CHAPTER VIII.

MOSES THE ISRAELITES THEIR TRAVELS THE MIXED MULTITUDE.

"And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth; about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle." [EX. XII: 37, 38.

SECTION 1. The last Chapter was devoted to the examination of the first verse of the quotation, above; the remarks which will be made in this, will be confined, mostly, to the first part of the second verse-" and a mixed multitude went up also with them." This body of people, whatever it may have numbered, clearly, went to swell the numerical throng for which subsistence had to be provided while meandering over the Deserts of Arabia. That such a body of human beings, to say nothing about the "mixed multitude," as the record represents that Moses collected, and moved, and by him were kept together for the space of forty years, the world has never witnessed, and never will. It was an utter impossibility to have provided for them the means of subsistence in that locality. From what has already been shown by the examination, it would seem that the reader would understand, without further elucidation or argument, that this whole Mosaic narration is fabulous-part and parcel of ancient Mythology-that at the very best that can be said in its behalf, of any portion of it, is that it is a legend, the facts of which are thousands of times magnified; a tale written by the devoted friend, or friends, of the leader of the clan-ex parte scribblers writing without regard to the truth in the premises; except, the truth should chance to subserve their selfish and ignoble ends.

SEC. 2. Who the "mixed multitude" were, the record does not state, nor does it in any place give the number that it comprised. But biblical commentators have assumed to do this. By them the number has been put as high as twenty thousand. Then they have essayed to tell who that multitude were. Some have written down those of whom it was comprised, "a rabble;" others have wrote them, “the relatives, by marriage, of the Israelites." Others have set them down as "proselytes to the Jewish religion, though not confirmed by the rite of circumcision;" others, still, have written down their conjectures that they were "refugees in Egypt, who came to sojourn there, because of the dearth which obliged them to emigrate from their own countries," and embraced this opportunity to take their final leave of Egypt. All this is bald conjecture on the part of the said commentators for, as before stated, there is no bible data from which any conclusions, whatever, can be drawn, either as to the number, or who they were-what relation they bore to the Israelites. Consequently, this is a case which in order to obtain a correct solution we are obliged to depend upon extraneous evidence-to gather testimony from surrounding known facts.

SEC. 3. The reader will recollect that it is claimed that the numbers stated in the text, and which were commented on in the last Chapter, were pure bloods, descendants of Jacob. The record does not state the pedigree of the inhabitants residing in Goshen at the time of Jacob's entrance into Egypt, nor what it was at the time of Moses' departure. The record calls them Egyptians, simply. The most reliable of all ancient human records, the stone monuments of Egypt, testify that, at the time of Jacob's immigration into Egypt, the inhabitants of that country were a mongrel people, and had been so for more than two thousand years; and also, that, at the time of Moses' departure therefrom, in their veins flowed the blood of almost every tribe and nation from the Persian Gulf and the river Tigris on the east, to the Mediterranean and Lybian Desert

on the west; and from the Upper Cataract in the Nile and and southern Arabia on the South, to the mountains of Taurus on the north. Hence, for this reason, if for no other, if any considerable number of the Egyptian born went out with the descendants of Jacob, they, most emphatically, would have been a "mixed multitude."

SEC. 4. I have said, above, that the question under consideration was one which, in order to obtain a correct solution we must gather the evidence of what the truth is concerning it from contemporaneous facts. It has come in history down to us that, as a people, the Egyptian women entertained lax sentiments of female chastity. Then, on almost every page of the history of the Patriarchs, and their descendants, whether that history be sacred, so called, or profane, comes to us unquestionable testimony that they were a people of easy virtue-in plain English, that they were a lecherous people, very. As evidence of this I refer to Moses' own record-to the narration of acts in the lives of the Patriarchs, and by Moses approvingly recorded. Jacob was an out and out polygamist, also an adulterer, being practically such, and both at the same time; rearing young patriarchs for the church of the God of his fathers from two sister-wives, and from two concubines, his wives' servingmaids. Then I would refer to the conduct of Judah, him whom the record denominates the "lion's whelp," and from whom "the sceptre should not depart, nor a law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh (Prince of Peace) came." This most important biblical person, entered high on the roll of piety, and Godly fame, and that too without any dissent from his moral conduct, was guilty of that which would be a license for almost every kind of commingling of the sexes. As were the leaders so were the people.

SEC. 5. Then, the history of mankind, the world over, tells the rest of the story; namely, wherever large bodies of men, without a corresponding number of women, entertaining lax morals, concerning marital relations, immigrate into the territory of a people entertaining moral sentiments

akin to their own, a mongrel population-“a mixed multitude"-soon springs up around them; a vagrant and vicious population, disowned by one, or both, of their parents, likewise by all kindred; and in whom society feels no interest further than to protect itself against their depredations on the rights of others. In this is the true exposition of the text; and also, in every rational probability, in this is the correct solution of the question as to the who they were that comprised that "mixed multitude" which followed in the wake of Moses, and were hangers-on about the tents of the descendants of Jacob, and of Judah.

CHAPTER IX.

MOSES-THE ISRAELITES-THEIR TRAVELS JOSEPH, AND THE BONES OF JOSEPH.

"And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you."

[Ex. xIII: 19.

SECTION 1. Though it should appear to be digressing, somewhat, from the subject of the travels of Moses and the children of Israel, since the remains of Joseph were taken and carried along with them, and were a sacred relic in their most holy place, and the pillar of their Lord stood constant sentry over them, I feel it incumbent on me to here use a few words, by way of comment, about Joseph, and also about "the bones of Joseph." The "bones" of Joseph, Prime Minister, and Lord Chancellor, to Pharaoh, were a fitting memento with which to sanctify the Markee of Moses, when on his piratical expedition-the pillaging, and murder, of the unoffending citizens-prosecuted also for the purpose of subjugating and final extinction of nations. The urn containing "the bones of Joseph" was not only a fitting memento to sanctify the tent of Moses, but it was appropriate for a pedestal for the staff of his two-faced flaghis "pillar of cloud and pillar of fire," when "it rested."

SEC. 2. Through his crafty financial policy, as the Prime Minister of Pharaoh, Joseph had destroyed, within the Pharaonic dominion, the last vestige of popular freedomhe reduced the people to beggary, and to chattelism. Through his sharp practice, as a grain speculator, in behalf of the royal government, by enhancing the price of breadstuffs, after he had bought up, and monopolized, all the corn throughout the empire, he first obtained from the people all their money; next, in the same way, he obtained all their