The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-11-06
WHERE TO FIND COMFORT.
REV. DR.. TALMAoE's LATEST SERMON
From the Text. "Gcd Shall Wipe Their
Tears Away"-Kinder Than an Earthly
Parent, But Not Always Called
Upon-Love and Mercy.

| 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 torrents the
sun was shining as brightly as 1 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 pan
sled prairies in Gods sweet and golden
sunlight. 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 where to fall. God exhales
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 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 AL
eXander's tears. | speak of the tears OF
the good. Alas 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
drift of the clouds that it 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 make this a world where all the peo-
| pie are well and eternal strangers to pain
| and aches What is the use of an eastern
/ storm when we might have perpetual
wester? Why, when a 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 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 ex-
/ plain a smile, or a success, or a congratu-
/ lation; but come now and bring all your
! dictionaries, and all your PHILOSOPHERS, 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 COM
ponent parts, but he misses the chief in
! gredients-the acid of a soured life, the
viperine sting of bitter memory the frag-
ments of a broken heart. l will tell you
what a tear is--it is agony in solution.
Hear me, then, while 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 will
| ing to quit this existence. If it were not
! for trouble this world would be good
enough heaven for me. You and / would
be willing to take lease of this life for
|
trouble. The earth cushioned, and up
holstered, and pillared, and chandeliered
with such expense, no story of other
worlds could enchant us. We should say:
"Let well enough alone. If you want to
die and have your body disintegrated in
/ the dust and your soul 90 out on a celes-
/ tial adventure, then you can 60; 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 OFF to the picture galleries of
Venice or Florence. "Why," he would
say, what is the use of my going there
! There are Rembrandts, and Rubenses, 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 better
house. To cure this wish TO stay here
! NtOu uluSI hOultuOW tIbdtS IL ulSEuSI lot
/ our surroundings. How shall He do it
He can not afford to deface His horizon, or
to bear off a fiery panel from the sunset,
or to subtract an anther from the water
/ lily, or to Danish the pungent aroma from
! the mignonette, or 10 drag the robes OF
morning in mire. You cannot expect n
| Christopher Wren to mar his own st.
Paul's cathedral, or a Michael Angelo
| 70 dash out his own LAST Judgment"
or a 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
trouble comes in. After a man has good
| deal of trouble he says "Well, | am
ready to CO. II there is a house some
whore whose roof doesn't leak / would
like to live there. II there is an atmos-
phere somewhere that does not distress
| the lungs | would like 10 breathe it: If
] there is a society somewhere where there
! is no tittle-tattle, would like TO live there.
! III there is a home circle somewhere where
| / can find my lost friends | would like to
! go there" He used TO read the first 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 it's geo.
/ logical 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. He reads Rev
elation ten times now where he read Gen
! esis once. The old story, sin the begin
ming God created the heavens and the
/ earth" does not thrill him half as much as
the other story, al saw a new heaven and
! n new EARTH" The old mans hand trem-
/ bles as he turns over this apocalyptic leaf,
| and he has TO take out his handkerchief to
! wipe his spectaeles. That book of Reve-
/ lation is a prospectus now OF the country
/ into which he is to soon immigrate; the
country in which he has lots already laid
| out, and avenues opened, and trees
! planted, and mansions built.
The thought of that blessed place comes
over me nightly, and / declare that if
this house were a 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, holding on to the
side of the boat until i could get in my
self. And yet there are people here to
whom this world is brighter than heaven.
! Well. dear souls, | do not blame you. 1t
is natural. But after awhile you will be
ready TO 90. Ii was not until Job had
been worn out with bereavements, and
carbuncles, and pest Of a wife that he
wanted to see God. Ii was not until the