e operation of the laws of God.

On the other hand, there is no youth living in obedience alike to the
higher and humbler laws of our complex nature, in purity and gentleness
and healthful occupation, who may not contribute to the stock of
happiness in other lives beyond his own, to the future well-being of his
native land, and to the day when the sadly polluted stream of human
existence shall again flow clear and glad, a pure river of water of
life.

_GOD IN HISTORY._

i. 7.

With the seventh verse, the new narrative, the course of events treated
in the main body of this book, begins.

And we are at once conscious of this vital difference between Exodus and
Genesis,--that we have passed from the story of men and families to the
history of a nation. In the first book the Canaanites and Egyptians
concern us only as they affect Abraham or Joseph. In the second book,
even Moses himself concerns us only for the sake of Israel. He is in
some respects a more imposing and august character than any who preceded
him; but what we are told is no longer the story of a soul, nor are we
pointed so much to the development of his spiritual life as to the work
he did, the tyrant overthrown, the nation moulded, the law and the
ritual imposed on it.

For Jacob it was a discovery that God was in Bethel as well as in his
father's house. But now the Hebrew nation was to learn that He could
plague the gods of Egypt in their stronghold, that His way was in the
sea, that Horeb in Arabia was the Mount of God, that He could lead them
like a horse through the wilderness.

When Jacob in Peniel wrestles with God and prevails, he wins for himself
a new name, expressive of the higher moral elevation which he has
attained. But when Moses meets God in the bush, it is to receive a
commission for the public benefit; and there is no new name for Moses,
but a fresh revelation of God for the nation to learn. And in all their
later history we feel that the national life which it unfolds was
nourished and sustained by these glorious early experiences, the most
unique as well as the most inspiriting on record.

Here, then, a question of great moment is suggested. Beyond the fact
that Abraham was the father of the Jewish race, can we discover any
closer connection between the lives of the patriarchs and the history of
Israel? Is there a truly spiritual coherence between them, or merely a
genealogical sequence? For if the Bible can make good its claim