," a title which called
the nation at once to valour and to obedience, which asserted that they
were an army, but a consecrated one.

* * * * *

Now let us ask whether this simple story is at all the kind of thing
which legend or myth would have created, for the first martial exploit
of Israel. The obscure part played by Moses is not what we would expect;
nor, even as a mediator, is the position of one whose arms must be held
up a very romantic conception. If the object is to inspire the Jews for
later struggles with more formidable foes, the story is ill-contrived,
for we read of no surprising force of Amalek, and no inspiriting exploit
of Joshua. Everything is as prosaic as the real course of events in this
poor world is wont to be. And on that account it is all the more useful
to us who live prosaic lives, and need the help of God among prosaic
circumstances.

CHAPTER XVIII.

_JETHRO._

xviii. 1-27.

The defeat of Amalek is followed by the visit of Jethro; the opposite
pole of the relation between Israel and the nations, the coming of the
Gentiles to his brightness. And already that is true which repeats
itself all through the history of the Church, that much secular wisdom,
the art of organisation, the structure and discipline of societies, may
be drawn from the experience and wisdom of the world.

Moses was under the special guidance of God, as really as any modern
enthusiast can claim to be. When he turned for aid or direction to
heaven, he was always answered. And yet he did not think scorn of the
counsel of his kinsman. And although eighty years had not dimmed the
fire of his eyes, nor wasted his strength, he neglected not the warning
which taught him to economise his force; not to waste on every paltry
dispute the attention and wisdom which could govern the new-born state.

Jethro is the kinsman, and probably the brother-in-law of Moses; for if
he were the father-in-law, and the same as Reuel in the second chapter,
why should a new name be introduced without any mark of identification?
When he hears of the emancipation of Israel from Egypt, he brings back
to Moses his two sons and Zipporah, who had been sent away, after the
angry scene at the circumcision of the younger, and before he entered
Egypt with his life in his hand. Now he was a great personage, the
leader of a new nation, and the conqueror of the proudest monarch in the
world. With what feelings would t