Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 15, Number 21, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 9 August 1893 — Page 7

LOOKING BACKWARD. Dr. Talmage Indulges in a Season of Reminisoences. A Review of Pant Advantages and Past Adversities which ’Twere Well to Make at Times In Order to Profit Thereby. The following discourse, in the form of a panorama of seasonable reminiscences, was delivered on a recent Sabbath by Rev. T. DcWitt Talmage. It is based on the text: While I was musing the Are burned.—Psalms xxxlx.. 3. Here is David, the psalmist, with the forefinger of his right hand against his temple, the door shut against the world, engaged in contemplation. And it 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 a small island off the coast I once ifepssed a Sabbath in delightful solitude, ffr I* had resolved that I would have yne day of entire quiet before I entered upon autumnal work. I thought to have spent the day in laying out plans for Christian Work; but instead of that it became a day of tender reminiscence. I reviewed my pastorate; I shook hands with an old departed friend, whom I shall greet again when the curtains of life are lifted. The days of my boyhood came back, and I was ten years of age, and I was eight, and I was five. There was but one house on the island, and yet from Sabbath daybreak, when the bird-cliant woke me, until the evening melted into the bay, from shore to shore there were ten thousand memories, and the groves were ahum 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 looking backward. People in mid-life and on the apex look both ways. It would be well for us, I think, however, to spend more time in reminiscence. Hy the.constitution 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. I 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. Hut I see no harm in this, if it docs not make you discontented with the present, or disqualify you for existing duties. 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 wanderings of Our earthly pilgrimage, and to sum up our enjoyments. I mean to-day, ,so far as (tod may help me, to stir up your memory of the past,, so that in the re0, view you may be encouraged and humbled, and urged to pray. There is a chapel in Florence with a fresco by Guido. It was covered up with two inches of stucco until oqr American and European artists went there, and after long toil removed the covering and retraced the fresco. And I am aware that the memory of the past, with many of you, is all covered up v/iih ten thousand obliterations, and I propose this morning, so far as the Lord will help me. to take away the covering, that the old picture may shine out again. Among the greatest advantages of your past life was an early home and its surroundings. The bad men of the day, for the most part, dip their heated passions out of the boiling spring of an unhappy home. We are not surprised that Byron's heart was a concentratkm of sin, when we hear his mother was abandoned, and that she made sport of his infirmity, and often called him “the lame brat.” lie who has vicious parents to ■fiph t. every inch of his way if he would maintain his integrity, and at last reach the home of the good in Heaven. l’erhaps your early home was in the city, It may have been in the days when Canal street. New York, was far uptown. That old house in the citv may have been demolished or changed into stores, and. it seemed like sacrilege to y<m —for there was more meaning in that plain house, in that small house, than there is in a granite mansion or a tureted cathedral. Looking hack this morning, you sec it as though it were yesterday—the sitting-room, where the loved ones sat by the plain lamplight, the mother at the evening stand, the brothers and sisters, perhaps long ago gathered into the skies, then plotting mischief on the floor or unper the table, you# father with a firm voice commanding silence, that lasted half a minute. □Oh those were good days! If you had your foot hurt, your mother always had a 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 an April shower, more sunshine than shower. The heart had not been ransacked by troubles, nor had sickness broken it, and no lamb had a warmer slieepfold than the home in which your childhood nestled. Perhaps you were brought up in the country. You stand now to-day in memory under the old tree. You clublied it for fruit that was not quite ripe because you could not wait any longer. Yon hear the brook rumbling along over the pebbles. Yon step again into the furrow where your father in his shirt sleeves shouted to the lazy oxen. You frighten 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 old well fetched up. You go for the nows at night and find them wagging their heads though the bars. Ofttimes in tlie dusty and busy streets you wish you were home again on that cool grass, or in the hall of the farm house, through which there was the breath of new-mown bay or the blossom of buckwheat.

