The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-09-20
TALMAGES SERMON.

The Weekly Disoourses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: "Plasters That Will
Not Stick" tPrcac ella ed at
East Hampton, n. w
TEXT; miserable comJorters are ye an.n
dob xvi, Q
The man OF Uz had great tnaiiy trials
the loss Of his family, the loss of his prop
erty, the loss of his health; but the most ex.
nsperating 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 tho worldl
1t is question l often hear discussed, but
never satisfactorily answered. Col made
the world fair and beautiful at the start. II
our first parent had not sinned in Eden,
they might have gone out of that garden
and found fifty paradises all around the
earth-Europe, Asia, Africa, North and
South Americas-so many flower gardens. or
orchards, of fruit, redolert and luscious |
suppose that when Col poured out the Gihon
and the Hddekel lie poured out at the same
lime the Hudson and the Susquehanna, the
whole earth was very fair and beautiful 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 backl WHY not
every cloud roseate, and every step Joy,
and every sound music, and all the ages a
long jubilee of snless men and sinless wo-
men! God can make a rose as easily as he can
n hy thut,f h., aIn,s
OF thornss 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 invalids' Why not have
for our whole race perpetual leisure, instead
OF this tug and toll and tussle for liveihoods
VIII tell you why God let sin come into the
world-when get on the other side 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 a
herd of woes have come in upon us, tram
ping down everything fair and beauti-
full. 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
ehVuotehu auiuiutis Chu cover IlD lrOnDl6
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 havs 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, in world like this, the grandess
occupation is that of giving coincidence.
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 truthfulv to say to them in
| your days of trouble, Miserable comforters
areye all"
remark, in the first place, that very voll-
bic people are incompetent for the work of
| giving comfort Bildad and Eiphaz had the
| gift of language, and with their words almost
| bothered Jobs life out. Alas for these volu-
BILE people that go among the houses of the
afflicted and talk, and talk, and talk, and
talk! They rehearse 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 u
| thin court plaster of words to heal a wound
deep as the soul' Step very gently round
about a broken heart. Talk very softly
around those whom God has bereft Then
|
to say. A firm grasp of the hand a compass
onate look, just one word that means as
much as IA 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
DC very careful of it. Let no one touch it,
But the neighbors have heard of the accident,
and they come in and they say: 'Iet 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 mean? 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 bereave-
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 bandages here, and pulling
them off there, leaving CHASTITY wound that
the balm of Gods grace had already begun
to heal. Oh, let no loquacious people, with
ever rafting tongues, go into the homes of
the distressed
Again remark, that all those persons ara
Incompetent to give any kind of comfort who
act merely as worldly phlo ophers They
come in and say: why. this is hat you
ought to have expected. The laws of nature
must have their way and then they get clio
.quent over something they have seen in post.
norton examinations. Now, away with all
human philosophy at such a time! What diff
ference does it make to that father and
Ncther what disease their son died of He i
dead, and it makes no difference whether the
trouble was in the epigastric or hypogastriC
region. If the philosopher be Of the stoica
school he will come and say: You ought te
control your feelings You must not cry SO
You must cultivate cooler temperament
You must have self reliance, self govern
ment, self CONTROL" an iceberg reproving 9
hyacinth for having drop of dew in its eye
A violinist has his instrument, and he
sweeps his fingers across the strings, now
evoking strains of joy, and now strains
of sadness. He cannot play all the tunes OF
one string. The human soul is an instrument
of a thousand strings, and all sorts OF emo
tions were maze to play on it. Now an
anthem, now dirge 1t is no evidence OF
weakness when one is overcome of sorrow
Edmund Burke was found in the pasture
field with his arms around horses neck
caressing him and some one said: why, the
great man has lost his mind" 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 fol-
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 well when he incurred for Alb
SALON., Abraham did well when he bemoaned
Sarah, Christ did well when he wept fol
Lazarus, and the last man want to see come
anywhere near me when / have any kind oil
trouble is a 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 mans soul is worth a