Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-03-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"LIFE'S ACIDiTIES" LAST SUM-
DAYS SUBJECT.


fhe brigards of Jerusalem had done
their work 1t was almost sundown
and Jesus was dying. Persons in cru
cifixion often fingered on from day y
day-cryins, begging, cursing; but
Christ had been exhausted by years oi
maltreatment. Pillowless, poorly fed
fiogged-aS bent over and tied to a low
post, his bare back was infiamed with
the scourges intensified with pieces Ci
lead and bone-and now for whole
hours, the weight Of his body hung on
delicate tendons, and, according to Gus
tom, violent stroke under the arm
pits had been given by the executioner.
Dizzy, nauseated, feverish-a world OF
agony is compressed in the two words:
Il thirst" o skies of Judea, let drop
OF rain strike on his burning tongue
0 world, with rolling rivers and spark
ling 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 behalf 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 crucifixion-a pow
erful opiate to deadep the pain; bat
Christ would not take y. He wanted
to die sober and so he refused the
wine. But afterwards they go to cup
Of vinegar and soaked a sponge IN it.,
and put it on a stick of hyssop, and
then press it against the hot lips OF
Christ. You say the wine was an
anaesthetic and intended to relieve or
deaden the pain. But the vinegar was
an insult
In some lives the saccharine seems
to predominant. Life is sunshine on a
bank Of flowers A thousand hands to
clap approval. In December or in jan
uary. looking across their table, they
see all their family present. Health
rubicund. Skies flamboyant. DAYS
resilient. But in a great many cases
there are not so many sugars as acids
| The anuoyances. and the vexations,
and the disappointments Of life over
power the successes. There is a grevei
| III dlulOSI cNcly SloC. All al bbAhh ASo
end says that there was a worm in
| Solomon's staff, gnawing it's strength
away; and there is 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 Brum-
! mel called him by his first name, ard
addressed him as a servant, crying:
| George, ring the bell!" Miss Lang
/ don, 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 N
| jail?" Correggio's fine painting Is
hung up TO- a tavern sign. Hogarth
cannot sell his best painting except
through a rattle. Andrew Delsart
makes the great fresco in the church
of the Annunciata, at Florence, aad
gets for pay a sack of corn; and there
are annoyances and vexations In hlgA
places as we'll as in low places, SHOW
ing that in a great many lives are the
sours greater than the sweets. When
Jesus therefore had received the vim
egar."
1t is absurd to suppose that man
who has always been we'll can sympa-
thize with those who are sick, or that
one who has always been honored can
appreciate the sorrow OF those VINO
are despised, or that one who has been
born to q 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 today and for
| ever with all those whose cup is t1llec
with the sharp acids of this life. He
| took the vinegar.
In the first place. there was the sour
ness of betrayal. The treachery of
Judas hurt Christs 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 especial stress. You
feasted him. You loaned him money.
You befriended him in the dark passes
of life. when he especially needed a
friend. Afterward he turned upon you
and he tool advantage of your former
! intimacies. He wrote against you. He
talked against you. He microscopized
vonr faults. He flung contempt at you
when YOU ought to have received noth
ing but gratitude At first you could
NOT sleep at nights. Then you went
about with a sense of having been
s.urg That difficulty will never be
healed, for though mutual friends may
arb!trate in the matter until you shall
shake hands the old cordially will
never come back. Now / commend 20
all such the sympathy of betrayed
Christ. Why. they sold him for less
than our twenty dollars! They all for
sock him and fed. They cut him to
the quick. He drank that cup to the
dregs. He took the vinegar.
There Is also the soreness of pain
There are some Of you who have n. t
seen a we'll day for many years. BY
keeping out of draughts, and by care
fully studying dietetics. you continue
In this time; but oh, the headaches,
and the sideaches which have been
YOUR accompaniment all the way
through! You have struggled under d
heavy mortgage of physical disabili-
ties, and instead of the placidity that
once characterized you, it is now only
with great effort that you keep away