Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/115

112 will become the means of bringing them into a better state. But there is one full and final means of union between the natural thoughts and the spiritual, which this history teaches us. You know Joseph did not make himself known to his brethren, nor did the reconciliation between them take place, till the brothers brought Benjamin down with them to Egypt. Now, Benjamin represents a uniting medium, a principle that unites the natural to the spiritual thoughts, or the natural mind to the spiritual mind. And what, think you, may that medium be? That medium is truth in act, and this Benjamin represents. In other words, Benjamin represents obedience to the divine commandments. And what is obedience to the divine commandments? It is to shun evil because God has told us that we are not to do it, and to do good because God has told us that we are to do it. The brethren had great difficulty in getting Benjamin down to Egypt, so we find it a hard and difficult thing to bring ourselves to a state of actual and active obedience to the commandments of God; but as soon as