Subject: PHARAOH'S BUTLER; OR, THE POWER OF MEMORY, ASSOCIATION, AND CONSCIENCE.

"Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day."-Gen. xli. 9.

Analysis of Homily the Eight Hundred and Ninety-first.

THE story of Joseph is familiar to all. Never loses its interest. Touched our youthful feelings, and retains its hold on the heart to our latest years. Who has not wept with Jacob over

the blood-stained coat of his beloved son? Who has not been stirred to indignation by the falsehood and cruelty of Joseph's brethren? Who has not followed, with deepest sympathy, the various fortunes of the young Hebrew, from the time he was carried away captive, till he was raised, in the providence of God, to be ruler, next to Pharaoh, over all the land of Egypt. The text refers to one of the incidents in this wondrous story. Here mark

I. THE POWER OF MEMORY. "I remember." Memory, a faculty of mind, wonderful, varies in its strength and exercise, accompanied by pains as well as pleasures. All that we have said, or felt, or done, all that we have seen or experienced; all the varied events of our earthly life, have been recorded by memory, so that nothing is lost; and what has been thus recorded, may at any moment be recalled, to be a source of pleasure or of pain. Hence Young only expresses the sober truth whon he says

"What wealth in memory's firm record,

Which, should it perish, could this world recall

In colours fresh, originally bright

From the dark shadows of overwhelming years."

And on the same principle Wordsworth speaks of solitude as in a sense impossible, "You dwell alone, you walk, you live, you speculate alone, yet doth remembrance, like a sovereign prince, for you a stately gallery maintain of gay or tragic pictures."

"I remember." The effect depends on the state of the soul, and on the character of the things remembered, whether good or evil, painful or pleasant. (Cf. Job xxi. 6; Psa. lxiii. 6 ; lxxvii. 3; cxxxvii. 1; Ez. xvi. 61; xx. 43; Eph. ii. 11; Luke xvi. 25;

Rev. xiv. 13.) Beware.

Do some evil deed, commit some

wrong against your neighbour or your God; and try as you will, you cannot quite forget. Memory may slumber for a while, but some day it will awake, and then the austern remembrance of that deed will hang upon thy spirit like a cloud, and tinge its world of happy images with hues of horror."

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II. THE POWER OF ASSOCIATION. "This day." Why then? For two years all had seemingly been forgotten. Now chord of association touched. Pharaoh's dreams. 'My own case. I too had a strange dream once," and then in a moment, all the past rose up vividly before him like a yesterday event. We all possess this wondrous sensibility. A book brings to mind the giver; a letter will call up various trains of thought suggested by its contents, and the circumstances in which it was received. A portrait will recall the memory of the distant or the dead, and may lead us to say like Cowper, as to the picture of his mother, "Faithful remembrancer of one so dear,

O welcome guest."

Associations are different with different persons.

"This day"

had no special meaning for Pharaoh, but for the butler, it was
charged with deep significance. Two persons visit the same
place. To one all is new, and there is nothing to link the present
with the past; but to the other, every object is full of interest,
and as he looks and ponders, he feels "the spiritual presences of
absent things;" pictures of the past, of friends and kindred
comrades dear, of incidents and scenes in which he played a
part, rise
up before him, and thrill his soul with various emo-
tions-

"With easy force are open'd all the cells
Where memory slept,

Such comprehensive view the spirit takes,
That in a few short moments we retrace,

As in a map the voyager his course,

The windings of our way for many years."

(Cf. Naomi and Ruth.) The elder Jews and the younger on the return from captivity. This power is often appealed to in the Scriptures. Type, symbol, parable, sacrificial rites, memorial stones and festivals, all recognise, and receive much of their

value from, association (Cf. Heb. x. 3; 2 Sam. xii. 1-7; Gen. xxxi. 48; Ex. xxviii. 12; Josh. iv. 7; xxiv. 26-27; Ex. xii. 14; 1 Cor. xi. 24-26.)

In the special case before us behold the hand of God. God might have moved the butler to remember his fellow-prisoner earlier, but this would not have consisted with his plan of procedure. Now, however, the set time to favour Israel is come. All things are ready. The great designs of Providence are ripe for execution. Hence the butler is roused to action. It needs but a touch on the chords of association, and the long-forgotten promise is recalled. "I do remember my faults this day." Joseph's release immediately follows. This is but a sample of the sovereign and awful power which God wields over human hearts. (Cf. Psa. cxi., cxii., cxiii.)

