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THE

CROWN OF VIRTUE.

INTRODUCTION.

HE first scene in the history of Joseph, as it is preserved in the inspired record, oc

curred when he was about seventeen years of age, while he yet dwelt with Jacob his father in the land of Canaan, and was occupied with his brethren in the capacity of a shepherd. He seems to have been a youth of uncommon promise, and was the child of his father's old age, and withal had lost a mother whose memory was most dear to the heart of his surviving parent, it is not strange that Jacob should have regarded him with peculiar affection; nor, considering the weakness of human nature, was it strange that his affection should have betrayed him into an un

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reasonable and dangerous partiality. He manifested his preference for him by dressing him up in a showy and perhaps expensive coat of many colours; a measure certainly which was but two well fitted to call forth the envy of his brethren.

About this time Joseph had two singular dreams, representing most strikingly his own future ascendency over his brethren; and these dreams, no doubt in consequence of divine intimation, he communicated to them; and, as might have been expected, they heard him with anything else than pleasure or patience. Having gone from home to feed their father's flocks, Jacob proposed to Joseph that he should go and make them a visit, and in due time return and report to him concerning their prosperity. Joseph, in the spirit of prompt obedience to his father, and with no other feeling than that of good will towards his brethren, agreed at once with the suggestion; and he set out immediately with a view to find them; and though he had some little difficulty in ascertaining where they were, in consequence of their having changed their place of sojourn, yet he finally overtook them at Dothan. They saw and recognised him while he was yet at a distance; and one would have supposed that the sight of a young brother coming

directly from their aged father, to inquire concerning their health and prosperity, would have been most grateful to them, and that they would have run to meet him and welcome him with their embraces. But so far from that, the sight of him roused up in their bosoms a spirit of malignity and rancour : the fine coat and the offensive dreams gave them more trouble than ever: since they had got him into their power, they resolved to take vengeance on him in some way; and their first determination was to despatch him on the spot. In consequence, however, of the proposal of Reuben, whose intention seems to have been to save Joseph's life, and ultimately cause him to be restored to his father, they determined to cast him into a pit in the wilderness, and forthwith fulfilled their purpose; and then, in consequence of the intercessions of Judah, who seems to have revolted at the idea of leaving him to perish, they resolved to sell him, and actually did so, as a slave, to a company of Midianitish merchants who happened to be passing that way.

The question now arose among these wicked brethren, in what manner they should conceal their guilt from their father; and the conclusion was that they should take the coat of Joseph, of which they had robbed him, and dip it in the blood of a

kid, and present it to Jacob as an evidence that his son had been killed by some wild beast. This cruel purpose they put into execution. And it had the desired effect; for the moment Jacob saw it, he recognised his son's coat, and exclaimed with anguish, that an evil beast had devoured him, and no doubt he had been torn in pieces. He immediately went into mourning for his son, and refused all consolation, exclaiming in the bitterness of his soul, and in the sublimity of parental tenderness,— "I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning!"

Meanwhile, the Midianites who had bought Joseph sold him into Egypt, to Potiphar, the captain of the king's guard. Joseph, however, by his exemplary fidelity, so commended himself to his new master, that he was presently advanced to a station of influence and authority; was made overseer of his house, and was intrusted with the management of all his concerns. In this new station Joseph showed himself at once entirely at home, and all things went prosperously on.

But now comes a critical point in the history. While Joseph was acquitting himself in the discharge of his official duties to the entire satisfaction of all concerned, Potiphar's wife formed a

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