The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 144

HOMILIES BY V.ARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 4--10.-Increased cruelty. View Pharaoh's conduct as illustrative- I. OF THE VIEW WHICH A WORLDLY MAN TAKES OF RELIGION. "Ye are idle" (vor. 8). This ·way of putting the matter was partly a pretext---a tyrant's excuse for adding to b~rd~ns alr_eady sufficiently heavy ; but it had so far. a ground in Pharo.oh's real way of vie,nng things, that he doubtless regarded the desire to go and sacrifice as an idle foolish notion, one which would not have come into the people's heads had they bee~ worked hard enough, and which it was his interest to drive out again as soon as possible. Obserre in this-1. A total incapacity to understand the origin of religious aspiratt'cns. Pharaoh had no better account to give of them than that they sprana from idleness. They were the fruit of a roving, unsettled disposition. The cure fo~ them was harder work. This is precisely how the world looks on religion. It is the unp~ctical dream of people whose working faculties are not in sufficiently vigorous oxerc1se. Of a true thirstmg of the soul for God the world has not the sliahtest compre- hension. _2 •. A total want of sympathy with these aspirations. Indulgence in them would be idling-a foolish and profitless waste of time. It is not idling to watch the markets, to s~cula~e on stock, to rea.d novels, to attend the Derby, to run to theatres, to spend evenings m the ball-room, to hunt, fish, shoot, or travel on the Continent to miste hours in society gossip; but it would be idling to pray, or worship God or ena~ge in Christian work, or attend to the interests of the soul. To snatch an 'hour from business to attend a prayer-meeting would be reckoned egregious folly, and as little are the hours at one's disposal when business is over to be spent in such "foolishness." Even the Sabbath, so far as it cannot be utilised for pleasure, is deemed a day "wa.,,-ted "-a weariness ( Amos viii. 6 ; Mal. ii. 13). 3. A total disregard of the rights of others in connection with these aspirations. Thoroughgoing men of the world neither take paiIIB to conceal their own contempt for religion (" vain words," ver. 9), nor trouble themselves with any scruples as to the rights of others. They will, without hesitation, t.a.ke from the religiously-disposed their opportunities of serving God, if these stand in the way of their own interests. Gladly, had they the power, would they turn the Sabbath into a work-day for the many that it might become (as on the Continent) a play-day for the few. Their own domestics and workpeople are over-driven, and unscrupulously deprived of Sabbath and sanctuary privileges. Where even the plea of humanity is disregarded, the plea of religion is not likely to be allowed much weight. II. OF TIIE ALARMS FELT BY A TYRANT AT THE UPBISING OF FREE ASPIBATIONS IN THE SUBJECTS OF Bl6 TYRA~"l-'Y. Pharaoh shrewdly foresaw the consequences of a further spread of these new-fangled ideas among the people. The request to go and sacrifice would not be long in being followed by a demand for freedom. Despotism and the spirit of liberty cannot coalesce. The tyrant knows that his power is put in peril the moment people begin to think for themselves-to cherish dreams of freedom-to be moved by religious enthusiasms. His rule can only be maintained at the cost of tho extinction in his subjects of the last vestige of mental and spiritual independence. If a spiritual movement like this which sprang up in Israel begins to show itself, it must be stamped out at once, and at whatever cost of suffering and bloodshed. Whatever tends to produce such movements is looked on with hostility, Thi11 applies to all kinds of despotisms---civil, ecclesiastical, industrial, social. Hence, under despotic governments, the gagging of the press, suppression of free institutions, restriction of liberty of speech, ostracism of men of public spirit, and opposition to progress and to liberal ideas generally. Hence the antagonism of the Roman Church to learning and science, with the baleful effects which have followed from that antagonism in countries where her influence is supreme (see Laveleye on 'Protestantism and Catholicism in their Bearings upon the Liberty and Prosperity of Nations'; and histories of the Reformation in Spain and Italy). "It has been wittily said, that in Madrid, providell you avoid saying anything concerning government, or religion, or politics, or morals, or statesmen, or bodies of reputation, or the opera, or any other public amusement, or any one who is engaged in any businrss, you may print what you please, under correction of two or three censors" (M'Crie). Hence the antipathy of the slave-driver11 of industry-those who grind the faces of the poor, making their profit out of their OJI, V, 4.-10,] THE BOOK OF EXODUS 127