The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-08-31
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Sand God Shall Wipe Away All
Tears From Their Eyes"
the Heavenly Comforter Who IL Always
Near and Ready to Aid the At
1ictcd--The Benefits OF
Earthly Trouble.

tion this week, Comfort" basing Il
on the text:
And God shall wipe oil tears from their eyes
Rev. VIII, II.
Riding across a western prairie, wild
flowers up to the hub of the carriage
wheel. and while long distance from
any shelter, there came sudden
shower. and while the rain was falling
In torrents, the sun was shining as
brightly as ever saw It shine; and
thought what beautiful spectacle
this isl So the tears of the Bible are
not midnight storm, but rain on
pansied prairies in Gods sweet and
golden sunlight. You remember that
bottle which David labeled as contain
ing tears, and Mary's tears, and Paul's
tears, and Christ's tears, and the har-
vest of JOY that is to spring from the
sowing of tears. God mixes them
God rounds them. God shows them
where to fall God exhales them. A
census is taken of them, and there is a
are born. and as to the place of their
grave.
Tears of bad men are not kept.
Alexander, in his sorrow, had the hair
clipped from his horses and mules, and
made great ado about his grief; but
In all the vases of Heaven there is not
one of Alexander's tears. / speak of
the tears of Gods children. Alas! me!
they are falling all the time. In sum-
mer you sometimes hear the growing
thunder, and you see there is storm
miles away; but you know from the
drift of the clouds that it will not
come anywhere near you. So, though
II may be all bright around about you,
there is a sho wer of trouble somewhere
all the time. Tears! Tears!
What is the use of them, anyhow?
Why not substitute laughter? Why
not make this world where
all the people are well and
eternal strangers to pain and
aches? What is the use of an eastern
storm when we might have a perpetual
nor'wester? Why, when family is put
together, not have them all stay, or il
they must be transplanted to make
other homes, then have them all live?
the family record telling story of
marriages and births, but of no deaths.
Why not have the harvests chase each
other without fatiguing toll? Why
the hard pillow, the hard crust,
the hard struggle? 1t is easy
enough to explain smile, or
a success, or congratulation;
but, come now, and bring all your
dictionaries and all your PHILOSOPHERS
and all your religions, and help me
explain a tear. A chemist will tell
you that it is made up of salt and lime
and other component parts; but he
misses the chief ingredients-the acid
of n soured life, the viperine sting Of
bitter memory. the fragments of a
broken heart. / will tell YOU what a
tear is; it is agony in solution. Hear,
then, while l discourse of the uses of
trouble.
/. 1t is the design of trouble to keep
this world from being too attractive.
Something must be done to make us
willing to quit this existence. If it
were not for trouble this world would
be good enough Heaven for me. You
and would be willing to take lease
Of this life for hundred million years
If there wers no trouble. The earth
cushioned and upholstered and pill
Jared and chandeliered with such ex-
pense, no story of other worlds could
enchant us.
We would say: "Let well enough
alone. If you want to die and have
your body disintegrated in the dust.
and your soul go out on celestial adj
venture, then you can go, but this
world is good enough for me-" You
might as well go to man who has
just entered the Louvre at Paris, and
tell him to hasten off to the picture
galleries of Venice or Florence.
Why" he would say, what is the
use of my going there? There are
Rembrandts and Reubens and Ra-
phaels here that haven't looked at
yet" No man wants to go out Of this
world. or out of any house, until he
has better house. To cure this wish
to stay here, God must somehow
create a disgust for our surround
ings. How shall He do it? He
can not afford to deface His
horizon, or to tear off fiery
panel from the sunset. or to subtract
an anJner IrOtn tnc WdLcT lily. OF 10
Danish the pungent aroma from the
mignonette, or to drag the robes OF
the morning in mire. You can not ex-
pect a Christopher Wren to mar his
own st. Paul's cathedral, or a Michael
Angelo tn dash out his own Last
Judgment" or Handel to discord his
"Israel in Egypt" and you can not ex'
pect God to spoil the architecture and
music of His own world. How. then
are we to be made willing to leave?
Here is where trouble comes in.
After man has had good deal Of
trouble, he says: well. / am ready
to go. II there is a house somewhere
whose roof doesn't leak, would like
to live there. IL there is an atmos
phere somewhere that does not dis
tress the lungs, would like to breathe
1t. IL there is society somewhere
where there Is no tittle-tattle, would
like to live there. If there is n home
circle somewhere where can find my
lost friends, would like to go there.
He used to read the first part of tn,
Bible chiefly, now he reads the las
part of the Bible chiefly. Why hal
he changed Genesis for Revel alton
II. HI III.