The Bossier banner., 1893-10-05

| HouScIeSS coming TO 0Ou IOr SnSlCef,
and the wretched and the vile and the
sin-burned, and the passion-blasted ap-
| pealing for mercy to a compassionate
God, L exclaim in ecstasy and triumph:
| 'More tears for Gods bottle!
Again: God keeps a tender remem-
| brance of all your sicknesses. How
many of you are thoroughly sound in
body? Not one in ten! l do not exag-
gerate. The vast majority of the race
are constant subjects of ailments.
There is some one form of disease that
you are particularly subject to. You
| have weak side, or back, or are SUBJ
| ject to headaches, or faintnesses, or
lungs easily distressed. 1t would not
| take a very strong blow to shiver the
golden bowl of life, or break the
pitcher at the fountain. Many of you
have kept on in life through sheer
force of will. You think no one can
understand your distresses. Perhaps
you look strong, and it is supposed that
you are hypochondriac. They
say that you are nervous-as if that
were nothing God have mercy upon
any man or woman that is nervousl At
times you sit alone in your room.
Friends do not come. You feel an IN
describable loneliness in your suffer
ings; but God knows, God feels. God
compassionates. He counts the Sleep
less nights; He regards the acuteness of
the pain; He estimates the hardness of
the breathing. While you pour out
the medicine from the bottle. and
count the drops, God counts all your
falling tears. AS you look at the Walls,
filled with naNseous draughts, and ct
the bottles of distasteful tonic that
stand on the shelf, remember that there
is larger bottle than these, which is
filled with no mixture by earthly
apothecaries, but il is Gods bottle, in
which He hath gathered all our tears.
Again: God remembers all the sor-
rows Of poverty. There is much want
that never comes to inspection. The
deacons of the church never see it.
The eomptrolless of almhouses never
report il, It comes not to church, for
it has no appropriate apparel. 1t
makes no appeal for help, but chooses
rather TO suffer than expose its bitter
ness Fathers who fail to gain live
lihood, so that they and their children
submit to constant privation, sewing
women, who can not ply the needle
quick enough to earn them shelter and
bread. But whether imported or un-
complaining, whether in eeemingly
comfortable parlor, or in damp cellar,
or in hot gatfet, Gods angels of mercy
| are OH the watch. This moment those
griefs are being collected. Down on
the back streets, in all the alleys, artiid
shanties and log cabins, the work goes
on. Tears Of want-seething in sum
mers heat, or freezing in winters
| eold-they fall not unheeded. They
are jewels foe Heavens casket. They
arc pledges of Divine sympathy.
They are tears for Gods bottle.
Again: The Lord preserves tho re-
membrance Of all paternat anxieties.
You see a man from the infamous sur
roundings step out into the Kingdom of
God. He has heard no sermon. He has
received no startling provident warn
| ing What brought him to this new
mind? This is the secret-God looked
over the bottle in which He gathers the
tears of His people, and He saw par
entail tear In that bottle which ha S
been for forty years unans wered
lie said: go to, now, and let me
answer that tear!" and forthwith
the wanderer is brought home to God.
Oh, this work of training children for
Godl 1t is tremendous work. Some
people think it easy. They have tried
it. A child is placed in the arms of
the young parent 1t is beautiful
plaything. You look into the laugh
ing eyes. You examine the dimples in
the feet. You wonder at it's exquisite
organism. Beautiful playthings! But
on some nightfa1l, as you sit rocking
that little one, voice seems to fail
straight from the throne of God, saw
ings THAT child is immortal! The
stars shall die, but that is an immortal!
Suns shall grow old with age and per-
ish, but that is an immortal!"
| Now, know with many of YOU this is
the chief anxiety. You earnestly wish
your children to grow up rightly, but
| you find it hard work to make them do
as you wish. You check their temper.
You correct their waywardness; in the
midnight your pillow is wet with weep
ing. You have wrestled with God in
agony for the salvation of your chill
| dren. You ask me if all that anxiety
is Intellectual. I answer, No. God un-
derstands your heart He understands
how hard you have tried to make that
daughter do right, though she is so
very petulant and reckless, and what
pains you have bestowed in teaching
thatson towalk in the path of upright
ness, though he has such strong pro-
cllvities for dissipation. 1 speak a
cheering word. God heard every coun-
sci You ever offered him. God has
known all the sleepless nights you
have ever passed. God has seen every
sinking of your distressed spirit. God
remembers your prayers. He keeps
eternal record of your anxieties: and
in His lachrymatory, not such as stood
in ancient tomb, but in one that glows
and glitters beside the throne of God,
He holds all those exhausting tears.
The grass may be rank upon vour graves