The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-11-21
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: ssvictory Over Pain"

TE1n Neither shall there be any more
pain. Revelation xxi, 4.
The first question that you ask when about
to change your residence to any city IS
"What Is the health Of the place? Is 1t
shaken OF terrible disorders? What are the
bills OF mortality? What is the death rate:
How high rises the thermometer" And am
I not reasonable In asking, What are the
sanitary conditions OF the heavenly city into
which we all hope to move? My text an
swers it by saying, "Neither shall there be
any more pain"
First, remark, there will be no pain OF
, disappointment In heaven. III could put
the picture Of what you anticipated OF life
when you began 1t beside the picture OF
what you have realized, would find great
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 hands were
worn, and your brain Was racked, and your
heart tainted, and at the end Of this long
strife with misfortune you find that II you
have not been positively defeated 1t has been
drawn battle. tits still tug and tussle,
this year losing what you gained last.
financial uncertainties, pulling down faster
than you build. For perhaps twenty or
thirty years you have been running your
craft straight into the teeth OF the wind.
Perhaps you have had domestic disappoint-
ment. Your children, upon whose educa-
don you laylshed 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 boy. Absalom
trod on David's heart. That mother never
imagined all this as twenty or thirty years
ago sine sat by that child's cradle.
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 jubilant OF
expectations will not reach the realization.
Coming to the top of one hill Of Joy, there
will be other heights rising up in the vision.
This song of transport will but lift you to
higher anthams, the sweetest choral but
prelude to more tremendous harmony, all
things better than you had anticipated-ths
robe richer, the crown brighter, the temple
grander, the throng mightier.
Further, remark, there will be no pain
OF WEAKNESS. It may be many hours since
you quit work, but many OF you are unrested,
some from overwork, and some from dull
ness Of trade, thu latter more exhausting
than the former. Your ankles ache, your
spirits flag, you want rest. Are these wheels
always to turn. these shuttles to fly, these
axes tonNw, these shovels to delye, these
pens to Aese books to be posted, these
goods I'd SS4old?
Ah, the great holiday approaches. No
moe curse OF taskmakers. No more stoop-
Ing until the back aches. No more calcula-
tion until the brain is bewildered. No more
pain, No more carpentry, for the mansions
are all built. No more masonry, for the
walls are all reared. No more diamond cut
Z 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 be no more pain OF
poverty. It Is hard thing to be really
poor; to have your coat wear out and no
money to get another; to have your -four
J, barrel empty and nothing to buy bread with
for your children; to live in an unhealthy
row and no means to change your habita-
mysterious disease and 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 q
mind capable Of research and high contem-
Splation to be perpetually fixed on questions
OF mere livelihood.
Poets try to throw a romance about the
poor mans cot, but there Is no romance
about It. Poverty Is hard, cruel, unrelent-
Ing. But Lazarus walked up without his
rags and his diseases, and so all OF Christ's
poor wake up at last without any of their
disadvantages-no almshouses, for they are
all princes; no rents 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 worshipsrs no novels, no hard
crusts, no insufficient apparel. "They shall
hungerno 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. We
look each other full In the face for the last
time. We will be sitting together some even
ing, or walking together some day, and
nothing will be unusual in our appear
ance, or our conversation, but God
knows that 1t 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 1t is the last time.
oh, the long agony OF earthly separation |!
, II Is awful to stand in your nursery fighting
death back from the couch Of your child, and
try to hold fast the little one, and see all the
time that he Is getting wesker, and the
breath Is shorter, and make outcry to God
TO help us and to the doctors to save him,
and see it Is OF no avail, and then 10 know
that his spirit Is gone and that you have
nothing left but the casket that held the
Jewel, and that in two or three days you
must even put that away and walk around
about the house and find 1t desolate, some
times feeling rebellious, and then to
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
It Is to part. to close the eyes that never can
look merry at our coming. to kiss the hand
that will never again do US kindness. I
know religion gives great consolation in
such an hour, and we ought to be comforted, I,
but anyhow and anyway you make 1t 1t is
awful.
On steamboat wharf and at rail car win
dow We may smile when we say farewell, but
these goodbys at the deathbed-they just
take hold of the heart with iron pinchers
and tear 1t out by the roots until all the
fbers quiver and curl in the torture and
drop thick blood. These separations are
4. wine presses, into which our hearts, like red
clusters, are thrown, and then trouble turns
the windlass round and round until we are
utterly crushed and have no more capacity
to suffer, and we stop crying because we
: have wept all 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 c)aspings 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 ol
kha+ hliaafu, rea1dence No cleft hillside