Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-05-11
TALMAGE' $ s e RMON.
r. E MI MISC c z S." SUBJECT
FOR LAST SUNDAY.
From the Text: while I Was Iusing,
the Fire Burned'--Psslm 80: 3. Ben
eft of an Occasional Look backward
The Father and Mother.

| IL would be well for us to take the
same posture often, closing the door
against the world, while we sit down
In sweet solitude to contemplate.
In small island off the coast OF
Nova Scotia once passed Sabbath
in delightful solitude, for l had re-
solved that l would have one day of
entire quiet before I entered upon au-
tumnal work. l thought to have spent
the day in laying out plans for Chris
tian work; but instead of that it be-
came day of tender Renaissance.
reviewed my pastorate; l shook hands
with an old departed friend, whom l
shall greet again when the curtains OF
life are lifted. The days of my boy
hood came back, and l was ten years
of age, and l was eight, and I 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 ahum with voices that
had long ago ceased.
its time in looking forward. Old age
is apt too much to spend all its time
in looking backward. People in mid
life and on the apex look both ways.
1t would be well for Us, l think, how
ever, to spend more time in reminis-
| cence BY the constitution of our ma
ture we spend most of the time in
looking forward And the vast major
ity of this audience live not so much
in the present as in the future. l find
that you mean to make a reputation.
you mean to establish yourself, and
the advantages that you expect to
achieve absorb a great deal of your
time. But l see no harm in this,
If it does not make you discontented
with the present, or disqualify you for
existing duties.
Perhaps you were brought up in the
country. You stand now today In
memory under the old tree. You
dubbed its 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 brighten the swal-
lows from the rafters of the barn, and
take just one egg. and silence your
conscience by saying they won't miss
it. You take a drink again out Of the
very bucket that the old we'll fetched
up. You go for the cows at night, and
find them wagging their heads through
the bars. Outlines in the dusty and
busy streets you wish you were home
again on that cool grass, or in the
wheat-carpeted hall Of the farmhouse,
through which there was the breath Of
new-mown hay or the blossom Of
buckwheat.
You may have in your windows now
beautiful plants and flowers brought
from across the seas, out not one Of
them stirs 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 for
get-me-nots playing hide and seek
mid the long grass. The father who
used to come in sunburnt from the
fields, and sit down on the door sill
and wipe the 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 spec
tacles on, her face mellowing with the
vicissitudes of many years, may have
put down her gray head on the pill
low in the valley; but forget that home
you never Will.
Have you thanked God for it? Have
you rehearsed all these blessed rem
iniscences? Oh, thank God for a
Christian father; thank God for a
Christian mother; thank God for an
early Christian altar at which you
were taught to kneel; thank God for
an early Christian home.
find another point in your life his
tory. You found one day you were
in the wrong road; you couldn't sleep
at night; there was just one word that
! seemed to sob through your banking
house, or through your office, or shop,
| or your bedroom, and that word was
ETERNITY" You said, I'm not ready
for it. o God, have mercy" The Lord
| heard. Peace came to your heart. In
the breath of the rill and the water
! love; the clouds and the trees hailed
you with gladness; you came into the
house of God.
You remember how your hand trem-
bled as you took up the cup OF the
communion. You remember the old
minister who consecrated it, and you
remember the church officials who car
ried it through the aisle; you remem-
Der the old people who at the close
of the service took your hand in
theirs in congratulating sympathy, as
much as to say, welcome home, you
lost prodigal!" And though those
hands be all withered away, that COM
munion Sabbath is resurrected today;
1t is resurrected with all its prayers,
and songs, and tears, and sermons,
and TRANSPORTATION. Have you kept
those vows? Have you been a back
slider? God help you! This day kneel
at the foot of mercy and start again
for heaven. Start today as you start
ed then. I rouse your soul by that
Renaissance.
But l must not spend any more OF
my time in going over the advantages
of your life. just put them all in one
great sheaf. and ] top them up in your
memory with one loud harvest song
such as the reapers sing. Praise the
Lord, ye blood-bought immortals on
earth! Praise the Lord, we crowned
spirits of heaven!
But some of you have not always
had a smooth life. Some of you are
| in ho chahnyU 0thprS had thpil