lising of infanticide, and
denounced St. Vincent de Paul because, "thanks to his odious
precautions, this man deferred for years the death of creatures without
intelligence," etc.[2]

It is to the faith of Jesus, not only revealing by the light of eternity
the value of every soul, but also replenishing the fountains of human
tenderness that had well-nigh become exhausted, that we owe our modern
love of children. In the very helplessness which the ancient masters of
the world exposed to destruction without a pang, we see the type of what
we must ourselves become, if we would enter heaven. But we cannot afford
to forget either the source or the sanctions of the lesson.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Professor Curtiss quotes a volume of family memoirs which shows that
5,564 persons are known to be descended from Lieutenant John Hollister,
who emigrated to America in the year 1642 (_Expositor_, Nov. 1887, p.
329). This is probably equal in ratio to the increase of Israel in
Egypt.

[2] J. K. Huysmans--quoted in _Nineteenth Century_, May 1888, p. 673.

CHAPTER II.

_THE RESCUE OF MOSES._

ii. 1-10.

We have said that the Old Testament history teems with political wisdom,
lessons of permanent instruction for mankind, on the level of this life,
yet godly, as all true lessons must be, in a world of which Christ is
King. These our religion must learn to recognise and proclaim, if it is
ever to win the respect of men of affairs, and "leaven the whole lump"
of human life with sacred influence.

Such a lesson is the importance of the individual in the history of
nations. History, as read in Scripture, is indeed a long relation of
heroic resistance or of base compliance in the presence of influences
which are at work to debase modern peoples as well as those of old. The
holiness of Samuel, the gallant faith of David, the splendour and wisdom
of Solomon, the fervid zeal of Elijah, the self-respecting righteousness
of Nehemiah,--ignore these, and the whole course of affairs becomes
vague and unintelligible. Most of all this is true of Moses, whose
appearance is now related.

In profane history it is the same. Alexander, Mahomet, Luther, William
the Silent, Napoleon,--will any one pretend that Europe uninfluenced by
these personalities would have become the Europe that we know?

And this truth is not at all a speculative, unpractical theory: it is
vital. For now there is a fashion of speaking about the tendency of the
age, t