8 : 20 And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh ; lo, he cometh forth to the water ; and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses ; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there ; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and thy people : by to-morrow shall this sign be. And the LORD did so ; and there came grievous swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses ; and in all the land of Egypt the land was corrupted by reason of the swarms of flies. And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. And Moses said, It is not meet so to do ; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God : lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us ? We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us. And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness ; only ye shall not go very far away : intreat for me. And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will intreat the LORD that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to-morrow : only let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD. And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD. And the LORD did according to the word of Moses ; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people ; there remained not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go. 9 : 1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds, and upon the flocks : there shall be a very grievous murrain. And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt : and there shall nothing die of all that belongeth to the children of Israel. And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To-morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land. And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died : but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not so much as one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn, and he did not let the people go. 8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh ; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven ; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils : for the boils were upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them ; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses. 13 And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For I will this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people ; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. For now I had put forth my hand, and smitten thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou hadst been cut off from the earth : but in very deed for this cause have I made thee to stand, for to shew thee my power, and that my name may be declared 17 throughout all the earth. As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt 18 not let them go? Behold, to-morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous 19 hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now. Now therefore send, hasten in thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field ; for every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come 20 down upon them, and they shall die. He that feared the word of the LORD among the 21 servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses : and he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field. 22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the 23 field, throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven : and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down unto the earth ; and the LORD 24 rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, 25 very grievous, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and 26 beast ; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. Only 27 in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time : the 28 LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Intreat the LORD ; for there hath been enough of these mighty thunderings and hail ; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no 29 longer. And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD ; the thunders shall cease, neither shall there be any more 30 hail ; that thou mayest know that the earth is the LORD’s. But as for thee and thy ser- 31 vants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God. And the flax and the barley were 32 smitten : for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was boiled. But the wheat and the 33 spelt were not smitten : for they were not grown up. And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD : and the thunders and hail 34 ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his 35 heart, he and his servants. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the children of Israel go ; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.

Swarms of Flies.

Some may inquire, why did God punish the country by such minute and contemptible ani- mals as frogs, lice, flies, rather than by bears, lions, leopards, or other kinds of savage beasts, which prey on human flesh ? or if not by these, why not by the Egyptian asp, whose bite is in- stant death ? First, God chose rather to correct than to destroy the inhabitants ; for if he de- sired to annihilate them utterly, he had no need to have made use of animals as his auxiliaries, but of the divinely inflicted evils of famine and pestilence. Next, men, when they war, seek the most powerful aid to supply their own weakness ; but God, the highest and greatest power, who stands in need of nothing, if at any time he chooses to employ instruments to inflict chastisement, chooses not the strongest and greatest, but rather the mean and the minute, which he endues with irresistible power to chas- tise offenders. Philo.

21-23. The first three plagues were inflicted alike on the Egyptians and Hebrews. But as this may have contributed to prevent the Egyptians from seeing the finger of God in the pre- vious plagues, a distinction was henceforth to be made, and the land of Goshen to be exempted from the calamities still impending.

24-27. It is evident that each successive plague thus far exceeded in intensity that which went before it, and so grievous was the present, that with a view to its removal Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and proposed to them a compromise. Unable to bear the tormenting scourge, and yet unwilling to resign his grasp of his Hebrew bondmen, by a half-way measure he would secure himself from injury in both respects. He consents that they should sacri- fice to their God, provided they would do it in the land of Egypt. The reply of Moses was prompt and decided. Implicit obedience was his only rule of conduct, and by adhering in the most inflexible manner to the expressed will of Jehovah, the name of Moses has come down to the latest generation honored by the testimony of pre-eminent fidelity—“Moses was

faithful in all his house." Far from accepting this concession, he tells Pharaoh there is no alternative. His entire requisition must be complied with. Bush.—Nor is there little praise due to the firmness of Moses, who boldly and unreservedly rejected the pretended moderation of the tyrant, because it would have interfered with the will of God. He declares that the Israelites would do no otherwise than as God had prescribed. Calv.

