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not infested by crocodiles, and where the princess thereforecould bathe. There is a
curious illustration on one of the Egyptian monuments of the scene describedin the
rescue of Moses. A noble lady is represented bathing in the river with four of her
maidensattending upon her, just like the daughter of Pharaoh in the story of Moses.
But to return - thediscovery of the ark, and the weeping of the babe, as the stranger
lifted him, are all true to nature.The princess is touched by the appeal of the child to
her woman's feelings. She compassionates himnone the less that he is one of the
doomed race. To have thrown the weeping child into the riverwould have been
inhuman. Pharaoh's daughter acted as every woman would have done in
thecircumstances. To save one Hebrew child could be no very great crime in the
king's daughter.Moreover, curiously enough, we learn from the monuments, that just
at that very time the royalprincesses exercised special influence - in fact, that two of
them were co-regents. So when, just atthe opportune moment, Miriam, who all along
had watched at a little distance, came forward andproposed to call some Hebrew
woman to nurse the weeping child - this strange gift, bestowed as itwere by the Nile,
god himself on the princess, - she readily consented. The nurse called was, ofcourse,
the child's own mother, who received her babe now as a precious charge, entrusted to
hercare by the daughter of him who would have compassed his destruction.
So marvelous are the ways of God. One of the old church-writers has noted that "the
daughter ofPharaoh is the community of the Gentiles," thereby meaning to illustrate
this great truth, which wetrace throughout history, that somehow the salvation of
Israel was always connected with theinstrumentality of the Gentiles. It was so in the
history of Joseph, and even before that; and it willcontinue so until at the last, through
their mercy, Israel shall obtain mercy. But meanwhile a preciousopportunity was
afforded to those believing Hebrew parents to mold the mind of the adopted son ofthe
princess of Egypt. The three first years of life, the common eastern time for nursing,
are often,even in our northern climes, where development is so much slower, a period
decisive for after life. Itrequires no stretch of imagination to conceive what the child
Moses would learn at his mother's knee,and hear among his persecuted people. When
a child so preserved and so trained found himselfdestined to step from his Hebrew
home to the court of Pharaoh - his mind full of the promises madeto the fathers, and
his heart heavy with the sorrows of his brethren, - it seems almost natural thatthoughts
of future deliverance of his people through him should gradually rise in his soul.
Many of ourdeepest purposes have their root in earliest childhood, and the lessons
then learnt, and the thoughtsthen conceived, have been steadily carried out to the end
of our lives.
Yet, as in all deepest life-purpose, there was no rashness about carrying it into
execution. WhenJochebed brought the child back to the princess, the latter gave her
adopted son the Egyptian name"Moses," which, curiously enough, appears also in
several of the old Egyptian papyri, among others,as that of one of the royal princes.
(^)