Part 10 (1/2)

Would Joseph's policy in dealing with Pharaoh's subjects meet with public approval to-day?

Could Joseph have succeeded as well in a republic?

Does Joseph's land policy justify the single tax? Or serfdom such as Joseph countenanced?

What place does loyalty to humble friends and kinsmen take in the making of great and n.o.ble characters?

Would you say that the ultimate standard of all real success is service?

Would it be wise for the state to enforce service for the public good by a heavy, progressive inheritance tax?

What justification is there for such a modification of Joseph's land policy, as the single tax? (See George, _Progress and Poverty_; Seligman, _Essays on Taxation_, 64-94.)

Do you think that a man earning his own living can expect to-day to succeed in politics and maintain his self-respect as an independent thinker?

_Subjects for Further Study_.

(1) The Origin and Literary Form of the Joseph Narratives. Kent, _Student's O. T_. I, 126-127; Hastings, _Dict. Bible_ II, 767-769; Smith, _O. T. History_, 54-55.

(2) Contemporary Parallels to the Joseph of the Biblical Narratives. Hastings' _Dict. Bible_ II, 772-775.

(3) Compare and Contrast the Achievements of Joseph, Bismarck and Cecil Rhodes.

STUDY VIII

THE TRAINING OF A STATESMAN.

MOSES IN EGYPT AND THE WILDERNESS.--EX. 1:1; 7:5.

_Parallel Readings_.

Goodnow, F. J., _Comparative Administrative Law_.

_Hist. Bible_ I, 151-69.

And he went out on the following day and saw two men of the Hebrews striving together; and he said to the one who was doing the wrong, Why do you smite your fellow-workman? But he replied, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and said, Surely the thing is known. When, therefore, Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to him Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and took up his abode in the land of Midian.

And Jehovah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry of anguish, because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a land, beautiful and broad, to a land flowing with milk and honey; Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, Jehovah, the G.o.d of your fathers, the G.o.d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt, and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy voice; and thou shalt come, together with the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and ye shall say to him, ”Jehovah, the G.o.d of the Hebrews, hath appeared to us; and now let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our G.o.d.”--_Hist. Bible_.

Hold on; hold fast: hold out--patience is genius.

Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it.--_Lincoln_.

I.

THE EGYPTIAN BACKGROUND OF THE BONDAGE.

The one contemporary reference to Israel thus far found in the Egyptian inscriptions comes from the reign of Merneptah the son of Ramses II. It implies that at the time at least part of the Hebrews were in the land of Palestine:

Plundered is Canaan with every evil; Askalon is carried into captivity, Gezer is taken; Yenoam is annihilated, Israel is desolated, her seed is not, Palestine has become a widow for Egypt.

All lands are united, they are pacified.