ment Characters. Matheson's Represen-ridge's "Moses in the Bulrushes." The tative Men of the Bible. Taylor's Moses choice of Hercules in Xenophon's Memothe Lawgiver. Wharton's Famous Men rabilia. Pizarro's choice, in Prescott's of the Old Testament. Conquest of Peru, Vol. I.

Finding of Moses" is a Hebrew

legend that Pharaoh's daughter was a leper and was cured by

finding Moses. Hartley Cole- On the site of Memphis, the Ancient Capital of Lower Egypt.

*Wilde's Bible Pictures.

The figure is twenty-six feet long, not including the crown which stands separately on the left.

Exodus is a Greek word meaning "Exit," or Departure." "It is so employed for the description of Israel's departure from Egypt (Hebrews 11: 22)."- Macgregor. It is the second book of the Bible, and carries on the narrative of the fortunes of the chosen people after the death of Joseph. "It falls into two parts. The first half is familiar to all who read the Bible, and forms a drama of thrilling interest." — Mc Neile. The second part tells the story of the march to Sinai, the giving of the Law, and various religious ceremonials, and the raising of the Tabernacle.

The portion we study in Lessons 1-6 of this quarter is called by Mr. Kennedy, "The Epic of the Great Deliverance" and the remainder of the book, "The Solemn Institution of the Theocracy at Sinai."

I. THE ISRAELITES IN SCHOOL IN EGYPT, Ex. 1 : 6-12. In our last regular lesson Joseph was Grand Vizier or prime minister of Egypt, as well as director of the royal granaries (Cheyne). Early in his Egyptian career his father and the whole family came down into Egypt to live there, and were settled in Goshen. There were 70 persons in the clan.

Location of the School. The Land of Goshen was in the northeastern part of Egypt toward the desert. "Goshen is not a large tract of country; it is bounded on the north and south by deserts; it dwindles to a mere channel on the east; and on the west it is barred by the great city of Bubastis. A triangle of about ten miles in the side, with perhaps some minor extensions, is all that can be comprised in Goshen. If we make every possible allowance it cannot have covered 100 square miles." Prof. Flinders Petrie in Egypt and Israel.

God had promised again and again to Abraham that his descendants should have their home and their country in Palestine, and that they should from that country bless the whole world. Palestine was the best country in all the earth for the home of the Jews.

But the Israelites were not prepared at this time to take possession of their promised land. They had many things to learn first. Therefore they were sent from their somewhat rude civilization, to Egypt, the most civilized and cultured country in the then known world. It had schools and literature, training in the practical arts, architecture, chemistry, law, medicine, and in all the wisdom and skill known then to the world. It was a fine school for them.

Let us look at what the Israelites learned in this school during the long centuries in that country, and note the ways of God's Providence. 1. Their ancestor Abraham,

that ever lived,

that great and good man of God, one of the greatest was always present as an ideal, as an example, as an inspiration, as a person who had actually done what God required of him, even though living among heathen.

2. They must be trained and educated, as really as every child now must go to various schools before he can do the work God has sent him into the world to do.

3. Their residence in Egypt would have a vast influence on their culture and civilization and literature. In working for the Egyptians they were compelled to use Egyptian arts and appliances, to study the great national works and the noble architecture on which they were employed, and to become acquainted with weaving, the working of metals, the homes, and the literature which was written upon bricks. Professor Price says it was an industrial training school in the foremost civilization of that day. It was the severest, the sharpest, and the most complete training a people could receive to make them masters of the leading arts and occupations of Egypt.'

4. They were sent away from Palestine because they were too few, too feeble in their religious life, to resist the deadly moral influence of the surrounding idolatry of the various tribes of Palestine, who were ruining themselves by the basest revelry, licentiousness, and appeals to every base passion, with which idols were worshipped.

5. The Israelites were secluded in Goshen, since they were shepherds and farmers, who were despised by the Egyptians. They had thus an unusual opportunity to cherish and teach the true religion in their families.

6. They had opportunity of growth and enlargement of mind, of vision, of culture, and of means of worshipping the true God, and contrasting his service with the From a photograph by Wilson. heathenism of the Egyptians.

The Great Rock Temple of Abu Simbel.

The Difference in Religion. "As for me, I think one religion is about as good as another. It's mostly a matter of climate and race and tradition.' 'Christianity is sentimentally attractive.

The "grandest temple ever created by Egyptian skill." Constructed by Rameses II, the Pharaoh of the Oppression.

"That's so,' said the other man.

But what has it ever done?'

