as well as to take David from the sheepfolds, from following the ewes, that he might exalt him to fill the throne and sway the scepter of Israel. Whatever be the lot which he appoints, whether agreeable or disagreeable to our inclinations; whatever be the task which he assigns, whether pleasant or painful to our feelings, our business is to obey. Nor shall we in the end repent our implicit submission to his will. The way of duty shall ultimately prove to be the way of safety and of enjoyment.

XIII.

THE CHOICE OF MOSES.

PART II.

HEBREWS xi, 24-26.

How false are the opinions which generally prevail among men respecting the people and the ways of God! Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people. The empire of sin and Satan is founded altogether in error; and religion must be misrepresented and misunderstood, or it would never be despised and calumniated. Some consider it as productive of melancholy; whereas it is, in truth, the only way of pleasantness, the only path to peace. Others regard it as necessarily ruinous to every worldly interest, and inconsistent with the pursuit of lawful business; whereas "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is," as well as "of that which is to come." And there is a third class of persons, whose prejudices against piety are supported by the notion that it is inseparably associated with narrowness of intellect and meanness of heart. In their view, no two characters are more incompatible than those of the saint and the hero. Religious people they consider as unmanly, poorspirited, and contemptible; incapable of anything generous in sentiment, or dignified in character and conduct. The fact is, however, the reverse of this opinion. We boldly maintain that the greatest saint is the greatest hero; that there is no earthly hero whose aims are so sublime, whose pursuits are so noble, whose principles are so elevated and so energetic, whose conquests are so difficult and so glorious, and whose exertions, sacrifices, and achievements imply so much real grandeur and magnanimity, as those of the man who, in the midst of a

sinning, scornful, and hostile world, chooses God for his portion, and makes religion his business. To overcome and renounce the world is, unquestionably, greater than merely to possess it. Solomon has taught us that he who subdues his own passions "is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city," or, we may add, even a province, or a kingdom.

The history of the Jewish lawgiver, epitomized in the text, is one instance, out of many which the annals of religion afford, in proof and illustration of these assertions. “Ye have heard of the patience of Job," of the faith of Abraham, of the self-denial of Joseph, and of the undaunted perseverance of many, many others in the good and the right way, in spite of fightings without and fears within. But, among the cloud of witnesses with whom we are encompassed, our attention is particularly demanded by the saintly heroism of Moses; who, "when he was come to years, 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 in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward."

The duty to which Moses was called was, as we have shown, the abandonment of the Egyptian court. The considerations which induced him to think that this was his duty have also been reviewed; that he might not be accessary to that persecution of his countrymen which it was the settled plan of the Egyptian court to exercise; that he might escape the contagious example of idolatry and profaneness; that he might openly unite with the visible Church in the profession of faith in the true God, and in the worship by which he was acknowledged; and, finally, that he might obey the call of Jehovah, by becoming the instrument of rescuing the Israelites from their state of bondage and degradation; these were the reasons which convinced him that he ought to quit the situation which he had occupied as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. But, though an obvious duty, it was a very painful one. It involved great sacrifices, and it exposed him to

great sufferings. First, to explain, and then to improve for our own instruction in righteousness, that part of the text which details these sacrifices and sufferings, will fall within the second branch of the general subject, according to the arrangement formerly stated.

II. The duty to which Moses was called involved, we have said, both sacrifices and sufferings.

1. It involved, according to St. Paul's statement, a sacrifice of honor, of pleasure, and of wealth.

(1.) Of honor the honor, mentioned in verse 24, of being called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, who had adopted him into her family, and treated him as her own child. Being considered as thus nearly related to the royal family, no doubt he was highly caressed by the nobles of the court, and was considered by the people at large as a personage of the very first distinction. Whatever degree of attention and respect could be commanded by high rank and station, that he certainly possessed. And if, as it is generally supposed, neither Pharaoh nor his daughter had any other children, Moses was in that case the heir-presumptive to the Egyptian throne; a circumstance which greatly magnifies the honor of the situation which he filled, and in the same degree enhances the sacrifice which he had to make. Love of fame has been called the universal passion. A fondness for distinction and superiority is, at least, a general characteristic of our fallen nature. Now, what most men are so ambitious to win, and so careful to retain, Moses was required and enabled to sacrifice. He voluntarily descended from the steps of a throne, and abandoned the splendors of a princely rank, from a regard to God and to conscience. But he was called,

(2.) To the sacrifice of pleasures, as is intimated in verse 25. What has a stronger hold on our nature than the love of enjoyment? We sometimes talk of the silken chains by which pleasure binds her votaries. Are they not rather chains of adamant? What bonds are so hardly broken asunder, especially in the prime and vigor of our lives? But, by the power of Almighty grace, and through the exercise of faith, Moses

was enabled gloriously and heroically to triumph over sinful pleasure, as well as over worldly honor. Ease, plenty, luxury, and all the facilities of gratification and indulgence, he consented to forego, that he might save his soul alive, and serve God the more effectually in his generation. The text suggests,

(3.) His sacrifice of wealth. For we read, in verse 26, of the "treasures in Egypt," as included among the objects of his self-denial. It is well known that, in consequence of the periodical inundations of the river Nile, the country was formerly most fertile and productive. There were various other sources of national wealth and prosperity; so that Egypt was exceedingly rich. In its wealth Moses had the opportunity of largely participating. He would have been entitled, on succeeding to the crown, to one fifth part of all the produce of the country, by virtue of a law made under the administration of Joseph: "And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharoah should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's." (Genesis xlvii, 26.) How great, in this view, was the sacrifice he made! Men whose passion for acquiring riches was not originally violent, frequently discover, nevertheless, a strong attachment to them when acquired, and a correspondent unwillingness to part with them. Without supposing, then, that avarice was in the case of Moses an easily besetting sin, we are warranted in describing his voluntary abdication of the treasures of Egypt as an extraordinary sacrifice of interest to duty.

2. The sufferings involved in the choice of Moses are summed up by St. Paul under two heads, affliction and reproach.

(1.) He had to suffer affliction. When he abandoned his former opulence, he had no prospect before him but of sharing in the poverty which marked at that time the condition of the Israelites, who were little better than a race of slaves and beggars. I say, of slaves, as well as beggars; for the "affliction" mentioned in the text refers not only to a deprivation of comforts, but also to the state of cruel bondage and oppression