Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-11-08
WHAT TROUBLE is. FOR.
A SERMON by THE REV. T. DE WITT
TALMAGE.
Delivered in tho Brooklyn Academy of
Music-God's Hand Shall Wipe Away All
Tears-Sweet Are the Uses of Adversely
The Glories of Heaven Glowinsly Por-
traycd.


Tears-sweet Are the Uses Of Adversely
The Glories of Heaven Glowingly Por-
traycd.
Tent-"God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes," Rev. vii, II.
Riding across Western prairie, wild
flowers up to the hub of the carriage
wheel, and while long distance from
any shelter, there came sudden shower,
and while the rain was falling in tor
rents, the sun was shining as brightly
as ever saw it shine; and [ 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 Mary S
tears, and PauIs tears. and Christ S
tears, and the harvest of Joy that is to
mixes them. God rounds them. God
shows them where to fall. God exhales
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 growl-
ing thunder, and you see there is a
storm miles away; but you know from
the drift of the clouds that At will not
come anywhere near you. SO, though it
may be all bright around about us, there
is shower of trouble somewhere all
the time. Tears! Tears!
What is the use of them anyhow?
Why not substitute laughter? Why not
make this world where all people are
we'll and eternal strangers to pain and
aches? What is the use of an eastern
storm when we might have perpetual
norwester? Why, when a family is put
together, not have them all stay, or if
they must be transp.anted to make other
homes, then have them all live? the
family record telling q story of mar
riages and Births, but of no deaths.
Why not have the harvests chase each
other with out fatiguing toll? Why the
hard pillow, the hard crust, the hard
struggle? 1t is easy enough to explain
a smile, or q success, or congratulate
tion; but, come nov, and bring all your
dictionaries and all your PHILOSOPHERS
and oil your religions, and help me ex-
plain tear. A chemist will tell YOU
that it is made up of salt and lime and
other component pats; but he misses
the chief ingredients-th acid of q
soured life, the viperine sting of Bit
ter memory, the fragments Of broken
heart. will tell you what tear is; it
is agony i'll solution.
Hear me, then, while discourse to you
of the uses Of trouble.
First-lt is the design of trouble to
keep this world from be ng to attractive.
Something must be done to make us
willing to quit this existence. If it
We're not for trouble tbs world would
be good enough Heaven for me. You
and l would be willing to take lease
Of this life for hundred million years
if there were no trouble. The earth
cushioned and upholstered and pillared
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 so out on q celestial adventure.
then you can go; but this world lis good
enough for me-. You might as well go
to man who has just entered 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 Rem
brandts 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 a bet
ter house. To cure this wish to stay
here, God must somehow create a dis
gust for our surroundings. How shall
he do it? He cannot afford to deface
his horizon, az to tear off fiery
panel from the sunset, or to subtract
an anther from the water lily, or to ban
lsh the pungent aroma from the mig
nonette, or to drag the robes of the
morning i'll mire. You cannot expect a
Christopher Wren to mar his own st.
Pauls cathedral, or Michael 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 of his
own world. How then are we to be made
willing to leave? Here is where the
trouble comes in. After a man has had
q great deal of trouble he says: We'll.
l am ready to go. It there is house
somewhere whose roof doesn't leak, !
would like to live there. II there is an
atmosphere somewhere that does not
distress the lungs, 1 would like to
breathe it. Ifthere is society some
where where there is no tittle-tattle, /
would like to live there. Ii there is a
home circle somewhere where I can find
my lost friends, / would like to 90
there. He used to read the first part
OF the Bible chiefly. Why has he
changed Genesis for Revelations? All!
L., vi 10 Ia
how this world was made, and all about
its geological construction. Now he is
chiefly anxious to know how the next
world was made, and how it looks, and
who live there, and how they dress. He
reads Revelations ten times now where
he reads Genesis once. The old story.
In the beginning God created the heav-