bereaved of his comfort afterwards by the fuppofed lofs of his beloved Jofeph; terrified with the apprehenfion of lofing Benjamin, diftreffed by a famine, and called away at an hundred and thirty years to a ftrange country when he was rather wifhing to be released from the burden of life; he whofe days had been thus evil, now draws near to the end of his journey; he is before Pharaoh; but he is going to Abraham and Ifaac, to inherit the promises made to them and to their feed. We fhall by and by witness his departure, and fee with what faith a Patriarch could die.

As Jacob bleffed Pharaoh when he came in, fo in like manner he bleffed him when he went out; Nor would the king of Egypt defpife the repeated bleffing of this aged fervant of God;

it was the prayer of Faith, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man which

availeth much. You fee how Pharaoh was rewarded for exalting Jofeph, and entertaining the family of Jacob; it drew down błeffings upon his head; the bleffing of him that was ready to perish came upon him—and Egypt is preferved during a long feafon of famine, because it afforded a fecure affylum to the posterity of Abraham.

JACOB is ftill the type of human na ture; but infirm as our nature may be, it has God for its fupport; poor and vile and mean as it is, it has been ho-noured by the incarnation of the fon of God, who, to accomplish our falvation, became the fon of man, the myf tic fon of Jacob, the true faviour of his brethren. Let us learn to think respectfully of that nature of which he

partook, which he hath glorified, and exalted to the right hand of God: Let us confider the dignity of human nature; it is not what it feem: Man is not to be compared with the beafts that perifh; like them he feemeth to die, but his hope is full of immortality; his body may wax old as doth a garment, but the more precious part of kis fubftance can never perish nor decay. On this account do we regard an old man with reverence, because we look upon him as an immortal fpirit going to God. The multitude of years fhould teach wifdom. and with the hoa

ry head of age we expect to find a prudence and difcretion, which weighs in the balance time and eternity; an experience, which forms a juft judgment of the things of this present world; a pious refignation, which fubmits itself in humble confidence to the will of

God; and an holy faith, which relies on the divine promife for its recompence in the world to come. Such was the appearance of Jacob when he ftood before Pharaoh. There is fomething in the prefence of a venerable old man that fills us with awe. It reminds us of God, whom the fcriptures reprefent as the Ancient of days. From beholding Jacob the fervant of the living God, we naturally transfer our thoughts to the God whom Jacob ferved. Reflecting on the frailty and mortality of human life, as exemplified in the decaying frame of extreme old age, we confole ourselves with the eternity and immutability of God. The human form, magnificent even in its ruins, betrays the ftupendous workmanship of a divine architect; thofe fhrivelled limbs fhall bloom afrefh, and the face of human nature

fo deformed by the wintry blasts of this mortal life, fhall renew its luftre, never more to fade. There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will fprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not ceafe: Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the flock thereof die in the ground, yet through the fcent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. This corruptible fhall put on incorruption, and this inortal fhall put on immortality.

WE may each of us afk ourselves the question of Pharaoh to Jacob; I do not mean as to the age of our natural life, but by way of enquiry and felf-examination as to our growth and advancement in the divine life. In this fenfe How old art thou? is a queftion that should make us turn our thoughts inwardly upon ourselves. upon

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