Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/59

56 or that God had inspired them with that hatred of him which led them to sell him into slavery. He meant that God had overruled their evil for good, and bent their purpose into an act which turned to the accomplishment of a great general benefit. And he desired to lead his brethren to recognize the hand of God in the events in which they had a share, and to change their childish fear of God for a fear which has hope and love within it. This was a change they needed. It is evident they had never taken a right view of the deed they had done. They had felt compunction, but they had never felt repentance. Repentance is always accompanied with a desire or an effort to make, as far as possible, amends for injury done to another, and leads therefore to a confession of faults before man, as well as of sin before God. If Joseph's brethren had been really repentant, they would have confessed to their father how great an injury they had done, and would have relieved his mind from the belief that his son had been devoured by a wild beast, by telling him that they sold him to the Ishmaelites. But this they never did,