The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1888-12-20
THEY ARE IMMORTAL.
What Rev. DIR. Talmage has to say
About Our Departed Friends, Who
Still Live.

BROOKLYN, N. l., lee. S.-4ue IcN. =.
Dewitt Talmage, d. D., preached to-day on
"Our Departed Still Living" His text was
Genesis xiv, 81, %: '.And when he saw the
wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him,
the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And
Israel said, 1t is enough; Joseph my son is
yet alive" DIR. Talmage said:
The Egyptian capital was the focus OF the
worlds wealth. In ships and barges, there
had been brought to it from India franklin
eeuse. and cinnamon, and ivory, and dia
monds; 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
eve and charm the ear, and crafty the taste.
There were temples ahame with red sandstone
entered by gateways that We're guarded by
pillars bewildering with hieroglyphics, and
wound with brazen serpents, and adorned
with winged creatures-their eyes, and
beaks, and pihions glittering with precious
stones. There were marble columns bloom
ING into white flower buds; there were stone
pillars, at the top bursting into the shape OF
avenues. lined with sphinx, and fame, and
obelisk, there were princes who came in gor-
geously upholstered palanquin, carried by
servants in scarlet. or elsewhere drawn by
vehicles. the snow-whte horses, golden-bit
ted and six abreast, dashng at full run
There were fountains from stone-wreathed
vases climbing the ladders of the light. You
would he,r n holt Sbnya opd n door of brass
would open like a fash of the sun. The sur
rounding 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 glo-
RES of Pharaoh were spelled out in letters OF
porphyry, and beryl. and flame. There
we're ornaments twisted from
the wood of the tamarisk, embossed with
silver breaking into foam. There were foot
stools made out of a single precious stone.
There were beds fashioned out ola 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 heaks Of birds. AS you
stand on the level beach of the sea on sum-
mer 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
nj the worlds pomp and wealth in the
Egyptian capital for miles and miles turg
itself up into white breakers of marble tenn
pie, mausoleum and obelisk
This was the place where Joseph, the shep-
herd boy. called to stand next TO Phar-
aoh in honor. What a contrast between this
scene and his humble starting, and the pit in
to 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 wheelwright, COW
cred his house with spokes and hammers and
wheels; and the King ofSicily, in honor of his
father, who was a potter, refused to drink out
of anything but an earthern vessel. So Jo-
seph was not ashamed of his early surround
ings, or of his old time father, or ofhis broth
ers 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 maltreated and abused
him, sent them back with wagons, which
Pharaoh furnished. lnden with corn; and old
Jacob the TAI her. 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, hear the wagons the kingss wag
ons, rumbling down in front of the palace.
On the outside of the palace, to see the wag-
ons go of. stands Pharaoh in royal robes;
and beside him Prime Minister Joseph, with
n 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 document he could do so. Wag-
On after wagon rolls on down from the pal
ace laden with corn, and meat, and changes
Of raiment. and everything that could help a
lamine-strues 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 father
any more than boys); and while he is seated
there, he sees dust arising, and he hears wag-
ems milling. and he wonders what is COM
ing now, for the whole land had been smitten
Srith the famine, and was in sileuce. But
after q while the wagons have come near
enough, and he sees his sons on the wagons,
and before they come quite up they shout
iJoseph is yet aive!' The old man faints
dead away. do not wonder at it. The
boys tell the story how that the boy, the
long-absent Joseph, has to be the first man
in the Egyptian palace. While they unload
the wagons, the wan and wasted reatures
in the neighborhood come up and ask for q
handful of corn and they are satisfied.
One day the wagons are brought up, tor
Jocob. the old father, is about to go to see
Joseph in 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 tbs neighbors, and
then his sons steady him, while he, deter
mined to help himself, gets into the wagon,
stiff. old and decrepit. Yonder they go. Ja-
cob and his sons, and their wives and their
children, 80 in all. followed by herds and
focks, which the heards-men drive along.
They are going out from famine to luxuriance;
they are going from 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 man. Josephs charioteer holds up
the 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 migrants 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
wriakled brow, wrinkled with the cares of
state, and the garb of the shepherd boy has
become robe royalty bedizenedl But as the
old man dsds out it is actually Joseph, see
the thin lip auiver against the tooth
less gum as he cries ont: "Now let me
die. since I have seen thy face; behold,
Joseph is yet aIive!" The wagons
roll up in front of the palace. Help out the
grandchildren and take them in out OF the
hot Egyptian sun. Help old Jacob out OF
the wagon Send word to Pharaoh that the
old shepherd has come. In the TQyal apart
ment Pharaoh and Jacob meet-digpity and
rusticity-the gracefuIness Of the court and
the plain manners of the field. The KING,
wanting to make the old ecu1trym an at
ease, and seeing how white his beard is, and
how feeble his step, looks familiary into his
tsce and says to the aged man: How Old
art thou?" Give the. old man a seat. Unload
the wagon; drive out the cattle towards the
pastures of Goshen. Let the slaves in scarlet
kneel and wasl, the feet of the newly arrived,
wiping them on tho finest linen of the palace.
From vases of perfume let the newly-arrived
be sprinkled and refreshed; let minstrels come
in with sandals of crimson, and thrum the
,.arps, and clap the cymbals, and jingle the
taulbourines, while we sit down at this great
distance of time and space, aud learn the
lesson OF The Kings wagons.
My friends, we are in a world by sin famine
struck, but the King is in constant commu-
nication with rs, bis wagons coming and
going perpetually, aRd ig the rest of my dis
course will show you what the wagons bring
and what they take back.
In the first place, like those that came
from the Egyptian palace. the Kings
wagons now Bring us corn and meat, and
many changes Of yaiment We are apt to