A BOTTLE IN THE SMOKE

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 1, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 13.

A BOTTLE IN THE SMOKE.

"Long years ago when Abraham was sending Hagar out into the wilderness with Ishmael in her arms he gave her some bread and a bottle of water." Mrs. Ives was talking to her girls and boys and related this incident because she wanted to give them a little lesson. "Children, who can tell me how that bottle was made?"

"I can," said little Jim.

"Well, darling, tell it," the mother said.

Jim drew himself up as straight as his five years permitted, as he said, "Glass, of course."

"No, dear, that is not right. Can you tell us, Bessie?"

Bessie would have given the same reply as Jim had, but as it proved to be wrong she said, "Of clay, mamma."

Mrs. Ives shook her head as she asked, "Can any one of you tell us?"

No one could answer, so she said, "The bottle was made of skin."

"H'm, that's funny!" put in Beth. "Was it folks' skin?"

"As if it could be, silly girl," interrupted Jo.

Somehow the young folks were not unaccustomed to getting into a tangled snarl when they were allowed to mix up words too much. So Mrs. Ives raised her hand, which the children knew called for silence, and then she said: "If you will keep quiet I will tell you how bottles were made. The Arabs and those that lead wandering lives keep their water, milk, etc., in leathern bottles. They kill a goat, cut off its feet and head, and draw the flesh through the openings. Then they tan it, leaving the hairy part outside."

"Can I speak, mamma?" asked John.

Permission being given, he added, "Why did they tan the skin?"

"I am glad to have you ask the question, my son; if the skins were not tanned a disagreeable taste would have been imparted to the water. Sometimes a smaller bottle was needed; then the skin of a kid was used, and when it was necessary to have a large vessel it was made of the skin of an ox, and was called a gerba, and a camel could only carry two of these, as they contained sixty gallons each. When liquor was poured into these skin bottles and fermentation began, the bottle would sometimes be distended so much that it would burst. Jesus knew this, and he told his disciples that to avoid such loss they must put new wine into new bottles."

"Can the skin bottle be mended, mamma?" asked Bessie.

"Yes; sometimes they were mended by setting in a new piece, sometimes by gathering up the edges, and sometimes by inserting a round, flat piece of wood to stop the hole."

"Did everybody have camels to carry the big bottles?" asked little Jim.

"No; but they put them upon the asses when they went upon a journey."

"I should think that the hot sun upon the bottles would dry up the water," suggested John.

"So it would," Mrs. Ives said. "But to prevent that happening and letting them perish with thirst when they were traveling across the deserts, the outside of the bottles were smeared with grease; and that prevented the water from oozing through and also from being evaporated. In one of the psalms David says: 'I am become like a bottle in the smoke,' that is, the heat, which would render it useless."

"Are such bottles ever used in these days, mamma?" asked John.

"Yes; they are still universally employed in traveling in the East, as well as by public water-carriers; and it is said that to this day in Spain they are used for wine or other liquids. I hope my dear girls and boys will be like new bottles full of all that is needed for the Master's use, and not like a bottle in the smoke, that is good for nothing."

"So do I," answered John. And each one echoed his reply.—New York Observer.