. A sacred trust was laid on him, and to be true to it was to fear
God.

After a while his master's wife tempts him. He refuses; not merely out
of honour to his master, but from fear of God. "How can I do this great
wickedness," says Joseph, "and sin against God?" His master and his
mistress are heathen, but their marriage is of God nevertheless; the vow
is sacred, and he must deny himself anything, endure anything, dare any
danger of a dreadful death, and a prison almost as horrible probably as
death itself, rather than break it.

So again, in the prison. If ever man had excuse for despairing of God's
providence, for believing that right-doing did _not_ pay, it was poor
Joseph in that prison. But no. God is with him still. He believes
still in the justice of God, the providence of God, and therefore he is
cheerful, active--he can make the best even of a dungeon. He can find a
duty to do even there; he can make himself useful, helpful, till the
keeper of the prison too leaves everything in his hand.

What a gallant man! you say. Yes, my friends, but what makes him
gallant? That which St. Paul says (in Hebrews xi.) made all the old
Jewish heroes gallant--faith in God; real and living belief that God
is--and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

At last Joseph's triumph comes. He has his reward. God helps
him--because he will help himself. He is made a great officer of state,
married to a woman of high rank, probably a princess, and he sees his
brothers who betrayed him at his mercy. Their lives are in his hand at
last. What will he do? Will he be a bad brother because they were bad?
Or will he keep to his old watchword, "I fear God?" If he is tempted to
revenge himself, he crushes the temptation down. He will bring his
brothers to repentance. He will touch their inward witness, and make
them feel that they have been wicked men. That is for their good. And
strangely, but most naturally, their guilty consciences go back to the
great sin of their lives--to Joseph's wrong, though they have no notion
that Joseph is alive, much less near them. "Did I not tell you," says
Reuben, "sin not against the lad, and ye would not hearken? Therefore is
this distress come upon us."

Joseph punishes Simeon by imprisonment. It may be that he had reasons
for it which we are not told. But when his brothers have endured the
trial, and he finds that Benjamin is safe, he has nothing left but
fo