people, and was also pursuing his studies doubtless among the priests. All humanity in him revolted against the stern, proud, inhuman despot, and against the minions and officers of the government down through every grade and through the hordes of taskmasters grinding the Israelites and treading this whole population into the dust. Strangely, these people were still multiplying rapidly; their hard labor seeming to give robustness to their constitutions notwithstanding their abasement. But this abasement, and the habits arising from their filthy and crowded habitations, had brought among them a frightful disease, the leprosy, unknown among them before.

Moses had, during these studies and observations, got to be forty years of age. He was an utterly lonely man amid those crowds of priests and courtiers. He had not married, for there was no sympathy between him and these oppressors, and he desired no bonds with them: his thoughts, brooding over his people's wrongs, turned into resentment and quickness of passion: he often left his studies to wander abroad and probe the depth of the degradation and sufferings of his people. One day, while thus abroad, he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite :-HE SLEW THE EGYPTIAN.

He had taken the precaution even amid this burst of wrath, to see that he was unwatched, and he buried the body hastily in the sand. But the man whom he had rescued seems not to have kept the secret; and very soon the offender against the stern laws of the kingdom became aware that it was known to others. Passing along, he saw two of his own people contending, one of them clearly in the wrong. He reproved the latter; and the wrong-doer, as is apt to be the case in such interferences, turned his rage from his opponent upon the reprover. More than that, the base man was ingrate enough to cast against him his previous act: "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?"

There could be no hope of concealment now. Indeed it soon became evident that the whole matter was known in the royal palace; it was a deadly offence in the eyes of the government. No interest or entreaties by the princess, if she were still living, could save him, and probably he had few or no friends at court. The high position of the offender made the offence the more noticeable. The government knew that those numerous subjects might in their desperation be easily induced to a revolt: here was the bold, quick man to unite and lead them: he must be summarily and speedily dealt with. Moses became aware, in season, of Pharaoh's intent on his life: so he fled hastily from the palace, in the direction of Arabia.

THE

CHAPTER XXVIII.

MOSES IN MIDIAN.

HE refugee little thought, as he hurried on his way, avoiding frequented places, and seeking the most retired spots, and ever glancing behind to see whether or not he was pursued, that one day he would come along in the same direction at the head of the whole Jewish people delivered by the arm of God himself!

God only could deliver them, so thoroughly broken down and so abject-spirited had they become. But, if a thought of such possible deliverance could now have entered the mind of the refugee, he might well query whether God would see fit to interfere; for the Jewish people had by this time almost forgotten even the very name of Jehovah.' Even Moses himself had received but little instruction

1 Inference from Ex. iii. 13.

of that kind: how could he receive any? His education had been altogether Egyptian. The Hebrews had little, if any, literature; their traditions could come to him in the royal palace or in the temples at On, only in faint sounds, and would be treated with contempt by all about him; and the debased condition of his people was adapted to bring into disrespect any opinions of the Deity held by them.

So, as this man, flying from pursuers, took his way toward Arabia, it was with confused notions on all religious topics, and with many doubts mingling with the gloom of his refugee-life. We must here again remind the reader that in those days literature, except such as existed among the Egyptians, was extremely scant, and the Egyptian instruction would, of course, be altogether on the side of their false gods. The Israelites had their traditionary knowledge, but even this, in the course of their slavery, must have become fainter every year. There was nothing to revive it; only one dull, heavy, crushing servitude, in which the God of their ancestors seemed to have utterly forsaken them; while on the side of their superiors was idolatry seemingly blessing its followers with abundance and ease. Who was there, or what was there, to enlighten them, during this long slavery in which they were sinking every day into lower and lower abasement, with no time for instruction in their own religion if they had desired it, and no books;only a sottish, grovelling ignorance deepening constantly among them? As to Moses, he had been debarred in a great degree even from that traditionary knowledge which common suffering would lead his people in some degree to cherish, or which might have some stimulus to its individuality through the taunts of their oppressors. But still, he was not quite ignorant in these important matters of his people's distinctive belief. Something he had picked up by various means,-probably carried to him by his mother's unceasing watchfulness for opportunities; something in con

nection with such enlightenment, was suggested to him by his own reasonings concerning the Egyptian idolatry; and all was strengthened by his sympathy for his people and indignation against the oppressors. His own intellect was of the most powerful order; and though only catching glimpses of the truth, it was able, by those glimpses, to establish a sufficiency of faith to serve for action. But during those years of study and observation and reasoning, and of shaking himself loose from the shackles of priestly education, and of combatting with himself, when all interest drew him perceptibly to one side and conviction was pointing to the opposite ;-those years of despair respecting his countrymen so abject in mind as well as in body ;-years of rebellion in his heart against the court and courtiers, his constant associates;-years of contempt for himself because enduring and seemingly encouraging the falsities around him, and of apparent hopelessness in any resistance; and also of knowing certainly that want and slavery, or more likely a felon's death would follow his abjuring what he was learning every day more and more to despise and hate and also to fear;-during all those years what a life his had been in the palace or at On!

He was now away from it; and although feeling himself to be a fugitive, still as he fled on toward the Red Sea, and then beyond it farther into Arabia, his step was more elastic and his eye brighter and his manner more in the true dignity of his manhood, then had been the case for a long time. before. Here, at least, he was leading no false life. Here he was independent and could be true to himself and to what he knew, or might know, of God. Around him also was nature in great, majestic forms, often desolate it was true, and in that desolateness akin to his own feelings, but akin also to sentiments of elevation and force that he felt were in himself. Indeed Egypt had, for some time, palled upon him; for there was a monotony and an oppressive character

even in its grandeur, so ruled by law and by the despotic power. Here all was free!

With such feelings he had sat down, after penetrating some distance into Arabia, to refresh himself by a well, and to rest; and while there, seven women came with their flocks in order to water them,-for the refugee was now among people leading the primitive life of which he had heard as that of his ancestors. The life about him was simple enough ;-flocks, the daughters even of the prince or sheikh attending them, tents moving hither and thither, no temples or halls of the Osirides, but great mountains with God's own image impressed upon them :-and freedom everywhere.

Yet even here was violence; for after the women had drawn water and filled the troughs for their flocks, some men came for a similar purpose, and drove them away. The Egyptian (as he seemed to be) sprang to the help of the women. His gloomy thoughts along the way about violence to the weak and helpless left behind made him additionally intolerant of violence here, and the stranger shepherds were made to recoil from his indignation and from the strength that in Egypt had been able to kill an oppressor: he helped the women, and drew more water for their flocks.

They were the daughters of Reuel (or Jethro), a sheikh of the country, a Midianite. The reader will remember that this race of people were the descendants of Abraham by his last wife Keturah. The family had multiplied, and had scattered over the country, doubtless intermarrying with Abraham's descendants through Ishmael, who were also inhabitants of Arabia. Sometimes they spread northwardly east of the Dead Sea, and on occasions engaged in commerce; but the shepherd life was better suited to their habits and inclinations, as it is to the inclinations of their descendants at this day.