when it recognizes the truth that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself”! (2 Cor. v. 19.) As salvation finds its source in God, so is

ITS ACCOMPLISHMENT THROUGH THE REJECTED ONE.

"I will nourish thee," was Joseph's message to his father, and "it is my mouth that speaketh unto you," was his word to his brethren (ver. 11, 12). Is not this the way of God? Turning again to Peter's testimony in Acts iv. 10 we read, By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole." It is this fact which gives effect to the word in ver. 12, "Neither is there salvation in any other." How humbling to man, how exalting to the grace of God!

"Thus while His death my sin displays

In all its blackest hue,

Such is the mystery of grace,

It seals my pardon too."

Not only of the present, but also of the future does Joseph speak, reminding us that in Christ we have

ETERNAL SALVATION.

Joseph looks forward to the remaining five years of famine, and he doubts not that it will be in his power to nourish his father and all his family during that period. "Near" to him (ver. 10) it would be well with them. "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out," are the gracious words of Jesus. Can any one who hears them fail to have assurance of salvation?

Let the reader ponder well the whole bearing of the epistle to the Hebrews. Let him contemplate the Divine nature of Him by whom God has in these last days spoken, and then notice the oft-repeated word "eternal."

The Son of God gives His own character to all that He does. Hence His salvation, His redemption, His priesthood, His Shepherd-care are all eternal. What a summary of the epistle is contained in chap. xiii. 8—“ Jesus Christ yesterday and to-day the same, and for ever”!

Let us now notice

THE EFFECT UPON OTHERS.

The reconciliation of Joseph with his brethren was not unobserved by the Egyptians. In verse 2 we find that they heard the weeping, and in verse 16 we have further evidence of this and of its result, accompanied by the statement that "it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants." Herein we have a figure of the blessing which, according to Psalm lxvii., will be the portion of the Gentiles when God's face shall again shine upon Israel. Even now, seeing that the Church possesses the “firstfruits" (Rom. viii. 23) of all that is to come, there is a sense in which the world both rejoices and prospers through her. Such Scriptures as Matthew v. 13, “Ye are the salt of the earth," and Acts v. 13, "The people magnified them," may be considered in connection with this remark. No one at all conversant with the history and condition of Europe can question the statement that those nations are the most prosperous which have in them the greatest number of Christians. Too often it is not good for the Church that it should be so, however beneficial to the world. Upon that aspect of the case, we need only add, that as "there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph" (Ex. i. 8), so God, if He see it to be for His children's good, can permit the world's countenance of His people to give place to its frown. (Ps. cv. 25.)

Whatever anxieties Jacob and his sons had experienced

during the first two years of famine, all their fears must have been dispelled by the

AMPLE PROVISION

made for them by Joseph. "The fat of the land" (ver. 18) was to be theirs; yea, "the good of all the land of Egypt (ver. 20). How many pictures are there in the Gospels which even more fully present this truth to us. Let the two instances of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand and of the four thousand suffice. Do we not read in Mark viii. 2, "They have nothing to eat," and in verse 8, They did eat and were filled"? Is not the amplitude seen in this, that "they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets"? The account of the earlier miracle in chapter vi. records similar facts. Or, let any one read the epistle to the Ephesians, and say whether there be not for him all fulness in Christ. Let him but trace through the epistle the words "rich," "riches," and he can but echo with adoring wonder the language of chapter i. 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ!", Colossians, too, one might quote, and its own emphatic summing-up of its teaching in chapter ii. 10, "complete [filled-up] in HIM." This being so, ought not the prayer of Epaphras to be answered for each one of us, that we "stand perfect and filled [margin] in all the will of God"?

Lastly,

THE EARNEST OF THE INHERITANCE

is seen at the close of the chapter in the "provision for the way" of verse 22, and the "good things of Egypt" of verse 23. So did Jacob regard them, for while "he believed not" the "saying" (ver. 26) of his sons, his "spirit revived" when he "saw the wagons which Joseph

had sent to carry him" (ver. 27). Thus was his heart set at rest. He had before him, while yet in faminestricken Canaan, the evidence of the abundance of Egypt, the first-fruits of which he now enjoyed. "It is enough," of verse 28, may bring to our minds what we are told concerning Ruth, who, experiencing the kindness of Boaz on her first gleaning in his field, "was sufficed." 'Bread enough and to spare " was a true utterance of the prodigal, as he thought of the Father's house.

The Spirit of God has been given since Christ's ascension that we may be guided into all truth, that we may know things to come, and that the things of Christ may be shewn unto us. (John xvi. 13-16.) He is thus the "first-fruits" (Rom. viii. 23), through whom we already have anticipation of the joys which will be ours in their fulness at the redemption of the body.

is sung by many who perhaps think the "taste" is not to be regarded with much favour. But let them remember that it is a taste of the fulness itself, a present realization by faith, in measure, of those blessings which our Father will delight to bestow upon us in eternity.

All hesitation to set forth on the part of Jacob was henceforth at an end. "I will go," he says. Thus does the Spirit, through whom alone we can know that we are risen with Christ," detach our hearts from earthly things, and enable us to "set our affection on things above." (Col. iii. 1, 2.) Through Him we are strengthened to "haste unto the coming of the day of God" (2 Pet. iii. 12), and to "run with patience the race that is set before us." May God deign to bless this feeble pourtraying of some of the ways of Christ, to whom be glory and blessing for ever and ever!

J. C.

PURPOSE OF HEART.

It is very evident from the whole of Scripture that God IT takes great account of the attitude of the heart toward Himself, and has true delight in beholding in His people a steady determination to please Him. One prominent feature of the blessedness of the future will be the constant service of the redeemed, without even the temptation to the least turning aside. But blessed as this must be, it will be an added joy to possess any token of approval as those who have served God faithfully on earth, where all true service implies more or less of conflict.

It will ever be one of the peculiar glories of the blessed Son of God that He lived in this world and served God, without for a single moment wavering in thought or purpose. What was stated of Him on one occasion was always true—“ He stedfastly set His face." He came into the world with the word in His heart, "I delight to do Thy will, O my God;" for thirty years in obscurity and lowly toil His sole business was to please God; and then in His public ministry, in spite of the coldness and enmity of those around Him, and the opposition of the powers of darkness, He unflinchingly pursued His course. In the wilderness Satan endeavoured to turn Him from this God-appointed path by the presentation of what, simply looked at in itself, would have been pleasant to man, but He repelled the tempter with the Word of God. In Gethsemane the prince of darkness was permitted again in a special manner to assault Him, and this time apparently he tried to move Him by bringing before