sents. And shall not these subjects be
the better for the virtues of the Monarch whom they love? Is it mere
caprice to say that in choosing such a King they do, in a very real
sense, appropriate the goodness they crown? If it be natural that Egypt
be scourged for the sins of Pharaoh, is it palpably incredible that
Christ is made of God unto His people wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption? The doctrine of imputation can easily be
so stated as to become absurd. But the imputation of which St. Paul
speaks much can only be denied when we are prepared to assail the
principle on which all bodies of men are treated, families and nations
as well as the Church of God.

It was the jealous cruelty of Pharaoh which drew down upon his country
the very perils he laboured to turn away. There was no ground for his
fear of any league with foreigners against him. Prosperous and
unambitious, the people would have remained well content beside the
flesh-pots of Egypt, for which they sighed even when emancipated from
heavy bondage and eating the bread of heaven. Or else, if they had gone
forth in peace, from a land whose hospitality had not failed, to their
inheritance in Canaan, they would have become an allied nation upon the
side where the heaviest blows were afterwards struck by the Asiatic
powers. Cruelty and cunning could not retain them, but it could decimate
a population and lose an army in the attempt. And this law prevails in
the modern world, England paid twenty millions to set her bondmen free.
Because America would not follow her example, she ultimately paid the
more terrible ransom of civil war. For the same God was in Jamaica and
in Florida as in the field of Zoan. Nor was there ever yet a crooked
policy which did not recoil either upon its author, or upon his
successors when he had passed away. In this case it fulfilled the plans
and the prophecies of God, and the wrath of man was made to praise Him.

There is independent reason for believing that at this period one-third
at least of the population of Egypt was of alien blood (Brugsch,
_History_, ii. 100). A politician might fairly be alarmed, especially if
this were the time when the Hittites were threatening the eastern
frontier, and had reduced Egypt to stand on the defensive, and erect
barrier fortresses. And the circumstances of the country made it very
easy to enslave the Hebrews. If any stain of Oriental indifference to
the rights of the masses h