_THE CALL OF MOSES._ FIRST READING. "I have surely seen the affliction of My people."--_Exodus 3:7._ YOU heard how Joseph brought his father and brothers and their children to live in Egypt. Their children's children went on living there for many years, till they had come to be a great people, and were called the children of Israel; but then the King of Egypt grew cruel to them. He made them work very hard to make bricks and build towns for him; and what was still worse, he ordered that whenever a little boy was born to the children of Israel, he should be thrown into the river and drowned. One mother hid her little baby for three months, and when she could not hide him any longer, she put him into a little cradle of bulrushes covered over with pitch, to keep the water out, and let the cradle float on the river, leaving the little boy's sister to watch him. Presently a lady, no other than the daughter of the cruel king, came down to bathe in the river. She saw the little cradle, and had it brought to her. The little baby was crying, and the lady pitied him and took him home, to bring up for her own child. She wanted a nurse for him, and his sister fetched his own mother, and she became his nurse. His name was Moses, and we hear about him in the Lesson to-day. He was not living with the king's daughter now. The king had grown angry with him because he cared for his own people, and he had had to flee away and keep sheep in the wilderness. [Illustration: MOSES AND THE TABLES OF THE LAW.] And there he saw a great wonder. He saw a flame of fire in a bush, and yet the bush was not burnt. And God's voice spoke to him out of the fire that did not burn, and told him that the troubles of His people, the children of Israel, were to come to an end. God would save them from the cruel Egyptians; and Moses himself was to go and lead them out, and bring them to the good land that God had promised that Abraham's children should have for their own. Moses was to go and tell the King of Egypt that it was God's will that they should go. Moses was afraid at first, but God promised to help him. [Illustration: PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER FINDING MOSES.--Ex. 2:5, 6.] QUESTIONS. 1. Who was Moses? 2. Where was he put when he was a baby? 3. Why was he put on the river? 4. Who had said the little boys were to be drowned? 5. Whose babies were they that were to be drowned? 6. What other cruel things did the King of Egypt do to the children of Israel? 7. Who were called the children of Israel? 8. What became of Moses in his bulrush cradle? 9. Who brought him up? 10. Did he stay with the king's daughter? 11. Whom did he care for? 12. What wonder did Moses see? 13. Who spoke to him? 14. What was God going to do for His people? 15. What land would he give them? SECOND READING. "And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord?"--_Exodus 5:2._