Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-09-07
GOO'S BOTTLE OF TEARS.
INTIMATE ACQUAINTANCE
WITH EARTHLY .iRIEFS.
God Battle In Which Are Pre
served the Tears OF Humanity
Comfort for the Repentant, the
sick, the Poor and the Bercaved.

M &AN&~ ~ - Va
Comfort for the R~epentant, the
sick, the Poor and the
Brooklyn, N. ", Special: Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage chose a unique theme
as his subject, viz: "A Bottle Of
Tears" the text selected being Psalms
lyi., 8, "Put thou my tears into thy
bottle
Hardly a 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.
i have not this summer nor for twen-
ty years spoken on the platform Of
any outdoor meeting, but coming down
i have been told by hundreds Of people
the same thing. So I think I will keep
on trying to be a "Son Of Consolation"
The prayer OF my text was pressed
out Of David's soul by innumerable
calamities, but il 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 sr.en-
doris of other days have been brought
up evidences of customs that long ago
vanished from the world. From
among tombs of those ages have been
brought up lachrymatories, or lachry-
mails, which are walls made of earthen-
ware. 1t wa the custom for the an
clients to catch the tears that they wept
over their dead i'm a bottle, and to place
that bottle in the graves Of the depart
ed; and we have many specimens Of
the ancient lachrymatories, or tear
bottle, in our museums.
When on the way from the Holy
Land III 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 sugges-
tive to me than the tear bottles which
L brought home and put among my
curiositics. That was the kind of bot
tie that my text alludes to when David
cries, Put thou my tears into thy bot
tie"
The text intimates that God has an
intimate acquaintance and perpetual
remembrance Of all our griefs, and a
vial or lachrymatory, or bottle, in which
he catches and saves our tears; and l
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 VINO are
about to break under the assault Of
temptation, and perchance, il no words
appropriate to their case be uttered,
they perish. / come on nc fools GRAND.
Tut upon your wounds no salve COM
pounded by human quackery, but, press
ing straight to the mark, 1 hail you as
a vessel mid-sea cries to a passing craft,
Ship ahoy!' and invite you on board
a vessel which has faith for q rudder,
and prayer for sails, and Christ for cap
tain, and heaven for an eternal harbor.
Catherine Rheinfeldt, a Prussian, keeps
a boat with which she rescues the
drowning. When a storm comes on
the coast, and other people go to their
beds to rest, she puts out in her boat
to the relief of the distressed, and
hundreds of the drowning has she
,ought safely to the beach. In this
fe-boat of the gospel l put out to-day,
oping, by Gods help, to bring ashore
{ least one soul that may now be sink
ing i'm the pillows of temptation and
trouble. The tears that were once
caught in the lachrymatories brought
up from Herculaneum and Prmpeii 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, l 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 grieyes not about his mis-
doing. but only about its consequences.
God makes no record of such weeping.
OF all the million tears that have gush-
cd as the result of such misdcmeanor,
not ones ever got into Gods bottle.
They dried on the fevercd cheek, or
were dashed down by the bloated hand,
or fell into the red wine cup as 1t came
again to the lips, foaming with still
worse i~ntoxication. But when n man is
sorry for his past and tries to do better
when he mourns his wasted advan-
tages and bemoans his rejection OF
Gods mercy, and cries amid the lacera-
tons of an aroused conscience for help
out of his terrible predicoment, then
God listens; then heaven bows down;
then scepters of pardons 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 1t might be put to
higher adaptation. An angel starts
from the throne of God TO md what
thing it can on the earth worthy of
being carried back to heaven. 1t goes
down through the gold and silver mines
OF earth. but finds nothing worthy of
transportation TO the Celestial City. 1t
goes down through the depths of the