Connecticut western news., 1897-10-07

unmarried that they might administer
 to aged parents The brutal world calls
 these self sacrificing ones peculiar or
 angular, but if you had had as many
 annoyances as they have had Xantippe
 would have been an angel compared
 with you. It is easier to take care of
 five ro1lioking, romping children than
 of one childish old man. Among the
 best women of our land are those who
 allowed the bloom of life to pass away
 while they were caring for their par
 ents. While other maidens were asleep
 they were soaking the old mans feet
 or tucking up the covers around the
 invalid mother While other maidens
 were in the cotillon they were dancing
 attendance upon rheumatism and spread
 ing plasters for the lame back of the
 septuagenarian and heating catnip tea for insomnia.
 In almost every circle of our kindred there has been some queen of self sacrifice
 towhom jeweled hand after jeweled hand
 was offered in marriage, but who staid
 on the old place because of the sense of filial obligation until the health was
 gone and the attractiveness of personal
 presence had vanished. Brutal society
 may call such one by nickname
 God calls her daughter, and heaven
 calls her saint, and I call her domestic
 martyr A half dozen ordinary women
 have not as much nobility as could be found in the smallest joint of the little finger of her left hand Although the
 world has stood 6, ,000 years, this is the
 first apotheosis of maidenhood, although
 in the long line of those who have de-
 olined marriage that they might equali-
 fled for some especial mission are the
 names of Anna Ross and Margaret Breckinridge and Mary Shelton and Anna Etheridge and Georgiana Willetts, the angels of the battlefelds of Fair Oaks and Lookout Mountain and Chan
 cellorsville and Cooper Shop hospital
 and, though single life has been hon. ored by the fact that the three grandest men of the Bible, John and Paul and Christ, were celibates.
 cover the Hills to the Palace" Let the ungrateful world sheer at the
 maiden aunt, but God has a throne burning for her arrival, and on one side of that throne in heaven there is vase
 containing two jewels, the one brighter than the Kohinoor of London Tower and the other larger than any diamond ever found in the districts of Golconda the one jewel by the 1apidary of the palace cut with the words, "Inasmuch as ye did it to father;' the other jewe.
 by the lapidary of the palace cut with the words, "Inasmuch as ye did it to ssnxva,. &ba IJ,11o fos tho Door house. is the exquisite ballad of Will Carleton, who found an old woman who
 had been turned off by her prospered sons, but thank God I may find in my text, "Over the hills to the palace. As if to disgust us with unfilial con
 duct, the Bible presents us with the story of Micah, who stole the 1, 100 shekels from his mother, and the story of Absalom, who tried to dethrone his father But all history is beautiful with stories of flial fidelity. Epaminondas, the warrior, found his chief delight in
 reciting to his parents his victories. There goes Eneas from burning Troy,
 on his shoulders Anchises, his father. The Athenians punished with death any
 unfilial conduct There goes beautiful Ruth escorting venerable Naomi across the desert amid the bowling of the
 wolves and the barking of the jackals. John Lawrence, burned at the stake in Colchester, was cheered in the flames by his children, who said, "Oh, God, strengthen thy servant and keep thy
 promise ' And Christ in the hour of
 excruciation provided for his old moth l,i 1nft go and see him before I die, and a little while after we find them walking
 the tessellated floor of the palace, Jacob
 and Joseph, the prime minister proud
 of the shepherd.
 I may say in regard to the most of you that your parents have probably visited you for the last time or will
 soon pay you such visit, and I have wondered if they will ever visit you in
 the kings palace. "Oh," you say, 1T
 am in the pit of sinr' Joseph was in
 the pit. "Oh, you say, 1T am in the
 prison of mine iniqnityl" Joseph was once in prison. "Oh," you say, 1T
 didn't have fair chancel I was denied
 maternal kindness. Joseph was denied
 maternal attendance. "Oh, you say, 'tI am far away from the land of my
 nativityP' Joseph was far from home.
 "Oh," you say, "I have been betrayed
 and exasperatedp' Did not Joseph's 8 brethren sell him to a passing Ishmael- | itish caravan? Yet God brought him to that emblazoned residence, and if you will trust his grace in Jesus Christ you, ] too, will be empalaced 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 throneroom and living with the kingl They are coming up the steps
 now, and the epauleted guard of the palace rushes in and says, "Your fa-
 ther's coming, your mothers coming" And when under the arches of precious stones and on the pavement of porphyry | you greet each other the scene will eclipse the meeting on the Goshen high | way, when Joseph and Jacob fell on
 each others neck and wept a good while
 The Reunion.
 But, oh, how changed the old folks | will bel Their cheek smoothed into the ] flesh of little child, their stopped pos
 ture lifted into immortal symmetry, their foot, now so feeble, then with the sprightliness of a bounding roe, as they
 shall say to you, "A spirit passed this
 way from earth and told us that you
 were wayward and dissipated after we
 left the world, but you have repented, | our prayer has been answered, and you | are here, and as we used to visit you on
 earth before we died now we visit you
 in your new home after our ascension,
 and father will say, Mother, don't you
 see Joseph is yet alive?" and mother
 will say. "Yes, father, Joseph is yet
 alive, 2 and then they will talk over
 their earthly anxieties in regard to
 you, and the midnight applications in
 your behalf, and they will recite to
 each other the old Scripture passage