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The Young Man Who Was a Favourite Son

Which would you say is the harder to bear, adversity or prosperity? I am not sure. If I were a betting man I would not know on which horse to put my money.

The Bible says, "The destruction of the poor is their poverty." The narrowness and the meagreness of their lives, the lack of access to the highest interests seems to drive them oftentimes into the coarser forms of indulgence which are their undoing. The Bible also says, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." The millionaire who strives to be thoroughly Christian in all his attitudes and actions, in the secret desires which rule his own soul and in the relations he sustains to his fellow men by reason of his wealth has a hard task. In every great city you will find the sons of millionaires falling down or flinging themselves away in thoughtless dissipation where the sons of toil are standing up and making good.

Here, for example, was a young man who was born on the sunny side of the street. He was the son of a rich man, and the favourite son. He was handsome--"It came to pass that Joseph was a goodly person and well favoured." He was habitually well dressed--"His father gave him a coat of many colours," which there in the Orient marked him as a young man of style. He had a vivid imagination and was a good talker. He was a young man of parts and his story was so interesting to those early Hebrews that here in the Book of Genesis thirteen full chapters are given to his personal history.

Let me notice three points in his career--first, his early unpopularity. You do not have to know Hebrew to understand why he was not as popular as Santa Claus. He was his father's favourite, which is a heavy load for any child to bear. He lived in a family where there were four sets of children. His father had married two wives, Rachel who was handsome because he loved her, and Leah who was "tender-eyed," the Scripture says, because she was the daughter of his employer at that time and it was good business. There were also children who had been born to the two housemaids, according to the easy customs of that far-off time and place. Joseph was the son of Rachel, the favourite wife, and her favourite son. He wore the signs of this parental popularity in the gay coat of many colours. It was almost inevitable that he should become vain and overbearing.

He was also a talebearer. He looked down with unconcealed contempt upon his half-brothers who were the sons of the housemaids. "When Joseph was with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah he brought unto his father their evil report."

The tattler in the school and the squealer on the street come in, justly perhaps, for the contempt of their fellows. And whatever allowance may be made for exceptional situations, the instinct which brands the talebearer as mean is mainly wholesome. It was One who knew what was in man who said, "Why beholdest thou the mote in thy brother's eye and considerest not the beam in thine own eye? Judge not that ye be not judged." It is well for every man to sweep his own dooryard first before he begins to peddle stories as to the condition of his neighbour's dooryard.

This young man also had his full share of that conceit which thinks quite as highly of itself as it ought to think. He had his daydreams, and this was well. I would not give a fig for the young fellow who does not see ahead of him masses of possible achievement in his particular line as high as the Sierras, if not quite so solid. But Joseph was soft and callow enough to tell his day-dreams to his fellows before he had done anything to indicate that those dreams might come true.

He told his brothers that he would be the tallest sheaf in the field and that they as lesser sheaves would come and make obeisance before him. He went still further and included his elders and betters in that general bowing down. He said, "Behold the sun and moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me." He saw himself as the centre of the whole solar system and the rest of his family revolving about him as minor satellites. This day-dream of the ambitious young man was too much even for his indulgent father. "And Jacob rebuked him for his dream."

There you have all the necessary ingredients for a family explosion. When any young man is a favourite son, and a talebearer, and is filled to the eyes with self-conceit, he has in him the sulphur, the saltpeter, and the charcoal which enter into the composition of that sort of gunpowder which is liable to blow him up. You do not wonder that his brothers hated him. You are not surprised that when they saw him coming across the fields at Dothan they said with a sneer, "Behold, the dreamer cometh!"

We might naturally expect that they would conspire against him. They proposed to see whether or not this conceited young tattler would become the tallest sheaf in the field and the centre of the whole solar system there in little Canaan. He had himself to thank for getting in wrong with his associates. He was not showing the qualities which make for peace and joy and advancement.

But in the second place he was sent early in life to the school of adversity. The place where he "prepared" was not much like "The Hill" or Hotchkiss; it bore no resemblance whatever to Andover or Exeter. He took all the grades in the commonest of all common schools. He was under the tuition of struggle and difficulty. He was a Freshman, then a Sophomore, a Junior and a Senior in the University of Experience, where the college colours are always "black and blue" because the lessons are learned by hard knocks. He learned obedience by the things that he suffered. He had the conceit taken out of him by being knocked down. He knew the meaning of the word "discipline," so that he could have spelled it and parsed it forward and backwards and crosswise.

