He was speaking. Then He adds "This day," that is, the fourteenth of which I have been speaking, "shall be unto you for a memorial, because on this day I have brought out your armies." When the Lord spoke, He had not brought them out, and yet He speaks of it as past, referring still to that day concerning which He had given His commands. The plain English is therefore sufficient to show that D. C.'s assumption, that the command was given and the Passover celebrated on one and the same day, is totally without foundation. The command was given at least one day before the tenth, probably more, even at the beginning of the month, as the chapter opens with the words, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months," which words could not have been spoken later than the first day. This will be abundantly confirmed in the answer to the next objection.

BISHOP COLENSO, CHAP. XI. The March out of Egypt.

D. C. takes Exod. xii. 37, 38, as his text: "And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, besides children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and the flocks, and herds, even very much cattle." "Here then," he says, "we have this vast body of people

summoned to start, according to the story, at a moment's notice, not one being left behind, together with all their multitudinous flocks and herds, which must have been spread out over a district as large as a good-sized English county we are required to believe that, in one single day, the order to depart was communicated suddenly, at midnight. . . . that in obedience to such order, having first 'borrowed' very largely of their neighbours in all directions, they then came in from all parts of the land of Goshen to Rameses, bringing with them the sick and infirm, the young and the aged; further, that since receiving the summons, they had sent to gather in all their flocks and herds, spread over so wide a district, and had driven them also to Rameses; and, lastly, that having done all this, since they were roused at midnight, they were started again from Rameses that very same day, and marched on to Succoth, not leaving a single sick or infirm person, a single woman in child-birth, or even ‘a single hoof,' Exod. x. 26, behind them."

It has already been proved that they were not summoned at a moment's notice, nor suddenly at midnight, but at least five or six, probably thirteen days before, and had known of their intended journey for some weeks. We have also seen that the borrowing took place long before. The Israelites knew also that after the death of the firstborn Pharaoh would let them go, for Moses

would not keep this a secret from the people. The very ordinance of the Passover implied that they were to be ready to move soon after they had eaten it; for the command was to eat it "with their loins girded, with their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand, and they were to eat it in haste," i. e. they were to be ready soon after to depart. Indeed, they knew the very hour that was to be the signal of their departure. The Lord had informed them that at midnight He would pass through the land of Egypt, and that then Pharaoh and the Egyptians would eagerly press upon them to go-and this they knew probably thirteen days before. There was ample time, therefore, to make provision for the infirm, the young, and the aged, and to gather the cattle, especially as the Israelites were aware for weeks before that they were about to leave Egypt, and to take their cattle with them; and, as has been said above, must have lived from day to day in expectation of setting out, and must have been getting things ready for the move. No doubt, with all this previous knowledge and preparation, they were hurried at last, as any one knows who has moved from his residence of many years to a foreign country, or even to another house in his own land. There was, doubtless, much haste and much confusion, when the Egyptians urged them to depart. But it is absolutely false that this multitude

was sum

moned to start at a moment's notice, or that the order was communicated suddenly at midnight, a pure fiction of D. C.'s imagination, which is negatived by the whole narrative, and the express words of the command how to observe the Passover.

It

Similar is the assertion that they all first assembled at Rameses with their flocks and herds. The text simply says, "The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth." is not said, "all the children of Israel," or "all the congregation of the children of Israel." Rameses was, no doubt, the head-quarters of Moses and Aaron, and there perhaps was the greatest body of the people assembled in any one place. As Moses and Aaron, and the elders, and a great body of people started from that city, the narrative says, with truth, "The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses." But to suppose that those Israelites who lived or fed their flocks on the road to Succoth turned back to Rameses, is incredible, and nothing but the desire to magnify a difficulty, where it does not exist, could have induced D. C. thus to pervert the simple words. Moses was not a man devoid of understanding. Even if not inspired, he had for many years contemplated the enterprise, knew well the abodes of the people whom he wished to deliver, must have guided the whole, and have been in constant communication with all portions of the

people. Even as an uninspired man, he must have had a plan, and a route, and must have instructed the dispersed of Israel accordingly.

But D. C. has now his difficulties respecting the march. He says, "If they marched fifty abreast, the able-bodied warriors alone would have filled up the road for about twenty-two miles." But if they did not, we reply, what then? Why, then they would not have filled up the road for twenty-two miles. We are not told one word as to the order which they observed, and therefore speculation is vain. They came from different places of Goshen, and were not likely all to follow in the same track; and this partly solves the difficulty about the cattle. They would, he says, "lengthen out the train for many long miles. And such grass as there was, if not eaten down by the first ranks, must have been trodden under foot at once and destroyed by those that followed them mile after mile. What then did these two

live upon during this

millions of sheep and oxen journey from Rameses to Succoth, and from Succoth to Etham, and from Etham to the Red Sea?" Now, in the first place, the Pentateuch nowhere says that there were two millions of sheep and oxen; and we have shown that D. C.'s calculation from the Paschal lambs is based on false data, and therefore worthless. That they had a great many we doubt not. But as we have said, there is no authority whatever for supposing that they all took the same route; and as to