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THE EXPOSITOR’S BIBLE.

EDITED BY THE REV.
W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.
Editor of “The Expositor.”

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

BY THE VERY REV.
G. A. CHADWICK, D.D.,
Dean of Armagh

London:
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCXC.

THE
BOOK OF EXODUS.

BY THE VERY REV.
G. A. CHADWICK, D.D.,
Dean of Armagh,

AUTHOR OF “CHRIST BEARING WITNESS TO HIMSELF,”
“AS HE THAT SERVETH,” “THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK,” ETC.

London:
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCXC.

Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.

PREFACE.

Much is now denied or doubted, within the Church itself, concerning the Book of Exodus, which was formerly accepted with confidence by all Christians.

But one thing can neither be doubted nor denied. Jesus Christ did certainly treat this book, taking it as He found it, as possessed of spiritual authority, a sacred scripture. He taught His disciples to regard it thus, and they did so.

Therefore, however widely His followers may differ about its date and origin, they must admit the right of a Christian teacher to treat this book, taking it as he finds it, as a sacred scripture and invested with spiritual authority. It is the legitimate subject of exposition in the Church.

Such work this volume strives, however imperfectly, to perform. Its object is to edify in the first place, and also, but in the second place, to inform. Nor has the author consciously shrunk from saying what seemed to him proper to be said because the utterance would be unwelcome, either to the latest critical theory, or to the last sensational gospel of an hour.

But since controversy has not been sought, although exposition has not been suppressed when it carried weapons, by far the greater part of the volume appeals to all who accept their Bible as, in any true sense, a gift from God.

No task is more difficult than to exhibit the Old Testament in the light of the New, discovering the permanent in the evanescent, and the spiritual in the form and type which it inhabited and illuminated. This book is at least the result of a firm belief that such a connection between the two Testaments does exist, and of a patient endeavour to receive the edification offered by each Scripture, rather than to force into it, and then extort from it, what the expositor desires to find. Nor has it been supposed that by allowing the imagination to assume, in sacred things, that rank as a guide which reason holds in all other practical affairs, any honour would be done to Him Who is called the Spirit of knowledge and wisdom, but not of fancy and quaint conceits.

If such an attempt does, in any degree, prove successful and bear fruit, this fact will be of the nature of a scientific demonstration.

If this ancient Book of Exodus yields solid results to a sober devotional exposition in the nineteenth Christian century, if it is not an idle fancy that its teaching harmonises with the principles and theology of the New Testament, and even demands the New Testament as the true commentary upon the Old, what follows? How comes it that the oak is potentially in the acorn, and the living creature in the egg? No germ is a manufactured article: it is a part of the system of the universe.

ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS.

[CHAPTER I.]

The Prologue, i. 1–6.

Books linked by conjunction “And:” Scripture history a connected whole, [1].—So is secular history organic: “Philosophy of history.” The Pentateuch being a still closer unity, Exodus rehearses the descent into Egypt, [2].—Heredity: the family of Jacob, [3].—Death of Joseph. Influence of Egypt on the shepherd race, [4].—A healthy stock: good breeding. Goethe’s aphorism, [5].—Ourselves and our descendants, [6].

God in History, i. 7.

In Exodus, national history replaces biography, [6].—Contrasted narratives of Jacob and Moses. Spiritual progress from Genesis to Exodus, [7].—St. Paul’s view: Law prepares for Gospel, especially by our failures, [8].—This explains other phenomena: failures in various circumstances, of innocence in Eden; of an elect family; now of a race, a nation, [9].—Israel, failing with all advantages, needs a Messiah. Faith justifies, in Old Testament as in New, [10].—Scripture history reveals God in this life, in all things, [11].—True spirituality owns God in the secular: this is a gospel for our days, [12]–[13].

The Oppression, i. 7–22.

Early prosperity: its dangers: political supports vain, [13].—Joseph forgotten. National responsibilities: despotism, [14].—Nations and their chiefs. Our subject races, [15].—The Church and her King: imputation. Pharaoh precipitates what he fears, [16].—Egypt and her aliens: modern parallels, [17].—Tyranny is tyrannous even when cultured, [18].—Our undue estrangement from the fallen: Jesus a brother. Toil crushes the spirit, [19].—Israel idolatrous. Religious dependence, [20]. —Direct interposition required. Bitter oppression, [21].—Pharaoh drops the mask. Defeated by the human heart. The midwives, [22].—Their falsehood. Morality is progressive, [23].—Culture and humanity, [24].—Religion and the child, [25].

[CHAPTER II.]

The Rescue of Moses, ii. 1–10.

Importance of the individual, [26].—A man versus “the Time-spirit,” [27].—The parents of Moses, [28].—Their family: their goodly child, [29].—Emotion helps faith, [30].—The ark in the bulrushes, [31].—Pharaoh’s daughter and Miriam, [32].—Guidance for good emotions: the Church for humanity, [33].

The Choice of Moses, ii. 11–15.

God employs means, [34].—Value of endowment. Moses and his family. “The reproach of Christ,” [35].—An impulsive act, [36].—Impulses not accidents. The hopes of Moses, [37].—Moses and his brethren. His flight, [38].

Moses in Midian, ii. 16–22.

Energy in disaster, [39].—Disinterested bravery. Parallels with a variation, [40].—The Unseen a refuge. Duty of resisting small wrongs. His wife, [41].—A lonely heart, [42].

[CHAPTER III.]

The Burning Bush, ii. 23–iii.

Death of Raamses. Misery continues, [43].—The cry of the oppressed, [44].—Discipline of Moses, [45].—How a crisis comes, [46].—God hitherto unmentioned. The Angel of the Lord, [47].—An unconsuming fire, [48].—Inquiry: reverence. God finds, not man, [49].—“Take off thy shoe.” “The God of thy father,” [50].—Immortality. “My people,” not saints only, [51].—The good land. The commission, [52].—God with him. A strange token, [53].

A New Name, iii. 14; vi. 2, 3.

Why Moses asked the name of God: idolatry: pantheism, [54].—A progressive revelation, [55].—Jehovah. The sound corrupted. Similar superstitions yet, [56].—What it told the Jews. Reality of being, [57].—Jews not saved by ideas. Streams of tendency. The Self-contained. We live in our past, [58].—And in our future, [59].—Yet Jehovah not the impassive God of Lucretius, [60].—The Immutable is Love. This is our help, [61].—Human will is not paralysed, [62].—The teaching of St. Paul. All this is practical, [63].—This gives stability to all other revelations. Our own needs, [64].

The Commission, iii. 10, 16–22.

God comes where He sends, [65].—The Providential man. Prudence, [66].—Sincerity of demand for a brief respite, [67].—God has already visited them. By trouble He transplants, [68].—The “borrowing” of jewels, [69].

[CHAPTER IV.]

Moses Hesitates, iv. 1–17.