He was tried in these three ways: first, by being sold as a slave boy into Egypt. His father sent him out to Dothan to see how his brothers were faring with their flocks. When they saw him coming across the plain they said, "Behold the dreamer! Let us cast him into a pit and see what will become of his dreams."

His brothers seized him and threw him into a deep well, where there was no water, intending to let him die in that horrible way. But when a company of Ishmaelites came along on their way to Egypt, a happier thought struck those men. Judah, who was always a thrifty soul, said, "What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?" There is no money in murder. "Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites."

Here was the proverbial instinct, an eye for the main chance, already on its feet and doing business in the very childhood of that race, which has enjoyed such marked success in commercial pursuits. "Let us sell him and let not our hand be upon him, for"--here emerges Mr. Pecksniff, who is much older than the time of Dickens--"for he is our brother and our flesh." His argument was plausible and the men drew Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites who carried him down into Egypt. Now the hands of the ten men were not stained with innocent blood and they were also twenty pieces of silver to the good.

How human and how modern were the mental processes of those crafty men! The man who decides to coin his brother's life into money instead of killing him with an axe has chosen so much milder a form of wrong-doing that he feels almost virtuous. "Let us not slay our brother"--that has an atrocious sound. It smacks of the doings of gunmen. Let not our hand be upon him for he is our flesh!

"But let us sell him"--this is so much more humane! Let us burn out his energy swiftly in the long hard hours of the steel mill to make our profits large. When he is exhausted before his time we can scrap him, flinging him aside to make room for a fresh hand. Let us set the pace in the factory so sharp that the man in middle life cannot hold it--he will be compelled to drop out and tramp the streets in search of a job, while some younger man takes up his work. Let us keep the wages of the working girl so near the danger line that unless she is splendidly fortified with moral stamina she may be tempted after she has sold her days to greed to add to her income by selling her nights to shame.

Let not our hands be stained by the murder of our own flesh and blood--let us sell them in these more delicate and refined ways to increase the toll of profits! The voice of Judah is still heard in the land. There on the plains of Dothan this favourite son fell into the hands of greed and was sold as a slave boy into the land of Egypt.

He was also tested by the accusations of an evil-minded woman. When the Ishmaelites disposed of him in Egypt he was purchased by Potiphar, an officer in Pharaoh's guard. He was made a house servant. He showed himself diligent and faithful and was advanced until he was the overseer of Potiphar's whole establishment.

He was a handsome young Hebrew, his complexion being much fairer than that of the dark-skinned Egyptians. He attracted the attention and won the admiration of Potiphar's wife, who was an evil-minded, faithless creature. As Joseph went about the house in the discharge of his duties she approached him repeatedly with her solicitations to evil.

He was not one of those men who do in Rome as the Romans do, who do in New York as Broadway does, even though that may mean a less wholesome type of conduct than they are accustomed to put up in their home towns. He was a man of principle wherever he was placed. How can I sin against God!

Heaven be praised for men of principle and for men who are not afraid! A well-to-do Harvard student in one of the dormitories was shaving one morning when a wretched woman of the street slipped into his room through the door which he had left ajar. She shut the door and with her back against it said to him, "Give me fifty dollars instantly or I will scream for help." He looked around at her and said, "Yell away"--and went on with his shaving. He knew that his own life was clean. He had lived as a man of integrity and he felt that his statement would be taken anywhere against hers, because it was worth one hundred cents on the dollar. And she knew it--so she slunk out like a whipped cur. If he had compromised with her or had given her a dollar, he might have been in for endless trouble and disgrace.

But Joseph was not in Cambridge--he was in Egypt. He was not a well-known Harvard student--he was only a slave boy there in the house of his master. When this woman whom he had repulsed made her ugly, lying accusation against him she was believed and he was thrown into prison.

What indeed has now become of his dreams! He was a stranger in a strange land. He was a slave who had been jailed on an ugly charge. He must have felt that he was a long way from becoming the tallest sheaf in the field or the brightest star in the sky.

He was also tested by the ingratitude of those whom he had befriended. While he was in jail he did not for one hour give up his hope of advancement. He kept right on, attending the school of those instructors whose names are printed in the catalogue as Professor Adversity, Professor Difficulty and Doctor Discipline. He found them most capable teachers. They did not teach him much of that which is found in text-books, but they were teaching him to be a man, which after all is the main object of all education.

