Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-07-14
OLD FOLKS Ar HOME.
TOUCHING AND FERvID SERMON BY
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.

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TOUCHING AND FERvIo SERMON BY
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
PreachinS to Nation Through the Press
While He IL at the Antipodss ssrhe Rus
tic In the Palace" Duty Of Children and
Love of Parents.
BROOKLYN, July 8.--Rev. Dr.. Tai
mage, who is now nearing the antipo-
des ON his round the world journey,
has selected as the subject for his SER
mon through the press today 'sThe Rus
tic In the Palace, the text being taken
from Genesis xiv. 2S, Twill go and see
him before die. =
Jacob had long since passed the hun
dred year milestone. In those times peo-
pie were distinguished for longevity.
In the centuries afterward persons lived
to great age Galen, the most celebrat-
cd physician of his time, took so little
Of his own medicine that he lived to
40 years. A. man of undoubted veraci-
ty on the witness stand in England
swore that he remembered an event $50
years before. Lord Bacon speaks OF q
countess who had cut three sets of teeth
and died at 140 years. Joseph Crele OF
Pennsylvania lived l40 years. In 1857 a
book was printed containing the names
of 81 persons who lived l40 years and
the names Of IL persons who lived 100
years.
Among the grand old people of whom
we have record was Jacob, the shep-
herd Of the text. But he had bad lot
of boys. They were jealous and ambi-
tious and every way unprincipled. Jo-
seph, however, seemed to be an excep-
ton, but he had been gone many years.
and the probability was that he was
dead. As sometimes now i'll house you
will find kept at the table vacant
chair, plate, a knife, fork, for some
deceased member of the family, SO ia
cob kept in his heart place for his be-
loved Joseph. There sits the old man,
the flock of 140 years in their fight
having alighted long enough to leave
the marks of their claw on forehead 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 he can see clear back into the time
when beautiful Rachel, his wife, was
living and his children shook the orr
entail abode with their merriment.
A GIorious Visit.
The centenarian is sitting dreaming
over the past when he hears wagon
rumbling to the front door. He gets up
and goes to the door to see who has ar
rived, and his long absent sons from
Egypt come in and announce to him
that Joseph instead of being dead is liv-
ing 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
and his staff falls out of his hand, and
he would have dropped had not the sons
caught him and led him to q lounge and
put cold water OIL his face and famed
him little.
In that half delirium the old man
mumbles something about his son Jo-
seph. He says: "You don't mean Jo-
seph, do you-my dear son who has
been dead so long? You don't mean Jo-
seph, do your" But after they had fully
resuscitated him and the news was con-
firmed the tears begin their winding
way down the crossroads of the wrin-
kles, and the sunken lips of the old man
culver, and he brings his bent fingers
together as he says: Joseph is yet alive
l will go and see him before / die"
1t did not take the old man great
while to get ready, | warrant you. He
put ON the best clothes that the shep-
herds 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 chariot COM
ing down to meet him, and Joseph got
out of the chariot and got into the wag-
OH and threw his arms around his ia
theirs neck, it was an antithesis of
royalty and rusticity, of simplicity and
pomp, Of fi'ial affection and paternal
love, which leaves us so much in doubt
about whether we had better laugh or
cry that we do both. So Jacob kept
the resolution of the text, st will go and
see him before / die. ="
The Love of Parents.
What strong and unfailing thing is
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 over
flowed and receded, overfowed and re-
coded 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 OH, but the love of
Jacob for Joseph in my text is over
whelmingly dramatic. Oh, that is a
cord that is not snapped, though pulled
on by many decades! Though when the
little child expired the parents may not
have been more than % years of age,
and now they are 10, yet the vision of
the cradle, and the childish face, and
the first utterances of the infantile lips
are fresh today, in spite of the passage
of half century. Joseph was as fresh
in Jacobs memory as ever, though at
II years of age the boy had disappeared
from the old homestead. | found IN our
family record the story of an infant that
had died 80 years before. and | said to
my parents, What is this record, and
what does it mean?'' Their chief an
swer was long, deep sigh. 1t was yet
to them very tender sorrow. What
does that all mean? Why, it means our
shildren departed are ours yet, and that
cord of attachment reaching across the
years will hold us until it brings us to-
gether i'll the palace, as Jacob and
Joseph were brought together. That is
one thing that makes old people die
happy. They realize it is reunion with
those from whom they have long been
separated
am often asked as pastor, and cv-
cry pastor is asked the question, "Will
my children be children in heaven anu