Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1899-05-25
Or. IALMAGE'S SERMON.
PREPARED ESPECIALLY FOR YOUNG
AND OLD.
Subject: Choking Eackward'-Tt is Well
to Review the Past and Arouse the
Soul to "Reminiscences "f Dangers Es-
capped and Sorrows Suffered.

6Ou % IAe1liDlsc0HCt IA DsiAS<H L >
capped and Sorrows Suffered.
TEXT: "While l was masing, the fire
burned. Psalms xxxtx.. ).
Here is David, the psalrists ~ith the
forefinger of his riJht hand against his
temple and the door shut against the world,
engaged in contemplation. And it would
be we'll for US to take the same posture
often, while We sit down in sweet solitude
to contemplate.
In q small island Of the coast Of Nova
Scotia l once passed Il Sabbath in delight
ful solitude, for l had resolved thatI would
have che day Of entire quiet before I en-
tered upon autuunal work thought to
have spent tho day IN laying out plans for
Christian work, but instead of that it be-
came a day Of tende Renaissance. re-
viewed my pastorate: l shock hands with
On old departed friend. whom I shall greet
again when the curtains OF life are lifted.
The days Of my boyhood came back, and 1
was ten years Of age, and / was eight, and
was five. There was but one house on
the island. and yet from Sabbath daybreak,
evening melted into the Bay Of Fundy, from
shore to shore there We're ten thousand
memories, and the groves were Album With
voices that had long ago ceased.
Youth : apt too much to spend all its
time in looking forward. Old age Is apt
too much to spend oil its time tn looking
backward. People in midlife aud on the
apex look both ways 1t would be we'll for
US, l think, however, TO spend more time
In Renaissance. By the constitution Of
our nature We spend most OF the time look
ing forward And the vast majority of peo-
pie live not SO much in thepresent as In the
future. ] find that YOU mean to make 4
reputation, you mean to establish yourself,
and the advantages that YOU expect to
achieve absorb q preat deal rf v0nr TINA
Butt see no harm in this If it does not make
you disconnected with the present or dis
qualify you for existing duties. 1t is a USE
full thing sometimes TO look back. and to see
the dangers we nave escaped, and to seethe
SORROWS we have suffered. and the trials
and wanderings of our earthly pilgrimage.
and to sum up our enioyments. l mean, so
far as God may help me, to stir up your
memoir of tho past, so that in the review
you may be encouraged and humbled and
urged to pray.
Among the greatest advantages OF your
past life were an early home and its sur
~roundings. The bad men of tue day. for
the most part, dip their heated passiona
out of the boiling spring Of an unhappy
home We are not surprised to find that
Byron's heart was a concentration OF sin
when We hear his mother was abandoned
and that she made sport Of his inflrmity
and often called him 1.-THE lame BRAT He
who has vicious parents has to fight every
inch Of his way il he would maintain his
integrity and at last reach the home OF the
good in heaven.s Perhaps your early home
was in a 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 it
seemed like sacrilege to you--eort there was
more meaning in that small house than
there is in a granite mansion or a 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 floor or under the
table; your father with firm voice com.
handing a silence that lasted half a minute.
Perhaps you were brought up in the
country. You standn now to-day in men
cry under the old tree. You dubbed it for
fruit that was not quite ripe, because you
ouldn wait any longer. You hear the
brook rumbling along over the pebbles
You step again into the furpow where your
| father in his shirt sleeves shouted to the
lazy oxen. You brighten 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 a drink
again out of The very bucket that the ole
we'll fetched Up. You 80 for the cows at
night and find them pushing their head:
| through the bars. Outlines in the dust,
and busy streets you wish you wcr,
home again on that cool grass, or in thu
rag carpeted hall ofthe farmhouse, through
which there came the breath Of new mowI
hay Or the blossom Of buckWheat.
You may have in your windows now
! beautiful plants and flower brought iron
across the seas, but not one Of them stirs
| in your sou SO much charm and memory
rs the old ivy and the yellow s%un1oweI
that stood sentinel along the garden wall
and the fo-rget-lne-nots playing hide an,
seek mid the long grass. The father wI;t
used to come in sunburned from the tiei,
and sit down Oh the dOorsIll and wipe til
sweat from his brow may lave gone to hi
everlasting rest. The mother who used t
sit at the door a little bent over, cap an'
spectacles Oh her face meltowing with til
vicissitudes Of many years, may have pu
down her gray head on the pillow in tn
valley. but forget that home you neve
will. Have you thanked God for it? Hay
you rehearsed all these blessed remfnis
cences: Oh, thank God for a Cnris;in,
father,> Thank God for a Christian moth
er, Thank God for an early Christian alta
at which you We're taught - kneel. Than
God for an early Christian home,
| bring to mind another passage in tn
histcry.of Your life. The day came wneI
sou set up your own household. Tue day
PISSED along in quiet b essedness. IOi
TWAIN sat 1T the ta 10 morning and nigh
ant talked over your plans for the futur -
The most insignificant affair j your iii
fecAr7e the subject o. H-Ituai cOnsuitatigl
and advertisement Y0t! were so h 20
you felt you never could be any happie.
One day a dark cloud lowered over YOU
dwelling. ard it got darker and tafk-g
but ont # that cloud the shining nle4-rn
ger Of God descended TO incarnate an i'm
mortal 50 rit. Two little feet started q
an eternal journey. and yoa were to lea
them, a gem to fash in heavens coronet
and you To polish il: eternal ages Of Iicll
aud darkness watching the starting out q
a newly created creature. You rr]otce
and yon trembied 1T the responsibility tbl
in your Possession an immortal treaSur
was placed. Iou prayed AMI reJoicei az
wept and wcndered: You were earnest !
supplication that you might leal itthrous
life into the loin Of Got. There was
tremOr in your earnestness. There was
double interest about that home. Their
was an additional interest Why you shoul
stay there and be faithful, and when in
few months your house was filed with tn
music Of the child's laughter you wei
struck through with the fact that you ha
a stupendous mission.
Have you KEEP: that vow? Have 20
neglected anv Of these duties: Is yOU