[From an address by E. H. Gates, delivered July 18, 1901, at the Union Conference in Coonabarabran, N. S. W., and published in the Union Record.]
It pleases me to see the great interest which you are all taking in the island work. I heard an aged brother say the other evening, referring to the much-needed launch for Fiji, “We shall have that launch.” Yes, we need that launch very much indeed. Brother Fulton was both astonished and delighted yesterday, to have £5 [$25] put into his hand by one of the students at the school, to form the nucleus of a launch fund.
Never was a work begun with more enthusiasm than the island missionary work. Great enthusiasm was manifested in building the missionary ship Pitcairn. The Sabbath-school children in America with their pennies raised over £2,000; and that was ten years ago.
Polynesia originally embraced the whole of the Pacific Islands; finally it was divided into five great groups. Now for a little geography. All to the east of Fiji and south of the equator is known as Polynesia. Melanesia lies to the west and southwest of Fiji. The islands to the northwest of Australia are called Malaysia. Those to the north of the equator and to the east of the Philippine archipelago are known as Micronesia. Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, together with a few islands adjacent, are designated Australasia. The meanings of some of these names are interesting. Polynesia means “many islands.” Melanesia means “black islands,” and Micronesia means “small islands.” In Malaysia there are over forty million inhabitants. Java alone has twenty-five millions, and is one of the most thickly populated places on the face of the earth. The Philippine Islands have from seven to ten millions.
The Society Islands are one of the most important island groups in the Pacific. It was here that the missionaries first began their work in 1797. The work went very hard, and it was sixteen long years before a single convert was made. Now, however, the natives are all professedly converted. We began work there ten years ago. Ten months ago I visited them again. The climate is very warm and extremely enervating. The same climatic difficulty has to be faced in Raratonga, where Brother and Sister Piper are now located. Our missionaries should be relieved occasionally in order that they may go to a cooler climate to recuperate.
We have now only one man and his wife working in the Society Group. Bro. Cady, however, will soon return. We have met with quite a measure of success in these islands. There are about one hundred and twenty-five Sabbath-keepers and three organized churches there.
A Maori War Canoe. South Seas.
The church building at Papeete is very fine. It measures twenty-four by forty-eight feet, and it has the appearance of being built of stone. On Raiatea is Bro. Cady’s home, 120 miles from Papeete. I first visited there in 1891. At that time the French were trying to get Raiatea, and we were particularly warned to be on our guard against a certain man who was said to be a French spy, and who might get us into needless trouble. To-day that man and his whole family are Sabbath-keepers. He has been a great help to us in translating books into the French language. The inhabitants of the Society Group have “Steps to Christ” and “Bible Readings” in their own language.
Brother Cady expects soon to start an industrial school on Raiatea. He owns a hundred acres of land, on which are growing four thousand excellent coconut trees; they are very fine trees indeed. Hitherto Brother Cady has conducted simply a Bible school. According to the laws enacted by the French, the teachers in the schools must be Frenchmen. Brother Conradi and Dr. de Forest have offered to send a teacher from France, so you see that we shall have no difficulty in meeting the law in this respect.
Brother Cady took four young islanders with him to Healdsburg College, Cal., to be educated. He feels he can make good workers of them. One great advantage is that they will be able to endure the climate. Brother Cady is bearing the expense of educating these young people at Healdsburg. I should like to tell how he has managed to meet a part of that expense. Before leaving for America he purchased three or four hundred strings of shells at tenpence [about twenty cents] apiece, and took them with him to the General Conference. He began to sell them for a dollar apiece. Brother Corliss arose and said that they were worth five dollars apiece. Brother Cady expects to get at least a hundred pounds out of these shells.
You will remember that some time ago the donations from the Sabbath-schools for one quarter were devoted to the work in Tahiti. I understand that there are eighty-six pounds in the treasury at Summer Hill. That will help us wonderfully in our work in Tahiti.
