LIFE OF MOSES.

CHAPTER I.

The oppression of the Israelites in Egypt by Pharaoh, and his cruelty towards them.

It was about seventy years after Jacob and his family came into Egypt that Joseph died. During this period, he had continued to be governor over the whole land,—the next in authority to the king, and possessing great power and influence. He had procured for his father and brethren the privilege of residing in Goshen, one of the most fertile portions of the country. There they lived securely, as a separate community, and, under his fostering care, had been rapidly advancing in numbers and prosperity.

The death of Joseph produced no immediate change in their condition. A peaceable people, still protected by the reigning monarch, and treated as friends by his subjects, the Israelites "waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them."

But not many years elapsed before their pros pects were sadly darkened. A new king, in all probability a foreigner and usurper, took possession of the throne. He disregarded entirely the character and valuable services of Joseph. He disliked the measures which, under his influence, had been pursued with regard to the Israelites, and cherished towards them a bitter suspicion and jealousy.

They were in possession of one of the most pleasant and productive parts of the kingdom; and why should strangers thus incroach upon the rights of himself and his subjects?

They were becoming very rich and powerful. Their flocks and herds were spreading on every side. Their dwellings were covering the land. They would soon be,-if they were not already,— superior in numbers and strength to his own people; and, in case of any attack from foreign invaders, the Israelites would, as he pretended, most certainly join them, and thus leave the Egyptians no hope of resistance. Defeat, and perhaps extermination, must be the issue.

Most unjustly were the peaceful and unoffending shepherds of Goshen the objects of these vindictive feelings. They had furnished no occasion for them. But wicked men who have evil designs to accomplish, will always find, or invent, some plausible reasons for their conduct; as did the Egyptian monarch in this case.

He called together his counsellors and principal men, and laid the matter before them. He proposed to adopt a course of proceeding which, without any open and direct assault upon the Israelites, should in a crafty and, as he flattered himself, very wise way, so afflict them, that they would rapidly decrease in numbers, and, at length, become utterly extinct.

His plan was speedily put into execution. A vast amount of hard labor, and probably of tribute also, was exacted from the Israelites. Task-masters were set over them, to oppress and wear them down with grievous toils and burdens. Among other labors of great magnitude, they were required to build treasure-cities for the king; containing extensive granaries, and magazines for the safekeeping of all kinds of warlike instruments.

"The Egyptians," we are told, "made the children of Israel to serve with rigor; and they made their lives bitter (or sorrowful) with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor;"-with great severity, and without mercy.

But this cruel bondage was very far from accomplishing the object for which it was designed. The Israelites had long been accustomed to labor. They were a temperate, industrious, and hardy race, capable of enduring a great deal of toil and fatigue.

Besides this, their exhausted spirits were continually sustained and revived by the reflection that right was on their side, and that the God whom they served, the God of their fathers, was their protector and friend. Joseph had told his brethren, when he died, that God would surely visit them, and bring them out of Egypt, unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. They had bound themselves by an oath, to carry his bones up with them, when they should go to Canaan. These hallowed relics, which they preserved with sacred care, kept fresh in their memories the declaration of Joseph. The time of their redemption would come. It might not be far distant. The hope which confidence in God always imparts, supported and strengthened them. To the discomfiture of their oppressors, the Israelites, so far from wasting away under their severe toils, actually kept on increasing in numbers. The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel."

Other measures must be tried. The relentless Pharaoh would not be baffled in his designs. His wicked heart urged him forward. He devised, as he thought, an expedient which would certainly check the increase of the Israelites. It was an inhuman and bloody one. None but a cruel and revengeful tyrant would have adopted it.

He ordered the women who assisted in taking care of the little infants of the Israelites when they were born, without fail, to put all who were boys immediately to death. In this way there would soon cease to be any more who would grow up to become fathers; and one family after another dwindling away, none would be left. But the women did not carry his order into effect. They feared God, and were unwilling to commit such great wickedness. So the king was again defeated in his malicious purpose. Still "the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty."

Pharaoh was not deterred by all this from attempting, yet further, to carry into effect his designs against the Israelites. He did what he thought would, at length, make their destruction sure. He issued a decree, commanding the Egyptians to take every infant born among the Israelites, who should be a boy, and cast it into the river Nile. Doubtless there were particular persons appointed, to put this cruel decree into execution. They were to search for such infants; to enter the houses of the Israelites; to force the tender babe from the arms of its fond mother, and consign it to its watery grave. What distress in families; what weeping among children, thus to have torn away from them the new-born brother whom they were eager to welcome with their caresses ;-what grief in the father, deep and indignant;-what tears and groans,