fome of their neighbours. In thofe countries, the precious fluid beftowed upon us in fuch boundless profufion, being difpenfed as it were in drops, became an object of defire and a ground of contention. The daughters of Jethro, fenfible of their inferiority in point of ftrength, endeavour to fupply it by diligence and address. They arrive at the well before their rival fhepherds, and are preparing with all poffible dispatch to water their flocks, when behold they are overtaken by these brutals, who rudely drive them and their flocks away, and cruelly attempt to convert the fruits of their labour to their own ufe. Mofes poffeffing at once fenfibility, courage and force, takes part with the injured, and affords them effectual fupport against their oppreffors. An helpless, timid female, affaulted and infulted, is an object of peculiar concern to a brave and generous fpirit; and for this reason, courage and intrepidity are qualities in men, held in great and just estimation by the female sex. If the heroic behaviour of Mofes merit approbation and refpect, the modeft referve of the virgin daughters of Raguel is equally amiable and praise-worthy. It does not appear that they folicited protection, but modeftly received it; they look their thanks rather than utter them; and they deem it more fuitable to their fex and character to appear ungrateful to a generous ftranger, than to offend him by forwardness and indelicacy. They haften home to their father, who, furprised at the earliness of their return, inquires into the cause of it. Happy, I-doubt not, to celebrate the praises of a man whose appearance and behaviour muft have made a deep impreffion upon them, they relate the adventure of the morning; and Raguel, ftruck with the magnanimity, gallantry and fpirit of this stranger's conduct, eagerly inquires after him, fends to find him out, invites him to his house and table, and endeavours to exprefs that gratitude, which the young women could not, by every effort of kindnefs and hofpitality. Minds fo well afforted as thofe of Mofes and Jethro, and attracted to each other by mutual acts of beneficence, would easily affimilate and unite in friendship. And the pleafing recollection of protection given and received, the natural fenfibility of a female mind to perfonal accomplishments, but more especially to generofity and courage, on the one hand; and the irresistible charm of feminine beauty and modesty to a m.nly heart, on the other, would speedily and infenfibly, between Mofes, and fome one of the priest of Midian's fair daughters, ripen into love. What follows, therefore, is all in the course of honest nature, which never fwerves from her purpose, never fails to accomplish her end. But it was Providence that furnifhed the field and the inftruments with which nature fhould work. That Providence which faved him forty years before from perishing in the Nile; that Providence which delivered him fo lately from the hands of an incenfed king; the fame Providence now, by a concourse of circumftances equally beyond the reach of human power or forefight, fixes the bounds of his habitation, forms for him the most important connexion of human life; and for another space of forty years makes him forget the tumultuous pleafures of a court, in the more calm and rational delights of disinterested friendship, virtuous affection, and heavenly contemplation. It was in this delicious retreat, that the man of God is supposed to have compofed, by divine inspiration, and to have committed to writing, that most ancient, most elegant, and most instructive of all books; which contains the history of the world, from the creation down to his own times: a period which no other writer has prefumed to touch upon; holy ground which none but the foot of God himfelf has dared to tread. Here also, and at this time, as it is conjectured by interpreters, he wrote that beautifully poetical, moral and historical work, the book of Job: which, for fublimity of thought, force of expreffion, juftnefs Č 2 of of fentiment, ftrength of reafoning, and variety of matter, holds a diftinguifhed place in the facred code. If from the schools of the Magi he drew fuch stores of wifdom and eloquence, high muft our ideas rife of those noble feminaries of learning. But Mofes derived his wonderful accomplishments from a much higher fource, even from the everlasting Spring of all knowledge, even from Him who made the heavens and the earth, and caufed the light to arife; even from Him who can make the defert of Horeb a school of WISDOM, and the fimple to be wiser than all his teachers. Here, alfo, he has the felicity of becoming a father; and, even in Midian, God builds up one of the families of Ifrael. And now at last the time to favour that despised, oppreffed nation was come. Egypt had changed its fovereign in the mean time, but the feed of Jacob had felt no mitigation of their diftrefs. Every change which they have undergone is only from evil to worse. Mofes was now arrived at his eightieth year, but remained in the full vigour of his bodily ftrength, and of his mental powers. Erring, reasoning, cavilling man will be afking, Why was the employment of Mofes in fo important a fervice fo long delayed? Wherefore bury fuch talents for such a space of time in the inglorious life of an obfcure fhepherd? Wherefore call a man at fo late a period of life, in the evening of his day, in the decline of his faculties, to a fervice that required all the fervour, intrepidity and exertion of youth? To all which we answer in the words of our Saviour on a well-known occafion, "It is not for you to know the times or the feafons which the Father hath put in his own power." Man is perpetually in a hurry, and often haftens forward without making progrefs; but "he that believeth fhall not make hafte.' GOD, the father of believers, advances to his end not in a vehement and hurried ftep, but in a folemn, fteady, majestic pace; his progrefs, which we may in our folly account, flow, in the iffue proves to to have been the most expeditious; and the course which human ignorance may condemn as irregular and circuitous, will be found in the end the shortest and the fureft. The course of the history then has brought us to that important, eventful hour, when the fhepherd of Midian, trained up in retirement and contemplation, and converfe with God, was to fhake off his difguife, and ftand confeffed the minifter of the most high God, the king in Jefhurun, the fcourge of Egypt, the deliverer of Ifrael. As the commiffion which was given him to execute, and the ftation affigned to him, were altogether fingular and uncommon, we are not to be furprifed if the feal and fignature affixed to that commiffion, and the powers bestowed for the faithful and effectual execution of it, fhould likewife be out of the ufual courfe of things, and fhould announce the power and authority of Him who granted it. But as this merits a principal place in the course of thefe exercifes, we fhall not comprefs it into the conclufion of a Lecture; hoping, through the help of God, to refume and continue the fubject next Lord's day. Such was Mofes, the Jewish legislator and hero, during the two firft great periods of his life. But a greater than Mofes is here, even He, "the latchet of whofe fhoes Mofes is unworthy to ftoop down and unloofe;" to whom Mofes and Elias, on the mount of transfiguration, brought all their glory and honour, and laid them at his feet! Mofes "refused to be called the fon of Pharaoh's daughter;" and Jefus difdained not to be called "the fon of the carpenter." Supreme, all divine though He was, yet he declined not the fociety of the poorest, meaneft, moft afflicted of mankind! Was the humiliation of Mofes cheerful and voluntary, not forcibly obtruded upon him, but fought out and fubmitted to? Chrift, though "in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation, and took upon upon him the form of a fervant.” |