Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-29
LOOKING BACKWARD.

Rev. E. r.. Donehoo's Appropriate Sermon
for the Last Sunday of the Year-Good
Advice to Young and Old-His Evening
Topic.
Rev. E. r. Donehoo's two sermons yes
terday were both timely and eloquent His
morning subject was Looking Backward,
the text being chosen from Deut. 4:32, "Ask
now of the days of the past Following is
a short resume of the sermon:
f'Looking backward is not always COM
mended, nor is il all times commendable.
Forward is the cry TO the young as they
stand on the threshold of life; forward is the
command to those who are entering on LIES
conflicts; forward is the sound ringing in the
ear until the battle is ended and the victors
bring home their trophies. Moses was
under the shadows of Sinai, the pillar of
cloud stood over the camp of Israel, the
Land of Promise was vet to be possessed
and still he turns his thoughts backward
and invites them to make careful study of
the past
mo argument comes to us with the force
that is impaired in an appeal to personal
experience. = All the dogmatizing of theo-
logians, all the eulogizing of logicians are
as nothing before proofs drawn from ones
own experience. 1t was to this that Moses
appealed in proof of Gods existence and
His guiding providence. The theories as to
Gods personality, the arguments drawn
from nature or from mans inner conscious
ness were trivial in the extreme, when COM
pared with the belief in God based on per-
sonal experience of His dealings with us in
the past.
SEEING is BELIEVING.
"And SO, with us, seeing is believing.
When we see God in our daily life, when
we feel the touch of His hand and realize
His helpful aid in time OF need, it is worth
infinitely more to us than all that our faith
ers have told us or the theologian has
demonstrated. Apply this counsel to your
selves and you will get most convincing
argument in proof that God is and that He
helps us in times of need.
''Not one who makes study of the years
with their trials and triumphs, their SORROWS
and joys, but grows stronge" with the re-
membrance that power higher than mans
carried US through when otherwise we would
have sunk down in despair. We learn from
the past to improve the present and make
bright the future. No man ever yec made
careful study OF his failures and shortcom-
ings but reaped abundant profit in the years
to come, whether in social or business or
spiritual life, and so will it always be-
r..
celSior," and his text from Luke xiv, 10,
"Friend, go up higher" He said:
THE text is an inspiring command and a
needful one. The young man or young
woman who is contented with present at
tainments, who has no higher aspirations
than to plod along at the slow pace which
they are now stclidl- pursuing, ARE not worth
their salt and never will be. They may be
able to save and horde and get together
some OF this worlds pelf. They may get to
be school directors or officers in a sewing
society, they may be advanced from one
degree to another in some fraternity until
they are bespapgled ali over with gold
plated arches and squares and such like
emblems, but they never have made any
real advance toward the only true goal OF
earthly ambition and toward which all
should strive.
BEING HELD IN LINE.
"We sneer at people for being ambitious.
We try to hold back such as are not con-
tented to keep in line with the dull
plodding multitude, forgetting that
they are the heroes in the conflict;
the few who were not born to die.
''To be satisfied to be what our fathers and
mothers were-no wiser, no more manly or
womanlv, no more handsome III person or
cultured in minds unworthy of immortal
beings whom the creator planned to develop
Indefinitely toward an unattainable. ideal.
BE We perfect does not mean that some
men are perfect or that any man is able to
reach perfection in this lite, nor that in the
world to come we enter upon
perfect state, but only that to-
ward this we are to aim, and that
we are false to our calling unless the spirit
of unrest within us compels us to climb
higher and higher until we are at last
amid the clouds which enwrap us in
death sicy mountains.
Higher. should be your aim, young men
and maidens, old men and old women; you
of 20 and you Of 20 or 80. Higher planes
of knowledge are before you than were ever
reached by any; higher fountains of truth
than philosopher has ever drank from. To
these let your course be directed until you
vanish into the unknown. Only to such is
the honor reserved"