PART II.

DIALOGUE I.

BIRTH OF MOSES.

Mamma. Now, Ellen, if you are desirous of hearing some more relations from the Bible, I am ready to attend to you.-Where did we leave off?

Ellen. Joseph had just died, Mamma.

Mamma. What is the name of that book in the Bible, in which some account is given of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

Ellen. Genesis.

Mamma. What was the name of Joseph's father?

Ellen. Jacob.

Mamma. By what other name was he called? Ellen. Israel.

Mamma. And what were his children and descendants now to be called?

Ellen. Israelites.

Mamma. It is of these Israelites, who were now

increased to a very great multitude, that I am going to give you some account. Do you recollect the name of the king of Egypt to whom Joseph had been governor ?

Ellen. Pharaoh.

Mamma. In the course of years this Pharaoh had died, and another king had arisen in Egypt who was not so well disposed towards the Israelites as those before him had been. He behaved in a very harsh and cruel manner towards them, imposing tasks upon them which it was impossible they could perform: and in order to prevent them from increasing in numbers, he gave a barbarous order that every male child which should be born amongst them should be murdered as soon as born.

Ellen. Oh Mamma! this was a sad wicked king! And the poor Israelites were indeed very badly off: but I dare say God did something to relieve them.

Mamma. You are right in turning towards God as the author of relief for the poor Israelites. For, indeed, without his aid and assistance vain were the help of man. It is to be feared that the Israelites had fallen off lately from their trust and confidence in this good God, and that the

trials to which they were now subjected were a punishment upon them for their carelessness in their worship, and their general inattention to the practice of virtue. But the eye of God was still upon them; and although they were less mindful of him than they ought to have been, he was at the same time preparing for them a deliverance from the land of Egypt, which had now become to them, as the catechism expresses it, a house of bondage.

Ellen. How was it a house of bondage, Mamma? Mamma. Because they were bound to do every thing they were exacted to do by a hard and cruel king, who set task-masters over them, and compelled them to serve him in the lowest and meanest employments. He made them build his houses, and labour hard with brick and mortar. He also obliged them to work very hard at making bricks, and compelled them to make a very large quantity without providing them with the proper materials to make them with.

Ellen. How did God deliver the children of Israel, Mamma, from Egypt?

Mamma. You shall hear. You remember the cruel order which king Pharoah gave, in order to prevent the children of Israel from increasing in numbers?

Ellen. He ordered that all their male children

should be destroyed.

Mamma. The persons who received orders from Pharaoh to kill the Israelitish babes were not so cruel as Pharaoh, and therefore they did not attend to this order. Pharaoh then ordered that all the male children should be thrown into the river as soon as they were born, and such was the perseverance with which he followed up this order, that the poor Hebrew women had little chance of saving their children which were boys from the hands of this cruel man.

Ellen. How dreadful to throw so many poor babes into the river to be drowned! And were none of them saved, Mamma?

Mamma. Amongst the Hebrew women who gave birth to male children after the decree which sentenced them all to be drowned, was one named Jochebed, the wife of Amram. Amram was grandson to Levi, who, you know, was son to Jacob, and his wife also, was of the tribe, or family of Levi. The babe which was born to Amram and Jochebed in this time of trouble, the Bible tells us, was a goodly child; by which we understand it to have been, a healthy, promising child; and his mother, naturally solicitous to

save him from destruction, hid him for three months in her own house.

Ellen. And Pharaoh did not find out that she had a male child, Mamma?

Mamma. For three months, this poor babe lived concealed and undiscovered, in the house of his parents; but at the end of that time, his mother being constantly in alarm lest bis cries, or other accident, should reveal him to the cruel officers of Pharaoh, formed a plan of herself committing him to the river; but in such a manner that there might be some chance of his being delivered from the death which had terminated the lives of so many helpless children.

Ellen. How could she make up her mind to this, Mamma? I wonder she had not tried to keep him still concealed in the house.

Mamma. Jochebed well knew the danger of retaining her infant any longer in her house, where, if he had been discovered, by Pharaoh, there would have been no chance of his escaping from his cruelty. She therefore preferred exposing him in the manner she did. Her pious heart being well convinced that if God pleased, his merciful Providence would protect her tender child. The whole of Jochebed's conduct shows