaan as the land destined for Israel, and of the great deliverance that has been promised for the world, have all been more impressed upon his mind; and what he hears within that family circle fixes, even in his early years, the course of his own private thoughts. Egyptian science and intoxicating wine, instead of his own mother's milk in all its purity, will offer now to nourish and refresh this soul, thirsting for truth. Amidst the most refined, most learned, and most highly trained of nations, Moses must — if I may so express myself — learn all that is mechanical pertaining to the great work of his later years. The highest wisdom of the earth must first be uttered in his ears; its highest glory, too, must pass before his eyes, that he may afterwards learn by experience that all the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, and that all human glory is but like the brittle reed. But Jochebed must specially beware lest the young man, through his Egyptian training, should become in heart and soul a true Egyptian; yet it is just the combination of what may be termed Egyptian and Hebrew elements in Moses' training which produces, in his later years, that Moses who was so unique in character. Remove one of these two constituents, and you obtain a Moses who is wholly different, and much less fitted for his work; the Hebrew household and the heathen court must both successively become his training schools. Oh, how adorable is God, viewed in His providence! Are you astonished that a Paul, the Moses of the Second Covenant, could so decidedly affirm that God 'hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of the habitations of men'?¹⁸ And in how many lives do we perceive like guidance on the part of God, by which the first steps are distinctly brought into connection with the latter portion of the course! The history of many soldiers of the Lord shows that, like Moses, they have owed their early training for a great and noble work to mothers of distinguished excellence; and many, too, like him, have been astonished to discover afterwards that they required to make their preparations for a future stage just where God willed they should remain. Who does not here remember David, trained even at the court of Saul for his own later kingly life, — the Lord's apostles, well inured by fishing in the Sea of Galilee to many a privation which they could not but experience when they went forth to fish for men, — a Paul, who, at Gamaliel's feet, acquired that wisdom and that knowledge which he afterwards employed, as weapons in behalf of Christ, against these selfsame Jews, — nay, who does not think of himself, when he takes up the thread of his own life, to trace its windings through the maze, and looks towards yon gate by which he entered on this scene? Or can we Christians doubt that the relationships of early life must have conduced to bring us where God's hand has afterwards conducted us; that every one of us has his own special destiny, for which, like Moses, we are frequently prepared, though all unconsciously, throughout a series of years; in short, that even our first impressions, like the later lessons we receive, are all appointed and arranged by higher wisdom than our own? Nay, do not shake your head so unbelievingly, and say, in your complaint, that if this were the case, in your experience at least, things would not be quite as they are, and not a little must have been quite otherwise. You have not reached the end yet, just like Moses at his tenth or fifteenth year: whoever seeks to guess how any history, consisting of two portions quite dissimilar, shall end, when he has scarcely reached the half of the first part, i'^ in the greatest danger of pronouncing an opinion that is quite erroneous, and founded on a superficial view. What else is all this now before us than the period of youth, wherein we see this infant grow into a child, a youth, a man? All that is proper to the child must pass away, ere we can see the glory of the Lord in guiding every step of infancy.

5.

'And she called his name Moses; for -she said, I drew him out of the water.' We will not weary you by setting forth the different opinions formed by learned men as to this name and what it means; nor shall we now defend the brief account given in the text against the fierce attacks of unbelief To show how superficial these last can sometimes be, and how God knows the way to use all kinds of means in order to uphold the truth of His own written word, let it suffice to state the following: — The doubt had frequently been raised, in something like triumphant tones, whether the Oriental women were indeed allowed to show themselves in public, and to bathe, as we are here informed regarding Pharaoh's daughter; but there has recently been found, among the fresco paintings forming part of the remains of ancient Egypt, one that represents Egyptian women of the better class, attended by their maids, proceeding to the Nile to bathe. But rather let us now regard the almost imperceptible, slow preparation for so much that was both glorious and great, as we find set before us here. Yet is it possible that any one could fail to mark how there is opened here a quite new page in Israel's history, — in that of true religion, — nay, in a sense, a new page in the world's history.''

A child has now been drawn out of the water; and from this time forward there is opened up a new and better future for all Israel. How little thinks the tyrant, while he brandishes the scourge, while wielding, too, the sceptre, that the chosen instrument of the Almighty's recompense has now been saved by his own daughter, and is destined to grow up before his eyes! 'I shall destroy, I shall annihilate,' says Pharaoh; but the Lord says, ' I shall work, and who shall bar my path? 'And then God puts the cradle that contains the hope of Israel, just as it were upon the steps of Pharaoh's throne. Tremble, proud Memphis, for that youthful eye shall sparkle soon with indignation when it sees unrighteousness increase! The hands that now, by turns, embrace Thermuthis and then Jochebed, shall one day bear the rod that shall compel the waters to divide. Yes, Israel as a nation shall be able now to date its birth from that same hour when Moses came upon the scene! ' Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! '

