STORY I.

THE REPTILE ARMY.

PART 1.

PHARAOH was a proud and wicked king of Egypt; he held the people of Israel in cruel bondage, and would not set them free, though God bade him.

And his subjects were as cruel as he was. So God, to show that he was angry with them, turned the fine river Nile, which ran through the land, into blood.' And, as they were all very fond of the water, this was a great trouble; still they would not obey God's command. How hard is the human heart, and how many strokes will it bear, without being the better. It is so hard, that no one but God can soften it. O that he would give me his Spirit, to make mine humble and contrite."

B

And the Lord sent to Pharaoh again to charge him to set his people free. They did not belong to the king of Egypt, and he had no right to make them slaves, or to keep them in bondage; they were the Lord's. And am I not? And is not every one the Lord's? Yes, for he made, and he preserves, and blesses every one, and at every moment. No one could live, if God did not hold him up in life. Every one, therefore, and at all times, should love and serve him.3

But why did God send again to Pharaoh? why did he not at once cut him down? Because he is very patient, and bears long even with the wicked; and because he does not desire the death of a sinner, but rather that he would turn to God, and seek for his mercy. And if he be so kind to those who will not obey his will, will he not be much more so, to those who pray for his favour, and who indeed desire to love and serve him? We are sure that he will.

The Lord charged Moses to tell Pharaoh, that, if he would not obey his voice, he would bid so

many frogs come up on every part of the land, as should be a great plague both to him and his subjects. But he did not care about the message which God sent him. Perhaps the people in his palace said, that no one need be afraid of frogs; that they could readily drive them away, or kill them; or that the threatening could not be fulfilled, as so many frogs, as would fill the kingdom, did not exist; and, of course, that no one could bring them all together into Egypt. And so they did not mind God's warning. Wicked people now do not care about God's warnings.

God never punished any one without good reason, or without warning him. He sent Noah to warn the old world; and that good man did so for one hundred and twenty years. And the Lord Jesus came himself, and warned Jerusalem, and wept over it. And who have not been warned to avoid what is wrong, to seek after the favour of God, and the pardon of their sins for Christ's sake? Have you not been thus warned, by conscience, by the Bible, by parents, and ministers, and perhaps by dying

friends? And have we minded what they have said?

God said, that he would punish Pharaoh and his people by bringing up frogs on all the land. But why did he not send lions and bears to tear them in pieces, or an angel to cut them off? He could have done this as easily as he brought up an army of reptiles; but he did not. Perhaps it was to mortify the pride of Pharaoh; to show him, that God could humble him to the dust even by frogs. He can bring down the highest who dare to oppose him, and by a fly, or a frog, or a worm. Herod, at his bidding, was eaten up of worms.

6

And now, God bade Aaron stretch out his rod over the streams and rivers, and ponds of Egypt, and the frogs knew that they were called for, and they came up, and covered the land. The unbelief of Pharaoh and his courtiers, did not prevent God's word from being fulfilled. The heavens and the earth may pass away, sooner than any word of God can fail. All creatures are at his control; they listen to his voice, and obey it.

When God gave