At the marvellous object before him-a bush flaming with fire, yet not consumed-Moses was greatly astonished; and when, out of the midst of the bush, Jehovah called unto him, announcing Himself to be the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, Moses might well hide his face, and be "afraid to look upon God."

When, in after ages, the same Almighty Being manifested Himself, as man, in the person of Jesus Christ, he reproved the gainsaying Sadducees, who taught that there was no resurrection, by referring them to that which they professed implicitly to believe, viz., this declaration of the Most High to Moses, that He was the God of those patriarchs who had, for ages past, been the blessed partakers of the everlasting resurrection life in the heavenly world. And Jesus said, "Now, that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob: for He is not the God. of the dead, but of the living."

From the inquiry made by Moses, "Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say unto me, What is His name? What shall I say unto them?"-we may infer that the knowledge and worship of the one true God had become gradually lost among the Hebrews. They were habituated to behold, and most probably to unite in, the gross and sensual idolatry of the Egyptians, who adored as sacred, not only the nobler animals of the brute creation, but even noxious vermin and creeping rep

tiles, as well as the onions, the garlic, &c., which their own hands had planted. Thus had they "changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."

The immediate descendants of Jacob were instructed in the homage due to the Omnipotent Creator of all things; but the early history of this people affords a remarkable evidence that the human mind, subjected to unholy influences, and deprived of the light of an external revelation, becomes easily enveloped in the mists of superstition, and bows before an imaginary deity, like the Israelites, who "made a calf in Horeb," and "offered sacrifice unto the idol." Notwithstanding that they had so abundantly witnessed the marvellous works of God, the debased and idolatrous habits contracted in Egypt rendered them insensible of His supreme power and agency, and they ascribed the glory of all those wonders to a molten image! saying, "These be thy gods, Oh Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

CHAP. XXVIII.-If we meditate on the spiritual condition into which the children of Israel had, during their sojourning in the land of Egypt, become degenerated, we cannot fail to be impressed with the remarkable nature of the commission intrusted to Moses, in answer to his inquiry respecting the name of the God whose messenger he should declare himself to be"And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AMThus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."

How perfectly was this sublime appellation calculated to meet the mental darkness which it was designed to enlighten !-expressing as it does, the independent, eternal, uncreated, self-existent nature of that invisible, but Almighty BEING, who made all things, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, who is the alone Source and Fountain of all life, upholding every thing by the word of His power.-Could any designation of the Infinite Jehovah, be more calculated to awaken the Israelites to a consciousness of the degradation of those who had placed their dependence on created and perishing objects, the very existence of which was contingent on the will of the deluded worshipper, and of which even the faintest ray of human reason might show the utter powerlessness to confer blessing, or to avert evil?

CHAP. XXIX.-In the youthful days of Moses, when, as the reputed son of Pharaoh's daughter, he was possessed of the power and influence attached to worldly rank, he could courageously defend his brethren from oppression and insult, and, as appears by the testimony of the Martyr Stephen, designed to effect their deliverance: but now, when he had lived to gain, doubtless, a deeper experience of the utter weakness of the arm of flesh, he pleaded his incapacity in the presence of the Lord, and desired to be excused from the great undertaking to which he was divinely appointed. Jehovah convinced him, by miracles, of His own omnipotent power-the rod in the hand of Moses became, at the word of the Lord, a serpent

from which he fled, and on his being commanded to put forth his hand and to take it by the tail, it again was a rod as before:-other supernatural evidences of the working of an Almighty agency also tended to produce, in the mind of Moses, implicit faith and obedience, and he was encouraged by the promise that Aaron his brother should be his companion and spokesman-"Moses went unto Jethro his father-in-law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive: and Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace." And he took Zipporah his wife, and his sons, and departed: and he "took the rod of God in his hand." By the direction of the Most High, "Aaron met him in the Mount of God;"-" And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel, and Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people; and the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped." And afterward, "Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness; and Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go."

And Pharaoh increased the burdens of the Hebrews, so that when Moses spake unto them the word of the Lord, "they hearkened not unto him for anguish of

spirit, and for cruel bondage.”—“And Moses spake before the Lord, saying, Behold the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips? And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel, and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt." And the Lord said, “I will multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt; but Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt, by great judgments; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring forth my people the children of Israel from among them." And the Lord brought upon Egypt a succession of most dreadful plagues, from which the Hebrews in Goshen were exempt. But notwithstanding that on Pharaoh, and on all the Egyptians the judgments of Jehovah were most awfully inflicted, yet the heart of this impious king became even more and more hardened, until his own servants said unto him, "Let them go-Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?"

CHAP. XXX.-The king of Egypt was, for a time, subdued by terror, but on the remission of tremendous judgments he again hardened his heart; and the Lord permitted him to become the subject of a judicial blindness and obduracy; and he continued to resist Omnipotent Power until the land of Egypt was brought to the