Note 61 — II. OUR DUTIES. (continued 3)

The name Pesach, “Passover,”61 reminds us of the way in which the Israelites enjoyed the Divine protection before they left Egypt. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, kept the Israelites as slaves, and when asked in the name of God to let them go, refused to obey. But the ten plagues which consecutively afflicted his land without causing injury to the Israelites taught him the existence of a higher Power, to whose decrees the will of earthly rulers has to submit. It was especially the tenth plague, the slaying of the first-born, that convinced the king and his people of this truth. When the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, “he passed over the houses of the children of Israel” (Exod. xii. 27).