Connecticut western news., 1894-07-12
OLD FOLKS AT HOME.
TouehlNa AND FsRvlo SERMON BY
 REV, OR. TAlMAGE.

Preaching to a Nation Through the Press
 While He Is at the Antipodes-.sThe Rus
 tic In the Palace"-Duty of Children and
 Love of Parents.
 BRooKLYN, July S.-Rev. Dr. Tal 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 "The Rus tic In the Palace" the text being taken from Genesis xiv, 2S, twill go and see him before I 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- ed physician of his time, took so little of his own medicine that he lived to I40 years. A man of undoubted veraci- ty on the witness stand in England swore that he remembered an event 150 years before. Lord Bacon speaks of a countess who had cut three sets of teeth and died at 140 years. Joseph Crele of Pennsylvania lived 40 years In 1857 a book was printed containing the names of 37 persons who lived 40 years and the names of II persons who lived 150 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 excop- ton, but he had been gone many years, and the probability was that he was dead. As sometimes now in Q house yoy. will find kept at the table a vacant chair, plate, knife, fork, for some deceased member of the family, so Ja- cob kept in his heart a place for his be- loved Joseph. There sits the old man, the flock of 40 years in their flight having sighted long enough to leave the marks of their claw on forehead and cheek and temple. His long beard snows 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 ori- ental abode with their merriment.
 A Glorious Visit.
 The oentenarian 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 worldl The news was too sudden and too glad for the old man, and his cheeks whiten, and he has a dazed look, and his staff falls out of his hand, and he would have dropped 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 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 you?" 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 quiver, and he brings his bent fingers together as he says: Joseph is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die. !"
 It did not take the old man a great while to get ready, warrant you. He ou ha hact clofhac fhof ha chav, herd 8 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 on and threw his arms around his fa- ther's neck, it was an antithesis of royalty and rusticity, of simplicity and pomp, of filial 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, "I will go and see him before die. D
 The Love of Parents.
 What strong and unfailing thing is parental attachmentl 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 ceded 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 over whelmingly dramatic. Oh, that is a cord that is not snapped, though pulled on by many decadesi Though when the little child expired the parents may not have been more than 25 years of age, and now they are 75, 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 IT years of age the boy had disappeared from the old homestead. I found in our family record the story of an infant that had died 50 years before, and I said to my parents, What is this record, and what does it mean?'' Their chief an swer was long, deep sigh. It was yet to them very tender sorrow. What does that all mean? Why, it means our children departed are ours yet, and that cord of attachment reaching across the years will hold us until it brings us to- gether in 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 ev- cry pastor is asked the question, Will my children be children in heaven and forever children?' We'll, there was no doubt great change in Joseph from the time Jacob lost him and the time when Jacob found him-between the boy IT years of age and the man in mid life, his forehead developed with the great business of state-but Jacob was <xlaI {1 cot ha,lr TDcay,b onpboxx- and