St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-06-25
JOBS TRIBULATIONS.
Rev. Dr.. Talmage Points Out Some
Valuable Lessons.
The tnestimable Worth OF Silent Sym
paohy-Uses or AdversIty-God Sends
Our Troubles In Love-Bless-
ings In Disguise.

Inc tnesttmAble Worth OF Silent Sym
pahy-Uses or AdversIty-God Sends
Our Troubles In Love-Blcss-
inss In Disguise.
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, in tn,
following sermon, addresses himself tx
those who loquaciously try to comfor
people in trouble. The text is:
Miserable comforters are re all-Job xvi. 2
The man of Uz had a great many
trials-the loss of his family, the los
Of his property, the loss of his health
but the most exasperating thing tina
came upon him was the tantalizinf
talk of those who ought to have sym
pathized with him. And looking
around upon them, and weighing wha
they had said, he utters the words o.
my text.
Why did God let sin come into the
world? 1t is a question 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 Americas many flower
gardens or orchards of fruit, redolent
and luscious. l suppose when God
poured out the Gihon, and the Hide
KEEL, He poured out, at the same time,
the Hudson and the Susquehanna; the
whole earth was very fair and beauti-
iul 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 long
jubilee of sinless men and sin
less 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 well 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 our
whole race perpetual leisure instead of
this tug, and toll, and tussle for a 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 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.
More people under the ground than
on it. The graveyards in vast MAORI
ty. The 5000 winters have made more
scars than the 5000 summers can cover
up. Trouble has taken the tender
heart of this world in his two rough
hands and pinched it until the nations
wall with 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 facts. And now l
have to say that, in world like this,
the grandest occupation is that of Civ
ing coincidence. The holy science of
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 intel
ligent, and yet be able truthfully to say
to them in your days of trouble: Mis-
cradle comforters are We 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 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 |
hey will feel worse after awhile. |
Silence! Do you expect with thin
of words to heal wound
leep as the soul? Step very gently
around about q broken heart. Talk
yery softly around those whom God
las bereft. Then 60 your way. Deep
has not much to say. A
irm grasp of the hand. compassion
tie look, just one word that means as
much as a whole dictionary. and you
rave given, perhaps, all the comfort
hat soul needs. A man has terri J
lie wound in his arm. The surgeon
omes and binds it up. Now" he
avs, carry that arm in sling, and
,e very careful Of it. Let no one
ouch it." But the neighbors have
leard of the accident, and they come
n, and they say: LET us see it."
md the bandage is pulled off, and this
me and that one must feel it and see
low much it is swollen, and there il
and Inflammation, and ex-
speration, where there ought to be
ealing and cooling. The surgeon
ONES in and says: what does this
aean? You have no business to touch
hose bandages. That wound will
ever heal unless You let it alone" So
here are souls broken down in sorrow.
What they most want is rest, or very
areful and gentle treatment; but the
eighbors have heard Of the bereave-
lent, or of the loss, and they come in
D sympathize, and they say: "Show
s now the wound. What were his
sst words? Rehearse now the whole
Gene. How did you feel when YOU
ound you were an orphan?' Tearing
# the bandages here, and pulling
hem off there, leaving a CHASTITY
'ound that the balm of Gods grace
ad already begun to heal. Oh, let no
'quacious people, with ever-rattling ,
,ngues, 60 into the homes Of the dis ,
-essed!
Again l remark that all those per j
ms are incompetent to give any kind I
comfort who act merely as worldly l
They come IN and saw: ]
Why, this is what you ought to have
kpected. The laws of nature must t
ave their way;" and then they get {
oquent over something they have J
en in post-mortem examinations. t
ow, away with all human philosophy b
such time. What difference does q
make to that father and mother il
hat disease their son died of? He Is p
,ad, and it makes no difference y