The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-10-21
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Gods Intimate Acquaintance with
All Earthly Griefs.
The Tear. OF Afflicted Humanity are Not
Wasted-Comfort for the Repent
art, the Sick, the Poor and
the Bereayed.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage chose for
the subject of recent sermon "A Bot
tie of Tears" basing it on the text:
Put thou my tears in thy tottie.-Psalms
wi. 81
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.
/ have not this summer nor for twenty
years spoken on the pla tform OF any
outdoor meeting, but coming down l
have been told by hundreds OF people
the same thing. So think will keep
on irving to be s'Son of Consolation.
The prayer of my text was pressed
out of David's soul by innumerable
calamities, but it is just as appropri-
ate for the distressed of all ages.
Within the past century travellers
and antiquarians have explored the
ruins of many of the ancient cities, and
from the very heart of those buried
splendors 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
| lachrymals, which are walls made of
earthenware. 1t was the custom for
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 ancient lachrymato-
ries, or tear bottle, in our museums.
I L. tn III nj
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
pestive to me than the tear-bottles
which brought home and put among
my curiosities. That was the kind Of
bottle that my text alludes to wher
David cries: Put thou my tears into
thy bottle.
The text intimates that God has ar
intimate acquaintance and perpetua
remembrance of all our griefs, and Z
vial, or lachrymatory, or bottle, II
which lie catches and saves our tears
and bring to you the coincidence o
this Christian sentiment. Why tall
about grief? Alas! the world has 1T
pangs, and now. while we speak, ther'
are thick darknesses of soul that neet
to be lifted. There are many who ar
about to break under the assault O
temptation, and perchance, if no word
appropriate to their lease be uttered
they perish. / come on no fools err
rand. Put upon your wounds no salv
compounded by human quackery
but pressing straight to the mark
II hail you as vessel mid-se
: cries to passing craft: SSH
ahoy..' and invite you on board
. vessel which has Faith for a ROD
der. and Prayer for sails, and Christ TO
; Captain, and Heaven for an eterna
harbor. Catherine Rheinfeldt, Prus
b sian, keeps boat with which she ref
cues the drowning. When storr
comes on the coast, and the othe
people go to their beds to rest. she put
out in her boat for the relief OF tn
distressed, and hundreds OF the drown
ing has she brought safely to IT,
beach. In this life-boat of the Gospt
put out to-day, hoping, by Gods hell
to bring ashore at least one soul thu
NAV now be sinking in the pillows {
temptation and trouble. The teal
that were once caught in the lachry
matories brought up from Hercul'
neum and Pompeii are all gone, an
the bottle is as dry as the scOria OF tn
volcano that submerged them! but NJ
so with the bottle in which God gathe
all our tears.
First, remark that God keeps pc
petually the tears of repentance. Mar
man has awakened in the morning
wretched from the nights debaut
that he has sobbed and wept. Pail
in the head. aching in the eyes, sick
heart. and unfit to step into the ligh
lie grieves, not about his misdoing, b
only about its consequences. q
makes no record of such weeping.
all the million tears that have gush
| as the result of such misdemeanor. n
one ever got into Gods bottle. TIL
dried on the fevered cheek, or we
dashed down by the bloated hand,
fell into the red wine cup as it car
,s again to the lips, foaming with st
= worse intoxication. But when a M
o. is sorry for his past and tries to do b
\ ter-when he mourns his wasted q
ii vautages and bemoans his rejection
= Gods mercy, and cries amid the lac'
. atoms of an aroused conscience for he
out of his terrible predicament, tn
God listens; then Heaven bows dow
then scepters of pardon are extend
from the throne, then his crying rem
the heart of heavenly compassion; tn
his tears are caught in Gods bottle.
You know the story of paradise a
g. the Peri. ! think it might be put
d. higher adaptation. An angel sta
Y from the throne of God to find WI
n thing it can on the earth wdRthy
g. being carried back to Heaven. 1t g
r. down through the gold and sill
= mines of earth, but finds MOTH
- worthy of transportation to tie Gel
tial City. 1t goes down through
depths of the sea, where the pearls
and finds nothing worthy OF taxi
back to Heaven. But coming to
q foot of a mountain it sees wande
? weeping over his evil ways The te
of the prodigal start, but do not fall
q the ground, for the angels w
= catches them, and with that treas
= speeds back to Heaven. God sees
II angel coming, and says: behold