News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-09-13
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF RFv. DIR. TALMAGES
STERLIN G DIS COURSES.
Subject: "PIasters That Will Not
Stick" preached at East
Hampton, n. "

The man of Uz had a great many trials
the loss of MS family, the loss of his prop
erty, the loss of his health; but the most ex
asperating thing that came upon him wa
the tantaliZing talk of those who ought Il
have svmpathized with him. Looxins
around upon them, and weighing what they
had said, he utterS the words OF my text.
Why did God let sin come into the world
1t is a question | often hear discussed, but
never satisfactorily answered. God made
the world fair and beautiful at the start. Il
our first parent had not Slnned in Eden
they might have gone out of that garden
and found fifty paradiSes all around the
earth-Europe, Asia, Africa, North anC
South Amerlca-so many flower gardens, Oh
orchards of fruit, redOient and luscious
suppose that when God poured out the Gihor
and the Hiddekel he poured out at the sans
lime the Hudson and the SuSquehanna, the
whole earth was very fair and beautiful tC
look upon. Why did it not stay so! Goo
had the power to keep back sin and woe
Why did he not keep them backs Why moi
every cloud roseate, and every step joy
and every sound music, and all the ages a
long Jubilee of sinless men and sinlesS wo-
men. God can make rose as easily as he can
make thorn. Why, then, the predominance
OF thornS: He can make good. fair. ripe
fruit as well as gnarled and sour fruit. Why
so much, then, that is gnarled and sour! He
can make men robust in health. Why then,
are there so many invalldS! WHY not have
for our whole race perpetual leisure instead
OF this tug and toll and tuSsle for a livelihood.
| will tell you why God let sin come into the
world-when l get on the other siie of the
River of Death. That is the ploce where such
questions will be answered and such myster-
les solved. He who this side that river at
tempts to answer the question only illustrates
his own ignorance and incompetency. All
know is one great fact, and that is. that q
herd OF woes have come in upon us, tram
ping down everything fair and beauti-
1uE A sword at the gate of Eden, and a
sword at every gate. More people I'M
der the ground than on it. The grave
yards in vast majority. The six thousand
winters have made more scars than the six
thousand summers can cover MP Trouble
has taken the tender heart Of this world in
its two rough hands, and pinched it until the
nations wall with the agony. If all the
mounds of graveYards that have been lifted
were put side by side, you might step ON
them and on nothing else, going all around
the world, and around again, ami around
again. These are the facts. And now have
TO say that, iii a world like this, the grandest
occupation is that of giving coincidence.
This holy science of imparting comfort to
the troubled we ought all of us to stu iy.
There are many of you who could look
around upon some of your very best friends
who wish you well and are very intelligent,
and yet be able truthfully to say to them in
your days of trouble, Miserable comforters
are We all"
remark, in the first place, that very volu-
be people are incompetent for the work of
giving comfort Bildad and Eliphaz had the
gift of language, and with their words almost
bothered Jobs life out. Alas for these vClI-
bic people that go among the houses of the
afflicted and talk. AMI talk, and talk, and
talk! They rehe3rSe their own sorrows, and
then they tell the poor sufferers that they
feel bad now, but they will feel worse after
a while. Silence! Do you expect with a
thin court plaster of words to heal wound
deep as the soul. Step very gently round
about a broken heart Talk very softly
around those whom God has bereft Then
go your way. Deep sympathy has not much
to say. A firm grasp of the hand, a compass
slOnate look, Just one word that means as
much as whole dictionary, and you have
given, perhaps, all the comfort that a soul
needs a man has a terrible wound in his
arm The surgeon comes and binds it up.
Now, ''he says, ''carry that arm in sling and
be very careful of it. Let no one touch it."
