I closed, dear mother, my account of the death of the great and good Queen Amense (which I wrote the day following that sad event), in order to accompany Remeses to the chief embalmers. As I passed through the streets, I saw that the whole population was in mourning. Women went with dishevelled hair, men ceased to shave their heads and beards, and all the signs of woe for death, which I have before described, were visible. By the laws of Egypt, not even a king can be embalmed in his own palace. Remeses, on reaching the suburb of the embalmers, was received into the house of the chief, and here he gave directions as to the fashion of the case and sarcophagus, and the pattern of the funeral car, and of the baris in which it was to cross the Nile to the pyramid which, I have already said, she has been, since the first year of her reign, erecting for her burial-place—placing a casing of vast stones, brought down from the quarries near Elephantis, each year.
I will not delay to describe the ceremonies of preparation, nor the embalmment and burial of the august lady whose demise has cast a pall over Egypt. Your assurance that it would take you five months to get ready your war-fleet against Cyprus, and the desire of Remeses that I delay until the eighty days' mourning for the queen were over, induced me to remain. It is now four days since her burial in the centre of her stately pyramid, with the most imposing and gorgeous rites ever known at the entombment of a monarch. Prince Mœris was chief mourner! I have omitted to state that he readily acceded to the conditions proposed in the letter of Remeses, and when the courier followed, conveying to him the fact that he had been adopted and declared her heir by the queen, he addressed a frank and friendly letter to Remeses; for it is easy for him to assume any character his interest prompts. As soon as the intelligence of the death of the queen reached him, he hastened to Memphis. Here he had an interview with Remeses, whom he treated with courtesy, and offered the supervision of that part of Egypt where the Hebrew shepherds dwell; for I have learned that in a valley, which leads from Raamses to the Sea of Arabia, there are hundreds of Hebrews who, like their ancestors, keep vast flocks and herds belonging to the crown, but out of which they are allowed a tenth for their subsistence. Over this pastoral domain, embracing about twenty thousand shepherds, the prospective Pharaoh proposed to place Remeses. I felt that it was intended as an insult; but Remeses viewed it as an evidence of kindness on the part of one who knows not how to be noble or great.
The interment of the queen past, there is nothing to detain either Remeses or myself longer in Egypt. By her bounty he is rich, and has given to his parents a large treasure, which will enable them to be at ease; and besides, the queen gave to them and to Aaron (this is the name of the elder brother of Remeses), and his sister, the right of citizenship. Mœris, the day of the queen's burial, virtually ascended the throne. His coronation, however, will not take place until after he has passed through the forty days' novitiate.
And now, my dear mother, you will be surprised to learn that, the information of the Hebrew birth of Remeses (who has modestly dropped his first Egyptian name and adheres only to the second, which is Mosis, or Moses, as the Hebrews pronounce it), was wickedly conveyed, with large bribes, to the magicians by Prince Mœris himself; and that, upon this information and influence, they recalled from the past, which, like the future, is open to their magical art, the scenes of his life, and presented them before his vision.
Wonderful, incomprehensible, dear mother, above all things I have seen in Egypt, is the mysterious power of these magicians and sorcerers. Originally of the priestly order, they have advanced into deeper and deeper mysteries, until the hierarchy of the regular temple-worship fear them, and deny their ecclesiastical character, saying, "that they have climbed so high the mountains of Osiris, that they have fallen headlong over their summits into the dark realms of Typhon, and owe their dread power to his auspices."
Whatever be the source of their powerful art, dear mother, there is no doubt of its reality. Not even all the invocations, sacrifices, oblations, prayers, libations, and exercises of the regular priesthood can compete with these magicians and sorcerers. They can convert day into night! destroy the shadow of an obelisk! fill the air with a shower of sand, or of flowers! convert their rods into vines that bear grapes! and walk with living asps as if they were almond or acacia rods! They can present before the inquirer, the face or scene in a distant land that is desired to be beheld! They can remove blocks of porphyry by a touch of the finger, and make a feather heavy as gold! They can cause invisible music in the air, and foretell the rain! And when extraordinary motives and rewards are brought to bear upon them, they can, by their united skill and necromantic art, aided by sorcery, reproduce the past, as in the case of Remeses!
These powerful, yet dreaded and hated men, have for ages been an appendage to the crown, and call themselves the "servants of the Pharaohs." The kings of Egypt, who have protected, favored, and sought their assistance, have also trembled at their power. Without question they are aided by the evil genii; and perform their works through the agency of the spirit of evil.
This, dear mother, will be the last letter I shall write you from Egypt. Accompanied by Remeses, I shall to-morrow embark in my galley for Pelusium. My friend, the Admiral Pathromenes, will accompany us to the mouth of the Eastern Nile. I ought to say that King Mœris, now Pharaoh-elect, has extended towards me marked civilities, and seeks for a continuance of friendly intercourse. I shall bear a royal letter from him to your majesty, expressive of his respect for you, and his desire to perpetuate the alliance. But I have no love for the man! If I can, I will raise an army in Phœnicia, after I see the King of Cyprus chained to the poop of my galley, and, placing Remeses at the head, invade Egypt, call the Hebrews to arms, and, overturning the throne of Mœris, place my friend in his seat. Did not the dying queen prophesy that he was born to rule? It is over Egypt he will yet wield the sceptre! I will do my part, dear mother, to fulfil the prophecy.
