The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1879-05-21
THE LAST TEAR, IT'S USE
AND LESSONS.
Sermon by Rev. DR.. Armitage.

on the subject of The Last Tear, "
taking his text from Revelation xxi,
4-"Ged shall wipe away all tears
| from their eyes There are three
superlative sentences on record, said
the Doctor, and one knows not
which to admire most. They are
these :-"God said let there be light,
and there was light" God is love-
and Jesus wept.' You have stat
ues of the three graces, Faith, Hope
and Charity, or the painter has Civ
en- you his ideal on the canvas Of
the three beauties, physical, mental
and moral but you would be great.
ly perplexed which to chose as the
most beautiful. Yet your mental
perplexity is much greater to fasten
upon either of these three undying
sentences and to say which the most
firmly and fully captivates and en-,
largea your conceptions. Happily
we are not obliged to make our
choice Of the one and leave the 9TH
er, for the boundless wealth of the |
three is equally and forever ours.
To the reasoning faculties there is
exhaustless food in the utterance of
Moses. "GOd said let there be light,
and there was light" To the moral
faculties there is boundless fruition
in the first utterance of John, "God
is love- But to the bleeding afec.
tions there 10 fathomless comfort in
the last words of the beloved dis
ciple, "Jesus wept," "Jesus wept p
To the heart this is the peerless
passage, because out of its fragrant
bosom you see flood of sympathetic
tenderness burst from the breast of
Jesus, while tears fall like rain drops
from His eyes. The pathetic scene
of sobs and weepings unveils The
perfectly simple, sincere and artless
Of the Redeemer in our
full humanity, as "bone of our bone
and flesh of our fiesh' These words
are key which opens to US His
whole inspection of sorrowing love.
These tears were sll divine. for
through their mist you see Gods r
glory Bnd they were all :
luman, for they were wept by one !
,ouched by all the brokenness Of
'ohbing humanity. In the act of
bringing Lazarus, His gentle dis
,iple, from the sepulchrs, His pure :
burst all its feodgates,
md as He wept as a child, without
peaking a word. each tear that fell
o the turf was His pledge to wipe
way all tears from our eyes.
THE HIDDEN SORROW,
We are all conversant with the 8
Gene and historical tear, but thie is 8
ar surpassed by the unseen and un- F
Eritten in the mysterious processes :
# heartache. Men shed more tears il
Internally than externally. Life b
ong existences of this sart progress e
rom stage to stage. unknown to any o
'ut the timid, lone sufferer. Hard a
7ords, cruel neglect and harsh treat. f
nent create inward convulsions1 T
trough the dreary lives OF many, d
fter the example of Solomon's CON- b
laiuer, mime eyes sIeepeth, but ]
ny heart waketh with them" The
ear hangs in the heart in miniature 8
n the eyelid, where it becomes the t,
isihle sign of Invisible grief to bat a
ew human spectators. The eye of c
3od counts them up in the alabaster /
up Of many soul over which no t,
qman eye hends. None of us are n
rec from the pangs of social be- b
which filed the soul of a
Rachel when she saw her babe il
all its charms gone and re- /
using to be oomforted-wept as if V
er heart would break. Naomi rep Fl
esents others, whea she returned to 81
Bethlehem, saying, ''The Lord hath q
eaIt very bitterly with me; went Il
ut full and come home empty;" for g
he had left her husband and two b
ons lying side by side in the graves ]
f a foreign land. All Of us are Y
adly familiar with the sight of our il
wed ones lying in our embrace pale Il
nd cold, the limbs stiff. the eyelids d
Iosed and the lips unFesponsive to /
he pressure of eur kiss, while the e
dored form is velled in a shroud of d
nowy whiteness and the silent room 8,
choes hack the sobs of an aching il
cart; when the living bonds of n
carts are torn asunder bitter tears ci
re- the oozing signs of severed liYes. a
-ow, the text says that the time is n
oming when God will wipe away Y,
very tear from the eyes of His peo.
Ie-tears Of personal aftliction, of
,cial trial, Of family bereavement,
broken friendship and of godly
for the souls of others =
all tears Of every goFt. Even now : :
Fod sympathizes with US in our :,
eeping. That is touching prayer ai