"Suspend your judgment.

66

Let prejudice yield to reason. "Be teachable.

"Restrain your avidity of knowledge.

“In order to edify your mind, subdue your heart."

But shall we always live in shades and grope in darkness? Will there always be a veil between the porch and the sanctuary? Will God always lead us between chasms and gulfs? Shall we for ever dwell near the battle-field of religious controversy, and be within sound of its artillery and the range of its shot? Shall we always hear the confused noise of its warriors, and the cry of defeat, mingling with the shouts of victory? Shall we always have to struggle with argument from without, and with doubt and suspense within! Oh, no! Presently this night of our ignorance, this dark night, will end, and we shall enter into that blessed world where there is no need of the sun, because the Lamb is the light thereof. In heaven we shall know all things by blessed intuition. We shall repose around the fountain of celestial radiance, where the sound of controversy will be as unheard as the din of arms. In heaven we shall understand all mysteries of nature, providence, grace, and glory. All difficulties will be solved. All objections will be silenced. How will this perfect light fill us with perfect joy! How delightful will it be to drink knowledge for ever from its divine source, with the assurance that it is pure from any admixture of error ! How blissful thus to spend eternity! "This is the revelation of God to us, and there is not in religion a more joyful and triumphant consideration than this perpetual progress which the soul makes in the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at an ultimate period. Here truth has the advantage of fable. No fiction, however bold, presents to us a conception so elevating and astonishing as this interminable line of heavenly excellence. To look upon the glorified spirit, as going on from strength to strength; adding virtue to virtue, and

knowledge to knowledge; making approaches to goodness which is infinite; for ever adorning the heavens with new beauties, and brightening in the splendours of moral glory, through all the ages of eternity: has something in it so transcendent and ineffable, as to satisfy the most unbounded ambition of an immortal mind." Young Men, have you this ambition? If not, take it up from this moment; it is the noblest which God can inspire, or the human bosom receive.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CHARACTER OF JOSEPH.

How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? GENESIS xxxix. 9.

THE Bible, viewed apart from its highest character as a revelation of divine, eternal, and immutable truth, and from its design as intended to make men "wise unto salvation," is the most instructive, entertaining, and interesting volume in the world, uniting, as it does, every species of writing, every variety of subject, and every style of composition. Hence the testimony of Sir William Jones, a man who, by the exertion of rare intellectual talents, acquired a knowledge of languages and literature which has seldom been equalled, and scarcely, if ever, surpassed. "I have carefully and regularly perused the Scriptures," says this truly great man, "and am of opinion that this volume, independent of its divine origin, contains more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever language they may have been written." Such a testimony, borne by a scholar who was intimately acquainted with twenty-eight different languages, and with the best works which had been published in most of them, deserves attention, and must carry weight with every considerate mind. The page of Holy Writ on which we open in this chapter justifies this eulogy: for where is the judge of literary composition who will not pronounce the history of Joseph

to be one of the most exquisitely pathetic narratives ever written?.

Before I proceed to enter upon the character of Joseph, I will point out what, besides the exhibition of a splendid example of human excellence, appears to me to be the design of God in preserving his deeply interesting and eventful history. This narrative is a representation of providence in miniature. Here we see God working out his wise and benevolent schemes by means and instruments the most varied, the most unlikely, and seemingly the most opposite; and by a series of events, which as they arise singly and separately appear to favour the designs of the bad and to oppress the good, but which are all made to terminate in the triumph of virtue and piety. Here, on a small scale, we see a wonderful and complicated mechanism, numerous wheels moving in opposite directions, but all made to subserve one wise and holy purpose, and thus to furnish an historical and beautiful illustration of the declaration, that "All things work together for good to them that love God." In many parts of Scripture we hear Providence speaking, but here we see it acting; and making evil, without altering its nature or excusing its agents, subserve the good. Here we see that though truth and holiness for a while may be trodden down by the iron heels of falsehood, vice, and power, they shall at length lift up their heads with joy, and be crowned with glory and honour.

But I now take up the other purpose of this beautiful narrative, and that is, to exhibit, for admiration and imitation, an extraordinary pattern of human excellence. Much of the Bible is historical and biographical. It is a gallery of portraits, both of good and bad men; some merely sketched in outline; some showing part of the figure only, and some drawn at full length. This makes the Scriptures at once interesting and instructive. We see sin in living shapes, depraved, leprous, beastly, dia

bolical, and learn to hate it. We see holiness, fair and beautiful, though by no means perfectly angelical and heavenly, and we are by such examples taught to love it, and helped to acquire it. Let us, then, now contemplate the character of Joseph. It is not my intention, for it is not in my power, in a single chapter to enter much at length into the details of his touching history. I must take for granted your acquaintance with them, and can do nothing more than give you so much of the narrative as shall help you in studying his character.

And, first of all, let us look at Joseph in that situation where the germ of all his future excellences began to develop, his father's tent. There were laid in his filial piety and his true religion, the foundations of that noble and lofty character which all nations and ages have delighted to contemplate. It is unquestionably true, and should ever be borne in mind by parents and children, that the rudiments of character are formed in early life, and at home, and then and there those seeds of good or evil are sown which bear in future years their appropriate fruits. He was the favourite child of his father, who in a manner most injudicious in itself, most dangerous to the object of his preference, and most destructive of his own peace, displayed his partiality by "the coat of many colours," and other marks of parental distinction. This partiality, though unwisely manifested, was grounded in part on Joseph's exemplary conduct, for he was a most dutiful son, and one that feared God. At the same time however he was the object of hatred and envy to his brethren. This was caused partly by his father's partiality; partly by his artless simplicity, not perhaps untinctured by vanity which had been increased by indulgence, and which showed itself in relating his dreams; and partly by the information which he gave of the misconduct of his brothers; for all these things tended, doubtless, to increase and exasperate their ill-will. But their enmity was produced chiefly by his good con