The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-08-18
LIFE "REMINISCENCES.
Or. Talmage Reviews Past Ad-
vantages and Adversities.
Encouragement Derived from Looking
observation-disclosures i'm Life History
Which 1t Is Well to Remember
Conquered Troubles.

LIE watt 1almage chose as the topic,
panorama of "reminiscences appropriate
TO the season, the text selected beinj
Psalm xxx. 3. "While | was musinl
Che fire burned" He said:
Here is David, the psalmist, with tn
Ecre-fnger of his right hand against hi
temple, the door shut against the world
engaged in contemplation. And j
would be well for us TO take the sam
position often, closing the door agains
the world, while we sit down in swee
solitude TO contemplate.
In small island off the coast one
passed Sabbath in delightful soil
r1ade, for ] had resolved that | woulC
have one day of entire quiet before
entered upon autumnal work.
thought to have spent the day in lay
ing out plans for Christian work; but
instead of that it became a day o
Sender "Reminiscences. / reviewed my
Dastorate, / shook hands with an ole
departed friend, whom [ shall greet
again when the curtains of life arc
lifted. The days of my boyhood
came back, and l was 10 years
Of age, and l was s, and ] was s.
There was but one house on the
island, and yet from Sabbath daybreall
when the bird-chant woke me, until
the evening melted into the bay, from
shore to shore there were ten thous
aad 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. 1t
would be well for us, think, however,
90 spend more time in "Reminiscences.
By the constitution of our nature we
spend most Of the time looking for
ward. And the vast majority of people
lice not so much in the present as in
Slic future. l find that you mean to
rrlzI1e reputation, you mean to es-
ta6iish yourself, and the advantages
that You expect to achieve absorb n
great deal of your time. But | see no
harm in this, if it does not make you
DISCONTINUED with the present or dis
qualify 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 wan
behring's of our earthly pilgrimage, and
10 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 review you may be encouraged and
huTnbled, and urged to pray
There is chapel in Florence with
Yresco 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
I'D with ten thousand deliberations,
and I propose this morning, so far as
Che Lord will help me, to take away
She covering, that the old picture may
ShiRo ont again.
want to bind in one slIeaf all your
past advantages, and 1 want to bind in
another sheaf all your past adversities.
II is a precious harvest and l must be
caU1ious how | swing the scythc.
Amcag the greatest advantages of
yUul' past life was an early home and
5is surroundings. The bad men of the
day. for the most part, dip their heated
passions ont of the boiling spring of an
unhappy home. We are not surprised
That Byrou's heart was a concentration
af sin, when we hear his mother was
= 10 el 4 ~
his infirmity, andoften called him ''the
LaEr1e brat" He who has vicious pa
rents has to fight every inch of his way
4 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
vTs,ea Canal street, New York, was far
a-,1Swn. That old house in the city
xnay have been demolished or changed
into stores, and it seemed like sacri-
Eere 10 you-for there was more mean
sug in that plain house, in that small
house. than there is in granite man
aioa or a turreted cathedral Looking
hack this morning, you see it as though
& were yesterday-the sitting-room,
where the loved ones sat by the plain
Ezmplight, the mother at the evening
sand. the brothers and sisters, per-
haps lang ago gathered into the skies,
81 lhep plotting mischief on the floor or
: ur9er the table, your father with firm
voice commanding silence, that lasted
half a minute.
oh, those were good days. If you
had Your foot hurt, your mother al
zF2ys had soothing salve to heal it
III you were wronged in the street, your
Esther was always ready to protect
yI5n- The year was one round of frolic
and mirth. The greatest trouble was
AZ April shower, more sunshine than
shower. The heart had not been ran
sacked by troubles, nor had sickness
eyraken 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
memory under the old tree. You
clDbbed it for fruit that 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 TO the lazy
oxen You brighten the swallows from
Che rafters of the barn and take just
one egg, and silence your conscience by
saying that they will not miss it.
You take a drink again out of
che very bucket that the old well
fetched up. You go for the cows
at night and find them wagging their
aeadc through the bars. Outlines in
the dusty and busy streets you wish
you were home again on that cool