Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1894-05-17
The Childhood Of Moses.

The Childhood Of Moses.
The lesson tor Sunday, May 20, may
be found In Elk d. 2: 10.
INTRODUCTORY. As
Joseph pass es; the les sons OF his lie,
let us hope, remain. And now another
nams that breaches: Moses. What
stirring suggestions about this collec-
ton Of letters Moses drawn out.
Drawn out and saved, not only from
the waters but from Egyptian social,
political, and religious life, on
w wRlliia. " ' e. R5i re ss'% @ss 0 calm
dignity and ,self-respect about Moses
that are admirable. He was never
ashamed OF his lowly origin; indeed,
he seemed fifty proud OF 1t. When
Lord Thurlow was Chancellor of Great
Britain, a would-be flatterer said to
him, "You descended from Thurlow
who was secretary to Cromwell" mo,
sir; no, SIR" was the dignified reply.
There were two Thurlows; one was
secretary one was carter. de-
scended from the carter"
POINTS IN THE LESSON.
"The house of Levi" The sons OF
Levi seem to have been the readiest to
respond to the progressive spirit OF the
times. They were, perhaps, the best
educated and most cultivated of the
Hebrew people. Moses had lowly but,
at the same time, lordly ancestry.
when she saw that he was a goodly
child" The Hebrew phraseology is:
And she saw that he was comely, and
she hid him three months" Not
| simply because he was more favored
| In ho OF of
mother would NOT count her child
lovely, or seek to save his life! Per-
haps there was a divineness in his
| beauty, some such suggestion as was
given to Mary.
"She took for him an ark" 1t was
woman's expedient. Hebrews tells us
it was done "by faith" Certainly done
in love. Jochebed deserves to go down
| in the list of tho noble mothers o.
great men. Her name means Jehovah
is glorious, or whose glory Is Jehovah.
Moses was doubtless of noble face
and figure. Tradition says of him that
he attracted the attention of people as
he walked forth. Josephus says that
he was remarkably tall at years of
| age. Stephen in the Acts says that he
was exceeding fair" Greek: fair to
God or for God. All our pictures of
Moses, represent the conceptions of
the artists, one OF the Moses OF the
Exodus, already aged, but, in the
imagination 81 the painter or sculptor,
| beautiful with age. "-&-zgSec-.
and yet tbiS vas Lot an unheard,of
expedi6nt, The clay tablets of the
royal Chaldean Library contained the
account of King Sergon l., who In
Abraham's day, long before, claimed
to have been saved by means of bull
rush ark. Pos sibly, Jochebed had heard
| this story: Il am Sergon, the great
king, the king of Agada. My mother
never knew my father. l was born
secretly in the city of Atzupirani, on
| the banks of the Euphrates. My
mother put me in an ark of bullrushes
lined with bitumen. and laid me in the
| river which did not enter the ark. 1t
bore me to the dwelling of Ekki, the
water-carrier, and he in the goodness
| of his heart lifted me from the water,
| and brought me up as his own son.
| After this he established me as a gar
| dener, and Ishtar caused me to prosper,
| and, after years, | came to be king"
HINTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
If the principle, urged so forcibly by
| DIR. Harper and others, is true. namely,
that to be able to teach and preach
| prophecy, we need t. understand the
| circumstances that occasiOned the
prophetic utterance, how much more
necessary is it for us, desiring to ex-
| pound Israelitish history, to have a
clear idea of the surrounding Incl
| dents and events that gave character
to the day. A large study of Egyptian
history, itself m st intere sting, should
nj If .h
now under study. Ebers. stanley and
Geikie may be mentioned as the
| authors most available and entertain.
ing. and periodical literature abounis
| with new light on the subject Indeed
| there is no reason why we should not
| now, better than at any time before in
the worlds history, comprehend the
period under scrutiny and the signs of
| the times that gave 1t distinct place
| in the development of the nations.
twas great day in the annals of
| Egyptian history, when Israel came
| down to sOjourn for a season by divine
behest in the land of the Nile. AS
| Geikie, In his Hours with the Bible.
says: Egypt" Tin the days of the
Shepherd kings, the fifteenth dynasty
| of emperors had now. more than
ever, become the center of civilization.
| It's schools. under the priests, were
| famous, and intellectual life in every
| form abounded. Sculpture and paint
ing reached high perfection, and books
on all subjects we're numerous; tenn
piles, pyram d., and tombs were ex-
| tended in number; the country was
everywhere improved by public works;
boundaries, public and private, were
infinitely fixed; public registers were
kept; Industries of all kinds multi
piled; commerce with Libya, Pales-
| tine and other regions covered the
roads with caravans, and the waters
with vessels; gold and minerals were
largely obtained from Sinai, and the
general prosperity attracted great
immigration OF Libyans Cushites, and
Asiatic shepherd tribes"
The childhood OF Moses falls in the
days of the nineteenth dynasty. the
Egyptian kings having again come to
power. 1t was still day of splendid
national advancement, and we are to
picture the youthful Moses In the royal
household and nursed in the very lap
OF luxury. Ebers des cribes the palace
OF Rameses as more like little town
than like an ordinary house. Here
the boy Moses could roam and enioy
himself at his will. The strength OF
his national predictions may be
judged from the fact that he did not
renounce all connection with the de-
~ 81 nj a