The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage

by J. H. Ingraham

LETTER X.

City of the Sun.

My dear Father:

Scarcely had I reached the confines of Goshen, after the threatened judgment of God upon Pharaoh, when I heard, as it were in the air, a voice speaking, which I knew to be the voice of Moses; and behind me I heard, instantly, loud thunders uttering their voices, and the earth shook beneath my chariot-wheels. To the right of me, at the same moment, I beheld Moses and Aaron standing, side by side, on the tower of the ruined fountain of Jacob, beneath which I was driving; the former stretching forth his hands, and his rod therein, northward towards the city of Pharaoh, upon the obelisks of which the sun was then brilliantly shining, and was also reflected in splendor from the shield of gold upon the lofty tower of the temple of Osiris. Leaping from my chariot, and leaving it with my servants, whom I commanded to hasten further into the land of the Hebrews, I drew reverently near the men of God, feeling greatly awed by their presence, but assured that near them was safety,—though they were the visible sources of God's terrible wrath upon Egypt. I stood not far off, and beheld, with expectation. Moses, his rod extended, and waving eastward, and northward, and westward, stood with a majestic and fearful aspect, his eyes raised to the heavens, which were already answering his voice by far-off thunderings. He continued, as I drew near, in these words:

"And let thunder, and hail, and fire, O Egypt, descend out of heaven from God upon thee, and let the fire mingle with the hail, and smite throughout all the land of Egypt, all that is in the field, both man and beast, and every herb in the field, and break every tree! Only in the land of Goshen let there be no hail."

No language, my dear father, can convey to you any idea of the terrible power and godlike authority with which he spake. To his words, Aaron pronounced a loud "A-men,"—the Hebrew word for expressing full assent and confirmation.

Then I looked, with expectant awe, towards the land of Egypt, over which the thunders rolled without a cloud; when, lo! from the north came rolling onward a black wall of darkness, which I perceived was a mighty cloud from the great sea. It advanced with the swiftness and roar of ten thousand war-chariots rushing to battle. Out of it shot forth lightnings, and its increasing thunders shook Egypt. In a moment it had filled half the heavens, and still onward it rolled. Beneath it moved its shadow, dark as itself, extinguishing the light upon obelisk, tower, and pylon. I am told that Pharaoh, from the top of his palace, witnessed this scene also. Directly the sun was blotted out, and the city of On became invisible. Then I saw fire pour down upon the earth out of the cloud, as if lightnings could not fast enough exhaust its angry power; and I heard the voice of falling hail like the voice of the sea when lashed by a storm. A million of Hebrews, who had gathered in Goshen, stood and beheld what I did. The roads, the fields, the plain were covered with people flying from the terror towards Goshen.

Onward marched this awful servant of the Almighty, more terrible than an army with banners. Fire ran along the ground before it, and red forked lightnings shot far out beyond its advancing edge athwart the blue sky, while, in a moment afterwards, the cloud of blackness rolled beneath, like the sulphurous smoke that the priests of Egypt say forever rolls above the fiery regions of Typhon!

Each instant it enlarged its compass, until from east to west it enveloped Egypt, while fire, mingled with hail, ran along the earth beneath it. Now behold, my father, the power of God! The vast pall which Jehovah had thus begun to draw over Egypt, no sooner had reached in the height of heaven over the borders of Goshen, casting its very shadow, and pouring its stones of hail, and sending its tongues of fire almost to the foot of the tower whereon Moses stood, than it ceased to move! It became stationary in the air a mile high, and there hung beetling over the verge of Goshen like a crag, its edge working and agitated by the wildest commotion, and shooting its lightnings into the blue calm sky over Goshen, but restrained from advancing further by the power of Him who commandeth the heavens, who maketh the clouds His chariot, and who keepeth the lightnings in His quiver!

At length the darkness became so dense, that it seemed a wall, between Egypt and Goshen, from the ground up to the cloud. Over the latter the sun,—oh, what a sublime contrast!—shone with unclouded brightness, the winds slept peacefully, the fields waved with the ripened flax and full-eared barley, the birds sang their songs of gladness, and the children of God dwelt in security, under the protection of His gentle love and terrible power.

