Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-09-15
THEY COMFORT NOT
BroOklyn's Great Pulpit Ora
tor Tells Where to Find
Comfort.
Those Who Have Been Ex-
empt From Trials Can
not Give It.
Consideration for Those Who
Are in Sorrow and
Distress.
TrovSFc Educates and Chastise-
ment EBiightens and Reveals
Many Things.
pIAsTERs THAT WILL not STICK.

'PIAsTERs THAT WILL not STICK.
EhfT HAMPTON, y. y, Sept. 1.-THE
Rev. T. Dewitt Talnaage, ID. d., who
spends a GOOD part of his summer rest
here, took for the subject Of his vacation
sermon of this date, "Plasters That VIII
Not stick" His text was, Miserable
,omforters are yc all.'-Job Gu. xvi,
v. ..
Following is the ermon
The man of IL had a great many trials
the loss of his family, the loss OF has
property, the loss Of his health; but ttc
most eXaspcrating that came upon bim
was the tantalizing talk Of those who
ought 20 have sympathized with him
Looking around upon them, and weighing
what they had said, he utters the words
OF NY text.
Why did God let sin come into the
world? 1t is a question | ofteu hear dis
cusscd, but never satisfactorily answered.
God made the world fair and beNutiful at
he start. If our first parents had not
sinncd in Eden, they might have gene
out Of that garden, and found fifty para
discs all around the e~arth-EUr0pe, Asia,
Africa, North and South America-so
many flower gardens, or orchardso fruit,
Iedolcnt and luscious. | Suppose that
when God poured ont the Gia,un and the
Hiddekcl, he poured out, at the same
time. the Hudson and SusQ~ehanna; the
whole earth was very fair &nd beautiful
to look upon. Why did il not stay so?
God had the power to keep back sin and
wee. Why did He not keep them back?
Why not every cloud roseate, and every
step q Joy, and every sound music, and
al the ages a long jubilee ol sinless men
and sinless women? God can make
ROSE
as easily az He can make 4 thorn. Why,
then, the predominance Of thorns? He
can make good, fair, ripe fruit as well rs
gnarlcd and sour fruit, Why 50 much,
then, that is gnarled and sour? He can
make men robust in health. Why, then,
are there SO many invalics? Why not
have FOR our whole race perpetual leisure
instead Of his tug and toll and tusslc for
"a livelihood? ! 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 sNch questions
viii be answered and eloh mysteries
sclycd. He who this side Of that river
attempts TO answer that question only
illustrates his own ignorance and lncom-
potency. All | know is one great fact,
and that is, that a herd Of woes have
come in upon us, trampling down every
thing fair and beautiful. a sword at
the gate OF Eden, and u sword at every
gate. More people under the ground
than on it. The graveyards IN vast ma
ioritv. The 6. 700 winters have made
more scars than the 5000 sImmers can
cover up. Trouble has taken the tender
heart o. this world in it's two rough
hands. and pinched il untit the nations
wall with the agony. If all the moHnds
o. ~graveyards that have beea listed were
put side by side. you might step on them
and on nothing else, going sR 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
grandcst occupation is that Of giving oen-
dolencc. This holy science of iBaparting
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 bestaricnds who wish you well and
are very intelligent, and yet be able
4ruthfully TO say to them in your days of
trouble: Miserable comforters are We
ali"
NO COMFORT ~ v~OLUBTLITY.
remark, in the first place, that very
goluble people are incompetent for the
work of giving comfort, Bildad and
rlipha2 had the gift Of language, and
with their words almost bothered Jobs
life out. Alas for these voluble people
that go among TIE houses Of the afflicted
and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk!
They lehearse their OWL sorrows, and
then they tell the poor sufferers that they
feel badly now, but they will feel worse
soon. Silence Do you expect, with
a thin court plaster of words, to heal q
wound deep as the soul? Step very gent
" around about a bcoken heart. Talk
very softly around those whom God has
bereft Then 90 your way. Deep sym
pathy has not much TO say. A firm grasp
Of the hand, a compassionate look, just
one word that means az much as a whole
dictionary. and you have given, perhaps
all the comfort that a soul needs. a man
has a terrible wound in his arm. The
surgeon comes and binds il up. Now"
he says, carry that arm in a sling, and
be very careiXl of it. Let no one touch
It," But the ~nesghbors 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 h1se much 1t is
swollen and there is irritatioiaSnd inflam-
nation, and evaporation, whfre there
ought to be healing and cooling, The
surgeon comes in. and says. What does
All this meanY You have no business u
touch those bandages. That wound will