The power of no pure example, will ever wane. The memory of the good, the undefiled, will be, in some way, a holy and hallowing influence in our hearts forevermore. It is a flame of immortal life, adding to the warmth of our love. Imperceptibly, silently, yet surely and richly, it leavens and tempers our personal and our social life. Light streams from it in numberless unseen rays, filling the moral atmosphere in which we move with a bland and healing glory, more pure than the sunshine of the fairest, serenest day, and with a sweeter odor than that of the fields and woods in the fresh and blooming seasons of May and June.

THE

DISCOURSE XX.

IMPORTANCE OF TRIFLES.

EXODUS 2: 3.

AND WHEN SHE COULD NO LONGER HIDE HIM, SHE TOOK FOR HIM AN ARK OF BULRUSHES AND DAUBED IT WITH SLIME AND WITH PITCH, AND PUT THE CHILD THEREIN; AND SHE LAID IT IN THE FLAGS BY THE RIVER'S BRINK.

The Hebrews had lived a long time in the land of Egypt, and had become very numerous. The historian of the Bible remarks that they had "increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them." Their numbers and strength attracted the notice of the Egyptians. A new king, who knew not Joseph, the wise young Hebrew who had so nobly served the country, became alarmed, and cruelly set over the Israelites task-masters to afflict them with burdens. But the more they afflicted them the more they grew. So, after making "their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field," and still not gaining his end, the king ordered that every Hebrew son that should be born, should be cast into the Nile. He supposed that the effect of this

command would be the more permanent condition of his throne, and the perpetual slavery of the Hebrews. But man did not then, any more than now, control and direct the destinies of nations. There was a Divinity that shaped their ends; and that Overruling One made fruitless all the efforts of Pharaoh to subdue and crush the Hebrew people.

As I have just remarked, this Divinity is now the ruling Power of the Universe. Let this be remembered by the oppressor. Though he manage skilfully to prolong the servitude and sorrow of his fellowman, let him yet consider that he may be thwarted and brought to a condition of poverty and shame.

The history of Moses, the Great Hebrew Leader of olden time, is remarkable and instructive. We may study to some profit every little particular of it. And not the least interesting and suggestive of its details, is the brief story of my text.

As I have said, the king of Egypt had commanded that every Hebrew man-child should be drowned. Every mother in Israel knew this law. The mother of Moses knew it, and thought of it sadly. So, “when she saw that her son was a goodly child, she hid him three months; and when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink."

We all remember the transactions which followed. We recall the picture of the sister of the child, watching to see what shall become of him; of the king's daughter, who, when the child was brought to her,

looked upon him with compassion, and said, This is one of the Hebrew children; of the listening sister, who, still faithful to her charge, approached the royal lady with confidence, and said, "Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?" and of the child restored to his mother's arms, to be protected and cared for by her again. We recall the representation of him as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, enjoying the highest advantages of the Egyptian Court and as one still retaining the lessons his mother had taught him, the thoughts and prejudices of the Hebrew people when risen to the condition of manhood. And we recall the account of him, as, at length, the enemy of the Egyptians - the Leader and Deliverer of the Hebrew nation-as the greatest man, the wisest lawgiver and ruler of his age.

We now revert to his system of government as the highest and best of antiquity. And we now think of him as one who organized a nation to which the world is indebted for the sublimest poetry in human language, for the best of proverbs recorded on the pages of wisdom, for the noblest examples of life presented in the chapters of history; and for a Moral Teacher and Saviour whose work is to bring the whole race of man into the realm and condition of holiness, and whose influence is to be exerted and felt in all worlds, and through all the generations and the ages.

Contemplating the great results which have followed his labors, we see that he was the founder of Hebrew power and greatness. What would have become of

the Hebrew people, had it not been for his labors had he not led them out of bondage. We need not take or waste time in conjecture. Under God he prepared the way for the Hebrew Judges, the Hebrew Kings and Prophets, and for him who appeared in the fulness of times, the Saviour of the world.

But now there is this thing to be observed: Great and noble though he was, and proud though the Hebrews were to point to him as their Law-giver and Leader, and to say, We are Moses' disciples, — before he could act for himself or others, he was a helpless infant, and knew nothing of either oppression or freedom, and he was held to the earth as by a spider's thread, and would have gone adrift and been lost in the cold river of death, had not his mother watched over and guarded him—had not she under the guidance of Jehovah, provided for his safety, and carefully trained him for the noble mission which he fulfilled.

And from this we learn this lesson - that, in the service of God, all actions, even the smallest, are important, even trifles may turn a nation's tide may decide a nation's destiny. To human eyes, it was but a little thing to weave that boat of bulrushes, and daub it with slime and pitch, to put the child therein, and then to place it among the flags by the river's brink. But to the vision of God this was not so small a work. God saw that the loving mother's simple means would preserve the infant life of a future Commander and Deliverer-a future Sage and Prophet.

This brief account of the simple service of the mother of Moses, teaches us how important may be our hum