child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

are supposed to allude to the same kind of sailing craft. Pliny takes notice of the 'naves papyraceas armentaque Nili;' ships made of the papyrus, and the equipments of the Nile; and Lucan, the poet has, Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro,' the Memphian (or Egyptian) boat is made of the thirsty papyrus, where the epithet 'bibula,' drinking, soaking, thirsty is particularly remarkable, as corresponding with great exactness to the nature of the plant, and to its Hebrew name. The Egyptian bulrush or papyrus required much water for its growth; when there fore the river on whose banks it grew was reduced, it perished sooner than other plants. This explains Job, 8. 11, where the circumstance is referred to as an image of transient prosperity.

¶ Daubed it with slime and with pitch. Heb. ba-hemor, with bitumen, or mineral pitch. See Note on Gen. 11. 3. The 'bitumen' cemented the rushes or reeds together, the pitch served to keep out the water. There seems to be considerable analogy between the ark or boat in which Moses was deposited, and the curious vessels which are at the present day employed in crossing the Tigris. They are perfectly circular in shape, and are made with the leaves of the date-palm, forming a kind of basket-work, which is rendered impervious to the water by being thickly coated with bitumen.' Pict. Bib.-T Laid it in the flags. Heb. 10 bassuph, in the sea-weed, or sedge. The suph was probably a general term for sea or riverweed. The Red Sea is always called, in the Scriptures "yam suph, or the weedy-sea, as some suppose, from the great variety of marine vegetables which grow in it, and which at low water are left in great quantities upon the shores. But see Note on Ex. 13. 18. VOL. I 3

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

c ch. 15. 20. Numb. 26. 59.

4. And his sister stood afar off, &c. His sister Miriam undoubtedly, as we have no account of his having any other. She was unquestionably older than Aaron, or she would have been unfit for such an office on this occasion. The incident makes it plain that the little ark, though made water-tight, was | not deposited on the bosom of the river, where it would be borne away by the current, but on the margin of the stream, where perhaps the finder would infer that it had lodged, after having floated down from above. Throughout the whole of this transaction, which was no doubt supernaturally suggested, no mention is made of the father. That every thing was done with his privity and consent we cannot doubt, for the apostle couples both the parents in his encomium on their faith; but the case was probably one in which the faith of the mother was more decided and active than that of the father, and has therefore more prominence given it in the sacred narrative. The proceeding detailed is a beautiful illustration of the connexion which should always exist between the diligent use of means and a pious trust in Providence. Instead of sitting down in sullen despair, or passive reliance on divine interposition, every thing is done which can be done by human agency to secure the wishedfor result. The careful mother pitches every seam and chink of the frail vehicle as anxiously as if its precious deposit were to owe its preservation solely to her care and diligence. Nor even yet does she think she has done enough. Miriam her daughter must go, and at a distance watch the event, and strange would it be if she did not herself in the mean time take a station where she could watch the watcher. And here we behold all the parties standing precisely

d Acts 7. 21.

upon the line where the province of human sagacity, foresight, and industry ends, and providential succor begins. The mother has done her part. The rushes, the slime, and the pitch were her prudent and necessary preparations; and the great God has been at the same time preparing his materials, and arranging his instruments. He causes every thing to concur, not by miraculous influence, but by the simple and natural operation of second causes, to bring about the issue designed in his counsels from everlasting. The state of the weather, the flux of the current, the promenade of Pharaoh's daughter, the state of her feelings, the steps of her attendants, are all so overruled at that particular juncture, as to lead to the discovery, the rescue, and the disposal of the child! But let us not anticipate the thread of the story.

