Newspaper Page Text
4
Bitter Tears and the Death of the Old Year
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len. G. Broughton.
“And he went out, and wept bitterly.’’—Mat
thew 26: 75.
I
purpose this morning to talk to you
on the subject of Bitter Tears, and it
seems to me that we have an appro
priate occasion for the presentation of
this subject.
It is a time now when inventories
are to be made. Business men every
where in this country during the com
ing week will be occupied in making
out inventories of their business. They will be
occupied in this work for the purpose of trying
to see exactly how they stand in business that they
may know how to make their plans and contracts
for the future, and the man who does not follow
this method is a man who will soon find that he
has undertaken something he cannot carry out,
and because of that will come to naught in the
business world. The fact is I believe the more
frequently a man takes stock, the better off he
is in a business way. If it were possible, I think
it would be better for a business man to take stock
every week, but it is not possible for him to do
this, and so there has come about a universal cus
tom of taking stock once a year, at least.
Now, my friends, just as this is needed in the
business world, it is needed for us as individuals.
Peter here in the text is giving evidence of the
fact that he has waited a bit too long to take
stock. If Peter had taken stock of himself long
before this, he would have saved these bitter tears.
If he had stopped in the very beginning of his
period of backsliding, and counted the cost, and
taken an inventory of himself, he never would have
denied the Lord as he did, but he delayed taking
stock, and the result of the delay was the expres
sion which we take for our text.
I believe that the very best of us, because of
the fact that we are tabejrnacling in this body
of the flesh, will find when we take stock of our
selves that we too have cause for bitter tears.
I am sorry for the man who never feels the neces
sity for repentance.
Men do not like to have to think about those
things in their lives that cause them pain. They
like to think of those better deeds that give joy
and pleasure, but whether we care to do this or
not, it is certainly to our interest, and to the
interest of the cause we represent, that we be
honest and frank, and sit down once a year, at
least, as the business man does, and make a care
ful inventory of our lives.
What are some of the things that give us biter
tears in life?
HASTY JUDGMENTS.
I find- that bitter tears are more frequently
caused by unjust judgment than almost any
thing else. It is so easy for a man to
be unjust in his judgment of his neighbor. Some
one on this platform—l do not remember who—
said: “The peculiarity of Christians is that we
demand perfection of everybody else, and deny
perfection for ourselves.”
If I were to come before you this morning and
say, “I am absolutely perfect,” you would be
disgusted, and rightly so, for you know it isn’t
the truth, and yet every one of you demand that
very thing of me, and you demand it of one an
other, and the moment you find that your neigh
bor is not exemplifying the perfect life, if you
don’t watch out, you will begin your unjust judg
ment concerning him. It is so easy to do that,
because we are ourselves so very ignorant of the
inward life of other people, just as other people
are very ignorant of the inward life of us. I
have a friend, a preacher, a prominent man in
the ministry, with a large congregation. In that
congregation was a woman who was very active
in Christian service, and all at once she dropped
out, and was not seen at church any more for a
long, long time. Everybody began to wonder, and
everybody began to talk. Finally, the minister
The Golden Age for January 10, 1907.
began to wonder, and then he began to talk. He
went to see her. She assured him there was no
lack of faith on her part, but she had a reason
which was understood only between herself and
God. After awhile, she dropped in for a few Sab
baths,- and then dropped out for all time. It
finally developed one morning the pastor, who was
feeling hurt about it, was walking past the house
where she lived, and saw crepe on the door. He
was surprised, and stopped and went in, and the
husband of this wife met him, weeping. The
preacher said: “What’s the matter?” “My wife
died last night,” said he, and then he took the
pastor into the parlor and shut the door behind
him, and told him what only he and the physician
and the wife had known all the time. She had a
malignant cancer and was too sensitive to talk
about it, and that pastor said to me, he never in
his life had such a shock as he received that morn
ing; that he had actually censured her, and criti
cised her, and had allowed others to do it, when
he might have known at the same time that it
was possible for her to have excuses and reasons
that were known only to herself and her God.
So, my friends, I tell you to-day, it is well for
us, as we look into our lives, to think about these
things, that we may escape in the future the bit
terness of the tears that come because of that
thing, and that we may also prevent the bitter
tears that may be shed by those who are innocent,
and upon whom we have no right to inflict suffer
ing of that character, for God knows they may
suffer far more than words can ever tell.
HARSH WORDS.
Then again, biter tears are often caused by
harsh and unstudied words that we speak
about one another. I have recently been reading
afresh the story of David and Jonathan.
By the way, I want to say it is one of the most
interesting stories the Bible contains, or that can
be found anywhere in literature, as for that.
Jonathan was the son of a king, the heir ap
parent to the throne. David was unthought of.
