into this great man's house, these magnificent rooms, which look to us poor Hebrews so very grand; but, you may depend upon it, it is for some wicked purpose. He wants to make

slaves or prisoners of us, or to do us some harm." That man whose conscience is right with God, walks through society loving all, suspecting none. That man whose conscience is wrong with himself, and wrong in its relationship to God, walks through society dreading and suspecting every man. It is only the Christian who regards every man as a brother, till he find him out to be a foe. It is the unconverted who regard every man as a foe, till they discover at length that he is a brother.

When they came into Joseph's house they were very much afraid; and they therefore took the best course they could, by speaking to the steward of the house; and how very true to nature is that simple touch in the nineteenth verse, “They came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they communed with him at the door ". - at the entrance hall. They wanted to get out of him some explanation of this mysterious treatment, and to ascertain whether his master was a person who was a little eccentric, or really laying a trap for them, and wishing to do them some harm. And they explained to the steward, lest it should be supposed that they had tried to conceal what had occurred, the money in their sacks. This was their preparatory conduct. The steward answered, no. doubt from a thorough practical and personal knowledge of his master's heart and disposition, that he was incapable of injuring them; and that this mystery to them would, when it was evolved and explained, show that "the God of their father had given them treasure in their sacks." It is plain that Joseph had kept his Christianity in Egypt, and that this steward had heard and learned of the God of Abraham from the lips and the life of his great master. In other words, Joseph was not one of those men who in the nineteenth cen

tury say, “Do in Rome as Rome does·

be a Romanist; and

that is, be a Mus

that is, be a world

in Constantinople as Constantinople does sulman; and do in Paris as Paris does ling, or anything you like;" but he was one of those who say, “In all matters of dress, or ceremony, I will conform to the custom of the country; but my religion is too sacred a thing, too vital a heritage, ever to be laid down or lost sight of. It is inseparable from me as my immortality. With it I live, and in it I die." And the servants showed here that they had received the right impression, and had been christianized through the instrumentality and the instructions of their master.

We read, next, that they were all introduced to Joseph; and Joseph spake to them, and said, in language so true to nature, “Is your father well, that is, the old man of whom ye spake?" Overdoing his attempt to disguise his recognition of his own relation to him, and by the very sweep and extent of the distance of his language revealing the effort to cover what was real. "Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? And they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive." And then they fulfilled unconsciously what Joseph predicted, and what they once resented, "They bowed down their heads, and made obeisance."

And then "He lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son," that is, Rachel's, "and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son."

I know nothing so true to nature as the thirtieth and thirtyfirst and following verses, and certainly no language so expressive of true human nature as this description of Joseph. He had under his robes of office a true human heart. "And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother : and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his cham

ber, and wept there. And he washed his face, and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread. And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians which did eat with him, by themselves; because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the first-born according to his birthright." And he showed his great affection for Benjamin by sending him up messes," that is, if you like, dishes from his own table, as special expressions of his attachment and love. “And they drank,” and, even amid their suspicions and their fears, their misgivings and their doubts, they had an interval of happiness; and they "were merry with him."

In Scripture we find portrayed, truly and justly, humanity in all its phases, its nature, its ruin, its restorations, its weaknesses, its strength, its trials and gains, and joys and fears, as it never was or has been depicted on earth. The Bible is the portrait of man, the revelation of God, and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

CHAPTER XLIV.

DETECTION OF THE DIVINING-CUP IN BENJAMIN'S SACK-SHOCK FELT BY THE PATRIARCHS THEIR RETURN TO JOSEPH-INTERVIEW TOUCHING APPEAL OF JUDAH.

You will ask, perhaps, at the commencement of this most eloquent and touching story,-not the less eloquent and touching because it is recorded by an inspired penman,why Joseph, unknown to his brethren, because yet unrevealed, should have insisted on the cup, his own special cup, being put into the sack of Benjamin? What was the patriarch's main reason for dealing thus with his brethren? What object did he propose ? The answer is, Joseph had not seen his brethren since they sold him as a slave, and he was anxious to know whether their attachment to the last child of the beloved Rachel, Benjamin, was at all different from the equivocal attachment that they bore to him, Joseph, her other child, whom they sold as a slave to merchantmen going into Egypt. If, when the cup was found in the sack of Benjamin, his brethren had fled, and left him to bear the consequence, Joseph would have seen that years had not sanctified to them their troubles, nor given them repentance for their sins; but that they were still of the same selfish and domineering temper which made them say, "This Joseph shall not reign over us," and which determined them to sell him to Egyptian taskmasters out of spite, rather than for profit. The steward was directed by Joseph, therefore, to put his own silver cup into the sack of Benjamin.

It is said, "As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away." That morning broke upon them in joy; the day of that morning closed on them in sorrow and in suffering. Many a bright day ends in dark clouds, and when the morning comes, we, frail, ignorant and infirm, know not what the evening shall be. The sun that rises on bridals, sets often on burials also.

Joseph's steward rose up and followed the men, and overtook them; and he put the question, "Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?" You are Christian men; you profess to be followers of the God of Abraham; by your fruits I will test your creed. The prescription of Christianity is, "Overcome evil with good;" the practice of you, its professors, has been, that you have seemingly tried to overcome good with evil. "Wherefore have you done this? Are you aware that you have taken the cup whereby my lord divineth?" That expression, "divineth," has been open to different interpretations, not so much on the meaning of the subject itself, as on the special use indicated by so singular a use attached to the cup, "the cup wherewith my master divineth." Now, on many of the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the Egyptian monuments, there are specimens of varieties of cups, exquisitely chased and carved, and in fact showing, whatever be our boasting and our real progress, that at that day, in artistic excellence, they seemed to have attained a degree of perfection that has been scarcely reached in modern and more boastful times. These cups, it is ascertained, partly from inscriptions that have been deciphered, and partly from allusions in ancient writers, were used by Egyptian magicians, and even by Egyptian great men, in order to divine, or find out, by a sort of magic (it may have been a stupid process, but they believed it to be a prophetic one), what would be the destiny of any one individual, or what would be the way to find anything that had been lost. It was a sort of