The Penn's Grove record., 1906-07-20
TIE PULPIT.
ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
REV GEORGE THOMAS BOWLING.
Subject: "The Secret Of Peace"

- CuuICD OF. Jane
pace and Lafayette avenue, preached
sunday morning on the subject, "The
SSecIeG OIL Peace" a study of the Shep.
NERO Psalm. Dir. Bowling said:
ihlfty centuries ago there lived in
Fa!estine a king, who in his boyhoo5
nad peen a shepherd lad. And in his
oid age when he had seer life, with
us sorrows and its joys, this king
DaVld, sang a song, which it takes less
lnan TWO minutes deliberately to re.
peat.
Ihree 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
WIN which he led the hosts of Israel.
MS chariots, and his charlottesville
gust! But today that O 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 II sings Of what all the world
is hungering for-peace.
When Edward Irving swept through
4 gates it was with this song upon
ms lips. Luther called it the Little
Bible" and so it is, for it contains
IN immature the whole book. Henry
ward Beecher, who once made Brook.
Ign famous, that greatest preacher
h world has ever known since Paul
stood on Mars Hill, called it "the
nlghtingale's song" because it sings
TO US in the darkness. Listen while
| repeat it to you, that it NAV once
again sing its way into you heart.
(Dr. Bowling here repeated deliber-
ately the Twenty-third Psalm.)
Now | yield Him not simply admira.
ton, but alteration. 1t is the difference
between He leadeth," and He lead
eth me-" If you would know what
God may be to you, learn to appro-
pirate Him. Learn to think of Him
simply not as a God, but your God;
not simply as a friend, but your
friend; not simply as a shepherd, but
your shepherd.
Now, when you receive a gift there
are three things which you do with
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.
ton, Of appreciation and of applica.
ton.
As you notice how very easy 1t is
to appropriate it, because it abounds
with those personal and ~possessive
pronouns, in which, Martin Luther
said, the preciousness of the Bible
consists: 1.-THE Lord is my shepherd
"He leadeth me" "Yea, though l wall
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 a runaway,
you are moved; but suppose it is your
child. There is the same difference
that there is between the stately man
sion of a stranger and the little cot
tage in which your mother rocked
you in her arms and crooned to you
the songs of your babyhod. So, my
friends, you never can judge Of a 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. 1 can look upon Him with
admiration. All! but when He has
become mine, and 1 have heard His
voice, and felt His touch, He is no
longer simply a Christ but the Christ.
AnI thoo rrhon 1rO,, 6ou0 ann-nDri
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 lear people, that is the whole
secret. The secret of peace Is the
putting of God between our troubles
and ourselves. l know the dark hours
which have come into some Of your
lives; l know your p~erplexities: for
though you are strangers to me as
yet, the experience of human hearts
is just the same the whole world
over, and the joys and the sorrow
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, 81 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 1 shall preach to you on Things
to be Waited For" and M 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 nay be waiting
in companionship with Him who un.
derstands it all. And there is no 9th
err help for us in our dark hours. ex'
cept in placing Him between our
troubles and ourselves.
Wilbur Chapman tells us of a little
drummer boy in our civil war who was
taken into the hospital mortally
wounded, and so they sent for his
mother from a distant city. But when
she came they said to her, "You can.
not go in; he's too sick; he couldn't
stand the shock" And so she stood
by the door waiting and weeping aud
listening. And when she heard him
sigh, she said to them, LET me go in:
I won't speak TO him. I'll just 81!
by his bedside" And SO they per
mitted her to pass quietly into the
darkened room and sit beside him.
But as she sat there the mother love
was too strong, and, reaching out her
hand, she laid it gently upon his ach'
ing forehead. He did not open his
eyes, but he knew that touch. She
saw his lips move, and. STOPPING down
to him, she heard him say: Il knew
you'd come to me; l knew you'd come
to me-" And if you are only willing
to welcome Him who loves you more
than you ever loved your little one
you may know that He will come tC
you, and "as one whom his mother
comforteth,' so will He comfort you
And notice the blessings which he
brings when He comes. AS David ex
presses it in this psalm, they that be
long TO Him shall find that their cur
'overfloweth' -; not only abundance
but ~redundance. 1t has sometimes