es. Many things happen, for which no distinct verbal explanation is
possible, many things of which the deep spiritual fitness cannot be
expressed in words. Experience is the true commentator upon Providence,
if only because the slow building of character is more to God than
either the hasting forward of deliverance or the clearing away of
intellectual mists. And it is only as we take His yoke upon us that we
truly learn of Him. Yet much is implied, if not spoken out, in the
words, "Now (because the time is ripe) shalt thou see what I will do to
Pharaoh (I, because others have failed); for by a strong hand shall he
let them go, and by a strong hand shall he drive them out of the land."
It is under the weight of the "strong hand" of God Himself that the
tyrant must either bend or break.

Similar to this is the explanation of many delays in answering our
prayer, of the strange raising up of tyrants and demagogues, and of much
else that perplexes Christians in history and in their own experience.
These events develop human character, for good or evil. And they give
scope for the revealing of the fulness of the power which rescues. We
have no means of measuring the supernatural force which overcomes but by
the amount of the resistance offered. And if all good things came to us
easily and at once, we should not become aware of the horrible pit, our
rescue from which demands gratitude. The Israelites would not have sung
a hymn of such fervent gratitude when the sea was crossed, if they had
not known the weight of slavery and the anguish of suspense. And in
heaven the redeemed who have come out of great tribulation sing the song
of Moses and of the Lamb.

Fresh air, a balmy wind, a bright blue sky--which of us feels a thrill
of conscious exultation for these cheap delights? The released prisoner,
the restored invalid, feels it:

"The common earth, the air, the skies,
To him are opening paradise."

Even so should Israel be taught to value deliverance. And now the
process could begin.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Robinson, "The Pharaohs of the Bondage."

CHAPTER VI.

_THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF MOSES._

vi. 1-30.

We have seen that the name Jehovah expresses not a philosophic
meditation, but the most bracing and reassuring truth--viz., that an
immutable and independent Being sustains His people; and this great
title is therefore reaffirmed with emphasis in the hour of mortal
discouragement. It is added that their fa