The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-08-30
DIVINE COMFORT.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses Upon
Dependence on God.
The Ever-F'resent Help OF the Human
Family when They can Upon
Him in Time of Trial
or AGlction.


Comfort" is selected for publication
this week. 1t is based on the text:
And God shall wipe all tears from their eyes.
Rev. VII, IL
Riding feross a western prairie, wild
flowers up TO the hub of the carriage
wheel, and while long distance from
any shelter, there came a sudden
shower. and while the rain was falling
in torrents, the sun was shining as
brightly rs / ever saw it shine; and l
thought what a 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 Pauls
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
record as to the moment when they
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 a great ado about lis grief; but
in all the vases of Heaven there is not
one of Alexander's tears. l speak of
the tears of Gods children. Alasl mel
they are falling all the time. In sum-
mer you sometimes hear the growing
thunder, and you see there is a storm
miles away; but you know from the
drift of the clouds that it will not
come anywhere near you, 30, though
it may he all bright around about you,
there is a shower of trouble somewhere
all the time. Tearsl Tearsi
What is the use Of them, anyhow
Why not substitute laughter Why
not make this a world where
all the people are well and
eternal strangers to pain and
aches2 What is the use of an eastern
storm when we might have perpetual
nSr'wester? Why, when a family is put
together, not have them all stay, or If
they must be transplanted to make
other homes, then have them all live?
the family record telling a 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 a smile, or
success, or con graduation;
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 MP of salt and lime
and other component parts; but he
misses the chief ingredients the acid
of a sOured life, the viperine sting of
bitter memory, the fragments of a
broken heart. l will tell YOU what a
tear is; it is agony in solution. Hear,
then, while l discourse of the uses of
trouble.
1. 1t is the design of trouble to keep
this world from being too attractive.
Something must he 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 were 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 ami have
your body disintegrated in the dust,
and your soul go out on a celestial ad-
venture, then you can go, but this
world is good enough for mel" You
might as well go to man who has
Just entered the Louvre at Paris, and
tell him 10 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 Reube=s 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
create a disgust for our surround
logs. How shall lie do it? He
can not afford TO deface His
horizon, or to tear off fiery
ranel from the sunset, or TO subtract
an anthcr from the water lily, or to
banish the pungent aroma from the
nlignonette, or to drag the robes of
the morning In mire. You can not ex-
Eect n Christopher Wren to mar his
own st. Paul's cathedral, or a Michael
Angelo to dash out his own Last
Judgment" or Handel to discord his
Israel in Egypt" and you can not ex-
Iect God to spoil the architecture and
music of His own world. How, then,
are we to be made willing to leave?
liere is where trouble comes in.
After a man has had a good deal of
trou BILE, he says: well. / am ready
to go. If there is a house somewhere
whose roof doesn't leak, would like
TO live there. If there is an atmos-
phere somewhere that does not dis
tTess the lungs, l would like to breathe
1t. IL there is a society somewhere
where there is no tittle-tattle, would
like TO live there. If there is a home
circle somewhere where / can find NV
lost friends, j would like to go there"
He used to read the first part of the
Bible chiefly, now he reads the last
part of the Bible chiefly. Why has
he changed Genesis for Revelation?
All! he used to be anxious chiefly
TO know how this world was
made, and all about the geo.
logical construction. Now he is
chiefly anxious to know how the next
world was made, and how if looks, and
who live there, and how they dress.
lie reads Revelation ten times now
where he reads Genesis once. The
old story: "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the EARTH"
does not thrill him half as much as