Till this time it is probable that the magicians had frequently been at the court of Pharaoh, and encouraged him to persevere in his resistance of the divine command; boasting, perhaps, that, although apparently foiled in some of their attempts, they would, at length, rise in their strength, and triumph over Moses. But their defeat was now to be complete and overwhelming, and even themselves obliged to acknowledge it. They were so afflicted, in common with their countrymen, with the disease which God, in his vengeance, had sent upon them, that they sunk down in dismay under its tortures. "They could not stand before Moses." They dared no longer oppose him; and quitting the presence of the monarch and his nobles in disgrace, we hear of them no more in the sacred narrative.

This their signal discomfiture is alluded to, in that memorable passage of Scripture that we find in the second epistle of Paul to Timothy, the third chapter, the eighth and ninth verses. Persons of un excessively sinful character having been described as to appear in the last days, it is said; "Now, as Jannes and Jambres," (doubtless the principal magicians, and the leaders of the whole band,) "withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was."

It is indeed the height of folly to contend against God, or against those who act in his name and are instructed to deliver his messages to us.

At the present day, men still resist the truth as it is proclaimed by the ministers of God's word; his ambassadors who would persuade sinners to become reconciled, through the sacrifice of Christ, to their offended Maker.

My young friend, do you resist this truth? Are you sometimes offended with those who declare it to you? Do you withstand, in the pride and obstinacy of your heart, as Jannes and Jambres did Moses, the appeals which the faithful preachers of the Gospel make to your conscience, and feel as if you should be able to hold out against them? Persisting in such a course, the day of your utter dismay and discomfiture must come. Moses triumphed over the magicians; so will the truth of God triumph over you, and sink you down, at last, into utter despair and ruin. Fear, fear, lest you end a career of impenitence and guilt in a condemnation so just and terrible.

CHAPTER XVII.

The plague of hail, and of locusts.

Nothing could yet move the obdurate heart of Pharaoh. Another manifestation of the divine displeasure awaited him and his people.

At the command of God, Moses stretched forth his rod towards heaven. Amid deep and portentous thunder, and streams of liquid fire running along the ground, a terrible hail-storm poured forth its fury throughout the whole land of Egypt. Pharaoh had been warned of it. He had been told that it should be a very grievous hail, such as had not been in Egypt "since the foundation thereof." He had been directed to send and gather his cattle, and all that he had in the field; for that upon every man and beast which should be found in the field, and should not be brought home, the hail should come down upon them and they should die. And such was their fate. All that were in the fiell, both man and beast, perished; and all kinds of plants, and grain, and trees, in immense numbers, were broken down and destroyed. The desolation was universal; while in Goshen not a solitary vestige of this wide-spreading calamity was to be seen.

Moses.

10

The Israelites, under the protection of the Almighty, were uninjured.

Again, in his consternation and despair, Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. "I have sinned this time," said he; "Jehovah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat Jehovah, (for it is enough,) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer."

The reply of Moses, who doubtless in this instance, and in the other similar ones, had been instructed by the Almighty what to do, was in these words: "As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto Jehovah; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know that the earth is Jehovah's. But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear Jehovah, who is God."

Moses went out of the city, fearless and unhurt, amid the storm that was raging around him, and, spreading out his hands towards heaven, besought the Lord in behalf of Pharaoh and his people. His received an immediate answer. prayer The thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth."

But wonderful infatuation in sin! As soon as the king saw that the judgment was removed, " he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and

his servants,-neither would he let the children of Israel go."

The divine message was to be repeated, and new tokens of the vengeance of God to appear in the presence of Pharaoh and his people. One reason assigned for this is, that the Israelites might rehearse to their children, and they to theirs, and so on to the latest posterity, the wonders which God had wrought in Egypt, and the signs which he had done among them, that they might know that he was Jehovah.

In obedience to the divine injunction, "Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to-morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast. And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field. And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day."

After uttering this threatening, Moses immedi