ther Benjamin, and how he had detained Simeon as a pledge or hoftage on his account; then Jacob, in the bitterness of his heart, exclaimed, "Me have ye bereaved of my chil. dren; Jofeph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away; all these things are against me." But Reuben now came up, and declared, that if Benjamin might but go with them, he would pledge the lives of his own two infant children, that Benjamin fhould be brought back in fafety." And Jacob faid, my fon fhall not go down with you, for his brother Jofeph is already dead, and if mischief befal Benjamin alfo by the way, then fhall ye bring my grey heirs with forrow to the grave."

PART IV.

"ALL these things are against me," said good old Jacob when he was told of what had happened to his fons in Egypt; for we may remember that they had been obliged by Jofeph, to leave their brother Simeon behind them, and had even been required to bring Benjamin allo. On hearing this, old Jocob cried out, Jofeph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take away Benjamin: all these things are against me."

Ah! how little did Jacob know of the real nature of thofe events which are befalling him!

The very things which he faid were against him, in fact were making for him, for they led the way to the recovery of his fon Jofeph, who had been loft, and alfo to Jacob's removal, with all his family, into the plentiful land of Egypt. I do not wonder, indeed, that this poor old man, bowed down as he now was with age and infirmity, and deprived, as he had been, first of one dear fon, and then of another, fhould be unwilling to let his prefent favorite Benjamin be carried off into Egypt.-And yet, what could he do? The famine now again grew very fore in the land, and at laft, when all the corn from Egypt was eaten up, even Jacob himself is represented as asking his fons to go again and buy. a little food.

"Then Judah fpake unto him, faying, The man did folemnly proteft unto us, ye fhall not fee my face, except your brother Benjamin be with you.-Unlefs, therefore, thou fend him, we will not go down to Egypt." Then Jacob faid unto his fons, "Why did ye tell the man that you had a brother?" And they answered, "The man did examine us clofely about our kindred, and therefore we told him, for how should we know that he would bid us fetch our brother to him?" Then Judah faid, very earnestly, "I pray you fend the lad, that we may not all die, we and our little ones, and I will be furety for him." And Jacob faid, "If it must be so, do then as you defire. But take ye the best fruits in the land, balm, and honey, and spices, and

myrrh, and nuts, and almonds; and take double money in your hands, and the money that you brought back in your fack's mouths carry again; peradventure it was an oversight. overfight. Take alfo your brother with you, and God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may fend away your other brother, and let Benjamin return alfo.-If I must be bereaved of my children, there is no help for it, I must be bereaved."

Thus did the fons of Jacob depart, all of them trembling with anxiety and fear, and using many precautions to avoid giving offence to the great perfon to whom they were going."

Now, this I may obferve, is a picture of what fometimes happens to us. God is perhaps preparing to favor us with fome great bleffing, juft as he was now about to favor the family of Jacob; but before he gives us poffeffion of the bleffing, he leads us through fome dark and dreary path, and we fancy a great evil is coning upon us. When, therefore, God is opening the way to these new mercies, we hang back, and fay with good old Jacob, "All these things are against me." But though loth to move forward, yet what can we do? Some peril greater than that we had been dreading, awaits us, if we make more delay. With a heavy heart, with a complaining tongue, and with weeping eyes, we fet forward in this path, which is, in fact, nevertheless, the path of our chief happiness. Thus do we often quarrel with our bleffings.

And this, I take it, is a common case; for w are all our complaints, but complaints agai Providence; and do we not often murmur, ev at thofe very dealings of Providence, wh afterwards prove the most remarkable for d good?

Reader, look back to your paft life; confid those seasons in it, when you have been force by neceffity, on fome unpleafant bufinefs, when you have been hindered in your purfu of fome favorite plan, or contradicted in yo opinions or your wifhes. Now and then, pe haps, your fituation in life has seemed quite m lancholly and defperate; mifery has appeare to threaten you on every fide, and you have ha only a fad choice of evils, just like thefe for of Jacob, who thought they had only to choo between a famine at home, and the more i ufage in Egypt. And yet, has it not afterward proved, that God was bleffing you, by mean of thofe very things, which were thought at th time fo terrible?

There are many perfons, I am perfuaded who have even had their fouls faved much in the fame way in which this family of Jacob had their lives preferved. They have hung back and ftruggled hard for a while, against thofe very things which have opened the way to their eternal falvation; they have been dragged from a life of fin and mifery as unwillingly as ever Jacob's fons were dragged from Canaan, and brought into the fruitful land of Egypt, For,

ftrange as it may found, how unwilling are men to have their fouls faved! how unwilling, at leaft, to take thofe means which are abfolutely neceffary for it! How many fervants, as well as apprentices, and others are there, who can hardly be perfuaded to attend at public worship, or at least, to give their minds to it when they are there; and yet, is not this one of the means of falvation? They must be forced to church by the authority of their mafters, or by fome neceffity, almoft as urgent as that which drove the fons of Jacob from Canaan into Egypt! Again, how many children are there, who, though invited freely to a Sunday School, nevertheless, hang back from going thither, as much as ever the fons of Jacob hung back from going into Egypt. Perhaps too, their parents have at the fame time been as unwilling to part with them through fome falfe fondness or other, as ever old Jacob was to part with his fon Benjamin, though it proved afterwards to be the making of that whole family.

But let us return to the ftory. Joseph's brethren fet off from Canaan under a great fright, as I have already told you, and they took double money in their hand, and they carried Benjamin with them, and having come down to Egypt, they food before Jofeph. Now when Jofeph faw them, and obferved that Benjamin alfo was with them, he ordered a great dinner to be made ready, and he afked them to come to it. And Jofeph's brethren were afraid, on account