Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1896-04-16
STRIKING EXAMPLES
OF Many Great Men Who Had Low
Beginnings.
Nou Can Not Keep Good Man Down
However Oppressed Tie Is bound To
Rise sermon by Rev. +. Dewitt
TaImage, DID.

.
Taimage, DID.
DIR. Talmagc chose for his text last
Sunday Gcncsis xxXvii., 2S: They drew
and lifted Joseph out of the pit and
sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20
pieces of silver" Genesis xiv. 20: lie
is governor over all the land of Egypt"
You can not keep good man down.
God has decrecd for him a certain point
Of elevation. lie will bring him to that
though il cost him "a thousand worlds.
lou sometimes find men fearful they
will not Ice properly appreciated. Every
nah comes to lie valued at just what he
is worth. You can not write him up,
and you can not write him down.
The facts are powerfully illustrated
in my subject. 1t would be an in
suit To suppose that you were not all
familiar with the life of Joseph. How
his Jealous brothers threw him into n
pit. but seeing caravan of Arabian
merchants trudging along ON their
camels, with spices and gums that load
ed the air with aroma, sold their broth
er to these merchants, who carried him
down into Egypt; Joseph there sold to
Potiphar, man of influence aud office.
How 10y Joseph's integrity he raised
himself tn hi I'll position in the realm,
until under the false charge of a
vile wretch he was hurled into the
penitentiary. How in prison he com
manded respect and confidence. How
by the Interpretation of Phara-
obs dream he was freed and be-
came the chief man in the realm, the
bismarck of his century. How in the
time of famine Joseph had the control
of a magnificent storehouse which he
had filled during seven years of plenty.
How when his brothers, who had
thrown him into the pit and sold him
into captivity, applied for corn, he sent
them home with the beasts of burden
borne down under the hcft of the corn
sacks. How the sin against their
brother which had so long been hidden
came ont at last and was returned by
that brothers forgiveness and kindness
the only revenge he took.
You see. in the first place, that the
world is compelled To honor Christian
of the world, yet Joseph rose in his es-
timation until all the affairs of that
great house were committed to his
charge. From his servant no honor or
confidence was withheld. When Joseph
was i'm prison he soon won the heart of
the keeper. and though placed there
for being scoundrel, he soon con-
WINGED the jailer that he was an limo
cent and trustworthy man, and re-
leased from close confinement he be-
came general superintendent of prison
affairs. Wherever Joseph was placed,
whether a servant in the house of Poti-
phar, or prisoner in the peni-
Tertiary, he became the first man
everywhere, and is an illustra-
ton of the truth lay down,
that the world is compelled to honor
Christian character. There are those
who affect to despisc religious life.
They speak OF it as system OF phlebot-
omy by which the man is blcd of all his
courage and nobility. They say he has
bemeancd himself. They pretend to
have no more confidence in him since
his conversion than before his CONVEX
sion. But all this is hypocrisy. There
is great deal of hypocrisy in the
church and there is n great deal of by
pocrisy outside the -nrch. 1t is i'm
possible for any man not to admire and
confide in a man who shows that he
has really become a child of God, and
is what he Processes to be. You can
not despise a son of the Lord God Al
mighty. of course we have no admira
tion for the sham of religion.
was at place few hours after the
ruffians had gone into the rail train
and demanded that the passengers
throw up their arms, and then these
ruffians took the pockctbooks, and
Satan comes and suggests to a man
that he throw up his arms in hypocriti
cal prayer and preteusion, and ther
steals his soul. For the mere prenten
sion of religion we have adherence
Redwald, the king, after baptism, had
an altar for Christian sacrifice and al
altar for sacrifice to the devils, anC
there are many men now attempting
the same thing-nalf a heart for Goo
and half n heart for the world-and il
is a dead failure, and it is a caricatur,
of religion. and the only successful as
sault ever made on Christianity is tn,
inconsistency of its professors You
may have a contempt for pretension t.
religion, but when you behold
the excellency of Jesus Christ com,
out in the life of one of his disciples
all that there is good and no
BILE in your soul rises up into admira
ton. and you can not help it. Though
| that man be as far beneath You il
estate as the Egyptian slave of whom
we are discoursing was beneath hi
rulers, by an irrevocable law of you
nature. Potiphar and Pharaoh will al
ways esteem Joseph. When Eudoxia
the empress, threatened Chrysoston
with death, he made the reply, Tel
| the empress / fear nothing but sin.
Such a scene as that compels the ad
miration of the world. There wa
something in Agrippa and Felix which
| demanded their respect for Paul, thu
rebel against government. l doubt no
they would willingly have yielded thei
office and dignity for thousandtl
part of that true heroism which beam
ed in the eye and beat in the heart o
that unconquerable apostle. Paul die
not COVER before Felix; Felix covered
before Paul. The infidel and world
ling are compelled to honor in thei
hearts, although they may not
eulogize with their lips, a Christian
firm in persecution, cheerful in poverty
trustful in losses, triumphant in death
i find Christian men in all profession
and occupations, and l find them re
spected and honored and succussful
John Frederick Oberlin alternating ig
norance and distress; Howard passin,
from dungeon to lazeretto with healin,
for the body and soul; Elizabeth FIR,
going to the profigacy of Newgat
prison to shake its obduracy as tn
angel came to the prison at Philippi
driving open the doors and swapping
loose the chain, as well as the lives o
thousands of followers of Jesus VIII
have devoted themselves to the TEN
poral and spiritual welfare of the race
are monuments of the Christian reli
gion that shall not crumble while tn
world lasts. A man said to me in tn
cars: what is religion? Judging frou
the character many professors of re
legion i do not admire religion" said
"Now, suppose we went to an artist Il