The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-05-27
TANTALIZING TALK.
jobs COMFORTERS THE
OF DIR. TALMAGE,S SERMON.
On the Other Side we Shall Learn Why
God Let Sin Come Into the World.
Those who Have Not nown Trouble
Lack Sympathy - Preparation for
Ens

Those who Have Not roubl
Lack Sympathy Preparation for
Glory.
Copyright, 1898, by American Press As
sociation)
washington. May 2-The awkward and
Irritating mode of trying to comfort peo-
pie in trouble is here set forth by DIR.
Talmage. and a better way Of dealing
with broken hearts is recommended;
text, JOB xvi, 2, Miserable comforters
are ye ALL"
The man Of Uz had a 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
MIN was the tantalizing talk of those who
ought to nave 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
word? 1T is a question i often hear dis
cussed. but never satisfactorily answer
11ful at the start. If our first parents
had not sinned in Eden, they might
nave gone out of that garden and found
fifty paradises all around the earth-Eu-
America-so many flower gardens or or
chards of fruit, redolent and luscious. l
suppose that when God poured out the
Gfhon 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 SO? God had the power
to keep back sin and woe. Why did ne
not keep them back? Why not every
cloud rOsease, and every step a joy, and
every sound music, and all the ages a
long jubilee of SinlesS men and Sinless
women? God can make a rose as easily
as he can make a thorn. Why, then, the
predominance of thOrns? He can make
good, fair, ripe fruit as we'll as gnarled
IS gnarled and sour? 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 a liveli-
mood? | will tell you why God let sin
come into the w~orld-When l get on the
other side of the river of death. That is
the place where such questions will be
answered and such mysteries solved. He
who this side that river attempts to an
swer the question only illustrates his
own ignorance and incompentency. All l
Know is one great fact, and that is that
a herd of woes has come in upon us.
trampling down everything fair and
beautiful. A sword at the gate of Eden
and a sword at every gate
COMFORTING THE TROUBLED.
More people under the ground than on
it. The graveyards in vast majority. The
W "IlNOA IdN a III SD lIdH
the 5000 summers can cover up. Trouble
has taken the tender heart of this world
IN its two rough hands and pinched it
until the nations wall with the agony.
If all mounds Of g~raveyards 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 10Y I have to say that, in a
world like this, the grandest occupation
is that of giving coincidence. The holy
science of imparting comfort to the trou-
bled we ought all Of us 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 intelli-
gent, and yet be able truthfully to say
to them in your days Of trouble, "Miser-
able comfOrters are We ALL
! remark, in the first place. that very
Voiuble people are incompetent for the
phaz had the gift of language, and with
their words almost bothered Jobs life
out. Alas for these voluble people that
go 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 af-
ter awhile. Silence! Do you expect with
a thin court plaster of words to heal q
wound deep as the soul? Step very gently
around about a broken heart. Talk very
softly around those whom God has be-
reft. Then go your way. Deep sympa-
thy has not much to say. A, firm grasp
of the hand, a compassionate look, just
one word that means as much as a whole
dictionary, and you have given perhaps,
all the comfort that a soul needs. A man
has a terrible wound in his arm. The
surgeon comes and binds it up. Now
he says, carry that arm in a sling and
be very careful of it. Let no one touch
it" But the neighbors have heard of
the accident. and they come in and they
say, Let us see it," And the bandage
is pulled off, and this one and that one
IN fool il and how ronl0h ! r jS
swollen, and there are irritation and in
ANIMATION and evaporation where there
ought to be healing and cooling: The sur
geon comes in and says: What does
all this mean? You have no business to
touch those bandages. That wound will
never heal unless you let it alone So
there are souls broker down in sorrow.
What they most want is rest, or very
careful and gentle treatment, but the
neighbors have heard of the bereavement
or of the loss. and they come in to sym
wound. What were his last words? Re-
hearse now the whole scene. How did
you feel when you found you were an
orphan" Tearing off the bandages here
and pulling them off there, leaving a
CHASTITY wound that the balm of Gods
grace had already begun to heal. Oh,
let no loQuacious people, with ever rat
fling tongues, go into the homes of the
distressed!
WEAKNESS OF PHILOSOPHY.
Again. L remark that all those persons
are. incompetent to give any kind of COM
fort who act merely as worldly philoso-
piers. They come in and say: why
this is what you ought to have expected.
The laws of nature must have their
way And then they get eloquent over
something they have seen in post mortem
examinations Now, away with all hu-
man philosophy at such a time! What
difference does it make to that father
and mother what disease their son died
of? He is dead, and it makes no differ
ence whether the trouble was in the cpl
gastric or ~hypogastric region. If the phi
losopher be of the stoical school. he Will
come and say: You ought to control
your feelings. You must not cry so. You
must cultivate a cooler temperament.
You must nave self reliance, self govern
ment, self control"-an iceberg reproving
a hyacinth for having a drop of dew in
its eye. A violinist has his instrument,
and he sweeps his fingers across the
strings, now evoking strains of joy and
now strains of sadness. He cannot play
all the tunes on one string. The human
soul is an instrument of a thousand