The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-09-06
MISERABLE COMFORTERS.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE DtSCOURSES
AT EAST HAMPTON, 1. /.

~ GFtOt FISHiHf- OlNJ 10
Why Did God Let Sin Come Into the
world?-No One Can Tell Until He Gets
on the Other Side of tho River of Death
Impartins Comfort to the Troubled.
EAST HAMPTON, N. Y, Sept. 2.-The
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, b. D., who
spends good part of his summer rest
here, took for the subject of his vacation
sermon of this date, ''Plasters That Will
Not Stick" His text was, miserable
comforters are ye all. Job xvi, 3. Fol
lowing is the sermon:
The man of Uz had a great many
trlals--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. Locking around upon them,
and weighing what they had said, he
utters the words Of my text.
Why did God let sin come into the
worlda 1t is question often hear dis
cussed, but never satisfactorily answered.
God made the world fair and beautiful
at the start. If our first parents had not
sinned in Eden, they might have gone
out of that garden and found fifty para
discs an around the easth-Europe, Asia,
Africa, North and South America-so
many flower gardens, or orchards of
fruit, redolent and luscious. I suppose
that when God poured out the Gihon and
the Hiddekel he poured out, at the same
time, the Hudson and the Suseuehanna;
the whole earth was very fair and beau
tiful to look upon. Why did 1t not stay
so? God had the power to keep back sin
and woe Why did he not keep them
backp Why not every cloud roseate,
and every step joy, and every sound
music, and all the ages long jubilee of
siniess men and shless women? God
can make rose as easily as he can make
a thorn. Why, then, the predonfnance
of thorns2 He can make good, fair,
| ripe fruit as well as gnarled and sour
| fruit Why so much, then, that is
gnarled and SOUR? He cap make men
robust in health. Why, then, are there
so many invahds? Why not have for
our whole race perpetual leisure, instead
of this tug and toll and tussle for live
liheod? 1 will tell you why God let sin
come into the world-when l 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
tosenswer the question only illustrates
his own ignorance and incompetency.
All know Is one great fact, and that is
that herd of woes have come i'll upon
us, trampling down everything fair and
| Hna,,4,f,,1 A o..I I,,4I e N1,,,.
and sword at every gate. More people
under the ground than on it. The grave
yards In vast majority. The six thousand
winters 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 wall with the
agony. If all the mounds of graveyards
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 grand
est occupation is that of giving condo
lence. This holy science of imparting
comfort to the troubled we ought all of
us to study. There are many of yoa
who could look around upon some of
your very best friends who wish you
well and are very intelligent, and yet be
able truthfully to say to them in your
days of trouble, miserable comforters
are ye all.
remark, in the first place, that very
vQluble people are incompetent for the
work of giving comfort. Bildad and
Eiiphaz 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. Silepcel Do you expect,
with thin court plaster of words, to heal
a wound deep as the souR Step very
gently around about brokep heart.
Talk very softly around those whom God
has bereft. Then 60 your way. Deer
sympathy has not much to say. A firm
grasp of the hand, compassionate look,
just one word that means as much as q
whole dictionary, and you have given,
perhaps, all the comfort that a SOU
needs. A man has terrible wound ir
his arm. The surgeon comes and binds
it up, ''Now," be says, ''catry that arm,
in sling, and be very careful
of it. Let no one touch it," Bit
the neighbors have heard of the accident
and they come in, and they say, LET III
see it," And the bandage is pulled off
and this one and that one must feel 1t
and see how much it is swollen; anC
there is irritation and inflammation, anc
evaporation, where there ought TO b,
healing and cooling. The surgeon come
in, and says, ''What does all this mean
You have no business to touch thosi
bandages. That wound viii never hea
unless you let it alone" So there ar
souls broken down III soTrow. Wha
they most want is rest, or yeyy careful
and gentle treatment, but the gsiSa.loz1
have heard Of the hsSsavsmept.0r st th
loss, and they come in to ssrnEathi7e
and they say 'lShow, ~ tk wound
What Vese his ,st words; FehesS
now the whole Ssens. HqYs Tee
when you 5olinddfzcA wsEa an ser' al. ID;
tearing off TIC baadagdss heSe. apT pull
ing them off there, leaving q ghastl..
wound that the balm of Gods grace hat
already begun to heal. Oh. let no loQua
, cious people, with ever rafting tongues
! go into the homes of the distressed
, Again remark. that all those person
! are incompetent to give any Kind O
; comfort who act merely as worldly phil
osophers. They coma In and say
"Why, this is what you ought to hav
expected. The laws of nature must hav
, their way" and then they get eloquen
over something they have seen in post
mortem examinations. Now, ava
! with all human philosophy at such
r tin1el What difference does it make t
0 that father and mother what diseas
J their son died Off He is dead, and
e makes no difference whether the troubl
,rns In the e1,irastric or hYnooastric II