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grandeur of the undertaking for which he had been chosen. His prudence guarded him against the difficulties to which he would be subject by the disclosure. In thus acting, he began already to exhibit his peculiar fitness for the enterprise.

The divine injunction is repeated. He is again commanded to return to Egypt. He is told that those are dead who had sought his life. This must have been a great relief to his mind; and it is very probable, that the apparent impossibility of escaping their vengeance, was one of the most weighty reasons for his intreating the Lord, at first, to excuse him from so dangerous a service.

Moses made immediate preparations for the journey, and set out on it with his wife and two sons, carrying the rod of God in his hand. It had been the simple shepherd's crook which he used, while in the humble station of the keeper of the flocks of Jethro. It was soon to be the badge of his divine commission, and the instrument of manifesting, through his agency, the power of God in the performance of many of the miracles that would attend the deliverance of the Israelites from bondage.

The ability which he would have to perform these miracles, he was again directed by God faithfully to exercise. "When thou goest to return inte Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thine hand;" while, at the same time, God informed him what the effect would be on that wicked and oppressive momarch. Instead of convincing him of the majesty of he Being in whose name Moses appeared before him, and of his duty to allow the Israelites to obey he divine injunction, and go into the wilderness o offer up their sacrifices, the miracles which he would witness, would but serve to harden his heart. This result his own pride and obstinacy would produce; increased, indeed, and strengthened by the very means which, if his heart had been right with God, would have softened that heart, and led him to yield cheerfully to the divine commands.

Such is the nature of sin. You may have seen it, sometimes, in the case of a disobedient and obstinate child. The parent reasons, and shows his right in commanding, and the duty of the offender to obey. He endeavors kindly to persuade, and win back to submission. He threatens, and, at length, begins to inflict the merited punishment. All that he does has but one effect to make the froward rebel against authority, still more froward and rebellious.

And how is it, in this respect, with you, my young friend? God has been doing many things to bring you to submit to his authority, and to love and obey him. He has bestowed upon you innumerable mercies. He has taught you your duty. He has shown you the way of salvation through Christ. He has offered you the aids of his Holy Spirit. He has reasoned with you. He has intreated, and urged, and warned you to repent of sin, and trust in the Saviour. He may have sent chas tisements and judgments upon you, as we shall soon see he did upon Pharaoh.

Has all this thus far, only served to harden your heart? Are you even more confirmed by it than ever, in impenitence and opposition to God? If this is unhappily the case, tremble at your guilt and danger. The longer you hold out against the authority of God, the more and more hardened will you become in sin; the deeper will be your guilt; the greater your danger! Now, now, flee from the wrath to come.

L

CHAPTER X.

Aaron meets Moses. They go to Egypt. The elders of the Israelites are informed of the divine message.

Aaron, the elder brother of Moses, was still in Egypt. He was now eighty-three years of age. With his previous history we are not at all acquainted. We have every reason to believe, however, from the fact that God selected him as the companion of Moses, in so arduous an enterprise, and from his subsequent conduct, and the elevated station of high-priest which he held, that his character was one of no ordinary kind. He had been making progress in knowledge, in moral worth, and in influence among his countrymen. Like his brother, he had been maturing for the great work in which he was now to engage.

Being directed by God, to go into the wilderness and meet Moses, he obeyed the divine command without delay and with a joyful heart. After a separation of more than forty years, he was eager to see once more this beloved and only brother; one whose early life had been marked by such wonderful events; of whom, for this long period of time, he had heard nothing; and whom he probably regarded as numbered among the dead.

He arrives at Mount Horeb, and meets Moses in that hallowed spot. They embrace each other, and pour forth the tender emotions of their hearts, in the most affectionate inquiries and congratulations. How much they would have to say, and, in listening to each other's recitals, to admire of the goodness of God, and of the wonderful dealings of nis providence with them; with their family; and with their countrymen! But these affecting topics must soon be dismissed. The soothing intercourse of fraternal love, must yield to the demands of high and pressing duties.

Moses informs Aaron of the divine communica tions which had been made to him; of the mira cles which he had witnessed and was to perform and of the object the execution of which they were now to undertake. It may be well conceived that Aaron was filled with amazement. What a scene of wonders his brother had beheld! What undoubted evidence that God had spoken to him! What a gracious interposition of the Almighty, in behalf of the oppressed and wretched Israelites! What new hopes and cheering prospects were about to open before them! Their sighs and groans had, at length, been heard. The time of their deliverance was come. Moses and himself were authorized by God to effect the rescue of their brethren from the Egyptian task-masters. They were divinely commissioned for the purpose, and invested with the power of performing miracles, to show both the Israelites and Pharaoh in whose name they were acting.

We are not told of any doubt or hesitancy on the part of Aaron. He is ready to go with Moses on their momentous errand, and, making all possible despatch, they soon find themselves in the midst of their countrymen. Before this, however, it may have been before the meeting of the two brothers at Horeb, -Moses had directed his wife and sons to return to his father-in-law, Jethro. He doubtless had good reasons for doing so. At what

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