The times., 1901-04-22
JOSEPH AND THE ARCHERs.
The Rev. John Van Schaick, Jr.
Gives n Lesson in Patience.

! At the Church of Our Father, Thirteenth
! and l. Streets northwest. the pastor John
| Van Schaick. jr., devoted his sermon yes
terday morning to Joseph and the Ach-
! ers.' selecting his text from Genesis,
xlix:23, "a He said in part:
we have sought a sermon for this
morning in the first book of the old testa-
ment. We have known there We're many
wrapped up in II, but we have to confess
with sorrow that we have not read Gene
! sis nor any part of the Bible as much as
we should. Desutory reading takes our
| time. History. essays. biography, and fic-
| ton, newspapers and magazines occupy
our reading hours. Only a small percen-
| tage of our time goes into a study of the
Bible. Not because it is not interesting
not because we know all its contents; not
because 1t is not instructive, and surely
not because 1t is not inspiring.
Now that l have confessed so much. 1
have another confession to make that
whether rational or Irrational. Ineligible
or unintelligible, reasonable or unreason-
able. this statement is true, l do not re-
gard the Bible In any sense as super
natural book, but never is our mind so
Glled with high ideals, and courage to pur-
sue them, never is our imagination so
stirred and quickened, never does life seem
so beautiful to us, never is our heart so
charged with a message for this people, as
when we have been reading carefully and
intelligently and reverently the Bible.
We come to talk little about what
Jacob in dying said to Joseph. Jacob was
happy in his illustration. He thought Of
all that Joseph had endured, and of the
attacks made upon him, and so insidious
| so secret, so unexpected did they seem to
h i'm hat ha To h
ing so much as the sudden silent whizzing
of the arrow shot from cover unseen until
ii lodges in its victim.
What did he meet first but the arrows
of envy. shot by his brethren. They en-
We'd his good looks; they envied his fine
mind. He was pure, good boy morally
| and his fathers heart yearned after him.
They conspired for his death, flung him
into a pit, wanted to murder him, then
drew him out, murder and avariCe com
ing TO the fore, and sold him into slavery.
Envy is terrible thing, and once give it
lodgment in the heart, we don't know
what arrows it will make us shoot
Joseph also stood the arrows of temp
tation. He was raised from slavery to
authority with a rapidity which makes
weak heads swim. He lived in a day when
the moral law was not respected as it is
now. And here in Egypt, in the full rush
| OF his youth came an insidiouS tenDta-
tion to him. And Joseph fed Cali il
cowardice if you please, he had sense
enough to know the strength of his bat
teries, and his bow abode in strength
| There is law of retreat as well of ad-
vance II is the highest courage for us to
fly from some situations. II is the height
of recklessness for us- 10 stand exposed to
| temptation for the mere purpose of test
ing our strength.
And truly the arrows Of slander false
hood and deceit were discharged against
Joseph. How the old Jewish law thuu-
dered against this: Thou shalt not bear
false witness against thy neighbor. But
Joseph, shut up in prison. good name
gone, reputation blasted, friends alienat-
ed, because of the lying, angry tongue.
But his bow abode in strength. He was
shooting back all the time. While the
little arrows went~~WhiZzing from this
side and that, he held his peace, saving
his bow and arrows for the real conflict
against evil ahead ."