The Bossier banner., 1893-08-31
LOOKING BACKWARD.
Or. Talmage INDUCES in a Season
Of "reminiscences.
A Review of Past Advantages and Past
Adyersities which 'Twere Well to
Make at Times In Order to
Profit Thereby.

of a panorama of seaSOna BILE remlnlS-
cences, was delivered on recent Sab
bath by Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage. 1t
is based on the text:
While I was musing the fire burned-Psalms
xxxix..3
Here is David, the psalmist, with the
forefnger of his right hand against his
temple, the door shut against the
world, engaged in contemplation. And
it would be well for us to take the
same posture often, closing the door
against the world, while we sit down
in sweet solitude to contemplate.
IN small island off the coast | once
passed Sabbath in delightful solitude,
for had resolved that l would have
one day of entire quiet before / entered
upon autumnal work. / thought to
have spent the day in laying out plans
for Christian work. but instead of that
1t became day of tender "reminiscences.
I reviewed my pastorate; | shook
hands with an old departed friend,
whom l shall greet again when the
curtains of life are lifted. The days of
my boyhood came back, and | was ten
years of age, and I was eight, and
was five. There was but one house on
the island, and yet from Sabbath day
break, when the bird-chant woke me,
until the evening melted into the bay,
from shore to shore there were ten
thousand memories, and the groves
were ahum with voices that had long
ago ceased.
Youth is apt too much to spend all
its time in ooking 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 for us, think, how
ever, to spend more time in reminis-
cence. By the constitution of our ma
ture we spend most of the time look
ing forward And the vast ma jority
of people live not so much in the pres
ent as in the future. / find that you
mean to make a reputation, you mean
to establish yourself, and the advan-
tages that you expect to achieve ab-
sorb great deal of your time. But
see no harm in this, if it does not make
you discontented with the present, or
disqualify you for existing duties.
1t is a useful thing sometimes to look
back, and to see the dangers we have
escaped, and to see the sorrows we have
suffered, and the trials and wanderings
of our earthly pilgrimage, and to sum
up our enjoyments. l mean to-day, SO
far as God may help me, to stir up your
memory of the past, SO that in the re-
view won NAV ho ,nI h,,,,,
bled, 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 retraced the fresco. And
am aware that the memory of the
past. with many of you, is all covered
up with ten thousand deliberations,
and propose this morning, so far as
the Lord will help me, to take away
the covering, that the old picture may
shine out again.
Among the greatest advantages of
your past life was an early home and
its 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
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" He who has vicious parents
has to fight every inch of his wav 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. 1t may have been in the davs
when Canal street, New York, was far
uptown. That old house in the CITY
may have been demolished or changed
into stores, and it seemed like sacri.
lege to you-for there was more mean.
ing in that plain house, in that small
house, than there is in granite man.
sion or a tureted 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 eve ming
stand, the brothers and sisters, per.
haps long ago gathered into the skies,
then plotting mischief on the floor or
unper tn. table, your father with a
firm voice commanding silence, that
lasted half minute.
Oh those were good days! If YOU
had your foot hurt, your mother
always had soothing salve to heal it.
II you were wronged in the street
your father was always ready to pro
tect you. The year was one round OF
frolic and mirth. Your greatest trouble
was an April shower, more sunshine
than shower. The heart had not baar
ransacked by troubles, nor had sick.
ness broken it, and no lamb had p
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
clubbed it for fruit that was not quite
ripe because you could not wait anv
longer. You hear the brook rumbl-
ing along over the pebbles. You
step again into the furrow where
your father in his shirt sleeves shout-
ed to the law oxen. Won f;rl,4