The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1899-05-12
RECALLS THE PAST.
DR.. Talmage's Sermon Is Largely
Reminiscent.
Draws Helpful Lessons from the Elk
periences and Vicissitudes of
Life-MemOries of
Home.


Home.
Copyright, 1899, by Louis Klopsch. Wash
ington, May7.
This sermon of DIR. Talmage calls the
roll of many stirring memories and in
terprets the meaning of life's vicissl-
tudes. The text is Psalms xxx, B:
"While I was musing the fire burned"
Here is David, the psalmist, with the
forefnger 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 de-
, lightful solitude, for had resolved that
would have one day of entire quiet be-
fore i entered upon autumnal work. L
thought to have spent the day in laying
out plans for Christian work, but in
stead of that it became day of tender
"Reminiscences. I reviewed my pastorate;
] shook hands with an old departed
friend, whom / shall greet again when
the curtains of life are lifted. The days
of nv boyhood came back, and l was
ten years of age, and l was eight, and L
was five. There was but one house on
the island, and yet from Sabbath day
break, 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 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 Renaissance. 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. find
shat 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 disconnected with the present or
disqualify you for existing duties. 1t
IA a useful thing sometimes to look
hack 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
mp our enjoyments. / mean, so far as
God may help me, to stir up your mem
cry of the past, so that in the review you
may be encouraged and humbled and
urged to pray.
There is chapel in Florence with a
fresco 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 I am aware
that the memory of the past, with many
of you, is all covered up with oblitera-
tions. and now propose, so far as the
Lord may help me, to take away the
covering, that the old picture may shine
out again. | want to bind in one sheaf
all your past advantages, and | want to
bind in another sheaf all your past ad-
versities. 1t is a precious harvest, and
I must be cautious how I 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
concentration 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 a city. 1t 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 a granite mansion or tur-
reted cathedral. Looking back, you see |
it as though it were yesterday-the
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 IA
Their with firm voice commanding
silence that lasted half a minute.
Oh, those were good days! If you
had your foot hurt, your mother al
ways had a soothing salve to heal it.
II you were wronged in the street, your
father was always ready to protect
you. The year was one round of frolic
md mirth. Your greatest trouble was
In April shower, more sunshine than
shower. The heart had not been ran
sacked by trouble, nor had sickness
broken it, and no lamb had warmer
sheepfold than the home in which your
childhood nestled.
Perhaps you were brought up in the
You stand now to-day in mem
Dry under the old tree. You dubbed it
lor fruit that was not quite ripe, be-
,ause you couldn't wait any longer. You