To the lovely Princess Thamonda convey my devotions, and assure her that I shall make war against Cyprus more successfully, with her heart wedded to mine, than alone. Warn her, dear mother, that I shall claim her hand as soon as I return, and that Remeses will be the groom-friend whom I shall honor with the high place of witness and chief guest at our nuptials.
Farewell, dear mother.
Remeses desires to unite with me in affectionate regards to you.
[Here the correspondence of the Prince of Tyre with the Queen Epiphia terminates.]
REMESES TO AARON THE HEBREW.
It is with emotions wholly new to me, awakened by those fraternal ties to which I have been hitherto entirely a stranger, that I take up my pen to address you, inscribing at the commencement of my letter the endearing words, "my brother!" It is true I have lost much in many respects; but I have also gained much in the affection of my newly discovered kindred.
After you left us below Memphis, the galley of the Prince Sesostris sped swiftly down the Nile, and ere noon we had entered the Pelusian branch. As I passed the old city of Bubastis, and Pythom, the new treasure-city, which is rising upon its ruins, I groaned with heaviness of heart! Around and upon its walls, I beheld the thousands of my oppressed countrymen toiling, like Nubian slaves, under the lash of their taskmasters! I could only groan in heart; for what was I now able to do for them,—myself an exile, and flying from the land? May the prophecy which exists among your people (my people), as you asserted in the last long and interesting conversation we held together, on the day I embarked, be soon fulfilled! This bondage cannot continue many years! There is not room in Egypt for two nations!
At Pelusium we found the prince's fleet awaiting him. It set sail shortly after our arrival, and coasting by the shores of Arabia, and passing Askelon, in Philistia, in seven days we entered the port of Tyre; which is built upon a rocky isle and peninsula, and rises from the sea with imposing magnificence.
I was most kindly received by the mother of Sesostris, whose glad reception of her son made my eyes fill with tears; for I remembered my (I was going to say, mother)—the Queen Amense's tenderness, whenever she met me after the shortest absence.
But I must not refer to the past.
Prince Sesostris treats me in every respect as an equal. Were I still Prince Remeses of Egypt, he could not show me more kindness and regard. We have now been here one month; and in that time I have seen much of Tyre, but my continued grief for the death of the beloved queen,—my more than mother,—renders me quite indifferent to external objects. As the guest of the prince, I have endeavored to interest myself in what concerns him. He is engaged earnestly in preparations for war. The port of Tyre is thronged with war-galleys; and reviews of troops take place daily, on a plain which is overhung by the mountain-range of Libanus. The grandeur of this mountain, in which the earliest worship of men rose to the gods, deeply impressed me. The fleet will sail in about one month.
Since writing the above I have come to this beautiful city, which lies in a lovely vale watered by two rivers, the Abana and Pharphar, that fertilize it and render it indeed "the garden of the earth"—as it is termed. I travelled hither with the prince, who has come to take to wife Thamonda, the fair princess of this city. She is amiable and sensible, and I rejoice that my princely friend has such happiness in store! How fortunate for me, my brother, that while I was Prince of Egypt, I did not interest myself in any princess, who would be now humbled and wretched at my degradation! The nuptial ceremonies will take place soon, and occupy some days. I wish Sesostris every happiness in his alliance.
I met here the venerable Prince of Uz. He had travelled thus far on his return to his own land, which lies on the borders of Chaldea and Sabæa, and when informed of my present position was deeply moved. We have had long and interesting conversations together, upon the unity of God! which have so deeply absorbed my reflections, that I have accepted an invitation to visit him, after I return from Cyprus, whither I accompany the prince and his bride.
My beloved Sesostris is married. The ceremonies were unusually magnificent;—several kings of cities and princes of provinces being present, with their retinues. But I do not excel in descriptions of scenes and festivities, and leave them to the more graceful and easy pen of Sesostris. We depart in three days with a gala procession of horsemen, to return to Tyre.
Having kept this roll of papyrus with me, I now close my epistle here, where I commenced writing it, with the intelligence of our arrival; the happy reception of her new daughter-in-law, by Queen Epiphia; and with the announcement that the fleet will set sail within three days for the Levantine island-kingdom.
Commend me, my brother, with respectful affection, to my father Amram, to my honored mother, and to my stately sister, Miriam. Trusting you are all in health and safety, I am your brother, with profound fraternal regard,
REMESES TO HIS BROTHER.
A year has passed, my brother, since I last wrote to you. In the mean while I have received your very kind epistle. It reached me at Tyre, where I found it awaiting me, on my return from the expedition against Cyprus. You have probably learned the result of the war, and that Prince Sesostris landed his army, defeated the King of Cyprus in a pitched battle, taking his battalion of chariots, which were armed with scythes, and destroying his cavalry. The king implored peace, and surrendered his capital. Sesostris, after levying a tribute of two thousand talents of silver upon it for ten years, and demanding a portion of the island, on the north, for a Phœnician colony, returned triumphant to his country.
I am now travelling through the whole of Syria. From this point I shall proceed to the province of Uz. I desire to know more fully this wisdom of the One God, the Almighty, as taught by the Sage of that land. When I saw him in Damascus, a year ago, I informed him that I had begun to write an account of the wonderful incidents of his life; but when I read to him what I had commenced, and afterwards heard his conversation upon the God he worshipped, I perceived that I was a child in ignorance, and had entered upon a task impossible for me to perform, by reason of my religious education as an Egyptian.
"My son," he said, "thou art not far from the knowledge of the Almighty, and thy soul aspires after the true God. Come with me to my own land, for thou sayest thou art a wanderer, and I will teach thee the knowledge of the Holy One. Then thou mayest write the acts of the Invisible to man, and justify Him in His ways to me, His servant. The gods of Egypt darken knowledge, and veil the understanding of those who trust in them, and say to an idol of gold, 'Thou art my god.'"
I am now journeying, O my brother, to sit at the feet of this man of God, whose simple wisdom has enlightened my soul more than all the learning of Egypt; nay, I would gladly forget all the knowledge I obtained in Egypt, to know, and fear, and love the "Holy One"—the Almighty God—of the Prince of Uz. What is particularly worthy of note is, that his views of the Invisible are the same as those which you taught me were held by the elders among our people; and of the truth of which you so eloquently and feelingly endeavored to convince me, on the evening before my departure from Egypt, as we sat by the door of our mother's home, under the two palms. Dissatisfied with the gods of Egypt, and the emptiness and vanity of its worship, as not meeting the wants of man, I turn to any source which will pour the light of truth into my soul. We both, brother, are feeling after God, if haply we may find Him; for I perceive that your own soul is darkened and clouded as well as mine, by the dark myths of Egypt, in which we have been educated. But let us both take courage, my noble elder brother. There is light, there is truth, there is knowledge somewhere on earth! and I go to the aged Prince of Uz to learn of him. Sitting at his feet, I will empty myself of all the false and unsatisfying wisdom of Egypt, and meekly say, "I am ignorant—enlighten me! Teach me concerning thy God, for I know that He is the God my soul longs for, whom the nations know not!"
Your letter spoke of Pharaoh, and his cruelty and power. I am prepared to hear that he takes new measures to heap burdens upon our people. The Lake Amense, which you say he is enlarging to an inland sea, will destroy thousands of the Hebrews whom you tell me he is putting to the work; for, unaccustomed to labor in the water, they must perish miserably. I trust he will suffer you and my father's family to dwell unmolested. Be prepared at any moment to escape, should he seek to destroy the prosperity in which the beloved queen left you, and those dear to me by the sacred and affectionate ties of nature.
Farewell.
REMESES-MOSES TO AARON.
I have been here now one year. The venerable prince honors me as a son, and I repay him, so far as I can, by instructing him in the history of Egypt, and other knowledge; for, so great is his wisdom, he seeks ever to know more. In astrology, physics, geometry, and all arts, he is deeply learned. But above all, is his knowledge of the Almighty. This man has the mysteries of God in his heart, and to the eyes of his divine piety, the Most High is visible as He is. He hath spoken to the Lord of heaven face to face, and he communicates with Him as a servant with his lord.
When I came hither, after visiting Baal-Phegor and other places, he received me with affection, and gave me rooms in his palace, and servants, and a place at his table. I found him dwelling in a city he himself had builded, and reigning the wealthiest, wisest, and yet humblest prince in all the East. Around it lay the cities of Shuh, Teman, and Naamath, the lesser princes of which are his bosom friends, and once a week meet at his hospitable board. They hang upon the words of his lips, and reverence him as a father. He also possesses vast herds of cattle and oxen, which cover his plains; fourteen thousand sheep are on his mountains; six thousand camels; and stores of silver and gold. He has seven sons, who are princes of as many provinces, and three daughters, the youngest of whom, Keren-happuch, is married to the Lord of Midian; for when the Prince of Uz, three years ago, travelled down into Egypt with a large caravan of his merchants, he passed through Midian, having this daughter in company, who, being comely in person, was admired by the prince of that land, and by him asked in marriage of her father. Of the two daughters who remain, no women in all the land are found so fair. Such is the prosperity and power of this mighty and wise prince.
Now, at length, my dear brother, I have written the book of the life of this venerable man; not as I began it in Egypt, with imperfect ideas of the God of heaven, whose servant he is, but from his own lips have I received the narrative which I inclose to you. When you have read it, you will arrive at the knowledge of the Almighty, whose name, and glory, and being, and goodness, and justice, and love, are recognized in every page. As you read, reflect that the God of the Prince of Uz is also my God, and the God worshipped by our fathers when they were in Syria. Away, O Aaron! with all the gods of Egypt! They are brazen and golden lies, all! The myth of Osiris and Isis is an invention of the priests. The whole system of their mythology is hostile to true religion, and the adorers of idols are the worshippers of Satan—for this is the name of that spirit of evil, antagonistic to the true God, hitherto represented to us under the title of Typhon.
