Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1896-04-22
STRIKING EXAMPLES
Of Many G-eat Men Who Had Low
Beginnings.
lou Can Not Keep o Good Man Down
However Oppressed He IL hound In
kiso-Sermon by Rev. +. Dewitt
Talmage, DID.


kiso-sermon by Rev. T. Dewitt
ralmage. DID.
DIR. Talmage chose for his text last
Sunday Genesis Nxxvii., 2s: ..They drew
and lifted Joseph out of the Dit and
sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 2O
pieces of silver" Genesis xiv. PC. n.
Is governor over all the land of Eyypt. -
You can not keep IA good man down.
God has decrecd for him a certain point
of elevation. He will bring him to that
though it cost him n thousand worlds.
You sometimes find men fearful they
will not be properly appreciated. Every
nah comes to be 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 a
PIT, but seeing a 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, "A man of influence aud Office.
How by Joseph's integrity he raised
himself to high position in the realm.
until under the false charge of a
vile wretch he was hurled into the
penitcntiary. 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 magnificent storehouse which ne
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 heft of the corn
sacks. How the sin against their
brother which had so long been hidden
came out 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
character. Potiphar was only a man
of the world, yet Joseph rose in his cs-
timation until all the affairs of that
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 a scoundrel, he soon CON
vinced the jailcr that he was an iuno-
cent and trustworthy man, and re-
leased from close confinement he be-
came general superintendent of prison
affairs. Wherever Joseph was placed.
whether 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 Law down.
that the world is compelled to honor
Christian character There are those
who affect to dcspise a religious life.
They speak Of it as system OF phlcbot-
omy by which the man is bled 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 a great deal of hy-
pocrisy outside the church. 1t is im-
possible for any man not to admire and
conhdc in a man who shows that he
has really become 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 a place a few hours after the
rutfians had gone into the rail train
and demanded that the passengers
N hni
rutfians took the pocketbool<s. and
Satan comes and suggests to "A man
that he throw up his arms in hvpocriti-
cal prayer and pretension, and then
steals his soul. For the mere prenten-
sion of religion we have adherence.
Redwald. the king, after baptism, had
an altar Cor Christian sacrifice and an
altar FOR sacrifice to the devils. and
there are many men now attempting
the same thing-nalf "A heart for God
and half a heart for the world-aud IL
is dead failure, and il is a caricaturc
OF religion, and the only successful as
sault ever made on Christianity is the
inconsistency of its professors You
may have contempt for prctension To
religion, but when YOU behold
the eXccllcncy of Jesus Christ come
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 il. Though
that man be as far beneath you i'm
estate as the Egyptian slave of whom
we are discoursing was beneath his
rulers, by an irrcvoeable Law of your
nature, Potiphar AMI Pharaoh will al
ways esteem Joseph When Eudoxia.
the empress, threatened Chrysostom
with death. he made the reply. Tell
the empress / fear nothing but sin"
Such a scene as that compcls the adj
miration Of the world There was
something in Agrippa and Felix which
demanded their respect for Paul. the
rebel against government. / doubt not
they would willingly have yielded their
office and dignity for thousandth
part Of that true herOism which beam
ed in The eye and beat i'm tive heart Of
that unconquerable apostle. Paul did
not cover before Felix: FeliN covered
before Paul The infdcl AMI world
ling arc compelled 20 honor iu their
hearts, although thcy may not
eulogizr with their lips. a Christian
firm in persecution, cheerful i'm poverty.
irustfuI iu losses triumphant in death.
find Christian men in all professions
and occupations, and 7 find them re.