they have ruined, and yet do nothing to repair that ruin. Their system of casuistry is, whatever makes me rich or ministers to my unholy passions is right. Let no man then urge his sincerity as a plea for his conduct, or that his conscience does not disapprove of his course, when that course is at variance with the Bible and the laws of nature. Men are always responsible for their ignorance when that ignorance is the fruit of their neglect or refusal to improve their light and opportunities. We are not accustomed to exculpate criminals, though they might plead ignorance of the laws they may have violated, seeing they might have known that there were such laws had they sought to know. A man who has eyes and will not use them, can not urge his blindness as an excuse for the results of that willful blindness. He must and will be treated as if he had done wrong with his eyes open; that is, intentionally. It follows inevitably from hence that conscience can only be a correct guide when it is an enlightened Bible conscience.

The only questions that remain to be settled are: Have we a perfect expression of the Divine will? Is it such that for all practical and necessary purposes men may become sufficiently acquainted therewith, so as always to act aright under the circumstances? We think so. If men will they can learn all that God desires them to know by becoming students of Nature and the Bible, but especially of the latter. His will is so clearly laid down and exhibited in these two wonderful and merciful provisions, that "he may read that runneth." Together they are as complete and harmonious as two things could be. These should be your principal study, young ladies and gentlemen. And your chief aim in the study of these should be to thoroughly acquaint yourselves with the will of your Creator, that you may do that will "as the angels do in heaven." They have no other business, nor have we. If men conceive that they were born for any other purpose, they have utterly mistaken the design of their creation. Remember, young ladies and gentlemen, that your Maker did not design you for eating and sleeping machines. He

has something for you to do besides digesting beefsteaks and decorating the body. These are means to an end, and not the end itself. How shameful it is that most men stubbornly persist in thinking that the chief end of life is eating, drinking, sleeping, and dressing! Old Seneca said long ago, without a Bible, that "men are to eat, that they may live; not live that they may eat." Noble old heathen, would that you could continue enlightening us modern men! Eating is not living; living is loving and obeying God. This is true life; nothing else can be. That man, and that man alone, lives to purpose who becomes acquainted with God and learns to love and obey Him. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments." That life is not a failure that learns thus much, though one may have learned little else; all others are, no matter what their reputation for worldly wisdom and valor. All who succeed in gaining an earthly immortality-if that deserves to be named immortality-as heroes, statesmen, and scholars merely, are nothing more than splendid failures. To learn what is and to do right are life's only work. Don't fritter it away in pursuing airy nothings. Dare to be "the highest style of man"-"a Christian." Not in name, but in deed and in truth. And we only mean by all this, cultivate a Bible Conscience. A tender and well-instructed conscience is one of heaven's best gifts. An intelligent and conscientious man is one of Nature's noblemen. Let us "exercise ourselves herein to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men." And what a luxury is such a conscience! Let us all so live that we may be able always to say:

"I feel within me

A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience."

JOSEPH IN EGYPT.

LECTURE.

ANCIENT Canaan and Egypt were in regular commercial intercourse. One was the nurse of true Religion, the other of the Arts and Sciences. These countries are both historic. They have been the theaters of the most remarkable events that have occurred in the world. These have been no less prolific in beneficial consequences to mankind than they were in the almost fabulous richness of their respective soils; the one "flowing with milk and honey," and fertile in the vine, the other with its annually overflowing Nile enriching the soil with alluvial deposits. Geographically they were designed by Providence to exert a far-reaching influence on all countries and succeeding nations of the world down to the latest generations of men. Egypt gave the world letters and science, and Canaan the Bible and a Savior. Egypt solves the greatest problem of religious thought of this and past ages, viz.: that unassisted reason can not rise to just notions of its moral relations and accountability to its Creator. The Hebrew mind illustrates a nation under the influence of a Divine revelation. Canaan gave Egypt a savior in Joseph in the time of its spiritual famine, and Egypt gave Canaan corn in the time of physical famine. We can guess the different destinies of these two nations. Egypt's history is written in her hieroglyphics, crypts, and pyramids; but the nation has been long extinct. The history of the Hebrew people is imperishably engraved by the finger of God in the immortal Bible! To-day the Hebrew nation is the oldest living people on earth. Like Moses' bush they burn, but are never consumed.

These two nations also illustrate another great truth: that God has created necessary interdependencies between nations as between individuals. This world is allied. "God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." Intercourse is to be kept open. We must become better

acquainted with each other, that we may exchange views and feelings as well as products and do each other good in all possible ways. It is thus God shows the doctrine of universal brotherhood.

In the year of the world 2220, or about 4,091 years ago, there lived a lad of seventeen summers, born to the Patriarch Jacob (while he was yet serving his Uncle Laban in Syria for his endeared Rachel. Jacob returns to Canaan with a numerous family. It was here that Joseph, through a spirit of cruel envy, was sold into slavery to some Ishmaelitish merchants). He was the darling of his father's heart, as well as the hope of a vast posterity. His sudden disappearance was at once the grief and heavy sorrow of the venerable patriarch's subsequent and eventful life. For twenty-three long years he rests under the false impression that Joseph had met a violent death by wild beasts while visiting his brethren at Shechem.

It is with Joseph's life in Egypt that we have particularly to do in this hour's lecture. His life while in the land of Ham is full of thrilling incidents and useful lessons. These incidents and facts throw light upon his peerless character. And it is the character of this young man that specially concerns the young men that hear me. Character, young gentlemen, is everything. Character forms destiny. His mind was thoroughly imbued with the principles of the Hebrew religion. The fear of God, which "is the beginning of wisdom," will alone account for his remarkable conduct and sterling principle in the most trying circumstances and in the most responsible position in which a man could be placed. Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's chief officers, saw in Joseph qualities that soon secured him a position of grave responsibility. Moses, his biographer, who was born and reared in Egypt and had access to all the facts of Joseph's life, tells us that "the Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him;

and he made him overseer over his house and all that he And the Lord blessed the

had he put into his hand. Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake."

This simple but forcible recital of Moses gives us an insight into Joseph's character, and the key to his success and elevation in the kingdom. "The Lord was with him." That is sufficient to insure any man success. But what was equally, imporant is Joseph was with the Lord also. He was God's representative in the midst of a widespread idolatry. Thus Potiphar, while he learned the great value of a faithful servant, also learned something of Joseph's God. He learned that a firm belief and trust in Him made a man a better man in all the relations of life. The secret of his success is to be found in his singular and manly piety-in his fear and firm trust in the one true and living God; in his unwavering faith in Divine Providence, and in the unalterable principles of right and wrong as they enter into human conduct in this and the future life. No man has learned the infallible road to salutary success who has not learned this lesson. Such a man will never be place-hunting; the place will seek him and be sure to find him.

Another lesson taught in the life of Joseph is, that the best and purest men are not out of the reach of the calumny of wicked men, nor their well-laid plans to seduce them from virtue's paths and ruin them; and that often the sorest trials are in store for them in a quarter where they would least suspect it. Such was the experience of this young Hebrew. His personal charms and manly deportment become the occasion for a bad woman to plot his ruin and attempt to smirch his virtue. This was no less than Potiphar's wife, a courtly woman, who became enamored of his beauty. But her unlawful advances and adulterous solicitations were met with a simple but heroic courage in the following honest words: "Behold my master wotteth not what is in the house with me, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand: neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how can I do this great