The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1896-04-17

SiHu way How He Rose From Obscur
ity to High Elevation the Re
suit of Persecution.
WASHINGTON, April 12-The sermon
OF Rev. DR.. Talmage today is full OF
stirring and practical lessons for all.
washington has many men who like
the hero of the texts, started from al.
most nothing and rose to high place.
The texts chosen were: Genesis xxxvii,
70, They drew and lifted up Joseph
out OF the pit and sold Joseph to the
lshmaelites for 90 - eces of silver. -
Genesis xiv, 26, "HGS is governor over
all the land of Egypt
You cannot keep good man down.
God has decreed for him certain point
OF elevation. He will bring him to that
though it cost him thousand worlds
You sometimes find men fearful they
will not be properly appreciated. 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.
1t would 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 cara
van of Arabian merchants trudging
along on their camels, with spices and
gums that loaded the air with aroma,
sold their brother to these merchants,
who carried him down into Egypt;
Joseph there sold to Potiphar, man OF
influence and office; how by Joseph's
integrity he raised himself to high posi-
ton in the realm until, under the false
charge of vile wretch, he was hurled
into the penitentiary; how in prison he
commanded 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 the control of magnificent
storehouse, which he had filed 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 tn
beasts of burden borne down under the
heft of the corn sacks how the sin
against their brother which had SO long
returned by that brothers. forgiveness
and kindness, the only revenge he took.
Christian Character.
You see, in the first place, that the
world is compelled to honor Christian
character. Potiphar was only man OF
the world, yet Joseph rose in his esti
nation 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 in prison, he soon won the heart of
the keeper, and though placed there for
being scoundrel, he soon convinced
the jailer that he was an innocent and
trustworthy man, and released from
close confinement he became general su.
perintendent of prison affairs Wherever
Joseph was placed, whether a servant
in the house of Potiphar, or prisoner
in the penitentiary, he became the first
man everywhere, and is an illustration
of the truth l lay down, that the world
is compelled to honor Christian charac-
ter. There are those who affect to de-
spise a religious life. They speak of it
as system of phlebotomy by which the
man is bled of all his courage and no.
bility. They say he has bemeaned him
self. They pretend to have no more
confidence in him since his conversion
than before his conversion. But all this
is hypocrisy There is a great deal of
hypocrisy in the church, and there is
great deal of hypocrisy outside the
church. 1t is impossible for any man
not to admire and confde in a man
who shows that he has really become
child of God and is what he processes
to be. You cannot despise a son of the
Lord God Almighty. OF course we have
no admiration for the sham of religion.
was at a place few hours after the |
ruffians had gone into the rail train and |
demanded that ne passengers throw up
their arms, and then these ruffians took |
the pocketbooks, and satan comes and |
suggest to a man that he throw up his |
arms in hypocritical prayer and preten- !
sion, and then steals his soul. For the |
mere pretension of religion we have alb
horrence. Redwald, the king, after bap- |
tism, had an altar of Christian sacrifice |
and an altar for sacrifice to devils, and |
there are many men now attempting
the same thing-half a heart for God
and half a heart for the world-and it
is dead failure, and it is caricature
of religion, and the only successful as
sault ever made on Christianity is the in
of its professors. You may
have contempt for pretension to re-
ligion, but when you behold the excel
lency Of Jesus Christ come out in the
life of one of his disciples, all that there
is good and noble in your soul rises up
into admiration, and you cannot help
it. Though that man be as far beneath
you in estate as the Egyptian slave of
whom we are discoursing was beneath
his rulers, by an irrevocable law of
your nature, Potiphar and Pharaoh will
always esteem Joseph.
When Eudoxia, the empress, threaten
ed Chrysostom with death, he made the
reply, Tell the empress fear nothing
but sin. Such a scene as that compels
the admiration of the world. There was
in Agrippa and Felix which
their respect for Paul, the
rebel against government doubt not
.hey would willingly have Welded their ]