IN Nubia we saw a sorrowful sight: three children about three years of age grinding dourer with small mill stones. Poor little things, how early to begin life's toil!
Now we have another project in view, even that of crossing the desert. There are two or three routes, but at last we decided, acting under the advice of the English missionary at Cairo, to go first to the Red Sea and then to Hebron. First we selected a dragoman, who served us as interpreter or cook. Next we applied to a Bedouin sheik for some camels and for a man to act as guide.
Then it is most imperative to have a contract signed, otherwise we should be subject to all kinds of unlawful demands. This document after being read over was first signed by us, and then the sheik, going to the table, took off his signet ring, gave it to the clerk, who dipped it in ink and sealed the contract with it. It is now time to begin our furnishing. What would you choose? We will say tents, curtains, water-casks, camp-stools, water-bottles and provisions, as everything must be taken that is necessary for sustenance.
At length the camels were brought, and we selected them after much trouble and wrangling.
Four clays after leaving Cairo we arrived at Suez, then sending on our camels we crossed in a boat and went to visit the Wells of Moses, which are on the edge of the wilderness. This was not a wise proceeding, for we had only two men and a youth, and they could not agree about the road.
An Arab came out from one of the mud cottages and gave us to understand there was an English consul there. This did not prove to be correct, but he himself was supposed to be one, and this brought him more respect. This gentleman was a friend indeed, and helped us greatly in every way.
We soon proceeded on our journey and entered the desert. We were surrounded by hills of moving sand, with no trace of footsteps and no pathway. Think of hills of sand as fine as could be and as hot as a coal. Moses uses this simile when he says, "The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust." (Deut. 28:2424The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. (Deuteronomy 28:24).) The worst part now was that the Arabs did not seem to know how to go on.
The youth before mentioned being the best of the three, the leadership was left to him, and one of the travelers found that he could help him by means of a map and compass. In about an hour's time, to the great joy of all, something was seen moving in the distance. It turned out to be another party of travelers, and in a short time we came up to them, and then proceeded on the right road from Suez to Mecca.
Soon after starting we met with one of the worst troubles of the desert, lack of water. For five days since leaving Cairo the camels had had no water, and when we came to the Wells of Mourka they could only have about a pint each, which made them roar greatly. The camels seemed to make up for the lack of anything to drink by eating a large quantity of tamarisks, and on account of their being so busy eating we could not proceed farther that day. However, the next morning we came upon a pit of very good water. The Arabs were able to fill their goatskins and take some for the camels. I once heard a gentleman who had been abroad, during an address to young people, say, speaking of the lack of water, "You'll think of the water you once threw away.”
The next day it was discovered that nearly half the water had run out of the cask, as our dragoman had lost the peg of it. Was not that trying?
The journey through the desert is generally a silent one, for travelers cannot converse, as the camels are trained to follow one another, instead, of walking side by side. Now just outside Nackell there was an appearance of "wind, so we could carry out the instructions of Isa. 54:22Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; (Isaiah 54:2)," Enlarge the place, of thy tent.... spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." As you will doubtless know, we have been speaking of real wells and real water, as this book speaks of truth and not fiction, but you will be interested to know that there are what the prophet Jeremiah refers to as "waters that fail" or deceive. (Jer. 15:1818Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail? (Jeremiah 15:18).) This is known under the name of "the mirage.”
One day there was an appearance of a lake, which we knew could not be there, and yet it was so very like one that we scarcely knew what to believe. Not only was there the appearance of a lake, but of the sea, with its little isles, rocks, and even ships, the masts and rigging wonderfully perfect and the waves rolling. Probably the mirage is caused by reflection and rarefaction of the air, and the appearance of ships would be caused by real ships in the Mediterranean, for they skewed as if upside' down. But the mirage is not the only strange sight in connection with the desert, there is also a peculiar light, very dazzling and phosphorescent. It was seen at Suez whilst we were waiting for desert vans, driven on two wheels with four horses, to take us across to Cairo. It appeared like the light of another van coming towards us; afterward it receded gradually and finally disappeared—not like the beautiful pillar of fire which God sent before the Israelites, whether they journeyed in the night or not. This light, though seen by us, cannot be explained and was very wonderful. We were now out of the desert and on the borders of the promised land at Beersheba. This was where Abraham dwelt.
But we must now leave the travelers and return to Moses.
