OUR YOUTHS' DEPARTMENT

Evening Star, Issue 8267, 12 July 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR YOUTHS' DEPARTMENT

JOSHUA. A STORY OF EOYPTIAN-ISRAELITISH LIFE. By Gkohob EbbrsAuthor of ' Uarda,' ' An Egyptian Princeas,' etc (Now first published. J CHAPTER XXII. It had been found to be impossible to break through the frontier lines of Etham and follow the nearest road to Palestine in a north-eaaterly direction ; and the aecond plan proposed by Moses, that they should march round Migdol of the South, had likewise failed, for spiea had reported that the garrison there had been strongly reinforced. Hereupon the multitude had assembled round tho man of God and had declared that sooner would they return home with all their familicß, and appeal to Pharaoh'a mercy, than suffer themaelveß, their wives, and their children to be butchered. For many daya it had been necessary to keep them back, but when fresh messengers brought word that Pharaoh waa coming down on them with a mighty host the time seemed to be at hand when tho Hebrews, who were now in tho greatest peril, must bo urged to force their way onward. Mosea had exerted the full weight of hia commanding individuality, and Aaron had put forth all the powera of hia persuasive eloquence, while old Nun and Hur had striven to infuse some of their own fiery spirit into the rest. But the terrifying tidings had broken the last remnant of courage and faith in moat of the people, and they had already determined to send word to Pharaoh of their repentance; however, the messenger whom they had despatched turned back, declaring that the approaching army had orders not to spare a single Hebrew, but to teaoh even those who should pray for mercy at the point of the sword how Pharaoh would punish those who, by their magic arta, had brought death and misery on so many Egyptians. Thus they had learned too late that their return would lead them to deatruction no lesa surely than a bold advanee. When the fighting men, led by Hur and Nun, had proceeded almost aa far as Migdol on the South, they had turned and fled at the loud blast of the Egyptian trumpeta ; and by the time they returned to the camp, weary, dispirited, and wroth, fresh and exggerated reporta of the might of Pharaoh'a host had been brought to the Hebrews, and mortal fear and despair had fallen on even the bravest. Exhortation was caatjto the winds; threats were laughed to scorn; and the rebellious multitude had forced their leaders onward till they had reached the shores of tho Red Sea, and its deep green watera compelled them to give up all further flight to the southward. So tho people had encamped between Pihahiroth and Baalzephon, ;.'.nd here, once more, their chief had called upon them in the name of the God of their fathers. In the face of certain destruction, from which no human power could save them, they had been brought to lift their eye 3 to lieaven again ; and in the soul of Moses pity and sympathy had revived more strongly for tho hapless and much tried people who had come forth at his bidding. During the past night he had gone up into the mountain of Baalzephon, and there, amid the roaring of the storm and hissing flame of the lightning, he had sought and found communion with the Lord, And he had not wearied of laying before Him the evil flight of His people and beseeching Him to deliver them. In that same hour had Miriam, the wife of Hur, gone down to the seashore to entreat! the Lord likewise under a solitary palm tree, for still she felt herself His chosen fcandruaid. She besought Him for the women and children, whose trust in Him had brought them to this pass. And she would fain have prayed for the friend of her youth, who was now pining in fearful captivity, but as she fell on her knees she could only say in a trembling and broken voico : "Forget not Thou Hosea, whom 1, at Thy word, namoci Joshua ; albeit he hath been less obedient to thy call than Moses, :ny brother, or Hur, my husband ! Forget not either young Ephraim, the grandson of Thy faithful Borvant, Nun ! " Then ahe went back to her husband's tent, a chief's tent, while many a humbler rvuin, and many a poor, terrified woman of tho people, outside their wre'.ched shelter, or lyiDg on a thin mat, wet with tears, uplifted an anxious heart to the God of their fathers and commended to Hia care those whom they loved best. Thus, in this night of sorest need, the camp was a temple in which high and low, chief and mother, master and slave, nay, even the afflicted leper, sought and found the Lord. At last the morning had dawned when Ephraim had uttered hia childlike prayer, .shouting it down the storm, and the sea was beginning to retire. Then, when they beheld with their own eyes the miracle which the Most High had wrought for Hia chosen people, the most despairing and fearful became so many glad and hopeful believers. Not among the sons of Ephraim only, but atuong all the tribes, nay, and among the strangers and unclean, their newly-awakened and joyful confidence moved each one to prepare with ail hia strength for future journeying ; and for the first time the multitude assembled without strife or jealousy, without fighting, curses, and tears. . After sunset Moses, staff in hand, and Aaron singing and praying, led the way to the head of the gulf. The storm, which was TEkeina aa wildly as ever, had swept baclc the