remarkably beautiful appearance which this sea exhibits has attracted notice in all ages; and among its other characteristics, the far more than ordinary phosphorescence of its waters has been mentioned with peculiar admiration. The width of the gulf contracts towards its extremities, and at its mouth is considerably narrower than in any other part. The strait of Bab-el-Mandel is there formed, and does not exceed fourteen miles in breadth; beside which it is divided, at the distance of three miles from the Arabian shore, by the island of Perim. The high land of Africa and the peak of Azab give a remarkably bold appearance to the shore in this part. At its northern extremity the Red Sea separates into two minor gulfs or inlets, which inclose between them the peninsula of Sinai. The easternmost of these is that of Akaba or Ailah, called by the Greeks and Romans Allanites; this is only about half the extent of the other, and is rendered very dangerous by shoals and coral reefs. The westernmost gulf is called the gulf of Suez, anciently, Heeropolites: the ancient and modern names of both inlets being from towns that formerly did, or do now, stand at their extremities. It is the latter, the western gulf, which was crossed by the Hebrews. It is about one hundred and sixty miles in length, with a mean breadth of about thirty miles, narrowing very much at its northern extremity. The mean depth of its water is from nine to fourteen fathoms, with a sandy bottom; and it is of much safer navigation than the other. There are many indications which place it beyond a doubt that the Arabian gulf was formerly much more extensive and deeper than at present. One of the most certain proofs of this is, that cities, which were formerly mentioned as seaports, are now considerably inland. This is particularly the case in the gulf of Suez, where the shore is unusually low. That the sea formerly extended more northward than at present there is much reason to conclude, not only from the marine appearances of the now dry soil,

but from this fact, among others, that Kolsoum, which was formerly a port, is now three quarters of a mile inland. There is certainly nothing in the appearance of the soil about the Isthmus of Suez to discountenance the hypothesis that the Red Sea was formerly no other than a strait uniting the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean; and that the isthmus which is now interposed between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean was formed by drifts of sand from the adjoining deserts. This, however, is an hypothesis: but there is nothing hypothetical in the statement that the gulf once extended more to the north than at present; and this fact is of importance, because it enables us to see that nothing less than a miraculous interposition of the Divine power could have enabled the Israelites to cross the bay even at the highest of the points which has been selected by those who, perhaps, were influenced by the wish to diminish the force of the miracle, or to account for it on natural principles.

CHAPTER XV.

SONG OF MOSES.

MURMURING. THE BITTER WATER. THE BRANCH.

IN the chapter that precedes the one we have read we had the sublime and impressive record of the complete overthrow of the pursuing hosts and chariots of Pharaoh, and of the magnificent exodus, or escape of the children of Israel along the channel of the divided Red Sea dry-shod, and without the loss of a single child, or injury to one individual. And, at the close of such a deliverance, what becomes a Christian people? Surely, surely, thanksgiving and song. But who was the Being to whom Miriam, and Moses, and the children of Israel, lifted up this magnificent hallelujah, perhaps the most magnificent on record? It was not to Moses, the earthly deliverer, it was not to the spirit of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, or the sainted ones that preceded them; it was only to the Lord God: for he says, "I will sing unto Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."

This song is three hundred years older than any song or anthem that exists in any language whatever; and though so old as to date, there is no hymn of praise composed in ancient times, and one may add, in modern times, that in regard of poetic merit, of true beauty, of deep, rich, and suggestive expression, can for one moment be compared with it. The master musician of the world has exhausted all his genius in trying to embody in strains of music what is so magnificently expressed in human speech. Some of the figures almost speak. It is scarcely reading, it is almost hearing.

"They sank as a stone." "With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea." The language is most expressive of the reality, and throughout indicates that it was no accidental occurrence, no lucky wind, or extreme ebb-tide, but an actual miracle that indeed can be proved by geographical inspection, by historical evidence, and by the Scripture's own account, to have been the result of the interposing omnipotent power of God.

And when the children of Israel thus sing, they say that this same God, who has thus triumphed gloriously, is “our strength and our song, and he is become our salvation." "He is," says one," my God," and all say, "He is our God, and our Lord."

He says in the 3d verse, "The Lord is a man of war." That expression is a Hebraism. "A man of words" means an eloquent man; "a man of strength" means a powerful man; a man of war" means one who is mighty in battle, and against whom victory is impossible, should he be pleased to will it the contrary.

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It then describes what God did: "Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone," unable to extricate themselves any more than a stone is able to lighten its weight, and rise to the surface of the water.

But why this triumph over Pharaoh? It was not that God had pleasure in Pharaoh's ruin, but that he had a purpose of Israel's deliverance. I am sure any one who has listened to the chapters we have read describing God's bearing and forbearing dealings towards Pharaoh, the efforts. made to convince him, and the miracles that were wrought before him, must come to the conclusion that one so repro

bate, so infatuated, so obstinate before God, and so cruel to man, met with that doom which the retributive providence of God itself seems to demand.

Then he describes the scene, how, "with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together;" and then, the still irrepressible pride of Pharaoh, "The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them;" but in answer to all this, "Thou didst blow with thy wind; the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?" It was this very text that Queen Elizabeth had inscribed upon the coins that were struck in her reign, to commemorate the remarkable defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the deliverance of this great land from the instruments of torture with which the ships were laden, for purposes of wickedness and crime peculiar to Rome. She struck on her commemorative medals, "The Lord blew with his winds, and they were scattered." We may depend upon it, my dear friends, that it is because in this land God has his people, and because, with all its faults, there is in it a deeper and wider spread of true religion than elsewhere, that we have been so sheltered and so preserved during so many years.

You remember that, in the Book of Revelation, harpers are represented as standing upon a sea of glass, singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb; showing that this song of Moses shall mingle at the last day with the song of the Lamb, and constitute one grand anthem of praise to God for having delivered Jew and Gentile not only from Pharaoh and from Egypt, but from sin, Satan, and the world. You remember, also, that I told you how Mr. Elliott, in his Hora Apocalyptica, very satisfactorily shows that that event probably refers to this country during the last sixty or seventy years of its history, when the flame of fire and war swept all Europe; and this country, so far from being visited by