the country, it was needful that a public ceremonial should be observed, in honour of the dend. Accordingly, Joseph, as the first step required by the usages of the people amongst "-hom he lived, gave instructions to his court physicians to embalm his father. For details as to the process, which orcupied a period of forty days the Exposition may be consulted. Then, along with tl:is, for seventy days, peculiar ~ites supposed to be e~pressive of the heart's grief,_ such as rending the garments, smiting the breast, throwmg dust upon the head, calling on the deceased, were maintained with the assistance of friends, neighbours, and professional mourners. III. TnE FUNERAL rROCESSION. 1. Tlie train of mourners. This consisted of the state and court officials of Pharaoh's house, and of the land of Egypt, the members of the houses of Joseph and his brethren, and a troop of horsemen and charioteers for protection on the journey. 2. The line of march, This wns either straight north, through the country of the Philistines, if Goren Atad was south of Hebron in Judea, or it was round 3:bout by the way of the wilderness, if the halting-place was east of Jordan. 3. The ktmentation at Goren Atad. This was intended as a special de- monstration before burial, and was conducted with such vehemence as to arrest the attention of the Canaanites, wbo called the place in consequence, Abel-Mizraim; i. e. the plain or the mourning of Mizraim. 4. The advance to Hebron. It is more than probable that the Egyptians, who had accompanied the funeral procession from Goshen, remained behind at Goren Atad, while Joseph and bis brethren bore the patriarch's body on to Hebron. IV. THE SOLEMN INTERMENT. His sons bw·ied him in the ancestral vault of Mach- pelab. Reverently, affectionately, tearfully, yet hopefully, let us hope, they laid the weary pilgrim down to sleep till the resurrection morn beside the dust of bis own Leah, and in the company of Abraham, and Sarah, and Isaac, and Rebekah. It must have been an affecting, as surely it was a sublime spectacle, this coming home of an aged exile to lay his bones in his native land, this returning of the heir of Canaan to claim his inheritance, this laying down of the last member of the great .patriarchal family among the other inmates of Macbpelab. With the burial of Jacob, the first patriarchal family was complete, and the tomb was closed. The members of the second household slept at Shecbem.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ch. 1-Retrospect and prospect. The fellowship of Egypt with the children of Israel in the burial of Jacob is full of significance. "A very great company went with them." "Abel-Mizraim" the Canaanites called it," a grievous mourn- ing to the Egyptians." It seemed to them altogether an Egyptian funeral. Yet we know that it was not. The work of God's grace will transfom1 the world that it shall not be recognised. The funeral itself said, Egypt is not our home. It pointed with prophetic significance to the future of God's people. Canaan, the home of God's people, is the symbol of the everlasting home. Strange that the conscience should wake up in the brethren of Joseph after the fathe1"s death. How great the power of love in subduing fear l The true-hearted, tender piety of Joseph both towards God and towards his father and his kindred, iB not influenced by such considerntions us affected the lower characters of his brethren. They feared because they were not ns true as he. "Joseph wept when they spake unto him," wept for them, wept to think they had r,.ot yet understood him. It is a great grief to a good man, a man of large, simple, loving nature, to be thought capable of unkindness and treachery. J_oseph recognised that his life had been a Divine thing. He was only an instrument in the bands of God, in the place of God. He saw Providence working with grace. The influence of real religion is to sanctify ar:id exalt natural affections. Joseph's e!ld, like his father's, wae a t.eetimony to the faithfulness of God, and a fresh consecrnt10n of the covenant people to their Divine future. " I die, and God will surely visit you." He was a truly humble man to the last. Hie people's blessedness was not of his making. His death would be rather their gain than their loss. Yet " by faith he gave commandment concerning his bones" (Heb. xi. 22), not in any foolish feeling of relic worship, but because he would have the peoplo while in Egypt not to h11 of oa. r,. 15-26. THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 539
Egypt. Thoso who livo on the promises of God will feel that" faith is the subs lance of things hoped for, the evidence of tiling~ not seen,'' and confess, not by word only but by deccl, and to the Inst moment of life, "that they are pilgrims o.nd strangers on the earth," "seeking a better city, even a heaYenly."-R •