Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-07-20
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: 'sThe Rustic In the Palace"

Jacob had long since passed the hundre1
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 140 years. A man of undoubted
veracity on the. witness stand in England
swOre that he remembered an event $50 years
before. Lord Bacon speaks Of a countess
who bad cut three sets ofteeth and died at
140 years. Joseph Crele. of Pennsylvania.
lived 140 years. In 1857 book was printed
containing the names of thirty-seven per-
sons who lived 140 years, and the names Of
eleven persons who lived $50 years.
Among the grand old people Of whom we
have record was Jacob. the shepherd OF the
text. But he had a bad lot Of boys. They
were jealous and ambitious and every way
unprincipled. Joseph, however, seemed TO
be an exception, but he had been gone many
years, and the probability was that he was
dead. AS sometimes now In a house you
will find kept at the table a vacant chair.
plate, knife, a fork, for some deceased
member of the family, so Jacob kept in his
heart place for his beloved Joseph. There
| sits the old man. the flock or 40 years in
! their fighttAavng alighted long enough to
| leave the marks of their claw on foreheaq
and check 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 beaut
full Rachel, his wife, was living AMI his chill
dren 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 arrived, and his
long absent sons from Egypt come in and
announce TO him that Joseph instead of be-
ing dead Is still living in an Egyptian palace,
with all the investiture of prime minister,
next to the king in the mightiest empire Of
oil 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 ont of his hand, and he would
have dropped had not the sons caught him
and led him to 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
saws : ''YOu don't mean Joseph, do you
my dear son who has been dead so long2
You don't mean Joseph, do you?' 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 quiver,
and he brings his bent fingers together as
he says "Joseph is vet alive. l will go and
see him before [ die"
It did not take the old man a great while
to get ready, [ warrant you. He put on the
best clothes that the shepherds ':ardrob9
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 maa met Joseph's chari-
OF coming down to meet him, and Joseph
got out of the chariot au1 got into the wag-
on and threw his arms around his fathers
neck, it WAS Gn antltheSiS OF OfrOyaltY and rus
ticity, of simplicity and pOmp, Of ftial atfec-
ton and paternal love, which leaves us 50
much in doubt about whether we had better
laugh or cry that we do both. SOJacob kept
m oF 70 tpyt 81 will or and
him before / die"
What strong and unfailing thing is par
entail attachment Was it not almost time
for Jacob to forget Joseph? The hot suns Of
many summers had b.aled on the heath ; the
river Nile had Oyerfl0Wed and receded, over
flowed and 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 Oh. but the love of
Jacob for Joseph IN my text is overWhelm-
ingiy dramatic. On, that is cord that is
not snapped, though pulled on by many de-
cadesl Though when the little child expired
the parents may not have been moro than
twenty-five years OF age, and now they are
seYentYtlvo 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
ut seventeen years of age the boy had dlsap-
pearei from the old homestead. found in our
Iduliy TecCEu luo story Vi du lutint lutt IttI
died fifty years before, and l said to my
parents. "What is this record, and what
does it mean?" Their chief answer was a
long. deep sigh. 1t 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 brir gs
US together in the palace, as Jacob and
Joseph were brought together. That Is one
thin5 that makes Old people happy. They
realize it is reunion with those from whom
they have long been separated.
I am often asked, as pastor, and every
pastor is asked the question: "Will my
children be children in heaven and forever
chidren?' Well, there was no doubt great
change in Joseph from the time Jacob lost
him and the time when Jacob found him
between the boy seventeen years of age and
the man in mid-life, his forehead developed
with the great business of state-but Jacob
was glad to get back Joseph anyhow. and it
did not make much difference to the old man
whether the boy looked older or looked
younger. And it will be enough
Joy for that parent if he can get back
that son, that daughter, at the gate
of heaven, whether the departed loved one
shall come cherub or in full grown angel
hood. There must be a change wrought by
that celestial climate and by those supernal
years, but it will only be from lovelinesS to
more loveliness and from health to more
the darling painting and white in membrane
Gus Group l want you 10 know it will be
gloriously better in that land where there
has never been death and where all the in
habitants will live on in the great future as
long as God Joseph was Joseph, notwitfi-
standing the palace, and your child will be
your child Notwithstanding all the reigring
splendOrs Of everlasting noon.
What thrilling visit was that of the old
shepherd to the prime minister Joseph 1
Gnnt hn MI 0OJlJp pfrN-O tod {yot tIn
looking around at the mirrors, and the fOun-
tains, and the carved pillars, and, oh, how
he wishes that Rachel his wife. was alive
and she could haze come there with him to
see their son in his great house "Oh."
says the old man within himself, ~ do wish
Rachel could be here to see all this ~
l visited the farmhouse of the father
of Millard Fillmore when the son was
President OF the United States, and
the OctogeDarian farmer entertain
ed 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 grandly MiIarl treated
his father in the White House. Tho Old
mans face was iIlumined with the story
until almost the midnight. He had just
been visiting his son at the capital. And L
suppose it was something of the same JOY
that thrilled the heart of the old shepherd
as he stood in the palace ofthe prime minis
ter.
1t is n great day with you when your old
parents come 10 visit you. Your little chill
dren stand around with great wide open
eyes, wondering how anybody could be so
old. The parents cannot stay many days,
for they are a little restless, and especially
at nightfalI, because they sleep better in
their own bed. but while they tarry you
somehow feel there is a benediction in every
room in the house. They are little
feeble, and you make it as easy as YOU can
for them an rp1iIZh they will DrO'l-
ably 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 properly put out. for the old people
understand 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. Joseph. in the historical scene OF the