Page:PracticalCommentaryOnHolyScripture.djvu/148

 eyes. Then he  commanded  his  servants  to  fill  their  sacks  with wheat, and  put  each  man’s  money secretly  in  his  sack,  and  give them, besides,  provisions  for  their  journey. This being  done,  they loaded their  asses  with  the  corn,  and  returned  home.

They related  to  their  father  all  that  had  happened,  and,  on opening  their  sacks,  every  man  found  his  money  tied  in  the  mouth of his  sack. Seeing this,  they  were  troubled  and  afraid. And Jacob said  to  them:  “You  have  made  me  childless. Joseph is not  living,  Simeon  is  kept  in  bonds,  and  Benjamin  ye  will  take away. My son  shall  not  go  down  with  you,  for,  if  any  evil  befall him, you  will  bring  my  grey  hairs  in  sorrow  to  the  grave.”

Admonishing sinners. Joseph  treated  his  brethren  severely,  not  out of revenge,  but  out  of  love. He wished  to  bring  them  to  self-examination, repentance and  amendment  of  life. To admonish  sinners,  so  as  to convert  them  and  lead  them  to  see  their  sins  and  repent  of  them, is a duty  of  brotherly  love  and  one  of  the  spiritual  works  of  mercy. St. James  says  (5,  20): “He  who  causeth  a sinner  to  be  converted  from the error  of  his  way,  shall  save  his  soul  from  death,  and  shall  cover  a multitude  of  sins.”

The object  of  sufferings.  God,  in  His  love,  inflicts  temporal  sufferings on sinners,  so  that  they  may  thereby  be  saved  from  the  eternal  sufferings of hell. These sufferings,  such  as  sicknesses,  misfortunes  &amp;c.,  ought  to have  the  effect  of  turning  the  sinner’s  thoughts  to  God,  death,  judgment and eternity,  of  teaching  him  to  see  the  vanity  of  earthly  things,  and of leading  him  to  repent  of  his  sins,  do  penance,  and  care  for  the things of  his  soul. Such troubles  are  called  visitations,  for  it  is  in  this way that  God  visits  His  wandering  children,  and  seeks  to  bring  them back to  the  right  way. “For, whom  the  Lord  loveth,  He  chastiseth” (Hebr. 12,  6). Millions of  the  blessed  would  not  now  be  in  heaven, if God  had  not  visited  them  with  tribulations  in  this  world.

The strictness  of  parents.  Parents  must  punish  their  children  sometimes, so  as  to  keep  them  from  evil. They do  so,  and  must  do  so, out of  love. Parents who  indulge  their  children  in  everything  have no true  love  for  them,  because  they  spoil  them. Happy the  child,