The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-05-11
RETROSPECTIVE.
DR.. Talmage on the Living Over OF
Other Days.
The Value of Early Misunderstanding
Backward On Life-The Bright Days of
Youth-Sorrow Often Productive of
Good-Christian Comfort.

the way which the Lord thy God led thee"
He said:
Before entering on my subject l wish to
say tina some newspaper correspondents,
referring to a recent sermon in which l
welcomed foreign nationalities to this
country, have said that l advocated as a
desirable thing the iutermarriage of the
white and black races. Inever said so 1
never thought so, and any one who SO
misrepresents that sermon is either a viii
lain or a fool, perhaps both.
But to open this mornings subject 1
have to say God in the ext advises the
people to look back upon their past his
tory. 1t will do us all good to rehearse
the scenes between this May morning and
our cradle, whether it was rocked in coun-
try or town. A few days ago, with my
sister and brother, / visited the place Of
my boyhood. 1t was one of the most emo
tional and absorbing days of my life. There
stands the old house, and as l went through
the rooms l said, Il could find my
way here with my eyes shut, although 1
have not been here in forty years" There
was the sitting-room where a large family
group every evening gathered, the most
OF them now in a better world. There
was the old barn where we hunted for
Easter eggs, and the place where the
horses stood. There is where the orchard
was, only three or four trees now left of
all the grove that once bore apples, and
such apples, tool There is the brook down
which we rode to the watering of the
horses bare back and with a rope halter.
We also visited the cemetery where many
of our kindred are waiting for the resur-
~rection, the old people side by side, after
a journey together of sixty years, only
about three years between the time of
their going. There also sleep the dear old
n~eighbors, who used to tie their horses
under the shed of the country meeting
house and sit at the end Of the pew, sing
ing ''Duke Street," and "Balerma," and
Antioch"
o, they were a glorious race OF men and
women who did their work well, raised a
splendid lot of boys and girls, and are
now as to their bodies in silent neighbour
hood on earth. but as to their souls in
jubilant ~neighborhood before the throne
of God. / feel that my journey and visit
last week did me good, il not in person
hen in thought to revisit the scenes of
boyhood or girlhood. Thou shalt re-
member all the way which the Lord thy
God led thee"
Youth is apt too much to spend all its
time In looking forward. Old age is apt
too much to spend all its time in looking
backward. People in mid-life and on the
apex look both ways. 1t would be we'll
for us, / think, however, to spend more
time in reminiscence By the constitution
of our nature we spend most of the time
looking forward, as the vast majority of
this audience live not SO much in the pres
emit as in the future. 1 find hat you mean
to make q reputation, you mean to estab-
lish yourself. and the advantages you ex-
pect to achieve absorb a greatdeal of your
time. But l see no harm in this IL it does
not make you Disconnected with the pres
emit or disqualify you for existing duties.
1t is a useful thing sometimes to look
back and see the dangers we have escaped,
and see the sorrows we have suffered, and
the trial and ~wanderfngs of our earthly
pilgrimage, and to sum up our enjoy
ments. l mean this morning, so far as
God may help me-, to stir up your memory
of the past, so that in the review o may
be encouraged, and humb.ed, and urged
to pray.
There is a chapel in Florence with a
fresco by Guido 1t was covered. up with
two inches of stucco until our American
and European artists went there, and after
long toll removed the covering and re-
traced the fresco. And / am aware that
the memory of the past with many Of you
is all covered up with 10, 900 deliberations.
and I propose this morning, so far as the
Lord may help me, to take away the COW
ering, that the old picture may shine out
again.
l want to bind In one sheaf all your past
advantages, and / want to bind in another
sheaf all your past n versities. 1t is a
precious harvest and l must be cautious
o / swing the scythe.
Among the greatest advantages Of your
past life was the early home and it's sur
roundings. The bad men of the day, for
the most part, dip their heated passions
out of the boiling spring of an unhappy
home. We are not surprised to find that
Byron's heart was a concentration Of sin
when we hear that his mother was aban-
doned and.that she made sport of his in
trinity and called him the flame brat"
He who has vicious parents has to fight
every inch OF his way if he would MAIN
tain his integrity and at last reach the
home of the good in Heaven.
Perhaps your early home was in the
city. 1t may have been in the days when
Canal street, New York, was far up town
and the site of this present church was an
excursion into the country. That old
house in the city may have been demol-
ished or changed into stores, and it seemed
like sacrilege to you, for there was more
meaning in that plain house, in that small
house, than there is in a granite mansion
or n turreted cathedral. Looking back
this morning you see it as though 1t were
yesterday-the sitting room, where the
loved ones sat by the plain lamplight, the
mother at the evening stand, the brothers
and sisters, perhaps long ago gathered
into the skies, then plotting mischief on
the floor under the table, your father with
a firm voice commanding a silence that
lasted halt a minute.
Oh, those were good days! II you had
your foot hurt you mother always had .
soothing salve to heal it. II you were
wronged in the street you father was
always ready to protect you. The year
was one round OF frolic and mirth. Your
greatest trouble was like an April shower.
more sunshine han shower. The heart
had not been ransacked by troubles, nor
had sickness broker IL, and no lamb had a
warmer %sheepfold than the home in which
your childhood nestled.
Perhaps you were brought up in the
country. You stand now to-day In mem
ory under the old tree. You dubbed it
for fruit that was not quite ripe because
you could not wait any longer. You hear
the brook running along over pebbles.
You step again int the furrow where
your father in his shirt sleeves shouted to
the lazy oxen. You brighten the swal-
lows from the rafters OF the barn. and take
just one egg, and silence your conscience
bv saving that thew won't miss it. You
take u drink again out OF the very bucket
that the old we'll fetched up. You 20 for
the cows at night, and find them wagging
their heads through the bars. Outlines
In the dusty and busy streets you wish
you were home again on that cool grass,
or in the rag-carpeted hall of the farm
house, through which there was the breath
of new mown hay or the blossom of buck.
wheat.
You have I'm your windows now beauti-
full plants and flowers brought from across
the seas, but not one of them stirs In your
soul SO much charm and memory as the
old ivy and the yellow sunfower that
stood sentinel along the garden wall, and
the forget-me-nots playing hide
mid the long grass. The father, who used
to come in sunburnt from the fields and
sit down on the door sill and wipe the
sweat from his brow, may AVE gone to
his everlasting rest. The mother, who
used to sit at the door a little bent over,
cap and ~spectacles on. her face mellowing
with the vicissitudes ofmany years, may
have put down her gray head on the pill
low In the valley, but forget that home
you never will. Have you thanked God
for it2 Have you rehearsed all these
blessed "reminiscences? O, thank God for
a Christian father; thank God for a
Christian mother; thank God for an early
Christian altar at which you were taught