126 BUYS OF THE BiBLE.

stood face to face with God amid the awful tempest that
shook the heights of Sinai—think of this man who atfter-
wards became the leader and guide of God’s great
sacramental hosts, doing simple work that any poor man in
the land could have done just as well! Faithful in little, he
was just the man to be faithful in much! And from such
scenes as these God calls his greatest workers. Moses from
the flock, David from the sheep-fold, Amos from the farm,
the apostles from their fishing boats and nets, Luther from
the student’s desk, Lincoln from the lawyer’s office, Grant
from the leather-seller’s shop, and—greatest of all—Jesus from
the carpenter’s bench in Nazareth.

From the peaceful slopes of Horeb, God speaks to Moses
out of a bush that burned but was not consumed. God
bids him go forth to beard the tyrant Pharaoh, and demand
the unconditional surrender of two million Jewish slaves.

What a lesson for us all, young and old, comes from
this mountain fastness in the ancient desert! Let us go on
with our common daily work—feeding sheep or whatever it
may be—in a prayerful, contented spirit, not forgetting to
lead the flock oftentimes to the back of the mountain, where
we may muse and meditate and pray. And _ perchance,
when least we think it, some bush will glow with living
flame, and out of it some voice may call us to higher, holier
service. But if this should not come to pass we may haply
find how true are the words of the saintly Keble:

The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask;

Room to deny ourselves—a road
To lead us daily nearer God.

Who could have thought, standing by the Nile that day,
that the baby in the cradle would one day lead two millions