Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-10
A RICH CITY.
The Focus Of the Whole Worlds
Wealth in Ancient Times.
AViyid Description of the Grandeur OF
the Plaee-The Residence of the
Phara0hs The Palace.
The Story of Joseph's Residence There and the
Consequences Thereof-Dr. Talnage's
Sermon at Brooklyn.
Special to the Gazette.


BROOKLYN, N. Y. Dec. 9.-The Rev E.
7. Dewitt Talmage, d. D., preached to-
day on "Our Departed Still Living -
His text was Genesis, xiv, 27-2S.
"And when he saw the wagons which
Joseph had sent TO carry him, the spirit
of Jacob their father revived. And
Israel said: It is enough; Joseph my
son is yet alive.'' Dr. Talmage said:
The Egyptian capital was the focus of
the world s wealth. IN ships and barges
there had been brought to it from India
frankinceuse, and cinnamon. and ivory,
and diamonds; from the north, marble
and 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 aiame
with red sandstone, entered by
gateways that were guarded by pillars
bewildering with hieroglyphics and wound
with blazing 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 pillars, at the top bursting
into the shape of the lotus when i'll full
bloom. Along the avenues, lined with
sphinx and fanes and obelisks, there were
princes who came in gorgeously uphol-
stored palanquin, carried by servants in
scarlet, or elsewhere drawn by vehicles,
snow white horses, golden bitted and six
abreast, dashing at full run. There were
fountains from snow wTeathed vases
climbing the ladders of the 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 pOrphry,
and beryl, and flame. There were orna-
ments 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
CROUCHED LION IN BRONZE.
There were chairs spotted with the sleek
hide of lcOpards. There were sofas footed
with the claws of wild beasts, and armed
with the beaks of BIRDS. AS you stand Oh
the level beach CT the sea on a summer
day and look either way, and there are
miles of breakers, white with the ocean
foam, daShing e~horeward; so it seemed
as if the sea of the world 5 pomp and
wealth i'll the Egyptian capital for miles
ano miles flung itself up into white break
eTS of marble temple, mausOleum, and
obclisk.
. This was the place where Joseph, the
Shepherd boy, was called to stand next to
Pharaoh in honor. What contrast be-
tween this scene and lis nuIhbie 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 de-
seconded from Il wheelwright, covered mis-
house with spokes, and hammers, and
wheels: and the king Of Sicily, i'll honor
of his father, who was a potter, refused
to drink out Of anything but an earthern
vessel. So Joseph was not ashamed OF
his early surroundings, or of his old-time
father, or of his brothers: When they
came up from the famine-stricken land
to get corn from the king
corn crib, Joseph, instead of
Gliding them for the way they
had maltreated and abused him, sent
them back with WAGONS, which Pharaoh
furnished, laden with corn; and old Ja-'
cob, the father, i'll the very same wagons,
was brought back, that Joseph, the son,
might see him ana give him 4 comfort
able home all the rest Of his days.
Well, hear the wagons, the king 5
wagons, rumbling down in front of the
palace. On the outside of the palace, to
see the wagons go of, stands Pharaoh i'll
royal robes: and beside him Prime Minis
ter Joseph, with n chain Of gold around
his neck, ana on his hand Il 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 everything
that could help
A FAMINE-STRUCK PEOPLE.
One day see aged Jacob seated in front
of his house. He is possibly thinking of
his absent 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
rumbiing, and he wonders what is coming
now, for the whole land had been Smitten
with the famine, ana was in silence. But
after while the wagons have come near
enough, and he sees his sons on the wag-
ons, and before they come quite up, they
shout: ''Joseph is yet alive!' The old
man faintS dead away. l do not wonder
at it The boys tell the story how that
the boy, the lOng-absent Joseph, has got
to be the first man in the Egyptian pal
ace. While they unload the wagons, the
wan and wasted creatures in the neigh
bOrhood come up and ask for 4 handful
of corn, and they are satisfied.
One day the wagons are brought up,
for Jacob, the old father, is about to go
TO see Joseph III the Egyptian palace.
You know it is not very easy
thing to transplant an old tree, and
Jacob has hard work to get away from
the place where he has lived so long. He
bids goodbye TO the old place and leaves
his blessing with the neighbors, and then
his sons steady him, while he, deter
mined TO help himself, gets into the
wagon, stiff, old and decrepit. Wonder
they 90, Jacob and his SONS, and their
wives, and their children, eighty-two in
all, followed by herds and fiocks, which
the herdsmen drive along. They are
going out from famine to luXuriance;
they are going from n plain country
home to the finest palace under the sun.
Joseph, the prime minister, gets in his
chariot and drives down TO meet the old