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amidst the general devastation. Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and acknowledged his sins. The Lord is righteous,' he said, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord, for it is already too much, that there should be no more thundering and hail; and I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.' Moses replied: When I am gone out of the city, I shall spread out my hands to the Lord; and the thunder will cease, neither will there be any more hail, that thou mayest know that the earth is the Lord's.' And it happened as Moses had said; the storm ceasedbut Pharaoh's heart remained hardened.

Scarcely less fearful than any of the preceding plagues was the eighth which at once followed. Pharaoh was forewarned; for Aaron went to him to announce the will of God, and to bid him pause before he called down upon the country swarms of locusts. It was no imaginary evil that the threat implied; everyone was familiar with the terrible scourge of the dreaded locusts, whose arrival was feared more than that of a hostile army. There exists indeed no more fatal destroyer of all vegetable life. The locusts that infest Egypt are children of the desert. They are active, eager, and fierce. They appear flying together in such vast numbers, and so compactly, that they seem like a cloud passing over the earth. Where they descend upon the ground, they cover it like a wide black veil for many leagues. They eat voraciously, devouring everything that comes in their way, and leaving behind them a bare and desolate waste.

It was this awful calamity that Aaron predicted to Pharaoh. The people felt keenly the impending horrors of the plague was not their country ruined already and devastated? had it not been swept by the terrific hailstorm, and should it now be exposed to the still more fatal fury of the locusts? For the first time, they implored the king to grant the request of the Israelites. They hastened

after Moses and Aaron, and brought them back to the monarch's throne, in order, if possible, to prevent the evil. Pharaoh was for a moment disposed to yield: 'Go,' said he, serve the Lord your God; but who are they that will go?' And Moses repeated what the king of Egypt had so often heard before: With our young and with our old will we go, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go, for we have a feast to the Lord.' But Pharaoh's proud spirit revolted from giving his consent to this request, which he not unjustly felt was meant to hide deeper schemes on the part of the Hebrews: if he permitted their departure, it should be under conditions which would oblige them to return; and he exclaimed in anger and exasperation: So may the Lord be with you as I shall let you go and your children: see, that you have evil plans before you. Not so; go now, you men, and serve the Lord, for that have you desired.' Thus Moses and Aaron were driven from the presence of Pharaoh.

Then came the plague as had been predicted. When Moses stretched out his staff, an east wind arose and brought the locusts from the regions of the Red Sea in vast clouds over the land. More numerous, more terrible than they had ever been seen before, they descended on the fields, on the trees, on the fruits, and rapidly, as if by enchantment, changed the whole country into an arid desert. Ruin and famine were the hideous spectres that followed them. Pharaoh hastened to send for Moses, and confessing his sin, entreated forgiveness. Then Moses prayed to the Lord, and a strong west wind arose, and blew the locusts into the Red Sea. The land was freed; but Pharaoh hardened his heart once more, and would not let the children of Israel go.

Then followed quickly the ninth plague, which, unlike its predecessors, neither caused physical distress to the

people, nor brought still further ruin upon the desolate land. But it was one of those awful and mysterious dispensations calculated to impress the senses and the mind with fear and horror. The ninth plague was total and absolute darkness. During three days a thick and impenetrable veil hung over the land of Egypt, no one could move from his place-but the Hebrews had light in their dwellings. Now it must be remembered that to the Egyptians the Sun was an object of worship. The city of On with its temples and priests was consecrated to the Sun; Pharaoh himself, as has been observed above, means son of the Sun. In a moment, that great deity was obscured by the God of Israel; Osiris strove in vain to dispel the darkness; he had lost his golden rays.

Dismayed and alarmed, Pharaoh sent for Moses, bidding him depart instantly with all his people, and only leave their flocks and herds behind as a pledge. But no, this could not be agreed to; Moses emphatically declared: "Our cattle shall also go with us, not one hoof shall remain behind; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God.' But Pharaoh hardened his heart as before, and would not let them go. He was enraged against that wise but humble servant of God who defied his own power, and he exclaimed: Go away from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for on that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.' And Moses replied: Thou hast spoken right, I will see thy face no more.'

We now approach the tenth plague, which, as it was the last, was also the most terrible. It was the final struggle in that awful warfare between God and man; it proved the complete overthrow of the Egyptian king.

Moses had obtained a celebrity throughout the land of Egypt, which had probably never before been surpassed, not even with regard to the great royal favourite Joseph.

His wisdom excelled that of the priests and magicians; he foretold events that invariably came to pass; he performed the most astonishing miracles; his staff brought disasters, which his prayer alone could stay; he appeared in the name of the great God of the Hebrews; and he stood boldly in the presence of the king, warning him of evil, firmly insisting upon his demands, resolutely refusing to make the smallest concession. Was it wonderful that the Egyptians looked upon him with awe? He gained their admiration still more because, with all the power granted to him by God, he was ever meek and modest, ever distrustful of his gifts, considering himself as the feeble instrument for carrying out a Divine mission. His great courage, coupled with supreme humility, could not fail to impress the Egyptians. And for his sake, the Israelites found favour in their sight. Thus, when the Lord made known to him the nature of the last plague, and bade him tell the people to ask for silver and gold from their Egyptian neighbours, the masters readily gave to the enslaved strangers their trinkets, and ornaments, and costly vessels. Everything had been foretold by God to Moses, who now communicated to Pharaoh the impending and terrible visitation in these words: Thus says the Lord, about midnight shall I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits upon the throne, to the firstborn of the handmaid who is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast; that you may know that the Lord distinguishes between the Egyptians and between Israel. And all these thy servants shall come down to me, and shall bow down themselves to me,

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saying, Go out, thou and all thy people that follow thee: and after that, I shall go out.'

Then Moses turned away in anger from the king who by his blind stubbornness brought unspeakable calamities upon his people.

33. INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER ; DEPARTURE OF THE HEBREWS FROM EGYPT.

[EXOD. XII.]

The tenth plague was to be the signal of the exodus of the Hebrews and of their redemption. The death of the firstborn among the Egyptians was the new life of the Hebrews, the midnight visit of the angel of destruction was their trumpet note announcing the dawn of freedom. So glorious, so important was the release from Egypt, that the very month in which it took place was henceforth to be considered the beginning of the year, the first of

months.

But before their departure, the people were once more assembled to listen to the Divine commands conveyed to them by Moses. Four days previous to the night of the exodus, the chief of each household was to select a male lamb or kid, one year old, without blemish; he was to kill it towards the evening of the day appointed for the flight, and to put its blood, by means of a bunch of hyssop, on the two side-posts and on the lintels of the houses. The animal was to be roasted entire, and consumed completely in that night, together with cakes of unleavened bread and bitter herbs. With girded loins, with staffs in their hands, with sandals on their feet, should the Israelites take this hasty meal before their longed-for deliverance. As on account of the suddenness of their escape, they would have no time to bake their