The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-05-12
RECALLS THE PAST.
DR.. Talmage's Sermon Is Largely
Reminiscent.
Draws Helpful Lessons from the Ex-
periences and VIcissitudes of
LIfe-MemOrIes of
Home.

| Copyright, 1899, by Louis Klopsch. Wash
ington, May z.
This sermon of DIR. Talmage calls the
roll of many stirring memories and in
terprets the meaning of life's vicissi-
tudes. The text is Psalms xXXiN, 3:
''While | was musing the fire burned"
Here is David, the psalmist, with the
| forcfnger of his right hand against his
temple and 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 solitude to contemplate.
Ina small island off the coast of Nova
Scotia j once passed a Sabbath in de-
lightful solitude, for had resolved that
would have one day Of entire quiet be-
fore entered upon autumnal work.
thought to have spent the day in laying
out plans for Christian work, but in
stead of that it became a day of tender
reminiscence. | reviewed my pastorate;
| 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 l was
ten years of age, and | was eight, and
was five. There was but one house on
the island, and yet from Sabbath day
break, when the bird chant woke Inc,
until the evening melted into the bay
of Fundy, from shore to shore there
were ten thousand memories, and the
groves were a-hum 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 look
ing backward. People in midlife and on
the apex look both ways. 1t would be
well for us, think, however, to spend
more time in reminiscence. BY the con-
stitutiOn 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 reputation,
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 discontented with the present or
disqualify you for existing duties. 1t
is a useful thing sometimes to look
back and to see the dangers we have es-
capped and to see the sorrows we have
suffered and the trials and wanderings
of our earthly pilgrimage and to sum
up our enioyments. I mean, so far as
God may help me, to stir up your men,
ory of the past, so that in the review you
may be encouraged and humbled and
urged to pray.
There is a chapel in Florence with a
II. i I,
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 am aware
that the memory of the past, with many
of YOU, is all covered up with oblitera-
tions, and l now propose, so far as the
Lord may help me, to take away the
covering, that the old picture may shine
out again. l want to bind in one sheaf
all your past advantages, and l want to
bind in another sheaf all your past adj
versities. It is precious harvest, and
1 must be cautious how 1 swing the
scythe.
Among the greatest advantages of |
your past life were 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 sur
prised to find that Byron's heart was
of sin when we hear his |
mother was abandoned and that she |
made sport of his infirmity and often /
called him "the lame brat" He who /
has vicious parents 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 city. 1t may have
been when Pennsylvania avenue, Wash
ington, was residential, as now it is
and Canal street, New
York, was far up town. That old house
in the city may have been demolished
OF changed into stores, and it seemed
ike sacrilege to you, for there was
more meaning in that small house than
there is in a granite mansion or a tur-
reted cathedral. Looking back, you see
It as though it were yesterday-the
sitting-room, where the loved one sat
oy the plain lamp light, the mother
1T the evening stand, the brothers and
sisters, perhaps long ago gathered into
-hC ShlCSs lhCh putting 1hlSShICA Oh |
he floor or under the table, your IA
her with a firm voice commanding a
ilence that lasted half a minute.
Oh, those were good days! If you
lad your foot hurt, your mother al
ways had a soothing salve to heal it.
f you were wronged in the street, your
ather was always ready to protect
-ou. The year was one round of frolic J
nd mirth. Your greatest trouble was
n April shower, more sunshine than
hover. The heart had not been ran s
acked by trouble, nor had sickness
'roken it, and no lamb had warmer 1
heepfold than the home in which your
hildhood nestled.
Perhaps you were brought up in the e
ountry. You stand now to-day in MEM I
~ under the old tree. You clubbed it
or fruit that was not quite ripe, be- I
ause you couldn't wait any longer. You '
ear the brock rumbling along over q
he pebbles. You step again into the t
1rrow where your father in his shirt S
eeves shouted to the lazy oxen. You
righten the swallows from the raft '
rs of the barn and take just one egg c
nd silence your conscience by saying e
1ey will not miss ii. You take drink S
gain out of the very bucket that the @
ID well fetched up. You go for the
1ws at night and find them pushing S
leir heads through the bars. Outlines | T