words and deeds, it is impossible to say. He probably spoke from tradition for the Old Testament history is silent upon the subject. That Moses was no orator, is sufficiently evident; for Aaron, his brother, was employed to speak for him on all public occasions, and that he was not skilled in military affairs, is equally clear; for military expeditions were entrusted to the care of Joshua, and never commanded by Moses in person. It is highly improbable, therefore, that the story which Josephus tells us of his commanding the Egyptians in a successful expedition against the Ethiopians should be true. That Moses was skilled in writing or composition, appears from the history which bears his name, and also from the book of Job, if that really be, as some suppose, his work. In regard to the laws and institutions of Moses, they had a higher origin than his own wisdom.

23. And when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

24. And, seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, "that was overpowered," and smote the Egyptian :

25. For he supposed his brethren would have understood, how, that God, by his hand, would deliver them but they understood not.

The design of delivering the Israelites from bondage and from Egypt, in the manner in which it was accomplished, originated with God, and it was with much difficulty, and not till after he had made many objections, that Moses could be prevailed upon to engage in the undertaking. It is not likely, therefore, that he should offer his services for that purpose. Yet his visit to his countrymen, and his interference in their behalf, were intended to show that he was willing to exert himself for their benefit, although he might thereby incur personal danger. He probably thought that his influence at court would have enabled him to remove, or at least to alleviate, their sufferings. But the Israelites were too much oppressed with their sufferings to attend to any hint of this kind.

26. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, "would have reconciled them," saying, Sirs, ye are brethren, why do ye wrong one to another?

27. But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?

28. Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?

29. Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two

sons.

30. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina, an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

This passage, as well as many in the Old Testament, affords a proof that by "an angel of the Lord," nothing more is to be understood than some instrument of the Divine Being, for communicating his will to mankind, or for executing his purposes. For we here find that a flame of fire, or rather, perhaps, the voice that came out of it, is so called. That there was no intelligent being present on this occasion, besides God himself, is evident from the words that follow, in which the Divine Being speaks in his own person. In like manner, a dream, a vision, a voice from heaven, a plague, a burning wind, are called angels of God. And what ever God is pleased to do by them is said to be done by an angel of the Lord.*

31. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight; What excited his surprise, as we learn from the history, was that the bush should not be consumed by what appeared to be a burning flame.

And as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,

32. Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.

He was approaching the bush, curious to examine the appearance; but hearing the voice of God from it, he durst no longer look towards it. From the strong manner in which Moses was affected, it is probable, that this was the first appearance which the Divine Being ever made to him.

33. Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes. from thy feet for the place where thou standest is holy ground.

The ground was rendered holy by the presence of God; and Moses was required to uncover his feet, as a testimony of respect usually paid to a superior, as uncovering the head is in modern times. In the history of this transaction in the book of Exodus, this order precedes the declaration in the foregoing verse; a change which is of little impotrance in itself, but which shows that Stephen was guided by his memory, and not by any superior

assistance.

* Lowman's Three Tracts, p. 25.

34. I have seen, I have seen, or, as it is in Exodus, "I have surely seen," the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come,

I will send thee into Egypt.

As God is every where present, and knows what takes place at all times, when he here speaks of himself as now hearing of the afflictions of the children of Israel for the first time, and coming down from heaven to deliver them, he only accommodates his language to the gross conception of men.

35. This Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hands of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

By reminding the Jews of the folly of their ancestors, in despising the services of a man whom God honoured, by employing him as the fittest instrument of their deliverance, Stephen plainly insinuates, that his countrymen might have been guilty of the like folly a second time, in rejecting Jesus of Nazareth.

36. He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and signs, in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, forty years.

REFLECTIONS.

1. WE may observe how truly honourable and noble was the conduct of Moses in regard to his brethren. He forsakes the honours and pleasures of a court, to visit a despised, oppressed, and enslaved people; he concerns himself in their affairs, and endeavours, at the hazard of his own life, to redress their wrongs; and this he does entirely from a principle of faith, before God had appeared to him, and before he had made any of those gracious communications with which the patriarchs had been favoured; relying upon the promise of God to their fathers, that he would be their protector and deliverer. Justly has his conduct, upon this occasion, been celebrated by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews: 66 By faith," says he, "Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;" that is, the pleasure of sinners or idolators, which are only temporary. For that Moses partook of sinful pleasures does not appear. Esteeming the reproach of Christ," or, as it would be better rendered, "the reproach of the anointed," that is, of God's chosen people, the Israelites, "greater

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riches than the treasures of Egypt." This conduct was truly generous and disinterested; and justly was he afterwards honoured by God with being made the deliverer and law-giver of the people to whom he had shown such regard. How well does his character illustrate the happy effects of a virtuous and religious education; for to the pious instructions of his parents he was no doubt indebted for his firm belief in the divine promises.

How different the part which Moses acted, from that of many of those who have been in the like circumstances; who, when once raised from a mean condition to affluence and power, entirely forget the afflicted condition of their brethren, and are often zealous to countenance the measures of their oppressors, in order to convince their new friends, that they have entirely discarded their former acquaintance, and that they are sincere in their present professions.

2. Happy would it be for mankind, did they but attend to the motive which Moses is represented as suggesting for abating the violence of his contending countrymen. Why do ye injure one another? Ye are brethren, descended from the same ancestor, children of one family, members of one community, professors of one religion. Violent contests, bitter animosities, and barbarous treatment among persons so nearly related, are peculiarly unnatural and reproachful. Let private families, when torn with internal dissensions; let Christian societies, when differing in religious opinions, remember this important truth; and it cannot fail to soften their animosities against each other, and to moderate the violence of their contests. Nor let it be forgotten by contending nations. However different from each other in situation, in language, and in imagined interests, they have all one common nature, and one Father in heaven. Let this consideration soften the ferocities of war, and teach them humanity towards each other. Let it teach them to pity and pray for their misguided brethren, and not to anathematize them.

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37. THIS is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, as he has raised me; him shall ye hear.

This declaration of Moses referred, originally, to a succession of prophets or teachers among the children of Israel, and not to any one individual. Yet it is properly applied to the Messiah, because he must be included in the number.

38. This is he that was in the church, "in the congregation," in the wilderness, with the angel that spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles, "the doctrines of life," to give unto us.

It was God who delivered the law from mount Sinai : the angel, therefore, to whom it is attributed, must be understood, as before explained, to mean either the fire which appeared on the top of the mountain, or the voice which proceeded from it. The laws of Moses are here called the doctrines of life, because they prolonged the lives of those who observed them,in the land of Canaan.

39. To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt;

They wished to return thither, though they did not actually do so.

40. Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not, "we know not," what is become of him.

41. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

If they regarded the image of a calf as really a god, nothing could expose the folly of idolatry more than saying that they rejoiced in, or worshipped, the work of their own hands.

42. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered unto me slain beasts and sacrifices, by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

43. But ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, supposed to mean the sun, and the star of your god Remphan, or, "Rephan," as some copies read it, supposed to be the planet Saturn, figures which ye made to worship them and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

This is a quotation from the prophet Amos, in which he replies to a boast of the children of Israel, that they had served God faithfully for forty years in the wilderness, by telling them that, at that time, as some imagine, or afterwards, as others with more probability suppose, they had carried the image of Moloch in a tent, and a star to represent Rephan, another of their gods, and that for these offences they were to be carried captive to, or beyond, Babylon. This last circumstance shows that the idolatry here referred to, was not any thing practised in the wilderness, but must have taken place in some succeeding period. For the captivity of Israel and Judah was a punishment inflicted for offences committed in the land of Canaan. This quotation does not correspond with