The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-11-28
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
"A GREAT VICTORY"

upon the nnuAa ueep Longing Attrf
0od-Faith viii Conquer in the End
God Is Our Strength and Life.
New YORK CITY.-The Rev Dr.J. VIII
bur Chapman has furnished 10 the press a
most striking aud popular sermon which
Is intended for all those who would rise TO
better things. It Is entitled "a Great
Victory and is preached from the texts:
AS the hart panteth after the water
brooks, 30 panteth my soul after Thee, U
God" Psalm 42. /. Hope IN God, for
shall yet praise Him who is the health Of
my countenance" Psalm 43: B.
The first verse Is a lamentation in the
wilderness, the second is a shout of re-
loicng when victory is won. The terri
tory stretching out from the wilderness in
the one text to the presence OF God in the
other is not only the story of the expe-
rience of David, but of the most of Chris
tians. Mymessage last week was to those
who occasionally fall under juniper trees
and want to die; here 1t is to all who
would rise to better things.
The Psalms are divided into five books,
and the ancient Rabbins say in these five
books in the Psalter we have the image of
the five books of the law, or in other
words a kind of a second pentateuch the
echo of the first. In the first God speaks
and IN the second the voice of the people
IS heard, God presents Israel with the
law, and grateful Israel responds with a
shout of praise. These two Psalms form
the first division of the second book.
They are dedicated to the master musi-
clans or the sons of Horah They were
the celebrated musicians and singers Of
the day; they were in David's time the
keepers Of the threshold of the tabernacle,
and still earlier in the time of Moses they
KUofobFNar at kha auN Of Abo
camp of the Levites; they were a part Of
that band that acknowledged David as
leader at Ziklag; they were warriors with
faces like lions, and who for speed were
like gaZelles on the mountains.
Mr.. Sturgeon says that although David
Is not mentioned as the author of these
psalms they must be his, for the truth is
so like him. 1t has the character of his
style and the work of his experience in
every letter. l had sooner question the
authorship of Bunyan's second part Of the
Pilgrims Progress" than to question Da.
vid's right to these psalms. Whoever
wrote them has given a name to the souls
deep longing after God and made a sigh
melOdlous thing.
There are three divisions in the psalm,
each closing with the refrain, "Why art
thou cast down, 0 my soul" The whole
psalm is the picture of a soul climbing
Godward, not without backward slips,
but climbing nevertheless, until the sigh
OF the first text gives way to the shout of
the second. Perhaps the singer during his
exile on the eastern side of Jordan had
seen some gentle creature with open mouth
and heaving TANKS eagerly seeking water
IN the dry river bed, and he saw in this
picture OF himself. The whole psalm is
like what we lpve seen on some early
spring day, when the sun was warm, the
sky blue, the trees ready to burst into bud
and the birds were singing, but only for
a day, then the clouds returned, the at
mosphere was chilled, the birds are all
stllled and the sun was under a cloud
Viewed IN one way it is psalm Of gloom
in another way it is psalm of glory
Streaks of brightness are ever flashing
through the gloom First there is sigh
as of a breaking heart, then comes a word
Of hope like a rainbow spanning the water
fall; once again the contending enemies
meet as in verses 8 and 10, but finally
above it all comes the refrain without a
complaint, 81 shall yet praise Him who is
the health of my countenance."
There are certain expressions most strill-
ing in the psalm. Three times does David
say why art thou cast down, 0 my
soal?' as though he were two men. The
psalmist talks to himself. John Trapp
Eugo ~ - lFoNlh CAiulIk DdNlu Uub VI inc
dumps. To search for the cause of sorrow
Is often the best surgery for grief. In
verse notice the words, "Tbe Lord will
command His loving kindness in the day.
time" No day has ever dawned in which
an heir Of grace could be utterly forsaken.
In the same verse we read "In the night
His song shall be with me-" Affection
may put out our light at times, but if it
does not. silence our song the light will
come again. Verse 3, psalm AZ, "Send out
Thy hight and truth" These are like an
gels. to guide him to the object of his af-
tectlons, but finally above all sounds the
note of victorS, Hope thou in God" This
Is like the singing of Paul and Silas, it
looses chains, shakes the prison walls and
sets the prisoner free. Two graces men
toned in this psalm were used frequently
by Christ hope and faith Faith tells us
what Christ has done; hope tells us what
He will do, and hope is like the sun as we
Journey toward it; our burden is cast
back of us. Faith may have many a
struggle with fear, but it win conquer in
the end. These two psalms are really one;
there IS constant unfolding of expe-
rience and rising to higher appreciation
of God, and as faith acquires more strength
you will notice that not only David but
ourselves come to think of God in a differ
ent way and address Him in more endear,
ing terms. There is no better illustration
of this than these two psalms.
/.
30 Cod" Debarred from public wor,
ship David Is heart sick. He is not seek
ing ease, he needs God. He is not after
comfort, but like traveller whose water
bottle is empty and who finds the vel
dry, so he must have God or he will faint
When it is as natural for us to long fol
with our souls. 20 God,P we hear him
saying. 1t is as if he can scarcely breathe
Tor thirst. He does not know Just what
he is needing Or just how God would re
veal Himself to him, but he must have God
All unrest or thirst or outgoing Of desire
are but the reaching out Of the soul aftel
God. We shall be satisfied only when W,
find Him.
II.
0The living God . Nv eoul +birs+oFI