last edict of the Egyptian oppressor had enjoined that every Israelitish male child should be thrown into the Nile. What could be done? The decree was peremptory: death would probably be the penalty of disobedience. "But," said she to her dejected husband, "the God of Abraham still lives; he is the protector of our race, though for a season he hides himself. Our duty to him requires that we should endeavour to preserve the life of this dear little one. Let us trust in God, and conceal, if possible, this lovely gift of his mysterious providence." The faith of the mother excited the dormant courage of the father: they agreed to make the effort, however perilous to themselves; and morning by morning, and evening by evening, poured forth supplications before the invisible King of kings, invoking the interposition of his almighty arm on behalf of their beloved babe. At the expiration of three months from this time, however, they perceived that longer concealment was impossible. The search for Hebrew infants was becoming increasingly rigid, and reports which daily reached the mother's ears filled her with terror. "We cannot hide him any longer," said she, "nor are there any means by which we can provide for his safety; yet my hand shall not be upon him, nor yours, Amram, nor will we deliver him to the ruthless officers of Pharaoh: we will confide him to the providence of the God of Israel. cherish a hope that he in whom our fathers trusted will be our deliverer. Was not Isaac our ancestor bound and laid upon the altar, just ready to be slain for a burnt-offering, when the angel of Jehovah intervened? and have we not been taught to remember this, and say, 'In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen?' Was not the son of the bondwoman just ready to perish in the wilderness of Beersheba, when the God of Abraham pitied him and sent his angel? I This ark of bulrushes I have prepared ; to-morrow morning, ere the sun be up, I will place this dear little one in the flags by the water-side; and may the God that gave him be his protector!" Very early in the morning the wakeful mother looked on the countenance of her babe, which seemed more comely than ever. Once more he must partake of the nutriment which creative goodness had provided for him; but, as she allowed him to linger at the breast, the tears rolled down her cheeks while she thought of the morrow. "Miriam," said she, "come with me; be quick, or the sun will discover us; come with me to the river, and you shall watch our treasure. The God of heaven will look down from above; and you, Miriam, stand where none can observe you; but watch carefully, and when any thing befalls the child, be it good or evil, come and tell me quickly: I will tarry in my chamber and pray." The first rays of day were gilding the eastern horizon when the daughter of Pharaoh with her attendants came down to bathe. How simple, yet how impressive, is the brief description of the facts which Moses himself has given under the guidance of the Spirit of inspiration! "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 the child for thee?' And Pharaoh's daughter said to 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, | tained, was imparted to him in conseand nursed it. And the child grew, and quence of her patronage. Science unshe brought him unto Pharaoh's daugh-folded to him its secrets, and he became ter, and he became her son. And she "learned," as the martyr Stephen obcalled his name Moses: and she said, serves," in all the wisdom of the Egyp'Because I drew him out of the water'" tians." A complete separation from his (Exod. ii. 5-10). own people would however have deprived him of a species of knowledge of far greater value than any which he could derive from the philosophers of Pharaoh's court. It was a part, therefore, of the arrangement made for him by the providence of God, that his earliest teacher should be his pious mother. She taught him to reverence the one living and true God, the Creator of all, and to offer to him his daily prayer and praise. She taught him the fragments of sacred history which had been transmitted by their ancestors, from which he learned to regard his people as a peculiar people, chosen by the Most High to the enjoyment of his special favour, though now in bondage. She taught him to look forward to the coming of the promised Shiloh, the great descendant of their father Abraham, in whom all nations should be blessed. "Moses, my son,” said she, "all Egypt could not recompense thee for the loss of his favour, who will gather around him the men of all ages who have borne the reproach of looking for his appearing, and will confer upon them everlasting happiness." And by these instructions, blessed by the Spirit of God operating on his young mind, as that Spirit delights to operate on those for whom the prayer of faith has been presented by their parents, Moses was led to prize his birthright, and regard the Hope of Israel as of greater value than any thing that earthly dignities could yield. What a wonderful exhibition does this history give of the power and wisdom of the Supreme Ruler! We know what his purposes were; subsequent events rendered