Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-05-16
RETROSPECTIVE.
DR.. Talmage on the Living Over Of
Other Days.
The Value of Early Misunderstanding 9
Backward on Life-The Bright Days of
Youth-Sorrow Often Productive of
Good-Christisn Comfort.

In a recent sermon at Brooklyn on the
subject Other Days Lived Over" Rev. I.
Dewitt Talmage took his text from Deuter-
onomy viii. 2: 'Thou shalt remember all
the way which the Lord thy God led thee. "
He said:
Before entering on my subject wish to
say that some newspaper correspondents.
referring to recent sermon in which
welcomed foreign nationalities TO this
country, have said that advocated as a
desirable thing the intermarriage Of the
white and black races. Inever said so /
never thought SO, and any one who so
misrepresents that sermon is either VIII
lain or fool, perhaps both.
But to open this mornings subject l
have to say God in the text 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, l 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 went through
the rooms / said. Il could find my
way here with my eyes shut, although l
was the sitting-room where 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
h l;oLx do 70 fhn forin of Ia
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
neighbors, 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 we'll, raised
splendid lot of boys and girls, and are
now as to their bodies in silent neighbor-
hood on earth. but as to their souls in
jubilant neighborhood before the throne
of God. l feel that my journey and visit
last week did me good, if not in person
then 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 al its
time in looking forward Old age is apt
too much to spend all it's tina in looking
backward. People in mid-iife and on the
apex look both ways. 1t would be well
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
ent as in the future. find that you mean
to make a reputation, you mean to estab
Iish yourself. and the advantages you ex-
pect to achieve absorb great deal of your
time. But / see no harm in this if it does
not make you discontentei with the pres
ent or disquaIify you for existing duties.
1t is useful thing sometimes to look
back and see the dangers we have escaped,
and see the so-rows we have suffered, and
the trials and wanderings of our earthly
and to sum up our enjoy
meuts. l mean this morning, so far es
God may help me, to stir up your memory
7f the past, so that in the review you may
be encouraged, and humb ed, and urged
to pray.
There is 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
al oh
and 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.
want to bind in one sheaf all your past
and want to bind in another
sheaf all your past adversities. 1t is
precious harvest and must be cautious
bow l swing the scythe.
Among the greatest advantages of your
past life was the early home and its sur
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 'Iame brat"
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 turreted cathedral. Looking back
this morning you see it as though it 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 half a minute.
Perhaps you were brought up in the
country. You stand now To-day in men,
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 into the furrow where
your father in bis shirt sleeves shouted to
the lazy oxen You frighten the swal-
lows from the rafters OF the barn, and take
just one egg, and silence your conscience
by saying that they won't miss it You
take drink again out of the very bucket
that the old well fetched up. You go 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
rhEn