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From Eternity Past
Miriam, perceiving that the child was tenderly regarded, ventured
nearer, and at last said, “Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the
Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?” Permission
was given.
The sister hastened to her mother with the happy news, and without
delay returned with her to the presence of Pharaoh’s daughter. “Take
this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages,”
said the princess.
Twelve Short Years
God had heard the mother’s prayer. With deep gratitude she en-
tered upon her now safe and happy task, to educate her child for God.
She knew that he must soon be given up to his royal mother, to be
surrounded with influences that would tend to lead him away from
God. She endeavored to imbue his mind with the fear of God and the
love of truth and justice. She showed him the folly and sin of idolatry
and early taught him to bow down and pray to the living God, who
alone could hear him and help him in every emergency.
She kept the boy as long as she could but was obliged to give him
up when he was about twelve years old. From his humble cabin home
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he was taken to the royal palace, to the daughter of Pharaoh, “and he
became her son.” Yet even here the lessons learned at his mother’s
side could not be forgotten. They were a shield from the pride, the
infidelity, and the vice that flourished amid the splendor of the court.
The whole future life of Moses, the great mission which he fulfilled
as the leader of Israel, testifies to the importance of the work of the
mother. There is no other work that can equal this. The mother is
dealing with developing minds and characters, working not alone for
time, but for eternity. She is sowing seed that will spring up and bear
fruit, either for good or for evil. She has not to paint a form of beauty
upon canvas or to chisel it from marble, but to impress upon a human
soul the image of the divine. The impressions made upon developing
minds will remain all through life. Children are placed in our care to
be trained, not as heirs to the throne of an earthly empire, but as kings
unto God, to reign through unending ages.
In the solemn day of accounts it will be found that many crimes
have resulted from the ignorance and neglect of those whose duty it