It would take a score of papyri for me to convey to you the course of divine and sage instruction by which I arrived at that clear, luminous, and just notion of the Lord God of heaven and earth, which I now hold; the possession of which fills my soul with repose, my intellect with satisfaction, my heart with joy, peace, and love to God and man. With this certain knowledge of the Almighty that has entered into my soul, is an apprehension of His omnipresence, His truth, holiness, majesty, and benevolence; and a consciousness that I have received his Divine Spirit, which last is, as it were, a witness vouchsafed of Himself to me. By the light of this new spirit within me I behold His glory, and recognize that He is my God, my Creator, my Benefactor, and Lawgiver. I feel that in Him I live, move, and have my being, and that besides Him there is no God. The realization of these majestic truths, O my brother, is a source to me of the profoundest happiness. Before their light the dark clouds of the myths of Egypt dissolve and fade away forever!
When I speak of Him I find new language rise to my lips: when I write of Him my words seem to clothe themselves with sublimity and majesty. Henceforth, like the holy Prince of Uz, I am a worshipper of One God, whose name is the Almighty, and the Holy One.
To Sesostris I have written of these great things, and to you also I will send a treatise, that you may, without obscurity, behold His unity and glory as they were known to our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, before the false worship of Egypt corrupted our hereditary faith. With this knowledge, O Aaron, our people, even in bondage, are superior to Pharaoh on his throne.
REMESES TO MIRIAM.
I received your letter, written to me from Bubastis. I grieve to hear that King Mœris is increasing so heavily the burdens of our people, as to drive to the fields, and to the new lake to which he has given his name, all who were servants in houses. Unused to toil under the sun, they will suffer more than others. I read the copy of the edict you inclosed, forbidding the Egyptians to receive, as domestics, any of the Hebrew people, that so all might be driven to become toilers in the field. His motive is evident. He is alarmed at the increase of the Hebrews, and would oppress them, to death by thousands. My heart bleeds for those he has sent to the mines in the Thebaïd. This is a new feature in the Hebrew bondage. But there is a just God on high, O my sister Miriam, the Holy One, whom our fathers worshipped. He will not forget his people forever, but in due time will bring them out of their bondage. Has not Aaron, our learned brother, made known to you the words of tradition that are cherished among our people,—that they are to serve Pharaoh a certain number of years, forty-one of which are yet to come? He sent me the copy thereof, wherein I find it written, as the declaration of Abraham our father, that "his posterity should serve Pharaoh four hundred years." Aaron, who, since I left Egypt, has been giving all his time to collecting the traditions, and laws of our fathers, is confident that ere another generation shall have perished, God will raise up a deliverer for the sons of Jacob, and lead them forth to some new and wonderful land. If such a promise, O my sister, was given by the Almighty, He will redeem it; for He is not a man that He should lie! Let us therefore wait, and hope, and pray to this mighty God of our ancestors, to remember His promise, and descend from Heaven with a stretched-out arm for our deliverance. I rejoice to hear that my dear mother is well, also my father. Commend me to them with reverential affection. Aaron reads to you my letters, and you will have learned from them how I arrived at the knowledge of the true God, in whom, O Miriam, both you and he believed, while I, considering myself an Egyptian, was a worshipper of the false gods of Egypt! Yet, lo! by the goodness of the true God, I have been enabled, at the feet of the sage of Uz, to arrive at such clear conceptions of His glory, and majesty, and government of the universe, as to teach even you. I speak this not boastingly, but with gratitude to Him who has made me the instrument of illumining your mind, and of giving you greater confidence and trust in the God, who is the God of Abraham, and the God of the Prince of Uz.
I have now been five years absent from Egypt, and my heart yearns for my brethren in bondage. I feel that it is not becoming in me to remain here, at ease in the court of Sesostris; for he has now been two years king, since his royal mother's death, of which I wrote to my mother at the time. I pant to make known to the elders of the Hebrews, the clear and true knowledge of the God of our fathers, which has come down to them imperfectly, and mingled with superstitions, even when it is not corrupted by the idolatry of Egypt. I wish to learn the character and condition of my brethren in servitude, whom I formerly viewed from the proud height of an Egyptian prince. How I feel a desire to mingle among them to know them, and be one of them. All my Egyptian pride, dear sister, is long since gone, and I seek daily to cultivate that spirit of meekness, which better becomes one, who is of a race of bondmen. But, my sister, rather would I be a slave, chained at the chariot-wheel of Pharaoh-Mœris, with my present knowledge of the Holy and Almighty One,—compared with which all the wisdom of Egypt is foolishness,—than be that monarch himself with his ignorance of Him, and his worship of Osiris and Apis!
