to Joseph, she says, "He hath brought in an Hebrew " this contemptible Jew, this foreigner" to mock us, and turn us into unutterable contempt."

Let us always remember that sins are never single; they follow one another, or exist together. The roots by which they cohere may not be seen by us, but real and actual they unquestionably are. He who does a sin at first, must commit many more to hide it, unless from his lowered position he repent, and be forgiven. There must be the falsehood to screen it, and the hypocrisy to mislead and deceive those who do not suspect it.

We next read, that after Joseph's experience of this evil treatment, notwithstanding his incorruptible virtue, he was cast into prison. Most unjustly so. It was the wife of Potiphar who ought to have been in prison; but very often the innocent suffer for, and at the instigation of, the guilty, in this world. If this were the dispensation of retribution, then virtue would always conquer, and vice would be always punished; but as this is a world where there is light and darkness, there is just retribution enough to show us that God reigns, but yet confusion enough to show us that this is not the day of judgment; so we find that the innocent suffer for a season, and the guilty escape.

I can conceive nothing more painful to Joseph than to be accused of crime of which he was consciously innocent, and visited with punishment undeserved; and yet under that accusation to conduct himself with the quiet, silent, beautiful reserve which he displayed on this occasion. I know not anything more difficult to bear than false accusations, except undeserved punishment; and it needs a great deal of grace to suffer and be silent; and that man will indeed have to be thankful to God, who passes through the world without some mud being flung at him. But often, when you cannot answer the accusation that is evil by a thorough reply, from want of

opportunity, you can live it down; and I believe one of the most effective replies to a calumny is living down evil; but it needs a great deal of grace, a great deal of patience, and no little magnanimity, to do it. It is only a few heroes in the world, or martyr Christians in the church, who can bide their and their Father's time. Joseph did it. He said nothing; he was satisfied that there was a God who would right what was wrong, and avenge his reproach, and bring forth his righteousness like the noon-day. He suffered, and was silentthat vivid mark of the most exalted Christianity.

He was cast into prison, a supposed criminal, as a punishment he did not deserve; but even there it was impossible that his superior and supernatural excellence should be hidden. It was irrepressible everywhere; but it seems, from the gaoler treating Joseph with such unexpected leniency, and placing so much in his hand, that the gaoler did not do so of his own prompting, or altogether from what he saw of Joseph, but that Potiphar had the strong impression (as, indeed, the very facts of the case, if one might enter into them fully, would demonstrate) that Joseph was falsely accused, that his wife was the guilty one, and that he conveyed this, his own impression, to the gaoler; for the gaoler acted, in his treatment of a prisoner slave, in a way that can only be explained upon the supposition that the gaoler's instructions from his master were, to receive Joseph as a prisoner, that outward appearances might be saved, but to treat him as a friend and innocent servant, as Joseph truly and properly deserved; and so the gaoler did treat him. At the same time, it is said that in prison "the Lord was with Joseph, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed all to Joseph's hand." God was with him in the palace; God was with him in the prison; God was with him when he was looked upon by Potiphar as all that was great and good; God was

with him when he was accused and charged with the greatest crime; God was with him when he was cast into prison. Man changes; God never. God is with his own in palace and in prison, in light and in darkness; for he has promised, “I will never leave thee; I will never forsake thee." Joseph was happy in a dungeon, because his conscience was at peace. His "feet they were bound with fetters; he was laid in irons;" but his soul was free, and it reposed sweetly and securely in the sunshine of the countenance of God. After all, true religion is peace. Sooner or later it gives a satisfaction which more than compensates for outward trouble.

26

CHAPTER XL.

JOSEPH IN PRISON -THE BUTLER AND BAKER SHUT UP WITH HIM THEIR DREAMS-THEIR FEARS — JOSEPH'S INQUIRIES - HIS INTERPRETATION FULFILMENT OF INTERPRETATION - THE BUTLER'S INGRATITUDE.

WE have here another beautiful episode in that truly interesting biography, on the minute particulars and facts of which we have so recently entered. It appears that Joseph was still in the dungeon in which Potiphar had placed him for the crime of which he was accused and supposed to be guilty, but of which he was altogether innocent. It happened soon afterwards that the solitude of that dungeon was at least relieved by the imprisonment of the chief butler and chief baker, two of the great officers of the royal household, who had given some offence to their master.

The word here rendered "butler" is translated in Nehemiah "cup-bearer;" and perhaps this is the just and proper translation of it in order to convey what it meant in ancient times. It was the duty of the butler simply to have the charge of the wine-cellar, and to present the wine at the banquet, which in this case was unintoxicating, for he squeezed the grapes into the cup which he offered to his master. This was his dignity and duty; it was a responsible office, and one which was very valuable for its emoluments in those days. The next officer was the baker, whose office was to prepare

the bread and meats for his master.

These two persons were

Neither of their names

cast into prison along with Joseph. are given, nor are their crimes specified. The very silence of Scripture here is remarkable. They are merely introduced as

facts that occurred in providential history, in order to bring out a new feature in Joseph's character, a new fact in Joseph's biography. Their names are of no value; their crimes might gratify our curiosity, but could convey no instruction; they are therefore omitted. Often one has reason to see the inspiration of the writer in his silence, even as we see it in his eloquence or utterance.

We read that these two, for some crime, real or supposed, were cast into prison along with Joseph, and we can well conceive how differently the prison felt to these three persons. The two criminals, really guilty, felt it to be a prison; but Joseph's conscious innocence lighted up the darkness of that prison with more than the splendor of a royal palace. It is not darkness, nor bars, nor bolts, nor three-feet thick walls, that make a prison; it is the prisoner's consciousness of crime that constitutes a dungeon; and where that consciousness of crime is not, there, as in the case of Bunyan, and as in the case of saints and martyrs, of whom the world was not worthy, all the misery of a prison is felt comparatively light. The severest pains feel gentle when there is a conscience at peace with God, and the lightest injury feels painful and poignant when the heart is not right with him.

These two heathen men; the butler or cup-bearer, and the baker, dreamed dreams. This, one would suppose, is so perfectly natural as not to deserve notice; but it seems that the dreams made an impression upon each so extraordinary, that each formed the opinion that it must be the symbol or the hieroglyph of some extraordinary meaning; it was the depth of the impression of the recollected dreams that made them so anxious to ascertain what was their meaning, for meaning they were sure they had. Their hearts were depressed, their countenances were sad; they felt that more was meant than met the eye in the night vision, and they were, therefore, anxious to understand it.