MAMA. There is scarcely a word in the Bible, my dear, which does not, more or less, concern us; and learned men have drawn curious and most unexpected edification from the minutest particulars of the Mosaic ritual. But into these you are too young to enter, and I gladly comply with your wish to have the history of God's chosen people, separated from their peculiar institutions, for your present instruction. I shall only remark, that the very blending of subjects and apparent irregularity, of which you complain in the books of Moses, is the strongest proof of their having been written on the spot, and in the midst of the transactions they record. A later historian, not an eye-witness, would have given us a methodical narrative, (as, indeed, has been done by a clever Jew called Josephus) instead of a daily chronicle of events the most various and unconnected. This premised, we shall take up the thread at the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt in the beginning of Exodus, and pursue the history of their wanderings, as scattered through the subsequent books of Numbers and Deuteronomy, down to the final exhortations and death of Moses, their illustrious leader.

I know not that the whole Old Testament could have furnished us with a richer field than the one

you have unconsciously chosen, and for the reasons you have yourself given, it is one difficult for youth unassisted to explore. We have great encouragement, thus, to investigate it, for what says the apostle? "These things happened unto them, (the Israelites) for ensamples;" and having the benefit of his inspired commentary on many portions of their eventful history, it will be our own fault if we do not benefit by the warnings and instructions it holds out. Let us read this, like every part of Scripture, with a Christion spirit, and Gospel light will shed its saving illumination over the darkest pages of the record.

MORNING FIRST.

LESSON.-Exodus, Chapters i. and ii.

MAMA. The book of Exodus, which signifies "coming out," or " departing," shews us the posterity of the patriarch Jacob settled and flourishing in Egypt. Can you tell me, Mary, what carried their fathers thither?

MARY. Oh! yes.

They first went to buy corn in a famine, and then took all their families with them, because Joseph, their good brother, invited them.

MAMA. How came Joseph to have power to do so in a foreign land?

MARY. Mama, every child knows that he saved the people of Egypt by laying up corn for them, and was made next to the king in honour and authority for it.

MAMA. Very well and clearly told.

Was

this eminent man remembered long after his death

by a grateful nation?

MARY. It says here, "A new king rose up

which knew not Joseph :" but it does not say how long after.

MAMA. See if you can find it out by one circumstance. How many Israelites came originally into Egypt?

MARY. 66

Seventy souls," Mama, besides Joseph, who was there already.

MAMA. Well! Seventy people do not “multiply and wax exceeding mighty and fill a whole land" immediately. Turn to the 12th chapter, verse 37, and see how many souls went out of Egypt.

MARY. "Six hundred thousand men, besides children." Mama! how long this must have

taken!

MAMA. About 260 years, and a wonderful increase it was for that period, under the special blessing of God, and in fulfilment of his promise made to Abraham, that "his seed should be as the sand on the sea-shore for multitude;" so sure is every word of God to come to pass! But what effect had this marvellous increase of these

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strangers and sojourners" on the fears of the Egyptians?

MARY. It made them use them very ill, in hopes of lessening their numbers. How un

grateful and wicked besides !

MAMA. What was the nature of the cruelty and oppression exercised upon them?

MARY. 66 They made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick, and all their service was with rigour."

MAMA. And did all this " striving against God" produce the desired effect?

MARY. No. "The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew."

MAMA. What was their next expedient? a most effectual one apparently.

MARY. A shocking one, Mama! To make the Hebrew midwives kill all the sons of their poor countrywomen. They were quite right to refuse, but I wonder if the reason they gave for not doing it was true, or if they were afraid to tell the truth.

MAMA. We may be sure their conduct was upright, Mary, from one circumstance, viz. that it was approved and rewarded by God. How did he manifest this?

MARY. He "made them houses." Does it mean that he built them finer ones than they had before?

MAMA. Think a little. Does the "house of Israel," or "house of Judah," we so often read of, mean a building?

MARY. No: a family or nation.

· MAMA. Well! the "houses" spoken of here are the large and flourishing families bestowed

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