28. The demand does not refer to a journey to Sinai, which would have occupied much longer time. Pharaoh grants the permission, not however without imposing a condition which would have enabled him to take effectual measures to prevent the final emigration of the Israelites. The power of the Pharaohs extended far beyond the frontier, especially on the road to Palestine. Cook.—Whether he was henceforth to lose entirely so considerable and so useful a part of the population of the kingdom, was the Egyptian king’s view of the question; to which is to be added the apprehension that becoming thus independent of their control, they might one day resolve themselves into a very dangerous hostile power on the frontiers, whether in the desert as pastoral nomads, or as a settled people in Palestine. Viewing the matter thus, as the Egyptian king unquestionably did, his conduct, though no more excusable, is somewhat less surprising. Bush.

29. How ready God is to accept sinners’ submissions. Pharaoh does but say, Extreat for me (though it is with regret that he humbles so far), and Moses promises immediately, I will entreat the Lord for thee; that he might see what the design of the plague was, not to bring him to ruin, but to bring him to repentance. With what pleasure did God say (1 K. 21: 29), Seest thou how Ahab humbles himself? H.—Deal deceitfully. It was an act of extraordinary boldness openly and before the tyrant’s face to reproach him for his falsehoods, and at the same time to threaten him with punishment unless he desisted from them. Calv.

30-32. The issue of all was, that God graciously removed the plague (vs. 30, 31), but Pharaoh perfidiously returned to his hardness, and would not let the people go (v. 32). His pride would not let him part with such a flower of his crown as his dominion over Israel was, nor his covetousness with such a branch of his revenue as their labors were. H.—By a law of our nature the insensibility of conscience grows apace with every act of defiance to its suggestions; and if the warnings of one adverse providence have failed to impress, another and another, each more fitted to appall and arrest than the former, may fall short of its moral efficacy for turning us from the evil of our ways. When Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he fell from his promises and professions, and relapsed into his former hardness, and—as is the case with all backsliding—into a greater hardness than before. T. C.

Cattle destroyed by a Murrain.

The word murrain, i.e. a great mortality, exactly expresses the meaning. This terrible visitation struck far more severely than the preceding, which had caused distress and suffering; it attacked the resources of the nation. 3. The camels. These animals are only twice mentioned, here and in Gen. 12: 16, in connection with Egypt. In this passage the enumeration of cattle is studiously complete. Cook.

We may observe a particular scope and meaning in this calamity with regard to the Egyptians, which would not have existed in respect to any other people. It is well known that they held in idolatrous reverence the lion, wolf, dog, cat, ape, and goat. But they had gods which they held in still greater reverence than these; such were the ox or steer; the cow and heifer; and the ram. Among these the Apis and Mnevis are well known; the former, a sacred bull adored at Memphis; and the latter at Heliopolis. There was also a cow or heifer which had the like honors at Momemphis. To these may be added the goat at Mendes, though perhaps not so celebrated as the others. This judgment, therefore, upon the kine of Egypt, was very significant in its execution and purport. The Egyptians not only suffered a severe loss, but, what was of far greater consequence, they saw the representative of their deities, and their deities themselves, sink before the “God of the Hebrews.” There is reason to think that both the camel and ass were held sacred, which were involved in the same calamity. Hence it is said by the sacred writer, “Upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments” (Num. 33: 4). To the Israelites, the worship of the Egyptians must at this time have appeared in a contemptible light, and their gods despicable. Their separation too and exemption during these evils must have had still greater weight. It rendered them more ready to quit a people from whom they were so distinguished. Bryant.

5. To-morrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land.** The fixing of the time in this manner would make the judgment when it came the more remarkable. “We know not what any day will bring forth, and therefore cannot say what we will do to-morrow, but God can.”

6. All the cattle of Egypt died. That is, some of all sorts; not absolutely each and every one; for we find (vs. 19, 25) some remaining which were smitten by a subsequent plague. This peculiar usage of the word “all,” as denoting some of all kinds, instead of the absolute totality of the number spoken of, is of great importance to a right understanding of the sacred Scriptures throughout. Bush.

THE SIXTH PLAGUE (vs. 8-12).

Boils upon Man and Beast.

This marks a distinct advance and change in the character of the visitations. Hitherto the Egyptians had not been attacked directly in their own persons. It is the second plague which was not preceded by a demand and warning, probably on account of the peculiar hardness shown by Pharaoh in reference to the murrain. Cook.—Hitherto the Lord has tried to move the heart of the king by a series of external privations and penalties. The want of water, the presence of a loathsome reptile, the creeping and biting of a nauseous insect, the fierce stinging of the fly swarm, and the loss occasioned by the pestilence among the cattle, have been all in vain. Now the life is menaced. M.

