The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-07-13
JACOB AND JOSEPH.
Or. Talmage on Paternal Love and
Filial Affection.
The Story of Jacobs Visit TO Joseph and Its
Lessons-Honoring the Old Folks
The Family Reunion Across
the Bar.

Witt Talmage for his latest sermon
through the press was: "The Rustic
in the Palace" the text being taker
from Genesis xiv, 2S., II will go ano
see him before die" Following is the
sermon:
Jacob had long since passed the 100
year mile stone. In those times people
were distinguished for longevity. In
the centuries afterward persons lived
to great age. Galen, the most ceie'
brated physician of his time, took SO
little of his own medicine that he lived
to 40 years. A man of un6oubted
veracity on the witness-stand in En-
gland swore that he remembered an
event $50 years before. Lord Bacon
speaks of a countess who had cut three
sets of teeth and died at $40 years.
Joseph Crele, of Pennsylvania, lived
140 years. In 1857 book was printed
containing the names of thirty-seven
persons who lived 40 years and the
names of eleven persons who lived $50
years.
Among the grand old people of whom
we have record was Jacob, the shep-
herd of the text. But he had a bad lot
of boys. They were jealous and ambi-
ticus and every way unprincipled. Jo-
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 a
house you will find kept at the table a
vacant chair, plate, knife, fork,
IonaogaI nf Tho 70
lily. so Jacob kept in his heart place
for his beloved Joseph. There sits the
old man, the flock of 40 years in their
fight having alighted long enough to
leave the marks of their claw on fore
head and cheek and temple. His long
beard SHOWS down over his chest. His
eyes are somewhat dim, and he can see
further when they are closed than
when they are open, for he can see
clear back into the time when beauti-
full 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 investiture of prime minister, next
to the king in the mightiest empire of
all the world, The news was too sud-
den 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 hey 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 a little.
In that half delirium the old man
mumbles something about his son Jo-
seph. He says: You don't mean DO
seph, do yop? My dear son, who has
been dead so long. 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 culver, and he brings his bent
fingers together as he says: Joseph
is yet alive. will go and see him be-
fore die
1t did not take the old man a great
while to get ready. L 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 tho old Vnca,.h'c oh ~
coming down to meet him and Joseph
got out of the chariot and got into the
wagon and threw his arms around his
fathers neck, it was an antithesis of
royalty and rusticity. of simplicity and
pomp, OF filial affect ion 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 it not al
most time for Jacob to forget Joseph?
The hot suns OF many summers had
biazed on the heath; the river Nile had
overhowed and receded, overfiowed
and receded again and again; the seed
had been sown and the harves: 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 a cord that is not snapped, though
pulled on by many decadesi Though
when the little child expired the par
euts may not have been more than %
years of age, and now they are IS, yet
the vision OF the cradle, and the child
ish face. and the first utterances of the
childish 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 l. 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 mean?" Their chief an
swer was long, deep sigh. 1t was
yet to them very tender sorrow.
What does all that mean? Why, it
means our children departed are ours
yet, and that the cord of attachment
reaching across the years will hold us
until it brings us together in the pal
ace, as Jacob and Joseph were brought
together. This is one thing that
makes old people die happy. They
realize it is union 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" Well, there was no
doubt great change in Joseph from
the time Jacob lost him and the time
when Jacob found him-between the