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after them, they were afraid that he would destroy them with his army; and they wanted Moses to let them go back, and be slaves again to the Egyptians. But Moses told them not to be afraid, for that the Lord their God would deliver them, and would destroy their enemies.

They were now on the shores of a narrow sea called the Red Sea; and God commanded Moses to lift up his rod, and stretch out his hand over the sea, and divide it; and then the children of Israel could go on dry midst of the sea. as God had spoken. his hand over the caused it to go back by a strong East wind all that night; and he made the sea dry land, so that the children of Israel went into the midst of it, the waters being a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left.

ground through the And it came to pass Moses stretched out sea, and the Lord

When the Egyptians saw that the Israelites had crossed over the sea on dry

land, they thought that they could cross too. So they pursued them; and when they were in the midst of the sea, God commanded Moses to stretch forth his hand again, as he had done before. And he stretched it out, and the waters of the sea returned to their former place, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh, so that there was not one of them left alive.

Thus did Jehovah destroy the Egyptians, and save the Israelites from their hands. He only can save, and He only can destroy. His power is terrible, and his might none can withstand. Every

moment of our lives we are in his hands, and when He commandeth we die, and return to the dust. How carefully, then, should we avoid offending against so great and powerful a Being! We will obey Him, in order that we may live and be happy. We will not despise his warnings, as Pharaoh did; but we will keep

his laws in sight, and never forget what He has taught us. We will honour Him with our lips, and strive to honour Him still more in our hearts and lives.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS GIVEN. (Exod. xv. 22—xx. 17.)

AFTER the children of Israel had escaped from Egypt, and had crossed the Red Sea, they wandered for forty years in a vast desert, where there were scarcely any roads, and no cities or gardens. And that they might know which way to go, God guided them by a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. When they complained that they had nothing to eat, he gave them quails and manna, which was a kind of sweet gum in the form of seeds; and once, when there was no water for them to drink, he commanded Moses to strike the rock

with his rod, and there flowed out water enough both for them and for their cattle.

When they had wandered in this desert two or three months, they came to a high mountain called Sinai; and here God spake to Moses, and ordered him to tell the people that they were not to touch that mountain, and that they were to keep themselves holy, and wash their clothes, and be ready for the third day.

Moses did as God had commanded him. And in the morning of the third day there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and the sound of a trumpet exceedingly loud, so that all the people in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people near to the foot of the mountain, and they saw smoke ascend from it like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked exceedingly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and became louder and louder, God call

ed Moses to come up into the mountain, and he told him to let no one come up with him besides Aaron his brother. And here it was, from the midst of all this cloud, and smoke, and thunder, that God delivered to the children of Israel those laws, which are called the Ten Commandments, saying,

"I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

I. "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.

II. "Thou shalt not make for thyself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands

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