y the well, but as keen on behalf of liberty as when
Pharaoh trampled Israel, though now the oppressors are a group of rude
herdsmen, and the oppressed are Midianite women, driven from the troughs
which they have toiled to fill. One remembers Another, sitting also
exhausted by the well, defying social usage on behalf of a despised
woman, and thereby inspired and invigorated as with meat to eat which
His followers knew not of.

2. Moreover there is disinterested bravery in the act, since he hazards
the opposition of the men of the land, among whom he seeks refuge, on
behalf of a group from which he can have expected nothing. And here it
is worth while to notice the characteristic variations in three stories
which have certain points of contact. The servant of Abraham,
servant-like, was well content that Rebekah should draw for all his
camels, while he stood still. The prudent Jacob, anxious to introduce
himself to his cousin, rolled away the stone and watered her camels.
Moses sat by the well, but did not interfere while the troughs were
being filled: it was only the overt wrong which kindled him. But as in
great things, so it is in small: our actions never stand alone; having
once befriended them, he will do it thoroughly, "and moreover he drew
water for us, and watered the flock." Such details could hardly have
been thought out by a fabricator; a legend would not have allowed Moses
to be slower in courtesy than Jacob;[5] but the story fits the case
exactly: his eyes were with his heart, and that was far away, until the
injustice of the shepherds roused him.

And why was Moses thus energetic, fearless, and chivalrous? Because he
was sustained by the presence of the Unseen: he endured as seeing Him
who is invisible; and having, despite of panic, by faith forsaken Egypt,
he was free from the absorbing anxieties which prevent men from caring
for their fellows, free also from the cynical misgivings which suspect
that violence is more than justice, that to be righteous over-much is to
destroy oneself, and that perhaps, after all, one may see a good deal of
wrong without being called upon to interfere. It would be a different
world to-day, if all who claim to be "the salt of the earth" were as
eager to repress injustice in its smaller and meaner forms as to make
money or influential friends. If all petty and cowardly oppression were
sternly trodden down, we should soon have a state of public opinion in
which gross and large