May the God of our fathers, by whose will we are in bonds, in His own time send us deliverance, to whom be glory and majesty, and dominion and power, in heaven and earth, to the end of ages.
REMESES TO HIS MOTHER.
In a letter written a few days ago, and which went by a vessel that was to touch at Pelusium on its way to Carthage, I alluded to a feeling (which has been increasing in strength for many months) that prompted me to visit my brethren in bonds in Egypt. It is true, I have no power. I am but one, and Mœris would, no doubt, gladly seize upon me if he knew I was in his kingdom. I have, however, determined to yield to the desire; and next month shall sail in a galley that goes to Egypt for ebony and ivory. Not long, therefore, after you receive this letter, which the scholarly Aaron will read to you, will you embrace your younger and long-absent son. It is expedient that I go unknown. I wish to observe the Hebrew people, without awakening suspicion, as to who I am. Should Mœris hear of me, he would quickly suspect me of planning evil against him. If I can do no more, I can carry to the elders the certainty of the truth, as they received it, by tradition, of One God, Lord of heaven and earth, Infinite in holiness, and Almighty in power. From the holy Prince of Uz, I not only received this, but many other things of wonderful interest—which he seemed to know by the voice of God—concerning the creation of the world in six days, and the formation of man and woman, whom he placed in a garden of beauty, with dominion over all things. But I will not go further into these divine and wonderful things, at this time, O my mother, as I shall hereafter read to you, from the sacred leaves, the narrative of the acts of creation, as they were written by the Prince and Prophet of Uz: to whom, before all men, has been revealed the truth of the Most High, and the mysteries which have been secret from eternity. Lo! the pages of the book of his patience under God's trial show, that no man on earth ever before had such illumination of divine light! Such language as that of his which I have written in the book, when he speaks of God, could only have been suggested by the inspiration of the Almighty. He talks of God as if he had sat at His feet, and daily beheld His glorious majesty, or heard His voice shake the heavens. Of him have I learned the wisdom of the past; and there whispers in my heart, O mother, a solemn voice, which bids me hope that if I fear God, and walk uprightly, and seek His face, and trust in Him, He will also draw nigh to me, unveil His glory, and speak face to face with me, as He hath done to His holy servant, the Prince of Uz! It shall be the aspiration of my heart, to be received into the divine favor as He has been, and made the recipient of His will, and of His laws for men! Censure me not,—charge me not with pride, O my mother! In the spirit of meekness and lowliness do I cherish this hope The path to the ear of God, and to His favor, the Prince of Uz hath taught me, is prayer. On bended knees, therefore, seven times a day, do I bow in supplication before the Holy One Almighty, the Lord God of Hosts; and more and more do I feel my spirit go forth to Him; and daily, the infinite distance between earth and His throne seems to lessen! Nor will I cease to pray to Him, O mother, until I hear His voice in my soul, and feel the intimate presence of His Being in union with my own! Then will I reach the height of humanity, which is the reunion of the creature with the Creator, the restoration in his soul of the divine image, and the reception into his own of a divine and immortal life!
My friend, King Sesostris, reluctantly consents to my departure. He has never ceased his affectionate regard for me, and he has called his beautiful son, now four years old, Remeses—after me. This child, I love as if he were mine own. He is intelligent and full of affection, and already understands that I am about to go away, and sweetly urges me not to leave him. The Queen Thamonda has prepared many gifts for you and my sister, whom she loves, though not having seen. Here, dear mother, the bondage and degradation of the Hebrew is not comprehended. We are not, in their eyes, crown-serfs. We are but a Syrian nation held in captivity; and other nations regard us with sympathy, and have no share in the contempt and scorn with which we are regarded by our Egyptian taskmasters.
Israelisis the Hebrew, whom Sesostris brought with him five years ago to Tyre, is now a fine young man, and assistant secretary to his royal scribe. All that our people want, my mother, is to be placed in positions favorable to the development of their intellect, and they will rise, side by side, with any other people on earth. If we were a nation, with a country of our own, we would give laws to the world.
Farewell, my dear mother. In a few days you will embrace me.
REMESES IN EGYPT TO SESOSTRIS IN PHŒNICIA.
It is with gratitude to God, O Sesostris, that I inform you of my safe arrival in Egypt, after a perilous passage across the sea. Our chief pilot, finding, after we left the port of Tyre, that the wind was fair for the mouth of the Nile, and the weather seeming to be settled, signified to me his intention to leave the coast, and boldly steer from land to land. Having no knowledge of nautical affairs, I neither advised nor objected, leaving him to act according to his own experience and skill: he therefore laid the course of the ship as nearly straight for Pelusium, as he could ascertain it, by the position of the sun at noon.
Before night we were surrounded by a horizon of water, and this being the first time since I had lived on the earth, that I had been unable to behold it, the situation was wholly novel, not only to me but to other passengers,—some of whom manifested the liveliest fears, lest we should no more behold the land. My mind was impressed by the sublimity and vastness of the view; and the majestic idea of eternity—boundless and infinite—filled my soul. It seemed as if, from our deck, I could survey the universe of space, for there was nothing terrestrial to arrest and confine the eye.
