THE K I NG' S BUS I NESS
1067
his prison. The saints have sung their sweetest when the thorns have pierced their hearts the deepest. In the reign of Chas. II, Margaret Wilson, a girl of eighteen summers, with a widow of sixty-three was con demned to be drowned for refusing to acknowledge other supremacy than that of Christ in the church. Stakes were driven deep down in the sand of the shore— that for the widow much farther down the beach than that for the young woman, in order that the fortitude of the latter might be shaken by the widow’s sufferings. The tide began to flow and the waters covered the feet, rose to the waist, and from waist to neck, and reaching the lips of the venerable matron, the bubbling groan of her drowning agony was heard by her fellow sufferer. A heartless ruf fian asked Margaret, “ What think you of your friend now?” The noble answer of the undaunted martyr was readily given: “What do I see but Christ in one of His members wrestling there! Think you that we are the sufferers? No, it is Christ in us; He who sends us not a warfare at our own charges.” Endurance Wins. General Grant telegraphed to Gen eral Thomas: “Hold Chattanooga at all hazards. I will be there as soon as pos sible. Please inform me how long your present supplies will last, and the pros pect of keeping them up.” To this Gen eral Thomas replied, “We will hold the town until we starve.” Dr. Hulbert says, “ I had been indus trious with my fight with the weeds in my garden, but in spite of my efforts I spied a huge fat intruder growing up arrogantly 1n the midst of my sweet peas. My first impulse was one of resentment, and I was on the point of seizing th e . offender, when I was arrested by a discovery. I found that the flowers, seeing they could not get rid of their enemy, had, with an instinct human beings do not always disclose, turned it into a means of ascent, climb
ing by it into the sunlight,” Joseph was trained in the school of “hard knocks.” vs. 1-18. The Holy Spirit has devoted more space to the life of Joseph than to Abraham. The reason for this must be sought in the fact that the story of Joseph foreshadows the COMMENT story of Christ.— Gaebe- FROM MANY lein. What Joseph suf- SOURCES fered from his brethren and which God’s decree turned to his nation’s salvation, is a type of Christ’s suffering caused by His people, by which God’s decree turned to the salvation of the world, including finally the salvation of Israel itself.— Delitzsch. Joseph entered upon his journey in simplicity of heart. God lets him run into the net from which he could easily have warned him. Whom He wishes to exalt He first tries, puri fies, tempts and humbles.— Starke. v. 17. Found them in Dothan. Dothan signifies law or custom. , It was there that Jesus found His brethren dwell ing in the bondage of law and slaves to mere religious formalism.-—Halde- man. _ v. 18. He came near unto them. It is far from accident that the first announcement of the mission of the beloved Son to the people in the land of Israel should be made to shepherds. See v. 13.—Haldeman. They conspired against him. There is irony in making the hatred of these men the very means of their brother’s advancement and an occasion of blessing to themselves. As coral insects work, not knowing the plan of their reef, so evil doers are carrying on God’s plan and sin is made to counterwork itself.— Maclaren. Like Jonah’s gourd, the smallest seed of hate needs but an hour or two of favoring weather to become a great tree with blood-sucking birds crowding in its branches.— Selected. v. 19. Behold, this dreamer. Their mocking words as they saw Joseph
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs