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earliest records in the good old Book, we have accounts of this interesting country, which in those distant times was at the height of its civilization. Many centuries before Europe emerged from barbarism, Egypt, politically and socially, was the light of the world. Before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham, after having travelled over Canaan, which in vision was promised him by God, went into Egypt, in consequence of a famine. After a short stay, he returned to his own country, "rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold." So long ago as the time of Abraham, Egypt was a 'corn" country, where the nations stricken with famine used to resort for bread. Being dependent not so much on the seasons as on the overflowings of the Nile, the land of the Pharaohs had generally an abundance of corn, while other nations were famishing. The Midianitish Arabs used to travel over the sands which separate Asia from Africa, with their camels laden with the spices of their country, to exchange with the Egyptians for their "corn" and "wine." These were the men to whom Joseph was sold by his jealous brethren, and who carried him a slave into Egypt. To the "captain of the king's guard" Joseph was sold as a domestic slave, and Jacob, his poor old father, was left to mourn the loss of his bosom child. God prospered Joseph's master for Joseph's sake, and Joseph was set over all the household. Charged with a base crime, of which he was not guilty, Joseph was placed in prison. Even in his dungeon he gained favour, for "the Lord was with him."

The Egyptians were a people who paid much regard to dreams, and Joseph, too, knew that God sometimes spake in dreams, for he forewarned Joseph himself thus of his future greatness; and it was Joseph's inspired power of "interpreting dreams," combined with his integrity and goodness, that raised him to such eminence in the land of the Pharaohs. Joseph, under the direction of God, spake with oracular authority. His "interpretations of dreams" proved true to the letter, and Pharaoh said, "Can we find such an one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?" At once Pharaoh placed him over his own house, and declared, "According to thy word shall all my people be ruled;" and then he added, "Only in the throne will I be greater than thou." Pharaoh's ring was placed on Joseph's hand, and a gold chain on his neck, and he rode in the second chariot of the king, and the people cried before Joseph, "Bow the knee." Joseph, from the dream of Pharaoh, had foretold the forthcoming "seven years of great plenty" and the "seven years of famine," and being made "ruler over all" the country, he set out on a tour to make provision for the future. In all directions he caused granaries to be built, and appointed men to purchase and lay up the corn of the coming seven years of plenty," as a store for the seven years of dearth. It is said that he laid up corn in quantity" as the sands of the sea," "until he left numbering." The dearth "was in all lands," but the abundance, as Joseph had said, was only in Egypt. When the famine came upon Egypt, the people cried for bread; but Pharaoh sent them to Joseph; and though the "famine waxed sore," Joseph sold the people corn. From all the neighbouring countries the inhabitants came to Egypt to buy corn, and Egypt grew immensely rich. Amongst the numbers who reached the banks of the

Nile were Joseph's ten brethren, for poor old Jacob had now felt the effects of the famine. There they stood before their brother, that brother they had sold into slavery. Joseph treated them with an assumed abruptness, and actually made them prisoners; nor would he sell them corn or allow them to leave the country, only on the condition that they should leave one of their brethren as hostage, and return to their father Jacob, to bring Benjamin, their youngest brother, before him. The brethren, under the stings of conscience, now saw and felt that they had once wronged Joseph, when they confessed their guilt and acknowledged they had brought their present suffering on themselves. Joseph's heart was touched as soon as he heard these expressions of sorrow: "He turned about from them and wept." Human nature was then as it is now. One of the brothers, Simeon, was kept in bonds while the rest returned for young Benjamin, poor old Jacob's darling child. They took back their corn, but Joseph placed the money they had paid for it into each man's sack. Jacob was much distressed to hear that they had come for Benjamin; but the famine continued, and the old man was obliged to give up his youngest child. In his agony, the venerable old father gave his parting benediction, and the brethren appeared once more before Joseph, who now treated them very hospitably. They returned once more with "corn," but Joseph recalled them, and laid "charges" to them, which more than ever reached their consciences. Again he made them prisoners. Judah now made a most touching and eloquent address to Joseph, and Joseph could hold out no longer. His brotherly heart melted, and he sent away from his presence all but his brethren. Then came a scene which no pen can picture. 'Joseph wept aloud,” and said, "I am Joseph !" and then, the first question was, Doth my father yet live?" He at once soothed their sorrows, and told them of God's purposes in sending him to Egypt. "Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither;" "God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth;" "So, now, it was not you that sent me, but God." Jacob had concluded that his son Joseph had been "rent in pieces" by wild beasts, and "year after year he had wept for him ;" but news now reached him that Joseph was still alive, and wagons arrived sent by Joseph to convey the old man into Joseph's presence. The loving father exclaimed, "It is enough! Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die." In his old age he set out to see his lost child, and took with him the wives and children of his other sons, with all "their cattle and their goods." A fruitful district on the Delta, called "Goshen," in the neighbourhood of the eastern branch of the Nile, was allotted to them, and here they settled and became prosperous. Five of the seven years of famine were yet unexpired, and as the dearth in Egypt probably resulted from the failure of the annual inundation of the river, "Goshen" would be the spot likely to suffer the least from such a calamity, and would be admirably fitted for the occupation of a tribe of shepherds. With the return of the annual inundations, they could easily retire for three months into the wilderness of Sinai, which was not very far distant, and then return and take advantage of the rich deposits which the river never fails to leave behind it. Soon "they had possessions therein, and grew and multiplied exceedingly."

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The famine continued, however, till the Egyptians had to part with their cattle, and even their land, to buy corn; and thus Joseph's forethought and wisdom resulted in placing all that the people had in the hands of Pharaoh. Joseph made this a means of consolidating the kingdom, for he advised that the land (and probably the cattle too) should be returned to the Egyptians, on condition that a fifth of the produce should be given to the State. For 1,500 years after this re-adjustment of the land, Egypt was orderly and prosperous, and its mild and wise laws became the wonder of the Greeks. Here it was, then, that the chosen race was preserved from whom was to spring the Saviour of our race. Joseph married a priest's daughter, and in his manners, his dress, his language, and his name, appeared like an Egyptian. "The children of Israel increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty."

At length Jacob died, and was embalmed, after the manner of the Egyptians, of which we shall say more, and Joseph died also, "and all his brethren, and all that generation."

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The "shepherd kings," who were not native to the country, during whose rule Joseph had risen to such eminence, were at length driven from the throne by the native dynasty: "A new king ruled over Egypt which knew not Joseph." The children of Israel were now oppressed, reduced to slavery, and set to hard labour for the service of the State. This new Pharaoh was afraid of their numbers and their influence, and determined to keep them in subjection by hard usage. "The people of the children of Israel," said Pharaoh, "are more, and mightier than we," and he compelled them to build "treasure cities," and "set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens." 66 'They made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field;" "all their service was with rigour."

In order still more to destroy their power and keep down their numbers, Pharaoh decreed that every male child should be destroyed as soon as born. The decree was often evaded, and one woman of the house of Levi, with the heart of a true mother, saved her son, hid him for three months, and then placed him in an ark of bulrushes on the river's bank. This child was found by Pharaoh's daughter, was adopted, and given to its own mother to nurse. He was carefully educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, but when he grew up he loved his own people, and "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. This Hebrew, named Moses, became the natural leader of the children of Israel. He saw their oppressions and sufferings, and resolved to "deliver them out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage." He left the luxuries and riches of the palace, and disregarded all the honours which Egypt had to give, to live with his oppressed and down-trodden people. "God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham."

Then came the frequent attempts of Moses to lead the children of Israel away from their cruel oppressors to the land which was promised to Abraham, and the repeated attempts of Pharaoh to stop them, and the great miracles which were wrought for their deliver

ance, and the "plagues" which afflicted the land. God "sent darkness, and made it dark; he turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish; their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings; he spake, and there came divers sorts of flies and lice in all their coasts; he gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land; he smote their vines also and their fig-trees, and brake the trees of their coasts; he spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number, and did eat up all the herbs of their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground." The Egyptians "cried" to Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go; but the king's heart was hardened, nor did he permit them to depart till the last awful curse fell upon him. The God of Moses, "at midnight," "smote all the first-born of Egypt," and "all the first-born of the cattle," till "there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead." For above two centuries the children of Israel had been in bondage, but now Pharaoh allowed them to depart. Again he repented, however, and sent his chariots-600 chosen chariots-and all besides, and his horsemen and armies, to intercept the Israelites, whom they overtook on the shores of the Red Sea. God was with his people there, and made a way for them through the waters. Over they marched as on "dry land," and on followed the Egyptians, who were overwhelmed by the waters and perished.

