I, in common with many others, have regarded Joseph as intended by the Holy Spirit to represent Jesus in many things, in a typical way, and have so presented the subject, both in speaking and writing,

My reasons for regarding Joseph as representing Christ are:

First. We are authorized to look for a presentation of Christ in some way in all the Scriptures, either typically, prophetically, or in parables. The testimony of Christ is not only the spirit of prophecy, but is the purpose for which all the inspired Scriptures were given. I do not understand that the Scriptures tell us directly who were intended as types of Christ. We know that some who appear very clearly as typical of his person and work in some part of their life and actions are not directly said to be types, as Joshua, Samson, Hezekiah and others. In the light of the New Testament Scriptures, the meaning of Old Testament things appears, and in having come unto Mount Zion we have "come unto the spirits of those just men" of old "made perfect ;" unto the spiritual meaning of what they did and said, as they were moved by the Spirit of Christ which was in them.

Second. The peculiar history of Joseph presents Such a likeness to the things of Christ, and is of so unusual a character, that it appears to me as though the likeness and the recital must have been according to the purpose of God, to set forth in that typical manner "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." We cannot think that the Scriptures are occupied with the relation of personal incidents and histories because of the intrinsic interest of them, without reference to their relation to Christ. Let us notice some of these peculiar incidents and circumstances in the life of Joseph. The first-born of Jacob's first loved and best loved wife, though second in marriage, he also received the birthright of Reuben, the first-born of all the sons of Jacob (1 Chron. v. 1, 2), that he might in this respect also have the pre-eminence among his brethren; loved by his father more than all his brethren, and receiving as a token of this special love, a coat of many colors; dreaming and telling to his brethren prophetic dreams, in which his exaltation over them is foretold, and thus exciting their hatred against himself; sent by his father to see after them, and when one found him wandering in the field and said, "What seekest thou?" he said, "I seek my brethren;" taken by them with intent to kill him who had come for their good, but prevented by the intercession of one of them, who, although showing his tenderness, yet united with the others in concealing the crime from their father, and evidently shared in the price for which his brother was s01d; suffering in the prison unjustly, until "the word of the Lord tried him," and caused the king to release him; laying up corn during seven years of plenty for those who hated him, and thought him dead; occupying the most exalted place in the kingdom, next to the king, when his brethren are driven by famine to come before him, seeking to buy of his corn; his knowledge of them, while they knew not him; his rough manner of speaking to them, charging them with evil motives in coming down to Egypt, which, though not true, brought them under solemn conviction of conscience for a greater crime, known only among themselves, as they supposed, and confessed to each other with sorrow, without a thought that the man before whom they stood trembling understood what they said, much less that he was their brother against whom they had so terribly sinned; imprisoned three days, then brought out as an act of special mercy, given corn for their need, and sent back with supplies for their father and families at home, but with a command that must bring them back again with the youngest brother; the finding of their money in the mouth of their sacks, showing that whatever was received by them from him who was to represent Jesus in the gifts of his grace, must be received as a gift through love and mercy, and in not the least degree as paid for or merited; their second coming with a full surrender of all that was held dear by their father and themselves, and yet with no thought of any other way of getting the needed supply than by returning the former money, and also with money to pay for that now asked for; the manner of their coming before him the second time, the release of Simeon, the words of the steward, "I had your money: God gave you treasure in your sacks ;" their astonishment that he should have them dine with him, and that he should have such knowledge of the age of each one; his deep emotion as they talk before him, causing him to enter into his closet to weep; his course with them in bringing them back as criminals, and Benjamin, who was innocent of their crime, as the worst of them, appearing to have stolen the divining cup, and thus condemned by their own judgment to die; their entire humiliation before him; the plea of Judah for Benjamin's deliverance, he having become surety for his return to his father; the final closing of this most terrible interview to them, by Joseph making himself known to them with that great outburst of tenderness, and love, and joy which had been so long restrained, and the wonder and joy and fear of the brethren as they hear the wonderful words, "I am Joseph, your brother," and see in the man before them, who had spoken to them so roughly, and before whom they had been so abased and humbled, and consciously guilty, the very brother against whom their crime had been committed, and as they find that, instead of feeling hatred, and determining upon revenge, he felt only love and tender pity, and a heart full to overflowing of joy, because he could see them again, and because he was able to deliver them from their suffering and keep them during all the years of famine yet to come.

