Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-12-20
THE BETTER WORLD.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on Eternal
Life.
Departed Ones Not Gone Forever-Meeting
of Joseph and His Father in the
Land of Plenty-Joys of the
Hereafter.


Departed Still Living" Rev. 7. De Witt
Talmage took his text from Genesis xiv.
27-28: Sand when he saw the wagons
which Joseph had sent to carry him, the
spirit of Jacob their father revived And
Israel said, tits enough; Joseph my son is
yet alive" DR.. Talmage said:
The Egyptian capital was the focus of
the worlds wealth. In ships and barges
there had been brought to it from India
frankincense, and cinnamon, and ivory,
and diamonds; from the north, marble ana
iron; from Syria, purple and silk; from
Greece some of the finest horses Of the
world and some Of the most brilliant
chariots and from all the earth that which
could best please the eye and charm the
ear and crafty the taste. There were
temples ahame with red sandstone entered
by gateways that were guarded by pillars
bewildering with hieroglyphics and wound
with brazen serpents and adorned with
winged creatures-their eyes and beaks
and pinions glittering with precious stones.
There were marble columns blooming into
white flower buds; there were stone pill
lars, at the top bursting into the shape of
the lotus when in full bloom. Along the
avenues, lined with sphinx and fame and
obelisk, there were princes who came in
gorgeously upholstered palanquin, carried
by servants in scarlet, or elsewhere drawn
by vehicles, the snow white horses, golden
bitted and six abreast, dashing at full run.
There were fountains from stone-
wreathed vases climbing the ladders of
light You would hear a bolt shove and
a door of brass would open like a flash of
the sun. The surrounding gardens were
saturated with odors that mounted the
terrace and dripped from the arbors and
burned their incense in the Egyptian
noon. On floors of mosaic the glories of
Pharaoh were spelled out in letters of por-
phyry. and beryl and flame. There were
ornaments twisted from the wood of the
tamarisk, embossed with silver breaking
into foam. There were footstools made
out of a single precious stone. There
were beds fashioned out of a crouched lion
in bronze. There were chairs spotted with
the sleek hide of leopards. There were
sofas footed with the claws of wild beasts
and armed with the beaks of birds As
you stand on the level beach of the sea on
a summer day and look either way, and
there are miles of breakers, white with the
ocean foam, dashing shoreward; so it
seemed as if the sea of the worlds pomp
and wealth in the Egyptian capital for
miles and miles itself up into white break
ers of marble temple, mausoleum and
obelisk. This was the place where Jo-
seph, the shepherd boy, was called to
stand next 10 Pharaoh in honor. What a
contrast between this scene and his hum
bic starting and the pit into which his
brothers threw him! Yet he was not
forgetful of his early home; he was not
ashamed of where he came from.
The Bishop of Mentz, descended from a
wheelwright, covered his house with
spokes, and hammers, and wheels; and
the King of Sicily, in honor of his father.
who was a potter. refused to drink out of
any thing but an earthen vessel. So
Joseph was not ashamed of his early sur
roundings, or of his old-time father, or of
his brothers. When they came up from
the famine stricken land to get corn from
the Kings corn crib, Joseph, instead of
Gliding them for the way they had mall
treated and abused him, sent them back
with wagons. which Pharaoh furnished,
laden with corn; and old Jacob, the father,
in the very same wagons, was brought
back, that Joseph, the son, might see him
and give him a comfortable home all the
rest of his DAYS.
Well, l hear the wagons, the Kings
wagons, rumbling down in front of the
palace. On the outside of the palace, to
see the wagons go off, stands Pharaoh in
royal robes; and beside him Prime Minis
ter Joseph with chain of gold around
his neck and on his hand ring given by
Pharaoh to him, so that any time he
wanted to stamp the royal seal upon a
document he could do so. Wagon after
wagon rolls on down from the palace,
laden with corn, and meat, and changes
Of raiment, and every thing that could
hslTra famine-struck people. One day l
see aged Jacob seated in front of his
house. He is possibly thinking of his abb
sent boys (sons. however old they get are
never to a father any more than boys),
and while he is seated there he sees dust
arising and he hears wagons rumbling
and be wonders what is coming now, for
the whole land had been smitten with the
famine and was in silence. But after a
while the wagons have come near enough
and he sees his sons on the wagons and
before they come quite up they shout:
'Joseph is still alivev The old man
faints dead away. do not wonder at it.
The boys tell the story how that the boy,
the long absent Joseph, had got to be the
first man in the Egyptian palaces. While
they unloaded the wagons the wan and
wasted creatures in the neighborhood
come up and ask for handful or corn and
they are satisfied. One day the wagons
are brought up, for Jacob, the old father,
is about to go TO see Joseph in the Egypt
ian palaces. You know it is not a very
easy thing to transplant an old tree, and
Jacob has hard work to get away from the
4 L
goodbye to the old place and leaves his
blessing with the neighbors and then his
sons steady him while he, determined to
help himself, gets into the wagon, stiff, old
ond decrepit Yonder they GO Jacob and
MS sons, and their wives, and their chill
dren, eighty-two in all, followed by herds
and focks, which ths herdsmen drive
along. They are going out from famine to
luxuriance; they are going from plain
country home TO the finest palaces under
the sun. Joseph, the Prime Minister, gets
in his chariot and drives down to meet the
old man. Joseph's charioteer holds up his
horses on the one side-the dust covered
wagons of the emigrants stop on the other.
Joseph, instead of waiting for his father
to come, leaps out of the chariot and Jumps
into the emigrants' wagon, throws his
arms around the old man and weeps aloud
for past memories and present joy. The
father, Jacob. can hardly think it is his
boy. Why, the smooth brow of childhood
has become a wrinkled brow, wrinkled
with the cares of state. and the garb of the
shepherd boy has become a robe royalty
bedizened.
But, as the old man finds out it is actually
Joseph, see the thin lip culver against
the toothless gum as he cries out: 'Now
let me die, since l have seen thy face; be-
hold Joseph is yet alivew The wagons