Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-28
TALMAGE'S TROUBLE
Leads Him to Talk of the Time When
Tears Shall be Dried.
WHY HE WANTS A BIGGER CHURCH.
Disaster Very Good Thing Here, if it Leads
Up to Glory.
HIS PICTURE OF TIE HEAVENLY HOME


ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.l
BROOKLYN, October 27.-The Rev. 7.
De Witt Talmage, d. D., preached to an
overfowing congregation at the Academy
of Music TO-DAY.
Before preaching he said that 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 came to Brooklyn. First, the origi-
nal 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 de-
stroyed, and reared it in time when the
whole country was in its worst financial
distress. 1t was these repeated disasters
that left us in debt My congregation
have done magnifcently, but any Shurch
would be in debt after so many
caIamities. Now for the first time we
are out of debt But we need at least $780,
900 to build church large enough, and we
call on people of all creeds and all lands to
help. Before 1 help dedicate a new church
we must have every dollar of it paid.
will never again be pastor of church in
debt. 1t has crippled us in all our move
ments, and L shall never again wear the
shackles. 1 have for the last 16 years
preached to about 5000 people sitting and
standing, twice a Sabbath, but everybody
knows that we need place that will hold
S,OOO l shall not be surprised if some man
of wealth shall say: "Here are S100, 900 If
you will nut up a memorial structure and
call it after the name of nv departed father
or child whose memory want put before
all nations and for all time" And so 1t
would be done.
NO MORE TEARS THERE.
DR.. Talmage's text was: "God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes" Rev. VII,
II. He said:
Riding across Western prairie, wild
flowers up to the hub of the carriage wheel,
and while long distance from any shelter,
there came sudden shower, and while the
rain was falling in torrents, the sun was
shining as brightly as / ever saw 1t shine;
and 1 thought, what a 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 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
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 a great ado
about his grief; but in all the vases of
heaven there is not one of Alexander tears.
speak of the tears of the good. Alas! me!
they are falling all the time. In summer,
you sometimes hear the 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 it may be all bright around
about us, there is a shower of trouble some
where all the time. Tears! Tearsl
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 eastern storm when we might
have perpetual nor wester?
QUESTIONS THAT APPLY.
Why, when family is put together, not
have them all stay, or if thev must be trans
planted 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 explain a
smile; but, come now, and bring all your
dictionaries aud all your PHILOSOPHERS and
all your religions, and help me explain a
tear.
Hear me, then, while 1 discourse to you
of the uses of trouble.
First-It is the design of trouble to keep
this world from being too attractive. Some
thing must be done to make US willing 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 a hundred
million years if there were no trouble. The
earth cushioned and upholstered and pill
Jared and chandeliered with such expense,
no story of other worlds could enchsnt US.
We would say: "Let well enough alone.
II you want to die and have your body dis
integrated 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 off to the picture galleries of Venice
or Florence. "Why," he would say, "what
Rembrandts and Rubens and Raphaels here
that haven't looked at yet"
THE MISSION OF TROUBLES.
No man wants to go out of this world, ol
out of any house, until he has a better
IT. fbio xr-ich IN OF horo God
must somehow create disgust for our sur
roundings. How shall He do it? Hescani
not afford to deface his horizon, or to teaI
off fiery panel from the sunset, or to sub
tract an anther from the water lily, or to
banlsh the pungent aroma from the mignon-
ette, or to drag the robes of the morning
in mire. How, then, are we to be
made willing to leave? Here is where
trouble comes in. After a mar
has had a good deal OF trouble, he says
''Well. 1 am ready to go. If there is 6
would like to live there. If there is ar
atmosphere somewhere that does not distres.
the lungs, 1 would like to breathe it. Il
there is a society somewhere where there j:
no tittle-tattle. 1 would like to live there
If there is home circle somewhere where
] can find nv lost friends, / would like tC
60 there" He used to read the first part o.
the Bible chiefly, now he reads the last par
of the Bible chiefly. Why has he changed
Genesis for Revelation? Ali he used to b
anxious chiefly to know how thii
world was made, and all about its geo
logical construction. Now he is chiefly
anxious to know how the next world wa
made, and how it looks, and who live
there, and how they dress. He reads Reve
lation ten times now where he reads Genesis
once The old story, "In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth, u
does not thrill him half so much as th,
other story, 81 saw a new heaven and a new
earth.' The old mans hand trembIes as b,