Scripture is impartial: Josephus, [70].—Hindrance from his own people. The rod, [71].—The serpent: the leprosy, [72].—“I am not eloquent,” [73].—God with us. Aaron the Levite, [74].—Responsibility of not working. The errors of Moses, [75].—Power of fellowship. Vague fears, [76].—With his brother, Moses will go. The Church, [77].—This craving met by Christ, [78].—Family affection. Examples, [79].

Moses Obeys, iv. 18–31.

Fidelity to his employer. Reticence, [80].—Resemblance to story of Jesus. He is the Antitype of all experiences, [81].—Counterpoint in history. “Israel is My son,” [82].—A neglected duty Zipporah. Was she a helpmeet? [83].—Domestic unhappiness. History v. myth, [84].—The failures of the good, [85].—Men of destiny are not irresponsible, [86].—His first followers: a joyful reception, [87].—Spiritual joy and reaction, [88].

[CHAPTER V.]

Pharaoh Refuses, v. 1–23.

Moses at court again. Formidable, [89].—Power of convictions but also of tyranny and pride. Menephtah: his story, [90].—Was the Pharaoh drowned? The demand of Jehovah, [91].—The refusal, [92].—Is religion idleness? Hebrews were taskmasters, [93].—Demoralised by slavery. They are beaten, [94].—Murmurs against Moses. He returns to God. His remonstrance, [95].—His disappointment. Not really irreverent, [96].—Use of this abortive attempt, [97]–[8].

[CHAPTER VI.]

The Encouragement of Moses, vi. 1–30.

The word Jehovah known before: its consolations now, [99].—The new truth is often implicit in the old, [100].—Discernment more needed than revelation. “Judgments,” [101].—My people: your God, [102].—The tie is of God’s binding, [103],—Fatherhood and sonship, [104].—Faith becomes knowledge. The body hinders the soul, [105].—We are responsible for bodies. Israel weighs Moses down, [106].—We may hold back the saints, [107].—The pedigree, [107]–[8].—Indications of genuine history, [108]–[9].—“As a god to Pharaoh,” [110].—We also, [111].

[CHAPTER VII.]

The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart, vii. 3–13.

The assertion offends many, [112].—Was he a free agent? When hardened. A.V. incorrect, [113].—He resists five plagues spontaneously. The last five are penal, [114].—Not “hardened” in wickedness, but in nerve. A.V. confuses three words: His heart is (a) “hardened,” [115].—(b) it is made “strong” (c) “heavy,” [116].—Other examples of these words, [117].—The warning implied, [117]–[19].—Moses returns with the signs, [119].—The functions of miracle, [120].

The Plagues, vii. 14.

Their vast range, [121].—Their relation to Pantheism, Idolatry, Philosophy, [122].—And to the gods of Egypt. Their retributive fitness, [123].—Their arrangement, [124].—Like our Lord’s, not creative, [125].—God in common things, [126].—Some we inflict upon ourselves. Yet rationalistic analogies fail, [127].—Duration of the conflict, [128].

The First Plague, vii, 14–25.

The probable scene, [129].—Extent of the plague. The magicians. Its duration, [131].—Was Israel exempt? Contrast with first miracle of Jesus, [132].

[CHAPTER VIII.]

The Second Plague, viii. 1–15.

Submission demanded. Severity of plague, [133].—Pharaoh humbles himself, [134].—“Glory over me.” Pharaoh breaks faith, [135].

The Third Plague, viii. 16–19.

Various theories. A surprise. Magicians baffled, [136].—What they confess, [137].

The Fourth Plague, viii. 20–32.

“Rising up early,” [137].—Bodily pain. Beetles or flies? “A mixture,” [138]—Goshen exempt. Pharaoh suffers. He surrenders, [139].—Respite and treachery. Would Moses have returned? [140].

[CHAPTER IX.]

The Fifth Plague, ix. 1–7.

First attack on life. Animals share our fortunes, [141]. The new summons. Murrain, [142].—Pharaoh’s curiosity, [143].

The Sixth Plague, ix. 8–12.

No warning, yet Author manifest. Ashes of the furnace, [144].—-Suffering in the flesh. The magicians again. Pharaoh’s heart “made strong,” [145].—Dares not retaliate, [146].

The Seventh Plague, ix. 13–35.

Expostulation not mockery, [146]–[7].—God is wronged by slavery, [147].—Civil liberty is indebted to religion. “Plagues upon thine heart,” [148].—A mis-rendering: why he was not crushed, [149].—An opportunity of escape. The storm, [150].—Ruskin upon terrors of thunderstorm, [151].—Pharaoh confesses sin, [152].—Moses intercedes. The weather in history. Job’s assertion, [153].

[CHAPTER X.]

The Eighth Plague, x. 1–20.

Moses encouraged, [154].—Deliverances should be remembered. A sterner rebuke. Locusts in Egypt, [155].—Their effect. The court interferes. Yet “their hearts hardened” also, [156]—Infatuation of Pharaoh. Parallel of Napoleon, [157].—Women and little ones did share in festivals, [158].—A gentle wind. Locusts. Another surrender, [159].—Relief. Our broken vows, [160].

The Ninth Plague, x. 21–29.

Menephtah’s sun-worship, [161].—Suddenness of the plague. Concentrated narrative, [162].—Darkness represents death, [163].—The Book of Wisdom upon this plague, [164]–[5].—Isaiah’s allusions. The Pharaoh’s character, [165].—Altercation with Moses, [166].

[CHAPTER XI.]

The Last Plague announced, xi. 1–10.

This chapter supplements the last. The blow is known to be impending. Uses of its delay, [167].—Israel shall claim wages. The menace, [168].—Parallel with St. John, [169]–[70].

[CHAPTER XII.]

The Passover, xii. 1–28.

Birthday of a nation. The calendar, [171].—“The congregation.” The feast is social, [172].—The nation is based upon the family. No Egyptian house escapes, [173].—National interdependence. The Passover a sacrifice, [174].—What does the blood mean? Rationalistic theories. Harvest festivals, [175].—The unbelieving point of view: what theories of sacrifice were then current? “A sacrifice was a meal,” [176].—Human sacrifices. The Passover “unhistorical.” Kuenen rejects this view, [177].—Phenomena irreconcilable with it, [178]–[9]. What is really expressed? Danger even to Jews, [179].—Salvation by grace. Not unbought, [180].—The lamb a ransom. All firstborn are forfeited. Tribe of Levi, [181].—Cash payment. Effect on Hebrew literature, [182].—Its prophetic import, [183].—The Jew must co-operate with God: must also become His guest, [184].—Sacred festivals. Lamb or kid. Four days reserved, [185].—Men are sheep. Heads of houses originally sacrifice. Transition to Levites in progress under Hezekiah, complete under Josiah, [186].—Unleavened bread. The lamb. Roast, not sodden, [187].—Complete consumption. Judgment upon gods of Egypt, [188].—The blood a token unto themselves. On their lintels, [189].—The word “pass-over,” [190].—Domestic teaching, [191].—Many who ate the feast perished. Aliens might share, [192].

