JOSEPH'S ADMONITION.

SEE THAT YE FALL NOT OUT BY THE WAY.

GENESIS, xlv. v. 24.

WHEN Famine's rage had seven long years distrest,

Egypt alone was with abundance blest.

The warning visions were not given in vain ;

And GOD's own flock partakes her hoarded grain.

No longer Canaan's milk and honey flow;

Her sterile country wears a face of woe;

No gracious dews descend to bless her fields;
No strengthening food to fainting man she yields:
With haggard aspect, and with anxious breast,
He wanders forth to labour still unblest.

The long enduring Sire of Israel's line, Obedient ever to the Will Divine,

The wretched remnant of his life to save,

And his loved children rescue from the grave,
To Egypt sends to buy supplies of food,
Nor dreams that Egypt holds a dearer good;
That there his keenest grief, his bosom woe,
Should find relief, his tears forget to flow;
His son, so loved, so lost, so long deplored,
Should to his aged bosom be restored.

Joseph, the victim of unbridled hate,

Through all the various turns of adverse fate,
Had own'd the Heavenly Hand, and kiss'd the rod,

Firm in his duty, faithful to his God.

Through dungeon-gloom he saw Almighty Power,
And patient, waited Mercy's promised hour.
That hour arrives; and he, supreme command
And princely rule, maintains o'er Egypt's land;
For he had saved that land; or rather He,
Whose eye can penetrate futurity,

Had sent him as a messenger of love,

His ever watchful providence to prove.

By mystic dreams admonish'd, he prepares

To hoard the lavish wealth of fruitful years:

That, when prolific Nature's womb should close,
And the tired earth at length demand repose,
Unfriendly clouds withhold their genial rains,
And Nile forget to fertilize the plains,
Egypt her ample stores may open wide
The granary of all the world beside.

Then Joseph, risen to exalted state,

Sees Sun, and Moon, and Stars, attendant wait

Obedient to his will; and, bending low,

The suppliant crowds like prostrate wheat-sheaves bow:
And Goshen's fruitful land to Israel given
Seals the prophetic ordinance of Heaven.
In vain shall man oppose what God intends;
To His own purpose still He shapes his ends.

Joseph, an exiled captive doom'd to roam, Torn from his father, driven from his home,

Bends with submission to his varying lot;
Friends, Brethren, Country, Father, all forgot.
Thus years on years roll on, till Heaven ordains
That they should meet again on Egypt's plains.
He hears their tale-his father yet alive!
All nature's feelings in his heart revive;
A father's sacred name his bosom warms:
He longs to clasp him in his duteous arms:
His wrongs lie buried in his pious breast;
And all the son and brother stand confest.

Joseph, blest type of life and love divine,

In future ages pre-ordained to shine,

How do thy wrongs each pitying heart engage!
How thy mild virtues grace the sacred page!
But chief that God-like nobleness of soul
Which every vengeful passion could controul,
When in thy presence awed and troubled stood
The brethren who had sought thy guiltless blood,
Could hush their conscious terrors, calm their fears,
And melt them in the tenderness of tears.

Yet Joseph, though he pardon'd, knew too well

How

prone their rugged natures to rebel:

And while with costly presents he dismiss'd

The astonish'd band-wept over them and kiss'd—

Then, as the sacred chronicle records,

In mild reproof he spake these parting words:"I am your Brother, whom ye sold a slave: "But GOD ordained it thus your lives to save. "Return to Canaan, bring my Father down; "The good of all this land shall be your own. "But fall not out as homeward ye return,

"Nor in your hearts let envious passions burn." A salutary lesson, for 'tis strife

Which multiplies the ills of human life.

When we the sacred oracles explore,

And this eventful history ponder o'er,

Do we not there a striking semblance find

Between this family and all mankind.

Review, in them, the children of one Sire,

Charged with one mission, urged by one desire: