The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-07-13
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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 Notwithstanding all the reigning
splendor of everlasting noon. What a
thrilling visit was that of the old shep.
herd to the prime minister Joseph.
see the old coIntryman seated in the
palace looking around at the mirrors
and the fountains and the carved pill
lars, 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 himself, 81 do
wish Rachel could be here to see all
thisr' / visited at the farm house of
the father of Willard Fillmore when
the son was president 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 grand v
Willard treated his father in the White
house. The old mans face was illu-
mined with the story until almost the
midnight. He had just been visiting
his son at the capital. And 1 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 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. The
parents cannot stay many days, for they
are little restless, and especially at
nightfall, because they sleep better in
their own bed; but while they tarry
you somehow feel there is benedic-
ton in every room in the house. They
are little feeble, but you make it as
easy as you can for them, and you re-
alize 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 proper
ly 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. Josheph. in the his
torical scene of the text, did not think
any more of his father than you do of
your parents. The probability is. be-
fore they leave your house they half
spoil your children with kindness.
and grandmother are
more lenient and indulgent to your
children than they ever were with you.
And what wonders 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! Whatever may have been the
style of the architecture when they
came, it is palace before they leave.
BY this time you all notice what
kindly provision Joseph made for his
father, Jacob. Joseph did not say: Il
can't have the old man around this
place. How clumsy he would look
up these marble stairs, and
walking over those mosaics! Then he
would be putting his hands upon some
of these frescoes. People would won
der where that old greenhorn came
from. He would shock all the Egypt
ian court with his manners at table.
Besides that, he might get sick on my
hands, and he might be querulous, and
he might talk to me as though l were
only boy, when 1 am the second man
in all the realm. Of course, he must
not suffer, and if there is famine in his
1 hear there isl will
send him some provisions; but l can't
take a man from Padanaram and intro
duce him into this polite Egyptian
court. What nuisance it is to have
poor relationsr'
Joseph did not say that, but he
rushed out to meet his father with per-
feet abandon of affection, and brought
him up to the palace, and introduced
him to the Emperor, and provided for
all the rest of the fathers days. and
was too good for the old man
while living; and when he was dead,
Joseph, with military escort. took his
fathers remains to the family ceme-
terry. Would to God all children were
as kind to their parents.
If the father have large property,
and he be wise enough to keep it in his
own name, he will be respected by the
heirs; but how often it is when the son
finds his father in famine, the young
people make it very hard for the old
man. They are SO surprised he eats
with knife instead of fork. They
are chagrined at his antediluvian
habits. They are provoked because he
cannot hear as well as he used to, and
when he asks it over again, and the
son has to repeat it, he bawls in the
old mans ear: Il hope you hear thatr'
How long he must wear the old coat
or the old hat before they get him a
new one! How chagrined they are at
his independence of the English gram
mar! How long he hangs on! Seventy
years and not gone yet! Seventy
five years and not gone yet.
Eighty years and not gone
yet! VIII he ever go? They think it
of no use to have doctor in his last
and go up to the drug store
and get a dose of something that
makes him worse, and economic on a
coffin, and beat the undertaken down
to the last point. giving note for the
reduced amount, which they never
pay. 1 have officiated at obsequies of
aged people where the family have
been so inordinately resigned to Provi-
dence that l felt like taking my text
from Proverbs: Tine eye that mocketh
at its father, and refuseth to obey its
the ravens of the valley shall
pick it out. and the young eagles shall
eat it" In other words, such an in
CRATE ought to have a flock of crows
for pall-bearers! l congratulate you if
you have the honor of providing for