Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-10-04
REVERENCE FOR AGE.
JOSEPH AND HIS DEVOTION TO HIS
OLD FATHER.

Fate TEoat Should BE lis.
copyright. 1897. by American Press Asso-
ciation
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3D.. Tal-nage
in his sermon shows Us Z scene Of ten
derness and reverence and tells Us how
we ought to treat old people. His text is
Genesis XIV, 28, 81 will go and see him
before I die. -
Jacob had long since passed the hun
dred year milestone. In those times peo-
PIE were diSting uishcd for longevity In
she centuries after persons lived to great
age. Galen, the most celebrated ply
stefan of his time, took SO little Of his
own medicine that he lived to 40 years.
4 man Of undoubted veracity on the
witness stand in England swora 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 Penns-ylva-
MIA lived 40 years In 1857 a book was
printed containing the names Of 81 per
sons who lived 140 years, and the names
Of II persons who lived $50 years.
Among the grand old people OF whom
we have record was Jacob, the shepherd
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 house you will
find kept at the table vacant chair, a
plate, knife, 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 somewhat 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
children shook the oriental abode with
their nerriment.
The Dead Alive.
The centenarian is sitting dreaming
over the past when he hears q 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 III 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 q dazed look,
and his saEff falls out of his hand, and
he would have dropped had not the sons
caught him and led him to q lounge
and put cold water on his face and
famed him little.
In that half delirium the old man
mu1nbles something about his son 10
seph He says: You don't mean Jo-
seph, do you-my dear son who has
been dead so long? You don't mean
Joseph, do your 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. I will go and see him before
I die. -
1t 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 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 chariot COM
ing down to meet him and Joseph got
ont IF ba o,,1 cyo+ int t1,a xz,o rr
on and threw his arms around his IA
theirs neck 1t was an antithesis of roy
atty and rusticity, of simplicity and
pomp, of flial affection and paternai
love, which leaves US SO IS,lch in doubt
whether we had better laugh or cry,
that we do both. So Jacob kept the res
olution of the text-''I will go and see
him before l die. -
The Cord That Is Not Snapped.
What Il strong and unfailing thing is
parental attachment. Was it not almost
time for Jacob to forget Joseph? The
hot suns of many summers had blazed
on the heath; the river Nile had over
flowed and receded, overflowed and re-
coded again and again; the seed had
been sown and the harvests 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 pull
ed ON by many decades! Though when
the little child expired the parents may
not have been more than % years of
age, and now they are rs, yet the vi
sion of the cradle, and the childish face,
and the first utterances of the infantile
lips are fresh today, in spite of the pas
sage of half century. Joseph was as
fresh in Jacobs memory as ever, though
at II years of age the boy had disap-
peared from the old homestead [ found
in ON. ,-ooOr-1 +l,a c+c7-r- Of on,