Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1901-03-28
Dr.TALMAG SERMON
T1E GREAT DW1NES EkOOURN1
MESSAGE

4aAI 0<EAl LEV lWE EkOQUENJ
MESSAGE
Subject Tho Ministry OF Tears II Ou..
Misfortunes Are Borne In the Right
Spirit They May Prove to BE Advan-
tagcs-soul Chastened by Sorrow.
copyright 1901
NEW York CITY A vast audience
crowded the Academy of Music in this
city to hear DR.. Talmage. Discoursing on
The Ministry Of Tears he put forth the
mlstortunes of life in a cheerful light
1hoWlng that if they were borne in the
!ight spirit they might prove to be advan-
ages, HIS text was Rev. vii, II, 'And
Hod shall wipe away all tears from their
,sSh.+ s<sesi , .
!, Nhat spectacle a few weeks ago when
the nations were in tears! Queen Vie
toria assembled 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-
qules OF the most honored woman of manv
centuries AS near four years ago the
English and American nations shook
hands IN, congratulation at the Queens
shook hands In mournful sympathy at the
queens departure. No people outside
Great Britain so deeply felt that mighty
grief as our people. The cradles of MANY
OF our ancestors were rocked in Great Bri-
tain; Those 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 our
bone, and flesh of our flesh. It is our Will
bertorce, our Coleridge, our De Quincy,
our Robert Burns, our John Wesley, our
Walter Scott, our Bishop Charnock, our
Latlmer, our Ridley, our Robert Emmet,
our Daniel OConnell, our Havelock. our
Ruskln, our Gladstone, our good and great
and glorious Victoria.
Ihe 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 Whiteheld thundered The Prince
OF Wales, now King, paid reverential visit
to Washlngton's tomb at Mount Vernon.
and Longfellow's statue adorns Westmins-
ter Abbey, and Abraham Lincoln in
prone looks down upon Scotland's capt.
tai 1t was natural that these two ma
tlons be In tears: But I 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 a long distance from any
sheEer, there came a sudden shower, and
sun was shining as brightly as I ever saw
II snlne, and | thought what beautiful
spectacle is this! So the tears of the
1sre1e ar
paHied prairies in Gods sweet and golden
sunlight.
You remember that bottle which David
labeled as containing tears and Mary's
tears and PauPs tears and Christ'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
theIplace of their grave.
Tears of bad men are not kept. Alex
anHer 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.
Gods children. Alas, me, they are falling
all the time!
In summer you sometimes hear the
growing thunder, and you see there is a
storm miles away, but you know from the
drift of the clouds that it will not come
anywhere hear you; so, though it may be
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 world where all the people are well
and eternal strangers to pains and aches2
What is the use of an eastern storm when
we might have perpetual nor wester? Why,
when a family is Ipt together, not have
planted to make other homes, then have
them all live, the family record telling a
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? It is easy enough to ex-
plain smile or success or a 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
sting of bitter memory, the fragments of
a broken heart. will tell you what tear
is. It is agony in solution. Hear, then,
while I discourse of the ministry Of tears
or the practical uses of sorrow:
First, it is the design of trouble to keep
Something must be done to make lis will
ing to quit this existence. If it were not
for trouble, this world would be good
enough heaven for us. You and would
be willing to take a lease of this life for
hundred million years if there were no
trouble. The earth, cushioned and up
holstered and pillared and chandeliered at
such expense, no story of otEer worlds
could enchant us. We would say: ssT,et
well enough alone. If you want to die and
have your body disintegrated in the dust
and your soul go out on a celestial adven-
ture, then you can go, but this world is
good enough for meo You might as well
60 to man who has just entered the
Louvre at Paris and tell him to hasten off
to the picture galleries of Venice or Flor
ence. Why" he would say. 1what is the
use of my going there? There are Rem
brandts and Rubenses and Iitians here
that I have not looked at yet" No man
wants to go out of this world or out of
any house until he has a better house
To cure this wish to stay here God must
somehow create a disgust for our surround
ings.. How shall He do it? He cannot af-
ford to efface His horizon, or to tear off a
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 IN
mire.
You cannot expect Christopher Wren
to mar his St. Paul's cathedral, or Mi
chael Angelo to dash out his own "Last
judgment" or Handel to discord his