*Chapter xii., v. 29. In this verse is related the horrible consummation of a series of plagues which God had caused to fall on the Egyptians. And why all this punishment? Was it because the Egyptians as a nation had oppressed the Israelites? If so, the cattle, the trees, and the green herbs were sharers in the punishment although not in the offence, and the Egyptians could never have oppressed the Israelites if it had not been permitted by the Omnipotent Deity who had sworn to protect and cherish them. Was the punishment because Pharaoh would not let the Children of Israel go? If so, what had the first-born of the 'maid-servant in the mill and of the captive in the dungeon' to do with his offence? But even Pharaoh was specially controlled by God; in chap, iv., v. 21, chap, vii., v. 3, chap, ix., v. 12, chap, x., vv. 1, 20, and 27, chap, xi., v. 10, and chap, xiv., v. 4, we have distinct repetitions of the statement that God himself hardened Pharaoh's heart and prevented him from allowing the Children of Israel to go. Then, why all this punishment? In chap, ix., v. 16, chap, x., v. 2, and chap. xiv. v. 4, we are told that God raised Pharaoh up for the very purpose of smiting him and his people, so that the name of God might be declared throughout all the earth, that the Israelites might worship the Lord, and that the name of God might be honoured amongst the Egyptians; and to attain this result, God plagues and torments the Egyptian nation with most painful and destructive plagues, killing the first-born in every family, from him that sat on the throne to the captive in the dungeon, and ending by drowning Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. The religious thinker who attempts to contemplate this horrible picture, and who might, perhaps, be tempted to blaspheme by questioning God's justice and goodness, will be saved from this dilemma by a consciousness of the falsity of the whole tale, which is manifested in a most ridiculous manner. According to chap, ix., vv. 3 and 6, all the cattle of the Egyptians, their horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep, were killed by the murrain; by verse 10 of the same chapter, a boil breaking forth with blains is sent upon the same cattle; by verse 19 the Egyptians are cautioned to gather in _their already dead cattle_ lest they should again die from the effects of the hail, and those who feared the Lord amongst the servants of Pharaoh made his _dead_ cattle flee into the house lest they should be killed again, and those who did not fear the Lord had their cattle killed a second time by the hail; in chap, x., v. 25, Moses asks Pharaoh to give him some of his _twice killed_ cattle that he may kill them a third time as sacrifices to the Lord; in chap. {53} xii., v. 29, God, in the night, kills the first-born of all the cattle, some of which must have been _thrice_ killed; yet, despite all this (notwithstanding they had all been killed by the murrain, nearly killed over again by the