Moses' life WPS saved, and yet he WPS not hieratic, was generolly studied, and all toler- sepo.rnted from his na.turol guardian, nor given ably educated persons could read it e.nd write over to the tender mercies of strangers : the it. Style was cultivated, and though no great child went be.ck to hie own home, to his own progress was made in the graces of finished a.po.rtment, to his own cro.dle; continued to composition, the power of expressing thought be nourished by his own mother's milk ; o.nd and relating facts in a simple o.nd perspicuous received those first impressions, which a.re so prose was acquired by the greater number. indelibly impressed upon the mind, in a. Much attention was paid to letter-writing; Hebrew fo.mily. Pharo.oh's daughter said, and models of business and other letters were "Take this ohild a.way, and nurse it for me." set before the pupil as patterns which he was " Take him with you-take him to your O"ll'Il to follow. By the more advanced, poetry Wa.!I home for a while--and there nurse him JOT read, o.nd poetic composition occasionally prac- me, a.s long as he needs nursing." And to tised. Arithmetic and geometry, up to acer- mark that he is mine, and not yours-to tain point, were studied by oll ; e.nd a plain silence inquiry-to stop the mouths of in- morality was inculcated. But history, theology, formers-" I will give thee thy wages." BBtronomy, medicine, e.nd engineering, were Jochebed wo.s more than content, and "took viewed as special studies, to be pursued by the ohild o.nd nursed it." those intended for certain professions, rather Ver. 10.-The child grew. Compo.re Gen. than as included within the curriculum of an xxi. 8, where the full phrase is used-" The ordinary education; and it may well be doubted child grew, and was weaned." Jochebed ho.d whether Moses' attention was much directed saved her son's life by a transfer of her to any of them. He may indeed have been mother's right in him to Pho.ro.oh's daughter. initiated into the mysteries, and in that case She ho.d received him be.ck, merely as a hlred would have come to understand the esoteric nurse, to suckle him. When the time co.me, meaning of the Egyptian myths, and of all probably at the end of the second year, for that most revolts modems in the Egyptian him to be weaned, she wo.s bound, whatever religion. But, on the whole, it is most the sufferings of her heart may have been, to probable that he was rather trained for active give him up-to restore him to her from whom than for speculative life, and received the she had received him, o.s a child put out to education which fitted men for the service of nurse. And we see that she ma.de no attempt the State, not that which made them dreamers to escape her obligations. No sooner wo.s the and theorists. His great praise is, that "he boy weaned, than " she brought him unto wo.s mighty in words and deeds " ( Acts, 1.s.c.) ; Phar.aoh'a daughter "-o.s it would seem, of and he was certainly anything rather than a her own accord. And he became her son. recluse student. We should do wrong to There is no evidence that formal " adoption" regard him o.s either a scientific man or a wo.s a custom of the Egyptians; and probably philosopher. His genius was pmcticol; and no more is here meant than that the princess his education wo.s of a practical kind-such o.s took the child into her family, and brought fitted him to become the leader of his people him up o.s if he ho.d been her son, giving in a great emergency, to deal on equal terms him oll the privileges of a son, to~ether with a powerful monarch, and to guide to a with such an education as a princess s son happy conclusion the hazardous enterprise of usuolly received. We obtain the best generol a great national migration. And she called his idea of what such an education wo.s from the name Moses. The Egyptian form of the name words of St. Stephen (Acts vii. 21)-" Now wo.s probably Mesu, which signifies "born, Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the brought forth, child," o.nd is derived from a Egyptians." This "wisdom," though not root meaning " to produce," "draw forth." perhaps very deep, was multiform and mani- Egyptian has many roots common to it with fold. It included orthography, grammar, Hebrew, whereof this is one. The princess's history, theology, medicine, arithmetic, geome- play upon words thus admitted of being try, astronomy, and engineering. Education litero.lly rendered in the Hebrew-" she co.llecl began, as in most countries, with orthography his no.me Mosheh ( drawn forth) ; because, she and grammar. The hieroglyphical system so.id, I drew him forth (meshithi-hu) from was probably not taught, and the knowledge the water." Mesu is found in the monuments of it remained a speciol privilege of the priest- as an Egyptian name under the nineteenth class: but the cursive character, known as the dyne.sty
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-2.--§ 1. The birth of Moses. In the providence ·of God, great men ar& raised up from time to time, for the express object of working out his puriioses. A gre,it task is before them, but there is often nothing peculiar, nothing striking, in their birth or parentage, They come into the world with as little co=otion, as little iclat, 26 TIIE BOOK OF EXODUS. [cH, n. l-10,