The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-05-10
SUNDAY MEDITATION
A Study of the International Sunday
School Lesson Appointed for May
90, 1894

Subject: The Infant Moses Found in the Ark.
Ex.,f2i LILO.
lone reading these notes should first carefully
study the paragraph from the Holy Scriptures as
indicated above.I
| INTRODUCTION
We have q delightful study this week.
| One has chance to indulge imagination to a
| goodly degree Think of the feelings of the
| parents during the II weeks that passed
| while they reclaimed their baby from SEEM
| ingly fated death. All the time they were
violating laws made by very cruel rulers.
At any moment they might be detected.
| Doubtless their crime was a capital one.
But how could they take the baby away and
drown him. But every day that they kept
him he was gaining on their affections and
making it so much the harder to part with
| him. And a portion of the time was spent
| by the father in making an ark which was
in fact, to all appearances, to be coffin. 1t
would be easier to see the baby placed in a
waterproof basket or little boat than to cast
! him at once into the water. How the father
must have felt when making the basket
| boat. Think, then, when all was ready, of
| the last hours spent with the little boy.
| The parents did not dare to wait another
day. The child was wrapped in its best
apparel and placed in the ark. Then came
| the good-by. Probably the mother did not
go to the river. We may suppose that very
early in the morning the father took the ark
with the baby in it and carried it down to
! the bank, placing it carefully on the water
edge Miriam went along. The father,
with last sad glance, left, while the sister
waited to see what would become of her
| little brother. She was old enough to enter
| into the spirit of the occasion. What terri
BILE moments for the mother to experience.
| With what sad heart the father worked
| that day. On way home he might well fear
to await the news. He would not see his
baby boy. The child, he would know, must
have waked-must be hungry-must be
crying for care-perhaps he feared it had
by fowls or animals.
One can give quite away to imagination
and make himself in fact quite miserable
when considering this history.
And how Moses must have felt when writ
ing this account of his infant life. He had
heard all about the facts. Conscious of the
wonderful Providence in his case, he must
have felt it obligatory to render all possible
service to his afflicted and enslaved people.
This lesson has special charm for chill
dren, even the vetysybnngest in Sunday
school. The same Law holds good with them
as that prevailing with adults-we feel
greatest interest insevents falling in line
with our own experiences.
Place
Frank Carpenter, in The NATIONAL
TRIBUNE, said in one of his articles on
travel: "Some of the, most interesting ex-
periences of my Egyptian tour were the
trips l took under 1.-THE desert near Cairo.
Cairo, you know, is a comparatively modern
city. The great towns of four and five thou
sand years ago were a little farther up the
Nile, and Memphis was the Capital at which
these Pharaohs ruled, and it was out in the
county several miles away from the city
that little Moses was planted in the bull
r9sbes right in the center of the present
Egyptian Capital"
Another traveller writes: "Of all the
scenes, the placid Nile longest detains the
eye Rhoda, the island, is said to have been
the place where Pharaoh's daughter found
Moses Near the city the country presents
verdant appearance. To the north are
green fields and a fat expanse of land. The
distant south is desert, beginning, seemingly,
where the giants GhiZeh and Sakkarah raise
their venerable heads. Nearer Cairo than
those pyramids and their lesser companions
are the ruins OF Memphis"
Time.
The Call to Abram to leave Haran for Ca
man, with the accompanying Covenant, was
issued in the year 2083 A. M. Gal, 3: II,
states the Exodus was to take place 430
years later, to wit, in the year 2513 A. Nj.
But Acts. 1928, 80, shows Moses was 80
years old at the Exodus. Hence he was born
in the year 2433 A. NJ, or 1871 years B. c.,
the date of our present lesson. His parents
delayed the disposing of the infant for three
months. (2:3; Acts, Z: 20.) They did not
dare further to continue violation of law
enacted by King so cruel as Pharaoh.
We do not know how long Pharaoh's daugh-
ter permitted his parents to retain Moses.
We find he remained long enough to be at
heart an Israelite and in sympathy through
out with the Hebrews.
Statement of the Case.
Some years after the death Of Joseph, a
Pharaoh came into power over Egypt who
was jealous of the Israelites, and set on their
destruction. (Ex.. 1:8.) He tried to reduce
| their numbers by CALLING, cruel slavery.
| 1:11-14.) Then he determined on the death
| of all the Hebrew male infants. Some were
killed at birth, others were drowned in the
Nile. Q:15-22)
At length the infant Moses was born.
| his fathers name was Amram, ana his moth
er's Jochebed Is: 20; Nu., 26: 59) She was
aunt 10 Amram. The law afterward for
babe such a marriage. The two were de-
scendants of Levi. The brother of Moses
was Aaron, Eek, 6: 20,) and he became the
founder of the Jewish priesthood, establishing
it thus in the line of Levi, third son of Jacob
by Leah. Miriam was the name of the
sister of Moses and Aaron. is: 20.) Aaron
was three years older than Moses. (7:7.) The
term maid" (2:8) shows in the Hebrew
that Miriam was of manageable age, say 49,
Hence at the infancy of Moses he had a
sister over IL years of age and brother
three years old. This fact that Aaron was
three years old would lead US to think the
order to drown infantsiwas very recent
one. How else did Aaron escape?
Pharaoh's Daughter.
Josephus states the name of Pharaoh's
daughter was Thermuthis. Philo and Jo-
sephus tell US she was his only child, and
hence heir to the throne; that she was
married and childless, and that she pretended
to her father the infant Moses was her own
child. Heb, IL IA, might be construed
to mean she passed him, off for her own son.
A II II Al