We sadly need a little schooner of our own. Pitcairn Island is now quite cut off since we sold our missionary ship Pitcairn. When at Pitcairn Island I gave a talk on tithing. I advised them to tithe all their produce and to bring the tithe into the storehouse. Every tenth coconut tree was branded “L.X.,” meaning Lord’s tenth. They wondered how their produce could be turned into cash, but I said to them, “If the Lord does not see His way ‘to realize on the produce that you have put ‘into His storehouse, you are not to blame.” The General Conference has promised £500 toward a new missionary ship. It is 1,250 miles from Pitcairn to Tahiti, and there are a great many small islands between.
Part of these comprise the Gambier Group, where there are extensive pearl fisheries. About eighty years ago there were 10,000 people in the Gambier Group. Many years ago Roman Catholic missionaries settled in these islands, and they have very successfully Christianized the natives according to their standard. Out of the 10,000 original inhabitants there remain only a few hundreds, and these are in the greatest darkness and degradation. There are a few French converts in Tahiti, but, as a rule, the French are hard to reach. The son of an excellent old French sister in Tahiti has recently accepted the truth in France.
Southwest of Tahiti is Tonga, also known as the Friendly Islands. Our work began there ten years ago, when we sold books to the value of £4, on an average, to every white family on one island. One man bought £16 worth at once. He told me that he had read “Great Controversy” fifty times. I should like to tell you about a trader there who was once a very hard case indeed. Brother Tay visited him and sold him a book. To-day he is a Seventh-day Adventist. In his library is a copy of all our books, and he also has many valuable scientific books. He is now a most excellent man. Another man and his wife who came from Auckland, have accepted the truth; and another who was a fearful drunkard has become a Sabbath-keeper. Others there are obeying the truth.
The work in these islands is indeed in a prosperous condition. Last November it was decided to build a church house. The building is now finished.13
Brother Butz, who has translated thirteen little tracts into Tongan, has been called away to America. Most of the Sabbath-keepers on these islands are English.
At Raratonga we have a church organization of twenty members, mostly native converts. As many of you know, there has been very severe persecution of the Sabbath-keepers in this place. The secretary of the government, who has long been our bitter opponent, was recently killed.
Malaysia is a very difficult field indeed, as it comprises so many nationalities. There is a measure of religious liberty in Malaysia. In Sumatra a mission is conducted by Elder Munson. He is very anxious to get a man and wife from Australia to teach the Chinese, and to act as nurses.
The Place Where the First White Man Landed in New Zealand.
I am glad to hear that some of the students at the Avondale School have signified their desire to labor in this field.
IDOLS
By E. B. Browning
How weak the gods of this world are—
And weaker yet their worship made me!
I have been an idolater
Of three—and three times they betrayed me.
Mine oldest worshiping was given
To natural Beauty, aye residing
In bowery earth and starry heav’n,
In ebbing sea, and river gliding.
But natural beauty shuts her bosom
To what the natural feelings tell!
Albeit I sigh’d, the trees would blossom;
Albeit I smiled, the blossoms fell.
Then left I earthly sights, to wander
Amid a grove of name divine,
Where bay-reflecting streams meander,
And Moloch Fame hath rear’d a shrine.
Not green, but black, is that reflection;
On rocky beds those waters lie;
That grove hath chilliness and dejection—
How could I sing? I had to sigh.
Last, human Love, thy Lares greeting,
To rest and warmth I vow’d my years.
To rest? how wild my pulse is beating!
To warmth? ah me! my burning tears!
Aye! they may burn, tho thou be frozen
By death, and changes wint’ring on!
Fame, Beauty!—idols madly chosen—
Were yet of gold; but thou art STONE!
Crumble like stone! my voice no longer
Shall wail their names, who silent be;
There is a voice that soundeth stronger,
“My daughter, give thine heart to Me.”
Lord! take mine heart! O first and fairest,
Whom all creation’s ends shall hear;
Who deathless love in death declarest!
None else is beauteous—famous—dear!
—E. B. Browning.
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING IN INDIA.
