ot hearken unto Me; they did not cast
away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols
of Egypt" (Ezek. xx. 8).

Now, there is nothing which enfeebles the spirit and breaks the courage
like religious dependence. A strong priesthood always means a feeble
people, most of all when they are of different blood. And Israel was now
dependent on Egypt alike for the highest and lowest needs--grass for the
cattle and religion for the soul. And when they had sunk so low, it is
evident that their emancipation had to be wrought for them entirely
without their help. From first to last they were passive, not only for
want of spirit to help themselves, but because the glory of any exploit
of theirs might have illuminated some false deity whom they adored.

Standing still, they saw the salvation of God, and it was not possible
to give His glory to another.

For this cause also, judgment had, first of all, to be wrought upon the
gods of Egypt.

In the meantime, without spirit enough to resist, they saw complete
destruction drawing nearer to them by successive strides. At first
Pharaoh "dealt wisely with them," and they found themselves entrapped
into a hard bondage almost unawares. But a strange power upheld them,
and the more they were afflicted the more they multiplied and spread
abroad. In this they ought to have discerned a divine support, and
remembered the promise to Abraham that God would multiply his seed as
the stars of heaven. It may have helped them presently to "cry unto the
Lord." And the Egyptians were not merely "grieved" because of them: they
felt as the Israelites afterwards felt towards that monotonous diet of
which they used the same word, and said, "our soul loatheth this light
bread." Here it expresses that fierce and contemptuous attitude which
the Californian and Australian are now assuming toward the swarms of
Chinamen whose labour is so indispensable, yet the infusion of whose
blood into the population is so hateful. Then the Egyptians make their
service rigorous, and their lives bitter.

And at last that happens which is a part of every downward course: the
veil is dropped; what men have done by stealth, and as if they would
deceive themselves, they soon do consciously, avowing to their
conscience what at first they could not face. Thus Pharaoh began by
striving to check a dangerous population; and ended by committing
wholesale murder. Thus men become drunkards through conviviality,