misery of many years afterwards has depended; how sins, which we thought long buried, have started again to our remembrance; how good actions have brought with them a train of blessings, of which at the moment we never dreamed. How like to all this

is the story of Joseph! Look at the young foreigner, as he comes to a land not his own; see how he resists the one great temptation of his age and station; observe how, through means not of his seeking, through good report and evil, through much misunderstanding of others, but by constant integrity and just dealing on his own part, he overcomes all the difficulties of his position, and is remembered long afterwards in his adopted land as the benefactor of his generation, and the deliverer of his country. This is the lesson that is first taught us by the history of Joseph, but is repeated, in a measure, through many lands, and in many generations, down to our very nearest experience. Or look at the brothers; how easy it seems to them to remove out of their way the one who embittered their lives, and how, when they could have least expected, they are taunted and tormented and bewildered by the remembrance of the sin of their youth. God was merciful to them; God is merciful to us; but not the less will there come a time, when we shall have our former follies and sins thrown back in our teeth by ourselves or by others: 'We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that 'we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us ' and we would not hear; therefore is this distress 'come upon us.' 'Spake I not unto you, saying, Do 'not sin against the child, and ye would not hear?

'therefore, behold, his blood is required.' Truly, there is a God that judges the world, and each man in his inmost soul will know it for himself, if not for others. Divine Justice, it is said in an old proverb, has leaden feet, but iron hands-leaden feet that move slowly, but iron hands that make themselves felt at last, whether to strike or to defend, to punish or to reward.

II. There is another lesson from this story of Joseph; indeed, from all this part of the Bible. It is, perhaps, of all the stories in the Old Testament, the one which most carries us back to our childhood, both from the interest which we felt in it as children, and from the true picture of family life which it presents. How like-how very like-to the incidents of every household is the story of the brothers; of different characters thrown together in the same house-Judah, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Joseph, Benjamin, the father, and the mother, Jacob and his lost Rachel! It brings before us the way in which the greatest blessings for this life and the next depend on the keeping up of family love, pure and fresh, as when the preservation and fitting education of the Chosen People depended on that touching generosity and brotherly affection which no distance of time, no new customs, no long sojourn in a strange land, could extinguish in the heart of Joseph. 'Joseph's heart yearned upon his brother.' 'Joseph 'could not refrain himself before all them that stood 'by him, and there stood no man with Joseph when 'he made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud, and he said, I am Joseph; doth my

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'father yet live?' 'And he fell upon his brother 'Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon 'his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and 'wept upon them; and after that, his brethren talked 'with him.'

Surely no long familiar use, no antiquity of Egyptian or Oriental manners, can ever blind us to the deep feeling of that pathetic scene-of that reunion of all the scattered members of the family in one undivided embrace !

And is not this the very lesson which we all need, and most of all, perhaps, when we are away from our country in a distant land? Many things must be altered as we grow older, and as we change our positions in the world. Many good customs which we retain at home must be altered or suspended when we are abroad. But there are some customs, there are some parts of the human character, which never need be altered, which never ought to be altered, which are best kept up by going back as nearly as possible to the days of our childhood and the thoughts of home. Innocence-purity of life-simplicity and truthfulness of character-regard to our nearest and dearest relations-daily prayer to God at morning and at evening-these are amongst the gifts of which our Saviour spoke when he said, 'Except ye become as little children, ye shall not 'inherit the kingdom of heaven.' 'Of such' childlike characters is the kingdom of heaven.'

HOME-the scenes, the thoughts, the warnings, the pleasures of home-the bonds of lasting and cordial affection which reach across seas and

continents, and keep us in spirit close to those who in bodily presence are far away—the images of old days and childlike recollections that visit us in dreams, and soothe us in sorrow, and calm us in joy-these are amongst God's best blessings to His creatures, these are amongst the best safeguards He has given us to protect us against new difficulties, strange temptations, corrupting customs. They are the blessings which in different ways we all have in common. Every one of us has a home somewhere, or in some degree, father, or mother, or brother, or sisters, or wife, or child. Every one has such an one, far away, it may be, but ever present in thought to us, to whom our well-being is inestimably precious; whose happiness is, or ought to be, inestimably precious to us; to whom no joy is so great as the joy of knowing that we are doing what is right; to whom no grief would be so great as the grief of knowing that we had been doing what was wrong. Of this sacred claim upon us, the Bible constantly reminds us. It reminds us of what this claim is even as regards only this world; but it reminds us also that it is a bond which reaches beyond this world. Those who have passed out of the family circle into the world beyond the grave are, in God's sight, and before our own hearts, still one with us. Whosoever it be that we have so lost (again I repeat each one of those dear and sacred names as they may apply to each of us)-wife, or child, or brother, or sister, or mother, or fatherthey still call upon us, or rather God calls upon us through them, by what we remember and cherish and honour of them, that their wishes and their hopes

for us are not buried in their graves, but will continue as long as their own immortal souls. Their wishes are now commands; their lightest desires now become sacred duties for us who remain. The very mention and thought of their names draws us upward and heavenward. Home is on earth the best likeness of Heaven; and Heaven is that last and best home, in which, when the journey of life is over, Joseph and his brethren, Jacob and his sons, Rachel and her children, shall meet to part no more.