Surely Pharaoh must perish if he dare any longer madly to resist the God of the Hebrews, who has now shown that He is God of heaven as well as of the earth, and that He is God alone, and there is none else! If, my dear father, your early instructions had not made known to me the God of Noah, who is the God of the Hebrews, I should, ere this last manifestation of His awful majesty and terror, have prostrated myself before Him and acknowledged Him as my God. Wonderful that He, who dwells in heaven, should stoop to behold things on the earth, and make such displays of His glory, and majesty, and strength, for the sake of a poor, enslaved people like the Hebrews. But, as the holy Moses taught me the other day, when I was humbly sitting at his feet, and hearing him discourse on these mighty events (for which he takes to himself no honor or merit, but only seems the more meek and lowly the more he is intrusted with power by God), these displays of God's majesty have a threefold end: first, to prove to the trembling and heart-crushed Israelites that He who is so terrible in power, doing wonders, is their God, as He was the God of Abraham, and has power to deliver them from Pharaoh; as well as to teach them that if He can so punish the Egyptians, He can punish them also, with equal judgments, if they rebel and do wickedly: secondly, to punish Pharaoh for the oppression of His people, to afflict the land upon which they have groaned so many generations, and to show the Egyptians that He alone is God, that their gods are as stubble in His hand, "that there is none like Him in all the earth;" and thus bring them to acknowledge Him, and to fear and worship Him: and, thirdly, that the word of His mighty deeds and wonders done in Egypt, going abroad to the ears of kings and princes, priests and lords, and people of all nations upon the earth, may give them the knowledge of the true God, prove to them the impotency of their idols, and the supremacy of the God of the Hebrews, in heaven, and on earth, and over kings and people. "Therefore, and for these ends," continued the divine Moses, "that He might not leave Himself without a witness before men, and that He might declare His power to all His creatures, and His care for the oppressed, and His judgment upon kings who reign by cruelty, has He permitted, not only the bondage of our nation, but raised up such a man as Pharaoh, in whom to show forth His power and judgments, as He said to this king, 'And in very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my power, and that my Name may be declared throughout all the earth.' Therefore did the Lord God say to me in the beginning, when He sent me before Pharaoh, 'I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no not until I stretch out my hand with mighty power, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do; and after that he will let you go!' I did not understand this all at the first," said Moses, "but now I perceive the mind of God, and that He will do His will upon Pharaoh, and send yet more terrible punishments; after which, humbled, and acknowledging God to be the Lord, he will let the people go!"

What a wonderful mystery is passing before us, O my father! How dreadful is this God! How wonderful, how glorious is His majesty! In His presence, and before Him, what is man but dust, breath, vanity? I humble myself before Him, and feel that I am a worm, and no man! Yet Thothmeses, like a madman, stands and defies this living God!

Not all the horror of the plague of hail and fire, of the lightnings and thunderings, moved him to let Israel depart. When the judgment of God was at its height, driven to the interior of his palace,—from the tower upon which he had ascended "to see what Moses and Aaron would do," as he said,—he remained there three days, until, unable longer to bear the terrors of the scene, and the cries of his people, he sent for Moses and Aaron. No messenger could be found to go but Israelisis, your former page, who, since he returned to Egypt, is a servant of the king, greatly devoted to him, and from whom I have obtained much interesting information of the effects of these divine judgments upon him. Three couriers, one after the other, had been struck down by the hail. But the Hebrew walked forth fearlessly and unharmed, and moved through the showers of ice, as if he bore a charmed life. This alone should have proved the power of God to be with the Hebrew servant, and against Pharaoh and his servants.

Moving through the darkness, amid the fire upon the ground, and the hail and scalding rain, the man arrived, and told Moses and Aaron that the king had repented, and prayed them both to hasten to him, for he knew their God would defend them from injury on the way.

The king is represented as having received the Hebrew brothers in his bath-room, with his physicians around him, his face ghastly with fear, and anxiety, and an indefinable dread. It is also said that his manner was servile rather than humble, and that his speech was mingled with lamentations and accusations. When they entered, he said:

"It is enough, O men of God, it is enough! Entreat the Lord your God for me, that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail, and I will let you go, and without any longer delay."

As he spoke, the palace shook to its foundations, and the water in the fountain swayed to and fro with violence, as in an earthquake, while the hail, descending with a great noise into the outer courts, was piled many cubits in height against the columns, the sculptured work of which, struck off in every exposed part, fell to the earth mingled with the hail-stones.

