The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-06-04
JOBS TRIBULATIONS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Points Out Some
Valuable Lessons.
The Inestimabie Worth of silent Sym
pathy-Uses of Adversely God Sends
Our Troubles In Love-Bless-
ings In Disguise.

Rev. T. De Witt Talmage. in the
following sermon, addresses himself to
those who loquaciously try to comfort
people in trouble. The text is:
Miserable comforters are ye all-Job XVII.
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 sym.
pathized 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? 1t is question I often hear
discussed, but never satisfactorily
answered. God made the world fair
and beautiful at the start. If our first
parents had not sinned in Eden they
might have gone out of that garden
and found so paradises all around the
earth : Europe, Asia, Africa, North
and South America-so many flower
gardens or orchards of fruit, redolent
and luscious. l suppose when God
poured out the Gihon, and the Hidde-
KEEL, He poured out, at the same time,
the Hudson and the Susquehanna; the
whole earth was very fair and beauti-
full to look upon. Why did 1t 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 long
jubilee of sinless men and sim
less women? God can make a
rose as easily as He can make a
til rn. Why, then, the predominance
of Jhorns? He can make good, fair
ripe fi;.it as well as gnarled and sour
fruit. Why SO much, then, that is
gnarled and sour? lie can make men
robust in health. Why, then, are there
SO many invalids? Why not have our
whole race perpetual leisure instead OF
this tug, and toll, and tussle for live
lihood? will tell you why God let sin
come into the world-when l get on
the other side of the river of death.
That is the place where such ques-
tions will be answered and such mys-
teries solved. He who this side that
river attempts to answer the question
only illustrates his own Ignorance and
incompetency. All l 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.
remark, in the first place, that very
voluble people are incompetent for the
work of giving comfort. Bildad and
Elphaz had the gift of language and
with their words almost bothered Jobs
life out. Alas. for these voluble peo-
pie that go among the houses of the
afflicted, ard 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 expect with a thin
court-plaster of words to heal wound
deep as the soul? Step very gently
around about u broken heart. Talk
very softly around those whom God
has bereft Then go your way. Deep
sympathy has not much to say. A
ate look, just one word that means as
much as a whole dictionary, and you
have given, perhaps, all the comfort
that soul needs. A man has terri
BILE 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 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 must feel it and see
how much it is swollen, and there is
irritation, and Inflammation, and ex-
ASPIRATION, where there ought to be
healing and cooling. The surgeon
comes in and says: "What does this
mean? You have no business to touch
those bandages. 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 treatment; but the
neighbors have heard of the bereave-
ment, or of the loss, and they come in
to sympathize, and they say: "Show
as now the wound. What were his
last words? Rehearse 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-rattling
tongues, go into the homes of the dis
tressed!
Again l remark that all those per-
sons are incompetent to give any kind
of comfort who act merely as worldly
philosophers. 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 human philosophy
at such a time. What difference does
1t make to that father and mother
what disease their son died of? He is
dead, and 1t makes no difference
whether the trouble was in the epigas-
trio or hypogastric region. II the
philosopher be Of the stoical school,
he will come and say: you ought to
control your feelings. You must not
49,, 90 Won tnuct attlti vatu n pOolar