god. If we are right in supposing him to be Menephthah, he was the son of a king who had set up bis own image to be worshipped side by side with those of Ammon, Phthah, e.nd Horns, three of the greatest Egyptian deities. He viewed the demand made of him as preposterous, and had probably not the slightest belief in the power of Jehovah to do him harm. Who was Jehovah? and what had he to fear from him? A god-if he was a f!od-wbo had not been able to prevent his people from becoming a nation of slaves. He therefore treated the petition of Moses with absolute contempt. And so it bas ever been, and will ever be, with the great of the earth. They are so exalted above their fellows, that they think "no harm can happen unto them." They do not set themselves to inquire what is really God's will, but determinately carry out their own will in their own way. Even when they do not openly blaspheme, like this Pharaoh, and Sennacherib (2 Kings xviii. 29-35), and Herod Antipas (Luke xxiii. 11), they ignore God, reject the just demands of his ministers, refuse to be guided by their advice. Thus his servants are ever being rebuffed. They ask that slavery should everywhere cease, and a.re told that in some places it is a necessity. They plead against the licensing of vice, and are bidden not to interfere with sanitary arrangements. They ask for laws to restrain intoxication, and are deno,mced as eeeking to lessen the national revenue. They cry for the abolition of vivisection, and are held up to ridicule as sickly sentiment.a.lists. All this is to be expected, and should not discourage them. Let them, like Moses and Aaron, continually repeat their demands ; urge them, in season and out of sea.son. They may be sure that they will triumph at last. " The Lord is on their side;" they need not fear what flesh can do against them.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-21.-Failure. "I know not Jehovah," etc.: E:x;od. v. 2. We now come face to face with the king. .A!l the king here becomes very prominent, we will keep him conspicuous in the outlining of this address. L AUDIENCE WIT.II THE KING. This is a convenient moment for introducing Pharaoh as the terrestrial representative of the Sun, as the vicegerent of Deity upon earth. Does it seem wonderful that men should receive a man in this capacity? But millions of professed Christians in this nineteenth century so receive the Pope. We will take the suggestions of the story in the time-order of the narrative. We have-1. .A lesson in courage. The two went to their audience with the king at the peril of their lives .. Some might have remembered Moses. Their demand touched the honour and revenues of the king. Courage in facing responsibility is the lesson; leave consequences to our poor selves to God. 2. A suggestion as to the method of evangelic grace. Jehovah here calls himself for the first time in relation to the nation, as distinguished from the man Jacob, "the God of Israel." A crowd was just becoming a State and a Church, when Jehovah calls himself their God. First he is their God: then all possibilities are before them. Their history begins well So now : first adopted children, and then the obedience of children. 3. .A warning a,gaimt want of catholicity. The tone of Pharaoh is that of tb.e vicegerent of Deity, as against a tutelary god- he deigned not to acknowledge. But he was wrong even on the principles of enlightened pagandom, which was forward to acknowledge the gods of all nations. Compare the policy of imperial Rome. 4. Teaching as to gradation in God's demands. Here may be dis- cussed the nature and propriety of the first demand for three days' absence. Looking at things after the events, it may appear to some that here was a demand which concealed the real intention, viz. to return no more. But this would be to impeach the veracity of God! The demand really was for "a whole day's prayer-meeting," with a day to go, a day to return. In the desert, as in consideration of Egyptian feeling; but probably within the frontier, for there were Egyptian garrisons in parts of the desert of Sinai. A moderate demand I One that Pharaoh might well have complied with. Compliance might have led to further negotiation ; and this Pharaoh might have stood out in history as co-operating in the deliverance and formation of the Church of God. Instead of that he set himself against the small demand, and was unready for the gre.1,tcr (Exod. vi. 11) when it came. And so we see him through the mist of ages, " moving ghost-like to his doom." It is a picture of the method of God. He uks first for the simple, reasonable, easv etc. etc. OH, V, 1-21.] 'rHE BOOK OF EXODUS. 119