Such a wonderful likeness as the poor sinner sees and feels in all this, to his own experience in being brought to a knowledge of Jesus as our Savior, cannot, it seems to me, have been without purpose on the part of our God. When thousands and thousands of the dear children of God have felt their own relationship to Jesus shown to them through this wonderful story of Joseph and his brethren; their sins against him; their felt guilt before him; their efforts to obtain his favor by some merit of their own, and their disgraceful failure; their final giving up of all hope, and then the surprising and soul' enrapturing revelation of Jesus as their Brother and Savior, who has loved them with an everlasting love; how shah we say that it was not thus to set forth Jesus and his salvation, that this personal history was given by inspiration of God? And we notice the greater minuteness of the recital at those places where the experience of the Lord's people is especially presented in the most important particulars.

Third. Joseph is never spoken of as a tribe of Israel, as are other sons. In Numbers xiii. 11, the expression is used, but followed with an explanation: "Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh." It is also used in Rev. vii. 8, but the tribe of Ephraim is there meant, for the tribe of Manasseh has already been mentioned; which constituted part of the house of Joseph. This "house Of Joseph," evidently represents the church, in Amos and places. Jacob claimed of Joseph his two sons to be his own, Reuben and Simeon were his; and each of them became a tribe in Israel, and both constitute the house or children of Joseph. Thus Joseph had one portion above his brethren, Gen. xlviii, 22; Ezekiel xlvii. 13; his two sons were given the birthright of Reuben, who had transgressed. "For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's."--I Chron, v. 1, 2.

Fourth. The manner in which the psalmist refers to this shows, to my mind, that his faith has Christ and his people in view as he recounts the incidents, for he speaks Of them not in the order of their literal occurrence, but in the order of the experience of them in their spiritual significance. The famine and hunger are the beginning of the knowledge of spiritual things. Then the sending a man before them, even Joseph. The Wicked acts of his brethren are not here referred to, Psalm cv. 16-22, but the declaration that the Lord sent him before them assumes all the circumstances of his getting into Egypt as part of the Lord's purposed way, and brings to view the sins of the Lord's people, in this type, which caused him to go before them, and become a servant, and suffer that they might live. The psalmist "foresaw the Lord always before his face," and speaks of such things only as set forth Jesus and his salvation.--Acts ii. t5-Sl.

Fifth. The peculiarity of the blessings pronounced upon Joseph: by both Jacob and Moses. Both use highly figurative expressions that would hardly apply to Joseph naturally, even with all his wonderful experience, but which suggest at once the One who was greater than Joseph. The fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall, suggest him who is the Branch, and the goodly Vine, and the Well of salvation, and the Wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. The speaking of archers that hurt him, and of the strength in which his bow abode, reminds us of similar expressions which refer to Jesus in the Psalms. The parenthetic reference to "the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel," is very significant; and also the words of Jacob, "The blessings of thy Father have prevailed above the blessings of my pro' genitors, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren," seem to me at once t° direct Our minds away from limited man to him who received the blessing, "upon the mountains of Zion," "even life for evermore," which prevails unto all his people throughout all generations. When Moses speaks of "the precious things of heaven, and the dew, and the deep that coucheth beneath, and the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and the precious things put forth by the moon, and the chief things of the ancient mountains, and the precious things of the lasting hills, and the precious things of the earth, and the fullness thereof, and the good will of him who dwelt in the bush," as abundant reasons for the blessings which he inv6kes upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him who was separate from his brethren, it seems to me that his faith must have been looking away to Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, who answers in his glorious person and work to all these sublime expressions.

