Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-03-27
THE CUP OF VINEGAR.
DR. TALMAGE 0iscOURSES ON THE
AcIDiTIES OF LIFE.

aon Comfort and Peace For the
Poor. Distressed and Unfortunate.
Topyright 1899. by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON. March 26.-From the
oathetic scene of Christ last hour of
suffering DR.. Talmage in this sermon
draws lessons of comfort for people IN
trouble: text, John xix. 80, 'When
Jesus therefore had received the vine
gar.
The brigands of Jerusalem had done
their work It was almost shutdown,
and jesus was dying. Persons In cruel
Rxion often fingered on from day to day,
crying. begging, cursing. but Christ
had been exhausted by years OF NAL
treatment. Pillowless. poorly fed, fog
ged-as bent over and tied TO low
post his bare back was infamed 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 Gus
tom, 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,
Il thirst O skies of JudRa, let drop
of rain strike on his burning tongue!
o world. with rolling rivers and spar
king 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 his
royal sufferer.
The wealthy women of Jerusalem
used to have fund of money with
which they provided wine for those
people who died in crucihXiOn, 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 a cup of
vinegar and soak a sponge in it and
put it on stick of hyssop and then
press it against the hot lips of Christ
You say the wine was an an&Sthetlc
and intended to relieve or deaden the
pain. But the vinegar was an insult.
In some lives the saccharine seems to
predominate. Life is sunshine on bank
of flowers A thousand hands to clap
approval In December or in January,
looking across their table, they see all
their family present. Health rubicund.
Skies famboyant. Days resilient. But
in a great many cases there are not SO
many sugars as acids. The annoyances
and the vexations and the disappOint-
ments of life overpower the successes.
There is a gravel in almost every shoe.
An Arabian legend says that there was
a worm in Solomon's staff, gnawing
its strength away, and there is a weak
spot in every earthly support that a
man leans On. King George of England
forgot all the grandeurs of his throne
because one dag. in an interview, Beau
Brummel called him by his first name
and addressed him as a servant. cry
ing, George ring the bell" Miss
Langdon, honored all the world over for
her poetic genius. is so worried over
the evil reports set afoat regarding her
that she is found dead, with an empty
bottle of prussic acid in her hand. Gold
smith said that his life was wretched
being and that all that want and con-
tempt could bring to it had been
brought and cries out, ''What, then, is
there formidable in jai1?'' Correggio's
fine painting is hung up for a tavern
sign. Hogarth cannot sell his best
painting except through a rattle. An
DIRE del SaTtO makes the great fresco in
the Church CT the Annunciata at Flor
ence and gets for pay sack Of corn,
and there are annoyances and ve1ations
in high places as we'll as in low places.
showing that in a great many lives are
the sours greater than the sweets.
ftWhen Jesus therefore had received
the vinegarr
Christ's Sympathy.
1t is absurd to suppose that a man
who has always been well can sym
pathiZe with those who are sick, or
that one who has always been hon
ored can appreciate the sorrow Gf
those who are despised, or that one who
has been born to 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 forever with all those whose cup is
filed with the sharp acids of this life
He took the vinegarl
In the first place, there was the sour
ness of betrayal The treachery of Judas
hurt Christ 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 es-
pecial stress You Toasted him. You
loaned him money. You befriended him
in the dark passes of life. when he es
pecially needed friend Afterward he
turned upon you. and he took advantage
of your former intimacies- He wrote
against you. He talked against you. He
microscopized your faults. He flung
contempt at you. when you ought to
have received nothing but gratitude
At first. you could not sleep at nights.
Than uou uanf about with q sense of