There were designs of infinite wisdom to be accomplished by the long sojourn of the children of Jacob in Egypt.  The people of Israel were appointed to guard the name and worship of Jehovah, until He who was to bring life and immortality to light should rise from among them.  Until the “Star” that was to come from Jacob should shed its glorious radiance over this darkened earth.  When all the children of men were departing from God, He chose this family to perpetuate the memory of his works and his mighty acts in preserving the first history of the race, and to prepare the way for the fulfilment of the designs of infinite mercy toward a sinful and apostate world.  By miracles and judgments, by type and prophecy, by altars and sacrifices, he kept before this people the mysterious promise given in the hour of transgression.

From this family was to descend him who was to be the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel, him who was at once the Almighty Saviour, the everlasting Father, the wonderful Counsellor, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who bore our sickness, and took upon himself our iniquities.  And while from the family of Israel that high spiritual influence was to emanate, which was to renovate men’s moral nature and change the aspect and condition of the race, restoring the knowledge of the true God; and again, through the great atoning sacrifice, opening the gates of eternal life and bringing spiritual blessings to all mankind,—­the character of the children of Israel, their civil institutions, their legislation, their history, their laws, their literature, were to leave their impress upon all the nations of the earth.

The apostle accounts it the chief honour of the Jews that unto them were committed the oracles of God.  They were employed to transcribe and preserve the inspired books.  From them went forth those who first announced the great truths of a Saviour crucified and a Comforter promised.  For successive ages the nation of Israel stood surrounded by the heathen world,—­stood the witnesses of the faithfulness of Jehovah, the monuments of his truth and power, the only nation upon the face of this earth who worshipped the true God.

Thick moral darkness shrouded all other lands—­the nation of Israel alone had light in their dwellings, and the beams of the rising Sun of righteousness fell upon them and revealed the gross darkness around them.

And he who had chosen the people of Israel for such a high purpose, in infinite wisdom devised the means to fit them for their destination, and he guided and guarded them in each stage of their national existence.  Egypt was one of the first kingdoms founded after the deluge, and it is probable that those who repeopled it after this event, had retained many impressions of the former world.  Her monuments, yet remaining, attest the high antiquity of her arts and sciences, and her early advancement in refinement and civilization.