The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-07-13


the time Jacob lost him and the time
Z when Jacob found him-between the
boy 7 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, ant
: 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 cheru5 or in full grown
ar~"lhood. There must be change
hit by that celestial climate and
- those supernal years, but it will
only be from loveliness to more lowell
ness and from health to more radiant
health. O parent, as you think of the
darling painting and white in membrane
Gus Group 1 want you to know it will
be gloriously bettered in that land where
there has never been death and where
all the inhabitcnts will live on in the
great future - long as God! Joseph
was Joseph Notwithstanding the palace,
and your I'd will be your child not
withstanding all the raining splendors
of everlasting noon.
A Great Day.
What a thrilling visit was that of
the old shepherd to the prime minister
Joseph! l see the old countryman seat
ed in the palace looking around at the
mirrors, and the fountains, and the
carved pillars, 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 housed ."Oh,
says the old man within himself, 81 do
wish Rachel could be here to see all
thisp' 1 visited at the farmhouse of the
father of Willard Fillmore when the
son was president of the United States
and the octogenarian farmer entertain
ed me until II 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 Willard treated his father in
the White House. The old mans face
was illumined with the story until al
most the midnight. He had just been
visiting his son at the capital. And I
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 any
body could be SO old The parents can
not stay many days, for they are little
restless and especially at nightfall, be-
cause they sleep better in their own
bed, but while they tarry you somehow
feel there is benediction in every room
in the house. They are little feeble,
and you make it as easy as you can for
them, and you realize 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 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 his
torical scene of the text, did not think
any more of his father than you do of
your parents. The probability is, before
they leave your house they half spoil
your children with kindness. Grand
father and grandmother are more leni-
ent 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! What
ever may have been the style of the |
architecture when they came, it is
palace before they leave. If they visit |
you 80 times, the two most memorable
visits will be the first and the last
Those two pictures will hang in the hall
of your memory while memory lasts,
and you will remember just how they
looked, and where they sat, and what
they said, and at what figure of the
carpet, and at what doorsill they parted
with you, giving you the, final goodby.
Do not be embarrassed if your father
come to town and he have the manners
of the shepherd, and if your mother
come to town and there be in her hat no
sign of costly millinery. The wife of
lut luoOQOsluS Sdlu d WISE |
thing when she said, Husbands, re-
member what you lately were and re-
member what you are and be thank
full"
Joseph and Jacob.
By this time you all notice what
kindly provision Joseph made for his
father, Jacob. Joseph did not say: II
can't have the old man around this
place. How clumsy he would look
climbing up these marble stairs and
walking over these mosaics! Then he
would be putting his hands upon some
of these frescoes. People would wonder
where that old greenhorn came FROM
He would shock all the Egyptian 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 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 country