The Tenth Plague, xii. 29–36.

The blow falls. Pharaoh was not “firstborn”: his son “sat upon his throne,” [193].—The scene, [194].—The demands of Israel. St. Augustine’s inference, [195].

The Exodus, xii. 37–42.

The route, [195].—Their cattle, a suggested explanation, [196].—“Four hundred and thirty years,” [197]–[8].

[CHAPTER XIII.]

The Law of the Firstborn, xiii, 1.

The consecration of the firstborn, [199].—The Levite. “They are Mine,” [200].—Joy is hopeful. Tradition? [201].—Phylacteries. The ass, [202].—The Philistines. No spiritual miracle, [203].—Education, [204].

The Bones of Joseph, xiii. 19.

Joseph influenced Moses, [204].—His faith, [205].—Circumstances overcome by soul. God in the cloud, [206].—Hebrew poetry and modern, [207].

[CHAPTER XIV.]

The Red Sea, xiv. 1–31.

Stopped on the march, [208].—Pharaoh presumes, [209].—The panic, [210].—Moses. Prayer and action. “Self-assertion”? [211].—The midnight march, [212].—The lost army, [213].

On the Shore, xiv. 30, 31.

Impressions deepened. “They believed in Jehovah.” So the faith of the apostles grew, [214].

[CHAPTER XV.]

The Song of Moses, xv. 1–22.

A song remembered in heaven. Its structure, [216]–[17].—The women join. Instruments. Dances, [218]. God the Deliverer, not Moses. “My salvation,” [219].—Gratitude. Anthropomorphism. “Ye are gods.” “Jehovah is a Man—of war,” [220]–[2].—The overthrow, [222].—First mention of Divine holiness, [223].—An inverted holiness, [224].—“Thou shalt bring them in,” [225].

Shur, xv. 22–27.

Disillusion. Marah, [226].—A universal danger, [227].—Prayer, and the use of means, [228].—“A statute and an ordinance.” Such compacts often repeated. The offered privilege, [229].—It is still enjoyed, [230].—“The Lord for the body.” Elim, [231].

[CHAPTER XVI.]

Murmuring for Food, xvi. 1–14.

We too fear, although Divinely guarded, [232].—They would fain die satiated, [233].—Relief tries them as want does, [234].—The Sabbath. A rebuke, [235].—Moses is zealous. His “meekness,” [236].—The glory appears, [237].—Quails and manna, [238].

Manna, xvi. 15–36.

Their course of life is changed, [238].—A drug resembles manna, [239].—The supernatural follows nature, [240].—They must gather, prepare, be moderate, [241].—Nothing over and no lack. Socialistic perversion, [242].—Socialism. Christ in politics, [243]–[4].

Spiritual Meat, xvi. 15–36.

Manna is a type. When given, [244].—An unearthly sustenance, [245]. What is spirituality? Christ the true Manna, [246].—Universal, daily, abundant, [247].—The Sabbath. The pot of manna, [248].

[CHAPTER XVII.]

Meribah, xvii. 1–7.

A greater strain. What if Israel had stood it? [249].—They murmured against Moses. The position of Aaron. An exaggerated outcry, [250].—Witnesses to the miracle. The rock in Horeb, [251].—The rod. Privilege is not acceptance, [252].

Amalek, xvii. 8–16.

A water-raid, [252].—God’s sheep must become His warriors. War, [253]–[4].—Joshua. The rod of God, [255].—A silent prayer. Aaron and Hur must join in it, [256].—So now. But the army must fight, [257].—“The Lord my banner.” Unlike a myth, [258].

[CHAPTER XVIII.]

Jethro, xviii. 1–27.

Gentiles in new aspect. Church may learn from secular wisdom, [259].—Little is said of Zipporah: Jethro’s pleasure, [260].—A Gentile priest recognised. Religious festivity, [261].—Jethro’s advice: its importance, [262].—Divine help does not supersede human gift, [263].

[THE TYPICAL BEARINGS OF THE HISTORY.]

Narrative is also allegory. Danger of arbitrary fancies. Example from Bunyan. Scriptural teaching, [264].—Some resemblances are planned: others are reappearances of same principle, [265].—So that these are evidential analogies, like Butler’s, [266].—Others appear forced. “I called My Son out of Egypt” refers to Israel, [267].—But the condescending phrase promised more, and the subsequent coincidence is significant, [268]. Truths cannot all be proved like Euclid’s, [269].

[CHAPTER XIX.]

At Sinai, xix. 1–25.

Sinai and Pentecost. The place. Ras Sufsâfeh. God speaks in nature, [270].—Moses is stopped; the people must pledge themselves. Dedication services, [271].—An appeal to gratitude, and a promise, [272].—“A peculiar treasure.” “A kingdom and priests,” [273].—The individual, and Church order. “On eagles’ wings,” [274].—Israel consents. The Lord in the cloud. Manifestations are transient, [275].—Precautions. The trumpet, [276]. “The priests.” A plébiscite. Contrast between Law and Gospel: Methodius, [277].—Theophanies, [278].—None like this, [279].

[CHAPTER XX.]

The Law, xx. 1–17.

What the law did. It could not justify. It reveals obligation, [280].—It convicts, not enables. It is an organic whole. And a challenge, [281].—The Spirit enables: love is fulfilment of law. Luther’s paradox, [283].—Law and Gospel contrasted. Its spiritual beauty: two noble failures, [283].—The Jewish arrangement of the Commandments. St. Augustine’s. The Anglican. An equal division, [284]–[6].

The Prologue, xx. 2.

Their experience of God, [286].—God and the first table. The true object of adoration: men must adore. Agnosticism, [287].—God and the second table, [288].—Law appeals to noble motives, [289].

The First Commandment, xx. 3.

Monotheism and a real God, [289].—False creeds attractive. Spiritualism. Science indebted to Monotheism, [290].—Unity of nature a religious truth. Strength of our experimental argument. [291].—Informal apostacy. Luther’s position. Scripture. The Chaldeans, [292].—Animal pleasure, [293].—The remedy: “Thou shalt have ... Me,” [294].

The Second Commandment, xx. 4–6.

Imagery not all idolatry. The subtler paganisms, [295]. Spiritual worship, like a Gothic building, aspires: images lack expansiveness, [296].—God is jealous, [297].—The shadow of love, [298]. Visiting sins on children, [299], [300].—Part of vast beneficent law, [300]–[2].—Gospel in law, [302].

The Third Commandment, xx. 7.

Meaning of “in vain,” [302].—Jewish superstition. Where swearing is wholly forbidden, [303].—Fruitful and free use of God’s name, [304]–[5].

The Fourth Commandment, xx. 8–11.

