Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers | Page 5

other refugees, and through the organizing genius of Moses were
rounded into a strong tribe.
That Moses was their supreme ruler, and that to better hold his people
in check he devised a religious ritual for them, and impressed his god,
Jehovah, upon them, almost to the exclusion of all other gods, and thus
formed them into a religious whole, is beyond question. No matter
what the cause of the uprising, or who was to blame for it, the fact is
undisputed that Moses led a revolt in Egypt, and the people he carried
with him in this exodus formed the nucleus of the Hebrew Nation. And
further, the fact is beyond dispute that the personality of Moses was the
prime cementing factor in the making of the nation. The power, poise,
patience and unwavering self-reliance of the man, through his faith in
the god Jehovah, are all beyond dispute. Things happen because the
man makes them happen.
* * * * *
The position of the Israelites in Egypt was one of voluntary vassalage.

The government was a feudal monarchy. The Israelites had come into
Egypt of their own accord, but had never been admitted into the full
rights of citizenship. This exclusion by the Egyptians had no doubt
tended to fix the Children of Israel in their religious beliefs, and on the
other hand, their proud and exclusive nature had tended to keep them
from a full fellowship with the actual owners of the land.
The Egyptians never attempted to traffic in them as they did in slaves
of war, being quite content to use them as clerks, laborers and servants,
paying them a certain wage, and also demanding an excess of labor in
lieu of taxation. In other words, they worked out their "road-tax,"
which no doubt was excessive. Many years later, Athens and also
Rome had similar "slaves," some of whom were men of great intellect
and worth. If one reads the works of modern economic prophets, it will
be seen that wage-workers in America are often referred to as "slaves"
or "bondmen," terms which will probably give rise to confusion among
historians to come.
Moses was brought up in the court of the king, and became versed in
all the lore of the Egyptians. We are led to suppose that he also looked
like an Egyptian, as we are told that people seeing him for the first time,
he being a stranger to them, went away and referred to him as "that
Egyptian." He was handsome, commanding, silent by habit and slow of
speech, strong as a counselor, a safe man. That he was a most valuable
man in the conduct of Egyptian official affairs, there is no doubt. And
although he was nominally an Egyptian, living with the Egyptians,
adopting their manners and customs, yet his heart was with "his
brethren," the Israelites, who he saw were sore oppressed through
governmental exploitation.
Moses knew that a government which does not exist for the purpose of
adding to human happiness has no excuse for being. And once when he
was down among his own people he saw an Egyptian taskmaster or
foreman striking an Israelitish workman, and in wrath he arose and
killed the oppressor. The only persons who were witnesses to this affair
were two Hebrews. The second day after the fight, when Moses was
attempting to separate two Hebrews who had gotten into an altercation

with each other, they taunted him by saying, "Who gavest thee to be a
ruler over us?--wilt thou also kill us as thou didst the Egyptian?"
This gives us a little light upon the quality and character of the people
with whom Moses had to deal. It also shows that the ways of the
reformer and peacemaker are not flower-strewn. The worst enemies of
a reformer are not the Egyptians--he has also to deal with the Israelites.
I once heard Terence V. Powderly, who organized the Knights of
Labor--the most successful labor organization ever formed--say, "Any
man who devotes his life to helping laboring men will be destroyed by
them." And then he added, "But this should not deter us from the effort
to benefit."
As the Hebrew account plainly states that the killing of all the male
Hebrew children was carried out with the connivance of Hebrew
women who pretended to be ministering to the Hebrew mothers, so was
the flight of Moses from Egypt caused by the Hebrews, who turned
informants and brought him into disgrace with Pharaoh, who sought his
life.
Very naturally, the Egyptians deny and have always denied that the
order to kill children was ever issued by a Pharaoh. They also point to
the fact that the Israelites were a source of profit--a valuable asset to the
Egyptians. And moreover, the proposition that the