The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-12
REVERENCE FOR Age
JOSEPH AND HIS DEVO rIONsTO
HIS OLD FATHER
DR.. TaImaae breaches a srmon on Father
~ Love and Fiiial Devotion-Rusticity In
u PaIacs-The Migrate and the Fate That
Should Be His

a scene Of tenderness and reverence
people. His text is Genesis xiv, %, Il
will go and see hin before / die"
Jacob had long since passed the hum
dred year milestone. In those times
people were distinguished for longevi-
ty. In the centuries after persons lived
to great age. Galen, the most celebrat-
ed physician of his time, took so little
of his own medicine hat he lived TO
140 years. A man Of u~ndoubted verac-
ity IN the witness stand in England
SWOre that he remembered an event $50
years before. Lord Bacon speaks Of a
unite who had cut three sets of
teeth and died at 40 years. Joseph
Circle of Pennsylvania lived 14O years.
In 1867 a book was printed containing
the names Of 81 persons 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 shep-
herd of the text. But he had a bad lot
of boys. They We're jealous and am
bilious and every way unprincipled.
Joseph, however, seemed to be an ex-
ception, 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, a 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, he flock of 140 years
in their flight having alighted long
enough to leave the marks Of their
claw on forehead and cheek and tenn
pie. 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 n his children shook the Orien-
tai abode with their merriment.
THE DEAD ALIVE.
The ~tenar is sitting dreaming
over the past when he hears a wagon
rumbling to the front door. He gets
up goes to the door to see who has
arrived, and his long absent sons from
Egypt come in and to MN
that Joseph, instead of being dead, IS
living in an Egyptian palace, with all
the investitude of prime minister, next
to the kin in the mightiest empire OF
all the world. The news was too sud
den and too 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 not
the sons caught him n led him to
a lounge and put cold water on his
face and famed him a little.
In that half delirium the old man
mumbles 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 you?" But after they had
fully resuscitated him and the news
was confirmed the tears began 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
vet alive. I will go and see him before
I die" ,
Tt did not take the old man a great
while to get ready, I warrant you. he
put on the best clothes that the shep-
herds wardrobe could o He got
into the wagon inc 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
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 or
royalty and rusticity. of simplicity n
pomp, OF flial affection and paternal
love, which leaves so mach in doubt
whether We had better laugh or cry,
that We do both. SO Jacob kept the
resolution Of the text will &C and
see him before I die"
THE CORD THAT IS NOT SNAPPED.
What g. strong and unfailing thing is
parental attachment. Was 1t not al
most time for Jacob to forget Joseph?
The hot suns Of many summers had
blazed on the heath: the river Nile had
overfiowed and receded, overflowed and
receded again and again; h seed had
been sown and the harvest reaped;
tars rose and set; years OF plenty n
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
no have been more than rs years OF
age. n now they are IS, yet he vi
sion of the cradle, and the childish face,
n the first utterance Of the infantile
lips are fresh today, in spite Of the pas
sage Of half a century. Joseph was as
fresh in Jacobs memory as ever,
though at II 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 so years before,
and I said to my parents, What is this
record Int what oes it mean?" Their
chief answer vas a long deep sigh. It
was yet to them a very tender sorrow.
What does that all mean? Why, it
means our children departed are ours
yet, and the ord Of attachment reach
ing cross the years will hold us until
it brings US together in the palace, as
Jacob and Joseph were brought to-
gether. That is one thing that makes
old people die happy. They realize
it is reunion with those from whom
they have long been separated.
/ I'M often asked as pastOr-and
every pastor is asked the question
"Will my children be children in
heaven and for ever children?" 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 of II years of age and
the man in midlife, his forehead de