Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 July 1858 — The Little Cup of Tears! [ARTICLE]

The Little Cup of Tears!

We find the following North German legend in “Thorpe’s Yule-tide Stories.” It is too beautiful to remain in the sole keeping of antiquarians: “There was once a mothey and a child; and the mother loved this only child with her whole heart, and thought she could not live without it. But the Almighty sent a great sickness among children, which seized this little one, who lay on its sick bed, even to death. Three days and three nights the mother watched and wept, and prayed, by the side of her dying child; but it died. The mother, now left alone in the wide world, gave way to the most violent and unspeakable grief. She ate nothing, and wept, three long days nnd three long nights, without cessation, calling constantly upon her child. The third night; as she thus sat overcome with suffering, in the place where her child had died* her eyes bathed in tears •■■ml faint from grief, the door softly opened, and the mother started; for before her stood her departed child. It had become a heavenly angel, and smiled sweetly as innocence, and was beautiful like the blessed. It had in its hand a small cup that was almost running over, so full; and the child spoke: ‘O! dearest mother, weep no more for me; the angels of mourning have Collected in this little cup the tears that you have shed for me. If for me you shed but-Ane tear more, it will overflow, nnd I shall have no more rest in the grave, and no joy in Heaven. Therefore, O dearest mother! weep no more for your child; for it is well und hup jay, and the angels are its companions.’ It then vanished. The mother shed no more tears, that she might not disturb her child’s rest in the grave, and its joy in Heaven. For the sake of her infants happiness she controlled anguish o! her heart. So strong and self-sacrificing is a mother's love.”