"Who," I reflected, "as he surveys the illimitable sky, and the measureless ocean over which it extends, can withhold the confession that there is One God only, the Upholder of worlds and the Governor of His creation? Who, with such a scene before him, as day with its splendor and vastness of space, and night with its stars presented above the sea, could give the glory of the Almighty to another, and put his trust in such myths as are the gods of Egypt and the deities of Phœnicia?" I rejoice, O king, that you have listened to the truths it was my happiness to unfold to you, and that in your heart you acknowledge and secretly adore the Almighty. May the time soon come when you will have strength given you, from Himself, to establish His holy worship in your dominions! A king is God's representative on earth, and his power is great; and if he exercise it,—not like the Pharaohs, who reign as if they were gods, but—with judgment, and fear, and humble recognition of the Infinite source of all power, then He who is King of kings and Lord of lords, will bless him and cause him to prosper. When a king acknowledges that his power is delegated, and that he must be accountable for its use or abuse to his God, he has gained the highest wisdom that earth can give! Seek, O king, that wisdom!
Pardon me, my dear Sesostris, for presuming to teach you. I am diffident in speech when present with you, but you perceive I am bold, perhaps too much so, when away from you.
We continued, for three days and nights, sailing upon the sea, without a shore in view, and in a few hours more hoped to find the mouth of the Nile; when the wind, after a sudden lull, came round to the south, the air was darkened with clouds, and night came on, enveloping our ship in the profoundest gloom, amid which we drove, our pilot knew not whither! It was a night of painful suspense. The seas dashed over us; our banks of oars were broken or washed away; and not a cubit's breadth of sail could remain on the mast, while the air was filled with sharp sand, blown from the Arabian desert.
The passengers and crew were in despair, and believing that every succeeding billow would go over us and destroy us, they called frantically upon their gods! The Syrian cried to Hercules, and the Sabæan upon the sun and upon fire. The merchants of Tyre prayed to Adonis and Io, the Arabians to Ammon, and the Egyptians vowed libations and offerings to Apis, Osiris, and Thoth. Our pilot, finding all hope desert him, burned a cake of incense to the deity of the sea, and vowed an oblation to all the gods he could in his extremity call to mind.
Then it was, O Sesostris, that I felt the power and excellency of my faith in God! Then did the folly, the vanity, and degradation of the religions of those about me, deeply impress me, and move me to pity. Calm, serene, confident in the Almighty, who holdeth the sea in the hollow of His hand, and directeth the stormy winds and tempests of the skies, I lifted my heart and my voice to Him, whom, with the eye of instructed intelligence, I beheld seated above the darkness and the whirlwind, in the ineffable glory and peace of His own heaven, and directing all things by His will. I felt that He could protect and defend me, and those who sailed with me; that the night to Him was as clear as the day; and that even I was not too insignificant to be cared for by Him, who, in His love, gave voices of music to the little birds, who painted the lily, and perfumed the flower.
"O Lord God, Holy One, the Almighty, who art the Creator of all things, if I have found grace in Thy sight, hear my humble petition, which I now offer before Thee. Let Thy presence be here, and Thy power; save us who are tossed upon the great sea, and who have no hope but in Thee. These call upon their idols, but I, O Lord God, call upon Thee, the God of our fathers. Guard us in our danger, and bring us in safety to our haven! For Thou art the only true and living God, and besides Thee there is no God!"
All the people who heard my voice, as I thus invoked the Living God, and saw my hands outstretched heavenward, turned from their idols and amulets, and ceased their prayers and cries, to hear me. The lightnings flashed about us in a continual flame, so that the ship seemed on fire, and I could be seen by all.
Judge, O Sesostris, my surprise, when instantly the winds—which at the first word of my prayer softened—ceased to roar; the waves fell level with the sea; the clouds parted above us, and revealing a bright moon shining down from the starry sky, they rolled, on all sides, swiftly away towards the horizon.
This sudden and wondrous change, evidently in response to my prayer, as a proof that it was heard by the Ear to which I, in fear and hope, addressed it, amazed me. It was the power and act of my God! I felt it to be so, and lifting up my eyes and hands to the cloudless skies, I said—
"Thine, O Lord Almighty, thine be the praise and glory; for Thou art the hearer and answerer of prayer, and art loving to all Thy creatures. Thou hast power in heaven and on earth, and on the broad sea, nor is any thing hid from Thee. Darkness is no darkness with Thee, and no power can resist thine! Thanks be to Thee, O Lord God on high, for this manifestation of Thy presence, and this confirmation of my faith. Let these idolaters likewise glorify Thee, for whose sakes Thou hast also done this."
When I ceased, I beheld a crowd, made up of all nations, prostrate around me. The captain, turning away from his god, was burning incense before me, while the invocations of the crew and passengers were being offered to me. With horror I drew back and waved them away, saying, "Rise, men, stand upon your feet! Not unto me, not unto me, but unto God, the one invisible Creator, give thanks and praise for your mighty deliverance!"
