The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-09
THE RUSTIC IN THE PALACE
Jacobs Visit TO His Long Lost Son
Joseph in Egypt.

Treat Him Royalty in His MaRnifi-
cent Palace-The Lessons the Story
Teaches.
Brooklyn, July s.-Rev. DR.. Talmage,
who is now nearing the antipodes, on his
round-the-world journey, has selected as
the subject for his sermon through the
press to-day, The Rustic in the Palace. -
the next text being taken from Gen. As:
2s, i will go and see him before die"
Jacob had long since passed the 100
year milestone. In those times people
were distinguished for longevity. In the
centuries afterward persons lived
TO great age. Galen, the most
celebrated physician of his time,
took so little. of his own medicine
that he lived to one hundred and forty
years. A man of undoubted veracity on
the witness-stand in England swore that
he remem bered an event one hundred and
fifty years before. Lord Bacon speaks of
q countess who had cut three sets of
teeth, and died at one hundred and forty
years. Joseph Circle of Pennsylvania
lived one hundred and forty years. In
1857 book was printed containing the
names of thirty-seven persons who lived
one hundred and forty years, and the
VI CAtNCn B6ISOuo WIZ AlNGQ Ouc
hundred and fifty years.
Among the grand old people of whom
we have record was Jacob, the shepherd
of the text. But he had bad lot of boys.
They were jealous and ambitious and
every way unpriucipled. Joseph, how
ever, seemed to be an exception; but he
had been gone many years, and the prob
ability was that he was dead. AS some
times now in a house you will find kept
eutn oh a1uYo
knife, fork, for some deceased mem Der
of the family, so Jacob kept in his heart
q place for his beloved Joseph. There
sits the old man, the flock Of one hundred
and forty 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 somewhat 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 Oriental abode
with their merriment.
The centenarian is sitting dreaming
over the past when he hears a 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 living in
an Egyptian palace, with all the investi-
ture 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 whiten, and
he has dazed look, and his staff falls
out of his hand, and he would have drop
ped had not the sons caught him and led
him to a lounge and put cold water on his
face, and famed him little.
In that half delirium the old man num-
bles something about his son Joseph. He
says: ''You don't mean Joseph, do you2
my dear con who has been dead so long
You don't mean Joseph, do your" 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
bentnngers together as he says: Joseph
Is yet alive, will 60 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 shepherd's
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 coming down to meet
him, and Joseph got out Of the chariot and
ROb luIO Gne wagon anu Threw MS arms
around his fathers neck, it was an an
tithesis of royalty and rusticity, of sim
plicity and pomp, of tilial 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 will go and
see him before l die"
What strong and unfailing thing is
parental attachment Was is not almost
time for Jacob to forget Josephl The hot
suns of many summers had blazed on the
heath; the river Nile had overlooked
and receded; over1owed ana 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 is cord that is not
snapped, though pulled on by many de-
cades! Though, when the little child ex-
pired the parents may not have been
more than Is years of age, and
now they are 20, yet the vision of the
cradle, and the childish face, and the first
utterances of the infantile lips are fresh
to-day, in spite of the passage of a half
century. Joseph was as fresh in Jacobs
memory as ever, though at seventeen
years of age the boy had disappeared from
the old homestead. / found in our 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 it meant" Their chief answer was
long, deep sigh. 1t was yet to them a
very tender sorrow. What does that all
meant Why, it means our children de.
parted are ours yet, and that cord of at
tachment reaching across the years will
hold us until it brings US together in the
palace, as Jacob and Joseph were brought
together. That is one thing that makes
old people die happy. They realize thai
it is reunion with those from whom they
have long been separated.
l am often asked as pastor-and every
pastor is asked the question-"Will my
children be children in heaven and for
ever children7" Well, there was no doubt
a great change in Joseph from the time
Jacob lost him and the time when Jacot
found him-between the boy II years Of
age and the man in mid-life, his forehead
developed with the great business oil
state: but Jacob was glad to get bacl
Joseph anyhow, and it did not make much
difference to the old man whether the boy
looked older or looked younger. And i
will be enough Joy for that parent if h(
can get back that son, that daughter, at
the gate of heaven. whether the departed
loved one shall come a cherub or in full
grown angelhood. There must be a
change wrought by that celestial climate
and by those supernal years, but it will
only be from lovelinesS to more lowell
ness, and from health to more