9. A boil breaking forth with blains. The word rendered boil is derived from “burning inflammation,” and is used elsewhere of plague boils, of the leprosy, and elephantiasis. Here it means probably a burning tumor or carbuncle breaking out in pustulous ulcers. Cook.

11. The magicians could not stand before Moses. They had probably hitherto continued to linger about the person of Pharaoh, confirming him in his obstinate refusal to let the people go, and pretending that though Moses had thus far performed works beyond their skill, yet they should doubtless be too hard for him at last; but now, being seized with these loathsome and painful ulcers, they were utterly confounded and henceforth no more heard of. Bush.—Thus they were driven the field. Their power was restrained before, but they continued to confront Moses and confirm Pharaoh in his unbelief, till now they were forced to retreat and could not stand before Moses, to which the apostle refers (2 Tim. 3:9), when he says, that their folly was made manifest unto all men. H.

12. God had threatened that he would harden Pharaoh’s heart, but we do not, until we come to the present passage, find it expressly said that he did harden it. Not that God, by a positive act, created any hardness of heart in Pharaoh, or that he immediately put forth any influence to render him callous and incapable of right feeling. He had before hardened his own heart by resisting both the grace and the wrath of heaven. Bush.—Now “the Lord,” for the first time, “hardened the heart of Pharaoh,” after he had so repeatedly hardened it himself, “and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had foretold unto Moses.” Though Pharaoh probably felt the scourge of the “boil,” as well as his people, it did not soften nor humble his heart. And when he wilfully and obstinately turned away from the light, and shut his eyes against the luminous evidences vouchsafed to him of the supremacy of the God of the HEBREWS, and had twice broken his promise, when he was indulged with a respite, and dealt deceitfully, he became a just object of punishment. And such is the usual and the righteous course of his providence; when nations or individuals despise the warnings of heaven, abuse their best gifts, and resist the means of grace, “God then delivers them over to a reprobate or undiscerning mind” (Rom. 1:28; Eph. 4:19). Hales.—Before, he had hardened his own heart, and resisted the grace of God; and now, God justly gave him up to his own heart’s lusts, to a reprobate mind, and strong delusions, permitting Satan to blind and harden him, and ordering everything from henceforward so as to make him more and more obstinate. Wilful hardness is commonly punished with judicial hardness. If men shut their eyes against the light, it is just with God to close their eyes. Let us dread this as the sorest judgment a man can be under on this side hell. H. (Sec. 85.)

When we have accounted for the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart satisfactorily on the one principle—the well-known proclivities and activities of a proud, stubborn human heart, it is entirely unphilosophical to bring in another principle, viz. the miraculous, immediate, direct action of Almighty Power. When we have proved the former power adequate to produce all the results, we have virtually precluded the latter. There can be no reason whatever for assuming a joint, co-ordinate action of both the natural laws of the human mind and of the supernatural power of God. If the former suffices, the latter is uncalled for. Miracles are never to be assumed where non-miraculous agency is fully adequate. It is of no use for us to find fault with the way in which the Scriptures speak of God’s hand in the existence of sin. There is no special mystery about it. It certainly does not involve the least moral obliquity on God’s part; and it is therefore every way prudent and wise to interpret such language in harmony with the common-sense of the case and with the well-known character of God. H. C.—Merciful warnings harden men every day. They were full, frequent, sincere, and earnest in Pharaoh’s case; and sustained by prodigies of power which should have secured conviction. Favorable opportunities of repenting and returning to duty harden men every day. But they are surely granted in mercy. The withdrawing of His Spirit, oft resisted, is a terrible but righteous procedure. Hardness of heart inevitably ensues. An.

THE SEVENTH PLAGUE (vs. 13-35).

Thunder, Hail and Fire.

With this begins the last series of plagues, which differ from the former both in their severity and their effects. Each produced a temporary, but real change in Pharaoh’s feelings. The plagues which precede appear to have been spread over a considerable time; the first message of Moses was delivered after the early harvest of the year before, when the Israelites could gather stubble, i.e. in April and May: the second mission, when the plagues began, was probably toward the end of June, and they went on at intervals until the winter; this plague was in February. Cook.

