much of God - affords us only hints, but these are sufficiently significant. We read that "Joseph brought

unto his father" the "evil report" of his brethren. That is one aspect of his domestic relations. Side by side

with it is the other: "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children." Even if "the coat of many colors,"

which he gave to "the son of his old age," had been merely a costly or gaudy dress, it would have b een an

invidious mark of favoritism, such as too often raises bitter feelings in families. For, as time is made up of

moments, so life mostly of small actions whose greatness lies in their combination. But in truth it was not a

"coat of many colors," but a tunic reaching down to the arms and feet, such as princes and persons of

distinction wore,53 and it betokened to Joseph's brothers only too clearly, that their father intended to

transfer to Joseph the right of the first-born. We know that the three oldest sons of Leah had unfitted

themselves for it - Simeon and Levi by their cruelty at Shechem, and Reuben by his crime at the "watch-

tower of the flock."

What more natural than to bestow the privilege on the first-born of her whom Jacob had intended to make

his only wife? At any rate, the result was that "his brethren hated him," till, in the expressive language of the

sacred text, "they could not get themselves to address him unto peace,"  54 that is, as we understand it, to

address to him the usual Eastern salutation: "Peace be unto thee!"

It needed only an occasion to bring this state of feeling to an outbreak, and that came only too soon. It

seems quite natural that, placed in the circumstances we have described, Joseph should have dreamt two

dreams implying his future supremacy. We say this, even while we recognize in them a distinct Divine

direction. Yet Scripture does not say, either, that these dreams were sent him as a direct communication from

God, or that he was directed to tell them to his family. The imagery of the first of these dreams was taken

from the rustic, that of the second from the pastoral life of the family. In the first dream Joseph and his

brothers were in the harvest-field - which seems to imply that Jacob, like his father Isaac, had tilled the

ground - and Joseph's sheaf stood upright, while those of his brothers made obeisance. In the second dream

they were all out tending the flock, when the sun and moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to Joseph.

The first of these dreams was rela ted only unto his brethren, the second both to his father and to his

brothers. There must have been something peculiarly offensive in the manner in which he told his dreams,

for we read not only that they hated him yet the more for his dreams," but also "for his words." Even Jacob

saw reason to reprove him, although it is significantly added that he observed the saying. As we now know

it, they were prophetic dreams; but, at the time, there were no means of judging whether they were so or not,

especially as Joseph had so "worded" them, that they might seem to be merely the effect of vanity in a

youth whom favoritism had unduly elated. The future could alone show this; but, meantime, may we not say

that it was needful for the sake of Joseph himself that he should be removed from his present circumstances

to where that which was holy and divine in him would grow, and all of self be uprooted? But such results are

only obtained by one kind of training - that of affliction.

The sons of Jacob were pasturing their flocks around Shechem, when the patriarch sent Joseph to inquire of

their welfare. All unconscious of danger the lad hastened to execute the commission. Joseph found not his

brethren at Shechem itself, but a stranger directed him to "Dothan," the two wells, whither they had gone.

"Dothan was beautifully situated, about twelve miles from Samaria. Northwards spread richest pasture -

lands; a few swelling hills separated it from the great plain of Esdraelon. From its position it must have been

the key to the passes of Esdraelon, and so, as guarding the entrance from the north, not only of Ephraim,

but of Palestine itself. On the crest of one of those hills the extensive ruins of Dothan are still pointed out,

and at its southern foot still wells up a fine spring of living water. Is this one of the two wells from which

Dothan derived its name? From these hills Gideon afterwards descended upon the host of Midian. It was

here that Joseph overtook his brethren, and was cast into the dry well. And it was from that height that the

sons of Jacob must have seen the Arab caravan slowly winding from Jordan on its way to Egypt, when they

sold their brother, in the vain hope of binding the word and arresting the hand of God."  55

But we are anticipating. No sooner did his brothers descry Joseph in the distance, than the murderous plan

of getting rid of him, where no stranger should witness their deed, occurred to their minds. This would be

the readiest means of disposing alike of "the dreamer" and of his "dreams." Reuben alone shrunk from it, not