The Eleventh of September.
SIN AGAINST GOD --- Genesis 39:9.
"How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? --- Genesis 39:9.
Joseph was a slave, and in a strange country; he was tempted by a wanton and revengeful mistress; had he complied, he would have been sure of secrecy and rewards; but if he resisted, he might expect her keenest resentment, if not the loss of his life. Yet all these could not influence him; he chooses to submit to every inconvenience and danger rather than be guilty of so foul a crime, and sin against God.
From thence we may learn that fear of God, is a most effectual preservative against all criminal indulgences; it was this that restrained Joseph, and will, where it is possessed, have the same effect on all mankind upon all occasions, and in every scene of life. It strikes every passion, every spring of human actions, and includes in it all the most powerful motives by which the conduct of mankind is determined.
If interest be the principal thing that sways us, that surely cannot be so certainly promoted as by securing the favour of God, and avoiding his displeasure. If we are governed by our fears, he is the most formidable Being in the universe to a mind that has perverted its faculties, and trangressed the laws of its nature: if by hope, he is the supreme good: if by love, he is the most amiable and perfect excellence: if by gratitude, he is the Author of all our happiness.
Give me, O Lord, such godly fear
As feels thy presence nigh;
And looks to thee when sin is near,
And makes the tempter fly.
Devotion for September 11