“Stern daughter of the voice of God!
O Duty! if that name thou love, [[49]]
Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove;
Thou who art victory and law,
When empty terrors overawe;
From vain temptations dost set free,
And calm’st the weary strife of frail humanity.”
“Be sure your sins will find you out,” is the fixed decree of God; and in the case of Joseph’s brethren the day of retribution now begins to dawn. If hitherto conscience had been at ease, or oblivious of their brother, it is now to be roused, and to speak out for the Holy One who is the Lord of conscience—the just Judge of the skies. The great white throne and its work are now to be anticipated.
From the narrative in Genesis we know that a famine had arisen in Egypt, as Joseph had predicted. Its influence spread from that land into the adjacent countries, and the sons of Jacob went thither to profit by the stores which the [[50]]wisdom of that brother whom they had hated and sold had amassed. “All countries came into Egypt to Joseph, for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands:” and among the rest, the future patriarchs came, and “bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.”