Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1894-11-21
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "yictory Over Pain"

II KIT "Nelther shall there be any more
pain. Revelation XXI, 4.
The first question that YOU ask when about
TO change your residence to anv city IL
"Whnt is the health OF tho placep Ia II
shaken OF terrible disorders? What are tho
hills Of mortality? What is the death ratei
How high rises the thermomptor?" AMI am
] not reasonable in asking, What are the
sanitary conditions OF the heavenly city into
which we ell hope to now? NV text an
swers 1t by saving, "Neither shall there be
anv more pain"
First, remark, there will no no pain Of
disappointment in heaven. u could nut
the picture of what you anticipated OF life
when YOU began II beside the picture OF
what You have realized, would hnl agrent
difference. You have stumbled upon great
disappointments. Perhaps you expected
riches, and YOU have worked hard enough
to gain them; YOU have planned and
worried and persisted until Your han Is were
worn. and vour brain was racked. and vonr
heart tainted. and Mt the end Of this long
strife with misfortune You find that II You
have not been positively defeated It has been
drawn battle. Ttie sim tug and tussle
this wear lOsin" wuat you gained last
financial uncertainties, nullng down faster
than you build. For perhaps twenty or
thirty years Won have been running your
craft straight into the teeth oft wind.
Perhaps YOU have Ind domestic disappoint-
ment. Your children, upon whose educa-
tion You lavished your hard earned dollars,
: have not turned out as expected Notwith-
standing all your counsels and prayers and
painstaking, they will not DO right Many
good father has had bad hov Absalom
trod on D8vld's heart. That mother never
imagined all this ms twenty or thirty years
| bn cntb he, hot ~, ~,
Your life has been chapter Of disap-
pointments. But come with me and will
show you different scene. By Gods grace
entering the other city. YOU will never again
have blasted hope The most iuNilant Of
expectations will not reach the radiation.
Coming to the top OF onn hill of Joy, there
will be other heights rising up in the vision.
This song of transport will but lift you to
higher anthems the sweetest choral hut a
prelude to more tremendous harmony, all
/ things better than YOU had anticpated-thG
robe richer, the crown BRIGHTER, the temple
| grander, the throng mightier
Further, ] remark there will be no pain
OF WEAKNESS. 1t may be many hours since
| you quit work. hut many OF you are unrested,
some from overwork, and some from dull
ness of trade, the latter more exhausting
than the former Your ankles ache. your
spirits flag, YOU want rest. Are these wheels
always to turn. these shuttlps to fly, these
axes to hew, these shovels to delve, these
| pens to fly, these books to be posted, these
goods TO be sold?
All. the great holiday approaches. No
mo-a curse Of taskmakers. No more stoop-
ing until the bnck aches. No mora calculq-
ton until the brain is hrwillerei, No moro
pain No more carpentry, for the mansions
are all built No more masonry, for the
wnIlg n II rpnrn1 No mn lin mr. A :.
ting. for the gems are all set. No more gold
beating, for the crowns are all completed.
No more agriculture. for the harvests are
spontaneous.
Further, there will he no more pain oI
poverty. 1t is n hard thing to be really
poor; to have your coat wear out and no
money to get another; to have your flour
barrel empty and nothing to buy bread with
for your children to live in an unhealthy
row and no means 10 change your habita-
ton; to have your child sick with some
mysterious disease AMI not be able to secure
eminent medical ability; to have son or
daughter begin the world and you not have
anything to help them in starting, with Il
mind capable of research and high conten-
plation to be perpetually fixed on questions
OF mere livelihood.
f; Poets try to throw romance about tho
poor mans cot, but there is no romance
about 1t. Poverty is hard, cruel, unreent-
ing. But Lazarus walked up without his
! rags ana his diseases, and so all of Christ $
poor wake up ut last without any of their
Ayantages-no amshouses, for they are
| NIL Ninces; no tents to pay for the resi-
| dence is gratuitous no garments to buy. for
the robes are divinely fashioned no seats in
church for poor folks, but equality among
| temple worshipers; no novels. no hard
! M inc al .l,,p
| hunger no more neither shall the sun light
on them nor any heat" No more pain
Further, there will be no pain OF parting.
All these associations must some time break
| up. We clasp hands and walk together
and talk and laugh and weep together, but
| we must after awhile separate. Your grave
| will be in one place, mine in another Wa
| look each other iull in tho face for the last
time We Will be sitting together some even
Ing, or walking together some day. aud
nothing will be unusual in our appear
ance, or our conversation, but Col
knows that it is the last time, and
messengers from eternity on their errand to
take us away know it is the last time, and in
heaven, where they make ready for our de-
parting spirits, they know it is the last time.
On, the long agony OF earthly separation |!
1T is awful to stand in your nursery fighting
death back from the couch Of your child, and
| Try TO mold last the little one, and see all the
time that he is getting weaker, and the
breath Is shorter. and make cutlery to Got
to help us and to the doctors to save him,
! and see it is OF no avail, and then to know
/ that his spirit Is gone and that YOU have
nothing left but the casket that held tho
jewel, and that in two or three days YOU
must even put that away and walk around
about the house and find it desolate, some
times feeling rebeious, and then 10
resolve to feel differently and to re-
solve on self control, and Just as you
have come to what you think is perfect self
control to suddenly come upon some little
coat or picture or shoe half worn out and
how all the floods OF the soul burst in one
wild wall of agony! Oh, my God, how hard
| 1t is to part, to close the eyes that never can
| look merry at our coming, to kiss the hanl
that will never again do us kindness. I
know religion gives great consolation in
such an hour, and we ought to be comfurted
but anyhow and anyway you make it it is
awful
On steamboat wharf and ut rail car win
dow we may smile when we say farewell, but
| these goodbys at the deathbed-they lust
| take hold of the heart with iron pinchers
and tear it out by the roots until all the
fibers culver and curl in the torture and
drop thick blood. These separations are
| VINE presses, into which our hearts, like red
| clusters, are thrown, and then trouble turns
the wlndlass round and round until we are
utterly crushed and have no more capacity
to suffer, and we stop crying because we
have wept ali our tears
On every street. on every doorstep, by
every couch, there have been partings, But
once past the heavenly portals, and YOU are
through with such scenes forever. In that
land there are many hand caspinps and em-
bracings, but only in recognition. That
great home circle never breaks. Once find
your comrades there, and you have them
forever. No Grape floats from the door Of
that bissiul residence. No cleft, hillside
where the 1pni sIppn All au,ka mid,