Law of Sabbath unique. Confession of Augsburg. Of Westminster, [305].—Anglican position. St. Paul, [306].—The first positive precept. Love not the abolition of the law, [307].—Property of our friends. The word “remember.” The story of creation, [305].—The manna. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, [309].—Christ’s freedom was that of a Jew. “Sabbath for man,” [310].—Our help, not our fetter. “My Father worketh,” [311].

The Fifth Commandment, xx. 12.

Bridge between duty to God and to neighbour, [312].—Father and child, [313].—“Whosoever hateth not.” Christ and His mother. Its sanction, [314].

The Sixth Commandment, xx. 13.

Who is neighbour? Ethics and religion, [315]–[16].—Science and morals, [317].—A Divine creature. Capital punishment, [318].

The Seventh Commandment, xx. 14.

Justice forbids act: Christ forbids desire. Sacredness of body, [319].—Human body connects material and spiritual worlds. Modifies, while serves, [320].—Marriage a type, [321].

The Eighth Commandment, xx. 15.

Assailed by communism, by Rome. Various specious pleas, [322].—Laws of community binding, [323].—None may judge his own case, St. Paul enlarges the precept, [324].

The Ninth Commandment, xx. 16.

Importance of words. Various transgressions, [325].—Slander against nations, against the race. Love, [326]–[7].

The Tenth Commandment, xx. 17.

The list of properties, [328].—The heart. The law searches, [329].

[THE LESSER LAW, xx. 18–xxiii. 33.]

A remarkable code. The circumstances, [331].—Moses fears: yet bids them fear not, [332]–[3].—Presumption v. awe. He receives an expanded decalogue, an abridged code, [334].—Laws should educate a people; should not outrun their capabilities, [335]–[6].—Five subdivisions, [337].

I. The Law of Worship, xx. 22–26.

Images again forbidden, [337].—Splendour and simplicity. An objection, [338].—Modesty, [339].

[CHAPTER XXI. THE LESSER LAW (continued).]

II. Rights of the Person, xxi. 1–32.

The Hebrew slave. The seventh year. Year of jubilee. His family, [340].—The ear pierced. St. Paul’s “marks of the Lord.” Assaults, [341].—The Gentile slave, [342]. The female slave, [342]–[3].—Murder and blood-fiends, [343].—Parents. Kidnappers, [344].—Eye for eye. Mitigations of lex talionis, [344]–[5].—Vicious cattle, [346].

III. Rights of Property, xxi. 33–xxii. 15.

Negligence: indirect responsibility: various examples, [346]–[8].—Theft, [348].

[CHAPTER XXII. THE LESSER LAW (continued).]

IV. Various Enactments, xxii. 16–xxiii. 19.

Disconnected precepts. No trace of systematic revision. Certain capital crimes, [348]–[9].

Sorcery, xxii. 18.

Abuses have recoiled against religion, [349].—Sorcerers are impostors, but they existed, and do still, [350].—Moses could not leave them to enlightened opinion. Propagated apostacy, [351].—Traitors in a theocracy, [352].—When shall witchcraft die? [353].

The Stranger, xxii. 21; xxiii. 9.

“Ye were strangers,” [353].—A fruitful principle. Morality not expediency, [354].—Cruelty often ignorance: Moses educates, [355].—The widow. The borrower, [356].—Other precepts, [357].

[CHAPTER XXIII. THE LESSER LAW (continued).]

An enemy’s cattle. A false report, [358].—Influence of multitude: the world and the Church, [359]–[60].—Favour not the poor, [360]–[1].—Other precepts. “A kid in his mother’s milk,” [361].

Lesser Law, V. Its Sanctions xxiii. 20–33.

A bold transition: the Angel in Whom is “My Name,” [362].—Not a mere messenger, [363].—Nor the substitute of chap. xxxiii. 2, 3, [364]–[5].—Parallel verses, [365]–[6].

[CHAPTER XXIV.]

The Covenant Ratified. The Vision of God, xxiv.

The code is accepted, written, ratified with blood, [367].—Exclusion and admittance. The elders see God: Moses goes farther. Theophanies of other creeds, [368].—How could they see God? [369].—Moses feels not satisfaction, but desire, [370].—His progress is from vision to shadow and a Voice, [371].—We see not each other, [372].—St. Augustine, [372]–[3].—The vision suits the period: not post-Exilian, [373]–[4].—Contrast with revelation in Christ, [374].

[CHAPTER XXV.]

The Shrine and its Furniture, xxv. 1–40.

The God of Sinai will inhabit a tent. His other tabernacles, [375]–[6].—The furniture is typical. Altar of incense postponed, [376].—The ark enshrines His law and its sanctions, [376]–[7].—The mercy-seat covers it, [377]–[80].—Man’s homage. The table of shewbread, [381]–[2].—The golden candlestick (lamp-stand), [382]–[5].

The Pattern in the Mount, xxv. 9, 40.

Use in Hebrews. Plato, [385].—Not a model, but an idea. Art, [386].—Provisional institutions, [386]–[7].—-The ideal in creation, [387].—In life, [388].

[CHAPTER XXVI.]

The Tabernacle.

“Temple” an ambiguous word, [389].—“Curtains of the Tabernacle,” [390].—Other coverings, [391].—The boards and sockets, [391]–[2].—The bars. The tent, [392].—Position of veil, [393], and of the front, [394].

[CHAPTER XXVII.]

The Outer Court.

The altar, [395].—The quadrangle, [396].—General effect, [397]–[399].

[CHAPTER XXVIII.]

The Holy Garments.

Their import, [400].—The drawers. “Coat.” Head-tires. Robe of the ephod. Ephod. Jewels, [401].—Breastplate. Urim and Thummim. Mitre. Symbolism, [402].

The Priesthood.

Universal desire and dread of God, [403].—Delegates, [404]. Scripture. First Moses, [405].—His family passed over. The double consciousness expressed, [406]–[8].—Messianic priesthood, [408].

[CHAPTER XXIX.]

Consecration Services.

Why consecrate at all? [409].—Moses officiates. The offerings, [410].—Ablution, robing, anointing, [411]–[12].—The sin-offering, [412]–[13]. “Without the camp,” [413]. The burnt-offering, [414].—The peace-offering (“ram of consecration”), [414].—The wave-offerings, [414]–[15].—The result, [415]–[16].

[CHAPTER XXX.]

Incense, xxx. 1–10.

The impalpable in nature, [417].—“The golden altar,” [418].—Represents prayer. Needs cleansing, [419].

A Census, xxx. ii–16.

A census not sinful. David’s transgression. The half-shekel. Equality of man, [420].—Christ paid it, [421].—Its employment, [422].

The Laver, xxx. 17–21.

Behind the altar. Purity of priests, [422].—Made of the mirrors, [423].

Anointing Oil and Incense, xxx. 22–38.

Their ingredients. All the vessels anointed, [423].—Forbidden to secular uses, [424].—Modern analogies, [425]–[6].

[CHAPTER XXXI.]

Bezaleel and Aholiab, xxxi. 1–18.

