the purpose, and t.his one is to be studied in view of the fact that it did prove effectual for its end. Observe, 1. It was a death-stroke. Death has a singular }JOWer in sub- duing and melting the heart. It is the most }JOWerful solvent God can apply to a rebellious nature. It is sometimes tried when gentler means have failed. God removes your idol. He lays your dear one in the dust. You have resisted milder influences, will you yield to this? Your heart is for the moment bowed and broken, will tho repentance prove lasting, or will it be, like Pbaraoh's, only for a time? 2. It is a death-grip upon the soul which is needed to make sin relax its hold U}JOn it. "The sorrows of death COlllpa.ssed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord: 0 Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul" (Ps. cxvi. 3, 4). God comes in the preaching of his law, and lays his band, a band carrying death in it, upon the soul of the trembling transgressor, who then for the first time realises the fatal and unspeab.bly awful position in which he has placed himself by sin. It is a death-sentence which is written in his conscience. 3. That which completes the liberation of the soul is a view of the meaning of the death of Christ. Terror alone will not melt the heart. '!'here is needed to effect this the influence of love. And where is love to be seen in such wonderful manifestation as at the Cross of Christ? What see we there? The first-born of the race expiring in awful agony under the judgment of God for our sins. Is not this a spectacle to melt the heart ? It is powerful enough, if earnestly contemplated, to make the Pharaoh that is \\ithin us all relinquish his grip upon the captive spirit. What read we of the pro- spective conversion of Israel?-" They shall look on Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son ; and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born" (Zech. xii. 10). See again, Acts ii. 36, 3i, "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts," etc. Cf. also Rev. i. 7. The Cross inspires mourning- (!) By the spectacle it presents of holy suffering. (2) By the recollection of who it is that there suffers. (3) By the thought that it is our own sins which are the cause of this suffering. (4) By the thought that it is the judgment of God in the infliction of the curse of sin which the Holy one is thus enduring. (5) By the conviction of sin, and the dread of Divine justice, thus awakened. (6) Above all, by the infinite love shown in this gift of the Son, and in the Son's willingness to endure this awful agony and shame for our salvation.---J. 0
EXPOSITION. Vcrs. 31-36.-THE Dmnss..u.. The first not told how his request was received ; action seems to have been ta.ken by Pharaoh. but that it should have been made is a The " cry " of the people had no doubt been striking indication of bow his pride was heard in the pelace, and he was awe.re that humbled. The overture from Pharaoh was the blow had not fe.llen on himself alone, and followed rapidly by e. popular movement, may have anticipated what the people's feel- which was UDiversal and irresistible The ings would be ; but he did not wait for any Egyptians " rose up " everywhere, and "were direct pressure to be put upon him before urgent upon the people," to " send them out yielding. He sent his chief officers ( eh. xi. of the land in haste " (ver. 33) ; and to expe- 8) while it was still night (eh xii. 31), to in- dite their departure readily supplied them e.t form Moses and Aaron, not only that they their request with gold and silver and rai- might, but that they m'IU!t take their depar- ment (ver. 35), thus voluntarily spoiling ture immediately, with all the people, and themselves for the benefit of the foreigners. added that they might take with them their The Israelites, long previously prepared for flocks and herds. The surrender was thus the moment which had now e.rrived, madb complete ; and it was accompanied by a their final arrangements, and before the day request which we should scarcely have was over e. lengthy column was set in motion, expected Pharaoh craved at the hands and proceeded from Rameses, which seems to of the two brothers a blessing I We are have been a suburb of Tanis (Brugsch, Hill. cm. xu. 31 -,IG. l TTTE BOOK OJ<' EXODU8.