Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-09-14
MISERABLE COMFORTERS
Rev. DR.. T. De Witt Talmaee
Discourses at East Hamp.
ton, Long Island.
Why Did God Let Sin Come Into the World,-
No One Can Tell Until He Gets on the
Other Side of the River of Death.

Asev. l.. LIZ WIN IhlmaSe, ~. u,
took for the subject of his vacation SER
His text was: Miserable comforters
are We ALL" Job xvi, 2. Following is
the sermon:
Inc man of Uz had great many trials
the loss of his family, the loss of his
property, 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! It is q question often hear dis
cussed, but never satisfactorily an
swered. God made the world fair and
beautiful at the start. If our first par
ents had not sinned in Eden, they might
have have gone out of that garden and found
hfty paradises all around the earth
Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South
America-so many flower gardens, or or
| chards of fruit, redolent and luscious.
suppose when God poured out the
Gihon and the Hiddekel, He poured out,
at the same time, the Hudson and the
Susquehanna; the whole earth was very
lair and beautiful to look upon. Why
did it not stay SO? God has 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 a
long jubilee of sinless men and sinless
women? God can make rose as easily
as He can make thorn. Why, then,
the predominance of thorns? He can
gnarled and sour fruit. Why SO much,
then, that is gnarled and sour? He can
make men robust in health. Why, then,
are they SO many invalids? Why not
have for our whole race perpetual
leisure, instead of this tug and toll and
tussle for livelihood? will tell you
why God let sin come into the world
when I 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 of that river attempts to answer the
question only illustrates his own ig-
norance and incompetency. All know
is one great fact, and that is that herd
Of woes have come in upon US, trampling
down everything fair and beautiful. A
sword at the gate of Eden, and sword
at every gate. More people under the
vast majority. The six thousand win
tiers have made more scars than the six
thousand summers can cover up.
Trouble has taken the tender heart of
this world in its two rough hands and
pinched it until the nations vail with
the agony. If all the mounds of grave
yards 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 world like this,
the grandest occupation is that of Civ
ing coincidence. The 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 we'll and are very intelligent,
in your days of trouble, Miserable COM
forters are We ALL"
remark, in the first place, that very
voluble people are incompetent for the
work of giving comfort. Bilbao and
Eliphaz had the gift of language, and
with their words almost bothered Jobs
life out. Alas for these voluble 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 badly now, but they will feel
worse after awhile. Silence! Do you
expect, with thin court plaster of
words, to heal wound deep as the soul?
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, COM
passionate look, just one word that
means as much Us a whole dictionary,
and you have given, perhaps, all the
comfort that soul needs. A man has
terrible wound in his arm. The sur
eeon comes and binds it up. Nov, he
says; carry that arm in sling, and be
!: very careful of it. Let no one touch it.
But the neighbors have heard of the &C.
cident. 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, ana see how much it ii
swollen; and there is irritation, and in
aammation, and evaporation, wher.
| there ought to be healing and cooling
The surgeon comes in, and says, "Wha
does all this mean? You have no bust
ness to touch those bandages. Tha
, wound will never heal unless you let i
alone" Sothere are souls broken dow
in sorrow. What they most want is rest
or very careful and gentle treatment
\ but the neighbors have heard of tn
, bereavement or of the loss, and the.
come in to sympathize, and they say
"Show us the wound. What were Iii
: last words? Rehearse now the whole
scene. How did you feel when 20,
found you were an orphan?' tearing OF
the bandages here, and pulling them OF
there, leaving CHASTITY wound that tn
, balm of Gods grace had already begu,
, to heal. Oh, let no loquacious people
with ever rafting tongues, go into tn
!. homes of the distressed Again I re
mark, that all those persons are incom
petent to give any kind of comfort VIII
act merely as worldly philosophers
They come in and say: why, this i
what you ought to have expected. Th
, laws Of nature must have their way;
and then they get eloquent over some
thing they have seen in post-morten
examinations. Now, away with all hu
man philosophy at such time! Wha
difference does it make to that fathe
and mother what disease their son die
Of? He is dead, and it makes no differenc
whether the trouble was in the epigastri
or hypogastic region. If the philosophe
be Of the stoical school he will come an
say: "You ought to control your feel
ings. You must not cry SO. You mus