Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-03-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
"LIFE'S ACIDITIES" LAST SUM-
DAYS SUBJECT.
when Jesus Therefore Had Received
the vinegar'--From John, Chapter
XIX, Verse 80 - Some Palm Sunday
Thoughts for Christians.

fhe brigards of Jerusalem had done
their work 1t was almost sundown,
and Jesus was dying. Persons in cru
cifxion often fingered on from day ~
day-cryins, begging. cursing; but
Christ had been exhausted by years Of
maltreatment. Pillowless, poorly fed,
fiogged-aS bent over and tied to low
post, his bare back was infiamed with
the scourges intensified with pieces CT
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!
o 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 a fund of money with
which they provided wine for those
people who died in crucifiXion-a DOW
| 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 1t,
and put it on a stick of hyssop, and
then press it against the hot lips or
! 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 annoyances. and the vexati0ns,
and the disappointments OF life over
power the successes. There is greFei
in almost every shoe. An Arabian leg
end says that there was a 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 Brum-
mel called him by his first name, ard
addressed him as 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 ner
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 ont:
What, then, is there formidable N
iail?" Correggios fine painting Is
hung I'D fo~ a tavern sign. Hogarth
cannot sell his best painting except
through rattle. Andrew Delsart
makes the great fresco in the church
of the Annunciata, at Florence, aad
SelS lOI pay q sam VI wa -
are annoyances and veXatiOns in high
places as well 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."
II is absurd to suppose that man
who has always been well can sympa-
Uhn sick thai
one who has always been honored can
appreciate the sorrow OF those VINO
are despise6, 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 today and for
ever with all those whose cup Is hllec
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
midas 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 especial stress. You
Toasted 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
vour 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
stung That difficulty will never be
healed, for though mutual friends mag
orbjtrate in the matter until you shall
shake hands, the old cordiality will
never come back. Now / commend 20
all such the sympathy of a 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
Iregs He took the vinegar.
There is also the soreness Of pain.
There are some Of you who have n.
seen a we'll day for many years. BY
keeping out of draughts, and by care
fully studying dietetics, you continue
To this time; but oh, the headaches,
and the sdeaches 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
4ho hriahtnst crnWns In heaven will u N