SERMON VII. JOSEPH
(Preached on the Sunday before the Wedding of the Prince of Wales.
March 8th, third Sunday in Lent.)
GENESIS xxxix. 9. How can I do this great wickedness, and sin
against God?
The story of Joseph is one which will go home to all healthy hearts.
Every child can understand, every child can feel with it. It is a
story for all men and all times. Even if it had not been true, and
not real fact, but a romance of man's invention, it would have been
loved and admired by men; far more then, when we know that it is
true, that it actually did so happen; that is part and parcel of the
Holy Scriptures.
We all, surely, know the story--How Joseph's brethren envy him and
sell him for a slave into Egypt--how there for a while he prospers--
how his master's wife tempts him--how he is thrown into prison on
her slander--how there again he prospers--how he explains the dreams
of Pharaoh's servants--how he lies long forgotten in the prison--how
at last Pharaoh sends for him to interpret a dream for him, and how
he rises to power and great glory--how his brothers come down to
Egypt to buy corn, and how they find him lord of all the land--how
subtilly he tries them to see if they have repented of their old
sin--how his heart yearns over them in spite of all their wickedness
to him--how at last he reveals himself, and forgives them utterly,
and sends for his poor old father Jacob down into Egypt.
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