10. Why Boys Take Off Their Hats in Church

(Exodus 3)

When the boy Moses was old enough to leave his mother he went to live with his new mother in the king’s palace.

Moses was a good boy. He studied his lessons so well in school that he grew up to be one of the wisest and best young men in all the land. But Moses never forgot his own Hebrew people. He was not careless of the cruel way they were treated as slaves by the king’s officers. He tried to improve their sad condition in his own hasty way, but he soon saw that neither his own people nor their masters wanted a princess’s son to interfere. They were both ready to kill him for trying to help. So Moses had to flee for his life into the mountains where he became a shepherd. One day as he was leading his sheep up the mountainside, he saw a thorn-bush all aflame; and it kept on burning, but was not burned up. Moses wondered to see so strange a sight. Leaving his sheep he went near. Suddenly a Voice called out of the midst of the fire-bush, “Moses! Moses!” Moses answered, “Here am I.” The Voice said, “Take off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground,” It was God, in the form of an angel, speaking to him. Moses at once took off his shoes and bowed reverently in the presence of God. Then God told him a better way by which he could help his downtrodden people and set them free from their cruel masters who were beating them and making their life so hard. He told Moses he wanted him to lead his people out of their bondage. At first Moses was afraid he was not able to do what God wanted him to do, but God said, “Certainly, Moses, I will be with thee.” Moses obeyed the Voice that spoke that day to him out of the fire-bush, and he became one of the greatest of leaders and lawgivers that this world ever saw. Men and boys take off their hats in church to-day for the same reason that Moses removed his shoes before the fire-bush—to show reverence in the presence of God and respect for his wonderful way of speaking to men.