The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-04-17
THEIR TRUE WORTH.
ALI Men Come to Be Valued fol
Just That Amount.
Rev. I. Dewitt TaImage Tells How Man
May BE Lifted Up Out of the Pit and
Secure q Place Next to the
Throne on High.

In a recent sermon at Washington
Rev. 7. De Witt Talmage preached on
christian Character" The texts
chosen were from Gen. 37:2s: They
drew and lifted up Joseph out of the
pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites
for 20 pieces of silver" Gen. 1925:
HE is governor over all the land of
Egypt" DIR. Talmage said:
You cannot keep a good man down.
God has decreed for him a certain
point of elevation. He will bring him
to that though it cost Him a thousand
worlds. You sometimes find men fear
full they will not be properly appreci-
ated. Every man comes to be valued
at just what he is worth. You cannot
write him up, and you cannot write
him down. These facts are powerfully
illustrated in my subject Itwould be
an insult to suppose that you were
not all familiar with the life of Joseph.
How his jealous brothers threw him
into pit, but seeing a caravan of
Arabian merchants trudging along on
their camels, with spices and gums
shSh AOoASA ShC W4A oEOhos OOAo
their brother to these merchants, who
carried him down into Egypt; Joseph
was there sold to Potiphar, a man of
influence and Office. How by
Joseph's integrity he raised him
self to a high position in the
realm, until under the false charge of
vile wretch he was hurled into the
penitentiary. How in prison he COM
manded respect and confidence. How
by the Interpretation of Pharaoh's
dream he was freed and became the
chief man in the realm, the Bismarck
of his century. How in the time of
famine Joseph had control of a mag
nifcent storehouse, which he had filed
during the 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 heft of the corn
sacks How the sin against their
brother, which had so long been
hidden, came out at last, and was re-
turned 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
character. Potiphar was only a man
of the world, yet Joseph rose in his
estimation until all the affairs of that
great house were committed to his
charge. From his servant no honor or
was withheld. When Jo-
seph was in prison he soon won the
heart of the keeper, and though placed
there for being a scoundrel, he soon
convinced the jailer that he was an in
nocent 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 a prisoner in the peniten-
tiary, he became the first man
everywhere, and is an illustration
of the truth l lay down, that the
world is compelled to honor Christian
character. There are those who
affect to despise a religious life. They
speak of it as system of pile botomy
by which the man is bled of all his
courage and nobility. They say he
has bemeaned 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 a great deal of
outside of the church. 1t is
for any man not to admire
and confide in a man who shows that
ne has really become a child of God,
and is what he processes to be. You
despise a son of the Lord God
Almighty. OF course we have no ad-
for the sham of religion.
/ was at a place a few hours after
The ruffians had gone into the rail-
rain and demanded that the passen-
yers throw up their arms, and then
,hese ruffians took the pocketbooks;
Ind Satan comes and suggests to a
nan that he throw up his arms in a
prayer and pretension,
ind then he steals his soul. For the
mere pretension of religion we have
Ibhorence. Redwald, the king, after
baptism, had an altar of Christian
and an altar for sacrifice to
lewis; and there are many men now
the same thing-half a
leart for God and half heart for the
it is dead failure, and it
s a caricature of religion, and the only
uccessful assault ever made on Chris
ianity is the inconsistency of its pro-
essors. You may have a contempt for
retention to religion, but when you
,ehold the excellency of Jesus Christ
ONE out in the life of one of His dis
iples, all there is good and noble in
our soul rises up into admiration, and
'ou cannot help it Though that man
,e as far beneath you in estate as the |
egyptian slave of whom we are dis
oursing was beneath his rulers, by an
rrevoca BILE law of your nature Poti-
,har and Pharaoh win always esteem |
oseph. When Eudoxia, the empress, |
threatened Chrysostom with death |
e made the reply: Tell the en-
ress fear nothing but sim" Such a
Gene as that compels the admiration
( the world. There was something |
q Agrippa and Felix which demand
d their respect for Paul, the rebel
oairS. Oovorumant dOuht not L