The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-09-07
MISERABLE COMFORTERS.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE DlscoURsEs
AT EAST HAMPTON, l. !.

why Did God Let Sin Come Into the
World?-No One Can Tell Until He Gets
ON the Other Side Of tho River Of Death.
Imparting Comfort to the Troubled.
EAST HAMPTON, N. Y, Sept. 2.-The
Rev. 7. De Witt Talmage, d. d., who
spends good part Of his summer rest
here, took for the subject of his vacation
sermon Of this date, "Plasters That Will
Not Stick" His text was, miserable
comforters are We all. Job xvi, 2. Fol-
lowing is the sermon:
The man of Uz had great many
trials-the loss of his family, the loss Of
his property, the loss of his health; but
the most exasperating thing that came
upon him was the tantalizing talk Of
those who ought to have sympathized
with him. Looking around upon them,
and weighing what they had said, he
utters the words Of my text.
Why did God let sin come into the
world9 1t is question I often hear dis
cussed, but never satisfactorily answered.
God made the world fair and beautiful
at the start. If our first parents had not
sinned in Eden, they might have gone
out of that garden and found fifty para
discs all around the earth-Europe, Asia,
Africa, North and South America-so
many flower gardens, or orchards Of
fruit redolent and luscious. / suppose
that when God poured out the Gihon and
the Hiddekel, he poured out, at the same
time, the Hudson and the Susquehanna;
the whole earth was very fair and beau-
tiful to look upon. Why did it not stay
so? God had the power to keep back sin
and woe. Why did he not keep them
back? Why not every cloud roseate,
and every step joy, and every sound
music, and all the ages long jubilee of
sinless men and sinless women? God
can make a rose as easily as he can make
thorn. Why, then, the predominance
of thorns9 He can make good, fair,
ripe fruit as well us gnarled and sour
fruit. Why SO much, then, that is
gnarled and sour? He can make men
robust in health. Why, then, are there
80 many invalids? Why not have for
our whole race perpetual leisure, instead
of this tug and toll and tussle for live
ihood? will tell you why God let sin
come into the world-when get on the
other side of the River of Death. That
is the place where such questions will be
answered and such mysteries solved.
He who this side Of that river attempts
to answer the question only illustrates
his own ignorance and incompetency.
All know is one great fact, and that is
that herd of woes have come in upon
us, trampling down everything fair and
beautiful. A sword at the gate Of Eden,
and sword at every gate. More people
under 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 up.
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, and around again.
These are the facts. And now have to
say that, in world like this, the grand
est occupation is that of giving condo
lence. This holy science Of imparting
comfort to the troubled we ought all of
us to study. 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 ye ALL"
remark, in the first place, that very
voluble 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 voluble people
that go among the houses of the afflicted
and talk, and talk, and talk, and talkl
They rehearse their own sorrows, and
then they tell the poor sufferers that they
feel badly now, but they will feel worse
after awhile. Silence! Do you expect,
with thin court plaster of words, to heal
wound deep as the soul9 Step very
gently around about 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, compassionate look,
just one word that means as much as a
whole dictionary, and you have given,
perhaps, all the comfort that soul
needs. A man has 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 says, "What does all this meant
You have no business to touch those
bandages. That wound will never heal
unless you let it alone" So there are
souls broken down in sorrow. What
they most want is rest, or very careful
and gentle treatment; but the neighbors
have heard of the bereavement or of the
loss, and they come in to sympathize,
and they say, 'Show us the wound.
What were his last words? Rehearse
now the whole scene. How did you feel
when you found you were an orphan2"
tearing off the bandages here, and pull
ing them off there. leaving a CHASTITY