Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-08-12
LIFE "REMINISCENCES.
DR.. Talmage Reviews Past Ad-
vantages and Adversities.
encouragement Derived from Looking
Backward Points In Life History
Which It IL We'll to Remember
Conquered Troubles.


panorama of "reminiscences appropriate
to the season, the text selected being
Psalm xxxix.-3. "While was musing
the fire burned" He said:
Here is David, the psalmist, with the
forc-finger of his right hand against his
temple; the door shut against the world,
engaged in contemplation. And it
would be well for us to tale the Same
position often. closing the door against
the world, while we sit down in sweet
solitude to contemplate.
In a small island off the coast once
passed Sabbath in delightful soli-
tude, for had resolved that would
have one day of entire quiet before l
entered upon autumnal work. i
thought to have spent the day in lay
ing out plans for Christian work; but
instead of that it became a day of
tender "reminiscences. l reviewed my
passionate, 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 10 years
of age, and l was S, and l was 5.
There was but one house on the
island, and yet from Sabbath daybreak,
when the bird-chant woke me, until
the evening melted into the bay, from
shore to shore there were ten thous-
and memories, and the groves were
album 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. 1t
would be well for us, think, however,
TO spend more Zine in "Reminiscences.
by the constitution of our nature we
spend most of the time looking for
ward. And the vast majority of people
live not so much in the present as in
the future. / find that you mean to
make reputation, You mean to es-
tablish yourself, and the advantages
that you expect to achieve absorb
great deal of your time. But i see no
harm in this, if it does not make you
discontinued with the present or dis
qualify you for existing duties.
1t is 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 wan
behring's of our earthly pilgrimage, and
to sum up our enjoyments. i 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.
want to bind in one sheaf all your
past advantages, and want to bind in
another sheaf all your past universities.
II is a precious harvest and l must be
cautious how swing the scythe.
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 inirmity, and often called him 1.-THE
lame brat" He who has vicious pa
rents 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, 1t may have been in the days
when Canal street, New York, was far
uptown. That old house in the city
NAV 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 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
lamplight, the mother ut the evening
stand, the brothers and sisters, per-
haps long ago gathered into the Skies
then plotting mischief on the floor or
under the table, your father with firm
voice commanding silence, that lasted
half minute.
Oh, those were good days! II 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. The greatest trouble was
an April shower, more sunshine than
shower. The heart had not been ran
sacked 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 could not wait any
longer. You hear the brook rumDhng
along over the pebbles You step again