cattle of the Egyptians. When it is remembered that the death of one of their sacred animals was regarded as a great public calamity, what must have been the effect of this widespread ruin? an effect greatly aggravated by the knowledge that, while in all Egypt the objects of their idolatry were perishing before their eyes, in Goshen the property of the Israelites remained in health and safety. These successive visitations were not only severe punishments, but must have tended to alienate the minds of the Egyptians from their impure faith. There is reason to believe that this people were peculiarly accessible to such an influence. Plutarch tells us, that whenever any great drought, or pestilential disease, or other extraordinary calamity, happened amongst them, it was customary for the Egyptian priests to select some of the sacred animals, and, having conducted them with all silence to a dark place, to terrify them with threats, and afterward, if the disorder continued, to devote them to death. What events ever happened in Egyptian history so likely to call forth this strange procedure as the plagues with which they were at this time visited?

:

The next infliction is worthy of very serious attention, both with respect to the instrumentality by which it was accomplished, and its remarkable effect. This plague consisted of violent inflammatory boils which broke out upon man and beast. Hitherto the judgments of God had been principally directed against the objects of idolatrous worship this affected the most cultivated and powerful supporters of this idolatry. After the plague of frogs, the magicians had tried in vain to imitate the miracles of Moses. Yet they watched every step of his wonder-working career with great interest and anxiety. Now, however, they are made the subjects of divine visitation; they also feel the inflammatory, cancerous boils, and are unable longer to stand before Moses and Aaron. They are heard of no more; they either perished under this plague, or were afflicted so severely, that they dared no longer to obtrude themselves into the presence of the servants of God.

But the means by which this plague was effected were

equally remarkable.

In obedience to the explicit command

of God in this case, Moses and Aaron "took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and IT became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast." (Exod. ix. 10.) It may be safely assumed as an unquestionable fact, that means so specially appointed were not selected arbitrarily, or without substantial reason: they all had a significant meaning, and this in particular.

In Egypt Typho was regarded as the personification of the evil principle. In very ancient times human sacrifices were offered to propitiate this malign deity. The certainty of this, and the manner in which these sacrificial services were conducted, are given by several ancient authors. Diodorus and Athenæus state the fact. And Plutarch, on the authority of Manetho, says, "that formerly in the city of Idithya, they were wont to burn even men alive, giving them the name of Typhos, and, winnowing their ashes through a sieve, to scatter and disperse them in the air.” * If such a practice ever existed in Egypt, there cannot be a doubt that this was the time when it was likely to have been acted upon. Moses had now for a considerable period pursued his miraculous career; the magicians who at first attempted to equal his works were driven from the field; the throne and the priesthood, in their united power and influence, had been resisted and humbled, the entire population throughout the length and breadth of the land had been severely afflicted; and no human sagacity could divine where or when this terrific Scourge would terminate. If, therefore, there was ever a time when the utmost effort was likely to be exerted to propitiate the evil principle, it was under the infliction of this plague; and if this was done according to the custom of the country, then the whole case is explained. Pharaoh and his priests would attend this horrid immolation, the destined victims would be offered in sacrifice to Typho, and the revolting rite of winnowing ashes in the air be completed.

* PLUTARCHUS De Iside et Osiride.

Then, while the king, and his courtiers, and the priests, lingered around the spot, hoping that success would crown this desperate and barbarous measure, Moses appears, and, taking of these very ashes, and sprinkling them in the air before the king, makes them the means of inflicting a plague more terrible than any that had preceded it. Does not this clearly exhibit God's controversy with the idolatry of Egypt? and, moreover, give a pointed signification and consistency to the account, which is otherwise unintelligible, if not absurd? *

