Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-05-08

uisceuce of Dangers Escaped and
Sorrows Suffered - Old Memories
Have a Purifying influence.
copyright, Louis E1lopsch, 1897
WASHINGTON. May This sermon
pf Dr. Talmage calls the roll of many
stirring memories and interprets the
meaning of life's vicissitudes. The text
is Psalms xxx. 8. 'While I was mus
ing, 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
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 / once passed a Sabbath In
delightful solitude, for I had resolved
that l would have one day of entire
quiet before / entered upon autumnal
work l thought to have spent the day
in laying out plans for Christian work,
but instead of that it became day OF
tender "Reminiscences. L reviewed my
pastorate; / shook hands with an old
departed friend, whom | shall greet
again when the curtains of life are
lifted. The days of my boyhood came
back, and / was 10 years of age, and
was 6, and I was 5. There was but one
house on the island, and yet from Sab
bath 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 "reminiscences 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. 1
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 see no harm in this if it does not
make you discontinued with the pres
ent or disqualify you for existing du-
ties It is a 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
behring's of our earthly pilgrimage, and
to sum up cur enjoyments. l mean, so
far as God may helpme, to stir up your
memory of the past, SO that In the re-
view you may be encouraged and hum
bled and urged to pray
A Precious Harvest.
There is chapel in Florence with
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
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 out again. I want to bind in
one sheaf all your past advantages, and
Iwant to bind in another sheaf all your
past adversities 1t is precious har-
vest, and I must be cautious how /
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 ont of the boiling spring of an
unhappy home. We are not surprised
to find that Byren's heart was con-
centration of sin when we hear his
mother was abandoned and that she
made sport of his infrmity 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 homo was in 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 sacriiege to you-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
lit as though it were yesterday-the sit
ting 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 commanding silence
that lasted half a minute.
Happy Days Gone BY.
Oh, those were good daysl If you
had your foot hurt. your mother always
had soothing salve to heal it. If you
were wronged in the street, your father
WAS always ready to protect you. The
year was one round of frolic and mirth.
Your greatest trouble was al April