ye will take Benjamin away; all these things are against me."

The persuasions of Reuben were ineffectual; but when their supply of corn was exhausted, and another journey to Egypt became necessary, Judah plainly told his father that they could not go down without Benjamin, because " the man had said, Ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you." Compelled therefore by the necessity, though not without many painful struggles of nature, Jacob gave his consent, but prudently directed his sons t↓ carry a present with them to the man to insure his favour. In the fervour of piety he dismissed them with this prayer: "GOD Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved."

A mild spirit of resignation to the Divine will at ast took possession of his heart, and he yielded his children and himself to the Almighty. Good old Jacob passed many a wishful day in Canaan, while nis sons were in Egypt. And with what repeated anxiety did the venerable man look towards the track they took, hoping to see them return with Simeon and Benjamin! And were not his prayers constantly and fervently addressed on the behalf of his absent children, that God would both preserve them in their going out, and in their coming home. Doubtless the altar was not forsaken, where, at the head of his remaining family, he supplicated and blessed the GoD of his fathers; neither were the private duties of prayer omitted, in which he poured out his soul to the Father of mercies.

He might, and doubtless did, hope to embrace his Benjamin once more, and to see his family collected around his dying bed: but there was one blessing reserved for him, which Jacob was not yet permitted to know or to expect. Joseph, as we have seen, was not out of his tender recollection; but could Jacob entertain the remotest idea that his beloved

son was in the land of the living, and that his eyes should behold him again?

How mysterious are the ways of Providence, and past finding out! Jacob, though he could by Divine inspiration predict the precise lot and circumstances of each of the tribes; and particularly utter a precise prophecy with respect to the lineage and time o the Messiah, knew nothing of what was passing in Egypt. He eagerly waited for the return of his sons; and when they came back, how satisfied, how grateful, was the good old patriarch at seeing Simeon, and embracing Benjamin! With what eagerness did he inquire of them the particulars of what nad happened to them in their journey, and the treatment they had received from the sagacious and rigid governor in Egypt! But that governor is Joseph. Yes; the sons of Jacob are prompt to inform their father that this wonderful man, this seemingly severe, but kind, forgiving, and exalted viceroy, is no other than his beloved Joseph! It is too much;the tide of blessings runs too strongly upon the heart, and Jacob faints away.

The story appeared too marvellous to be credited at first; but when the waggons came in sight, which were dispatched by the governor to bring his father and his family to Egypt, Jacob could no longer withhold his belief. His spirit revives at the sight of these objects, which convince him of the joyful truth, and he exclaims: "It is enough! Joseph, my son, is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die."

Jacob hastily gathered his property together, and set out on a journey, which, to one of his great age, was painful and difficult. But what are dangers and difficulties, fatigue and pain, to nim who has a be loved object in view, which has been long given up as irrecoverable? On coming to Beersheba, the patriarch stopped to worship God, who had been so gracious to him, and perhaps to wait his direction whether it was his will that he should go into Egypt. The Almighty did appear to him in this place, and

not only permitted him to pursue his journey, but added a promise that he would be with him, and that his posterity should become a great nation.

Thus encouraged, Jacob went down into Egypt, where he was met by Joseph, who "fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while." The tenderness of this scene might have been described in more copious language; but the simplicity with which the sacred writer has touched it, far exceeds all the elegance of style. The first words of Jacob to Joseph, after a pathetic silence, were, "Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive."

Joseph introduced his father to his royal master; and the patriarch, in his priestly character, blessed Pharaoh, or, as it should seem, supplicated the Divine favour for him. The venerable appearance and the pious demeanour of Jacob led the monarch to inquire his years; to which he replied "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and I have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." This answer of the patriarch was not the language of discontent, but the solemn reflection of a man who had experienced a large share of trouble, and who knew that the whole of human life is indeed but " a vain show."

Jacob spent the remainder of his days in tranquillity and prosperity, enjoying the society of his beloved child seventeen years. The close of his life was a happy calm, after a troublesome course.

But "Israel must die." There is no exemption from this stroke, and it matters little where it happens, whether at home or in a strange land, in Hebron or in Egypt, to him who, with Jacob, has the Divine presence to bless him in his last moments.

The patriarch perceiving that his dissolution was near, sent for Joseph, and bound him by a solemn promise, to bury him with his fathers in Canaan.

Shortly after this Jacob was taken sick; and it being reported to Joseph, he hastened to the bedside of his father, taking with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. On hearing that his dutiful son was come, Jacob exerted all his strength, and sat up in his bed to receive him, and to impart that blessing, which, in the spirit of prophecy, he was commissioned to bequeath. He next blessed the infant children of Joseph, but as he placed his hands upon their heads, he crossed them, putting his right upon Ephraim the younger, and his left upon Manasseh the elder. Joseph wished to correct the mistake of his father; but Jacob persisted, being guided by a Divine impulse; and he gave to each of the lads a portion in Israel, at the same time declaring, that the younger should be greater than the elder.

When this interview was ended, Jacob caused all his sons to assemble round his dying bed, that he might inform them what would befall them in the last days.

Of all the predictions which he pronounced with his expiring breath, the most remarkable and the most interesting is that to Judah: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until SHILOH come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."

One grand object was in the mind of the patriarch, as it had been in the contemplation of his predecessors, even the illustrious deliverer who should arise in after ages to redeem his people, and bring in salvation for the human race. The promised seed was the constant object of faithful expectation; and all the patriarchal ordinances, institutions, and predictions, had an allusion, positive or incidental, to the Messiah. Hitherto the promise was confined generally to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that from them the glorious blessing should arise; but now, under the Divine direction, the dying patriarch foretels in what tribe, and at what period, the great Restorer shall come. The sovereign authority was to conti

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nue in the possession of Judah, till from that tribe SHILOH should appear, and then the royalty must

cease.

This was fulfilled; for the tribe of Judah possessed legislative power till the time of Christ, and from that period the Jewish people have neither had dominion nor priesthood. Jesus Christ, therefore, must either be the true SHILOH, or the prophecy has failed; for the Jews cannot prove that they have had any thing like temporal power since his crucifixion. When they were so clamorous for the execution of Jesus, and Pilate told them to take the law into their own hands, they shrunk fearfully from the proposal, and acknowledged their slavish state, by saying, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." John xviii. 31. Here then we have a glorious proof of the veracity of Scripture, and an incontestable evidence of the truth of our religion.

As the patriarch was addressing his children, he exclaimed, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!" It was this faith in the Saviour which had supported him in his long and troublesome pilgrimage; and now that he was come to the close of it, a clearer manifestation of this great object was made to him, so that what was before dimly seen in the vast distance, was brought near to his view, and rendered evident to his apprehension. What he had so long waited for in humble, pious hope, was brought nigh to cheer him in his last moments, and he could say, "Now, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Luke ii. 29, 30.

When Jacob had finished blessing his sons, he charged them to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, with Abraham and Isaac, and "gathering his feet into the bed, he yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people."

Joseph having closed the eyes of his father, and wept over him, commanded the physicians to ern