MOSES. 



73 



wards educated for the duties of the priesthood, to* 

 which the royal family belonged, and could now, as the 

 disciple of the priests, attain to all the arts and know- 

 ledge which this privileged caste carefully confined 

 within the limits of their order. The means of in- 

 struction thus afforded him were the best which his 

 time possessed ; and Moses penetrated still deeper 

 than his instructors into the secrets of their religion, 

 physics, legislation, and government, as appears 

 plainly from his words and actions. His expedition 

 into Ethiopia, in the fortieth year of his age, as leader 

 of the Egyptians, when he subdued the city of Saba, 

 won the affections of the conquered princess Tharbis, 

 and married her, rests only on the tradition preserved 

 by Josephus. Yet Moses could not forget his people 

 in the splendour of a court: an outrage committed 

 by an Egyptian on a Hebrew excited his anger, and 

 he secretly slew the Egyptian. But this deed became 

 known, and he escaped the pursuit of the king only by 

 a hasty flight into Arabia. Here he took refuge with 

 Jethro, a Midianitish prince and a priest, and espous- 

 ed his daughter Zipporah, whom at their first meeting, 

 he had rescued from hostile shepherds. Thus the 

 adopted son of a king's daughter became the herds- 

 man of an Arabian, and history does not say that he 

 aspired to any thing greater. But the misery of 

 his nation must have been continually present to his 

 mind, and not in vain had he been led, by extra- 

 ordinary means, into the sanctuary of Egyptian wis- 

 dom, and endowed with the rarest powers and 

 knowledge. This knowledge occupied his mind in 

 his solitude, and explained to him the secrets of 

 nature, whose mysteries and wonders addressed him 

 in a solemn tone amid the deserts and mountains of 

 Midian, and elevated his heart to that God whom he 

 discerned more clearly than his fathers. Yet the germ 

 of his great undertaking remained for a long time 

 maturing in his mind, before it was brought to light, 

 and assumed the form of a deeply-meditated plan. 

 Moses had already attained to an age which gives 

 mature experience, patience, and tranquillity of mind, 

 when this took place through an immediate interposi- 

 tion of God. While he was feeding his flock on mount 

 Horeb, he saw a bush on fire, and, considering why 

 the bush was not consumed, he heard the voice of 

 the Lord proceeding from it, who announced himself 

 to him as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 

 commanded him to lead his people out of Egypt into 

 the land which he had promised to the patriarchs. 

 The name Jehovah, by which God declared himself, 

 was already known to him by means of the Egyptian 

 mysteries, and conveyed the idea of the one, ever- 

 lusting and unchangeable. But not without anxiety, 

 arising from the view of the difficulties which he 

 should meet with, and from his modesty, did he de- 

 termine to obey this call. Pharaoh, he thought, is 

 hard and unbelieving, he himself outlawed, his people 

 rude, and incapable of comprehending the idea of the 

 God whom he should announce to them. Being slow of 

 speech, and possessing none of the arts of an orator, his 

 words will not be believed without visible signs. God 

 therefore gives him power to prove his mission by 

 miracles, and joins to him his elder brother, Aaron, 

 as a speaker. Thus prepared, Moses becomes confi- 

 dent that he shall succeed, with the assistance of God, 

 and returns to Egypt, a gray-haired man of eighty 

 years, to undertake ti:e work. All the difficulties which 

 he had foreseen, and yet greater ones, opposed him. 

 He had the eloquence of Aaron, it is true, to aid him, 

 anil the people of Israel must recognise the hand of 

 God in his deeds ; but, degraded by long slavery, 

 they wavered between belief and doubt. In vain did 

 he produce changes in the ordinary course of nature, 

 which could not be imitated by the art of the 

 Egyptian sages, and for the performance of which a 



higher power was obviously requisite. The tenth of 

 the destructive plagues which afterwards came upon 

 Egypt the destruction of all the first-born first 

 moved the hardened heart of Pharaoh to allow the 

 Hebrews to depart. Moses placed himself at their 

 head, and conveyed them, with all their possessions, 

 out of Egypt, passing, under the protection of God, 

 through the midst of the Red sea, in which the faith- 

 less Pharaoh, pursuing them, was drowned, with the 

 army which followed him. Yet this deliverance from 

 a formidable enemy was only the beginning of his 

 enterprise. A rude, tumultuous people was around 

 him, who, until now, had obeyed the scourge of their 

 task-masters, but knew not how to live in freedom. 

 Their distress in the desert excited loud murmurs ; 

 their meeting with the hostile Bedouins occasioned 

 bloody combats ; the jealousy of the elders produced 

 dissensions and opposition to their leader ; his life 

 was often in danger, and he was often obliged to 

 maintain his authority by force and severe punish- 

 ments. But, with wonderful wisdom, he remained 

 firm, in spite of all opposition, to his plan of trans- 

 forming the stubborn multitude into a devout, civilized, 

 and independent people. He supplied the hungry 

 with food from heaven, and, opened to the thirsty new 

 fountains upon the rock of Horeb, by the aid of God, 

 who granted to his petition what the people needed. 

 In all his ordinances, he declared himself to have the 

 express command of God, who wished to draw his 

 people to himself, and to form their hearts by love 

 and fear. Religion is the spirit of the law which 

 Moses began to announce three months after his 

 departure from Egypt. 



Arrived at Sinai, a mountain of Arabia, he allowed 

 the people to encamp, while he himself ascended the 

 holy summit to pray, where, surrounded with thunder, 

 and trembling at the presence of God, the laws were 

 announced to him which were to regulate the lives 

 of the Israelites. Founded upon the faith of the 

 patriarchs, these laws are rather a restoration of the 

 simple truths which had governed the primitive world 

 than a new religion. As presented by Moses, they 

 were purified from the errors and follies of supersti- 

 tion, which had gathered round them among idolatrous 

 nations, and were exhibited in a form adapted to the 

 wants of the Hebrews, who had grown from a single 

 family to a rude, ungoverned multitude. The great 

 object of his legislation is to inculcate the doctrine 

 that Jehovah is the only God, who will allow no 

 other god besides himself, nor any visible image of 

 his being ; that he is himself the King of his people, 

 and that he will rule them by his priests : hence the 

 laws by which Moses regulates the worship of the 

 Hebrews, the administration of the government and 

 of justice, and even directs their manners, and lays 

 down rules for the care of their health, bear the 

 marks of their heavenly origin. Arising from the 

 wants of the moral and physical nature of man, they 

 are excellently adapted to the peculiar character of 

 the people, to the climate, and to the political posi- 

 tion of the land appointed for their dwelling, and to 

 the plan of Providence of making this people the 

 depositary of a divine revelation, to be developed in 

 the fulness of time, and finally extended over the 

 world. These laws forbid intermixture with other 

 nations, the introduction of foreign customs, and the 

 adoration of strange deities. As a people peculiarly 

 dedicated to God, the Hebrews were to be separated 

 from all neighbouring nations, and to stand separate 

 and independent, relying upon God as their Lord and 

 Master. Regulations, extending to the minutest par- 

 ticulars of the daily occurrences of life, in which 

 even the selection and preparation of their food, and 

 the care of personal cleanliness, were not forgotten, 

 gave them habits adapted to their character and re- 



