The instrument a wise and gracious Father may use, to answer these ends, may be singular; and frequently they are those who are very dear to our hearts, and nearly allied in nature, profession, or friendship. Such, alas! may be permitted to distress the mind and grieve the heart, by the exercise of malice, arising from some predominant evil disposition, and frequently without any apparent cause, save that of envy; but the Lord who has decreed to permit this, has also decreed to over-rule it, for our spiritual, and sometimes even for our temporal good. The Lord very frequently makes the evil devised against us by Satan and his emissaries, answer many valuable purposes; and so wisely manages those things, which appear to be the greatest evils, to be the greatest advantage to us, and to effect his own glory in some mysterious way. Our mercy, under every dispensation, is to lay passive in his hand, to believe in his love, and to be humbled before him, well knowing that he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will; and while the mind is thus engaged to hear, also on universal goodwill to those who may injure us, quite forgetting, and freely forgiving them, as we have been forgiven, to conceal as much as possible their infirmities, even while we plead our own innocence; and in exculpating ourselves, we cannot be too careful to avoid reflecting upon those, who have dealt so cruelly with us. This is the spirit of true religion and genuine christianity. I am led into these observations from the history before us, an history fraught with deep instruction to the Lord’s people. Few can read this tale unmoved, and all must see the propriety of Solomon’s remark:—Who can stand before envy? Our first father Adam could not, nor pious Abel, nor David; yea, the Son of God himself fell a victim to this malign influence, this satanic principle; and the history of the pious patriarch Joseph, is another awful evidence of this truth. I recommend this history to you, and hope you will gain much spiritual instruction; but above all, do not let this very interesting consideration pass unnoticed, in almost every circumstance recorded of Joseph,—that a greater than Joseph is here, one infinitely more illustrious, even the person of the dear and adorable Redeemer, the spiritual Joseph, the _Zaaph Paaneah_, the Revealer of gospel secrets, and the Saviour of the Land. Dear indeed to the Father, as the Son of his love, and the Object of his delight; as God, as God-Man, as the Head of his Elect Body; and the Mediator, Righteousness, and Glory of his Church; while all the promises and prophecies, shadows and types, with every illustrious character in the old Testament history, pointed to him, and shadowed him forth to the faith of the Church before his coming; and indicated his deep humiliation, and his final exaltation, when angels and saints should adore him, in our nature, as the Lamb in the midst of the throne, while