ture from the unexpected assurance that his long and deeply lamented son still survived, and was governor in Egypt. In the first transports of his joy, he exclaimed, "It is enough; Joseph, my son, is yet alive; I will go down and see him before I die." But the passions of Jacob were regulated by religion. He would not depart from the land which was promised to his posterity, and to which he had returned at the express command of God, without the authority and direction of the Lord; and ardently as he desired to reembrace Joseph, yet had he been prohibited by him whom he loved better than sons or life, he would, from the same principle of obedience which induced his forefather to extend Isaac upon the altar, have sacrificed the dearest desires of his heart. Happy they, who, like Jacob, thus " acknowledge God in all their ways;" they shall find him "directing their paths," and defending and blessing them in all their undertakings.

66

The patriarch went to Beer-sheba, a spot which excited the tenderest feelings; which had been consecrated by the fervent devotions of Abraham, and hallowed by the sublime communion which Isaac had there enjoyed with heaven. There "he offered sacrifices to the God of his father." The Lord, who in his youth had cheered him in the solitude of Bethel, who in his maturer life had dissipated his fears at Peniel, did not forsake him when he was old and gray-headed, and weighed down by the infirmities of age. In the visions of the night, he said unto Jacob, "I am God, the God of thy father. Fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt, and I will surely bring thee up again; and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes." How consolatory

an address! How well calculated to banish every apprehension and anxiety from the heart of Jacob! "I am God;" and therefore able to perform all that I promise. "The God of thy father." I pity the cold heart, which does not feel the tenderness of this title; which prizes not that covenant which promises, “I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee;" which is not stimulated, by considering this relation, to greater holy activity; which is not led by it to cleave more fixedly to the Lord. Impenitent children of holy parents, can you, without confusion, remember the God of your father? It is the tender injunction of revelation, "Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not ;" and dare you, then, forsake and abandon your father's God-his best, his eternal Friend?

"I will go down with thee into Egypt." This promise was sufficient; the patriarch desired nothing more. It was this presence of God, which had cheered his heart under his sufferings in Mesopotamia, which had constituted his felicity in Canaan. Assured that this would accompany him, he could calmly bid farewell to the land of promise, and to all those scenes endeared to him by so long a residence, and by so many visitations of God and his angels. He could, in the evening of his days, re-commence his journeyings, after having hoped that all his removals were ended, except that which should bear him to the bosom of his covenant God. He goes to a strange land -but he will not there find a strange God, but will still be encircled by Him, who has always been his "dwelling-place."

Though he knew that he should die in Egypt, he was persuaded that his posterity should be brought, increased in number and power, to the land which

God had promised to their fathers. Though he was to expire in a foreign land, yet he was assured that he should depart in peace, in the bosom of his own family; that his best-beloved child should certainly survive him, should stand by him in the closing hour, and perform for him the last sad offices of affection.

Thus encouraged, he could look forward to the journey before him, and to the rest of his pilgrimage through life, with serenity and comfort. No difficulties or dangers occurred to him. As he advanced towards Egypt, he sent messengers before him to inform Joseph of his approach. His heart was with his son; but not being able to travel with a speed equal to his desires, he wished that Joseph would hasten to meet him, that they might thus gain some hours of happiness. On receiving this information, Joseph flew to him," and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a long while." Who can describe the raptures of this re-union, after a long separation of twenty years! In his ecstacy, the patriarch exclaims, "Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, my son, because thou art yet alive." Except in one illustrious instance, no parents ever felt greater pleasure in folding in their arms children who had been really dead, than did Jacob at this moment. His delight was exceeded only by that of the holy Virgin, when she saw him who was her son and yet her Lord, the consolation of Israel, and her chief joy-alive, after she had seen him expire upon the cross. The transports which swelled the heart of Jacob were great as those of the widow of Sarepta, when her son again opened upon her those eyes which had been closed by the hand of death; as those of the Shunamite, when the man of God, endued with power from on high, obliged death to resign his prey; as those of Jairus and his

wife, when the potent voice of Jesus cried, "Daughter, arise;" as those of the bereaved mourner of Nain, when that only child, in whom all her affections were concentrated, rose from the bier at the command of Him, who is the "resurrection and the life." None of these were more fully convinced of the death of their children, than Jacob had been. None of them were more tenderly attached to their offspring.

"Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, my son." Rapturous as was this meeting, he knew that in a short time they must again be separated by death. But oh! how happy will be that meeting of friends long lost to each other, in that world into which death will never enter, where there will no longer be a possibility of another separation! Many of you, my brethren, have left parents and near relatives in lands more remote than Egypt was from Canaan; perhaps you may never re-embrace them upon earth. To them no promise is given that their Joseph shall put his hand upon their eyes: but, oh! prepare to meet them in the kingdom of God, there for ever to mingle together your hearts and your voices before the throne of the Redeemer!

Of the particulars of the conversation between Joseph and his father, the Scriptures are silent; but there can be no doubt, from their character, that they warmly expressed their gratitude to God for his mercies; that they re-traced and adored the wonders of Divine Providence. But while Joseph was thus indulging in all the luxury of filial affection, he was not forgetful of his brethren. He showed the warmest regard to their interest; and though encircled with the splendours of a court, he was not ashamed to own as his brethren those whose occupa

tion was so odious in the estimation of the Egyptians, and to regard as his greatest honour a descent from that hoary shepherd, who was the "friend of God."

Joseph wished his father's family to remain separate from the Egyptians, both because of the prejudices of this people against shepherds, and because he knew it would be dangerous for them to mingle with idolaters. He therefore, by the permission of Pharaoh, settled them in the land of Goshen, and there "nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household."

For seventeen years, he enjoyed the pleasing and instructive society of his pious father, and uniformly acted as a dutiful son and affectionate brother. At the expiration of this period, he was called to stand by the dying-bed of Jacob. As soon as he heard of his father's sickness, he hastened to visit him, accompanied by his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim, that they also might behold the faith and hope of a departing saint, and profit by his prayers and admonitions at that solemn period. While he was afflicted at losing so beloved a relative, he was consoled by the fervent piety, the unshaken confidence in God displayed by the venerable patriarch in his closing hours; by the earnest prayers presented to God, and the tender benedictions solemnly pronounced upon him and his children; though, contrary to his own desire, the younger was preferred before the elder.

Oh! how profitable are the dying beds of believers, when they thus maintain their hope in God, adore that mercy and grace which they have experienced, and triumph in the stability and firmness of that covenant on which their hopes are founded! How much more useful to Joseph must have been