The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-05-25
TRIALS OF LIFE.
Affections are Meant to Fit Peo-
pie for Eternity.
Comfort for Those Who are Suffering
Sorrow Always Sent In Love-ThOse
Who Have Never Known Trouble
Make Poor COmforters.


mon tells of the awkward way of try
ing to comfort people in trouble, and
points ont better way of dealing
with broken hearts. Text: Job IS: 2:
miserable comforters are we 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 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 l often hear
discussed, but never satisfactorily an
swered. God made the world fair and
beautiful at the start. If our parents
had not. sinned in Eden, they might
have gone out of that garden and
found fifty paradises all around the
earth Europe, Asia, Africa, North and
South America-so many flower gar
dens or orchards of fruit, redolent and
luscious. l suppose that when God
poured out the Gihon and the Hidde-
kel, 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 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 sinless
women? God can make rose as easily
as He can make 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's 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 livelihood? will tell
you why God let sin come into the
world-when 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 answer
the question 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.
More people under the ground than
on it. The graveyards in vast majority.
The 6,00O winters have made more
scars than 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
vail with the 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 the facts.
And now have to say that, in world
like this, the grandest occupation is
that of giving coincidence. The holy
science of imparting 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 well, and are
very intelligent, and yet he able truth
fully to say to them in your days OF
trouble, Miserable comforters 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 af-
flicted, 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. ST.
lence! Do you expect with thin court
plaster of words to heal 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
hand, compassionate look, just one
word that means as much as a whole
dictionary, and you have given, per.
haps, all the comfort that soul needs.
man has 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 nc
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 irrita.
tion, and Inflammation, and eXaspera
ton, where there should 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 let it alone" So there are
souls broken down in sorrow. What
they must want is rest or very careful
and gentle treatment; but the neigh
bors have heard of the bereavement OF
of the loss, and they come in to sympa
thize, and they say: "Show us now the
wound. What were his last wordsP Re
hearse now the whole scene. How die
you feel when you found you were al
orphanP" Tearing off the bandagel
here, and pulling them off there, leav
ing CHASTITY wound that the balm o.
Gods grace had already begun to heal
Oh, let no loquacious people, with ever