David was not contemplated by Jonathan when he
first began to look out upon the field of his great
kingdom, but after awhile David came upon the
scene, and he was a very attractive young man,
handsome in physique, magnetic and graceful and
charming and shrewd and smart and good, and it
began to be apparent that David would be the
king instead of Jonathan. The ordinary man
would have begun at once to reach out for the
cords of jealousy and envy. I tell you, it would
take a mighty good man to-day not to get jealous
and envious under such circumstances. I should
hate to be tried by that kind of trial. But Jona
than proved himself a man in every sense of the
word. Never do we find escaping his lips a word
of criticism of David. Never do we hear him talk
ing about him in any uncomplimentary way. The
ordinary man would have begun at once under such
circumstances to pick out all the flaws he could
of his rival, but, on the other hand, as David grew
up and became the king, Jonathan, instead of sit
ting down and pining and whining, and growling
and criticising the man who had been put in as
cendency, does the reverse. He joins himself as a
friend of friends, and they became two friends the
like of which, perhaps, the world has never known.
They were absolutely inseparable in their lives.
David likewise proved himself to be a man under
these circumstances. You know it takes a very
big man not to gloat over his victims, and it takes
a great deal bigger man to stand success than it
does to stand failure. It is natural for a small
man when he wins a big victory, to crow over his
victims to such an extent that he loses all that
has come to him in the way of his victories.
I have in this same connection read the story
of Elijah and Elisha. It is a beautiful story.
Elijah was getting old, and he naturally began, as
a wise and godly man, to look out for some one
who was to be his successor, and he wanted his
successor to be inducted into office before he took
his departure, so one day he walked through the
fields where Elisha, young, vigorous and promis
ing, was ploughing. He took his mantle off and
threw it on the shoulders of Elisha, and Elisha
knew that Elijah had selected him for his work.
Now, the ordinary method of men is, especially
in religious work—hear this—never to want a
successor. That is a funny thing, but it is true.
'Somehow, there is something that gets hold of
men when they get active in religious work that
makes them feel that they want to hojd on right
there till they die. There may come up hundreds
and thousands of vigorous, active, capable young
men, who are needed in the harness of the king
dom of Christ, but somehow, there is something
on the part •of religious men in harness never to
be willing to take a piece of gear off to make a
harness for anybody else. I believe honestly there
have come up more harsh criticisms, more schisms
and ruptures in the church of Christ because of the
unwillingness on the part of men and women to
allow anybody else to share with them their honors
and their glories than from any other cause to be
mentioned to-day.
And so, all these things of which I am speak
ing are brought to our attention that we may think
along the lines of them all, with a view of saving
ourselves trouble, for in the end they are bound to
result in heart pangs and aches and tears either
for ourselves or somebody else.
LOSS OF OPPORTUNITY.
Another thing that causes bitter tears is
the loss of opportunity. There is in the
Vatican museum in Rome a piece of Grecian
statuary that to me is a great inspiration. It is
not a beautiful thing, but a very suggestive one in
its lesson. It represents Opportunity. It is the
figure of a man standing on tiptoe to indicate that
opportunity has ! o be reached after. There are
wings upon his. feet to indicate that opportunity
is fast in passing. The front part of his head is
covered with long, bushy hair to indicate that
when opportunity is met, it must be seized. The
back part of his head is bald to indicate when
opportunity is past, there isn’t anything to reach
for. It is true. It is true in our every day life.
It is true in the life of every business man and
business enterprise.
One day I was walking in front of the Piedmont
Hotel. A man came along with a small, insig
nificant looking thing he had had patented. The
man to whom I was talking asked to see it. He
turned it over and said: “What will you take
for it?” “One hundred and fifty dollars,” said
the man. “I will take it.” That little insignifi
cant one hundred and fifty dollar patent has made
that man over fifty thousand clear dollars. That
was the force of opportunity. There was an op
portunity to make something out of the thing,
and he seized it.
Every unused opportunity has in it a fortune,
and every need unsupplied is in itself an oppor
tunity. The thing that has made men rich is not
so much that they have been wise in the operation
of their business as it is that they have been .wise
in the selection of their business and the time in
which they have operated their schemes.
And so, my brethren, with respect to religion.
Every gTeat religious enterprise, every great reli
gious leader, is the result of the seizure of oppor
tunity.
Take Martin Luther. Never would he have been
heard from but for the fact that he lived at a
day and time when there was an opportunity, and
he seized that opportunity and made himself what
he is in history.
William Carey never would have been what he
is in history to-day but that he lived at a time
when missions in the modern church was a thing
unknown, and he realized that it was an opportune
time for the gospel of missions.
What was John Wesley’s opportunity? The
Chui ch of England had literally dried up with
formalism. The spirit had departed from the