University of Virginia Library

6. LETTER VI.
REMESES IN EGYPT TO SESOSTRIS IN PHŒNICIA.

It is with gratitude to God, O Sesostris, that I inform
you of my safe arrival in Egypt, after a perilous
passage across the sea. Our chief pilot, finding, after
we left the port of Tyre, that the wind was fair for the
mouth of the Nile, and the weather seeming to be
settled, signified to me his intention to leave the
coast, and boldly steer from land to land. Having no
knowledge of nautical affairs, I neither advised nor
objected, leaving him to act according to his own experience
and skill: he therefore laid the course of the
ship as nearly straight for Pelusium, as he could ascertain
it, by the position of the sun at noon.

Before night we were surrounded by a horizon of
water, and this being the first time since I had lived on
the earth, that I had been unable to behold it, the situation
was wholly novel, not only to me but to other passengers,—some
of whom manifested the liveliest fears, lest
we should no more behold the land. My mind was impressed
by the sublimity and vastness of the view; and
the majestic idea of eternity—boundless and infinite—
filled my soul. It seemed as if, from on deck, I could

survey the universe of space, for there was nothing
terrestrial to arrest and confine the eye.

“Who,” I reflected, “as he surveys the illimitable
sky, and the measureless ocean over which it extends,
can withhold the confession that there is One God only,
the Upholder of worlds and the Governor of His creation?
Who, with such a scene before him, as day with
its splendor and vastness of space, and night with its
stars presented above the sea, could give the glory of
the Almighty to another, and put his trust in such myths
as are the gods of Egypt and the deities of Phœnicia?
I rejoice, O king, that you have listened to the truths
it was my happiness to unfold to you, and that in your
heart you acknowledge and secretly adore the Almighty.
May the time soon come when you will have strength
given you, from Himself, to establish His holy worship
in your dominions! A king is God's representative on
earth, and his power is great; and if he exercise it,—
not like the Pharaohs, who reign as if they were gods,
but—with judgment, and fear, and humble recognition
of the Infinite source of all power, then He who is King
of kings and Lord of lords, will bless him and cause him
to prosper. When a king acknowledges that his power
is delegated, and that he must be accountable for its use
or abuse to his God, he has gained the highest wisdom
that earth can give! Seek, O king, that wisdom!

Pardon me, my dear Sesostris, for presuming to teach
you. I am diffident in speech when present with you,
but you perceive I am bold, perhaps too much so, when
away from you.

We continued, for three days and nights, sailing upon
the sea, without a shore in view, and in a few hours

more hoped to find the mouth of the Nile; when the
wind, after a sudden lull, came round to the south,
the air was darkened with clouds, and night came on,
enveloping our ship in the profoundest gloom, amid
which we drove, our pilot knew not whither! It was a
night of painful suspense. The seas dashed over us;
our banks of oars were broken or washed away; and
not a cubit's breadth of sail could remain on the mast,
while the air was filled with sharp sand, blown from
the Arabian desert.

The passengers and crew were in despair, and believing
that every succeeding billow would go over us and
destroy us, they called frantically upon their gods! The
Syrian cried to Hercules, and the Sabæan upon the sun
and upon fire. The merchants of Tyre prayed to Adonis
and Io, the Arabians to Ammon, and the Egyptians
vowed libations and offerings to Apis, Osiris, and Thoth.
Our pilot, finding all hope desert him, burned a cake
of incense to the deity of the sea, and vowed an oblation
to all the gods he could in his extremity call to
mind.

Then it was, O Sesostris, that I felt the power and excellency
of my faith in God! Then did the folly, the
vanity, and degradation of the religions of those about
me, deeply impress me, and move me to pity. Calm,
serene, confident in the Almighty, who holdeth the sea
in the hollow of His hand, and directeth the stormy
winds and tempests of the skies, I lifted my heart and
my voice to Him, whom, with the eye of instructed intelligence,
I beheld seated above the darkness and the
whirlwind, in the ineffable glory and peace of His own
heaven, and directing all things by His will. I felt that

He could protect and defend me, and those who sailed
with me; that the night to Him was as clear as the day;
and that even I was not too insignificant to be cared
for by Him, who, in His love, gave voices of music to
the little birds, who painted the lily, and perfumed the
flower.

