the circumstances clearly evince that he could have been no self-appointed lawgiver, leading forth the Israelites from Egypt of his own motion, but that he all along acted under divine dictation and control. Bad as the alternative was of passing through the territories of the Philistines, yet in the eye of mere human prudence, the other was scarcely more feasible. Moses had long fed the flocks of Jethro in that very desert, and he must have been well aware that it afforded no resources for the subsistence of such a vast host of men, women, and children, and cattle, as he was now leading thither. Had he not then been acting under a divine commission, we can see that he had merely a choice of diffi. culties both apparently insurmountable; on the one hand, war, without any reasonable prospect of success; on the other, starvation in the desert. With this alternative before him, would not any worldly politician have preferred fighting to starving? At any rate, how can it be imagined that if Moses possessed one half the talent which his enemies concede to him, he could have entertained such a project as that of conducting the Israelites out of Egypt, with out previously well considering whither he would lead them? Nothing affords a solution of the course which he took on this occasion but the fact that he was supernaturally directed in every move present instance there was ample reason, say that Moses was directed in this, for for a departure from the usual route. To say nothing of the divine purposes relative to the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and the humbling and proving of the Israelites by a protracted sojourn in the wilderness, they could not enter Canaan by the direct route without encountering the Philistines, who then occupied all its southern borders. These Philistines were a powerful and warlike nation, between whom and the Israelites there seems to have been an ancient grudge existing, from a circumstance mentioned 1 Chron. 7. 21, 22, 'And Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer, and Elead, whom the men of Gath (Philistines) that were born in that land slew, because they came down to take away their cattle. And Ephraim, their father, mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him.' God could indeed with infinite ease have crushed all opposition from this or any other quarter, and have carried his people triumphantly through every obstacle, as he had abundantly shown in bringing them out of Egypt. But he saw fit to make no useless display of miraculous power, or exempt his people from the necessity of using the ordinary means of avoiding danger, notwithstanding his omnipotence was pledged to their defence. He therefore uses all the precaution of a wise and provident leader, as if apprehensive that his people, how-ment, and with this key to his conduct ever numerous, being but little accustomed to the use of arms, and just emerging from a state of enervating servitude, would be unable, at the first onset, to face an active foe, and therefore deemed it necessary to inure them gradually to warlike exercises before exposing them to the perils of battle. To avoid, therefore, the perils which were to be anticipated in this quarter, Moses is directed to take another far more circuitous and difficult route 'by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.' We all his plain. It was God's will that the Red Sea route should be taken, because he foresaw that if the other were taken, the Israelites instead of standing the shock of war would have retreated ignominiously before the enemy, and have sought refuge in that very bondage from which they had so recently escaped, and by which they had become so unfitted for warlike encounters. The hard bondage in mortar and brick, and in all manner of rigorous and degrading service in the field, was not the school 18 But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness z ch. 14. 2. Numb. 33. 6, &c. in which the lessons of ardent courage and overcoming enterprise were to be learned. Slavery necessarily and fearfully debases the mind, and makes it incapable of great or noble exertion. The iron of such a state had entered deeply into the souls, no less than it painfully galled the limbs, of the Israelites. That the result would have been precisely what is here intimated, no one can doubt who considers what the fact actually was when their spirit came to be put to the test at the subsequent periods of their history. The report of the faithless spies threw them into a panic of fear, and prompted them to cry out, 'Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God that we had died in this wilderness.' Thus too when the armies of Pharaoh pursued them and the Red Sea lay before them, they exclaimed in an agony of alarm, 'Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians.' So also on experiencing the first pressure of want, they cried, 'Would that 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.' These then were not combatants who could be depended upon to open for themselves a way through the armies of the Philistines, and God who knew the frame of their spirits much better than they did themselves, graciously spared them a conflict to which he saw they were unequal. In like manner the infinitely wise and gracious God consults the weakness of his people in the earlier stages of their Christian course, and spares them the trials and contests which would be too much for them. His mercy tempers their burdens to their strength, and gradually accustoms his soldiers and servants to the diffi of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. culties of their warfare. They are first trained to contend with weaker enemies before they are called to encount er stronger ones, and by having their graces exercised rather than oppressed, they are enabled to go on from strength to strength, till they are finally qualified to wield the whole armor