"A man seated across the aisle who had the air of a foreigner suddenly leaned forward and said very politely:

"Pardon. But your remarks, which I could not help hearing, deeply interest me. May I say why?'

"Surely. Go ahead,' the first speaker replied, looking curiously at the foreigner. "Thank you, sir. I am an Armenian. I was born in Bitlis. Bitlis has about forty thousand people. Have you a town of that size you can think of in America ? ' Just the size of my own town,' said the second man.

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"Take your town, then, and call it Bitlis; and say of your town these things: no hospital, no doctor, no dentist, no church except the mission and the Armenian, no press, no telephone, no sanitation, no water system, no nurse, no public school. And that is your town, here in America. That is, you understand, my town of Bitlis in Turkey.

"The one bright spot in my town is the Christian mission, which supports a dispensary and a school and the hope of life. During the recent uprising against the Armenians, in which over three hundred thousand of them were massacred, the missionaries in Bitlis, aided by those in Van, at the risk of their lives saved me from torture and death. All my relatives were murdered and our property was utterly destroyed. My wife and children were tortured and burned alive in my house.

1:8. Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. 9. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:

10. 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.

II. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

12. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

13. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour : 14. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

"Do you wonder that I cannot agree with you that one religion is as good as another? Gentlemen, it is Christianity that has stretched out its healing hand to the tortured people of Europe, and after the war it will be the spirit of the Master that will build up life on the ghastly ruins. I am a witness of it.'

"The two men who had flippantly dismissed Christianity in two sentences spent the next hour learning some wholesome truths about Christian missions and the heroes of the cross." The Youth's Companion.

II. THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY, 1: 13, 14; 5:6-19. It is not easy to tell how long a period elapsed between the death of Joseph, the ruler of Egypt next to Pharaoh, and the birth of Moses, in one of the periods of persecution. Almost any commentary, or book upon Moses, can be consulted.

Note 1. "The children of Israel occupied Goshen in the N.E. corner of Egypt and therefore were in the region which enemies from the north [coming down along the shores of the Mediterranean] would reach first. What the king was most alarmed for was lest the Israelites should join any invading force, and imperil the Egyptian supremacy.' Professor Blaikie.

Note 2 (v. 7). And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them, even beyond the borders of Goshen. There was danger that the Israelites would grow stronger and mightier than the Egyptians. As a race the Hebrews were more powerful than the Egyptians, remarkable for an active business life," and accustomed to an out of doors life through their labors with the sheep, and on the farms.

Note 3. Therefore the Egyptians tried to crush the Hebrews' spirits, and weaken their bodies by overwork and cruelty.

13. The Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour. "The word translated rigour is a very rare one. It is derived from a root which means to break in pieces, to crush." Rawlinson. "From the original word here used comes the Latin ferox and the English fierce.".· Bush. Such rigor is seen pictured on the ancient monuments of Egypt: heavy burdens, savage whips wielded by the taskmasters, poor food, naked backs, intolerable sufferings.

Canon Tristram reveals its cruelty to us when he says: "In Egypt this cruel system [of forced labor] ground down the peasantry to the lowest state of degradation, compelled by the kurbash, a weapon worse than the whips of Solomon, until recently abolished there by the English occupation. I have myself seen the whole male population of several villages driven together, at the bayonet's point, to toil at some irrigation works for weeks together, receiving only the barest rations; and their families left to starve or live as they could meanwhile, with no provision whatever." Among their bitter tasks (v. 11) was the building of two cities, Pithom and Raamses (a form of Rameses), both within Goshen. These were treasure cities, designed for storing provisions, or perhaps the munitions of war. They were built of brick made of clay held together by means of straw, as our mortar is held by mingling hair with it. We learn from Ex. 5, that after Moses' first appeal to Pharaoh, the oppression grew worse and worse. They were compelled to "make bricks without straw."

They must go out and get the stubble where they could find it, and were beaten if they failed to make as many bricks daily as before.

Specimens of the bricks can be found in the British Museum, and in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. They are usually from 4 to 8 inches square and 1 to 2 inches thick, unbaked, but very hard. An especial confirmation of the Bible

story, and proof that this is one of the very cities that the Hebrews built, is the fact that "the lower courses of these walls, and for some distance up, are of well-made bricks with chopped straw in them; but higher up the courses of brick are not so good, the straw is long and scanty, and the last courses have no straw at all, but have sedges, rushes, and water plants in the mud." - Harper.

Another device was resorted to also. Pharaoh commanded that every son born to the Hebrews should be thrown into the Nile, and only the daughters should they save alive (Ex. 1: 22). All possible warriors slain From an old print. would prevent the warriors from increasing.