Last July two men, Mr. D. C. Churchill and Mr. J. B. Knight, sailed from New York, to take charge of the industrial work connected with the American Board's Marathi Mission in India. Mr. Churchill is a graduate from the Massachusetts School of Technology, and Mr. Knight from the Massachusetts Agricultural College. The Missionary Herald says of this enterprise:—
These two men go out to the Marathi Mission under an agreement for three years. The mission has been led to take in over 3,000 famine children, of whom nearly 2,000 are boys. The primary attempt of these two experts will be to train the majority of these boys in lines of mechanical and agricultural industries.
In Western India the Marathi Mission has for many years felt the urgent necessity of industrial training. So many questions relating to the rapidly growing Christian communities—the condition of new converts, the education of children, the progress and elevation of Christian society, the self-support of the native church, the self-propagation of Christianity—all so center around the practical habits of life that sporadic attempts at industrial training have been necessitated. Before 1880, Rev. R. Winsor, at Sirur, established an industrial training school. He taught in this school carpentry, rope-making, and blacksmithing. The work done here has been recognized by the English Government as most beneficial, and grants-in-aid have been made annually. At Ahmednagar a new and large School of Arts has been recently built, which trains boys scientifically in drawing, carpentry, metal hammering, and carpet-weaving. The Indian Mission Industries, Ltd., a company of Christian capitalists in England, have taken up the commercial problem concerned, and have opened a factory for Oriental rug-weaving under European management. They have more than a hundred boys and girls in this factory who are now earning their livelihood. At the beginning of the year land was bought, and a factory to accommodate five hundred hands is now in process of erection. The company, composed as it is of Christian men, have not only a philanthropic object in view, but have every reason to expect that the industry will be commercially successful.
The famine has intensified the industrial problem. The legacy of almost 3,500 famine destitutes has made imperative some well-organized industrial work. Already something has been done. The carpet-weaving classes at Ahmednagar have been enlarged. The same work has been opened at Sholapur, a hundred miles southeast of Ahmednagar. In Bombay, in the High School, the industrial class of gold and silver embroidery has done splendid work. The embroidery is so beautiful and well made that it has a ready market in England and the United States. The profits go to the support of famine children. At Miss Abbot's Widows' Home, sixty-five women are at work making embroidered mats, tablecloths, handkerchiefs, etc. At Rahuri, Vadala, Ahmednagar, Sirur, Kolgaw, etc., agricultural lines are being successfully carried on. Weaving of native clothing is being taught in a few places. At nearly every one of the nine stations of the Marathi Mission there is some attempt to teach self-support and industrial habits.
But larger plans are now under way, and these two trained men have been chosen to take charge. The missionaries have been hampered in their endeavors because of lack of training, and still more, lack of time to manage such industrial lines. These two Christian men go out to give their whole time and thought and trained energies to the successful establishing of industries which shall be commercially valuable, and so help to put these children, as well as others, on their feet and make them truly independent.
OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
THE first session of the Eastern Union Conference is to be held at South Lancaster, Mass., November 27 to December 5.
AFTER meetings held with the church at Waukon, Iowa, August 23–25, by Brother C. A. Washburn, six candidates were baptized.
THE laborers of North Pacific Conference are all engaged in a three months’ campaign selling “Christ’s Object Lessons,” beginning October 1.
SEVERAL new rooms are being added to our school at Hildebran, N. C., and it is now designed to establish a sanitarium at that place in the near future.
THE States of North and South Carolina have been organized into a conference with Brother J. O. Johnson, president. The new organization is known as the Carolina Conference.
TEN conversions to the truth, together with a continued interest, are noted in connection with a tent effort at Trinidad, Colo., by Brethren H. L. Hoover and G. W. Angleberger.
THE dedication of a new church building at Hawkeye, Iowa, was part of the program of the general meeting held at that place beginning on the 9th ult. and continuing till the 13th.
THE eighteenth annual session of the Virginia Conference of Seventh-day Adventists will convene in the city of Richmond, at the regular place of meeting, cor. 25th and Clay streets, November 1–10.