them manifest: but how surprising the means by which they were effected! He intended to honour the faith of the poor, oppressed Israelitish parents; to preserve from impending destruction their promising child; to prepare him for the work of delivering his people from bondage and conducting them to Canaan; and to render him an eminent example of genuine piety, on whose career all subsequent generations might look back with pleasure and advantage. But how astonishing the agency by which these designs were achieved! How forcibly are we taught that God can raise up friends where we should be least inclined to look for them, and regulate the emotions of hearts which are least sensible of his control, and least disposed to subserve his plans! Little did the daughter of Pharaoh think that such important results would ensue from her movements that morning. A thousand incidents might have prevented her visit to that spot, at that critical moment. It was contingent on her caprice whether she should order the babe to be cast into the stream, or give way to the emotions of tenderness. All was uncertain to man; all was fixed and determinate to God. Nor was it for preservation alone that Moses was indebted to that benevolence which was excited in the heart of the tyrant's daughter. The education which would adapt him most completely for his arduous labours, and which in the tents of Goshen he could never have ob- | stances in which faith has not opportu The patronage of Pharaoh's daughter afforded also opportunity for the manifestation, in the matured character of Moses, of the power of religious principle. There are indeed no circum nity, if it be genuine, to exert a visible | hold myself at a distance from my Heinfluence on the heart and conduct. To brew connexions, and push my fortune the man who in ancient days looked at the court of Pharaoh? Shall I throw forward to the coming of Messiah to away recklessly the advantages of my bruise the head of the arch-adversary, position, stepping down from the elevaand to restore rebellious sinners to their tion which a merciful providence has asallegiance, and to the man who in subse- signed me? Shall I grieve the heart of quent times has looked back on the suf- my kind patroness, by avowing my kinfering Redeemer, dying on Calvary, the dred, and renouncing those bright hopes just for the unjust, that he might bring which she has taught me to cherish? us to God, faith has always been purify- What are those expectations which my ing, as well as consolatory. Repentance nurse, who tells me she is my mother, for sin, love to God, and a readiness to has excited in my mind? God, she desubmit to his authority and obey his clares, has promised to make our nation laws, necessarily spring from just appre- prosperous, and to raise up in the midst hensions of the grace of God towards us, of us a prince of unequalled glory; but as exhibited in Emmanuel. Whatever four hundred years have passed away be the condition of the true believer, his since this promise was first given, and faith will produce perceptible fruits. what sign do we see of its fulfilment? The patience of the Christian slave be- Is not the present better than the distant neath the lash, the resignation of the future? If I possess Egypt, may I not Christian captive in the dungeon, and spare the reversion of an inheritance in the meekness of the Christian martyr in Canaan?" Such might have been the the midst of his persecutors, bring glory language of Moses. To such reasonings to God, and show the efficacy of his thousands have yielded. But that God grace. But in nothing is the power of who had been his protector in infancy religious principle more strikingly evinced was his guide in manhood; and he inthan in the renunciation of worldly ease, fluenced his heart to make a just and affluence, and honour, in obedience to wise decision. He felt that everlasting the dictates of an enlightened conscience. interests were at stake, that the fashion "By faith," we are told in the Epistle of this world is passing away, and that to the Hebrews, "Moses, when he was human life is but a vapour. He felt that come to years, refused to be called the the friendship of the Omnipotent would son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing more than compensate for whatever loss rather to suffer affliction with the people or contumely he might be called to of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sustain. "He is my God," said he, sin for a season; esteeming the reproach "and I will prepare him a habitation; of Christ greater riches than the trea- my father's God, and I will exalt sures in Egypt: for he had respect unto him." the recompence of the reward" (Heb. xi. 24-26). A course like this could not have been adopted by one in the circumstances of Moses without internal conflict. It is easy to imagine him, seated in the palace, deliberating with great anxiety respecting the prospects which lay open before him. "Is it cowardice or is it prudence that prompts me to Should any reader be led by similar considerations to surrender his heart to that Redeemer, an interest in whose salvation appeared to Moses to be more valuable than any dignities which Pharaoh could bequeath, he will probably have to experience some reproach and temporal loss. The course of this world must be resisted by him who follows Christ, and the natural propensities of fied. But "this is the victory that overthe heart must be repressed and morti- cometh the world, even our faith :" "Then we begin to live indeed, When from our sin and bondage freed By this beloved Friend; We follow him from day to day, And glory at the end." Battersea. THE RAISING OF JAIRUS'S DAUGHTER. MATTHEW IX. 18-26. WEEP not!