“O Lord God, Holy One, the Almighty, who art the
Creator of all things, if I have found grace in Thy sight,
hear my humble petition, which I now offer before Thee.
Let Thy presence be here, and Thy power; save us who
are tossed upon the great sea, and who have no hope but
in Thee. These call upon their idols, but I, O Lord God,
call upon Thee, the God of our fathers. Guard us in
our danger, and bring us in safety to our haven! For
Thou art the only true and living God, and besides Thee
there is no God!”

All the people who heard my voice, as I thus invoked
the Living God, and saw my hands outstretched
heavenward, turned from their idols and amulets, and
ceased their prayers and cries, to hear me. The lightnings
flashed about us in a continual flame, so that
the ship seemed on fire, and I could be seen by all.

Judge, O Sesostris, my surprise, when instantly the
winds—which at the first word of my prayer softened—
ceased to roar; the waves fell level with the sea; the
clouds parted above us, and revealing a bright moon
shining down from the starry sky, they rolled, on all
sides, swiftly away towards the horizon.

This sudden and wondrous change, evidently in response
to my prayer, as a proof that it was heard by the
Ear to which I, in fear and hope, addressed it, amazed
me. It was the power and act of my God! I felt it to

be so, and lifting up my eyes and hands to the cloudless
skies, I said—

“Thine, O Lord Almighty, thine be the praise and
glory; for Thou art the hearer and answerer of prayer,
and art loving to all Thy creatures. Thou hast power in
heaven and on earth, and on the broad sea, nor is any
thing hid from Thee. Darkness is no darkness with
Thee, and no power can resist thine! Thanks be to
Thee, O Lord God on high, for this manifestation of Thy
presence, and this confirmation of my faith. Let these
idolaters likewise glorify Thee, for whose sakes Thou hast
also done this.”

When I ceased, I beheld a crowd, made up of all nations,
prostrate around me. The captain, turning away
from his god, was burning incense before me, while the
invocations of the crew and passengers were being offered
to me. With horror I drew back and waved them
away, saying, “Rise, men, stand upon your feet! Not
unto me, not unto me, but unto God, the one invisible
Creator, give thanks and praise for your mighty deliverance!”

I then made known to them the mystery of the true
God, whose power they and I had witnessed, and exhorted
them to turn from their idols, and worship Him
in spirit and in truth; for that He was their Maker, and
besides Him there was no God. Nevertheless, but for
my stern anger against it, they would have sacrificed a
sheep to me, as if I were Hercules.

In a few hours we reached Pelusium, and to escape
the adulations of the people on shore, to whom the crew
made known this miracle of God, I withdrew privately,
and went to Bubastis. After visiting, unknown to

them, the tens of thousands of my brethren, who are engaged
in extending the walls of that place, and increasing
the number of treasure-houses therein, I took boat
and came hither secretly, for fear that Mœris, if he knew
me to be in Egypt, might watch my movements, if not
banish or imprison me.

I have now been several days in the bosom of my
family. My mother and father are well; but they, and
Miriam, with all the other women of our nation, have
tasks of weaving put upon them, which are to be done
each day before they are permitted to sleep. My heart
is deeply wounded at all this. On every side I behold oppression
and cruelty. Daily, scores of the Hebrews perish,
and their dead bodies are thrown into ditches, dug
for the purpose, and covered with earth. Often, the
wretched men who dig them are the first to occupy
them, for the work goes on day and night. An edict
has been published throughout all Egypt, within the
past month, that no Egyptian shall assist a Hebrew; and
that no Hebrew who sinks down under his toil, shall be
suffered to remain upon the ground, but must be placed
upon his feet again, and driven to his task, until he sinks
to rise no more; and to such, neither bread nor water
shall be offered, that they may die! Such, O king, is
the heart of this Mœris!

Yet, with all these extraordinary measures, inspired by
his fear, to lessen the number of the Hebrews, they increase
in the most unprecedented manner. The women
bring forth without midwives, and are put to no inconvenience
whatsoever afterwards. Such a state of things
alarms the Egyptian king, and well it may; for it seems
to me to be a direct act of the Divinity, so to multiply

the people, that Egypt will be compelled to liberate
them, and send them forth to find a country of their
own.

