He had i;inned, sinned both against God, and against Moses and Aaron ; would they forgive him this once, only this once, and entreat God that he would take away from him thia death only? (vers. 16, 17.) Contrast this with ver. 10, or with ver. 28, and it can hardly be believed that we are looking on the same man, Pharaoh had never humbled himself so far before. He beseeches for mercy; almost cringes before Moses and .Aaron in hi6 anxiety to haYe this dreadful plague removed. Yet there is no real change of heart. 'l'he moment the locusts are gone pride reasserts its sway, and he hardens himself as formerly. Leam-1. Thatfal.se repentance may be connected with other than mperji.cial, states offeeling. Pharaoh was here in real terror, in mortal anguish of 11pirit. The pains of hell had truly got hold on him (Ps. cxvi. 3). Yet his repentance was 11 false one. ~- That false repentance may ape every outward symptom of real repenta11ce. Who that saw Pharaoh in that bath of anguish, and heard him pourin"" out those impassioned entreaties and confessions, but would have supposed that th: hard heart had at length been subdued? The confession of sin is unreserved and unqualified. The submission is absolute. Pharaoh was aware of how little he deserved tu be further trusted, and pied to be tried a.gain," only this once." Yet the repentance was through and through a false one-the product of mere natural terror-the repentance of a heart, not one :fibre of which was altered in its moral quality. 3. That false repentance may not be con.sciously insincere. There is no reason to question that Pharaoh was for the time sincere enough in the promises he: made. They were wrung from him, but he meant to give effect to them. But the momentary willingness he felt to purchase exemption from trouble by granting Jehovah's demand had quite disappeared by the time the plague was removed. The repentance was false. 4. The ust of a repentance being false or true is the fruits yielded by it. The test is not the depth of our convictions, the anguish of our minds, the profuseness of our confessions, the apparent sincerity of our vows, it is the kind of deeds which follow (Matt. iii. 8). ·we have need in this matter of repentance to distrust ourselves, to beware of being imposed on by others, and to be careful in public instruction that the real nature of .iepcntance is lucidly expounded.-J. 0.
Ters. 1-19.-The Eighth Plague: the locusts. I. CoNBIDEB THE EMPHATIC STATE• ME1'"T WITH RESPECT TO THE HARDENING OF TOE HE.A.BT. In eh. ix. 34 we are told that when the hail and the thunder ceased. Pharaoh hardened his heart, he and his servants. Note here two things: 1. How Pharaoh's heart was hardened just after he had made a confession of sin ; from which we see how little he understood by the word " sin," and how little he meant by the confession. 2. The combination of his servants with him in this hardening; from which we may judge that just as some among his servants had. been taken further away from him by their prudent and believing action when the hail was threatened (eh. ix. 20), so others had been drawn ~till nearer to their master, and made larger sharers in his obstinacy and pride. The unbelieving, who left their servants and their cattle in the :fields, not only lost their property when the hail descended, but afterwards they became worse men. And now in eh. x. 1, not only is there a statement that the hearts of Pharaoh and his servants were hardened, but God in his own person says, " I have hardened his heart," &c. Then after th:s statement, so emphatic in the expression of it, however difficult to understand in the meaning of it, God goes on to explain why he has thus hardened the heart of Pharaoh and his servants. In the first place, it gives an opportunity for show- ing God's signs before Pharaoh--" all my plagues" (eh. ix. 14). Thus God would turn our attention here to the thing of chief importance, namely, what he was doing himself. Important it certainly is to notice what Pharaoh is doing, but far more important to notice what Jehovah is doing. We may easily give too much time to thinking of Pharaoh, and too little to thinking of Jehovah. 'fhus God would ever direct us i.uto the steps of pnctical wisdom. We are constantly tempted to ask questions which cannot be answered, while we as constantly neglect to ask questions which both can be answered and ought to be answered. The conduct of Pharaoh is indeed a fascinating problem for those who love to consider the play of motives in the human heart. Jn considerin"" him there is ample room for the imagination to work out the conception of e. very impressive character. ThUB, we might come to many conclUBions with respect to Pharaoh, some of them right, but in all likelihood most of them wrong, perhapa en. x.. 1-20.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 233