OUR party to-day will be rather a large one, as Nora and Percy, who are spending their holidays with their cousins, say that though they have paid more than one visit to the British Museum, they do not remember having noticed anything in which they were really interested in the Egyptian rooms.
The land of Egypt is very often mentioned in the Bible. Though we shall not have time just now to look up all the scriptures in which it is named, our morning in the Egyptian gallery will not be less interesting if we recall two or three incidents connected with the land and its people.
Percy reminds us that Abraham went down into Egypt to escape from famine; and Connie adds that it was the land where, as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, Moses received his education. Yes, Connie, he "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians"; it is quite likely that he may have looked upon some at least of the statues, and read and re-read the strange picture writing of which we shall see so much to-day; and we must not forget that night journey into the land of Egypt, when Joseph in obedience to the warning he had received from the angel of the Lord "took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt." It is probable that rather more than two years, or perhaps a longer period of the childhood of the Lord, who in lowly grace had become the Babe of Bethlehem, were spent in that country.
There were quite a number of Pharaohs, as it was not really a name but a title borne by many of the rulers of Egypt. We do not know them all by their Egyptian names, but a few stand out very clearly on the pages of our Bibles. First, there was the Pharaoh at whose court Abraham and Sarah visited. Then there was the Pharaoh before whom Joseph stood. Both these are supposed to have been shepherd kings-foreigners, belonging to wandering tribes who had settled in Egypt. "Then there arose up a new king... which knew not Joseph." It is thought by many Bible students that he belonged to a new race, or dynasty, who had conquered the shepherd kings.
The Egyptian princess who adopted Moses was, there is no room for doubt, the daughter of the Pharaoh who so cruelly oppressed Israel. "In process of time the king of Egypt died." It was upon the Pharaoh who filled the vacant throne that the plagues of Egypt fell, as the just judgments of God, upon the guilty land.
After the death of "the firstborn" and the departure of Israel from Egypt, we find that for many, many years scripture is silent about that land.
But we have hardly begun to look around us yet. The two greatest of the Pharaohs were Thothmes III, who erected Cleopatra's Needle, now standing on the Thames Embankment, London—he is thought to have been the Pharaoh of the oppression—and Rameses II, who is generally believed to have been the Pharaoh during whose reign the exodus took place. He added fresh columns of picture-writing to those already on the needle.
Besides the head of Thothmes carved in red granite, at the end of the gallery there is a very large granite monument on which is carved a likeness of the king and of the idol god he worshipped. If with the help of a guide-book we look carefully through the Egyptian rooms, we shall find quite a number of statues, carving and other things belonging to the reign of Rameses II. He was a great builder, and built among other places the store-city of Pithom. (Ex. 1:1111Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. (Exodus 1:11).) The long-forgotten site of this old world city was discovered only a few years ago. This Pharaoh is thought to have reigned for sixty-seven years, and to have died when he was about one hundred years old.
We must now linger for a few moments to talk about the Rosetta stone; it has been of such great use in helping to form a key by which many of the inscriptions have been read. It was discovered at Rosetta in 1798 by one of the learned men who accompanied Napoleon on his Egyptian expedition, and the writing upon it was found to be in two languages, and three different kinds of writing, ancient Egyptian, modern Egyptian, and Greek. Several learned men had tried but failed in the attempt to read the picture-writing we now call Egyptian hieroglyphics. At last, two patient, diligent workers solved the problem. They found that two names, those of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, occurred several times, and these names, with perhaps some help from the Greek, gave them the key to the long-hidden alphabet.
Standing as we may do in the museum among the statues and monuments of kings who lived and reigned so long ago that their very names are almost forgotten, it is good to remember that if through grace we can say of the Lord Jesus, "He is my trusted Savior," our best things, and those which are most really our own, cannot pass away, or be taken from us. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Rom. 5:55And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:5)) The gift, "the love of God," and the Giver, "the Holy Ghost," are our very own, to be enjoyed throughout ETERNITY.
But perhaps what I am writing will be read by some dear boy or girl who cannot say that he or she is saved. Do not linger. Come to Jesus just as you are, and come NOW. To come to Jesus is simply to trust Him. Own yourself to be a lost sheep, and you will be found and rejoiced over by the good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep.