The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-09-08
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Gods Intimate Acquaintance with
An Earthly Griefs-
The Tears of Afflicted Humanity arc Not
Wasted-Comfort for the Repent
ant, the Sick, the Poor and
the Bereaved.

tie of Tears" basing it on the text:
Put thou my tears in thy bottIe.-Psalms
lVL-. g
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 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 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 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.
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-bottles which the ma
tives had dug out of the ruins of the
old city. There is nothing more sug-
gestive 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 when
David cries: Put thou my tears into
thy bottle"
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 ] bring to you the coincidence of
this Christian sentiment. Why talk
about grief? Alasl the world has its
pangs, and now, while we speak, there
are thick darknesses 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 Tease be uttered,
they perish. / come on no FOOLS err
rand. Put upon your wounds no Salve
compounded by human quackery,
but pressing straight to the mark,
/ hail you as a vessel mid-sea
cries to a passing craft: "Ship
ahoyr' and invite you on board a
vessel which has Faith for rud-
der, and Prayer for sails, and Christ for
Captain, and Heaven for an eternal
harbor. Catherine Rheinfeldt, a Prus-
sian, keeps boat with which she res
cues the drowning. When a storm
comes on the coast, and the other
people go to their beds to rest, she puts
out in her boat for the relief of the
distressed, and hundreds of the drown
ing has she brought safely to the
beach. In this life-boat of the Gospel
/ put out to-day, hoping, by Gods help,
20 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 lachry-
matories brought up from Hercula-
neum and Pompeii 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, 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
- -
He grieves, not about his misdoing, but
only about its consequences. God
makes no record of such weeping. OF
all the million tears that have gushed
as the result of such misdemeanor, not
one ever got into Gods bottle. They
dried on the fevered 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 intoxication. But when man
is sorry for his past and tries to do bet
ter-when he mourns his wasted ad-
vantages and bemoans his rejection of
Gods mercy, and cries amid the LAGER
atoms 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 crying rends
the heart of heavenly compassion; then
his tears are caught in Gods bottle.
You know the story of paradise and
the Peri. l think it might be put to
higher adaptation. An angel starts
from the throne of God to find 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 Celes-
tial City. 1t goes down through the
depths of the sea, where the pearls lie,
and finds nothing worthy of taking
back to Heaven. But coming to the
foot of a mountain it sees a wanderer
weeping over his evil ways. The tears
of the prodigal start, but do not fall to
the ground, for the angels wing
catches them, and with that treasure
speeds back to Heaven. God sees the
angel coming, and says: Behold the
brightest gem of earth, and the bright
est jewel of Heaven-the tear of sim
ner's repentance"
On! when I see the Heavenly Shep-
herd bringing lamb from the wilder
ness; when 1 hear the quick tread of
the prodigal fastening home to find
his father; when see a sd ilor-boy COM
ing on the wharf, and hurrying away
to beg his mothers pardon for long
neglect and unkindness; when | see the
houseless coming to God for shelter,
and the wretched and the vile and the
sin-burned, and the passion-blast ap-
pealing for mercy to a compassionate