thus moving step by step.* First, the call of the single person named Abraham-then of his family, by circumcision-then of the whole people of Israel, as we shall presently see, by the Covenant of Mount Sinai-and lastly, the call of all the people and tribes of the whole world, by baptism, into the one fold of the one true Shepherd, Jesus Christ, the seed promised to Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blest.†

§ 2. The Birth of Moses, B.c. 1570.

Joseph being now dead, the children of Israel grew and multiplied, and became so numerous that they filled the land. In the meantime there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph. And he said to his people, "Behold, the children of Israel are become both more numerous and strong than we: come, let us be wise and oppress them, lest they multiply, and if any war rise up against us, they take sides with our enemies, gain a victory over us, and leave the country.' therefore set over them task-masters to afflict them and to lay burdens upon them, and they built for Pharao

He

* This advance step by step of the work of God, is described by our Lord in the parable of the labourers called at different hours into the vineyard. (Matt., xviii.) Those of the first hour are the immediate descendants of Noe, to whom Noe taught the knowledge of God-the labourers of the third hour, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -the labourers of the sixth hour, Moses and Aaron-the labourers of the ninth hour, the Prophets of Israel-while the eleventh and last hour, is the ministry of the Catholic Church, which is to last to the end of the world. The evening when the labourers were called to receive their hire, is the last general judgment, at which all without exception will have to appear, to receive either the reward of their just labour or the punishment of their evil deeds.

+ Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the labourers of the third hour, are examples of men who lived in this world despising all its possessions and riches. Our Lord says of the people of Sodom and Gomorrha, that they were buying and selling, planting

But the more

the cities of Pithom and Ramesses. they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and increased. The Egyptians also hated the children of Israel and mocked them, and made their life bitter with the hard works with which they oppressed them. And Pharao commanded his people, saying, "All the male children that are born, cast them into the river, and save the female children alive."

Some time after this, a man of the tribe of Levi took a wife of his own kindred, and when their first son was born, the mother contrived to hide him for three months; when, however, she could conceal him no longer, she took a cradle of bulrushes, smeared it with bitumen and pitch, and putting the little babe into it, she laid him in the sedges by the river's brink.

The little child's sister remained standing a short distance from the spot, to see what would happen. About this time Pharao's daughter was in the habit of coming down from the palace to bathe, and she and her maids amused themselves by walking on the banks of the river. The cradle caught the eye of the princess, and she went up to it and opened it, and when she found the little babe inside, she pitied it, and said, "This is one of the babes of the Hebrews." The little child's sister, who had been looking on, now came

vineyards and building, on the very day that the fire fell from heaven and burnt up their city. The holy patriarchs did not live for this world, they possessed nothing but a cave for a burying-place; they left country, friends, and relations at the command of God. "Now, they who do these things," says St. Paul, "declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly if they had been mindful of that from whence they came, doubtless they had time to return; but now they desire a better, that is to say, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God." (Hebrews, xi., 14.)

up, and asked her, "Shall I go and call a Hebrew woman to nurse the child?"

She said, "Go."

The

little girl went home at once and brought her own

mother, who took the babe and nursed him for Pharao's daughter. After he was grown, the princess adopted him for her own son, and called him Moses.

§ 3. Moses sees the affliction of his people.

After Moses was grown up, he refused to pass among

OPPRESSION IN EGYPT.

137

the Egyptians for the son of Pharao's daughter, and went out to visit his brethren. Here he saw for the first time the affliction to which they were subjected,

He

and the hard service that was exacted from them. felt such deep indignation at the oppression he witnessed, that he struck with his own hand one of the Egyptians, whom he saw ill-treating one of the Hebrews

his brethren, and slew him. No one was looking on at the time, and he hid the dead body in the sand. As he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews quarrelling, and he said to him who did the wrong, "Why strikest thou thy neighbour?" The man answered, "Who made thee a prince or a judge over us? wilt thou kill me as thou didst kill the Egyptian yesterday? Moses was afraid, and said, How is this thing come to be known ?" When the circumstance was brought to the knowledge of Pharao, he sought to put Moses to death, and Moses upon this fled for his life into the mountains of Arabia.

§ 4. Moses is received into the tent of Jethro, a Priest of Madian.

Moses made his way across the desert, along what is now become the principal caravan route for the merchandize of the East, intending to take refuge with some of the shepherd tribes of the Arabian mountains. After several days of flight he came and sat by a well, in the country of the Madianites. A priest of Madian had seven daughters, who had the care of their father's flocks. As these maidens came to the well to draw water from it for their flocks, the other shepherds of the country were in the habit of coming and driving them away. Moses, on observing this, rose up and took their part, and helped them to water their flocks. When they returned to Jethro, their father, he said to them, "Why are ye come sooner than usual ?” They answered, "A man of Egypt delivered us from the hands of the shepherds, and gave the sheep to ok." Jethro said, "Where is he? why have you