But the neighbors have heard of the accident,
and they come in, and they say: LET us see
it And the bandage is pulled off, and this
one and that one must feel It, and see how
much it is swollen; and there is irritation,
and Inflammation, and evaporation, where |
there ought to be healing and cooling. The |
surgeon comes in, and saws: ''What does all |
this means You have no business to touch |
those bandages. That wound will never heal |
unless you let it alone.n So there are souls
broken down in sorrow. What they most want |
is rest, or very careful and gentle treatment;
Ile nel8lDCfS nave uGtEu VI Tie DclGtNt-
ment or Of the loss, and they come in to
sympathize, and they say: Show us now the
wound. What were his last words: Re |
hearse now the whole scene. How did you
feel when you found you were an orphan"
Tearing of the bandagCS here, and pulling
them off there, leaving CHASTITY wound that
the balm of Gods grace had already begun
to heal Oh, let no loQuaclous people. with
ever rafting tongues, go into the homes of
; again remark. that all those persons are
incompetent to give any kind of comfort who !
act merely as worldly philo sophers. They |
come in and say: why. this is what you
ought to have expected. The laws of nature |
must have their way and then they get elo- |
quent over something they have seen in post |
mortem examinations Now, away with all !
human philosophy at such a time: What diff |
ference does it make to that father and |
mother what disease their son died off He is |
dead, and it makes no difference whether the |
trouble was in the epjgastric or hypOgastric |
region If the philosopher be of the stoical |
school he will come and say: . y on ought to |
control your feelings. You must not cry so. |
y on must cultivate a cooler temperament. |
You must have self reliance, self govern !
ment, self control;' an iceberg reproving a |
hyacinth for having drop Of dew in its eye. |
A violinisJ has his instrument, and he |
sweeps his fingers across the strings, now
evuking strains of joy, and now strains
of sadness. He cannot play all the tunes on /
one string. The human soul is an instrument |
of thousand strings, and all sorts of emo
tions were made to play on it Now an
anthem, now dirge. 1t is no evidence of
weakness when one is overcome of sorrow.
Edmund Burke was fou a the pasture /
field with his arms arOuu &. horses neck, |
caresSing him and some o le said: ''Why, the |
great man has lost his mindi7 No, that |
horse belonged to his son who had recently |
died, and his great heart broke over the
grief. 1t is no sign of weakness that men are |
overcome of their sorrows. Thank God for |
the relief of tears. Have you never been in
trouble when you could not weep ami YOU |
would have given anything for good cry; |
David did we'll when he mourned for 40 |
SALON., Abraham did well when he bemoaned |
Sarah, Christ did well when he wept for |
Lazarus, and the last man | want to see come |
anywhere near me when have any kind of |
trouble is worldly philosopher.
Again | remark that those persons are in |
competent for the work of comfort bearing |
who have nothing but cant to offer. There |
are those who have the idea that you must |
groan over the distressed and afflicted. |
There are times in grief when one cheerful |
face dawning on a mans soul is worth a |
thousand dollars to him. Do not whine over |
the afflicted. Take the promises of the Cos |
pei, and utter them in manly tone. Do not |
be afraid to smile if you feel like it. Do not
drive any more hearseS through that poor
soul Do not tell him the trouble was fore
ordained; it will not be any comfort to know
it was million years coming. If you want |
to find splints for broken bone, do not take |
cast iron. Do not tell them it IS Gods JUS |
tice that weighs out grief. They want now /
TO hear of Gods tender mercy. In other |
words, do not give them aqua FORTS when |
they need valerian.
Again, Iremark that those persons are poor
c0mfOrters who have never had any trouble
themselves A larksDur cannot lecture on
the nature OF a snowflake never saw a
and those people who have al
ways lived in the summer of prosperity can
not talk to tho sc VINO are frozen in disaster.
God keeps aged people in the world, l think,
for this very work of sympathy. They have
been through all these trials. They know all |
that which irritates and all that which |
soothes.
People who have not had trials themselves |
cannot give comfort to others They may |
talk very beautifully, and they may give you. |
a great deal of poetic sentiment; but while |
poetry is a perfume that smells sweet, it makes |
a very poor salve. If you have a grave in |
your pathway, and somebody comes and |
covers it all over with flowers, iG is grave |
yet. Those who have not had grief them |
selves know not the mystery or broken /
heart They know not the meaning OF /
ami the having no one to put |
to bed at night, or the standing in room
where every book and picture and door IS
full OF memories the door mat where she !
sat, the cup out of which she drank-the |
place where she stool at the door
and clapped her hands-the odd figures !
that she srrIb5lel- the blocks she built INTO (
a house. All, no; you must have trouble |
yourself before you can comfort trouble IN |
others. But come all ye who have been be-
ref5 and ye who have been comiorted IN
your sorrows, ana stan around these afflicted |
souls, and say to them: Il had that very |
sorrow mysslf Col comfOrted me, and He /
will comfort you =" and that will go right to /