The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-05-23
PROPER COMFORTERS
Or. TALMAGE TELLS HOW TO HELP
PEOPLE IN TROUBLE.

A Better Way Of Dealing with Broken
Hearts - No Place For Cant and Much
Talking - Happiness Comes Through
Suffering.
Copyright. 1898, by American Press Asso-
ciatiOn.
WASHINGTON, May 22.-The awkward
and irritating mode of trying to comfort
people in trouble Is here set forth by DR..
Talmage, and better way of dealing with
broken hearts Is recommended; text, Job
xvi, Q, Miserable comforters are ye all. +"
The man of Uz had great many trials
the loss Of his family, the loss Of his
property, the loss of his health-but the
most exasperating thing that came upon
him was the tantalizing talk of those who
ought to have sympathized with him.
And looking around upon them, and
weighing what they had said, he utters
the words Of my text.
Why did God let sin come into the
worldp 1t Is q question often hear dis
cussed, but never satisfactorily answered.
God made the world fair and beautiful ut
the start. If our first parents had not
sinned in Eden, they might have gone out
of that garden and found 80 paradises all
around the earth-Europe, Asia, Africa,
North and South America-sO many flow
er gardens or orchards of fruit, redolent
and luscious. / suppose that when God
poured out the Gihon and the Hiddekel he
poured out at the same time the Hudson
and the Susquehanna. The whole earth
was very fair and beautiful to look upon.
Why did it not stay sop God had the pow
er to keep back sin and woe Why did he
not keep them back2 Why not every cloud
roseate, and every step joy, and every
sound music, and all the ages u long jubi-
Ice of sinless men and sinless women God
can make n rose as easily as he can make
thorn. Why, then, the predominancc Of
thornsp He can make good, fair, ripe
fruit as well as gnarled and sour fruit.
Why SO much, then, that is gnarled and
sour2 He can make men robust in health.
Why, then, are there SO many invalids?
Why not have for our whole race perpetual
leisure instead Of this tug and toll and
tussle for livelihood Twill tell you why
God let sin come into the world-when /
get ON the other side of the river of death.
That is the place where such questions
will be answered and Hsuch mysteries
solved. He who this side that river at
tempts to answer the question only illus
trates his own ignorance and incompe-
tency. All I know is one great fact, and
that is, that herd Of woes has come in
upon us, trampling down everything fair
and beautiful. A sword at the gate Of
Eden and sword at every gate.
More people under the ground than on
it. The graveyarfs in vast majority. The
univ hou In
the 5000 summers can cover up. Trouble
has taken the tender heart of this world
in its two rough hands and pinched 1t I'M
til tho nations wall with the agony. If all
the mounds Of graveyards that have been
raised were put side by side, you might
step on them and nothing else going all |
around the world, and around again, and
around again. These are the facts. And
now have to say that In world like
this the grandest occupation is that of Civ
ing coincidence. The holy science of i'm
parting comfort to the troubled we ought
all Of lis to study. There are many of you
who could look around upon some of your
very best friends, who wish you well and
are very intelligent, and yet be able truth
fully to say to them in your days Of trou-
bic, Miserable comforters are ye ALL"
No Comfort In Much Talking.
remark, in the first place, that very
voluble people are incompetent for the
work Of giving comfort. Bildad and Eli
phaz had the gift Of language, and with
their words almost bother Jobs life out.
Alas for these voluble people that 10
among the houses of the afflicted and talk
and talk and talk and talk. They rehearse
their own sorrows, and then they tell the
poor sufferers that they feel badly now,
but they will feel worse after awhile. ST.
lencei Do you expect with thin court
plaster Of words to heal q wound deep as
the soulp Step very gently around about
q broken heart. Talk very softly around
those whom God has bereft. Then go your
way. Deep sympathy has not much to
say A firm grasp Of the hand q compass
sionate look, just one word that means as
much as q whole dictionary, and you have
given perhaps all the comfort that soul
needs. A man has terrible wound in his
arm. The surgeon comes and binds it up.
Now" he says, carry that arm in
sling and be very careful of it, Let no one
touch It," But the neighbors have heard
If the accident, and they come in, and
they say, "Let us see it," And the band
age is pulled off, and this one and that one
must feel 1t and see how much it Is swol-
ZEN, and there are irritation and inflamma-
ton and evaporation where there ought
10 DO healing and cooling. The surgeon
zones in and says: "What does all this
men? You have no business to touch those
)andagcs. That wound will never heal
Unless you let it alone" So there are souls
broken down in sorrow. What they most
want Is rest or very careful and gentle
reatment but the neighbors have heard
# the bereavement or of the loss, and they
,ome in to sympathize, and they say:
Show us now the wound. What were his
asst words? Rehearse now the whole scene.
low did you feel when you found you
we're an orphanP" Tearing off the band
ges here and pulling them off there, leav-
ng a CHASTITY wound that the balm of Gods
race had already begun to heal Oh, lot
10 loquacious people, with ever rattling
ongucs, go into the homes Of the dis
ressedl
Again, remark that all those persons
re incompetent to give any kind of COM
ort who act merely as worldly philoso-
hers They come in and say: "Why, this is
THAT you ought to have expected. The
Two VI IhuSU utNc way
I'D then they get eloquent over some-
hing they have seen in postmortem ex-
limitations. Now, away with all human
philosophy at such a timel What differ
nee does it make to that father and moth
: what disease their son died OFF He Is
cad, and it makes no difference whether
10 trouble was in the epigastric or hypo-
astric region. If tho philosopher be Of
10 stoical school, he will come and say:
You ought to control your feelings You !
lust not cry so. You must cultivate !
ooler temperament. You must have self c
,liance, self government, self CONTROL J
n iceberg reproving hyacinth for hay q
lg drop Of dew in its eye. A violinist /
IS his instrument, and he sweeps his fin '
ers across the strings, now evoking I
rains Of joy and now strains of sadness. S
Q cannot play all the tunes on one string. {
he human soul Is an instrument Of O 4
lousand strings, and all sorts of emo
ons were made to play on it. Now an Il
lthem, now dirge. 1t Is no evidence Of l.
eakness when one is overcome OF sorrow. II
lmund Burke WAS found in the pasture II
I'D with his arms around q horses neck, k