You may have in your windows now beautiful pdants and flowers brought from across the seas, but not one of them stirs in your soul so much chasm and memory as the old ivy and the yellow sunflower that stood sentinel along the garden-walk, and the forget-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 a little bent over, cap and spectacles on, her face mellowing with the vicissitudes of many years, may have put down her gray head @n the pillow in the valley, but forget that home you never will. Have you thanked God for it? Have you rehearsed all these blessed reminiscences? 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. I bring to mind another passage in the history of your life, The day came when you set up your own household. The days passed along in quiet blessedness. You twain sat at the table morning and night and talked over your plans for the future. The most insignificant affair in your life became the subject of mutual consultation and advisement. You were so happy you felt you never could be any happier. One day a dark cloud hovered over your dwelling, and it got darker and darker; hut out of that cloud the shining messenger of God descended to incarnate an immortal spirit. Two little feet started on an eternal journey, and you were to lead them; a gem to flash in Heaven's coronet, and you to polish it; eternal ages of light and darkness watching the starting out of a newlvcreated being. You rejoiced and you trembled at the responsibility that in your possession an immortal treasure was placed. You prayed and rejoiced, and wept and wondered, anil prayed and rejoiced,and wept and wondered; you Were earnest in supplication that yon might lead it through life into the kingdom of God. There was a tremor in your earnestness. There was a double interest about that home. There was an additional interest why you should stay there and be faithful, and when in a few months your hoilse was filled with the music of the child's laughter you were struck through, with the fact that you had a stupendous mission. Have you kept that vow? Have you neglocted-any of these duties? Is your home as much to you as it used to be? Have Close anticipations been gratified? God help you to-day in your solemn reminisence. and let His mercy fall upon your soul if your kindness has been ill requited. God have mercy on the pai-ent, on the wrinkles of whose face is written Abe story of a child's sin. God have mercy on the mother who, in addition to her other pangs, has the pang of a child's iniquity. Oh, there are many, many sad sounds in this sad world, but the saddest sound that is ever heard is the breaking of a mother's heart. Are there any here who remember that in that home they were unfaithful? Are there those who wandered off from the early home, and left the mother to die with a broken heart? Oh, I stir that reminiscence to-day. I find another point in your life history. You found one day you were in tlie wrong road; you could not sleep at night; there was just one word that seemed to throb through your banking house, or through your office, or your sl#p, or your bed-room, and that word was “Eternity." You said: “I am not ready for it. O God, have mercy. ” The Lord heard. I’eace came to your heart. You remember how your hand trembled as you took the cup of the holy communion. Y'ou remember the old minister who consecrated it, and you remember the church officials who „ carried it through the aisle; you rememlier 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 have all withered away, that communion Sabbath is resurrected to-day; it is resurrected with all its prayers, and songs, and tears, and sermons, and transfiguration. Have you kept those vows? Have you been a backslider? God help you? This day leneel at the foot of mercy and start again for Heaven. Start to-day as you started then. I rouse your soul by that reminiscence. But I must not spend any more of my time in going over the advantages of your life; I just put them all in one great sheaf, and I bind them up in your memory with one loud harvest song such as reapers sing. Praise the Lord, ye blood-bought mortals on earth! Praise the Lord, ye crowned spirits of Heaven! But some of you have not always had a smooth life. Some of you are now in the shadow. Others had their tronbles years ago, you are a mere wreck of what you once were. I must gatiier up the sorrows of your past life, but how shallT do it? You say that is impossible, as you have had so many troubles and adversities. Then I will take just two. the first trouble and the last trouble, As when you are walking along the street and there lias been musie in tlie distance, you unconsciously find yourself keeping step to the music,so when you started life your very life was a musical time-beat. The air was full of joy and hilarity; with the bright, clear oar you made the boat skip; you went on, and life grew brighter, until, after awhile, suddenly a voice from Heaven said “Halt!” and you halted, you grew pale, you confronted your first sorrow. You had no idea that the flush on you child'seheek was an unhealthy flush. You said it can not be anything serious. Heath in slippered feet walked around about the cradle. You did not hear tlie tread; but after awhile the truth flashed on you. You walked the floor. Oh, if you could, with your strong, * stout hand, liavo wrenched the child from the destroyer. You went to your room