When Joseph was knocked down he did not wait for some Red Cross nurse to come with "first aid to the injured." He got right up and was there on the mat ready for the next round. And the young fellow with that sort of stuff in him learns, I care not how soft, callow and conceited he may have been in his "prep. school" days.

He was in prison, but since nothing better offered he would show himself the best prisoner behind those bars. He bore the false accusation of that lying woman without a word of recrimination lest he should injure the honour of his master, who had befriended him when he was in his employ. He spent his days not in laziness nor in vice, not in repining and dejection. He bore himself with such a thoughtful, unselfish spirit that he won the favour of the warden and was made a kind of overseer among the prisoners of his ward.

He won the regard and confidence of his fellow prisoners by his sympathetic interest in their welfare. When they were perplexed they came to him. The butler and the baker from Pharaoh's household were imprisoned for some fault, and when they dreamed Joseph interpreted to them their dreams in skillful fashion. And when the butler was pardoned out a few days later, according to Joseph's prediction, he promised to remember his friend when once more he stood in Pharaoh's presence.

But after the manner of many he forgot all about his fellow prisoner in the joy of his own release. Joseph still lingered in jail. How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless friend! There in the jail he drank to the dregs the cup of ingratitude.

But read on, read on! The Lord has not let His voice fall yet. This is not a period--it is only a comma or semicolon. The mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind; and to every man who merits it a good grist comes at last. Read on!

There came a night when Pharaoh dreamed. The monarch saw seven fat cows come up out of the River Nile, which was the source of all fertility there in the Delta. Then he saw seven lean cows come up out of the river and they ate up the seven fat cows and yet remained as lean and hungry as they had been before. In the morning Pharaoh called for his wise men and his magicians, but they could make nothing of it.

Then the chief butler remembered his fault. He remembered Joseph who had interpreted his own dream in yonder prison. He told Pharaoh of that strange experience, and the monarch promptly sent for this gifted young Hebrew. "Seest thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before kings." Joseph had shown himself diligent in his business as a servant in the house of Potiphar, and as a prisoner he had made himself useful to the warden of the jail. Now he is summoned to stand before the ruler of all the land of Egypt.

He is the same man in name as when he walked across the fields of Dothan with his heart full of conceit, but how much he has learned! His coat of many colours has been replaced by the dull gray of the prison garb. He has acquired new moods and new methods and a finer quality of manhood. When Pharaoh called upon him to interpret his strange dream, Joseph replied modestly, "It is not in me. Interpretations belong to God. And God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace." It was in this mood of reverent, expectant awe that he undertook the interpretation of the monarch's dream.

How character ripens in adversity! Wheat ripens best under smiling, sunny skies, but the rigorous winter of hardship and struggle is demanded for the maturing of those fine qualities of mind and heart which make up character at its best. Men have found by experience that it is impossible to produce apples of the choicest flavour where there is no frost. I am quite sure that the best type of human excellence cannot be secured without frost. "He is testing me," Job said, when all those troubles fell upon him; "He knows the way that I take and when He has tried me I shall come forth as gold."

Here was a young man who in early life had been a spoiled child, a conceited prig, a talebearer among his fellows, but in the hard school of adversity he had learned to labour and to wait. He could now endure as seeing One who is invisible.

The law of gravitation never forgets anything, never overlooks anything. It matters not whether it is a pound of feathers or a ton of lead or a planet, the power of gravitation is right there attending to business. If a man falls out of a fifth story window in New York, in Constantinople, or in Calcutta, the law of gravitation is there and the man gets hurt. The moral order never forgets anything, never overlooks anything. What men sow, they reap, though the harvest be long delayed. If they sow to the flesh, sometime, somewhere they go out with bruised hands and bleeding hearts to reap corruption. When they sow to the spirit they will in the same inevitable way reap life eternal. Here at last the man of purpose and of faith is reaping the results of discipline bravely met and nobly borne.

This young man owed his ultimate success to the fact that he was a man of vision. There is a certain fascination in the story of any life which rises from obscurity to eminence. Whether the path lies from the log cabin of a rail splitter to the White House, from the lowly work of the lanyard to the head of victorious armies, or from a pit on the plains of Dothan to a palace on the banks of the Nile, there is something in the human heart which responds to the unfolding of such a life-story.

The Hebrews were happy in relating how men of their race had made their way up to places of honour at alien courts through the sheer force of their own personal ability. Here was Joseph coming up out of the prison house to the right hand of Pharaoh! Here was Daniel preferred above the other presidents and princes at the court of Darius! Here was Benjamin Disraeli belonging to a race formerly disfranchised in England becoming at last Prime Minister of Her Most Christian Majesty Queen Victoria! Let every man who looks down upon some lowly life beware lest he despise what God has blessed!

