ately went his way. Next day he met with two Israelites that were quarrelling with one another; he interfered, and endeavoured to reconcile them; upon which, one of them rudely asked him what he meant, and whether he intended to kill either of them, as he had killed the Egyptian the day before? Moses thus became aware that he had been observed, and thought it necessary for his security to leave the country. He, therefore retired, across the Red Sea, into the land of Madian.* In Madian there lived a priest, named Jethro, who had seven daughters. These young women daily attended their father's flocks, and one day, leading them to drink as usual, at a certain spring, they found Moses there. By his dress and language they took him for an Egyptian, but by the services he did them in helping their flocks to drink, they found him to be a good man. They spoke favourably of him to their father, who desired to see him. Moses was therefore sent for, and being pleased with the benevolent goodness that he observed in Jethro, he consented to live with him. After some time he married Sephora, Jethro's eldest daughter, and for forty years took care of her father's flocks that fed in the desert. A.M. 2513. Moses one day led his flocks into the inner parts of the desert, towards the mountain of Horeb,† where he saw a bush which burned without being consumed. Struck at the wonderful appearance, he advanced to examine it more *The Madianites (See Note, page 47) dwelt chiefly in the district that lay to the east of Moab and of Edom (See the territory of the Madianites or Midianites, as marked on the Maps of the Exodus and of the Holy Land, in the Bible Atlas). It was not, however, to this district that Moses passed from Egypt, on the occasion mentioned in the text. The reference to Mount Horeb shows that it was in the peninsula of Sinai, he then took shelter. The Madianites, like most wandering tribes, in addition to the central district which they regarded as their home, claimed also as their own, certain pasture lands to which they were in the habit of leading their flocks. And those of the Madianites extended probably as far as the districts of Galaad and Bashan (See the same Maps), on the north, while on the south, they comprised an extensive territory on both sides of the Elanitic Gulf, and consequently a large district of the peninsula of Sinai. + Mount Horeb, as we learn from Deut. xviii. 16., and Psalm cv. 19, was in some sense identical with Mount Sinai. Probably Horeb was the designation of the range or group of mountains, of which Sinai was one. (See Note, p. 103). THE BURNING BUSH. 85 closely, when the voice of God, speaking from amidst the flames, bid him to draw not nearer, but to take his shoes from off his feet, for the ground on which he stood was holy. God then told him that He was the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; that the cries of the afflicted Israelites had penetrated the Heavens, that an end should be put to their labours, and that Moses himself was the man chosen to lead them out of the slavery of Egypt into the Land of Promise. Moses humbly begged to be excused from undertaking a charge for which he deemed himself wholly unfit; but God insisted upon his obedience, and by two miracles convinced him of the Divine power that should be always at hand to support him. He first of all changed the rod of Moses into a serpent, and then, once more, from a serpent into a rod. After that He bade Moses put his hand into his bosom; in an instant it was covered with a leprosy, and as soon made clean again. Moses, notwithstanding, was still unwilling to undertake the responsibility thus placed upon him, until, at length, terrified by the threat of God's displeasure, he accepted the charge, which he could no longer refuse without sin. Thereupon he took leave of Jethro, and hastened back into Egypt to console his countrymen with the hope and promise of deliverance from the power of their oppressors. The holy Fathers look upon the Burning Bush as an emblem of what happens to the elect of God. Persecuted by a jealous world, they remain unhurt and unimpaired by the flames of affliction that surround them. For God Himself is in the midst of them to support them by His grace, and to render them more illustrious by their sufferings. St. Gregory dwells upon the example of humility that Moses gave, in refusing to undertake the charge of conducting the people of God, though so qualified for the task by his endowments both of grace and of nature. Insignificant in his own eyes, he deemed himself unworthy of the honour, and unequal to the arduous task; nor was he to be prevailed upon to consent to his own preferment, except by the evidence of miracles, and by the express order of God Himself. Instructive as such an example is to all Christians, it is, says the same holy Doctor, especially instructive to those who are rash enough to covet the direction and command of others. For such is the presumption of human weakness, that the less virtuous and less qualified a person is, the more desirous often is he of a charge which the