Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/94

Rh when he was a young man. Yet here again there is a greater similarity than at first sight appears. Joseph, in this part of the history, is called a child. When Reuben, who was absent when his brethren sold Joseph, came to the pit into which he had been cast, and found he was not there, he exclaimed in his agony of spirit—"The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?" And the Lord, by the prophet Hosea, speaks of Joseph and of the whole family of Israel who went down to him in Egypt in the same way—"When Israel was a child then I loved him, and called my Son out of Egypt" Israel is said to have been then a child, to express the comparative innocence of the Israelites at that time, and also in allusion to their infancy as a people. This passage in Hosea is quoted by Matthew in relation to the Lord. When relating the flight of Joseph with Jesus and His mother into Egypt, the evangelist says that this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying—"Out of Egypt have I called my Son." (ii. 15.) It is here plainly stated that the descent of Joseph and