seek sympathy from her. I say, the universality of this would make an impression upon the whole population of Egypt that none of the other plagues could effect; and it is therefore alluded to more frequently throughout the Sacred Volume than any other plague recorded in this Book.

But whilst this took place with reference to the Egyptians, God's people were protected in perfect safety: for we read, "There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more; but against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue even the brute creation should reverently look on "that ye may know and see, by an irresistible fact, as painful as it is irresistible, that God puts a difference between them that fear him, and them that fear him not."

Blood sprinkled on the lintel alone was the safety of Israel. Not deeds not race not any thing inside the house but wholly the blood outside was safety. There might be fears within, but those did not weaken the protection. The blood of Jesus is our safety — and it alone.

Moses then repeats what God had said to him,—“ All these thy servants shall come down unto me," that is, unto God, for Moses is only the spokesman, "and bow down themselves unto me," saying, "Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee" Moses is alluded to there

"and

after that I will go out." And then it is said, "Moses went out from Pharaoh in a great anger." Now on first reading this, it would seem as if Moses had got into a passion uncalled for by the circumstances of the case, and unwarrantable in one who professed to be the immediate servant and messenger of the Most High. And yet, if it was so, there is no sin in anger. I believe man was made to be angry, as much as he was made to smile. There is no more sin in

himself says,

being angry than there is in being hungry. The Apostle "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." "Be angry, and sin not." Christianity does not profess to root out human nature; it only undertakes to sanctify, elevate, ennoble, and improve human nature. The risk of sin in anger is in its degenerating into malice, when it becomes sin. We have a striking evidence of sinless anger in the chapter we shall read this evening, (Mark, iii.), where it is said, "When Jesus had looked round about on them with anger," but it is beautifully added, "being grieved for the hardness of their hearts;" as if His anger was mainly sorrow or grief at the hardness of their hearts. Moses had perhaps more of the passion of human nature than the sorrow of a Christian, and he may have felt, as he once spake, unadvisedly and sinfully, for who is he that sinneth not? Yet still there was enough in the conduct of Pharaoh, and in the maltreatment of the children of Israel, to arouse the temper of any man; and it needed the grace of God mingled with that temper or passion to make it as much pity for a misguided king, as indignation at his atrocious tyranny.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you." Lest you should expect too much from this last plague, I warn you that Pharaoh will not hearken unto you. Now this seems a sort of inexplicable inconsistency. Why should God bid Moses to do things to persuade Pharaoh, when he told Moses all throughout that he would not listen? The answer is, it is ours to do the duties that are assigned by the Most High; it is God's to determine the results. If every soldier who marched into the field of battle were to say, "What is the use of opposing that mighty force? I know we shall fail," there would be speedy defeat. It is by each feeling that there is a duty assigned, and having confidence in him who assigns it, that any work will be most efficiently done. God determines results; it is

ours to use the means. God metes out the harvest; it is ours to sow the seed. Moses had nothing to do with the effect of what he wrought: he had only to do what was bidden, and to commit the result to Him who judgeth righteously,

CHAPTER XII.

PHARAOH RELENTS.

CHILDREN SUFFER FOR PARENTS A FACT IN HISTORY. TRANSUBSTANTIATION. THE SACRIFICE AND FEAST. TRAINING AND TEACHING CHILDREN. BORROWING JEWELS.

WE have seen in the course of successive chapters of the truly interesting Book we have been reading, that one plague after another fell with consuming vengeance upon Pharaoh and those who were associated with him; that he relented occasionally for a moment, but only to return to his inveterate obstinacy more than ever. At last a plague comes, so desolating in its nature, so sudden, and from the midnight in which it was dealt, so mysterious, that it at once relaxes all the feelings of Pharaoh, dissipates all the obduracy he had shown, and makes him too thankful to get rid of a people in the midst of Egypt, about whose profitableness to his realm he must think no more, and about getting rid of whom in the quickest manner, and with the least mischief to himself, must be now his only consideration.

It has been often said, Does it not seem almost an unjust, not to say were it not irreligious, a cruel thing, that because of the obstinacy of the monarch the poor babes, some of whom were sittting on their mother's knee, and others having reached no more years than boyhood, should all be smitten with one dread stroke? It is only another page of God's providential dealings with mankind. Even the heathen could say, "The king sins, and the Greeks are punished;" and we find, when the curtain is lifted in the sacred Volume,

that national sins committed by national rulers are visited, not only upon them, but also upon the people. It may be unjust in the estimate of some; I believe it to be just, because it is the doing of God; but we are sure that if we cannot see the justice of the procedure, it is not because God is unrighteous, but because we are so blind. At all events, it is not simply a revelation in God's Word, but it is a fact illustrated in the history of every nation upon earth. Read the history of man, and there you have just the echo of the Word and the prophecies of God. It is not a declaration of a principle peculiar to Christianity, but the announcement of a fact embodied in the history of every nation whose annals are accessible to us. And it is, perhaps, a more merciful law than some imagine. makes the responsibility of the parent or ruler more solemn, and is fitted to make the sense of that responsibility deeper, greater, and more lasting.

It only

We read in the commencement of the chapter that this event was so memorable, that the very current and order of the year was to be changed in consequence. The Jewish

year began before in September and October; it is now to begin in the months of March and April. God says that the last half of March and the first half of April shall be the commencement of the Jewish year.

The provision here made was that the Israelites and whosoever would, should take a lamb, that lamb being typical and significant of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world: that lamb they were to kill, and sprinkle its blood upon the lintel, and wherever the destroying angel saw this, from that house he should reverently retire, holding it and its inmates safe and sacred things. This was not that God required blood sprinkled on the lintel to let his messenger know who were his people, and who were Pharaoh's, but it was to be a typical and significant rite. While it answered the great purpose of distinction for the day, it