The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-11
In THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.
What the Church Folks Are Thinking About and Doing
Religious News From Everywhere.

I
| the presence of the money in their
sacks was but a plot to entrap them
| into servitude. Not until Joseph :
steward had treasured them, ana mad
| released Simeon to tell them or ms
pleasant treatment, were they at all
| relieved.
s.RIood Is Thicker Than Water"
There are no ties like home ties; no
friends like those of blood Just TO be
near loved ones, to be able to look anto
their eyes and to touch their hands is
| better worth while than TO see all the
great sights of the world. All ms
pomp and power as lord OF Egypt
meant less to Joseph than the sight of
his own full brother, Benjamin He
had made a great feast for the visitors,
but his own heart was hungry to
breaking. A few broken words from
the depth Of his spirit were all that he
could utter, before his emotion drove
him from the room How he longed
to embrace the lad, and to rain kisses
upon him in the 1mpetuous Hebrew
fashion; but all that he could do was
to heap up BenjaHnin's plate with i've
fold the amount of food given to the
others. For these elder brothers need
ed to be still further tested.
IT was unique test which Joseph
next made them stand He had his
own silver cup put into Benjamin's
food bag, perhaps also hoping that the
denouement would result in giving
him the company of his brother. Then
he sent q servant after them to search
for the cup. The sons of Jacob indig-
nantIy repudiated the idea that the
cup might be in their possession; they
offered to give up as a slave the one on
whom it should be found This, of
course, proved to be the youngest.
Nobly did the brothers stand the
test Every man loaded his beast and
returned to the city; no self-excusing
or shifting OF blame here, but a fine
brotherly loyalty and courage. These
, I, go
had sold Joseph. When brought into
the presence of the owner OF the cup,
Judah, as spokesman, made a beauti-
full, moving speech, full of pathos and
genuine feeling, picturing the gray
hairs of Jacob being brought down in
sorrow to the grave, should his young
est son not return. Then, in splendid
herofsm, Judah offered to be a sub
stitute for Benjamin, if only the latter
might be sent back to his father.
The Great Revelation.
This was too much for Joseph.
Whatever may have been his plans, he
abandoned them in a rush of deep hu-
man feeling. When he could not re-
strain himself, he caused all his Egyp-
tian attendants to leave the room: deli
cacy of spirit hides its deepest emo
tons from public gaze. Alone with
his brothers the flood gates of his long
confined feelings were opened, and he
wept aloud, SO that all the palace
from Canaan gazed in wonderment at
this extraordinary exhibition on the
part OF the great man Gone less great
would have been incapable of IT'D they
heard the amazing words: ST am Jo-
seph." Joseph, walking as an une1n-
bodied spirit, and haunting them with
accusations, would have seemed less
strange to them than this Speech de-
serted them at the sight, and they
could not answer his questions.
Scared, and dumbIy obeffent. they
GREW near at his command, not 5elieV-
ing either their eyes or ears, Joseph
was drawn up from the pit into which
they had cast him: 1t is scarcely
strange that they could not credit their.
senses when this wonderful poterrtate
whom We sold into Egypt" They
knew naught of the steps of Joseph's
rise; to their minds he was either dead
or doing the work of a mental slave
on some Egyptians estate.
Filled though he was with his own
Overlooking emotions, Joseph yet took
thought of his brothers probable enxi-
ETY. and he treasured them, in the ten
derest and most considerate narner,
barking straight back to their deepest
belief as sons Of Abraham, in the ex-
istence and over-ruling providence of
Jehovah 1t was all Gods doings, he
said. And so the judgment of the mod
ern reader affirmS.
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform
After a word of explanation, his deep
longing breaks forth, Haste yet, ard
go up to my father and say unto him,
Thus saith thy son Joseph. God hath
made me lord of all Egypt: come down
unto me, tarry not. and thou
shalt be near unto me-" And so sue
cinctly and graphically related in the
Scripture, the scene is indescribably
affecting; ''And he fell upon his broth
err Benjanfn's neck, and wept; and
Benjamin wept upon his neck. More
over, he kissed all his brethren. and
wept upon them; and after that his
brethren talked with him.
The boy Joseph's dream all come
true. His father and all his train
came to live upon Joseph's bounty, and
in Egypt Jacob died. Again the
brothers, still tormented by the MEM
cry of their great sin, fearful lest their
fathers death should lesson their
brothers mercy, pleaded forgiveness
from him, little knowing that for such
a noble nature as his, forgiveness was
easier than vengeance. One who lives
as near to God as Joseph lived dwells
far above all petty purposes; for who
ever knows God has learned from him
how TO forgive
NEWS AND NOTES.
One OF the strictest Sabbath rest