heard the voice of the Lord
calling him. The Lord told him to come no nearer, and to put off his
shoes, for he stood on holy ground. Then the Lord told him that He was
the God of his fathers, and that He had heard the cry of his oppressed
people in Egypt.

"I know their sorrows," said the voice from the midst of the fire, "And
I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to
bring them up out of that land into a good land, and a large--unto a
land flowing with milk and honey."

Then the Lord said that Moses must go to the new Pharaoh, for the old
king was dead, and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses
was a very humble man, and he could not believe that Pharaoh would
listen to him or that the Hebrews would follow him, but the Lord said,

"Certainly I will be with thee."

And as a sign that it should be so, He said that after Moses had
brought his people out of Egypt, they should serve God in this mountain.

But Moses had many fears. He knew that he had been brought up as an
Egyptian, and he feared that his people would not listen to his words.

Then the Lord showed signs to Moses to help his faith.

He turned the rod in Moses' hand into a serpent, and then when he was
afraid of it, the Lord told him to take it in his hand and it became a
rod again.

He also turned his hand white with leprosy, and then changed it again
to natural flesh, and told Moses, that these, and other signs he should
show in Egypt--to prove that he was sent of God.

But Moses felt himself to be so weak and faithless as a leader of his
people, that he still cried out that he was "slow of speech, and of a
slow tongue," and when the Lord said, "I will teach thee what thou
shalt say," he did not believe, but begged the Lord to send by whom he
would, only not by him.

Then the Lord said that Aaron, the brother of Moses could speak well,
and that he should go with him to Pharoah and to his people, and should
speak for him, but that the wisdom and power of God should be with
Moses, and that he should do wonders with the rod in his hand.

CHAPTER XI.

THE ROD THAT TROUBLED EGYPT.

So Moses took his wife and his sons and returned to Egypt, and the rod
of God was in his hand; and Aaron, sent of God, came to meet him in the
wilderness, and there Moses told him all that was in his heart, and all
that God had sent him to do.

When they came into Egypt they gathered the Israelites together, and
Aaro