The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 513

man can attain to ; but the Holy SJlirit alone can so open it as to make it " the power of God." It is one thing to know the doctrines of sin and of salvation, and quite another to know ourselves ns sinners, and Christ as the Saviour. The one puffs up with pride of knowledge, the other leads to the one Foundation. Tl,ere is no more dangerous snare than of ignoring this work of the Holy Spirit. Too often men do not believe their need of it, and do not believe in his help. And thus the Bible is found dull, and its teaching departed from in daily life. III. How To GET THE INTERPRETER'S HELP. "Tell me." Think of our Lord watching hie disciples in the boat. So he watches over thee, ready to help. Hast thou found it so? Hae the light of God's love entered thy heart? It is the special work of the Holy Spirit to guide into all truth (John xvi. 13); not in solving mys- teries and hard questions, but in revealing Christ to the heart. Have you sought this; sought with expectation the full gift; sought to know Christ (Phil. iii. 10), and the transforming power of belief in his love? Will you seek ? There lies the difficulty-the want of earnestness. Men seem afraid of being earnest. But it is the earnest (Matt. xi. 12, /3,aarai) who enter the kingdom of hea,en,-M. Ch. xl. 23; xii. 9.-Pharaoh's forgetful butler. "Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him." "I do remember my faults this day." Good men have sometimes had to bear painful imprisonments. Think of Bunyan and Baxter shivering behind the bars of a narrow cell, where light and air were almost excluded, and where disease and death held sway. How much brightness, however, has broken at times from behind piison bars I We might not have had the' Pil- grim's Progress,' unless Bunyan had been incarcerated on the banks of the Ouse. Nor might the patience e.nd kindness of Joseph's disposition have shcne out so brilliantly but for his prison life. In a work entitled 'Five Years' Penal Servitude' a most vivid description is given of how the criminals of the clever and cultured class have to mingle and work with those of ignorant and most sensual type. Defaulting cashiers have to undergo the same trea.tment a.s cowardly garotters a.ml desperate burglars. Breaking the law brings e.ny under its rigorous clutches, anrl levels all distinctions of class or education. Thus Joseph, a. Hebrew slave, although not o. criminal, would be despised by the chief butler of Pharaoh, but the bLttler had to associate with him. Indeed the former became his superior in prison, nncl was in n position to render to a State official certain kindness. l. THE FORGETFUL INGRATE, This man wa.s a courtier, a permitted adviser of the Pha.moh of Egypt, but he is sent to the common prison. Joseph gives him much cheer, attention, and kindness. He seeks in every way to relieve the monotony of prison life, nnd becomes a. prophet and religious helper. He sees the butler one da.y sa.d of countenance, and lenrns the reason. Readily he, by Divine help, interpreted the perplexing dream, His words are verified. The chief butler was doubtless pro- fuse in his thanks and promises, but we see how he kept them. Perhaps the for- getfulness was convenient. Ho did not wish, after his restoration, to remind his monarch-even by making a request-of his having been formerly in disfavour. He possibly never intended to ma.ke any effort, unless it should be a gain to himself. He is a very different ma.n in prison and out. This is tho way of men in life. Favours slip from the memory like floods from n smoothly-worn rock. We might here possibly find out certa.in things in our own conduct which would indicate a similar forgetfulness of favours. For example, Christ cnme as the good Jos~ph to share our captive state. Think of whe.t love he showed in bearing- so much euffeiing for us. Do not put aside the thought of it ns not being definitely for you. It was for ea.eh one, as if there were none other for whom to suffer. Some have not believed, have not come out from prison, but have preferred the darkness to light, have thought that the atonement was all unnecessary. They c,innot under- stand how evil is their state until brought out of it. A beg·gar would not be troubled about his patches o.nd rags in the common lodging-house; but let him be taken into a room of decently-arro.yed people, ancl he then feels the difference, and shudders a.t his degraded appenrance. When once brought into Christ's light we see from what we hove been saved, and should be grateful to him. Some have been brought into union with him, nnd afterwards have declined from his we.y. Dangerous state.  460 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [CH. l.LI. 1-45.