Jews _had_ slaves' hearts in them. They
were glad enough to get free out of Egypt, to escape from their heavy
labour in brick and mortar, from being oppressed, beaten, killed at the
will and fancy of the Egyptians, from having their male children thrown
into the river as soon as they were born, to keep them from becoming too
numerous. They were glad enough, poor wretches, to escape from all their
misery and oppression of which we read in the first three chapters of
Exodus. But if they could do that, that was all they cared for. They
did not want to be made wise, righteous, strong, free-hearted--they did
not care about being made into a nation. We read that when by the Red
Sea shore (Exodus xiv.), they saw themselves in great danger, the army of
Pharaoh, King of Egypt, following close upon them to attack them, they
lost heart at once, and were sore afraid, and cried unto Moses, "Is not
this the word which we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that
we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the
Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."

Cowards and slaves! The thing they feared above all, you see, was death.
If they could but keep the miserable life in their miserable bodies, they
cared for nothing beyond. They were willing to see their children taken
from them and murdered, willing to be beaten, worked like dumb beasts for
other men's profit, willing to be idolaters, heathens, worshipping the
false gods of Egypt, dumb beasts and stocks and stones, willing to be
despised, wretched, helpless slaves--if they could but keep the dear life
in them. God knows there are plenty like them now-a-days--plenty who do
not care how mean, helpless, wicked, contemptible they are, if they can
but get their living by their meanness.

"_But a man must live_," says some one. How often one hears that made
the excuse for all sorts of meanness, dishonesty, grasping tyranny. "_A
man must live_!" Who told you that? It is better to die like a man than
to live like a slave, and a wretch, and a sinner. Who told you that, I
ask again? Not God's Bible, surely. Not the example of great and good
men. If Moses had thought that, do you think he would have gone back
from Midian, when he was in safety and comfort, with a wife and home, and
children at his knee, and leave all he had on earth to face Pharaoh and
the Egyptians, to face danger, perhaps a cruel death in shame and
torture, and all to deliver his