January 30

He will not cast them off in the time of old age; but will bear and carry them even to gray hairs. He will never leave them nor forsake them—

"Though I should walk through death's dark shade,

Once more. All creatures are under the Lord's control; and when he does not renew them, he can restrain. The noblest agency of God is his spiritual agency: and nothing can be more delightful than to contemplate his gracious dominion over the souls of men; opening their understandings, enthroning himself in their hearts, changing their views and feelings, and making them new creatures. Are we the subjects of this agency? But distinguishable from this, there is another agency of God, and which we may call providential. Solomon alludes to it when he says, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." The husbandman can form a new channel for the water, and the stream shall flow as freely as before, and retain the same qualities. Esau left home armed, and resolved to kill Jacob; but the Lord softened, though he did not sanctify his heart, so that when he met him he fell upon his neck and kissed him: for when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. The spirit of Cyrus, though a heathen, was stirred up to favour Israel, and to let go the Lord's captives, not only without ransom, but even enriched for their journey. At the three festivals of the Jews all the males were to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem. Thus the country seemed drained of its defence; and surrounded as the people were with enemies ready to seize every advantage against them, they might be tempted to say, "What will become, in our absence, of our fields, and vineyards, and houses, and wives, and children?" But says God, who has all hearts as well as all events at his disposal, "I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders; neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year."

If I have any thing to do with my fellow creatures, let me commit my way unto the Lord. Let me follow my convictions wherever they lead me. If I am reviled, let me not revile again, but commit myself to Him that judgeth righteously. Who is he that will harm us if we are followers of that which is good? If God be for us, who can be against us?

JANUARY 30.—"Moreover He called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him: even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance."—Psalms 105:16-21.

God promised the Patriarchs much more than he performed for them here. The relation into which he entered with them necessarily involved a future state; yet he was far from disregarding them in this life. The former words show us how he preserved them in danger: when they were very few, and strangers in the land of Canaan: "When they went from one nation to another,

from one kingdom to another people; he suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." And the words before us proves how he supplied them in distress.

They suffered from one of the sorest judgments that can ever befall humanity. The whole staff of bread was broken, and famine was sore in the land, and prevailed in all the neighbouring countries, and continued seven years. But the Lord called for it. The expression not only reminds us that evil cometh from the Lord as well as good, but shows us the sovereignty and ease with which he brings it. All calamities are at his disposal; and if He speaks, they must obey him. Practical infidelity is often connected with nominal faith. People talk nationally of inexhaustible resources, of invincible armies and navies; but there is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord. If He calls for an enemy, his way will be made prosperous: every thing will favour him. If He calls for continued rain, the precious grain perishes in the earth. It is the same with continual sunshine: as they knew by experience who procured themselves ceiled houses, while the house of God lay waste: "And I called for a drought upon the land and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

But, before the famine commenced, God had arranged things for the relief of the sufferers. Joseph was the man sent before them to be the succourer and the saviour, and his mission was from God. He sent him. It seemed to be entirely the affair of his brethren, who hated and envied him; but the hand of the Lord was in the whole; and Joseph himself acknowledged it when he disclosed himself: "And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be caring nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." Thus, though they sold him, God sent him. They were the instruments, but he was the agent. They acted wickedly, but he was righteous.—Yet, what was the character under which he was sent to provide? Was he employed as an ambassador? A commissioner? A corn-factor? No. He was sold as a servant. His brethren sold him for a servant to the Ishmaelites—and little did the purchasers know with what a precious charge they were entrusted; little did they think that the lad they saw weeping as he walked, or rode on the camel, was to be the saviour of Egypt and Canaan. And the Ishmaelites sold him for a servant to Potiphar—and little did his master imagine that he was ever to bow the knee to one he had bought for money. There is nothing out of hell, and there is nothing in it, equal to the malice and rage of "an imperious whorish woman." His mistress, disappointed in her cruelty, accuses him, and he is imprisoned. And a circumstance

is here mentioned which the history omits: "Whose feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in irons." Look at that slave in the dungeon, galled with his heavy chains. Will he ever stand before Pharaoh? And ride in the second chariot of the kingdom? And be lord of all the land of Egypt? There seemed to be no prospect of this. There he lies, day after day, month after month, year after year, with no probability of the fulfilment of his dreams, which he had been taught to regard as prophetic—"until the time that Pharaoh's "word came," to deliver him, "the word of the Lord tried him," that is, the promise of God, by which he engaged to advance him. The accomplishment was delayed; things waxed worse and worse; and thus his confidence, patience, and resignation, were sorely exercised. Note, As we try God's word, so God's word tries us; and happy if, when we are tried, we come forth as gold; and the trial of our faith proves more precious than that of gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire. This was the case with Joseph. His destination secured him, and the merciful mediation for which he was designed required not only his enlargement but his elevation. Therefore the king not only released him, but "made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance"—one of the most remarkable events recorded in all history.

We may consider this dispensation two ways. First, as an instance of the wonder-working providence of God on the behalf of his people. "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in his mercy." Let those that live more immediately as dependants on his care remember that they have no reason to despond. The world is his and the fulness thereof. Who has seen the righteous forsaken, or their seed begging bread? Ravens fed Elijah. And the widow's oil and meal wasted not. We are not indeed to look for such miracles; but He who performed them is not far from any one of us, and He is as powerful as ever, and sooner all nature shall change than one of his promises fail.

Secondly, as a representation of the Saviour's grace with regard to our spiritual straits. In view of these, he was set up from everlasting. In the fulness of time he came to his own, but they received him not. They despised and rejected him, and sold him for thirty pieces of silver. But he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. He made himself of no reputation, but took upon him the form of a servant, and actually died upon a cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him. What was the elevation of Joseph? Jesus has all power in heaven and in earth. Many others were relieved by Joseph's advancement: but it was peculiarly designed for the salvation of his father's house. Jesus is the Saviour of all men, but especially of them that believe—He is the head over all things unto his body the church. It hath pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell. Therefore to Him let us go, and from his fulness receive, and grace for grace. For a time Joseph's brethren knew not that he was the governor, and had all the corn at his disposal; otherwise they would have gone down earlier, and have appealed to a brother's heart. Yet perhaps one thing might have checked them—a consciousness of their baseness towards him. How can we ever look him in the

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