The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-03-27
DIR, TALMAGE'S SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE eY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: The Ministry OF Tears IF Onr
Misfortunes Are Borne in the Right
Spirit They May Prove to 70 Advan-
tages-Soul Chastened by Sorrow.
tCopyriSh. 1901. |

tages-soul Chastened by Sorrow.
tCopyriSh. 1901
New YORK CITY. "A vast audience
crowded the Academy OF Music in this
city to hear Dr. Talmage Discoursrg on
"Thc Ministry OF Tears" he put forth the
misfortunes of lie in cheerful light,
showing that if they were borne in the
right spirit they might prove to be advan-
tages. His text was Rev. vii, II, ".And
God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes"
the nations were in tears. Queen Vic
toria ascended from the highest throne on
earth to a throne in heaven. The PRAYER
more often offered than any prayer for the
last sixty-four years had been answered.
and God did save the Queen. All round
the world the bells were tolling. and the
minute guns were booming at the obse-
-quies of The most honored woman of many
centuries. AS near four years ago the
English. and American nations SHOOK
hands in congra atulation at the Queens
jubilee. so in these times two nations
shook hands in mournful sympathy at the
Queens departure. No people outside
Great Britain so deenv felt that mighty
grief as our people. The cradles of many
of our ancestors were rocked in Great Br!-
tain. Tho-e ancestors PLAYED in childhood
on the banks of the Tweed, or the Thames
or the Shannon. Take from our veins the
English blood. or the Welsh blood, or the
Irish blood. or the Scotch blood, and the
stream OF our life would. be mere shall
low. There are over there bone of orr
bone. and flesh Of our flesh. It is our Will
berforce, our Co!eridge, our De Quincy.
our Robert Burns. our John Wesley, our
John Knox. our Thomas Chalmers, our
Walter Scott. our Bishop Charnoek, our
Latimer, our Ridley. our Robert Emmet,
our Daniel OConnell, our Havelocl, our
Ruskln, our Gladstone, our good and great
and glorious Victoria.
The language in which we offered the
English nation our coincidence is the same
language in which John Bunyan dreamed
and Milton sang and Shakespeare drama
tized and Richard Baxter PRAYED and
George White6eld thundered. The Prince
of Wales, now King, paid reverential visit
to Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon,
and Longfellow's statue adorns Westmins-
ter Abbey, and Abraham Lincoln in
bronze looks down upon Scotlands capt
tons be in tears But am not going to
speak of national tears, but of individual
tears and Bible tears.
Riding across a Western prairie. wild
flowers up to the hub of the carriage
wheel and while long distance from any
shelter, there came sudden shower, and
while the rain was falling in torrents the
sun was shining as brightly as ever saw
it shine, and I thought what beautiful
spectacle is this! So the tears of the
Bible ere not midnight storm. but rain on
pansied -prairies in Gods sweet and golden
sunlight.
You remember that bottle which David
labeled as containing tears and Miarys
tears and Pauls tears and Chrlst's tears
and the harvest of joy that is to spring
from the sowing Of tears. God mixes them;
God rounds them; God shows them where
to fall; God eXhales them. A census is
taken of them. and there is record as to
the moment when they are born and as to
the place of their grave.
Tears of bad men are not kept. Alex.
ander in his sorrow had the hair clipped
from his horses and mules and made. a
great ado about his grief, but in all the
vases of heaven there is not one OF Alex.
ander's tears. speak of the tears OF
Gods children. Alas, me, they are falling
all the time!
In summer you sometimes hear the
growing thunder, and you see there is
storm miles away. but you know from the
drift of the clouds that it will not come
anywhere near you; so, though it may oe
all bright around about you, there is
shower of trouble somewhere all the time.
Tears, tears!
What is the use of them, anyhow? Why
not substitute laughter? Why not make
this a world where all the people are we'll
and eternal strangers to pains and aches?
What is the use of an eastern storm when
we mig ght have perpetual nor 'wester? Why,
when family is put together. not have
them all stay, OF, if they must be trans
planted to make other homes, then have
e. ~ &ol1,r
story OF marriages and births, but OF no
deaths? Why not have the harvests
chase each other without fatiguing toll?
Why the hard pillow, the hard crust, the
hard struggle? 1t is easy enough to eX-
plain smile or a success or congratula-
tion, but come now and bring all your die.
tionaries and all your PHILOSOPHERS and all
your religions and help me explain tear,
A chemist will tell you that it is made
up of salt and lime and other component
parts, but he misses the chief ingredients
the acid of a soured life, the viperine
sting Of bitter memory, the fragments of
a broken heart l will tell you what a tear
is. 1t is agony in solution. Hear. then,
while / discourse of the ministry of tears
or the practical uses of sorrow:
First, it is tine design of trouble to keep
this world from being too attractive.
Something must be done to make us WILL
ing to quit this existence. If it were not
for trouble, this world would he a good
enough heaven for US. You and / would
be willing to take lease of this life for a
hundred million years if there were no
trouble. The earth, cushioned and up
holstered and pillared and chandeliered at
such expense, no story OF other worlds
could enchant us. We would say: "Let
well enough alone. If you want to die and
have your body disntegrated in the dust
and your soul 60 out on a celestial adven-
ture, then you can go, but this world is
good enough for me- You might rs well
90 to man who has just entered the
Louvre at Paris and tell him to hasten off
to the picture, galleries, OF Venice or Flor
use of my going there? There are Rem
brandts and Rubenses and Titians here
that have not looked at yet" No man
wants to go out of this world or out of
any house until he has better house.
To cure this wish to stay here God must
:ngs. How shall He do it? He cannot ,af-
ford to efface His horizon, or to tear off
fiery panel from the sunset or to subtract
an anther from the water lily, or to Danish
the pungent aroma from the mignonette,
or to drag the robes of the morning i'll
mire.
You cannot expect Christopher Wren
to mar his st. Paups cathedral, or Mi
ehael Angelo to dash out his own ''Last
Judgment" or Handel to discord his
"Israel in Egypt" and you cannot expect
God to spoil the architecture and music of
His own world. How, then. are We to be
made willing to leave? Here is where
trouble comes in.
After a man has had a good deal of
trouble he says: "Well. I am ready to CO.
If there is house somewhere whose roof
does not leak, I would like to live there
If there is an atmosphere somewhere that
does not distress the lungs, would like to
breathe it. If there is a society some.
where where there is no little tattle, 1
would like to live there. If there is