CHAPTER VI.

Moses in Midian. He goes to Mount Horeb.

From being the guest of Jethro Moses soon became a permanent member of the family. His services in its various and extensive concerns were much needed, and he consented to remain and render them. The acquaintance thus formed between two such men, ripened into mutual esteem and friendship. After some time, it may have been a term of years, and for labor agreed to be performed, (as in the case of Jacob and Laban,) Jethro gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage.

A son was born to them, whom his father called Gershom; a word denoting a stranger there," and intended to be commemorative of the peculiar circumstances in which Moses, at that time, was placed. They, afterwards, had another son, who bore the name of Eliezer, which signifies "my God is a help ;"" for the God of my father," said Moses, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh."

With regard to the other events which marked the life of Moses, during his residence in the land of Midian, till the time of his being directed by God

to return to Egypt, the Scriptures furnish us with no account. Probably there were not any occurrences of a striking kind. His days passed away in the discharge of the customary duties of his employment, in the service of Jethro ; and in the cares of his own family, whom he brought up faithfully in the religion of his fathers. Having much communion with God in meditation and prayer, and enjoying the peculiar influences of his Holy Spirit, he was making progress continually in every grace and virtue which combine to form the character of a holy, benevolent, and upright man. The circumstances in which he was placed, and the life which he led, were happily adapted, also, to give him that meek and enduring temper, and that ability to meet trials and deprivations, which he afterwards so much needed, and of which we shall find such abundant evidence in the subsequent history.

The sojourning for forty years of this truly great and good man in the land of Midian, was one of the wonderful dealings of Providence, in the progress of those events which were to bring about the separation of a peculiar people from the rest of the world; the keeping sacred among them the only true religion amid the superstitions and idolatries of the heathen; and thus preparing the way, in the fulness of time, for the accomplishment of the promise, that in the seed of Abraham, the father of their nation, all the families of the earth should be

blessed. That Jesus, the Prince and the Saviour, might come, it was necessary that Moses should flee from the court of Pharaoh ; and be an exile in a distant land; and the hired servant, and keeper of the flocks of Jethro.

What wonderful dependencies of events! Moses laid in the ark of bulrushes ;-Moses sitting by the well in Midian;-and Christ, the babe of Bethlehem, lying in a manger! What must be the wisdom, the skill, and the power of that Being, who can thus link together in one harmonious plan, and make them answer his great and benevolent designs, occurrences so separated by a long interval of ages, and, in human estimation, so remote from any connection with each other!

A new epoch in the history of Moses, is about to commence. The king who sought his life dies, and another Pharaoh succeeds to the throne. This event, however, produces no favorable change in the condition of the Israelites. In the language of Scripture," they sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them." He regarded them with great compassion, and tenderly cared for them in their severe trials and afflictions. The time for their

relief was at hand. Their prayers will soon be answered. Their deliverer will speedily appear in the midst of them.

In moving from place to place, to find sufficient pasture-grounds for the sheep of Jethro, Moses, on one occasion, led the flock to the farther part of the great desert of mountains, which lies between the eastern and western branches of the Red Sea. He stopped at Horeb, a mountain in the region which bears, at the present day, the name of Sinai. The two names, however, are interchanged in the Scriptures; the name Sinai being apparently applied to the particular summit, while that of Horeb included the whole, or the greater part of the upper granite region, which forms an irregular circle of thirty or forty miles in diameter, possessing numerous sources of water, a temperate climate, and a productive soil. This region contains the highest mountains of the peninsula, whose shagged and pointed peaks, and steep and shattered sides, render it clearly distinguishable from all the rest of the country in view. Abrupt cliffs of granite, from six to eight hundred feet in height, whose surface is blackened by the sun, surround the avenues leading to the elevated region, to which the name of Sinai, at the present day, is specifically applied. The cliffs enclose the mountain on three sides, leaving the east and north

east sides only, towards the gulf of Akaba, more open to the view.

Here it was, in the midst of these wild and lonely solitudes, that Moses, with his sheep grazing around him, mused on the dealings of God's providence, and wondered what the coming days or months would bring forth. The whole scene, containing such sublime exhibitions of the divine ma jesty and power, was well adapted to inspire the deepest reverence, and to produce in him the " who strongest confidence in that almighty Being hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance."

Eighty years of the life of Moses had now passed away. He had been long maturing in the school of experience. His age, his character, his habits, were all ripe for his becoming the instrument of God's purposes respecting the children of Israel. Providence had guided his steps to this sequestered spot, that, afar from every human eye, he might receive his divine commission, as the deliverer of his countrymen, and their leader to the land which was promised to their fathers.

For what purpose, my young friend, is Provi dence guiding your steps, and leading you, from one stage to another, in the journey of life? Have