The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-07-10
SOUR EXPERIENCES. "
"When Jesus, Therefore, Had
Received the Vinegar
THE sOURNESS OF BETRAYAL.
Sermon by Rev. II. Dewitt Talmage Yester-
day-An Eloquent Obscure by
the Eminent Divine.

text; "NYhen Jesus therefore had received
the vinegar. john xix 80. The sermon was
as follows:
The brigands Of Jerusalem had done their
work. 1t was almost shutdown, and Jesus was
dying. Persons in crucifXion often fingered
on from day to day-crying begging, cursing;
but Christ had been exhausted by years of
maltreatment. Pillowless, poorly fed, fogged
as bent over and tied to q low post, His bare
back was inflamed with the scourges interstic-
ed with pieces of lead and boue-and now for
whole hours, the weight of His body hung ON
delicate tendons, and, according to custom, a
violent stroke under the armpits had been
given by the eXecutioner. Dizzy, swooning,
nauseated, feverish-a world of agony is conn
pressed in the two words: 81 thirst" o skies
of Judea, let a drop of rain strike on his burn
ing tonguel 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 crucitixion-
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 after
ward they go to cup of vinegar and soak q
sponge in it, and put it on q stick of hyssop,
and then press it against the hot lips of Christ.
You say the wine was an anesthetic, and in
tended to relieve or deaden the pain. But the
vinegar was an insult. l 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
dying Christ. He took the 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 famboyant. Days
resilient. But in a great many cases there are
not so many sugars as acids. The annoyances
and the veXations, and the disappointments of
life overpower the successes. There is gravel
in almost every shoe. An Arabian legend says
that there wis worm in Solomon s staff ,gnaw
ing its strength away and there is a weak
spot in every earthly support that man leans
on. King George of England forgot all the
graudeurs of his throne because one day in an
interview Beau Brummell called him by his
first name and addressed him as servant,
crying: George, ring the bell!" Miss Lang
don, honored all the world over for her poetic
genius, is so worried over the evil reports set
afloat regarding her that she is found dead,
with an empty bottle of prussic acid in her
hand. Goldsmith said that his life was
wretched being, and all that want
and contempt could bring to it
had been brought. and cries
out: "What, then, is there formidable in
iail?" Correggo's fine painting is hung up
for tavern sign. Hogarth cannot sell his
best paintings except through arafile. Andrew
Delsart makes the great fresco in the church
of the Annunciata, and gets for pay q sack of
corn; and there annoyances and veXatons in
high places as well as i'll low places, showing
that in a great many lives the sours are greater
that the sweets. "When Jesus, therefore, had
received the vinegar"
1t is absurd to suppose shat a man who has
always been we'll can sympathize with those
m NNhn haco oil
honored can appreciate the sorrow of those
who are despised; or that one who has been
born to a great fortune can understand the dis
tress and the straits of those who are destitute.
The fact that Christ Himself took the vinegar
makes him able to sympathize today and for
ever with all those whose cup is filled with
sharp acids of this life. He took the vinegar.
In the first place, there is the sourness of be-
trayal. The treachery of Judas hurt Christ's
feelings moro than all the friendship of His
disciples did Him good. You have had many
friends; but there was one friend upon whom
you put especial stress. You feasted him.
You loaned him money: You befriended him
in the dark passes of life, when he especially
needed friend. Afterward, he turned upon
you, and he took advantage of your
former sntimacies. He wrote against you.
He talked against you. He microscopized
your faults. He flung contempt at you when
you ought to have received nothing but graft.
tude. AT first, you could not sleep at nights.
Then you went abont with a sense of having
been stung. That difficulty will never be heal
ed, 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 be-
trayed Christ Why, they sold Him for less
than our twenty dollars! They all forsook
Him and fled. They cut Him to the quick.
He drank that cup of betrayal to the dregs.
He took the vinegar.
There is also the sourness of pain. There
are some OF you who have not seen well day
for many years. By keeping out of draughts,
and by carefully studying detetics. you con-
tinue to this time; but o, the headaches, ard
the sideaches, and the backaches, and the
heartachcs which have been your accompani-
ment all the way through You have strug-
ged under heavy mortgage of physical
disabilities; and instead of the placidity
that once characterized you, it is
now only with great effort that
you keep away from irritability and
sharp retOrt. Difficulties Of respiration, of di-
gestion, OF locomOtiOn, make up the great OBJ
stacle in your life, and you tug and sweat
along the pathway, and wonder when the ex-
haustion will end. My friends, the brightest
crowns in heaven will not be given to those
who, i'll Stirrups, dashed to the cavalry charge,
While the general applauded, and the sound Of
clashing sabres rang through the land bntthe
brightest crowns i'll heaven, believe, viii be
given TO those who trudged on amid chronic
ailments which unnerved their strength, yet
all the time maintaining their faith in God.
1t is comparatively easy to fight in regi-
nent Of q thousand men, charging up the
parapets to the sound Of martial music; but
it is not so easy to endure when no one but
the nurse and the doctor are the Witnesses
of the Christian fortitude. Besides that you
never had any pains worse than Christ's.
The sharpnesses that stuBg through
His brain, through his hands,
through His feet through His
heart, were as great as yours certainly. lie
was as sick and as weary. Not nerve, or
or muscle, or lgament escaped. All the
pangs Of all the nations of all the ages com
pressed into one sour cup He took the vine
garl
There is also tho sourness Of poverty. Your
income does not meet your outgongs, and that
always gives an honest man anxiety. There
is no sign OF destitution about you-pleasant
appearance and a cheerful home for you but
God only knows what a time you have had to
manage your private finances Just as the
bills run up the wages seem to run down, But
you are not the only one who has not been paid
for hard work. The great Wikie sold his
celebrated piece, "The Blind Fiddler" for
fifty guiueas, althoug afterwards it brought it
thousands. The world hangs In admiration
over the sketch Of Gainsborough, yet that
very sketch hung for years in the shop win
dow because there was not amy purchaser.
Oliver Goldsmith sold his "Nicar Of Wake
field ior few rounds, in order to keep the