Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-09-08
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON
Subject: GA Bottle Of Tears"

Hardly mail has come to me for twenty
years hat has not contained letters saying
that my sermons have comforted the writers
ofthose letters. have not this summer nor
for twenty years spoken on the platform OF
any outdoor meeting but coming down
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 calamities, but
ii is just as appropriate 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 c5lstom for the ancients TO catch the
tears that they wept over their dead in q bot
te and to place that bottle in the graves OF
the departed, and we have many specimens
of the ancient lachrymatories or tear bottles,
In our musuems.
When on the way from the Holy Land our
ship touched at Cyprus, we went back into
the hills of that island and bought tear bot
ties which the natives had dug out OF the
ruins of the old city. There is nothing more
suggestive to me than the tear bottles which
l brought home and put among my curloSI-
ties. That was the kind of bottle that mytext
alludes TO when David cries, PUT thou my
tears into thy bottle"
The text intimates that God has an init
mate acquaintance and perpetual remeFn-
brance Of all our griefs, and vial, or iachry-
matOry or bottle in which He catches and
saves our tears, and bring to you the con-
dolence of this Christian sentiment. why
talk about grief? Alas, the world has its
pangs, and now, while I speak, there are
thick darknesscs 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
cAs3 be uttered, they perish. L come on no
fools errand. Put upon your wounds no
salve compounded by human quackery but,
pressing straight to the mark, hail you as a
vessel mldsea cries to passing craft,
"Ship ahOy! - and invite you on board a
vessel which has faith for rudder, and
prayer for sails. and Christ for captain, and
heaven for an eternal harbOr.
Catherine Rheinfeldt, Prussian, keeps
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 for the relief Of the distressed,
and hundreds Of the drowning has she
brought safely to the beach. In this lifeboat
of the Gospel l put out to-day, hoping, by
Gods help, to bring ashore at least one soul
that may now be sinking in the pillows Of
temptation and trouble. The tears that were
once caught in the lachrymatories brought
up from Herculaneum and POmpeli are all
gone and the bottle is as dry as the scoria Of
with the bottle in which God gathers all our
tears.
First, remark that God keeps perpetuaIIy
the tears Of repentance. Many a man has
awakened in the morning so Wretched from
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 rec
ord of such weeping. OF allthe million tears
hot huxya Chn1o no Of SII0 m
demeanOr, not one ever got into Gods bot
tie. They dried on the feyered 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 intoxica-
ton.
But when a man is sorry for his past and
tries to do better-when he mOurnS his wasted
advantages and bemoans his rejection Of
Gods mercy, and cries amid the decorations
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 cry
ing rends the heart Of heavenly compassion;
then his tears are caught in Gods bottle.
Oh, when / See the heavenly Shepherd
bringing lamb from the wilderness when
I hear the quick tread of the prodigal has
tening home to find his father wien | see
sailor boy coming on the wharf and hurryinS
away to peg his mothers pardon for long
neglect and unkindness; when L see the
wretched and the vile. and the sin burned,
and the passion blasted appealing Tor mercy
to compassionate God, l eXclaim in ecstasy
and triumph More tears for Gods bottle :.
Again, God keeps tender remembrance of
all YOUR Sicknesses. How many OF you are
thoroughly sound in body? Not one out OF
ten | do not exaggerat6 The vast ma ority
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 subject 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
tnat you are q hypochondriac. They say
YOU are nerYous-as If that were nothing
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 21de-
scribabIe lonliness in your suHerlnSs, but
God knows: God feels God compassion
ates. He counts the sleepless 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 out the drops, God counts
all YOUR falling tears. AS you look at the
vials filled with nauseous drafts and at the
bottles of distasteful tonic that stand on the
shelf. remember that there is larger bottle
than these. which is filed with no mixture by
earthly apothecaries, but it is Gods bottle, In
which he hath gathered all our tears.
Again God remembers all the sorrows OF
poverty There is much want that never comes
to inspection. The deacons or the churcn
never see it. The comptroLers of the aims
houses never report it. It comes not to
II hos