New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-09-12
.TOB'SCOMFORTERS.
Or. TaImage Draws Some Valuable
Conclusions from the Sorrows of Job.

EAST HAMPTON, N. T., Sept 2.-The Rev.
TaImage, d. D., who spends good part of
his summer rest here, took for the subject of
ais vacation sermon of this date, 'sPlasters
That Will Not Stick His text was, "Miser-
able Comforters are Ye ALL" Job. chap.
xvi, v. 2. Following is the sermon
The man of Uz had a great many trials
the loss of his family, the loss ofhis property,
the loss of his health; but the most exasper-
ating thing that came upon him was the
6antalizing talk of those who ought to have
sympathized with him. Looking around
upon them and Weighing what they had
Gaid, he utters the words of my text.
Why did God let sin come into the world?
d6 was 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 so paradises all around the earth
Europe, ASIA Africa, North and South Amer
iea-so many flower gardens or orchards of
fruit, redolent and luscious. I suppose that
when God poured out the Gihon and the
aiddekel he poured out, at the same time,
The Hudson and 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 back? Why not every cloud
roseate and every step joy, andevery sound
music, and allthe ages long jubilee of sin
less women? God can make rose as easily
as BE can make thorn. Why, then, the
predo1ninance of thorns? He can make good,
1alr, ripe fruit as well as gnalled and sour
4ruit. Why SO much, then, that is gnarled and
sour? He can make men obust inhealth Why,
then, are there SO many inyalids? Why not
have for our whole race perpetual leisure,
instead of this tug and toll and tussle for a
livelihood? l 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 that
river attempts to answer the question only
illustrates his own ignorance and incompet-
ency. All know is one great fact, and that
lis that a herd of woes have come upon us,
6rampling down everything fair and beauti-
aul. A sword at the gate of Eden, and
sword at every gate. More people under the
ground than on it. The graveyards in vast
majority. The 5000 winters have made
1uOTe scars Undn O,UUUSummorS can cover I'D.
Trouble has taken the tender heart of this
world in it's two rough hands and pinched it
aclntii the nations wall with the agony. If all
Che 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 a world like this, the grandest
occupation is that ofgving 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 up
on some your very best friends, who wish
you well, and are very intelligent, and yet be
able truthfuly to say to them in your days
of trouble, miserable comforters are We ALL
remark, in the first place. that very volu- |
ole people are incompetent for the work of
giving comfort. Bildad and Eliphaz and the
R1f6 OF language, aud 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 |
Geel badly now, but they will feel worse
after a while. Silence! Do you expect, |
with a thin courtplaster OF Words to heal a |
wound deep as the soul? 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 1OOhS Oue WOiu uudU
means as muchas a whole dictionary, and |
iyoU 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 oft. 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 ex- |
ASPIRATION, where there ought to be healing |
and cooling. The surgeon comes in and |
: Gays, ''What does all this mean? You have !,
no business to touch those bandages. That |
wound will never heal unless youlet 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
beard of the bereavement or of the loss, and
they come in to sympathize and they say,
'fShoW us now the wound. What were his
last words? Rehearse now the whole scene.
S1ow did you feel when you found you were
an orphan2r Tearing off the bandages here,
ns1d pulling them off there, leaving a CHASTITY
ss0und that the balm of Gods grace had
alTeady begun to heal. Oh, let noloquacious
people, with eyer-rattling tongues go into
.She homes of the distressed!
Again l remark that all those persons are
incompetent to give any kind ofcomfort who
act merely as worldly philosophers. They
rome in and say, "Why, this is what you
Dughtzto have expected The laws of nature
must have their way" and then they can get
eloquent over something they have seen in
ncstmortem examinations Now, away with
ell human philosophy at such time! What
difference does it make to that father and
smother what disease their son died of? He
Is dead and it makes no difference whether
che trouble was in the epigastric or hypogas-
earic region. If the philosopher be of the sto-
,icsd school he viii come and say: E'You
ought to control your feelings. You
.gnust cultivate a cooler temperament. You
rnust have self-reance, sef-government self
eontrol;'' an icebergreproving hyacinth for
having drop of dew in it's eye A violinist
has his instrument, and he sweeps his fingers
zeross the strings, now evoking strains OF
10y, and now strains of sadness. He can not
play all the tunes on one string. The human
,8oul is an instrument OF thousand strings,
and all sorts of emotions were made to play
{ 8n it. Now an anthem, now a dirge. 1t is no
evidence of weakness when one is overcome
of sorrow. Edmund Burke was found in the
nasture-ield with his arms around a horses
aeck, caressing him, and some one said,
sfWhy, the great man has lost his mind!''
No; that horse belonged to his son who had
i i I. L. .