lock was sacrificed for a sin-offering, a ram for a burnt-offering, and another ram for a thank-offering; a loaf, a cake, and a wafer were prescribed as a wave-offering. These ceremonies of consecration were to be repeated daily through a week; after which, sacrifices for the expiation of the altar and the daily sacrifices were prescribed. God promised to dwell among the children of Israel, to meet them in the holy tabernacle, and cause them to know that it was He who delivered them from Egypt (xxix.).

The thirtieth chapter contains directions relative to the altar of incense, the ceremonies to be performed on it, and the kinds of incense to be used. Every Israelite above twenty years was to give half a shekel as ransom-money for the support of the tabernacle. Then the brazen laver in the court, with the preparation and ingredients of the holy oil, are described (xxx.).

We have next a designation of the artisans who were to execute the directions already given; of whom Bezaleel and Aholiab are the chief. The law concerning the sanctification of the sabbath is repeated, lest it should be thought that the work of the tabernacle released them from the observance of that rest; and God delivers to Moses the two tables of the law engraven on stone (xxxi.).

In the absence of Moses, the people urged Aaron to make a golden calf, as an image of their God who had delivered them out of Egypt. For this purpose they gave their gold ornaments. The calf was made, an altar was built, burnt-offerings and peaceofferings were brought, and there was a great feast. This image did not represent to the people the Egyptian Apis, but the Semitic god Moloch, the horrible king, who appears either as a heifer with human face, or a heifer in all its parts. God is indignant, is minded to destroy them and elevate Moses with his posterity to the privileges they should forfeit. But at the intreaty of Moses, the anger of the Lord is appeased. In descending from the mount with the tablets in his hands and hearing the revelry of the multitude, Moses throws them down violently on the ground, and they are broken. The calf is melted, and the fragments thrown into the water which the people are made to drink. He expostulates with Aaron; whose reply is a very feeble but natural excuse under the circumstances. Then he calls upon all who are for upholding_the divine arrangements to rally around him. The sons of Levi having obeyed the summons are commanded to kill the prominent offenders, and accordingly three thousand are slain. He returns to the mountain to pray for the people's forgiveness, but is assured that only the actual sinners will be punished. God farther assures Moses that though He will deliver Canaan into

the possession of the Israelites, He will not appear among them in personal presence, but will effect His purposes by an angel instead, on account of the rebelliousness of the people. This announcement diffuses grief throughout the camp. The people put off their ornaments and mourn. As a sign that God was reconciled, He consented to take His place in the midst of the people. Moses took a tent and pitched it outside the camp, calling it the tabernacle of the congregation. As Moses entered this tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended in view of the people; shewing that the Lord, who had hitherto manifested His presence on the distant summit, took his abode as king in the midst of Israel. God communes with Moses there who asks to see His full glory but is reminded that such is impossible for a human being. Yet He promises to reveal to him all Ĥis attributes of mercy. Accordingly the Lord commands him to hew two other tables of stone, and reascend the mountain. There God descends in a cloud and proclaims His mercy and justice. Moses entreats God himself to accompany the people; and is answered by the announcement of observances previously enjoined, which they would be required to keep. Moses stays forty days and forty nights on the mount; during which time he writes down the words of the covenant. When he returns to the people with the tables of the law, his face shines with the rays of a divine glory, and he puts a vail on it when he does not commune with God (xxxii.-xxxiv.).

After enjoining the strict observance of the Sabbath, Moses calls upon the people to bring free-will gifts for the construction of the tabernacle and its furniture, as well as for the holy garments; to which they responded so liberally that it was necessary to restrain their generosity. Bezaleel and Aholiab are called to the work, which they commence accordingly, proceeding with the curtains, the boards, the bars, and the vails. Bezaleel then makes the ark and its staves, the mercy seat with cherubim, the table of shew-bread with its vessels, the candlestick with its lamps and instruments, the altar of incense with the anointing oil and sweet incense. Next he makes the altar of burnt-offering, the brazen laver, the court with its pillars and hangings. The amount of gold, silver, and brass contributed is given; and in the last place, an account of the making of the ephod, the breast-plate, the robe of the ephod, the tunics, mitre, and girdles. After all things had been completed, they were brought to Moses for examination; who approved of them as in accordance with the divine commandment, and blessed the people. On the first day of the first month, in the second year, Moses was commanded to set up the tabernacle, to anoint it and all its furniture; to wash, clothe, and anoint Aaron and his sons. After he did all these

things, a cloud covered the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled it. When this cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the Israelites proceeded on their journey; when it rested they encamped (xxxv.-xl.).

II. THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT.-It is now desirable to make some observations on the nature and peculiarities of the plagues wrought in Egypt; after which we shall inquire whether the magicians wrought real miracles in imitation of those performed by Moses.

The plagues are the following:

1st. The river Nile and all other water throughout the land of Egypt was converted into blood. The meaning seems to be that the waters assumed a red, blood-like colour. This is agree

able to the words of Joel ii. 31, "the moon shall be turned into blood," i.e., into the colour of blood. But Kalisch objects,' that the transmutation stated in Ex. vii. 18, is not consistent with it; just as if the advocates of the proposed explanation denied that while converted into such colour it was not necessarily destructive of animal life, or unimpregnated with a substance capable of producing the two effects of colour and noxiousness. The same critic likewise objects to the analogy of Joel ii. 31, because the poetical diction of the prophet can prove nothing for the plain historical style of the narrative in Exodus; and then quotes Josephus as if his authority were worth notice. We cannot see that prose and poetry destroy the analogy in question. The redness of the Nile water is a regular annual phenomenon. The river assumes a reddish tint for above twenty days in the month of June, when it is rising or subsiding. In 1823, Ehrenberg found the whole inlet of the Red Sea, in the neighbourhood of Sinai, stained a blood-red colour by Cryptogamic plants. Hence the wonder does not lie in the colour of the water, but in the fact that it happened at the beginning of the year; that what was in the vessels was changed, and that the fish died. It is also implied that the Israelites had pure water, because it is not said that they dug for it like the Egyptians.

