GOD’S MESSAGE—ITS RECEPTION.
By Walter E. Gillis
Scene 1.—Place, Egypt. Time, 10th day of the Month Nisan, B. C., 1491. Hermes and Ptolemy Meet in the King’s Court. Hermes.—“Tell me, Ptolemy, hast thou yet come to any final conclusion upon the marvels that this man, Moses, and his brother, Aaron, have been proclaiming in the king’s throne room and performing in all the coasts of Egypt? Of a truth, my soul is stirred within me, and fain would I give heed to his counsel to enter into the family of that Great I Am, whose word he proclaims. And without controversy his God is not unmindful of his servant, for when he speaks the word, behold the answer follows ere the echo of his voice is still.” Ptolemy.—“Forsooth, Hermes, thy voice bears record of thy mind’s turmoil. Surely some ghoulish spirits hath robbed thee of a night’s repose. Behold yon sun, whose glorious beams spread life and happiness through all the land, calls thee to worship. For unknown centuries hath he sped upon his way, and we have offered our devotions to him. And, now, because this up-start Hebrew whose life is forfeit to the king’s command, hath startled thee with a doctrine new and purely theoretical, dost thou forsake the theology of our learned priests and all the glorious pageantry of our solemn feasts, to worship simply in the bush or by the brook a god unseen? ’Tis passing strange that one so learned as thou shouldst be thus captivated. Wilt thou that I proclaim before the king and all his mighty lords this whim that has seized thee? Dost already hear the hiss?—and note the curling lip expressive of their scorn? Come, Hermes, to the Hebrew camp and there behold the scenes of slavery. The man bowed down with burdens thrice increased, the women at their scourge-compelling toil,—and maidens, children, e’er the curl of babyhood hath left their lips, impelled by lash and threat to the still increasing task. What a god is theirs to thus permit such awful degradation! And wilt thou, a lord in Egypt born, join thyself to them?” Hermes.—“Enough, materialist, sophist, subtlest reasoner of thy school. The visible token of their God’s approbation is certainly conspicuous for its absence in the matter of their toil. But look you, hast thou ever seen such vigorous forms? the glow of health, the multiplying host that from one family in great-grandsire’s day are now increased to full five5million souls? Canst thou explain it? Not these things, O Ptolemy, stirs my soul. But those miracles and messages from that Great I Am. ’Tis true the magi have in part performed what seemed the self-same miracles. But mark you this, the serpent rod from Moses’ hand devoured the others there before the king. And all those plagues (explain them as you will by the quarrels of Osirus and the gods) were never stayed until the Hebrew’s God by Moses signified it as His will. The preternatural darkness of those awful days! Didst note that in the camp of Israel that sun which is thy boast shone brighter still, obeying in silent haste the mandate of I Am? And mark you, too, that every god, both great and small in Egypt’s coasts hath been rebuked by those nine plagues. What say those high-born priests of On and Thebes? Not anything to the point, but boast which college has the patronage of the gods, as they mumble o’er their prayers and scan with learned look the bloody entrails of a goat. But see Moses and his brother yonder. He speaks. Hasten and we shall hear the message.” Moses.—“Give ear, O elders of the camp of Israel. The Lord, our God, creator of heaven and earth, and all that doth pervade them, has one more plague with which to smite this perverse nation as a sign of His sovereignty and a note of warning to your hosts that God will not be mocked. Nine plagues have fallen, rejected by their stubborn hearts. The mercies of our God have been refused. Now, four days hence, at midnight, shall the final plague, the direst of them all, be consummated. I Am hath given this message. Make it known in every house. Perchance some soul among the enemy will seek the sheltering portals of our homes.” “Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. . . . And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. . . . For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.” Ex. 12:3–13. Hermes.—“A direful message this, O Ptolemy. Didst mark the authority of his word? The same that marked the former messages of woe. But four days more and I must die. Wait, did he not tell of safety within the blood-stained portals? ’Tis true, and I will avail myself of it. What is wealth, position, fame, when life is gone?” Ptolemy.—“Think, Hermes, of your plight should this prophecy prove false; the disgrace of it. Be a man. It becometh man once to die at any rate.” Hermes.—“This man’s message hath the voice of God in it, and can not fail.” “And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on His throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon.” Ex. 2:29.