not say so in the chapter Tov! My bo do you know he did?"time afterwards, his lking about the day he and one said to another ), "Ah, we saw our grief that day when he not to sell him, and wel him; and so now we have

though now in Egypt, he need not be so very und that God could take this land of strangers as me. No doubt he felt ry not to see his dear et he found God could er comfort and other aster was a wealthy man, Pharaoh; and he grew is servant. He saw that y careful to do his duty, thing he gave him to looked after: nothing and he felt sure that ng his new servant. He erefore more and more, made him his chief serto order and take care of

s you think Joseph had l of his troubles. No; ouble came, of quite His master's wife was a , and one day she tried oseph to do something But Joseph had learned So he would not be persee he was not afraid to stress, when she wanted y God. He did not say Well, I must do as my ne, else she will be angry unished." He was quite. her, not saucy; but he aly, "Oh no! how could ked thing, and sin against

so, little ones, when any you to do some naughty

stress tried many days to ; and when at last she no use she became quite

of Joseph's of which I spoke to you last Sunday. What would Joseph think of them now? Father and brothers far away, no chance seemingly of ever seeing them again, himself in a prison, not likely any one should ever bow down to him!

"Couldn't God get him out again?" -Yes, dear child, He could; and you may feel quite sure, before you hear about it, that He did; for whatever He says is sure to come to pass. I only want you to see what trouble Joseph got into, and how easily God could get him out of it; so that you may learn He can make all things right and well for you. Only you must never be impatient; Joseph might think, Now God will be sure to bring me out by the end of this year; but He did not. Long, long years He left him a slave, and long, long years He left him in prison; until He saw that the right time was come. But of this I must tell you next Sunday. And now let me see how much of Joseph's history you member so far.

ALEPH.

re

EARLY TIMES OF THE BIBLE.

XVI. JOSEPH IN PRISON.

"I will trust in Thee."-Ps. lv. 23. AT what part of Joseph's story, little ones, did we leave off last Sunday? What did I tell you about his master?

In the prison the Lord was still with Joseph, and made the keeper to become very fond of him-just as Potiphar had been. The keeper took off his chains, and set him to take care of all the other prisoners; and very kind Joseph was to them. He used to take notice how they all were in the morning, when he went in with their breakfasts; and one day he saw that two of them looked very sad; so he asked what was the matter. The men told him they had each had a very curious dream: the two dreams were a little alike; and they were very troubled because there was no one to tell them what they meant-"no interpreter" is the word. Joseph said, "God is the only One who can interpret; how

ever, tell me the dreams, and perhaps God will help me to explain to you what they mean."

They were strange dreams [give them if time permit], and both seemed to convey something by means of the number three.

One of the men was the butler of the king; and his dream had • three branches of grapes "in it; and when he squeezed the grapes into a cup, he gave the cup, as he had been used to do, into Pharaoh's hand. Joseph said that meant that in three days' time the dreamer should really do so; that the king would take him out of prison, and let him be butler again. This made the man feel very happy; and the other' prisoner, who was also a servant of the king, his baker, began to feel glad too: he thought, "Oh what a nice dream!! perhaps mine means good too."

But his was not quite the same. He too had dreamt of three things; he had three baskets with beautiful things in them for the king to eat but instead of his giving them to the king, he dreamed that birds ate them out of the baskets." "Ah," Joseph said, "that means something quite different, my poor friend; in three days' time the king will order you to be hanged."

Well, in three days' time it was Pha raoh's birthday, and he gave a grand treat to all his servants: at the same time he forgave the chief butler, and took him out of prison; but he would not forgive the baker, but ordered him to be hanged.

Now you must know when Joseph told the butler the meaning of his dream he thought to himself, "Perhaps this will be a good chance for me;" so he said to the butler, "Please think of me when you get out of prison and are well off; be kind, and speak of me to Pharaoh; tell him that I was stolen away from my own land many years ago, eleven; and tell him I have not done anything wrong, so that I should be shut up here in prison."

