ing of the Egyptians; and now married into a tribe of wild
Arabs, keeping flocks in the lonely desert, year after year: but,
no doubt, thinking, thinking, year after year, as he fed his flocks
alone. Thinking over all the learning which he had gained in Egypt,
and wondering whether it would ever be of any use to him. Thinking
over the misery of his people in Egypt, and wondering whether he
should ever be able to help them. Thinking, too, and more than all,
of God--of God's promise to Abraham and his children. Would that
ever come true? Would GOD help these wretched Jews, even if HE
could not? Was God faithful and true, just and merciful?

That Moses thought of God, that he never lost faith in God for that
forty years, there can be no doubt.

If he had not thought of God, God would not have revealed himself to
him. If he had lost faith in God, he would not have known that it
was God who spoke to him. If he had lost faith in God, he would not
have obeyed God at the risk of his life, and have gone on an errand
as desperate, dangerous, hopeless--and, humanly speaking, as wild as
ever man went upon.

But Moses never lost faith or patience. He believed, and he did not
make haste. He waited for God; and he did not wait in vain. No man
will wait in vain. When the time was ready; when the Jews were
ready; when Pharaoh was ready; when Moses himself, trained by forty
years' patient thought, was ready; then God came in his own good
time.

And Moses led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to the
mountain of God, even to Horeb. And there he saw a bush--probably
one of the low copses of acacia--burning with fire; and behold the
bush was not consumed. Then out of the bush God spoke to Moses with
an audible voice as of a man; so the Bible says plainly, and I see
no reason to doubt that it is literally true.

'Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for
he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard
their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large,
unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
an