pray that, as you journey on, you may be blessed with that simple faith which can draw living comfort from the promises-that in every situation you may feel the everlasting arms underneath you, and then you, too, will gratefully and joyfully say, "It is enough."

The wagons which Joseph sent down would render the old man's journey easy and comfortable; and he would put the invalids and nursing mothers, and their little children, in them.

But you would have thought them strange-looking things if you had seen them. There are some ancient sculptures left of the old Egyptian wagons. Some are heavy and square-looking, with very thick, massive wheels, extremely clumsy in appearance.

These are represented as being drawn by oxen. The other kind of wagon is covered, but without anything in the shape of springs; but from the shelter these afforded, they were much used in travelling, and though it seems to us that they were sadly inconvenient things, yet you may be sure that Jacob was delighted at the comfort which such a mode of journeying ensured, and that he felt deeply the thoughtful kindness of his son, in making such provision for his removal into Egypt.

XXV.

And Isaac journeyed with all that he had to Beersheba.

It was

I have spoken to you before of that place. there, you will recollect, that Abraham made a covenant with Abimelech; it was there that he called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God; and now, on that very spot, Jacob offers sacrifice to the same Unchangeable One; and you may be sure that, with the sacrifice, he also brought the spiritual offering of a lowly, contrite, and grateful heart.

And then night came on-one of the clear, starry nights of Palestine, and Jacob slept, and the angel of peace hovered over him, and the Eternal sent him soft, soothing, heavenly dreams, and God, the God he loved and trusted, spake unto him in those visions of the night, and said, "Jacob, Jacob;" and he said, "Here am I;" and he said, "I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes."

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Oh the tender sympathy and loving-kindness of our

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God! Though to all appearance there was nothing to fear, yet his tender and watchful Guardian remembered he was going in his old age to a strange land; that he would be surrounded by strangers, and that perhaps he might feel nervous and trembling in the presence of the king.

His sons had not thought of the man's fears, but the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother said, "I will go down with thee into Egypt."

Oh, it was with a cheerful heart-for a heart strengthened by God is always cheerful-that the old man set off in one of the covered wagons of which I have spoken, with his children and his grand-children, and his cattle, and his goods, and went down into Egypt.

Before I go on with my story, I wish, children, to say a few words to you. There is no timidity or weakness lurking in your hearts which you may not take to Jesus. He knows the frailty of your mortal nature; and when the heart beats quick, and the cheek grows pale, He is near to soothe and comfort and strengthen you.

Are you entering on a new sphere of study or duty? Meditate, and pray, and commune with your God; and if not in a vision of the night, in the silence of your chamber, you will hear Christ, the beloved,

saying, "Fear not; for I am with thee; I will strengthen thee."

When Jacob arrived at Goshen, he sent on Judah to tell Joseph he was there; and Joseph made ready his chariot, and set off immediately to his father. Oh, what a meeting was that! Years, as they passed, had swept the beauty and bloom of life from Jacob; sorrow for the lost one had ploughed deeper furrows than those of age on his brow, and he was a shattered and altered man. Joseph would never have recognised in the bowed form and silvery hairs, that father from whom he parted so lightly, long, long ago.

In silence and tears was their greeting; the hearts of both were too full for words. Still in his son's embrace, the old man at length sobbed out, "Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive." He felt, with that blessing shining on him, in the full light of joy unutterable, and thus he would pass on to the land where danger and care and sorrow are no more.

Then Joseph told his father that he would go up to Pharaoh, and make arrangements for settling them all in the land of Goshen.

It was a matter which, in spite of the king's wish to oblige his faithful officer Joseph, had to be delicately managed, for all the Egyptians were exceedingly

averse to shepherds; at least, they did not like the life and habits of pastoral people, and Jacob and his sons certainly belonged to this class.

They were too turbulent and aggressive a set, too independent and uncontrolled, to suit a despotic and gravely ordered people like the Egyptians. The priests, in particular, were very inveterate against them, and an Egyptian was never allowed to eat with a shepherd.

It seems that the land of Goshen had at a former time been under the control of the shepherd-kings, who were contemporary with Abraham. It was an open, fertile district, and had always been employed for pasturage; and since the expulsion of these pastoral chiefs, that tract of land had not been occupied by the Egyptians. Perhaps, therefore, there might have been a rankling feeling of dislike at giving it up again to shepherds. Yet, would not Jacob's sons be guardians as it were of that territory, which was at any time subject to an invasion? and, after all, it was no bad policy to people it with a brave and industrious set of men, who would ere long repay, by the security they gave to the land, and the resources they brought to it, for their admission into that stranger district.

Joseph presented five of his brothers to the king, and when he asked them their occupation, they fear