Yet a moment and we all meet together with the Lord in whom we are filled to the very full. . . . This is reality, yet a moment and we shall be in the saying "Victory, victory." presence Thanks. is my Victory through the BLOOD. Here abundant entrance. It is "clear shining after rain," just the dawn of the day which shall never know its midnight. Be of good courage, press ON, ON. Victory is ours, for Jesus is ours. He has triumphed gloriously. Good bye. It is so real. Nov. 1, 1862. THE CROSS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. IV.-JOSEPH. N the last of these papers, in the number for May, we left Joseph a prisoner for conscience' sake. At home in Canaan is brethren had hated him because he brought to his father their evil report; a stranger and slave in Egypt, he meets with the same kind of treatment. The path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. That path reproves the darkness, and the darkness will quench it if it can. No matter whether it be Canaan or Egypt, the professing church or the outside world, the shining path of righteousness is one of rebuke, disdain and sorrow. When Jesus was on earth there were two classes of men to whom he addressed himself the publican and the pharisee-the sinner and the self-righteous-the lost who must be sought, and brought home with rejoicing-and the just persons who need no repentance. The prototypes of these two orders of men are found in Abel and Cain, and in every age of the world the race has ranged itself under the banner of one of them. Joseph met with their representatives in prison. The butler and baker of the king dreamed each a dream. The butler sees a vine before him, from whose branches he gathers grapes to press into Pharaoh's cup, and gives the cup into the king's hand. The baker bears upon his head three baskets, full of holes (see margin of Gen. xl. 16; and compare Haggai i. 6), and in the uppermost are all manner of meats, the work of a cook, which are eaten not by Pharaoh but by the birds of the air. It is the old story of Cain and Abel's offerings. The butler brings nothing that his own hands have made. The fruit of the vine cheers Pharaoh's heart, the butler is only his cup-bearer. No art of his has Nov. 1, 1862. spiced the wine, he presses the juice into the cup with a simplicity which even the bride had forgotten when she said, "I would lead thee, and bring thee unto my mother's house, who would instruct me; I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate." The wine that cheers the heart of God and man is obtained from Him who said, "I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman. I am the Vine, ye are the branches." And whoso would give into God's hand the wine that maketh glad his heart must say, "I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only." Alas, alas, how few are the followers of Abel, compared with those of Cain. A little child could be the cup-bearer of a king, but it requires skill to provide "all manner of meats for Pharaoh, the work of a cook." So reasons nature; and therefore men toil and sweat at the kneading trough and the oven, to make all manner of meats for God; refusing to stand before his throne and simply give the cup into his hand. But God loves little children. Babes and sucklings do his mighty works; and whosoever will not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein. The baskets are full of holes in which the meats are borne, which have been prepared in the kitchen of the human heart and laboriously cooked by human hands. They are not food for God but devils, for the birds of the air are appointed types of the ill angels of the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. There are in the history of Joseph, as in all the types, many points of contrast with that of Jesus, which it is instructive to notice, because they bring into relief the excellences of Him who called us out of darkness into his marvellous light, and made the transit possible by his own self bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. Thus Joseph says to his fellow prisoner, "I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also have I THE KING'S HIGHWAY," done nothing, that they should put me into the dungeon." We never find Jesus complaining thus. He came to suffer for others' sins, "Himself bare our sicknesses and carried our sorrows, ," and never even to the dear disciple who lay upon his bosom in the sacred intimacy of a friendship without a counterpart, do we hear him breathe a word in assertion of his innocence, or rebuke by self-justification the oppression which He endured. Joseph's brethren say, "We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us and we would not hear." Whatever anguish was visible to human eyes in Jesus was not on his own account but because of the hardness of heart of those who knew not the time of their visitation. He never besought his brethren that He might be spared one sorrow which their malice could inflict. The decease which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem, ever present to his thoughts, was the theme of his discourse with Moses and Elijah on the mount, and doubtless with his Father in those nights of prayer when "every man went to his own house, and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives." But when He spoke of it to his disciples they understood not the saying and were afraid to ask Him. These contrasts might be multiplied, but loving disciples will trace them for themselves. The mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is often foreshown in the Old Testament. Abel rises again in Seth; Isaac is restored from the altar; Samson bursts the brazen gates; Daniel is delivered from the lions' den; and Joseph, accounted dead by his father and brethren, is found again of them in power and great glory. It is not our purpose to treat very minutely of Joseph's life in Egypt, but there is one scene so full of meaning and of blessing that we cannot pass it unnoticed. It is when Joseph, having made himself known to his brethren, weeps upon them and they talk with him. "And behold Nov. 1, 1862. your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you." Benjamin was his own mother's son, and therefore he appeals to him, to assure them that, exalted as he is, he is their brother, bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. The relationship of Jesus to us is of the nearest kind. One truth, perhaps, intended to be made obvious by the prominence given to Benjamin may be, that Jesus is not a halfbrother to us, as Joseph was to Reuben and the rest, but our very own brother. He did not assume merely the form of man. He is " very man as well as very God" -"the Seed of the woman.' 29 "For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." 66 We are reminded by the touching scene before us of the evening of the resurrection day, when Jesus stood in the midst of his disciples and said, "Peace be unto you." But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And He said unto them, "Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." How anxious He is that they should know Him as their very brother, appealing to their senses, just as Joseph did, "Behold your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you." Nor was it only those to whom He appeared before his ascension, that must be assured of his relationship to men. The Holy Ghost points the weak and failing believer to his great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God; Jesus the Woman's Seed-for He never bore that name until He became Mary's Son. And He is qualified to be our Priest because, taken from among men, He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and can have compassion on |