THE Indiana Reporter says: “The Indianapolis ‘church gave the right hand of fellowship to three ‘new members last Sabbath. One was Sister Booz, ‘for many years an evangelist of the United Brethren ‘Church.’”
BROTHER ALLEN MOON has been elected president of Illinois Conference, and Brother Charles Thompson, vice-president. Brother W. D. Curtis is field secretary of the Sabbath-school and educational department.
DURING meetings recently held at Alliance, Neb., by Brethren O. S. Ferren and J. Nethery, six adult persons were baptized. The brethren also report an encouraging sale of books and periodical subscriptions.
THE Oklahoma Conference includes Oklahoma and Indian Territories. The officers are, President, G. G. Rupert; secretary, E. Josephine Rupert; treasurer, C. Shaeffer. The conference office is at Oklahoma City, O. T.
ALL the laborers of Iowa Conference are to devote two months to the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons,” beginning the 21st inst. They are to draw half their regular pay, and then to be further compensated according to the number of books sold.
THE late camp-meeting at Lincoln, Neb., was the largest ever held in the State. The Reporter says that more than 1,100 were encamped on the ground. About a hundred candidates were baptized. Brethren L. E. Johnson and A. C. Anderson were ordained to the Gospel ministry. Brother N. P. Nelson was elected president of the conference, and Brother J. F. Beaty was chosen secretary and treasurer.
A SISTER who resides in Pasadena, Cal., and who is a cripple and has almost reached her threescore and ten years, gives us a little of her experience in trying to do something for the Lord’s cause. She says: “I had a pair of canary birds given me, and ‘I said, ‘Lord, if Thou wilt help me to raise some ‘birds and sell them, I will give half I make to Thee.’ ‘I then made a nest and put it in the cage, and during the season my birds hatched sixteen little ones. ‘One escaped, but I raised fifteen, and sold birds ‘to the amount of seven dollars and a half. Then I ‘began to consider what I should do with the Lord’s ‘half. I decided to give one dollar to the Southern ‘field, one dollar to the Orphans’ Home, one dollar ‘to the home work, and seventy-five cents to the ‘Scandinavian work.’”
FROM a private letter written by Brother T. H. Watson of Douglass City, Alaska, bearing date of September 21, we take the privilege of quoting as follows: “I find this a very difficult field. We ‘have very few friends here, I can assure you. The ‘Lord has blessed us, however, and with good courage ‘we are pressing on, and we are also looking for-ward to see souls respond to the Master’s call. We ‘are passing through a severe time just at present, ‘there is so much sickness among the children. ‘This climate is very hard on any one not a native. ‘We have been here nearly two months, and it has ‘been raining almost the entire time, with no present ‘prospect of letting up. But God has a work to do ‘here, and it must be done soon, for the ‘night is ‘soon coming, in which no man can work.’ Remember us in your prayers; and may God lead us and ‘aid us, for truly the harvest is ripe. I never so ‘fully realized this great truth as since coming away ‘from the home field.”
AFTER an absence of eight years, Sister Georgia Burrus recently returned to California for a brief visit to her old home. The greater part of her absence was spent in India, where she has been our only worker among the zenanas. As is quite generally known, only women can have access to the women in that country, and there are 150,000,000 of them to be reached by the Gospel through the personal ministration of women. Only an infinitesimal proportion of them can read, and one must learn their language before being able to converse with them. Sister Burrus says that vegetarian Christians have a decided advantage as missionaries, as the Hindus are religiously opposed to eating flesh, and many of the missionaries have urged converts to eat flesh-meat just to show that they were Christians. People who know this think that flesh-eating is a part of Christianity, and this makes the Gospel especially repugnant to them. Sister Burrus has been gladly received into houses because the people had learned that she was a vegetarian. It is well to heed the advice of Paul: “Destroy not him with thy meat, for ‘whom Christ died. Let not then your good be ‘evil spoken of; for the kingdom of God is not ‘meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and ‘joy in the Holy Ghost.” Rom. 14:15–17. Sister Burrus is doing what she can to arouse an interest in the zenana work, and after a short sojourn in America will return to her labors in Bengal. On Sabbath, September 28, she spoke to the church in this city, giving a very interesting account of her experience and labors among that most oppressed and downtrodden of all classes of human beings. Are there not a goodly number of our young sisters who are willing to make the sacrifice necessary to join this lone devoted worker, who has, by the help of the Lord, opened the door, and demonstrated that souls can be brought out of even zenana darkness to His marvelous light? Those who will go now will have the encouragement of one who has gone before, who will be an efficient helper and companion.
