ately left the presence of Pharaoh. The principal men who were about him, his nobles and counsellors, then said to the king, in great apprehension of what might yet come upon them, "How long shall this man be a snare unto us?" That is, how long shall Moses, in what he does, prove the cause of leading us into fresh calamities? "Let the men go, that they may serve Jehovah their God: knowest thou not yet, that Egypt is destroyed?" Hast thou not yet been made fully acquainted with the calamities experienced, especially the ravages of the late hail-storm, that it has spread desolation and ruin throughout the land?

Pharaoh appeared to yield to their solicitations, and Moses and Aaron were brought before him. "And he said unto them, Go, serve Jehovah your God but who are they that shall go ?"

"with our

"We will go," answered Moses, young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto Jehovah." The reply of Pharaoh was mingled with derision and a keen irony. "Let Jehovah be so with you, as I will let you go." May you have as much of the blessing of God in your projected enterprise, as you will obtain of my consent to engage in it,― which you will find me far enough from being willing to give. Look well to what you are endeavoring to do. "For evil is before you." You are form

ing some bad design, and the consequences shall be fraught with evil to your whole people. You wish to take your women and children with you. But it shall not be so. These must be left behind as hostages, that I may be sure of your returning again. "Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire;"-that must have been the true meaning of your request, when you asked for permission to sacrifice unto Jehovah.

Moses and Aaron could not consent to such a proposal, "and they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence," probably with great indignation and rage on his part.

As God had threatened, the new and fearful judgment came. "Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt." When we consider what Pharaoh and his people

had already suffered, in the various plagues that were inflicted upon them, this additional one must have been terrible indeed. It seemed to fill up the measure of their calamity. The dearth and desolation were now complete. We may be aided in forming some conceptions of what they endured, (though, after all, such conceptions must be faint and imperfect,) by attending, for a moment, to an account of these insects, as given by a traveller, about two hundred years since. He was in the Canary islands; and the locusts were brought thither, by a strong wind, from off the coast of Barbary. "I cannot better represent their flight to you," says the author, "than by comparing it to the flakes of snow in cloudy weather, driven about by the wind; and when they alight upon the ground to feed, the plains are all covered, and they make a murmuring noise as they eat, and in less than two hours they devour all close to the ground; then rising, they suffer themselves to be carried away by the wind; and when they fly, though the sun shines ever so bright, it is no lighter than when most clouded. The air was so full of them, that I could not eat in my chamber without a candle; all the houses being full of them, even the stables, barns, chambers, garrets, and cellars. I caused cannon-powder and sulphur to be burnt to expel them, but all to no purpose; for when the door was opened an infinite number came in, and the others went out,

fluttering about; and it was a troublesome thing when a man went abroad to be hit on the face by those creatures, so that there was no opening one's mouth but some would get in. Yet all this was nothing, for when we were to eat, these creatures gave us no respite; and when we cut a bit of meat, we cut a locust with it; and when a man opened his mouth to put in a morsel, he was sure to chew one of them. I have seen them at night, when they sit to rest them, that the roads were four inches thick of them, one upon another; so that the horses would not trample over them, but as they were put on with much lashing, pricking up their ears, snorting and treading fearfully. The wheels of our carts and the feet of our horses bruising these creatures, there came forth from them such a stench as not only offended the nose, but the brain. I was not able to endure it, but was forced to wash my nose with vinegar, and hold a handkerchief dipped in it continually at my nostrils."

Similar to this, only much more horrible and destructive, was the plague of locusts inflicted by God upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

"At his

"The Lord most high is terrible." wrath, the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation." To those that obey unrighteousness, God will render indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil.-Flee, then, flee from the wrath to come.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The plague of darkness. Pharaoh in a rage orders Moses from his presence.

At the urgent call of the king of Egypt, Moses and Aaron again appeared before him. With apparent humility, he exclaimed; "I have sinned against Jehovah your God, and against you. Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat Jehovah your God, that he may take away from me this death only "-this deadly plague, bringing famine, and pestilence, and a general mortality, as he feared, among the whole nation.

Moses again prayed, and deliverance came. "The Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red Sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt."

And now, may we not expect, at length, that Pharaoh will cease to contend against that almighty Being whom he thus finds to be so terrible in his judgments No; nothing moves him from his purpose. All the dealings of God with him but harden his heart the more, and still he will not let the children of Israel go.