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so as to preserve their own pure faith, but should learn lessons of perpetual value from the greatest, the most learned, the most advanced nation of the world.
This is just what Egypt was. The Egyptian civilization was far beyond that of any other people. The great Israelitish deliverer, Moses, was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” He was a direct descendant of Jacob, and at the same time he knew all that Egypt could give him. He was therefore able to lead, to teach, and to establish, as God’s best instrument, the legislation for the Jewish people, and through them for the whole later world.
But it is the peculiarity of the good disciple that he can often improve upon the lessons of an earlier day. While the Israelites learned much in Egypt, they improved upon some of their lessons. For example, they learned in Egypt the art of writing, but only its very elements. The square letters of the Hebrew alphabet they acquired there, but these were little