The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-22

23, 1907.
 These pictures, forty centuries old, are stih fair and fadeless. There Is pothing intricate or occult about them. They are simple and true to life. That accounts for the hold they have upon the universal human heart. They are mirrors of good and evil. They reflect on the one hand the charm of saintli- ness, on the other the ugliness of sin. They show the ultimate coronation of goodness and the certain ruinous de- nouement of evil The one class is in- spirational, the other deterrent. It will never be konwn how much they have promoted the ethical evolution of huma .ty. They have been fairly in- terwoven in the thinking of all the races who have become the fortunate pussessors of them and have power fully effected the springs of human conduct in every age.
 The first picture Of this series re- presents Jacob in flight. A more vivid portrayal of the pains and penalties of trickery could not be made. The patriarch has gotten the birthright and blessing by guile, but 1t cost him dear. Out he goes, shelterless fugi- tive, with four hundred and fifty miles and forty years of exile before him. But mercy lines with silver the penalty. A vision of a heavenly staircase thick with angel ministers cheers the exile
 Forty years later Jacob attempts a anger of his brother. On the boundary of Canaan he is in an agony of prayer for deliverance. There is nothing in- applicable in the wrestling scene com- monly thought to be so mysterious It was a merciful concession when the Lord took upon Himself a hfiman form and allowed Jacob to vent his ex cessive grief and anxiety in the way of physical exertion. The corporeal strues gle was an accompaniment of prayer. Jacob gets a new name and new nature on the spot But, after all, 1t is not an instantaneous and miraculous substitution of one nature for another. The ethical anr spiritual evolution has been going on for four decades. It has taken forty years to make an Israel out of Jacob.
 From the thorny and thistly sons of Jacob grapes and figs could not be ex- pected. They were rude. treacherous bedouin. The gentle and pure charac- upon them. They nursed their jeal- ousy until it reached the size of mur- der There is an expulsive power in a new vice as well as in new virtue Avarice busted murder. The sight of the approaching trading caravan sug- gests the possibility of making mer- chandise of this obnoxious brother. A moment later theys gloat over their two shekels apiece and see their brother depart to hopeless servitGde.
 As in a microcosm one sees here the evolution of a man and a statesman. The circumstances which seem to retard really accelerate the process. Joseph had learned how to take honey out of the eater-one of the finest and most useful arts f>life. As a slave he made himself indispensable to his master. Unconsciously he was schooling for the premiership. Faithful in few things. he was to be lord of many. The next incident seems to plunge Joseph in IT, retrievable ruin. Yet the possibility of dominating ones environment has a new proof, for in the shortest posi sible time the prisoner is the prison keeper Yet all turned on the char acter of Joseph. A meretricious pro- motion might have come to. him, even had he been corrupt at heart. But permanent exaltation in the hearts of his own and his adopted country men-- an assured position among the immortal worthies in Kingdom and patience of Coda good life only can win that distinction.
 From prison cell to throne-room Is a startling transition. But really Joseph had paved every step of the W = and 1t had taken him thirteen years to do 1t. The abruptness Is in ap- pearance only. The young Hebrew made the very best of his circumstances. He acquired the language, observed the manners and customs. detected the defects in public administration. He