The Golden age. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1915, December 27, 1906, Page 7, Image 7

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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. 7