Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-04-29
3GON|E|IIM[N|'
IN THE THIRD PRESBYTERIAN
Church-His Text-What IL Content
ment-A Mistaken idea of Con-
tentment-The Sermon.

CnUxCn-hl0
ment-A Mistaken Idea Of Con-
II tentment-The Sermon.
Last evening the Rev. r. r. Bigger,
the pastor of the Third Presbyterian
church, delivered an able and interest
ing sermon on the subject of Con-
tentment." He chose as his text:
Il nave learned in whatsoever state
/ am Herewith to be content" Phil.
ALL.
These words were not spoken by a
man accustomed to luxury and ease.
Not spoken by one who never knew
what hardship was; but by a man
who had a checkered experience, and
who at that time was lying in prison
at Rome for the crime(?) of trying to
save mems souls by preaching the Cos
pei to them. After uttering the words
of our text he said, q know how to be
abased and i know also how to
abound. In everything and in all cir
cumstances | have learned both to be
full and to be hungry, both to abound
and to suffer needs know of no quo
talIon from all literature which depicts
more exalted attitude of mind than he
describes in this passage on the vir
tue of contentment No one can study
the life of Paul without concluding
that True religion and real content
ment are inseparable." No one can
have genuine contentment who does
not have faith in the living God as the
everlasting covenant keeping God
Now, | need not take time here to de-
scribe the hardships through which
Paul passed to convince you that his
contented spirit was not due to an easy
life. Paul has saved me the labor of
that task by summing it all UP in the
following language, In labors more
abundant, in stripes above measure, in
prisons more frequent, in deaths oft
Of the Jews, five times received [ forty
stripes save one. Thrice was | beaten
fered l shipwreck, night and day
have | been in the deep; in journey
ings often, in perils of waters, in per-
lis of robbers, in perils by mine own
countrymen, in perils of the heather, in
perils in the city, in perils in the sea,
in perils among false brethren; in
rin inf in ofoh
ings often, in hunger and thirst, in
HASTINGS often, in cold and nakedness,
Beside those things which are without,
that which cometh upon me daily-the
care of all the churches. And yet, af
ter all this, and now lying in prison
awaiting death, he could magnani
mously say, Il have learned in what
soever state am Herewith to be con-
tent" No one was ever tried more than
Paul; but he was content in the midst
of hardships, self-sufficient in the. Chris
tian sense, not with the independence
of pride of stoicism, but resting upon
Christ. He was armed for prosperity
and adversely. What blessed thing
it is to hold ones self in readiness for
whatever God has in store for us and
contentedly say Thy will be done
Paul did not recite this long list of
troubles'in complaining manner, but
he rather gloried that he was accounted
worthy to suffer for Christ's sake. On,
the conservation of such life.
Now, before we go into this sub
ject more thoroughly, let us analyze
what Paul meant by being content. l.
Contentment is not mere happiness. 1t
is really better than happiness, which
is often so vivid that it blurs out ones
| consideration for others. A happy per-
son is rarely popular or useful, for he
| or she is invariably selfish; or if that is
too harsh a term, self-centered. But
contentment, real, honest contentment,
shows in the face as well as in every
happier if he had been out leading men
to Christ instead of lying in the Jail at
Rome, but since it fell to his lot to be
a prisoner for Christ's sake, he would
not complain, but make the best of it.
3 Some people fancy that content
ment with ones surroundings in life
/ means merely stagnation, and if there
| was nothing in the world but con-
eminent, there would be no progress.
But this is false reasoning. Content
ment does not mean to let things go.
All, no. Never was there a more ag-
gressive man than Paul. His favorite
motto was, Il press forward" The
truly contentented man makes every
honest effort to make reasonable pro-
/ gress, but while he is doing this, and
after he has done it, he does not fret
nor fume nor worry. Contentment is
the opposite of that unholy ambition
| that insatiate greed that is constantly
| fretting because it cannot rise higher
or accumulate more rapidly. The
contented man is industrious, econom-
! ical and cheerful He works diligent-
| " and he waits patiently.