SERMON I.

BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW.

There is no ftraw given unto thy fervants, and they fay to us, Make brick: and, bebold, thy fervants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people.-Exod. v. 16. THE circumftances and condition of the children of Ifrael, when under the bondage of Pharaoh, may afford, under God's blesfing, fome instructive topics of meditation. Egypt, the scene of their flavery, was, by its geographical nearness to the land of Ifrael, and as fuch interwoven with the history of

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that people, frequently alluded to in meffages of Holy Writ.

The twenty-ninth and three following chapters of Ezekiel are full of remarkable statements connected with it. One of thefe is, "All the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Ifrael" i. e. as we find from the next verse, a deceiving fupport; "When they took hold of thee, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou breakeft." It was to be a base kingdom—no more to exalt itself among the kingdoms-that there should be no more a prince of the land of Egypt. It is now, as we know, though ftruggling for independence, ruled by a viceroy who receives his authority to govern from the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The people, too, are base and ignoble. Ancient

writers speak of them as fuperftitious and luxurious (Strabo)—as an unwarlike and unferviceable nation—as a faithlefs and fallacious nation, always meaning one thing and pretending another-as lovers of wine and ftrong drink-as cruel in their anger -as thieves, tolerating all kinds of theft. Still blacker characteristics are ascribed by modern travellers.

"The people of Egypt, generally speaking, are all exceeding wicked-great rogues -cowardly-lazy-hypocrites-robberstreacherous-fo very greedy of money, that they will kill a man for a very trifle.” A vifit of two months in their country impreffed me with the fame views. When perfons of fuch a character govern, they invariably tyrannife; and fuch they appear to have done when they domineered over the children of Ifrael. Hard and

irksome labour did they inflict, and to add

to its burden they withdrew from their bondsmen the means of accomplishing their work. The bricks they had to make were of mud, dried in the fun and rendered compact by admixture of ftraw. This ftraw was taken away, so that they had to manufacture without material, or to find it for themselves at great labour.

The buildings, like the manners of the people, seem to this day to have undergone little change. Their dwellings now are of the fame material as of old. The Pyramids alfo, which I cannot but believe were partly accomplished by Hebrew hands, are of the fame fabric; they are, indeed, in fome inftances, cafed over with a mail of huge ftones, but in others they are pointed masses of funburnt brick only, with the straw still retaining its appearance; and it is not uninteresting or unprofitable to remark, that on one of the pyramids was infcribed the

number of workmen employed in its erection, and the cost of the "leeks, onions, and garlic" fupplied to the fons of toil. We all remember, that when delivered from bondage, and when in ftraits in the wildernefs, these were the very productions of Egypt fpecified as the objects of Ifrael's longing and regret.

Arbitrary conduct ftill marks the sway of the ruling powers now. Districts of the country are farmed out, as it were, to men who are bound to render a certain fum to the Pacha, or fupreme ruler. Thefe have fubordinate exactors under them, and the poor ferfs groan by reafon of their bondage under their foreign masters, each rank in turn being fubject to the baftinado if they fail. So with the Ifraelites: Pharaoh gave orders to the officers-the officers to the taskmafters-the taskmasters to the poor Hebrews.