HYMN OF PRAISE.
By R. E. Lloyd
COME, brethren, let us gladly sing
Unto the Lord, our risen King;
Let's sound His praise from shore to shore
Till time with us shall be no more.
His name above all names shall be,
Our blessed Christ of Calvary;
We'll sing His praise the ages through
So meek, so good, so kind, so true.
Yes, I will sing Thy wondrous grace
Till I shall see Thy smiling face;
I'll laud Thy name forevermore,
And Thee, O precious Lamb, adore.
Ozark, Mo. R. E. LLOYD.
PUBLICATIONS WANTED.
LATE clean copies of the Signs, Review, Sentinel, and Life-Boat, for a wayside rack. Address, post-paid, Demetrio Mariatti, Hood, N. M.
ANY of our denominational publications, for a rack at railroad station. Address, postpaid, Mary E. West, Spartanburg, S. C.
The Elusive Contentment
He that commends me to mine own content commends me to the thing I can not get.—Shakespeare.
GREAT CLEARANCE SALE
For October and November
In BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS BLACK LANGSHANS, and WHITE WYANDOTTES
To make room, will sell at HALF USUAL PRICE for immediate orders
7 “And others fell upon the thorns; and the thorns grew up, and choked them: and others fell upon the good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Verses 22, 23.
22 “And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he that heareth the Word; and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the Word, and he becometh unfruitful.
23 And he that was sown upon the good ground, this is he that heareth the Word, and understandeth it; who verily beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty.”
7 “And other fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing; and brought forth, thirty-fold, and sixty-fold, and a hundred-fold.”
Verses 19, 20.
19 “And the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the Word, and it becometh unfruitful. And those are they that were sown upon the good ground, such as hear the Word, and accept it, and bear fruit, thirty-fold, and sixty-fold, and a hundred-fold.”
7 “And other fell amidst the thorns; and the thorns grew with it, and choked it. And other fell into the good ground, and grew, and brought forth fruit a hundred-fold. As He said these things, He cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
Verses 14–18.
14 “And that which fell among the thorns, these are they that have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit
15 to perfection. And that in the good ground, these are such as in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, hold it fast, and bring forth fruit with patience.
16 “And no man, when he hath lighted a lamp, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but putteth it on a stand,
17 that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is hid, that shall not be made manifest; nor anything secret, that
18 shall not be known and come to light. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he thinketh he hath.”
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
1. Where did other seed fall? What effect had the thorns upon the growing seed? What expression in the text shows that the thorns grew rapidly? Besides hindering the growth of the seed-stalks, what do thorns prevent? Mark 4:7; Luke 8:14.
2. What is the main purpose of sowing seed? What does Matthew say the thorns represent? Mark? Luke?
3. Do any of these things ever absorb our minds, and hinder spiritual growth, or prevent fruit-bearing?
4. In these very days, of what are we warned? Ans.—“But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare.” Luke 21:34.
5. What class is more apt to be absorbed with the cares of this life? What class with the pleasures?
6. Into what did other seed fall? What was brought forth? In what proportions? What, then, is the evidence of good ground?
7. What kind of fruit-bearing is equal to none at all? Hosea 10:1, 2.
8. For whom, then, does good ground bring forth fruit?
9. What is our final test—correctness of theology merely, or fruit-bearing? See Matt. 15:31–46.
NOTES.