and you said: “God, gave my child! God, save my child!” The world seemed going out in darkness. You said: “I can not bear it. I can not bear it.” You felt as if you could not put the lashes over the bright eyes never to see them again sparkle. Oh, if you could have taken that little one in your arms and with it leaped into the grave, how gladly you would have done it! Oh, if you could have let your property go, your houses go, your land and your store-house go, how gladly you would have allowed them to depart if you could only have kept that one treasure! t But one day there arose from the" heavens a chill blast that swept over the bed room, and instantly all the light went out, and there was darkness —thick, murky, impenetrable, shuddering darkness. But God did not leave you there. Mercy spoke. As you were about to put up that cup to your lips, God said, “Let it pass,” and forthwith, as by the hand of angels, another cup was in your hands, it was the cup of God's consolation. And if you have sometimes lifted the head of a wounded soldier and wine into his lips, so God put Ills left arm under your head, and with His right hand He pours into your lips the wine of consolation, and you looked at the empty cradle and looked at your broken heart, and you looked at the Lord’s chastisement, and you said: “Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight.” • Perhaps your last sorrow was a financial embarrassment. I congratulate some of you on your lucrative profeS* sion or occupation, on ornate apparel, on a commodious residence—everything you put your hand to seems to turn to gold. But there are others of you who are like the ship on which PaulgSftiled where two seas met, and you dre-broken by the violence of the waves. By an unadvised indorsement, or by a conjunction of unforseen events, or by fire or storm, or a senseless panic, you have been flung headlong, and where you once dispensed great charities now you have hard work to make the two ends meet. Have you forgotten to thank God for your days of prosperity, and that through your trials some of you have made investments which will continue after the last hank of this world has exploded and the silver, and gold are molten in fires of a burning world? Have you. amid all your losses and discouragements, forgot that there was bread on your table this morning and that there shall he a shelter for your hefld from the storm, and there is air for your lungs, and blood for your heart, and light for your eye, and a glad and glorious and triumphant re■ligion for your soul?' Perhaps your last trouble was a bereavement. That heart which in childhood was your refuge, the parental heart, and which Ivas been a source of the quickest sympathy ever since, has suddenly liecome silent forever. And now sometimes, whenever in sudden annoyance and without deliberation yon say, “I will go and tell mother,” the thought flashes on you: “I have no mother.” Or the father, with voice less tender, but at heart as earnest and loving—watchful of all our ways, exultant over your success without spying much, although the old people do talk it over by themselves—is taken away forever. . Or there was your companion in life, sharer of your joys and sorrows, taken, leaving the heart an old ruin, where the ill winds blow over a wide wilderness of desolation, the sands of thp desert driving across the place which once bloomed like the garden of God. And Abraham mourns for Sarah at the cave of Machpelali. Going along your path in life, suddenly, right before you was an open grave. People looked down, and- they saw that it was only a few feet deep and a few feet wide, but to you it was a chasm down which went all your hopes and all your expectations. But cheer up in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Comforter. He is not going to forsake you. Did the Lord take that child out of your arms? Why He is going to shelter it better than yon could. He is going to array it in a white robe, and give it a palm branch, and have it all ready to greet you at your coming home. Blessed the broken heart that Jesus heals. Blessed the importunate cry that Jesus compassionates. Blessed the weeping eye from which the soft hand of Jesus wipes awa if the tear. But these reminiscences reach only to this morning. There is one more point of tremendous reminiscence, and that is the last hour of life, when we have to look over all onr past existence. What a moment that will be! I place Napoleon's dying reminiscence on St. Helena beside Mrs. Judson’s dying reminiscence in the harbor of St. Helena, the same island, twenty years after. Napoleon's dying reminiscence was one of delirium—as he exclaimed: “Head of the army!” Mrs. Jndson's dying reminiscence, as she came home from her missionary toil and her life of selfsacrifice for God, dying in the cabin of the ship in the harbor of St. Helena, was: “I always did love the Lord Jesus Christ.” And then, the historian says, she fell into a sound sleep for an hour, and woke amid the songs of angels., I place the dying reminiscence of Augustus Ctcsar against the dying reminiscence of Apostle Paul. The dying reminiscence of Augustus Cicsar was, addressing his attendants, “Have I played my part well on the stage of life?” and they answered in the affirmative, and he said: "Why, then, don’t yon applaud me?” The dying reminiscence of Paul, the apostle, was: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a erown of righteousness, which tlie Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me in that day, and not to ma only, 'but to all them that love llis appearing.” August Caisar died amid pomp and great surroundings. Paul uttered his dying reminisenees looking up through the roof of a dungeon. God grant that our dying pillow may be the closing of a useful life, and the opening of a glorious eternity.

Absolutely Pun

' > • THE ROYAL Baking Powder surpasses all others in leavening power, in purity and wholesomeness, and is used generally in families, exclusively in the most celebrated hotels and restaurants, by the United States Army and Navy, and wherever the best and finest food is required. All teachers of cooking schools and lecturers upon culinary matters use and recommend the Royal.

