Connecticut western news., 1898-05-26
TANTALIZING TALK.
JOBS CoMFoRTERS THE SUBJECT OF
 DR. TAIMAGE'S SERMON.

God Let Sin Ccme Into the World.
 Those Who Have Not Known Trouble
 Lack Sympathy-Preparstion For Glory. ICopyright. 1898. by American Press Asso-
 ciation.l
 WASHINGTON, May 22.-The awk- ward and irritating mode of trying to comfort people i'll trouble is here set forth by Dr. Talmage, and a better way of dealing with broken hearts is recommended; text, Job xvi. 3, "Mis- erable eomforters arc 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 world? It is question I often hear dis cussed, but never satisfactorily answer ed God made the world fair and beau tiful at the start. If our first parents had not sinned in Eden, they might have gone out of that garden and found 50 paradises all around the earth-Eu- rope, Asia, Africa, North and South America-so many flower gardens or orchards of fruit, redolent and luscious I suppose that when God poured out the Gihon and the Hiddekel he poured ont 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 he not keep them back? Why not every cloud roseate, and every step joy, and every sound music, and all the ages Q long jubilee of sinless men and sinless women? God can make a rose as easily as he can make thorn. Why, then, the predominance of thorns? He can make good, fair, ripe fruit as we'll as gnarled and sour fruit Why so much, then, that 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 lei sure instead of this tug and toll and tussle for a livelihood? will tell you why God let sin come into the world when get on the other side of the riv- CT of death. That is the place where such questions will be answered and such mysteries solved. He who this side that river attempts to answer the ques- tion only illustrates his own ignorance and incompetency. All 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.
 Comforting the Troubled.
 More people under the ground than on 1t. The graveyards in vast majority. The 5000 winters have made more scars than the (, 1000 summers can cover up. Trouble has taken the tender heart of this world in its two rough hands and pinched it until the nations vail with the agony. If all the mounds of grave yards 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 a world like this, the grandest occupation is that of giv- ing condolence The holy science of i'm parting comfort to the troubled 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 we'll, and are very intelligent, and yet be able truthfully to say to them in your days of trouble, Miserable com forters are ye all "
 remark, in the first place, that very voluble people are incompetent for the work of giving comfort Bildad and Eliphaz 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 afflict- ed, 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. Silence! Do you ex- pect with thin court plaster of words to heal a wound deep as the soul? Step very gently around about 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, 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 ...l,l <~R kt,1 and they come in and they say, Let us see it.' And the bandage is pulled off, and this one and that one must feel it and see how much it is swollen, and there are irritation and inflammation and exasperation where there ought to be healing and cooling. The surgeon comes in and says: What does all this mean? You have no business to touch those bandages. That wound will never heal unless you lot it alone" So there are souls broken 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 sympa thize, and they say: "Show us now the 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 of there, leaving ghastly wound that the balm of Gods grace had already begun to heal. Oh, let no loquacious people, with ever rat tling tongues, go into the homes of the distressed!
 Weakness of Philosophy.
 Again, remark that all those per sons are incompetent to give any kind of comfort who act merely as worldly philosophers. They come ill 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 ill post mortem examinations. Now, away with all human philosophy at such a time hok l tc hot f.,