Connecticut western news., 1899-05-11
LOOKING BACKWARD.
pR. TAlMAGE SAYS IT IS WELL TO
 REVIEW THE PAST.
He Would Arouse the Soul to Remt-
 hiscence of Dangers Escaped and
 Sorrows Suffered old Memories 4Haye a Purifying Influence.

He Would Arouse the Soul to Hem1-
 niscence of Dangers Escaped and
 sprrows Suffered old Memories Have a asPurffying Influence.
 Icopyright. Louis Klopsch. 1Sssl
 WASHINGTON, May This sermon of Dr. Talmage calls the roll of many stirring memories and interprets the meaning of life's vicissitudes. The text is Psalms xxxix. 8, "While was mus. ing the fire burned. '
 Here is David, the psalmist, with the forefinger 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.
 In a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia I once passed Sabbath in delightful solitude, for I had resolved that I would have one day of entire quiet before I entered upon autumnal work I thought to have spent the day in laying out plans for Christian work, but instead of that it became day of tender reminiscence reviewed my pastorate; I shook hands with an old departed friend, whom l shall greet again when the curtains of life are lifted The days of my boyhoed came was 8, and was 5. There was but one house on the island, and yet from Sab bath day break. when the bird chant wake me, until the evening melted into the bay of Fundy, from shore to shore thsre.were ten thousand memories, and the groves were a-humwith 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 it's time in look ing backward. People in midlife and on the apex look both ways. It would be we'll 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 reputa- Aion, you mean to establish yourself, and the advantages that you expect to achieve absorb great deal of your time. But l see no harm in this if it does not make you discontented with the pres ent or disqualify you for existing du- ties It is 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 dsrings of our earthly pilgrimage. and to sum up cur enjoyments- l mean, so far as God may help me. to stir up your memory of the past. so that in the re- view you may be encouraged and hum- bled and urged to pray.
 Precious Harvest.
 There is chapel in Florence with fresco by Guido. It 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 l am aware that the memory of the past, with many of you, is all covered up with obliterations, and now propose, so far as the Lord may help me, to take away the covering, that the old picture may shine out again. I want to bind in one sheaf all your past advantages, and Iwant to bind in another sheaf all your
 
 vest, and I must be cautious how l 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 surprised to find that Byron's heart was a con- centration of sin when we hear his mother was abandoned and that she made sport of his infirmity and often called him 'tthe 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. It may have been when Pennsylvania avenue, Wash ington, was residential as now it 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 it seemed like sacrilege to you-for there was more meaning in that small house than there is in granite mansion or tur- reted cathedral Looking back. you see it as though it were yesterday-the sit ting 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 commanding a silence that 1oofoI hof ry,invfo
 Happy Days Gone By.
 Oh, those were good daysi If you had your foot hurt, your mother always had a 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 ransacked by trouble, 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 country. You stand now today in mem ory under the old tree. You clubbed it for fruit that was not quite ripe, be. cause you couldn't wait any longer You hear the brook rumbling along over the pebbles You step again into the furrow where yoHr 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 say ing 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 at night and find them pnshing 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 of the farm house, through which there came the breath of new mown hay or the blossom