Secular gifts are sacred, [427]–[29].—The Sabbath. The tables and “the finger of God,” [430].

[CHAPTER XXXII.]

The Golden Calf.

Sin of the people; of Aaron. God rejects them, 431.—Intercession. The Christian antitype, [432]–[3].

[CHAPTER XXXIII.]

Prevailing Intercession.

The first concession. The angel, [434].—“The Tent of the Meeting,” [435].

[CHAPTER XXXIV.]

The Vision of God.

To know is to desire to know. A fit season. The greater Name, [437].—The covenant renewed. The tables. The skin of his face shone, [438].—Lessons, [439].

[CHAPTERS XXXV.–XL. CONCLUSION.]

The people obey, [440].—The forming of the nation: review, [440]–[2].

CHAPTER I.

THE PROLOGUE.

Exodus i. 1–6.

“And these are the names of the children of Israel which came into Egypt.”

Many books of the Old Testament begin with the conjunction And. This fact, it has been often pointed out, is a silent indication of truth, that each author was not recording certain isolated incidents, but parts of one great drama, events which joined hands with the past and future, looking before and after.

Thus the Book of the Kings took up the tale from Samuel, Samuel from Judges, and Judges from Joshua, and all carried the sacred movement forward towards a goal as yet unreached. Indeed, it was impossible, remembering the first promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent, and the later assurance that in the seed of Abraham should be the universal blessing, for a faithful Jew to forget that all the history of his race was the evolution of some grand hope, a pilgrimage towards some goal unseen. Bearing in mind that there is now revealed to us a world-wide tendency toward the supreme consummation, the bringing all things under the headship of Christ, it is not to be denied that this hope of the ancient Jew is given to all mankind. Each new stage in universal history may be said to open with this same conjunction. It links the history of England with that of Julius Cæsar and of the Red Indian; nor is the chain composed of accidents: it is forged by the hand of the God of providence. Thus, in the conjunction which binds these Old Testament narratives together, is found the germ of that instinctive and elevating phrase, the Philosophy of History. But there is nowhere in Scripture the notion which too often degrades and stiffens that Philosophy—the notion that history is urged forward by blind forces, amid which the individual man is too puny to assert himself. Without a Moses the Exodus is inconceivable, and God always achieves His purpose through the providential man.

The Books of the Pentateuch are held together in a yet stronger unity than the rest, being sections of one and the same narrative, and having been accredited with a common authorship from the earliest mention of them. Accordingly, the Book of Exodus not only begins with this conjunction (which assumes the previous narrative), but also rehearses the descent into Egypt. “And these are the names of the sons of Israel which came into Egypt,”—names blotted with many a crime, rarely suggesting any lovable or great association, yet the names of men with a marvellous heritage, as being “the sons of Israel,” the Prince who prevailed with God. Moreover they are consecrated: their father’s dying words had conveyed to every one of them some expectation, some mysterious import which the future should disclose. In the issue would be revealed the awful influence of the past upon the future, of the fathers upon the children even beyond the third and fourth generation—an influence which is nearer to destiny, in its stern, subtle and far-reaching strength, than any other recognised by religion. Destiny, however, it is not, or how should the name of Dan have faded out from the final list of “every tribe of the children of Israel” in the Apocalypse (Rev. vii. 5–8), where Manasseh is reckoned separately from Joseph to complete the twelve?

We read that with the twelve came their posterity, seventy souls in direct descent from Jacob; but in this number he is himself included, according to that well-known Orientalism which Milton strove to force upon our language in the phrase—

“The fairest of her daughters Eve.”

Joseph is also reckoned, although he “was in Egypt already.” Now, it must be observed that of these seventy, sixty-eight were males, and therefore the people of the Exodus must not be reckoned to have sprung in the interval from seventy, but (remembering polygamy) from more than twice that number, even if we refuse to make any account of the household which is mentioned as coming with every man. These households were probably smaller in each case than that of Abraham, and the famine in its early stages may have reduced the number of retainers; yet they account for much of what is pronounced incredible in the rapid expansion of the clan into a nation.[1] But when all allowance has been made, the increase continues to be, such as the narrator clearly regards it, abnormal, well-nigh preternatural, a fitting type of the expansion, amid fiercer persecutions, of the later Church of God, the true circumcision, who also sprang from the spiritual parentage of another Seventy and another Twelve.

“And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.” Thus the connection with Canaan became a mere tradition, and the powerful courtier who had nursed their interests disappeared. When they remembered him, in the bitter time which lay before them, it was only to reflect that all mortal help must perish. It is thus in the spiritual world also. Paul reminds the Philippians that they can obey in his absence and not in his presence only, working out their own salvation, as no apostle can work it out on their behalf. And the reason is that the one real support is ever present. Work out your own salvation, for it is God (not any teacher) Who worketh in you. The Hebrew race was to learn its need of Him, and in Him to recover its freedom. Moreover, the influences which mould all men’s characters, their surroundings and mental atmosphere, were completely changed. These wanderers for pasture were now in the presence of a compact and impressive social system, vast cities, gorgeous temples, an imposing ritual. They were infected as well as educated there, and we find the men of the Exodus not only murmuring for Egyptian comforts, but demanding visible gods to go before them.

Yet, with all its drawbacks, the change was a necessary part of their development. They should return from Egypt relying upon no courtly patron, no mortal might or wisdom, aware of a name of God more profound than was spoken in the covenant of their fathers, with their narrow family interests and rivalries and their family traditions expanded into national hopes, national aspirations, a national religion.

Perhaps there is another reason why Scripture has reminded us of the vigorous and healthy stock whence came the race that multiplied exceedingly. For no book attaches more weight to the truth, so miserably perverted that it is discredited by multitudes, but amply vindicated by modern science, that good breeding, in the strictest sense of the word, is a powerful factor in the lives of men and nations. To be well born does not of necessity require aristocratic parentage, nor does such parentage involve it: but it implies a virtuous, temperate and pious stock. In extreme cases the doctrine of race is palpable; for who can doubt that the sins of dissolute parents are visited upon their puny and short-lived children, and that the posterity of the just inherit not only honour and a welcome in the world, “an open door,” but also immunity from many a physical blemish and many a perilous craving? If the Hebrew race, after eighteen centuries of calamity, retains an unrivalled vigour and tenacity, be it remembered how its iron sinew has been twisted, from what a sire it sprang, through what ages of more than “natural selection” the dross was throughly purged out, and (as Isaiah loves to reiterate) a chosen remnant left. Already, in Egypt, in the vigorous multiplication of the race, was visible the germ of that amazing vitality which makes it, even in its overthrow, so powerful an element in the best modern thought and action.

It is a well-known saying of Goethe that the quality for which God chose Israel was probably toughness. Perhaps the saying would better be inverted: it was among the most remarkable endowments, unto which Israel was called, and called by virtue of qualities in which Goethe himself was remarkably deficient.