A child has just been drawn out of the water; and from that hour there opens a new page in the history of God's revelations. For three whole centuries, as we are told, Jehovah has been silent; but He now begins to speak almost uninterruptedly. Amidst the quietness of a most humble dwelling, there grows up the soul that is to fathom God's deep thoughts: upon the breast of Jochebed there beats the heart that, all through life, shall burn with deep desire not only for complete deliverance of Israel, but also for the furtherance of true religion everywhere. Till now, the Lord has let the heathen — yea, and in a certain sense even Israel — walk in the ways they chose; but now, here He appoints the man who is to be the great interpreter of all His special revelations till the fulness of the times. Now there appears the coming prophet, far surpassing every one in Israel, — the future lawgiver, who is to state the fundamental principle of true religion, the indivisible unity of God, — the great historian, who is to shed the first trustworthy light on the beginning of creation and the great Redemption-plan. And here he is, preserved and trained by that same Egypt against whom he soon shall rise to vindicate God's majesty. ' How unsearchable are the judgments of God, and His ways past finding out! '

A child has now been drawn out of the water; and here there begins a further, more direct, more earnest preparation for that great time of deliverance, predicted long before in paradise. The sinful world, alas! has long ago become like an Egyptian house of bondage, where vast multitudes of slaves sink down beneath the leaden weight of misery. But how shall it be possible even for Almighty God to break that ignominious yoke, so long as sinners do not feel, themselves, their misery? And, on the other hand, how shall the sinner even feel his misery, so long as conscience has not been aroused from mortal slumber by the law? Lo, there God raises up the man whom we may call ' incarnate law,' as Christ is named 'incarnate grace;' and his appearance, so far, is important for humanity at large. Those lips, still sealed as yet, shall utter words which rouse the painful thought, ' By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified.'¹⁹ The son of Amram, though apparently doomed long ago to death, still lives; but lives to pass death-sentence, in his turn, on millions of his fellowmen. No sinner unto whom he speaks shall be allowed to rest, ere the convicted soul betakes himself to One whose way he shall prepare. For centuries, to all the world, Gentile as well as Jew, this man shall testify of sin, until that day of God has dawned, when naught but grace shall reign. He shall bear witness unto Jesus, but Jesus in His turn, too, shall bear witness unto him; and, as at Tabor, it will be impossible rightly to look on Jesus anywhere, without perceiving Moses in the background, — as the shadow He can never want. Nay, more; the service which was rendered now by Egypt unto Israel, though all unconsciously, Israel shall yet repay with interest, when, in His turn, a Saviour shall present to all the heathen world, lost in their sins. One who is more than ever prophet was. How little thought that noble-minded woman who saved Moses, that his name would shine so lustrously long after her own throne had crumbled into dust, and that dust had been blown away into oblivion! But we who meditate on it, and here in quietness observe the preparation of so much that is most glorious, shout in our raptures of delight, 'Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? '²⁰

Thus much to-day. The first leaf of this Moses' history has most assuredly shown us the day of small things. But will it really be needful to point out, in full detail, the lessons flowing from what we have been considering? Perhaps I may be speaking to proud-hearted ones, as well as those cast down in soul. High in your own esteem, can you not gather from this narrative, although you may not comprehend it thoroughly, that all the might of man is powerless against the counsel of the Lord.'' Who has opposed Him and had peace? And ye oppressed ones, tossed by the tempest, comfortless, will you still make complaint, as if you had no comforter, when you have once more seen that there is One who hears, and sees, and saves, even in the hour of the most pressing need.? I am addressing those who occupy the higher social ranks, and who are well to do; but those, too, who have less, and occupy a humbler place. Children of luxury, shall a heathen princess shame you, — one who took delight in changing sorrow into joy.? Will you not rather be induced, by her example, to be workers with the Lord for others' joy, to weep with the afflicted ones, and draw near even to the most despised and indigent? And you, again, the weak and little ones, will you still fancy you may well be quite passed by, when Miriam's case proclaims to you how needful even the weak link is to join the other links into one chain, and how God can avail Himself even of a child deemed insignificant in the promotion of our human bliss and joy? I am addressing those who have been gently dealt with by the Lord, but also those who have been sorely tried, such as we frequently have found, by turns, upon this earthly scene. Ye mothers who, perchance, like Jochebed, have now recovered from the jaws of death a child most dearly loved, will you strive less than she to train it up in the fear of God? Ye children, too, who must appear a wonder to your parents, will you not cry to your Creator and Benefactor, 'My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth'? Or you, again, who are most sorely tried, should you allow yourselves to be so much cast down in soul, because, like Amram, you have now been months — or years, perhaps — in darkness, while the light which you desire so much does not appear? As if it were not just the selfsame God who forms the light and who creates the darkness, who makes peace and causes evil, but who forthwith, too, makes evil work for good! 'Never despair, even though the earth departed from before your eyes!' — such is the call of God addressed to us from yon Nile shore. What else does Moses in his youth proclaim, than just what he still sang when old: 'The Lord is a rock, whose work is perfect: God is truth; righteous and just is He!'²¹

