imply, but one of the family of sedges. The root is about the thickness of a full-sized man's wrist, and more than fifteen feet long, and so hard that all kinds of utensils were made of it. The stem is about six feet long, surmounted by a cluster of little spikes, which are weak, and hang down like a plume, and are applied to no useful purpose. The stem, however, was eaten raw, roasted or boiled, and furnished materials for boats, sails, mats, clothes, beds, and books. Paper was made of it before the time of Alexander the Great, as some of the papyri found at Thebes and elsewhere show.

Herodotus and Pliny, both inform us that boats were made of it. In Egypt, and in Egypt only, was this plant applied to the many useful purposes we have enumerated; and as far as we can learn, it was not used for vessels out of Egypt, except, and that possibly at a later day, in Ethiopia. With Ethiopia, the history of the Israelites had no connection. It is, therefore, evidence of the author's acquaintance with Egypt at a very early period, that he constructs this boat for Moses, of the papyrus.

The slime here mentioned, may have been asphaltum or mineral pitch; for from various sources, we know the ancient Egyptians had bitumen; but as this slime was mingled with pitch (vegetable rosins), we suppose it may have been simply the mud or slime of the Nile which, to this day, possesses peculiarly adhesive properties. A modern writer tells us, that this slime is wonderfully tenacious; and when dry, adheres like pitch: hence, with a little straw or stubble, it needed but to be sun-dried to make bricks, which even yet remain. The natives now, when they are to descend the stream with a heavy cargo, build a wall of this mud on the gunwales or sides of their boats; and permitting it to dry, are not afraid

to load the vessel until the water rises above the wood-work of the boat. The slime will bear the washing of the stream, when the boat is floating in mid-channel down the river. If, however, contrary winds cause rough water, accidents sometimes happen from the washing away of the slime, and the boat founders. This slime, mixed with pitch and suffered to become hard, would therefore have made a perfectly watertight lining for the bulrush-boat of Moses.

CHAPTER IX.

THE DELIVERANCE.

AND now in the good providence of God, the time had come for the deliverance of this down-trodden and abused race of Hebrews. Moses appears as the agent of Heaven to commence the work. In obedience to God's command, he demands of Pharaoh: "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." "Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God." To this Pharaoh refuses his assent, and imposes on them additional burdens; taking from them the straw with which they had heretofore been furnished in the manufacture of brick, and compelling them to gather stubble for the purpose.

The agricultural scenes from the monuments show, that the usage among the Egyptians was to cut the grain some distance above the ground; and to this day, old sun-dried bricks, compacted with stubble instead of straw, are found not only in Egypt, but in Babylonia.

Upon the second application of Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh demands of them some miracle in proof of their commission. Such proof was not wanting: and here, before entering upon the consideration of it, a few preliminary remarks may be of service. It has been observed of all the unusual incidents

preceding the exodus, that they find a foundation in the natural phenomena of Egypt, and stand in close connection with ordinary occurrences; and this has been urged as an argument against the truth of the story. To give force to this objection, it is necessary to establish the fact, that the performance of no act, which, under any circumstances might have occurred of itself, in the natural course of events, can possibly be miraculous. But this proposition is very far from being true. Take, for instance, hail and locusts; it will not follow that, because both these exist in nature, they therefore never can appear under circumstances which will prove them to be miraculous. Grant them to be common manifestations in nature, still, when they, with many other events that might happen in nature occur in rapid succession and with great intensity, out of their usual order of occurrence; when they do so in a particularly specified region of country, and at a particular time, on the bidding of some individual; when at the same bidding they cease, and in some instances cease at a precise time previously designated by the person who is affected by them, and earnestly requests their withdrawal; it is idle under such circumstances to view them as mere natural phenomena, presenting themselves in their ordinary occurrence. There is something preternatural here; and the distinction must be taken between the occurrence itself, and the very unnatural and extraordinary combination of circumstances under which it occurs. Hail may be very natural, and yet the attendant circumstances of its appearance may prove its presence at a particular time and place, its duration and cessation, all to be supernatural. There is, therefore, no difficulty in understanding how a natural phenomenon may be converted into miraculous proof.

Further, in reference particularly to the plagues sent on Egypt, which merit our consideration, we should remark the fitness of the character of the miracles performed to the end proposed. A succession of strange and unprecedented terrors, brought suddenly and in rapid succession on Egypt, would not have served as well as the plagues did to accomplish the great end in view; which was, as we are told, to show that Jehovah was "the Lord in the midst of the earth" or land. These terrors would have only proved that, for the moment, Jehovah possessed a terrific power: but idolatry was much more likely to find a lasting reproof and condemnation, when many events with which the Egyptians were familiar (for some of them were of annual recurrence) were seen succeeding each other, out of place; showing that the Jehovah of Israel was indeed "God in the midst of the land," ordering and altering, as he pleased, events with which they were well enough acquainted in their ordinary mode of occurrence. There was, therefore, here a special reason for a class of miracles, uniting the supernatural with the natural. And to this it may be added, that in the Scriptures generally, while there are miracles entirely separated from all union with natural events, (such are most, if not all, of those by the Saviour,) yet there is a large class in which the supernatural is blended with the natural. Such blending does not destroy the miracle, or impugn its testimony to truth.

We now proceed to the Scripture story. It will be remembered that certain signs, not hurtful in their effects, precede the plagues, properly so called. The first of these is,

The change of Moses' rod to a serpent.

Before entering on a consideration of the fact here men