The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-12

| all the INHABITANTS VIII I'VE Oh III H
great future as lo e as God. Joseph
was Joseph notwithstanding the pail
ace, and your children will be your
children Notwithstanding all the rain
ing ~splendorS of everlasting noon
What a thrilling visit was that of the
old shepherd to the prime minister
Joseph. ] see the Old countryman
seated in the palace looking around al
the mirrors and the fountains and the
carved pillars, and, oh, how he wishes
that Rachel. his wife, was alive and
that she could come with him TO see
their son in his great house. oh"
says the old man within himself, Il
do wish Rache could be here TO see
all this" 1 visited at the farmhouse
Of the father of Willard Fillmore when
the son was president of the United
States, and the O~ctogenarian farmer
entertained me until IL 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 Illuminated with the story
until almost the midnight. He had
just been visiting his son at the CAPT
tai. And / suppose it was something
of the same joy that thrilled the heart
Of the old shepherd as he stood in the
palace Of the prime minister.
II IS IL great uds VIII SOu ypul
old parents come to visit you. Your
little children stand around with great
wide open eyes, wondering how any
body could be so old. The parents can
not stay many days, for they are a lit
tie restless, and especially at nightfall,
because they sleep better in their own
bed, but while they tarry you somehow
feel there is a benedictiOn in every
room in the house. They are a little
feeble and Won make If as pdGV as Won
can for them, and YOU realize they will
probably 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 mod
ern apparatus 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 n more of
his father than you do of your parents.
The probability is, before they leave
your house they half spoil you chill
dren with kindness.
THE FIRST AND THE LAST.
Grandfather and grandmother are
more lenient and i%ndulgent to your
children han they ever were with you.
And what wonders of revelation in the
bombazine pocket of the one and the
sleeve Of the other! Blessed is that
home where Christian parents come to
visit. Whatever may have been the
style of the architecture when they
came, it is a palace before they leave.
If they visit you so times, the two most
memorable visits will be the first and
the last. Those two pictures will hang
in the hall Of your memory While
memory lasts, and you will remember
just how they looked, and where they
sat-, and what they said, and at wha
figure of the carpet, and at what door
sill they parted with you. giving you
the final goodby. Do not be embarass-
ed if you father come to town n he
have the name OF the shepherd,
and If your mother come to town n
there be in her hat no sign Of costly
millinery. The wife of the Emperor
~Theodosius said a wise thing when she
said. Husband, remember what you
lately were and remember what you
are and be thankful"
BY this time you will notice what
kindly provision Joseph made for his
father Jacob. Joseph did not say II
can't have the old man around this
palace. How clumsy he would look
climbing up these marble stairs n
walking over those mosaics! Then he
woul be putting his hands upon
some of these frescOeS. People would
wonder where IN old greenhorn
came from. He would shock all the
Egyptian court with his manner at
table. Besides that, he might get sick
on my hands. and he might be Queru-
lous, and he might talk to me
as though I were only a boy. when I
am the second man In all the realm.
OF course he must not suffer, and if
there is famine in his cOuntry-and I
hear there isl will send him some
provisions, but I can't take a man
from Padanaram and introduce him
into this polite Egyptian court. What
a nuisance it is to AVE poor relations!"
Joseph lie not say that. but he rush.
ed out to meet his father with perfect
abandon of affection and brought him
up to the palace and introduced him to
the emperor and provided for all the
rest of the ather's days, and nothing
was too good FOR the old man while liv-
ing, and when he was dead Joseph.
with military escort, took his fathers
remains to the family cemetery. Would
God all children were as d to their
parents!
THE MIGRATE AND HIS FATE.
If the father have large property and
be wise enough to keep it in his own
name, he will be respected by the heirs,
but how often it is when the son finds
his father in famine, as Joseph found
Jacob in famine, the young people
make it very hard for the old man..
They are so surprised he eats with a
knife instead of a fork. They are cha
grined at his antediluvian habits. They
are provoked because he canno hear
ais we'll as he used to, and when he
asks it over again and the son has to
repeat it he bawls in the dc mans
ear, Il hope you hear that" How long
he must wear the old coat or III
old hat before they get him a new
one! o chagrined they are at his
independence Of the English grammar!
How long he hangs on! Seventy years
and not gone yet! Eighty years and not
gone yet! Will he v e go? They hin
it of no use to ave a doctor in hts last
sickness n go up to the drug store
and get something that makes him
worse and conomiz on a coffin and
beat the undertaken down to the last