waters and bore down the flames and smoke of the torches which were carried at the head of each tribe, from north-ea3t to southNext to the two great leaders, on whom every eye w;ia fixed with eager anticipation, Nun marched with the children of Ephraim. The seabottom on which they trod was firm, damp sand, on which even the cattle could safely cross as on a smooth highway, gently aloping towarda the sea. Ephraim, who waa regarded by hia elders as the future head of his tribe, had, by his grandfather's desire, undertaken to be careful that the train of men and beasts should not come to a Btandatill, and to this end he had been entrusted with a chief'a staff. The fishermen who dwelt in the huts which clustered at the foot of Baalzephon agreed with the Phoenician seamen in saying that, aa soon as the moon had reached the zenith, the waterß would rise again to their old place, so ao delay could bo allowed. The lad gloried in the atorm, and aa hiß hair blew about hia face and he fought against the wind while ho hurried to and fro in fulfilment of hia task, thiß felt to him aB a foretaste of the sreat enterprise ho had in his mind. Thus mattera sped through the darknesa whioh ciuickly followed the twilight. The strong smell the fish left on dry land waa pleaaanfcer to the youth, who now felt himself a man indeed, than the sweet perfume of hard Kaaaaa's tent. Once the thought of her flashed through hia mind ; but indeed during these hour 3 he had no time to think of her. Hiß hands were quite full_; here the seaweed mu«t be cleared aside which a wave had thrown in the way ; there the ram of a flock which hesitated to aet foot on the moiat ground must be seized by the horns and dragged forward, or the oxen and beasta of burthen driven through a pool they were shy of. Many timea he had to lend a shoulder to lift a heavily laden cart of which the wheels had aunk in the soft sand, and when just a 8 they were atarting on thia strange and momentous journey, cloae to the Egyptian shore, a dispnte arose between two herdamen as to whioh should have the lead, he promptly settled by lot which was io go forward and which to follow. Two little girls were crying and refusing to cross a pool, while their mother's arms were occupied with her infant; he picked them up with swift deciaion and carried them across the shallow lakelet; and when a wheel came off one of tho waggons, he immediately had it dragged out of the way, ■and by the light of the torches he made some of the serfs who were least heavily laden carry each a sack or a bale, nay, and even pieces of the broken vehicle. He had comforting worda for weeping women and children, and if the flare of a torch showed 1 .him the face of some youth of his own age

whose aid he hoped to secure for liberating Joshua he hinted to him in a few spirited ] words that he had a bold deed in prospect whioh he purposed to achieve with the help of hia friends. The incense hearers, who had hitherto led the way, on this occasion closed the march, for the wind blowing from the north-east would have driven the smoke in the face of the people. They stood on the Egyptian shore, and soon all the multitude had passed them by excepting only the strangers and the lepers who came last of all. The foreigners were indeed a motley host, consisting of Asiatics of Semitic blood, who were fleeing from the forced labor and cruel punishments which were inflicted on them by the law of Egypt; of dealers, who had found buyers for their wares among the departing multitude, and even of Shasoo shepherds, who had been hindered from crossing the frontier on their return home. With these Ephraim had much trouble, for they refused to leave the dry land until the lepers had been enjoined to remain at a greater distance from them ; but even they wore brought to submission by the help ot the chief of the tribe of Benjamin, which marched last in front of them; for he warned them of the prophecy of the Phoenicians and tkhermen, that the moon as it sank would bring the sea back to its old bed. Finally he persuaded the leader of the lepers, an intelligent Egyptian who had been a priest, to maintain at least half the distance that was demanded. Meanwhile the tempest continued to rage with increasing fury ; the roar and longdrawn shrieks of the wind, mingled with the thunder of the breakers and the duller moan of the surf, drowned the shouts of command, the wailing of the women, the bellowing and bleating of the trembling beasts, and the whining of the dogs. Ephraim's voice wea audible only to those nearest to him ; many torches were extinguished, and the rest kept alight with difficulty. At length, when for some short space he had been walking behind the last of the lepers, going slowly to recover hia breath and get a little rent, he heard his name called from the rear, and turning round beheld an old playmate who was returning from spying the enemy, and who, seeing the leader's staff iu the lad's hand, shouted in his ear with panting gasps that Pharaoh's chariots were coming on in the van of the Egyptain host. He had left them by Pihahiroth, and if they had not waited to let the other troopa come up with them, they might at any moment overtake the fugitives. Thereupon he again pressed on to reach the leaders of the multitude. But Ephraim stood still a moment in the middle of the way with his hand to his brow, and great anxiety came down on his soul. He knew full well that the approaching army would overrun the women and children whom he had just seen in all their pathetic terror and helplessness as a man treada down a file of ants ; again all his impulses urged him to prayer, and from the depths of his oppressed heart the imploring cry went up into the night: " Eloi! Kloi! great god on high ! Thou knowest, for I have told Thee, and Thine all-seeing eye must behold in spite of the blackness of the night how sorely Thy people are beset whom Thou hast promised to lead into a new land. Remember Thy word, O Jehovah ! Be gracious unto us God Almighty ! Our foe is upon us with irresistible might ! stay hia steps ! Save us ! Deliver the women and the children ! Save us and be merciful to us."