I then made known to them the mystery of the true God, whose power they and I had witnessed, and exhorted them to turn from their idols, and worship Him in spirit and in truth; for that He was their Maker, and besides Him there was no God. Nevertheless, but for my stern anger against it, they would have sacrificed a sheep to me, as if I were Hercules.
In a few hours we reached Pelusium, and to escape the adulations of the people on shore, to whom the crew made known this miracle of God, I withdrew privately, and went to Bubastis. After visiting, unknown to them, the tens of thousands of my brethren, who are engaged in extending the walls of that place, and increasing the number of treasure-houses therein, I took boat and came hither secretly, for fear that Mœris, if he knew me to be in Egypt, might watch my movements, if not banish or imprison me.
I have now been several days in the bosom of my family. My mother and father are well; but they, and Miriam with all the other women of our nation, have tasks of weaving put upon them, which are to be done each day before they are permitted to sleep. My heart is deeply wounded at all this. On every side I behold oppression and cruelty. Daily, scores of the Hebrews perish, and their dead bodies are thrown into ditches, dug for the purpose, and covered with earth. Often, the wretched men who dig them are the first to occupy them, for the work goes on day and night. An edict has been published throughout all Egypt, within the past month, that no Egyptian shall assist a Hebrew; and that no Hebrew who sinks down under his toil, shall be suffered to remain upon the ground, but must be placed upon his feet again, and driven to his task, until he sinks to rise no more; and to such, neither bread nor water shall be offered, that they may die! Such, O king, is the heart of this Mœris!
Yet, with all these extraordinary measures, inspired by his fear, to lessen the number of the Hebrews, they increase in the most unprecedented manner. The women bring forth without midwives, and are put to no inconvenience whatsoever afterwards. Such a state of things alarms the Egyptian king, and well it may; for it seems to me to be a direct act of the Divinity, so to multiply the people, that Egypt will be compelled to liberate them, and send them forth to find a country of their own.
There is a prophecy which, as I associate more with the elders—who are slow, however, to give me their confidence, regarding me still as an Egyptian in feeling and prejudices—I ascertain to be well preserved, that, at the end of about four hundred years from the days of Prince Abraham, his descendants shall come out of Egypt a great nation. This period is drawing to its close. God, who can deliver from the storm, can deliver from the hand of Pharaoh those who trust in Him, and call for His Almighty arm to aid them.
Since writing the foregoing, my dear Sesostris—for such is the familiar title, notwithstanding the present difference in our rank and position, that you condescendingly permit me to make use of in addressing you—since writing the foregoing, I say, I have been studying the traditions of my fathers, the Hebrews of old. In them I have found the following prophecies; and you will observe how confidently God, the Almighty, is recognized and spoken of as the one true God:
"Our father Abram, the Syrian, having been born in the great kingdom of Chaldea, served idols, as did all other men—the knowledge of the one God, being yet veiled under the multiplicity of gods. Abram, being just, and possessing those virtues and excellencies which elevate man, it pleased the one great and mighty God, only and true—who made all things in heaven above, in the earth beneath, and in the seas that are thereunder—to make Himself known unto him, as he was one day uttering a prayer to the sun. Suddenly, he beheld a hand across the disk of the sun, and the earth was instantly covered with night. While Abram wondered and trembled, the mighty hand was removed, and the day was restored. Then came a voice from above the sun—
'O man, and son of man that is clay! dost thou worship the creature, and know not the Creator? I am the Creator of the sun, the heavens, the earth, and man upon the earth! Worship me, who alone can create light, and who maketh darkness! I am God, and will not give my glory to a creature! The sun is but clay, and thou, O man, art clay also! Give me thine heart; worship me, the Maker both of thee and of the sun!'
"Then Abram saw the hand again cover and extinguish the sun; but lo, instead of night, the universe was lighted by the brightness of the hand, which shone with the splendor of a thousand suns, so that our father fell upon his face, as if dead, before its consuming splendor. When he rose again, the sun shone as before, and he fell prostrate upon the ground and said:
"'Lord God of the sun, Creator of all things, what is man, that thou displayest thy glory and revealest thyself to him? I am as a worm before thee! Teach me what thou wouldst have me to do!'
"Then a still, small voice answered:
"'Arise, go forth from this Chaldea, thy country, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, which I will show thee; and there I will make of thee a great nation, who shall bear thy name; for I will make thy name great, and a blessing to all men; and those who bless thee I will bless, and those who curse thee, I will curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed!'"
This remarkable tradition then goes on to say, O Sesostris, that the Chaldean hastened to obey God, and going into the city of Haran, where he dwelt, gathered his substance, and took his wife, and nephew, and all his servants, and departed from the land—being then five-and-seventy years old. By a sign, the Lord God went before him through many lands, until he crossed over the river of the king of Sodom into Palestine, when the Almighty, taking him into a high mountain, showed him all the land, from the lake and fair valley of Gomorrah and Sodom to the great sea westward, and from Libanus on the north to the desert of Arabia on the south, saying:
"'Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward, and eastward and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed after thee! Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it to thee; for the whole earth is mine!'"
