CHAPTER XLIII.

JACOB'S RELUCTANCE TO LET BENJAMIN GO- JUDAH'S REASONING JOSEPH'S RECEPTION OF THEM HIS FEELINGS AT SEEING BENJAMIN HIS HOSPITALITY.

THE chapter I have read ought not to be disconnected from the previous chapter, for it is its apposite and beautiful sequel. It discloses, however, new scenes in that remarkable interview, some of the details of which we have learned, and others we shall read in the rest of this interesting book.

It is recorded in this chapter that the sons of Jacob had come back, and stated the express stipulation laid down by Joseph, unknown to them as Joseph, that they should bring their brother Benjamin with them, while he would keep Simeon as a hostage until Benjamin arrived. When they brought this intelligence to the venerable and aged patriarch, his heart almost broke; it was more than he could bear. He recollected that Rachel's first son, Joseph, had been torn by wild beasts, as he supposed, through the neglect of his brethren; and he now feared that Benjamin, the only surviving son of Rachel, as he believed, would meet with the same fate; and he, therefore, excusably enough, hesitated and delayed, and put off the dread and painful sacrifice to the very last moment. But the famine," it is said, was sore in the land; and what will not a man give for his life? Death stared them in the face. It was, risk the life of Benjamin, the most beloved, or incur the certain starvation of himself, his children, and his children's children. This was no light alternative.

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It is said, "It came to pass, when they had eaten up the

corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them" at last, "Go again, buy us a little food; " but not a word about the stipulation which Joseph had made. He was anxious to avoid the terrible necessity, and he wished to see if his sons would go, and risk an application for the food which they could not do without, leaving Benjamin behind. But Judah, who seems thoroughly to have comprehended the character of Joseph, though he did not know that he was Joseph, and who seems to have been a person of business and practical habits, made substantially the remark, "It is of no use bidding us go, without Benjamin with us. This will only be to send us on a fool's errand; for the special stipulation of the man, the prime minister, was this, He did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you." He understood that Joseph meant what he said, and he left it for his father to decide

starve with all your children in Canaan, or send Benjamin; for, unless with him, we cannot see Joseph; and then he said, "If thou wilt not send him, we will not go down "— it is of

no use.

"And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me?" He did not know well what to say. His grief was inexpressible, and he did not know where to lay the blame; but he felt that blame ought to be laid somewhere. "Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell whether ye had yet a brother?" Why did you let him know that you had a brother? Judah then repeated the simple story, than which nothing can be more beautiful, or more truthful. "The man put the question, Have you another brother? and you, Jacob, are a Christian; you would not have us say, in the exercise of a tortuous or lying diplomacy or management, that we had no brother, when we had one. And, besides, how could we tell, when we told him the plain truth, that his very next request would be, Send for your brother Benjamin; for with

out him ye shall not see my face again? How could we expect or anticipate such a demand, when he simply asked the question, Have you another brother? and when we answered, We have one?" And Judah said, "Send the lad with me,”— make no further delay,—" and we will arise and go; that we may live and not die." And then he said, "I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever." It seemed that Judah thoroughly appreciated Joseph's character. He saw an honesty, a justice, a tenderness, a compassion, about this strange prime minister of Pharaoh, that made him feel that Benjamin would not suffer injury at his hands, and that induced him to offer himself as absolute surety for the safety and the return of the beloved Benjamin to his aged father. All the while, it is worth noticing, Benjamin was passive and silent. And then Judah said, with much good sense, Except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time." Had it not been for this foolish delay, which does not mend the matter in the very least, we might have returned from Egypt with our sacks filled, and you would have had plenty of bread, and to spare, instead of pining through hunger to-day. It is therefore of no use your holding out any longer. You must give in.

Well, their father Israel at last consented. "If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts and almonds." Now his consent is extremely characteristic. You would have thought he would have said, "Since I must do it, I must." But when the sound reasoning and the good sense of Judah showed him that the thing was duty, the aged patriarch, the instant he recognized duty, bowed, not reluctantly, but cheerfully, before it; and he resolved that if the thing was worth

doing at all, it ought to be done generously, nobly, well. When you see a thing that ought or is expedient to be done, either do not do it at all, or do it thoroughly. Either let it alone altogether, or refrain from doing it with a grudging or reluctant spirit. If you see a path clearly pointed out in the providence of God, commit yourself to that path, and, like Jacob, make as pleasant as you can what you feel to be sacrifice, and act as generously as you can where duty clearly dictates unswerving and unflinching obedience. In this spirit Jacob acted. Therefore, the patriarch said, "Take with you such fruits as the land has." In the eleventh verse he says, "There is no bread, nor corn for us; but there are some fruits still, a little balm, a little honey," because there might be flowers for bees when there was no corn, 66 a little spice, too, and myrrh, and some nuts and almonds." These still remained, and therefore he said, "Take of these as a present, and show by these to the prime minister your good will. And in order that this mistake about the money, which I hope was not deliberate dishonesty, may be rectified, take back the returned money in your sacks, and take fresh money, in order to pay for the corn that you are to bring with you. Take also," he says last, "your brother; and arise, go again unto the man." And when he gives this last sacrifice, not an exaction now, but a free-will offering, because he thought once it might be avoided, but now he sees it is duty, he adds the prayer -"God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved." That does not mean, "I am thoroughly bereaved; " but it is like when she of old approached the king, and said, "If I perish, I perish; "that is, "If it be God's will, I do submit." So Jacob says, "If it be God's will that Benjamin shall perish also, then it is God's will, and I shall submit." It is the

breathing of the sublime petition, "Our Father, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

The men took presents and set out; "And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home, and slay, and make ready; for these men shall dine with me at noon." What the ruler of the house can have thought, when he said so, it is not easy to conceive. He must have fancied that his master was deranged. An Egyptian to ask Hebrews to dine with him, when such intercourse was an abomination an Egyptian prime minister, distinguished by his position, asking these nomad mendicants to dine with him - what strange overturning of all the decencies of life is this! What becomes of all the etiquette of that court, where such a thing had never occurred in the memory of man? But, still, he had the good sense to think his thoughts to himself, and to obey promptly and thoroughly his master's command.

In the eighteenth verse it is said, "The men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph's house; and they said, Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in." You observe that their consciences were wrong ever since their first sin against their aged father Jacob, and his beloved son Joseph; and everything that happened to them, conscience made them to conceive to be, in the purposes of God, a righteous and penal retribution. When the compass loses its proper polarity at sea, the whole course of the vessel must be altered by it; and when the conscience loses its right direction, its response to God, its deference and inclination to his law, by its conscious violation of the highest duty, then the heart is filled with fears, the prospects of life are followed by uncertainty, and all the dispensations of Providence are suspected to be judgments, when they may be rich and sanctifying mercies. So they said now, "This looks very fine, our being introduced