Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-04-21
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
'SURELY THE BITTERNESS OF
DEATH is PAST"
The Brooklyn Preacher Says the Only
Objection to This Text Is That 3 Bad
Man Uttered It-Nevertheless 1t Carries
Useful Lesson.
The Tabernacle Pulpit

|
So cried Agag. and the only objection
I have to this text is that bad man
uttered it, Nevertheless it is true, and
in q higher and better sense than that in
which it was originally uttered. Years
ago legend something like this was told
me: In hut lived very poor woman
by the name of Misery. In front Of her
door was 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 insuf1iciently clad, as
He was, none received Him. But COM
ing one day to the hut of this woman,
whose name was Misery, she received
Him, and offered Him few crusts and
asked Him to warm Himself at the hand
full Of Goals, and she sat up all night
that the wayfarer 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 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 60 with him.
But she did not want to go, for, however
poor ones lSt is, no one wants to go with
Death. Then she said to Death, II will
go with you if YOU will first climb up
into my pear tree and bring me down a
few pears before start" This he con-
sented to do, but having climbed into
! the tree he could not again come down.
| Then the troubles of the world began,
for Death did not come. The physicians
| had no patients. the undertakers no busi-
ness, lawyers no wills to make, the peo-
| pie 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 over
crowded, 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 sympathy for
the world, she consented to let Death
come down on one condition, and that
was that he should never modest or take
her away, and on that condition Death
was allowed to come down, and he kept
his word and never removed her, and for
that reason we always have Misery
| with us.
In that allegory some one has set
forth the truth that mean to present
on this Easter morning, which celebrates
the resurrection of Christ and our COM
ing resurrection-that one of the grand
| \ Al IL
our divine permission to quit it. Sixty
four persons every minute step off
this planet. Thirty million people every
year board this planet. AS steamer
must unload before it takes another car
go, and as the passengers of rail train
must leave it in order to have another
company of passengers enter it, SO with
this world.
| What would happen to an ocean
steamer If man, taking a stateroom,
should stay in it forever? What would
happen to rail train if one who pur-
chases ticket should always occupy
the seat assigned him? And what
would happen to this world if all who
came into it never departed from it?
The grave is as much d benediction as
the cradle. What sunk that ship in the
Black Sea a few days ago? Too many
passengers. What was the matter with
that steamer on the Thames which, a
few years ago. went down with 600
| lives. Too many passengers. Now this
world is only 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 mountains
and cities, and has in its staterooms and
| Storage about six hundred million pas
sengers. So many are coming aboard, it
| is necessary that good many disem-
| bark.
Suppose that all the people that have
lived since the days of Adam and Eve
were still alive. What a cluttered up
place this would be-no elbow room-no
place to walk-no privacy-nothing to
eat or wear, or if anything were left the
human race would, like a shpwrecked
crew, have to be put on small rations,
each of us having perhaps only bis
cult o day. And 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: 'We
| are 5000 years old. Bow down. His
tory is nothing, for we are older than
history" What mercy for the human
race was death! Within few years you
can get from this world all there is In it,
Death also makes room for improved
physical machinery Oar bodies have
wondrous powers, but they are very linn
| tied. There are beasts that can outrun
us, outfit Us, outcarry u.s. The birds
have both the earth and air for travel.
yet we must stick to the one. In this
world, which the human race takes for
it's own, there are creatures of God that
can far surpass us in some things.
| Death removes this slower and less
adroit machinery and makes room for
something better. These eyes that can
see half mile will be removed for those
that can see from world to world. These
ears, which can hear sound few feet
| off, will be removed for ears that can
| hear from zone to zone. These feet will
be removed for powers of locomotion
| swifter than the reindeer's hoof or eagles
| plume of lightning's flash.
Then we have only five senses and to
l has 81 yIf II nnIy