The

2nd. The second plague consisted in an innumerable multitude of frogs, occupying not only the rivers and all waters, but entering the streets and houses of the Egyptians, penetrating into their bed chambers and disturbing their repose. This must have been disgusting and distressing in the extreme. marshy valley of the Nile is such that these animals sometimes become a plague, but are destroyed by serpents and storks. The wonder consists in their coming and disappearing at Moses's command, and in the Israelites being unmolested.

1 Historical and Critical Commentary on Exodus, p. 122,

3rd. The third plague consisted in this, that all the dust of the land became gnats, which attacked both men and beasts. The obscure word we take to mean marsh gnats, not lice as Bochart has tried to prove. They were a kind of mosquito, which flies into the eyes, nose, and ears, stinging these sensitive parts. If it be said that gnats would probably be included under the flies of the next plague; that depends on the generic acceptation of the term so rendered, which we hold to be incorrect. Here again we have a natural phenomenon of the country. The wonder of the plague lies in the gnats being suddenly called into existence by Aaron, and in their not touching the Israelites. 4th. The fourth plague consisted of swarms of the beetle, i.e., the Blatta orientalis. Many authorities however are in favour of the dog-fly as the animal denoted by .

5th. The fifth plague was a pestilence among the cattle, so that they all died; those at least belonging to the Egyptians.

6th. The sixth plague consisted of a leprous-like disease which attacked man and beast. Black eruptions were common in Egypt, and continue till the present day, arising from the prevalence of marshes in various parts.

7th. The seventh plague was a great hail-storm, which not only destroyed the crops and herds of the field but killed men and beasts.

8th. The eighth consisted of a prodigious swarm of locusts.

9th. The ninth plague was an extraordinary and palpable darkness. The fearful hot wind Chamsin usually continues three days, during which the sun is darkened. The Israelites however had light in their dwellings.

10th. The tenth consisted in the death of the first-born in the land. This is "the plague" of which Egypt is almost the parent soil. It commonly appears at Cairo towards the end of March, or at the commencement of April. The first-born of the Egyptians died of it; while the Israelites were saved.

These visitations are related as extraordinary and miraculous. They are founded upon ordinary phenomena in Egypt. But they are represented as taking place at a season contrary to the usual occurrence of such phenomena, and appearing in rapid succession; as occurring at the time foretold by Moses and at his command, while they commonly ceased at his intercession; and as passing over the Israelites. Such a combination of circumstances is unusual. The country presented its analogies to them all; yet there are points of difference which shew the supernatural character of the phenomena as related. That the ten plagues were all actual and historical events we fully believe. Bunsen has done much to prove them such. It is only their costume or drapery that is poetical. Thus the last one, the death

of all the first-born, simply means that the plague did not spare the dearest and most beloved ones. It visited all, high and low. Even Hengstenberg admits thus much. "It must not be inferred," says he, "that none of the first-born remained alive in the land, or that none besides the first-born died.”1 Travellers inform us that certain districts are not touched by it, while others are desolated; and that it attacks cattle as well as human beings. In regard to the miraculous element connected with these plagues, it appears to us that the national traditions account for all that appears as miraculous. Exaggerations of periodical visitations or of the regular phenomena of Egypt, along with every thing of the wonderful, are an embodiment of the popular traditions. Moses performs extraordinary deeds as the law-giver of the nation. This was a general belief among the ancients. We resolve what is miraculous in the plagues into a traditional element naturally shaping itself, among the Israelites, into the form presented by the naratives. The Almighty does not violently interfere with the eternal laws of nature which he established at first; for these laws are sufficient to effect whatever he intended to bring about in the history of redemption. When he established them, he foresaw all that they should be required to accomplish. If therefore a miracle mean an interference with, or a suspension of, nature's fixed laws, we cannot assume its existence; especially as we are ignorant of many such laws, as well as of the effects they are capable of producing.

III. CONDUCT OF THE MAGICIANS.-In considering the proceedings of the magicians, there are some views which must be discarded as untenable; especially that which supposes, either that God himself empowered such persons to work real miracles and gave them an unexpected success; as Fleetwood believes; or that while the magicians used their enchantments, expecting assistance of the demons to whom they applied, God himself was pleased to interpose and to effect a real change of the rods into serpents, according to Thomas Scott. To represent the Almighty as interfering to give the magicians success, is injurious to his character, because it implies that he acted in opposition to himself. Equally untenable is the hypothesis that these miracles of the magicians were performed by the co-operation of the devil or evil spirits, as A. Clarke and others imagine. The apparent necessity for such baseless hypotheses arises from a false view of the performances of these magicians, as though they were truly supernatural. We do not believe that they were real miracles; because real miracles were not wrought by the hands of Moses 1 Egypt and the Books of Moses, translated by Robbins, p. 129.

2 Commentary on the Bible.