"As soon as I am gone out of the city I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord," said Moses, "and the thunder shall cease, and the hail, that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord's. But, O king, as for thee and thy lords, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God. Has He not mocked the power of your pretended goddess, Isis, over the heavens, and seasons, and winds? Who hath known a rain and hail in Egypt in this month? or hath seen the winds blowing clouds from the sea? God is God, and Isis is no god; or if a god, where is her power? Entreat her to remove this chamsin of heaven, such as earth never before felt upon her bosom."

"God is God, and entreat Him for me," answered the king, with a feeble gesture of impatience, doubtless humbled, and yet angry at being compelled to consent to lose six hundred thousand working-men from the mines and great works he is carrying on; for though he fears the number of the Hebrews, he would rather retain them, keeping them under by increased oppression, than release them, and thereby be relieved from the apprehensions to which their unparalleled increase has given rise.

When Moses had left the city of On behind him, he spread abroad his hands towards heaven unto his God; and the thunders, and rain, and hail, and lightnings ceased.

Anticipating the removal of the judgment, I had been standing for some hours by the tower and fountain of Jacob. Suddenly the awful mass of ebony-black cloud, which, for three days, had never ceased to utter its voices of thunder, and send forth its lightnings, hail, and fire upon the earth beneath, began to roll itself up, like a scroll, towards the north. The thunder ceased. The lightnings were no more visible. The hail fell no more. And, as the cloud receded, the shadows upon the land—now smitten and desolate—moved with it. Gradually the whole landscape reappeared; first I saw the walls of On, then its towers, then the obelisks caught the light, and all at once the effulgent sun poured, from the clear sky above it, the splendor of his beams, which the shield of Osiris caught and again reflected with its former brilliancy. Slowly, but with awful majesty, the cloud of God's anger descended the horizon, and finally disappeared in the north. And I thought that mayhap its dark volume would be seen passing over the sea, even from Tyre, to your consternation and wonder.

What a scene of desolation the land presented when, the next day, I returned to On! The fields of flax and barley were smitten and consumed; the trees were broken and stripped of their leaves, either by the fire or hail; the houses and villages of the plain were devastated; in all the fields were dead corpses; and cattle and horses which had escaped the former plague, or been purchased from the Hebrews, were lying dead everywhere with their herdsmen. Chariots and their riders, overtaken in flight from On, lay upon the highways; and death, desolation, and horror reigned!

Entering the city, I saw soldiers that had been struck dead at their posts by the hail, still lying where they fell; and the streets filled with the dead and wounded, and with heaps of hail; while the sun shone down upon a scene of universal wailing and woe!

I passed on to the palace of Pharaoh, my position and rank having at all times given me free access to his presence. I found him at a banquet, as for three days and nights he had scarcely tasted food for terror and confusion, neither he, nor his lords, nor servants. They were feasting and drinking wine, and the king's face was flushed with strong drink; for, seizing the present moment of security, he revelled, striving to forget the past terrors. As I entered, his singers were singing a hymn to his gods; and when it was ended, Pharaoh, with his cup in his hand, cursed the God of the Hebrews who had sent such terrors upon his land, for hitherto he had said it was the gods of Egypt who had done these things, forced thereto by the powerful enchantments of the Hebrew brothers.

I turned away from his hall, refusing to go in, when Moses and Aaron passed me, and entered his presence. Upon seeing them, Pharaoh's heart was hardened against them and their God, and he and his lords rose up in fear and anger.

"Are ye come again before me, ye Hebrews?" he cried, in his wrath and wine. "I will not let Israel go! Not a foot nor hoof shall stir from the land! I have sworn it by the life of Pharaoh, and by the gods of Egypt!"

Then Moses answered the king, and said—

"Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, O Pharaoh: 'Let my people go! How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me; else on the morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coasts, and they shall cover the face of the earth, and devour what remaineth in the field, and shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all the Egyptians, even as hath not been upon the earth unto this day!'"

"We have seen locusts in Egypt, O Hebrew, and fear them not," answered Pharaoh, with a laugh of derision. "Go tell your God that Pharaoh and his gods defy Him and His locusts!"

