42 CALL OF MOSES.

 

she could be with her own little boy, and both of them be
cared for in a king’s palace ?

God was in all this, for he wanted a great man to
lead his people out of the bondage of Egypt, and so
brought Moses into the king’s court, to be educated in
the wisdom of the Egyptians. When he had grown to
be a man, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, but preferred to suffer affliction with his own
people. He became a shepherd ; and one day, when he
was tending the sheep in the lonely mountain, God ap-
peared to him in a burning bush. Moses saw the bush all
ablaze, and yet it did not burn up. He thought it very
strange, and so came near; but God spake to him out of
the burning bush, saying, “ Put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. .

Then God told him that he had seen the suffering of
his people, and would send him to deliver them.

Moses left his flocks, to go and do as the Lord had.
said. He greatly feared to go before the wicked king,
Pharaoh, lest he would not hear, and would not let God's
people go. But the Lord told Moses what to do, to prove:
to the king that he had sent him. He was to cast a staff
on the floor, in the presence of the king, and it should be-
come a serpent. This, and many other things he did, to
prove that the Lord had sent him.