Would you not think that the butler would remember all this? You can hardly believe it; but actually he never did! he quite forgot the friend who had

dream for him. Just day perhaps poor Joseph ing, "To-day, no doubt, mention me; to-day, to-time will come! Very not do so yesterday or on but he will be sure to Eo-day, or if not, at any ."

s went on into weeks, months, and still Joseph A year, two years went had lost all hope that d ever think of him, or uld let him out. But God taken His eye off him.

me what Jesus Christ ?-(Luke xii. 6, 7.) God over the very sparhairs of our head are all ow much more does He who seek to become His ho love and serve Him! me of any one else who he Lord had forgotten beforehand thought that = forget him ?-(Jonah.) ed to fly from the Lord, that He might overlook ou know was impossible. He saw Jonah endeavourHim; and He also saw was down in the depths n the great fish's belly. Jonah's prayer when he at of his strange prison? the prayers of all His ress; and His all-seeing n them. God's eye was and in His own good him out of his trouble. e king dreamed two cuboth in one night, and alike. One was about or heifers, and seven thin r about seven very fine nd seven very bad ones. it very funny I am sure, eamed that the seven fat came up out of the river eating the grass in the up came the seven lean and ate them quite up. they had done so they nas before.

you of one which Nebuchadnezzar had, and which Daniel explained.

You have often heard of this king and of the golden image which he caused to be made; also of the three men who would not worship it, and whom he threw into the fiery furnace. Well, before this, Daniel had been made one of the king's wise men; and shortly afterwards Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which troubled him very much, and he could not sleep. He therefore consulted the magicians and the astrologers; but they could not explain it so the king became very angry, and ordered that all the wise men should be put to death, and some one went to fetch poor Daniel to be slain with the rest.

Daniel upon this spoke to the captain of the king's guard, and asked him why such a hasty decree was made; for he had heard nothing about the cause of it.

Then Arioch (that was the captain's name) said, "The king had a dream last night, which so frightened him that he could not get to sleep again; and yet this morning he quite forgot what it was about. So he called in his wise men, and asked them to tell him his dream, and what it meant, which of course they could not do. They said to him, 'There is not a man upon earth that can show the king's matter; therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that ever asked such a thing.' And for this reason the king was angry, and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon."

When he had heard this, Daniel went in and desired the king to give him time, and he would tell the dream. Nebuchadnezzar consented, and for the present the poor men's lives were spared; but if Daniel did not tell and explain the dream they were still all to be killed.

Now how could the prophet find out the dream? Listen: he "went to his house, and made the thing known to his companions, that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret."

You see they prayed to God in their sad trouble. This is the wisest and

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best thing for every one to prayed to Him who said, upon Me, and I will answer h with him in trouble: I will d Oh! how earnestly they plea that their lives depended on being answered.

At night they retired to r believing that the answer w And it did; God told secret. Then did the pro God most heartily. (Rea 20-23.) In the morning to Arioch and said, "Bring the king," and he did so v Nebuchadnezzar said, "Art make known unto me the d I have seen?" Hear h Daniel answers; just as Jose remember: "There is a Go that revealeth secrets. As secret is not told to me for that I have, but that the know the thoughts of thy he

You would like to hear wouldn't you? (Read ver. 3 it was not only the drea meaning of it, that Nebu wanted to know; so Daniel tell him that.

God had put this drear king's head, to teach him and so it really had a meanin times, before people had th Bible of ours, God often ta His will in this way; but n necessary, for He has writ holy book all that we nee order to please and serve Hi

Would you like to hear t of Nebuchadnezzar's dream? first tell me what was the 1 image made of?-(Gold, teac its arms and breast?-(Si other parts were of? ( and clay.)

Daniel said that the head bright and shining, was me king himself, because his ki both grand and powerful. chadnezzar would die one da would arise another kingdom be great and strong, but not s that of Nebuchadnezzar. Th fied by the silver arms becaus

valuable as gold. Then e other kingdoms, which - by the brass, iron, and

it that Nebuchadnezzar great image, so that it (A stone, teacher.) Say rme: "a stone cut out

That means, it was man but sent from God. his stone meant a kingall never be destroyed. and all the other earthly le and pass away like n our own good Queen later die, and leave her le to some one else; but he kingdom represented shall not be left to other se the King shall live er and ever.

me who this wonderful as Christ, teacher.) Yes, d of hosts," the "King

not think it was a great el, who was only a Jewish dmitted to Nebuchad?-(Yes, teacher.) Supetoria should ask any of er servants, wouldn't you ted?-(Oh yes, teacher.) you say to an invitation g of kings, and Lord of quite true that He wants little ones, every one of e His servants. He has do. Would you not like How many of you will id say, "Lord, I want to ervant, if Thou wilt but to do for Thee. Forgive ving Thee before; wash as in the precious blood for His sake help me to ow with all my heart"? you all will do so!

ke to hear what happened ad interpreted the king's of all, Nebuchadnezzar worshipped him as though