give me that you come from God?" Then the first miracle that Moses had to work came into use. When God gave him his commission, at the burning bush, he prepared him to meet this very difficulty.

Moses had his brother Aaron with him. He carried the rod. Moses told him to throw it on the ground before Pharaoh, and it became a serpent. Pharaoh called in the magicians of Egypt to see what they could do. They with their enchantments did that which looked like the same

Again that wondrous rod is waived, and a terrible hailstorm bursts upon the land.

kind of miracle; but it was not. They could not make real serpents out of wooden rods as Moses did; but they contrived to do something that seemed to be a miracle, just as we have seen a conjuror like Signor Blitz do many things which appeared like miracles, but were not so. The serpent into which the rod of Moses was turned swallowed up the other serpents. And when he took it by the tail, and it became a rod again, the magicians had lost their rods. But Pharaoh would not believe Moses; nor do what God wanted him to do. He thought that Moses

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was only an abler magician than the others. He said he would not obey God.

And the other miracles that Moses was commanded to do, were all intended to make Pharaoh obey God, and let the children of Israel go. Here we see a great contest going on. God is one of the parties in this contest, and Pharaoh is the other. God's command to Pharaoh is,—“ Let my people go." Pharaoh's answer to this command is,-"Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Exod. v: 2.

And now we are to look on and see how this contest ends. Moses is before us with his rod. He begins by asking Pharaoh to let Israel go. Pharaoh says, "I will not do it." Then Moses waves his rod. Immediately all the water in the river Nile, and in the wells of Egypt is turned into blood. No one can drink it, and all the fish in the river die. Exod. vii: 19-25. The Lord told Moses that "He would execute his judgments against the gods of Egypt." Exod. xii: 12. We may keep this in mind as we speak of the different plagues with which Moses, in God's name, punished the Egyptians. They were dependent on the annual overflowing of the river Nile for the fertility of their land. On this account they regarded that river with feelings of reverence. They worshipped it as a god. To have the water of their favorite river turned into blood therefore must have been particularly painful and distressing to them. It would cause the Egyptians to turn away with disgust and loathing from the river which they always looked upon as a sacred object. They were made to feel that here was one of their gods who had no power at all against the Lord God of the Hebrews.

By this miracle God punished the Egyptians for two sins of which they had been guilty. They had been guilty of idolatry in worshipping this river. They had boasted that by reason of this river they were independent of the rains of heaven. They had paid to this senseless stream the homage and worship that were due only to the God of heaven. They praised that river for the blessings which they owed only to God. We need not wonder then that in beginning his work of judgment on the Egyptians God should lay his hand of power first upon the river which they had made an idol, and should make it indeed a plague and a curse to

them. Good old Bishop Hall says, "that when we put anything in the place of God, he will surely cause us to suffer most through that very thing."

And then God punished the cruelty, as well as the idolatry of the Egyptians by sending this plague upon their river. They had stained the waters of that river with the blood of the Hebrew children; and now all its streams were filled with blood as if to remind them of their sin.

A second time Moses waved his rod, and a multitude of frogs came up from the river Nile. They cover the land. In the homes of the poor; in the dwellings of the rich; in the palace of the king they are found. Kitchen, and parlor, and bed-chamber, and every place is filled with their polluting presence. This must have been, in some respects, a more distressing plague than the former one. If the people found the sight of the blood in their river painful and disgusting to them, they could go away from the river to their homes, and there they would be free from this annoyance. The river could not follow them. But the frogs could, and did. They were everywhere. It was impossible to get away from them. Imagine yourself there. If you walk in the road, you cannot see the ground for the frogs. If you enter the house to sit down frogs cover the chair you