Newspaper Page Text
CLIPPINGS FROM THE ANCIENT PRESS
Governor Joseph Tinds His
Tather.
A thrilling, story as it might habe been published in an
Egyptian newspaper.
THE GOVERNOR GOES TO GREET HIS
FATHER.
(From The Memphis News.)
At an early hour this morning Governor Joseph
and a large retinue of soldiers add slaves left the
city to welcome a new colony that has just been
settled, by order of the king, in Goshen, one of the
most fertile sections in the land of Eeypt. The
colony is made up of Mr. Jacob, the long lost father
of the Governor, and his eleven sons—Reuben,
Simon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naph
tali, Gad, Asher and Benjamin, and their wives and
children. They bring with them a large number
of flocks and herds and they will be a very valuable
acquisition to the country of Egypt, as they are a
very thrifty set of people and under their touch the
country to which they are going will be made to
blossom like the rose.
Back of the settlement of this colony is a most
thrilling and pathetic story that gives but another
endorsement to the belief that the God of the
Governor at all times watches over and cares for
His people. About three months ago, ten men
came from Palestine to buy bread from Governor
Joseph, as the famine predicted by him is as great
there as it is in Egypt. When the Governor saw
them he recognized them as his half brothers.
Twenty years aero they disliked him because he was
a favorite with his father who loved him and a
younger brother better than he did them. He had
two dreams about their all bowing down to him and
he told it to them. This angered them although,
from the way they have bo-wed down to him since
coming here, it seems that the dreams have come
true. One day when they were a long distance
from their home he went to them with a message
from their father. He wore a coat of many colors,
given him by his father. When he came up to his
brothers they seized him and tore the coat from
his back. They were about to kill him. but Reuben,
the eldest, advised against it and at his suggestion
they east him into a pit from which it was his
intention to deliver him after the others had left
the place. While Reuben was going in a rounda
bout way to return to the pit a band of Ishmaelites
came up and Joseph was taken out and sold to
them. They brought him to Egypt, where he was
bought by Captain Potiphar.
When they came to buy corn Josenh pretended
not to recognize them, but charged them with be
ing spies. They denied this, saying they had a
father in Palestine and one brother, while another
brother was dead. The Governor told them he
would not believe their story unless they brought
their younger brother who, by the way, is the Gov
ernor’s own brother, and one who is very near and
dear to him. The men were exceedingly troubled
and from their conversation, which the Governor
understood, although he talked to them through
an interpreter, he learned how it had been Reu
ben’s intention to take him out of the pit. The
Governor put all the men in jail and kept them
there for three days. Then he kept Simon as a
hostage and sent the others back after their young
er brother. The men did not return as soon as they
might have come, on account, as it has since been
learned, of the fear the father had of trusting his
youngest son away from him. When the corn had
given out and starvation was staring them all in
the face, they returned, bringing the boy with
them. The Governor yearned to make himself
known unto them so that he might embrace his
young brother, but he restrained himself. He gave
the men the corn they wished but had each man’s
money put in the mouth of his sack. In the month
of the sack of Benjamin, the youngest, he had
placed a handsome silver cup. When the men had
been gone a half day’s journey, Governor Joseph
The Golden Age for December 27, 1906.
Bv ALEX W. BEALER
dispatched a band of soldiers after them, charg
ing one of them with having stolen a silver cup.
The men were very indignant when the charge was
made known to them, and they offered to let the
man who was found with it be killed and further
declared that they would agree, if they had stolen
it, to he made slaves for life.
When the sacks were opened Benjamin’s was
found to contain the cup and the distiess of the
men was very great, as their old father had been
loath to let them take him away with them. The
officers, with Benjamin under arrest, came back to
the city, followed by the other men. The Governor
appeared to be very angry and declared that he
would make his slave the man who had stolen his
cup. It was a very tragic scene, for the men plead
ed their innocence and in tears told of their sor
rowing old father whose gray hairs would be
brought to the grave in sorrow if the young son
did not go back with them. Judah, with fine spirit,
begged to be allowed to take his brother’s place
and to be the Governor’s slave so that the others
could return home with the corn that was so much
needed.
The Governor was so overcome with emotion that
he broke down and wept, and made himself known
to his brothers. He readily forgave them and told
them not to reproach themselves, as God had sent
him into Egypt before them, to preserve their lives
during the famine and to get a goodly land ready
in which they could live.
There was great rejoicing when the Governor
embraced his brethren and wept upon the neck
of Benjamin, and for several hours they talked and
then the Governor sent them away, giving a present
to each man, but to Benjamin he gave one hundred
and fifty dollars in silver, and to his father he sent
ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt.
Pharaoh was well pleased when he heard the
story, and passed an order locating the little com
pany, seventy people in all, in the land of Goshen.
