AN OLD STORY.
LONG time ago the Lord's people were slaves in the land of Egypt. They had left their home and come to this strange country, because for several years nothing grew in their own land, and they could not get enough to eat. When they first came down to Egypt, the king was very kind to them, and gave them the best of the land for their cattle to pasture in.
By and by this king died, and there came a new king, who didn’t know anything about the Lord's people, and how they happened to be living in his country. He didn't like them very well, and for this reason made slaves of them. But the people trusted in the Lord, and prayed to him, and he blessed them; and they grew to be mightier than the king's people.
When the king found out that the Hebrews, as they were called, were more and stronger than the Egyptians, he became alarmed, and called his wise men together.
"Now," said the king, "I am much troubled; for these Hebrew people are getting to be mightier than we. By and by, when we have war, I am afraid they will join our enemies, and fight against us, and so get away from us."
"True," said one, of the wise men, "that would indeed be bad; for they are very useful people, and do much hard work for the kingdom."
And the wise men thought and thought what they could do so that the Hebrews wouldn't increase so fast. At last they set over them task masters, that treated the Hebrews cruelly, and made them work very hard indeed. But this plan didn't prove successful, as the people only grew to be more and stronger for their hard work.
Then the king was angry, and ordered, all the male children to be drowned as soon as they were born. The Hebrew mothers were very sad, and tried in every way they could think of to hide their little ones. But just as soon as one of the king's people found out that there was a baby still alive, they would take it away, and throw it into the river.
One woman made out to keep her little boy hid till he was three months old. But he grew so large, she couldn't hide him in the house any longer; so she made a basket of bulrushes, and daubing it with pitch inside and out, put the baby into it, and laid the basket among the flags growing by the river's brink. Then she set the baby's sister, Miriam, quite a ways off to see what would become of him.
By and by Miriam saw somebody coming down toward the river; and it was—yes, she could see plainly as they came nearer—it was the king's daughter, coming down with her maids to bathe, and they were going right where the baby lay hidden. How Miriam's heart beat! Hark! What was that she heard the princess saying to her servant? She stood near enough so that she could hear. "Go and find out what that strange object is that's floating by the flags, and bring it to me."
The servant came back with the basket that held the baby; and when the king's daughter opened it, the baby looked up and cried.
"Poor little thing!" she said; some Hebrew woman has put him here to save him. I don't care if the king should be angry, I shall take him home and bring him up."
How glad Miriam was when she heard that! She ran right up to the lady, and said, "Wouldn't you like to have a nurse for the baby?"
And the princess replied, "Yes, indeed; if you know of any woman that would take care of him, you may go and get her."
Then Miriam ran as fast as she could to tell the good news to her mother, who came hurrying up to where the king's daughter was, and offered to take care of the baby.
The princess said, "Take good care of him, and I will pay you well for it."
The mother kept the baby, Moses, as the king's daughter called him, till he grew to be quite a large lad; then he had to leave his mother, and go to the palace, where he was taught all the things that the wisest men could teach him, and he became a learned man.
One day he made the king very angry, and he had to flee away into a far country, where he stayed many years, taking care of sheep. Here the Lord appeared to him, and told him to go back to Egypt, and lead the people out of bondage up into their own land again.
Without doubt you all know the story well, and have told it again and again. Yet we never get tired of thinking of the wonderful way the Lord saved Moses, so that by and by he might lead his people into the Promised Land.
W. E. L.