The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-05-17
"OTHER DAYS LIVED OVER. p
Sermon Delivered by Rev. T, De-
Witt Talmage.
Practical References to Early Life-The
Value OF Looking Back-The Brook
lyn Divine Denies Having Ad-
vOcated MisceGenation.

For the subject Of a recent sermon in
the Brooklyn Tabernacle, Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage took "Other Days Lived Over"
predicating his remarks on the following
text:
Thou shalt remember all the way which the
Lord thy God led the.-Deut viii, .
Before entering on my subject I wisk to
say that some newspaper CORES pOndents,
referring to a recent sermon in which I
welcomed foreign nationalities to this
country, have said that advocated as
desirable thing the intermarriage Of the
white and black races. ! never said so; l
never thought so, ana any one who so
misrepresents that sermon is either viii
lain or fool, perhaps both.
But to open this mornings subject I
have to say God in the text advises the
people to look back upon their past his
tory. 1t will do US good to re-
member the scenes between this May
morning and our cradle, whe ther 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 life. There stands the
old house, and as 1 went through the
rooms 1 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 ap-
pies, too. There is the brook down which
we rode TO the watering Of the horses
bareback and with 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 be-
tween the time Of their going. There
also sleep the dear old neighbOrs who used
to ito their horses under the shed of the
country meeting house and sit at the end
of the pew singing: Duke Street" and
"Balerma" aud Antioch" Oh they were
q glorious race Of men and women who
did their work we'll, raised a 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 neighbor-
hood before the throne of God. 1 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 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 well
Tor US, think, however, to spend more
L. time in reminiscence. BY the constitution
Of our nature we spend most of the time
looking forward, and the vast majority of
this audience live not so much in the
present as in the future. / find that you
mean 10 make a reputation, you mean to
establish yourself, and the advantages
, that you expect to achieve absorb O great
deal of your time But see no harm in
this, if il does not make you Discontinued
with the present or disqualify you for ex-
listing duties.
1t is a useful thing sometimes to look
back, and see the dangers we have es-
capped, and to see the sorrows we have
suffered, and the trials and wanderings of
our earthly pilgrimage, and to sun up
~ur enjoyments. mean this morning, so
far as God may help me, to stir up your
memory of the past, so that in the review
you may be encouraged, and humbled,
and urged to pray. There is a chapel in
Florence with frescO by Guido. II was
covered with two inches of stucco until
our American and European artists went
/ there, and after long toll removed the
covering and retraced the frescO. Aud 1
am aware that the memory of the past
with many OF you, is all covered up with
I ten thousand deliberations, and l pro-
pose this morning, so far as the Lord may
help me, to take away the covering, that
the old picture may shine OIt again. l
want to hind in one sheaf all your past
3 advantages, aud want to bind in another
! sheaf all your past universities. 1t is
precious harvest, and must be cautious
, how swing the scythe.
Among the greatest advantages Of your
past life was an early home aud 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 his mother was abandoned,
: and that she made sport of his infirmity.
and often called him the ''lame brat"
2 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
J 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. The old house in the
city may have been demolished or
changed into stores, aud it seemed like
} sacriIege to You, for there was more
meaning in that plain house, in that small
house, than there is in a granite mansion
. | or a 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 lamp light, the mother at the even
/ ing stand, the brothers and sisters, per-
J haps long ago gathered into the skies,
then plotting mischief en- the floor or IN
der the table, your father with firm
voice commanding silence that lasted
half a minute. Oh, those were good days!
If you had your foot hurt your mother al
ways 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
mirth. Your greatest trouble was like an
April shower, more sunshine than shower.
The heart had not been rausacked by
troubles, nor had sickness broken il, and
, no lamb had a warmer sheepfold than
the home in which your childhood nestled.
Perhaps you we're 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 couldn't wait any longer. You hear
the brook rumbling along over the peb
bles. You step again into the furrow
where your father IN his shirt sleeves
shouted TO the lazy oxen. You brighten
9 the swallows from the rafters of the barn
and take just one egg, and silence your
conscience by saying they won't miss it.
You take a drink 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.
1 Outlines in the dusty and busy streets
you wish you we're home again on that
, cool grass, or in the rag Carpeted hall Of
the farm house, through which there was
the breath Of new mowu hay or the blos-
som of the buckwheat.
You may have in your windows now
beautiful plants aud flowers, brought
fiom across the seas, but not one of them