Chicago Health Authorities Certify. “I find the Royal Baking Powder superior r to all the others in every respect. It is purest and strongest. , “WALTER S. HAINES, M. D. 1 “Prof. Chemistry, Rush Medical College, ••Consulting Chemist, Chicago Board of Health,” etc.

Made from pure grape cream of tartar, and the only Baking Powder containing neither ammonia nor alum.

The Past and the Future.—Fortune-teller —“I can tell you who your future husband will be.” Chicago Woman—‘That doesn’t disturb me in the slightest. What 1 want to know is who my past husbands have been.”—Detroit Free Press. Cheap Excursions to tlie West. An exceptionally favorable opportunity for visiting the richest and most productive sections of the west and northwest will be afforded by the series of low rate harvest excursions which have been arranged by the North-Western Line. Tickets for these excursions will be sold on August 22d, September 12t h and October 10th, 1893. to points in Northwestern lowa, Western Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dnkota, Manitoba, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, and will be good for return passage within twenty days from date of sale. Stop-over will be allowed on going trip in territory to which the tickets are sold. For further information call on or address Ticket Agents of connecting lines. Circulars giving rates and detailed information will be mailed free, uoon application to W. A. Thrall, General Passenger and Ticket Agent, Chicago & North-Western Pvailway, Chicago. “Thebe, I knew something was in the wind,” said the western farmer sadly to himself, as, through a crack in the cellar wall he saw his new barn sailing along on the crest of a cyclone.Vßos ton Courier. ■ Growing Old Pleasantly. The cheerful old folks you can find are those wise enough to mitigate the infirmities of age with Hostetter s Stomach Bitters, the finest tonic in declining years, infirmity, delicate health and convalescence. It stimulates digestion, renews appetite and sleep, and insures regular action of the liver and bowels. Against malaria, rheumatism and kidney complaints it is a reliable safeguard. Josn Billings says: “I wMI never purchase a lottery ticket so long as I can hire a man to rob me at reasonable wages.”

KNOWLEDGE Brings comfort and improvement and tends to personal enjoyment when rightly used. The many, who live better than others and enjoy life more, with less expenditure, by more promptly adapting the world’s best products to the needs of physical being, will attest the value to health of the pure liquid laxative principles embraced in the remedy, Syrup of Figs. Its excellence is due to its presenting ,in the form most acceptable and pleasant to the taste, the refreshing and truly beneficial properties of a perfect laxative ; effectually cleansing the system, dispelling colds, headaches and fevers and permanently curing constipation. It has given satisfaction to millions and met with the approval of the medical profession, because it acts on the Kidneys, Liver and Bowels without weakening them and it is perfectly free from every objectionable substance. Syrup of Figs is for sale by all druggists in 60c ana $1 bottles, but it is manufactured by the California Fig Syrup Cos. only, whose name is printed on every package, also the name, Syrup of Figs, and being well informed, you will on accept any substitute if offered.

“The seashore is the place to make the bashful lover propose,” said the philosoEher. “If he hasn’t grit enough himself, e can acquire sll the sand be needs on the beach.”—Harper’s Bazar. Late revelers singing “There’s no place like home” aiways stop the melody just before they get there and creep upstafrs in? their stocking feet.—Boston Transcript. J. 8. Parker, Fredonia, N. Y., says: “Shall not call on you for the 1100 reward, for I believe Hall’s Catarrh Cure will cure any case of catarrh. Was very bad.” Write him for particulars. Sold by Druggists, 75c. Are you busy# Are you making money? If so, stick to it; you are fortunate. If you are not, then our advice is that you write at once to B F. Johnson & Cos., Richmond. Va. They can show you how to enter quickly upon a profitable workWhen a woman sets her face against anything it usually has to go—except it happens to be a mustache.—Troy Press. Flannel next the skin often produces a rash, removed with Glenn’s Sulphur Soap. Hill’s Hair and Whisker Dye, 50 cents. Customer—“ Have you any roach food#” Saleslady—“No; but we have several kinds of baby’s food.” The principal causes of sick headache, billiousness and cold chills are found in the stomach and liver. Cured by Beecham’s Pills. 6 A match doesn’t know enough to keep in when it rains. At all events, it is sure to go out if it ra wet. The sailor knows how to tighten a line. He’s taut it.

