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He knew the efficacy of the prayer of Moses. He had already witnessed it. He sought thus again to be relieved from the judgments of God which afflicted him and his people, with no fixed purpose, however, as we shall soon see, of fulfilling the proImise which he made.

Moses entreated the Lord, as the king requested, and the plague ceased; the swarms of venomous insects were all removed; not one remained. But "Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go."

Four times had the hand of the Almighty visited the haughty and obstinate monarch of Egypt with the most awful judgments, without bringing him to submit to the divine command. He was becoming even more obdurate and unyielding. A fifth "A very plague was at hand. It was soon inflicted. grievous murrain,”—some fatal disease producing a sudden and general mortality, among the cattle of the Egyptians, pervaded their whole land. We are told that they all died; by which we are doubtless to understand that a great many died of all the various kinds, horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep.

It was a heavy affliction, as the Egyptians were dependent on these animals, in various ways, for their sustenance and comfort; while to aggravate their sufferings, and show still more forcibly the displeasure of God against them, the Israelites, whom they so much despised and oppressed, were

entirely exempt from this calamity. For Pharaoh himself sent to inquire into the matter, "and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead." This served still more to rouse his indignation, and excite his rebellious spirit against the Almighty. His heart was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

The sixth plague followed, and exceeded in severity any that had preceded it. There was a striking coincidence, too, between this new judgment of the Almighty, and the peculiar kind of oppressive labor which the Israelites, in their bondage, were obliged to perform. They were principally engaged in making brick, which they burned in furnaces, or brick-kilns. From these furnaces ashes were produced, in great abundance, of a dry and light kind.

Moses and Aaron were directed by God to take handfuls of these ashes, and the former to sprinkle them toward heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. It was done; and immediately the fine cinder-like cloud, floating through the air in all directions, and increasing in quantity as it went, pervaded the land of Egypt. The innumerable particles settled on the bodies of the Egyptians and their cattle, and they were instantly covered with hideous boils, breaking out into loathsome blains or ulcers, accompanied with inflammation and a tormenting

heat.

Till this time it is probable that the magicians had frequently been at the court of Pharaoh, and encouraged him to persevere in his resistance of the divine command; boasting, perhaps, that, although apparently foiled in some of their attempts, they would, at length, rise in their strength, and triumph over Moses. But their defeat was now to be complete and overwhelming, and even themselves obliged to acknowledge it. They were so afflicted, in common with their countrymen, with the disease which God, in his vengeance, had sent upon them, that they sunk down in dismay under its tortures. They could not stand before Moses." They dared no longer oppose him; and quitting the presence of the monarch and his nobles in disgrace, we hear of them no more in the sacred narrative.

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This their signal discomfiture is alluded to, in that memorable passage of Scripture that we find in the second epistle of Paul to Timothy, the third chapter, the eighth and ninth verses. Persons of an excessively sinful character having been described as to appear in the last days, it is said; "Now, as Jannes and Jambres," (doubtless the principal magicians, and the leaders of the whole band,) withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was."

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It is indeed the height of folly to contend against God, or against those who act in his name and are instructed to deliver his messages to us.

At the present day, men still resist the truth as it is proclaimed by the ministers of God's word; his ambassadors who would persuade sinners to become reconciled, through the sacrifice of Christ, to their offended Maker.

My young friend, do you resist this truth? Are you sometimes offended with those who declare it to you? Do you withstand, in the pride and obstinacy of your heart, as Jannes and Jambres did Moses, the appeals which the faithful preachers of the Gospel make to your conscience, and feel as if you should be able to hold out against them? Persisting in such a course, the day of your utter dismay and discomfiture must come. Moses triumphed over the magicians; so will the truth of God triumph over you, and sink you down, at last, into utter despair and ruin. Fear, fear, lest you end a career of impenitence and guilt in a condemnation so Just and terrible.

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Nothing could yet move the obdurate heart of Pharaoh. Another manifestation of the divine displeasure awaited him and his people.

At the command of God, Moses stretched forth his rod towards heaven. Amid deep and portentous thunder, and streams of liquid fire running along the ground, a terrible hail-storm poured forth its fury throughout the whole land of Egypt. Pharaoh had been warned of it. He had been told that it should be a very grievous hail, such as had not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof." He had been directed to send and gather his cattle, and all that he had in the field; for that upon every man and beast which should be found in the field, and should not be brought home, the hail should come down upon them and they should die. And such was their fate. All that were in the field, both man and beast, perished; and all kinds of plants, and grain, and trees, in immense numbers, were broken down and destroyed. The desolation was universal; while in Goshen not a solitary vestige of this wide-spreading calamity was to be seen.

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