Gently slumber'd on the wave
The new-born seer of old,
Ordained the chosen tribes to save;
Nor deem'd how darkly roll'd
The waters by his rushy bark,
Perchance e'en now defiled
With infant's blood for Israel's sake,
Blood of some priestly child.
What recks he of his mother's tears,
His sister's boding sigh?
The whispering reeds are all he hears,
And Nile, soft weltering nigh,
Sings him to sleep, but he will wake,
And o'er the haughty flood
Wave his stern rod; and lo! a lake,
A restless sea of blood!
Joseph had been dead now many, many years. Pharaoh too had died, and a new Pharaoh was on the throne.
And all these years the children of the twelve brothers had grown up and passed away. Many children had been born to them; and these too had grown up and passed away, leaving their children now in the land of Egypt.
The children of the twelve brothers had been called Israelites, because to Jacob had been given the name Israel. From out the clouds had God spoken to him and said, "Thou shalt henceforth be called Israel."
Now, the Israelites had always been a people apart from the Egyptians. They had kept the faith of their fathers in the midst of the idolatry of the land in which they lived.
The new Pharaoh hated these Israelites and made slaves of them. He gave them all manner of hard work to do; and at one time ordered them, on penalty of their lives, to make for him bricks without straw.
At another time he sent out his soldiers, and bade them slay every little Israelitish boy in the land, that thus the race might be exterminated.
But this was not to be. For, you remember, it was prophesied away back in the days of Abraham, that, though the Israelites should go out from their land and live for 400 years, yet again the time would come when they should return to Canaan, the land the Lord had blessed to them.
Now, at the time Pharaoh sent out the cruel command, there was among the Israelites one mother, of the family of Levi, who had a beautiful little baby boy.
"My baby shall not be slain," she said. So she took him down to the river, made a little basket, placed him in it, and hid him in the bulrushes.
Every day, and many times a day, she went down to see that he was comfortable and to carry him food.
But one day the daughter of the king came down to the water to bathe. Straight towards the place where the baby was she came, while Miriam, the baby's sister, hid among the bulrushes, trembling with fear.
"See this poor little baby!" said the princess; and the tears came in her eyes. "It is one of the children of the Israelites," she said, "hidden here from the cruel soldiers."
Then the kind woman lifted it from its little basket and held it close to her heart.
Now, Miriam was a wise little girl; and when she saw that the princess was kind, she came out from the bulrushes and said, "Shall I not bring you a good woman to nurse the little baby for you?"
Then the princess bade her go with speed, for already the baby was beginning to cry.
Miriam ran and brought the baby's mother.
"Take this child, good woman," said the princess, "and bring it up as your own. It shall be my child, and I will name it Moses, because I drew him out of the water."
And so the little baby was taken back to its old home, and every day the princess sent to know if it were well; and often she came herself, bringing gold for its nurse and fine linen for the child.
When the baby grew to be a boy the princess sent him to the wisest teachers in the land, that he might himself grow wise and great.
But the true mother of Moses had taught him the religion of his fathers, and had told him the story of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. She had told him, too, of the promise of God, that sometime the Israelites should again possess the land of Canaan.
To Moses this was a wonderful story; and he wished often that he might be the prophet that was to deliver his people.
One day Moses saw an Egyptian cruelly beating an Israelite. His heart burned with indignation, and he fell upon the Egyptian and slew him.
Then Moses fled out into the wilderness; for he knew he had offended against the law.
On through the wilderness he pressed, till he came into the field where a priest named Jethro lived. Jethro gave him food and shelter; and it came about that Moses became one of Jethro's family. For a long time he dwelt among these people, tending their flocks, and thinking about his poor people, suffering in their bondage to the Egyptians.