The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-22

managed the estates of Potiphar with such fidelity Is to prepare him to ad- minister the empire of Pharaoh. When his environment narrowed down to prison walls, he availed himself of his enforced seclusion to reflect upon what he had observed. He kept him. self unpolluted from the vices incident to prison life He was ready when the hour struck,
 Joseph was the "eyes of Pharaoh" " He was devoted to his sovereign and to his adopted country. The splendor of his vesture ornaments, palace, chariot, can hardly be overestimated. In the midst of his glory the brothers who had sold him into slavery twenty two years before were brought into his presence. No wonder they~did not recognize him. He showed consum- mate skill in secfeting his identity from them and dicoven..g their present attitude toward the brother they had so misused.
 The uses of diversity have fine il lustration in Israels experiences in Egypt When they ceased to be guesta and became slaves in the land of their adoption. their first gain was humility. Their second gain was nationality. Egypt proved the furnace ih which a loose population was fused and com pacted.- Again they were shut u.c to God. There was no other eye or arm for them. So faith and all other graces of the spirit were nourfshed as sharp frost nourishes corn" t
 The faith of Moses parents was the turning point of Hebrew history. They rec :ognized the child as the appointed deliverer. For three months they hid him in defiance of imperial edict and at peril of their lives. When pressed to 1t as last resort, they used consummate strategy. They com mitted the babe in his ark to the sacred river at the very spot where Pharaoh's daughter bathed. As reward of their faith their babe lodged in the imperial palace and made spoil of Egypts wis., dom in preparation to be lsraefs de- ltverer
 The mystic flame, symbol of the Divine presence, had been unseen for four hundred years. when it burst upon the vision of the lonely shepherd far down toward Sinai. What an unlike ly one to be called to be deliverer Of Israel from Egypt But a better emarcipator could not be conceived than that very herdsman kneeling before the green bush transmitted into a flaming shrine. He knew Egypt, Pharaoh, Israel, and the Wilderness He was q graduate from Gods school of diversity. His wonder-working rod was his diploma
 The duel between omnipotence and earth's proudest monarch is without parallel The plaques of Egypt are the Divine answer to the challenge, Who is the Lord?" They illustrate the Divine power over every Kingdom of nature. The impossibility if coinci- denoe Is proved by the uniformly as- cending scale and the exemption of the Hebrews in every instance. 1t was fitting that a commemorative ordinance should be instituted. Nothing -nore significant than the domestic sacra- ment of the Passover can be imagined.
 The exit of lsrael was not the flight of criminals. They travelled by special royal edict which gave them authority to do so Their march was orderly. by tribes. Gods banner float ing in the sky before them-Pharaoh' . attempt to reclaim the Israelites when he saw them apparently marching into a blind alley Is true to nature to the dot Israel was panic-strieken, put Moses unmoved. A wind divides the sea and Israel crosses dry shod.
 The fascination in this four thousand year old story is, that 1t is study in Life. It ,s no middle age piece of scholasticism, but a warm, blooded history of human nature; not A dissertation on metaphysical gener- alities. but a tale of human emotions, as they are felt to-day, and every day, and everywhere. It Is the "proper study of mankind." It concerns Man. and is consequently universally inter esting. The effort to re-tell the story la futile. To reclothe 1t Is to do violence to it. It's own dress Is it's only dress. It's simplicity, genuine ness, fidelity. make 1t masterpiece of literature.