III. THE POWER OF CONSCIENCE. "My faults." Conscience. Young calls it "a master self”—Pope, "The God within the mind"-Wordsworth, "God's most intimate presence in the soul, and his most perfect image in the world." Byron speaks of conscience thus,

"Yet still there whispers the small voice within,

Heard through years' silence and o'er glory's din,
Whatever creed be taught, or land be trod,

Man's conscience is the oracle of God."

So this poor idolator felt. His conscience is roused, and forces him to speak, "I do remember my faults this day." Mark the power of conscience,

First In exciting a sense of personal blameworthiness. "My faults." (1.) Infidelity. He had promised to remember Joseph and he had not kept his promise. (Ch. xl. 23; Prov. iii. 27), "Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. (2.) Ingratitude. Joseph had acted kindly towards him, and had contributed as far as he could to his comfort and advancement. But he made no return. For two years the sun of prosperity had been shining upon him, but all this time he had basely neglected his friend, and left him to pine in prison, forsaken and forgotten. Doubtless at first he had meant to act otherwise. Hence he was ready with his promises, but like many other false friends, he remembered not

in prosperity the pledges which he had given in adversity. (Cf. Psa. xxxi. 12; Job xix. 14; Psa. lxxviii. 36, cvi. 7, 13.) Secondly: In exciting a feeling of painful remorse. Two ways of looking at this man. May judge him severely or leniently. May see in his conduct no grace of true pity, no fervour of true repentance, but simply selfishness, or many regard him as seriously sorry for his faults, and ready to make such atonement as he could. In any case, we must remember how shallow and defective his repentance is, as compared with the repentance of believers in the living true God. (Cf. Psa. xxxii. 3—5; xl. 12, 13; li. 1—19; Luke xxii. 60–62; Acts ii. 37; 2 Cor. vii. 9-11.) (1.) Shame. How differently might he have acted. His remembrance of his friend, tardy, wanting in spontaneity, springing from accidental causes, as much for his own advantage now as for that of Joseph. Wretch that I am. (2.) Regret. Joseph two years in prison. "Hope deferred." The iron entering deeper and deeper into his soul. And all because of his shameful forgetfuluess. Conjured up the image of his friend, and was troubled. Conscience of guilt is prophecy of pain. (Cf. 1 Kings xvii. 18.) (3.) Atonement. Frankly confesses his fault. Does the best he can, now, in the case. Reparation is an accompaniment of all true penitence. (Cf. Luke xix. 8.)

Let us make some application of the whole matter. Consider, O man, whosoever thou art, that thou art standing, not before an earthly monarch, but before the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The chief butler confessed his faults to Pharaoh, but confess thou to Jehovah. Say with humble, penitent heart, "I do remember my faults this day." "God be merciful to me the sinner."

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"My faults" against my neighbour and my God, how great! "Who can understand his errors ! My faults"-they are mine, and not another's. Never in this world, or in that which is to come, can I shake myself free from the responsibility. "My faults." Sooner or later they will be all brought to remembrance. Memory, association, conscience, will secure this, apart from any special interposition of God. Either in the compunctions of conscience, or the sorrowings of true penitence, or the tortures of eternal retribution-they must come up for

out." review and judgment. "Be sure your sins will find you "My sin is ever before me." (Psalm li. 3.) "My faults." "O let me remember and confess them to God this day. This is right; this is wise. Delay is criminal and dangerous. God beseeches me now to repent, to be reconciled to Him through the cross of his Son; to come boldly to the throne of grace, just as I am with all my sins and follies, and that forgiveness shall be mine. "Happy is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." Hear what quaint old Quarles says,

"The swelling of an outward fortune can
Create a prosperous, not a happy man;
A peaceful conscience is the true content,
And wealth is but the golden ornament."

WILLIAM FORSYTH, M.A.

The Pith of Renowned Sermons.

The sermons of some of the greatest preachers of England are lost to modern men through their verbosities; it is the intention, under this section, to give from time to time their pith and spirit.

No. VIII.-PRESIDENT DAVIES.

Subject: COMPASSION OF CHRIST TO WEAK BELIEVERS.

"A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench."-Matt. xii. 20.

THE

THE general meaning of my text seems to be contained in this observation, "That the Lord Jesus has the tenderest and most compassionate regard for the feeblest penitent, however oppressed and desponding; and that He will approve and cherish the least spark of true love toward Himself.”

A bruised reed seems naturally to represent a soul at once feeble in itself, and crushed with a burden; a soul both weak and oppressed. Perhaps the imagery, when drawn at length, may be this: "The Lord Jesus as an Almighty Conqueror, marches