The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-07-12
SOUR EXPERIENCES.
REV. r. DE WITT TALMAGE
breaches IN CHICAGO.

breaches IN CHICAGO.
In Some Lives the Saccharine Seems to
fredominate-A Gravel in Almost Every
Shoe = The Omnipotent Sympathy of
Jesus Christ.
CHICAGO, July 8.-The Rev. 7. De
Witt Talmage, D. D., of Brooklyn,
preached in this city this evening. He
is here on his way home from tour of
the Chautauquas in Missouri, Kansas and
Minnesota. The doctor had an enormous
auditory. His subject was ''Sour Expe-
riences,'' and his text: ''When Jesus
therefore had received the vinegar"
John xix, 80. The sermon was as fol-
lows:
The brigands of Jerusalem had done
their work. 1t was almost sundown,
and Jesus was dying. Persons in cruel
fxion often fingered on from day to day
crying, begging, cursing; but Christ
had been exhausted by years of maltreat-
ment. Pillowless, poorly fed, fogged-
as bent over and tied to a low post, his
bare back was inflamed with the scourges
intensified with pieces of lead and bone
and now for whole hours, the weight of
his body hung on delicate tendons, and,
according to custom. violent stroke I'M
der the armpits had been given by the
executioner. Dizzy, swooning nau-
seated, feverish--a world of agony is
compressed in the two words: Il thirst!''
Oh skies of Judea, let a drop of rain
strike on his burning tongue. Oh world,
with rolling rivers, and sparkling eAkes,
ard spraying fountains, give Jesus some
thing to drink If there be any pity in
earth, or heaven, or hell, let it now be
demonstrated in behalf of this royal suf-
| ferer. The wealthy women of Jerusa-
| lem used to have a fund of money with
which they provided wine for those peo-
pie who died in cruciixion--a power
| full opiate to deaden the pain;
but Christ would not take it. He
wanted to die sober, and so he refused
the wine. But afterward they go to a
cup of vinegar and soak a sponge in it,
and put it on a stick of hyssop, and then
press it against the hot lips of Christ.
| You say the wine was an an9sthetic, and
| intended to relieve or deaden the pain.
| But the vinegar was an insult. l am
| disposed to adopt the theory of the old
| English commentators, who believed that
| instead of its being an opiate to soothe,
it was vinegar to insult. Malaga and
Burgundy for grand dukes and duchesses,
and costly wines from royal watts for
bloated imperials; but stinging acids for
| dying Christ. He took the vinegar.
In some lives the saccharine seems to
predominate. Life is sunshine on bank
l 1oEn / L. - II
approval. In December or in January,
looking across their table, they see all
their family present. Health rubicund.
Skies hamboyant. Days resilient. But
in a great many cases there are not so
many sugars as acids. The annoyances,
and the vexations, and the disappoint-
ments of life Overpower the successes.
There is gravel in almost every shoe.
An Arabian legend says that there was a
worm in Solomon's staff, gnawing its
strength away; and there is weak spot
in every earthly support that man leans
on. King George. of England, forgot
all the grandeurs of his throne because,
one day in an interview, Beau Brummell
| called him by his first name, and ad-
| dressed hinl as a servant, crying:
George, ring the bellp' Miss Langdon,
honored all the world over for
her poetic genius, is SO worried over
the evil reports set afioat re-
garding her that she is found dead,
with an empty bottle of prussic acid
| in her hand. Goldsmith said that his
life was wretched being, and that all
that want and contempt could bring to
| it had been brought, and cries out:
wv lat, tl1vI1, io thoro formidable in a
jail?" Correggio's fine painting is hung
up for a tavern sign. Hogarth cannot
sell his best paintings except through a
rattle. Andrew Delsart makes the great
fresco in the Church of the Annunciata,
at Florence, and gets for pay sack of
corn; and there are annoyances and vex-
ations in high places as well as in low
places, showing that in great many
lives the sours are greater than the
sweets. "When Jesus, therefore, had
received the vinegar"
1t is absurd to suppose that man who
has always been well can sympathize
with those who are sick; or that one who
has always been honored can appreciate
the sorrow of those who are despised
or that one who has been born to a great
fortune can understand the distress and
the straits of those who are destitute
The fact that Christ himself took the
vinegar makes him able to sympathiZe
today and forever with all those whose
cup is filled with sharp acids of this life
He took the vinegar!
In the first place, there is the sournes
of betrayal The treachery of Judas
hurt Christ's feelings more than all tht
friendship of his disciples did him good
You have had many friends, but there
was one friend upon whom you put espe
cial stress. You feasted him. Yol
loaned him money. You befriended hin
in the dark passes of life, when he espe
: cially needed s. friend. Afterward III
turned upon you, and he took advantage
of your former intimacies. He wrOt
against you. He talked against you. Ii
microscopized your faults. Heflung con
tempt at you when you ought to hav
received nothing but gratitude. At frs
you could not sleep at nights, Then yo'
went about with a sense of having beel
stung. That difficulty will never b
healed, for though mutual friends may
arbitrate in the matter until you shak
hands, the old cordiality will never com
back. Now ! commend to all such tn
sympathy of betrayed Christ, Why
they sold him for less than our $50! The
all forsool him and fled. They cut hin
to the quick. He drank that cup of be
trayal to the dregs. He took the vine
gar.
There is also the sourness of pain
There are some of you who have no
seen well day for years. By keepin
out of draughts, and by carefully study
ing dietetics, you continue to this time
. but oh, the headaches and the sideache
t and the backaches and the heartache
!. which have been your accompaniment
all the way through! You have strug
gled under a heavy mortgage of physica
disabilities; and instead of the placidit