Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-04-19
The story of Moses,
REV. BROOKE HEREFORD GIVES EEsUKE TO
INGERS0LL.

REV. BROOKE HEREFORD GIVES EEsUK: TO
INGERSoLL.
tFrem Sermon reported in CHICAGO riaas.l
When hear people treating the Penta -euch
as something they would like to see done away.
cannot help wishing that 1t could De dus up
afreSh tn these days OF curious research into the
past: Whv. suppose thas the Jews hai no suca
origin except a vague tradition of some sort III
migration under one Moses. and curilISly IL
ting to this the Egyptian tradition-walcn Is,
you Know, that some 500 years before taiiSt
great multitude OF people had g1le oI5 II Egypt
led by an E.sy.tian priest. who taught tae IA
many things contrary to the Egypil religion.
and aiterwaid CHI ansed MS name IL Nose yet
SuppO ing then these books OF the PeatateIca
should be discovered some yhere-Nhy, the
world would 60 wild over them WHAT would IL
matter whether 1t could be settled that Moses
himself did Or did not write them-1r t;laS y IS
sibly they were really not written TIL centuries
after. AID only preserved what was believed
about him at that later dite-stii t ie facC
would remain that they take us by ira tiiion,
at any rate, SO much further mex tnto the ua,t
and show us there one Of the very nobe-t
stories OF the world. For that is what the story
of Moses is. Take off all the discount YOU win
for eXaggeration-I dare say the numbers are
Immensely exaggerated. Suppose the idea OF
his having been led by God speaking to him To
have been only his own intense consciousness
OF what was best. ascribed to God suppose
the Idea OF his having been helped by miracles
to have been only his own revereat Impression
ascrfbing every trouble that came on Egypt. and
and every favOring circumstance TO his own
people, to some purpOSed and direct help from
COD. All that does not touch the essence OF the
story OF Moses.
There it stands, how those Hebrews through
many generations had sunk into the pariah and
helot class OF that great rich Egyptian civliza-
ton; and how at last this Moses rose up, to
rally them to mighty effort TO get right away
into some other land He had been somehow
brought up among the Egyptians, trained in the
adopted son OF Pharaoh'S daughter-but ne hal
given 1t all up, identified himself with his down.
trodden people, and at last won for them the
liberty TO go! And they went Out-out into the
great desert waste. What does lG m alter that
the tradition OF their numbers got perhaps enor-
mously exaggerated? II there were only a
three million In all-there were quit. enough to
task their leaders fortttude to its utmost; and
through those books we have at least very liv1ng
giimpses of him, In his efforts to keep them from
gr.lmbling and getting disheartened; in his
efforts TO keep them true to his simple teaching
OF the one Almighty God; in his lonely hours
and shaping his best thoughts which he be.
lieved Came to him from God into laws for his
people. And there is the great fact. you know
however he did it, he did guide and lead them
through that long migration, and at last brought
them to the land from which their fathers had
gone out long before, and babe them go In and
possess 1t! And that multitude whom he led
out OF Egypt a race of slaves, servtie with long
oppression, at every difficulty talking OF going
PACK, ne had In that forty years knit into
pray brave: hardy fierce race-who did go In and pos
sesS the land and became the progenftors Of one
OF the world s nOblest races. That is the story
OF MoseS-tust the oarest skeleton of it, taking
only the largest, most unmfstakabie features;
and say again there is no finer story 10 his
tory. And what will you say of the man who
will make fun OF it?
Why, what would you think OF any man who
would go aroun the country, making fierce
fun OF Abraham Lincoln, holding up his gaunt.
lank fingers to rtdicule burlesquing his speeches.
denouncng as lies some OF those quaint little
anecdotes, and holding him ufeas fool and an
idiot? And yet that glorious work that makes
Llncoln's name dear not to Americans only but
10 the lovers OF freedom and of man In every
nation-that work Of his was only the modern
counterpart OF what Moses did in the morning
Of the WOrldi