Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-09-12
PLASTERS THAT WILL NOT STICK.
WHY DID GOD LET SIN COME INTO
THE WORLD3
AN INTERESTING AND IMPORTAN'
QUESTION ANSWERED.
IAN ICEBERG REPROvING a HYA
CINTH FOR HAVING A DROP
OF DEW IN ITS EYE"
CHEERING AND KIND WORDS
FROM DIR. TALMAGE

TAsT HAMPTON, N. Y, September a.
T. The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, DID,,
who spends good part of bis summer
rest here, took for the subject of his vaca-
tion sermon of this date, "Plasters That
will not stick" His text was, miserable
comforters are We all."-Job Ch. xvi v. 2.
Following is the sermon:
The man of Uz had great many trials
the loss of his family, the loss of his prop
erty, 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 world?
1t is a question / often hear discussed, 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 paradises all around the
earth-Europe, Asia, Africa, North and
South America-so many flower gardens, or
orchards of fruit, redolent and luscious. I
suppose that when God poured out the
Gihon and the Hiddekel, he poured out, at
the same time, the Hudson and the Susque-
hanna; 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
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 thorns? He can
make good, fair, ripe fruit as well as guarl-
ed 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 tussel for livelihood?
l will tell you why God let sin come into
the world-when l 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
that river attempts to answer the question,
only illustrates his own ignorance and in
competency. All know is one great fact,
and that is, that herd of woes have come
upon us, trampling down everything fair
and beautiful. A sword at the gate of
Eden, and a 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. Tronble has taken the tender heart of
this werld 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 aud on nothing
else, going all around the world, aud around
again, and around again. These are the
facts. And now have to say that in a
world like this, the graLdest occupation is
that of giving coincidence. This holy sci
ence of imparLipg 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 vol
uble 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 60 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 badly now, but they
will feel worse after awhile. Silence DO
you expect, with thin court-plaster to
heal wound deep as the soul? Step very
gently around about broken heart. Talk
very softly around those whom God
has hereft. 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
whole dictionary, and you have given, per
haps, 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 a sling and be
very careful of it. Let no one touch it."
But the peighbors have heard of the acci-
dent, 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 exaspera-
tion, 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 bereavement,
or Of The loss, and they come in to sym
pathize, and they say; s'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 off the bandages here and pulling
them off there, leaving ghastly wound
that the balm of Gods. grace had already