Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-07-09

Long Los. Soa.
BROOKLYN, July s.-Rev. Or. Tai
mage, who is now nearing the Antipo-
des. on his rouud-the-world journey,
has selected as the subject for his ser
mon through the press to-day, The
Rustic in the Palace" the text being
taken from Gen. 45:2s, II will go and
see him before die"
Jacob had long since passed the hun
dred year milestone. 10 those times
people were distinguished for longevity.
In the centuries afterward persons lived
10 greatage. Galen, the most celebrated
physician of his time, took so little Of
his own medicine that be lived 10 one
hundred aud forty years. A man Of
undouoted veracity on the witness
stand In England swOre that he remeE-
bered an event one hundred and nifty
years before. Lord Bacon speaks OF
countess who had cut three sets OF teeth,
and died at one hundred and forty
years. Joseph Crele, Of Pennsylvania,
lived one hundred aud forty years. Ia
1857 book was printed containing the
names OF thirty-Seven persons who lived
Que hundeed aud forty years, and the
names Of eleven persons who lived one
hundred and fifty years.
Among the grand old people OF whom
we have record was jacob, the Shep-
herd OF the text. Bat he had bad lot
OF boys. They were jealous and ambitious
sad every way unprincipied. Joseph,
however, seemed 10 be 40 exception,
but be had been gone many years, and
the probability was that be was dead.
As sometimes now In a house you will
find kept at the table vacant chair,
, plate, knife, q fork, for some de-
ceased member o., the family, so Jacob
kept 10 his heart place for his beloved
Joseph There sits the old man, the
flock OF one hundred and forty years
in their flight having alighted long
enough TO leave the marks OF their claw
on forehead and cheek and temple.
HIS LONG BEARD
SHOWS down over his chest His eyes
are somewhat dun, aud be can see far
Their when they are closed than when
they are open, for he eau see clear
back into the time when beautiful
Rachel, his wife, was living, and his
children shook the Oriental abode with
their merriment.
The ceutenarian Is sitting dreaming
over the past when he hears q wagon
rambling 10 the front door. He gets
up and goes 10 20 the door 10 see who
has arrived, aud bis long absent sons
from Egypt come in and announce 10
him that Joseph instead OF being dead
is living IN an Egyptian palace, with
Ill the inveStiture OF prime minister,
next TO the king in the mightiest en-
pire OF all the world! The news was
TOO sudden aud too glad for the old
man, and his cheeks whiten, and be has
3 daZed look, and his staff falls out of
his hand, and he would have dropped
had not the sons caugbs him and led
him to lounge and put cold water on
his face, and famed him little.
In that half delirium the Old man
mumbles something about his son
Joseph. He says: you don't mean
Joseph, do you? my dear son who has
been dead so lOug. You don't mean
Joseph, do you?' But after they mad
fully resuscitated him, and the news
was ou6rmed, 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 SEQ
him before l die"
It did not take the old man 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 20 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 % meet him, and Joseph got
out Of the chariot aud got Into the
wagon aud threw bis arms around his |
fathers neck, it was an antitheSis Of |
royalty and rusticity, OF simplicity and |
pOmp, OF d.ial 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 will go |
and see him before die"
What a strong and unfailing thing is |
Was il not almost time for Jacob to for |
get Joseph? The hot suns OF many |
summers had blazed on the heath; the |
river Nile had overlooked aud receded |
again and again; the seed had been /
sOwn and the harvest reaped; stars rose
aud 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 twenty-five years
OF age, aud now they are seventy-nve,
vet the vision OF the cradle, aud the
childish face, and the first utteranceS I
Of the lnfantile lips are fresh to-day, ia
spite OF the passage Of q half century.
Joseph was as fresh in Jacobs memory
as ever, though at seventeen years of
age the boy had disappeared from the !
old homestead. found 10 our family |
record the story of an infant that had |
died fifty years before, and said to nv !
parents: What is this record, and |
what does it mean?" Their chief /
answer was a long. deep sigh. 1t was |
Vet 10 them q very tender sorrow. |
What does ali that mean? Why, it /
means our children departed are Ours /
yet, AID that cord Of attachment /
across the years will mold US
until il brings US together in the pal
ace, 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 nften asked as nastnr-and every l