Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-05-15

Il sAo heSAAiAhO lAuu DlOutShS upoh SAi'
family encampment, they were no
the old man himself Threatened
with suffering and possible starvation
by the famine in Canaan, Jacob bade
his sons go down to Egypt to buy
grain. They were coming to that
pass when all their possessions were
worth nothing except as they might
purchase food. I have seen famine
victims sell their furniture, their
clothes, and even the timbers Of their
houses, all for little food.
The sons were startled at the sug.
gestion that they should go to Egypt.
Somewhere in that land was their
brother now slave if he had not
died under the lash. The vision of
him was haunting spectre. They
demurred against going to Egypt for
their fear populated the whole land
with wronged Josephs. Thus does
every evid dead rise up to limit and
alright us, hating us in the hour OF
duty and Of 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.
It Is very hard for the stay-at-home
villager to believe in the greatness
of his playmate who has gone out in
| to 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 as the bad body Is afraid to go
to bed in the dark.
The Dramatic Meeting.
One Of the great pictures of H.
terature is this Of the ten brothers
before Joseph, supplcating him" for
food. The careful system of espion-
age which prevailed in Egypt. and
still exists in some oriental lands,
had brought news to the govern
ment Of this detachment of ten men
from the region toward which Egypt
was ever looking for an enenmy. JOS
eph had them brought before him in
person. The ten shepherds, clad in
themselves on the ground before this
great ruler even as it is done today.
They did not recognize their brother
Joseph, for the youth Of eighteen
had become the man of thirty-eight;
the twenty years had wrought changes
in his face, as we'll as in his for
tune Besides he wore the head
dress of a ruler and was clothed in
the garments of state.
1t was from this episode that Pres1-
uent Wilson drew the figure Of
speech which he used in his inaugur-
al address: 1.-THE feelings with which
we face this new age of life and OPP !
portunity sweep across our heart
strings like some air out of Gods
own presence, where justice and
mercy are reconciled, and the judge
and the brother are one"
These supplicants saw Joseph only
as judge; they did not realize that
his heart was that of brother.
Shall We "Get Even7"
BY all oriental usages. Joseph
should have wrought terrible venge-
ance upon the men who had betrayed
him. He had despotic power. 1t
was the way Of rulers to punish and
even to torture enemies who had
fallen into their hands. When the
Chinese provincial assembly gath
cred in Marking, after the victory of
the revolutionary forces, the ques-
ton arose as to how the Manchu SOL
diers, who had slaughtered thirty
thousand Christians, should be pun
ished. The Christians in the assem-
bly, insisted that reprisals would be
They contended for, and
carried, the Christian doctrine OF
I
The greatest thing that man can
do to an enemy-greatest for the
man himself, even more than for the
to have mercy upon him. '
The ability to forgive is the sign
either of an utterly weak character |
or of really great character. The
ordinary mind of small caliber frets
and nags and seeks reprisal. The I
doctrines of forgiveness taught by e
Jesus were practiced by Joseph two (
thousand years earlier. X
Testing the Ten.
Magnanimity lis one thing; guile 6
less folly is quite another. The gov i
srnor of a certain American state {
who has been pardoning criminals in 7
is not to be accredited "
with the compassion of the great, j
out with the folly Of the ignorant y
and the vicious. 1t Is no mercy to t
turn loose upon the community an
enemy Of society. Joseph could not, t
examination, let these men
20 on their way, for the absence Of
BENJAMIN from their number raised
he question whether they had not ,
made away with Jacobs youngest g
son, even as they had tried to de- =
stroy Joseph. Upon his last meeting g
with them, these brothers had =
shown themselves unnatural and :
men. r
So Joseph subjected them to a
series of tests. His purpose evidently =
vas to ascertain their real character. '
Then, too, he wanted to see his broth
sr Benjamin. The instincts of blood :
ire strong. Years do not change them. r
Benjamin was Joseph's full brother.
The ruler could not 60 to Canaan; per-
= hyy