Now, this principle is in full operation still, and ought to be solemnly pondered by the young. Self-indulgence, the sowing of wild oats, the seeing of life while one is young, the taking one’s fling before one settles down, the having one’s day (like “every dog,” for it is to be observed that no person says, “every Christian”), these things seem natural enough. And their unsuspected issues in the next generation, dire and subtle and far-reaching, these also are more natural still, being the operation of the laws of God.

On the other hand, there is no youth living in obedience alike to the higher and humbler laws of our complex nature, in purity and gentleness and healthful occupation, who may not contribute to the stock of happiness in other lives beyond his own, to the future well-being of his native land, and to the day when the sadly polluted stream of human existence shall again flow clear and glad, a pure river of water of life.

GOD IN HISTORY.

i. 7.

With the seventh verse, the new narrative, the course of events treated in the main body of this book, begins.

And we are at once conscious of this vital difference between Exodus and Genesis,—that we have passed from the story of men and families to the history of a nation. In the first book the Canaanites and Egyptians concern us only as they affect Abraham or Joseph. In the second book, even Moses himself concerns us only for the sake of Israel. He is in some respects a more imposing and august character than any who preceded him; but what we are told is no longer the story of a soul, nor are we pointed so much to the development of his spiritual life as to the work he did, the tyrant overthrown, the nation moulded, the law and the ritual imposed on it.

For Jacob it was a discovery that God was in Bethel as well as in his father’s house. But now the Hebrew nation was to learn that He could plague the gods of Egypt in their stronghold, that His way was in the sea, that Horeb in Arabia was the Mount of God, that He could lead them like a horse through the wilderness.

When Jacob in Peniel wrestles with God and prevails, he wins for himself a new name, expressive of the higher moral elevation which he has attained. But when Moses meets God in the bush, it is to receive a commission for the public benefit; and there is no new name for Moses, but a fresh revelation of God for the nation to learn. And in all their later history we feel that the national life which it unfolds was nourished and sustained by these glorious early experiences, the most unique as well as the most inspiriting on record.

Here, then, a question of great moment is suggested. Beyond the fact that Abraham was the father of the Jewish race, can we discover any closer connection between the lives of the patriarchs and the history of Israel? Is there a truly spiritual coherence between them, or merely a genealogical sequence? For if the Bible can make good its claim to be vitalised throughout by the eternal Spirit of God, and leading forward steadily to His final revelation in Christ, then its parts will be symmetrical, proportionate and well designed. If it be a universal book, there must be a better reason for the space devoted to preliminary and half secular stories, which is a greater bulk than the whole of the New Testament, than that these histories chance to belong to the nation whence Christ came. If no such reason can be found, the failure may not perhaps outweigh the great evidences of the faith, but it will score for something on the side of infidelity. But if upon examination it becomes plain that all has its part in one great movement, and that none can be omitted without marring the design, and if moreover this design has become visible only since the fulness of the time is come, the discovery will go far to establish the claim of Scripture to reveal throughout a purpose truly divine, dealing with man for ages, and consummated in the gift of Christ.

Now, it is to St. Paul that we turn for light upon the connection between the Old Testament and the New. And he distinctly lays down two great principles. The first is that the Old Testament is meant to educate men for the New; and especially that the sense of failure, impressed upon men’s consciences by the stern demands of the Law, was necessary to make them accept the Gospel.

The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ: it entered that sin might abound. And it is worth notice that this effect was actually wrought, not only upon the gross transgressor by the menace of its broken precepts, but even more perhaps upon the high-minded and pure, by the creation in their breasts of an ideal, inaccessible in its loftiness. He who says, All these things have I kept from my youth up, is the same who feels the torturing misgiving, What good thing must I do to attain life?... What lack I yet? He who was blameless as touching the righteousness of the law, feels that such superficial innocence is worthless, that the law is spiritual and he is carnal, sold under sin.

Now, this principle need by no means be restricted to the Mosaic institutions. If this were the object of the law, it would probably explain much more. And when we return to the Old Testament with this clue, we find every condition in life examined, every social and political experiment exhausted, a series of demonstrations made with scientific precision, to refute the arch-heresy which underlies all others—that in favourable circumstances man might save himself, that for the evil of our lives our evil surroundings are more to be blamed than we.

Innocence in prosperous circumstances, unwarped by evil habit, untainted by corruption in the blood, uncompelled by harsh surroundings, simple innocence had its day in Paradise, a brief day with a shameful close. God made man upright, but he sought out many inventions, until the flood swept away the descendants of him who was made after the image of God.

Next we have a chosen family, called out from all the perilous associations of its home beyond the river, to begin a new career in a new land, in special covenant with the Most High, and with every endowment for the present and every hope for the future which could help to retain its loyalty. Yet the third generation reveals the thirst of Esau for his brother’s blood, the treachery of Jacob, and the distraction and guilt of his fierce and sensual family. It is when individual and family life have thus proved ineffectual amid the happiest circumstances, that the tribe and the nation essay the task. Led up from the furnace of affliction, hardened and tempered in the stern free life of the desert, impressed by every variety of fortune, by slavery and escape, by the pursuit of an irresistible foe and by a rescue visibly divine, awed finally by the sublime revelations of Sinai, the nation is ready for the covenant (which is also a challenge)—The man that doeth these things shall live by them: if thou diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God ... He shall set thee on high above all nations.

Such is the connection between this narrative and what went before. And the continuation of the same experiment, and the same failure, can be traced through all the subsequent history. Whether in so loose an organisation that every man does what is right in his own eyes, or under the sceptre of a hero or a sage,—whether so hard pressed that self-preservation ought to have driven them to their God, or so marvellously delivered that gratitude should have brought them to their knees,—whether engulfed a second time in a more hopeless captivity, or restored and ruled by a hierarchy whose authority is entirely spiritual,—in every variety of circumstances the same melancholy process repeats itself; and lawlessness, luxury, idolatry and self-righteousness combine to stop every mouth, to make every man guilty before God, to prove that a greater salvation is still needed, and thus to pave the way for the Messiah.

The second great principle of St. Paul is that faith in a divine help, in pardon, blessing and support, was the true spirit of the Old Testament as well as of the New. The challenge of the law was meant to produce self-despair, only that men might trust in God. Appeal was made especially to the cases of Abraham and David, the founder of the race and of the dynasty, clearly because the justification without works of the patriarch and of the king were precedents to decide the general question (Rom. iv. 1–8). Now, this is pre-eminently the distinction between Jewish history and all others, that in it God is everything and man is nothing. Every sceptical treatment of the story makes Moses to be the deliverer from Egypt, and shows us the Jewish nation gradually finding out God. But the nation itself believed nothing of the kind. It confessed itself to have been from the beginning vagrant and rebellious and unthankful: God had always found out Israel, never Israel God. The history is an expansion of the parable of the good shepherd. And this perfect harmony of a long record with itself and with abstract principles is both instructive and reassuring.

