The National tribune., 1897-10-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON
Lessons From the Story Of
Jacob and Joseph.


Jacob had long since passed the hundred year
milestone. In those times people were dis.
tinguished for longevity.
Among tho grand old people Of whom we
have record was Jacob. But he had q 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. But Jacob kept in his heart a
place for his beloved Joseph
The centenarian is sitting dreaming over the
| past when he hears wagon rumbling to the
| front door. He gets up and goes TO the door to
see who has arrived, 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
! mightest empire of all the world !!
The news was too sudden and too glad for
! the old man. But it did not take him great
while to get ready, l warrant you. And when
the wagon with tho old man met Joseph's
chariot 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 antthesis of royalty and rusticity,
of simplicity and pomp of flial affection and
parental love-
What a strong and unfailing thing is parental
attachment. The love of Jacob for Joseph in
my text is overwhelmingly dramatic. Oh
that is cord that is not snapped, though
pulled OF by many decades.
once found in our family record tho story
of an infant that had died so years before and
said to my parents: what is this record, aud
what does it mean.?" Their chief answer was
a long, deep@sigh. 1t was yet TO them very
tender sorrow.
What does that all mean? Why, it means
our children departed ours yet, and that
cord of attachment reaching across the years
will hold us until it brings us together in the
palace, as Jacob and Joseph were brought to-
geiher. That is one thing that makes old
people die happy.
And it will be enough JOY for that parent If
he can get back that son, that daughter, ut
the gate of heaven, whether the departed
loved one shall come chetub Or in full-grown
angelhood. There must be change wrought
by that celestial climate and by those supernal
years. but it will only be from loneliness 10
more lovelness, and from health to more radi-
ant health.
/ visited at the farmhouse of the father of
Willard Fillmore when the son was President
of the United States, and the octogeDaran
farmer entertained until IL 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 grandiy
Willard treated his father in the White House.
The old mans face was illumined with the
story until almost the midnight. He had just
been visiting his son at the Capital. And
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 chill
dren stand around with great, wide-opcn eyes,
wondering how anybody could be so old The
parents cannot stay many days, for they are
little restless and especially at nightiall, be-
cause they sleep better in their own bed but
while they larry you somehow feel there is
benediction in every room in the house. You
go 10 their room after they have retired at
night to sec if the lights are properly put out,
for the old people understand candle aud lamp
better than the modern apparatus for ilhmi-
nation. In the morning, with real interest
in their health, you ask how they rested last
night.
The probability is, before they leave your
house, they half spoil your children with kind
nesses. Grandfather and grandmother are
more lenient and ndulgent to your children
than they ever were with you.
Blessed is that home where Christian parents
come TO visit! Whatever may have been the
style OF the architecture when they came, il is
palace before they leave.
Do not be embarrassed if your father come to
town, aud he have the manners Of the shep-
there be in her hat no sign Of costly millinery.
Joseph did not say g / can't have the old
man around this place. How clumsy he would
look climbing up these marble stairs and walk
ing over those mosaics! Then, he would be
putting his hands upon some Of these frescoes.
People would wonder where that old green
horn came from. lie would shock all the
Egyptian court with his manners al table"
Joseph did not say that, but he rushed out
TO meet his father with perfect abandon of
affection, and brought him mp to the palace,
and introduced him 10 tho Emperor, aud pro-
vided for all the rest of the fathers days, aud
nothing was teo good for the old man while
living; and WHOM he was dead, Joseph, with
military escort, took his fathers remains to
the family cemetery. Would to God all chill
oren wers as kind to their parerts
III the iatner have large property, and he be
wise enough TO keep IL in his own name lie
will be respected by the heirs but how often
ii is. when the son finds his father in famine,
as Joseph found Jacob Iii famine, the young
people make it very hard for the old man.
Ihey are so surprised he eats with knife
instead of fork. They are chasrined at his
autedlluvian habits They provoked be-
cause he cannot hear as well as ho used. How
long he must wear the old coat or the old hat
before they get him a new one! How cha.
grned they are at his independence of the
English grammar!
where the family have been so Unfortunately
resigned to Providence that felt Ike takin.
my text from Proverbs: The eye that mock.
eth at his father, and refusath to obey its
mother, the ravens OF the valley shall pick it
out, aud the young eagles shall eat it."
Share your successes with the old people,
The probability is that the principles they in.
cuIcated achieved your fortune. Give them
Christian percentage of kindly consideration
Let Joseph divide with Jacob the pasture
fields of Goshen and the glorics of the Egypt
ian conrt.
Oh, what day that will be when the old
folks come from an adjoining mansion in
heaven and find you amid the alabaster pillars
OF the throne room and living with the King!
They are coming up the steps now. aud the
epau guard of the palace rushes in and
says: Your fathers coming, your mothers
c0mDg!" And when under the arches of pre-
cious stones and on the pavement of porphyry
you greet each other, the scene will eclipse
Ihe meeting on the Goshen highway.
But oh, how changed the old folks will be
They shall say to you "A spirit passed this
way from earth aud told us that you were way.
ward and dsspated after We left the world;
but you have repented, our prayer has been an.
swered and you are here; and as we used to
visit you on earth before died, now we
sion."
And father will say, Mother, don't yen see
Joseph is yet alive?" and mother will say,
Yes, father, Joseph is yet alive" And then
| they VIII talk over their earthly anxieties in