Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-07-18

THE SOURNESS OF THE DEATH.
HOUR.
DIR. TALMAGE's SERMON, SUNDAY, JULY Sth
NHICAGO, ILL, July 8Gh.-The Rev. T
" Dewitt Talmage, DID,, of Brooklyn,
preached in this city this evening. He
is here on his way home from tour of the
Chatauquas in Missouri, Kansas and Min
nesota. The Doctor had an enormous audi
tory. His subject was "Sour Experiences,
and his text: "When Jesus therefore had
received the vinegar.'- ohm XIX, 80. The
sermon was as follows:
The brigands of Jerusalem had done their
work. 1t was almost sundown, and Jesus
was dying. Persons in cruci6xion often
fingered on from day to day-erying, beg
ging, cursing but Christ had been exhaust
ed by years of maltreatment. Pillowless.
poorly fed, fogged-as bent over and tied
to low post, His bare back was inflamed
with the scourges intersticed 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 under the armpits had been given by
the executioner. Dizzy, swooning, nauseat-
ed, feverish-a word of agony is compress
ed in the two words: Il thirst p D skies
of Judea, let a drop of rain strike on His
burning tongue. o world, with rolling riv-
ers, and sparkling lakes, and spraying foun-
tsins, give Jesus something to drink. II
there be any pity in earth, or heaven, Or
hell, let it now be demonstrated in behalf
of this royal sufferer. The wealthy women
of Jerusalem used to have fund of money
with which they provided wine for those
people who died in crucifixion-a powerful
opiate to deadea the pain; but Christ would
not take it. He wanted to die sober, and so
He refused the wine. But afterward they
go to cup of vinegar and soak sponge in
it. and put it on stick of hyssop, and then
press it against the hot lips of Christ. You
say the wine was an anesthetic, aud intend
ed to relieve or deaden the pain. But the
vinegar was an insult. I am disposed to
adopt the theory of the old English COM
mentators, who believed that instead of its
being an oplate to soothe, it was vinegar to
insult. Malaga and Burgundy for grand
dukes and duchesses, and costly wines fl ON
royal vats for bloated imperials; but sting
ing acids for a dying Christ. He took the
vinegar.
In some lives the saccharine seems to pre-
flowers. A thousand hands to clap approx
al. In December OR in January, looking
across their table, they see all their family
present. Health rubicund. Skies flamboy-
ant. Days resilient. But in great many
cases there are not SO many sugars as acids.
The annoyances, and the vexations, and the
disappointments of life overpower the sue
cesses. There Is a gravel in almost every
shoe. An Arabian legend says that there
was worm in Solomon's staff, gnawing its
strength away; and there is weak spot in
every earthly support that man leans on.
Kiug 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 addressed him as SER
want, crying: George, ring the bell % Miss
Langdon, honored all the world over for her
poetic genius, is SO worried over the evil re-
ports set ahoat regarding 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: "What, then,
is there formidable in Jail ?" Correggio's
fine painting is hung up for tavern sign.
Hogarth cannot sell his best paintings ex.
cept through rattle. Andrew Delatt makes
the great fresco in the Church of the An
nunciata at Florence, and gets for pay a
sack of corn; and there are annoyances and
vexations in high places as well as in low
places, showing that in great many lives
the sours are greater than the sweets
ssWhen Jesus therefore had received tht
vinegar"
1t is absurd to suppose that a man wht
has always been we'll can sympathize with
those who are sick, or that one who has al
ways been honored can appreciate the sor
row of those who are despised; or that on'
| who has been born to a great fortune car
understand the distress and the straits o
those who are destitute. The fact tha
Christ Himself took the vinegar makes Hin
able to sympathize to day and forever will
all those whose cup is filled with sharp acid
of this life. He TOOK the vinegar!
| In the first place, there is sourness of be
trayal. The treachery of Judas hurt Christ
feelings more than all the friendship OF Hi
disciples did Him good. You have'had man.
friends; but there was one friend upon whom
you put especial stress. You feas sted him
You loaned him money. You befriende'
him in the dark passes of life, when b
especially needed a friend. Afterward b
turned upon you and he took advantage o
your former intimaces. He wrote agains
you. He microscopized your faults. 81
flung contempt at you when you ought +
have received nothing but gratitude. A
frst you could net sleep at nights. The
you went about with sense of havin;
been stung. That difficulty will never b
healed, for though mutual friends ma
arbitrate i'll the matter until you shak
hands, the old cordiaity will never com
back. Now, commend to all such tn
sympathy of betrayed Christ. Why, the
sold Him for less than our twenty dollars
They all forsook Him and fled. They Gu
Him to the quick. He drank that cup @
betrayal to the dregs. He took the vinegar
There is also the sourness of pain. Their
are some Of you who have not seen we
day for many years. By keeping out G
draughs, and by carefully studying dietetics
you continue to this time; but o, the head
aches, and the sideaehes, and the back
aches, and the heartaches which have beel
your accompaniment all the way through
You have struggled under heavy mortgag
of physical disabilities; and instead of th
placidity that once characterized you, it j
now only with great effort that you kee
away from irritabilty and sharp retort.-
Difficulties of respiration, Of digestion, @
locomotion, make up the great obstacle i
your life, and you tug and sweat along tn