The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-04-20
IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.
What the Church Folks Are Thinking About and Doing
Religious News From Everywhere

teaching. so Joseph out in the fields
with his fathers f1ocks, enduring the
rigors and hardships of an oriental
shepherds lot. wove into the fibre OF
his life those purposes and ideals
which were destined one day to make
him Jo seDh the Great
Whatt sver goes into boyhood comes
out of manhood; the state which per-
rnits its youth to be stunted by child
labor, or debased by permitted vices.
little and big, is inevitably laying UP
suffering Tor itself. One of the most
wholesome signs of the reassertion of
a moral stense in the country is the
stress that is being laid upon the
necessity for laws restricting child
labor.
Joseph's dreams were audacious.
They hurt his brothers feelings as the
world always resents a rebuke to its
own commonp laceness- Had the boy
been less guilei ess and more tactful he
would have kept his dreams to him
self. His dreams of eleven sheaves
bowling down to his sheaf. and of sun,
moon and elevTsn stars making obei-
sance to him, D enetrated the pride of
his brothers. SUIT the dreamerss the
daring the strol lg, are more aware of
their own supe riority than anybody
else; to hide thi s behind mock mod
~esty betrays weakness. The strong
know their power; it is theirs to use,
and they should be bold to use it best.
No mistaken CO nsideration for the
prejudices or prit Ie or constituencies of
people should sta nd in the way or
mans exercise of his fullest capabili-
ties 1.-The longer ] live said an emf
nent public man who is making a STIR
in the world, to me recently, the more
I am convinced that the one quality
most important in life, next to hon.
esty is courage. The man who is for
ever stopping to consider what people
viii say is not going to do very mueh
in the world
OF course the person who dares to
have great dreams will be criticised;
that has ever been the lot of great
dreamers since mast people. instead
of doing things themselves, think they
show their superiority by finding fault
with those who do. This latter trait is
a universal mark Of the second rate;
the mere fault finder is no benefit to
the world and no joy to himself.
'Behold. the dreamer cometh."
scoffetI Joseph's brothers. They de-
spised him for his finer qualities which
gross feel that they have a grievance
against the spiritual. They envied
him because he enjoyed their fathers
special favor, as revealed by the long
nor the last to be hated because he was
loved. Jacob was doubtless unwise in
manifesting his Partially toward
Joseph; a just parent can have no
special delight in this high-spirited,
cIean-souled dreamer is none the less
UNDERESTIMATE and like his remote
descendant, Mary, he pondered in his
heart the sayings or this Wonaer1ul
son.
Another cause for jealousy had the
brothers: Joseph knew himself to be
superior to them, and their own hearts
confirmed his conviction In our I'M
SOPHISTICATED days we fondly believe
that all hands are outstretched to help
a struggling one on toward excellencJ,
but by contract with life's realities we
learn that there are more hands ready
to pull down than to lift up the aspfr-
ing. There inheres in most human
nature a really diabo1ical streak which
rejoieaq in the downfall of the high or
the .ng, and which finds in a neigh
boris success occasion only for jealousy
and detraction. and not for rejoicing.
Joseph early found, what most other
successful persons have learned, that
envy back biting, and enmfty are fac
tors to be reckoned with in life.
A Rising Young Man.
1t is easier to put person of parts
into a hole than to keep him there, So
Joseph's brothers found, after their
jealous plottings had resulted in throw
ing their fathers pride into cistern.
Only Reuben seems to have had any
computations concerning this course;
possibly because he felt his responsible
ity as the Oldest son. or more probably
because he was of softer, more fearful
disposition, one who could do deed of
shame but not one of blood, he tried to
thwart the murderOus plan of the 9TH
ers. Note that he did not openly con-
trovert his brothers evil will, or fight
for his principles; he sought rather to
gain his ends by guile, and so suggested
that the dreamer be thrown into one of
the numerous empty cisterns that
abounded in the country, expecting TO
return secretly and release him.
The deed was foul one, more foul
than it's perpetrators realized. What
stolidity, of the horror to a young man
of imagination, of being imprisoned
alive in that cistern, like a rat in jug.
These tanks for storing water being so
narrow at the mouth that a single stone
will cover them, and widening below in
to large subterranean room, form
prisons from which escape is impossi-
ble," says DR.. Robinson. 1.-The pit was
empty; therefore" remarks Marcus
Dodds, ''he was not drowned, but was
left to die the most appalling of deaths,
under the ground, sinking in mire, his
flesh creeping at the touch of unseen
Shiny creatures, in darkness, alone.
This, then, was what had come of his
dreams!"
The coarseness of these inhurnan
brothers, appears in two of their subse-
quent actions. While Joseph in the els
tern pleaded for release. they, unmoved
by his cries, sat down to eat the very
food that he had brought them. Men
of any sensibilities would have lost their
appetites in the presence of that foul
deed, and within the sounds of a young
brothers cries. Again, the brutality of
that ruse of dyeing Joseph's coat in a
kids blood, to deceive their father into
believing that his darling son had been
torn and killed by wild beasts argues
coarse unfeeling and unfilial streak in
their dispositions which is well-nigh
Incredible. That they should be liars
as we'll as murderers is not remarka BILE,
since one sin begets another.
Many Routes to the Right Goal.
Whatever befalls a true man, bent on
inns fr1rY7 0rff 70 ~ lie