The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-08-28
USES OF AFFLICTION.
DR.. TALMAGE FINDS CONSOLATION
IN GODS WORD.

A Sermon From the Very Appropriate
Text. And God Shall Wipe Away Ali
Tears From Their Eyes'-The Comforts
OF Religion.
New YORK, Aug. 1S.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage could not have selected a more
appropriate subject than the one of
today, considering the bereavement
that has come upon him and his house
hold. He had already prepared his
sermon for today, selecting as topic
Comfort" and taking as his text,
"And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, "nRevelations vii, 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 a sudden
shower, and while the rain was falling
in torrents the sunwas shining asbright,
ly as I ever saw itshine, and I 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
labeled as containing tears, and Mary's
tears, and Paul's tears, and Christ
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 CEN
sus is taken of them, and there is re-
cord as to the moment when they are
born and as to the place of their grave.
Tears of bad men are not kept. Al
exander 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 rot
one of Alexanders tears. I 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 it
may be all bright around about you
there is shower of trouble somewhere
at 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 perpetual nor'wester2 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 story ofmarriages and
births, but Of no deaths2 Why not
have the harvests chase each other
without fatiguing toll? Why the hard
pillow. the hard crust, the hard strug-
gle? It is easy enough to explain a
smile, or success or a 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 it is made up 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. I will tell you what a
tear is; it is agony in solution. Hear
then. while I 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
ing to quit this exietence. If it were
not for trouble this world would be a
good enough heaven for me You
and I would be willing to make a lease
Of this life for a hundred million years
if there were no trouble. The earth
cushioned and upholstered and pilSared
and chandeliered with such expense,
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 ad-
venture, then you can 60, 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 Rubenses and Raph-
aels here that I haven't looked at yet. "
No man wants to 60 out of this
world or. out of any house until he has
a better house. To cure this wish to
stay here God must somehow create a
disgust for our surroundings. How
shall he do it, He cannot afford to de-
face his horizon, or to tear off a fiery
panel from the sunset, 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
a Christopher Wren 10 mar his own
st. Paul's Cathedral, or Michael An
gelo to dash out his own Last Judg-
or Handel to discord his Is
rael In Egypt" and you cannot ex-
pect God to spoil the architecture and
music of his own world. How, then,
are we to be made willing to leave2
Here is where trouble comes in.
After man has had a good deal of
trouble he says: We'll, l am ready to
90. If there is a house somewhere
whose roof doesn't leak, I would like
to live there. If there is an atmos-
phere somewhere that does not distress
the lungs, would like to breathe it.
If there is a society somewhere where
there is no title tattle, l would like to
live there. If there is home circle
somewhere where I can find my lost
friends, ] would like 10 go there F"
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 its geological construction.
Now he js chiefly anYio1S to know