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STORY RESUMED.

O yes, I remember, we left off on David's being restored to his throne and kingdom. It will now be necessary to revert to Jacob, and his grandfather Abraham; for Joseph and his brethren, my love, are specially connected with the history of the second Adam. You will remember, my love, God's promise to Abraham, because he obeyed God in offering his only son as a free and willing sacrifice; that God promised that Abraham's seed should possess the gate of his enemies; and that in him all the nations of the earth should be blessed: it was promising, my love, that the second Adam should spring from Abraham. To elucidate this ancestry, therefore, I must mention, that shortly after Jacob arrived in Egypt, in accordance with the request made by Joseph, he was brought to his deathbed, to which he summoned the twelve brethren, and prophesied what would be the final destination of themselves and their descendants, and likewise

showed that they would all become the heads of tribes, or of a particular people who would be called after the names of each respectively; and he blessed them all according to their deeds.

Then I am sure, Mamma, he must have blessed Joseph with great love.

Yes, my child, in language which is figurative, but very beautiful, he said:

Joseph is a fruitful bough,

Even a fruitful bough by a well,
Whose branches run over the wall.

The archers have sorely grieved him,

And shot at him, and hated him.

But his bow abode in strength,

And the arms of his hands were made strong

By the mighty God of Jacob,

(From thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel,)

Even by the God of thy father who should help thee,
And by the Almighty who shall bless thee,

With blessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that lieth under,

Blessings of the breast and of the womb:

The blessings of thy father have prevailed
Above the blessings of thy progenitors,
Unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills,
They shall be on the crown of the head of him

That was separate from his brethren.

And did he not bless Judah, Mamma, for offering himself a sacrifice in the room of little Benjamin?

He did, indeed, my love; for he blessed him with the promise that the second Adam should descend from his children. He said:

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.
Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies.
Thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey,

My son,
thou art gone up. He stooped down,
He couched as a lion, and as an old lion:
Who shall rouse him up?

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh come; and unto him
Shall the gathering of the people be ;
Binding his foal unto the vine,

And his ass's colt unto the choice vine.
He washed his garments in wine,
His clothes in the blood of grapes:
His eyes shall be red with wine,
And his teeth white with milk."

Thus, my child, to Judah it was promised that he should have the supremacy over all his brethren; that the sceptre should never forsake his descendants until Shiloh should come, meaning the secondAdam; who was, therefore, to descend from Judah. This was afterwards prophesied by Balaam, when he said; I shall see him, but not now;

I shall behold him, but not nigh.
There shall come a Star out of Jacob,
And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel,

And shall smite the corners of Moab,

And destroy all the children of Seth.

Now, my child, this Star was to be the second Adam.

We find, therefore, that Israel, as it was prophesied, destroyed the children of Seth, smote the corners of Moab, and that David descended from Judah. And before he sinned, my child, and after he brought up the ark of God, his heart was set upon building a house for the worship of God, which he communicated to Nathan the prophet, who, however, was commanded by God to speak thus in reply to the wish of David.

"Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, I took thee from the sheep-cote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel. And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more, neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more as aforetime, and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the Lord telleth thee,

ever.

:

that he will make thee a house. And when thy days be fulfilled, then thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for And I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever." David, as it may naturally be supposed, was overcome by this gracious goodness: lifting up his soul, he exclaimed, "Who am I, Lord God? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? and this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God! but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? and what can David say more unto thee? For thou, Lord God, thou knowest thy servant. For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things to make thy servant know thee. Wherefore thou art great, O Lord God, for there is hone like thee, according to all that we have heard

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