Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/19

16 family, who is more good or pious than the others, is yet hated and ill-treated by his less godly brethren! Hatred of a brother, even if he be evil, is wrong, but envy of any favour that is bestowed upon a good and deserving brother or sister, is still more so, and is the sign of a depraved heart. The young should be warned by the unjust and evil conduct of Joseph's brethren, especially when they see to what dreadful lengths hatred and envy will go when they are not checked but encouraged. But the hatred of Joseph's brethren not only continued but increased, and in what now follows we read of the cause of this.

"Joseph" we are told (at the fifth verse), "dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren, and they hated him yet the more." The dreams which had come to Joseph reveal the cause of the increased hatred with which his brethren regarded him on account of them. He relates his dream to them. "Behold," he said, "we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and stood upright; and behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf." His brethren