Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-04-03
In The Religious World;
(REvrnw OF SUNDAY SCHOOL LEssoN)

same type as her brother Laban. Both
father and mother were guilty OF
that cardinal ofrense in parents,
favoritism among their children.
Isaac, the weakling, the stay-at-home,
the potterer about the tents of the
encampment, loved his lusty, field
ranging, open.air son Esau. The
meditative father admired the man
Of action. Rebekah, woman-like.
cared not for the rough and animal
ways OF this british follower Of the
chase. Esau had no manners. He
was not graced in those arts of cour-
tesy which often mean more to a
woman than the cardinal virtues.
JACOB, the stay.at-home, was better
broken to social ways. He helped his
mother and found himself tempera-
mentally more in unity with her.
Between the two sons there was
natural antagonism. Jacob. who
unused much on the things that con-
cerned his own advantage, resented
the priority of his older brother. By
right of Esau would inherit the head
ship of the family Jacob despised
Esau, and, sure Of his own powers,
he coveted the birthright for him
self.
Is the Heir Insane?
With rights 60 obligations. The
crown is his who can wear 1t. AS
first-born of the family, lEsau's hon
or should have been dear to him.
Had he been fit for his post he would
have preferred to die like king
rather than to live like craven.
The Titanic dead are more honored
than some of the Titanic survivors.
Esau had not learned how to suffer
and endure and deny himself like a
man. He knew no synonym for the
phrase noblesse oblige.
Hungry from hunting, he burst
into the family tent and with child
ish impatience demanded something
to eat. Jacob possessed sayory dish
of pottage made of lentils. I have
eaten that same food down in Sidon
and I can testify to its savoriness.
But no food on earth should be so
attractive as to call man from the
throne of his manhood. I would put
alongside of the conduct of Esau the
behavior of starving Chinese whom
/ have seen self-restrained and dig
nified on the famine field, with death
staring them in the eyes.
Esau wanted that pottage. He
wanted it more than anything else
in the world. He was the kind Of
man who yields to the moments i'm
pulse and passion as had already been
shown by his marrying heather
wives Of course he was weakling.
He had followed his own wishes al
ways Now an eminent alienist an
nounced few weeks ago that If any
man did whatever he pleased he
would be insane. That scientific
verdict jumps with common sense.
There has been great deal of at
tention given in the press of the
world to the sanity Of q certain
rich young man, a. murderer. who
is in an insane asylum instead Of
a prison. BY this test we know him
to be insane. He has always done
as he pleased. 1t is not too harsh
statement for parents and teachers
to hear that If children are permitted
to do as they please their feet are
turned on the broad way that leads to
insanity.
The UnbrotherIy Brother.
If we cannot call Esau hero or
NJ uOlE, SILL 1883 Ccu We SdA uAS
brother Jacob. He offered food to
his twin only if Esau would give
in exchange for it his birthright.
Jacob was the cold.blooded sort who
traffic in necessity. He is near of
kin to all who grind the faces of
the poor, who derive excessive prof
it's to the uses of vice, who under
pay their employees without caring
for the consequences to bodies or
souls. Jacob was choice sample Of
the man who ever looks out for num-
Der one. Let it be said unequivocally
that the person who seeks only his
own advantage comes as near to a
human likeness of Satan as can be
created or imagined. A.
The old commentators used to find
various ingenious excuses for Jacob.
We are less prone to do SO nowadays.
We let him stand, hideous in the
clear light of the teachings of the
new testament. The Jacob regime for