Atrongth, in knowlcdgo, 1md experience, rightfully claims respect, submission, reverence from those younger than himself. In a properly regulated family this principle will be laid down and maintained. Age, unless by misconduct it forfeits its privilege, will bo assigned the superior position; younger children will be required to submit themselves to older ones; elder children will be upheld and encouraged to exercise a certain amount of authority over their juniors. 'rhere will be a training within the domestic circle in the habits both of direction and submission, which will prepare the way for the after discipline of life in the world. III. '!'HE NUMBER OF THE NAMES. Whatever minor lessons he may have intended to teach in this opening paragraph, the main purpose of the writer was undoubtedly to show from what small beginniogs God produces the greatest, most remarkable, nay, the most astounding results. From the stock of one man and his twelve sons, with their house- holds, God raised up, within the space of 430 years, a nation. Similarly, when "in the fulness of time" the New Dispensation succeeded the Old, from "the Twelve" and from" the Seventy" (Luke x. 1), the original "little flock" (ioid. xii. 32) was derived that" general assembly and church of the firstbom" (Heb. xii. 23) which is a" great multitude that no man can number" (Rev. vii. 9). .And the growth was even more rapid. "We are but of yesterday," says Tertullian, in the third century after our Lord's birth, "and yet we fill all places-your cities, islands, forts, towns, villages; nay, your camps, tribes, decuries-your palace, your senate, your forum." How wonderful is such increase in either case ! How clearly the consequence of Divine favour and blessing! Ver. 5.-Joseph in Egypt. Exodus here points back to Genesis. So the yresent i~ always pointing back to the past. In the life of an individual, in the life of a family, in the life of a nation, there is a continuity: no past act but affects the present-no present act but affects the future. Joseph's descent into Egypt is at the root of the whole of Exodus, underlies it, forms its substratum. Without an in-coming, no out- going; and it was at Joseph's instance that his brethren had come into the country (Gen. xlv. 9-24). Or our thoughts may travel further back. "Joseph in Egypt." How had he come there? 'l'hrough the envy and jealousy of brethren, provoked by the favouritism of a too fond father. Here a.re evils to be guarded against; here are sins to be cast out. And yet of the evil good had come: "Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good" (Gen. 1. 20). "The fierceness of men he turns to his praise ; and the fierceness of them he doth refrain" (Ps. lx:x:vi. 10). The cruel wrong done to Joseph had saved from starvation his father and his father's house, had pre- served the entire people of the Egyptians from extreme suffering, and had brought Joseph himself to the highest honour. "God's ways a.re not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts." He is potent to bring _good out of evil, and to turn the worst calamity into the choicest blessing. Ver. 6.--Joseph in death with all his generation. There are some sayings so trite that we can scarcely bring ourselves to repeat them, so vital that we do not da.ro to omit them. One of these is that immemorial one: " We must all die." Joseph, great as he had been, useful as his life had been to others, unspeakably precious as it had proved to his near kinsmen, when his time ea.me, went the way of all flesh-died like any common man, and "was put in a coffin" (Gen. 1. 26) and buried. So it must always be with every earthly support and stay; it fails us at last, and if it does not betray us, at any rate deserts us; sudd.enly it is gone, and its place knows it no more. This is always to be borne in mind; and no excessive reliance is to be placed on individuals. The Church is safe ; for its Lord is always "with it," and so will be "even to the end of the world." But the men in whom from time to time it trusts are all mortal-may at any time be lost to it-may in one hour be snatched away. It is important therefore for the Church to detach itself from individuals, and to hold to two anchors-Christ and the Faith of Christ-which can never cease to exist, and ca.n never fail it. For, when our Joseph dies, there die with him, or soon after him, "all his brethren, and all that generation." The great lights of an age are apt to go out at once, or if a few linger on, they burn with a dim lustre, And the generation that hung upon their words despairs, and knows not which II 2 4 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [ CH, I, 1--8,
way t.o turn itself, until the thought comes-" Lord, to whom shn.ll ,ve go? Thou hnst the words of eternal life." Then, in resting upon Christ, it is ,voll ,vith us. Well, too, for each generation to remember, it will not long stay behind-it will follow its tcachorR. Joseph dies-his brethren die; wait a few years, and God will have taken to himself "all that generation."