The Russellville Democrat., 1888-09-13

drive any moro hearses through that poor souL Do not tell him the trouble was fore -ordained; 1t will not be any comfort to know 1t was one million years coming. If you want to find splints for broken bone, do not take cast iron. Do not tell them 1t is Gods justice that weighs out grief. They want now to hear of Gods tender mercy. Tn other words, do not give them aqua fortis " hon they need valerian.
 EAgain remark that those pers ons are poor comforters who have never ha q any trouble themselves. larkspur can not lecture on the nature of snowhake--it never saw snowflake; and those people who have always lived in the summer of prosperity can not talk to those who are frozen in disaster. God keeps aged peo- pie in the world, think. for this very work of sympathy They have been through all these trials. They know all
 that which irritates and all that which soothes. If there are men and women here who have old people in their house, or near at hand so that thay can easily reach them, congratulate them Some of us have had trials in life, and although we have had many friends around about us, we have wished that father and mother were still alive that we might go and tell them. Perhaps they could not say much, but 1t would have been such a comfort to have them around. The aged ones who have been all through the trials of life know how to give condolen ce. Cherish them; let them lean on your arm --these aged people. If, when you speak to them, they can not hear just what you say the first time, and you have to say, it second time, when you say 1t the second time, do not say it sharply. IT you do, yon will be sorry for it on the day when you take the last look and brush back the silvery locks from the wrinkled brow just before they screw the lid on. Blessed be God for the old peoplel They may not. have so much strength to go around, but they are Gods appointed ministers of comfort to broken heart
 People who have not lad trials them- selves can not give comfort to others. They may talk very beautifully, and they may give you great deal of poetic senti- ment, but while poetry is perfume that smells sweet, 1t makes very poor salve. If you have grave in your pathway, and some body comes and covers it all over with flowers, it IS a grave yet. Those who have not had grief themselves know not the mystery of broken heart. They krow not the meaning of childlessness, and the having no one to put to bed at night, or the standing in room where every book and picture and door Is full of memories-tle door-mat where she sat, the cup out of which she drank-the place where she stood at the door and clapped her hands--the odd figures that she scribbled, the blocks she built into a house. An, no, you must have trouble yourself before you can comfort trouble in others. But come all ye who have been bereft, and ye who have been com forted in your sorrows, and stand around these afflicted souls, and say to them: Fl had that very sorrow myself. God con- forted me, and He will comfort you" and that will go right to the spot. In other words, to comfort others we must have faith in God, practical experience, and good, sound common sense. t.ssl
 But there are three or four considera. tions that will bring this morning to those who are sorrowful and distressed, and that we can always bring to them, knowing that they will effect cure. And the first consideration is, that God sends our trouble in love. l often hear people in their troubles say: "Why, I wonder what God has against me!'' They seem to think God has some grudge against them because trouble and misfortune have come. Oh, no. Do you not remember that passage of Scripture, eWhom the Lord loveth He chasteneth?" A child comes in with very bad splinter in it's hand, and you try to extract it. It is very painful operation. The child draws back from you, but you persist. You arc going to take that splinter out, so you take the child with a gentle but firm grasp; for although there may be pain i n 1t, the splinter must come out. And it is love that dictates it and m akes you per- sist My friends, really think that all our sorrows in this world are only the hand of our Father extracting some thorn. If all these sorrows were sent by enemies, I would say, arm yourselves against them; and, as in tropical climes, when tiger comes down from the mount aims and carries of child from the vil- lage, the neighbors band together and go into the forest and hunt the monster, SO I would have you, if thought these mis- fortunes were sentby enemies, go out and battle against them. But no; they come from Father so kind, so loving, so gen. tie, that the prophet speaking of His tenderness and mercy, drops the idea of a Father, and says:
 As one whom his mother comforteth, so will comfort you.
 Again. remark, there is comfort in the thought that God, by all this process, is going to make you useful Do you know that those who accomplish the most for God and Heaven have all been under the harrow? Show me man that has done any thing for Christ in this day, in public or private place, who has had no trouble and whose path has been smooth. Ah, no!
 I once went through an axe factory, and saw them take the bars of iron and thrust them into tho terrible furnaces. Then besweated workmen with long tongsi stirred the blaze. Then they brought out a bar of iron and put it into a crushing machine, and then they put it between jaws that bit it in twain. Then they put it on an anvil, and there were great hammers swung by machinery, each one half ton in weight that went thumpl thump! thumpl If that iron could have spoken it would have said:
 "Why all this beating? Why must be pounded any more than any other iron" The workmen would have said:
 "We want to make axes out of you, keen, sharp axes--ax es with which to hew down the forest and build the ship, and erect houses, and carry on a thousand enterprises of civilization. That's the reason we pound you." e4
 Now, God puts soul into the furnace of trial, and then it is brought out and run through the crushing machine and then it comes down upon the anvil, and upon it blow after blow, blow after blow. and the soul cries out: p3 at&
 70 Lord, what does all this meanp God says: m r
 'I want to make something very use- ful out of you. You shall be something to hew with and something to build with. It is practical process through which I am putting you" sa0
 Yes, my Christian friends. We want