Article March 22, 1913 Issue

"ONLY IN THE THRONE"

M. G. KAINS, M.S.

Perhaps no story in the Old Testament conveys so many or so important lessons to present-day humanity, and especially to those people who have become interested in Christian Science, as does the story of Joseph. From beginning to end it is not only full of action, incident, and adventure, but at every point it teems with intimations as to the importance of ordering one's life on the basis of divine Principle. Sold into slavery by the envy and jealousy of his brethren, as a servant in the house of Potiphar, he yet found favor in the eyes of his master because, as we are told, "the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man." Although seeming to be a victim of hatred and lying, and thrust into prison, "the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison," who placed him in charge of the other prisoners and entrusted the management of the prison to him. Here he correctly interpreted the dreams of the chief baker and the chief butler, the latter of whom promised to aid him. As soon as liberated, however, the butler promptly forgot all about his promise until "the end of two full years," when Pharaoh had a double dream which "the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men" could not interpret. After their failure, the conscience-stricken chief butler told Pharaoh his experience as a dreamer while in prison, whereupon Pharaoh promptly sent for Joseph.

When Pharaoh had told his dream and had asked for the interpretation, Joseph modestly exclaimed: "It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace." Then he not only showed how the "seven kine, fat-fleshed and well favored," stood for seven years of abundance, and how the "lean and the ill favored kine" which "did eat up the first seven fat kine" represented seven years of famine, but he also outlined a plan whereby advantage could be taken of the seven years of plenty to store up a reserve supply of food for the following seven years of scarcity, and suggested that Pharaoh "look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt," to carry out the plan, first for the conservation, and second for the judicious distribution of food. Very naturally, "the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh," and just as naturally Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?" Was it surprising, therefore, that he should then turn to Joseph and say, "Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou."

In this last clause is one of the most striking expressions in the whole Bible. Here was the greatest earthly potentate of his time suddenly elevating a slave prisoner to a position of power practically on a par with his own! Why? Simply because Pharaoh recognized that Joseph was ordering his life on a higher plane of thought and action than he himself understood, and for this reason had become possessed of a wisdom and resourcefulness that could not be matched in the whole land of Egypt. The sequence of human events during the fourteen following years fully justified Pharaoh's course of action; for not only were the Egyptians, but also the children of Israel and other nations, saved from starvation because through Joseph's understanding of God there was corn in Egypt.

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"ONLY IN THE THRONE"

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