Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-05-25
OR, TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: "LoUklng Backward"-It is Well
to Review the Past and Arouse the
Soul to "Reminiscences of Dangers Es-
capped and Sorrows Suffered.
TEXT: "While I was musing, the fire
ourned."-Psalms xxxlx.. 3.
Here is David, the psalmist, with the
toreiinger of his right hand against his
engaged in contemplation. And it would
90 well for us to take the same posture
often, while we sit down in sweet solitude
to contemplate.
In small island off the coast of Nova
Scotia once passed a Sabbath in delight,
full solitude, for I had resolved that would
have one day Of entire quiet before en-
tered upon autumnal work. thought to
have spent the day in laying out plans ior
Christian work, but instead of that It pc
came a day Of tender reminisc ence. re-
viewed my pastorate; l shook hands with
an old departed friend, whom I shall greet
again when the curtains OF life are lifted.
The days of my boyhood came back, and
was ten years Of age, and was eight, and
was flve. There was but one house on
the island, and>yet from Sabbath daybreak,
when the bird chant woke me, until the
evening melted into the Bay Of Fundy, from
shore to shore there were ten thousand
memories, and the groves were album 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 midlife and on the
apex look both ways. 1t would be we'll for
US, think, however, to spend more time
in "reminiscences. By the constitution Of
our nature we spend most of the time look
ing forward. And the vast maj ority of peo-
pie live not so much in the present as in the
future. I 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 dis
qualify you for existing duties. 1t is a use-
full 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 wanderings of our earthly pilgrimage,
and to sum up our enjoyments. l mean. 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 to pray.
Among the greatest advantages of your
past life were an early home and it's sur
roundings. 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 to find that
Byron's heart was a concentration of sin
when we hear his mother WAS abandoned
and that she made sport of his intlrmity
and often called him "the lame brat" He
who has vicious parents has to fight every
inch of his way IL 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, Washington, was
residential as now 1T is commercial, and
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 small house than
there is in granite mansion or turreted
cathedral. Looking back, you see 1t as
though it were yesterday-the sitting
room, where the loved one sat by the plain
lamp light, the mother at the evening
stand, the brothers and sisters perhaps
long ago gathered into the skies, then
plotting mischief on the floor or under the
table; your father with firm voice COM
manding silence that lasted half a minute.
Perhaps you were brought up in the
country. You stand now to-day in men
cry under the old tree. You dubbed it for
fruit that was not quite ripe, because you
couldn't 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 frighten 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
well fetched up. You go for the cows Mt
night and find them pushing their heads
through the bars. Ofttimes in the dusty
and busy streets you wish you were
home again on that cool grass, or In the
rag carpeted hall ofthe farmhouse, through
which there came the breath of new mown
hay or the blossom Of buckwheat.
You may have In your windows now
beautiful plants and flowers brought from
= I~,,k - 20 &t,~.~.
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 forget-me-nots playing hide and
seek mid the long grass. The father who
used to come in sunburned from the field
sweat from his brow may have gone to his
everlasting rest. The mother who used to
sit at the door little bent over, cap and
spectacles on her face melowing 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 reminis,
cences? Oh, thank God for a Christian
father! Thank God for Christian moth
err! Thank God for an early Christian altar
at which you were taught to kneel! Thank
God for an early Christian homel
I bring to mind another passage in the
history Of your life. The day came when
you set up your own household. The days
passed along in quiet blessedness. You
twain sat at the table morning and night
and talked over your plans for the future.
The most Insignificant affair 10 your life
became the subject OF mutual consultation
and advertisement, You were SO happy
you felt you never could be any happier.
One day dark cloud lowered over your
dwelling, and 1t got darker and darker.
but out Of that cloud the shining messen-
ger OF God descended to incarnate an i'm
mortal sp rit. Two little feet started on
an eternal journey, and you were to lend
them, gem to flash in heavens coronet,
and you to polish it,; eternaf ages of light
and darkness watching the starting out OF
newly created creature. You rejoiced
and you trembled at the responsibility that
in your possession an immortal treasure
was placed. You prayed and rejoiced and
wept and wondered; you were earnest in
supplication that you might lead it through
life into the kingdom OF God. There was a
tremor in your earnestness. There was a
double interest about that home. There
was an additional interest why you should
stay there and be faithful, and when in a
few months your house was filled with the