How

The dreams, too, convey an appearance of perfect likelihood, the moment that one reads the account of them. very natural that the cup-bearer should dream of wine, and of presenting it in a cup to his master! How perfectly likely that the baker should dream of making bread and presenting it to his master! Generally our daily duties are woven into our night dreams; and what the heart has nearest and closest to it, is what is most frequently reflected to us from the land of dreams in the silent watches of the night. Although we read of other dreams so directly the creation of the Spirit of God, that one can see that they had no connection with the employment of the persons, but were independent vehicles of divine lessons which God desired to convey.

Joseph, when he saw them in the morning looking so sad, with that thorough courtesy which is ever the creation of Christianity, asked, in deep sympathy, and no doubt with real sorrow, "Why are you looking so sad? Is there any service I can do you? Is there anything I can do for you? Let me know." These two saw such thorough honesty in that youth's inquiry, that they at once had confidence in him, and told him that they had each dreamed a dream, and that they were perplexed by the desire to know the meaning of it. You say, Why so perplexed? I will tell you. The unknown is always most feared. When we know the worst, we can, as it were, prepare ourselves to meet and master it. But when the unknown is before us, our own consciences not at ease, and our own imaginations ever ready to fancy where there is no fact to guide it, and no footing for it to move on, expect that all will be disaster, because all is unknown. An unknown God is ever a God feared. It was to the unknown God that the altar for the worst sacrifices was erected of old.

Joseph presented himself as the interpreter of these dreams, not on account of any wisdom, or peculiar inspiration that he had, but simply by reason of that communion and direction

from God, which as God's minister he was privileged with. He said, "Do not interpretations belong to God?" Is it not the prerogative of Him who sends the dream, to send also the interpretation of the dream? I ought to notice that in ancient times dreams were one of the modes used by God for conveying his mind to man. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners," sometimes in dreams, and sometimes in visions, "spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days" put away all these forms as the usual channels of his mind, and "hath spoken unto us by his Son;" that is, in his own holy, perfect and completed Word. But in those days dreams were Scripture, and interpreters of dreams were the expositors of Scripture; and, therefore, these two men, believing in a God, at all events having confidence in the significance of dreams as supernatural intimations, asked Joseph to interpret theirs; and he gave the interpretation, and taught them also a lesson they needed to know, that the author of the interpretation was, not the gods of the Nile, but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob.

The butler or cup-bearer first of all narrated his dream. Now the remarkable part of his dream was, not the natural history of it, but the rapidity with which he saw the bud come into the blossom, the blossom into the fruit, the fruit into the clusters, and the clusters into the ripe grapes. The thing that struck the butler with amazement, as most significant, was the speed of the process. It was as if it all at once budded, blossomed, bore fruitage, ripened, and then was by him squeezed or pressed into the cup of Pharaoh. Joseph interpreted it at Now his interpretation could not have been a guess. Why should he guess that the "three branches" are three days? Why not three months, three years, three hours, three centuries? The very interpretation that he gave, and the decision with which he gave it, showed that he was inspired from

once.

on high; and the fulfilment of the prophecy was proof that the interpreter was right.

You have in that interpretation, "The three branches are three days," a very important function, I may observe, of the word "is or "are." It is evident that the word " are " is

used in the sense of "signify "The three branches are, or signify, three days." Now, does it not seem natural to understand these words, "This is my body," in the same way as you understand this clause in Joseph's interpretation, namely, "This signifies my body?" Nobody would imagine that Joseph meant that these three branches were transubstantiated into three days; and no one but one who wished to justify the decisions of counsels previously and fallibly given, would ever think of changing the words, "This is my body" into "This is transubstantiated into my body."

Having rendered this service to the butler, Joseph asked, as the only favor he desired, that the butler would think of him when he was raised to prosperity. He had sown spiritual good. He asked a little temporal in return.

Then the chief baker also came, no doubt concluding that since the butler's dream had had such a favorable interpretation, his also must have a favorable meaning; and he said, "Behold, I had three white baskets on my head." In Eastern lands bread and most other things are carried on the head; and in the north I can recollect the time when bakers carried their baskets of bread on their heads, which no doubt was a vestige of an ancient custom. He said, "In the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head." Joseph then gave him the interpretation of this, and doubtless with sorrow; but then it was his duty not to accommodate his interpretations to individual tastes, and, like the ancient oracles, to tell what would please most those who could pay most, but to speak what was truth, whether palatable or

painful; and, therefore, he said, "Within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee."

Next we have the simple record that this was literally and strictly fulfilled; and then it is added in language most eloquent, because so simple, and so descriptive of what man is, -the recipients of the greatest mercies often feeling the least grateful, and almost illustrating the common aphorism, that the way to lose a man's friendship is to do him some service, "Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him." But Joseph still knew of One who said, “A mother may forget her sucking child, yet will not I forget thee."

CHAPTER XLI.

PHARAOH'S DREAMS- THE NILE-THE SEVEN KINE-THE SEVEN EARS OF CORN- BUTLER'S RECOMMENDATION OF JOSEPH JOSEPH'S INTERPRETATION USE OF LANGUAGE- EGYPTIAN MANNERS.

WE read, in the previous chapter, that the two chief servants of Pharaoh dreamed, and received the interpretation of their dreams from their fellow-prisoner, Joseph. We find in this that kings must sleep as well as the meanest of their subjects, or the lowest of their servants; and that the dreams that visit weary workmen and servants during sleep, are not strangers to royal minds when reposing after the exercise of their talents, exhausted with the cares of the state, any more than to the mind of the working man after the toils of the field.

He thought, in this dream, that "he stood by the river.” The very mention of the word is evidence of the locality. "The river 99 was the name in Egypt familiarly given to the Nile, the great source of its fertility and its prosperity, and its hope of plenteous harvests and national wealth. It appears that seven lean kine, according to the simple narrative, which I need not recapitulate, came out of the banks, or the rank sedge or grass upon the river's bank, where the crocodile is now found watching for his prey; and that these seven lean cattle devoured the seven fat cattle. The ox is still found upon the ancient monuments of Egypt as the hieroglyph of agricultural produce; and Pharaoh therefore could easily see that the dream, which was so connected with oxen