The Penn's Grove record., 1906-03-09
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
BISHOP SEYMOUR.
Subject: "My Shepherd"

Seymour was the preacher Sunday
morning. He chose for his subject,
"My Shepherd and his text was
Psalm 1:23: ''The Lord is my shepherd;
therefore 1 can lack nothing" he said:
We pass from the brightness of
Christmas and Epiphany to the sea-
sol of Lent that closes with the dark
ness Of Good Friday. Ere we bid
Epiphany goodby let us consider what
it tells us, namely, that our Saviour
came to be the Saviour of all mankind.
Epiphany falls into two divisions: The
Christmas of the Jew and the Christ
mas of the Gentle. First, the Christ
mas of the Jew, when the shepherds
came as the representatives of the
shepherd nation; came called on by
an angel through whose dispensation
the law was given to the Jew;
came to the manger; came to worship.
And then the Gentle Christmas, called
Epiphany, when the Kings were led by
the star to worship the child. And
then the fact that the Jew and the
Gentle alike fell down and w%orshiped
the little child, a baby, weaker than
the weakest, 1 may say, of all the
young, and yet-Him by whom the
Willis MClC DudQGs IL 10 lLlutCh Il hOA-
derful spectacle to see the Jew and
the Gentle alike ~worshiping the babe.
We leave the angelic host that sang
over Bethlehem and .le brightness of
the star which brought the three kings
at all events the kings of the East
w%orshiped the little babe with appro-
pirate gifts-for the transition period
of Lent.
Could 1 do better than ask you, with
myself, to consider our personal re-
sponsibility in the words of the text:
"The Lord is my shepherd; therefore
can 1 lack nothing?" Here is a dec
laration which may make or not. as
we choose, for the possessive pronoun
is intensive-"my," as though it were
something that we loved, as jewels Of
earth-"they are mine; l own them"
So: "The Lord is my shepherd" and
based upon that declaration is the
fact; therefore can L lack nothing"
There is no word which more frequent
ly falls from our lips than 81" 1t is
the shorte-t word in human speech
a single letter-because it brings to
the surface personality. Go whittier
you will, on every side you will hear
men, women and child uttering 81"
"T' is to each one the centre of the
universe; everything radiates from it
and everything comes into it. And this
is right in its way, only sometimes it is
exaggerated and we have what we
call selfishness. But l am not dis
posed to criticise thai lust now, only
to say that this p-onoun my" grows
out of tie persoLaI pronouI a." be-
no1Sn If 6nnnfnu C-rn0pShfn-ssu m y -
And we may say, the poorest of US,
first we own ourselves: II, vyself; l
belong to myself" and 1t is on the
basis of that claim tat we have the
wars for independence, for liberty or
personal right, and men resist the idea
of being owned by the others, and pre-
eminently in this land of freedom
claim to be free-"I own myself" l
have not time to analyze the worth of
the claim, for it is immense: "Mine,
spirit, body" this creature, of Cod
like mould and summing workmanship,
how marvellously built up! A single
profession, numbering some Of the
greatest men, devotes days and weeks
to studying it and yet has not fathomed
its secrets. The medical profession is
largely experimental to-day. 1t has
made wonderful discoveries in fifty
years, and still it has not yet probed
this little mass Of matter, the body, 10
its depths. And back of it is the mind,
the intellect, the memory that holds
the past and hope that grasps the fu-
ture; the mind that deals with prem
ises and conclusions and reasons. 1t
has no moral quality, it is pure intel
lect. Deeper down than it is the spirit,
the seat of conscience, the moral sense,
marvellous beyond expression! that en-
phasizes our to God. Body,
mind and spirit bound up together and
each of US claim to own that trinity
blended into unity. II, myself, l own
myself"
Let us pass on. my time;" that is.
"my life. These hours and days and
weeks are mine," and, hence. the wage
question, when men claim the right to
sell their time for so much. So, you
see, we claim the ownership Of time.
OF course. it is not really ours. Our
times are in His hand" Still, we
claim it. "My years are sc many"
Hence, we see another element of
wealth-time, opportunity. Then,
again, character, my character" en-
phasized by the name. A good name
is worth a good deal. We pass still
further: "My position in life, in So
ciety, my parentage, my surroundings,
my friends and relatives-these belong
to me-" And they are worth a great
deal sometimes. Then we come down
to that with which we are most IA
miliar: "My material wealth, my stocks
and bonds, jewels, wardrobe. They be-
long to me-" =
Now, that brings us to David's
claim: 1.-THE Lord is my shepherd"
You do not give up the other things,
but you make another claim, and that
you can only make through Him who
allows it, and He allows it by coming
here to be reached and embraced. If
you will, and loved. He revealed Him.
self as one of us in order that through
Him we, by the Holy Ghost, might
reach the Father. for He ONE out
from the invisible to be visible. He
can be touched and handled and seen
here. He was here with a certain gen.
Grafton when this was the case. We
must not envy them, for we have a
greater privilege than they. You re-
member Thomas. Jesus said to him
after r had been so obstinate, BE
thou hast seen Me thou hast be-
lieved; blessed are they that have not
seen and yet have believed" We may
believe if we will, on the ~undoubted
testimony of the ages, that Jesus after
death was on this earth. He had
passed through the craven gate of
death and had consummated for man
the glory of the resurrection, and took
our nature through into heaven and
blessed it on the throne of God, where
He ever remains as a magnet to draw
men in love, so that we may say with
David, THE Lord is my shepherd,
therefore can l lack nothing"
Now, my friends, I wish to say that
no other element of wealth can enable
us to say, Therefore can l lack moth
ing" Try the experiment with which
we are most familiar as a world power,
wealth in any form. l have been with
some of the wealthiest men hat the
last generation knew. l have seen
them in the hour of death and as they
died the bonds and stocks of wealth
fell down and passed hands. 1t could
not buy an entrance ticket to Paradise
nor to heaven. If you would be wise
consider the end and nothing between.
Forecast the future, not as bounded
by the horizon of earth, but by the
olorfeS af Paradisa and heaven ss-Tbo