Here was a young man who had vision! He saw things. He did not merely "look," as would some dog that bays the moon. When he walked across the plains of Dothan his mind was not altogether upon wool and mutton--he was already dreaming of high achievement in his future years. When he was thrown into the pit and sold into slavery his brain was busy with the stars. When he faced temptation he saw it all with the eye of faith--how could he do this great wickedness and sin against God. And when he was confronted with a problem confessedly too hard for him he lifted up his eyes to the hills from whence cometh help. "It is not in me. The interpretation of life belongs to God."

He was only seventeen years old when he walked across the fields that day to the place where his brothers kept their flocks. Now he was thirty. He had increased in stature, in wisdom and in favour with God and man. It had taken thirteen long years to add those cubits to his height, but they had been well spent. The Almighty takes His time in working out His finer effects. The spoiled child, the censorious talebearer, the callow, conceited youth must be wrought upon by the beat and play of human life. When any man has vision and faith there is a divinity which shapes his ends, rough-hewn though they be by doting fathers and envious brothers, by false accusers, and by ungrateful companions. When a man is faced right, all things, no matter what shape they bear, will ultimately work together for his good.

"A man in whom the spirit of God is"--that was Pharaoh's verdict when Joseph had skillfully interpreted his dream, indicating that the seven fat cows coming up out of the Nile meant seven years of plenty in the land of Egypt, and that the seven lean cows following them and devouring them meant seven years of famine, which would tax the resources of Pharaoh's empire in feeding the hungry people. And when the monarch had listened to the wise words, had sensed the humane spirit of this young Hebrew, and had seen the look of faith upon his face, he felt that no other man would be so competent to become High Commissioner of the Food Supply there in the land of Egypt. Thus Joseph was set in a place of authority at Pharaoh's right hand.

His dreams are coming true! He had framed his first anticipations out of sheaves. Then his mind began to be busy with the stars. He was destined to have a part in preserving the life of his own Hebrew race and a part in that moral movement which would outlast the stars themselves. Through all those long hard years which lay between the pit of Dothan and the palace of Pharaoh, he was sustained by that vision of things divine which shone perpetually in his sky.

"A man in whom the spirit of God is"--here is the ultimate reason for every splendid advance! Here is the ultimate reason why any man is able to rise from those lower levels where wool and mutton are the main considerations to those higher levels where he becomes a trusted implement in the hand of God for a service that will endure.

The young man was a man of faith. He had faith in God. He had faith in his fellows, as he showed when he generously forgave the brothers who had wronged him, having them as ruler of Egypt utterly in his power. He had faith in himself because the spirit of God dwelt in his heart. And it matters not whether it is Egypt or Connecticut, the eighteenth century before Christ or the twentieth century after Christ, it is "by faith" that men work righteousness and obtain promises, wax valiant in fight and beat back the armies of aliens.

In the long run the world belongs to the idealist. The ultimate shaping of its life is in the hands of the men who walk the busy streets and dusty lanes with their feet on the ground but with their heads and their hearts among the stars. The men of vision and faith sometimes lose a skirmish; now and then they are defeated in a battle; but when the war is fought through to a finish they are on the winning side.

Here in this company there may be many a favourite son. You are inexpressibly dear to the hearts of those parents. Their thoughts, their prayers and their efforts are all reaching out for the best things for you. They do not know and you do not know what hard tests may lie ahead. You too may be sent for thirteen long years to the school of adversity, but if the spirit of God is in your heart, if you have faith, a vital and personal faith in Jesus Christ, if you have caught the vision of what life may be made to mean at its best, then it lies within your power also to achieve.

The Young Man Who Was an Athlete

What a roomy place the Bible is! It is not filled up with model men and women. It is not filled up with nice little boys and girls, all neat and sweet, good enough to be angels right off with no alterations. It is peopled with imperfect, blundering folk like ourselves.

Some of these samples of human life are offered to us for our imitation, and some by way of warning. The wide variety exhibited shows how God can use and bless the better elements in many a life where the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest. The divine purpose shows an amazing measure of hospitality. "The love of God is broader than the measure of man's mind."

"And what shall I say more," the author remarks in passing. "Time would fail me to tell of all the men who by faith subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness, obtained promises and put to flight the armies of evil, Gideon and Barak, Samson and Jephthah."

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