The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-02

Group could live without glorious betterr1ent in
a land where there has never been a death and
all the inhabitants shall live as long God. But
Joseph was Joseph, notwithstanding the palace,
and your children, will be your children, notwlth-
standing the raining splendors of an everlasting
noon.
w hat thrilling occasion was the visit of this
Old shepherd to his son, the Prime Minister AS
the aged countryman sits y the palace and
looks round at the mirrors and the fountains,
and the carved pillars, he wishes that Rachel,
his wife, could have lived to come with him and
visited their son in his great home. oh" SAYS
he, If Rachel could only have seen this!" Well,
that is good time when the old folks come to see
you Your little children stand round with eyes
wide open. and wonder how people can be so
very old. Perhaps the old people stay only
few weeks, for sometimes they feel little rest
less especially when night comes on, for they
sleep better in their own beds But while they
are with you you feel somehow that there is a
benedction in every room of the house. They
are quite feeble, and you make it as easy for
them you can and realize they will not visit
you very often and perhaps never again. You
go TO their room after they have retired, to see
that their lights are properly put out, for they
understand candle and lamp better than they do
modern apparatus for illumination.
THE CHRISTIAN HOME.
You ask them in the morning, with positive
interest, how they rested. Joseph thought no
more of aged Jacob when on the historical visit
than you thought of the old people who visit
YOU Before they left your house 1 should not
wonder if they half spoiled your children with
kindness for grandfather and grandmother are
more lenient and indulgent with their grandchil
dren than they were with you; and what Won
ders of revelation unroll from the deep bomba-
zine side pocket OF the one, and from the sleeve
of the other. Blessed is that home which the
Christian old folks come to visit. Whatever it
may be for architecture, before they leave it is
palace. Though they come fifty times, the two
most memorable visits are the first and the last
Those two pictures will hang in the hall of your
memory as long as memory lasts, and you will
often think where they sat. and how they looked,
and at what figure of the carpet and at what
door-slll they gave you the final goodbye Be
not ashamed to introduce your father when he
comes to town, though his manners be those of a
shepherd or your mother. though her hat be-
speaks no costly millinery. Joseph introduced
his father in homespun to Pharaoh, the King.
Good advice the wife of Theodosius, the EN-
peror, gave him: Remember, o husband, what
lately you were, and what now you are!"
By this time you notice what kindly provision
Joseph made for his fathers comfort. He did
not say: Il cannot be bothered with having the
old man around here How awkward he would
look climbing these marble stairs and walking
these mosaics. He would be putting his hands
on the fresco. People would ask: Where did
that greenhorn come fromP His manners at
side that he might get sick on my hands and he
might be Querulous and treat me as mere boy
when am next to Pharaoh in power. Ofcourse,
he must not suffer, and if they have famine in
his country will send few provisions down.
But don't talk to me about fetching man from
Paden Aram into the public society of this great
capital. What a nuisance it is to have many
poor relations' But not so said Joseph. He
goes out to meet his old shepherd father with
perfect abandon of affection and bring him to the
palace, and introduces him to Pharaoh and
makes provision for the rest of his fathers days,
and nothing was too good for the old man living,
and after his death Joseph, with magnificent
military escort, took his fathers remains to the
family cemetery at Macpelah and laid him ten
derby down beside Rachel, Joseph's mother
Would to God that all sons treated their par
ents as well as Joseph treated his. If parents
have large fortunes and are wise enough to keep
their property In their own name, the heirs are
respectful in their behavior. But if the parents
are in famine as Jacob was when Joseph sent for
him, how they crowd the old man! How morti-
fed they are because he will eat with his knife
instead OF his fork! How they are Disguised
with his antediluvian habts How they are
provoked because he cannot hear distinctly what
they say! How long they will let him wear the
old coat or hat before they get him a new one!
How chagrined they are at his independence of
English grammar How he hangs on! Seventy,
and not gone yet! Seventy five and not gone
yet! Eighty, and not gone yet! Will he ever
got They don't see any need of doctor in his
last illness, and go up to the drug store and buy
him dose of something that makes him worse,
. and they economic on a coffin, beating the I'M
dertaker down to the last point of charges and
giving a note for that reduced amount, which
they never pay have officiated at the obse-
ques of aged people where the family were so
Unfortunately resigned that have been tempted
to take my text from Proverbs: "The eye that
mocketh at its father and refuseth to obey its
mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out
and the young eagles shall eat it,
T tula 70 Of 0-Ou pho hove %bo
honor of providing for aged parents. The bless
ing of the Lord God of Jacob and Joseph will
be upon you forever. l rejoice to know that
though my father lived in plain house the most
of his days, he died in a mansion provided by
the filiai piety of of his sons, who had
achieved fortune, with servants to wait on
him, and carriages and horses to carry him
whittier he would go; arbors in which to sit dur
ing the long summer evenings and dream over
the past; musical instruments to cheer him, and
in any room of that mansion he welcomes;
and when life was over with all the honors that
his neighbors could express he was carried out
to The village Macpelah to rest beside his Rachel
who for more than fifty years had been his COM
panion. After you have earned fortune, share
it with the old people. They probably inculcated
the principles through which you achieved your
success. Pay them back Christian per cent
age in kindly consideration Let joseph share
with his father Jacob the pasture fields of
Goshen and the glories of the Egyptian court.
And here | sound the praise of that eisterhood
who have remained unmarried that they might
administer to aged parents. The brutal world
sometimes calls these self -sacrifcing ones by I'M
gallant names and they are said to be precise.
and angular and queer. But If you had had one
half of the annoyances they have had, Xantippe
would have been angel compared to you. 1t
is easier to take care of five rompng rollicking
children than childish old man. Among the
finest specimens of womanhood in Brooklyn and
in yonder transporting city. are those who al
lowed the bloom of girlhood to pass in ministries
to their parents. While other madens were
asleep, they were soaking the old mans feet or
tucklng the coverlids around an invalid mother
While others at the cotillion they were
dancing attendance on rheumatism or spreading
pasters for the lame back of the septuagenarian.
and heating catnip tea for insomnia In all our
circles of kindred there at least one such
queen of selfsacrifce who had jeweled hard af-
ter jeweed hand offered her in marriage and yet,
be sense of filial obligation was kept on the old
ace until health was zuorn ont and tho a+trnct