THE SECOND BOOK OF MOSES,

CALLED EXODUS.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ON THE FIRST AND SECOND CHAPTERS OF EXODUS.

THE Book of Exodus was written by Moses, and is so called because it relates the history of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. Exodus meaning departure.

It comprehends the history of about 145 years, and relates the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt, their wonderful deliverance, the giving of the law from Mount Sinai, and the building of the Tabernacle.

After the death of Joseph and all his brethren, their children and grandchildren continued to dwell in the land of Egypt, and they increased so much in number, that the land was full of them, and they became a very mighty people. * Tomline.

About 120 years after the children of Israel came to Goshen, and sixty years after the death of Joseph, a king reigned in Egypt, who knew not Joseph, and he was afraid of the Israelites. He feared that they might join with his enemies and fight against him. So he determined to oppress them and keep them down; he caused them to work very hard for him, and to build cities for him; and he set task-masters over them.

But the worse they were treated, the more the Israelites increased in number, and the more afraid of them the Egyptians became.

Then Pharaoh determined upon a very cruel plan; he ordered that every Israelite boy should be thrown into the river Nile, as soon as he was born, but that the girl-babies should be allowed to live.

Now there was a man called Amram, of the family of Levi, and his wife's name was Jochebed, and she had a beautiful little baby-boy. She hid him for three months, and then she could hide him no longer, as he was becoming a big child. She was afraid that the cruel Egyptians would find him, and throw him into the river as they had done to so many poor little innocent infants; so she made a basket of bulrushes, and covered

it with clay and pitch to keep out the wet, and she laid her baby in it, and hid it amongst the tall, thick reeds that grew by the river's side. And her daughter stood afar off, to see what would become of the child.

Now Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and she saw the basket hidden amongst the reeds, and told one of her maids to fetch it. And when the princess opened the basket, there lay the beautiful baby, and the poor little creature wept.

And the princess was full of pity for it, and she said, "It must be one of the Hebrew children."

The Israelites were also called Hebrews, probably from Heber one of Abraham's forefathers.*

Now the sister of the babe saw all that happened, and she came up to Pharaoh's daughter, and said, "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, "Go."

So she went and called her mother to nurse her own baby. How clever of her to think of doing this; and how happy Jochebed must have

*Tomline.

felt when the princess said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give thee thy wages."

She little knew that she was giving the baby to one who would take care of it, better than any one else in the world-its own mother.

So Jochebed took the child and nursed him till he was grown, and then she took him back to the princess, who treated him as if he were her own son, and he was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, who were a very learned people. And the princess called him Moses, which means "drawn out," because she had drawn him out of the water.

And it came to pass, long after, when Moses was forty years old (Acts vii. 23), that he went to visit his countrymen the Hebrews, and he beheld how they were made to toil and labour. And he chanced to see an Egyptian about to kill an Hebrew. Then Moses resolved to save the life of his poor countryman, and looking round and seeing no one, he attacked the Egyptian and slew him, and hid the body in the sand.

The next day, Moses again went out, and saw two Hebrews fighting together; and he said to the one that was in the wrong, "Why dost thou smite thy fellow countryman?"

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