'Righteous and just!' But wherefore is it that these very words, by which we sought to raise your courage, threaten instead to break it wholly down? Do you feel still unable to rely on God with perfect confidence, because you do not yet enjoy His friendship and the favour He bestows? Do you object, that God's paths verily are truth and mercy, but for those alone who keep His covenant and His testimony; and do you feel no warrant yet to count yourself as one of these? Blessed art thou, my fellow-sinner, if thou dost most truly comprehend and thus apply to thine own case the soul-disturbing words, which we dare not keep back even here! Nay, we must not immediately remove from you this feeling, painful though it be. God is a refuge, verily, but only for His own and those who truly seek to be His own. But would it not have been a dire mistake if, at that gloomy period, a prophet of the Lord had given the selfsame consolation both to Amram and to Pharaoh? You have as little ground to hope for peace as that great tyrant had, in stiff-necked opposition to the will of God; nay, more, while you thus seem to be in peace and calmness, there is even now in quiet preparation God's dread judgment upon sinful men: soon shall it burst on every worker of unrighteousness, as then it did on the Egyptians. But this we may proclaim to every one of you: the strength by which the parents of this Moses were upheld may, in like manner, be the stay of your own souls, that otherwise must sink beneath the load of woe. And do you ask. How can all this be brought about? Lo, suddenly my spirit wings its way from Egypt to the friendly Promised Land; and there, after some centuries, I find another Child, threatened, like Moses, by an equally ambitious tyrant, and as evidently saved in that same land which formerly afforded an asylum to the Hebrew prophet, but long since raised to greater eminence than that to which this Moses saw himself advancing at that most luxurious court. For your sake He has lived on earth in lowly servant-form, like that in which you here find Israel. Sinner, stretch out your hands to Him in prayer, that He may free you wholly from your sin! And, reconciled to God through Him, learn to rely upon that God, as on a Father from whose love nought shall divide. Yea, He shall free your soul from greater want and death than that by which you saw the house of Israel distressed; and just as Moses was drawn from the water as a newborn child, so will He cause you also to experience the second birth by water and the Spirit, which alone can truly make of you a freeman in the kingdom of the Lord. Oh, pray to Him for the salvation of your soul, with earnestness like that displayed by Jochebed when she entreated for the safety of her child! Commit yourself to Him, that He may keep, establish, train you for a higher destiny than that to which you have seen Moses led! Remember that the world is as unfit to be your refuge and your strength as that frail basket would have proved had there been any need that it should keep the infant long! See that you be so thoroughly renewed and sanctified by the Spirit of grace, that, like Amram and Jochebed, you may belong to those who are the people of the Lord's chosen inheritance! And then shall you, too, realize the truth of those most wondrous words, ' that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.'²²

Ye friends of God, who, like this family, must thank the Lord because He has afflicted you in faithfulness, have you not felt the truth of this? Only take heed unto yourselves, and see that ye do not forget His benefits. Strengthen your heart, as Moses, doubtless, must have done, by looking back, in after years and days of darkness, on the many points in your career which well may show memorials raised up in honour of God's love and. faithfulness. But do not let yourselves be put to shame by faith such as these simple Israelites displayed, ye who desire to follow, as your leader, the great Guide in faith; and if the hand of God may happen to lie heavily on you and yours, then seek, like them, your strength in secret and continued prayer. Be not surprised when it appears as if the heavens were shut to your complaints: as you have heard, the furnaces must needs be raised to scorching heat before the songs of the deliverance resound; there is no dawning of salvation's morn so long as evening has not deepened into midnight gloom. More clearly than could Israel, you now behold, even in the darkest night, a star that never sets, — the promises of God in His eternal faithfulness! Oh, gaze thereon continually, even though a cloud may often intervene. Follow His counsel unreservedly, wherever and whenever He may call. And further, bear in mind that the Eternal has before Him an eternity when He can justify His mode of government; wait till you see the end of all His ways. What was the final issue of the darkest days of Am ram and His wife — glory and majesty — shall prove, ere long, the end of yours. Verily, ' light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.' ' Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice!'

Amen.

1) John ix. 28.

2) Heb. iii. 5.

3) Matt. xvii. 4; Mark ix. 5; Luke ix. 33.

4) Ps. cxlvi. 5.

5) Acts ix. 15.

6) Delivered on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 17, 1857.

7) Gen. xlvi. 3.

8) Ps. cxv. 5, 6.

9) Isa. xlv. 15.

10) Isa. xlix. 15.

11) Acts vii. 20. [See the marginal rendering of the English Version.]

12) Heb. xi. 23.

13) Gen. xv. 13-16.

14) Isa. lix. 1.

15) Isa. xliii, 2.

16) Ps. cii. 4.

17) Ps. xxx. 5.

18) Acts xvii. 26.

19) Rom. iii. 20,

20) Rom, xi. 34.

21) Deut. xxxii. 4.

22) Rom. viii. 28.