Connecticut western news., 1895-08-22
A DIVINE COMFORTER
GOD WIPES AWAY THE TEARS OF
 THE AFFLICTED CHRISTIAN.


 THE AFFLICTED CHRISTIAN.
 Dr. Talmage Breaches on the Uses of Be- reavement a. a Preparation For the Flu ture Life-God's Loving Kindness and Tender Sympathy.
 NEW YORK, Aug. 1S.-Rev. Dr. Tal- mage could not have selected more ap propriate subject than the one of today, considering the bereavement that has come upon him and his household He had already prepared his sermon for to- day, selecting as topic Comfort, and taking as his text, And God shall wipe away Ill tears from their eyes, ," Revelation vii, 17.
 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 tor rents, the sun was shining as brightly as I ever saw it shine, and thought what beautiful spectacle this is 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 la beled as containing tears, and Mary's tears, and Paul's tears, and Christ's tears, and the harvest 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 ,heir grave.
 Tears of bad men are not kept Alex ander in his sorrow had the hair clip ped 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. I speak of the tears of God s children Alas, me, they are falling all the time! In summer 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 it may be all bright around about you, there is a shower of trouble somewhere all the time Tears Tearsl
 Tears and Laughter.
 What is the use of them anyhow? Why not substitute laughter? Why not make this a world where all the people are we'll and eternal strangers to pain and aches? What is the use of an east ern storm when we might have per petual nor 'wester? Why, when 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 story of mar riages and births, but of no death? Why not have the harvests chase each other without fatiguing toil? Why the hard pillow, the hard crust, the hard strug- gle? It is easy enough to explain 8 smile, or a success, or congratulation, but come now and bring all your dic- tionaries, and all your philosophies, and all your religions. and help me explain a tear. A chemist will tell you that 1t is made up of salt and lime and other component parts, but he misses the chief inRredients-the acid of a soured life, the viperine sting of bitter memory, the fragments of broken heart. will tell you what tear is. It is agony in solution. Hear, then, while discourse of the uses of trouble:
 First, it is the design of trouble to keep this world from being too attract i've. 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 100, 900, 900 years if there were no trouble. The earth cush- toned and upholstered and pillared and chandehered with such expense, no story of other worlds could enchant us.
 We would say: "Let we'll enough alone. If you want to die and have your body disintegrated ill the dust and your soul go out on celestial adventure, then you can go, but this world is good enough for mel" You might as we'll go to man who has just entered the Louvre at Paris and tell him to hasten of to the picture galleries of Venice or Florence Why" he would say, 'What is the use of my going there? There are Rembrandts and Rubenses and Raphaels 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 disgust for our surroundings. How shall he do it! He cannot afford to deface his horizon, or to tear off fiery panel from the sun set, or to subtract an anther from the water lily, or to banish the pungent aroma from the mignonette, or to drag the robes of the morning in mire. You cannot expect Christopher Wren to mar his own St. Paul's cathedral, or a Michael Angelo to dash out his own Hast Judgment, or Handel to dis cord his "Israel in Egypt" and you cannot expect God to spoil the architec- ture and music of his own world. How, then, are we to be made willing tt leave? Here is where trouble comes in.
 After man has had good deal o1 trouble he says: Well, am ready to go. If there is a house somewhere whose roof doesn't leak, would hke to live tbfe. If there is an atmosphere somewhere that does not distress the lungs, 1 would like to breathe it.
 If thero IS a society somewhere where there is no little tattle, would like tc live there. If there is home circle somewhere where I can find my lost friends, would like to go there.' Ht used to read the first part of the Bible chiefly, now he reads the last part o1 the Bible chiefly. Why has he changed Genesis for Revelation? An, he used tt be anxious chiefly to know how thi. world was made, and all about its geo logical construction. Now he is chiefly anxious to know how the next world was made, and how it looks, and wht live there, and how they dress H, seads Revelation ten times now wher he reads Genesis once. The old story "In the beginning God created tn