The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1888-07-13
SOUR EXPERIENCES.
That was the Subject Of Rev. Mr.. Talmages' Ser.
mon to a Huge Congregation at Chicago.

mon to a Huge Congregation at Chicago.
Rev. t. Dewitt Talmage, D. d., of Brook.
Ign, preached in Chicago on his way home
from q tour Of the ChautRuquas in Missouri
and Kansas. The doctor had an enormous |
audience. His subject was Sour Experien. |
ces,' and bis text; "When Jesus therefore
had received the vinegar. John XIX, 30.
The sermon was as follows:
The brigands of Jerusalem had done their
work, 1t was almost shutdown, ana Jesus
was dying. Persons on ~crucihxion often lin
gered on from day to day-crying, begging.
cursing; but Christ had been exhausted by
years ofmaltreatment Pillowless, poorly fed.
fogged-as bent over aud tied to a low post.
His bare back was lnflamed with the scourges
intensified with pieces of lead and bone
and now for whole hours the weight of His
body hung on tendons, and, according to
custom, q violent stroke under the armpits
had been given by the executioner. Dizzy,
swooning, nauseated, feverish-a world Of
agony is compressed in the two words: Il
thirst" Q skies Of Judea, let a drop Of rain
strike on His burning tongue. o world. with
rolling rivers, and sparkling lakes, and spray
ing fountains, give Jesus something TO drink.
If there be any pity in earth, or heaven, or
hell, let il now be demonstrated in behalf of
this royal sufferer. The wealthy women of
Jerusalem used to haYe a fund of money
with which they provided wine for those
people who died in cruciixion-a powerful
opiate to deaden the pain; but Christ
would not take 1T. He wanted to die
sober, and so He refused the wine, But
afterward they go to a cup of vinegar and
oak q sponge in it, and put it on q stick Of
hysop, and then press il against the hot lips
of Christ. You say the wine was an anes-
thetic, and intended to relieve or deaden the
pain. But the vinegar was an insult. / am
disposed to adopt the theory of the old En-
glish commentators, who believed that in
stead of it's being an opiate to sooth, it was
vinegar to insult. Malaga and Burgundy
for grand dukes and duehesses, and costly
wines from royal watts for bloated imperials;
but singing acids for a dying Christ. He
took the vinegar.
In some lives the saccharine seems to pre-
dominate. Life is sunshine on a bank Of
flowers. A thousand hands to clap APP
prevail. In December or ia January, looking
across their table, they see all their family
present. Health rubicund, Skies iamboy-
ant, Days resilient. But in a great many
cases there ARE not so many sugars as acids.
The annoyances, and the vexations, and the
dissapointments of fife overpower the sue
cesses There is gravel in almost every
shoe. An Arabian legend says that there
was a worm in SolomOn's staff, knawing its
strength away; and there is a weak spot in
every earthly support that a man leaus on.
King George of England forgot all the
grandeur of his throne because,
one day in an interview, Beau
Brummell called him by his first name and
addressed him as q eryant. crying, George,
ring the bellp' Miss Langdon, honored all
the world over for her poetic genius, is so
worried over the evil reports set a1oat re-
garding her, that she is ound dead, with an
empty bottle Of prussic acid in her hand.
Goldsmith said that his life vas q wretched
being, and that all that want and contempt
could bring e it had been brought, and cries
out What, then, is there formidable in a
iail?o C~Orreggio's fine painting is hung up
for d tavern sign. Hogarth canDot sell his
best paintings except through a rattle. AM
drew Delsart makes the great freseo in the
Church OF the Annunciata, at Florence, and
gets for pay q sack of corn; and there are
~annoyaneesa and yexations in high places as
well a. in low places, showing that in q great
many lives the sours are greater than the
sweets. when Jesus therefore had received
the Vinegar"
1t Is absurd to suppose that a man who
has always been well can sympathize with
those who are sick; or that one who has al
ways been honored can appreciate the
sorrow Of those who are despised: or
great fortuue can understand the dis
tress and the straits of those who are
destitute. The fact that Christ Himself took
the vinegar makes Him able to sympathize
to-day and forever with all those whose cup
is filled with sharp acids Of this life. He took
the yinegarl
In the first place, there is the sourness Of
betrayal. Thetreachery ofJudas hurt hrist,s
feelings more than al the friendship OF His
disciples hid Him good. You havehad many
friends; but there WAS one friend upon whom
you put especial stress. You feasted him.
You loaned him money. You befriended
him in the dark passes of life, when he espe.
eially needed a friend. = Afterward, he turned
upon you, and he took adYan.
tage or your former intimacies. lie
wrote against you. He talked against you.
He micrOscopized your faults, He tung CON
tempt at Won when You ought to have re-
ceiyed nothing but gratitude. AT first, you
could not sleep at nights. Then you went
about with a sense Of having been stung,
n That difficulty will never be healed, for though
mutual friends may arbitrate in the matter
until you shall shake hands the oldcordiality
will never come back. Now | commend to al
such the sympathy ola betrayed Christ. Why,
they sold him for less thanourtwenty dollars
They all forsook Him, and fed. They cut
Him to the quick. He drank that cup of be
trayal to the dregs. He took the vinegar,
There is also the sourness OF pain. There
are some Of you who have not seen a vel
day for many years. ~ keeping out @
draughts, and BY carefully studying diete
tics, you continue to this time. but 0, tbs
headaches, and the sideaches, and the back
aches, and the hsartaches which hHye beer
your accompaniment all the way through
You have struggled under q heavy mortgage
of physical disabilities; and instead OF ths
plaeidity that once characterized you, it Ii
nov only with great effort that you keeT
AWAY from irfitability and sharp retorfj
Difficulties OF respiration, Of digestion, q
locomotion, MAKEUP the great obstacle il
your life, and You tug ard sweat
along the pathway, and wonder
when the exhaustion viii end
NY friends,the brightest crowns in HEAVIER
viii not be given 70 those who, IN stirrups
dashed to the cavalry charge, while the gen
\ ersl applauded, and the sound Of ~clashine
N aabres rang through the Land. but the bright
est crowns IN heaven, | believe, will be glveT
to those who frudged on amid chronic all
ments which nunefyed their strength, yet al
the time maintaining their faith IN God. 4
il comparatively easy to hght Ia q regiment
Of d thousand men, charging up the parapct'
10 the sound Of martlal music; but il Is mo-
- easy to endure when no one but the nnrHl
and die doctor are the witnesses Of the Chris
tian fortitude. Besides that you neFel
had nny p0ins worse than Christ,s
The sharpness fhAt stnng through Hi
brain, through His hands, through His feet
through His heart. were a. great as your.
certainly. He WAS as sick and az weary NO.
q unrve. or muscle. or hgament escare
the panRs of all the motions ofall the ages
mna-LLMM fDr1LN Inf