The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-09-08

look strong, and it is supposed that you
are hypochondriac They say that
you are nervous-as if that were moth
ingl God have mercy upon any man or
woman that is nervous At times you
sit alone in your room. Friends do not
come. You feel an indescribable lone
illness in your sufferings; but God
knows, God feels, God compassionates.
He counts the sleepless nights; He re-
CARDS the acuteness of the pain; He es-
Inmates 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, filed with nauseous
draughts, and at the bottles of the dis
tasteful tonic that stand on the shelf,
remember that there is larger bottle
than these, which is filed with no mix
ture by earthly apothecaries, but it is
Gods bottle, in which He hath gath
cred 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
comptrollers of almshouses never re-
port it. 1t comes not to church, for it
has no appropriate apparel 1t makes
no appeal for help, but chooses rather
to suffer than expose its bitterness.
Fathers who fail to gain livelihood.
so that they and their children submit
to constant privation; sewing women.
who cannot ply the needle quick enough
to earn them shelter and bread. But
whether reported or accomplishing,
whether in seemingly comfortable par
lor, or in damp cellar, or in hot garnet,
Gods angels of mercy are on the watch.
This moment those gifts are being col
lected. Down on the back streets, in
all the alleys, amid shanties and log
cabins, the work goes on. Tears of
want, seething in summers heat, or
freezing in winters cold-they fall not
UNDECIDED. They are jewels for Heavens
casket They are pledges of divine
sympathy. They are tears for Gods
bottle.
Again: The Lord preserves the re-
membrance of all paternal anxities.
You see man from the most infamous
surroundings step out into the kingdom
of God. He has heard no sermon. He
has received no startling providential
warning. 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 a parental tear in that bottle
which has been for forty years unan-
swered He said: go to, now, and
let me answer that tearI' and forth
with the wanderer is brought home to
God Oh. this work of training chill
dren for God! 1t is a tremendous work.
Some people think it easy. They have
never tried it. A child is placed in the
arms of the young parent. 1t is beau
tiful plaything You look into the
laughing eyes. You examine the dim
pies in the feet You wonder at its eX-
quisite organism. Beautiful plaything!
But on some nightfall, as you sit rock
ing that little one, a voice seems to fall
straight from the throne of God, say
ing: 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 hayward
ness; in the midnight your pillow is
wet with weeping. You have wrestled
with God in agony for the salvation of
your children. You ask me if all that
anxiety has been intellectual. / answer,
no. God understands 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 that son to walk in the paths
of uprightness, though he has such
strong proclivities for dissipation. l
speak a cheering word. God heard
every counsel 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 your
graves and the letters upon your tomb
stone defaced with the elements before
the divine response will come: but He
who hath declared, 81 will be a God to
thee. and to thy seed after thee" will
not forget, and some day, in Heaven,
while you are ranging the fields of
light, the gates of pearl will swing
back, and garlanded with glory, that
long hayward one will rush into your
outstretched arms of welcome and
triumph. The hills may depart and
the earth may burn, and the stars fall
and time perish, but God will break
his oath and trample upon his prom
ises-never!' never!
Again: God keeps perpetual remem-
brance of all bereavements. These are
the trials that cleave the soul and throw
the red hearts of men to be crushed IN
the wine press. Troubles at the store
you may leave at the store. Misrepre-
sentation and abuse of the world you
may leave Oh lHc StICcb "hCAC NOu
found them. The lawsuit that would
swallow your honest accumulations
may be left in the court room. But be-
reavements are home troubles and
there is no escape from them. You
will see that vacant chair. Your eye
will catch at the suggestive picture.
You cannot fly the presence of such
ills. You go to Switzerland to get clear
of them, but more sure-footed than the
mule that takes you up the Alps, your
troubles climb to the tip-top and sit
shivering on the glaciers You may
cross the seas. but they can