sorry to see how ill-treated and oppressed they were, and as he grew older, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of GOD, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of CHRIST, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. One day he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. There was no one in sight, and Moses slew the Egyptian, and buried him in the sand, thinking that no one knew what he had done. But the next day, he found two of his Hebrew brethren fighting, and when he tried to hinder them, the one who was in the wrong turned upon Moses, saying, "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday?"

Then Moses saw the thing was known, and that he would be in danger. It was so, and King Pharaoh was very angry, and would have put Moses to death, but he fled away into the land of Midian. Here he rested by the side of a well, and while there, the seven daughters of Jethro, the Priest-Prince of Midian, came to water their flock in the troughs by the well's side. But the shepherds of neighbouring flocks came

and drove the women away; then Moses stood up, and helped them, and watered their flock. So the maidens got home sooner than usual, and their father inquired why. Then they told him how an Egyptian stranger had delivered them from the shepherds, and helped them to water the flock. Their father rebuked them for having left the stranger who had behaved so kindly behind, and sent to call him to eat bread. ended in Moses staying with Jethro, and marrying his daughter Zipporah.

It

While Moses lived thus in Midian, the King of Egypt died, and it seems as if the next king had treated the Children of Israel still worse than before, for they "sighed by reason of their bondage," and cried, and their cry came unto GOD, and He hearkened to them, and remembered His promise to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. GOD never fails to hear when His people cry to Him in their trouble, and accordingly now, He looked in pity upon the Hebrews, and listened to their cries for help, and prepared to deliver them in His own time and way.

MOSES CALLED TO DELIVER ISRAEL.

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ALL this time Moses was taking care of his father-in-law Jethro's flock of sheep, probably thinking how glad he was to be leading such a quiet peaceful life, far away from the restless, suffering people in Egypt. But one day when he was in the desert with the flock, Moses came to Mount Horeb, and lo! a most wonderful sight met his eyes. The Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and although the bush burned with fire, it was not destroyed. Moses was very much surprised, and said, "I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt."

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God was watching Moses, and when he turned to see the burning bush, God called him twice by his name. Then Moses answered, "Here am I." Then GOD spoke, saying, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Moreover He said, "I am the GOD of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the GOD of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face in terror and awe at

the very Presence of GOD. The LORD went on to speak to Moses, and told him, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good land and a large, into a land flowing with milk and honey. When God had finished telling Moses how He meant to deliver His people, He went on to say, "Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people the Children of Israel out of Egypt."

When Moses heard this, he was frightened, and could not see how he should do so great a thing, and he said to the LORD, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the Children of Israel out of Egypt ?"

But GOD, Who had saved Moses in the ark of bulrushes, and guided him into Midian, knew all that was in his heart; and how he should have strength for the work appointed him. Moses was not to go before Pharaoh in his own strength. So GoD said to him, "Certainly I will be with thee." Moreover, GoD

promised Moses, that when he had brought his countrymen out of their slavery in Egypt, they should serve GoD in that very Mount Horeb.

Now Moses most faithfully believed the word of God, but he still felt weak and ignorant how to speak to his Hebrew brethren. And GOD, like a Merciful, Loving FATHER, deigned to talk with him, and answer all his doubts and fears. Behold," Moses said, "when I come

unto the Children of Israel, and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you;' and they shall say unto me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say unto them?"

Then God gave that most solemn and wonderful description of Himself to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM," and bid him say to the Children of Israel, "I AM hath sent me unto you.'

GOD went on to tell Moses that this should be His Name for ever. Moreover, He bid Moses call together all the elders of Israel, and tell them how the GoD of their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had appeared unto him, and had spoken pitifully of their sorrows, and had promised to bring them out of their present afflicted state of bondage in the Land of Egypt; and to lead them back to the Land of Canaan, where He had long ago promised to