Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-09-01
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
TALMAOE breaches FROM
BOOK OF PSALMG
Put Thou My Tears Into Tiny Bottle
B6;8-The Tender Remembrances of
a Compassionate Creator-Happinoss
In Tears.

maze chose a unlquCithe enc as his subject for to-
day viz: "A BOTTLE of Tears the text select
ed being Psalms 56:S, Put thou my tears into
thy bottle"
Hardly a mail has come 10 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 platform of any
outdoor meeting but coming down l
have been told by hundreds of people
the same thing. So think Will keep
On trying to be n son of Consolation"
The prayer of my text was pressed
out of David's soul by innumera BILE
calamities; but it is just as approprl-
ate for the distressed of all ages.
Within the past century. avelers and
aniiquariaus have explored the ruins
of many of the ancient cities, and from
the very heart of those buried splen-
doris of other days have been brought
up evidences OF customs that long ago
vanished from the world. From
among the tombs of those ages have
been brought up lachrymatories, or
lacErymalS, which are Walls made OF
ea1thenware. 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 lachryma-
tories, or tear-bottle, in our museums.
When on the way from the holy
! land our ship touched at Cyprus; we
went back into the hi Is 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
nv curiosities. That was the kind of
bottle that my text aliudes to, when
David cries, Put thou my tears into
thy bottle"
The text intimates that God has an
intimate acquaintance and perpetual
remembrance of all oul griefs, and
vial, or lachrymatory, or bottle, in
which he catches and saves our tears;
and ] bring 10 you the coincidence OF
this Christian sentiment. Why talk
about grief? Alas! the world has its
pangs, and now, while speak there
are thick darlSncsses 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 case be ut
tered, they perish ! come
on no fools errand. Put upon
your wounds no salve com
pounded by human qua kerry, but
pressing straight to the mark, l hail
YOU as a vessel mid-sea cries to pass
ing craft, "Ship ahoy'' and invite you
on board a vessel which has faith for a
rudder, 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 storm
comes on the coast, and o her peopie
20 to tneir beds to rest she puts out in
her boat for the relief of the dis
tressed, and hundreds of the drowning
has she brought safely to the beach.
In this life-bo of the gospel l put
on to-day, hoping, by Gods help, "a
bring ashore at least one soul that may
now be sinking in the pillows of temp.
tation and trouble. The tears that
were once caught in the lachryma.
tories brought up from Herculaneum
aud 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 ofrepentance. 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 heart, and unfit TO step into the
light lie grieves. not about his mis-
doing, 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 misde
meanor, not one ever got into God S
bottle. They dried on the fevered
cheeks, or were dashed down by
the bloated hand, or fell into the red
wine cup as il came again to the lips
foaming with st IL worse intoXication
But when man is sorry for his past
and tries to do better-when he mourn:
his wasted advantages and bemoan:
his rejection of Gods mercy, and cries
amid the la cerations of an aroused con
science for help out of his terrible pre-
dicament, then Col listens; then
heaven bows down; then sceptres o.
pardon are extended from the throne
then his crying rends the heart o.
heavenly compassion; then his tears
are caught in God bottle.
You know the story of Paradise and
the Peri. i think it might he put tC
higher adap alton. An angel starts
from the throne of God to find wha
thing it can find on the earth worthy o.
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 talk
ing back to heaven. But coming Il
E the foot of mountain it sees wan
/ derer weeping over his evil ways. The
5 tears of the prodigal start, but do not
fall to the ground, for the angel:
, wing catches them, and with thai
treasure speeds back to heaven. Goo
sees the angel coming, and says, "Be
D hold the brightest gem of earth, and
the brightest jewel of heaven-tht
3 tear of n sinners repentance"
0 Obi when | see the heavenly shep-
' herd bringing lamb from the wilder
2 ness; when hear the quick tread o.
the pr digal fastening home to FIND
his father; when / see a sailor boy
coming on the wharf and hurryinl
away to beg his mothers pardon fol-
} long neglect and unlSindness; when
r see the houseless coming 10 Col fol
shelter, and the wretched and the vile