Moses, it seems, cried unto God; but whether because there was some implied unbelief in it, or because there was no time and no further need of prayer, the Lord answered――“Why criest thou unto me? _Speak unto the people that they go forward!_” The time for action and for placid trust in God had fully come.――――But that deep Red Sea lies across thy path; lift up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea and _divide it_; let Israel march through it dry-shod. The uplifted rod of Moses was the signal for the uplifted hand of God by which he forced the waters from their channel by a strong east wind all that night and made the bed of the sea dry for his people to pass over. The miracle in this case was exerted upon the wind rather than upon the water. God caused the east wind to blow strongly just when its effect was needed for the end in view. He turned the wind and hurried the waters back upon the Egyptians just when the opportune moment came for burying them beneath its mountain waves. If his wisdom had chosen to do so, his Almighty hand could just as easily have annihilated so much of the Red Sea waters as lay in the way of his people till they had passed its dry bed, and then have reproduced them for the destruction of Egypt. But in his mighty works God does not seek display but rather results, and these ordinarily by using only the least amount of supernatural agency which will suffice. It is of little account to attempt to fix the law of miracles, yet we may not infrequently observe the same method as is apparent here.