The secret of Joseph’s life Inspiration has set before us. In words of divine power and beauty, Jacob, in the blessing pronounced upon his children, spoke thus of his best-loved son:—

“Joseph is a fruitful bough,

Even a fruitful bough by a well;

Whose branches run over the wall;

The archers have sorely grieved him,

And shot at him, and hated him;

But his bow abode in strength,

And the arms of his hands were made strong

By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; ...

Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee;