wishes you to do all you can to make both others and yourself happy. For, just as the love and obedience of children to kind and good parents, makes thenselves and all the family happy, as you well know is the case; so love and obedience to the kina anc good father of all, would make all the beings in his great family happy.

Sin is the great cause of misery among all beings; just as you know disobedience to parents, ana wicked conduct, are the cause of wretchedness in îamilies.

No sins should be called small. If you do not repent of your sins, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, by him, from your sins, as well as from the punishment which they deserve; all your wicked thoughts and feelings will be increasing in number and in strength, as you grow older.

What a sad prospect! Where will such a course of sinning end? What may it not lead you to do, Whither will it lead you, in the

even in this life!

world to come!

"The wages of sin is death; the death-the eternal death of the soul; its being shut out for ever from the joys of heaven; its being sentenced to that place of awful wickedness and suffering, where "the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched!"

CHAPTER VI.

Reuben pleads for Joseph's life.-Joseph cast into a pit.His brethren hard-hearted.-Judah pleads for Joseph's life. He is sold to the Ishmaelites, and carried to Egypt. -The providence of God.

AND are the brethren of Joseph about to kill their brother? All but one have it in their hearts to do this wicked deed. They are planning the mode of doing it, and in what way they will prevent its discovery, and make their father believe that Joseph was devoured by some wild beast. They are talking of slaying him, and of then casting the body into some deep pit, where it will never be seen by any human eye. They are all ready to gratify their wicked sions of pride, envy, and hatred.

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But God will not permit it to be done. He has great things for Joseph yet to do, and his life must be spared. There is one of the brothers not so cruel as the rest. It is Reuben, the eldest. God awakens his conscience to see the dreadful wickedness of what they are about to do, and softens his heart to feel for his brother and aged father. He begs them not to kill Joseph, and advises them to cast him into a deep pit that was near by. This he does, thinking

that their rage against him is so great that they will not let him entirely escape, and hoping to find an opportunity afterward of rescuing his brother, and of restoring him to Jacob.

The other brothers are persuaded to follow the advice of Reuben. They probably perceive that if they proceed actually to kill Joseph, Reuben will have nothing to do with it, and that he will tell the whole affair to their father.

But now Joseph is approaching his brethren, ready to show his affection for them-to tell them of their father's welfare, and to inquire kindly after them.

What is his surprise and alarm, as they seize him roughly and strip him of his beautiful garment of various colors, and cast him into a deep pit; and leave him there, wondering and trembling, not knowing what they intend yet to do with him. Perhaps they will soon come again, he thinks, to take his life; or, probably, they mean to leave him there, to perish with hunger.

And what do his brethren do? They sit down on the green grass to eat their food, as if nothing had happened. Who would think that they could do this so quietly and comfortably, and so directly after their cruel treatment of their brother?

But sin hardens the heart. Hate produces cruelty. And even the children of the same father, when they become envious of each other, will soon be prepared to act toward each other more like wild and ferocious animals than like human beings.

Who are those seen at a distance travelling on camels, and coming near the spot where the brethren of Joseph are still seated on the ground?

They are a company of Ishmaelites and Midianites, who have been to a country east of Dothan, called Gilead, where they have bought some of the very precious things that are produced therespices, balm, and myrrh-and are now going a great way to another country, called Egypt, to sell these 4

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articles to the people who live there, and who are very fond of using them.

This is all directed by God, who so ordered it that these travelling merchants should pass by just at this time, that it might be the means of saving Joseph's life, and of bringing about the exact fulfillment of his dreams.

Another brother begins to feel a little for poor Joseph. It is Judah, the fourth son. He says to his brethren, "What good will it do us to kill our bro ther? We may do it in such a way, indeed, as never to have it known, but it will be of no benefit to us. Why should we wish to kill him? Let us not do it. He is our brother, the son of the same father. Let us spare his life, and sell him to those merchants, who will soon be here. They will carry him far enough off to prevent him from ever troubling us again with his foolish dreams, or pretending to expect to be a ruler over us."

Judah prevails with the rest, and they go and draw Joseph out of the pit, hungry, and trembling, and dreading what their cruel hands may do unto him.

The Ishmaelites approach, and after bargaining with them about the price, just as if they were parting with a sheep or a goat, his brothers sell Joseph, in spite of his tears and entreaties, to these strangers,