The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1898-06-03
MISERABLE COiiFORTERS
Sympathy Irritating'Y ard Awkwardly
Expressed.
VOluble People Who Open Wounds Afresh
and Dis play Lack Of Tact Most
Exasperatinsly - Sermon by
Rev. DIR. Talmage, DID,.

better way of dealing with broken
hearts is recommended. Text. Job
xvi, 2: Miserable comforters are We
all"
The man of Uz had a great many
trials-the loss of his family, the loss
of his perry, the loss of his health:
but the most eNasperating 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, lie utters the words of
my text.
Why did God let sin come into the
world? 1t is a question / often hear
discussed, but never satisfactorily an
swercd. God made the world fair and
beautiful at the start If our first ra-
rents had not sinncd in Eden they
might have gone out of that garden
and found 80 paradises all around the
earth-Europe, Asia, Africa and North
and South Ameri ea-so many flower
gardens or orchards of fruit, redolcnt
and luscious. l suppose that when
God poured out the Gihon and the
Iiiddcl>cl He poured out at the same
time the Hudson and Su,quehanna; the
whole earth was very fair and bcauti-
full 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 a joy, and
every sound music, and all the ages a
long jubilee of sinlcss men and sinless
women? God can make a rose as easily
as He can make thorn. Why, then,
the prcdominancc 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? lie
can make men robust in health. Why,
then, are there so many invalids? Why
not have for our whole race perpetual
leisure instea of this tug and toll and
tussle for livelihood?
will tell you why God let sin come
into the world-whcn l get on he
other side of the river of death. That
is the place where such questions viii
be answered and such mysteries sow
ed lie who this side that river at
tempts to answer the question only
illustrates his own ignor ance and in
| competency. All | known is one great
| fact, and that is, that a herd of woes
has come in upon us, tramriing down
everything fair and beautiful A
sword at the gate of Eden and a sword
at every gate.
More people under the ground than
on it. The gravcyards in vast majority.
The six thousand winters have made
more sears than the six thousand sum-
mers can cover up Trouble has takcn
| the tender heart of this world in its
| two rough hands and pinched until
| the nations wall 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 facts. And now l have to
say that in a world like this the grand
est occu! alton is that of giving con-
dOlence. The holy science of impart-
| ing comfort to the troubled we ought
| all o. 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 intelligent, and
yet be able truthfully to say to them
in your days of trouble: miserable
cOmfOrters are We all.
| remark in the first place that very
volu BILE people are incompetent for the
work of giving comfort. Bildai 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
afflicted, and talk, and talk. and talk,
and talk. They rehearSe their own SOr-
rows, and then they tell the poor suf-
ferers that they feel badly now, but
they will feel worse after awhile.
Silence! Do You expect with a thin
courtplaster 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. A
firm grasp of the hand, a compassion.
ate look, just one word that means
as muclras whole dictionary. and you
have given, perhaps, all the comfort
that n 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 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
bandagc is pulled off, and this one and
that one most feel it, and see how much
it is swollen, and there is irritation,
and Inflammation, and evaporation,
where there ought to be healing land
cooling. The surgeon comes in and
says: What does all this mean? You
have no business to touch those band
ages 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
us 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 bandagos here, and pulling
them off there. leaving a CHASTITY
wound THAI the balm of Gods grace
had already begun to heal. Oh, let M
loqhacious people, with ever-rattline
tongues, go into the homes of the dis
tressed!
Again i remark: that all those per
sons are incompetent to give any kint
> of comfort who act merely as worldly
philosophers. They come in and say
"Why. this is what you ought to have
I expected. The laws of nature mus
have their way" and then they get elo
quent over something they have seel
! in post-mortem examinations. Nov