The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-07-09
"sAD MEMORIES"
Second or = Series OF Ten Sermons by
Rev. W.. Il. FIeenor,

".sAD MEMoRIEs."
Second or . Series Of Ten Sermons by
Rev. w. r. FIeenor.
Rev. w. +. Fleenor, pastor of the Mar
ket street Baptist church. preached his
second sermon of the series of ten on
Poe's "Raven Moralized," entitled Sad
Memories"-"Ah, distinctly / remember,
il vas in the bleak December" Mr..
Fleenor took his text from Genesis. Ajax:
81 do remember nv faults this day"
Sab. distinctly remember. 1t was in the bleak
December.
Aud each separate dying smber. wrought Its
ghost upon the aooy."
Memory may be defined as that faculty
or power of the mind which holds and re-
produces the past experiences of life We
may have much Of this living and indulg-
ing to live over again. Memory is the
one great source OF pain or pleas
ure, Joy or sorrow. Ii comes to us like
the emily, bleak December, with the un-
welcome and weird visage of death; or
greets US with Situations aud songs of
back OF every soul made mis-
erable by memory. 1t wrung
these words: az do remember my
faults this day." from Pharaoh's chief
butler. Is plunged Edgar Allan Poe into
a night OF remorse and despair. Memory
brings up the past as IL was. Other things
may change. but memory never. A
mother loses child of three years; she
grows older; twenty summers have passed,
but as she visits the little mound her dear
one comes up in her mind, the sweet lamb
OF three summers, just as when she kissed
him last.
The hrst lines of ''The Raven" give us a
clue to the source and significance OF the
poem:
sOnaa imam n Midnight draarv whila \ non-
dere5. weak aud weary,
Over many quaint and curious volume of for
gotten lore"
How much loving kindness and golden
opportunity had been crowded into the
young poets life, only TO be trampled as
filth of the street. Shorn of his strength,
surrendered by friends and divorced from
n loving companion by death, he now sits
lonely on midnight dreary, turning the
pages OF memory. pouring over volumes
OF forgotten lore. His truancy at the
University of Virginia looms up on tho
dark pages: his failure at West Point
mocks his tears; his GROSS ingratitude TO
kind beneiactor, with his sulien
silence toward God for the rarest of gifts,
keep rapping at his chamber door. III We
have added sorrowto the soul or a furrow
TO the silver brow of loving parent, or the
husband has betrayed the hope and happi-
ness Of one who confided her life to him,
or a lover has brought pangs TO that de-
voted soul that now lies cold beneath his
feet, or an unnatural parent has poisoned
and cursed the life of tender offspring,
then be assured that every unkind word
and ungrateful deed will come trooping
back upon memory and knock sadly at
the door of the soul.
The raven darkens the pages Of heather
mythology. Herginn and Muninn sit
upon the shoulders of Odin and whisper
in his ears. The old Morse poets looked
upon the raven as the bird of memory.
There is something so gloomy and op-
pressive in the croak of this lonely bird:
he never changes his croaS or color. and
but seldom his cline. Ravens are found in
every zone, from the burning plains Of the
south TO the frozen mountains of the north.
The Arctic explorer Is often startled
by the deep sonorous croak. On the road
TO Jericho this croaker eyes the lonely
traveller rs he falls into the hands of
thieves The raven still haants the cliffs
and sweeps down the gorges OF Chesith. as
when he fed the old prophet Elijah.
Wherever man wanders upon the earth,
this monitorlal bird shadows him. Shut
yourself IN your chamber, put out the
light and bar the door, and still the raven
Will knock
Poe i not the only man or poet whose
window has been darkened by this gloomy
bird. An unknown poet writes:
"Alons at rnidnigh haunted hour,
IA hen Nature woes reposs Ia vain,
pauefn hrAuee wakes her psnAk rover,
The tyrant Of the burning brain.
she tells 81 times mtsspsnt. OF comforts lost;
az fair occasions gone forever by;
~ houes too fond nHFssd, too rudely crossed;
OF TnAny a cause ~ wish, yet fear 70 aiel
Yer what except the Instructive fear
Iss. ne survive. desains me here.
When All the life Of life Is fed
wsnt nut the deep. ia hsre1i dread
I.st shs beyoud tie grave resume her reign,
And realise the hell saat priests and esldsmes
feign.
Phoebe Carey says:
..N.roo,ies on anenorfesi To uay soul again
Ice come such dreams Of love and bliss
Tb.t nv wrans heart. nnussa 70 pain,
Slnks with the fuiness Of Us wretc hedness.
Lord BYRON had visits from this gloomy
bird. Hear his bitter wall;
III, aoua!-I saw IL in my dreams.
No more vita hope the future ssaEns.
NJ DAYS OF hapnfnes. are few:
called 81 misfoytuns's wtutFy o!zsl
Nvaawu OF lie - overcast
yevs houe an1 10Y alike. sdiea-
Mould could AID. Remembrance, TOO.
Those solemn words Of the raven,
s.Nevermore, 1" rang IN the poetic soui OF
shrney. Hark 20 his sad refrain:
son waria. O llfst tlmai
ON " hoSa lost stsrx / CInh,
yrsv. Alag a. that where had stoo1 batore,
When viii return the gsoTy OF your prime
oht never acre.
SA.ka.,aars ewes fss q srAphsc rortrai-