As he prayed he had fixed his eye3on high, and had espied the ruddy blaze of a fire on Baalzephon. This had been lighted by the Phoenicians to propitiate the Baal of the north wind in favor of the kindred race of Hebrews and against the hated Egyptian nation. This was friendly ; but he put his trust in another God, and as he glanced again at the vaults of Heaven over which the black cloud-rack raced, and gathered, and divided again, and swept to and fro, he descried between the parting clouds the silver beam of the full moon already at its meridian. And fresh terror came upon him, for lie remembered th'i prediction*] of the weatherwise stamen. If the flood should at this moment return to its bed hia people were doomed, for to tho north of the gulf, where deep pools lay amid rocky and slimy mud, there was no escape. If within an hour the waters should rise the seed of Abraham would cease from the of the earth, as writing on a wet tablet vanishes at the pressure of a warm hand. But was not thi3 people, doomed to destruction, the name which the Lord had called His own ? And could He give them into the hand of the enemy which wag His enemy also '/ No ! a thousand times no ! And the moon which was to cause the disaster had but a short time since aided his flight and been his friend, fie could only hope and believe and cling to ids trust in God. As yet nothing was lost, not a single soul. Nay, if it came to the worst the whole nation would not be destroyed—his own tribe, which led the way, least of all ; by this time many must have reached the further shore—more, probably, than ho thought, for the little bay was narrow, and aven the leper 3, the last of the multitude, had already gone some distance over tho moist sand. Ho lingered behind to listen for the coming of the enemy's chariots. On the shore of tho gnlf he laid his ear to the ground ; and ho could triist the sharpness of his hearing, for iu this attitude he had often detected the distant tramp of beasts that had gone astray, or, when out hunting, had heard the approach of a herd of antelopes or gazelles. He, fceing the last, was in the greatest danger, but what matter for that? How gladly would ho ha?e given his young lifo to save the rest ! Since he had carried a chief's staff he felt that he had taken upon himself tho duty of watching over hU people ; so he listened till at last he perceived a scarce audible thrill in the earth, and then a faint rumbling. This was tho foe; this must be Pharaoh's chariots ; and how swiftly wore the proud steeds rushing on ! He started to hia feet 33 though a whip had atnng him, and flew onward to overtake the rest. How oppressively sultry the air had become, in spite of the raging gale which had extinguished so many of the torches ! The clouds hid tho moon, but the dancing fire on the highest peak of Baalzephon shone broader and brighter. The sparks which it cast up flew scurrying to westward, for the wind was veering to the east. No sooner did he perceive this than he hastened back to the youths who carried the censera behind the procession and commanded them, in breathless haste, to refill the copper vessels, and take care that the vapor rose thick ; for he said to himself that the wind would blow it into the faces of the horses and make them refractory or stop them. No means seemed to him too humble, every moment gained was precious ; and as soon as he had seen the smoke from the censers spreading in choking clouds over the track left by the advancing multitude he ran on again, warning the elders as he came up with them that Pharaoh'a chariots were not far behind, and that the people must hasten their march. Forthwith the host on foot, the bearers, leaders, and herdsmen collected their strength to proceed faster, and although the wind waa every moment more decidedly against them, hindering their progress, they battled with it valiantly, and the fear of their pursuers doubled their energiea. The lad waa like a sheep dog watching and driving the flock, and the chiefs of the tribes looked kindly on him whenever he waa to be seen ; and as he made hia way among the marching hoat, fighting onward against the blast, the east wind brought u strange cry to hia eara as the reward of his efforts. The nearer he came to it the louder it rose, and the more sure he was that it waa a shout of triumph and gladness, the first that had been raised by Hebrew voices for many a long day. It revived the youth like a cool draught after long thirst, and he could not refrain from shouting aloud and hailing those behind with a cry of " Saved ! Saved !"

