The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-10-08
REVERENCE FOR AGE.
JOSEPH AND HIS DEVOTION TO HIS
OLD FATHER.

Fate That Should Be His.
copyright, 1897, by American Press Asso
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3.-Dr. TalmagC
IN his sermon shows us a scene of ten,
derness and reverence and tells us how
we ought to treat old people. His text is
Genesis xiv, 20, 81 will go and see him
before | die.
Jacob had long since passed the hun
bred year milestone In those times peo-
pa were distinguished for longevity. In
tn centuries after persons lived to great
age. Galen, the most celebrated ply
stefan of his time, took 50 little of his
own medicine that he lived to $40 years.
A man of undoubted veracity on the
witness stand in England swore that he
remembered an event $50 years before.
Lord Bacon speaks of a countess who
had cut three sets of teeth and died at
$40 years Joseph Circle of Pennsylva-
mia lived 40 years. In 1857 book was
printed containing the names of 81 per-
SONS who lived 40 years, and the names
of IL persons who lived $50 years.
Among the grand old people of whom
we have record was Jacob, the shepherd
of the text. But he had 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 house you will
find kept at the table vacant chair, a
plate knife, fork, for some deceased
member of the family, so Jacob kept i'll
his heart a place for his beloved Joseph.
There sits the old man. the flock of 40
years i'll 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 announce to him
that Joseph, instead of being dead is
living in an Egyptian palace, with all
the investitrre OF prime minister, next
to the king i'll the mightiest empire Of
all the world. The news was too sudden
and too glad for the old man, and his
cheeks whiten, and he has 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 lounge
and put cold water ON his face and
famed him 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
old man quiver and he brings his bent
fingers together as he says: "Joseph is
yet alive. | will go and see him before
/ die. "
1t did not take the old man great
while to get ready, | 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 maui 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 "a
Their S neck it was an antithesis Of roy
atty and rEsticity of simplicity and
pomp, Of filial affection and paternal
love, which leaves us SO much i'll doubt
whether we had better laugh or cry,
that we do both. So Jacob kept the res
olution Of the text will go and see
him before | 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, overfiowed 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 20 years of |
age, and now they are 70, yet the vi
sion of the cradle, and the childish face,
Snd the first utteranccs of the infantile |
lips are fresh today, in spite of the pas
Rage of 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. l found |
in our family record the story of an in
FAINT that had died so years before, and |
| said to my parents, "What is this rec
ord and what does it mean?' Their
chief answer was long, deep sigh Il
was yet to them a very tender sorrow