Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1888-09-06
POOR COMFORTERS.
d.. To1mIage Discourses on q Fa-
miliar Glass of People.
3oo Much Talk Poor Consolation i'm Time
q Trouble -Wor:"i, philosophy Not
Very cQmfprting--y Value of Cheer
fdahsss to the Afflicted.


mage took for his text: Miserable COM
ing IL the sermon:
Inc man OF Uz had a great many trials
the loss Of his family, the loss of his prop
erty, the loss of his health, but the most
exasperating thing that came upon him
was the tantalizing talk of those who
ought to have syInpathized with him.
Looking around upon and weighing what
they had said he utters the words of my
toxk
Why did God let sin come into the
worldS 1t is a question l often hear dis
cussed, but never satisfactorily answered.
God made the world fair and beautiful at
the start. If cur first parents had not
stnned in Eden they might have gone out
Of that garden and found fifty paradises
all around the eart'.-Europe, Asia, Africa,
North and South America-so many flower
gardens or orchards of fruit, redolent and
luscious. / suppose that when God poured
out the Gihon and tine Hiddekel he poured
out at the same time the Hudson and the
Susquehanna: the whole earth was very
fair and beautiful TO LOOK upon. Why did
it not stay so: God had the power to keep
back sin and woe. Why did He not keep
them back! Why not every cloud roseate,
and every step a joy and every sound
music and all the ages a long jubilee OF
siniess men and s!n;ess women:
God can make a rose as easily as He can
make thorn. Why, then, the predOmin-
ance OF thorns: Re can make good, fair,
ripe fruit as well as gnarled and sour fruit.
Why SO much ten, that is gnarled and
sour! He can nifk e men robust in health.
Why, then, are there so many invalids:
Why not have fcr our whole race perpetual
leisure, instc;;i OF this tug and toll and
tussle for a livelihood! L 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 the question only illustrates his
own ignorance and incompetency. All !
know Is one great fact, and that is that a
J 1or0 OF woes have come i'll upon us, tramp
ing dow" every thing fair and beautiful.
A sword at the gate of Eden, and a sword
1t every gate. More people under the
ground than on it. The graveyards in
last majority. The six thousand winters
ave made more scars than the six
thousand summers can cover up. Trouble
las taken the tender heart of this world
b its two rough hands, and pinched it
ntil the nations wall with the agony. If
the mounds of graveyards that have
pen lifted were put side by side, you
light step on them and on nothing else,
ling all around the world, and around
gain, and around again. These are the
acts. And now / have to say that, in a
FOrld like this, the grandest occupation is
hat of giving coincidence. This holy
tctence Of imparting comfort to the
ossHb!ed we ought all of us to study.
There are many of you who could look
around on some of your very best friends
who wish you well and are very intelli-
gent, and yet be able truthfully to say to
them in your days of trouble, miserable
comforters are We ALL"
I remark, in the first place, that very
voluble people are incompetent for the
work of giving comfort. Bildad and Eli
phax 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 re-
hearse their own sorrows, and then they
tell the poor sufferers that they feel badly
now, but they will feel worse after while.
Silence. Do you expect. with a thin court
plaster of words, to heal wound deep as
the soul: Step very gently around about
. broken heart. Talk very softly around
those whom God has bereft. Then go
your way. Deep sympathy has not much
70 say. A firm grasp of the hand,
= compassionate look, just one word
that means as much as a whole diction-
airy, and you have given, perhaps, all the
comfort that soul needs. A man has q
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." But
tie neighbors have heard of the accident,
and they come in, and they say: "Let us
80 it." And the bandage is pulled of,
and this one and that one must feel it, and
- how much it is swollen; and there is
irritation, and Inflammation, and exasper-
alton, where there ought to be healing and
The surgeon comes in, and says:
"What does all this mean: You have no
business to touch those bandages. That
will never heal unless you let it alone"
So there are souls broken down in sorrow.
What they most want is rest, or very care
ful and gentle treatment, but the neigh
Sors have heard of the bereavement or of
1 he loss, and they come in to sympathize,
and they say: "Show us now the wound.
What were his last words. Rehearse now
no whole scene. How did you feel when
lyuu found you were an orphan" Tearing
3of the bandages here, and pulling them off
there, leaving a CHASTITY wound that the
balm of Gods grace had already begun to
heal. o, let no loquaciOus people. with
ever-ra. Ting tongue go into the homes of
the distressed.
Again l remark that all those persons
arc incompetent to give any kind of COM
tort who act merely as philosophers. They
come in and say: ''Why, this is what you
ought to have expected. The laws of ma
ture must have their way" and then they
get eloquent over something they have
seen In post norton examinations. Now,
y Nay with all human philosophy at such a
NJ What difference does it make to
efather and mother what disease their
died of. He is dead and it makes no
renee whether the trouble was in the
istric or hypogastric region. If the
y,sopher be of the stcical school he will
land say: ''You ought to control your
fgs. You must not cry so. You
Icultivate a cooler temperament. You
have self-reliance, self-government,
lontrol:" an iceberg reproving a
sAAth for having drop of dew in its
b A violinist has his instrument. and
: swoeps his fingers across the strings,
sbW evoking strains of joy and now strains
Asadness. He can not play all the tunes
a 90 string. The human soul is an in
kulnent Of thousand strings, and all
- OF emotions are made to play on it.
- m anthem, now a dirge. 1t is no