The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-04-25
Joseph Faithful In Prison.

TIC ldSCludllOu III lulS lOul-
acknowledgements story is, that
it is study in Life. 1t is not a
middle age piece of scholasticism,
but warm blooded history of
human nature; not dissertation on
metaphysical generaiities, but a
tale of human emotions, as they
are felt to-day, and every day, and
everywhere. 1t is the "proper
study of mankind" It concerns
Man, and is consequently univer-
sally interesting. The
effort to retell the story is futile.
To reclothe it is to do violence
to it. Its own dress is its only
dress. Its simplicity, genuineness,
fidelity, make it masterpiece of
literature. AS in a mic
rocosm, one sees here the evolution
of a man and a statesman. The
circumstance which seem to retard
really accelerate the process. ..
Joseph had learned how to take
honey out of the cate" of
the finest and most useful arts of
life. AS a slave, he made himself
indispensable to his master. Two
thousand years before St. Paul, he
lived the apostles maxim. He
served not as ''man-pleaser, but
as unto the Lord" A quaint YER
sion describes him as 'luckie fell
owe" But even his heather mas
ter could discern the Divine accom-
paniment to his human thrift and
industry, and acknowledged that
the Lord made all he did to prosper
in his hand" Yet all
the while there was the poignant
sense of humiliation. The heir Of
a prince must needs wear the band
of slave. His hard lot, however,
could not make a pessi1ist or
misanthrope of him. His engag-
ing qualities were uneclipsed.
Unconsciously, he was schooling
for the premiership. Faithful in
few things, he was TO be lord of
many. His very attachment to
Potiphar, chief captain of the royal
guard, and keeper of the royal priS-
on, made him conversant with
affairs and men and methods of
state, invaluable to him in his after
career. The next Incl
dent seemed to plunge Joseph in
irretrievable ruin. An Oriental
prison is a descent to hell, which
may we'll be inscribed, Leave all
hope behind who enter here"
The account is perfectly
faithful to Oriental judicial pro-
cesses, in that it makes no allusion
to a trial. There was none.
Accusation was sufficient. Nor is
there any reference to the term for
which Joseph was committed. 1t
was indefinite. 1t was the pleasure
ofPotiphar. Had the latter passed
from the scene, a new commander
of its prison would have found no
record i'll Joseph's case, and he
might have languished for life
time. Yet, even in pris-
on, Joseph was still the "luckie
man" the Bishops Bible calls him
For, in the shortest space Of time,
the prisoner was the prison keeper;
and it prospered. All
things kept working together for
good to Joseph-his brothers
malignant jealousy; his transfer
nation into slave, his exile from
his native land; the foul and false
accusation; his imprisonment-as
man seeth, each was step in the
decensus inferno as God seeth, and
as man saw afterward, each was
step in staircase leading to a
throne and a coronation; new
veri6cation of an old saying,
Through tribulation deep the way
to glory is" Yet all
turned on the character of Joseph.
A meretricious and evanescent pro-
motion have come to him even had
he been insincere and corrupt at
heart. But a permanent exaltation
in the hearts of his own and his
adopted countryman; an assured
position among the immortal