THE

Cottager's Monthly Visitor.

AUGUST, 1828.

REMARKS ON THE EIGHTH CHAPTER OF EXODUS.

(Continued from page 295.*)

SEVEN days after the river had been smitten, Moses was again sent to Pharaoh with the same message "Thus saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me." The first plague had produced no submission; the king had not humbled himself in any way: heavily as his people suffered, he was himself little affected by it-his servants digged for water round about the river; he was supplied, and that was enough for this selfish, hard-hearted prince: -but now he was to be touched more nearly; his own comfort was to be broken in upon; an enemy was to be brought into his palace, and his innermost apartments,-an enemy, too numerous to be resisted, and too disgusting to be endured: then he was obliged to seek relief, by entreating the prayers of the men whom he had scorned.

V.2-6. Many people have a great dislike to frogs; and those, whose habits are neat, could not bear one in the room with them. Think what it must have been to have the whole country alive with them, every place swarming with them: the very bread the Egyptians lived upon, could not be prepared without being first polluted by filthy reptilesfor they shall come into thine ovens and into thy kneading troughs:" nay, the king's palace was as much infested by them as the meanest cottage; he

66

*The reader must have his Bible before him.

NO 8. VOL. VIII.

could not sit in his house without being annoyed by them: if he retired to his bedchamber, there they were: it was not possible to keep them away from the very bed he lay on.

V. 7. "And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt." The magicians probably called for frogs upon some place cleared for the purpose, (for the land of Egypt was "covered" with them before,) and they came up out of the water:-not very surprising, when every place was already teeming with them.

V. 8. This was too much for Pharaoh :-instead of waiting seven days, to see whether the Lord would remove the plague unasked, as he had done before, he called for Moses and Aaron, and urged them to "entreat the Lord that he would take away the frogs from him and from his people," promising that he would let the people go, and sacrifice unto the Lord, as He had required. Perhaps he was sincere; perhaps, at the time, he really meant to let them go:

but, when the tormentors were gone, his opposition to the command of God returned. "They poured out a prayer while thy chastening was upon them." Perhaps, reader, you were sincere, when you made good resolutions in your illness: perhaps, when you lay in your bed so weak and suffering, and said you would not in future be so neglectful of your duty as you had been-that you would no more take the name of God in vain, nor break the Sabbath-that you would make a conscience of praying and reading every day-and that you would speak and read the truth,-you really meant to do all this; and when you entreated that the minister might be sent for, to pray by you, you felt really convinced of the power of prayer. But a year has passed away; your resolutions have, one after another, been all broken; and now, are almost forgotten. How is this? When the hand of God was upon you,

Remarks on the Eighth Chapter of Exodus. 339

you thought it was a fearful thing to incur His anger; you thought-if I die now, I shall be suffering pain worse than this, for ever,-and that seemed dreadful: but when you got well, those fears went off; your heart being unchanged, sin still seemed pleasant, and the pleasures of sin being near, the punishment seeming at a distance, you returned "like a sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire:" (2 Pet. ii. 22.) and yet you think that "if you had died in that illness, all would have been right, for you were very penitent." My friend, you are mistaken; you were not penitent, you were only frightened; you felt a little of God's power to punish you, and you found it worse than you had supposed: you thought of the world to come, and your heart trembled; but this natural fear of sorrow and suffering, is not repentance-if you had really repented then, you would have brought forth "fruits meet for repentance," since; for, "make the tree good, and its fruit good"-" the tree is known by its fruit.' Be thankful you did not die then; for God, the Judge of all, knew your heart was not really influenced by his Spirit, though you thought it was; it deceived you for it "is deceitful above all things, but it did not deceive HIM-for "I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins."

V. 14. "And the land stank." The heaps on heaps, piled up in the open country, must have been odious and unwholesome to all the people: but of course they would be removed far from Pharaoh's house: to him "there was respite ;" and, in consequence, "he hardened his heart, and hearkened. not unto them; as the Lord had said."

The next judgment was the plague of lice; " for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast." The comfort of the whole people was destroyed by the vexatious annoyance of a small insect.-When we consider how easily our

peace and enjoyment may be disturbed by the meanest animal that creeps, we may be thankful that the wise Governor of the world condescends so to regulate their increase, as to prevent their becoming perpetual scourges to us.

The magicians were confounded, for they "did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not." "Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God." It is easy to see why their tricks failed this time:-the material they had to work upon, was too small to allow of deceit: they could not hide any living thing in a little dust, so as to make it appear that insects came out of it; nor could they train such small creatures to serve their purpose: wearied out therefore with opposition, they exclaimed, "this is the finger of God." This confession had no effect upon Pharaoh : he seems to have been able to protect himself from this evil-nothing is said of his suffering from it; so that it did not even bring him to that short-lived submission which the last plague had done.

The

V. 20-24. We read next of the swarm of flies. Moses was commanded to meet Pharaoh early in the morning, when he came forth to the river, and unless he would now consent to let Israel go, to threaten him with tormenting swarms, which God would send upon him, as well as upon his servants and upon his people. "To-morrow shall this sign be." love of God to His own people, is very strikingly marked on this occasion. "I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there. And I will put a division between my people and thy people." It is one proof of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, that he is never at a loss for means to secure those who trust in him from the evils which overtake his enemies. Witness Noah, saved from the destruction of an ungodly world; Lot, brought out of the overthrow of Sodom;-witness Daniel, and

Remarks on the Eighth Chapter of Exodus. 341

Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, at Babylon; Peter, brought out of prison by an angel, the very night before his trial; Paul, rescued from the conspiracy of forty men, who had bound themselves under a curse, neither to eat nor drink till they had slain him; and multitudes beside, who all join in declaring, that "the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly." Christian, when your courage fails, remember these examples, and hear the voice of your Saviour, assuring you "it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish :". hear him, too, by the voice of his prophet, inviting you; (Isa. xxvi. 20.) "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." When dangers threaten, fly to your refuge; (Deut. xxxiii. 27.) when discouragement prevails, remember what He has done, and beware of allowing the thought that His arm is shortened :-He keeps you with watchful tenderness "as the apple of an eye;" He defends you with almighty power-so that Omnipotence must be overcome before you can be touched. "He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler." The enemies of the Lord should remember this, too: the haughty, the scornful, the persecutors of good men, the careless, those who are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," ponder this "division" between His people and yourselves:-you may be living in the same country, like the Hebrews and Egyptians; you may inhabit the same village; yet, "the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the just.'

"The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil :"-and in the end, this division will be evident to all-" the