CHAPTER XLVIII. THE DYING PATRIARCH-JUDEA FOR THE JEWS OLD AGE-JACOB BLESSING JOSEPH'S SONS. Ir appears that the tidings reached the patriarch Joseph simply by popular report or rumor for the Hebrew answers to the French on dit that his aged and venerable father was about to go the way of all the earth; and the moment that Joseph heard that one he so much loved and revered was about to leave him for the rest that remaineth for the people of God, he rushed to a sick father's bedside, and brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him, in order that they might see that noblest of spectacles, how a Christian can die, and might be refreshed by the scene of the departure of so great worth, and go forth, strengthened as well as blessed, to go and do likewise. We read that some one told the aged patriarch, Jacob, as he lay upon his last pillow, that the son he once thought was torn by wild beasts, and who, in his last moments, was his greatest comfort upon earth, was about to come and see him; and the very tidings that such a son, so beloved, and so worthy of such a parent, was approaching his bedside, gave new vigor to the old man's body, and new inspiration to his heart; and he raised himself, we are told, upon his staff or bed, as here it may have been. This was the spectacle of an aged patriarch, of a century and a half old, raising himself upon his staff, and looking, with an ecstasy that only a parent could feel, at sons gathered around him, to whom he was soon to address his last farewell. Jacob said unto Joseph, the moment that he saw him, "God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me." We have read that incident before; and the venerable patriarch, as if his great heart were overwhelmed by a sense of God's past goodness, in restoring to him his long-lost son, who he thought was dead, brings before him, in the rush of grateful recollection, all the good that God had done him; and, even before he spoke to Joseph one word, he breaks forth, in adoring praise, "God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz,"— that is, the place that became afterwards Bethel," in the land of Canaan, and blessed me. And he made me this promise, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people, and will give this land to thy seed after thee, for an everlasting possession." Promises were the joy of Jacob's heart. Now, I believe that the promised land still remains to be inherited by Jacob's children. Palestine is pledged to the Jews, and it is ceaselessly promised throughout the Old Testament Scriptures as an everlasting possession. They are now dispossessed; the Jews are now a family without a home, a nation without political cohesion or laws, a people without a ruler. The Moslem has his mosque where the temple of Solomon was; and the victim and devotee of superstition has altars where the glory once burned between the cherubim; but you may depend upon it that the Gentile is simply an occupant of the deserted land, keeping it ready for the restoration of God's favored and long-blessed people. Palestine is promised to them as an everlasting possession. They are homeless, because not yet in it; and heaven and earth may pass away, but this pledge shall not pass away. They have no footing here, that they may hurry there. I have often repeated, on reading these chapters, how plainly one can see the multiplying signs of their restoration. It is rumored that Palestine will soon be the scene of new arrangements, new interferences, new movements, arising from the autocracy of Louis Napoleon. Everything indicates that God's Spirit is moving amid the dry bones; and that we are now about to pass into scenes, and years, and trials, perhaps, as far as we can judge from God's word, unprecedented in the history of the past. But how delightful is this, that, if we be God's people, if we love him, and are in Christ Jesus loved, sanctified and blessed, then, come trouble, come trial, come distress and perplexity of nations, nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! The nation has lost a Wellington, the soul never loses Jesus. Jacob said that he should regard as his own Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who had been born to him in the land of Egypt, and who had therefore not been seen by Jacob before. "As Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine." - And then, in the seventh verse, just as if he could not mention God's great mercies without alluding to his own great loss, he says, in very touching, because very simple words, "When I came from Padan, Rachel "-for whom he waited and toiled seven years, the mother of Joseph and of Benjamin, whose likeness he no doubt saw in Joseph's two sons, and which likeness made them only the more intensely beloved by him "Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan, in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath." This death, he thought, looked as if it had been wrath; but he knew it was not so, but mercy. She finished her journey sooner than he; she was taken sooner home, that was all the difference. And now he felt he was to join Rachel, as Rachel had joined God, and so are they now forever with the Lord. "And I buried her there, in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem." That was evidently to induce the patriarchs to look to Canaan as their home upon earth, because the dead dust of Abraham, and Isaac, and Rachel, and the world's gray fathers, was, and now is, all there. What a thought is it, that, at this moment, the dust of patriarchs is still sleeping beneath the green sods of Jerusalem, or, at least, in Palestine! And what a magnificent scene will that be, when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead dust of the world's gray fathers shall be quickened, and of the world's young striplings also, and both together shall feel that mighty transfiguration, when this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruptibility! What bright hopes are a Christian's! What glorious prospects may the youngest saint, as well as the most aged patriarch, fall asleep in the sure persuasion of! "The eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see." Age came upon the good Jacob, or, as he is here called by his new name, Israel. All of us feel that the youngest is growing older, and the aged are already grown old; that no power can keep one hair black, when it begins to grow gray; no force can clear away the mists that begin to gather on the eyeballs in old age. Old we must become. O, when old in age to be old in grace, what a blessed and happy combination! It is then said, in a picture extremely beautiful, "And Joseph brought his sons near unto Jacob; and he kissed them, and embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face; and, lo! God has showed me also thy seed." I thought thou wast dead, torn by wild beasts; and God has not only enabled me to see thee, but thy children. And it must have been a most delightful thought to the patriarch's heart, that those children were walking in the fear of the Lord, adorning the doctrine they professed, so that he could depart in peace, rejoicing in the Lord, his rock, and the rock and refuge of his children, and his children's children. Joseph then took them both, and placed them before him... rd, iš his ch and place GENESIS XLVIII. 365 Joseph, who acted from nature, wanted the elder to be Jacob, however, said to Joseph, “I know what I am doing. And then he said, "Behold, I die!" And he did not regret life or refuse to die. In old age, death is scarcely dying. It is just the evening twilight mixing with the morning twilight, with scarcely a night between. It is simply the soul leaping from the decaying house, and instantly feeling itself present with the Lord. And, therefore, just as the trees in autumn become most magnificent under their autumn tints, when they are about to drop all their foliage on the earth, so a dying Christian feels the greatest joy, and is radiant with the brightest hopes, and gives, like Simeon, expression to the songs, When God takes when he is about to leave the house that perrichest ishes, for a house not made with hands eternal in the skies. “I die; but, though I am torn from you, God will be with you." What a blessed compensation! away the earthly father, what a magnificent exchange if h |