s from obscurity to eminence. Whether the path lies from the
log cabin of a rail splitter to the White House, from the lowly work of
the lanyard to the head of victorious armies, or from a pit on the
plains of Dothan to a palace on the banks of the Nile, there is
something in the human heart which responds to the unfolding of such a
life-story.

The Hebrews were happy in relating how men of their race had made their
way up to places of honour at alien courts through the sheer force of
their own personal ability. Here was Joseph coming up out of the
prison house to the right hand of Pharaoh! Here was Daniel preferred
above the other presidents and princes at the court of Darius! Here
was Benjamin Disraeli belonging to a race formerly disfranchised in
England becoming at last Prime Minister of Her Most Christian Majesty
Queen Victoria! Let every man who looks down upon some lowly life
beware lest he despise what God has blessed!

Here was a young man who had vision! He saw things. He did not merely
"look," as would some dog that bays the moon. When he walked across
the plains of Dothan his mind was not altogether upon wool and
mutton--he was already dreaming of high achievement in his future
years. When he was thrown into the pit and sold into slavery his brain
was busy with the stars. When he faced temptation he saw it all with
the eye of faith--how could he do this great wickedness and sin against
God. And when he was confronted with a problem confessedly too hard
for him he lifted up his eyes to the hills from whence cometh help.
"It is not in me. The interpretation of life belongs to God."

He was only seventeen years old when he walked across the fields that
day to the place where his brothers kept their flocks. Now he was
thirty. He had increased in stature, in wisdom and in favour with God
and man. It had taken thirteen long years to add those cubits to his
height, but they had been well spent. The Almighty takes His time in
working out His finer effects. The spoiled child, the censorious
talebearer, the callow, conceited youth must be wrought upon by the
beat and play of human life. When any man has vision and faith there
is a divinity which shapes his ends, rough-hewn though they be by
doting fathers and envious brothers, by false accusers, and by
ungrateful companions. When a man is faced right, all things, no
matter what shape they bear, will ultimately work together for his good.

"A man