heathenism, the disjecta membra poetæ, still produced upon their minds the powerful and indelible impression, that there was something more in this than the empty fancies or foolish speculations of idle brains; that there were actually supernatural powers at work, who possessed a fearfully serious reality. The impression thus produced upon their minds, by their own observation of the tendency of heathen idolatry, was confirmed by their reading of both the Old and New Testaments; and the greater the confidence with which they looked upon the salvation they had experienced in Christ, as something real and personal, the less doubt did they feel as to the reality of the powers of evil by which it was opposed in heathenism. In a word, the gods and goddesses of heathenism were in their estimation the destructive powers of darkness, the fallen spirits, the principalities and powers that rule in the air, of whom the Scriptures speak. It is not to be denied, that in this they went farther than the Bible authorized them to go. But it must be maintained, on the other hand, that they had laid hold of the substantial truth contained in the Bible; whilst their error was merely formal, and confined exclusively to their doctrinal exposition of that truth. But modern theology, both believing and sceptical, by denying all objective reality to the heathen deities, and pronouncing them nothing but creations of the imagination, has departed altogether from the truth, and rendered it impossible to understand either heathenism itself, or the conflict which is carried on by the kingdom of God against the powers of heathenism." The question is a very wide one and of great interest. Moses and Aaron were warned, that when they should appear before Pharaoh he would demand a sign from them:-You say that Jehovah has sent you. Show me a proof that he whom you name has power to do all that you threaten. "Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents" (vii. 10, 12). The word for "serpent" here is tannin, and is evidently interchangeable with nahash (iv. 3)-see also under Gen. i. 21. The fact that the magicians were able to do as Aaron had done, is corroborative of the view now given as to the gods of Egypt. Though Jehovah had manifested his supremacy-for Aaron's rod swallowed up their rodsthe king's heart was hardened by the display of supernatural power by his magicians. To adduce, as the explanation of this apparent power, their skill in trickery, in snake-charming, is as little in keeping with the context as it is derogatory to the demands and signs made through Moses and Aaron. The first plague fell on the Nile. This they worshipped. "Osiris was the fertilizing river, the fruitful land of Egypt was his spouse.' The words of the threatening refer to the great river only. The commission to work the miracle (ver. 19) includes all the waters of Egypt-river and rill, pond and pool, and even what the people had taken in for household use, water in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. The realization of the miracle, like the threatening, deals chiefly with the Nile, but of the exact fulfilment of the judgment there can be no doubt. In sending this curse room had been left for the magicians to try their power. As in the case of the serpents so here; "the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments; and Pharaoh's heart was hardened." The expressions of verse 19, which seem to demand that the judgment should not only be wide spread, but universal, must be looked at in the light of verse 22, from which it is clear, that there were still waters on which it had not fallen. Yet "there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt." In order to understand the severity of this plague, and its hateful character to the Egyptians, reference must be made to the mythology of Egypt. Foremost among the legends of the people was that of Osiris and his spouse Isis, both born of Nutpe, who answers to the goddess Rhea of the Greeks and Latins, the daughter of Heaven (Coelus) and Earth (Terra). To Nutpe were also born Typhon and Nephthys his wife-two who are ever in direct antagonism to the good deities, Osiris and Isis. Typhon was the representative of the evil principle the source of all cruelty, oppression, violence, murder, and physical misery. Blood was ever associated with him. To touch it was pollution. In this plague they saw the triumph, as they would think, of the hated Typhon; and the waters which they had regarded as the spouse of their benevolent divinity, herself adored, no longer offered them nourishment, but thrust on their notice wherever they found them the loathed presence of the head of all evil. They turned away with disgust from everything which reminded them of Typhon. "In some parts of Egypt a prejudice existed against the trumpet; and the people of Busiris and Lycopolis would never use it, because the sound resembled the braying of an ass, which, being the emblem of Typhon, gave them very unpleasant sensations, by reminding them of the Evil Being."-(Wilkinson.) In their efforts to propitiate this abhorred deity, they offered the, so-called, Typhonic victims, which were chosen from their resemblance to blood, as red oxen, and even red-haired strangers, or typhonic men. Throughout the whole land of Egypt, the people, by means of this plague, were made to feel that contempt had been poured on the idols in which they trusted; while they were forced to endure great hardship by the seven days' continuance of the judgment. They had no water; the fish on which they counted for a supply of food died and began to corrupt; the river itself stank. Such results of the miracle show how far from the truth that hypothesis is, which traces the redness to the usual yearly inundation of the Nile, at which season its waters are for a time of this colour. But then it is that they are most highly esteemed by the Egyptians, and yield the most abundant supply of food to the fishes. The miracle demands the belief that the waters were as thoroughly changed into blood, as the water at the marriage feast of Cana was into wine. In both the same almighty power is to be seen working. EXODUS VIII. that FTER seven days, Moses was sent with another demand and threatening" Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up, and come into thine house, and into thy bed-chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine Jovens, and into thy kneading-troughs: and the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Entreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord" (ver. 1-8). Moses entreated for Pharaoh and his people-" And the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields, and they gathered them together upon heaps; and the land stank." "Frogs" (Heb. tzephardea) are mentioned only in this chapter and in other three passages of Scripture, two of which refer to this plague: "He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; "Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, In the chambers of their kings." (Ps. cv. 30.) The other passage is Rev. xvi. 13, in which the frog is named as an emblem of an unclean spirit" I saw three unclean spirits like frogs (Gr. batrachor) come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet." In the Egyptian mythology the creative attribute of the supreme god was named Pthah, one of whose emblems was the frog. This association. is no doubt to be traced to the prolific character of the female, one of which will spawn from one to two thousand so-called eggs in one season. As the people met with it on the banks of the Nile, and noticed its slime-like spawn covering the pools among the reeds and rushes, their thoughts would rise to the creative Pthah. But here the creature linked up with their ideas of increase, and of the care of their god, leaves its accustomed places on the margin of the river, and spreads over the land, entering alike the cottage of the peasant and the palace of the king. That which they had been in the habit of regarding with feelings akin to reverence, came now to be abhorred. The very agents to whom they might have looked for protection against. them aggravated the plague. The magicians tried their power, and succeeded in bringing frogs where before they were not, but were helpless when asked to remove them. That the king entreated Moses to stay the plague, shows both that his magicians had tried and found themselves helpless to do so. The species of frogs most common in Egypt would, in all likelihood, be those in connection with which the miracle was worked. These are -the common frog (Rana temporaria), the edible frog (R. esculenta), and the dotted frog (R. punctata). We have no material for a nearer determination of species; so that to fix on the last named as having been that sent on Egypt, is wholly arbitrary. The front feet of the frog, fig. 2, are cloven, the four toes being separated by three deep clefts. The hind feet, fig. 3, are palmate, or webbed, and fit the animal for swimming with ease and agility. The mouth, fig. 4, is wide, and in some species, as, for example, the |