aph, of the law of the passover concerning strangers (vers. 38,
43-49).

An alien was not to eat thereof: it belonged especially to the covenant
people. But who was a stranger? A slave should be circumcised and eat
thereof; for it was one of the benignant provisions of the law that
there should not be added, to the many severities of his condition, any
religious disabilities. The time would come when all nations should be
blessed in the seed of Abraham. In that day the poor would receive a
special beatitude; and in the meantime, as the first indication of
catholicity beneath the surface of an exclusive ritual, it was
announced, foremost among those who should be welcomed within the fold,
that a slave should be circumcised and eat the passover.

And if a sojourner desired to eat thereof, he should be mindful of his
domestic obligations: all his males should be circumcised along with
him, and then his disabilities were at an end. Surely we can see in
these provisions the germ of the broader and more generous welcome which
Christ offers to the world. Let it be added that this admission of
strangers had been already implied at verse 19; while every form of
coercion was prohibited by the words "a sojourner and a hired servant
shall not eat of it," in verse 45.

_THE TENTH PLAGUE._

xii. 29-36.

And now the blow fell. Infants grew cold in their mothers' arms; ripe
statesmen and crafty priests lost breath as they reposed: the wisest,
the strongest and the most hopeful of the nation were blotted out at
once, for the firstborn of a population is its flower.

Pharaoh Menephtah had only reached the throne by the death of two elder
brethren, and therefore history confirms the assertion that he "rose
up," when the firstborn were dead; but it also justifies the statement
that his firstborn died, for the gallant and promising youth who had
reconquered for him his lost territories, and who actually shared his
rule and "sat upon the throne," Menephtah Seti, is now shown to have
died early, and never to have held an independent sceptre.

We can imagine the scene. Suspense and terror must have been wide
spread; for the former plagues had given authority to the more dreadful
threat, the fulfilment of which was now to be expected, since all
negotiations between Moses and Pharaoh had been formally broken off.

Strange and confident movements and doubtless menacing expressions
among the Hebrews would also make this night a fearful