Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-07-01

and irritating methods some people use
in trying TO comfort those in trouble.
The text is:
Miserable comforters are We oil job xvi,
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 | 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 80 paradises all around the
earth - Europe, Asia, Africa, North
and South Amcrica-so many flower
gardens or orchards of fruit, redolent
and luscious. | suppose when God
poured out the Gihon, and the llidde-
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 it not stay
SO. God had the power to keep back
sin and woe. Why did lie 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 lie can make a
thorn. Why, thea, the predominance
of thorns? lie can make good, fair,
ripe fruit us well as gnarled and sour
fruit. Why SO much, then, that is
gnarlcd and sour? lie can make men
robust in health. Why, then, are there
SO many iuvalid,? Way not have our
whole race perpetual leisure instead of
this tug, AMI toll, ana tus lie for II live
lihood? will tell you why God let sin
come into the world-whcn | get on
the other side of the river of death.
That is the place where such ques-
tions will be answered AMI such mys-
tcries solved. lie 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 "a herd of
woes has come in upon US, trdmpling
down everything fair and beautiful. a
sword at the gate of Eden and Il sword
ut every gate.
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 job )
| life out. Alusl for these volublc pco-
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 tho poor
sufferers that they feel badly now, but
they will feel worse after awhile.
Silence! Do you expect 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 Goo
has bcreft. Then go your way. Deep
sympathy has not much to say. A
firm grasp OF the hand, compassion
ate look, Just one word that means a:
much as whole dictionary, and you
have given, perhaps, all the comfort
that soul needs. A man has u terri
bic wound in his arm. The surgeon
comes and binds it up. Now" hi
says, carry that arm in n sling, anC
be very careful OF it. Let no ont
touch it," But the ncighbors hay,
heard of the accident, and they com
in, and they say: LET us see it.
And the ban iage is pulled OIL and this
one and that one must feel it and Sc,
how much it is swollen, and there il
irritation, and inflammation, and eX
ASPIRATION, where there ought to br
healing and cooling. The surgeon
comes in and says: What does thi
) mean? You have no business to toucl
those bandagcs. That wound will
never heal unless you let it alone" 81
there are souls broken down in sorrow
| What they most want is rest, or yer.
careful and gentle treatment; but tn
neghbors have heard of the bereave
ment, or of the loss, and they come il
TO sympathizs, and they say: "Shov
us now the wound. What were hi
last words? Rehcarse now the who'll
scene. How did you feel when yoy
found you were an orphan?' Tearin
: off the bandages here, and pullin,
them off there, leaving ghastl
wound that the balm OF Gods grac
had already begun to heal. Oh, let n
, loquacious people, with ever-rattlin
tongues, go into the homes of the dis
tressed.
Again ! remark that all those pei
sons are incompetent to give any kin
of comfort who act merely as world
philosophers. They come IN and say
"Why, this is what you ought to hav
expected. The laws of nature mus
have their way;" and then they gC
eloquent over something they hay
seen in poSt-mortem examination
, Now, away.with all human philosoph
5 at such time. What difference doc
, it make to that father and moth,
what disease their son died of? lie
r dead, and it makes no different
: whether the trouble was in the epiga
, trio or hypogastric region. If IL
p philosopher be of the stoical schoo
, he will come and say: You ought
I control your feelings. You must n,
a cry so. You must cultivate cool,
temperament You must have sci
!, reliance, self-Qovernment, self-contro
:. an iceberg reproving hyacint
' for having drop OF dew
L its eye. A violinist has his i
, strument, and he sweeps
: fingers across the strings, now evolSir
strains of joy, and now strains of sa
! ness, He can not play all the tunes {
u 1910 .A,;,,r Tha bnnup cpul ic an /