ness has no excuse for being. And once when he was
down among his own people he saw an Egyptian taskmaster or foreman
striking an Israelitish workman, and in wrath he arose and killed the
oppressor. The only persons who were witnesses to this affair were two
Hebrews. The second day after the fight, when Moses was attempting to
separate two Hebrews who had gotten into an altercation with each other,
they taunted him by saying, "Who gavest thee to be a ruler over
us?--wilt thou also kill us as thou didst the Egyptian?"

This gives us a little light upon the quality and character of the
people with whom Moses had to deal. It also shows that the ways of the
reformer and peacemaker are not flower-strewn. The worst enemies of a
reformer are not the Egyptians--he has also to deal with the Israelites.

I once heard Terence V. Powderly, who organized the Knights of
Labor--the most successful labor organization ever formed--say, "Any man
who devotes his life to helping laboring men will be destroyed by them."
And then he added, "But this should not deter us from the effort to
benefit."

As the Hebrew account plainly states that the killing of all the male
Hebrew children was carried out with the connivance of Hebrew women who
pretended to be ministering to the Hebrew mothers, so was the flight of
Moses from Egypt caused by the Hebrews, who turned informants and
brought him into disgrace with Pharaoh, who sought his life.

Very naturally, the Egyptians deny and have always denied that the order
to kill children was ever issued by a Pharaoh. They also point to the
fact that the Israelites were a source of profit--a valuable asset to
the Egyptians. And moreover, the proposition that the Egyptians killed
the children to avoid trouble is preposterous, since no possible act
that man can commit would so arouse sudden rebellion and fan into flame
the embers of hate as the murder of the young. If the Egyptians had
attempted to carry out any such savage cruelty, they would not only have
had to fight the Israelitish men, but the outraged mothers as well. The
Egyptians were far too wise to invite the fury of frenzied motherhood.
To have done this would have destroyed the efficiency of the entire
Hebrew population. An outraged and heartbroken people do not work.

When one person becomes angry with another, his mental processes work
overtime making up a list of the other's faults and failings.

When a people arise in revolt they straightw