The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-04
THE HUNDRED MILESTONE.
MANY WHO HAVE BEEN DISTIN-
GUISHED FOR LONGEVITY.


the Father of MiIInrd Fillmore.
An Account of His Visit to the Cap
itaI When His son Was President.
Remarks on the Treatment of Pa
rents by Children When the Pa
rents Are Old.
washington. Oct. 3.-Dr. Talmage, in
this sermon. shows us scene of tender
ness and reverence, and tells US how we
ought to treat old people. His text is
Gen. As: 2S: I will go and see him before
I die.
Jacob had long since passed the hundred
year milestone. In those times people
were distinguished for longevity. In the
centuries after, persons lived to great
age. Galen. the most celebrated physician
of his time, took so little Of his own medi-
cine that he lived to one hundred and for
" years. A man of undoubted veracity on
the witness-stand in England swOre that
he remembered an event one hundred and
fifty years before. Lord Bacon speaks of
a countess who had cut three sets of
teeth, and died at one hundred and forty
years. Joseph Crele, of Pennsylvania,
lived one hundred and forty years. In
1857 a book was printed containing the
names of thirty-seven persons who lived
one hundred and 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 shepherd
of the text. But he had a bad lot of
boys. They were Jealous and ambitious
and every way unprincipled. Joseph, how
ever seemed to be an exception; but he
had been gone many years, and the prob
ability was that he was dead. AS some
times now in house you will find kept
at the table vacant chair, plate, a
knife, a fork, for some deceased member
of the family, so Jacob kept in his heart
a 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 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 beautiful Rachel, his wife, was
living, and his children shook the Oriental
abode with their merriment.
The centenarian is sitting dreaming over
the past when he hears a 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 mightiest
Of all
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 a lounge
and put cod water on his face, and famed
him a little.
In that half delirium the old man mum
bes something about his son Joseph. He
says: You don't mean Joseph, 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. l will go and see him before 1
die"
1t did not take the old man a great while
to get ready, l warrant you. He put on
robe could afford. He got into the wagon,
and though the aged are cautious and like
10 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 an antithesis of roy
atty and rusticity, of simplicity and pomp,
of flial affection and paternal love, which
leaves us so much in doubt whether we
had better laugh or cry, that we do both.
SO Jacob kept the resolution OF the text
Il will go and see him before 1 die"
What a 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 overflowed
and receded, overfiowed and receded 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 Jo-
seph in my text is overwhelmingly dra-
matte. Oh, that is a cord that is not
snapped, though pulled on by many de-
cades! Though when the little child ex-
pred the parents may not have been more
than twenty-five years of age, and now
they are seventy-five, yet the vision of the
cradle, and the childish face, and the first
utterances of the infantile lips are fresh
to-day, in spite of the passage of a half
century. Joseph was as fresh in Jacob 8
memory as ever, though at seventeen
years of age the boy had disappeared from
the old homestead. l found in our family
record the story of an infant that had died
fifty years before, and / said to my par
ents: What is this record and what
does it mean?' Their chief answer was
long, deep sigh 1t was yet TO them a
very tender sorrow. What does that all
mean? Why, it means our children de-
parted are ours vet, and that cord of at
tachment reaching across the years will
hold us until it brings US together in the
palace as Jacob and Joseph We're 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.
l am often asked as pastor-and every
pastor is asked the question-''Wm my
children be children in heaven and forever
children|' Wen, there was no doubt d
great change in Joseph from the time ia.
cob lost him and the time when jacob
found him-between the boy of seventeen
years of age and the man in mid-life. hi.
forehead developed with the great bust
ness of state; but Jacob was GLAD 10 ee