#35.# As illustrating these links, in a different sphere, read the following: Professor Darwin tells that he noticed that pansies would not grow wild near English villages, but would grow far away from them. Investigation revealed that in English villages dogs go at large. Where dogs go at large, cats must stay at home; where cats stay at home, field-mice abound; where field-mice abound, bumblebees' nests are destroyed; where bumblebees' nests are destroyed, there in no fertilization of pollen. Therefore, where there are dogs, there are no wild pansies. Apply this to the case in hand. No mother's wit, no ark of bulrushes; no ark no sister's watch-care, and no chance to arouse the curiosity of the princess. Therefore, no discovery of the babe weeping. Consequently, no saving of the future deliverer of his people. Thus God worked through natural agencies to thwart the decree of Pharaoh. During these forty years Moses enjoyed all the educational advantages of the most civilized nation of that day. So he was prepared by the king himself to deliver the Hebrews from his control.
#36. Life as Shepherd in the Desert.#--Moses' life at court came to a sudden end, through his patriotic effort to deliver one of his race from the cruelty of an Egyptian. As a result he had to flee for his life, as even Pharaoh could not defend him for slaying one of the ruling race for cruelty to a mere slave. For forty years we find him on the Sinaitic peninsula, herding sheep. These must have been years of deep thought. Often he must have wondered why God had given him such deliverance, only to let him languish in the desert while at the same time his people, whom he might have helped, were ground down under the heel of the taskmaster. At the same time these years of solitude must have been rich in opportunity for meditation and communion upward. The city is not the best place for deep thought. Elijah was no city man, neither was John the Baptist. In solitude these men learned much that the city never could teach them.
#37. Life as a Leader of God's People in the Desert.#--His life of solitude came to a sudden close, when God called to him out of the midst of the burning bush, and bade him return to Egypt and deliver his people. At first Moses begged to be excused, for he doubtless well remembered that because of his effort to deliver _one_ Hebrew, he had been an exile for forty years. How then could he succeed in delivering _a nation_? But on God's promise to be with him, he and his brother Aaron undertook the task.