The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-17
(BY WILLIAM t. ELLIS)

CBY WILLIAM T. ELLIS)
The way a person uses power sIEes
one a fair idea of his character Part
of the Servant problem is clearly
due to the fact that many mistresses ar
not fit to be employers Most WORKERS
know the petty tyrannies OF the Iore.
man who has not the temperament
that should go with authority some
school teachers are bullies. There are
parents, unworthy to be such, VINO prov
beat and terrorize their children &c
casionally an editor or writer uses
his power over the public print 10
'.eet even with his personal enemies
There are public officials without a
public mind who pursue private VEN
eeance through their office. The mag
nanimity or meanneSs, the greatness
or pettiness of character is revealed
by its use of authority.
When a man gets the upper hand,
how shall he use it? The story of
Joseph makes answer. The incident
has a practical and present bearing
for most of our enemies are at some
time or other delivered over into our
power And practically everybody at
some time or another has authority
over somebody else There are great
truths to be learned by contemplation
of the conduct of Joseph who. de-
livered from prison, sat on dazzling
throne of almost supreme authority.
The Dreamer's Triumph.
One personal triumph was not to be
denied Joseph in his new state. When
the brothers who had once plotted to
siav him came down to Egypt in search
of food and were PROSTATE on their
faces before his judgment seat, ms
mind went back to the dreams OF ms
boyhood. of the eleven sheaves bowling
down to the twelfth, which he had rash
" told to these same men. As the
narrative has it. Joseph remembered
the dreams which he dreamed OF
them" He would not have been human
had he failed TO recall how the wheel
of life had turned. God fulfills His
promises in His own time and way
Absolute power over these enemies
was in the hands of Joseph. He could
subject them to the lash; he could
send them to death; he could reward
them royalty The Arabian Nights has
no more dramatic episode. Happily,
the story is one of magnanimity. tinged
with romance. Joseph showed his
greatness in Potiphar's house and in
prison.
The Land of Refuge.
The way this old book called the
Bible fits the conditions of the lands
a bout which it writes, is one of the
proofs of its genuineness. That the
pastoral folk of Canaan sh ould move
down to Egypt for help was most ma
tural. 1 have met modern Syrians on
the same errand. Nothing was more
natural than that Jacob should send
his sons down to Egypt for grain. 1t
had always been, and is still, the big
rich neighbor of Canaan. The grad
yates of Syrian Protestant College at
Beirut still find their careers in
Egypt. Egypt sheltered Abraham:
Egypt harbored Joseph: Egypt was a
haven for Jacob and his family. and
for the Hebrew race in training. Later
this anne land of refuge gave hospi-
tality to Jacobs greatest son. Ones
thoughts of Egypt as he looks upon
it from far, or moves about its pyra
mids and palaces, and marvellous
thoughts.
Conscience Doth Make Cowards."
The ten hulking sons of Jacob had
not the real manhood qualities of
their father. In the emergency which
the famine had brought upon the fam
lily encampment, they were not the
ones who saw the way out. but the
old man himself. Threatened with
sufferin- and possible starvation by
the famine in Canaan, Jacob babe his
sons go down to Egypt to buy grain.
They were coming to that pass when
all their possessions We're worth moth
ing except as they might purchase food.
1 have seen famine victims sell their
furniture. their clothes, and even the
timbers of their houses, all for a little
food.
The sons We're startled at the sug
gestion that they should go to Egypt
Somewhere in that land was their
brother. now a slave if he had not
died under the lash. The vision of
him was haunting spectre They de-
INJURED aaginst going to Egypt for
their fear populated the whole land with
wronged JOsephs. Thus does every evil
dead rise up to limit and alright us
halting US in the hour of duty and
opportunity.
These men knew nothing of the facts
concerning their brother. Theirs had
been a stagnant life: they had
stood still. according to their charac-
tiers, even as Joseph had built up
thought by thought and deed by deed
the great personality which now gov
erned the largest empire of the time
They never dreamed in their widest
flights of fear or fancy that their en-
shaved brother had been growing all
the while they had been rusticating.
1t is very hard for the stay-at-home
Villager to believe in the greatness of
his playmate who has gone out into
the big world. 1t was not fear of
Joseph. but merely the cowardice of
a guilty conscience that made the
brothers reluctant to go to Egypt: even
s the bad boy is afraid to go to bed
in the dark.
The Dramatic Meeting.
One of the great pictures of 1itera-
ture is this of the ten brothers before
Joseph. supplicating him for food. The
careful system of espionage which pre-
vailed in Egypt. and still exists in
some Oriental lands, had brought news
to the government of this detachment
of ten men from the region toward
which Egypt was ever looking for an
enemy. Joseph had them brought be-
fore him in person. The ten shepherds.
clad in their o-mels' hair cloaks pros
trated themselves on the ground before
this great ruler even as it is done to-
day. They did not recognize their
brother Joseph. for the youth of eish-
teen had become the man of thirty