The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-04-22
LAST HOUR OF CHRIST
Lessons of Comfort in the Scenes
Found by DR.. Talmage.
Heavens Brightest Crowns Shall
AdOrn the BrOws of Those Who
Bear Life's Burdens with
Christian Fortitude
WASHINGTON,

Washington. Copyright, 1897
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 1890:
"When Jesus therefore had received the
vinegar"
The brigands of Jerusalem had done
theirwork. 1t was almost shutdown, and
Jesus was dying. Persons in crucifixion
often fingered on from day to day, cry
ing, begging, cursipg, 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 inhamed 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, world Of agony is
compressed in the two words: ~
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 opate 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 a
stick of hyssop and then press it against
the hot lips of Christ. You say the wine
was an anaesthetic and intended to re-
lieve 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. 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 famboyant, days re-
silent. But in great many cases there
are not so Tiany sugars as acids. The
annoyances and the vexations. and the
disappointments 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 its strength away and
there is a weak spot in every earthly
support that man leans on. King
George of England forgot all the
grandeurs OH 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 belt" Miss Langdon, honored al
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 prussio
acid in her hand. Goldsmith said that
his life was 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 a
jail?" Correggio's fine painting is hung
up for tavern sign. Hogarth cannot
sell his best painting except through a
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 a
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 car
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.
mess of betrayal. The treachery OF
Judas hurt Christ's feelings more thar
nli ihe friendship of His disciples die
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-
friended him in the dark passes of life
when he especially needed friend
Afterward, he turned upon you, and hi
took advantage of your former intima
cies. He wrote against you. He talked
against you. He microscopized your
faults. He flung contempt at you, wher
you ought to have received nothing but
| gratitude. At first you could not sleeT
at night. Then you went about with {
sense of having been stung. That diff
Guilty will never be healed for though
mutual friends may arbitrate in the
matter until you shall shake hands
the old cordially will never come back
Now commend to all such the sympa
thy of betrayed Christ. Why, they
sold Him Tor less than our $50! They al
forsool Him and fed. They cut Him Il