probably wearied by their rapid march. They therefore encamped for the night - for it was toward evening when they arrived intending, probably, to give effect to their intentions in the morning. As for the Israelites, the sight of their old oppressors struck them with terror. There was no faith or spirit in them. They knew not how to value their newly-found liberty. They deplored the rash adventure in which they had engaged; and their servile minds looked back with regret and envy upon the enslaved condition which they had so lately The of a mode of feeling and character among the Divine intention had been previously this spiritless and perverse people of which intimated to him; for he answered, with that Moses had seen something already, and of usual emphasis of expression which makes it which he had soon occasion to see much a pleasure to transcribe his words: "Fear more. One might be disposed to judge of ye not: stand still, and see the salvation of their feelings the more leniently, attributing the Lord, which he will show to you this day: them to the essential operation of personal for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day slavery in enslaving the mind, by debasing ye shall see no more again for ever. its higher tones of feeling and character, did Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold we not know that the same characteristics of your peace. They were pacified by this mind and temper constantly broke out among for the present; but there is good reason to this remarkable people very long after the suspect, that if measures of relief had long generation which knew the slavery of Egypt been delayed, they would have given up had passed away. Moses and Aaron to the Egyptians, and have placed themselves at their disposal. But measures of relief were not long delayed. Moses did not deign to remonstrate with them or to vindicate himself. It seems that this discovery, the king determined to follow. | indistinct perceptions of a people who had It is by no means clear that they knew or not been on the spot long enough to make thought that they were following them into particular observations, and most of them the bed of the sea. Considering the dark- probably roused from sleep to join in the ness of the night, except from the light of pursuit, it seems likely that they felt uncerthe pillar, with the confusion of ideas and tain about the direction, and supposed that * According to a well-known optical effect, by which we can see by night all that stands between us and the light, but nothing that lies beyond the light. No doubt the pillar gave good light to the Egyptians themselves, but did not enable them to see the Israelites. In like manner the Israel ites, doubtless, could not see the Egyptians. A little attention to a matter so perfectly obvious would have spared us some speculations, such as that which gives the pillar a cloudy side and a flaming side, &c. Its they were following some accustomed route | polity, it supplied a subject to which the by which the Israelites were either endeavor- sacred poets and prophets make constant aling to escape or to return to Egypt. They lusions in language the most sublime. may even have thought they were going up the valley of Bedea, although that actually lay in an opposite direction. Any thing, however improbable, seems more likely to have occurred to them than that they were passing through the divided sea. By the time the day broke and the Egyptians became aware of their condition, all the Hebrews had safely reached the other side, and all or nearly all the Egyptians were in the bed of the gulf; the van approaching the eastern shore, and the rear having left the western. The moment of vengeance was come. They found themselves in the midst of the sea, with the waters on their right hand and on their left, and only restrained from overwhelming them by some power they knew not, but which they must have suspected to have been that of the God of the Hebrews. The marine road, ploughed by the multitudes which went before them, became distressing to them; their chariotwheels dragged heavily along, and very many of them came off from the cars which they supported. The Lord also began to trouble them with a furious warfare of the elements. The Psalmist more than once alludes to this. He exclaims : He exclaims: "The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, and were afraid and then speaks as if every element had spent its fury upon the devoted heads of the Egyptians. The earth shook; the thunders rolled; and most appalling lightnings the arrows of God shot along the firmament; while the clouds poured down heavy rains, "hailstones, and coals of fire." It deserves to be mentioned that this strife is also recorded by the Egyptian chronologer, who reports, It is said that fire flashed against them in front.” By this time the pursuers were thoroughly alarmed. "Let us flee," said they, "from the face of Israel, for JEHOVAH fighteth for them against the Egyptians. But at that instant the Lord gave the word, Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the restrained waters returned and ingulfed them all. This stupendous event made a profound impression upon the Hebrew mind at large. From that day to the end of the Hebrew * Psalm xviii. 13-15; lxxvii. 