You will remember how Moses at last asserted his nationality and took up the cause of one of his brethren, and slew the Egyptian who was ill-treating him, and hid the body in the sand. This coming to the ears of Pharaoh, he wished to slay Moses. Thus Moses was obliged to flee, and more especially as his brethren did not understand his interference with them. Where should he go? He went to Midian, somewhere near Sinai, but the precise situation is unknown. But one thing we do know, and that is, that there was a well of water there.
Whilst sitting there resting, seven daughters of the priest of Midian came to draw water for their father's flocks. There were also shepherds who would have driven them away, but Moses helped them. Thus he was introduced to Reuel, the father, who, after some time, gave him his daughter, Zipporah, for a wife, and they had a son called Gershom, and Moses became a shepherd.
Now the Egyptian, as it appeared by his dress, becomes an Arabian. What a change for Moses; he who had been brought up in all the learning of the Egyptians now leads the life of a shepherd in a wilderness country.
It was there at the backside of it that he came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. Here we read of the bush which was not consumed by the flame in and around it, making it holy, so that the shoe must be loosed. God called him by name, "Moses, Moses," and he said, "Here am I." God reminded Moses of his fathers, and of the affliction of his people in Egypt. Moses hid his face and was afraid. God gave Moses two signs, the rod which became a serpent—a reminder of Egypt and Pharaoh's power—and the leprosy which came into his hand and was healed again—a link with the people in Egypt, whom they called a nation of lepers. Moses then returned to Egypt.
The miraculous presence of the angel of the Lord in the bush took place at Horeb. It was promised to Moses that when he had brought the people out of Egypt they should serve God upon that mountain. God's promise was fulfilled, for there the people of God actually encamped. Elijah also found refuge there from the threats of Jezebel. As Moses seemed unwilling to speak to the children of Israel and said he could not speak well, God allowed his brother Aaron to go with him that he might speak for him.
But King Pharaoh refused to listen to what Moses and Aaron said to him; indeed, he added to the burden of the children of Israel by refusing them straw. He was most probably Rameses II., who was, some say, if not a matter of certain history, the greatest of the Pharaohs, and under his rule Egypt increased in greatness to the zenith of its glory, afterward declining. With him closed Egypt's great conquests, its buildings were fewer, and its architecture less beautiful. His oppression of the children of Israel was very cruel, but that also had an end. It is most interesting to find that although chronology as to Egypt on nearly all points differs hopelessly, so that one feels it safer generally to leave dates severely alone, yet from the Bible, the true record, we find that when Abraham at the age of seventy-five received the promise (Gen. 15:1313And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; (Genesis 15:13)) to the time when Joseph was sold into Egypt was exactly two hundred years; and fourteen years after that Jacob and his family settled there, and two hundred and fifteen years later the exodus of the children of Israel took place, proving that the deliverance came in the fourth generation.
Between the dreadful oppression of the children of Israel and the going out from Egypt, we have a true record of the most wonderful, and marvelous plagues designed by God to humiliate the king and the Egyptians, showing His powerful and fearful judgments; they are recorded from the seventh to the fourteenth chapters of Exodus, so that they need not come in detail here.
But in each case God would show in every fresh plague that their national gods were as nothing to Him. And first shall we notice the beautiful waters of the Nile becoming corrupt and loathsome.
The face of the sun, their god, was darkened for some days, and finally, and most severe of all, the death of the firstborn occurred in each Egyptian household and among all beasts. It is interesting to note that the plagues were aimed at the gods, and sheaved their powerlessness before the true God. For instance: (1) Osiris, the Nile god, (2) Haki, the god to drive away frogs, (3 and 4) the god of flies, (5) the sacred Ram and the sacred Ox at Memphis and at On, (6) human sacrifices to avert evil, (7) to the divinities of the air, (8) the insect gods, (9) the worship of the sun, (10) all their religion disgraced by a universal death.
The day that Moses and Aaron departed from the presence of Pharaoh, the Lord instructed the children of Israel to take a male lamb without blemish; it was to be kept until the fourteenth day of the month and killed in the evening; the lintels and doorposts were to be sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop dipped in the, blood, and the lamb was to be eaten at night and none left till the morning. It was to be eaten in haste, their loins girded and shoes on their feet ready for a journey. It was a sign, and God said that when He saw the blood He would pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come in unto their houses to smite them.