From this time up to the coming of Christ, there seems to have been more or less connection between the Israelites and the Egyptians. There they seem to have learnt, and thence carried home, many of the arts of civilized life, and prepared themselves for developing the resources of the fruitful land of Canaan. Joseph himself in appearance became an Egyptian, and so did Moses, for the daughters of Jethro took him for one. There the Israelites probably adopted their custom of embalming their dead. In manners and in dress, too, they evidently became Egyptians; nor did they modify their customs, after their departure, beyond what was necessary to free themselves from the idolatries of Egypt. And even on this point they were prone to be led astray, for the "golden calf" was clearly of Egyptian origin. In consequence of these mutual tastes and manners, a kind of sympathy and desire for intercourse was likely to result. The Levitical law did not include Egypt in its prohibition of the Jews from intercourse with the idolatrous peoples around them, while it enjoined courtesy and hospitality towards the Egyptians, because of the benefits their fathers received of them-"Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a stranger in his land." Solomon married a daughter of a reigning Pharaoh, and the father-in-law assisted the son-in-law in reducing the Canaanites; yet, when Solomon married the daughters of other idolatrous kings, God rebuked him. Hadad the Edomite was well received by Pharaoh when he passed into Egypt, and he married the sister of the king's wife. Jeroboam fled from Solomon to Shishak the Pharaoh, called by the Greeks Sesonch, and the head of a new dynasty, of which there were so many in the history of Egypt. It was this Shishak, however, who, in the reign of Rehoboam, went up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the temple and of the king's house. Whether this was the effect of his alliance with Jeroboam, or of jealousy towards the son of Solomon,

who had married a daughter of the late Pharaoh, whose throne he (Shishak) had usurped, we are not told. Solomon seems to have introduced chariots and horses, which were forbidden in Judea, from Egypt. Throughout their history, though warned against it, the Jews were constantly looking towards Egypt for deliverance. Zedekiah sent his ambassadors to Egypt for "horses and much people" for his rebellion against his master, Nebuchadnezzar. God complains that his people "strengthened themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and trusted in the shadow of Egypt." In their oppression under the King of Babylon, they expected help from Egypt, or looked towards it as a place of refuge. When they sought, through Jeremiah, to go thither, a curse was pronounced against them. "The sword which ye feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine whereof ye were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die." In the face of this warning, Johanan went, and dragged after him the men, women, and children that were left, and even the prophet himself. But the threatened curse came, in all its literal horror; for soon Nebuchadnezzar invaded the country, and destroyed with the sword all the Jews-men, women, and children-who had taken refuge there. The sinful confidence of the Jews in Egypt often provoked the anger of God; and many prophecies foretold the misery and desolation which should overtake the land. Those miseries have overtaken the country, and for 2,000 years she has borne them. It was intimated, however, that though other countries should be utterly destroyed, Egypt should not, for God had yet purposes of mercy towards her; and though since then she has been the prey of nearly all foreigners, she still retains her identity, and affords shelter to a remnant of her ancient people. Socially, the people are progressing once more; and just now (Nov. 18th) a representative Parliament has been opened by the viceroy. Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus, who had restored the Jews, conquered Egypt, and ruled over both the Jews and the Egyptians; and Alexander, who overthrew the Persian empire, built the city of Alexandria on the western branch of the Nile, where vast numbers of Jews resorted. In Egypt, too, it was that Ptolemy Epiphanes, over two centuries before Christ, sent for eminent Jews from Jerusalem, to accomplish the first translation of the Bible into Greek. This version, said to have been the work of seventy or seventy-two, is now generally known as the Septuagint. Indeed, Onias, son of the high priest of that name at Jerusalem, built, in the reign of Ptolemy Philometer, a temple in Heliopolis, and instituted there the courses of priests and Levites, with the ceremonial law, in all its details. At Alexandria the Jews learned the Greek philosophy, taught by Plato, and were called the Hellenizing Jews; and the early Christians thence embraced the same doctrines, and seriously corrupted the Church of Christ. Here, then, in this land of the Nile, as we have seen, the families were preserved whose seed was to bless the whole earth; and 1,800 years after the promise, Christ came up out of Egypt as the Saviour of a lost world. "For the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young child to

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