DO MOT 8E DECEIVED with Pastes, Enamels, and Paints which stain I the hands, injure the iron, and bum red. Tke Rising Sun Stove Polish Is Brilliant, Odor-1 less, Durable, and the consumer pays for no tin I or glass package with every purchase. I

“EVERYBODY’S LAW BOOK,’’ lathe title of the new76o page workbyj. Alexander Koones, L.L.li., Meinllpr of the New York Mar. It enables every man ami woman to be their own lawyer. It teaches w hut are your lights and how tomalntntn them. When to begin a law suit and whenloshun one. It contains the useful Information every busl ness man needs In every Btate in the Union. It con tains business forms of every variety useful to the lawyer us well as to all who have legal business to transact. Inclose two dollars for a ropy or inclose two-cent postage stnmp for a table of contents and terms to agents. Address lIKNJ. W. lIITCUOOOK, Publisher, 885 Sixth Avenue,New York. ITftAMS THIS PAPER irwy Dm yoowilts.

t

lEWIS’ 98 °b LYE I POWDERED AND PERFUMED (PATENTED) ; The strongest and purest Lye i made. Unlike other Lye, it being { a fine powder and packed In a can I with removable lid, the contents , are always ready for use. Will make the best perfumed Hard Soap in fcO minutes without boilini 7. It la the best for cleansing waste pipes, disinfecting sinkr, closets, washing bottles, paints, trees,etc. PENN A. SALT ITU CO. Aen. Agent*, PM I LA., Pa.

W*AMK THIS PAPER tvsry Dm fwatttu

THE POT INSULTED THE KETTLE BECAUSE THE COOK HAD NOT USED SAPOLIO GOOD COOKING DEMANDS CLEANLINESS* SAPOLIO SHOULD be used in EVERY KITCHEN*

Ts you wish the lightest, sweetest, finest cake, biscuit and bread, Royal Baking Powder is indispensable in their preparation.

ruiy. j of Health,” etc.

“One of you boys has been stealing raisins again; I have found the seeds on tfbwfloor. Which one of you was it?” Tommy —“lt wasn’t me; I swallowed the seed3 in-mine.”—Tid-Bits. “Papa, it savs in this account of the fight that Sir Marmaduke fell on his knees and begged for quarter,” said Tommy. “What did he want a quarter for? I though* he was rfch.” The fly that the spider wove a web for was not so fly after all. He was curious about the weaving and got taken it. Picayune The laundry girls of to-day think their lot a hard one, but it was in the days of Queen Elizabeth that they had a really ruff' time of it.—Troy rress. “Satori seems tobe very guarded in his' speech, he—” “I’ve noticed that myself; his wife never lets him get in a word any place.”—lnter Ocean. A cat may look at a king; but she wants to keep both eyes open when she looks at w. family hotel janitor.—Somerville Journal. No Flies on It.—That fly paper the salesman told you was better than the kind you called for.—Boston Transcript. Canada has carried off nearly all th World’s fair prizes for cheese. The victory must have been a mite-y one.—Troy Tub walkiig delegate doesn’t need to b* remarkably handsome to present a striking, appearance.—Buffalo Courier. When the oarsman retires he oomes oak Os his shell. Beware of little sins. Mosquitoes drink, more biood than lions. 1,000,000 JERKIES A Duluth Railroad Company in Minnesota. Send for Mips and Circa, bus. They will be sent to yoo FREE. Addrass HOPEWELL CLASS E. Land Commissioner. St. Paul, Miium ncr A ETNEBB FROM any CAUBK* UCmr\ I Head Noises ctirod by the use of ih* MlprfAsiUpkssM. Send for Descrifitlve Book. Fr% to Mlt'HO-AIDI PHONIC CO., ItIO OsseetsTesipls, irSAME THIS PAPER #tj ttaw you writs $75.00 to $360.00 JOHNSON ft CO.. 2800-2-4-6-8 Main St., Richmond??*. gy HAMS THIS PAPIN wmy to— ysewMs. EDUCATIONAL. CHICAGO ATHEN AEUM-22d7aff.S^ Broad Euucatlonal wok. Business. Shorthand, Aca* deinlc and Preparatory Technical instruction. Fls# Library and Gymnasium. Address K. 1. BALTIN, Sapfc asrNAMK THIN PAfUmti Hm+pmwrn. ■ I’iso's Remedy for Catarrh la the |M Best, Easiest to Use, and Cheapest^® ■ Sold by druggists or sent by mail, H, ! 50c. E. T. Hazeltine, Warren, Pa. NR A. N. K.-A 14flO WHEN WHITING TO ADVERTISER* PLEAS* •tats that yea saw the AOtmUmmsM Is thk