Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1899-04-06
CHRIST'S LAST HOUR
COMFORT IN THE SCENES is
FOUND BY DIR. TALMAGE.
FOR PEOPLE IN TROUBLE
Heavens Brightest Crowns, SAYS
the Great Divine, Shall Adorn the
Brows of Those Who Bear Lies
Burdens with Christian Fortitude-
An Impressive Sermon.

From the pathetic scene of Christ's
last hour of suffering DR.. Talmadge in
this sermon draws lessons of comfort
for people in trouble; text, John 1880:
when Jesus therefore had received the
vinegar"
\ The brigands of Jerusalem had done
their work. 1t was almost shutdown, and
Jesus was dying. Persons in crucifxion
often fingered on from day to day, cry
ing, begging, cursing, but Christ had
been exhausted by years of maltreat-
ment. Pillowless, poorly fed, logged.
as bent over and tied to a low post his
bare back was infiamed with the
scourges intensified with pieces of
lead and bone, and now for whole hours
the weight of his body hung on delicate
tendons, and, according to custom, a
violent stroke under the armpits had
been given by the eXecutioner. Dizzy,
nauseated, feverish, a world of agony is
compressed in the two words: II
thirst" Oh, skies of Judea, let drop
of rain strike on His burning tongue!
Oh, world, with rolling rivers and
sparkling lakes and spraying fountains,
give Jesus something to drink If
there be any pity in earth or Heaven or
hell, let it now be demonstrated in be-
half of this royal sufferer
The wealthy women of Jerusalem
used to have fund of money with
which they provided wine for those
people who died in crucifXion-a pow
erful opiate to deaden the pain-but
Christ would not take it. He wanted to
die sober, and so he refused the wine.
But afterward they go to cup of vim
egar and soak sponge and put it on
stick of hyssop and then press it against
the hot lips of Christ You say the wine
was an anaesthetic and intended to re-
heve or deaden the pain. But the vine
gar was an insult.
In some lives the saccharine seems to
predominant. Life is sunshine on a
bank of flowers. thousand hands to
clap approval. In December or in jan
uary, looking across their table, they
see all their family present Health
rubicund, skies famboyant, days re-
silent. But in a great many cases there
are not so many sugars as acids. The
annoyances and the veXations, and the
disappontments of life overpower the
successes There is a gravel in almost
every shoe. An Arabian legend says
that there was worm in Solomon's
staff gnawing it's strength away, and
there is a weak spot in every earthly
support that man leans on. King
George of England forgot all the
grandeurs of his throne because one day
in an interview Beau Brummel called
him by his first name and addressed
him as a servant, crying: George, ring
the bell!" Miss Langdon. honored all
the world over for her poetic genius, is
so worried over the evil reports set
afioat regarding her that she is found
dead with an empty bottle of prussic
acid in her hand. Goldsmith said that
his life was a wretched being, and that
all that want and contempt could bring
to it had been brought, and cries out:
What. then, is there formidable in
iail?" Correggios fine painting is hung
up for a tavern sign. Hogarth cannot
sell his best painting except through
rattle. Andrea del Sarto makes the
great fresco in the Church of the An
nunciata at Florence and gets for pay
a sack of corn. and there are annoy
ances and vexations in high places as
well as in low places, showing that in
great many lives are the sours greater
than the sweets when Jesus there
fore had received the vinegar
1t is absurd to suppose that "a man
Who has always been well can sympa-
thize with those who are sick, or that
one who has always been honored can
appreciate the sorrow of those who are
despised. or that one who has been born
TO a great fortune can understand the
distress and the straits of those who are
destitute. The fact that Christ Himself
took the vinegar makes Him able to
sympathize to-day and forever with all
those whose cup is filed with the sharp
acids of this life. He took the vine
gar
In the first place. there was the sour
ness of BETRAYAL The treachery of
Judas hurt Christ's feelings more than
all the friendship of His disciples did
Him good You have had many friends
but there was one friend upon whom
YOU put special stress. You Toasted
him. You loaned him money. You be-
friendcd him in the dark passes of life.
when he especially needed a friend
Afterward. he turned upon you. and he
took advantage of your former intima'
cies. He wrote against you. He talked
AGAINST YOU. He microscopized your
faults lie flung contempt al you. when
vou ouobt TO have received nothing but
Gratitude At first you could not sleep
a night. Then You went about"ith q
sense OF having been stung. That diiii'
cultv viii never be heated. for though
mutual frienss may arbiirate in the
natter until you shall shake hands
he old cordiality will neveTcome back
Nov I commend to all such the sympa-
/, nv of a betrayed Christ. Why they
snid Him .or less than our 500! They all
forgooi: Him and fed. They cut Him to
10 muck. He drank that cup TO the
aregs He took the vinegar.
rbey il also the sourness oil pam.
,, .f vou who have not