and if the reader will examine it closely, he will discover that it affords a very perfect history of our world for the space of twentythree hundred years. This introduces us to

THE SECOND BOOK OF MOSES, CALLED

EXODUS.-The Title, though uninspired, gives the main idea of the book. The word EXODUS, is composed of two Greek words, ex, from, and odus, a way, and literally means, a going out, or departure.

It opens with the birth of Moses, who, to contravene a law of Egypt, requiring the male children of the Hebrews to be put to death, was concealed by his mother three months, and when she saw the life of herself and family was endangered by this procedure, "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 side.” Ex. ii, 3.

When the king's daughter "came down to wash at the river, she saw the ark among the flags, and sent her maid to fetch it."

'And when she had opened it, she saw the

child, and behold the babe wept." She determined to preserve it, and his mother was brought as nurse. This Moses was trained up in all the learning of the Egyptians, and when he was about forty years old, he saw the Egyptians imposing upon some of his brethren amongst the Hebrews, and he was so exasperated, that he slew one of them. For this offense, he fled from the country, and "dwelt in the land of Midian," where, for his gallantry in assisting certain maidens to water their father's flock, he won the heart of Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel, priest of the country. At the end of forty years, being eighty years old, Jehovah made known to him his determination to deliver the children of Israel from bondage, by speaking to him from a burning bush on Mt. Horeb. With his brother Aaron, he assembled the elders of the Jewish nation, and acquainted them with the gracious design of Heaven. Soon after, they had an interview with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and requested permission for the people to hold a feast to their God in the wilderness. The king not only refused, but doubled their

burdens. In answer to the prayer of Moses, Jehovah informed him that he would, "rid him out of their bondage, and would redeem the people with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments." Ex. iii.

Then followed a series of notable miracles, called "the Plagues of Egypt;" and finally the king being overcome-the first-born of all his people being slain by the angel of death, he consented to let the people of God go. On the night of the self-same day, which terminated a period of 430 years, after entering Egypt, 600,000 adult Israelites, "beside children, and a mixed multitude also went up with them; and flocks and herds, even very much cattle." Ex. xii, 37, 38. They left the rich plains of Goshen and traveled eastward in the direction of the Red Sea. They journeyed day and night, and "the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them by the way, and by night, in a pillar of fire to give them light." Ex. xiii, 17. The design of Jehovah was evidently to conduct them to the most difficult place for crossing the sea; for he said: "I will be

honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord." With this object, they approached the sea between vast mountains. Ex. xiv, 2-4. No sooner had Pharaoh learned that his slaves had fled, and were in perils on the sea-shore, than he summoned his troops and set out in hot pursuit. "He overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth before Baal-zephon." Here, "The angel of God which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind, and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them, and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these; so that the one came not near the other all the night." Ex. xiv, 19, 20.

Here it was, the whole congregation wept most bitterly, and even the great heart of Moses began to sink within him, and in his fear and bitterness of soul, he said to the people, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." But the Lord said unto

Moses, "Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. But lift thou up the rod, and stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide it. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right-hand and on their left. Ex. xiv. The Egyptians pursued after them into the sea, and "The Lord took off their chariot-wheels, that they draw them heavily; and they said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them." The Lord commanded Moses to "stretch out his hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians." He did so, and "the sea returned to his strength, when the morning appeared, and the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them;