Part 4 (1/2)

Surely it is so, and surely this is why the story of Joseph has been always so popular among innocent children and plain honest folk of all kinds; because it is so simply human and humane; and therefore it taught them far more than they could learn from many a lofty, or seemingly lofty, book of devotion, when it spoke to them of the very duties they had to fulfil, and the very temptations they had to fight against, as members of a family or as members of society. ”One touch of Nature (says the poet) makes the whole world kin;” and the touches of nature in this story of Joseph make us feel that he and his brethren, and all with whom he had to do, are indeed kin to us; that their duty is our duty too--their temptations ours--that where they fell, we may fall--where they conquered we may conquer.

For what is the story? A young lad is thrown into every temptation possible for him. Joseph is very handsome. The Bible says so expressly; so we may believe it. He has every gift of body and mind. He is, as his story proves plainly, a very clever person, with a strange power of making every one whom he deals with love him and obey him--a terrible temptation, as all G.o.d's gifts are, if abused by a man's vanity, or covetousness or ambition. He is an injured man too. He has been basely betrayed by his brothers; he is under a terrible temptation, to which ninety-nine men out of one hundred would have yielded--do yield, alas! to this day, to revenge himself if he ever has an opportunity. He is an injured man in Egypt, for he is a slave to a foreigner who has no legal or moral right over him. If ever there was a man who might be excused for cheris.h.i.+ng a burning indignation against his oppressors, for brooding over his own wrongs, for despairing of G.o.d's providence, it is Joseph in Egypt. What could we do but pity him if he had said to himself, as thousands in his place have said since, ”There is no G.o.d, or if there is, He does not care for me--He does not care what men do. He looks on unmoved at wrong and cruelty, and lets man do even as he will. Then why should not _I_ do as _I_ will? What are these laws of G.o.d of which men talk? What are these sacred bonds of family and society? Every one for himself is the rule of the world, and it shall be _my_ rule. Every man's hand has been against _me_; why should not my hand be against every man?

_I_ have been betrayed; why should not _I_ betray? _I_ have been opprest; why should not _I_ oppress? I have a lucky chance, too, of enjoying and revenging myself at the same time; why should I not take my good luck, and listen to the words of the tempter?”

My dear friends, this is the way in which thousands have talked, in which thousands talk to this day. This is the spirit which ends in breaking up society, as happened in France eighty years ago, in the inward corruption of a nation, and at last, in outward revolution and anarchy, from which may G.o.d in His mercy deliver us and our fellow-countrymen, and the generations yet to come. But any nation or any man, will only be delivered from it, as Joseph was delivered from it, by saying, ”I fear G.o.d.” No doubt it is most natural for a man who is injured and opprest to think in that way. Most _natural_--just as it is most natural for the trapped dog to struggle vainly, and, in his blind rage, bite at everything around him, even at his own master's hand when it offers to set him free. And if men are to be mere children of nature, like the animals, and not children of grace and sons of G.o.d, like Joseph, and like one greater than Joseph, then I suppose they must needs tear each other to pieces in envy and revenge, for there is nought better to be done. But if they wish to escape from the misery and ruin which envy and revenge bring with them, then they had better recollect that they are not children of nature, but children of G.o.d--they had best follow Joseph's example, and say, ”I fear G.o.d.”

For this poor, betrayed, enslaved lad had got into his heart something above Nature--something which Nature cannot give, but only the inspiration of the Spirit of G.o.d gives. He had got into his heart the belief that G.o.d's laws were sacred things and must not be broken, and that whatever befel him he must fear G.o.d. However unjust and lawless the world looked, G.o.d's laws were still in it, and over it, and would avenge themselves, and he must obey them at all risks. And what were G.o.d's laws in Joseph's opinion?

These--the common relations of humanity between master to servant, and servant to master; between parent to child, and child to parent; brother to brother and sister to sister, and between the man who is trusted and the man who trusts him. These laws were sacred; and if all the rest of the world broke them, he (Joseph) must not. He was bound to his master, not only by any law of man, but by the Law of G.o.d. His master trusted him, and left all that he had in his hand, and to Joseph the law of honour was the law of G.o.d. Then he must be justly faithful to his master. A sacred trust was laid on him, and to be true to it was to fear G.o.d.

After a while his master's wife tempts him. He refuses; not merely out of honour to his master, but from fear of G.o.d. ”How can I do this great wickedness,” says Joseph, ”and sin against G.o.d?” His master and his mistress are heathen, but their marriage is of G.o.d nevertheless; the vow is sacred, and he must deny himself anything, endure anything, dare any danger of a dreadful death, and a prison almost as horrible probably as death itself, rather than break it.

So again, in the prison. If ever man had excuse for despairing of G.o.d's providence, for believing that right-doing did _not_ pay, it was poor Joseph in that prison. But no. G.o.d is with him still. He believes still in the justice of G.o.d, the providence of G.o.d, and therefore he is cheerful, active--he can make the best even of a dungeon. He can find a duty to do even there; he can make himself useful, helpful, till the keeper of the prison too leaves everything in his hand.

What a gallant man! you say. Yes, my friends, but what makes him gallant? That which St. Paul says (in Hebrews xi.) made all the old Jewish heroes gallant--faith in G.o.d; real and living belief that G.o.d is--and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

At last Joseph's triumph comes. He has his reward. G.o.d helps him--because he will help himself. He is made a great officer of state, married to a woman of high rank, probably a princess, and he sees his brothers who betrayed him at his mercy. Their lives are in his hand at last. What will he do? Will he be a bad brother because they were bad?

Or will he keep to his old watchword, ”I fear G.o.d?” If he is tempted to revenge himself, he crushes the temptation down. He will bring his brothers to repentance. He will touch their inward witness, and make them feel that they have been wicked men. That is for their good. And strangely, but most naturally, their guilty consciences go back to the great sin of their lives--to Joseph's wrong, though they have no notion that Joseph is alive, much less near them. ”Did I not tell you,” says Reuben, ”sin not against the lad, and ye would not hearken? Therefore is this distress come upon us.”

Joseph punishes Simeon by imprisonment. It may be that he had reasons for it which we are not told. But when his brothers have endured the trial, and he finds that Benjamin is safe, he has nothing left but forgiveness. They are his brethren still--his own flesh and blood. And he ”fears G.o.d.” He dare not do anything but forgive them. He forgives them utterly, and welcomes them with an agony of happy tears. He will even put out of their minds the very memory of their baseness. ”Now, therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, he says; for G.o.d sent me before you, to save your lives with a great deliverance.”

Is not that Divine? Is not that the Spirit of G.o.d and of Christ? I say it is. For what is it but the likeness of Christ, who says for ever, out of heaven, to all mankind, ”Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye crucified me. For G.o.d, my Father, sent me to save your souls by a great salvation.”

My friends, learn from this story of Joseph, and the prominent place in the Bible which it occupies--learn, I say, how hateful to G.o.d are family quarrels; how pleasant to G.o.d are family unity and peace, and mutual trust, and duty, and helpfulness. And if you think that I speak too strongly on this point, recollect that I do no more than St. Paul does, when he sums up the most lofty and mystical of all his Epistles, the Epistle to the Ephesians, by simple commands to husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, as if he should say,--You wish to be holy? you wish to be spiritual? Then fulfil these plain family duties, for they, too, are sacred and divine, and he who despises them, despises the ordinances of G.o.d. And if you despise the laws of G.o.d, they will surely avenge themselves on you. If you are bad husbands or bad wives, bad parents or bad children, bad brothers or sisters, bad masters or servants, you will smart for it, according to the eternal laws of G.o.d, which are at work around you all day long, making the sinner punish himself whether he likes or not.

Examine yourselves--ask yourselves, each of you, Have I been a good brother? have I been a good son? have I been a good husband? have I been a good father? have I been a good servant? If not, all professions of religion will avail me nothing. If not, let me confess my sins to G.o.d, and repent and amend at once, whatever it may cost me. The fulfilling these plain duties is the true test of my faith, the true sign and test whether I really believe in G.o.d and in Jesus Christ our Lord. Do I believe that the world is Christ's making? and that Christ is governing it? Do I believe that these plain family relations.h.i.+ps are Christ's sacred appointments? Do I believe that our Lord Jesus was made very man of the substance of His mother, to sanctify these family relations.h.i.+ps, and claim them as the ordinances of G.o.d His Father?