"Night fell upon them while they looked from the mountain, and the Lord God said to our father: 'Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars if thou art able to number them. So shall thy posterity be. But know thou,' said the Lord to him, 'that thou, and thy son, and thy son's son shall be strangers in this land, and thy seed after thee shall also be strangers in the land shadowing with wings, and shall serve its kings, and they shall afflict thee four hundred years; but grieve not, for the nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall thy posterity come out of that land a mighty people, with great substance; and he whom I will raise up as their deliverer, shall lead them unto this land, and they shall enter in and possess it, and shall become a great people, and be in number as the sands of the seashore, and as the dust for multitude.'"
Then Abram believed God. We, O Sesostris, are his posterity. Are we not as the stars of heaven in number, and as the sands of the shore? The four hundred years are drawing to a close. Will not He who has brought about the fulfilment of one part of His prophecy, accomplish also the other? Therefore do I look with hope to our release, ere another generation passes away. Who shall live to behold it? Who shall be so blessed as to see this deliverer that is to lead them forth to the promised land? I may not live to see that day of joyful deliverance! Perhaps thy son Remeses may behold it. That land, according to our tradition, is Palestine, through which I journeyed when I visited the ruins, visible above and beneath the Lake of Bitumen; near which, also, I beheld that extraordinary statue of an incrusted woman, on whom the shower of salt fell until it had encased her alive, and transfixed her to the spot, as if hewn from a column of salt. The people of that region informed me, that she was a niece of Prince Abram, overtaken in her flight, when the five cities of the plain were overthrown by fire from heaven. How beautiful is all that land of Palestine! It is like a garden for fertility, and is filled with populous cities, and a cultivated and warlike people. I also visited the city of Salem, where, anciently, King Melchisedec, the wise sage, and friend of God and of Abram, dwelt. It is now but a rock covered with fortresses and the treasure-city of the land. Is this land yet to be given by God to our people? Is it, indeed, already ours by the title of God to our Abram, only waiting for us to go up and possess it? We are then not without a country, though in bondage. This idea elevates my heart; and I have sought to rouse the dormant feelings and hopes of our elders and people, with the faith that our nation has a country reserved for us, by the God of our fathers.
But they shake their heads. They have so long sat in the dust of despair, that they have ceased to hope. Still, my brother Aaron and I everywhere try to lift up their feeble hearts, and to encourage them with the bright future. But one of the old men answered—
"Thou sayest that it is a land filled with a warlike people; that they are the descendants of the old Phœnician shepherd-kings, who once conquered Egypt. How, O son of Pharaoh's daughter," he added, giving me this appellation in his anger, "how can we Hebrews, who know not an arrow from a lance, or a spear from a bow, who are crushed in spirit and dwarfed by toil, how are we to conquer such a land, even if the God of our fathers has given it to us?"
"Does not this foreign land of which the stranger-Hebrew speaks," arose and said another, by the name of Uri,—whose son is the most skilful in Egypt in devising curious works in gold, and in silver, and in precious stones, having served with the queen's royal artificer,—"does it not lie beyond Arabia, and are there not many and strong kings in the way, the armies of Edom, of the Hittites, of the Philistines, and of the sons of Ishmael! Even though Pharaoh were to bid us begone to-morrow, to the new country of our God that we boast of, could we traverse the desert, or do battle with the nations on the way, much more conquer the warlike people who hold it? Listen not to this Egyptian-Hebrew, who doubtless would tempt us to leave Egypt, that we may be destroyed by the warlike people, who will dispute our march. Doubtless, Pharaoh, his former friend, hath sent him to talk with us that he might thereby either get rid of us, or seek occasion to destroy us in a body."
Thus, my dear Sesostris, were my words turned against me. Yet I will not fear, but shall quietly strive to influence my brethren, and persuade them to look forward with hope, to deliverance by the arm of God.
Farewell, Sesostris! May the Almighty give you His divine Spirit, and fill you with wisdom and judgment, that you may honor Him as King of kings, and rule your people mercifully and prosperously. To the beloved queen, Thamonda, I send the most respectful greetings; and thank her from my heart for giving to your daughter the dear and honored name, "Amense." May the virtues of the pure Queen of Egypt be transferred to her; but may her life be far happier! To my namesake, the bright and beautiful Remeses, give my cordial affection. Tell him that I hope, when he shall be a man, and like other princes, visit Egypt, he will not find the Hebrew nation there in bondage, and that, if he inquires after the people of his father's humble friend, he will be answered—
"Their God, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, led them forth to a land given to them for an inheritance, where they now dwell, free and happy!" Ah, Sesostris, shall this dream of hope thus be realized? Tell Remeses to lay a bunch of flowers for me upon the tomb of Queen Epiphia, whose memory and kindness I shall ever cherish deep in my heart.