Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/12

Rh and this answer to their prayers must have produced in them deep gratitude to the Lord and great joy of heart. Jacob, we may suppose, had long given up all hope of having a child by his best-beloved, Rachel; and when at last a son was born to him in his old age, he regarded the blessing with strong affection as a special gift from God. While Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other children, he loved the others also; for although a father may for some special reason love one of his children more than the rest, he does not, if he be a good man, withhold his love from the others, or neglect his duty towards them. Yet we are to remember that the circumstances are very different now from what they were then. Christian men have only one wife, and therefore there is not the same ground for partiality as there was then—that is, for loving the child of one wife more than the child of another.

Jacob's love for Joseph prompted him to make a distinction in his dress; he made him a coat of many colours. It is considered that this more properly means a coat of several