1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



913 



OVJ^^ 



iyAJ.FWOT 



No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, 

 but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the 

 peaceable fruit of righteousness. — Heb. 12 : 11. 



At one of our recent week-day prayer- 

 nieetingd the topic was, "What has particu- 

 larly impressed you in the life of Joseph 

 which we have been studying in our Sunday- 

 school lessons?" I repliedthatit was Joseph's 

 remarkable faith that enabled him to take 

 every persecution and trial as a part of God's 

 plans to teach him new and important les- 

 sons, that impressed itself on my mind. Jo- 

 seph, even in early childhood, was brought 

 into pccnliar trial. As soon as he was old 

 enough to observe, he saw that his big broth- 

 ers were not doing the "square thing." The 

 question to his childish mind was, whether 

 he should repeat to his father what he knew, 

 and thus become, in one sense a talebearer, 

 or whether he should let it pass. We are 

 not told very much about this, but we can 

 read between the lines that his boyish sense 

 of honesty and truth prompted hiui to report 

 proceedings to his father; therefore when his 

 father sent him out with a lunch and mes- 

 sage to his brothers it is not so very strange 

 that they regarded him as a spy and a tale- 

 bearer. 



The question often comes up tome, "Shall 

 I make a disturbance in the neighborhood by 

 trying to stop some things I know are wrong, 

 f)r will.it be wisdom to say nothing and just 

 'let the world wag' V" 'jfhere are extremes 

 both ways, of course, and we need to pray 

 often that the Holy Spirit may guide us in 

 this matter of standing up for law and order, 

 and honesty and truth. Joseph was worried 

 and troubled when they thi-ew him into the 

 pit; but one of his brothers, not long after- 

 ward, Ijegged and besought them to let him 

 go back to his father. They withstood all 

 his entreaties, however, and were wicked 

 enough, most of them, to let him die of starv- 

 ation as they had planned. Some writer 

 suggests that they sat down to eat the same 

 lunch he had brought them, while he was 

 helpless and left to starve in the pit. 



Well, the remarkable thing about Joseph 

 was that he was never discouraged nor put 

 out. We are told indirectly that he was a 

 prayijig boy; and while he praye<l he set to 

 work to bring about the answers to his 

 prayers. Why, it would almost seem as if 

 every persecution and hardship that befell 

 him (through his wonderful faith in God and 

 his tremendous activity) only opened the 

 way to him for new wonders in the way of 

 usefulness to his fellow-men. 



There is a town out west that has b6en 

 putting out advertising matter something 

 like this; " Watch and see us grow." By the 



way, I have seen at least two business firms 

 who had that motto up in their stores Well, 

 Joseph was not one of the sort to advertise 

 himself; but somebody who could take a 

 birdseye view of • human events might have 

 said, "Watch and see the boy grow." What 

 a tremendous gi'owth the boy did make, any 

 wayl Why, he even eclipsed my Indian 

 Runner ducks. (Let me say here, they are 

 to-day just three weeks old, and the largest 

 of them weighs 34 ounces ■ — an increase of 

 just double on the third week. Of course, 

 this doubling and trebling in a single week 

 can not continue very much longer; but I 

 will try to report, and the rest of you can 

 " watch and see us grow.") 



It was a terrible blow to the lad when they 

 threw him into the pit, proposing to let him 

 starve. It might have been a little more 

 hopeful, though more cruel still in someway, 

 to sell him for a few pieces of silver to those 

 Ishmaelite traders. Well, he soon attracted 

 attention and made himself useful, without 

 doubt. When he was turned over to some 

 big man as a slave he grew in favor wonder- 

 fully — so much so that in a brief space of 

 time his master made him manager over all 

 of his affairs. Occasionally we find a cha,r- 

 acter something like Joseph nowadays, but 

 they are not very plentiful. Just this morn- 

 ing I took three small boys out of the factory 

 to have them run behind the l^ig roller and 

 pick the stones off the field that we were fit- 

 ting for corn. I thought it would be a treat 

 to them to get out of the dusty factory into 

 the open air this June morning. Very soon 

 one of them wanted to know if they should 

 not have better pay for that kind of work. 

 I said: 



"Johnny, haven't you learned that the 

 best way in the world to get a raise in wages 

 is to take hold with cheerfulness and vim any 

 thing your employer happens to want you to 

 do?" 



He said he hadn't heard about that. 



"Well," said I, "Johnny, there is oneway 

 in which almost any boy can be pretty sure 

 of getting an advance in wages over the I'est 

 of the boys of his age, and that way is to let 

 his employer see that he is glad of a chan<-e 

 to tackle a)iy job that is a little harder and 

 a little more difficult. Such boys always get 

 promotion." 



Johnny could not see the point, however. 

 He shirked, and, I fear, he made the two 

 other boys discontented and dissatisfied. 



Well, after the loving Father had tested 

 Joseph with hard knocks, and had seen how 

 he held fast to his faith, and climbed over 

 obstacles, he gave him trials of another sort. 

 A handsome, dashing woman of rank, with 

 power in her hands, took a sudden fancy to 

 this remarkal)ly successful (and no doubt 

 good-looking) young manager. Then Joseph 

 showed his loyalty to his master — the one who 

 had trusted him with all his household, while 

 at the same time he showed a wonderful and 

 abiding faith in and loyalty to God. If I re- 

 member correctly the loving Father once said 

 of Jesus, his. only son, "Thou hast loved 

 righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore 



