The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-11-13
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "What Trouble is For"

Subject: "What Trouble is For"
The Rev. T. De Witt Talmags, D. D.,
preached to an Overlooking congregation at
the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Before preaching he said that a mistaken
notion was abroad that the insurance on his
destroyed church was enough to rebuild. The
repetition of disasters left us in debt We
have practically built three churches since
came to Brooklyn. First, the original Taber-
nacle. Soon after that we made an enlarge
ment that cost almost as much as church.
A few years after it all burned. Then we
put up the building recently destroyed, and
reared it in time when the whole country
was in its worst financial distress.
1t was these repeated disasters that
left us in debt My congregation have
done magnificently, but any church would be
in debt after so many calamities. Now for
the first time we are out of debt. But we
need at least one hundred thousand dollars to
build church large enough, and we call
on people Of all cresds and all lands to help.
Before help dedicate new church we must
have every dollar of it paid. will never
again be pastor Of e church in debt. 1t has
crippled us in all our movements, and l
shall never again wear the shacsles. have
for the last sixteen years preached to
about 5000 people sitting and stand
ing, twice Sabbath, but everybody knows
that we need place that will hold 5000
shall not be surprised if some man of wealth
shall say: "Here are S100, 900 if you will
put up memorial structure, and call it after
the name of my departed father or child
whose memory l want put before all nations
and for all time" And so it will be done.
Tent: "God shall wipe away oil tears
from their eyes."-Rev. vii, II.
Riding across a western prairie wild
flowers up to the hub Of the carriage wheel,
and while long distance from any shelter,
there came a sudden shower, and while the
rain was falling in torrents, the sun was
shining as brightly as I ever saw it shine;
and l thought, what beautiful spectacle
this is! So the tears Of the Bible are
not midnight storm, but rain on pansied
prairies in Gods sweet and golden sunlight.
You remember that bottle. which David
labeled as containing tears, and Marys
tears, and Paups tears, and Christ's
tears, and the harvest Of joy that is to
spring from the sowing of tears. God
mixes them. God rounds them. God shows
them where to fall. God e1hales them. A
census is taken of them, and there is record
as to the moment when they are born, and
as to the place Of their grave. Tears Of bad
men are not kept. Alexander, in his sorrow,
had the hair clipped from his horses and
mules, and made great ado about his grief;
but in all the vases Of heaven there is not one
Of Alexander's tears. speak of the tears Of
the good. Alas! me! they are falling all the
time. In summer, you sometimes hear the
growing thunder, and you see there is q
storm miles away; but you know from the
drift of the clouds that it will not come any
where near you. So, though it may be all
bright around us, there is a shower of trouble
somewhere all the time. Tears Tears!
What is the use Of them anyhow? Why
not substitute laughter? Why not make this
a world where all the people are well and
eternal strangers to pain and aches? What
is the use of an eastern storm when we might
have perpetual nor'wester? Why, when
family is put together, not have them all
stay, or if they must be transplanted to make
other homes, then have them all live? the FAM
lily record telling story OF marriages and
births, but of no deaths. Why not have the
harvests chase each other without
fatiguing toll? Why the hard pillow,
the hard crust, the hard struggle?
It is easy enough to explain smile, or
success, or a congratulation: but come now,
and bring all your dictionaries and all your
philosophers and all your religions, and help
me explain a tear. A chemist will tell you
that it is made up of salt and lime and other
component parts; but he misses the chief
ingredients-the acid of a soured life, the
viperine sting of a bitter memory. the frag
ments of broken heart. I will tell you
what tear is: it is agony in solution.
Hear me, then, while discourse to you Of
the uses of trouble.
First-It is the design of trouble to keep
this world from being too attractive. Some
thing must be done to make us willing to
quit this existence. If it were not for trouble
this world would be good enough heaven
Tor me. You and would be willing to take
alease Of this life for a hundred million years
if there were no trouble. The earth cush-
ioned and upholstered and pillared and chan
deliered with such expense, no story of other
worlds could enchant us. We would say:
"Let we'll enough alone. If you want
to die and have your body disintegrated in
the dust, and your soul go out on a celestial
is good enough for me-" You might as well
go to man who has just entered the Louvre
at Paris, and tell him to hasten off to the
picture galleries of Venice or Florence
why" he would say, what is the use Of
my going there? There are Rembrandts and
Rubens and Raphaels here that haven't
looked at yet"
No man wants to go out of this world. or
out Of any house, until he has better house.
To cure this wish to stay here, God must
somehow create disgust for our surround
ingS. How shall He do it? He cannot afford
to deface His horizon, or to tear off a fiery
panel from the sunset, or to subtract an an
ther from the water lily, or to Danish the
pungent aroma from the mignonette. or to
drag Jne roDes or the morning In The mIre.
You cannot expect Christopher Wren to
mar his own st. Pauls cathedral or Mich
ael Angelo to dash out his own "Last
Judgment" or Handel to discord his 'Israel
in Egypt" and you cannot expect God to
spoil the architecture and music.o His own
world How then are We to be made willing
to leave? Here is where trouble comes in.
After man has had a good deal Of trouble,
he says: "Weil, am ready to go. If there
is a house somewhere whose roof doesn't leak,
| would like to live there. If there is an at
mosphere somewhere that does not distress
the lungs, would like to breathe it. If there
is asociety somewhere where there is no title
tattle, I would like to live there. If
there is a home circle somewhere where
I can find my lost friends,
would like to 20 there" He used to read
the first part Of the Bible chiefly. now he
reads the last part of the Bible chiefly. Why
has he changed Genesis for Revelation? All!
he used to be anxious chiefly to know how
this world was made, and all about it's geo.
!OSlchl ColStIuCIlOH. iNo" ue lS Culely ala
ious to know how the next world was made,
and how it looks, and who live there, and
how they dress He reads Revelation ten
times now where he reads Genesis once. The
old story, "In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the EARTH" does not thrill
him half as much as the other story,
81 saw new heaven and a new earth"
The old mans hand trembles as he turns
over this apocalyptic leaf, and he has to take
out his handkerchief to wipe his spectacles.
That book Of Revelations is a prospectus now
of the country into which he is to soon immi-
CRATE; the country into which he has lots al