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Reader, fancy thyself carried back in time some three thousand five hundred and fifty years, and in space transported from this land to the banks of the Nile. Look not on the scene from a distance, but let the light and vividness of a present reality break through the gloom of years and the dimness of space. All around are the tokens of life and industry. An active generation is on the stage of being, and Egypt stands first among the nations. But Egypt is not the land of freedom. Proudly strides the master and lowly bends the slave. The Egyptian's foot is on the neck of the Israelite. The former may boast his superior intelligence, and exult in his liberty. But the love of liberty in the master is a love selfish and exclusive-it is connected with not one generous, ennobling emotion. He who holds his fellowman in bondage and exacts from him unrequited sweat and toil, but mocks the name of liberty when he takes it on his lips, claiming exclusively for himself what a common Creator has given in equal right to all.

There is an unnatural state of society. Between the oppressor and the oppressed there is no law but that of force. And the former acknowledging no other right, in the consciousness of his wrong lives in just fear of an indignant retribution from those he holds in bondage. However callous habit may have rendered his heart, he cannot always clamor down the voice of conscience or bluster away his fears. So it was with Pharaoh and his people. The increasing number of the enslaved Israelites awakened their fears. The time is approaching when the strong right arm of the bondman may hew down the power of the oppressor. No heart is stout enough not to quake when they who have been taught that might makes right, feel the power to shake off their chains.

Long and severe has been the servitude of the children of Jacob. But now the fears of the Egyptians is bringing around their hopes yet a darker night. The mother must quench the gush of her affections, stifle the yearnings of her heart, and be herself the executioner of her babe. The boy opens his eyes upon the light to die by a mother's hand. It must be so-Egypt has decreed it. Her heart-strings may break-wailing may be in every dwelling of the bondmen-tears and entreaties touch not the heart of power-a stern necessity is claimed-a patriarchal institution must be preserved, and to preserve it, the menchildren must die-must die that the masters may rest undisturbed by fears. And many are the tender infants who have found the Nile their only cradle-the bitter tears of mothers have been swept along its tide-the heavens have heard the deep-drawn sigh and the loud lament. There is a power above us-justice, though it seems to linger, comes with a pace as sure as the Almighty power.

Mark you that little ark amid the reeds? See you a maiden's foot approaching? Is there no intelligence above that baffles, and more than baffles the fancied wisdom of the wise? That decree which has made Israel's daughters mourners, and has forced a mother thus to expose her helpless babe, shall be the means, and that infant the instrument to carry desolation through the land, and to shroud every family of Egypt in mourning.

The child weeps now in his helplessness, but nurtured in the proud court of Pharaoh, and instructed in all the learning of the wisest masters of the land, he is to be prepared for a mission, which in its outset shall make Egypt and her monarch to quake, and in its full development exert an influence on nations and ages to the end of time.

That child is dear, very dear to a mother's heart-but how little can that mother's eye pierce the future, or her most excited fancy call up what shall be the living images of future reality!

Egypt has now been long enshrouded in darkness—the glory of her noon-day has passed away-a deep night for ages has brooded over her-her science and arts are seen but dimly in the history of the past, but time only brightens the page and gives new glory to the wisdom of Moses, the inspired law-giver of Israel.

For the Mother's Magazine.

PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY.

"I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring.

It has frequently been the subject of serious and painful inquiry with me, why this promise-one of the most important and precious in the covenant of grace-should so often, as far as human observation goes, fail of its accomplishment. On the part of God there can be no failure, for he is a faithful God. Why is it then that instead of the fathers we see not the children filling up their places in the church of God? Ought we not to ask, "What doth hinder ?" yea, and more than ask,—should we not search out what it is that impedes the flow of this covenant blessing. This great difficulty was in a measure solved to me in the house of God not long since.

I visited the sanctuary that morning to behold a scene I had never witnessed before-a congregation composed of mothers

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