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Lives of Great Men
39
Egypt, Joseph remembered his father’s God. He remembered the
lessons of his childhood, and his soul thrilled with the resolve to
ever act as a subject of the King of heaven.
In the bitter life of a stranger and a slave, amidst the sights and
sounds of vice and the allurements of heathen worship, Joseph was
steadfast. He had learned the lesson of obedience to duty.
When he was called to the court of Pharaoh, Egypt was the
greatest of nations. In civilization, art, learning, it was unequaled.
Through a period of utmost difficulty and danger, Joseph adminis-
tered the business of the kingdom, and this he did in a manner that
won the confidence of the king and the people. Pharaoh “made him
lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: to bind his princes
at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.”
Psalm 105:21, 22
.
Inspiration has set the secret of Joseph’s life before us. In words
of divine power and beauty, Jacob, in the blessing pronounced upon
his children, spoke of his best-loved son:
“Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a well;
His branches run over the wall.
The archers have bitterly grieved him,
Shot at him and hated him.
But his bow remained in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong
By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.”
Genesis 49:22-24.
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Loyalty to God, faith in the Unseen, was Joseph’s anchor. In this
lay his power.
Daniel, an Ambassador of Heaven
Daniel and his companions in Babylon were, in their youth,
apparently more fortunate than was Joseph in the earlier years of his
life in Egypt, yet they were subjected to tests of character scarcely
less severe. From the simplicity of their Judean home these youth of
royal line were transported to the most magnificent of cities, to the
court of its greatest monarch, and were singled out to be trained for