master of others, Joseph had acquired the mastery over himself. To the aid of piety he brought that strength of mind and resolution of purpose for lack of which, perhaps, men equally pious have yielded to temptations he stoutly resisted; have shamefully fallen where he stood; have lost the battle where he won a splendid victory. A grand thing-next to divine grace the grandest thing to cultivate is decision of character. To that, in combination with the grace of God, Joseph owed it, I believe, that he came unscathed from the fiery furnace into which he was thrown in the house of Potiphar. On that resolute breast of his, temptations broke like sea waves on a rocky headland. Nor do his strength of purpose and the power he had acquired over himself appear less remarkable in other passages of his life. It is difficult for us with unfaltering tongue to read the affecting scenes that passed between him and his brothers ere he dropped the mask. What his strength of mind who could go through them without a trace of emotion! He is racked with anxiety about his aged father; his bosom swells to the bursting at the sight of brothers to whom he yearns to disclose himself, that he may lock them in fond embraces. Yet he preserves a calm, and if not cold, an unimpassioned, bearing-like a mountain whose head is crowned with snows, and 'whose sides are mantled with green forests and vineyards and groves of olives, while the fires of a volcano are raging within its bosom.

Lastly, there remains one feature of Joseph's character deserving of special notice. Along with an iron will, and an energy no task could daunt, no labor weary, no burden crush, he had a gentle, tender, loving heart. Unselfish, he was ready to sympathize with others. One day, for instance, when they seemed more than usually depressed, how kindly does he ask his fellowprisoners, "Wherefore look ye so sadly to-day?" Then what a tender heart his, who, enduring wrong in Potiphar's house with the silent heroism of a martyr, throws himself, in yonder palace, into the arms of his brethren and weeps over them like a woman!

I have no doubt whatever that to the generous, kindly, loving disposition which Joseph possessed, and all should cultivate, he owed not a little of his remarkable success. It won the regards and good will of others, kind affections often doing men such service as the arms which a creeping plant throws around a pole does it, when, springing from the ground, it rises by help of the very object it embraces.

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Such was Joseph. Just because he was such, God opening up and blessing him, he was a successful man.

way

There was once a sailor, the only survivor of a shipwreck, who had a singular fate. Caught in the arms of a mountain billow as it went rolling to break in spray and snowy foam on an Orcadian headland, he was not dashed to pieces, but flung right into the mouth of a vast sea-cave, where the wave left him "safe and sound." His fortune, if possible, was stranger still. On recovering from his shock and groping about, he found a barrel of provisions the same wave had swept in. With this and water trickling from the roof to quench his thirst, he sustained life, till, hearing a human ery mingling with the clang of seabirds, a brave cragsman of these isles was swung over the precipice, and rescued him from his rocky prison. A wonderful providence! But it was no such wave of fortune that cast Joseph into the high post he filled.

An example for men to imitate, he owed nothing to fortune, but, under God, everything to himself to his piety, his pure and high morality, his extraordinary self-control, the patience with which he bore, the faith with which he waited, the perseverance with which he pursued his objects, an iron will and an indomitable energy. These are properties which by prayer and pains the young should seek to acquire, and the oldest should assiduously cultivate. To these, more than to genius or to great talents, or to any of those things which are called good fortune, the greatest of men have ascribed their success. I could produce a hundred testimonies to that effect, but none better than the one

with which I now close this paper. In a letter to his son, Sir Fowell Buxton, a great and eminently Christian man, says, "You are now at that period of life in which you must make a turn to the right or the left. You must now give proof of principle, determination and strength of mind, or you must sink into idleness, and acquire the habits and character of an ineffective young man. I am sure that a young man may be very much what he pleases. In my own case it was so. Much of my happiness and all my prosperity in life have resulted from the change I made at your age." Elsewhere he says, "The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between men, between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energy, invincible determination-a purpose once fixed, and then death or victory!"

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VIII.

JO B.

E have heard of the patience of Job," says an apostle, "and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate, and of tender mercy." The character of Job, which is usually brought forward as an example of patient submission to the afflictions of life and of steadfast trust in God amidst the severest trials, is hardly less conspicuous for humble dependence upon him, strict adherence to his worship and service, and compassionate care of the needy and unfortunate amidst those temptations with which men of high stations and overflowing opulence are beset. The wealth of Job is estimated, according to the manner of those simple times, by the number of his flocks and herds and the multitude of his family and dependants, and he is declared in these respects to have surpassed in riches all the men of the East. But the power and influence he possessed over his countrymen, and the honor in which he was held, did not proceed merely from his wealth, but also from the high character he bore for wisdom, integrity and beneficence. When he "went out to the gate," and prepared his seat in the street i. e., when he sat as judge or arbiter, to hear such causes as were brought to his decision-" the young saw, and hid themselves, and the aged arose and stood up; the chief men refrained talking, and the nobles held their peace: he chose out their way, and sat as chief" among them.

Job was also, as was the custom of patriarchal times, the faith

ful priest of his household-watching over the conduct of his children, and offering daily prayers and sacrifices according to their number, lest peradventure they might in their festivities have fallen away from God and incurred his displeasure. His superfluous wealth he employed in ministering to the necessities of others, and his power was exerted in redressing the grievances of the oppressed. He "delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon him; he was eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and a father to the poor. The cause that he knew not he searched out; he brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth." Such was Job, "in the days when," as he describes them, "God preserved him, and his candle shined upon his head. By the light of God he walked through darkness; the secret of the Lord was upon his tabernacle; the Almighty was with him."

But it pleased God, who chooses out for all the lot of their inheritance, to visit Job with sad reverses. By a sudden incursion of a band of predatory Arabs, on the boundary of whose country Job lived, and by one of those furious tempests of the elements which are not uncommon in that quarter of the world, he was at once deprived of his whole substance and of his numerous family of children. Thus was he plunged from the height of worldly prosperity into utter destitution, and he who was lately surrounded by sons and daughters found himself alone in the world. Yet his conduct under these overwhelming losses evinced the utmost magnanimity and pious resignation. He felt deeply the calamities which had thus befallen him, but he had recourse to the true and only refuge. "He fell down upon the ground, and worshiped, and said, Naked came I forth, and naked shall I return to the earth: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."

But the Almighty, who has constituted this life a state of trial