The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-11-08
USES OF ADVERSELY.
Sermon by Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage on Trouble"
why the Hand Of God Is Laid at Times
30 Heavily His Children - The
Christening Influence Of Adj
verse circumstance.

The following discourse, with
"Trouble" for its subject, was delivered
by Rev. II. Dewitt Talmage in the Brook
lyn Academy Of Music. His text was:
God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes.-Rcv. vii.
He said: Riding across Western
prairie, wild flowers up to the hub of
the carriage wheel, and while a 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 / ever saw it shine, and
thought what a beautiful spectacle this
isl So the tears Of the Bible are not
midnight storm, but rain on pansied
prairies in Gods sweet and golden sun
light. You remember that bottle which
David labeled as containing tears, and
Mary's tears, and Paul's 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 whore to fall.
God cxhales them. A census is taken
OF them, and there is a record as to the
moment when they are born and as to
the place of their grave. Tears of bad
men arc not kept. Alexander, 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 Alexan-
der's tears. I speak Of the tears of the
good. Alas! me! they are falling all
the time In summer you sometimes
hear tho growing thunder, and you see
there is storm miles away; but you
know from the drift of the clouds that it
will not come anywhere near you. So,
though il 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 a world whore 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 =
perpetual nor westcr? Why, when
family is put together, not have them
all stay, or, if they must be transplanted
20 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
or a congratulation; but come now, and
bring all your dictionaries and all your
philosophers and all your religions, and
help me explain tear. A chemist viii
tell you that it is made up of salt and
lime and other component parts; but he
misses the chief ingrcdients-the acid
of q soured life, the viperine sting of a
bitter memory, the fragments of a
broken heart. I will tell you what a
tear is: it is agony in solution.
Hear me, then, while 1 discourse to
You of the uses of trouble.
First. 1t is the design of trouble to
keep this world from being too attract
i've Something must be done to make
us willing to quit this existence. II it
were not for trouble this world would be
good enough heaven for me. You and
] would bc willing to take a lease of
this life for a hundred million years if
there were no trouble. The earth cush-
ioncd and upholstered and pillared and
chandclicred with such expense, no
story of other worlds could Cnchant us.
We would say:
"Let well enough alone. If you want
20 die and have you@ body disintegrated
in the dust and your soul go out on a
celestial adventure, then you can go;
but this world is good enough for me. -
You might as well go to a man who has
Just entered the Louvre at Paris and
tell him to hasten OFT to the picture gal
leries Of Venice and Florence. why, 8"
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 a bet
ter house. To euro this wish to stay
here, God must somehow create a dis
gust for our surroundings How shall
He do it? lie can not afford to dcface
His horizon, or to tear of fiery panel
from the sunset, or to subtract an anthe1
from tho water lily, or to Danish the
pungcnt aroma from the mignonette, OF
to drag the robes Of the morning in
mire. You can not expect a Christopher
Wren TO mar his own st. Paul's Cathe-
dral, or a Michael Angelo to dash out
his own Last Judgment" or a Handel
to discord his Israel in Egypt;" and
YOU can not expect God to spoil the
architecture and music OF His OWL
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:
"Wen, ] am ready to go. II there is
n house somewhere whose roof doesn'
leak. would like to live there. II ther,
is an atmosphere somewhere that doe!
not distress the lungs, 1 would like t,
breathe il. II there is a society some
where where there is no tittle-tattle,
would like to live there. If there i
a home circle somewhere where l cal
find my lostfriends, 1 would like to e
there
He used to read the first part Of tn
R.ble chiefly, now he reads the last par
of the Bible chiefly. Why has h
changed Genesis for Revelation? All
he used to be anxious chiefly to knoN
how this world was made, and all abou
It's geological construction. Now he
shelly anxious to know how it looks
and who live there and how they dress
He reads Revelation ten times no'
where ne reads Genesis once. The oil
story: In the beginning God create
the heavens and earth, does not Thrill
him half as much as the other story
..I saw new Heaven and new earth.
The old mans hand trembles as b
.-... .,,,.,,. this aro.al yutfc leaf. and h