that might have been occupied with lessons and addresses to the treatment of subjects of great moment to the interests of Sunday schools. The lessons that have been given were designed to be specimen and suggestive in character, with a view to induce teachers to form their own lessons upon the examples supplied. Not to provide materials ready to hand for use in the class, but rather to help teachers to help themselves, has been our ruling motive.

If an undue concern has been manifested about the spirit in which the teacher should conduct his work, and too great an amount of incentive supplied to seek a higher standard of excellence and usefulness, our defence is to be found in our anxiety that the teacher should be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.

We are greatly indebted to the zeal and active exertions of a very numerous circle of friends for the large circulation which they have obtained for this magazine, and we confide in their continued sympathy and support. To Him who has opened so wide a door of usefulness for this publication we desire to ascribe all praise, and in faith upon His word, to continue our efforts in that most divine work of helping to bring children to their Saviour.

The onward spirit of the age, the claims of society, the interests of the church, and the glory of the Redeemer, all combine to urge upon teachers of the young renewed self-consecration and perseverance in the work of the Lord. “He that winneth souls is wise."

THE

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER.

Israel and Egypt.

BY THE REV. JOSEPH ANGUS, D.D., F.R.A.S.

No two countries are more remarkable than Palestine and Egypt, and no two countries have played a more important part in the history of the race. They may be said to resemble the Greece and Rome of a later age, or the England and France of our own day.

Remarkable in themselves, they are no less remarkable for their connection with each other. In many respects they are alike; in many, opposed. Physically, each is shut in by "bars of iron and brass," by "chains" of hills, by trackless deserts, or by what were equally trackless seas. God meant them to "dwell alone among the nations." Each was unusually fruitful; and each became, under the curse of the divine wrath, a desolation and a reproach. Millions found support in districts so restricted that we have no parallel to it except in Yorkshire, or Holland, or India: again, "the land devoured its inhabitants," and scarcely one could live where twenty had lived before. In other respects the physical condition of the two countries is very different. Palestine is a land of hills, "out of whose sides thou mayest dig brass," and of valleys that are watered by innumerable streams, which rush to the plain, and are fed twice a year by heavy and fertilizing rains. The highest peaks are 10,000 feet above the sea; nor is there a city in the country whence the traveller may not ascend or descend in a day's journey half a mile of perpendicular height, and never leave the beaten road. Egypt, on the contrary, is a vast plain, 700 miles long, with a single sluggish stream that runs the whole length, and is only 600 feet lower at the sea than at the Cataracts. Here there is, roughly speaking, "no rain." The country, which is for the most part lower than the river, has to be "watered with the foot." And, as if to complete the contrast, the Nile is fullest in summer, and overflows its banks in the autumn; the Jordan is fullest in winter, and overflows its banks in the spring,-" at the time of the barley harvest."

JANUARY, 1868.

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Intellectually' and morally the resemblance and the contrast between the two countries are no less striking. Both were peopled in very early times, and each became the scat of learning and a centre of civilization. To Palestine we owe the knowledge of the true God and of His Son Jesus Christ. To Egypt we owe the rudiments of medicine and of astronomy, and much of the secular philosophy that flourished in Greece and at Rome. Religiously they present marked contrasts. Palestine is the land of promise; Egypt, the house of bondage. Palestine is the disciple and teacher of truth; Egypt, its bitter and persecuting foo. The wells of Zion are ever to be chosen; the river of Egypt to be abandoned. And yet they share mysteriously in the divine regard. It was in Egypt the family of Israel found protection from famine; it was in Egypt the Messiah found protection from the sword of Herod; and even Egypt has the promise of a special blessing: "In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land. And the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day" (Isa. xix. 24, 21), or madeno) rifione oat 2PTIMISI 257 sms') zwr Icobos H stam 1 f of

Our knowledge of the history of Egypt and of the character of its people we gather from three sources, the Bible, profane historians, and the Egyptian monuments. All three are instructive, though in different ways. Moses is the chief of the sacred writers who have thrown light on the habits of the Egyptians, and incidentally on their government. His name is probably Egyptian (Mou-si, son of the water), and we know that he was skilled in all their learning. The Pentateuch exists substantially as it came from his hands; the text is remarkably free from errors of transcription; the various readings, except as to chronology, are quite insignificant, and its general truthfulness is attested by all antiquity and by a religious veneration which has never ceased from very early times? vote il 6 Paintto ka, „ef500 val to 57,RTULI 94]

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And yet it is but little we glean from the Old Testament. It tells us of the land of Ham, of Mizraim, and of the Caphtorim, its early settlers; and all these names are still preserved in Egyptian history. Egyptians still call themselves Chemi or Chem, (the same word as Ham, and) the origin of our word chemistry, a 'science in which they once excelled. Mizraim, the third son of Ham, is supposed to have settled on the banks of the Nile, and the “two Mizr" is a name still used by the Arabs to describe the two Egypts, the Upper and the Lower; Caphtorim" is probably the origin of the modern name the "Copts," as it is a chief element in the Greek name of the country, Æ- (aia, land) gyptus. I am?

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Besides the name of the land and of the original settlers, Scripture tells us of the visit of Abraham, and of the welcome he received from the king of the country. In that age Egypt seems, like Canaan, to have been comparatively free from idolatry, though that sin abounded in Chaldæa, and, as we shall see, in Upper Egypt. We next read of the descent of Jacob into Egypt, and of the rule of Joseph; the bondage of at least two centuries, and the deliverance by Moses, the narrative being