-she is not dead;-the breath May chance again to waken!— For Truth's almighty voice shall speak And, with returning vigour, warm The cold and desolated form That, bent and blighted by the storm, Lo, where He comes,-the suffering, mean, From Bethlehem's lowly manger, With eager crowds, intent to view His mercy exercised anew, And see the man their priests despise Re-animate those shrouded eyes, And bid that sleeping dust arise To glorify the stranger! He comes-He speaks ;-Immortal Word, Rise, ruler, rise; embrace thy child; To worship him for ever! GAMMA. REVIEW S. A History of Baptism, both from inspired Price 5s. 6d. THE recommendation mentioned in the title-page would alone be sufficient to induce many of our readers to procure this volume; but the importance of the purpose it is intended to answer, and the approbation which it has elicited on the other side of the Atlantic, render it proper that we should give an account of its plan and execution. cient and modern versions, Mr. I. Hinton avails himself of the aid not only of the eminent pædobaptists of former days cited by Mr. Booth half a century ago, but of the equally decisive testimony of the modern theologians and lexicographers of Germany, whose works are in greater request in America than in this country. Thus he adduces the testimony of the pre-eminent critic of the Greek language, Bretschneider, "An entire immersion belongs to the nature of baptism: this is the meaning of the word.' A slight mistake however occurs in his reference to the testimony of Porson: it was Dr. Newman, not Dr. Cox, who in company with the late Daniel Parken had an interview with that celebrated man, when, not knowing the principles of his interrogator, Porson replied, smiling, to the question of Dr. Newman respecting the controverted word, "The baptists have the advantage of us." In examining the accounts of baptisms given by the apostles and evangelists, also, our author corroborates his own reasonings, in like manner, by quotations from some of the most eminent living literati of Germany: such, for example as the premonition of Tholuck: "In order to understand the figurative use of baptism we must bear in mind the well known fact, that the candidate in the primitive church was immersed in water, and raised out of it again." The design of the work is to furnish a comprehensive view of the ordinance of baptism, as instituted by Christ and practised by his apostles, as corrupted in common with other Christian rites and doctrines in the degenerating ages which followed, as metamorphosed in various ways according to the diversified fancies of different leaders in subsequent times, and as now existing in what is called Christendom, an occasion of division and subject of debate among discordant sects. It is not a controversial book in one respect, that is, it is not an answer to any individual writer, or called forth by any hostile movement; but in another respect it is controversial, as the author has reference throughout to the differences of opinion existing respecting the action prescribed by the Lawgiver and the persons entitled to its benefits. He is a firm and consistent baptist. At Oxford, where he was brought up, he had excellent opportunities for learning the peculiarities of our denomination, of which his father was a distinguished minister, and of observ-practice of the Greek and eastern ing the workings of a contrary system; and, since he has resided in America, his reading on the various points connected with his theme has been multifarions and persevering. The work is divided into eleven chapters, the first five of which treat of baptism as exhibited to our view in the inspired writings. Examining in the first place the meaning of the word Barrio, as used in the New Testament, the Septuagint, the Apocrypha, and the Greek classics, and as translated in an In that portion of the work which is more strictly historical, the author shows the original prevalence of immersion, by appeals to the writings of the fathers, the structure of ancient baptisteries, the ritual regulations for the administration of the ordinance, and the continued churches, tracing also the origin and progress of affusion. He then examines those passages in writers of the second century, which have sometimes been brought forward to prove that infants were then baptized; maintaining, in common with many continental pædobaptist theologians whom he quotes, that neither Justin nor Irenæus adverts to such a practice, that Tertullian is the first who mentions it, and that he regarded it as a pernicious innovation. Of the third century he writes as follows: |