consoling thing in the universe. We cannot interpret history without the
recognition of this fundamental truth. We cannot be unmoved amid the
prevalence of evil without this feeling, that God is more powerful than
all the combined forces of his enemies both on earth and in hell; and
that no matter what the evil is, it will surely be made to praise Him
who sitteth in the heavens. This is a sublime revelation of the
omnipotence and benevolence of a personal God, of his constant oversight
of the world which he has made.

The protection and elevation of Joseph, seemingly a natural event in
view of his genius and character, is in some respects a type of that
great sacrifice by which a sinful world has been redeemed. Little did
the Jews suspect when they crucified Jesus that he would arise from his
tomb and overturn the idolatries of nations, and found a religion which
should go on from conquering to conquer. Little did the gifted Burke see
in the atrocities of the French Revolution the overturning of a system
of injustices which for centuries had cried to Heaven for vengeance.
Still less did the proud and conservative citizens of New England
recognize in the cruelties of Southern slaveholders a crime which would
provoke one of the bloodiest wars of modern times, and lead to the
constitutional and political equality of the whites and blacks. Evil
appeared to triumph, but ended in the humiliation of millions and the
enfranchisement of humanity, when the cause of the right seemed utterly
hopeless. So let every one write upon all walls and houses and chambers,
upon his conscience and his intellect, "The Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth, and will bring good out of the severest tribulation!" And this
great truth applies not to nations alone, but to the humblest
individual, as he bows down in grief or wrath or penitence to
unlooked-for chastisement,--like Job upon his heap of ashes, or the
broken-hearted mother when afflicted with disease or poverty, or the