The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-07
TALMACE ON OLD TINES.
The Lessons 10 be Learned From Re-
calling The Past.

has chosen as the topic for to-day, pam
Drama of "reminiscences appropriate to the
season, the text selected being Psalm
80: 3: While 1 was musing the fire
burned"
Here is David, the psalmist, with the
forehuger of his right hand against his
temple, the door shut against the world
engaged in contemplation. And it wo uld
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 l once
passed a Sabbath in deli ghtful solitude,
for 1 had resolved th at I would have one
day Of entire quiet before ! entered upon
autumal work. / thought to have spent
the day in laying out plans for Christian
work; but instead of that it became day
of tender "reminiscences l reviewed my
pastOrate; ] shook hands with an oldsde-
parted friend, whom | shall greet again
when the curtains Of life are lifteds The
days of my bOyhOOd came back, and ! was
10 years Of age, and I was and | was s.
There was but one house on the island,
and yet from Sabbath daybreak. when
the bird-chant woke me, until the even
shore there We're 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 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. II would be well
for us, think, however, to spend more
time in "Reminiscences. BY the Constitu-
of n MO Of "A
time looking forward And the vast ma
iOrity of people live not 50 much in the
present as in the future. ! find that YOU
mean to make a reputation, you mean to
establish Yourself and the advantages
that you expect to achieve absorb a great
deal of your time, But | see no harm in
this if it 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 to see the dangers we have
escaped, and to see the sorrows we have
suffered and the trials and wandcrings
of our earthly pilgrimage, and to sum up
our enjoyments. | mean to-day, 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 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 l am aware
that the memory of the past, with many
of you, is all covered up with ten thous-
and deliberations, and l propose this
morning, SO far as the Lord may help me,
to take away the covering, that the old
picture may shine out again
I want tn hind in one Shp1f all VOur
past advantages, and | want to bind in
another sheaf all your pass universities.
1t is a precious harvest, and | must be
cautious how | swing the scythe.
Among the greatest advantages of your
past life was an early home and 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 that BY
ron's heart was concentration of sin,
when we hear his mother was abandoned,
and that she made sport of his intirmity,
and often called him 1.-The lame brat. :"
He who has vicious parents has to fight
every inch of his way if ne 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 uptown
That old house may have been demolished
or changed into stores, and it seemcd'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 a turreted cathedral. Looking back
this morning, you see it as though it were
yesterday-th sittingroOm, 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 or under the 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. If YOU We're
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 an April shower
| more sunshine than shower. The heart
! had not been ransacked by troubles, nor
| had sickness broken it, and no lamb had
a warmer sheepfold than the home in
which your childhood nestled.
Perhaps you were brought up in the
country You stand now to-day in mem
orYnunder the old tree. You dubbed it
! for fruit that was not quito ripe, because
you could not 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-seevcs
shouted 10 the lazy oxen. You brighten
the swallows from the rafters of the
| barn, and take just one egg, and silence
/ your conscience by saying they viii not
miss it. You take drink again out of
| the very bucket that the old we'll
! 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 DOL grass, or in
| the hall of the farmhouse, through which
| there was the breath of new mown hay or
! the blossom of buc5wheat.
You may have in your windows now
| beautiful 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 sunfower
! that stood sentinel along the garden
/ walk, and the forgCt-me-nOts playing
! hide-and-seek 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 everlasting rest
| The mother, who used to sit at the door
! a little bent over, cap and SpectaCleS on
/ her face mellowiug with the vicissitudes
| OF pany 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 it, Have you
/ rebearSCd all these blessed "reminiscences ?
| Oh, thank God for a Christian father
/ thank God for a Christian mother; thank
/ God for an early Christian altar at which
] Won NNRrp tguUlr a L-n.pal thank 4 Nod f,,,