As the history of Israel opens before us, a third principle claims attention—one which the apostle quietly assumes, but which is forced on our consideration by the unhappy state of religious thought in these degenerate days.

“They are not to be heard,” says the Seventh Article rightly, “which feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises.” But certainly they also would be unworthy of a hearing who would feign that the early Scriptures do not give a vast, a preponderating weight, to the concerns of our life on earth. Only very slowly, and as the result of long training, does the future begin to reveal its supremacy over the present. It would startle many a devout reader out of his propriety to discover the small proportion of Old Testament scriptures in which eternity and its prospects are discussed, to reckon the passages, habitually applied to spiritual thraldom and emancipation, which were spoken at first of earthly tyranny and earthly deliverance, and to observe, even in the pious aspirations of the Psalms, how much of the gratitude and joy of the righteous comes from the sense that he is made wiser than the ancient, and need not fear though a host rose up against him, and can break a bow of steel, and has a table prepared for him, and an overflowing cup. Especially is this true of the historical books. God is here seen ruling states, judging in the earth, remembering Israel in bondage, and setting him free, providing supernatural food and water, guiding him by the fiery cloud. There is not a word about regeneration, conversion, hell, or heaven. And yet there is a profound sense of God. He is real, active, the most potent factor in the daily lives of men. Now, this may teach us a lesson, highly important to us all, and especially to those who must teach others. The difference between spirituality and secularity is not the difference between the future life and the present, but between a life that is aware of God and a godless one. Perhaps, when we find our gospel a matter of indifference and weariness to men who are absorbed in the bitter monotonous and dreary struggle for existence, we ourselves are most to blame. Perhaps, if Moses had approached the Hebrew drudges as we approach men equally weary and oppressed, they would not have bowed their heads and worshipped. And perhaps we should have better success, if we took care to speak of God in this world, making life a noble struggle, charging with new significance the dull and seemingly degraded lot of all who remember Him, such a God as Jesus revealed when He cleansed the leper, and gave sight to the blind, using one and the same word for the “healing” of diseases and the “saving” of souls, and connecting faith equally with both. Exodus will have little to teach us, unless we believe in that God who knoweth that we have need of food and clothing. And the higher spiritual truths which it expresses will only be found there in dubious and questionable allegory, unless we firmly grasp the great truth, that God is not the Saviour of souls, or of bodies, but of living men in their entirety, and treats their higher and lower wants upon much the same principle, because He is the same God, dealing with the same men, through both.

Moreover, He treats us as the men of other ages. Instead of dealing with Moses upon exceptional and strange lines, He made known His ways unto Moses, His characteristic and habitual ways. And it is on this account that whatsoever things were written aforetime are true admonition for us also, being not violent interruptions but impressive revelations of the steady silent methods of the judgment and the grace of God.

THE OPPRESSION.

i. 7–22.

At the beginning of the history of Israel we find a prosperous race. It was indeed their growing importance, and chiefly their vast numerical increase, which excited the jealousy of their rulers, at the very time when a change of dynasty removed the sense of obligation. It is a sound lesson in political as well as personal godliness that prosperity itself is dangerous, and needs special protection from on high.

Is it merely by chance again that we find in this first of histories examples of the folly of relying upon political connections? As the chief butler remembered not Joseph, nor did he succeed in escaping from prison by securing influence at court, so is the influence of Joseph himself now become vain, although he was the father of Pharaoh and lord of all his house. His romantic history, his fidelity in temptation, and the services by which he had at once cemented the royal power and saved the people, could not keep his memory alive. The hollow wraith of dying fame died wholly. There arose a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph.

Such is the value of the highest and purest earthly fame, and such the gratitude of the world to its benefactors. The nation which Joseph rescued from starvation is passive in Pharaoh’s hands, and persecutes Israel at his bidding.

And when the actual deliverer arose, his rank and influence were only entanglements through which he had to break.

Meanwhile, except among a few women, obedient to the woman’s heart, we find no trace of independent action, no revolt of conscience against the absolute behest of the sovereign, until selfishness replaces virtue, and despair wrings the cry from his servants, Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?

Now, in Genesis we saw the fate of families, blessed in their father Abraham, or cursed for the offence of Ham. For a family is a real entity, and its members, like those of one body, rejoice and suffer together. But the same is true of nations, and here we have reached the national stage in the education of the world. Here is exhibited to us, therefore, a nation suffering with its monarch to the uttermost, until the cry of the maidservant behind the mill is as wild and bitter as the cry of Pharaoh upon his throne. It is indeed the eternal curse of despotism that unlimited calamity may be drawn down upon millions by the caprice of one most unhappy man, himself blinded and half maddened by adulation, by the absence of restraint, by unlimited sensual indulgence if his tendencies be low and animal, and by the pride of power if he be high-spirited and aspiring.

If we assume, what seems pretty well established, that the Pharaoh from whom Moses fled was Rameses the Great, his spirit was of the nobler kind, and he exhibits a terrible example of the unfitness even of conquering genius for unbridled and irresponsible power. That lesson has had to be repeated, even down to the days of the Great Napoleon.

Now, if the justice of plaguing a nation for the offence of its head be questioned, let us ask first whether the nation accepts his despotism, honours him, and is content to regard him as its chief and captain. According to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, whoever thinks a tyrant enviable, has already himself tyrannised with him in his heart. Do we ourselves, then, never sympathise with political audacity, bold and unscrupulous “resource,” success that is bought at the price of strange compliances, and compromises, and wrongs to other men?

The great national lesson is now to be taught to Israel that the most splendid imperial force will be brought to an account for its treatment of the humblest—that there is a God Who judges in the earth. And they were bidden to apply in their own land this experience of their own, dealing kindly with the stranger in the midst of them, “for thou wast a stranger in the land of Egypt.” That lesson we have partly learned, who have broken the chain of our slaves. But how much have we left undone! The subject races were never given into our hands to supplant them, as we have supplanted the Red Indian and the New Zealander, nor to debauch, as men say we are corrupting the African and the Hindoo, but to raise, instruct and Christianise. And if the subjects of a despotism are accountable for the actions of rulers whom they tolerate, how much more are we? What ought we to infer, from this old-world history, of the profound responsibilities of all free citizens?

We attain a principle which reaches far into the spiritual world, when we reflect that if evil deeds of a ruler can justly draw down vengeance upon his people, the converse also must hold good. Reverse the case before us. Let the kingdom be that of the noblest and purest virtue. Let no subject ever be coerced to enter it, nor to remain one hour longer than while his adoring loyalty consents. And shall not these subjects be the better for the virtues of the Monarch whom they love? Is it mere caprice to say that in choosing such a King they do, in a very real sense, appropriate the goodness they crown? If it be natural that Egypt be scourged for the sins of Pharaoh, is it palpably incredible that Christ is made of God unto His people wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption? The doctrine of imputation can easily be so stated as to become absurd. But the imputation of which St. Paul speaks much can only be denied when we are prepared to assail the principle on which all bodies of men are treated, families and nations as well as the Church of God.

