The Penn's Grove record., 1894-07-13
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "'The Rustic In the Palace"

Tkxr: "I will go and see him before !
die."-Genesls XIV, 70.
Jacob had long since passed the hundred
year milestone. In those times people wera
distinguished for longevity. In the centuries
afterward persons lived to great age. Galen,
the most celebrated physician OF bis time,
took SO little of his own medicine thai he
lived to 140 years. A man of ~undoubted
veracity ON the witness stand in England
swore that he remembered an event $50 years
before. Lord Bacon speaks OF a countess
who had cut three sets ofteeth and died az
140 years. Joseph Crele. of Pennsylvania
lived 140 years. In 1857 a book was printed
containing the names Of thirty-seyen per-
sons who lived 140 years, AMI the names Oh
eleven persons who lived $50 years.
Among the grand old people OF whom we
have record was Jacob, the shepherd OF the
text. But he had q bad lot Of boys. They
were Jealous and ambitious and every way
unprincipled. Joseph, however, seemed ia
be an exception, but he had been gone many
years, and the probability was that he was
dead. As sometimes now in a house you
will find kept at the table a vacant chair, a
plate, a knife, q fork, for some deceased
member of the family, SO Jacob kept in his
heart a place for his beloved Joseph. There
sits the old man, the flock of 40 years In
their flight having alighted long enough to
leave the marks Of their claw on foreheatl
and 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 ne
can see clear back into the time when beautt+
full Rachel, his wife, was living and his chill
dren shook the oriental abode with theiI
merriment.
The c%entenarian Is sitting dreaming over
the past when he hears a wagon rumblinS
to the front door. He gets up and goes to
the door to see who has arrived, and MS
long absent sons from Egypt come in and
~nnounce TO him that Joseph instead OF be-
ing dead Is still living in an Egyptian palace,
with all the investiture of prime minister,
next to the king In the mightiest empire OF
all the world! The news was too sudden
and too glad for the old man, and his cheeks
yhiten, and he has a dazed look, and his
staff falls out of his hand, and he would
have dropped had not the sons caught MIN
and led him to a lounge and put cold water
on his face and famed him a little.
In that half delirium the old man num-
bles something about his son Joseph. He
SAYS "You don't mean Joseph, do you
nv dear SON who has been dead so longf
You don't mean Joseph, do youT" But 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 fingers together as
he says Joseph is yet alive. I will go and
see him before 1 die"
It did not take the old man a great while
to get ready, I 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 along fast
enough for this old man, and when the
wagon with the old man met Joseph's chart
OF coming down to meet him, and Joseph
got out OF the chariot and got into the wag-
on and threw his arms around his fathers
neck, it was an antithesis ofroyalty and rus
ticity. OF simplicity and pomp, OF tiiial affec'
| tion and paternal love, which leaves US SC
much II doubt about whether we had better
laugh or cry that we do both. So Jacob KEEP
the resolution OF the text, 81 will go and SEE
him before 1 die"
What a strong and unfailing thing is par.
entail attachment! Was II not almost time
for Jacob to forget Joseph? The hot suns Oh
many summers had blazed on the heath the
flowed and receded again and again tht
seed had been sown and the harvest reaped
stars rose and set years OF plenty and year.
OF famine had passed on. but the love o.
Jacob for Joseph IN my text is o%verwhelm'
ingly dramatic. oh, that is n cord that is
not snapped, though pulled on by many de.
cades Though when the little child expired
Iu6 ptEtuk9 ul1y hOt hhNV pSoh - shA-
twenty-five years of age, and now they are
seyenty-five yet the Vision of the cradle, and
the childish face, and the first utterances o.
the infantile lips are fresh to-day, in spite OIL
the passage of a half century. Joseph was
as fresh In Jacobs memory as ever, though
at seventeen years Of age the boy had disap'
peared from the old homestead. Ifoun1in oui
family record the story OF an infant that had
died fifty years before, and l said to my
parents, "What is this record, and what
does IL mean?" Their chief answer was a
long, deep sigh. 1t was yet to them a very
tender sorrow. What does that all meant
Why, 1t means our children departed are our:
vet, and thai cord Of attachment reaching
| across the years will hold US until 1t brir g
US together In the palace, as Jacob and
| Joseph were brought together. That IS one
| thing that makes old people happy. They
! realize 1t is reunion with those from WHOM
they have long been separated.
| I am often asked, as pastor, and every
| pastos Is asked the question: evil my
| children be children In heaven and forever
| ohildren?' Well, there was no doubt a great
| change in Joseph from the time Jacob lost
| him and the time when Jacob found him
| between the boy seventeen years of z and
| the man In mid-life, his forehead developed
| with the great business OF state-but Jacob
| was glad to get back Joseph anyhow, n Il
| did not make much difference to the old mar
whether the boy looked older or looked
Younger. And 1t will be enough
Joy for that parent Il he can get bach
| that son, that daughter, at the gate
Of heaven, whether the departed Logged on'
shall come a cherub or In full grown angel
| hood. There must be a change wrought by
that celestial climate and by those superna
wears, but 1t will only be from loneliness tt
4 more loneliness n from health to more
radiant health. o parent, as you think o
the darling painting and white In membrane
Gus Group I want you to know 1t Will bt
g~loriously better in that land where there
has never been a death and where all the in
h~abitants will live on in the great future a
long as God! Joseph was Joseph, notwlth'
standing the palace, and FOUR child will b.
your child Notwithstanding all the rei5ntng
splendors OF everlasting noon.
What a thrilling visit was that OF the oil
shepherd to the prime minister Joseph!
see the old countryman seated in the palace
looking around at the mirrors, and the foun'
tains, and the carved pillars, and. oh, how
he wishes that Rachel, his wife, was alive
and she could nave come there with him to
see their son in his great house! "0h,'
saws the old man within himself, 81 do wis.,
Rachel could be here to see all this y
I visited the farmhouse of the fathel
Of Willard Fillmore when the son wa
President OF the United States, ans
the oc~togenarlan farmer entertain
ed me until IL o'clock at night, telling mt
what great things he saw in his sons house
at Washington, and what Daniel Webster
said TO him, and how grandly Willard treated
Ms father in the White House. Tn ole
mans face was illumined with the story
until almost the midnight. He had JUS
been visiting his son at the capital. Aud
suppose II was something of the same Joy
thnt thrilled the heart OF the old shepherd
as he stood in the palace ofthe prime minis
| ter. =,
1t ia a great day with you when your old
parents come TO visit you Your little chill
! dren stand around with great wide opeI
eyes, wondering how anybody could be SO
old. The parents cannot stay many days,
for they are q little restless, and especially
at nightfall, because they sleep better IL
| their own bed, but while they tarry yoi
, somehow feel there is a benediction In ever!
room in the house. They are a littl
! feeble, and you make It as easy as YOU car
for them, and you realize they Will prob
ably not visit you very often-perhaps never
again. You GO TO their room after they
ave retired at night to see II the light
are properly put out. for the old people
| understand candle aud lamp better than
! the moiern apparatus for Illumination. Il
/ the morning, with real interest 10 theti