We have seen how Joseph directed the thought of his brethren to these ways and designs of God. “Be not angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life.” “So now it was not ye that sent me hither, but God” (Gen. 45: 5, 7, 8). And again seventeen years later, after Jacob’s death, his brethren being apprehensive lest Joseph might then relapse into revenge, he said to them; “Fear not, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Gen. 50: 19, 20). We should quite under-estimate Joseph’s knowledge of human nature and his sense of moral distinctions if we were to press his words to mean that God’s agencies in those crimes superseded theirs; lifted off their responsibilities and left them essentially faultless.――――The reason why Joseph’s remarks took this turn seems to have been this. He saw that conviction for sin had done its vital work in their souls; that they were apparently penitent and leaning toward the most severe self-condemnation――at a stage where it was both safe and kind to turn their attention to God’s hand as evolving good from their sin. In so far as we can have confidence in Joseph’s judgment as to their moral state, his words afford proof that his brethren were truly penitent, and at a stage where consolation might properly be suggested as some relief to their mental anguish. The use which God made of the sin of Joseph’s brethren exemplifies his consummate, far-reaching wisdom. He knew all the future. He saw the coming famine; knew how to advance Joseph to the lordship of all Egypt, and to put him there just in time to garner up the surplus of seven years of overflowing abundance, and then dispense these stores of corn for the sustenance of thousands less provident throughout all Egypt and all adjacent countries. The resources of God’s providence, guided by such wisdom, are simply boundless. What can he not do when he wills to do it?――――The case is equally demonstrative of his _love_. Mark how he bends the great powers of his infinite being to the production of good, to multiply the means of happiness. This view of his character is doubly, yea infinitely precious when studied in its developments in a world, or rather a universe, _with sin in it_. If the Lord were obliged to say――I must content myself with the co-operation of the good, the unfallen, turning their agency to best account for the promotion of happiness; but as to the wicked, they are beyond my reach; I can do nothing with them; the evil they do must be endured as so much dead loss to the universe, never to be of any service toward virtue and happiness――the case would be, so far, one of unrelieved sadness. We may bless the name of our God that his resources of wisdom and power and the outgoings of his love are not thus limited. No indeed; some good