The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-04-29
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Deaths Bitterness Obliterated in
the Resurrection
an Easter Sermon ny the Brooklyn
Preacher-Why Death Is Necessary
and Not I'm Reality the King
OF Terrors.


Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered the
following Easter sermon in the Brook
lyn tabernacle, taking for his text:
Surely the bitterness Of death is past.-L
Eamuel. XIV. az.
So cried Agag, and the only objec-
ton i have to this text IN that bad
man uttered il. Nevertheless, it is true,
and in higher and better sense than
that in which it was uttered Years ago
legend something like this was told
me: In a hut lived a very poor woma1
by the name of Misery. In front of
her door was a pear tree, which was
her only resource for a living. Christ,
!, the Lord, in poor garb, was walking
through the earth and no one would
entertain Him. In vain He knocked at
the door of palaces and of humble
dwellings. Cold and hungry and in
sufficiently clad as He was none re-
ceive3 Him But coming one day to the
but of .his woman, whose name was
ssisery, she received Him, and offered
Him few crusts and asked him to
warm Himself az the handful of Goals,
and she sat up all night that the way
farer might have pillow TO rest on. In
the morning this Divine Being asked her
as He departed what she would have
Him do in the way of reward, and told
her that He owned the universe and
would give her what she asked All
she asked was that her pear tree might
be protected, and that the boys who stole
her fruit, once climbing the tree, might
not be able to get down without her
consent
So it was granted, and all who
climbed the tree were compelled to stay
there. After awhile Death came along
and told the poor woman she must go
with him But she did not want to go,
for. however poor ones lot is, no one
wants to go with Death. Then she said
20 Death: 81 win go with you if you
will first climb up into my pear tree
and bring me down a few pears before
start" This he consented to do, but
having climbed into the tree he could
not again come down. Then the trou-
bles of the world began, for Death did
rot come. The physicians had no pa
tients, the undertakes no business,
lawyers no wills TO make, the people
who waited for inheritances could not
get them, the old men staid in all the
professions and occupations so that
there was no room for the young who
were coming on, and the earth got
overcrowded and from all the earth the
cry went up: 'Oh, for Death! Where is
Death?" Then the people came to the
poor woman and begged her to let
Death descend from the tree In sym
pathy for the world she consented to
let Death come down on one condition,
and that was that he should never mo-
lest or take her away, and on that con-
dition Death was allowed to come
down, and he kept his word and never
removed her, and for that reason we al
ways have Misery with us
In that allegory some one has set
forth the truth that mean to present
on this Easter morning, which cele-
brates the resurrection of Christ and
our coming resurrection--that one OF
the grandest and mightiest mercies of
the earth is our Divine permission to
quitit Sixty-four persons every min
ute step of this planet. Thirty million
people every year board this planet,
AS a steamer must unload before it
takes on another cargo, and as the pas
sengers of rail train must leave it in
order TO have another company of pas
sengers enter it, so with this world.
What would happen to an ocean steam
er if a man taking state room. should
stay in il forever? What would happen
to rail train if one who purchases a
ticket should always occupy the seat
assigned him? And what would hap
pen to this world if all who came into
il never departed from it? The grave
is as much a benediction as the cradle.
What sunk that ship in the Black sea n
few days ago? Too many passengers.
What was the matter with that steam
er on the Thames which, few years
ago, went down with six hundred lives?
Too many passengers. Now, this world
is only a ship, which was launched
some six thousand years ago. 1t is sail
ing at the rate of many thousand miles
an hour. 1t is freighted with noun
tains and cities, and has in its state
rooms and steerage about one billion six
hundred million passengers. So many
are coming aboard it is necessary that a
good many disembark. Suppose that
all the people that have lived since the
days of Adam and Eve were still alive
what cluttered up place this world
would be! No elbow room. no place to
walk, no privacy, nothing to eat or
wear; or, if anything were left, the hui
man race would, like a shipwrecked
crew. have to be put ON small rations,
each Of us having perhaps only a bis
cult day.
An d what chance would there be for
the rising generations? The men and
women who started when the world
started would keep the modern people
back and down, saying: I'VE are six
thousand years old. Bow down. His
tory is nothing, for we are older than
history" What mercy for the human
race was death Within a few years
you can get from this world all there is
in it. After you have had fifty or sixty
or seventy spring times you have seen
enough blossoms. After fifty or sixty
or seventy autumns you have seen
enough of gorgeous foliage. After fifty
or sixty or seventy severe winters you
have seen enough snowstorms and
felt enough chills, and wrapped
yourself in enough blankets. In
the ordinary length of human life
you have carried enough burdens, and
shed enough tears, and suffered enough
injustices, and felt enough pangs, and
been clouded by enough doubts, and
surrounded by enough mysteries. We
talk about the shortness of life, but if we
exercised good sense we would realize
that life is quite long enough. If we
are the children of God we are at a ham