The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-02-11
PULPIT UTTERANCES.
Home Love the Stepping-S Stone to
Life Eternal
And Fllial Affection Balm for Anxiety
and tress--TransplantIng tho, =
t Family Altar from Earth ~ y.
to Heaven.


Sunday was: "The Old Folks''Visit," ="
and the text, Genesis, xiv, %: 81 will go
and see him before de-" DIR. Talmage
said:
Jacob had long since passed the hun
dred-year mile stone. People had in those
days wonderful longevity, but we have
had in later centuries very aged persons,
Among the Ngrandest old men that we
have any record of is Jacob, the patriarch
Of the text. But he had bad lot Of boys.
The most of them were cruel, jealous and
unprincipled. His son Joseph was an ex-
ception, but he had not been heard from
for a long while and the probability was
that he was dead. But, Jas 1t is the custom
in some houses now TO keep vacant place
ut the table, with plate and knife anG fork
and chair, for q deceased member of the
family, 30 there had always been In old
Jacobs heart a place for his departed son
Joseph. There sits the old man, the flock
of one hundred and forty five years hav-
ing in their flight alighted long enough to
leave the marks Of their claws on his fore
head and check and temples. The long
white beard SHOWS down upon his chest.
His eyes, somewhat dim, can see further
when they are shut than when they are
open, for he sees clear back to the time
when Rachel, his beautiful wife, was Nv
ing and the children shook the Oriental
abode with their merriment.
While the centenarian sits there brood
ing over the past there is rumbling Of
heavy wagons at the door, and the old man
gets up and goes TO the door TO see who has
come. And his sons, returned from Egypt,
rush In and tell him that his son Joseph,
instead Of being dead, is living in the
Egyptian palace and is next to the King,
having all the investiture of Prime Minis
ter In the greatest Empire Of the world.
What did you say about my Josephp
You did not mean my dear son Joseph, did
your He has been dead many years. You
did not mean him, did your" But, fully
resuscitated from the nervous shock, and
assured that the good news is true, the
tears begin their winding way down the
cross roads Of the wrinkled face, and the
sunken lips Of the old man quiver, and he
clasps his bent fingers together and says:
Joseph, my son, is yet alive, and will
go and see him before I die" 1t did not
take the old man long to get ready, war;
rant you. He put on the best clothes a
shepherds wardrobe could afford and got
into wagon, and when that wagon and
the old man met Joseph's chariot coming
down TO meet him 1t was an antithesis of
rusticity and loyalty, simplicity and pomp,
filial affection and paternal love, leaving
us so much in doubt about whether we had
better laugh or cry that we do both. So
Jacob carried out the resolution of the text:
u will go and see him before l die.p
y What a strong and lasting thing Is pa
rental attachment Was it not most time
that Jacob forgot Joseph Many years
had come and gone; the hot suns Of many
summers had blasted upon the heath. The
Nile again and again had overfown. Har-
vests had been sown and reaped. Stars
risen aud set, Years of plenty; years OF
famine. But theintense attachment Of the
patriarch for his long absent son Is In the
text overwhelmingly dramatic. All, that
is the cord that can not be snapped, though
1t be pulled on by whole decades OF years.
When the child disappeared from this life
the parents may have been but twenty
fve years of age, and now they may be
soventy-dve. But the vision OF the cradle
and childish face, and the first utterances
Of the young lips are fresh to-day In spite
Of the passage of half century. Jecob ID
as fresh In Joseph's heart as on the day
when at seventeen years Of age he disap-
peared from the homestead. Finding in
our family record the story OF an infant
who died fifty years before, asked my
parents something about Il, but they chief
ly answered by long, deep sigh. II waS
subject yet Of unbearable tenderness.
All this means that, however long our
children are gone away, they are part OF
us, and the cord Of .endearment that
reaches across the years will continue "a
hold us until IL brings us together In the
palace, as 1t did Jacob and Joseph. That
Is one thing that helps old people to die
happy. They so realize that II Is reunion
with those from whom they have long
been separated. The question is often
asked: "Will my children In Heaven al
ways be childrenp You want TO get them
back as they were when they left you.
Well, Joseph must have been very much
changed between the time that Jacob lost
him and the time he found him-a ruddy
lad at seventeen; now amiddle-aged man,
his forehead developed with the .great
business Of State. But IL was enough for
the father that he had got his son back
again, and Of but little Importance
whether he looked younger or older. And
parents will be satisfied II their SON greet
them at the door Of the Kings palace,
whether their nature be cherub or full
grown angelhood. think that celestial
cline and the roll Of those supernal years
must make a change, but only from lowell
ness 10 moro loveliness and from health TO
more radinnt health. You need not ex-
pect that the darling that lay white
and painting with membranous Group
could live without glorious betterment In
a land where there has never been a death
and all the inhabitants shall live az long
rs God, But Joseph was Joseph, notwith-
standing the palace, and your children
will be your children, notwithstanding the
raining splondors Of an eyerlarting noon.
What thrilling ooeasion was the visit
Of this old shepherd TO his son, the Prime
Ministeri As the aged countryman sits In
the palace and looks around at the mirrors
and the fountains and the carved pillars,