Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1917 — DISCORD IN FAMILY [ARTICLE]

DISCORD IN FAMILY

The Only Remedy for the Quarrels In the Home Is Greatest Thing in World—Love. (Text—Genesis 37:18-28.) There are no causes for misery more common than, and none so dis- 1 tressing as family discord. The closer the ties that bind, the greater that chafing may be and the sorer the* wound that this chafing makes. The ’sweeter the fruit, the sourer the vinegar ; and when family affection turns sour, the product is worthy of the discord of the bottomless pit. No better Illustration of the causes and results of family discord does the Bible afford than the story of Joseph, his father and his brethren. How many children today grieve over the preference of parents for a brother or sister The less favored one is not so winsome or pretty, perhaps, or he finds it less easy to express his affection; and in secret, though too proud to tell his sorrow, he grieves over this partiality, and comes to think at last that he has no chance to make his way in life in comparison with his more favored-brother. Nothing is more foolish than the exhibition of such partiality. Indeed, it Is almost criminal.“lt is apt to render the favored one conceited and toplofty, and to depress and mortify and sour the less attractive. It is gratifying to know that often the affection of father and mother is poured out more lavishly on the sick, the crippled, the ill-favored; but when the reverse is the case, family quarrels are sure to follow. Our theme has to do with the family life of Jacob’s sons. We can easily trace the course of the quarrel which almost ripened into murder. Partiality, wrangling, conspiracy and intended fratricide were the seeds and fruits of this evil tree. Every family quarrel contains some of these hateful seeds and may bear such hideous fruits. I am glad that the future story of Joseph relieves this dark picture. Age sometimes hardens and sours the dlsposltion, but sometimes it softens and sweetens it. In the case of Jacob and his sens it seems to have the latter effect They grew to be better men as they grew older. At last Joseph had an opportunity to take a glorious revenge. During all the years of his obscurity in the palace and in prison he kept a Warm place in his heart for his old father, and bore no ill-will toward the brothers who had treated him so ill. “Is the old man your father, yet alive?” he asks with trembling voice and eyes so moist that he dared not eat with his brothers in the palace lest he betray himself. He heaped Benjamin’s plate with a fivefold portion, showing the same partiality for the youngest brother that his father had shown for him, but not with the same disastrous results. For the older broth-

ers had been chastened by their afflictions, and starved into humility, and did not resent the favoritism shown to Benjamin. They groveled at the feet of their unknown brother, the great premier of Egypt, bowing before him as his dream predicted, and he completed the conquest by forgiving and loving them, and falling on their necks with kisses, and giving them afterward of the best of the land. Thus ended this bitter family feud. We could scarcely have expected such a sequel. The sequel to the feud in Jacob’s family points to the only remedy for all such quarrels. It is spelled 1-o-v-e, and it is described more beautifully than in in any other literature in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians. What ‘a divine remedy is love for curing family discord! It is the only one. Such quarrels, unless love ends them, will be likely to grow more and more bitter until they end in the divorce court, as they have done so often, or possibly in murder and the murderer’s cell. Let us pray in every family circle, at every family altar, for the love that is kind, modest, well behaved, generous, gentle, that hopes and believes all good things about another —the love that never faiieth. —Rev. Francis E. Clark, D. D., LL. D„ founder and President of Christian Endeavor.