done so until now,
and this confirms the belief that after the third plague they had not
acknowledged Jehovah, but merely said in their defeat, "This is the
finger of a god." Until now Jannes and Jambres (two, to rival the two
brothers) had withstood Moses, but now the contrast between the prophet
and his victims writhing in their pain was too sharp for prejudice
itself to overlook: their folly was "evident unto all men" (2 Tim. iii.
8, 9). But it was not destined that Pharaoh should yield even to so
tremendous a coercion what he refused to moral influences; and as Jesus
after His resurrection appeared not unto all the people (hiding this
crowning evidence from the eyes which had in vain beheld so much), so
"the Lord made strong the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto
them, as the Lord had spoken unto Moses." In this last expression is the
explicit statement that it was now that the prediction attained
fulfilment, in the manner which we have discussed already.

But even this strength of heart did not reach the height of attempting
any reprisals upon the torturers. The sense of the supernatural was
their defence: Moses was as a god unto Pharaoh, and Aaron was his
prophet.

In the narrative of this plague there is an expression which deserves
attention for another reason. The ashes, it says, "shall become dust."
Is there no controversy, turning upon the too rigid and prosaic
straining of a New Testament construction, which might be simplified by
considering the Hebrew use of language, exemplified in such an assertion
as "It shall become dust," and soon after, "It is the Lord's passover"?
Do these announce transubstantiations? Did two handfuls of ashes
literally become the blains upon the bodies of all the Egyptians?

_THE SEVENTH PLAGUE._

ix. 13-35.

The hardening of Pharaoh's heart, we have argued, was not the debauching
of his spirit, but only the strengthening of his will. "Wait on the Lord
and _be of good courage_"; "_Be strong_, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord;
and _be strong_, O Joshua, son of Josadak the high priest; and _be
strong_, all ye people" (Ps. xxvii. 14; Hag. ii. 4), are clear proofs
that what was implied in this word was not wickedness, but only that
iron determination which his choice directed in a wicked channel. And
therefore it was no mockery, no insincere appeal by one who had provided
against the mischance of its succeeding, when God again addressed
Himself to the reason, and even to