es by which they refined and elevated Europe.

God designed Egypt to be the nursery of the nation of Israel. The
granary of the ancient world offering abundant sustenance, he brought
Jacob and his sons into it as one family, and here they remained until
they multiplied and increased, and became like the stars of heaven for
number; and He who led them into Egypt ordained all the events of their
national history so as to promote his own eternal plans.

The patriarch led his children, with their flocks and herds,--the wealth
of a pastoral people,--into this land as the invited guests of Pharaoh,
the monarch of Egypt. And as he bowed before the king, the aged
patriarch taught him at once the brevity of man's life and the
unsatisfying nature of all earthly enjoyments, as recalled at the close
of a long pilgrimage: "Few and evil have been the days of the years of
my pilgrimage." Pharaoh received the aged man with respect, and showed
him all honour; while in consideration of the pastoral habits of his
sons, a portion of land, separate from the Egyptians, was allotted them
for a place of abode. Thus they were kept a distinct, unmingled people,
and enabled to maintain their own peculiar institutions, practise the
rites of their own religion, and preserve the worship of the God of
Abraham. And in all the oppression which they here sustained, we do not
find that their religion was ever persecuted or their rites forbidden.
And as Egypt was the cradle of the nation of Israel, so it was to be the
school in which the children of Jacob were to form a national character.
The wandering, pastoral tribes, transformed into an agricultural people
and settled residents, and instructed in the arts of civilized life,
were fitted to take possession of the allotted heritage. After fostering
their infancy and feebleness, the monarchs of Egypt gradually changed
their course as the increasing numbers of the Israelites excited jealous
apprehension. Yet all this varying policy and every cruel edict advanced
the designs of Jehovah and promoted the welfare of his chosen people.
The cruelty of the Egyptians alienated the hearts of the Israelites from
the nation and from the land of Egypt, and kept freshly before them the
remembrance of the inheritance promised. While considered as strangers,
treated as aliens, and surrounded by enemies, the bonds of brotherhood
were more closely drawn, and they clung together, a distinct and
separate people.

The tribe