It was the jealous cruelty of Pharaoh which drew down upon his country the very perils he laboured to turn away. There was no ground for his fear of any league with foreigners against him. Prosperous and unambitious, the people would have remained well content beside the flesh-pots of Egypt, for which they sighed even when emancipated from heavy bondage and eating the bread of heaven. Or else, if they had gone forth in peace, from a land whose hospitality had not failed, to their inheritance in Canaan, they would have become an allied nation upon the side where the heaviest blows were afterwards struck by the Asiatic powers. Cruelty and cunning could not retain them, but it could decimate a population and lose an army in the attempt. And this law prevails in the modern world, England paid twenty millions to set her bondmen free. Because America would not follow her example, she ultimately paid the more terrible ransom of civil war. For the same God was in Jamaica and in Florida as in the field of Zoan. Nor was there ever yet a crooked policy which did not recoil either upon its author, or upon his successors when he had passed away. In this case it fulfilled the plans and the prophecies of God, and the wrath of man was made to praise Him.

There is independent reason for believing that at this period one-third at least of the population of Egypt was of alien blood (Brugsch, History, ii. 100). A politician might fairly be alarmed, especially if this were the time when the Hittites were threatening the eastern frontier, and had reduced Egypt to stand on the defensive, and erect barrier fortresses. And the circumstances of the country made it very easy to enslave the Hebrews. If any stain of Oriental indifference to the rights of the masses had mingled with the God-given insight of Joseph, when he made his benefactor the owner of all the soil, the Egyptian people were fully avenged upon him now. For this arrangement laid his pastoral race helpless at their oppressor’s feet. Forced labour quickly degenerates into slavery, and men who find the story of their misery hard to credit should consider the state of France before the Revolution, and of the Russian serfs before their emancipation. Their wretchedness was probably as bitter as that of the Hebrews at any period but the last climax of their oppression. And they owed it to the same cause—the absolute ownership of the land by others, too remote from them to be sympathetic, to take due account of their feelings, to remember that they were their fellow-men. This was enough to slay compassion, even without the aggravation of dealing with an alien and suspected race.

Now, it is instructive to observe these reappearances of wholesale crime. They warn us that the utmost achievements of human wickedness are human still; not wild and grotesque importations by a fiend, originated in the abyss, foreign to the world we live in. Satan finds the material for his master-strokes in the estrangement of class from class, in the drying up of the fountains of reciprocal human feeling, in the failure of real, fresh, natural affection in our bosom for those who differ widely from us in rank or circumstances. All cruelties are possible when a man does not seem to us really a man, nor his woes really woeful. For when the man has sunk into an animal it is only a step to his vivisection.

Nor does anything tend to deepen such perilous estrangement, more than the very education, culture and refinement, in which men seek a substitute for religion and the sense of brotherhood in Christ. It is quite conceivable that the tyrant who drowned the Hebrew infants was an affectionate father, and pitied his nobles when their children died. But his sympathies could not reach beyond the barriers of a caste. Do our sympathies really overleap such barriers? Would God that even His Church believed aright in the reality of a human nature like our own, soiled, sorrowful, shamed, despairing, drugged into that apathetical insensibility which lies even below despair, yet aching still, in ten thousand bosoms, in every great city of Christendom, every day and every night! Would to God that she understood what Jesus meant, when He called one lost creature by the tender name which she had not yet forfeited, saying, “Woman, where are thine accusers?” and when He asked Simon, who scorned such another, “Seest thou this woman!” Would God that when she prays for the Holy Spirit of Jesus she would really seek a mind like His, not only in piety and prayerfulness, but also in tender and heartfelt brotherhood with all, even the vilest of the weary and heavy-laden!

Many great works of ancient architecture, the pyramids among the rest, were due to the desire of crushing, by abject toil, the spirit of a subject people. We cannot ascribe to Hebrew labour any of the more splendid piles of Egyptian masonry, but the store cities or arsenals which they built can be identified. They are composed of such crude brick as the narrative describes; and the absence of straw in the later portion of them can still be verified. Rameses was evidently named after their oppressor, and this strengthens the conviction that we are reading of events in the nineteenth dynasty, when the shepherd kings had recently been driven out, leaving the eastern frontier so weak as to demand additional fortresses, and so far depopulated as to give colour to the exaggerated assertion of Pharaoh, “the people are more and mightier than we.” It is by such exaggerations and alarms that all the worst crimes of statesmen have been justified to consenting peoples. And we, when we carry what seems to us a rightful object, by inflaming the prejudice and misleading the judgment of other men, are moving on the same treacherous and slippery inclines. Probably no evil is committed without some amount of justification, which the passions exaggerate, while they ignore the prohibitions of the law.

How came it to pass that the fierce Hebrew blood, which was yet to boil in the veins of the Maccabees, and to give battle, not unworthily, to the Roman conquerors of the world, failed to resent the cruelties of Pharaoh?

Partly, of course, because the Jewish people was only now becoming aware of its national existence; but also because it had forsaken God. Its religion, if not supplanted, was at least adulterated by the influence of the mystic pantheism and the stately ritual which surrounded them.

Joshua bade his victorious followers to “put away the gods whom your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord” (Josh. xxiv. 14). And in Ezekiel the Lord Himself complains, “They rebelled against Me and would not hearken unto Me; they did not cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt” (Ezek. xx. 8).

Now, there is nothing which enfeebles the spirit and breaks the courage like religious dependence. A strong priesthood always means a feeble people, most of all when they are of different blood. And Israel was now dependent on Egypt alike for the highest and lowest needs—grass for the cattle and religion for the soul. And when they had sunk so low, it is evident that their emancipation had to be wrought for them entirely without their help. From first to last they were passive, not only for want of spirit to help themselves, but because the glory of any exploit of theirs might have illuminated some false deity whom they adored.

Standing still, they saw the salvation of God, and it was not possible to give His glory to another.

For this cause also, judgment had, first of all, to be wrought upon the gods of Egypt.

In the meantime, without spirit enough to resist, they saw complete destruction drawing nearer to them by successive strides. At first Pharaoh “dealt wisely with them,” and they found themselves entrapped into a hard bondage almost unawares. But a strange power upheld them, and the more they were afflicted the more they multiplied and spread abroad. In this they ought to have discerned a divine support, and remembered the promise to Abraham that God would multiply his seed as the stars of heaven. It may have helped them presently to “cry unto the Lord.” And the Egyptians were not merely “grieved” because of them: they felt as the Israelites afterwards felt towards that monotonous diet of which they used the same word, and said, “our soul loatheth this light bread.” Here it expresses that fierce and contemptuous attitude which the Californian and Australian are now assuming toward the swarms of Chinamen whose labour is so indispensable, yet the infusion of whose blood into the population is so hateful. Then the Egyptians make their service rigorous, and their lives bitter.