The Tupelo journal., 1905-12-15

IIT1 eager and glad to to
Ills death as he had during his
life. He had proclaimed a period Of
mourning in keeping with n of. the
royal blood, and preparations were be-
ing made in accordance with the de-
sire of the king for a splendid state
funeral.
But at this point a very strange and
startling discovery was made. Joseph
during his life had not provided him
self with a tomb an unheard of thing
among the Egyptians, for the least
person in the kingdom took thought
for this above everything else, and had
some cavern or nook prepared before
death for the body whose final care
and last resting place were so precious
in the thought of the Egyptians. But
as far as the most diligent search re-
vealed, Joseph had not provided him
self a tomb.
His wife, Asenath, the daughter of
Potipherah, the priest of On, was
stunned by the blow, and sat for days
like one in a trance. Her sons, Manas-
sch and Ephraim, tried to comfort her,
but she seemed deaf to their entreaties.
The one horror before her mind was
that Joseph had no tomb where he
comforted. And when at last her sons
ventured to suggest that it was the
wish of their father that he should
rest in the midst of his own people,
the Hebrews, in the land of Goshen,
she turned upon them and drove them
from her presence, declaring that they
were conspiring with the Hebrews to
bring dishonor upon her and the fam
lily name.
The king summoned the priests and
his counselors together to consider the
matter. and urged upon them that in
asmuch as royal honors had been
shown Joseph in life, so in death he
might have a place in the royal sepul-
chers. Potipherah, the venerable priest
of On, who was among those pres
ent, and who for the sake of his
daughter would have welcomed a
otltlGIuGul VI IuC ulllCulIy III IAlo way,
urged the acceptance of the kings pro-
posal on the one condition that Jo-
seph's sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
should %renounce forever all connection
with the Hebrew people, and turn alb
solutely from the faith of the Hebrews
to the worship Of the Egyptian gods.
For" continued Potipherah, their
~disloyalty to the Egyptian gods is a
reproach upon our nation and upon our
gods"
1t had long been a matter of in
creasing concern to him, this growing
intimacy and association of the
sons of Joseph with the Hebrews.
He had never been reconciled to
their refusal to enter the priest
hood, and much less was he will
ing now to see the sons of his own
daughter turning from the cherished
faith of the Egyptians to that of a for
eign and despised race of %shepards.
He had often spoken to Asenath upon
the subject and knew that it was as
ore a disappointment to her as it
was to him. And now the opportunity
had come, it seemed to him, when he
could force them to yield, for they
were devoted to their father and would
be anxious, he felt sure, that he have
honorable burial. He summoned Eph-
rain and Manasseh, and pompously de-
clared the conditions upon which their
father would be given honorable burial.
Now that thy father is dead, his
people need be nothing more to thee"
he declared. ITO Egypt and her gods
thou must look for place and blessing.
Renounce the God of the Hebrews and
thy father shall be placed in the tombs
of the Pharaoh's, but if thou, in thy
folly and ignorance, dost refuse, then
shall his bones find no resting place
in Egypt"
But our father straightly charged
u.s." answered Ephraim, that we
should carry up his bones hence to
the land which the God of the Hebrews
has promised to give them"
WHAT" exclaimed the old priest,
excitedly 'Thy father desired not
burial in the tombs of Egypt? I'm
possible! The gods will never give
his spirit rest while his body remains
without the sacred sepulchers prepared
for the dead!"
BE that as it may" quietly respond
ed Ephraim; 1--WE have taken oath and
must needs be faithful thereto. The
God of our father Joseph is our God,
and His promises are to US and to our
children"
The face of the aged priest darkened,
and in the eyes there burned al omin-
Gus light. His frame shook with the
intensity of his inward emotions, but
at last he mastered himself and with
high-pitched, trembling voice he said:
Ere the light of the sun god Osiris
rise upon Egypt tomorrow thou shalt
repent of this thy folly and ~wickedness,
or the bones of thy father shall be cast
out as veritable carrion. Consider the
words Of Potipherah! Come to me in
the temple when thy answer is ready"
And having thus spoken, he readjusted
his flowing robes and departed.
The stiffness of death prevailed In
the room where the brothers were
standing, each lost in thought and face
to face with the crisis Of his life.
Tf thew xiold not what at their IA