CHAPTER I. Moses. PRE-EMINENT AMONG THE PROPHETS; EARLY EDUCATION AT COURT; CALL TO THE PROPHETIC OFFICE; CONDUCTS THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FROM THE LAND OF BONDAGE; MIRACLE AT THE RED SEA; EXCLUSION FROM THE PROMISED LAND; HIS DEATH. HILE Israel lay under long and heavy op6 pression in Egypt, the man appointed to be the deliverer was born, and was undergoing the training requisite for the office he was destined to bear. This man was Moses. He stands preeminent among the prophets, as one who not only enjoyed the continual prophetic afflatus, but had such visions of and intercourse with God, as no other one ever had. He was the son of Amram and Jochebed, both of the tribe of Levi, and was born A. M. 2433, B. C. 1571. The circumstances of his infancy are well known, yet they are always instructive to dwell upon, as affording ample and convincing proof of God's particular care for his creatures. The king of Egypt issued an edict to destroy all the male children of the Hebrews. The personal beauty of Moses, added to parental affection, seems to have induced the parents to hazard every thing to preserve their child's life; they therefore hid him for three. months; but finding from circumstances that they could keep him secret no longer, they were determined to abandon him wholly to the care of Providence. Having provided a little vessel of bulrushes, or flags pitched, and thus rendered impervious to the water, they set him afloat on the river Nile, and sent his sister Miriam to watch the event. The daughter of Pharaoh coming to that part of the river, seeing the vessel afloat, commanded it to be brought to her; and being struck with the helpless state and beauty of the child, judging that it belonged to one of the Hebrews, determined to preserve its life, and adopt it for her own. Through the sister's influence it was committed to its mother's care; the princess being entirely ignorant of the relation that existed between them. At a proper age he was taken to the Egyptian court, and educated there as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and by his superior attainments in learning and wisdom, became very eminent. Here he appears to have stayed nearly forty years. Indeed, his life seems to have been divided into three remarkable periods, each embracing the same length of time. The one already mentioned; the forty years he sojourned in the land of Midian, in a state of preparation for his great and important mission; and the forty years he guided, led, and governed the Israelites under the express direction and authority of God. It was in consequence of having killed one of the oppressors of his brethren, he was obliged to take refuge in Midian, where, entering into the service of Jethro, a priest or prince of that country, he married his daughter Zipporah, by whom he had two sons, Eleazer and Gershom, and continued as the guardian of the flocks of his father-in-law for forty years. At the conclusion of this time, while engaged in his wonted employment, God manifested himself to him, and gave him a commission to bring Israel out of Egypt. A voice from a "burning bush " arrested his attention; and the speaker announced himself as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. He declared that he had beheld with divine compassion the miseries of his people; and that the time, the long-appointed time for their deliverance had come. This doubtless made the heart of Moses glad. The closing words, however, fill him with consternation, for it declared that he was to go back to Egypt to present himself before the king then reigning, and to demand for Israel leave to depart. This filled him with unfeigned astonishment, and a sense of his unfitness for the work elicited the question, "Who am |