THE FINDING OF MOSES.

JACOB was also called Israel, and his descendants Israelites, or the children of Israel, and they increased so rapidly in Egypt after the death of Joseph that the land was full of them. Pharaoh, who had behaved so generously to Joseph and his family, was dead, and another king Pharaoh reigned over Egypt; he was jealous of the Israelites, and treated them with such cruelty that he commanded that every male child should be thrown into the river Nile.

A certain Hebrew woman, of the family of Levi, had a child that was remarkable for its beauty and noble appearance, and, instead of obeying Pharaoh's cruel command, she hid her babe for three months. But she was corstantly in fear of detection and punishment; so she made a little ark of bulrushes, and put her child in it, and laid it down among the tall flags and rushes that grew by the side of the stream, and set her daughter to stand at a distance and watch what should pass.

After a time, Pharaoh's daughter, with a troop of young Egyptian maidens, came to the river to bathe in the cool of the evening, and the princess saw the little ark of bulrushes, and bade her maidens bring it to her. When it was opened, the infant looked in her face and wept, and her heart was touched with pity. Then the young girl approached, and said to the princess, "Shall I get a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" The princess consented, and the girl brought the mother of the infant. Then the princess said, "Nurse this child, and I will pay you for your trouble; and when it is old enough, I will adopt it as my own; and let his name be called Moses, because I rescued him from the river." Thus was the infant saved from death to become a great lawgiver, and the leader of his people.