The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-11-13

trouble we like plenty of old folks
around. Why? They know how to tax
Take an aged mother, seventy years of
age, and she is almost omnipotent in
comfort. Why? She has been through
1t all. At seven o'clock in the morning
she goes over to comfort q young mother
who has just lost her babe. f}
Grandmother knows all about that
trouble. Fifty years ago she felt it. At
twelve o'clock of that day she goes over
to comfort widowed soul. She has been
walking in that dark valley twenty
years. At four o'clock in the afternoon
some one knocks at the door wanting
bread. She knows all about that Two
or three times in her life she came to
her last loaf. At ten o'clock that night
she goes over to sit up with some one Sc
verely sick. She knows all about it.
She knows all about fevers and pleuri-
sizes and broken bones. She has been.
doctoring all her life, spreading plasters
and pouring out bitter drops, and shak-
ing up hot pillows, and contriving things
to tempt poor appetite. Doctors Aber-
nethy and Rush and Hosack and Harvey
were great doctors, but the greatest doc
tor the world ever saw is an old Chris
tian woman. Dear me! Do we not re-
member her about the room when we
were sick in our boyhood? Was there
any one who could ever SO touch a sore
without hurting it? ....
And when she lifted her spectacles
against her wrinlled 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 thirty, forty,
fifty years of age, you lay on the coffin
lid and sobbed as though YOU were only
five or ten years Of age. o, man, praise
God If you have in your memory the
picture OF an honest, sympathetic, kind,
self-sacsificing, Christian mother. O.,
it takes these people who have had
trouble to comfort 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 COM
forting Psalms? Where did John get the
ink to write his comforting Revelations?
They gOtit out of their own tears. When
a man has gone through the curriculum,
and has taken course of dungeons and
imprisonments and shipwrecks, he is
qualified for the work of sympathy. a
When 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 that l can not
comfort people except as myself have
been troubled. God make me the son of
consolation to the people. i would
rather be the means Of soothing one per-
turbed spirit to-day, than to play a tune
that would yet all the sons Of mirth
Keeling in the dance j am herb doc
tor. / put into the caldron the Root out
of dry ground without form or comeli-
ness. Then l put in the Rose Of Sharon
and the Lilly of the Valley. Then put
into the caldron some of the leaves OF
the Tree of Life, and the Branch that
was thrown into the wilderness Marah.
Then pour in the tears Of Bethany and
Golgotha; then l stir them up. Then
kindle under the caldron q fire made out
of the wood of the cross, and one drop
of that potion will cure the worst sick.
| ness that ever afflicted 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 tears from their eyes.
You know on we'll spread table the
food becomes more delicate at the last
l have fed you to-day with the bread Of
consolation. 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! 80,
says some critic in the audience, "the
| Bible contradicts itself. 1t intimates
again and again that there are to be ne
tears in Heaven, and If there be no tears
in Heaven how is it possible that Goo
will wipe any away?" l answer have
you never seen child crying one mo
ment 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 rapture'
have come upon us, there may be tn,
mark of some earthly grief, and while
those tears are glittering in the light o
the jasper sea, God will wipe them away
How we'll He can do that. sii
Jesus had enough trial to make Hin
sympathetic with all trial. The shOrtes
verse in the Bible tells the story: "Jesu
wept." The scar on the back of eithe
hand, the scar on the arch of either foot
the row of scars along the line Of tn
hair, will keep all Heaven thinking. Q
that great weeper is just the one to 81
lence all earthly trouble, wipe out al
stains Of earthly grief. Gentle! Why
His step is softer than the step of til
dew. 1t will not be tyrant biddin
you to hush up your crying. 1t will b
father who will take you on His LEI
arm, his face cleaning into yours, Will
with the soft tips Of the fingers of tn
right hand He shall wipe away all tear
from your eyes. Ihave noticed when tn
children get hurt, and their mother
away from home, they always come t
me for comfort and sympathy; but
have noticed that when the children ge
hurt and their mother is at home the
go right past me and to her; l am OF n
account.
| So, when the soul comes up int
Heaven out of the wounds of this life,
will not stop to look for Paul, or Moses
or David, or John. These did very wei
once, but now the soul shall rush past
crying: "Where is Jesus? Where
Jesus?" Dear Lord, what a magnificen
thing to die il Thou shalt thus wipe ava
our tears. Methinks it will take us som
time to get used to Heaven; the fruits G
God without one speck: the fresh pa.
turcs without one nettle; the Orchestf
without one snapped string; the river {
gladness without one torn bank; tn
solferinos and the saffron of sunrise an
sunset swallowed, UP the eternal, da
that beams from Gods countenance.N
Why should wish to lineer in the Wild.
J When thou are waiting Father, to receive q
.lr fchilds 9TrI.t Az ,4ie8Il
Still, if We could get any appreciatio
of what God has in reserve for us,
would make US so homesick we would b
unfit for our every day work. PrOfessc
. L IL. L.. 4,