The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-07-13
OLD FOLKS AT HOME.
TOUCHING AND FERvlD SERMON BY
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.

Love of Parents.
BROOKLYN, July 6.-Rev. DR.. Tai
image. who is now nearing the antipo
hes 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 takel
from Genesis xiv, %, Twill go and SCI
him before die. "
Jacob had long since passed the hun
bred year milestone. In those times PEG
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 tt
140 years. A man of undoubted veraci
ty on the witness stand in England
swore that he remembered an event sc
years before Lord Bacon speaks of 6
countess who had cut three sets of teeth
and died at 140 years. Joseph Crele Of
Pennsylvania lived 140 years. In 1857 g
book was printed containing the names
of 81 persons who lived 140 years and
the names of II persons who lived 15C
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. 10
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 in house you
chair, plate, knife, fork, for some
deceased member Of the family, so ia
cob kept in his heart a place for his be-
loved Joseph. There sits the old man,
the flock of 14O years in their flight
having alighted long enough to leave
the marks Of their claw In 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 Glorious Visit.
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 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
cheeks whiten, and he has 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 10
seph. He says: "You don't mean Jo-
,seph, do you-my dear son who has
been dead SO long? You don't mean 10
seph, do you?" But after they had fully
resuscitated him and the news was con-
flrned 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.
/ will go 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 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-
ON and threw his arms around his ia
theirs 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, Twill go and
see him before die"
: wN~-- 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, overlooked 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 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 decades! Though when the
little child expired the parents may not
have been more than 25 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 so years before, and said to
my parents, "What is this record, and
what does il mean?'' Their chief an