Joseph is one of the most interesting characters of the Bible, one of the most fortunate, and one of the most faultless.  He resisted the most powerful temptations, and there is no recorded act which sullies his memory.  Although most of his life was spent among idolaters, and he married a pagan woman, he retained his allegiance to the God of his fathers.  He ever felt that he was a stranger in a strange land, although its supreme governor, and looked to Canaan as the future and beloved home of his family and race.  He regarded his residence in Egypt only as a means of preserving the lives of his kindred, and himself as an instrument to benefit both his family and the country which he ruled.  His life was one of extraordinary usefulness.  He had great executive talents, which he exercised for the good of others.  Though stern and even hard in his official duties, he had unquenchable natural affections.  His heart went out to his old father, his brother Benjamin, and to all his kindred with inexpressible tenderness.  He was as free from guile as he was from false pride.  In giving instructions to his brothers how they should appear before the King, and what they should say when questioned as to their occupations, he advised the utmost frankness,—­to say that they were shepherds, although the occupation of a shepherd was an abomination to an Egyptian.  He had exceeding tact in confronting the prejudices of the King and the priesthood.  He took no pains to conceal his birth and lineage in the most aristocratic country of the world.  Considering that he was only second in power and dignity to an absolute monarch, his life was unostentatious and his habits simple.

If we seek a parallel to him among modern statesmen, he most resembles Colbert as the minister of Louis XIV.; or Prince Metternich, who in great simplicity ruled Continental Europe for a quarter of a century.

Nothing is said of his palaces, or pleasures, or wealth.  He had not the austere and unbending pride of Mordecai, whose career as an instrument of Providence for the welfare of his countrymen was as remarkable as Joseph’s.  He was more like Daniel in his private life than any of those Jews who have arisen to great power in foreign lands, though he had not Daniel’s exalted piety or prophetic gifts.  He was faithful to the interests of his sovereign, and greatly increased the royal authority.  He got possession of the whole property of the nation for the benefit of his master, but exacted only a fifth part of the produce of the land for the support of the government.  He was a priest of a grossly polytheistic religion, but acknowledged only the One Supreme God, whose instrument he felt himself to be.  His services to the state were transcendent, but his supremest mission was to preserve the Hebrew nation.