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

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 Even?''
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 Pro-
vincial Assembly gathered in Marking,
after the victory of the revolutionary
forces, the question arose as to how the
Manchu soldiers. who had slaughtered
thirty thousand Christians, should be
punished. The Christians in the As
sembly insisted that reprisals would be
wrong. They contended for, and
carried. the Christian doctrine of for
giveness.
The greatest thing that a man can
do to an enemy-greatest for the man
himself. even more than for the enemy
is to have mercy upon him. The
ability to forgive is the sign either of
an utterly weak character or of a
really great character. The ordinary
mind of small caliber frets and nags
and seeks reprisal. The doctrines of
forgiveness taught by Jesus were prac-
ticed by Joseph two thousand years
earlier.
Testing the Ten.
Magnanmity is one thing; guileless
folly is quite another. The governor of
a certain American state who has been
pardoning criminals unfortunately is
not to be accredited with the COM
passion of the great, but with the folly
of the ignorant and the vicious. 1t is
no mercy to turn loose upon the COM
munity an enemy of society. Joseph
could not, without examination. let
these men go on their way, for the alb
sence of Benjamin from their number
raised the question whether they had
not made away with Jacobs youngest
son, even as they had tried to destroy
Joseph. Upon his last meeting with
them, these brothers had shown them
selves unnatural and murderous-m minded
men.
So Joseph subjected them to a Sc
ries of tests. His purpose evidently
was to ascertain their real character.
Then, too, he wanted to see his broth
er Benjamin. The instincts of blood
are strong. Years do not change them.
Benjamin was Joseph's full brother.
The ruler could not go to Canaan; per-
haps this was his opportunity to have
Benjamin come to him.
When he raised difficulties before
the visitors and taxed them with be-
ing spies, they were filed with sud
den remorse. Their thoughts flew back
thus do our evil deeds rise to accuse
us in every crisis. The modern pro-
verb has it, BE sure your sin will
find you OUT These men thought
that their sin had been found out, but
really it had only found them out. A
dramatic fact about the whole episode
was that Joseph, who had been talking
through an interpreter. understood ev-
cry word that these conscience-smitten
men said one to another. He learned
all he wanted to know about his fam
lily, but he was overcome with a flood
of emotion; for Joseph the ruler was
first of all Joseph the man.
Food for the Home Folks
Joseph soon made plan for sending
food in abundance back to the old
homestead in Canaan. What a graft
fication this must have been to the
eXiled son. Here was compensation
for all his years of suffering. The abili-
ty to care for his father in his hour
of need was the sweetest reward that
his exaltation in Egypt had brought
him. With generous spirit, perhaps not
realizing the perpleXity he would cause
in the mind of his brothers. he restored
each mans money into the mouth of
his sack, along with the grain, and sent
the nine back to Canaan, with Sim
con left as hostage for the return
of Benjamin.
The report to Jacob perplexed and
grieved the old man. There is a hint
in his exclamation that he suspected
or knew the reason for Joseph's dis
appearance, for he cried to the sons.
Me have We bereaved of my child;
Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and
We will take Benjamin away; all these
things are upon me-"
Jacob has yet to learn the lesson
that is set for all of us today, that
God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform.
The teaching is one of long views.
Today's disaster may be tomorrow's
salvation. Life must be measured in
the large. Only the long view seem
straight. The breaking up of home
ties may be the ultimate salvation of
the home. The Boxer outbreaks in China,
which filled the heart of Christendom
with terror, were really the birth throes
of the new nation.
Behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God. within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own