There is a prophecy which, as I associate more with
the elders—who are slow, however, to give me their
confidence, regarding me still as an Egyptian in feeling
and prejudices—I ascertain to be well preserved, that,
at the end of about four hundred years from the days of
Prince Abraham, his descendants shall come out of Egypt
a great nation. This period is drawing to its close. God,
who can deliver from the storm, can deliver from the
hand of Pharaoh those who trust in Him, and call for
His Almighty arm to aid them.

Memphis, House of Aaron.

Since writing the foregoing, my dear Sesostris—for
such is the familiar title, notwithstanding the present
difference in our rank and position, that you condescendingly
permit me to make use of in addressing you—
since writing the foregoing, I say, I have been studying
the traditions of my fathers, the Hebrews of old. In
them I have found the following prophecies; and you
will observe how confidently God, the Almighty, is recognized
and spoken of as the one true God:

“Our father Abram, the Syrian, having been born in
the great kingdom of Chaldea, served idols, as did all
other men—the knowledge of the one God, being yet
veiled under the multiplicity of gods. Abram, being
just, and possessing those virtues and excellencies which
elevate man, it pleased the one great and mighty God,
only and true—who made all things in heaven above, in
the earth beneath, and in the seas that are thereunder—

to make Himself known unto him, as he was one day
uttering a prayer to the sun. Suddenly, he beheld a
hand across the disk of the sun, and the earth was instantly
covered with night. While Abram wondered
and trembled, the mighty hand was removed, and the
day was restored. Then came a voice from above the
sun—

“`O man, and son of man that is clay! dost thou worship
the creature, and know not the Creator? I am the
Creator of the sun, the heavens, the earth, and man upon
the earth! Worship me, who alone can create light,
and who maketh darkness! I am God, and will not
give my glory to a creature! The sun is but clay, and
thou, O man, art clay also! Give me thine heart; worship
me, the Maker both of thee and of the sun!'

“Then Abram saw the hand again cover and extinguish
the sun; but lo, instead of night, the universe was
lighted by the brightness of the hand, which shone with
the splendor of a thousand suns, so that our father fell
upon his face, as if dead, before its consuming splendor.
When he rose again, the sun shone as before, and he
fell prostrate upon the ground and said:

“`Lord God of the sun, Creator of all things, what is
man, that thou displayest thy glory and revealest thyself
to him? I am as a worm before thee! Teach me what
thou wouldst have me to do!'

“Then a still, small voice answered:

“`Arise, go forth from this Chaldea, thy country, unto
a land flowing with milk and honey, which I will show
thee; and there I will make of thee a great nation,
who shall bear thy name; for I will make thy name
great, and a blessing to all men; and those who bless

thee I will bless, and those who curse thee, I will curse;
and in thee shall all the families of the earth be
blessed!”'

This remarkable tradition then goes on to say, O Sesostris,
that the Chaldean hastened to obey God, and
going into the city of Haran, where he dwelt, gathered
his substance, and took his wife, and nephew, and all
his servants, and departed from the land—being then
five-and-seventy years old. By a sign, the Lord God
went before him through many lands, until he crossed
over the river of the king of Sodom into Palestine,
when the Almighty, taking him into a high mountain,
showed him all the land, from the lake and fair valley of
Gomorrah and Sodom to the great sea westward, and
from Libanus on the north to the desert of Arabia on
the south, saying:

“`Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place
where thou art, northward and southward, and eastward
and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee
will I give it and to thy seed after thee! Arise, walk
through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth
of it, for I will give it to thee; for the whole earth is
mine!”'

“Night fell upon them while they looked from the
mountain, and the Lord God said to our father: `Look
now towards heaven, and tell the stars if thou art able
to number them. So shall thy posterity be. But know
thou,' said the Lord to him, `that thou, and thy son, and
thy son's son shall be strangers in this land, and thy
seed after thee shall also be strangers in the land shadowing
with wings, and shall serve its kings, and they
shall afflict thee four hundred years; but grieve not, for

the nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards
shall thy posterity come out of that land a mighty
people, with great substance; and he whom I will raise
up as their deliverer, shall lead them unto this land, and
they shall enter in and possess it, and shall become a
great people, and be in number as the sands of the seashore,
and as the dust for multitude.”'