16, 17. effect upon the generation more immediately concerned was very strong, and although they were but too prone to forget it, was more abiding and operative than any which had yet been made upon them. When they witnessed all these things, and soon after saw the carcasses of those who had so lately been the objects of such intense dread to them, lying by thousands on the beach, "they feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and his servant Moses." In the sublime song which Moses composed and sang with the sons of Israel in commemoration of this great event their marvellous deliverance and the overthrow of their enemies-he, with his usual wisdom, looks forward to important ulterior effects, to secure to the Hebrews the benefit of which may not improbably have formed one of the principal reasons for this remarkable exhibition of the power of Jehovah, and his determination to protect the chosen race. These anticipations, which were abundantly fulfilled, are contained in the following verses: "The nations shall hear this and tremble; Anguish shall seize the inhabitants of Palestine. deemed." On this occasion the first instance is offered of a custom, learned most probably in Egypt, and ever retained by the Hebrew women, of celebrating with dances and timbrels every remarkable event of joy or triumph. They were now led by Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron; and they seem to have taken part as a chorus in the song of the men, by answering: "Let us sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously, The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. As the timbrels of the women were doubtless Egyptian, and the dresses of those of superior rank were probably Egyptian also, we have considered that a similar dance of females, from Egyptian sources, would form a satisfactory illustration. It will appear, from the opinion we have traditions, it would be wrong entirely to disbeen induced to entertain respecting the regard them when they support or illustrate place in which the Israelites encamped, and conclusions otherwise probable. We shall, from which they departed, on the western however, content ourselves with adding, deshore of the gulf, that we concur with those scriptively, that a number of green shrubs, who regard Ain Mousa* as the place, on the springing from numerous hillocks, mark the eastern shore, where they came up from the landward approach to this place. Here are bed of the sea, and where they witnessed also a number of neglected palm-trees grown the overthrow of their oppressors. That the thick and bushy for want of pruning. site is thus distinguished in the local tradi- springs which here rise out of the ground in tions of the inhabitants of Sinai, the name various places, and give name to the spot, alone suffices to indicate; and, although un- are soon lost in the sands. The water is of due weight should not be attached to such a brackish quality, in consequence, probably, The of the springs being so near the sea; but it is, nevertheless, cool and refreshing, and in these waterless deserts affords a desirable resting-place. The view from this place, looking westward, is very beautiful, and most interesting from its association with the wonderful events which it has been our duty to relate. The mountain chains of Attaka, each running into a long promontory, stretch along the shore of Africa; and nearly opposite our station we view the opening the Pi-ha-hiroth the "mouth of the ridge," formed by the valley in the mouth of which the Hebrews were encamped before they *The Fountains of Moses. † As Egypt has been the grand scene of the very important transactions related in this chapter, it may not be improper to close it with a few crossed the sea. On the side where we stand, the access to the shore from the bed of the gulf would have been easy. And it deserves to be mentioned, that not only do the springs bear the name of Moses, but the projecting head-land below them, toward the sea, bears the name of Ras Mousa. Thus do the Cape of Moses and the Cape of Deliverance look toward each other from the opposite shores of the Arabian Gulf, and unite their abiding and unshaken testimony to the judgments and wonders of that day in which the right hand of Jehovah was so abundantly "glorified in might."† observations on its learning, language, religion, idolatry, &c. Egypt (that binds or troubles), an ancient country of Africa, peopled by Mizraim, a son of Ham, the son of Noah, from whom it re into two districts, Upper Egypt, or Thebias, and only of the sun and moon, but of their various Lower Egypt, or the Delta. The river Nile, run- beasts, oxen, sheep, goats, and cats, and even of ning through the whole length of the land, from leeks, onions, and diseases, and of monsters havnorth to south, abounds with fish, crocodiles, and ing no existence, except in their own disordered hippopotami; and, by its annual overflowing, imaginations. Divine prophecy has been strikthe country became one of the most fruitful in the ingly illustrated in the history of Egypt, Ezek. world, so that its majestic waters formed the glory xxix. 8-15, xxx. 10-13. Nebuchadnezzar conof the king of Egypt, Ezek. xxix. 3-5. Egypt quered it, as foretold by the prophet; then it bewas, at an early period, famous above every other came subject to Persia; and in succession to the country, for its progress in the arts and sciences, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Mamaluke-slaves, and Acts vii. 22; 1 Kings iv. 29, 30, attracting thither Turks. Napoleon Bonaparte conquered it in the most celebrated philosophers and historians 1798, in the hope of acquiring India; but the of Greece, to complete their studies. Pythagoras, French were expelled by the British, who deHerodotus, Plato, and many others, sought in-livered it up to the Turks. It has, therefore, struction in Egypt, among its celebrated sages; had no prince of its own; and it has been "the yet idolatry was carried to such a height, by the basest of kingdoms: " the decrees of Heaven wisest instructors of that country, that the Egyp- have been accomplished, and they will yet be fultians made gods for their religious worship, not filled, in the triumphs of Christianity, Isa. xi. |