The Monitor-register., 1897-10-08

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 bet
ter than the modern apparatus for illu-
mination. 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 probability is,
before they leave your house they half
spoil your children with kindnesses.
The First and the Last.
Grandfather and grandmother are
more lenient and indulgent to your chill
dren than they ever were with you.
And what wonders of revelation in the
bombazine pocket Of the one and the
sleeve of the otherl 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 80 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 what figure of
the carpet, and at what doorsill they
parted with you, giving you the final
-a-ll- H. ,o4 10 nv, ho rro cca1 &c uor7r
father come to town and he nave 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 Theodosius said a
wise thing when she said, Husband,
remember what you lately were and re-
member what you are and be thankful"
By this time you all notice what
kindly provision Joseph made for his
father Jacob. Joseph did not say: 81
can't have the old man around this
place. How clumsy he would look climb
ing up these marble stairs and walking
over those mosaicsl Then he would be
putting his hands upon some of these
frescoes. People would wonder where
that old greenhorn came from. He
would shock all the Egyptian 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 1 were only
a boy, when 1 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 some provisions, but I can't
take a man from Padanaram and intro
duce him into this polite Egyptian
court. What a nuisance it is to have
poor relations!"
Joseph did 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 fathers 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 kind to their
parentsl
The migrate and His Fate.
IF the father have large property and
he 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 in
stead Of a fork. They are chagrined at
his antediluvian habits They are pro-
| voked because he cannot hear as we'll
as he used to, and when he asks it over
again and the son has to repeat it he
bawls in the old mans ear, ST hope
you hear that!' How long he must
wear the old coat or the old hat before
they get him a new onel How cha
grined they are at his independence of
the English grammar How long he
hangs onl Seventy years and not gone
yeti Seventy-five years and not gone
yet! Eighty years and not gone yeti
Will he ever go? They think it Of no
use to have a doctor In his last sickness
and go up to the drug store and get
something that makes him worse and
eoonomize on a coffin and beat the un-
dertaker down to the last point, giving
a note for the reduced amount which
they never pay. 1 have oficiated at OBJ
have been 80 Unfortunately resigned to
Providence that l felt like taking my
text from Proverbs, "The eye that mock
eth at his father and refuseth to obey
its mother, the ravens of the valley
shall pick it out and the young eagles
shall eat it" In other words, such an
migrate ought to have a flock of crows
for pallbearers. 1 congratulate you if
you have the honor of providing for
aged parents. The blessing Of the Lord
God of Joseph and Jacob will be on
you.
I rejoice to remember that though my
father lived in a plain house the most
of his days he died in a mansion pro-
vided by the filial piety Of a son who
had achieved a fortune. There the octo-
genarian sat, and the servants waited on
him, and there were plenty of horses
and plenty of carriages to convey him,
and a bower in which to sit ON long
summer afternoons, dreaming over the
past, and there was not a room in the
house where he was not welcome, and
there were musical instruments of all
sorts to regale him, and when life had
passed the neighbors came out and ex-
pressed all honor possible and carried
him to the village Machpelah and put
him down beside the Rachel with whom
he had lived more than half a century.
Share your successes with the old peo-
pie. The probability is that the princi-
pies they inculcated achieved your for
tune. Give them a Christian percentage
of kindly consideration. Let Joseph d.
vide with Jacob the pasture fields of
Goshen and the glories Of the Egyptian
court.
A Tribute to the Spinster.
And here I would like to sing the
praises Of the sisterhood who remained
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 rollicking, romping children than
Of n 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 p~lasters for the lame back Of the
septuagenarian and heating catnip tea
for insomnia.
In almost araru nirolo Of o,,r Li.S..a