The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-07-25
REV, DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: sThe Rustic in the Palace"


ldie."-Genesis XIV, %.
Jacob had long since passed the hundred
year milestone. In those times people were
DISTINGUISHED for longevity. In the centuries
|afterward persons lived to great age. Gaien,
the most celebrated physician OF his time,
took so little of his own medicine that he
lived to 140 years. A man OF undoubted
iyeracity on the witness stand In England
iswore that he remembered an event $50 years
before. Lord Bacon speaks OF a countess
who had cut three sets ofteeth and died at
140 years. Joseph Crele. OF Pennsylvania.
lived 40 years. In 1857 book was printed
containing the names Of thirty-seven per-
sons 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 shepherd OF the
text. But he had 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, q
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 Of 40 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 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 beauti-
full Rachel. his wife, was living and his chill
,dren shook the oriental abode with their
merriment.
The centenarian Is sitting dreaming over
the past when he hears a wagon rumbltng
TO the front door. He gets up and goes to
The door to see who has arrived, and his
Aong 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
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 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
says 'sYou don't mean Joseph, do you
my des= son who has been dead 80 longA
You don't mean Joseph, do youY But after
they had fully resuscltated him and the news
was confirmed the tears begin their winding
way down the crossroads OF tho wrinkles,
and the sunken lips of the old nan culver,
and he brings his bent fingers together as
he says: "Joseph Is yet alive. + will so and
see him before die."
It did not take the old man great while
to get ready, I warrant you. He put on the
best clothes that the shepherds 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 charl-
OF coming down to meet him, and Joseph
got out OF the chariot and got into the wag-
on and threw his arms around his fathers
neck, It was an antithesis ofroyalty and rus
ticity, of simplicity and pomp, OF filial af1ec-
tion and paternal love, which leaves US 80
much in doubt about whether we had better
laugh or cry that we do both. SO Jacob kept
the resolution Of the text, 81 will 20 and see
him before die"
What a strong and unfailing thing is par
entail attachment! Was 1t not almost time
for Jacob to forget Joseph? The hot suns OF
many summers had blazed on the heath the
river Nile had overfowed 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 on. but the love OF
Jacob for Joseph In my text Is overwhelm-
ingly dramatic. Oh, that Is cord that Is
not snapped, though pulled on by many de-
cades Though when the little child expired
the parents may not have been more than
twenty-five years Of age, and now they are
seventy-flve yet the vision OF the cradle, and
the childish face, and the first utterances OF
the passage Of a half century. Joseph was
as fresh In Jacobs memory as ever, though
of seventeen years of age the boy had disap-
peared from the old homestead. I Ifound in our
family record the story of an infant that had
died fifty years before, and said to my
parents, "What Is this record, and what
does It mean?" Their chief answer was a
long, deep sigh. It was yet to them very
ten1er 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 1t brings
Us together in the palace, as Jacob and
Joseph were brought together. That ls one
thing that makes old people happy. They
realize It is reunion with those from whom
they have long been separated.
am often asked, US pastor, and every
pastor Is asked the question: "Will my
children be children in heaven and forever
ohildren?" Well, there was no doubt a 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 ot state-but Jacob
was glad to get back Joseph anyhow, and 1t
did NOT make much difference to the old man
whether the 10y looked older or looked
younger. And it will be enough
Joy for that parent IL he can get back
that son, that daughter, at the gate
Of heaven, whether the departed loved one
shall come o 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 he from loveliness to
more loyeliness and from health to more
radiant health. parent, as you think OF
the darling painting and white in membrane
Gus Group I want you 10 know It will be
gloriously better in that land where there
has never been a death and where all the Il
habitants will live on in the great future rs
long as God! Joseph was Joseph, notwith-
standing the palace, and your child will be
your child Notwithstanding all the reigning
splendors OF everlasting noon.
What thrilling visit was that OF the old
shepherd to the prime minister Joseph! l
see the old countryman seated in the palace
looking around at the mirrors, aud the foun-
tains, and the carved pillars, and, OBJ, how
he wishes that Rachel. his wife, was alive
and she could have come there with him to
see their son in his great house! "Oh."
SAYS the old man within himself, II do wish
Rachel could be here to see all this !"
I visited the farmhouse OF the father
of Millard Fillmore when the soE was
President OF the United States, and
the octosenarian 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 srandIy Mlllard treated
his father in the White House. The old
mans face was illumined with the story
until almost the midnight. He had just
80 -.;,;xI,,,x h;u oon at rho oapita1 And