The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-09-08
EARTHLY GRIEFS.
DR.. Talmage on Gods Intimate
Acquaintance with Them.
Bottle I'm which Are Preserved the Tears
of Humanity-Comfort for the Re-
pentant, the Sick, the Poor
and the Bereaved.

4 bOIIlt VI 1tdTS was IH6 UNIQUE
theme chosen by Rev. I. Dewitt
Talmage for a sermon lately deliv-
cred at Brooklyn, the text selected
being Psalms, wi. 8: 'Put Thou my tears
into Thy bottle" DR.. Talmage said:
Hardly mail has come to me for
| twenty years that has not contained
| letters saying that my sermons have
| comforted the writer's of those letters.
Il nave not this summer nor for twenty
years spoken on the platform of any
| outdoor meeting, but coming down l
have been told by hundreds of people
the same thing. So / think will keep
on trying to be a ''son of consolation"
The prayer of my text was pressed
out of David's soul by innumerable ca
lamities, but it is just as appropriate
for the distressed of all ages Within
| the past century travellers and anti
quarians have explored the ruins of
many of the ancient cities, and from
the very heart of those buried SPLEEN
doris of the other days have brought up
evidences of customs that long ago
vanished from the world. From among
tombs of those ages have been brought
up lachrymatories, or lachrymals,
which are walls made of earthenware.
1t was the custom of the ancients to
catch the tears that they wept over
their dead in a bottle, and to place that
bottle in the graves of the departed;
and we have many specimens of the an
cient lachrymatories, or tear-bottle, in
our museums
L. Ill
Land our ship touched at Cyprus, we
went back into the hills of that island
and bought tear-bottles which the ma
tives had dug out of the ruins of the
old city There is nothing more sug-
gestive to me than the tear-bottles
which l brought home and put among
my curiositieS That was the kind of
bottle that my text alludes to when
David cries, 'Put Thou my tears into
Thy bottle
The text intimates that God has an
intimate acquaintance and perpetual
remembrance of all our griefs, and
vial, or lachrymatory, or bottle, in
which he catches and saves our tears;
and 1 bring to you the coincidence of
this Christian sentiment. Why talk
about grief? Alas! the world has its
pangs, and now, while we speak, there
are thick darknesseS of soul that need
to be lifted. There are many who are
about to break under the assault of
temptation, and, perchance, if no words
appropriate to their case be ut
tered, they perish. l come on
no fools errand. Put upon your
wounds no salve compounded
by human quacl1ery, but, pressing
straight to the mark, / hail you as
vessel mid-sea cries to a passing craft,
'Ship ahoyr' and invite you on board
vessel which has faith for rudder,
and prayer for sails. and Christ for
captain, and Heaven for an eternal
harbor Catherine Rheinfeldt, a Prus-
sian, keeps boat with which she res
cues the drowning. When a storm
comes on the coast, and other people go
to their beds to rest, she puts out in
her boat for the relief of the distressed
and hundreds of the drowning has she
brought safely to the beach. In this
life-boat of the gospel put out to-day,
hoping. by Gods help, to bring ashore
at least one soul that may be now sink
ing in the pillows of temptation and
trouble. The tears that were once
caught in the lachrymatories brought
up from Herculaneum and Pompeii are
all gone, and the bottle is as dry as the
scoria of the volcano that submerged
them; but not so with the bottle in
which God gathers all our tears.
First, remark that God keeps per-
petually the tears of repentance. Many
a man has awakened in the morning so
wretched from the nights debauch
that he has sobbed and wept. Pains in
the head. aching in the eyes, sick at
heart and unfit to step into the light.
He grieves, not about his misdoing, but
only about its consequences. God
makes no record of such weeping. of
all the million tears that have gushed
as the result of such misdemeanor. not
one ever got into Gods bottle. They
dried on the fevered cheek, or were
dashed down by the bloated hand, or
fell into the red wine cup as it came
again to the lips, foaming with still
worse intoxication. But when man
is sorry for his past and tries to do bet
ter-when he mourns his wasted adj
vantages and bemoans his rejection of
Gods mercy, and cries amid the lacera-
tions of an aroused conscience for help
out of his terrible predicament, then
God listens: then Heaven bows down;
then scepters of pardon are extended
from the throne: then his crying rends
the heart of heavenly compassion: then
his tears are caught in Gods bottle.
You know the story of paradise and
the Peri. think it might be put to
higher adaptation. An angel starts
from the throne of God to find what
thing it can on the earth worthy of be-
ing carried back to Heaven. 1t goes
down through the gold and silver
mines of earth, but finds nothing
worthy of transportation to the Celes-
tial City. 1t goes down through the
depths of the sea, where the pearls lie,
and finds nothing worthy of taking
back to Heaven. But coming to the
foot of mountain it sees wanderer
weeping over his evil ways The tears
of the prodigal start, but do not fall to
the ground, for the angels wing
catches them, and with that treasure
speeds back to Heaven. God sees the
angel coming, and says: Behold the
brightest gem of earth, and the bright
est Jewel of Heaven-the tears of sim
ner's repentance"
OH when see the Heavenly Shep-
herd bringing lamb from the wilder
ness; when l hear the quick tread of
the prodigal Fastening home to find
his father: when L see a sailor-boy
coming on the wharf, and hurrying
away to beg his mothers pardon for
L Il L