The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-08-30
"a BOTTLE OF TEARS"
"A Unique Theme the Subject OF a
Sermon by Rev. Dr.. Talmage.
God Keeps Perpetually the Tears Of Our
Repentance and Remembrance OF
All Our siclZnesses and Anxicties
In His Laohrymatory-An
Eloquent Discourse.


At the Brooklyn Tabernacle recent
ly, Rev. DR.. Tslmage preached the fol
lowing sermon, the text selected being
Psalms lvi., 8: "Put thou my tears
iuto thy bottle"
Hardly mail has come to me fol
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
have been told by hundreds OF people
the same thing. So l think l will keep
on trying to be "son Of consolation"
The prayer of my text was pressed
out Of David's soul by innumerable ca
lamities; but it is just rs appropri
ute for the distressed Of all ages. With
in the past century travellers and an
tiquarians have explored the ruins ot
many of the ancient cities, and from
the very heart of those buried splen'
dors of other days have been brought
up evidence of customs that long ago
vanished from the world. From among
tombs of those ages have been brought
up plachrymatories, or lachrymals, which
are walls made of earthenwar 1t was
the custom for the ancients to catch
the tears 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 lach'
rymatories, or tear-bottles, in our mu'
seums.
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 natives
had dug out of the ruins of the old city,
There is nothing more suggestive 6
me than the tear-bottles which
: brought home and put among my curl
osities. That was the kind OF bottle
that my text alludes to; when David
cries, "Put thou my tears into thy bot
tle."
The text intimates that God has an
intimate acquaintance and perpetual
remembrance Of all our griefs, and q
vial, or lachrymatory, or bottle, in
which He saves our tears; and bring
to you the coincidence of this Christian
sentiment. Why talk about grieff
: Alas the world has its pangs, and now
while speak, there are thick dark
nesses of soul that need to be lifted
There are many who are about tc
break under the assault of temptation
and percha nee, If no words appropriate
TO their case be uttered, they perish
come on no FOOLS errand. Put upor
your wounds no salve compounded BY
human quackery, but, pressing straigh
to the mark, hail you as a vessel mid
sea cries to passing craft, "Shil
ahoyl'' and invite you on board YES
sci which has faith for rudder, an
PRAYER for sails, and Christ for captain
and Heaven for an eternal harboi
g Catherine Rheinfeld,a a Prussian, keeps
le boat with which she rescues the drown
/. ing. When storm comes on the coast
a. and other people go to their beds t
A rest, she puts out in her boat for tn
|, relief of the distressed, and hundred
> of the drowning has she brought SAFE
ly to the beach. In this life-boat of tn
S gospel put out to-day, hoping, b
r Gods help, to bring ashore at least on
:, :, soul that may now be sinking in II
pillows of temptation and troubl
The tears that were once caught in I'll
lachrymatories brought up from He
culaneum and Pompeii are all gon
and the bottle Is as dry as the scoria
the volcano that submerged theml III
not so with the bottle in which &c
gathers all our tears.
First, remark that God keeps pc
petually the tears Of repentance. Mar
man has awakened in the mornir
so wretched from the nights debauC
that he has sobbed and wept. Pains
the head, aching in the eyes, sick
heart and unfit TO step into the ligh
He grieves, not about his misdoing, b.
only about It's consequences. G'
makes no record Of such weeping.
all the million tears that have gush'
as the result OF such misdemeanC
. not one ever got into Gods bottl
They dried on the fevered cheek,
me were dashed down by the bloat
he hand, or fell into the red wine cup as
came again to the lips, foaming wi
i,S for still worse intoxieation. But when
tn man is sorry for his past and tries to
csy 1y better-when he mourns his wasted q
id- Eantages and bemoans his rejection
Gods mercy, and cries amid the lac
ations of an aroused conscience
" help out Of his terrible predicamel
then God listens; then Heaven bo
down; then scepters of pardon are
tended from the throne; then his OF
ing rends the he art of heavenly co
passion; then his tears are caught
Gods bottle. .r'.
You know the story Of Paradise a
the Peri. l think it might be put
higher adaptation. An angel starts FRI
the throne OF God TO find W hat thing
can on the earth worthy Of being C
ried back TO Heaven 1t goes do
r through the gold and silver mines
L, earth, but finds nothing worthy
transportation TO the Celestial City.
- goes down through the depths OF
sea, where the pearls lie, and fir
nothing worthyof taking back to He
en-. But coming TO the foot Of a MOI
tain IL sees wanderer weeping o.
his evil ways. The tears Of the pro
40 gal start, but do not fall TO the groul
for the angels wing catches them, a
q with that trea sure speeds back
Heaven. God sees the angel comil
y and says, Behold the brightest gen
earth, and the brightest jewel Of He