But the more they afPharaoh's plan was a failure. III. LESSONS LEARNED IN THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY.

flicted them, the Hebrews, the more they multiplied (v. 12).

1. Their oppression united them into one nation, binding them together in common sorrows, dangers, hopes, and plans.

2. Every person and every nation must take lessons in God's school of adversity. "We can say, ' Blessed is night, for it reveals to us the stars.' In the same way we can say, 'Blessed is sorrow, for it reveals God's comfort.' The floods washed away home and mill, all the poor man had in the world. But as he stood on the scene of his loss, after the water had subsided, broken-hearted and discouraged, he saw something shining in the bank which the waters had washed bare. It looks like gold,' he said. It was gold. The flood which had beggared him made him rich. So it is ofttimes in life." Henry Clay Trumbull.

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3. The oppression weaned them from Egypt, so that they were ready to leave when the time came which God had appointed. Otherwise they might have become so pleasantly settled in business, so encumbered with property, that, as many ages later in Babylon, they would not be willing to enter upon the hard and dangerous enterprise of journeying to Canaan.

4. "The very best lessons we learn are not the easy lessons, but the hard lessons." The worst misfortune that can come to any boy is to be saved from hard lessons, trying duties, difficult work.

IV. THE CLOCK STRIKES THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY FOR ISRAEL, Ex. 2. The nation had been sleeping as Jacob was sleeping on the stone when he saw the vision and the ideal in the morning dawn, a ladder reaching to heaven and God, with angels of help, and a long, hard climb before him. But the climb made of him a new man.

Or we may compare the Israelites to Bunyan's Christian, about to flee from the City of Destruction to the City of God; with many a weary toil before him, and hardfought battle.

THE BEAUTIFUL STORY OF THE CHILDHOOD OF MOSES.

The Parents of Moses. His father's name was Amram, of the tribe of Levi, to whom the priesthood of the nation was given. His mother's name was Jochebed (Ex. 6 20). She also was of the house of Levi.

2: 1. And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

2. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.

3. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

4. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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 the child for thee?

Moses was born near Zoan (Tanis), the beautiful capital of Rameses II., on one of the outlet streams of the Nile, on the western border of Goshen.

He was a very beautiful child, very attractive, and this was one of the means through which his life was saved. Josephus says that those who met him, as he was carried along the streets, forgot their business and stood still to gaze at him.". Vincent's Word Studies on Acts.

His being a handsome boy would increase his mother's desire to save his life. There were two older children, Miriam (15 : 20)," the first of the Marys," probably 8 or 9 years old, and Aaron (7 : 2), who was three years older than Moses (7: 7), and probably born before the edict requiring male children to be destroyed.

Both parents were religious people, for we are told in Hebrews (1123) that they acted from faith.

He was born a slave, of parents who labored under poverty and severe oppression. Note how large a proportion of the great men of history have been children of persons of little mark and small influence, like Amram and Jochebed, of whom almost all we know is that they had faith and courage and ingenuity enough to disobey a tyrant and hide their goodly child. Faith, courage, moral firmness, and truth are a blessed heritage for any child.

It

For three months the child Moses was hidden by his mother in some retired portion of her house, to save him from being slain. It was an act of faith and hope. was no easy task, for the Egyptians spent most of the time in the open air, and their houses were little more than bed-closets.". Blaikie." It involved unbroken silence, great watchfulness, and agonizing suspense. How could Miriam keep the secret about the little stranger? and by what means was Aaron preserved from letting fall even one unfortunate word about his new brother? - W. M. Taylor.

A Daring Scheme came into the mother's head, which she believed came from God. She took for him an ark of bulrushes, a small covered box, or basket, made of the papyrus reeds "whose triangular stem is three to six feet high, and sometimes as high as fifteen feet. Beneath the outer rind are thin, concentric layers, sometimes as many as twenty, which the Egyptians split off, pressed together, and beat and polished to make their paper. The word paper' comes from 'papyrus.' Baskets, shoes, and boats were made of it, and it was considered to be a protection against crocodiles.". · Blaikie.

The mother made it water-tight by covering the outside with pitch, and placed it with the child among the flags in a secluded place by the river Nile, where Pharaoh's daughter was accustomed to bathe.

Miriam, the older sister, was stationed afar off, where she could see, but not be seen, to watch what the result would be.

Pharaoh's daughter sees the child in all his loveliness and beauty, crying for his mother. And she adopts it for her own.

Miriam draws near and asks if she shall find a nurse for her.