other side. The next morning the wind
changed, the waters returned, and many of their pursuers were drowned.

The feelings of the Hebrews are expressed in the words of the triumph
song in which through all later centuries they celebrated this
deliverance:

="I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.=
* * * * * * * * *
=Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea;
And his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea."=

INFLUENCE OF THE EXODUS ON HEBREW RELIGION

It was indeed a notable deliverance, and the Hebrews never forgot it.
It affected their ideals and their religion. Immediately after
escaping from Egypt they set out across the desert for Mount Sinai,
which was considered the home of their God Jehovah, there to offer up
sacrifices of gratitude. Moreover, from that time on, every year they
brought to mind the story of the great deliverance through a
sacrificial feast called the Passover. Under Moses' leadership at
Sinai they entered into a covenant with Jehovah. They were to be
Jehovah's people forever, and they probably agreed to worship him
only, as their national God.

=Monotheism.=--At this time few had come to perceive the truth of
monotheism, namely, that there is but one God in the universe, and
that all the so-called gods and goddesses are mere superstitions. The
Hebrews, at this time, did not doubt the real existence of other gods
than Jehovah, such as Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, and Marduk and
Shamash, gods of Babylon. But after the deliverance from Egypt they
felt themselves bound to Jehovah by special ties of gratitude, and
more and more came to consider the worship of any other god, by a
Hebrew as base disloyalty. So the Exodus, and the experiences at
Sinai, pointed the way, at least, toward monotheism.

=Justice.=--Of great importance also was the influence of these
experiences on their ideas of right and wrong, and their conception of
the character of Jehovah. Because they as a nation had been enslaved
they were the better able to sympathize with the oppressed and
down-trodden. "Remember," their prophets could always say, "that _ye_
were slaves in the land of Egypt." And when, in after years, they were
unjust in their dealings with foreigners living among them, they were
reminded that "Ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."

These ideals were reflected in t