Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-07-12

They realize it is reunion with those
from whom they have long been
separated.
am often asked as pastor-and
every pastor is asked the question
will my children be children in
heaven and forever children" 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 II years of age and
the man in midlife, his forehead de-
veloped with the great business of
state; but Jacob was glad to get back
Joseph anyhow, and it did not make
much difference to the old man
whether the boy looked older or looked
younger. And it will be enough JOY
for that parent II he can get back that
son, that daughter at the gate of
heaven, whether the departed loved
one shall come cherub or in full
grown angel-hood. There must be n
change wrought by that celestial eli
mate and by those supernal years,
but it will only be from loneliness to
more loneliness and from health to
more radiant health. O parent, as
you think of the darling painting and
white from membraneous Group,
want you to know it will be gloriously
bettered in that land where there has
never been a death and where all the
inhabitants will live on in the great
future as long as God! Joseph was
Joseph Notwithstanding the palace,
and your child will be your child not
withstanding all the raining splendors
of everlasting noon. What thrilling
visit was that of the old shepherd to
the prime minister Joseph! l see the
old countryman seated in the palace
the fountains and the carved pillars,
and oh! how he wishes that Rachel,
his wife, was alive and she could have
come there with him to see their son
in his great house oh" says
the old man within him
self, II do wish Rachel could be
here to see all this!' / visited at
the farm house of the father of Mil
lard Fillmore when the son was Presi-
dent of the United States, and the
octogenarian farmer entertained me
until IL o'clock at night telling me
what great things he saw in his sons
house at Washington, and what
Daniel Webster said to him. and how
grandly Willard treated his father in
the white house. The old mans face
was illumined with the story until al
most midnight lie had just been
visiting his son at the capitol. And !
suppose it was something of the same
JOY that thrilled the heart of the old
shepherd as he stood in the palace of
the prime minister. 1t is a great day
with you when your old parents come
to visit you. Your little children
stand around with great wide open
eyes, wondering how anybody could
be so old. he parents can not stay
many days, for they are little rest
less, and especially at nightfall, be-
cause they sleep better in their own
bed; but while they tarry you some
how feel there is benediction in
every room in the house They are a
little feeble, and you make it as easy
as you can for them. and you realize
they will probably not visit you very
often-perhaps never again You go
to their room after they have retired
at night to see if the lights are prop
erly put out, for the old people under
stand candle and lamp better than the
modern apparatus for illumination.
In the morning, with real interest in
their health, you ask them how they
rested last night. Joseph, in the his
torical scene of the text, did not think
any more of his father than you do of
your parents. The proba bility is, be-
fore they leave your house they half
spoil your children with kind
ness. Grand father and grand
mother are more lenient and in.
dulgent to your children than they
ever were with you. And what won
ders of revelation in the bombazine
pocket of the one and the sleeve of
the other Blessed is that home where
Christian parents come to visit! What
ever may have been the style
of the architecture when they
came, 1t is a palace before they leave.
If they visit you fifty times, the two
most memorable visits will be the first
and the last Those two pictures will
hang in the hall of your memory
while memory lasts, and you will re-
member just how they looked and
where they sat, and what they said,
and at what figure of the carpet, and
at what door sill they parted with
you, giving you the final good-by. Do
not be embarrassed if your father
come to town and he have the man
ners of the shepherd, and if your
mother come to town and there be in
her hat no sign of costly millinery.
The wife of the Emperor Theod osius
said a wise thing when she said:
Husband, remember what you lately
were, and remember what you are
and be thankful"
BY this time you all notice what
kindly provision Joseph made for his
father Jacob. Joseph did not say: II
can't have the old man around this
place. How clumsy he would look
climbing up these marble stairs and
walking over these mosaics! Then
he would be putting his hands upon
some of these frescoes People would
| wonder where that old preenhOrn