but ever after on the fourteenth day of Abib, in the spring of the year, which was made to commence at that period.

Q. How long had Israel sojourned in the land of Egypt?

A. Two hundred and fifteen years.†

CHAPTER IV.

From the Exodus to the Death of Moses.

Q. How did Jehovah deliver his people?

A. With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

The Jews still observe this festival at the proper season of the year, our Easter, when Christians commemorate the true passover. It is called the Paschal feast, from pasach, he PASSED OVER: but in England, the pagan appellation given by our ancestors to April, is still retained; affording, with several other circumstances, a strong proof of the reluctance with which idolatry retreated before Christianity, owing to the temporizing policy of the Romish clergy. At this season of the year, a great feast was held in honour of Aestar, a Saxon goddess, who appears to have been the same as the Astarte of the Phoenician idolatry; therefore April was called Eastermonth. See GALE'S Court of the Gentiles, part i. b. ii. c. 2.

+ Exod. xii. 40, 41. says, "four hundred and thirty years :" but the Samaritan version solves the difficulty: "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, who dwelt in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years."-See Chronological Table, No. 2.

For at midnight, on the fourteenth day of the month, while the Israelites, having celebrated the passover, stood ready to depart, Jehovah smote all the first-born of men and of beasts,* throughout all the land of Egypt. "And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also."

Q. Did they depart at the king's request?

:

A. Yes they set out immediately, because the Egyptians were urgent upon them; "for they said, We be all dead men." "And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him."

Q. What was the number of the Israelites at their Exodus from Egypt?

A. Six hundred thousand men,-besides women and children.

Q. In what condition did the Lord bring them out of Egypt?

A. "He brought them forth with silver† and gold:

*The gods of Egypt, upon whom the Lord executed judgment, Numb. xxxiii. 4. were most probably the animals which the people worshipped.

+ Exod. xii. 35. might have been rendered "And they asked of the Egyptians articles of silver, and articles of gold, and

and there was not one feeble person among their tribes."* Q. Whither did they journey?

A. They journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, where they pitched their tents; "and they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness."

2. Was this their nearest route?

A. No: the direct road to Canaan was through the land of the Philistines; but the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea was chosen to avoid war, for which they were rendered unfit by their bondage in Egypt.

Q. How were they directed in their journey?

A. "The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud; and by night, in a pillar of fire.”

Q. Whither did they journey from Etham ?

A. They turned and encamped before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon; this position being designed, under Divine direction, to infatuate and induce Pharaoh to pursue them.

Q. Had it this effect?

A. Yes: the Egyptians had scarcely buried their firstborn, when Pharaoh, regardless of the mighty works wrought in behalf of the Israelites, finding them entangled, and apparently without any means of escape, pursued them with six hundred chosen chariots, all his

raiment."--The erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness, affords proof of the wealth which the Israelites carried away from Egypt, and also of the arts they had there learned. * Psalm cv. 37,

horsemen,* and all his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea.

Q. How did the Israelites behave on the appearance of this army?

A. They cried to the Lord, but with great fear and doubt; and at length they accused Moses of being the author of their misfortunes. Thus they provoked the Lord.t

Q. How did Moses reply to them?

A. He said, "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to-day; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight shall hold your peace.”

for

you, and ye

Q. Did the Egyptians immediately fall upon the Israelites ?

A. No: they were prevented by the darkness of the pillar of the cloud, which had removed from before Israel, and was interposed between the two camps.

Q. By what miracle did the LORD rescue his chosen? A. M. 2512. A. While the cloud enveloped the EgypB. C. 1492. tians in darkness, it gave light by night to Israel; in the mean time, Jehovah, by his mighty power, opened a passage for his people through the Red Sea, whose waters formed a wall on the right hand and

*Egypt was famous for cavalry; and in after ages the Israelites often sought aid from thence on that account. Hence the reproofs of the prophets, Isa. xxx. 16.—xxxi. 1, 3. Hos. xiv. 3. + Psalm cvi. 7.

Q. What happened at their seventh station,-the wilderness of Sin?

A. The congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, "Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

Q. To what is their frequent murmuring attributable ? A. To unbelief: "They believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation."

Q. Did the Lord punish them for this?

A. No: he sent them food from heaven, and quails in abundance," to prove them, whether they would walk in his law or no."

Q. What was the bread thus sent from heaven?

A. Moses describes it as a small round thing like coriander seed, of a white colour, and sweet like honey, but when baked tasting like fresh oil. David calls it corn of heaven," and "angels' food;" but the Israelites called it manna.†

Q. How often was the manna furnished?

A. Every day in the week, the sabbath‡ excepted, on

A wilderness, or desert, sometimes means nothing more than an uncultivated spot of ground.

+ Exod. xvi. 15. "They said one to another [man hua] what is this? for they knew not what it was." Hence it was called manna. Comp. v. 15 with v. 31.

Exod. xvi. 22-30. This is the first notice of the sabbath in sacred history, subsequent to its institution. It was or