Hosea nodded assent and, after drinking the healing potion handed to him, Ephraim began: 

“Miriam the daughter of Amram and Jochebed greets the son of Nun the Ephraimite.  Thy name is Hosea, ‘the Help,’ and the Lord our God hath chosen thee to be the helper of His people.  But henceforward, by His command, thou shalt be called Joshua,—­[Jehoshua, he who helps Jehova]—­the help of Jehovah; for through Miriam’s lips the God of her fathers, who is the God of thy fathers likewise, bids thee be the sword and buckler of thy people.  In Him dwells all power, and he promises to steel thine arm that He may smite the foe.”

Ephraim had begun in a low voice, but gradually his tones grew more resonant and the last words rang loudly and solemnly through the stillness of the night.

Thus had Miriam uttered them, laying her hands on the lad’s head and gazing earnestly into his face with eyes deep and dark as night, and while repeating them he had felt as though some secret power were constraining him to shout them aloud to Hosea, just as he had heard them from the lips of the prophetess.  Then, with a sigh of relief, he turned his face toward the canvas wall of the tent, saying quietly: 

“Now I will go to sleep.”

But Hosea laid his hand on his shoulder, exclaiming imperiously:  “Say it again.”

The youth obeyed, but this time he repeated the words in a low, careless tone, then saying beseechingly: 

“Let me rest now,” put his hand under his cheek and closed his eyes.

Hosea let him have his way, carefully applied a fresh bandage to his burning head, extinguished the light, and flung more fuel on the smouldering fire outside; but the alert, resolute man performed every act as if in a dream.  At last he sat down, and propping his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, stared alternately, now into vacancy, and anon into the flames.

Who was this God who summoned him through Miriam’s lips to be, under His guidance, the sword and shield of His people?

He was to be known by a new name, and in the minds of the Egyptians the name was everything “Honor to the name of Pharaoh,” not “Honor to Tharaoh” was spoken and written.  And if henceforward he was to be called Joshua, the behest involved casting aside his former self, and becoming a new man.

The will of the God of his fathers announced to him by Miriam meant no less a thing than the command to transform himself from the Egyptian his life had made him, into the Hebrew he had been when a lad.  He must learn to act and feel like an Israelite!  Miriam’s summons called him back to his people.  The God of his race, through her, commanded him to fulfil his father’s expectations.  Instead of the Egyptian troops whom he must forsake, he was in future to lead the men of his own blood forth to battle!  This was the meaning of her bidding, and when the noble virgin and prophetess who addressed