Here, for example, was a young man who was born on the sunny side of the street. He was the son of a rich man, and the favourite son. He was handsome--"It came to pass that Joseph was a goodly person and well favoured." He was habitually well dressed--"His father gave him a coat of many colours," which there in the Orient marked him as a young man of style. He had a vivid imagination and was a good talker. He was a young man of parts and his story was so interesting to those early Hebrews that here in the Book of Genesis thirteen full chapters are given to his personal history. Let me notice three points in his career--first, his early unpopularity. You do not have to know Hebrew to understand why he was not as popular as Santa Claus. He was his father's favourite, which is a heavy load for any child to bear. He lived in a family where there were four sets of children. His father had married two wives, Rachel who was handsome because he loved her, and Leah who was "tender-eyed," the Scripture says, because she was the daughter of his employer at that time and it was good business. There were also children who had been born to the two housemaids, according to the easy customs of that far-off time and place. Joseph was the son of Rachel, the favourite wife, and her favourite son. He wore the signs of this parental popularity in the gay coat of many colours. It was almost inevitable that he should become vain and overbearing. He was also a talebearer. He looked down with unconcealed contempt upon his half-brothers who were the sons of the housemaids. "When Joseph was with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah he brought unto his father their evil report." The tattler in the school and the squealer on the street come in, justly perhaps, for the contempt of their fellows. And whatever allowance may be made for exceptional situations, the instinct which brands the talebearer as mean is mainly wholesome. It was One who knew what was in man who said, "Why beholdest thou the mote in thy brother's eye and considerest not the beam in thine own eye? Judge not that ye be not judged." It is well for every man to sweep his own dooryard first before he begins to peddle stories as to the condition of his neighbour's dooryard. This young man also had his full share of that conceit which thinks quite as highly of itself as it ought to think. He had his daydreams, and this was well. I would not give a fig for the young fellow who does not see ahead of him masses of possible achievement in his particular line as high as the Sierras, if not quite so solid. But Joseph was soft and callow enough to tell his day-dreams to his fellows before he had done anything to indicate that those dreams might come true.