Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-08-18
REV, DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: Fireside Musing."

y
the door shut against the world, engaged in
contemplation. And 1t would be we'll for US
TO take the same posture often, closing the
door against the world while we sit down in
sweet solitude TO contemplate.
In a small island off the coast l once passed
a Sabbath in delightful solitude, for I had
resolved that / would have one day OF entire
quiet before l entered upon autumnal work
] thought TO have spent the day IN laying out
plans for Christian work. but instead OF that
it became Il day of tender "Reminiscences. L
reviewed my pastOrate. [ shook hands with
an old departed friend, whom | shall greet
again when the curtains of life are lifted.
The days of my boyhOod came back, and [
was 10 years of age, and was 8, and was
5. There was hut 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
10. 900 memories, and the groves were a-hun
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 spe2d all its time in looking backward
People IN midlife and on the apex look both
ways. 1t would be we'll for us, I think. how
ever. to spend more time in Renaissance.
BY the constitution Of our nature we spend
most of the time looking forward. And the
vast majority of people live not so much in
the present as in the future. l find that you
mean to make q reputat on. You mean to
establish yourself, and the advantages that
YOU expect to achieve absorb great deal
of your time. But see no harm in this if
it does not make you discOntended with the
present or disqualify you fCr existing duties
1t is a useful thinr, 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 pill
grimage, and to sum up our eniOyments. [
mean to-day, SO far as God may help me, to
str up your memory of the past, SO that In
the review he encouraged and num-
bled and urged to pray.
There is a chapel in Florence with 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 10, 900 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.
| want to bind in one sheaf all your past
advantages. and | want to bind in another
sheaf all yOurpast universities. 1t is a prec-
iOus harvest, and must be cautious how L
swing the Scythe-
Among the greatest advantages Of your
past life was an early home and its surround
ings. 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 ByrOns heart was q
mother was abandoned and that she made
sport of his infrmity and often called him
1.-the lame brat" He who has vicious parents
has to fight every inch % mis- way if he
would maintain his integrity and at last
reachthe 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 up town. That old
house in the city may have been demolished
or changed into stores, and 1t seemed like
sacrilege to you, for there was more meaning
in that plain house. in that small house, than
there is in granite mansion or turreted
cathedral Looking back this morning, you
see it as though it were yesterday-the sit
ting room, 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 underline 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 were
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 ran
sacked 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 coun-
try. 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 rumb-
ling along over the pebbles. You step again
into the furrOW where your father in his
shirt sleeves shouted to 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 will 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 cool grass or III the hall
of the farmhouse, through which there was
the breath of new mown hay or the blossom
of huckWheat
You may have in your windows now beauti-
full 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 sunfiOwer that stood
sentinel along the garden walk and the for
getmenOts playing hide and seek mid the
long grass. The father. who used to come
in sunburned from the fields and sit down on
the dOOrsill 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
lace melIOWlng with the ViciSSitudeS OF many
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
rehearsed all these blessed "reminiscences?
Oh thank God for a Christian father Thank
God for Christian mother. Thank God for
an early Christian altar at which YOU were
taught to kneel. Thank God for an early |
Christian home.
l bring to mind another passage in the his
tory of your life. The day came when YOU |
set up your own HOUSEHOLD. The days passed |
along in quiet blessedness. Your twain sat at |