Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-11-16
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVIEE'S ST..
DAY SERHON.
Subject: "Victory Over Pain"

~ cH"nge your rCSiience to any CITY is
| "What is the health Of the place? Is il
| shaken Of terrible disorders? What are the
| bills Of mortality? What is the death rate
| How high rises the thcrmOmeter?" And am
| not reasonable in asking, What are the
/ sanitary conditions OF the heavenly city into
| which we all hope to mov-? Ny text an
| swers it by saying, ''Neither shall there be
| anv more pain"
First, remark, there will he no pain OF
dlsappointr ont in heaven. If could put
| the picture of what you anticipated of life
| when you L2gan il beside the picture OF
what you have realized, would find great
| difference. You have stumbled upon great
| dlsappointments. Perhaps you expected
fiches and you have worked hard enough
| 70 gam them; YOU have planned and
| worried and persiste until your hands were
worn. and your brain WAS rackad and YOUR
| heart tainted, ana at the end of this long
| STRIFE with misfortune you find that If YOU
| nave not been positively defeated it has been
a drawn battle. tits still tug and tussle,
| thls yoar losing what you gained last,
| financial uncertainties, pulling down faster
man you build. For perhaps twenty or
thirty years YOU have been running your
/ craft straight into the teeth of the wind
ferhaps you have had domestic disappOint-
ment Your children, upon whose educa-
| ton you lavshed your hard earned dollars,
have not turned out as expected. NCtWith-
standing all your counseIs and prayers and
palnstaking, they will not do right MANY
good father has had bad boy. Ahsalom
trod on David's heart That mother never
imagined all this as twenty or thirty years
ago she sat by that chld's cradle
Your life has been a chapter of disap-
pOlntments. But nome with me and l will
show you different scene. By Gods grace
entering the other city. you will never again
have blaste hope. The most iuhilant of
expectations will not reach the realization,
Coming to the top of one hill OF JOY, there
VIII be other heights rising up in the vision.
rms song OF transport will but lift YOU to
higher anthems, the sweetest choral but a
prelude to more tremendous harmony, all
things better than you had anticipated-the
rc"e 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, but many of you are unrested,
some from overWork, and some from dull
ness of trade, the Inter more exhaustinc
than the former. Your ankles ache, Your
spirits flag. you want rest. Are these wheels
always to turn, these shuttles to fly, these
axes to hew, these shovels to delve these
pens TO ny, thosn books to be posted, these
gOols to be sold?
Ah. the great holiday approaches. No
more curse of taskmakers. No more stoop-
ing until the back aches. No more calcula-
ton until the brain is bewildered. No more
pain. No more carpentry, for the mansions
are all luIt. No moro masonry for the
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 Re no more pain of
poverty. 1t is a hard thing to be really
poor; 10 have your coat wear out and no
money to get another; to have your flour
barrel empty and nothing to bL bread with
for your children; to live in an unhealthy
row and no means to 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 tie world aui you not have
anything to help them in starting, with
mini capable of research and high contem-
platlon to be perpetually fixed on questions
OF mere livelihood.
Poets try to throw h romance about the
poor mans col. Sut 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
dlSadVantageS-nO a'mShOuses, for they are
all princes; no lents to pay, for the resi-
dence Is grituttOuS no garments to buy, Jog
the robes are divinely fashioned no seats in
church for poor folks, but equality among
temple worshipers; no hovels, no hard
ctusts, no insufficient apparel. "They shall
hunGerno more. neither shall the sun light
Oh 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 tuil in the face for the last
time. We VIII be sitting together some even
inS, or walking together some day. and
nothing will be unusual in our appear
ance, or our conversation but God
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
Oh, the long agony OF earthly separationl
1t 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 weaker, and the
breath IS shorter and make outcry to God
to Ielp 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 the
JeWet. ani that in two or three DAYS YOU
must wen Put that away and walk around
about the house and find it desolaIe, some
times feeling rebeI!ious, 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
II 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 a kindness. 1
know religion gives great consolation in
such ali hour, and we ought to be comfurted,
but anyhow and anyway you make it it is
aw ul
On steamboat wharf and at rail car win
dow we may smile when we say farewell but
these gOOdbys at the deathbed-they lust
take hold of the he3rt with iron pinchers
and tear it out by the roots until all the
hbers culver and curl in the torture and
drop thick blood. These separations are
wine presses, into which our hearts, like red
clusters, are thrown, and then trouble turns
the win!lass 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 ara many hand claspings and en-
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
where the dead sleep. All awake, wide
awake, and forever. No pushing out of
emiSrant ship for foreign shore. No tOlling
OF bell as the funeral passes. Whole genera
tiOns in glory Hand to hand, heart TO
heart, JOY to JOY. No creeping up the limbs
OF he death chill. the feet cold until hot
f1annels cannot warm them. No rattle of
sepu chral gates. No parting, no pain.
Further, the heavenly city will have DO
PAIN OF body. The race is pierced with
sharp distresses. The surgeons knlIe must
cut. The dentists pincher5 must pull. Pain
is fought with p";v,. The world is a hos
p1taI. Scores OF diseases, like vuItures
contending for a CARCASS, struggle as to
which shall have it. Our natures sre 1nh-
nitely susceptible to suffering. The eye, the
foot, the hand, with immense capacity o.
anguish.
The little child meets at the entrance OF
life manifold diseases. You hear the shrlll
cry of infancy as the lancet strikes into the
swollen gum. You see its head in consum-