The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-01
THE VALUE OF THE PAST
DISCUSSED BY REV. }. A. sILDURx,
OF TIE SECOND PBEsBYTEBIAy.
why People Are Periudiced Against
the English Nation-Sermon of
Rev. George vi. smith.

lit is quite the habit Of the ministry TO
Joseph A. Milburn in his sermon last night
at the Second Presbyterian Church. MANY
sermons have been preached In this coun-
try to-day. and, | suppose, in all Christian
countries, upon such themes as the evan
escence, the fugitiyeness of time, the re-
cessional tendency of the moments and
years. Others, 1 doubt not, have spoken
a very doleful word about the hreparable-
ness OF the past. A very great man once
preached sermon upon that theme, and
ever since he preached that sermon men
and women have reaffirmed his doctrine,
saying the past is quite Interchangeable, that
what is written is written, and what is
done is done forever and cannot be I'M
done. / suppose there is day in the
year when so much sophistry is spoken as
to-day, so much of untruth-not inten-
tional, because ministers do not preach in
territorial falsehood-but just simply be-
cause the average man is under the power
and habit of tradition. Ministers--a ma
jority of them-like other people. have a
very large tendency TO mere parrot-like
repetition Of platitudes. Some man has
thought this and said this. and, simply
because it is SO much easier for a man
to think with another mans head than TO
think with his own, we are SO disposed to
get UP and say just what the other man
has said, and therefore We keep talking
nonsense about the evanescence of the
past, and other nonsense about the irrep-
arableness of the past. There never were
two Sucn fallacies; there never were TWO
DfODOSltlOnS
ment OF sanity as these two propositions
that are being preached far and wide this
Sabbath day.
MIR. Milburn argued that the past is val
liable because ii helps men to form their
future on higher lines. He said that a
good deal Of wrong thinking, of prejudice,
Is due TO the fact That men forget the past
so readily. His concluding words were as
follows:
Let the past be an inspiration to you,
principle of enlightenment and expan-
sion. 1 find In this Nation to-day so many
people preJudiced against the English ma
ton. Why? Because they do not under
stand the past, that is why. They are ig-
norant and therefore have no gratitude.
and in place of the gratitude that should
be theirs, is hate that should not be. Why
you owe all you are TO her; all that you
have got that is worth while, you have
taken from her loins. She has taught you
taught your poets how to sing sweet songs,
and it is upon her achievements that the
edifice of liberty is built up. Why this an
tfpathy? Why this senseIess hatred of the
mother? All, it has the same root that
all antipathies have. a blindness TO the
story of the past. Let US know what has
been done yesterday, in order that we
may do better tomorrow. Let US know
what has been thought yesterday in order
that we may think more vastly tomorrow.
Let us know what has been achieved yes
terday in order that I'VE may achieve yet
more sublimely, yet more grandly to-
morrow. so that we may. as the poet says,
rise on the stepping stones of our dead
selves to higher and sublimer things"