Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-25
MAN STRENGTHENED
BY MUCH SUFFERING
MORE LESSONS DRAWN FROM
LIFE OF JOSEPH
Those Who Have Not Endured Trials
Know Not How to Sympathize
with the Heartaches of
Adversely

DR.. ]. w. Shoaff, pastor of Trinity
Methodist church, delivered the third
evening lecture of his series on 1.-THE
Life and Times of Joseph
Reviewing that part of the story
which recounts Joseph's faithful and
prosperous service in the house of
Potiphar, his victory over temptation,
his prison life and the invaluable SER
vice he rendered the chief butler and
the chief baker, the speaker said in
part:
How often men suffer in this life
for doing the right! What a tangled
skein is human life! Surely, the time
piece Of the world must be out of gear.
1t looks as if the hands on the dial
plate of time were working backward.
Joseph cries: How can I do this evil
and sin against God?' and then gets for
his reward a foul aspersion on his char
acter, clanking chains and prison dun
geon. Joseph has only to abide God
time as we'll as his will, and his right
eousness shall be brought forth as the
MONDAY.
1--WE may learn something of the min
ute particularly of Providence, for at
how many critical points does the life
Of Joseph touch the lives of others!
There was divine significance in the
whole trend and movement of his his
tory. The same law runs through all
history and all time. What to you may
seem an insignificant passing moment
is the herald of magnificent purpose.
The life plan that God would have
us fill out and fill up commands the
attention of Gods eye as to its small
est details. But remember, Providence
is not fatalism. Had Joseph hurled
himself against the will of God, in the
end his life would have been a failure;
yes, complete moral wreck.
"The most efficient helpers to others
are those who have themselves endured
trial. One who has had nothing but
prosperity knows but little about the
heartaches of those who are in adver-
sity. Through suffering we are perfect
ed for a higher ministry to the children
of sorrow. This is according to the law
of heaven. Christ himself having suf-
fered he is able to succor them that are
tempted
Life Is Composite
"In the study Of the evening we may
learn something of the reciprocal re-
lations and influences of life and char
acter. Life is composition of forces
NO man liveth unto himself and no
man dieth unto himself The chief
butler gives Pharaoh a cup with a fly
in it, and the chief baker spoils his
with one of the greatest providential
monumnts of the ages. Strangely, mys-
teriousiy these lives enter into the his
tory of a nation, one of whose greatest
tribes should be known as the tribe OF
Joseph
1--WE cannot leave the story Of the
evening without being reminded that
men often forget those who have been
their greatest benefactors in adversely.
The cup bearer who had been so gra-
ciously served and comforted by Joseph
failed to say the promised good word
to Pharaoh. One has well said: Men
often write the record of grudges in
marble and of favors in water
"There is an ungrateful forgetfulness
Of which we are all guilty. We have
been forgetful of God. His mercies,
new every morning and fresh every
evening, are often forgotten and treat
ed with base ingratitude Let us not
forget the love wherewith God hath
loved us. Let not the pierced hands OF
Eternal Love be lifted up in testimony
against u.s.