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hesitatingly, cast in his lot with the people of God, bearing their reproach. It is evident from what we have seen, that all that he did was done advisedly and by direct inspiration from on high, and that Moses. chose the portion of a fugitive and an alien, simply at God's bidding, and because "he had respect unto the recompense of the reward," and like his pious ancestors, "desired a better country, that is, an heavenly."

What an admirable and striking example for the Christian! Never was the true church of God at so low an ebb, as in the brick-kilns of Egypt-never did the world bid higher for a follower, than in the court of Pharaoh; and yet by divine grace had this consistent servant of the Most High strength and resolution to prefer "the reproach of Christ" to all these treasures and immunities, and voluntarily to unite himself to those who were suffering the world's enmity and the world's wrong.

Let no one, then, attempt to shelter himself, while disobedient to God's express command to "come out and be separate" from the sinful pleasures and practices of the world, by a reference to his peculiar position, rank, or station. Let no one say, this may be sufficiently easy for those whom Providence has placed in the middle or lower walks of life, but for me it is impossible. Be assured that God gives no general commands, without offering to each and to all, grace and strength, and power to fulfil them; and if any individual fail, it will be vain to plead his worldly circumstances in extenuation. For if his difficulties be greater than those of others, hath not God expressly

said, that he "giveth more grace;" more in proportion to the trial to be borne, the temptation to be resisted, the impediments to be overcome?

We can scarcely imagine a situation of such overwhelming opposition to spiritual feelings and holy conduct as that of Moses. Forty years' residence in an idolatrous palace; the offer to be recognised as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, with all the incalculable worldly advantages to which such an adoption would assuredly lead; while on the other hand the certainty of oppression, contempt, and poverty, if he relinquished these splendid prospects; and yet in the face of all this, he firmly and deliberately chose "the reproach of Christ," and went out, "not knowing whither he went;" satisfied that, if he conscientiously forsook the evil, he might safely leave it to God to choose for him the good, and that while endeavouring to please God, he was certainly promoting his own temporal and eternal felicity.

Happy, thrice happy are they who have grace to walk in such footsteps, to believe in God's own declaration, that "the friendship of the world is enmity with God;" to forsake its broad road, and wide gate, and crowded paths, and to join that little company who are in every age earnestly seeking, in a life of unworldliness and self-denial, to take up the cross and to follow Christ now, and who shall hereafter "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth."

EXPOSITION VI.

EXODUS ii. 16—25.

16. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

17. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.

18. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to-day?

19. And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.

20. And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.

21. And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.

22. And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

23. And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.

24. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

25. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

Moses having fled from Goshen, entered the land of Midian, again directed, not by fear, but by faith, for the apostle to the Hebrews says, "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible."

And there, while seated, as we are told in the pre

ceding verses, by the side of a well, probably wearied by his journey, he is witness to an act of cowardly oppression, which, with his strong feeling of indignant hatred of injustice, he cannot see without interference. He therefore drives away the idle shepherds who were evidently in the habit of compelling their weaker female companions to wait until the men's flocks were watered, before they permitted them to approach for a similar purpose; and having done this, Moses himself draws water for the flocks of the women. This one act of kindness, trifling as it appears, gives a colouring to the whole of his future life; it causes him to become the guest, and finally the son-in-law, of Reuel, and for forty years to employ himself in the quiet and meditative occupation of tending his father-in-law's flock in the desert. Here, again, how strikingly do we behold the hand of a superintending Providence arranging even the minutest circumstances in the lives of his instruments! Who shall dare to pronounce what is accident, and what is design? Was it accident that Moses rested himself at that particular well? Yet, surely, it was no accident that he became a keeper of sheep for forty years in the desert. But who can separate the one from the other, the cause from the effect? Let it teach us then to acknowledge a particular providence in the smallest mercies of our daily lives; let it lead us to make all and each a subject of prayer and praise; let it convince us that nothing is too trifling, too insignificant for the cognizance of that Being, without whom, not a sparrow falleth, and by whom the very hairs of our heads are numbered.

For forty years, had Moses dwelt amidst the refinement and luxuries of a court, and obtained there all that he needed of wisdom and learning, and knowledge of human life and of human nature, to qualify him for the wonderful and important position he was at some future day to occupy. But valuable as these acquirements were, they were not all that was needed; there was much that could be learnt only in solitude; much of the nature and attributes of God, and of his own soul, of which Moses might have remained profoundly ignorant, but which were quite as necessary to endow him for his high emprize, as the greatest depths of worldly wisdom or scientific research. May we never forget, that human learning, valuable though it be, can never, if alone, qualify us for the service of our Maker! There must be hours of study of the revealed word; of thoughtful, prayerful meditation; of absolute withdrawal even from the innocent and praiseworthy occupations of the world, if we would attain to any high degree of usefulness in the church of the Redeemer. It is then, and then only, that we learn rightly, although, alas! how imperfectly, to know either God or ourselves. The world, when seen from a distance, appears for the first time in its true dimensions, and has no longer the exaggerated charms and glories with which, while closely engaged in it, we are so apt to invest it; and we are enabled, when thus temporarily removed from it, to see something of its exceeding emptiness, and worthlessness, and vanity; and thus, if we persevere in prayer, fully following out these true and holy impressions, we may be led, by the grace given unto us, to re

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