---

I. THE CHOICE OF MOSES.

II. THE PRINCIPLE WHICH INFLUENCED THIS CHOICE. That principle was faith; a firm and cordial, not a cold and cursory, faith in the revelations of that truth which constituted the patriarchal religion.

1. He concluded that to be associated with the people of God, though in affliction, was better than to enjoy the pleasures of sin; and he judged right. But what are the advantages of union with the people, the Church, of God?

(1) Instruction. The Church is the depositary of truth; and God perpetuates a people to confess it. He raises up ministers also to teach it.

(2) Worship. The people of God worship Him in religious assemblies, in the use of pure forms, and in spirit and in truth. The advantages of such a service are unspeakable. A holy and cheering influence from God is vouchsafed to those who thus draw near to Him.

(3) An interest in God's covenant. The people with whom Moses chose to suffer affliction were the people of God. He had been merciful to their unrighteousness, cancelled their guilt, renewed their nature, and received them as a peculiar treasure to himself.

(4) The communion of saints. In Egypt Moses might have had communion with her princes, her philosophers, her artists; but they were "of the world"; and intercourse with them would have been very different in its effects from intercourse with the devout worshippers of God. One would have tended to produce hardness of heart, and a worldly spirit; the other, to elevate and purify the mind, and prepare it for God and heaven.

2. Faith enabled him to take a right estimate of the pleasures of sin. They "are but for a season." But what are sinful pleasures?

(1):Every pleasure which arises from what God has forbidden.

(2) Every pleasure which, if not expressly forbidden, cannot be reconciled to the general principles of the Word of God.

(3) All such pleasures as weaken the tone of our piety, and dissipate our thoughts, so that we lose our taste and relish for Divine things. Such are the pleasures of gaiety, of unhallowed reading, and often those of imagination; and they are tacitly contrasted with those which spring from God, and which lead the mind to Him. They are but for a season, short-lived. They are so denominated because they are only occasional. Man must labour and suffer, and can only occasionally enjoy his pleasures. Besides, the appetite for them palls. Spiritual pleasures follow us everywhere, and are the perpetual sunshine of the breast. Sinful pleasures are said to be only for a season, because they are dissipated by reflection. This destroys them. Spiritual enjoyments are so far from appearing less desirable as we advance in life and knowledge, that the first prayer of the heart when God has been forsaken, and we are made sensible of our loss, is, "Return, we beseech Thee, O Lord of Hosts." Come back, and restore to me the joy of Thy salvation.

3. His faith regarded a future world. "He had respect unto the recompense of the reward." There is a two-fold reward mentioned in Scripture. One is a righteous reward to the sinner; the other is a reward of mercy conferred upon the man who has renounced all for God. Faith respects both; for it is "the evidence of things not seen."

III. THE INSTRUCTION WHICH THE SUBJECT CONVEYS TO US.

1. We are taught that true religion is a reasonable matter of choice. All carelessness and sin God has stamped with the name of folly. In recommending to you the renunciation of the world and sin, and the surrender of yourselves to God, we challenge your reason.

2. We are taught that no man serves God for nought. No man loses by Him. Moses refused to be king in Egypt; and he became king in Jeshurun. He turned his eye from the splendours of Egypt's seductive philosophy; and the Lord passed by, and showed him His own glory, and proclaimed tits name. Moses learned in that sight, he heard in those few sentences, more than the study of years in the schools of Egyptian philosophy could have supplied.

3. We are taught that, if we are come to years, we ought to make our choice; and we are also taught what choice to make.

(R. Watson.)

---

---

KJV: By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

WEB: By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,