for twenty pieces of silver: and they carry him off with them away to Egypt.

That was the very place to which God intended that Joseph should go. His wicked brethren did not know this. They had no idea that their cruel treatment of him would be the very means of defeating their own designs, and of preparing the way for their future shame and humiliation before their injured brother.

God over-ruled their wicked designs so as to bring about his own good purposes. His doing this, and indeed his knowing beforehand every thing

that is to happen, and so planning and ordering what takes place, as to do just what he thinks best and right with all persons and things-is what we call the providence of God.

It is this providence of God which takes care of you, my dear children, and plans and orders what is to happen, and causes so many comforts and blessings to attend you.

It was this same providence of God which took care of poor Joseph. You have already seen how one thing and another were ordered, with regard to him, in a very striking manner, to bring about the wise purposes of God.

You will see the same providence of God bringing about still more wonderful things, with regard to him, in the country of Egypt, whither he has gone, far away from his kind father, to be sold as a slave in a land of strangers.

CHAPTER VII.

Reuben's sorrow at finding Joseph gone.-Joseph's brethren lead their father to believe that he is dead.-Their great guilt. The commission of sin leads to deception and falsehood.

REUBEN, who proposed to put Joseph in the pit that he might save his life and return him to his father, was absent when he was sold to the Ishmaelites. He returned soon after, and going to the pit, found that Joseph was not there. His disappointment and grief at this were very great. He rent his clothes. It was customary at that time for persons in that country to do this, as a mark of deep sorrow; and Reuben probably intended in this way to let his brethren see how keenly he felt the loss of his brother. He came to his brethren, and broke out in this affecting lamentation: The child is not —and I, whither shall I go?

Reuben was soon told what his brethren had done with Joseph; and he saw that it was too late for him to attempt any thing for his relief. For, had he pursued the Ishmaelites, it is not at all probable that they would have given up Joseph, even if the money had been given back to them again. It is 4*

L. J.

doubtful, too, whether Reuben had money enough of his own for this purpose; and we cannot suppose that his brethren would let him have the twenty pieces of silver to defeat their own design in selling their brother.

They had now to devise some way of concealing their guilt, so that their father and his family might be kept in ignorance of it, and of what had become of Joseph.

One sin is the cause of another. They had done the greatest injury to their unoffending brother, and some deception must be practised by which to im pose upon their aged parent.

It is uncertain whether Reuben was concerned with them or not, in the deception. But, at any rate, he did not make it known, and in this way partook of their guilt, and showed that he was afraid to do his duty.

The deception which they practised was this. They killed a kid or young goat, and dipped the beautiful coat of Joseph in its blood. They then brought it to their father and showed it to him all bloody as it was. "We have found it," said they; know now whether it be thy son's coat or no."

And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat, an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is, without doubt, rent in pieces."

What an affliction to Jacob! He could not have had a severer one. Rachel, whom he loved so tenderly, was gone. He buried her at Ephrath. And now, the next dearest object of his affection, the son whom he hoped to have as the support and solace of his already declining years, is also gone. It would have been a consolation to have laid him in his grave. But this is denied him.

In the bitterness of his grief, Jacob rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days.

"And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son, mourning. Thus his father wept for him."

Jacob's sons, trying to comfort him for the loss of Joseph, whom they themselves had sold into bondage, and sent far away from his affectionate father! They pretending to mingle their sorrow with his, when they were secretly rejoicing at the event which occasioned it! They endeavoring to allay his grief, when the deception which they had practised was the reason why that grief was so excessive! They calling upon him to dry up his tears, when they had it in their power, by simply telling him that Joseph was yet alive, to furnish a consolation