unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever. Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father."

1. What tender affection for his aged father breathed through the whole speech! "Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise."

2. With what soundness of judgment does he avoid any particular reference to the crime charged on his younger brother. To have admitted it, would have been to censure Benjamin. To have denied it, would have reflected on the justice of Joseph. He presses only the great argument, that the life of his aged father is bound up in the life of the lad; and if Benjamin goes not back with his brothers, his father will die.

3. How delicately he refers to Joseph's supposed loss! quoting his father's words, "Ye know that my wife bare me two sons; and the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces, and I saw him not since." How the heart of Joseph must have vibrated at this part of the argument!

4. He offers himself as a substitute for Benjamin. Jewish tradition says he was by far the most able bodied of the two. Joseph would thus be gainer by the exchange. His father could better bear the loss of him, than of the only remaining son of his beloved Rachel. So far is he from being envious at his father's superior fondness for Benjamin, that he is willing to become a bondman himself, in order that it may be gratified. Generous, worthy, wonderful man!

5. The power of his eloquence rose beyond all that

Joseph had anticipated; though he had doubtless been accustomed to hear the most powerful pleaders of Egypt. Joseph had been making experiments with his brethren, testing and trying their temper toward Benjamin; and evidently he intended to carry his experiments further. For he had men present in the house who he did not intend should witness the scene, when he should make himself known to his brethren. According to his plan, the time for that disclosure had not yet come; but the tide of Judah's eloquence came upon him like the waters in Ezekiel's vision now flowing to the ankles, now to the knees, now to the waist, and now a mighty river, whose resistless flood swept all before it. Joseph himself was carried away by the overspreading deluge, and "could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, Cause every man to go out from me; and he wept aloud; and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard." Who can read this affecting history without coming fully to the conclusion, that Judah deserves a prominent place among "the great men of the Bible"?

6. What an impression this generous proposal of Judah must have made on the heart of Benjamin! It appears that neither he nor his children could ever forget their obligation for this magnanimous devotion. Long afterwards, when ten tribes went off under Jeroboam, Benjamin adhered with unwavering faithfulness to Judah. The ten tribes were carried away captive, and lost; but Benjamin is still found with Judah. In the first age of the Christian church, the children of Benjamin were with Judah. Paul was "of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews." And till

this day, in their dispersion throughout the whole world, Benjamin is found standing by the side of Judah.

7. Was Judah a type of Christ, when he became surety for a younger brother, and made intercession for the transgressor? Troubles, the most gloomy and appalling, were clustering and thickening around Benjamin. The cup was found in his sack. He alone is singled out, by the frowning governor, as the guilty one. He alone is condemned to a perpetual doom. Yet all this cannot turn away the tender affection of Judah, nor check his burning zeal. I "became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever." Great Surety of our souls, this reminds us of thee ! "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

THE PUBLIC REBUKE.

ANECDOTE OF JUDGE WHITE.

THE late lamented Judge Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, became conspicuous, at a very early period of life, as a jurist and a statesman. He fixed his permanent home near Knoxville, amidst the scenes of his youthful sports, and the companions of his boyish days. Rarely has a young man, continuing in his own country and among his own kindred, so soon attained such literary and political preëminence. From his youth, the judge was characterized by profound reverence for the ordinances of the gospel. He was a regular attendant at the house of worship. And while he was a Presbyterian, that being the church of his fathers, and the church of his choice, he was benevolent and generous towards other branches of the great Christian family. He gave to the Methodist church at Knoxville the ground on which their house of worship was built; and occasionally he would appear in the congregation, and join with them in their worship.

Now, in those days, there was a notable presiding elder in that region, called Father Axley, a pious, laborious, uncompromising preacher of the gospel, who considered it his duty to rebuke Sin wherever it should presume to lift up its deformed head within the limits of his district. And while Father Axley was a man

of respectable talents, undoubted piety, a isterial fidelity, he had, moreover, a spic oddity, and drollery about him, that rar

impart a characteristic tinge to his performa

consequence was, that amusing anecdotes of the sayings and doings of Father Axley abounded throughout the country.

At

On a certain day, a number of lawyers and literary men were together in the town of Knoxville, and the conversation turned on the subject of preaching and preachers. One and another had expressed his opinion of the performances of this and that pulpit orator. length, Judge White spoke up-"Well, gentlemen, on this subject each man is, of course, entitled to his own opinion; but I must confess, that Father Axley brought me to a sense of my evil deeds at least a portion of them more effectually than any preacher I have ever heard." At this, every eye and ear was turned; for Judge White was known never to speak lightly on religious subjects, and, moreover, he was habitually cautious and respectful in his remarks concerning religious men. The company now expressed the most urgent desire that the judge would give the particulars, and expectation stood on tiptoe.

"I went up," said the judge, "one evening, to the Methodist church. A sermon was preached by a clergyman with whom I was not acquainted; but Father Axley was in the pulpit. At the close of the sermon, he arose, and said to the congregation, 'I am not going to detain you by delivering an exhortation. I have risen simply to administer a rebuke for improper conduct, which I have observed here to-night.' This, of course, waked up the entire assembly; and the still