In one word--copy Joseph; and when you are tempted say with Joseph, ”Can I do this great wickedness, and sin--not against this man or this woman, but against--_G.o.d_.”

Take home these plain, practical words. Take them home, and fear G.o.d at your own firesides. For at the last day, the Bible tells us, the Lord Jesus Christ will not reward you and me according to the opinions we held while in this mortal body, whether they were quite right or quite wrong, but according to the deeds which we did in the body, whether they were good or bad.

X. SLAVES OF FREE?

”Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you to-day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”--EXODUS xiv. 13, 14.

Why did G.o.d bring the Jews out of Egypt? G.o.d Himself told them why. To fulfil the promise which He made to Abraham, their forefather, that of his children He would make a great nation.

Now the Jews in Egypt were not a nation at all. A nation is free, governed by its own laws, one body of people, held together by one fellow feeling, one language, one blood, one religion; as we English are. We are a nation. The Jews were none in Egypt, no more than Negro slaves in America were a nation. They served a people of a different blood, as the Jews did in Egypt. They had no laws of their own; they had no fellow- feeling with each other, which enabled them to make common cause together, and help each other, and free each other.

Selfishness and cowardice make some men slaves. Above all, unG.o.dliness makes men slaves. For when men do not fear and obey G.o.d, they are sure to obey their own l.u.s.ts and pa.s.sions, and become slaves to them. They become ready to sell themselves soul and body for money, or pleasure, or food. And their fleshly l.u.s.ts, their animal appet.i.tes, keep them down, selfish, divided, greedy, and needy, at the mercy of those who are stronger and cunninger than themselves, just as the Jews were kept down by the strong and cunning Egyptians.

They had slavish hearts in them, and as long as they had, G.o.d could not make them into a nation. The Jews _had_ slaves' hearts in them. They were glad enough to get free out of Egypt, to escape from their heavy labour in brick and mortar, from being oppressed, beaten, killed at the will and fancy of the Egyptians, from having their male children thrown into the river as soon as they were born, to keep them from becoming too numerous. They were glad enough, poor wretches, to escape from all their misery and oppression of which we read in the first three chapters of Exodus. But if they could do that, that was all they cared for. They did not want to be made wise, righteous, strong, free-hearted--they did not care about being made into a nation. We read that when by the Red Sea sh.o.r.e (Exodus xiv.), they saw themselves in great danger, the army of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, following close upon them to attack them, they lost heart at once, and were sore afraid, and cried unto Moses, ”Is not this the word which we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

Cowards and slaves! The thing they feared above all, you see, was death.

If they could but keep the miserable life in their miserable bodies, they cared for nothing beyond. They were willing to see their children taken from them and murdered, willing to be beaten, worked like dumb beasts for other men's profit, willing to be idolaters, heathens, wors.h.i.+pping the false G.o.ds of Egypt, dumb beasts and stocks and stones, willing to be despised, wretched, helpless slaves--if they could but keep the dear life in them. G.o.d knows there are plenty like them now-a-days--plenty who do not care how mean, helpless, wicked, contemptible they are, if they can but get their living by their meanness.

”_But a man must live_,” says some one. How often one hears that made the excuse for all sorts of meanness, dishonesty, grasping tyranny. ”_A man must live_!” Who told you that? It is better to die like a man than to live like a slave, and a wretch, and a sinner. Who told you that, I ask again? Not G.o.d's Bible, surely. Not the example of great and good men. If Moses had thought that, do you think he would have gone back from Midian, when he was in safety and comfort, with a wife and home, and children at his knee, and leave all he had on earth to face Pharaoh and the Egyptians, to face danger, perhaps a cruel death in shame and torture, and all to deliver his countrymen out of Egypt? Moses would sooner die like a man helping his countrymen, than live on the fat of the land while they were slaves. And forty years before he had shown the same spirit too, when though he was rich and prosperous, and high in the world, the adopted son of King Pharaoh's daughter (Exodus ii. 11), he disdained to be a slave and to see his countrymen slaves round him. We read how he killed an Egyptian, who was ill-treating one of his brothers, the Jews--and how he then fled out of Egypt into Midian, houseless and friendless, esteeming as St. Paul says, ”the reproach of Christ”--that is the affliction and ill-will which came on him for doing right, ”better than all the treasures of Egypt” (Heb xi. 24-27).