Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-02-02
VISIT OF THE OLD FOLKS.
DIR. TALMAGE's OPENING SUB
JECT FOR FEBRUARY.

$50 Paid for Pew by DIR. Harrison
A. Tucker-Free Seats for Countless
WOrshipers-JOseph's Return Home
from Egypt the Topic Treated by the
Text.
BROOKLYN, n. Y, Feb. 1.-Quite a re-
vOlution in the Brooklyn Tabernacle has
taken place in consequence of the recent
public rental of pews, and the audience
are to-day for the first time in their new
places, the pew-hOlders admitted by cards.
While in other churches the finances
have been depressed by the hard times,
the pews in this church have brought
higher prices than ever before. DR.. Har-
rison A. Tucker pays this year $50
for his pew, and others in proportion.
But the free principle is combined with
this rental, and seats are reserved for
thousands of people who pay nothing.
DR.. Talmage read another long list of new
members, making 130 received at recent
meetings of session.
The subject of the sermon was 'The
Old Folks VISIT" and the text: Genesis
XIV, 2S: Il will go and see him before |
die" DR.. Talmage said:
Jacob had long since passed the lOO-year
milestone. People had il t1Ose days wonder
fGl longevity, but We have had in later cen
turles very aged persons. Galen. the most
celebrated OF ancient physicians, took so little
OF his own medicine that he lived TO be l40
years Old A trustworthy man on a witness
stand in England on oath declared he
remembered $50 years. Lord Bacon speaks
Of a Countess who had cut three sets OF teeth
and was l40 years old. Joseph Crele, of Penn
sylvanla, died at l4O. In a book published in
1857 are the names of 81 people who lived to
be l4O years old. and of II who reached $50.
Among the grandest 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 themsWere cruel, jealous and unprincipled.
His son Joseph was an exception, but he had
not been heard from for long WHILE and the
probability was that he was dead. But, as il
is the custom in some houses now to keep
vacant place aC the table with plate and knife
and FORK and chair for deceased member of
the family, so there had always been in old
Jacobs heart a place for his departed son
Joseph. There sits the old man, the flock of
l45 years having in their flight alighted long
enough to leave the marks of their claws on
his forehead and cheek 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 living and the children
shook the oriental abode with their merri-
ment.
While the centenarIan sits there broodlng
wagons at the door, and the Otd
man gets up and goes to the door
to see who has come, ana his sons, re-
turned from Egypt, rush in and tell him that
his son 5oseph, instead of being dead, is living
IN the Egyptian palace and is next to the
King, having all the investlture of Prime
Minister in the greatest empire of the world
The news was too sudden and too glad for the
ed man, and he looks dazed. and his cheeks
get white, and he drops his staff and he would
have fallen fiat had not his boys caught HIM and
helped him on lounge, and put some water
to his face, and famed him a little. Com
ing to" he begins to humble some words
about Joseph: "What did you sag about my
Josephy 1Ou did not mean my dear son
Joseph, did you? He has been dead many
years. You did not mean him, did yOu?" But
fully resuscitated from the nervous shock and
assured that the good news was true, the tears
begin their winding way down the cross
roads of the wringled face, and the sunken
ilps OF the ola man culver and he claDs has
bent fingers together, and says: "Joseph, my
son, IS yet alive; VIII go and see him before /
de" 1t did not take the old man long to get
ready, L warrant you. He put on the best
clothes shepherds wardrobe could Afford
and got into a wagon, and when that wagon
and the old man met Joseph's chariot coming
down 10 meet HIN 1t was an antthesis OF rus
tlclty and royalty, simplicity and pOmp, fflial
aHectlon and paternal love, leaving us so
much in doubt about whether We had letter
laugh u cry that we do both. So Jacob car
rleu out the resolution of the text: 81 will 90
and see him before l die" If our friends tue
reporters, want an appropriate title for tnis
sermon | suggest that they call it 1.-The Old
Folks Visit"
What a strong and lasting thingis parental
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 Overtiown. Harvests had been
sown and reaped. Stars risen and set. Years
OF plenty. Years of famine. But the intense
attachment of the patriarch for his long alb
uarNr- -aa.1rr, v,.rlry dt-a-
matte. All, that is the cord that cannot be
snapped though it be pulled on By the whole |
decades of years. When the child disappear
ed from this life the parents NAV have been
but % years of age and now they NAV be rs,
OuJ 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.
