Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-08-17
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"A REVIEW OF PAS ADVANTAGES
AND ADyERsITIEs.
announcement Derived From Occn-
sionnI Neutrality-suspicious. I'm Life
History which 1t Is Well to Re-
member-Conqucrcd Troubles.

The season, the text selected Deirg
Psalm xxxix., 5: while 1 was .nusing
the fire burned"
Here is David, the Psalmist, with the
for 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 take the same posture
often, while we sit down in sweet soil
tude to contemplate.
In Il small island off the coast / once
passed a Sabbath in delightful solitude,
for had resolved that / would have
II day of entire quiet before / en-
tered upon autumnal work. / thought
to have spent the day in laying out
plans for Christian work; but instead
of that ii became a day If tender rem
iniscence. L reviewed my pastorate; /
shook hands with IN old departed
friend, whom / shall greet again when
the curtains Of life are lifted. The days
of my boyhood came back, and 1 was
10 years of age, and l was 3, and | was
5. There was but one house on the
islani, 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 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
ir looking backward. People in mid
life and on the apex look both ways.
1t would &c well for us, l think, how
ever, TO spend more time in reminis-
cence. BY the constitution Of our la
ture we spend most of the tine looking
forward. And the vast majority OF
people live not SO much in the present
rs in the future. | lind that you mean
TO make q reputation, you mean TO es-
tabllsh yourself. and the advantages
that you expect to achieve absorb Il
great deal OF your time. But / sec
no harm in this, il it does not make you
disconnected with the present, or dis
qualify you for existing duties.
1t is a useful thing sometimes to lock
back, and to see the dangers we have
escaped, and to see the sorrows we have
suffered, and the trials and wanderings
OF I'll earthly pilgrimage. and to sum
up our eajoyments. / mean today,
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 10 pray.
~..ere is a chapel in Florence with Il
frcsco by Guido. 1t was covered mp
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 ain aware that The memory of the
past, with many OF you, is all covered
TIP 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 put again.
/ want to bind In one sheaf all your
past advantages, and l want to bind
In another sheaf al your past advcr-
stiles. 1t is a precious harvest, and /
must be cautious how l swing the
scythe.
Among the greatest Advantages Of
your past life was an early home and
It's Surroundings, The bad men OF the
Day, for the most part, dip their heat
CT passions out of the boiling spring
of an unhappy home. We are not sur
priscd that Byron's heart WIS a concen-
tratiGn Of sin. when we hear his neither
was abandoned, and that she made
sport OF his iptirmity, and often called
him the lame brat" lie who has
vicious parents has TO fight every inch
of his way II he would maintain his
integrity. AMI at last reach the home
of the good In heaven.
pprfaD S y0t1lr early .fnmn WAS In tho
city. It may have been in the days
when Canal street. New York, was far
uptown. That old house I'm the city may
have been demolished or changed into
stores, and Ii seemed 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 1t as though it
were yesterday the sitting room. where
the loved ones sat by the plain lamp
light, the mother at the evening stand,
the brothers and sisters. perhaps long
ago gathered into the skies, then plot
ting mischief on tie floor or mder the
table. your father with a firm voice
commanding: silence, that lasted half
4 minute.
Sits tkpD WIZ 6coo aagNs IL tbi
had your foot hurt, your mother al
ways had "A soothing salve to heal IL.
If 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 trou-
BILE was an April shower. more sunshine
than shower. The heart had not been
ransackcd by troubles, nor had sickness
broken IL. and no lamb had n warmer
sheepfold than the home in which your
childhood nestled.
Perhaps you were brought UP in thu
country. You stand now to-day in
memor under the old tree. YNu club
bed il FOR fruit hat was not quite ripe
because you could not wait any longer.
You hear the brook rumbling along over
the pebbles. You step again into the
furrow where your father in his shirt
sleeves shouted 10 the lazy oxen. You
Brighten the swallows from the raftcrs
of the barn and take Just one egg. ami
silence your conscience by saying tire.
will not miss 1t. You take y drink again
out of the very bucket that the old we'll
fetched up. You go for the cows at
night and find them waeging their heads