Sixth. This reference by both Jacob and Moses to Joseph as the one who was separate from his brethren, I have regarded as one of the special marks of his typical character. The separation, as expressed, would not mean from any one or two of them, but from all. As Joseph's presence among ten of his brethren only made them want to kill him, it must have been more comfortable for him to be separate from them. But this expression does not appear to me to be intended so much to refer to Joseph's personal feelings in the matter, as to state an important fact in his life, which was a far more important truth in the life and death and work of him whom I understand Joseph to represent, who trod the winepress of God's wrath alone, and of the people there was none with him; Isaiah lxiii. 8, 5: who said, "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and alien unto my mother's children."---Psalm lxiv, 8; whose disciples, when he was taken by his enemies, all forsook him and fled.

Seventh. The last expression in the blessing of Moses has no apparent application to Joseph as a man, but does clearly apply to the great antitype Jesus: "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth." By his own power, sometimes compared to the horn of the unicorn, Numbers xxiii.; xxiv. 8; Psalm xcii. 15, Jesus brings his people to the end of earthly wisdom, strength and righteousness, and there they see the salvation of God.--Isaiah Iii. 10. "And these are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousand of Manasseh." That is, they are his own house that he thus pushes together to the ends of the earth, and to whom he says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else."--Isaiah xlv. 22.

Eighth. The prophet Amos vi. 6, speaking of the prominent and confident pretensions of those who are at ease in Zion, the carnal professor under the law, presents as one necessary mark of a child of God which they lack: "But they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." When Joseph's brethren stood before him and were roughly spoken to, and charged with evil intentions, they were for the first time grieved for the affliction of their brother, in that they saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought them, and they would not hear, and they knew this distress to have come justly upon them because of their iniquity, which God had found out. So whenever any one has been brought before Jesus he is made to feel grieved for the very sins that pierced him, and to "mourn as one mourneth for his only son," and to "be in bitterness, as one is in bitterness for his first-born." This is true of all the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. --Zech. xii. 10. And to those who have felt that bitterness of grief on account of sin, it is a blessed thing to know that only those whose sins Jesus bore can feel that bitter sorrow. Only his brethren, but all of them, "are grieved for the affliction of Joseph." They alone know the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ.

I have not thought of Joseph as typical of the ministry, though it may be so in some sense. But preachers have no such control over the store of grace and spiritual comfort as Joseph had over the store of corn. Jesus alone controls and dispenses that, placing so much in the hand of each servant as he will have that one to give to the hungry at the time, and never giving to any servant a handful today for use tomorrow. No one has anything to do with his own preparation for the work of dispensing the good things of the gospel. If one has a larger amount and greater variety than another he is neither to be blamed nor praised for it, for he has only what Jesus gave; but if one should assume that he was prepared with a better variety than other servants of the Lord, he would manifest that he was carnal, and would be reproved in his conscience when awakened by the voice of the Lord _out of his carnal sleep. The variety which would interest the natural mind would not richly feed living souls. The same blessed words of truth furnish in themselves a rich variety for the hungry soul; and this heavenly food, as Jesus hands it to the servants at the time they need to hand it out, is ever new and fresh. The one who esteems himself least sufficient, and most unprofitable, and therefore most dependent, is most likely to come to the saints with this rich variety, while he who regards himself as having it in store to use at any time, is most often found empty handed by the waiting, hungry soul.

Ninth. Joseph's prophetic declaration that God would surely visit his brethren, and the oath he took of them that they should carry up his bones from thence, seems to me to greatly confirm the figurative meaning. It was not his body but his bones that he spoke of. These were carefully preserved through all the years of bondage, carried up out of Egypt, and through all the wilderness journey, taken through Jordan, kept during all the wars under Joshua, and finally buried according to his command.--Josh, xxiv. 32. There must be some spiritual significance in this, so carefully recited; and we cannot but think of the careful preservation through all the ages of the world, and through all the bondage and terrible wilderness of sin, of those who are manifest in the gospel as "members of Jesus' body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Jesus said of himself by the psalmist, "He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken."--Psalm xxxiv. 20. And again, "All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him ?"--Psalm xxxv. 10.

JANUARY 25, 1898.