Connecticut western news., 1889-10-30
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
WHAT TROUBLE IS FOR.
Dr. Talmage's Discourse Oct. 27.

Dr. Talmage's Discourse Oct. 27.
 The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D., preached to an overtlowing congregation at the Acadamy 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 I came to Brooklyn. First, the origin al Tabernacle. Soon after that we made an enlargement that cost almost as much as a church. A few years after it all burned. Then we put up the building recently destroy ed, and reared it in time when the whole country was in it's worst financial distress. It was these repeated disasters that left us in debt. My congregation have done magnificently, but any church would be in debt after so many out of debt. But we need at least one hundred thousand dollars to build a church large enough, and we call on people of all creeds and lands to help. Before 1 help dedicate new church we must have every dollar of it paid. I will never again be pastor of church in debt It has crippled us in all our movements. and I shall never again wear shackles. I have for the last six teen years preached to about five thousand people sitting and standing, twice Sabbath, but everybody knows that we need a place that will hold eight thousand. shall not be surprised if some man of wealth shall say |: ''Here are hundred thousand dollars if you will put up memorial structure, and call it after the name of my departed father or child whose memory I want put before all nations and for all time." And so it would be done.
 Dr. Talmage's text was: ''God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes," Rev. vii, IT. He said:
 Riding across western prairie, wild flow CTS up to the hub of the carriage wheel, and there came sudden shower, and while the rain was falling in torrents, the sun was shining as brightly as I ever saw it shine :; and thought, what beautiful spectacle this is! So the tears of the Bible are not mid night storm, but rain on pansied prairies in member that bottle which David labeled as containing tears, and Mary's 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 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 7, 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! mel they are falling all the time. In summer, you sometimes hear the growing thunder, and you see there Is a storm miles away; but you know from the where near you. So, though it may he all bright about 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 world where all the people are well and al f<v hat is the use of an eastern storm when we might have perpetual nor'wester? Why, when q 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 family record telling the story of marriages the harvests chase each other without fatiguing toll? Why the hard pillow, the hard crust, the hard struggle? It Is easy enough to explain a smile, or success, or 8 congratulation; but, come now, and bring all your dictionaries and all your philosophies 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 soured life, the viperine sting o1 heart. I will tell you what tear is; it is agony in solution.
 Hear me, then, while l discourse to you o1 l the uses of trouble.
 | First-It is the design of trouble to keel | this world from being too attractive. Some quit this existence. If it were not fo! | trouble, this world would be a good enougl heaven for me. You and would be willin, to take lease of this life for hundred million years if there were no trouble. Th earth cushioned and upholstered and pillaret and chandeliered with such expenses n, story of other worlds could enchant us l We would say: S'Let well enough alone. 1 you want to die and have your body disinte grated in the dust, and your soul go out on
 celestial adventure, then you can go; bu this world is good enough for me-" Yol might as we'll go to man who has just en tered the Louvre at Paris, and tell him t. hasten off to the picture galleries of Venic' or Florence. "Why," he would say, "wha is the use of my going therea There are tn Rembrandts and the Rubens and Raphael | here that haven't looked at yet"
 out of any house, until he has better house To cure this wish to stay here, God mus l somehow create disgust for our surround ings. How shall he do it? He cannot afford to deface his horizon, or to tear off a, fer, panel from the sunset, or to subtract al anther from the water lily, or to banish thu pungent aroma from the mignonette, or t, drag the robes of the morning ill mire. Yol | cannot expect Christopher Wren to mar hi own St. Paups cathedral, or Michael Angelo | to dash out his own "Last Judgment," or | Handel to discord his "Israel in Egypt;" an( uIre and music of his own world. How thel are we to be made willing to leave? Here i where trouble comes in. After man has | good deal of trouble, he says: "Well, an ready to go. If there is house sOmewher whose roof doesn't leak, would like to liv | there If there Is an atmosphere sOmewher that does not distress the lungs, would lik to breathe it. If there is society somewher | where there is no tittle-tattle, would like t live there. If there is a home circle some where where I can find my lost friends, would like to go there." He used to read tn first part of the Bible chiefly, now he read the last part of the Bible chiefly. Why ha | he changed Genesis for Revelation? An! h. used to be anxious chiefly to know how thi world was made, and all about it's geological construction. Now he his chiefly anxious t know how the next world was made. an' how it looks, and who live there, and hoy they dress He reads Revelation ten time | now where he reads Genesis once. The Ol' story, "In the beginning God created tn heavens and the earth," does not thrill hin half as much as the other story, "I saw
 new heaven and new earth.' The Ol' mans hand trembles as he turns over thi apocalyptic leaf, and he has to take out hi handkerchief to wipe his spectacles. Ina book of Revelation is a prospectus now of tn country into which he is to soon immigrate the country in which he has lots already lai
 out, and avenues opened, and trees planted | and mansions built.
 The thought of that blessed place come over me nightly, and I declare that if thi house were great ship, and you all wer passengers on board it, and one hand coul
 launch that ship into the glories of heaven,
 should be tempted to take the responsibilit and launch you all into glory with one stroke holding on to the side of the boat until
 could get in myself. And yet there are peo pie here to whom this world is brighter tha
 heaven. We'll, dear souls, do not blam
 you. It is natural. But after while yo | will be ready to go. It was not until JO
 had been worn out with bereavements an
 carbuncles and pest of a wife that he wante
 to see God. It was not until the prodigal go