13-15. Six times the demand had been made in vain, yet Moses must make it the seventh time, Let my people go (v. 13). A most dreadful message Moses is here ordered to deliver to him, whether he will hear, or whether he will forbear. He must tell him that he is marked for ruin; that he now stands as the butt at which God would shoot all the arrows of his wrath. H.—If lesser judgments do not do their work, God will send greater. Moses is charged to tell Pharaoh that, in the plagues that remained to be inflicted there would be a kind of concentrated terribleness, so that each one should come upon him as if with the accumulated weight of all the rest. They were to be such plagues as should not only endanger the body, but smile the heart, the inward spirit with such terror, that it would seem as if the whole magazine of heaven’s vengeance were opened upon him and his people. This seems to be what is intended by the language—“I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart,” where we are probably to understand by “this time,” the time occupied by the whole ensuing course of judgments that should finally end in the utter destruction of Pharaoh. Bush.

15,16. The reason why God did not at once destroy Pharaoh and his people is thus stated by the Lord Himself: “For now if I had stretched forth my hand and smitten thee and thy people with the pestilence, then hadst thou been cut off from the earth. But now in very deed for this cause have I let thee stand (made thee stand, raised thee up), for to show in thee my power (perhaps, to let thee see or experience it—this is the first reason; the second)—and that my Name may be declared throughout all the earth.” That this actually was the result we gather from Chap. 15:14. Nay, the tidings spread not only among the Arabs, but long afterward among the Greeks and Romans, and finally, through the Gospel, among all nations of the earth. A. E.

The Greek translates very justly, “For this cause thou hast been preserved:” and most of the versions express the true meaning of the passage better than our English translation. The reason of the words and the true meaning of them is this: Moses had wrought several miracles before Pharaoh without effect. Hereupon he delivers him a severer message, threatening that God would send all his plagues upon his heart, to smite him with pestilence and to cut him off from the earth: and, “indeed,” continues he, speaking still in the name of God, “for this cause have I preserved thee hitherto, to show in thee my power:” that is, I had cut thee off sooner for thy obstinacy, but that I intended to make my power over thee more conspicuous. So that the words signify, that Pharaoh was hitherto preserved by the forbearance of God to be a more remarkable example; not that he was born to be brought to ruin. Shuckford.

The issue is to be joined between Jehovah and his people with the great central civilization of earth, with a view to recall the world to a knowledge of the true God. It is important to the interests of the world and the interests of God’s truth that the real wickedness of Pharaoh shall be brought out, and the justice of God’s dealings with him be evinced. Hence the apostle, in Romans, cites this case as the grand historical illustration of the sovereignty of God, in glorifying himself by the destruction of the impenitent as well as by the salvation of the believing penitent. It is no question here of ethics as between man and man from the human point of view, but of the purposes and the honor of God from a divine point of view.

S. R.—It was a most signal and memorable instance of the power God has to humble and bring down the proudest of his enemies. Everything concurred to signalize this, that God’s name, that is, his incontestable sovereignty, his irresistible power, and his inflexible justice might be declared throughout all ages while the earth remains. H.

From this and other express declarations we know that the Hebrew institutions were not designed for the exclusive benefit of the Hebrew people. Solomon prays (1 K. 8 : 60) that God would “maintain the cause of his people Israel at all times, that all the people of the earth may know that Jehovah is God, and that there is none else.” According to this decisive testimony, the Hebrew history and institutions from the very first stood connected with the communication of the knowledge of the true God to all the people of the earth. E. C. W.

18-21. Only one day for thought and repentance was granted to Pharaoh before the seventh stroke descended. It consisted of such hail as had never been seen in Egypt, mingled with thunder and fiery lightning. The cattle in Egypt are left out to graze from January to April, and such of the Egyptians as gave heed to the warning of Moses withdrew their cattle and servants into shelter, and so escaped the consequences; the rest suffered loss of men and beasts. That some “among the servants of Pharaoh” “feared the word of Jehovah” (v. 20) affords evidence of the spiritual effect of these “strokes.” A. E.

