said to me, "Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, as he cometh forth to the water, and say to him, "Thus saith Jehovah, Let my people go, that they may serve me; for if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send beetles upon thee and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of beetles, and also the ground on which they are. But I will distinguish the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, so that no beetles shall be there, in order that thou mayest know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the land."

And Jehovah did so; for there came a very grievous swarm of beetles into the house of Pharaoh, and into the houses of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt, and the land was corrupted by reason of the beetles.

Then Pharaoh called for me and for Aaron, and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God in the land." And I said, "Should we, after our manner, sacrifice of our herds before the Egyptians, they would account it an insult to Apis, the sacred bull, and thereupon would they not stone us? We would go three days' journey into the wilderness, and there sacrifice to Jehovah our God." And Pharaoh said, "I will let you go, only you shall not go far away; entreat for me that the beetles may depart." I kept my word, and entreated Jehovah, who removed the beetles, so that there remained not one. Yet Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and would not let the people go.

Then Jehovah said to me again: "Go in unto Pharaoh and say to him, Thus saith Jehovah, God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me; for if thou refuse and wilt detain them still, behold, my hand shall be upon thy cattle which are in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep, a very grievous pestilence; yet nothing shall die of all that belongeth to the children of Israel."

And Jehovah did that thing on the morrow, for all the cattle of the Egyptians died, but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. And Pharaoh sent, and behold there was not one of the cattle of the children of Israel dead. Yet the heart of Pharaoh would not relent, and he still persisted in his refusal to let the people go.

Then the word of Jehovah came to me and to Aaron yet again:

"Take to you handsful of ashes of the furnace, and sprinkle it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh, and it shall become small dust, and shall be an ulcerous inflammation upon man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.” And we did so. And the magicians could not stand before us because of the inflammation, for the inflammation was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. Nevertheless, the haughty monarch's heart still remained hardened, and he would not hearken to our request.

Once more the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, "Stand before Pharaoh and say to him, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me; for if thou wilt not let them go, behold, to-morrow about this time, I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since its foundation, even until now." And on the morrow, I stretched forth my rod towards the heavens, and Jehovah sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the ground, and Jehovah rained hail upon the land of Egypt: so there was hail and fire mingled with the hail; and the hail smote all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field; only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

And Pharaoh, filled with consternation and terror at this new scourge, sent and called for Aaron and me, and said unto us, “I have sinned; Jehovah is righteous; but I and my people are wicked. Entreat Jehovah that there may be an end of this mighty thunder and hail, and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer." And I said to him, "As soon as I am gone out of the city I will spread abroad my hands to Jehovah, and the thunder shall cease, and there shall be no more hail, in order that thou mayest know that the land is Jehovah's." But when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunders had ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants, nor would he let the children of Israel go.

And another time Jehovah said to me: "Go in unto Pharaoh and say to him, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of the HebrewsHow long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me; for if thou refuse, I will bring locusts into thy borders, and they shall cover the face of the land, that it will not be possible to see the land." And I

stretched forth my rod over the land of Egypt, and Jehovah sent locusts over the land, and the locusts rested in great numbers in all the borders of Egypt; before them there was no such locusts as they, neither after them shall there be such; for they covered the face of the whole land, and ate every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, until there remained not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh called for Aaron and for me in haste, and he said, "I have sinned against Jehovah your God and against you; now, therefore, forgive I pray you my sin only this once, and entreat Jehovah your God that he may take away from me this death." And I went out and entreated Jehovah, who cast the locusts into the Red Sea, so that there remained not one locust in all the land. But the heart of the monarch was still hardened, and he would not let the children of Israel go.

And again Jehovah said to me, "Stretch out thy hand toward the heavens, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt." And I did so. And there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days; the Egyptians saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

Then Pharaoh called to me again, and said, "Go ye, serve Jehovah your God; only let your flocks and your herds remain ; let your little ones also go with you." And I said, "Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt-offerings, that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God; our cattle also shall go with us; there shall

not a hoof be left behind. And Pharaoh said to me, "Begone from me; take heed to thyself, and see my face no more, for in the day thou seest my face, thou shalt die." And I said, "Thou hast spoken well; I will see thy face no more."

Now Jehovah said to me: "Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt, and afterwards he will let you go; he will surely thrust you out thence altogether. For at midnight I will go through the land of Egypt, and every first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sitteth on the throne to the first-born of the maid-servant who is behind the mill, and to the first-born of every beast."

