The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-05-19
LOOKING BACK WARD
DIR. TALMAGE SAYS HI L WELL TO
REVIEW THE PAST.

nIscence OF Dangers Escaped and
SORROWS SuRered old Memories
Have "A Purifying influence.
Copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1899
This sermon of DR.. Talmage calls
the roll of man stirring memories and
interprets the meaning of life's vicissi-
tudes. The tex is Psalms xxx, 8,
while 1 was musing 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
1t would be we'll 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 1 once passed a abb in
delightful solitude, for | had resolved
that / would have n day Of entire
quiet before 1 entered pom autumnal
work. I thought to have spent the day
in laying out plans for Christian work.,
but instead of that it became a day Of
tender Renaissance. / 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 10 years Of age, and 1
was s, and l was 5. There was but one
house on the island, and yet from Sab
bath daybreak, when the bird chant
woke me, until the evening melted nto
the bay Of Fundy, from shore to shore
there were ten thousand memories, and
the groves were a-hum with voices
that had long & ceased.
Youth is apt too much to spend all it's
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. 1t 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. /
find that you mean to make a reputa-
ton, you mean to establish yourself,
n the advantages that you expect to
achieve absorb a 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 exist
ing duties. 1t is a useful thing some
$AAAO " i"Ch JUN, Cblo ~ Z IIC o6LIl
gers 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 enjoy
mentS. [ 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 n humbled and urged
to pray.
A PRECIOUS HARVEST.
There is a 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 TENOR of the past,
with many of you, is all covered up
with deliberations, and l now ropose,
so far as the Lord may help me, to AXE
away the covering, that the old picture
may shine out again. I want to bind in
one sheaf all your past advantages, and
L want to bind in another sheaf all your
past adversities. 1t is a precious har-
vest, and l must be cautious how 7
swing the scythe.
Among the greatest advantages of
your past life were IN 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 thu 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 he 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 sacrelege to Ou-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
1t as though it were yesterday-the sit
ting room, where the loved one sat by
the plain lamp light, the mother at the
svening stand, the brothers and sisters
perhaps long g gathered into the
skies, then plotting mischief on the
floor or under the table; you father
with firm voice commanding a silence
that lasted half a minute.
Oh, those were good days! If you
had your foot hurt, you mother always
had a soothing salve to heal it. IF you
were wronged in the street, your faith
er was always ready to protect you.
The year was one round of frolic and
mlrth. Your greatest trouble was an
April shower. more sunshine than
shower. The heart had not been ran
sacked by trouble, nor a sickness
broken it, and no lamb had a warmer
sheepfold h the home in which you,
childhood nestled.
Perhaps you were brought up in the
country. You stand now today in mem.
DRY 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 hi:
shirt sleeves shouted to the lazy oxen
You brighten the swallows from tn.
rafters of the barn and take just on>
egg and silence your conscience by say
ing they will not miss it. You take {
drink again out of the very bucket tina
the old we'll fetched UP. You go for tn,
COWS at night and find them pushing
their heads through the bars. Ofttime
in the dusty and busy streets you wisl
you were home again on that cool graSI