y of the kings either to have encouraged
a martial spirit or to have placed arms in the hands of this multitude;
yet as one of the family of Pharaoh, Moses led the armies of Egypt. And
needful it was that the future leader of Israel should be well
instructed in all the tactics of war--should understand all the
providing for, the ordering, and the encamping of vast hosts. It was
perhaps only by arduous military service that he could have developed
that capacity indicated by the vast skill with which an army of six
hundred thousand men, encumbered with their wives and little ones, could
be encamped in regular order, whether marching or resting. Ever
desiring peace and acting on the defensive, yet ready to repel
aggression, for forty years the nation of Israel were encamped as the
hosts of an army. Each tribe with its own banner, marching and
countermarching, taking down and putting up their tents, with all the
skill and regularity of a disciplined army, and often engaged in actual
warfare. He who could thus order and regulate such a host must have
possessed the skill and science of the general. While the habits of long
command, added to the consciousness of authority and Divine reliance,
enabled him to prevent or control turbulent outbreaks.

While the legislator of Israel owed so much to the fostering care of the
daughter of Pharaoh in preparing him for his high destination, we cannot
but feel a deep interest in her who so unconsciously contributed toward
an influence and prepared an instrumentality quite adverse to the
apparent interests of her people. We cannot but hope that, while she
thus hastened the accomplishment of promise and prediction, she was
herself led to the knowledge and worship of Israel's God.

Might not one who thus adopted the brother, encircle in her affection
the sister whose affectionate entreaty gave the babe a mother for its
nurse? The fraternal affection which marks the family seems to indicate
more than occasional intercourse. Between Miriam and her brother there
was that sympathy which always results from an intimate association. The
princess of Egypt may have imparted to Miriam many of the
accomplishments of the courtly circle, for we find that she was skilled
in music, that she led the dance; while, in return, Miriam may have
imparted that higher knowledge and those deep truths of which her people
were the appointed conservators, and the daughter of Pharaoh may have
tasted the blessings whi