The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1897-10-13

old-An Elcqnens snd Eozceful Pies Z
FnIsl ASs cttoa.
DR.. Talmage, in this sermon shows Is I
scene of tenderness aud reverence and tetts
US how we ought 10 treat old people. MS
text is Genesis xiv, -. i will 80 an" see
him before die.
Jacob had long since passed the AHndre"
year milestone. In those times peo;.e were
distinguished for longevity. In the cen
turies after persons l;vedto great age. 0e!en,
the most celebrated physician Of MS time
took so little OF his own medicine that ne
lived to l4o years. Y man OF u2dou6ted
yerscity on the witness stand IN Easlan1
swore that he remembered al event l30years
before. Lord Bacon speaks OF 4 countess
who had cut three sets ofteeth and died at
l40 years. Joseph Crele Of Pennsylvania
lived 40 years In 1851 book was printed
containing the names Of 81 persons who lived
140 years and the names OF il persons w1o
lived $50 years.
Among the grand old people o; 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
unprinciplei. Joseph, however, seemed TO
be an exception, but he had been gone many
years, ard the probability was ,ha; he was
dead As sometimes now N house you
will find kept at the table vacant char .
plate, knife, fork, for some deceased
member of the family. so Jacob kept 10 MS
heart place for his beloved Joseph ihcre
sits the old man, the flock OF 70 years N
their flight having alighted long eaouen 20
leave the marks OF their claw on focehea,
snd cheek and temple. HIS long bear"
SHOWS down over his chest. lis eyes are
somewhat dim. and he can see farther #Een
they are closed than when they are open
for he can see clear back into the time when
beautiful Rachel. his wife. was living, ana
his children shook the oriental ABODE WltH
their merriment.
The centenarian IS sitting drea ming over
the past when he hears . wagon rumol!ng to
the front door He gets up and goes 10 the
door to see who has arrived, and his long
absent sons from Egypt come IN and an
nounce to him that Joseph, instead OF heloS
dead, is 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 t2o
glad for the old man, and his cheeks whiten,
and he has a dazed look and his staff falls
out of his hand and he would have dropped
had net the sons caught him and led him 10
lounge and put cold water on his face and
famed him little.
In tSet half delirium the old man mum
bles something about his son Joseph. He
says: .sYou don't mesn Joseph, do you?
My dear son who has been dead so long?
You don't mean Joseph, DO you:' But al
ter they had fully resuscitated him, and the
news was confirmed, the tears begin their
winding way down the crossroads OF the
wrinkles, and the sunkeD lips OF the old man
culver and he brings his bent fingers to-
gether as he says: Joseph is yet alive. /
will 90 and see him before die
It did not take the old man great while
to get ready, 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 ike 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 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 al
antithesis ofroyalty and rusticity, OF simple
ity and ponp, Of fIial affection and paternal
love, which leaves US so much in doubt whe-
ther we had better lsugL or cry, that We do
both. So Jacob kept the resolution Of the
tezt-'.I will 90 and see him before die. :"
What strong and unfaiiing thing is par
ental attachment! Vas it not almost time
for Jacob to forget Joseph? The hot suns Of
many summers had blazed on the heath; the
river Nile had overdowed and receded,
again and again; the seed had been sown
and the harvests resped; stars rose and set;
years ofplenty and years ef famine had
passed on, but the love Of Jacob for Joseph
inmy text is overwhelmingly dramatic. Ga,
that is cord that IS not snapped, though
pulled on by many decades. Plough when
the little child expired tGs parents may
2ot have been more thaNe5 years ofage, and
now seyaScss yet the vision of the cradle,
and the. childish face, and the first utterances
of the infantile lips are fresh today, IN spite
of the passage Of a half century. Joseph was
as fresh in jacobs memory as ever, though
st II years of sge the boy had disappeared
from the old homestead. l found in our
family record the story ofa infant that had
died so years before, and said to my par
ents, "What is this record and what does it
mean" Their chiefan was long, deep
sigh. It was yet to them very tender sor-
row. What does that all mean? Why, 1t
means our children departed are ours yet,
and that cord ofat;achment reaching across
the years will hold US until it brings US to-
gether in the palace, as Jacob and Joseph
were brought together. That is one thing
that makes old people die happy. They re-
slize it is reunion with those from whom they
have long been separated.
am often asked as pastor-and every
pastor is asked the question-"Wil my chill
dren be children in heaven and forever chill
dren?' Well, there was no doubt great
change in Joseph from the time Jacob lost
him and the time when Jacob found him
between the boy Of II years Of age and the
man in midlife, his forehead developed with
the great business Of state, but Jacob was
gla.2 TO get back Joseph anyhow, and i did
not make much difference to the old man
whether the boy looked older or looked
younger. And 1t will be enough JOY for that
parent if he can get back that sou, that
daughter, at the gate Of heaven, whether the
departed loved one shall come cheruo or
in full grown angelhood,
There must be achange wrought by that
celestial climate and by those supernal years,
but it will only be from loveliness 70 more
loveliness, and from health to more radiant
heslth. Oh, parent, as you think OF the
darling painting and white in membranOus
Group, want you to know it will be glorl-
ously bettered in that land where there
has never been a death and where all
the inhabitants will live on IN the
great future as long as God. Joseph
was Joseph notwithstanding the palace,
and your child will be your child notwith-
standing all the raining splendors OF ever
lasting noon. What q thrilling visit was
that OF the old shepherd TO the prime minis
ter Joseph. l see the old countryman seat
ed in the palace looking around on the
pillars, and Oh, how he wishes that Rachel,
his wife, was alive and she could have come
with him to see their son in his great house:
10 IL ~,