PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.

BY THE REV. J. P. DURBin, d.d.

(See Engraving.)

THE Jews are the most remarkable people in they settled upon its coast. the world, whether we consider their miraculous and prophetic history, or their personal qualities and political influences. Their miraculous and prophetic history, suggested by the engraving in the fore part of this number, demands our attention at present. They are the descendants of Shem, through Abraham the Chaldean. It was with Abraham their privileges and peculiarities commenced. From him they derive their high distinctions, and their patent of nobility, reaching back nearly four thousand years, and putting to shame the most ancient and honourable genealogies claimed by other men. With respect to them all European or even Asiatic noblemen are but parvenus. Yet, notwithstanding the halo of splendour which was thrown around their early history, they were not raised above the accidents and influences which belong to our common humanity. These must be considered as modified and directed by the divine interpositions in their favour. Thus, their history will appear a perfectly natural result, flowing from the conditions of the case.

The country granted to them as a patrimony through their great ancestor, Abraham, lay along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and was subject to drought. And as they were a pastoral people, when the rain failed, their flocks were liable to perish for want of grass. At such a time whither would they naturally look for food for themselves, and fodder for their cattle? The nature of the several countries, and the history of the nations around the Mediterranean answer, to Egypt, whose fertile valley never drinks of the rains of heaven, but is watered by the annual overflowings of the Nile. The northeast corner of Egypt, which lay adjacent to the pasture-grounds of the Israelites, had been occupied for a long time by a foreign people, whose sovereigns are known in history as the shepherd kings, and who had ruled the land of the Nile with a rod of iron. A mighty rising of the native population resulted in the expulsion of these foreign shepherds, or Pales, as they were called in the language of the East; and retreating around the southeast corner of the Mediterranean,

The district which they occupied was called Palestine, or the shepherd-land; and they were known in Sacred History as the Palestines, or Philistines. Their new settlement was not very far distant from the eastern side of the delta of the Nile, from which they had retreated; and as there was no natural barrier of mountain or river to prevent their return, the Egyptians were afraid to occupy the rich and beautiful country they had vacated. It therefore was uninhabited, and was thus prepared by a Divine Providence for the reception of the family of Jacob, which emigrated to Egypt upon the invitation and under the patronage of Joseph. This is the "land of Goshen." Here, insulated from all other people by a desert on the east and south, the sea on the north, and the Nile on the west, the family of Jacob developed itself into the Jewish commonwealth. Each of the twelve patriarchal families grew into a numerous tribe, and it was not long before the powerful and wealthy community felt the necessity of various officers, in order to secure peace, safety, and prosperity. Here were formed the political elements of the Jewish state. For several generations the Israelites were regarded with kindly feelings by the rulers of Egypt; partly because of the recollections of the great benefits Joseph, one of their ancestors, had secured to the land; partly because they formed a barrier against invasion from the east; and partly because they were not sufficiently wealthy or powerful to excite the avarice or fears of the native inhabitants.

But Egypt suffered the common vicissitude of nations. There was a change in the dynasty -a new family came to the throne. "There arose another king who knew not Joseph." He did not acknowledge the great benefits which, under former reigns, the land had experienced from the administration of this eminent Israelitish minister. Besides, the cupidity and fears of the people were awakened by the vast multiplication of these isolated sojourners in the land of Goshen. Their fears appear to have been real; and hence the rigorous measures adopted to prevent their increase, and gradually reduce their number. The Egyptians