greatest Saints have always feared to undertake as above their abilities. It is usually men who know not how to guide themselves, and who are unable to answer for their own conduct, that thrust themselves forward to be charged with the guidance, and are thus made answerable for the conduct of others. END OF THE THIRD AGE. Names and Ages of the Patriarchs of the Third Age. 1. Abraham, 2. Isaac, 3. Jacob, 4. Levi, 5. Moses, 2433, of Amram and Jochabed. From this and the two foregoing Tables it appears, that Moses has written nothing in his Sacred History but what was then still fresh in the memory of men. For, his father Amram was the grandson, and his mother Jochabed, the daughter of Levi, who had lived thirty-three years during the lifetime of his grandfather Isaac; and Isaac had attained his fiftieth year before the death of Sem. MOSES BEFORE PHARAO. 87 FOURTH AGE OF THE WORLD. FROM THE DELIVERY OF THE ISRAELITES OUT OF EGYPT, A.M. 2513, ΤΟ THE FOUNDATION OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE, A.M. 2992; COMPRISING THE SPACE OF 479 YEARS. A.M. 2513.] * Moses before Pharao.-Exod. v. [A.C. 1491. PHARAO, the tyrant who had declared so unnatural a war against the Hebrew children, was now dead; but a prince equally cruel and tyrannical had succeeded to the throne. Before this Monarch, Moses and Aaron his brother, in compliance with the Divine commands, presented themselves for leave to go out with their people a three days' journey into the wilderness, where God had commanded them to offer Him a sacrifice. Pharaot received them with great harshness, treated them as rebels, and said he knew nothing of the God of whom they spoke. He ascribed their petition to a spirit of revolt, and rejected it with scorn, telling them he should give them some other occupation for their thoughts. He accordingly gave strict orders to his officers to impose new burdens upon the Hebrews; heretofore the straw required in their daily task of making bricks had been supplied to them, but now they should gather straw for themselves, and yet the tale of bricks exacted each day by their taskmasters was not diminished. people finding themselves thus loaded with new grievances, instead of being relieved by the remonstrances that had been made in their favour, began to complain most bitterly, and through a strange but not uncommon weakness of mind, turned their complaints against Moses and Aaron, as if they had been the cause of those very evils which in reality they had been labouring to remove. And such is the treatment which the zealous Pastors of the Church too frequently meet with, in every age, in return for the pains they take in the service of their flocks. *This was the district lying to the east of Egypt, in the direction of land of Chanaan. (See Note, p. 219.) † See Note, p. 23. The The ears of God being always open to the cries of the poor and needy, He commanded Moses to present himself a second time before Pharao for the deliverance of his people. Full of confidence, therefore, Moses went to the king, and on the part of God repeated the subject of his commission. He now supported his petition by a miracle, as a proof of his mission from God, and in the king's presence changed Aaron's rod into a serpent. But Pharao summoned his magicians, the resources of whose art enabled them also to change their rods into serpents. This prevented the good effect which the miracle that Moses had wrought was likely otherwise to have had upon the king's mind; and though Aaron's rod swallowed up those of the magicians, the king would not acknowledge that they had been defeated: he hardened his heart, and refused to let the Israelites go. God soon afterwards commanded his servant Moses to go for the third time, and in His name to make a more urgent demand on Pharao for his consent. The place of conference was upon the banks of the Nile. Undaunted at the appearance of savage majesty, Moses spoke with a manly firmness, but yet with a gentle meekness and modesty of expression that was natural to him. The king answered him with angry threats, and sternly refused to let the people go. Moses, as God had previously instructed him, addressed himself to Aaron, bidding him to stretch his rod over the surface of the Nile; and in an instant its waters were changed into blood, and the fishes died therein. Then This change of the waters into blood is called the First Plague of Egypt, and hardened indeed must Pharao have been, not to bend under such a blow. His magicians indeed, by imitating once more the wonders wrought by Moses, again gave a specious pretext for obstinacy to a prince who only sought to find out reasons for not listening to the voice of God. Those reasons, however, were insufficient to excuse him from guilt: he plainly saw that the magicians were not only outdone, but that they were likewise restrained in their power by Moses, for they were unable to remove the plague they had occasioned. Like Moses, they had changed water into blood, but they could not, like him, change that blood into water again. To see the laws of Nature thus controlled by |