Several of the tribes had already reached the eastern shore of the gulf, and it was they who sect np the shout of joy which, with the beacon fires they lighted along the shore, gave the rear of the host fresh courage, and renewed their flagging strength. By the light of the blaze he saw the majestic figure of Moses on a hillock by the shore, stretching out his BtaJ? toward the waters ;

and this image waa stamped on hia mind, as on that of every soul present, great and small, more deeply than any other, and inflamed the confidence in his heart. This man was verily the friend of God, and so long as he should hold up his staff the waves were spell-bound, and the Lord, by Hia servant, forbade them to return. Ephraim need no more appeal to the Most High ; this was in the hands of His great and sublime servant. But hia own lesser duty of urging on one and another to tho goal he still must fulfil. Back he flew to the lepers and incense bearers, and to each division he shouted aloud: " Saved ! Saved ! Hasten forward ! The rod of Moses holds tho waters back ! Many have reached the shore ! Praise the Lord ! Forward, forward, and you too may join the song ! Fix your eyes on those two red fires ! They were kindled by those who are delivered; between them stands the servant of the Lord uplifting his staff." Then he ugain laid his ear to the ground, kneeling on the wet sand, and ho heard quite near the rattle of wheels and the heavy tramp of horses. But even while he listened the sound gradually ceased, and he heard nothing but the howling of the storm and the ominous beating of the wild waves, or a cry now and then borne down on the east wind. The chariots had reached the shore of the dry bed of the gulf, and paused some little while, hesitating before they started on so perilous a passage; then suddenly the Egyptian war-cry rang out, and again he heard the rolling wheels. It came on more slowly than before, but yet faster than the Israelites could march.

For the Egyptians, too, the way lay open, but though his people had but a small start, ho need no longer fear for them ; all was not lo3t; those who had reached the shore could scatter themselves during the night among the mountain solitudes, and ensconce themselves in spots where no chariot could pursue them. Moses knew the land ; he had long dwelt there as a fugitive. The only thing was to warn him of the approach of the foe. So he charged a comrade of the tribe of Benjamin with the message, and the distance was no longer vary great, while ne stayed to watch the coming of the host. Without stopping to listen, and in spite of the gale, which blew the sound from him, he could already hear the clatter of the chariots and neighing of the horses, The lepers, however, who likewise heard the noise, wailed and wept, fancying themselves already trodden under foot or swallowed by the cold, dark waters; for the shore was fast shrinking, and the sea was greedy to recover the ground it had abandoned. Man and beast were forced to mareb in a narrower file, and, while the hurrying troopa packed closer and closer, they also stretched longer, and precious momenta were lost. Those who walked on the right-hand side were wading through the encroaching waves in haste and terror, for already behind them they could hear in the distance the Egyptian worda of command. But the enemy was evidently delayed, and Ephraim easily understood what caused their diminished speed. The ground grew softer at every step, and the narrow wheels of the v,ar chariots must sink deep in it, even to the axles. Under cover of the darkness he crept buck as near as he dared to the pursuing ho<st, and he could hear now an oath and now an angry order to uso the lash more freely ; and at last one driver saying to his neighbor: " What cursed folly, ff they had suffered us to set out before noon instead of waiting till the omens had been read and Annas solemnly installed in the place of Baie, it would have been an easy matter enough, and we ehonld have trapped them like a covey of quails. The Hiijh Priest has shown his valor on the field before this, and now he sives up the leadetship because a dying woman has touched hia heart '. " " Siptn,h's mother ! " another put in. " Still you are right; twenty princesses ought not to have turned him aw,.y from his duty to us. If he had stayed by us we should not have had to (lay our jades alive, and at an hour, too, when any prudent captain leaves his men to rest by the camp tires, over their supper and their game of draught!;. Go to the horse's head, man ! We are sunk in the sand again ! " Thereupon a loud outcry arosff behind the foremost chariot, and Ephraim could hear another voice exclaiming : " Get on there, if the horses die for it." " If retr::at were possible," said the chief captain of the war chariots, a relative of Pharaoh's, "even now I would turn about. But as it is we should all tumble over each other. Go forward, cost what it may. We are close on their