The Israelites were doubtless satisfied, and had they been called upon would have exclaimed, with one voice, “The Lord he is God, the Lord he is God!" but one demonstration of the omnipotence of Jehovah, the most convincing imaginable, was yet to be afforded. It is well known that the Egyptians worshipped the sun and moon as deities: what must have been their terror, and how evident their folly to the Israelites, when the sun and moon and stars were all at once concealed, and a darkness that might be felt covered the land for three days and nights! This was enough; their idols were degraded in the eyes of the Israelites, and now the time of their deliver ance was near. But it was not fitting that they who had been scourged without cause, and their helpless infants slain, should depart without witnessing the retribution of Jehovah. From even that a lesson was to be learned, and a lesson of such importance that it should be called to remembrance by a strange ceremony, to be observed annually forever. The angel of the Lord "passed over” the houses of the Israelites, duly designated, and slew in one night the first-born of man and beast in Egypt. Not till then was a sincere consent to depart given to Moses and his * people; and this consent sprung from terror, and not from a conviction of the power of Jehovah,* and the Israelites were hurriedly thrust away, laden with treasure, which the Egyptians voluntarily bestowed upon them. For though it is said that the Israelites "borrowed” these treasures, we cannot suppose that they did not by this time understand that the Israelites contemplated no return to Egypt, and they gave them this treasure. Thus were the Israelites severed from among the nations of the earth. As far as possible, without absolutely destroying free agency, which God will not do, their minds were divested of all idolatrous influence. Though educated in the very nursery of superstition, they had learned to despise all idols, and to fear only God. These miracles, then, appear no longer wonderful ; they are consistent and intelligible, and we adore the wisdom of God as manifested in their exhibition. Quite natural was it therefore for Jethro -the father-in-law of Moses—to exclaim, "Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods; for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them.” Exodus xviii, 11. This was but an echo of the belief of every child of Abraham, though the Egyptians still remained robed in spiritual darkness. moon. • This is a key to the whole subject, and must not be overlooked. When Naaman, the Syrian, was cured of his leprosy, he believed in God; the Philistines, seeing the miracles attending their possession of the ark of the covenant, believed in God; but Pharaoh, immediately after Moses departed, pursued him. It is evident, both from the Bible and from the ancient history of Egypt, that the Egyptians were not convinced of their own folly. They continued to worship serpents, and the Nile, and Serapis, and beasts, and the sun and Now this cannot be accounted for on the common principles of mental philosophy. It is not in the power of man to resist such evidence. The mind—not necessarily the heart-must be influenced by such demonstration. But God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and the hearts of his people. They were left precisely as if there had been no miracle. The miracles were not designed for them, and their guilt or innocence was not affected merely by them. This is the solution of the sixteenth verse of the ninth chapter of Exodus, so appropriately quoted by Paul in the ninth chapter of Romans. When commentators remark upon the convincing effect of these miracles upon the Egyptians, they entirely mistake the plan of Jehovah, and the object of these signal displays. The pursuit of the Israelites by Pharaoh, and the miraculous dividing and returning of the Red Sea, are in such perfect keeping with the previous history as to need no particular notice. It would comport with our design now to show any historical confirmation of these miracles which may be extant. The history of ancient Egypt, though it has occupied the attention of many learned men, is involved in obscurity , and very scanty. The only Egyptian account of the origin of the Israelitës is evidently distorted and partial, as might be expected.* Several writers, who lived many centuries after these events, relate or refer to them; but the source of their information is unknown. A singular, custom is mentioned by Epiphanius, as prevailing among the Egyptians, of marking their trees, houses, and lands, and sheep, with red, the day of the year before the Jewish passover; which must have proceeded from a fear lest the same plague should come upon them as was inflicted upon their forefathers.t Diodorus Siculus, who wrote a few years before Christ, relates a tradition prevailing among the inhabitants residing on the shore of the Red Sea, to the effect that many years ago the waters of the sea were divided so that the bottom appeared, and afterward returned. I But the principal historical confirmation is found in the history of the Israelites, who could never have been made to believe the account, had it not been true; and especially in the remarkable ceremony of the passover, which is a perpetual monument or record of these facts, and which could have had no other origin. Josephus contra Appion, lib. i, ch. 26, 27. fAllix's Reflections, part ii, ch.3. I Diod. Sic., lib. iii, p. 122. CHAPTER XI. BEAUTY AND SCOPE OF THE LAWS OF MOSES. We have already noticed the general tendency to idolatry and wickedness in all the human race; and the plan of God to resist this, by selecting one nation to receive a special revelation, which, at a subsequent period, was to be enlarged and published to all mankind. We have shown how and why this nation was selected; and how, by stupendous miracles, it was delivered from Egyptian bondage. We purpose now to proceed with their history, and exhibit the reasonableness and object of God's dealings with them. We must, however, be careful to keep in mind the peculiar character of this people. They constitute à theocracy. Though they have their human leader, and elders, and magistrates, they are directly, through them, amenable to God, and by him governed. Their mission is not conquest, nor national prosperity; but to receive and exhibit religion. They are a nation of |