Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/97



HEN Joseph was carried into Egypt, it was in order that his history might represent the Lord's acquisitions, and, after His, the acquisitions of the Christian disciple, as the means of growing in the divine and spiritual life; for we know that Jesus increased in wisdom, and, through that wisdom, in favour with God and man. But wisdom is not acquired without labour, nor even without tribulation. In the progress of the mind in wisdom, one must serve before he can rule, and he must be tried before he can be confirmed in goodness. Of this, Joseph, when in Egypt, had his full share. Our Lord Himself, we have seen, passed through severe trial and temptation, and these were so great that those which Joseph endured but faintly represented them. In some of the prophecies our Lord's sufferings are described symbolically by the