The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-01-09
a VACATION SERMON.
Rev. D1 Talnage breaches About
Jobs ComforterS-
People who are Incompetent In the Work
Of Giving Comfort In Time of Sorrow
and Distress-God tho Only True
Comforter.


and Distress God tho Only True
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage. D. D., who gen.
orally spends part Of his summer vacations
atEast Hampton, N. Y, took for the subject
ref his recent sermon there, "Plasters That
WI Not Stick" His text was: Miserable
.comfosters are We all Job xvi. :. Follow
Tss m maS aSH55"4p; 81 Gs nao great many rr,ais-
tho loss Of his family, the loss Of hfspr
eyeg, the loss Of his health, ouJ rrc ex'
aspsratins hing +hns came upon him was
Vie tantalizing talk Of those who ought to
have synpathized with him. Looking
around upon them, and weighing what they
had said, he uttered the words Of my text
Why did God let sin come into the world?
It Is question often hear discussed, but
never satisfactorily answered. God made
the world fair and beautiful in the start. If
our FIRST parents had not sinned in Eden,
shsy might have gone out Of that garden,
and found Gfty paradises all around the
ssr$h-Europe, Asia, Africa, North and
South Americs-so many dower-gardens, or
orchards Of fruit, redolent and luscious. ]
suppose that when God poured out the Gihon
and the Efd6ekel, he poured out st the
same time the Hudson and the Susquehanna;
ne whole earth was very fair and beautiful
70 kck upon. Why did it not stay soa God
hsa the power to keep back sin and woe.
Why did he not keep them back2 Why
not every cloud roseate, and every step .
Joy, and every sound music, and all the ages
long jubilee OF sinless men and sinless
womeae God can make rose as easily as
he can make thorn. Why, then, the pre-
dominance Of thorns9 He can make good,
Ssdr, ripe fruit as well as gnarled and sour
en4t. Why 50 much, then, that is gnarled
and sour? he can make men robust in
health, Why, then, are there so many in
TaEdsf Way not have for our whole race
perpetual leisure, instead Of this tug and
tot and tussls for livelihood will tell
yon why God let sin come into the world
when get on the other side Of the
River Of Death. That is the place
whaso such questions will be answered
and such mysteries solved He who
this side that river attempts to answer the
question only illustrates his own ignorance
and lncoHpetency. All know is one greet
fsc4, and that is, that herd Of woes have
come in upon Us, trampIng down every thing
Seir ans beautiful. A sword at the gate Of
Haea, and g sword at every gate. More
people under ground than on it. The
gcaveysrds In vast majority. The six
thousand winters iavS nns6e many more
ecars than the six thousand summers can
oevec up. Trouble has taken the tender
hexrt OF this world in It's two rough hands
and pinched it until the nations wall with
the sgony. If all the mounds Of grave
yards that have been lifted were put side by
efta yoe might step on them Ga
Ing vz5sS yuzns .a-oxvuuU- sne Worlo, anu
around again and around again These are
the facts. And now have to say that in q
world Like this the gandest occupation is
that Of giving coincidence. The holy science
OF imparting comfort to the troubled we.
oagns all Of Us to study. There are many
as you who could look around upon some Of
Ycrr very best friends who wish you well
and a-e very intelligent. and yet be able
tg7thfuNy to say to them in your days Of
secuhle, Miserable comforters are ye all"
remark, in the 6rst place, that very vol
rSle people are incompetent for the work
Of giving comfort Bildad and EHphaz had
Me sst Of language, and with their words
almost bothered Jobs life out. Alas for
these volnble people that 90 among the
houses Of the afflicted, and talk, and talk,
and talk. and talk! They .rehearse their
OVID eorrows, and then they tell the poor
sufferers that they feel badly now, but they
vsSA feel woqse after while. Silence! Do
you expect, with thin court-plaster Of
vords, to heal q wound deep as the soUlf
Sssp very gently around about broken
sa.< Talk very softly around those whom
saa has ssrest. Then go your way. Deep
syrnn,thy Ess not @uch to say. A firm
-rssn Of the Nand, a compassionate look,
;,st o,e word that means as much as
vhole dictionary, and you have given, per
hsns. all the comfort that soul needs. A
MN has = terrible wound in his arm. The
a.,rceon GENES and binds it up. Now"
sa savs sscarry that arm In a sling
.nd be very careful Of It Let
M ana touch it.'' But the neighbors have
hasrd OF the accident, and they come IN, and
tbev asv. "Let us see it" And the bandage
is puses of, and this one and that one must
feel Il and gee how much it IS swollen; ano
shere is irritation, and Inflammation, and
eraspecasion, where there ought to be heal
ing and cooling. The surgeon comes IN, and
aays. ..Whas does all this meana You have
no business to touch those bandases. That
wound will never heal unless you let It
a,oaa'' So there are souls broken down in
sorrow. What they most want IS rest, OF
ysyy careful and gentle treatment, but the
nasehbors have heard Of the oereaVeAsns
or vs s.~a>a. a-6 thay como il TO sympa-
Shise, and they say, "Show US now the
wound. What were his last words: Re-
nesrse now the whole scene. How did you
feel when you found you were an orphans"
Tearing of the bandages here, and pulling
them of there, leaving ghastly wound that
the balm Of Gods grace had already begun
70 heal o let no loGuacicus people, with
ever rattling tongues, go into the homes Of
the distressed!
Again remazk, that all those persons ars
Incompetent TO give aay kind of comfort
Thc act merely as worldly philosophers.
Ehey come in and say: "Why this is what
you eaght to have expected. The laws OF
nature must have their way" and then
they get eloquent over something they have
seen in postnortem examinations. Now,
SWAY with all human philosophy at such
time! What difference does it make to that
father and mother what disease their son
atea of? he is dead, and it makes no diff
ference whether the trouble was in the cpl
sastrie or hypogastric region. II the philos-
opher be Of the social school he will come
and saw: eYou ought to control your feel
incs. You mast not cry so. You must culti-
yate cooser temperament. You must have
ae,f-reliance, self-government, self-con-
troll" an iceberg reproving hyacinth for
having drop Of dew in its eye. violinist
has his instrument, and hcswceps his fingers
across the strings, now e-oh!Dg strains OF
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