22-25. In Egypt hail is unknown, and rain is a rare phenomenon. A storm in which these elements were combined with prodigious power—the rain in floods, hailstones of prodigious size and force, thunder in awful crashes, and lightning that ran like fire along the ground—must have been a most astonishing and dreadful spectacle to the Egyptians. Nor was the terror all. The actual calamity inflicted was most serious. Those who, despite the warning, left their cattle abroad in the fields, saw them stricken dead by the hailstones, and it also smote every bush, and broke every tree of the field. Kit.

27. Pharaoh’s confession reaches further than before, even to the acknowledgment of personal guilt: Jehovah is in the right,—he and his people in the wrong. But it is only this time; he does not include the former times. It is a touch of nature in the narrative, that the spirit of Pharaoh is dismayed by the awful and to him unusual terrors of the thunderstorm. At such times even the bravest and hardest are frequently affrighted by an unaccountable panic. Aif.

28. Amid all these storms Pharaoh sleepeth; till the voice of God’s mighty thunders, and hail mixed with fire, roused him up a little. Now, as betwixt sleeping and waking, he starts up and says, “God is righteous, I am wicked; Moses, pray for us;” and presently lays down his head again. God hath no sooner done thundering, than he hath done fearing. All this while you never find him careful to prevent any one evil, but desirous still to shift it off when he feels it; never holds constant to any good motion; never prays for himself, but carelessly wills Moses and Aaron to pray for him; never yields God his whole demand, but would get a release with the cheapest; first, “They shall not go;” then, “Go and sacrifice, but in Egypt;” next, “Go sacrifice in the wilderness, but not far off;” after, “Go ye that are men;” then, “Go you and your children only;” at last, “Go all save your sheep and cattle.” Bp. H.—Pharaoh’s repentance here was destitute of humiliation. There was no real humbling of himself; and there was no renunciation of his sin. His cry was always, “Take away the frogs, take away the hail,” but never “take away the sin.” And it was temporary. He no sooner felt it, than it was dissipated, and disappeared. J. C.

29. It was not Pharaoh’s personal intention or change of heart on which the matter turned; but as king he stood on one side—God on the other: and his public position before the world was the point to be regarded. As he now gave God the honor and humbled himself under His hand, immediately the removal of the plague follows. So now is a national blessing the certain fruit of an open confession of the service due to the true God, on the part of the rulers. Gerl.

31. The flax was boiled.** In blossom. This marks the time. In the north of Egypt the barley ripens and flax blossoms about the middle of February. Cook.

33. Although Pharaoh’s confession was insincere, yet as he publicly honored God by his humiliation, the plague is immediately removed. Thus, frequently in the after history of the Old Testament, threatened evil was withheld and even great personal and national blessings bestowed, upon the open confession of the true God by kings and peoples. And this principle of the Divine dealing with nations has ever since obtained. B.

34. The thunders and the hail ceased.** The prayer of Moses was in this case invested with a power like that of Elias, and the two witnesses of the Apocalypse, to open and shut heaven, and yet the mercy now accorded to Pharaoh tended as little to soften his heart as the previous judgment had done. The language implies that his increased hardness of heart was an increased measure of guilt: “He sinned yet more and more, and hardened his heart;” i.e. sinned by hardening his heart. God’s foretelling the result, therefore, and permitting it, did not go to lessen his criminality. Bush. —The mercy of God, which should have led him to repentance, had a contrary effect upon him, and made him more obstinate. For an hardened heart is neither cut by compunction, nor moved by entreaties, nor yields to threatenings, nor feels the smart of scourges. It is ungrateful to benefactors, treacherous to counsels, sullen under judgments, fearless in dangers, forgetful of things past, negligent of things present, and improvident for the future. All these bad qualities seem to have concentrated in Pharaoh. It was, therefore, entirely agreeable to the rules of Divine justice, when nothing would reclaim this wicked king, when even that which wrought upon the magicians made no impression on him, to let his crime become his punishment, and to leave him to eat the bitter fruit of his own ways and to be filled with his own devices. Stackhouse.

True repentance has, as its constituent elements, grief and hatred of sin, and also an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ. It hates the sin, and not simply the suffering or penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has discovered God’s love. How much of our penitence is like this of Pharaoh! and how many are saints on a sick-bed, but as wicked as ever when they recover! W. M. T.