heels. Halt ! Halt ! Curses on that pungent srnoke ! Ah ! wait, only wait, you dogs ! As soou as the road opens cut a little we will get round you, and may the gods shorten my life by a day for every soul I leave alive ! Another torch out. I cannot see my hand before my face. A becgar'a stick would be more to the purpose than a commander's staff." "And a gallows rope about our necks instead of a gold chain ! " cried another. "11 only the moon would come out! It wis because the horoscope promised that it would shine full from evening till dawn that I voted for the late march, turning night into day. If only it were not so dork But the sentence remained unfinished, for a blast, lushing down from the southeastern gorges of Baalzephon like a roaring beast of prey, swept over the speakers, and a rolling wave wetted Ephraim through and through. He shook back his hair and dr'ed hia eyes as he recovered hiß breath ; but behind him a loud cry of terror went up from the Egyptians, for the surge that had but drenched him had swept the foremost chariot into the sea. At this the lad bej;an to be alarmed for his people, and he flew forward ; but as he started a flash of lightning showed him the gulf, the mountain, and the shore. The thunder did not immediately follow, but the storm soon came nearer ; the lightnings, instead of cutting zigzag across the sky, flared in broad sheets through the darkness, and before they died out the deafening crack of the thunder echoed among the bare crags of the mountain clift'a and rolled in deep, angry waves of sound to the shore and tho head of the bay. Sea and land, man and beast, all was flooded with the dazzling glare each time the destroying clouds discharged their bolts ; the surging waves and the air above them gleamed in sulphurous yellow, through which the lightning blazed as through an olive-tinted glasa wall. Now, too, Ephraim thought he discerned that the heaviest clouds were coming up from the south and not from the north ; and presently, by the lightning's gleam, he aaw that behind him here a refractory team were plunging into tho wavea, there one chariot was overturning another, and beyond these again several were locked together to the destruction of the drivers and the men at arms, while they checked the progress of those which followed.

Still, on the whole, the enemy were advancing, and tho space dividing the fugitives from the pursuers grew no wider. However, the confusion that prevailed among the Egyptians was by this time so great that the cries of terror of the fighting men and the encouraging shouts of the drivers waxed louder and louder in the intervals between the maddening roar of the thunder. But, black as were the storm clouds to the south, fiercely as the wind raged, the darkened heavens shed no water, and though the pilgrimß were wet it was not with rain, but with the splashing waves whioh dashed higher and higher every moment, washing up further and further over tho dry sand in the bay. The path was narrowing, but the passing of the multitude was at an end. The blaze of the beacons still guided the frightened rear to the hoped-for goal, reminding them that there stood Moses with the staff lent him by God. Every step brought them nearer. Presently a shout of triumph proclaimed that the tribe of Benjamin had reached the shore, though they waded through the foaming fringe of waters for some little distance. It had cost them unheard-of efforts to save the cattle from the rising tide, to drag on the loaded carts, and keep the flocks together, but now they all stood in safety on dry land. Only the stiangers and lepers remained to be rescued. The lepera, indeed, had not flocks nor herds, but the strangers had many, and the storm so terrified the people, as well as the cattle, that they dared not plunge into the water, which was now ankle deep. Ephraim, however, gained the land, and called to the

herdsmen from the shore to follow where he had passed, and under his guidance they drove the herds forward. This was successful ; the last man and last herd of cattle reached the land of safety under the raging storm, amid loud shouts of joy. The lepers were forced to wade through waves up to their knees and even to their girdles, and before they had landed the gates of Heaven were opened and the rain fell in torrents. Bat they, too, were safe ; and though many a mother who had been carrying her little one in her arms or on her Bhoulder fell on her knees on the shore, though many a hapless wretch who had been helping his sturdier fellow sufferers to drag a cart through the yielding sands or to wade through the surf with a litter on his back felt his head throb with fever, still they too had escaped destruction. They were to await further orders beyond a grove of palms which stood on some rising ground about a group of wella, not far from the shore. The tribes had gone further inland, to proceed on their way at a given signal; this was to take them in a southeasterly