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own cries registered, his own sorrows known and regarded in the kingdom of his Father. Surely, the Christian mourner may well take courage from such an example, and though his lot be cast among the humblest, and his dwelling among the poorest-yea, though he even rival the brickmakers of Egypt in misery and depression, he may rest assured that not a prayer uttered in secret, or a tear dropt in silent wretchedness, shall be overlooked by Him who loveth him, and hath given himself for him. How strong is the expression of the Almighty! "I am come down to deliver them:" and although he will not repeat such palpable and miraculous interferences at the present hour, God will still "come down," into the broken and contrite and sorrowing heart, by the dews of his Holy Spirit, and refresh and strengthen and comfort it; and according to his own most gracious promise, "give unto them that mourn in Zion, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."*

No sooner had the Almighty revealed to Moses the nature of the employment for which he had designed him, than the prophet, overwhelmed with a consciousness of his own utter worthlessness and insignificance, breaks forth into the reply, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh ?" I, who for forty years have lived a solitary shepherd, who am I, to enter, as the ambassador of the great Jehovah, into the courts of kings? How natural the feeling, how precisely that which every human being, who knows himself,

* Isaiah lxi. 3.

experiences at the very idea of being employed for God! Even an apostle, when thinking of such an occupation, could not refrain from asking, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Well might Moses shrink back appalled at the prospect. And how does God mercifully and tenderly acknowledge the justice of his reluctance, and at once meet and overcome it, by the blessed assurance, "Certainly I will be with thee." This, for the moment, appears fully to satisfy the trembling messenger, for he no longer asks, whether it will be possible for him to undertake the mission, but how he shall act, when he has undertaken it. This, also, is the only sure ground of the Christian's confidence. In every action that is proposed to you, in every line of conduct which is opened to you, in every course to which, whether by the solicitations of others, or the desires of your own heart, you are impelled, before you enter upon it, pause, and ask yourself this question, " Will the Lord be with me in it?" Can I ask his blessing, hope for his countenance, calculate upon his presence? If God, speaking, as he always does, by the written word, and through an enlightened conscience, replies, "Certainly I will be with thee;" advance boldly, and fear nothing. You are in the path of duty, difficult it may be, entangled and perplexing it will often be, but sure and safe it cannot fail to be; and he who has entered upon it with you, has undertaken for you, and pledged himself to you, even unto the end. Therefore "go on your way rejoicing," and you shall never regret the path you have trodden under such guidance, and in such company.

EXPOSITION IX.

EXODUS iii. 15-22.

15. And God said, moreover, unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

16. Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:

17. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

18. And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt; and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.

19. And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.

20. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

21. And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty:

22: But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.

We find the Almighty, in these verses, not only conveying to Moses the full extent and particulars

of his mission, but even more than this, predicting its result; so that no disappointment might afterwards accrue to him, while its success was doubtful, or postponed. It is extremely important to pay great attention to the mode of expression adopted by the Almighty in this particular passage, while referring to the disobedience of Pharaoh; for we cannot but consider it as a key to all the difficulties of the future history.

Nothing is, usually, more perplexing to the humble and earnest inquirer into the divine word, than the declarations which he there meets with, that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. Now the passage we have just read, is the very first, in which any reference whatever is made to the conduct of this disobedient and cruel monarch; and let us here carefully observe the manner in which the Almighty speaks of him. God does not say, I will send you to Pharaoh, and I will harden his heart, so that he shall not let you go. Nothing of the kind is either expressed, or implied. The Almighty, speaking with that foreknowledge, which is an essential attribute of Deity, says merely, "I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go." So far is this from implying that the Almighty would be himself the cause of Pharaoh's refusal, that it is language, in which one human being might speak with the most perfect propriety, and naturally would speak of another, over whom he possessed no control whatever, but of whose intentions he had been previously perfectly informed. That God, therefore, should afterwards harden Pharaoh's heart, as we are assured he

did, was in reality the effect, not the cause, of his first disobedience.

It is true that the infallible word of God has declared, "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth;" nor would we say one word which could, by any probability, be supposed to derogate from the entire and absolute sovereignty of God; but we consider such an example as this before us, as an explanation of the assertion of the apostle, and that by revealing to us in this case, that God was sure that Pharaoh would harden his own heart, it clearly sets him before us as the type of that whole class whom God will not pardon. Pharaoh had resolved upon a course of rebellion: and God knew this; and therefore, by withdrawing from him the restraining and softening influences of his grace, by permitting him to follow out his own stubborn and wayward will, and more than this, by hardening and strengthening that rebellious will to the highest pitch of obstinacy, the Almighty erected a lasting monument to the guilt and impotency of man, and the awful and the tremendous power of God: a monument that should stand as a beacon throughout all ages of the world, and deter the presumptuous sinner from the first rebellious feelings, and the earliest hostile or disobedient acts against that God, who was thus proved to be, to his enemies, "a consuming fire."

The verse at the close of the passage, wherein God commands the Israelites to "borrow" of the Egyptians "jewels of silver and jewels of gold," and which sometimes perplexes the unlearned reader,

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