Then Moses turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh. But the lords of Egypt feared, and said unto their king—

"How long shall this man be a snare unto us and the evil destiny of Egypt? Let the men of the Hebrews go, that they may serve their mighty and dreadful God, as He commandeth them. Knowest thou not, O king, that Egypt is destroyed; and the locusts will destroy the wheat and the rye which are just bursting out of the ground, and the leaves that are putting forth?"

Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, who had not yet reached the gate of the palace, and when they again stood before him, he said—

"For the sake of these, and for Egypt's sake, which thy sorcery has nearly destroyed, I yield to thy demand, not because I fear thy God. Go, serve the Lord your God; but who are they that shall go?"

And Moses answered, and said firmly and fearlessly—

"We will go with our 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 the Lord, and a sacrifice unto our God."

Then Pharaoh answered, in great anger—

"Let the Lord look to you, not to me, for his sacrifices, as if I will let you go, and your little ones, that you may feast to Him! Look to it! Provoke not my wrath, for evil is before you! Ask not so. Go now, ye that are men and serve the Lord, since that is what ye ask! Now leave my presence! Ye are become the curse of Egypt. What! Do ye linger to ask more? Drive the men forth from the palace!"

The guards followed for some paces, but drew not near them for fear; and with calm dignity of demeanor, the divine brothers went out of the palace, and left the city. When we had departed from the presence of Pharaoh—for I had joined their holy companionship—he stretched forth his rod over the land eastward, and invoked the new judgment of God that he had threatened. Immediately a strong east wind arose, and blew all that day, and all the night, each hour increasing; and in the morning, when I waked at a great cry of the people, I looked forth, and beheld the heavens dark with a strange aspect, wholly unlike a cloud, yet moving like one, or, rather, like a great ocean-wave rolling along the sky. It was attended in its approach, which was from the direction of the Arabian Sea, by a confused humming, like the wind sweeping through the tall cedars on Libanus. As it drew near, it covered half the heavens, and appeared many hundred feet in thickness, the lower surface being not far from the earth. I soon perceived, from the cries around me, that it was the threatened plague of locusts coming upon Egypt, loosed from the open palm of God's hand. My position was at a window in the house of Aaron, and not far from the line between Goshen and the rest of Egypt. I saw them, as they passed over the plains, and fields, and city, and villages, descend in showers like flakes of snow, hundreds and thousands at a time, until the whole earth was brown with them. Thus the flight continued all that day, and all night, and all the next day and next night,—an endless cloud, darkening the sun by day and the stars by night. The surface of Egypt seemed agitated and alive like the sea after a storm, restless, and in continual motion in every part; while the noise made by the wings of the locusts was incessant,—a monotone awful to hear, without variation or diminution, till the ear became weary of hearing, and in vain sought relief from the deep, angry bass of this voice of vengeance of the Hebrews' God! In crossing the Nile, myriads fell into it, and covered its surface,—galleys, barges, men, and sails; and the water was defiled by their presence. At noon-day there was a dreadful twilight prevailing, for the beams of the sun could not penetrate this living cloud. They covered the whole face of Egypt, and their voracity left not a bud, or leaf, or any green thing on the trees, which were just putting out again; or in the herbs of the field, which had sprung up since the hail; for much seed was in the ground, which came up after the hail, only to be destroyed by the locusts.

Then the people, in despair, besieged the palace of Pharaoh with great cries. Though the Egyptians regard their king as their priest, and as a god, and are proverbially submissive to his will and power, they had now lost all fear, being driven to despair by this last plague. Nothing but famine and death were before them, and their wives, and little ones! Pharaoh also became alarmed at the endless power of the God of the Hebrews! He had long since given his magicians, Jambres and Jannes, to death, because they failed to keep pace with Moses and Aaron, and he evidently felt that this was the power of a God he could no longer compete with. He therefore sent for Moses and Aaron in haste. When they came into his presence they beheld him in a closed room, lighted by the seven golden lamps which Osirtasen captured from the king of Nineveh; for the locusts made it necessary to close every shutter, and turn day into night, in every house. He was reclining upon a lounge covered with Tyrian purple, and adorned with needle-work; and was surrounded by the ladies of his palace, who were imploring him, as the Hebrew brothers entered, to let Israel go! Even his son, the careless and gay Prince Amunophis, was kneeling before him, and urging him to abide by his resolution, to grant the demand of the God of the Hebrews. When he beheld the tall and majestic persons of Moses and Aaron enter, he rose from his couch, and cried—

"I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now, therefore, O Moses and Aaron, forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat the Lord your God that he may take away from me this death only!"

