-hearted
father of their crime; they never told him. Jacob was led to suppose
that his favorite son was devoured by wild beasts; they added deceit and
cowardice to a depraved heartlessness, and nearly brought down the gray
hairs of their father to the grave. No subsequent humiliation or
punishment could be too severe for such wickedness. Although they were
destined to become the heads of powerful tribes, even of the chosen
people of God, these men have incurred the condemnation of all ages. But
Judah and Reuben do not come in for unlimited censure, since these sons
of Leah sought to save their brother from a violent death; and
subsequently in Egypt Judah looms up as a magnanimous character, whom we
admire almost as much as we do Joseph himself. What can be more eloquent
than his defence of Benjamin, and his appeal to what seemed to him to be
an Egyptian potentate!

The sale of Joseph as a slave is one of the most signal instances of the
providence of God working by natural laws recorded in all history,--more
marked even than the elevation of Esther and Mordecai. In it we see
permission of evil and its counteraction,--its conversion into good;
victory over evil, over conspiracy, treachery, and murderous intent. And
so marked is this lesson of a superintending Providence over all human
action, that a wise and good man can see wars and revolutions and
revolting crimes with almost philosophical complacency, knowing that out
of destruction proceeds creation; that the wrath of man is always
overruled; that the love of God is the brightest and clearest and most
consoling thing in the universe. We cannot interpret history without the
recognition of this fundamental truth. We cannot be unmoved amid the
prevalence of evil without this feeling, that God is more powerful than
all the combined forces of his enemies both on earth and in hell; and
that no matter what the evil is, it will surely be made to praise Him
who sitteth in the heavens. This is a sublime revelation of the
omnipotence and benevolence of a personal God, of his constant oversight
of the world which he has made.

The protection and elevation of Joseph, seemingly a natural event in
view of his genius and character, is in some respects a type of that
great sacrifice by which a sinful world has been redeemed. Little did
the Jews suspect when they crucified Jesus that he would arise from his
tomb and overturn the idolatries of nations, and found a religion which
shou