ries, and now
this crowning insult, he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. He was
angry and sinned not.

The ninth and tenth verses are a kind of summary: the appeals to Pharaoh
are all over, and henceforth we shall find Moses preparing his own
followers for their exodus. "And the Lord (had) said unto Moses, Pharaoh
will not hearken unto you, that My wonders may be multiplied in the land
of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and
the Lord made strong Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of
Israel go out of his land."

In the Gospel of St. John there comes just such a period. The record of
miracle and controversy is at an end, and Jesus withdraws into the bosom
of His intimate circle. It is scarcely possible that the evangelist was
unconscious of the influence of this passage when he wrote: "But though
He had done so many signs before them, yet they believed not on Him,
that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spoke,
Lord, who hath believed our report?... For this cause they could not
believe, because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes and
hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and perceive
with their heart, and should turn, and I should heal them" (John xii.
37-40).

This is the tragedy of Egypt repeated in Israel; and the fact that the
chosen seed is now the reprobate suffices, if any doubt remain, to prove
that reprobation itself was not caprice, but retribution.

CHAPTER XII.

_THE PASSOVER._

xii. 1-28.

We have now reached the birthday of the great Hebrew nation, and with it
the first national institution, the feast of passover, which is also the
first sacrifice of directly Divine institution, the earliest precept of
the Hebrew legislation, and the only one given in Egypt.

The Jews had by this time learned to feel that they were a nation, if it
were only through the struggle between their champion and the head of
the greatest nation in the world. And the first aspect in which the
feast of passover presents itself is that of a national commemoration.

This day was to be unto them the beginning of months; and in the change
of their calendar to celebrate their emancipation, the device was
anticipated by which France endeavoured to glorify the Revolution. All
their reckoning was to look back to this signal event. "And this day
shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it for a feast unto
th