Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-07-09
SOUR EXPERIENCES.
Rev. T. Dewitt Tslmage Home From the
West and Delivers an Excellent
Sermon.
In Some Lives the ssccharine Seems To
Predominats-A Gravel in Almost
Every Shoe-The Omnipotent
Sympathy of Jesus Christ.

Witt Talmage, ID. D., preached In this
city this evening. He is just home
from tour of the Chautauquas In
Missouri, Kansas and Minnesota Inc doc-
tor had an enormous auditory. His subject
was "Sour Experiences" and his text:
"When Jesus therefore had received the vine
gar. John, xix, 80 The sermon was as
follows:
The brigands of Jerusalem had done their
work. 1t was almost sundown, and Jesus
was dying Persons in crucifixion often
fingered on from day to dny-crying, beg
ging, cursinS; but Christ had been exhausted
by years of maltreatment. Pillowless,
poorly fed, flogged-as bent over and tied TO
low post, his bare back was infamed with
the scourges intensified with pieces of lead
and bone-and now for whole hours the
weight OF his body hung on delicate tendons,
and, according to custom, 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; II thirsti' o skies of Judea,
let drop of min strike on his burning
tongue. o world, with rolling rivers, and
sparkling lakes, and spraying fountains,
give Jesus something to drink. If there
be any pity in earth. or heaven, or hell,
let it now be demonstrated in behalf
of this royal sufferer. The wealthy women
of Jerusalem used to have a fund of money
with which they provided wine for those
people who died in crucifixion-a powerful
opiate to deaden the pain; but Christ would
not take it. He wanted to die sober, and SO
he refused the wine. But afterward they 60
to a cup of vinegar and soak sponge in it,
and put it on a stick of hyssop, and then
press it against the hot lips of Christ. You
say the wine was an anasthetic and intended
10 relieve or deaden the pain. But the vine
gar was an insult. | am disposed to adopt
the theory of the old English commentators.
who believed that instead of its being an
opiate to soothe, it was vinegar to insult
Malaga and Burgundy for grand dukes and
duchesses, and costly wines from royal watts
for bloated imperials: but singing acids for
a dying Christ. He took tho vinegar
In some lives the saccharine seems to pre-
dominate. Life is sunshine on bank of
flowers. A thousand hands to clap approval
In December or in January, looking across
their table, they see all their family present
Health rubIcund. Skies flamboyant DAYS
resilient. But in a great many cases there
are not so many sugars as acids. The annoy
ances, and the vexations, and the disappoint-
ments of life overpower the successes. There
is d gravel IN almost every shoe. An Arabian
legend says that there was q worm in Solo
mons staff, gnawing its strength away, and
there is a weak spot in every earthly support
that a man leans on. King George of Eng
land forgot all the grandeurs of his throne
because one day, in an interview, Beau
Brummell called him by his first name and
addressed him as a servant, crying: George,
ring the bellr" Miss Langdon, honored
all tho world over for her poetic
genius, is so worried over the evil
reports set a1oat regarding her, that she
is found dead, With ON empty bottle of pru-
sic acid in her hand Goldsmith said that his
life was wretched being, and that all that
want and contempt could bring to it had
been brought, and cries out: "What, then, is
there formidable in jaili' Correggio's fine
painting is hung up for n tavern sign Ho-
garth cannot sell his best paintings except
through rattle Andrew Delsart makes the
great fresco in the church of the Annunciata,
at Florence, and gets for pay sack of corn;
and there are annoyances and vexations in
high places as well as in low places, showing
that in a great many lives the sours are
greater than the sweets When Jesus there
fore had received the vinegar
1t is absurd to suppose that man who has
always been well can sympathi0e with those
who are sick: or that one who has always
been honored can appreciate the sorrow Of
those who are despised; or that one who has
been born to great fortune can understand
tho distress and the straits of those who are
destitute. Tho fact that Christ himself took
tho vinegar makes him able to sympathize
today and forever with all those whose cup
is filled with sharp acids of this life. Iietook
the vinegari
In the first place. there is tho sorrncss Of
betrayal The trcachery of Judas hurt
Christ's feelings more than ell tho Friendship
Of his disciples did him good. You have had
many friends; but there was ono friend upon
whom you put especial stress. You feastcd
him. Ycu loaned him money. You bc-
him in the dark passes of life, when
he especially needed friend. AfteT'ward,
be turned upon you, and he took advantage
sf your former intimacies. He wrote against
you. He talked against you. He microscop-
lied your faults. He flung contempt 1t you
when you ought to have received nothing
but gratitute. At first, you could not sleep
lt nights. Then you went about with a
sense of having been stung. That difficulty
will never be healed, for though mutual
friends may arbitrate in the matter until you
shall shake hands, the old cordiality will
never come back Now | commend to all
such the sympathy of n betrayed Christ.
Why, they sold him for less than our twenty
1ollarsl They all forsook him, and fed.
rbey cut him to the quick. He drank that
up of betrayal to the dregs He took the
vinegar.
There is also the sourness of pain. There
ire some OF you who have not seen well
lay for many years. By keeping out of
and by carefully studying dietetics,
vou continue to this time; but ., the head
lches, and the sidearhes, and the backaches,
md the heartaches which have been
-our accompaniment all the way through!
GU have struggled under heavy mortgage
If physical disabilities; and instead Of the
,lacidity that once characterized you, it is
now only with great effort that you keep
lway from irritability and sharp retort. |
Difficulties of respiration, of digestion, of
ocomotion, make up the great obstacle in
1our life, and you tug and sweat along the |
pathway, AID wonder when the exhaustion |
nd My friends, the brightest crowns
N heaven will not be given to those |
who, in s.irrups, dashed TO the cav
dry charge, while the general applauded, |
md tie sound of clashing sabers rang i
hrough the land; but the brightest crowns |
n heaven believe, will be given to those |
Who truds e,i ON amid chronic ailments which |
lnnervcj sheir strength, yet all the time |
their faith in God. 1t is COM
,arutively easy to fight in n regiment of a
housand men, charging up the parapets to |
he sound of martial music, but it is not SO |
asy TO endure when no one but the nurse and |
he doctor are the witnesses Of the Christian |
ortitude. Besides that you never had any |
lains worse than Christ's. The sharpnesses |
hat stung through his brain, through his |
lands, through his feet, through his heart, |