their children.

But Moses answered him, "Our cattle shall also go with us, there shall not a hoof be left behind." This, the selfish Pharaoh would not consent to, and ordered him to leave him, and to be careful to enter his presence no more; for the king declared if he did, he should surely die. Moses, inspired_no

doubt, by the Spirit of God, answered, (Ex. xi. 4, 5, 6, 7,) “thou hast spoken well,” that they should meet no more. The Lord now informed Moses that he would send a judgment upon Egypt, which should fill the land with mourning. Behold, said Moses, "Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: And all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of beasts. And there shall be a great cry through all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more." But, "that you may know that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel, all these thy servants shall come, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, get thee out, and all the people that follow thee; and after that I will go out and he went out from Pharaoh in great anger."

The Lord now prepared Moses for a sudden dismissal from Egypt, and ordered him to command the Israelites to borrow or ask of the

Egyptians, jewels of gold and jewels of silver; and the people seeing and knowing what great miracles Moses had performed, had a great reverence and respect for him; and the Lord gave all the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, who lent or gave them all that they asked; and so it came to pass as the Lord had said, they, "when they went out, spoiled the servants of Pharaoh." This passage shows us the care which the merciful God takes of his servants to supply their wants. The Israelites were poor and oppressed, they had been laboring and toiling, and they had no profit on all their labor. Now, in the time which the Lord had appointed, he called and gathered them together; and as it says in the Bible, with "a stretched-out arm and with great judgments," he delivered them from their oppressors.

As they had a long and weary journey before them, they could not go empty-handed; therefore they were ordered to ask from the Egyptians those riches which they needed; whose hearts the Lord disposed to give to them. They, no doubt, anxiously desired their departure; they had earnestly begged their king to let them go, and therefore gave them any thing to hasten their going, lest yet more dreadful judgments from the Lord should descend, and universal destruction should overspread those who had been permitted to survive the former plagues. It appears, that the

last message which the Lord commanded Moses to deliver to Pharaoh, was given at the same time that the institution called the passover was ordered. There appears to be some time between the time when Moses, by the command of God, threatened Pharaoh with the destruction of his own first-born child, together with all the first-born in the land, and the coming of the evil; perhaps several days: so that Pharaoh and his people had another opportunity of humbling themselves, and acknowledging their sin. But instead, we find that the king raged in furious anger against Moses; and whilst the Israelites, by the command of the Lord through Moses, piously prepared for their departure, and set apart the lambs commanded for the sacrifice, Pharaoh and his servants encouraged each other in the presumptuous defiance of the power of the Most High: And as they had yet escaped all the judgments of the Lord, they, (blinded by rage and avarice) could not see, that nothing but the almighty hand of God, strengthening their bodies, in order to punish the hardness of their heart, could have preserved them alive among so many victims.

The design of the institution of the passover, was to bring to the minds of the Israelites, that although they were not profane and presumptuous sinners, as was Pharaoh and his people, that yet they were sinners, and as such had merited the penalty of death, and had no

claim to divine mercy, being unable to redeem themselves. But as God had graciously determined of his own bountiful mercy, that He would pardon all those who would repent of their sins, believe, fear, and trust in Him, and obey His divine commands, He ordained that the "promised seed of the woman," should satisfy His justice, and make atonement for all the sins of mankind, by submitting to a voluntary death for their redemption. This great sacrifice was yet far distant, but the deliverance of the children of Israel, was a type or emblem of the greater delivery from sin, and this sacrifice of the Pascal lamb, was an emblem of the all-sufficient atonement of the Son of the living God. The passover was instituted about the beginning of our March, which prefigured that the Redeemer of the world should suffer in that month. Before the passover was instituted, the Israelites began to date their new year from the middle of September. In civil affairs they still continue to do so, but in order to keep the mercy of God, in their redemption from death, always in their minds, all their religious solemnities should commence with this most expressive ordinance.

I have endeavored to write this in as plain and easy a manner for my little readers, as the importance of the subject would admit; if, however, still, any of my young friends find it difficult to understand, I would wish them to ask their kind parents to explain it to them. Now,

by the command of God, on the tenth day of the month, every family of Israel provided a lamb, and marked with its blood the portals of their doors, as a sign that the Lord might pass over them when he came down in his wrath, to fill Egypt with sorrowing. They were commanded to observe this ordinance for ever, and their children after them; and they were ordered, when their children should ask them the meaning of this observance, to tell them of their great deliverance from death, in the land of Egypt. And the children of Israel obeyed Moses in all things which the Lord had commanded, and bowed and worshipped the Lord with grateful hearts.

At midnight, the power of the Almighty went forth as a fierce destruction, filling all things with death. Very great and dreadful was the cry that ran through all Egypt, for there was not a house without one dead. The dead we are told Wisdom, xviii. 12. were without number, nor were there left living sufficient to bury their dead. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night, and ordered them to go and serve the Lord as they had said, and to take their flocks and their herds, and entreated them to bless him. And the Egyptians were urgent that the Israelites might be sent away, for they feared and said, "Lest we be all dead men." As they had by the command of the Lord, taken the Pascal supper with their sandals on their feet, and