We see in the various circumstances of the life of Moses a Divine recognition of the value of the family relation and of the importance of the influence of women in the formation of character.

Before Moses was admitted to the schools of Egyptian learning, before he was exposed to the snares and the splendours of a court, before he was called to a throne, he had learned lessons of the deepest wisdom from the lips of his parents.  One higher than the royal of earth spoke through the princess, when she said, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give thee wages.”  And faithfully did the mother fulfil her charge.  She strove to imbue the soul of her child with living faith, while upon that infant heart she impressed the maxims of eternal truth—­she imparted those lessons of trust and confidence, and inculcated that deep conviction of the power of truth, which led the man, by the grace of God, in the prime and flush of life, to refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

Had that mother been unfaithful to her high trust, had she infused into that infant heart lessons of ambition and worldliness, he had perhaps failed in the hour of trial, and another had led the tribes of Israel to the chosen land.  A little band guarded Moses; the princess of Egypt, the mother of Moses, and his sister Miriam.  Each one exerted her peculiar influence upon his character, while his future destiny attested the varied power of these influences and their relative value.

As the saviour of the young Hebrew, as his protectress and adopted mother, the daughter of Pharaoh had a large claim upon him, and to her he was indebted for many of those high attainments which fitted him for his office.  The slight incidental notices of the daughter of Pharaoh give us a delightful impression of her character.

There is something higher and nobler than a princess.  She was a true woman, filled with all the quiet sympathies and kind affections of her sex, and possessing an energy and a persevering constancy which led her to fulfil her generous purposes, and made her impulses bear the fruits of benevolent action.

Such women show what women should be, and such women in all ages make the influence of their characters to be felt.  To her fostering care Moses owed life and advancement, education, honour, the standing of a prince, the polish and the refinement of the court.  She proved her appreciation of knowledge, and we may well infer her own cultivated intelligence from the care with which she provided for the instruction of her charge.  She showed that she could feel and that she cherished all the sympathies of domestic love, by providing for their indulgence, by allowing their continuance, and yielding to their claims, even though she was a princess of Egypt, the daughter of the haughty Pharaoh, and her adopted child belonged