BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 123

always cruel, and so the tyrant resolved on the wholesale
murder of the infant sons of these slaves as the best way out
of the difficulty. The terrible decree went forth that every
son born of Hebrew parents should be drowned; and soon the
sluggish Nile became the remorseless grave of thousands of
fair Hebrew boys.

But a mother’s love is often more than a match for a
tyrant’s plans, and the wife of Amram, the Levite, was
moved to make a bulrush cradle for her boy, and as she
floated her priceless cargo in its frail boat on the waters, we
may be sure that it was with tears and prayers that some
good fortune might befall her child.

Do you not think it was something more than mere
chance that the daughter of Pharaoh should come down to
the river bank just at this time? and that the little river
cradle should happen to float near to her feet? Surely God
was guiding all things for the best. The heart of Egypt's
princess was much tenderer than the King’s, for when she
heard the young child’s cry she had compassion, and saved
the infant from the cruel waters.

And here we first meet Miriam, the sister of the Sacred
Vigil, half-hidden among the tall reeds of the river, watching
with intense anxiety the fortunes of the frail bark that bore
her infant brother. And when Pharaoh’s daughter resolved to
have the laughing infant carried to her palace home, it was
Miriam who, with the instinct of sisterly love, suggested a
Hebrew nurse, and sped homeward to tell the joyful news,
and bring the mother of the child so strangely saved, to be
its happy nurse. And so the mother of this wonderful child
became its nurse by royal appointment.

What joy there was in the tent that day when Miriam
brought the glad tidings of the baby’s safety! Miriam was