This confession seemed to be made with a certain frankness and sincerity, and a show of deep humility; and Moses answered—

"The Lord forgive thee, according to what is in thy heart. I will entreat the Lord for thee, and the plague shall be removed from thee and thy people."

Then Moses went out from the presence of Pharaoh; and when he had come into Goshen he ascended the tower of Jacob, and entreated the Lord for Pharaoh. Immediately the cloud of locusts became tossed as with a whirlwind; and the wind, changing from the east to the west, blew strongly, and pressed back the mass of locust-clouds, sweeping those that were on the earth into the air, and rolling the whole body of winged creatures eastward. This wind blew all night, and all the next day, and the next night, a mighty wind, and on the following morning not a living locust was visible in all the coasts of Egypt.

Moses now sent messengers all through Egypt, calling upon the children of Israel to leave whatever they might be occupied in, and assemble themselves in the land of Goshen, with their wives, and children, and flocks, and all that they had. He had previously sent men into Upper Egypt and to the mines; and, what is wonderful, the Hebrews in the mines were permitted to go forth from thence by their keepers, for the fear of Moses had reached their ears, and they gladly let them go! The messengers whom Moses now sent everywhere, from Migdol to Syene, were Hebrews, and were nowhere molested as they went; for a fear and reverence of them, as the people of the mighty God of Moses, had taken the place, in the minds of the great body of the Egyptians, of their former contempt: nay, every one was willing to do them a kindness.

Now, my dear father, you are prepared to read that Pharaoh, according to his word, permitted the children of Israel to depart from his dominions. But Thothmeses IV. is no ordinary man! Probably, such a character as his is unknown in the history of kings. Such a union of opposite qualities is rarely encountered in one individual. Superstitious, yet sacrilegious! cowardly, yet braving death! faithful to his oath to his gods, yet a perjurer of himself to men! tender-hearted as a woman to his own children and family, yet cruel as a tiger and relentless as a lion to the Hebrews and their little ones! Treacherous, sycophantic, malicious, and ironical, he is twofold in speech, and double-minded in secret intention; he promises when in danger, and revokes his word in security! Despising his foes, yet fearing them, he flatters, smiles upon, and deceives them! Trembling under judgment, he denies his terrors when they are past! convinced of the truth, yet opposing it! confessing the power of God, yet defying it! These qualities, God, who reads the character in the heart, saw in Pharaoh, and knew from the beginning what he would do, and how he would receive Moses, far better than we can know how our well-known friends would act under supposed circumstances. It was perhaps, therefore, on account of the peculiar character of this Pharaoh, that God chose the time and the man for showing His power, glory, majesty, and terror to Egypt, to Israel, and to the world! Under such a queen as Amense, or such a prince as the mild Thothmeses II., the first miracle of the serpent swallowing the rods of the magicians, would have drawn their consent to let Israel go. Where then would have been the manifestation of the power of God, that the earth is now witnessing with awe and fear? God, therefore, knowing what was in the man, chose this Pharaoh as the person in whom, through the natural agency of his obdurate heart, He might make manifest His name as the God of heaven and earth, whose power neither man nor gods can resist. Thus Pharaoh, unwittingly, through the perversity of his own will, and the instability of his character, is actually carrying out God's ultimate designs, glorifying Him in His greatness, and drawing forth these stupendous manifestations of His Almighty power over earth, and air, and skies! Yet is he no less guilty before God; for he does not intend His glory, but, on the contrary, denies and defies Him in its every successive manifestation!

Pharaoh, therefore, did not stand to his word now, dear father. When left to himself, he forgot all that had gone before, and sent word to Moses and Aaron not to attempt to remove the Hebrews, as he would not let them go; for Egypt was devastated, and nearly ruined in every part, and he must first have the labors of the Hebrews to restore the dikes and canals, and the terraces and gardens of the lakes, and then he would let them go.

Then Moses and Aaron went at noon-day and sought the Lord as aforetime, in the silence and loneliness of the well of Jacob, where they ever prayed unto Him, and where He spake unto them all the words He commanded them to speak before Pharaoh. And when they had ended their prayers and supplications before their great and terrible God, whose name they never spake but with the profoundest awe, the Lord said unto Moses:

"Stretch forth thine hand towards heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness that may be felt."