The seventh plague was a terrible storm of thunder, lightning, rain, and hail. This, apart from the direct proof which it afforded of the majesty and power of Jehovah, and of the certainty that Moses was commissioned by him, was a still further infliction on Egyptian idolatry. It protracted God's judgments on the worship of animals, and at the same time commenced a similar attack on the vegetable kingdom. For it must be remembered that the idolatry of this ancient people was so grovelling as to make even trees and plants objects of idolatrous regard. The persea, peach, pomegranate, vine, acanthus, sycamore, fig, and tamarisk, among the trees, as well as garlic, onions, leeks, papyrus, and ivy, among plants and vegetables, were held holy and sacred, and sometimes even worshipped as divine. This plague, therefore, not only continued the infliction on Egyptian idolatry, but extended it into a new section of this impure system. This miracle was not only distinguished, like the preceding, by excepting the land of Goshen from its operation; it also showed the effect which the successive miracles had produced on the public mind of Egypt. Although Pharaoh was so hardened as to manifest no penitence or fear, many among his people had acquired a dread of the power of Jehovah. Prior to the infliction of this plague, Moses cautioned the king to bring his servants and his cattle home, lest, being found in the field, they should be destroyed. Although he might have contemned the advice, it had its effect; for "he

* See note J, p. 61.

that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses and he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.” (Exod. ix. 20, 21.) Thus have we proof that these judgments did lead many of the wealthy Egyptians practically to renounce their confidence in vain idols, and to fear the word of the Lord.

The eighth plague consisted of immense swarms of locusts, which devoured all the vegetation that had escaped the hail. It has been supposed by some writers, that it was the special province of the god Serapis to protect the country from these destructive creatures. If so, this miracle must have demonstrated his impotence. But, however this may

be, the plague of locusts was a consummation of the preceding; and the Egyptian priesthood and people, who had before been devoted to their idolatrous system, must have seen with amazement and awe, if not with conviction, all that they esteemed sacred and divine on earth, crushed, broken, and destroyed, by a series of penal visitations, which Moses professed to inflict by the power of the God of the Hebrews.

But a yet more striking display of divine power was destined to attest the weakness and folly of the gorgeous system of Egyptian polytheism. The sun was worshipped throughout Egypt. The sacred emblems of his influence. and supremacy were constantly in use; "the importance attached to this deity may be readily inferred from the fact of every Pharaoh having the title son of the sun' preceding his phonetic nomen." * It was from this allusive relationship to the sun that the scriptural term "Pharaoh," or phrah, the usual appellation of the kings of Egypt, was derived. The moon was also worshipped under the name of Thoth. This object also held a very high rank, and was often dignified with the title "twice great."

These sublime objects of their idolatrous worship seemed to be too distant from our earth, too great and too glorious, to be affected by any power which Moses could wield. Nor

* WILKINSON'S 66

'Ancient Egypt," vol. iv. p. 287.

is it unlikely that, amid the wreck of their terrestrial divinities, the Egyptians might still look to those luminaries, regard them as gods, and trust in them for help and deliverance.

But Jehovah had arisen out of his place, not only to deliver his people, but to vindicate his own insulted majesty: as a jealous God, he asserted his supremacy, and put to shame all the glory of Egyptian idolatry. In the accomplishment of this purpose, no object was so high, no creature so great, as to withstand his will. Moses was commanded to stretch out "his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days." (Exod. x. 22.) How paralysed, how prostrate, must the Egyptian nation have felt at this time! So deep was the darkness, that during the whole of this time "they saw not one another." (Verse 23.) So overwhelming were the amazement and sorrow, that during this period no man "rose from his place." Uncertain whether they should ever again see the light, they lay prostrate in a darkness which was felt. Here the triumph of the God of Israel was complete, the perfect vanity of Egyptian idolatry demonstrated. Egypt, with all her learning and prowess, supported by a gorgeous and almost boundless range of idolatrous religion, is exhibited as convicted, punished, without any power to escape, any hope of alleviation.

Amid all this terrible infliction on the Egyptians, the Hebrews" had light in their dwellings."

The interpretation which has thus been given to the scripture narrative of these remarkable events, is not only fully sustained by the most authentic accounts of ancient Egypt, but exactly accords with the declared purpose of God, which was not only the deliverance of Israel, but the religious correction and enlightenment of Egypt. This was distinctly announced: "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them." (Exod. vii. 5.)

Egypt, rich in all other knowledge, celebrated throughout