SCRIPTURE BIOGRAPHY.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 February 1855, Page 23

SCRIPTURE BIOGRAPHY.

MOSES.

Moses was the great lawgiver of the Israelitish nation, and was honoured as their deliverer from Egyptian bondage. His preservation when an infant was most remarkable, and displays in an eminent degree the providence of God. The whole account is fraught with singular in-' terest. The unlooked for appearance of Pha-i roah s daughter with her maidens at the river of I the Nile, while the sister of the little one lingeredj near the spot, to watch the fate of her charge so carefully deposited in the ark of bulrushes. She was not long kept in suspense, for on the discovery of the cot, the Egyptian princess sent one of her attendants to fetch it, " and when she had opened it she saw the child, and" continues the inspired historian, " behold the babe wept!" How touching must have been the scene! Moses being adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians as for the throne; but he preferred casting in his lot with the poor and despised disciples of the truth, rather than "to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Moses when he became a man, was obliged to fly from the anger of the King of Egypt, and he ook shelter in the land of Midian, where he became a shepherd, and married Zipporah the daugh ter of Jcthro. ° • forty 7 ears servitude here, Moses was visited by God in a burning bush, and commanded to leave Midian and proceed to Egypt for the purpose of leading thence to the promised land the people of Israel.

The obstinancy of the King of Egypt in refusing "to let the people go," brought down upon himself and nation the vengeance of Jehovah, and plague after plague visited the dominions of the Egyptian monarch. But a deeper tide of woe awaited the hard-hearted Pharaoh. Alarmed by the death of the first born, the royal assent was obtained for the liberation of the Hebrews from their hard bondage. The king speedily relented, and in order to carry out his wicked intention, an immense army was raised, which he led on in pursuit of the Jewish people, who at this time were encamped at the margin of the red sea. The waters were divided by the power of God, "and the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left."

The king witli his chariots, horsemen, and captains, and all his army, are emboldened to follow, "and the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptian through the pillar of fire and the cloud, and troubled the host." "It is the morning watch.—And where art thou Poor heathen tyrant, and thy mighty men ? That cry was not the captive Hebrew's groan,~ 'Twas thine own pang of impotent distress! That wail was not the moan of murdered babes. 'Twas the deep anguish of thy drowning host! But 'tis Jehovah's wrath that speaks again In the loud roar of the returning wave !" Moses led the people from this scene of awful judgment to the borders of the land of Canaan, which he was not permitted to enter; he saw the land from the summit of Pisgah, and died in the vigour of life at the age of one hundred and twenty.