The Yale expositor., 1895-08-23


shining as brightly as I ever saw 1t
shine; and thought, What beautiful
spectacle this is! So the tears OF the
Bible are not midnight storm, but rain
on pansled 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
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. Alex
ander, in his sorrow, had the hair
clipped from his horses and mules, and
made a great ado about his grief; bu!'
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 a storm
miles away; but you know from the
drift OF the clouds that IL will not come
anywhere near you. So, though 1t may
be all bright around you, there is a
shower Of trouble somewhere all the
time. Tears! Tears!
What is the use of them, anyhow?
Why not substitute laughter? Why
not make this 4 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
a 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 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? II is easy enough
TO explain a 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 tear. A chemist will
tell you that IL Is made up of salt and
lime and other component parts: but he
misses the chief ingredients-the acid
OF soured life. the viperine sting of a
bitter memory, the fragments of a
broken heart. l will tell you what a
tear is; 1t is agony in solution. Hear
then. while l discourse of the uses Of
trouble.
First. 1t Is the design OF trouble to
keep this world from being too attrac-
tive. Something must be done to make
US willing to quit this existence. II 1t
were not for trouble this world would
be good enough heaven for me. You
and / would be willing to take a lease
Of this life for hundred million years
If there were no trouble. The earth
cushioned and upholstered and pi.lared
and chandeliered with such expense
no story OF other worlds could enchant
us.
We would say: LET we'll enough
slone If you want to die and have
your body disintegrated in the dust.
and your soul go out on a celestial adj
venture, then you can go, but this
world Is good enough for mew You
might as we'll go to a 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 nv
going there? There are Rembrandts
and Rubens and Raphaels here that I
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 sur
roundings. How shall he do it? He
cannot afford 10 deface his horizon. or
to tear off fiery panel from the sun
set, or to subtract an anther from the
water-lily, or to Danish 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
Last Judgment" or a 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 to
leave? Here is where the trouble comes
In.
After a man has had a good deal Of
trouble, he says: well, am ready to
go. II there is a house somewhere
whose roof doesn't leak, I would like to
live there. If there is an atmosphere
somewhere that does not distress the
lungs would like TO breathe It,
If there is a society somewhere where
there is no tittle-tattle. would like to
live there. If there In a home circle
somewhere where / can find my lost
friends, 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? ALI he used to be
anxious chiefly to know how this world
was made, and all about Its geological
80 80 h. IL ohfoAu