trained military instincts were to safely conduct a vast multitude,—­Moses, still strong and laborious, is fitted for his exalted mission as a deliverer.  And now he is directly called by the voice of God himself, amid the wonders of the burning bush,—­Him whom, thus far, he had, like Abraham, adored as the Elohim, the God Almighty, but whom henceforth he recognizes as Jehovah (Jahveh) in His special relations to the Jewish nation, rather than as the general Deity who unites the attributes ascribed to Him as the ruler of the universe.  Moses quakes before that awful voice out of the midst of the bush, which commissions him to deliver his brethren.  He is no longer bold, impetuous, impatient, but timid and modest.  Long study and retirement from the busy haunts of men have made him self-distrustful.  He replies to the great I Am, “Who am I, that I should bring forth the Children of Israel out of Egypt?  Behold, I am not eloquent; they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice.”  In spite of the miracle of the rod, Moses obeys reluctantly, and Aaron, his elder brother, is appointed as his spokesman.

Armed with the mysterious wonder-working rod, at length Moses and Aaron, as representatives of the Jewish people, appear in the presence of Pharaoh, and in the name of Jehovah request permission for Israel to go and hold a feast in the wilderness.  They do not demand emancipation or emigration, which would of course be denied.  I cannot dwell on the haughty scepticism and obdurate hardness of the King—­“Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice?”—­the renewed persecution of the Hebrews, the successive plagues and calamities sent upon Egypt, which the magicians could not explain, and the final extorted and unwilling consent of Pharaoh to permit Israel to worship the God of Moses in the wilderness, lest greater evils should befall him than the destruction of the first-born throughout the land.

The deliverance of a nation of slaves is at last, it would seem, miraculously effected; and then begins the third period of the life of Moses, as the leader and governor of these superstitious, sensual, idolatrous, degraded slaves.  Then begin the real labors and trials of Moses; for the people murmur, and are consumed with fears as soon as they have crossed the sea, and find themselves in the wilderness.  And their unbelief and impatience are scarcely lessened by the tremendous miracle of the submersion of the pursuing host, and all successive miracles,—­the mysterious manna, the pillar of cloud and of fire, the smitten rock at Horeb, and the still more impressive and awful wonders of Sinai.

The guidance of the Israelites during these forty years in the wilderness is marked by transcendent ability on the part of Moses, and by the most disgraceful conduct on the part of the Israelites.  They are forgetful of mercies, ungrateful, rebellious, childish in their hankerings for a country where they had been more oppressed than Spartan Helots, idolatrous, and superstitious.  They murmur for flesh to eat; they make golden calves to worship; they seek a new leader when Moses is longer on the Mount than they expect.  When any new danger threatens they lay the blame on Moses; they even foolishly regret that they had not died in Egypt.