Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/184

 was embodied almost as much as in the precepts of religion. None were so poor and helpless but found shelter under the protection of the great Lawgiver. The orphans of many generations looked back to him as their father. The widow in the vale of Sarepta blessed him. The blind that groped by the pool of Bethesda had their way smoothed by his command. The deaf that sat mute amid the laughs of a joyous company, were safe from cruel sneers. The slaves were grateful to him as their liberator, and all classes of the wretched as having lightened the miseries of their condition.

Nor was that Law given to the Israelites alone. It was an inheritance for all ages and generations. That mighty arm was to protect the oppressed so long as human governments endure. Moses was the king of legislators, and to the code which he left rulers of all times have turned for instruction. Thence Alfred and Charlemagne derived statutes for their realms. To that code turned alike the Puritans under Cromwell, who founded the Commonwealth of England, and the Pilgrim Fathers, who founded the Commonwealths of New England.

"Whence had this man this wisdom," surpassing all the ancient sages? Is it said: He was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and derived his laws from them? Yet he could not learn from them a wisdom they did not possess. The framework of his government was as unlike that of Egypt, as his rule was unlike that of the Pharaohs. Indeed the Hebrew state would seem to have been constructed on the principle of being in all things the opposite of the tyranny, the injustice, the inequality and the oppression, which were the rule in every Oriental state. The features which most command our admiration are those of which there was absolutely no example. They were wholly original, and must be ascribed to the genius