Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-28


our boyhood? Was there anyone who could
ever so touch a sore without hurting 1t?
And when she lifted her spectacles against
her wrinkled forehead, so she could look
closer at the wound, it was three-fourths
healed. And when the Lord took her home,
although you may have been men and
women 30, 40, 30 years of age, you lay on
the coffin lid and sobbed as though you were
only or 10 years of age 0 man, praise
God if you have in your memory the picture
of an honest, sympathetic, kind, self sacrl-
ficing, Christ-like mother. Oh, it takes
these people who have had trouble to COM
fort others in trouble. Where did Paul get
the ink with which to write his comforting
epistle? Where did David get the ink to
write his comforting Psalms? Where did
John get the ink to write his comforting
Reyelation?. They got it out Of their own
tears. When man has gone through the
curriculum, and has taken a course of dun
geons and imprisonments and snipwrecks,
be is qualified for the work of sympathy.
When l began to preach, my sermons on
the subject of trouble were all poetic and In
semi-blank verse; but God knocked the
blank verse out of me long ago, and have
found out that l cannot comfort people ex-
cept as myself have been troubled. God
make me the son of consolation to the peo-
ple. 1 would rather be the means of sooth-
ing one perturbed spirit to-day than to play
a tune that would set all the sons of mirth
reeling in the dance. l am an herb doctor.
/ put into the caldron the root out of dry
ground without form of comeliness. Then
put in the Rose of Sharon and the Lily OF
the Valley. Then I put into the caldron
some of the leaves from the Tree of Life,
and the branch that was thrown into the
wilderness Marah.
GRIEF OF BETHANY AND GoLGoTHA.
Then 1 pour in the tears of Bethany and
Golgotha; then 1 stir them up. Then
kindle under the caldron fire made out
of the wood of the cross, and one drop of
that potion will cure the worst sickness that
ever afflicted a human soul. Mary and
Martha shall receive their Lazarus from the
tomb. The damsel shall rise. And on the
darkness shall break the morning, and God
will wipe all the tears from their eyes.
You know on a Widespread table the food
becomes more delicate at the last. I have
fed YOU to-day with the bread ofconsolation.
Let the table now be cleared, and let us set
on the chalice of heaven. Let the Kings
cup bearers come in. Good morning,
Heaven! "Oh," says some critic in the
audience, "the Bible contradicts itself. 1t
intimates again and again that there are to
be no tears in heaven, and if there be no
tears in heaven, how is it possible that God
will wipe any away" I answer, have you
never seen child crying one moment and
laughing the next; and while she was
laughing, you saw the tears still on her
face? And, perhaps, you stopped her in
the very midst of her resumed glee, and
wiped off those delayed tears. So, think,
after the heavenly raptures have come upon
us, there may be the mark OF some earthly
grief, and while those tears are glittering in
the light of the jasper sea, God will wipe
them away. How well he can do that.
Jesus had enough trial to make him SYM
pathetic with all trial. The shortest verse
in the Bible tells the story: "Jesus wept."
The scar on the back of either hand, the
scar on the arch of either foot. the row of
scars along the line of the hair, will keep
all heaven thinking. Oh, that great weeper
is Just the one to silence sll earthly trouble,
wipe out all stainsof earthly grief. Gentle!
Why, mis- step is softer than the step of the
dew. 1t will not be tyrant bidding you
to hush up your crying.
A TRULY PARENTAL LOVE.
1t will be Father who will take you on
His left arm, His face cleaning into yours,
while with the soft tips of the fingers of the
right hand, He shall wipe away all tears
from your eyes. l have noticed when the
children get hurt, and their mother is at
home, they 60 right past me and to her. l
am of no account.
So, when the soul comes up into heaven
out of the wounds of this life, it will not
stop to look for Paul, or Moses, or David, or
John. These did very well once. but now
the soul shall rush past, crying: "Where
is Jesus? Where is Jesus?" Dear Lord,
what magnificent thing to die if thou shalt
thus wipe away our tears. Methinks it will
take us some time to get used to heaven; the
fruits of God without one speck; the fresh
pastures without one nettle; the orchestra
without one swapping string; the river of
gladness without one torn bank; the SOL
ferinos and the saffron of sunrise and sum
set swallowed up In the eternal day that
beams from Gods countensnce!
Why should wish to linger in the wild,
When Thou art waiting, Father, to receive Thy
child?
Still if we could get any appreciation of
what God has in reserve for us, it would
make us so homesick we would be unfit for
our everyday work. Prof. Leonard, for
merly Of Iowa University. put in my hands
a meteoric stone, stone thrown off from
some other world to this. How suggestive
it was to me. And have to tell you the
best representations we have of heaven are
only aerolites flung off from that world which
rolls on, bearing the multitudes of the re-
deemed We analyze these aerolites, and find
af NJ pdar
flung off from heaven. "God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes"
VERY DIFFERENT IN HEAVEN.
Have you any appreciation of the good
and glorious times your friends are having
in heaven? How different it is when they
get news there of Christians death from
what it is here. 1t is the difference between
embarkation and coming into port. Every.
thing depends upon which side of the river
YOU stand when you hear of Christian'l
death, II YOU stand on this side Of the
river you mourn that they go. If you stand
on the other side of the river you rejoice
that they come. Oh, the difference between
a funeral on earth and jubilee in heaven
between requiem here and triumphal march
| there-parting here and reunion there. To
| getherI Have you thought of ii? They
are together. Not one of your departed
friends in one land and another in another
land; but together, in different rooms Of thu
same house-the house Of many mansions
Together! 4,
Tnever appreciated that thought so much
as when we laid away in her last slumbel
nv sister Sarah. Standing there in th'
village cemetery, looked around and said
"There is father, there is mother, there j
grandfather, there is grandmother, there arr
whole circles of kindred; !" and 1 thought tt
myself, Together in the grave-together il
glory" 1 am so impressed with the though
that I do not think it is any fanaticisn
when some one is going from this world II
the next if YOU make them the bearer o