ch were held in trust for future ages.

Miriam was the only sister of Moses, and she first appears as watching
the fate of that child in whose destiny all the ages and all the nations
of earth were to have an interest. The tender care which watched the
cradle on the Nile continued through life, and from the day Moses was
saved, down to the day when Miriam died in the wilderness, she seems
ever associated with her brothers in all their efforts and designs. The
influence of the sister is peculiarly her own. It is felt in early life
in its softening, refining, and purifying tendency--in diverting opening
manhood from rude sports or gross pursuits to the enjoyments of a more
elevated and pure nature, and shedding a charm around the pleasures of
home; while, if no other ties intervene, the bonds of affection grow
stronger with each successive year.

We cannot trace the course of Miriam's life. She appears before us for a
season and then we lose sight of her for many years. She may have passed
them in the retirement and obscurity of her rural home in the land of
Goshen. She may have been counted in the train of the princess of Egypt
and shone in the court of Pharaoh. Princes may have flattered her and
nobles sued for her love. She seems never to have married,--yet her
heart may have had its own history of love, perhaps unrequited,
disappointed, or sacrificed at the altar of prudence, of conscience, or,
it may be, ambition. Oh what a tale of suffering and of enjoyment would
the history of one human heart present, if faithfully recorded!

Years had passed: childhood was gone--youth was fleeing. The brother had
attained a high distinction in the court of Egypt. He had tasted the
pleasures of wisdom and the enjoyments of science and knowledge, while,
as the adopted child of Pharaoh's daughter, he stood before the people,
the prospective heir to the crown.

Thus, in the prime of life, endowed with the richest gifts of mind and
the attractions of manly beauty, adding the polish of the courtier to
the wisdom of the philosopher--and all the adventitious advantages of
royal birth received by his adoption--there lay before the young Hebrew
a bright vista of prospective glory and honour and earthly happiness.

But not to sit on the throne of Egypt had Jehovah raised this child of
the chosen people from the death designed by their oppressor. Not to fit
him for the throne of Egypt had he surrounded him with all that was
propitious to