Joseph did not say that, but he rushed 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
father's days, and nothing was too good for the old man while living;
and when he was dead Joseph, with military escort, took his father's
remains to the family cemetery at Machpelah and put them down beside
Rachel, Joseph's mother. Would God all children were as kind to their
parents!
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 the 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
chagrined at his antediluvian habits. They are provoked because he
cannot hear as well as he used to, and when he asks it over again, and
the son has to repeat it, he bawls in the old man's ear: "I hope you
hear that!" How long he must wear the old coat or the old hat before
they get him a new one! How chagrined they are at his independence of
the English grammar! How long he hangs on! Seventy years and not gone
yet! Seventy-five years and not gone yet! Eighty years and not gone
yet! Will he ever go? They think it of no use to have a doctor in his
last sickness, and go up to the drugstore and get a dose of something
that makes him worse, and economize on a coffin, and beat the
undertaker down to the last point, giving a note for the reduced
amount which they never pay! I have officiated at obsequies of aged
people where the family have been so inordinately resigned to the
Providence that I felt like taking my text from Proverbs: "The eye
that mocketh at its 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 ingrate ought to have a flock of crows
for pall-bearers! I 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 provided by the filial piety of
a son who had achieved a fortune. There the octogenarian 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 expressed 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.