The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-09-14
TALMAGE's SERMON.
An Interesting Sermon on An
Everyday Subject.
sPIasters That VIII Not stlok,' or world
1F philosophers Versus Christ's Dis
eaPIes as Ministers to TrOub-
led Spirits.

The following sermon was delivered by
Rev. T. Dewitt Taimage at East Hamp-
ton, n. Y. where he is spending his sum-
mer vacation. His text was:
Miserable comforters are ye aIl-Job, xvi, 5.
The man of w had great many trials
1.-THE loss OF his family, the loss OF his
property, the loss of his health; but the
most exaspe-ating thing that came upon
him was the tantalizing talk of those who
ought to have sympathized with him.
Looking around upon them, and weigh
ing what they had said, he utters the
words of my text.
why did God let sin come into the
world? 1t is 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 gone out of that garden and found
fifty paradfses all around the earth-Eu-
rope, Asia, Africa, North and South
America-so many flower gardens, or
orchards of fruit redolent and luscious.
1 suppose that when God poured out the
Gihon and the Hiddeke1, he poured
out, at the same time, the Hud-
son, and the Susquehanna; the
whole earth was very far and beautiful
to look upon. Why did 1t not stay soH
God had the power to keep back sin and
woe. Why did He not keep tn EN- back?
w ny nOb every GlOu0 pOSCcseCg ehA& SNOAy
step joy, and every sound music, and
all the ages a long jubilee of sinless men
and sinless women? God can make a
rose as easily as He can make thorn.
Why, then, the predominance Of thorns?
He can make good, fair, ripe fruit as well
as gnarled and sour fruit. Why so much,
then. that is gnarIed and sour2 He can
make men robust in health. Why, then,
are there SO many invalids? Why not
have for our whole race perpetual leisure,
instead Of this tug and toll and tussle for
q 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 such questions will be answered
and such mysteries solved. He who this
side of that river attempts to answer this
question, only illustrates his own igno-
rance and lncompetencys All know is
one great act and that is, that herd of
woes have come in upon us, trampling
down every thing fair and beautiful A
sword at the gate of Eden, and sword
at every gate. More people under the
ground than on it. The gravey ards 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 grave
! yards that have been lifted were put side
| by side, you might step on them, and
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 imparhng
comfort to the troubled we ought all of
/ us to study. There are many of you who
1 of
/ very best friends who wish you well and
/ are very intelligent and yet be able
truthfully to say to them in your days of
1 troubles:
Miserable comforters are We all.
1 remark, in the first place, that very
volubIe people are incompetent for the
work of giving comfort. Bildad 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 a thin courtplaster of words, to heal
| a wound deep as the soul! Step very
| gently around about a broken 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, a compassionate look,
just one word that means as much as a
whole dictionary, and you have given,
perhaps all the comfort that soul
needs. A man has terrible wound in
his arm. The surgeon comes and binds
it up.
''Now," he says, 'carry that arm in a
sling, and be very careful Of it Let no
one touch it."
DIT al b,7v- hax hard of the Re-
cident, and they come in, and they say:
s'Let us see it And the bandage is
pulled of, and this one and that one must
feel it, and see how much it is swollen;
and there is irritation, and Inflammation,
and exas peration, where there ought to be
healing and cooling. The surgeon comes
In and says:
"What does ell this meant You have
no business to touch these bandages.
That wound viii never heal unless you
let it alone"
So there are souls broken down in sor-
row. What they most want is rest, or
very careful and gentle treatment; but
the neighbors have heard Of the bereave :
ment OF. of the loss, and they come in to
sympathize, and they say:
''Show US now the wound. What were
his last words? Rehearse now the whole
scene. How did you feel when you found
you were an orphan"
Tearing off the bandages here, and pull
ing them off there, leaving CHASTITY
wound that the balm Of Gods grace had
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 persons
are Incompetent to give any kind of COM
fort who act mel ely as worldly philoso
pliers. They come in and say:
''Why, this is what you ought to have
expected. The laws Of nature must have
their way 20 and then they get eloquent
over something they have seen in the
post-mortem examination. Now, away
? with all human philosophy atsuch time
! What difference does it make to thai
father and mother what disease their SOL
died Of? He is de ad, and itmakes no diff
ference whether the trouble was IN the
J epigastric or hypogastr1c region IL the
philosopher be Of the stoieal school he
will come and say:
You ought to control your feelings.
You must not cry so. You must Guilt
vate a cooler temperament. You mus
: have self-reliance, self. government, self
, controls" an iceberg reproving a hyacintf
Tor having a drop of dew in its eye. a
violinist has his instrument, and ne
: sweeps his fingers across the strings
t now evoking strains of joy and nov
strains OF sadness. He can not play al
: th tunes on one string. The human sou
Is an instrument of q thousand strings
and all sorts Of emotions were made t.
play on it-now an anthem, now a d1rge
: It Is no evidence of weakness when on
. Is overcome OF sorrow.
: Edmund Burke was found in the pastur'
, field with his arms around a horses neck
earessing him, and some one said:
"Why, the great man has lost hi
mindI" No; that horse belonged TO hi
son, who had recently died. and his grea
heart broke over the grief. It is no sigI
7 Of weakness that men are overcome o