been now telling you so much that I fear you will scarcely recollect all I have said, and therefore we will finish for the present. Another day you shall hear what befel the Israelites after their departure from Egypt.

DIALOGUE IV.

PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.-MANNA. -QUAILS.

Ellen. I am very desirous of knowing, Mamma, what became of the Israelites after they left Egypt. Will you be so kind as to continue their history?

Mamma. I shall have much satisfaction in doing this. Our last was a very long conversation; I hope that you remember the chief part of what I told you in it.

Ellen. I think, Mamma, I remember a great deal of it. Pharaoh had a great many punishments sent upon him by God, because he would not let the Israelites go; but he was so wicked, that he would not consent to their departure till

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he had provoked God to kill all the first-born of Egypt in one night.

Mamma. I am pleased that you show so much attention to the history of the Bible, for it is a history that deserves your attention more than any other which will ever be put into your hands. Pharaoh must have been hardened in wickedness indeed, to require so many, and such dreadful punishments before he attended to the order received from God to let the people of Israel go out of Egypt. You said that he was at length induced to let the people go by the death of all the first-born sons of Egypt. Do you remember whether the first-born of the Israelites were inIcluded in this visitation?

Ellen. I do, Mamma. The first-born of the Israelites were spared.

Mamma. Did God appoint any particular sign by which the houses of the Israelites might be known to the destroying angel?

Ellen. He directed the Israelites to kill a lamb and dip a bunch of hyssop in the blood, and sprinkle the door-posts with the blood. And then the angel would pass over their houses.

Mamma. In commemoration of this great mercy God ordered the Israelites to keep a feast

every year which should be called the feast of the Passover. And this he ordered to be kept till the time of our Saviour, and which was accordingly kept as God had ordered. I have before told you that the killing of this lamb was a type or figure of the death of Christ, and therefore it was to be commemorated till the death of Christ, and no longer. We Christians do not keep the Passover, but instead of this we keep the feast of the Lord's Supper, which was ordained by our Saviour immediately before his death. You are not yet old enough fully to understand the value of the Lord's Supper, nor to participate in it: but if you are attentive to what is told you, and try to learn and understand what you are taught in your Catechism, when you are a great girl you will, I trust, be both capable and desirous of obeying the commands of our Saviour in this as in every other particular. But now we will proceed with the history of the Israelites, if you will first tell me where we left them.

Ellen. Just going out of Egypt, Mamma, in the night, Pharaoh wished them to go so fast that they took their bread with them unfinished. And the Egyptians gave them jewels of gold, and jewels of silver, and raiment.

Mamma. Very well remembered.

Ellen. Did they recollect to take the bones of Joseph in their haste, Mamma?

Mamma. They did so, Ellen. Moses remembered the solemn promise which had been made to that great and good man, and took care that no haste should prevent its fulfilment.

Ellen. How did the Israelites know which way to go from Egypt, Mamma?

Mamma. In the prosecution of their journey the Israelites had an advantage which was more to them than the best of human assistance. For God himself vouchsafed to direct their way; and that Moses might always have a rule by which to give his orders to the people, God placed a pillar of a cloud before them to lead them in the way during the day; and in the night this cloud was changed into a pillar of fire, to give them light, and also to direct them in the way.

Ellen. This was a miracle, Mamma, was it not? for it was not common.

Mamma. It was indeed a wonderful miracle, my dear child, and I am glad you had the observation to see this. But a greater miracle, or at least, one of a more awful and tremendous kind, was in preparation, to show to the Israel

ites the great and Almighty power of the God who thus vouchsafed himself to lead them on their way. It was not the intention of God at once to lead the Israelites to Canaan, which was the land promised to their fathers, and which was shortly to be given to them as a possession. He had other designs for them at present, and some trials and many mercies to show them before they were to inherit the land of their fathers. For this purpose he directed them to journey to a part of the country where they seemed to human eyes so surrounded by difficulties that their hopes of succour were small. For they got into a position where the Red Sea lay before them, and the wilderness stretched behind them; and in this situation Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who began wickedly to repent of having let the people go, followed after them with his mighty chariots and horsemen; so that it seemed they could not escape from one great evil or another.

Ellen. Oh the poor Israelites! What did they do in this trouble, Mamma?

Mamma. They did not behave as they ought to have done, I am sorry to say, after having seen the numberless instances in which God had interfered in their behalf. They murmured against