direction into the mountain, where the inhospitable rocks prohibited any pursuit by a regular army of war chariots. Hur had gathered his men about him, and they stood armed with spear 3, slings, and short swords, ready to fall on the foe who might venture to set foot on land. Men and horses should bo cut down, and the chariots were piled into a high barrier so as to erect a difficult obstacle in the way of the pursuers. The beacons on the shore were so diligently fed and screened that neither the rain nor the blast could extinguish them. They were to light the herdsmen who were prepared to attack the chariots, and old Nun, Hur, and Ephrahn stood at their head. But it was in vain that they waited for the pursuers ; and when the youth was the first to see by the glare of the beacon fires that the way by which the fugitives had come was now one with the broad level of the sea, and that the smoke was driving to the north iu3tead of the south-west—it wa3 about the hour of the first morning watch—a shout of triumph burst from breasts overflowing with thankfulness and joy. " Look at the flames ! The wind has changed; the sea is being carried northwards ! The waves have swallowed up Pharaoh's host!" At this there was silence for a while in the multitude ; and then, suddenly, Nun's loud voice was heard : "He is right, my children ! Vain is the strength of man ! O Lord God ! How terrible and fearful are Thy judgments on Thy foes ! " Here he was interrupted by a loud outiry. Out by the weils, where Moses, greatly exhausted, was leaning against a palm tree, with Aaron and many others about him, the fact which Ephraim had firat discerned was now observed by the rest; the glad and terrible tidings, incredible but true, flaw from mouth to mouth, and each minute confirmed iheir certainty. Every eye glanced skywards ; the black clouds were steadily sailing away to the northward. The rain wai ceasing ; instead of the angry flashes and the roar of thunder a few pale gleams lighted up the isthmus and the northern lakes, and to the south the sky was clearing. At last the low moon looked out between the bank 3 of cloud, the peaceful ray silvered the tall flanks of Baaleephon and the shores of the gulf, now bathed once more in dashing waves. The raving and shrieking blast sank to a murmuring breeze from the south, and the waters, which had been as a raging monster besieging the rocks, now lay quivering with broken strength at tho stony base of the mountain. The He.* spread a shroud, dark for a time, over those hundreds of corpses; but the pale moon, ere it set, took care that the watery grave of a king and 311 many :>reat personages should not lack a splendid pall. Its radiance poured down on the waves that hid them, decking them with a glorious embroidery of diamonds in a silver setting. Whilst the eaat grew brignt, and tho sky was red with dawn the teuts were pitched ; yet there w.vj little time for a hasty morsel, Shortly after sunrise the chief called the wandering people together, and a=i soon as they had assembled at the springs, M>"riam swung the tamborine, shook the circle of hell:--,"and Btruck the calfskin till it echoed far and wide, und is she paced forth with a light stop the women and maidens followed her, keeping rhythmical time with the dance. And she sang : "1 will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously ; the horse and the rider hath He thrown into the sea ! '•The Lord is my strength and song '. And fie is become my salvation ; He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation. "My father's God, and I will exalt Him ! Pharaoh's chariots and hia host hath Ho cast into the sea ; his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. "The depths have covered them, they sank into the bottom as a stone. " Thy ritrht hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. " And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them that rose upagainst Thee. Thou sentest forth Thy wrath which consumed them as Btubble. And with the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood up right as a heap, and tho depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. " The enemy said I will pursue, I will overtake, 1 will divide the spoil, my lust shall be satisfied upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. "Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them, they sank as lead in the mighty waters. " Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods ? " Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders '! " Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed ; Thou haßt guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation." Men and women alike joined in when she repeated the cry: "I will sing unto the Lord for He hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea !" This song and this solemn hour were never forgotten by the Israelites, and each one was full of hia God and of glad, thankful hope for happier days. (To he. continued,)