Then Abram believed God. We, O Sesostris, are his
posterity. Are we not as the stars of heaven in number,
and as the sands of the shore? The four hundred
years are drawing to a close. Will not He who has
brought about the fulfilment of one part of His prophecy,
accomplish also the other? Therefore do I look
with hope to our release, ere another generation passes
away. Who shall live to behold it? Who shall be so
blessed as to see this deliverer that is to lead them forth
to the promised land? I may not live to see that day
of joyful deliverance! Perhaps thy son Remeses may
behold it. That land, according to our tradition, is Palestine,
through which I journeyed when I visited the
ruins, visible above and beneath the Lake of Bitumen;
near which, also, I beheld that extraordinary statue of an
incrusted woman, on whom the shower of salt fell until
it had encased her alive, and transfixed her to the spot,
as if hewn from a column of salt. The people of that
region informed me, that she was a niece of Prince
Abram, overtaken in her flight, when the five cities of
the plain were overthrown by fire from heaven. How
beautiful is all that land of Palestine! It is like a garden
for fertility, and is filled with populous cities, and a
cultivated and warlike people. I also visited the city
of Salem, where, anciently, King Melchisedec, the wise

sage, and friend of God and of Abram, dwelt. It is now
but a rock covered with fortresses and the treasure-city
of the land. Is this land yet to be given by God to our
people? Is it, indeed, already ours by the title of God
to our Abram, only waiting for us to go up and possess
it? We are then not without a country, though in bondage.
This idea elevates my heart; and I have sought to
rouse the dormant feelings and hopes of our elders and
people, with the faith that our nation has a country reserved
for us, by the God of our fathers.

But they shake their heads. They have so long sat
in the dust of despair, that they have ceased to hope.
Still, my brother Aaron and I everywhere try to lift up
their feeble hearts, and to encourage them with the
bright future. But one of the old men answered—

“Thou sayest that it is a land filled with a warlike
people; that they are the descendants of the old Phœ
nician shepherd-kings, who once conquered Egypt.
How, O son of Pharaoh's daughter,” he added, giving
me this appellation in his anger, “how can we Hebrews,
who know not an arrow from a lance, or a spear from
a bow, who are crushed in spirit and dwarfed by toil,
how are we to conquer such a land, even if the God of
our fathers has given it to us?”

“Does not this foreign land of which the stranger-Hebrew
speaks,” arose and said another, by the name of
Uri,—whose son is the most skilful in Egypt in devising
curious works in gold, and in silver, and in precious
stones, having served with the queen's royal artificer,—
“does it not lie beyond Arabia, and are there not many
and strong kings in the way, the armies of Edom, of the
Hittites, of the Philistines, and of the sons of Ishmael!

Even though Pharaoh were to bid us begone to-morrow,
to the new country of our God that we boast of, could
we traverse the desert, or do battle with the nations on the
way, much more conquer the warlike people who hold
it? Listen not to this Egyptian-Hebrew, who doubtless
would tempt us to leave Egypt, that we may be destroyed
by the warlike people, who will dispute our
march. Doubtless, Pharaoh, his former friend, hath
sent him to talk with us that he might thereby either
get rid of us, or seek occasion to destroy us in a body.”

Thus, my dear Sesostris, were my words turned
against me. Yet I will not fear, but shall quietly
strive to influence my brethren, and persuade them to
look forward with hope, to deliverance by the arm of
God.

Farewell, Sesostris! May the Almighty give you
His divine Spirit, and fill you with wisdom and judgment,
that you may honor Him as King of kings, and
rule your people mercifully and prosperously. To the
beloved queen, Thamonda, I send the most respectful
greetings; and thank her from my heart for giving to
your daughter the dear and honored name, “Amense.”
May the virtues of the pure Queen of Egypt be transferred
to her; but may her life be far happier! To my
namesake, the bright and beautiful Remeses, give my
cordial affection. Tell him that I hope, when he shall
be a man, and like other princes, visit Egypt, he will
not find the Hebrew nation there in bondage, and that,
if he inquires after the people of his father's humble
friend, he will be answered—

“Their God, with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm, led them forth to a land given to them for an

inheritance, where they now dwell, free and happy!”
Ah, Sesostris, shall this dream of hope thus be realized?
Tell Remeses to lay a bunch of flowers for me upon the
tomb of Queen Epiphia, whose memory and kindness I
shall ever cherish deep in my heart.