sell him, to be taken as a slave to Egypt. With some manly feeling he says――“What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh; and his brethren were content.”――――Reuben’s better qualities come up to view again when he returned to the pit, hoping to rescue his brother――but found no Joseph there! “He rent his clothes”; he came to his brethren exclaiming, “The child is not;――and I――whither shall I go?” In the next scene these brethren were if possible more heartless still. It commonly happens that one crime demands another and yet another to conceal the first. So in this case, the next thing is to deceive their father even though it torture him with the agony of supposing his favorite son devoured by some evil beast. They kill a kid; stain Joseph’s coat with its blood; and then send it to their father, saying, “This have we found; see whether it be thy son’s coat or not.” There was no mistaking the coat, and Jacob’s grief is heart-breaking. Remarkably it is said that “all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted”; and he said, “I will go down into the grave to my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.”――――How easily those sons might have said: “Father, we have sinned against God and against thee; but Joseph is not slain by lions; we sold him into Egypt! You may live to see him again.” But not even Reuben or Judah had conscience, and truthfulness, and filial affection enough to reveal the guilty secret. Miserable comforters were they all to their father’s broken heart! * * * * *