The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-11-11

I5ate; but Jacob was glad to get back
Joseph anyhow. and it. did not make
much difference to the old man wheth-
err the boy looked older or looked
! younger. And it will be enough JOY
for that parent if he can get back that
son, that daughter, at the gate of
Heaven, whether the departed loved
one Shall come Il cherub or in full-grown
angelhood. There must be a change
wrought by that celestial climate
and by those supernal years, but it
will only be from loneliness to more
| loneliness, and from health to more
radiant health. Oh, parent, as you
think of the darling painting and white
in membranous Group, | want you to
! know it will be gloriouslv 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, notwith-
standing the palace, and your child will
be your child, Notwithstanding all the
raining splendors CT everlasting noon.
| What a thrilling visit was that of the
old shepherd to the Prime Minister
Joseph. l see the old country
man seated in the palace, look
ing around at the mirrors and
the fountains and the carved
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. oh" says the
old man within himself. Il do wish
Rachel could be here to see all thisr
| | visited the farm house of the father
of Willard Fillmore when the son was
president of the United States, and the
octogenarian farmer entertained me
until II 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 grandly
| Willard treated his father in the White
House. The old mans face was illu-
minated with the story until almost the
midnight. He had just been visit
| ing his son at the capital. And l sup
pose it was something of the same JOY
that thrilled the heart of the old shep-
herd as he stood at the palace of the
| prime minister. 1t is a great day with
you when your old parents come to
visit you. Your little children stand
around with great, wide-open eyes,
wondering how anybody could be so
! old. The parents can not stay many
days, for they are a little restless, and
especially at nightfall, because they
sleep better in their own bed; but
while they tarry you somehow feel
there is benediction in every room in
! the house. They are little feeble
and you make it as easy as you can for
them, and you realize they will prob
ably not visit you very often-perhaps
never again. You go to their room
after they have retired at night to see
if the lights are properly put out, for
the old people understand candle and
lamp better than the modern appara-
tus for illumination. In the morning,
with real interest in their health, you
ask how they rested last night. Joseph,
in the historical scene of the text, did
not think any more of his father than
you do of your parents. The proba bill
ity is, before they leave your house
they half spoil your children with
klndnesses. Grandfather and grand
mother are more lenient and indulgent
to your children than they ever were to
you. And what wonders of revelation
In the bombazine pocket of the
one and the sleeve OF the other.
Blessed is that home where Chris
tian parents come to visit! Whatever
may have been the style of the
architecture when they came, it is a
! r,.tla q tIInI lnnu 1, ;-;& n
times, the two most memorable visi Is
will be the first and the last. Those
two pictures will hang in the hall of
your memory while memory lasts, ard
you will remember just how they
looked, and where they sat, and what
they said, and at what figure of the
carpet and at what door sill they part
ed with you, giving you the final good
by. Do not be EN- barrassed if your ia
Their come to town and he have the
manners of the shepherd, and if your
mother come to town and there be IN
her hat no sign of costly millinery. The
wife of the Emperor Theolosius said
wise thing when she said: "Husbands.
remember what you lately were, and
remember what you are, and be thank
full"
BY this time you all notice what
kindly provision Joseph made for his
father Jacob. Joseph did not say: Il
can't have the old man around this
place. How clumsy he would look
climbing up these marble stairs, and
walking over those mosaics Then, he
would be putting his hand upon some
of these frescoes. People would won
der where that old greenhorn came
from. He would shock all the Egyp-
tan court with his manners at table.
Besides that, he might get sick on my
hands, and he might be querulous, and
he might talk to me as though | were
only a boy, when | am the second man
in all the realm. OF course, he must
not suffer. and if there is famine in his
country-and | hear there isl will
send him provisions; but | can't take a
man from Padanaram and introduce
him into this polite Egyptian court.
What nuisance it is to have poor re-
lationsw