The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-04-01

lIOnI1nueu pdBe.)
the helmeted troops. Admiral Nelson
and Sir Francis Drake trod again the
decks of Engand's battleships. Ma
poleon marched with the French. Wei
lington fought side by side with Sir
Douglas Haig.
Memories fed the fires Of hate. Old
battlefieids overIapped the new. The
whole of European history was in the
struggle-the age-old Balkan problem
the century crowding desire of Russia
to get into the sun-tne division of the
church into Greek and Roman-old-
time hatreds of Mohammedism and
Christianity-early Germanic invasion
of Western and Southern Europe-the
threat of the Slav-the fact of differ,
ent languages and different national
ideals which had been centuries in
forming-all these things of the past
We're in the death struggle of the pres
ent.
Your present Is crowded with the past.
What did you learn at your mothers
knee? What influence came into your
life from her love? What seed did you
sow in your youth? What habits did
you form? What were your ideals?
were your friends? What did you learn
from them, and from books, and from
life? What did you put into your brain !?
What did you put into your blood !
What did you think? What did you do?
Every such thing Is a part Of you and
by SO much the boundary OF the pres
ent widens to include the past--so that
for you and your life, and destiny the
past and the present are one piece.
1.-THE present Is also big with the
future. / tried bit ago to show you
how the recent world war was rooted
in the past. 1t is just as certain that
the future crowded into the conflict
All the national and international prob
lens Of the days ahead were part OF
that mighty struggle.
''This is true also for the individual.
You build a house. You plant tree.
You SOW the seed. You train :, your
hand and your BRAIN You toll ana
strain, and save, not just Tor TO-DAY nu.
for tomorrow. Tomorrow is in your
toll The future is in your present, de-
termining its motive, controlling its
activity. and emphasizing its ambition.
The life of today with the need OF TO-
future and without the future, the
present would shrink to nothing.
Memory Is Gate.
But I wanted to show you how our
lives are enriched by this. merging OF
the lenses. What a shut-in thing life
would be if the present was walled up!
But it is not so. Memory is wonder
full gate by which the past Is left open
to us. 1t is window through which
warehouse in which we may store the
possessions of the past. 1t is a. caske,
into which we may put for safe keeping
the treasures of the past. 1t is the
past brought into the present. -,
'"The soul, too, is so constructed tha'
bv anticipation we may live in the flu
ture. Hope is window in the from
of the souls house. When was a boy
I would stand often at the window II
my fathers home. Was not the blue
grass lawn, the sugar orchard, the
fields and oak forest beyond as much {
part of my life as the room in whicf
/ stood? So stand at the window O.
the soul and the future Is mine;
borrow it's treasures 1 bring 1t into
the present and it becomes a part O
NV life. Suppose what | see through
that window of hope turns out to ,bt
unreal a mirage, an optical deluslol
] would rather be cheated by hope thai
to have doubt Feep its contract will
"There are two things to be on guart
against. Suppose man brings out Q
the past all his defeat, his disappolnt
ments, his shattered hopes, his sorrow
and tries to live among them? Is tner,
not somewhere in the memory darl
room into which these things can b.
thrust and locked in? Or suppose NJ
borrows trouble from the future am
runs to overtake his sorrows and fetche
his defeats to him before they are due
that kind of life would break his heart
"Or suppose he lives in such fashion
that the past mocks him, and condemns
him, and it is as if his memory wer
haunted? What then? And the futur
promises him nothing--and hope ma
gone blind-what them
Dr. Morgan called attention to tn
apnroach Of the resurrection season ant
showed with all possible emphasis hoy
our life is enlarged by the Lord of III
hone we have through His victory ant
through His teaching concerning lif
eternal.