Then came the divine call.  He was alone with his sheep on the mountain-side, when he heard a voice saying, “Come now and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt,... and I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites ... unto a land flowing with milk and honey."[10] Thus Moses became the leader of his people in their exodus, or departure from Egypt.

[Footnote 10:  Exodus, chapter iii verses 10 and 17.]

[Illustration:  MOSES. Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome.]

After many strange experiences, the great company of emigrants made the passage of the Red Sea in safety, and Moses showed his poetic gifts in a song of triumph.  Many years of slavery had taken the spirit out of the Hebrews, and they needed a wise head and a firm hand to govern them.  Moses had both, and he was, besides, a man of God.  Going apart from them for a season of divine communion on the mountain, he spent forty days in preparation for a system of government.  On his return he brought with him two tables of stone, inscribed with the ten great commandments, which are at the foundation of right character.  He had also detailed directions for their daily conduct, and for their religious ceremonial.

The people for whose good all these plans were made were in the mean time discouraged by the long absence of their leader.  They had no idea how much he was doing for them, and in their folly they forgot his teachings, and began to practise the idolatrous customs they had seen in Egypt.  On descending the mountain, Moses found them worshipping the golden image of a calf.  It is not to be wondered at that, as the historian says,[11] “Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.”

[Footnote 11:  Exodus, chapter xxxii. verse 19.]

Again Moses went up into the mount for communion with God, and again two tables of stone were inscribed with the ten commandments, to replace those which had been destroyed.  Again, also, he was gone forty days, and this time he was given a mysterious revelation of the goodness of God.

Thus it was that when he came down the people were afraid to come near, for[12] “the skin of his face shone,” or “put forth beams,” as the expression reads in some Bible translations.  In the old Latin version made by Jerome in the fifth century, and known as the Vulgate, translated into what is now called the Douay Bible, we read that “Moses’ face was horned.”  This is why all the old artists, who were guided by the Vulgate, represented Moses with horns.  These horns became, as it were, symbols of Moses’ inspiration as a prophet.

[Footnote 12:  Ibid., chapter xxxiv. verse 30.  See Revised Version.]