The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-07-09
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
THEOUGH THE PRESS HE FURNISH
ES4N INTERESTING DISCOURS Il.
Tho noctor breaches an Interesting Sermon
from the Subject, "The Rustic In Tire
Palace"-TexJ from Gen. 45:%S.

| text being taken from Gen. 45:2S L VIII go
| and see him before | die.
| Jacob had long since passed the nuhufeu
| wear milestone In those times people were
| distinguished for longevity. In the centuries
afterward persons lived to great age
Galep. the most celebrated physician OF
his time, took so little of his own medl-
cine that he lived to on9 hundred ana
forty years A man Of undoubted Neraclty
on the witness stand in England sWore
that he remembered an event one hundred
and fifty years before. LORD Bacon SPEAKS
of a countess who had cut three sets Oh
teeth and died at one hundred and forty
wears Joseph Crele, of Pennsylvania, lived
one hundred and forty years. lii $50. n DOCK
was printed containing the names OIL thir-
ty-seven persons who lived one hundred
and forty years, and the na1le CT eleven
persons who lived one hundred and IIty
years.
Among the grand old people of whom we
have record was Jacob, the shepherd or
the text But ne had bad lot OF boys.
They were jealous and ambitious and every
way unprincipled. Joseph, however, seemed
10 be an exception; but he had been gone
many years, and the probability was that
he was dead. As sometimes now III house
you will find kept at the table VACANT
chair, q plate. knife, d FORK, Tor some
deceased member OF the family, SO JACOB
kept in his heart place Tor MS pcio oti
Joseph. There sits the old man, the nock
of one hundred and forty years n theT
flight having alghted long enough to leave
the marks of their claw on forehead ana
cheek and temple. HIS long beard SHOWS
down over his chest. His eyes are Some
what dim. and he can see farther when
they are closed than when they are open,
for he can clear back INTO the time
when beautiful Rachel, his wife, was iiV-
ing, and bis children shook the oriental
abode with their merriment.
me ccntenarlan IS sitting dreaming over
fulNDllnS
TO the front door He gets up and goes to
the door to see VINO has arrived, and his
lonGabsent sons from Egypt come in and
announce to him that Joseph instead of be
ing dead, is living in an Egyptian palace,
with all the inVeStitUre Of prime minister,
next to the king in the miShtiest empire of
ali the world. The news was TOO sudden
and TOO glad for the Old man. and his checks
Whten, and he has Il daZed look. aud his
staff falls out of his hand, and he would
nave dropped haG not the sons caught hlm
and led him to "a lounge and put cold water
on his face, and famed him little.
In that half delirium the old man mum
bles something about his son Joseph. He
says: You don't mean Joseph do you?
My dear son who has been dead so long?
You don't mean Joseph, do your Bat
after they had fully resuscitated him, and
the news was confirmed, the tears begin
their winding way down the crossroads OF
the wrinkles, and the sunken lips of the
old man culver, and he brings his bent fin
gers together as he says: Joseph is yet
alive. | viii go and see him before | die
1t did not take the old man a great while
to get ready, | warrant you. He put on the
best clothes that the shepherds wardrobe
could afford He got into the wagon and
though the aged are cautious and like to
ride slow. the wagon did not get alons fast
enough for this old man, and when the
wagon with the old man met Joseph's
chariot coming down to meet him. and Jo-
seph got out of the chariot and got into the
wagon and threw his arms around his
fathers neck, it an antithesis of roy
atty and rusticity, of simplicity and pomp,
of hiial affection and paternal love, which
leaves much in doubt about VII ether
we had better laugh or cry that we do
both. So Jacob kept the resolution of the
text will go and see him before I die"
parental attachment Was it not almost
time for Jacob TO forget Joseph? The hot
suns. of many summers had blazed on the
heath; the river Nile had overlooked and
receded, overlooked and receded again and
again; the seed had been sown and the
harvest reaped; stars rose and SET years of
plenty and years of famine had passed on ;
but the love of Jacob for Joseph in my
text is Overwhelmingly dramatic Oh, that
on by many decades! Though when the
little child expired the parents may not
have been more than twenty-five years OF
age. and now they are sevcnty-ive, yet the
vision of the cradle and the childish face,
and the first utterances OF the infantle
lips are fresh today, in spite of the passage
Of half century. Joseph was as fresh
in Jacobs memory as ever, though at sew
enteen years of age the boy had disappear
u. L
family record the story OF an infant that
had died fifty years before, and | said to niy
R pre- aMh3t is is this record and wiat
long, deep sigh. 1t yet to them
a very tender sorrow. What does that all
mean? Why, it means our children depart
ed are ours yet, and that cord of attach
ment reaching across the years will hold
us until it brings us together in the palace
That is one thing that makes old people
die happy. They realize it is q reunion with
those from whom they have long been
| often asked as a pastor-and every
pastor is asked the queStion-"Wil my
children be children in heaven and forever
children" Well, there was doubt
&feGt change in Joseph from the time Jacob
lost him and the time when Jacob found
and the man in midlife,, his forehead de
veloped with the great business OF state;
but Jacob was glad to get back Joseph any
how. and it did not make much difference
to the old man whether the boy looked
Older or looked younger And it viii be
enough joy for that parent if he can get
back that son, that daughter, at the gate
OF heaven whether the departed loved one
small come a cherub or in fjlll-grOWn angel
hood. There must be a Change wrought by
that celestial climate and by these supernal
years, but it will only be from loneliness to
more loneliness, and from health TO more "a
diant health. oh, parent, you think
of the darling painting and white in mem
branous Group, l want you to know it will
be gIoriously bettered in that land where
all the Inhabitants will live on in the great
future as long as Cod! Joseph was Joseph,
notWthsta uding the palace, and your Child
will be your child, notWi thstanding all the
reigning splendOrs of everlasting noon. WHAT
a thrilling visit was that OF the old Shep-
herd to the prime minster-Joseph! see
the Old counryman seated in the palace
looking around at the mirrors ana the folll-
tans and the carved pillars, and Oh! how ne
wishes that Rachel, his wife, was alive ana
she could have come there with him to see
their son III his great house. "Oh! says the
Old man within himself Il do wish Rachel
could be here to see all this.' visited
at the farmhouse of the father OF Mlil2rd
Fillmore when the son was president o.
the United States, and the octo9enarIan
farmer entertained me until IL O'Clock at
night telling me what great things ne saw
in his sons house at Washington and what
Daniel Webster said to him, and how grand
~ Willard treated his father in the White
house. - Ill,
the story until almost the midnight. ne
had just been visiting his son at the capir.
tai. And l suppose 1t was something az
the same JOY that thrilled the heart OF the
old shepherd as he stood in the palace OF
the prime minister. 1t IS q great day WIN
you when your old parents come to VlAt
YOU. Your little children stand around
with great wide-open eyes, wondering now
anybody could be 50 old. The parents can
not stay many days, for they are a little
restless. and especially at nightfall, be-
cause they sleep better in their own bed,
but while they tarTy you somehow feel
there is benedctiOn in every room in the
house. They are a little feeble and you
and