father loved? or like his hard-hearted and envious brothers, who sinned against God and their father? If you would be like Joseph, you must try to set a good example to others, both by your actions and your words. You must be a child of obedience, truth, and love. Ask of God to give you the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus that you may be so. And if you would not be like Joseph's hardened brothers, you must not turn away from the good example, and the words of counsel set before you, but must try to follow them: then you will be a follower of the Holy Jesus, and the child of your Father in Heaven.

Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.PROV. XX. 11.

XV. JOSEPH.

AND Joseph's brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto his son Joseph, "Do not thy brothers feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send thee unto them." And Joseph said to his father, "Here am I." And his father said to him, "Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brothers, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again." Joseph knew his brothers' feeling against him; he knew that they could not even speak peaceably to him; he knew also how his father loved him, and that he would not like to expose him to any trouble; but he did not say a word against his father's command. When his father called him to go alone to his envious and cruel brothers, he made answer directly, "Here am I." Shall

I tell you what it was that made Joseph so obedient. It was because God had sent down into Joseph's heart the Spirit of Christ, even the Holy Spirit, and this made Joseph like his Saviour for the Lord Jesus was obedient in all things to his Heavenly Father's will; He was the beloved Son of God, but when his Heavenly Father sent him into this world to become the brother of sinful men, to suffer and to die by their wicked hands, He said directly," Lo, I come." Joseph said, “Here am I." And the Lord Jesus said, "Lo, I come." You see the same Holy Spirit of OBEDIENCE dwelt in both-Joseph had the Spirit of God's beloved Son: and so had the blessed Isaac, who lay down upon the altar to die and so had Abraham, who took the knife to slay his son, his only son, whom he loved, at God's command: and so has every child and servant of God—we may know them by this, from the oldest to the youngest-they have learned OBEDIENCE?

So Israel sent Joseph his son out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

But his brothers were not there. Did Joseph then return to his father and tell him that he had been, and they were not there? No, he was bent upon obedience to his father's will, and he would seek them until he found them. And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field; and the man asked him saying, "What seekest thou?" And he said, "I seek my brothers: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks." And the man said, "They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan." And Joseph went after his brothers, and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, "Behold, this Dreamer cometh. Come now, therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit; and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams." And Reuben, Joseph's eldest brother, said unto them, "Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no

hand upon him;" that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again. Joseph must have been faint with fatigue, hunger, and thirst, after walking so far to find his brothers; and now at last he saw them with their flocks and their tents; but there was no welcome, no rest, no food, for Joseph. There was no love, no pity in the hard hearts of his brothers. Their aged father had sent his beloved son to see how they were, but they ask no questions about their father: they conspire together against their innocent brother, and all their thoughts are to take away his life; all except Reuben,―he keeps them back from shedding Joseph's blood.

And it came to pass when Joseph was come unto his brothers, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him: and they took him and cast him into a pit; and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread. The wilderness was a place dreary enough for Jacob's beloved child to be left in alone, but this would not