Obeying the command, Moses ascended the tower of Jacob, and stretched forth his hand towards heaven.

Then followed a scene, my dear father, of solemn terror. The atmosphere became the color of blood. The sun disappeared as if extinguished. A thick and instant darkness fell upon the earth. The birds ceased their songs; the cattle lowed; the wail of Egypt went up in one great cry! Though On is several miles distant, the cry of the city reached the ears of the children of Israel in Goshen. But with them all was light, and joy, and beauty. The sun shone; there was light in every dwelling; the birds sang; the green harvests waved in the joyous sunshine; the verdant fields and leafy trees danced in the soft breeze; for no plague had come nigh the Hebrews, their fields, foliage, or dwellings. The darkness stood, like a great wall of black mist rising high as heaven, between Goshen and Egypt.

Its sudden descent upon Egypt caught the Egyptians on the road, in the fields, upon the Nile, in the streets, temples, and palaces, as they chanced to be; and where it fell upon them, there they were compelled to remain. No flame could burn in the thick, black fog, which felt slimy to the touch. I would have entered it for a moment after touching it, but Aaron warned me not to tempt God; that safety was alone in the sunlight of Goshen. Out from the black abyss came, now and then, a fearful cry of some desolate wayfarer, and the Hebrews answered kindly back, and so by their shouts directed the wanderer in the darkness how to move towards the light. During this darkness, the Hebrews, by the command of Moses, were collecting their flocks, and preparing to depart to sacrifice to their God: also, those who had not been circumcised now received the rite.

This horrible night continued without change—without moon or star to lend it a ray—until the third day, when Pharaoh, unable longer to hold out in this unequal combat against God, sent two Hebrews, born in his house, to Moses; for only the Hebrew could walk through this night of God as in the light. Without a word of impatience or doubt, Moses and Aaron rose up and disappeared in the awful veil of darkness, in response to the summons of the king. No sooner did Pharaoh behold them, than he cried out, in a voice of mingled complaint and condescension—

"Go ye, Moses and Aaron, ye and yours, only let your flocks and herds stay in the land; for hast thou not destroyed," he added with bitterness, "whatsoever parteth the hoof in all the land of Egypt? Your little ones may also go with you." This was spoken in a tone of condescension.

And Moses answered and said:

"Thou must suffer our flocks and herds to go with us, O king, that we may have sacrifices and burnt-offerings wherewith to sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle, therefore, must also go with us. There shall not a hoof be left behind."

When Pharaoh heard Moses speak thus firmly and boldly to him, abating nothing from his first demand, he seemed to lose his reason with rage. Casting his sceptre from his hand at the two brothers, he cried—

"Get ye from me, ye destroyers and curse of Egypt! Take heed to thyself, O Moses, and see my face no more, for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die!"

Then Moses answered, with calm and severe majesty:

"Thou hast spoken well, O Pharaoh. I will see thy face no more. But hear thou the word of the Lord, which, knowing thy heart, He hath spoken unto me to say now before thee: 'I will bring yet one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of beasts: and all these thy servants shall bow down themselves unto me, saying—"Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee; and thy lords, and high captains, and governors, and great men, and all who serve thee, shall come down to me, to urge me to go forth out of Egypt: after that I will go out."' These, O king, are the words of the Lord against thee. Thou hast cast thy sceptre at my feet. As I step my foot upon it, so shall the Lord place his foot upon Egypt!"

Thus speaking, Moses went out from Pharaoh in great anger. As he left the palace, the Egyptians prostrated themselves before him, and sought his favor, and some cried, "He is a god! Let this god, who is mightier than Osiris and greater than Serapis, be our god!"

"But Moses sternly rebuked them," said Aaron, who related to me all that had passed, "and felt deeply grieved and humbled at so great a sin, and called upon them to worship God in heaven, whose servant only he was, with no power in himself to do these wonders which they had witnessed."

Farewell, my dear father. My next letter, without doubt, will convey to you the victory of the Lord God over Pharaoh and his gods, and the deliverance of the Hebrews from their bondage.

Your affectionate son,

Remeses of Damascus.