Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-11-07
FOR OUR GOOD.
Dr. TalmaEe on the Uses Of Re-
verses and Sorrow.
Why Adversely is Necessary-Tbe False
Attractions of the worId-ConsoIstiOn
ofPrayer in the Time of Trouble
Beauties of Heaven.

TO the trlbulations through which his
congregation had passed in building
their Tabernacle and which had twice
been burned and then took for his
text: God shall wipe away all tears
from thejz eyes," Revelations vii. IL.
He said:
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 tor
rents the sun was shining as brightly
as l 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 tears, and Mary's tears, and
Paufs tears, and Christ's tears, and the
harvest of icy 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 graves.
Tears Of bad men are not kept. Alex
ander, in his sorrow, had the hair
clipped from his horses and mules
and made a great ado about his
grief; but in all the vases of
Heaven there is not one of Alexander's
tears. 1 speak of the tears OF the good.
Alas! me! they are falling all the time.
In summer you sometimes hear the
growing thunder, ard you see there is a
storm miles away, but you know from
the drift of clouds that it will not come
anywhere near you. So, though il NAV
be all bright around 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 eternal strangers to pain
and aches. What is the use of an East
ern storm when we might have a per-
petual nor'wester? Why, when a fam
lily 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 a
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? 1t is easy enough to
explain a smile, or a success, or a con-
graduation; but come, now, and bring
all your dictionaries and all your phil
OsOphies and all your religions, and
help me explain tear. A chemist will
tell you it is made up of salt and lime
and other component parts: but he miss
es the chief ingredients-the acid Of
soured life, the viperine sting of bit
ter memory. the fragments of broken
heart. will tell you what a tear is; it
is agony in solution.
Hear me, then, while I discourse to
you of the uses of trouble. First It is |
the design of trouble to keep this world |
from being too attractive. Something |
must be done to make us willing to quit !
existence. If it were not for trouble |
this world would be good enough |
Heaven for me. You and 1 would be |
willing to take lease of this life for a
hundred million years if there were no
trouble.
-NO man anus W ~ OuD VI NI4o WIN
or out of any house, until he has better
house. To cure this wish to stay here,
God must somehow create a disgust for
our surroundings. How shall he do it?
He can not afford to deface His horizon,
or to tear off fiery panel from the sun
set, or to subtract an anther from the
water lily, or to Danish the pungent
aroma from the mignonette, or to drag
the robes of the morning in mire. You
can not expect Christopher Wren to mar
his own st. Pauls Cathedral, or a Michael
Angelo to dash out his own Last Judg-
ment," or Handel to discord his is
rael in Egypt" and you can not 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 trouble comes in. After a man
has had a good deal of trouble, he says:
well, am ready to go. If there is
house somewhere whose roof doesn't
leak, would like to live there. If
there is an atmosphere somewhere that
does not distress the lungs, would like
to breathe it. If there is a society some
where where there is no tittle-tattle,
would like to live there. If there is
home circle somewhere where can find
my lost friends, l would like to go
there
He used to read the irst 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
its geological construction. Now he is
chiefly anxious to know how the next
world was made, and how it looks, and
who lives there, and how they dress.
The thought of that blessed place
comes over me nightly and 1 declare
that if this house were great ship, and
you all were passengers on board it, and
one hand could launch that ship into the
glories of Heaven, should be tempted
TO take the responsibility and launch
you all into glory with one stroke, hold
ing on to the side of the boat until 1
could get in myself. And yet there are
people here to whom this world is I
brighter than Heaven. Well, dear souls, ]
/ do not blame you. 1t is natural. But
after while you will be ready to go.
1t was not until Job had been worn out |
with bereavementS and carbuncles and
a pest of a wife that he wanted to see {
God. 1t was not until the prodigal got
tired of living among the hogs that he !
wanted to go to his fathers house. 1t I
is the ministry of trouble 10 make this /
world worth less and Heaven worth {
more. 4;