The Monitor-register., 1897-10-08
REVERENCE FOR AGE.
JOSEPH AND HIS DEVOTION TO HIS
OLD FATHER.

JOSEPH AND HIS DEVOTION TO HIS
OLD FATHER.
DR.. Talmage breaches a Sermon on Fa-
therly Love and Filial Devotion-Rus-
tiottt In a Palace-The migrate and he
Fate That Should Be His.
[Copyright, 1897, by American Press Asso-
ciation.1
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3.-Dr. Talmage
In his seymon shows us a scene Of ten
derness and reverence and tells us how
we ought to treat old people. His text is
Genesis xiv, 30, II will go and see him
before I die" g.
Jacob had long since passed the hun
bred year milestone. In those times peo-
pie we're distinguished for longevity. In
the centuries after persons lived to great
age. GRlen, the most celebrated ply
sioian Of his time, took SO little of his
own medicine that he lived to 140 years.
A man of undoubted veracity on the
witness stand in England swore that he
remembered an event 100 years before.
Lord Bacon speaks of a countess who
had cut three sets Of teeth and died at
140 years. Joseph Crele Of Pennsylva-
mia lived 140 years. In 1857 a book was
printed containing the names of 81 per-
sons who lived 140 years, and the names
of II persons who lived 100 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,
however, seemed to be an exception,
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, the flock Of 140
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 beauti-
full Rachel, his wife, was living and his
children shook the oriental abode with
their merriment. .
The Dead Alive.
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 ar
rived, and his long absent sons from
Egypt come in and 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 empire Of
all the world The news was too sudden
and too glad for the old man, and his
cheeks whtten, 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 and 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 Jo-
seph. He says: "You don't mean Jo-
seph, 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. I will go and see him before
I die"
1t 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 afford. He got
into the wagon, and 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 mar met Joseph's chariot COM
ing down to meet him and Joseph got
out Of the chariot and got into the wag-
on and threw his arms around his IA
theirs 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 res
olution Of the text-"I will go and see
him before I die" -
The Cord That Is Not Snapped.
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 over
flowed and receded, overflowed and re-
coded 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 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
not have been more than % years of
age, and now they are rs, yet the vi
sion of the cradle, and the childish face,
and the first utterances of the infantile
lips are fresh today, in spite of the pas
sage Of a half century. Joseph was as
fresh In Jacobs memory as ever, though
at II years Of age the boy had disap-
peared from the old homestead. I found
in our family record the story Of an in
FAINT that had died so years before, and
I said to my parents, "What is this rec
ord and what does it mean?'' Their
chief answer was a long, deep sigh. 1t
was yet to them a very tender sorrow.
What does that all mean? Why, it
mean our children departed are ours
yet, and that cord of attachment reach
ing across the years will hold us until
1t brings us together in the palace, as
Jacob and Joseph were brought togeth-
en-. That is one thing that makes old
people die happy. They realize it is re-
union with those from whom they have
long been separated.
am often asked as pastor-and every
pastor Is asked the question-"Will my
children be children in heaven and for
v 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 developed with
the great business Of state. But Jacob
was glad to get back Joseph anyhow,
and it did not make much difference to
the old man whether the boy looked
older or looked younger. And it will
be enough joy for that parent if he a
get back that son, that daughter, at the
gate of heaven, whether the departed
loved one shall come a cherub or in full
grown angelhood. There must be a
change wrought by that celestial eli
mate and by those supernal years. but
it will only be from loneliness to more
loneliness and from health to more radi-