they acquired a love of idolatrous worship, which they did not lose until their captivity in Babylon.  The golden calves of the wilderness were another form of the worship of the sacred bulls of Memphis.  They were easily led to worship the sun under the Egyptian and Canaanitish names.  Had the children of Israel remained in the promised land, in the early part of their history, they would probably have perished by famine, or have been absorbed by their powerful Canaanitish neighbors.  In Egypt they were well fed, rapidly increased in number, and became a nation to be feared even while in bondage.  In the land of Canaan they would have been only a pastoral or nomadic people, unable to defend themselves in war, and unacquainted with the use of military weapons.  They might have been exterminated, without constant miracles and perpetual supernatural aid,—­which is not the order of Providence.

In Egypt, it is true, the Israelites lost their political independence; but even under slavery there is much to be learned from civilized masters.  How rapid and marvellous the progress of the African races in the Southern States in their two hundred years of bondage!  When before in the history of the world has there been such a progress among mere barbarians, with fetichism for their native religion?  Races have advanced in every element of civilization, and in those virtues which give permanent strength to character, under all the benumbing and degrading influences of slavery, while nations with wealth, freedom, and prosperity have declined and perished.  The slavery of the Israelites in Egypt may have been a blessing in disguise, from which they emerged when they were able to take care of themselves.  Moses led them out of bondage; but Moses also incorporated in his institutions the “wisdom of the Egyptians.”  He was indeed inspired to declare certain fundamental truths, but he also taught the lessons of experience which a great nation had acquired by two thousand years of prosperity.  Who can tell, who can measure, the civilization which the Israelites must have carried out of Egypt, with the wealth of which they despoiled their masters?  Where else at that period could they have found such teachers?  The Persians at that time were shepherds like themselves in Canaan, the Assyrians were hunters, and the Greeks had no historical existence.  Only the discipline of forty years in the wilderness, under Moses, was necessary to make them a nation of conquerors, for they had already learned the arts of agriculture, and knew how to protect themselves in walled cities.  A nomadic people were they no longer, as in the time of Jacob, but small farmers, who had learned to irrigate their barren hills and till their fertile valleys; and they became a powerful though peaceful nation, unconquered by invaders for a thousand years, and unconquerable for all time in their traditions, habits, and mental characteristics.  From one man—­the patriarch Jacob—­did this great nation rise, and did not lose its national unity and independence until from the tribe of Judah a deliverer arose who redeemed the human race.  Surely, how favored was Joseph, in being the instrument under Providence of preserving this nation in its infancy, and placing its people in a rich and fertile country where they could grow and multiply, and learn principles of civilization which would make them a permanent power in the progress of humanity!