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CHAP. III. The Passage of the Red Sea.

THUS the children of Israel, after a captivity of 430 years, passed out of the land of their bondage. And God gave them a perpetual guide and token of His presence, in a cloud which hung over their camp by day, and went before them wherever they marched; and at night, instead of the cloud, He sent a pillar of fire. And the cloud and the fire never failed, so long as they continued their journeyings to the promised land. Scarcely were they gone from its borders, when Pharao and his subjects began to lament that they had so easily let them depart. After so long a possession of them as slaves, in which they had enjoyed all the fruits of their labours, they were not even yet prepared to relinquish them without a struggle. Accordingly the monarch gathered together an army of war-chariots and horsemen, and pursued the departing Israelites at their utmost speed. When they came in sight of them, the Israelites, who were ever ready to doubt the promises of their God, notwithstanding all the wonders He had done for them, trembled at the thought of a return to their captivity, and murmured against Moses with passionate complaints. "Perhaps there were no graves in Egypt," they cried, in angry mockery; "therefore thou hast brought us to die in the wilderness: why wouldst thou do this, to lead us out of Egypt?"

And Moses said to the people: Fear not: stand, and see the great wonders of the Lord, which He will do this day: for the Egyptians whom you see now, you shall see no more for ever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. And the Lord said to Moses: Why criest thou to Me? Speak to the children of Israel to go forward. But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch forth thy hand over the sea, and divide it; that the children of Israel may go through the midst of the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the heart of the Egyptians to pursue you: and I will be glorified in Pharao, and in all his host, and in his chariots, and in his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I

am the Lord, when I shall be glorified in Pharao, and in his chariots, and in his horsemen. And the angel of

God, who went before the camp of Israel, removing, went behind them: and together with him the pillar of the cloud, leaving the fore-part, stood behind, between the Egyptians' camp and the camp of Israel: and it was a dark cloud, and enlightening the night, so that they could not come at one another all the night. And when Moses had stretched forth his hand over the sea, the Lord took it away by a strong and burning wind blowing all the night, and turned it into dry ground: and the water was divided. And the children of Israel went in through the midst of the sea dried up for the water was as a wall on their right hand and on their left. And the Egyptians pursuing, went in after them, and all Pharao's horses, his chariots and horsemen, through the midst of the sea. And now the morning watch was come and behold, the Lord looking upon the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, slew their host, and overthrew the wheels of the chariots, and they were carried into the deep. And the Egyptians said: Let us flee from Israel: for the Lord fighteth for them against us. And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and horsemen. And when Moses had stretched forth his hand towards the sea, it returned at the first break of day to the former place: and as the Egyptians were fleeing away, the waters came upon them, and the Lord shut them up in the middle of the waves. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the army of Pharao, who had come into the sea after them, neither did there so much as one of them remain. But the children of Israel marched through the midst of the sea upon dry land: and the waters were to them as a wall on the right hand and on the left: and the Lord delivered Israel in that day out of the hands of the Egyptians. And they saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore, and the mighty hand that the Lord had used against them: and the people feared

the Lord; and they believed the Lord, and Moses His

servant.

Then Moses and all the people sang to God a song of praise; and his sister and the Jewish women went out with timbrels and dances, and sang before the Lord, and said, "Let us sing to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He hath thrown into the sea.

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This wonderful deliverance, thus wrought by God for His people, is a figure of that still more wonderful deliverance which God grants to all His people by the Christian sacrament of baptism. The captivity of the Israelites in Egypt was a figure of that bondage to sin in which we are all involved by nature, through the sin of Adam. Pharao and the Egyptians were to the Israelites what Satan and the devils, his followers, are to us; our rulers and our tormentors, who enjoy all the fruits of the labours we undergo in their service. Moses was to the Israelites what our Saviour Jesus Christ is to us; a deliverer, who leads us to that heavenly Chanaan, that promised land of heaven, where we shall be at rest for ever. The flight of the Israelites from their enemies is the type of the flight of the repentant sinner from sin and Satan; and the miraculous passage of the Red Sea represents that deliverance from the powers of Satan and sin which the Holy Ghost confers on the Christian by baptism. The wilderness which the Israelites entered after they had crossed the sea is the figure of our present life in this world, which is but a desert, at its best; and lastly, the land of Chanaan, to which the journeyings of the Israelites through the desert led them, is that eternal home which awaits the faithful in the presence of God in heaven.

