touched with this act of mercy? Alas! on the contrary, "When he saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them." God had readily hearkened when he had been implored to have mercy on Pharaoh ; but Pharaoh did not hearken, he was hindered by his pride and selfishness. "What a humiliation," he may have said, "to yield to these slaves!" What would be said of him? The great king to be vanquished by two mean shepherds, and compelled by a swarm of frogs to give freedom to the vile Hebrew people!

We see in all this what the heart of man really is. So long as it is not changed, it turns everything into evil; even the grace, the pardon, and the blessings of God.1 "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of man is fully set in him to do evil," says the wise man of old. "Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged it shall not be well with

the wicked."2

Young reader, think of this; these delays, this time that God gives you, are precious. Remember the parable of the fig-tree. "Let it alone this year," said the dresser of the vineyard. Although of tender age, you may already have had dangerous attacks of illness, and God has delivered you from them; and you may perhaps be doing as Pharaoh did. God has given you warnings from your infancy, and you may have exclaimed, "I wish to be converted, O Lord, have mercy upon me." But when you had time granted you, it is possible that you have forgotten all you said, thought, and promised, in your prayers to God. Oh, do not

1 Jude 4. 2 Eccles. viii. 11-13.

3 Luke xiii. 8.

thus trifle with the patience of God. Look upon his forbearance as a proof that he is willing to save you.1 "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts," but say rather to the Lord, "I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments." The way to do this is to go to Jesus Christ, who will make your resolutions firm, deep, sincere, and lasting, by giving you a new heart and a right spirit.

XVII.

The Swarms of Flies.

(EXODUS viii. 21—31.)

ET us carefully observe here the words of Moses to Pharaoh, as related in the twenty-ninth verse, "Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarm of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow: but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord." Such is a picture of every impenitent sinner; he deals deceitfully; he, as it were, mocks the Lord, but in vain; for, as St. Paul says, "God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."4

Nevertheless, we must not think that Pharaoh was a man wholly without some feeling of religion, or some fear of God; and that when he said, "Intreat the Lord

1 2 Pet. iii. 15. 2 Heb. iii. 7, 8. 3 Ps. cxix. 60. 4 Gal. vi. 7.

for me," or, as he afterwards said, "I have sinned," that he was a conscious and voluntary hypocrite. No; Pharaoh, the persecutor of the Israelites, had a certain kind of religion; but his heart was hard, and was ever becoming harder; it was so deceitful that it deceived even himself. His religion, alas! consisted only of outward and superstitious observances; but when suffering from the plagues sent by God, and when hearing the preaching of Moses, some better feelings were aroused; he was humbled as well as terrified, and he acknowledged the power of God.

We have said that he practised habitually the outward observances of his religion. We learn from the narrative in this chapter that in the morning he was accustomed to go forth from his palace, accompanied by his priests, to the banks of the Nile, doubtless to make his ablutions and pay his devotions to his gods. As at the present day the Hindoos still practise their superstitious rites on the banks of the Ganges.

2

Moses then received a command to go early in the morning to the banks of the river, and to say to the king, "Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon

1 The overflow being nearly at its height, it seems to have been the custom of Egypt, in all ages, for the supreme ruler to go forth in solemn procession to the brink of the Nile, and there, with much ceremony, to direct the opening of the sluices at the mouths of the great canals; the occasion being further marked by feasts and rejoicings, which last for many days.-OSBURN's Israel in Egypt.

they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end that thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to-morrow shall this sign be." 1

In order to make this fourth plague still more striking, and the hardness of Pharaoh's heart more inexcusable, God sends Moses to predict the scourge before sending it. He thus appeals to Pharaoh in two separate ways; first, by prophecy, and then by the affliction following as its fulfilment. God also makes a miraculous and striking distinction between the land of Goshen and the rest of Egypt, between the people of Pharaoh and the people of God. As if Moses had said, "O Pharaoh, thou art proud and powerful; all thy people depend upon thee. But thou shalt see the difference there is between thy people and the people of God." The preceding plagues may have caused the Israelites to suffer as well as the Egyptians. The water turned into blood, the frogs and the vermin had, perhaps, tormented them and their flocks-at least, we are not told that they had been spared; but the new plague will have this striking and miraculous feature, that the people of Israel, and the province in which they lived, will be wholly preserved from the horrible swarms of winged insects, composed possibly of flies, mosquitoes, wasps, etc., which were to be sent upon the rest of the land. "I will put a division," saith the Lord, "between my people and thy people," and why was this? The reason is given; "to the end that thou mayest know that I am the Lord."

1 Exod. viii. 20-23.

When God chastises the nations of the earth it often happens that his own children share in the afflictions sent upon them, not only from their sympathy with those that suffer, but by suffering in their own persons. At other times, on the contrary, the people of God are specially preserved amid great public calamities, and many striking examples of this might be quoted from history. One of these occurs in the history of the Jews. When the terrible destruction of Jerusalem happened, which was accompanied by suffering such as had never been seen before, our Lord Jesus Christ had previously warned his disciples to fly to the mountains when the war should begin. When, contrary to all expectation, the first assault of the Romans had been repulsed, the Jews thought themselves invincible, and recovered courage; but the Christians, remembering their Master's warning, profited by this opportunity to fly from the city, although the Romans themselves had then retreated. The Christians did not even take time to return to the city to get any of their possessions, but took refuge at once in Pella beyond the Jordan; and thus they escaped the terrible massacre in which their fellow-citizens were destroyed.

Let us return to the prediction of Moses. Remark that this new plague which he announces was to come speedily. "To-morrow," said Moses, "shall this sign be." And in the next verse we read that his words were fulfilled: "And the Lord did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies." This was about the month we call February, the time when the corn and the barley ripen in Egypt,