Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-05-28
TANTALIZING TALK.
JOBS coMFoRTERs THE SUBJECT OF
DR.. TALMAGe'S SERMON.

DR.. TALMAGe'S SERMON.
t,o the Other Side We Shall Learn Why
Cod Let Sin Como Into the World.
Those Who Have Not Known Trouble
Lack Sympathy-Prcparntio For Glory.
downright. 1885, BY american Press Asso-
WASHINGTON, May 22.-The awlk-
ward and irritating mode of trying to
comfort people in trouble is here set
forth by DR.. Talmagc, and Il better
way of dealing with broken hearts is
recommended text. Job xvi, 2, Mis-
cradle comforters are we all. "
The man of w had Il great many
trials-tho loss Of his family, the loss
of his property, the loss of his health
but the most exasperating thing that
camo 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? 1t is a question | often hear dis
cussed, Iut never satisfactorily answer I
ed. God made the world fair and beau
tiful at the start. If our first parents
had not sinned III Eden, they might
have como out of that garden and found .
so paradiscs all around the earth-Eu- /
rope, Asia Africa, North and South +
America-so many flower gardens or
orchards of fruit, redolcnt and luscious.
| suppose that when God poured out
the Gihon and the Hiddelel he poured {
out at the same time the Hudson and I
| 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 Il +
JOY, and every sound music, and all the
ages II long jubilee of sinlcss men and
sinless women? God can make a rose as
easily as he can make thorn. Why,
then, tho prcdominance Of thorns? He
can make good, fair ripe fruit as well as
! gnarled and sour fruit. Why so much,
then, that is gnarlcd 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 Il livelihood? will tell You
why God let sin come into the world
when get on the other side Of the riv-
er 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-
ton only illustrates his own ignorance
and incompctcncy All know is one
great fact and that is that herd of
woes has come in upon US, trampling
down everything fair and beautiful \
sword Mt the gate of Eden and a sword
at every gate.
Comforting tho Troubled.
More people under the ground than
Oh it. The graveyards III vast majority.
The c. 900 winters have made more scars
than the G,000 summers can cover up.
Trouble has taken the tender heart of
this world III its two rough hands and
pinched it 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 the facts And now
have to say that, in world like this,
the grandest occupation is that of Civ
ing coincidence. The holy science of im-
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
well, and arc very Intelligent, and yet
be able truthfully to say to them in
your days of trouble, Miserable COM
forters are ye all -
remark. in tho first place, that very
volublc. people are incompetent for the
work of giving comfort. Bildad and I
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 afliict-
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 Doyou 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, Il compassionate
[ look, lust one word that means as much
as a whole dictionary, and you have
given, perhaps, all the comfort that
soul needs. man has a terrible wound
in his arm. The surgeon comes and
binds it up. Nov, he says, carry
that arm i'll Il sling and be very careful
of it. Let 10 one touch it. y But the
ncighbors 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 1t
and sec how much it is swollen, and
there are irritation and inflammation and !
evaporation 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
bandagcs. That wound will never heal
unless you let it alone " So there are
souls b-olscn 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 no,7 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
CHASTITY wound that the balm OF Gods
grace had already begun to heal Oh,
let no loquacious people, with ever rat
Ting tongues go into the homes OF the
distressed
Weakness of Philosophy.
Again, l remark that all those per-
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