CHAP. IV. The Quails, the Manna, and the Water from the Rock. NOTWITHSTANDING all that God had done for the Israelites, their hardness of heart and unbelief never left them, and they were ready, on the slightest pretence, to mur

mur against Moses and Aaron, to disbelieve the promises of God, and to fall into some abominable sin. So obstinate, indeed, was their misconduct, that of the whole multitude who left Egypt only two persons were permitted ever to enter the promised land of Chanaan. For forty long years God, in His anger, kept them wandering to and fro in the wilderness, until every soul but these two was dead.

Their first murmuring began only three days after they had rejoiced over their deliverance in the Red Sea. At a place called Mara they found the water all bitter and unfit to drink, and angrily complained to Moses. A miracle, however, was wrought for their relief, and a tree cast by Moses into the water by God's command made it sweet and wholesome. By-and-by they were in want of food, and immediately lamented over the flesh-pots, and all the various meats and vegetables which they had enjoyed in Egypt. God then sent immense flocks of quails (a bird something like a partridge), and a miraculous food called Manna, from the Hebrew word, Manhu, meaning, "What is it?" for they knew not what it was. It appeared on the ground in the morning, looking like a hoar frost; but when examined, it proved to be a small grain, like corianderseed, and tasting like flour mixed with honey. This they found upon the ground every morning, except on the Sabbath-day; and each person gathered enough for the day's consumption, what was left on the ground melting away when the sun grew hot. Moses at the same time bade them never lay by any of the manna at night-time for the next day's use; because they were bound to believe that God Himself would find them food

each day as it came. Some, however, paid no attention to the order, and kept the manna through the night; but in the morning it was found to be putrified and full of worms. This, however, never happened to that which was laid by on the evening before the Sabbath, when they were desired to lay by a certain quantity for use on the Sabbath-day. A vessel also was filled with the manna by command of Moses, to be preserved as a me

morial of God's care of His people; and this continued sweet for hundreds of years afterwards. And during the whole time of their sojourn in the desert, the people were supported upon this food from heaven. It was the figure of that more than angel's food, the body and blood of Jesus Christ; which, in after times, was to be given by God to His people in the Blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to nourish, not their bodies only, but their souls, for immortality.

Another miracle also was wrought for the support of the Israelites, which was in like manner a figure of the life-giving streams which flow from Christ upon His faithful servants. At a spot in the desert, named Raphidim, there was found to be no water; and when the people murmured, Moses himself forgot for a while his humility and patience, and cried angrily to God, "What shall I do to this people? Yet a little more, and they will stone me." And God bade him strike the rock Horeb with his rod, that very rod with which he had worked his wonders in Egypt; and from the rock thus stricken there flowed forth streams of water for all the people.

Here, too, the Israelites experienced God's protection against human foes. The Amalekites attacked them; and while the battle went on, Moses, with Aaron and Hur, mounted to the top of the hill, and Moses held up his hands in prayer to God for the success of the Israelites against their enemies. And as long as he lifted them up Israel prevailed in the fight; but when through weariness-for Moses was now of a great agehe could hold them up no longer, the people began to give way before the Amalekites. Aaron and Hur then placed Moses upon a stone, on which he sat, while they two held up his hands until the sun went down, when the Amalekites were routed and fled with a terrible slaughter.

CHAP. V. The Law of Moses.

THREE months after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt they came to Mount Sinai, where it pleased

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