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have Egypt, that land of the mighty pyramids, the largest being the oldest, and compared with which, all modern buildings are but modest in dimension; the land of immense temples, which are even yet unapproached in size; for St. Peter's, great as it is, cannot vie with the marvellous temple of Karnac, with its hall of more than a hundred gigantic columns: the land of great obelisks, statues, and sphynxes: the land of Thebes with its hundred gates, of Luxor, of Memphis, of Meroe, of Philne, and of other wondrous sites: the land of the tombs, where life has so astonishingly been depicted and preserved in death.

As might be expected, there are numerous illustrations and confirmations of the sacred history, in the records of Egyptian life of the period of the Exodus. These confirmations are summed up by eminent men thus. "The conquest of the shepherd kings by Pharoah Amosis, the head of the eighteenth dynasty, synchronizes perfectly, according to Egyptian chronology, with the rise of that king who knew not Joseph; as this Pharoah had a son named Rameses, it is more than probable that one of the treasure cities, which he compelled the Israelites to build, (Exodus I. 11.) was called after his son's name: a tomb at Thebes of this time, has a pictorial representation of the Jews engaged in making bricks, with Egyptian taskmasters standing over them: no tomb has been discovered of Pharoah,* Thothmes IV., whose reign was certainly a brief one, and who, it has been supposed was the Pharoah drowned in the Red Sea; this sovereign was not succeeded by his eldest son, which agrees with the Scripture narrative respecting the destruction of the firstborn in the land of Egypt."

We have brought Egypt thus vividly before us, that we may see clearly the reason for its spiritual signification. Itself the land of science and of symbol, it became one grand symbol for all time. It was the collection in ancient days of all that was great in worldly science, worldly grandeur, worldly learning, worldly fashion, and worldly religion. It was the world of those times, as contradistinguished from inner spiritual thoughts and feelings, and it became for ever the symbol in the Word of God, of the world,—the outer region of mind with its intellectual attainments and sensuous life. The very position and circumstances of the country strikingly exemplify its spiritual use. The land was formed from the Nile, and by the Nile its wealth and fertility are constantly sustained. It is covered with vegetable abundance, but chiefly of grain. Few of the nobler trees are there, but lower products in plenty. It is not watered by rain

^* Pharoah was not a proper Individual name, but a title of dignity like Czar, Emperor, or Sultan. Its meaning is "son of the sun."