Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-06
TALMAGE DENIES IT.
He Does Not Favor Miscegenation,
and the Man Who Says He Did,
is EITHER A VILLAIN Or A FOOL.
Other Days Lived Over is the Subject of His
Discourse.
SPEND MORE TIME IN REMINISCESCE

lrsPEcIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATcH.I
BROOKLYN, May Sat the Tabernacle
to-dayithe Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. D.,
preached q sermon on the subject, "Other
Days Lived Over, and made reference to the
falsehocd that he had advocated miscegena-
ton of the white and black races. The vast
congregation sang the hymn beginning:
Our God, our help in ages past
Our hope for years to come.
DR.. Talmage's text was Deuteronomy viii, 2;
f'Thou shalt remember all the way which
the Lord thy God led thee" He said:
Before entering on my subject 1 wish to say
that some newspaper correspondents referring
to a recent sermon in which 1 welcomed for
eign nationalities to this country, have said
that 1 advocated as desirable thing the inter-
marriage of the white and black races. never
said so, never thought so. and anyone who so
misrepresents that sermon is either villain or
3 fool, perhaps both.
But toe open this mornings subject have to
say God in the text advises the people to look
back upon their past history. 1t will do us all
good to rehearse the scenes between this May
morning and our cradle, whether it was rocked
in country or town. A few days ago, with my
sister and brother, visited the place of my
boyhood. 1t was one of the most emotional
and absorbing days of my lie. There stands
the old house, and as went through the rooms
! said: Il could find my way here with my
eyes shut although l have not been here in
30 years" There was the sitting room where q
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 too. There is the brook down
which we rode to the watering OF the horses
bareback and with a rope halter. We also
visited the cemetery where many of our
kindred are waiting for the resurrection, the |
old people side by side, after journey to-
gether of 60 years, only about three years be- |
tween the time Of their going. There also |
their horses under the shed of the country |
meeting house and sit at the end Of the pew 1
singing Duke Street" and "Balerma" and |
Antioch" oh they were glorious race of |
men and women who did their work well, |
raised splendid lot of boys and girls, and are |
now as to their bodies in silent neighborhood
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 and it would do you all good, if not In
person then in thought to revisit the scenes of
boyhood or girlhood. Thou shalt remember
all the way in which the Lord thy God led |
thee"
a
in looking forward. Old age is apt too much
10 spend all its time in looking backward.
People in middle life and on the apex look both /
ways. 1t would be well for us, think how
ever, tn spend more time in Renaissance. By |
the constit Gtcn of our nature we spend most of |
the time looking forward. and the vast major |
ity Of this audience live not so much in the |
present as in the future. find that you mean |
10 make reputation, you mean to establish |
yourself. and the advantages that YOU expect |
TO achieve absorb great deal Of your time. |
Knit hnr in hfc ~ Is,ac ,,lya
you discontinued with the present or disQualify |
you for existing duties.
LOOKING BACK.
1t is a useful thing sometimes to look back. |
and to see the dangers we have escaped, and to |
zee the sprrows we have suffered and the trials |
and wanderings of our earthly pilgrimage, and |
10 sum up our enioyments l mean this morn |
Inc so tsr as God pay help Iae, to stir up your |
---Iory of the past, so that in the review you |
Gay be encouraged and humbled and urged to |
pray.
There is a chapel in Florence with fresco
by GuidoS 1t was covered up with two inches |
of stuccoSptil our American and European |
artiTss went there, and after long toll removed |
the covering and retraced the fresco And |
am aware that the memory of the past with |
many of you, is all covered up with ten thous-
and obliterations and 1 propose this morning
so far as the Lord may help me, to take away
the covering, that the old picture may shine
out again
want to bind in one sheaf all your past ad-
Vantages, and want to bind in another sheaf
all your past adversities. 1t is a precious har-
vest, and must be cautious how ] swing the
scythe.
Among the greatest advantages of your past
life was an early home and It's surroundings
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
hnd that Byron's heart was concentration of
sin when we hear his mother was abandoned, |
and that she made sport of his infirmity and
often called him 1.-The lame brat" BE who has
vicious parents has to fight every inch of his
way if he would maintain his integrity. and at
last reach the home of the good in heaven.
Perhaps your early home was in the city.
IL may have been in the days when Canal
street, New York, was far uptown and the
site of this present church was an excursion
into the country. That old house in the city
may have been demolished 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 granite mansion or a tuTreted cathedral.
Looking back this morning you see it as
where the loved ones sat by the plain lamp
light, the mother at the evening stand, the
brothers and sisters, perhaps long ago gathered
into the skies. then plotting mischief the
floor or un1er the table, your father with a
firm voice commanding gilence that lasted
half minute.
Oh, those were good days! If YOU had your
foot hurt, your mother always had soothing
salve to heal it. If you were wronged in the
street, your father was always ready to protect
you. The year was one round of frolic and
Inirth. Your greatest trouble was like an
April shower, more sunshine than shower. The
heart had not been ransacked by troubles, nor
had sickness broken It and no lamb had
warmer sheepfold than the home in which |
your childhood nestled.
Perhaps you were brought up in the country |
You stand now to-day in memory under the old
tree. You dubbed it for fruit that was not
quite ripe because you couldn't wait any
longer. You hear the brook rumbling along
over the pebbles. You step again into the fur
row where your father in his shirt sleeves !
shouted TO the lazy oxen. y ou frighten the
swallows from the rafters of the barn, and take
just one egg, and silence your conscience by
saying they won't miss il. You take drink | I
again out of the very bucket that the old well
fetched up, You 60 for the COWS at night and
find them wagging their heads through the |
bars. ofttimes in the dusty and busy streets
you wish you were home again on that cool |
grass, OF in the rag carpeted hall of the farm
house, through which there was the breath of
new mown hay or the blossom of buckWheat
SOUL STIRRING MEMORIES.
You may have in 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 sunhower that stood sentinel along the
garden wall, and the forget-me-nots playing
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 have gone to his everlast-
ing rest. The mother, who used TO sit at the
door little bent over, cap and spectacles on,
her face mellOwing with the Vieissitudes of
many years, may have put down her gray head
on the pillow in the valley, but forget that
home you never will. Have YOU thanked God
for itf Have you rehearsed all these blessed
Oh, thank God for Christian
father: thank GOD for q Christian mother;
thank God for an early Christian altar at which
you were taught to kneel; thank God for an
early Christian home.
l bring to mind another passage in the his
tory of your life. The day came when you set
up your own household. The days passed
along in quiet blessedness. You twain sat at
the table morning and night and talked over
your plans for the future. The most insignih-
cant affair in your life became the subject of
mutual consultation and advlsement You were
30 happy you felt you never could be any hap
pier. One day dark cloud lowered over your
dwelling and IL got darker and darker, but out
~ tnll nlnnn the ahiriracr Of lnd L