The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-08-29
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
:, REV. GEORGE THOMAS BOWLING. -
Subject: "The Secret Of Feace.'

| Edward Bowling, minister in charge
Of st. James's P. E. Church, st. james
| place and Lafayette avenue, preached
Sunday morning on the subject, 1.-The
Secret Of Peace" a study of the Shep.
herd Psalm. DR.. Bowling said:
Thirty centuries ago there lived in
Palestine king, who in his boyhood
had been shepherd lad. And in his
old age, when he had seen life, with
its SORROWS and its joys, this king
David, sang song, which it takes less
than two minutes deliberately to re.
peat.
Three thousand years have gone
since then; and to-day everything he
| owned has turned to dust except his
! songs. The throne on which he sat
dust; the palace where he dwelt-
| dust; the harp which his fingers were
accustomed to sweep, the banner
with which he led the hosts of Israel.
his chariots, and his charioteers-all
dust! But to-day that song goes sing
ing its way to the universal heart,
in the cottage Of the poor and the
mansion Of the rich, in the home Of
the learned and Of the unlearned. be-
cause it sings of what all the world
is hungering for-peace.
When Edward Irving swept through
the gates it was with this song upon
his lips. L9ther called it the Little
Bible" and so it is, for it contains
in miniature the whole book. Henry
Ward Beecher, who once made Brook
lyn famous, that greatest preacher
the world has ever known since Paul
stood on Mars Hill, called it "the
nightingale's song," because it sings
to us in the darkness. Listen while
I repeat it to you, that it may once
again sing its way into your heart.
(Dr. Bowling here repeated deliber-
ately the Twenty-third Psalm.)
Now yield Him not simply admira.
tion, but alteration. 1t is the difference
between HE leadeth," and HE lead
eth me-" If you would know. wtat
God may be to you, learn to appro-
pirate Him. Learn to think of Him
simply not as God, but your God;
not simply as friend, but your
friend; not simply as a shepherd, but
your shepherd.
Now, when you receive gift there
|
it. You accept it, you examine it,
and you use it. And the gift which
this royal shepherd poet of three thou
sand years ago makes to us in this
Shepherd Psalm may prove more pre-.
cious to you than any which you have
ever received, If you deal with it in
just that way; the way of appropria-
tion, Of appreciation and Of applica.
ton.
AS you notice how very easy it is
to appropriate it, because it abounds
with those personal and possessive
pronouns, in which, Martin Luther
said, the preciousness Of the Bible
consists: "The Lord is my shepherd .
"He leadeth me-" "Yea, though walk
through the valley"
What a great difference there is be-
tween the mere apprehension of a fact
and the appropriation Of that fact. be-
tween knowing it and claiming it.
When you see a child in q runaway,
you are moved; but suppose it is your
child. There is the same difference
that there is between the stately man.
sion of stranger and the little cot
|
you In her arms and crooned to you
the songs of your babyhod. SO, my
friends, you never can judge of re-
ligion until it has been transmitted
into a personal experience, until it
has become your religion. A histori-
| cal Christ is, at the most. only a
| Christ. I can look upon Him with
admiration. All! but when He has
become mine, and I have heard His
voice, and felt His touch, He is no
longer simply a Christ but the Christ.
And then, when you have appropri-
ated this psalm, seek to appreciate it.
! Notice, to begin with, the perfect spir.
| it of trust which breathes through it
all. See how much it has to say about
Him and how little about ourselves.
Mark how every verse tells us what
He is doing.
My dear people, that is the whole
| secret The secret of peace is the
putting of God between our troubles
| and ourselves. I know the dark hours
which have come into some of your
lives; I know your perpleXities: for
| though you are strangers to me as
| yet, the experience of human hearts
| is just the came the whole world
over, and the joys and the sorrows
| of the men and women whom / learn
| Ell so we'll to know and to love on the
Pacific shores are just the joys and
the sorrows which you are having to-
day. I know of the hour when some
| young mother in this congregation sat
| sobbing by the side of her little one,
whispering blindly, II do not know
why she should be taken from me;
I cannot understand it," Well, my
dear child, do not try to understand
it, for you never can here. Some
day shall preach to you on Things
to be Waited For" and one OF the
things to be waited for is the under
standing of these mysteries of life.
And yet We may know that while
! we are waiting we nv be waiting
| in companionship with Him who un.
derstands it all. And there is no oth-
er help for us in our dark hours, ex.
cept in placing Him between our
troubles and ourselves.
Wilbur Chapman tells US of little
drummer boy in our civil war who was
| taken into the hospital mortally
wounded, and so they sent for his
mother from distant city. But when
she came they said to her, "You can
not go in; he's too sick; lie couldn't
stand the shock" And so she stood
by the door waiting and weeping and
listening. And when she heard him
sigh, she said to them, LET me go in:
I won't speak to him. III just sit
by his bedside" And so they per.
1nitted her to pass quietly into the
| darkened room and sit hesida him