The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-05-17
Or. Talmage Calls the Roll Of
Stirring Memories.
DRAWING HELPFUL LESSONS
From Past Experiences and Viz
cissitude. Advantages OF
Early Home Teachings
and Surroundings.

tudes. The text is Psalms xxxix, 3,
While 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
would be well for US to take the same
posture often while We sit down in
sweet solitude to contemplate.
In small island of the coast Of
Nova Scotia l once passed a Sabbath IN
delightful solitude, for l 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 Renaissance. reviewed
nv pastorate: l shook hands with an
old departed friend, whom shall greet
again when the curtains Of lite are
lifted. The days of my boyhood came
back and was 10 years of age, and |
was S, and I was 5. There was but one
house on the island, and yet from Sab
bath 6aybreak, when the bird chant
woke me, until the evening melted into
the bay Of FuR6y, 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 toe much to spend all It's
time in looking forward. Old age IS
apt too much to spend all its time in
looking backward. People in midllfe
and on the apex look both ways. 1t
would be well for US, I think, however,
to spend more time in reminlscence.
By the constitution 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 that you mean to make reputa,
ton, you mean to establish yourself,
and the advantages that YOU expect to
achieve absorb great deal Of your time.
But I see 10 harm in this, if it does
not make you discontented with the
present or disqualify you for existing
duties. 1t 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
derings of our earthly pilgrimage and
to sum up our enjoyments. 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
bumbled and urged to pray.
There is chapel IN Florence with
freseo By Guido. Itwas 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
obliterations, and I now propose, so far
as the Lord may help me, to take away
the covering, that the old picture may
shine cut again. I want to bind IN one
sheaf all your past advantages, and L
want to bind in another sheaf a.! your
past adversities. It is precious Aarv-
est, and must be cautious how l swing
Ehe 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 6nd that Byron's heart was con-
centration Of sin when we hear his
mother was abandoned and that she
made sport Of his inirnity and often
called him ''the lame brat" He who
has vicious praents has to fight every
inch of his way if he would maintain
mis- 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 q granite mansion or turreted
cathedral. Looking back, you see it 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 fsor or
under the table, your father with hrm
voice commanding a silence that lasted
half "a minute.
Oh, those were good days! If you
had your foot hurt, your mother always
had soothing salve to heal it. Il you
were Hronged in the stieet, 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 1t, and
no lamb had warmer sheepfold than
the home in which your childhood nes-
tied.
Perhaps you were brought up. in the
country. You stand now today IN mem
ory under the old tree. You dubbed
il 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 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 at 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 capeted hall of the farm
house, through which there came the