5. The daughter of Pharoah came down to wash herself at the river. Heb. al ha-yeor, at or by the river. Gr. επι τον ποταμόν, to be translated in the same manner, implying that the washing, which was probably a religious ablution, and not a proper bathing, was performed just at the river's brink. The washing of Naaman the Syrian, on the other hand, is said to have been in the Jordan (ba-yarden) and not at it, because he entered further into the stream. We advert to the phraseology here principally for the purpose of showing the relation of the Gr. rendering to a parallel passage in Rev. 9. 14, 'Loose the four angels which are bound at (em at, not in) the great river Euphrates;' i. e. the four angels which nad hitherto been providentially restrained or confined in the vicinity of

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 Hebrew's children.

the great river Euphrates. Angels' here is a symbolical term for the nations or people over which they are represented in prophecy as presiding. See Dan. 10. 3. The import of the command is, that those obstructions which had hitherto opposed the issuing forth and the desolating spread of four great political powers in the region bordering upon the Euphrates, should now be removed and free scope given them. These powers were the origin of the Ottoman empire, which, as it was announced by the sixth trumpet, was to be destroyed by the sixth vial. Rev. 16. 12.

She sent her maid to take

it. Heb. р vattikkaheha, and took it; i. e. she took it by the hand of her maid; by which term is meant the maid who more immediately waited upon her, as the word (x) is dif ferent from that (1) translated 'maidens.'

6. She saw the child: and behold, the babe wept. Rather according to the Heb. And she saw him, the child; and behold a male-infant weeping!' The Eng. word 'babe,' as it does not discriminate the sex, is not an exact or adequate rendering of the original naar, which strictly denotes a male child, and is here used expressly for that purpose.- She had compassion on him. Or, Heb. nn tahmol, mercifully spared him. If there be an object in nature more calculated than any other to interest and affect the suscepti ble heart of woman, it was that which now presented itself to the eye of this Egyptian princess-a beautiful infant, deserted by its parents, exposed to the most imminent peril, and expressing by the moving testimony of tears its sense

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?

8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.

9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and

of that misery of which it had not yet acquired the consciousness. The story told itself. The situation in which the child was found explained the cruel occasion. The covenant-sign which he carried engraven on his flesh, declared to whom he belonged, and notwithstanding the scruples which must have arisen from his parentage, his outcast condition made an irresistible appeal to the bosom of Pharaoh's daughter.

7. Then said his sister, &c. Who no doubt came up and joined the train, as if by accident. If she had not been previously instructed by her mother what to say on the contingency of such an occurrence as now actually took place, we cannot but refer this suggestion on the part of a little girl to an immediate inward prompting from above. How else should it have entered her thoughts to propose making the mother of the exposed infant its nurse? Can we fail to acknowledge the secret hand of the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working?'

9. Take this child away and nurse it for me, &c. No mere human writer could here have well forborne to dilate in glowing terms on the transports of the happy mother as she again clasped her beloved babe to her bosom, free from the fear of having him again torn from her. What a joyful change! The fond mother permitted to do that for princely hire and under royal protection which she would have given her life for the privilege of doing for nothing, could she have done it with safety to her

nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it.

10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became e her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

e Acts 7. 21.

child! 'I will give thee thy wages.' Wages, indeed! What' wages' would not she have given for the extacy she now enjoyed in the prospect of acting the mother to the son of her womb! What sentiments of adoring wonder and grateful praise must have thrilled her heart in view of the overwhelming goodness so kindly and unexpectedly vouchsafed to her from the God of all comfort!

10. She brought him, &c. At what age the future deliverer of Israel was transferred from the care of his mother to the palace and the court of Egypt, we are not informed. It would seem from the history that he was old enough to have learnt the principles of his ancestral religion, in which his mother would not fail to instruct him; and though it was somewhat of a renewed trial to her to part with her son, under the apprehension that the influence of a heathen and hostile court might alienate his tender mind from the love of God and his people, yet she would doubtless infer from the past incidents of his life that something great was in store for him, and that the same tutelary providence which had watched over his infancy, would make his childhood and youth and mature age its special care. He came accordingly into the relation of an adopted son to Pharaoh's daugh ter, and was by her, for an end of which she little dreamed, 'trained up in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.' As the book of Revelation is constructed with a continual or running reference to the events of the Old Testament history,