LECTURE V.

GEN. XLII. 2.

And Jacob said, behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live and not die.

MAN is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward! No forethought, no prudence, can sufficiently arm us against the host of afflictions which wage perpetual warfare with our fallen nature. They entered into the world when man broke down the barrier of a sinless obedience, and, ever since, there is no state or condition that hath not been exposed to their assaults. In vain we retire from the world, the enemy is in ambush, and lurks amid the haunts of solitude-in vain we fence our tents with care, and build our battlements with prosperity,

still trouble leapeth over the wall. Placed as we are in the world, as on a theatre of trial, the scene is perpetually changing, and few there are in which afflictions bear not their allotted part. And yet it is most true, that although no human means are sufficient in themselves to defend us from trouble, and although neither discretion nor virtue can place us beyond the reach of calamity, still most of the troubles and calamities of life spring from human imprudence and human wickedness. There seems to be an eternal chain, in which all the events of existence are invisibly and mysteriously linked together. And thus it is that we observe well-governed youth ripen into virtuous manhood, gradually decline into honorable old age, and terminate in a peaceful dismission from the world; while, on the other hand, it frequently happens that we may trace our afflictions to the fountain head, which is sin. I say frequently, for

there are afflictions sometimes sent to the virtuous and good, not that they, or their parents, had sinned, but that the works of God might be made manifest.* Of this, however, we are certain, had man never sinned, the hand of his Maker had never weighed heavily upon him— For the wages of sin is death, and the sting of death-all its pains and all its sorrows-is sin.‡ And even the affliction, which now pressed upon the hoary head of Jacob, might (without straining the righteous judgments of Heaven) be ascribed to his own folly. For who remembers not how he once colleagued with Rebecca to deceive his father, and thereby fraudulently obtained the blessing, which was the birthright of Esau, his elder brother? And now we find that, in return, he is abused by the falsehood of his own sons, and, through their treachery, he is plunged

* John ix. 3. + Rom. vi. 23. ‡ 1 Cor. xv. 56.

into the extremity of distress, in which

we left him with our last Lecture.

It was, indeed, a pitiable condition! It seemed that God had smitten the four corners of his dwelling, and shivered all his household gods upon his hearth. Visited by a grievous famine-dependant upon a strange country for support-Simeon, a suspected prisoner in Egypt, as a pledge for the appearance of Benjamin, his youngest, his best-beloved child—and, to crown the whole, an imputation of treachery and fraud upon his house. But, dismal and threatening as the prospect was, the impatient sire resolutely refused to allow Benjamin to go down, to redeem the promise made to Joseph. Awhile he continued stedfast to his purpose; but, what will not necessity? And of all necessity hunger is the most distressing and the most urgent. Long time he struggled with his feelings, long time he shrunk from the dreaded separation; but necessity,

stronger than all human affections, at length prevailed-Go again and buy us a little food. The brethren, however, had been too much alarmed by their former interview with the governor of the land to think of repeating it, without redeeming their promise and their pledge; and so they argued with their father-The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. Fretted with this reply, he accuses them with unkindness in making known his estate

-Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man, whether ye had yet a brother? But when he learns that they were directly questioned upon the subject, he seems to have been satisfied with them, for he would not have had them guilty of falsehood. Judah then urges that, to save themselves and their children, it was absolutely necessary that he should comply, and having offered to become surety for him, that