Joseph is as fresh in Jacobs heart as on the |
day when at II years of age he disappeared
from the homestead. Finding in our family |
record the story of an infant who died so years |
oeIore, asked my parents something about
t, but they chiefly answered by a long, deep
sign. 1t was subject yet Of unbearable ten
ierness.
All rE:s means that however long our chill
iren are gCnC away they are part of us and
ne eOrd OF endC2rment that reaches across
,he years will continue to hold us until it |
brings Us together in the palace as it did |
JACOB ana Joseph; That is one thing that |
lelps Old people to die happy. They so realize |
u IS reunion with those from whom theg |
nave long been separated. The question is |
)tten asked: "Wlll my children in heaven al |
ways be childreng' 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 /
lme ne found nina ruddy lad at II, now a |
nludle- aged man, his forehead deVelOped /
with the great business of state. But it was |
enough for the father that he had got his son |
Dack again and OF but little Importance |
parents will be satisfied if their son greet /
hem at the door of the kings palace whether /
,helr nature be cheTub or full-grOWn angel
lOou. thlnk that celestial cline and the /
'Oll of those supernal years must make a 1
mango, but only from lOVeliness to more |
Ovellness and from health to more radiant /
health. You need not expect that the dar-
ing that lay white and painting with mena
Group could live without glorious
)etLerment in a land where there has never
been death and all the inhabitants shall live
Is long as God. But Joseph was Joseph, not
the palace, and your children |
viii be your children, Notwithstanding the
plendOrs Of an everlasting noon.
what a thrilling occasion was the visit of
his old shepherd to his son, the Prime Min
ster AS the aged countryman sits in the
palace ana looks round at the mirrors and |
he fountains, and the carved pillars he |
wishes that Rachel, his wife, could have lived |
o come with him and visited their son in his
treat home. "Oh," he says, ''if Rachel couId |
'nlY have seen all thisn Well. that is a good |
lme when the old folks come to see Won. |
our niue chlldren stand round with eyes
VIDE open, and wonder how people can be so |
cry old. Perhaps the old people stay only
ew weeks, for sometimes they feel a little |
estless, especially when night comes on, for
hey sleep better IN their own beds But |
While they are with you you feel somehow |
hat there is benediction in every room of |
he house. They are quite feeble, and YOU
make 1t as easy for them as you can and |
eailze they VIII not visit you very often, and
perhaps never again. You 90 to their room |
fter they have retired to see that their lights |
re properly put out, for they understand
andle and lamp better than they do modern
pparatus for illumination.
You ask them in the morning with nos tive
interest how they rested. Joseph thought no |
more of aged Jacob when on the historical |
-sit than you thought of the old peOple who |
lsit you: Before they left your house
hildren with kindness, for grandfather and |
are more lenient and iudulpent |
With their grandchildren than they were with |
ou' anu What wonders OF revelation unroll |
rom the deep bombazine side pocket of the |
ne and from the sleeve of the other. blessed |
that home which the Christian old folks |
Ome to visit. Whatever it NAV be for archi |
ecture, before they leave it is a palace.
memorable visits are the first and the last. |
those TWO pictures will hang in the hall of |
our memory as long as memory lasts and
,ou VIII Often think where they sat and how
hey looked and at what figure Of the carpet |
md at what door sill they gave you the final |
Goodbye. Be not ashamed to introduce your
atner when ne comes to town though his |
manners be those of a shepherd, or your
mother though her hat bespeak no costly mil |
lnery. Joseph introduced his father in |
lomespun to Pharaoh, the King. Good ad-
ice the wife of TheOdosius, the Emperor, |
rave him: Remember, husband, what |
ately you were and what now you are!''
By this thine you notice what kindly pro- |
yision Joseph made for his fathers comfort |
lie did not say: 81 cannot be bothered with
having the old man around here How |
Fd ho