exchanged for the far brighter light and holier joy, and more enduring peace, which await him in the many mansions of his Father's house.

EXPOSITION XXVIII.

EXODUS xi. 1-10.

1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.

2. Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold.

3. And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.

4. And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:

5. And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

6. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.

7. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.

8. And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great

anger.

9. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

10. And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

WE are now drawing very near to the conclusion of Pharaoh's sad and painful history. Although there is a division between this chapter and the preceding, it is evident that it formed a part of the same conference before Moses left the presence of Pharaoh for the last time, for he is not said to have gone out from Pharaoh after his own declaration, "I will see thy face again no more," until the eighth verse of the present chapter. Moses was probably in the act of leaving the court, when the Lord stopped him with the solemn declaration, "Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh," and then no doubt proceeded to communicate to him the appalling

nature of it, since we find Moses immediately declaring it to Pharaoh, with every circumstance

of attendant terror.

"All the firstborn in the land

of Egypt shall die." "And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more." How unutterably fearful a denunciation! and yet how incapable of softening the judiciallyhardened heart of the monarch! Moses now for the first time seems to be assuming the power and rank with which the Almighty had invested him. "All these thy servants," he says to Pharaoh, "shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out.' As if he had said, Dost thou refuse to let us go? Hast thou forbidden me to come again into thy presence upon pain of death? then attend; all these thy servants, the princes who surround thee, shall, before this night of vengeance dawns into day, come down to me and supplicate me to depart, and I will not do it until that which thou hast so often denied to me as a matter of justice shall be thus asked at my hands, as a favour and a boon. How wonderfully was the power of the Most High magnified by this bold and fearless declaration of his servant! Who could suppose that this was he who had

asked, “Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh?" or that had so faithlessly entreated,

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Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send," by any one but me? Most fully had the Almighty redeemed his gracious promise, "Go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say."

How different a creature is man, when trusting to himself, or when content simply to be guided by the Holy Spirit of God, let St. Peter tell; that weak disciple who denied the Saviour for fear of a simple waiting-woman; that heroic champion who proclaimed the same Saviour at the evident peril of liberty and life, before the assembled Sanhedrim, and who, when his hour was come, did not shrink from making the painful death of the cross even more painful, rather than appear to count himself worthy of the fate of his divine Master. While, during the whole age of the Christian martyrs, how often did it happen that the self-confident warrior was among the number of "the lapsed," while many a weak and feeble woman, and many a helpless child, walked cheerfully to the stake, "not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection." Blessed Lord, in thee, and in thee alone, is our strength found; only qualify us for the burden, and support us under it, and

then nothing shall be too painful, nothing too heavy for us to bear. Render us "patient in tribulation," by the same grace which makes us "stedfast in faith," "joyful through hope, and rooted in charity," and then we shall "so pass the waves of this troublesome world, that finally we shall come to the land of everlasting life, there to reign with thee world without end, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”*

How awful and awakening to every hardened sinner should be the parting words of the Almighty to the doomed and devoted Pharaoh, "Yet will I bring upon thee one plague more!" Yes, sinner, if thou still hardenest thyself against God, whatever be thy pains or sufferings here, believe not that they will be at an end, when mortal life shall close upon thee; hope not for any earthly termination of them: "one plague more" awaits thee, a plague to which even death itself is but the prelude, from which there can be no escape, in which there is no respite, and with which can never mingle hope. In the midst of thy severest earthly sufferings, think of the "one plague more;" and may God of his mercy give thee grace to fly in time to that city of refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ, within the walls of whose fold, and the enclosures of whose love, that Baptismal Service.

*