They did not understand it. Their minds were not yet prepared for so great an event. The Providence of God was fast ripening the affairs both of the Egyptians and the Israelites, and the character and capacities of Moses, for its consummation. But some years must roll by, ere the fulness of time would come. Moses himself seems to have known this; and hence the caution with which he acted, and the concealment which he wished to throw over the death of the task-master, so far as the Egyptians were concerned.

Wonderful and self-denying man! One of the most striking instances in this respect, which we have on record, of the power of faith! With such a spirit, he entered upon his stupendous and arduous work; and we shall see how, under the blessing of that Being to whom he continually looked for guidance and strength, that work was, at length, accomplished.

How much, my young friend, have you of this faith in God? What does it lead you to do for the cause of Christ, and the good of others? Young as you are, you can do something. As you grow older, who can tell what you may be able to do?

But to act for the cause of Christ, and to do good to others, you must have the self-denial which Moses had. All true benevolence rests on this principle. Selfishness knows nothing of it; but if it ever makes sacrifices, calculates, with a close and mer

cenary accuracy, just how much will be gained to itself by these sacrifices. It gives up nothing of its own, to promote the welfare of others.

Let not such be your spirit. Learn from the example of Moses, with the divine blessing, to relinquish your ease and indulgence; your amusements and recreations; your conveniences and comforts; and, as you advance in life, your worldly advantages; your intellectual and social pleasures; wealth and honor; the fairest and brightest prospects;—whenever duty calls for the sacrifice, that you may thus glorify God, and do good to your fellow-men. And yours shall be that inconceivable recompense of reward in heaven to which Moses looked forward, while suffering affliction with his brethren, and which he is now enjoying.

CHAPTER V.

Moses flees from Egypt, and is Hospitably entertained by Jethro.

The day after Moses put the Egyptian to death, he was again among his brethren, and found two of them striving together in a quarrel. One was so enraged that he was inflicting blows upon the

other. Moses attempted to interpose, and dissuade them from such shameful and wicked conduct. He inquired of him who did the wrong, why he smote his fellow. He seems to have done this as if acting under authority; and the contemptuous reply was that of one greatly irritated by the interference, and disposed to set it completely at defiance. "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?”

This led Moses to fear that the affair was extensively known, and to dread the danger to which he was exposed, both from the resentment of the Egyptians and the anger of the king. Indeed, it was but a short time before it came to the ears of Pharaoh, who immediately took measures to have him apprehended, with the intention of putting him to death.

But he was disappointed; for Moses, either hearing of this, or anticipating it, betook himself to flight, and went to the land of Midian.

This was a memorable epoch in his life. Banished, not only from the royal palace, where he had so long lived in refinement and splendor, but from what he prized far beyond this, the society of his oppressed and degraded brethren, whom he sought to relieve, and with whom he had so lately identified himself and his prospects, he goes a solitary exile to a strange land.

But he goes to accomplish the purposes of God with regard to the Israelites. Forty more years must elapse before all things would be ready for their rescue. Among other important events, the present king of Egypt must be removed by death, and a successor be seated on the throne. The children of Israel are to learn, by the continuance, and probably increased severity, of their bondage, the value of their deliverance, and be the more ready to appreciate the goodness of God, and the efforts of Moses, in effecting it. Egypt, too, and its inhabitants, with their corrupt and sinful customs, their polluted and superstitious idolatry, would, on this account, more probably cease to be objects of desire, or of imitation, in the breasts of those who had there suffered so deep and cruel a degradation.

Besides all this, the future deliverer of his countrymen, their saviour, leader, and legislator,needed a season of calm and undisturbed reflection. In the solitudes of nature; far from the bustle and temptations of a court; leading the peaceful life of a shepherd; and going back to the pure fountains of thought and feeling; he was to hold communion with his Maker and his own soul, What an opportunity, under the influence of the Spirit and Providence of God, to make progress in wisdom and piety; to look at things in their true light; to mould his character and habits, where this was necessary, for the new sphere of action-in

which he was to be engaged; in short, to become that Moses whom we shall hereafter find him to be, and what, in many things, we should so little have expected to have found one who, for such a length of time, had been the adopted son of a princess, and lived amid the pomp and luxuries of the court of Egypt. Forty years of a shepherd-life was not too long to accomplish such objects, and to effect a preparation for his great work.

The land of Midian, to which Moses fled, seems to have been on the east side of the Elanitic branch of the Red Sea,-now called the gulf of Akaba. It probably extended northward, along the desert east of Mount Seir, to the vicinity of the Moabites; and, on the other side also, covered a territory stretching to the neighborhood of Mount Sinai. Its inhabitants were mostly scattered, wandering tribes of men, like the Arabs of the present day: dwelling in tents, and seeking, as they moved from place to place, pasture-grounds for their flocks and herds.

In such a country Moses was wandering, a solitary stranger, that he might hide himself from the vengeance of Pharaoh. He sat down by a well, to recover from his fatigue, and refresh himself with its cool waters; and Providence brings about an occurrence, equally striking with many others that marked his eventful life.

Seven sisters, whose father was the priest, or