In the Bible, slaves are often called bondmen and bond women. Persons who are not slaves are freemen. There have been slaves in every country, at all times. There are not so many slaves now in the world as there have been. Every year there are more and more freemen; perhaps in a few years there will be no slaves at all.

Negroes are now slaves in the United States, and in some islands of the West Indies.

The Spaniards, when they went to live in the West India Islands, treated the poor natives so badly that they almost all died; then there were not enough people to do the work, so the Spaniards went to Africa, and stole and bought men, and carried them to the West Indies. This was more than two hundred years ago. Since then,

there have been many negro slaves in different parts of America.

Some of these slaves are treated kindly, and made very happy; some are treated cruelly, and made very miserable

MOSES.

THE Egyptians treated the Hebrews so cruelly that they began to be afraid the Hebrews would treat them in the same manner. The king of Egypt ordered that all the little boys born among the Hebrews should be killed as soon as they were born, and that the little girls might be left alive; so that in a few years there might be no Hebrew men, and that the girls, when

grown up, should marry Egyptian husbands; that in time there should be no Hebrews.

One of the Hebrew women had a little boy. She made a cradle, and hid it among the tall rushes, or flags, which grew by the water side. One day the king's daughter came to the place where the infant was hidden, to wash herself in the river; she saw the cradle, and sent her maid, who was with her, to fetch it to her.

The maid carried it to the princess, and the little boy cried; the princess pitied him; she said, "this is one of the Hebrews' children;" and she sent her maid for a nurse to take care of the child. The maid went to the child's mother; the princess gave her the child, and bid her take care of him. The princess called his name Moses.

Moses grew finely, and the princess had him taught very well, and he grew up a wise and good man. When Moses had become a man, he one day saw the Hebrews very hard at work, and he saw one of the Egyptians strike a Hebrew ; he was angry at this; and as nobody was near to hinder him, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

Soon after, Moses saw two Hebrews fighting together; he went to them, and tried to part them; but one of them said, "Do you intend to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses was afraid when he heard this. Soon after, the king heard that Moses had killed an Egyptian, and the king determined to kill Moses. Therefore, Moses went away to Midian, another country.

When Moses was in Midian he was one day

sitting by a well. when seven young women came to draw water for their father's sheep. In those days young women took care of sheep. Moses helped them, and they went home and told their father of it. Their father, whose name was Jethro, desired them to call Moses into the house that he might thank him, and give him some food.

When they had called Moses he went into the house; Jethro afterwards invited him to live with him; and Moses married one of Jethro's daughters: her name was Zipporah. Moses took care of sheep for his father-in-law. While Moses lived in Midian the king of Egypt died; and the poor Hebrews suffered many hardships; and God pitied them.

God sent a messenger to Moses to tell him how unhappy the Hebrews were, and that he meant they should leave Egypt, and go back to the country of Canaan, where their father Jacob had lived; and that Moses must go back to Egypt, and go with his countrymen to Canaan, and help them to turn out the people who then lived in Canaan. After this, because God commanded him, Moses took his wife and his children, and returned to Egypt.

Moses had a brother in Egypt whose name was Aaron. Aaron was very glad to see Moses; Moses told Aaron all that God had commanded; and Aaron was glad to assist Moses to help the Hebrews. The two brothers called the Hebrew men together, and told them that God pitied them, and that they must all go to Canaan. The people were grateful to God, and

they bowed their heads, and worshipped, or praised God.

Moses did as God had told him. He went to the king, and begged that the people might go into the desert to worship God; but the king would not allow the Hebrews to leave their work. He gave them more work, and treated them worse than ever. God brought many plagues upon the Egyptians because they had injured the Hebrews.

Some time after Moses and Aaron bade the Hebrews take their sheep, and all the things in their houses, and all their children, and march out of Egypt. The Egyptians were willing the Hebrews should go, because they believed that the Hebrews had caused them a great deal of trouble, and they were afraid they might cause much more.

The Hebrews did as Moses and Aaron had commanded. They left Egypt four hundred and thirty years after their father Jacob went there. Seventy men went into Egypt-six hundred thousand persons departed out of Egypt. Besides these, were the children.

The Hebrews always kept a feast on that day of the year in which they came out of Egypt, as God had commanded them. This was called the feast of the Passover. God showed the Israelites the way they must take; he went before them as a cloud in the day, and a fire in the night.

Though the Egyptian people allowed the Hebrews to go, the king was not willing they should go; and when he heard that they were gone he was angry, and determined to go after them, and punish them.

The king took with him a great number of men, and followed the Hebrews. When the Egyptians came to the place where they were, near the Red Sea, the Hebrews were very much afraid, but Moses told them God would save them.

The Hebrews passed over a dry place of the Red Sea, which the waters left. The Egyptians followed after them but the waters flowed back, and drowned all the Egyptians. When the Hebrews looked back, and saw the dead bodies of the Egyptians, they felt very grateful to God who had preserved them. Moses sung a beautiful song in praise of God. His sister Miriam played on an instrument called the timbrel; and all the women played upon timbrels, and danced for joy, and sung praises to God.

God gave the Hebrews food to eat; and he gave them the ten commandments, and laws, about what they should eat, and wear, and how they should worship him. They wandered about in the wilderness forty years. They had many wars with people who stopped them as they marched along, and their leader, Moses, died when they came in sight of Canaan.

God told them if they were wicked he should punish them, and that if they were good, and obeyed his law, he would make them happy He told that if they were wicked, and be came good afterwards, he would forgive them. He tells all people so; Jesus Christ told them so many years after Moses died, and it has always happened so to every body.

When Moses came near Canaan, he went up