of God. In the mean time he who will not over-drive the tender lambs lest they should die of fatigue, expressly assures us that he will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able to bear, and that as our day is so shall our strength be also. 18. The Red Sea. As this is one of the most remarkable waters mentioned in the geography of the Scriptures, it may be proper here to give a more particular description of its general features. This we do in the words of the Editor of the Pict. Bible. It occupies a basin, in general deep and rocky, and extends about 1160 miles in length, from north to south, with a mean breadth which may be stated at 120 miles. Throughout this great extent it does not receive the waters of a single river. The western coast is of a bolder character, and has a greater depth of water than the eastern. The gulf abounds in sunken rocks, sand-banks, and small islands, together with numerous coral. reefs, which in some places rise above the water to the height of ten fathoms. The bottom is covered abundantly with the same substance, as well as with marine plants, which in calm weather give that appearance of submarine forests and verdant meadows to which the sea probably owes its Hebrew name of Yam Suph (see Note on chap. 2. 3.), as well as its present Arab name of Bahr Souf. Burckhardt observes, that the coral is red in the inlet of Akaba, and white in that of Suez. The remarkably beauti ful appearance which this sea exhibits has attracted notice in all ages; and from the marine appearances of the among its other characteristics, the far now dry soil, but from this fact, among more than ordinary phosphorescence of others, that Kolsoum, which was formits waters has been mentioned with pe- erly a port, is now three-quarters of a culiar admiration. The width of the mile inland. There is certainly nothing gulf contracts towards its extremities, in the appearance of the soil about the and at its mouth is considerably nar- isthmus of Suez to discountenance the rower than in any other part. The hypothesis that the Red Sea was formstrait of Bab-el-Mandeb is there formerly no other than a strait uniting the ed, and does not exceed fourteen miles Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean; in breadth; beside which it is divided, and that the isthmus which is now inat the distance of three miles from the terposed between the Red Sea and the Arabian shore, by the island of Perim. Mediterranean was formed by drifts of The high land of Africa and the peak sand from the adjoining deserts. This, of Azab give a remarkably bold appear- however, is an hypothesis: but there is ance to the shore in this part. At its nothing hypothetical in the statement northern extremity the Red Sea sepa- that the gulf once extended more to the rates into two minor gulfs or inlets, north than at present; and this fact is which inclose between them the penin- of importance, because it enables us to sula of Sinai. The easternmost of these see that nothing less than a miraculous is that of Akaba or Ailah, called by the interposition of the Divine Power could Greeks and Romans Elanites; this is have enabled the Israelites to cross the only about half the extent of the other, bay even at the highest of the points and is rendered very dangerous by shoals which has been selected by those who and coral-reefs. The westernmost gulf perhaps were influenced by the wish to is called the gulf of Suez, anciently, diminish the force of the miracle, or to Heeropolites: the ancient and modern account for it on natural principles." names of both inlets being from towns that formerly did, or do now, stand at their extremities. It is the latter, the western gulf, which was crossed by the Hebrews. It is about 160 miles in length, with a mean breadth of about thirty miles, narrowing very much at its northern extremity. The mean depth of its water is from nine to fourteen fathoms, with a sandy bottom; and it is of much safer navigation than the other. There are many indications which place it beyond a doubt that the Arabian Gulf was formerly much more extensive and deeper than at present. One of the most certain proofs of this is, that cities, which were formerly mentioned as sea-ports, are now considerably inland. This is particularly the case in the Gulf of Suez, where the shore is unusually low. That the sea formerly extended more northward than at present, there is much reason to conclude, not only Went up harnessed. Heb. D hamushim. Marg. 'By five in a rank." But this cannot well be considered the true rendering, for at this rate if we allow the ranks to be but three feet asunder, the 600,000 fighting men alone would have formed a procession sixty miles in length; and if we add to them the remainder of the host, the line would have extended, by the direct route, from Egypt quite into the limits of the land of Canaan. The Greek renders it, in the fifth generation;' but plainly erroneously, as the promise to Abraham, Gen. 15. 16, was, that they should come out in the fourth generation. Other versions render it diversely by 'marching in array'-'in military order'-'armed' 'well panoplied'-'girded'—'marshaled by fives'-'by fifties,' &c. It is certain that the original Hebrew term in. volves the sense of 'five,' but upon what circumstance the allusion is founded it 19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, a God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you. 20 And bthey took their jour ney from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, 10. 34. & 14. 14. Deut. 1. 33. e ch. 14. 19, 24. & 40. 38. Numb. 9. 15. & Neh. 9. 12, 19. a Gen. 50. 25. Josh. 24. 32. Acts 7. 16. Ps. 78. 14. & 99. 7. & 105. 39. Isai. 4. 5. b Numb. 33. 6. 