Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/58

Rh afford! What joy was it calculated to bring to them to find him whom they had supposed for ever lost, to find him alive whom they might fear was dead, to find him crowned with honour whom they had sold as a slave! But no doubt their first impression was that of astonishment and dismay at finding themselves in the presence and in the power of one whom they had so cruelly hated and so deeply injured. Joseph perceived their feelings, and to assure them, he said to them, and undoubtedly in tones of love and tenderness—"Come near to me, I pray you" And when they approached nearer, he again said to them, as if his first revelation of the fact had rather stupified than informed them—"I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now, therefore, be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life." What a beautiful manifestation of forgiveness is here, what an instance of pious recognition of the hand of Divine Providence in the most adverse events of life! Joseph did not mean to teach that they were not to blame for what they had done to him,