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before the reader a very sensible and spirited letter from one, who has at last received tardy justice at the hands of the public, for a long-continued and undeserved distrust of his truth. We allude to Bruce.

Michaelis (who raised much of the discussion on this subject) sent to Niebuhr, who was then in Egypt, certain queries; one of which proposed to him, to inquire "whether there were not some ridges of rock, where the water was shallow, so that an army at particular times might pass over? And secondly, whether the Etesian winds, which blow strongly all the summer from the northwest, could not blow so violently against the sea as to keep it back in a heap, so that the Israelites might have passed without a miracle?" Niebuhr answered, distinctly, that there was no such shoal; though he manifested in the rest of his reply a strong disposition to get rid of the miracle. A copy of the questions was left for Bruce. His answer does him honor.

"I must confess, however learned the gentlemen were who proposed these doubts, I did not think they merited any attention to solve them. This passage is told us by Scripture to be a miraculous one; and if so, we have nothing to do with natural causes. If we do not believe Moses, we need not believe the transaction at all, seeing that it is from his authority alone we derive it. If we believe in God that he made the sea, we must believe he could divide it when he sees proper reason; and of that he must be the only judge. It is no greater miracle to divide the Red Sea, than to divide the river Jordan.

"If the Etesian winds, blowing from the northwest in summer, could keep up the sea as a wall on the right, or to the south, of fifty feet high; still the difficulty would remain of

building the wall on the left hand, or to the north. Besides, water standing in that position for a day, must have lost the nature of fluid. Whence came that cohesion of particles which hindered that wall to escape at the sides? This is as great a miracle as that of Moses. If the Etesian winds had done this once, they must have repeated it many a time before and since from the same causes, Yet Diodorus Siculus, lib. iii. p. 122, says: The Troglodytes, the indigenous inhabitants of that very spot, had a tradition from father to son, from their very earliest ages, that once this division of the sea did happen there; and that after leaving its bottom some time dry, the sea again came back and covered it with great fury. The words of this author are of the most remarkable kind. We cannot think this heathen is writing in favor of revelation: he knew not Moses, nor says a word about Pharaoh and his host; but records the miracle of the division of the sea in words nearly as strong as those of Moses, from the mouths of unbiassed, undesigning pagans,

"Were all these difficulties surmounted, what could we do with the pillar of fire? The answer is, we should not believe it. Why then believe the passage at all? We have no authority for the one but what is for the other. It is altogether contrary to the ordinary nature of things, and if not a miracle, it must be a fable.”

To this testimony of the Troglodyte tradition, we will only add, that evidence of the pillar of fire also is to be gathered from other testimony than that of the Bible; for the Egyptian chronologer writes, "It is said that fire flashed against them [the Egyptians] in front."

Miriam and her companions celebrated the triumph with music and dancing

This is perfectly conformable to what they had learned of the manners and customs of the Egyptians. The sculptures show us triumphal dances of Egyptian females, with timbrels or tambourines in their hands. The instrument was usually played by women, who danced at the same time to its sound, without any other accompaniment. We meet with it frequently in the future history of the Hebrews, and it is observable, that every description of its use in the Bible finds an exact illustration in the Egyptian paintings and sculpture.

CHAPTER X.

THE WANDERINGS.

THE first particular inviting our notice in the Bible history of the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness, is that of food. Before, however, we proceed to a consideration of any of the topics suggested by this part of our subject, it may be well to submit the general remark that, taking into view the precise condition of the Hebrews at this time, as a people born in Egypt, familiar only with Egyptian usages and opinions, accustomed to Egyptian conveniences, and differing probably from the natives of Egypt in the single particular of knowing, if not truly worshipping Jehovah, who had just manifested his power in their behalf; we are not to be surprised at discovering, as a natural consequence of these things, not merely that their thoughts often reverted with fond regret to the comforts of their native land; but that as time rolled on, and the purposes of God were gradually developed, and they fully knew that they should see Egypt no more, they should, in all the arrangements of their new position, with reference to laws, devotional habits, domestic usages, &c., assimilate their institutions to those they had left behind them, as far as was consistent with the great governing distinction of recognizing and worshipping the only true God.

We must expect, therefore, in this part of our subject, to see much which Egypt illustrates. In fact, it were easy to write on this topic, not merely a chapter, but a book. We will endeavor to select that only most likely to interest the reader, and at the same time afford the testimony we are seeking from Egypt.

Food. Their first cry was for bread. We know that when the Israelites went out they "took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders." We are also informed that after entering on their journey, "they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt." When the small quantity of food, which, as we learn from the Bible, they had, was exhausted, they were pressed by hunger, and cried for bread, as they had before done at Marah for water.

The Egyptians perfectly understood the art of baking, and we have already had occasion to remark that the monuments abundantly prove it. The Israelites, of course, had learned it, and had carried with them some, if not all, of the necessary implements for the work. We must not, however, be misled by names. The kneading-troughs here mentioned were not the utensils known to us by that name. They were small wooden bowls, such as the Arabs now use for kneading their bread, and were therefore no heavy burden.

Manna and quails were the food with which they were supplied. Of the first named, much has been written; and those reluctant to find a miracle in any thing have labored to prove that it is a gum that exudes, at this day, from the punctures made by insects in the twigs of the tamarisk plant. This gum, however, which is but in small quantities, by no means answers the description given of the manna; and even

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