Then did Israel, at my command, make preparations for going forth. The preparations occasioned some delay. By that delay the Egyptians were emboldened. Yes, clearly they had won the victory! A decree went forth proclaiming a commemorative jubilee. Then joy and gladness filled the land; on all sides were music, dancing, and mutual congratulations. Pharaoh, in the midst of a long train of his great men, went in triumph to the festive hall, where they ate, drank, and caroused-meanwhile praising the gods of Egypt, who at length had delivered them out of the hands of Elohim. It grew towards midnight ere the blaspheming revellers fell upon their couches. A band of young nobles remained at the banquet, with Pharaoh's eldest son at their head. In the midst of their riotous orgies, and when, heated with wine, they cursed the apostate Hebrew who, though now happily defeated, had brought so much evil on Egypt, they all sickened, staggered, fell, and breathed their last! They were smitten by the avenging angel, who at the moment was going through the land, bearing death and woe into every Egyptian home. Scarcely had midnight passed, when the first-born male of every house shrieked, writhed, and perished.

Then a thrilling cry rent the air, bearing to Elohim the execution of his just vengeance, as well as the redemption of his people. The cry even roused the wine-oppressed monarch, who started from his bed in wild bewilderment and dismay.

The terrible blow was soon universally known. At the break of day the palace was beset. On the outside stood mothers, tearing their hair, rending their garments, and beating their breasts, who in piercing cries bade the king drive us from his borders. The interior was crowded in every part. A council

of state was summoned. I was sent for. As I entered the hall, every one shrank from me as if I were a leper. Approaching Menephthes, I heard the words "Go! yes, go!-go speedily go this very morning, all of you, with all that you have go!" Then did even the princes and the nobles of the land bend their knee to me and say, "Make no delay; our storehouses, our barns, our coffers, are all open to you-take what you need, and begone!"

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

In the preceding narrative, the form of which has been chosen as that which admitted of the greatest condensation of fact and implication, in union with the greatest amount of interest, the writer, under the general guidance of Professor Lepsius, has combined the substance of what may be learnt alike from Manetho and the monuments, from Herodotus, Diodorus, Pliny, and other Greek and Latin authorities, together with the inspired and invaluable records of the Pentateuch. The antiquity and reliableness of the latter divine records come into prominence the more carefully and thoroughly they are compared with other sources of information, and without them it would be impossible to reproduce, in living outline, the age of the Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty. The best justifica tion of the narrative now submitted to the reader is to be found in its consistency. If these parts so combine as to form a living whole, we may regard that whole as representing a reality that once passed over the stage of the world.

The view which underlies the signs and wonders of the narrative is strictly the Biblical view-namely, that the plagues were inflicted by the very hand of God, and that the doings of the magicians were bungling attempts, manifest failures, and, so far as they had any accomplishment, the results of merely superior scientific skill. Believing in the Bible, the author believes in miracles, and consequently is not forced to any idle endeavours to bring about a compromise between supernaturalism and naturalism. Such compromises, while they disfigure and dishonour the sacred Scriptures, have no logical basis whatever, and instead of conciliating, are very likely to make unbelievers. Most clear is it that the signs which overcame Pharaoh were not any predictions or any exaggerations of ordinary phenomena, else where their convincing and persuasive force? Surely the wise, the learned, the powerful of the land knew very well that the waters of the Nile sometimes assumed a red colour, and that locusts sometimes devastated the country. By natural events such as these they could never have been bowed down and compelled to thrust out the Israelites; and any attempt to draw a profit from signs and wonders made up of such materials could have ended only in discomfiture and ridicule. There are two alternatives-deny or admit the Bible; either is a perfectly intelligible course; but do not admit the Bible while you deny its statements, and do not deny its statements while you profess to admit the Bible.

It would be easy to adduce authorities illustrative of several of the facts which are connected with the plagues. But to what purpose? It is beyond a doubt, for instance, that frogs abound in marshy and fenny lowlands. What then? how does this affect the narrative? Of course the fact, as pertaining to Egypt, was well known to Menephthes and his court. Where, then, the logical force of the sign? Most clearly it was of God.

The story of the Plagues of Egypt is the finest of dramas as well as the most impressive of historical episodes; such is its character as it stands in the Scriptural records. Strip it of its miracle; or, what is even worse, make Moses a mere trickster, vainly trying to gain a victory with the cogged dice of natural phenomena; and you produce a mass of inconsistencies, encumbered with which you have no lever whatever wherewith to lift Israel out of Egypt, or to lay the foundations of the Hebrew Commonwealth.