336 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



with what happens naturally on rare occasions when 

 the river is exceptionally low, and a vast growth of 

 crimson microscopic plants takes place in consequence. 

 The darkness that might be felt was caused doubtless 

 by the khamsin a storm of sand driven by the wind 

 from the desert, every particle stinging the skin like a 

 needle, and causing the people to stay indoors while it 

 prevails. And so with all the others. Their super- 

 natural character consisted in the coincidence of their 

 occurrence with the Divine threatenings, in their inten- 

 sification and portentous character, and in the special 

 results which they accomplished. God economized the 

 supernatural element in His working, and made use, as 

 far as they could go, of the natural phenomena of the 

 land to carry out His purposes ; just as He makes use 

 in all His miracles of what is already in existence and 

 available on the spot. We must consider the destroy- 

 ing angel as a personification of some natural but awful 

 means of destruction which God employed to punish 

 the Egyptians. The suddenness, the stealthy character 

 of the visitation, giving no warning of its approach, 

 coming in the stillness of the night, and leaving behind 

 wailing and anguish unspeakable in every home 

 throughout the land all these circumstances irre- 

 sistibly suggest the idea of some pestilence walking in 

 darkness, of some terrible epidemic not unlike some of 

 the famous plagues of the Middle Ages. It was a 

 stupendous miracle ; but the miraculous element in it 

 consisted in its severity, its indiscriminate incidence 

 upon man and beast, and in its selection only of the 