1 Cor, 10, 1. is extremely difficult to determine. Perhaps the most probable supposition is that it includes both the import of their being in some way arranged into five grand divisions or squadrons, and of their being well appointed and equipped for expedite travelling, going forth not in a confused and tumultuary manner like timorous fugitives, but every one duly trussed and girded up so as to cause no impediment to others, and the whole body moving on in the style of an orderly and well marshalled army. When viewed in this aspect the spectacle must have been most imposing, and we can see with what peculiar propriety it is said, that Israel went out with a high hand. 19. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. Joseph had expressly ordered, Gen. 50. 25, 26, that his bones should be carried up from Egypt when God should visit them, and their doing it now was not only a performance of the oath sworn by their fathers to Joseph, but an acknowledgment of God's faithful accomplishment of his promises. From the speech of Stephen, Acts, 7. 16, it is to be inferred that the bones of all the rest of the patriarchs were also at this time conveyed out of Egypt; each tribe, doubtless, taking charge of the bones of its own patriarch. ney must have been at least forty miles, which is certainly too much to be ac complished in one day by such an immense cavalcade as that of the Israelites. Twenty miles a day for them would be severe driving. As the coun try was a desert, travelling would be hard; hours of refreshment and repose were needed; the beasts must have had time to collect their food from the grass and shrubs of the desert; and many of them being heavily burdened, they could move only, when they did move, with great slowness. With these considerations before us, we may perhaps safely infer that Etham was the third rather than the second encampment. The halting places of caravans are, in these desert regions, so much determined by the presence of wells, that in connexion with the circumstance of its being situated on the edge of the wilderness,' there is not much difficulty in concluding that Etham is the same place as the modern Adjeroud, which forms the third stage of the pilgrim's caravan to Mecca, and where there is an old fortress, a small village, and a copious well of indifferent water. This place is about eleven miles to the north-west of Suez, and is, in fact, near to the 'edge' of the wilderness, which extends around the north-eastern and eastern side of the Gulf of Suez. The journey to this point had been almost entirely over a desert, the surface of which is composed of hard gravel, often strewed with pebbles. 20. Encamped in Etham in the edge of the wilderness. We are not perhaps to suppose either in this or many other cases, that the places which are named are the only places at which they rested. In the present instance, if Succoth 21. The Lord went before them by were about half way between Rameses day in a pillar of a cloud, &c. Heb. and Suez, the second stage of their jour-p be-ammud anan. The orig. to lead them the way; and by night | in a pillar of fire, to give them light: to go by day and night. inal comes from the root 7 amad, to stand, and imports, undoubtedly, an upright standing mass of cloud, resembling a column or pillar in a building, it being the same term as that employed in reference to the two supporting pillars of the edifice overthrown by Samson. Still it may be doubted whether this resemblance was very exact, for as it appears from Ps. 105. 39, that it was spread out at the base so as to cover as with a canopy the whole host of Israel, shading them from the intense heat of the sun, the height of the pillar, if it bore any proportion to such a base, must have been immense, as an encampment for 2,400,000 men would require a space of ground of nearly twelve miles square. We imagine, therefore, that in external appearance it approached near to the form of an ascending column of smoke, with a widely extended base, and shoot. ing up to an inconceivable height in the heavens. Some have supposed that the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire were two distinct pillars, but the hypothesis is scarcely necessary; one might have answered both purposes. This pillar-cloud was a striking emblem of the divine protection and guidance to the chosen people in their sojournings, and we find very significant allusions to it in the following passages, Is. 4. 5, 6, 'For the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory there shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.' This predicts the same favored period of the church with that described by the inspired writer, Rev. 7. 15, 16, 'And he that sitteth on the throne shall 22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat;' i. e. they shall have the symbols of the divine presence with them as the Israelites had in the wilderness, only in a far more glorious man. ner; and while they shall be shadowed, as were the chosen people, from the burning rays of the sun, they shall be exempted from their privations; they shall not complain of hunger or thirst. It is evident that this cloudy pillar was the seat or habitation of the divine pres ence, and therefore, in one sense, his throne, from which oracles were given forth to the people. See Deut. 31. 15, REMARKS ON THE PILLAR OF CLOUD. Under the strong conviction that this extraordinary phenomenon has not hitherto been duly appreciated as a visible symbol of the Divine Presence, we are induced to add some remarks upon the purposes which, in that character, it was designed to answer. Of its uses as a guiding signal to the chosen tribes in their march through the wilderness, we have, both here and elsewhere, the clearest intimations. Thus, Ps. 78. 14, 'In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.' So also Neh. 9. 12, 'Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.' In what particular manner this twofold office of a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, could be performed by one and the same aerial column, is not entirely obvious. Whe ther the whole mass of cloud which |