misconduct or death of children. There is no wisdom, no sound
philosophy, no religion, and no happiness until this truth is recognized
in all the changes and relations of life.

The history of Joseph in Egypt in all his varied fortunes is, as I have
said, a most memorable illustration of this cardinal and fundamental
truth. A favorite of fortune, he is sold as a slave for less than twenty
dollars of our money, and is brought to a foreign country,--a land
oppressed by kings and priests, yet in which is a high civilization, in
spite of social and political degradation. He is resold to a high
official of the Egyptian court, probably on account of his beauty and
intelligence. He rises in the service of this official,--captain of the
royal guard, or, as the critics tell us, superintendent of the police
and prisons,--for he has extraordinary abilities and great integrity,
character as well as natural genius, until he is unjustly accused of a
meditated crime by a wicked woman. It is evident that Potiphar, his
master, only half believes in Joseph's guilt, in spite of the
protestations of his artful and profligate wife, since instead of
summarily executing him, as Ahasuerus did Haman, he simply sends him to
a mild and temporary imprisonment in the prison adjacent to his palace.
Here Joseph wins the favor of his jailers and of his brother prisoners,
as Paul did nearly two thousand years later, and shows remarkable gifts,
even to the interpretation of dreams,--a wonderful faculty to
superstitious people like the Egyptians, and in which he exceeds even
their magicians and priests. The fame of his rare gifts, the most prized
in Egypt, reaches at last the ears of Pharaoh, who is troubled by a
singular dream which no one of his learned men can interpret. The Hebrew
slave interprets it, and is magnificently rewarded, becoming the prime
minister of an absolute monarch. The King gives him his signet ring,
emblem of power, and a collar or chain of gold, the emblem of the