Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/42

Rh noble and pious testimony; always to give God the glory due unto His name for every good or gift that we possess.

Pharaoh's dreams and Joseph's interpretation of them are well known, and are singularly expressive. Pharaoh dreamt that while he stood on the banks of the Nile there came up out of the river seven kine, fat-fleshed and well favoured, and they fed in a meadow; and there came up after them seven kine, poor and very ill-favoured and lean; and the seven lean kine did eat up the seven fat kine. And when the seven lean had eaten up the fat kine, it could not be known that they had eaten them; for they were still as lean and ill-favoured as at the beginning. In his second dream Pharaoh saw seven ears of corn upon one stalk, full and good, and after them seven ears withered and thin; and the thin ears devoured the seven good ears. These dreams were certainly extraordinary, and might baffle human ingenuity to read them. Whatever conjectural explanation might have been given them, none but God, as Joseph had said, could give the true interpretation; for none but He