Nature alone was his instructor, Truth his rule, and Affection his guide. Of himself and his own interest he thought not; his whole heart was in his subject; all else was swallowed up in the concern which he felt for the lad whose life and liberty he had undertaken to implore; and therefore it was that, although he had never formally studied the philosophy of the human mind, he hit with instinctive sagacity the hidden chords of human feeling, and found his way as surely, and yet as delicately, to the Governor's heart as if from his very boyhood he had made the nature of man the subject of metaphysical analysis. Therefore it is that not only no circumstance calculated to bear upon success is omitted, but every circumstance is introduced in the most fitting place, and at the most proper time. With all the simplicity of truth he goes over the history of the case; and, with all the earnestness of a man who believes what he asserts, he beseeches the Governor to weigh it. Sincerity did for him what the most elaborate and pompous diction I would have failed to do. It was not his ambition to shine as an orator. All that he wanted was to get Benjamin free. Could he accomplish this, he cared for nothing more; and so, with his whole soul in the cause and his best affections at work, he commanded the heart of him who ruled the kingdom of the Pharaohs.

"Oh, my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant, for thou art even as Pharaoh.

My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father

or a brother? And we said unto my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a

little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him. And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon him. And we said unto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father; for if he should leave his father, his father would die. And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more. And it came to pass, when we came up unto thy servant, my father, we told him the words of my lord. And our father said, Go again, and buy us a little food. And we said, We cannot go down; if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down; for we may not see the man's face except our youngest brother be with us. And thy servant, my father, said unto us, Ye know that my wife bare me two sons; and the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces; and I saw him not since ; and if ye take this also from me, and mischief befal him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Now, therefore, when I come to thy servant, my father, and the lad be not with us, seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life, it shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die; and thy servants shall bring down the grey hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest per

adventure I see the evil that shall come on my father." -Genesis xliv. 18-34.

Than this simple statement what, to any heart of ordinary sensibility, could be more moving? "We have a father, an old man ;" one, therefore, who must already have seen many changes and undergone many trials; whom we cannot, according to the course of nature, reasonably expect to have with us long, and whose feelings it would be most injurious to wound. And then, "a child of his old age, a little one, and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him."

Little, indeed, did Judah suspect that the brother of whom he spake stood before him as Egypt's Governor. But the narrative was enough to melt the heart of a stranger. No wonder that it powerfully affected him, who, though the speaker knew it not, was deeply and personally interested in it.

We shall not, however, say more in regard to Judah's pathetic supplication. Every man of ordinary judgment and feeling must himself be able to discover its beauties. And they are things, "not to be told

but felt."

Of greater importance is it to observe, that the prominent doctrine of Christianity (that, namely of vicarious punishment) is in strict accordance with the analogy of nature. They who object against this leading peculiarity of the gospel system, should first acquaint themselves with the feelings and instincts lodged within the human heart. For, in strictness of speech, the objection taken against the appointment of a substitute for sinners, is an objection against the very constitution of human nature. Almighty God

has planted in the bosom of man an expectation that for an offence committed against an earthly governor pardon may be obtained, if an adequate satisfaction can be rendered, and an innocent person can be found to suffer voluntarily in the room of the guilty one. Before, then, any reasonable exception is taken in regard to the doctrine of Christ's vicarious sufferings, it should in reason be demonstrated that the expectation referred to has no foundation in nature. But this it will be impossible to do; for we find that no notion is more generally diffused, and no proposal more readily acceded to. In the instance before us, we see Judah building upon the strength of it an argument for Benjamin's liberation. He does not solicit at the hands of Joseph an absolute reversal of the sentence which had been pronounced against the supposed offender; he desires only that the punishment be transferred from Benjamin to himself. In this way the authority of law would at once be upheld, and the liberation of Benjamin secured. Justice would lose none of her rights, while, at the same time, mercy would be exercised. It might not consist with the understood principles of government, to pass an act of unconditional clemency, and allow the young man to go his way as if no wrong had been done; for who could say in what pernicious results a precedent of this nature might terminate? But nothing hindered that, if Judah were accepted in Benjamin's stead, the latter might depart and enjoy as aforetime the comforts of his native dwelling. To this proposal nothing could in equity be objected; all that the law demanded was, that the crime should be punished. And surely, then, if Judah can discharge the office of a servant as

well as Benjamin, no loss is sustained on the governor's part, while, at the same time, great grace is vouchsafed to the guilty individual. It was nature that prompted the resolution, and pleaded so eloquently for the acceptance of it. The whole speech of Judah, indeed, from beginning to end, is true to nature; and this part of it to which we now refer, is founded on a moral instinct, which no sophistry can overcome. The anxious man sees one way, and only one, by which his brother may be dismissed with impunity; and that is a way in which none of the governor's rights are compromised; in which all may be rendered that justice has exacted; in which the supremacy of the law may be maintained, while, at the same time, the mild attribute of mercy may be illustrated. True, indeed, it depended altogether on the governor's pleasure, whether he would accept the proffered substitution. But as there was nothing in it at all incongruous with the principles of rectitude, and as, moreover, the very idea of it had a foundation in nature, Judah pleaded earnestly that the proposal might be complied with.

Let such, then, as find fault with the doctrine o.. the gospel be persuaded to look a little more carefully than they have hitherto done into the constitution of human nature; and in the voluntary offer of Judah to be a bondman in his brother's stead, let them learn that the sufferings of the holy child Jesus in the room of sinful men are by no means so repugnant to the sense of justice lodged within the human bosom as they have ventured to assert. Will they go so far as to pronounce unreasonable the plan which Judah suggested to gain a brother's liberty? We believe not.