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ever, he has grace plainly and boldly to state his commission, and as a faithful ambassador to deliver it in the name of the Lord his God; for Moses went in and told Pharaoh, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel." It is this which gives all the power and all the efficiency, even at the present hour, to the Christian ministry; "Thus saith the Lord;" "Now then," says the apostle, "we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us."* And again, "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers (or servants) of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." As if the apostle were willing to be personally forgotten, and to place nothing before the eyes of his hearers as a motive for receiving himself or his message, but the office which he filled as a "steward," "servant," "ambassador," of the Most High.

It is then, that the ministers of God may expect the largest results, the greatest fruits of their labours, when they are content to be themselves overlooked in the offers of reconciliation, with which they are charged, as entirely as the bearer of a message is forgotten, when we are overwhelmed with joy at its contents, and our hearts filled even to overflowing, with a grateful love to the benefactor from whom it

comes.

It was well, indeed, for Moses that he did not attempt to speak in his own name, for probably the hostile feeling in the heart of Pharaoh, which found utterance in rebellion against God, would not have

* 2 Cor. v. 20.

t1 Cor. iv. 1.

Con

stopped short of murder, in the case of Moses. sidering him, however, merely as the ambassador, all the haughty rage of the monarch manifests itself in his insolent opposition to the Most High. "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" "I know not the Lord." Here is at once the key to Pharaoh's disobedience; it requires no supernatural hardening of the heart, to turn ignorance into presumption, or gross darkness into open rebellion. The first is parent to the last. If we would preserve ourselves, our children, our country, from the one, we must release them from the other. "I know not the Lord," is a full and sufficient explanation of all that follows. O that men would but learn that the first step to all knowledge is the knowledge of God! Upon this, we cannot erect too large, too high, too grand a superstructure; but wanting this, like the man who built upon the sand, the first wind that beats, the first storm that blows, destroys our edifice and our hopes together.

The cruelty that follows the refusal of Pharaoh, opens to us another view of his character: we have seen him ignorant of, and disobedient to God; we now behold him atrociously cruel to his fellow-creatures. His unfortunate bondsmen are no longer to be allowed the straw, which was mixed with the clay, previously to baking the bricks in the sun, but they are to wander up and down the land of Egypt to find it, and yet produce, at the end of the day, the same number of bricks as when the straw was granted them. The absolute impossibility of obedience to such a command, is no sufficient motive with Pharaoh not

to endeavour to enforce it. There is no depth of iniquity or cruelty, to which the human heart will not stoop, when uncontrolled by the knowledge of the Most High. We read of the "innocent and beautiful superstitions" of Pagan nations, but the moment that the veil is undrawn to the close observer, he finds the most innocent and the most beautiful of them, disgraced by the lowest immorality, and polluted with blood; so truly did the prophet say, "The dark corners of the earth are full of cruelty." The truth is, that the heart of fallen man is precisely the same in every country, and under every sun, and it is not until that heart is changed and sanctified, that it is humanized and purified. Philosophy cannot do it, human knowledge cannot do it, civilization cannot do it, nothing but God's Spirit can achieve it; and He and He only who made the human heart, can remake or regenerate it, and prepare it for himself, and his own blessed society, throughout eternity.

EXPOSITION XIV.

EXODUS V. 9-23.

9. Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.

10. And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.

11. Go ye, get ye straw where ye can find it; yet not aught of your work shall be diminished.

12. So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt, to gather stubble instead of straw.

13. And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.

14. And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick, both yesterday and to-day, as heretofore?

15. Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants ?

16. There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick and, behold, thy servants, are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people.

17. But he said, ye are idle: ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.

18. Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.

19. And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish aught from your bricks of your daily task.

20. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh;

21. And they said unto them, The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.

22. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil-entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me?

23. For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.

How natural is the disappointment evinced in the verses we have just read, both by people and leaders. No sooner did Moses appear before the Israelites, and assure them that the Lord had visited his people, and that he had looked upon their affliction, and would

deliver them, than, most unexpectedly to him, they at once received the message, believed the messenger, and bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord. Nothing, therefore, appeared to be wanting to ensure their deliverance: for the people of Israel, even if Moses himself was not, were now convinced that the hour was come, and that their chains would at once be broken, and they themselves set free. This, however, was not the will of God concerning them; they had dwelt too long amidst a nation of idolaters, not to have become contaminated by their vices, and therefore fully deserving to be, at least in part, partakers of their punishment; for we are expressly told that they had fallen into the sins of the people by whom they were surrounded, that they would not "cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt:" and that for this cause God distinctly declared, "I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish mine anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt;"* but that this should not prevent, although it might postpone, their deliverance; for the Almighty adds, with equal distinctness, "I wrought for my Name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt." This is the plain and important declaration of the Almighty himself, by the mouth of his prophet Ezekiel, and it is very necessary to observe and to remember it; for ignorance of this fact

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