An advance cornier arrived at the Governor’s
mansion last night announcing that the company
would reach Goshen about noon today. Tne gov
ernor and his staff left at an early hour this morn
ing to meet them and give them a welcome to the
land of Egypt.
Our London Letter.
By J. KENNEDY MACLEAN.
There has already been quite a number of books
dealing with the Revival in Wales, and still An
other one comes to keep these company. The au
thor is Mr. Elvet Lewis, who acted as the interpre
ter of the Revival for England while that great
movement was in full swing. A Welshman domi
ciled in London, Mr. Lewis keeps in touch wirh his
native land, and journeyed there every week dur
ing the revival in order that he might assist in the
meetings and in the work generally. It is interest
ing to read his estimate of results, for that is a
point regarding which the greatest curiosity, as
well as doubt, has been evinced.
‘‘Much of last year’s fire still remains,” he tells
us; ‘‘it burns inwardly more than outwardly; once
or twice this year I have seen it blaze forth with
something of its virgin flame. But the very rare
ness makes the far-offness stand out more defi
nitely.”
Another interesting passage is that in which the
author deals with the long-continued silence of
Evan Roberts, who is insisting “more and more on
the repression, not only of self, but even of emo
tion.” Mr. Lewis points out that “this was es
pecially marked in his message at the Llandrindod
Convention this summer, and at the mission ser
vices that followed. His one burden was the death
of self through the Cross; he was not satisfied that
he had sufficiently exalted the Cross, even at ths
height of the revival, or sufficiently crucified self;
and as emotion proved fruitful soil,- it also must
be repressed With him or without him,
Wales must not impoverish its heritage by vain
regrets, by idle expectations. The democratic soul
of the people, kindled of God, made the revival;
that alone can make its truth permanent.”
It is perfectly obvious from this that the long
silence of the man who did more than any other
human being for the great awakening in Wales
is giving rise to some uneasiness but the time of
quietness may be followed by a period of activity,
an v l fresh power come to the revivalist as a result
of the solitude. In any case, it is satisfactory to
know from such an authority as Mr. Lewis that
the results abide, and that Wales is a better coun
try because of the breath of God that passed over
it.
I think I have already indicated in thesei letters
that the tendency of today in many quarters is to
make light of the sacrifice of Christ, and to doubt
its necessity. Once a week, in Bishopsgate Chapel,
a midday service is held, and as prominent preach
ers are always obtained, the audiences are inva
riably large.
At one of these services a week or two ago, the
preacher for the day—a well-known minister—is
reported to have remarked: “In these days of
sunshine we have come to see that in connection
with Jesus Christ the theology, teaching and sac
rificial character of his death was wrong, and that
it was imperative of the nature of God that he
should forgive his children apart from sacrifice.”
These words have naturally been resented, strik
ing, as they do, at the very iv>ot of New Testament
teaching, but in the independent churches a man
may preach almost anything without being called
to account for it. Many men today are preaching,
not the Bible, but their own imaginations and
theories, and. as in nthe olden days, “the people
love to have it so.” Not all of them, but still
a sufficient number to occasion anxiety.
Spurgeon Yet Lives.
No preacher, I suppose, has ever had such an
audience as the late C. H. Spurgeon, and though
he has been dead for fourteen years, his sermons
continue to be printed and sold. The publishers
of the distinguished preacher have just been giving
me some interesting particulars about these won
derful discourses. Every Thursday morning, for
the past 52 years, has seen a new sermon published
by the same firm, and by the end of the present
year, 3019 separate discourses will have been print
ed. And there are still sufficient unpublished man
uscripts to permit the publication of a new sermon
every week for several years to come! It is im
possible to tell how many of Mr. Spurgeon’s ser
mons have been issued.
Messrs. Passmore and Alabaster estimate that
they have sold more than a hundred and fifty mil
lions of them, and the comniler of John Plough
man’s Sheet Almanac, for 1907. calculates that the
readers of the sermons, in various forms, equal in
number the prosent population of the globe.
Many incidents have been placed on record of
the good which these sermons accomplished. but
perhaps the most remarkable case of blessing
through them, occurred in Mr. Spurgeon’s own
experience. He was. at one time, “weary and worn
and sad,” and seemed to doubt his own share in
the Gospel he had preached to others: but, being
in the country he went, on the Lord’s day morning,
to a Methodist chapel, and there heard a local
preacher deliver one of his own discourses as pub
lished in the “Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.”
The effect upon him was instantaneous, and he then
and there proved that the truths which he had
preached to others, also fed and satisfied his own
soul. I have the authority of the publishers for
stating that, if any of your readers would like to
have one of these remarkable sermons, all they
have to do is to send a post-card with their full
■address, to Messrs. Passmore and Alabaster, Pater
noster Buildings, London, who will send the ser
mon free to any part of the world.
10 Paternoster Row. J. Kennedy Maolean.
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