THROUGHOUT the parable of the sower, Christ represents the different results of the sowing as depending upon the soil. In every case the sower and the seed are the same. Thus He teaches that if the Word of God fails of accomplishing its work in our hearts and lives, the reason is to be found in ourselves.
THE garden of the heart must be cultivated. The soil must be broken up by deep repentance for sin. Poisonous, Satanic plants must be uprooted. The soil once overgrown by thorns can be reclaimed only by diligent labor. So the evil tendencies of the natural heart can be overcome by earnest effort in the name and strength of Jesus.
THE “honest and good heart” of which the parable speaks, is not a heart without sin; for the Gospel is to be preached to the lost. Christ said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He has an honest heart who yields to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
38 “And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a 39 one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee 40 all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou: thou shalt 41 be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled; only in the throne will I be greater than 42 thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about 43 his neck; and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he set 44 him over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up 45 his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On. And 46 Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went 47 throughout all the land of Egypt. And in the seven plenteous 48 years the earth brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. 49 And Joseph laid up corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.”
Golden Text.—“Them that honor Me I will honor.” 1 Sam. 2: 30.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) When the king of Egypt would find a man to oversee the work of storing food for seven years, what kind of person did he seek? Verse 38. Note 1. (2) What was his estimate of Joseph’s fitness for the place? Verse 39. (3) Then to what position was Joseph assigned? Verses 40, 41. Note 2. (4) How was the appointment certified? Verses 42, 43. Note 3. (5) How was Joseph’s authority further emphasized by Pharaoh? Verse 44. Note 4. (6) What name did the king give to Joseph? Who was given to him for a wife? Verse 45. Note 5. (7) How old was Joseph at this time? What is said of his entry upon the duties of his office? Verse 46. (8) What is said of the product of the earth for seven years? Verse 47. Note 6. (9) What plan did Joseph adopt in storing the abundant crops? Verse 48. (10) What is said of the quantity that was gathered into the storehouses? Verse 49.
NOTES.
1. “Such a One.”—Pharaoh had dreamed two dreams, and none of the wise men of Egypt could interpret them. Then the chief butler, whose dream Joseph had interpreted so faithfully two years before, remembered the young Hebrew, who was still in prison. He also remembered his promise to speak to the king in behalf of Joseph. So he told Pharaoh of his own dream while in prison, and of the young Hebrew prisoner who had correctly interpreted it. The king sent for Joseph immediately, and the young man told him that his dreams were to show that there would be seven years of plentiful crops, followed by seven years of famine. He also advised the king to select a man “discreet and wise” who would oversee the laying up of food during the years of plenty, to provide against the time of famine. It was “such a one” that Pharaoh desired to find.
2. Joseph had given the credit to God for wisdom to interpret the dreams both of the chief butler and of the king. And now he receives the return honor. It was because God was with him that the king decided to choose him for the place. Pharaoh wisely judged that the man so endowed would be wiser and more discreet than one who was dependent solely upon his own wisdom. Thus Joseph profited by giving God the honor due to His name.
3. The ring was the seal by which the king’s indorsement was given to all State documents. Joseph could now use the king’s authority in giving any orders he chose. In the East, it is said, men in authority do not sign their names. They have seals in which their names and titles are engraven, and impressions from these serve the purpose of seal and signature in our country. These seals are usually on rings or bracelets.
4. The absolute authority given to Joseph was, no doubt, essential to his work, as his interpretation of the dream would be received with hesitancy by many of the people. And the great emphasis laid upon his elevation would be necessary even to impress Joseph himself with the fact. He had learned humbleness of mind, or God would not yet have permitted him to be so exalted, and it would be difficult for him to assume the authority necessary to the position.
5. Joseph’s new name, Zaphenath-paneah, is defined by Canon Cook as “bread of life.” It is also defined, “governor of the place of life,” by other authorities.
6. “By handfuls” means in great abundance, some commentators say that one grain produced a handful. Egypt was ordinarily very productive of grain, and during these seven years the product was exceptionally abundant.
(See article, “Joseph Exalted,” on page 6 of this paper.)
