The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-07-06
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. DIP. ROBERT M. MOORE.
Theme: The Resources of God.

morning in st. Johns NJ. E. Church,
Bedford avenue and Wilson street.
He had large audiences morning and
evening. DR.. Moore's morning SUBJ
ject was: THE Resources Of God"
He took his text frcm II. Kings 6:l7:
Lord, I pray Thee. open his eyes,
that he may see." DR.. Moore said:
Ben-hadad, King of Syria, was at
rior army and was a great strategist,
but he failed. And he failed because
God was with Israel. For God is a
force to be reckoned with in life and
the side that He is on is always
the victorious side. The King Of Sy-
ria was anxious to know the cause Of
his defeat. He suspected treason, but
after consulting with son.e OF his
trusted advisers he knew that the
fault was with the prophet Of God,
who was chief adviser to the King Of
Israel.
Carlyle has we'll said that Gods
prophet is not only a preacher of
Righteousness. but should be a politi-
cal force whom the cause Of evil
should have reason to fear. Then the
whole plan of campaign adjusted it.
self in an effort to capture Elisha.
Elisha had with him as a servant a
young man from one of the theologi-
cal schools. One morning, in serving
his master, he found that they were
practically captured by the Syrian
army, whoss forces were encamped
all about them. Immediately he te-
gan to think of escape and realized its
impossibility. He appealed to Elisha,
only to be laughed at. for the old man
had a vision that the young man did
not possess. The young man saw
only the forces Of opposition; the cid
man had caught sight of the resources
of God and was confident. He was
anxious that his companion should
have the same vision, and so he
prayed Lord, open his eyes, that he
may see." This incident may be very
profitable to those of us who are
seeking to estimate the resources of
life or who find themselves in an IN
equal contest with threat Of defeat.
In the first place, We have here IL
Illustrated the fact that one may look
and yet not see. They see some
things but not all. They may even
see all the adverse or disappointing
things and become pessimistic; their
eyes never discover the things of hope
or the powers that make for right
eousness. They see the shadows. but
never stop to think that the. deeper
the shadow is the stronger the sun
light must be. In nature, how few
people understand completely the di-
vine lesson; how few catch all the
beauty that is displayed. Bayard
Taylor has told US that n day In
looking over the Mere de Glace, he
stood beside an Englishman, whose
only comment was: Call that ice
would bring a lot of money in Cal
cutta in the hot season, don't you
know"
But we do not forget the immortal
lines of Coleridge's Hymn at Sunrise
in the Vale of Chamounix." Ore
looked and saw, the other only looked
and saw nothing. Or, in our estimate
of humanity, how many Of US get the
vision of the higher things. In ouI
estimate of a man, his wealth or So
cial position greatly influence our ap-
probation of him and we sometimes
never seek for those virtues that re-
veal the better quality of life. There
stands before us the figure Of the
Christ, that great form which domin.
ates the ages, and yet there are those
who look and see only a man like
unto other men and nothing more
There are others who look at that
life and discern very God manifest in
the flesh, the Saviour of the world,
1t seems to be difficult sometimes to
escape the memory of Mary and JOS
eph, the earthly mother and father,
The young man who serves as the IL
l%ustration in this story was thinking
only of self; therefore, when he dis.
covered danger he prepared to run.
It is often said that it makes little
or no difference what OR creed may
be or what We believe so long as we
are good. But it makes an infinite
difference what We believe and what
our conception of life is, for even I'm.
consciously our conduct is conformed
to our creed. If the difficulties seem
to be greater than We can overcome
and the forces in opposition stronger
than we are able to meet our course
of conduct will be entirely different
from that which we would pursue II
we felt that We would be victorious
1t is highly important, therefore, that
our eyes should be open to all the
forces that ere in alignment with oul
cause; that We should know all the
powers that we may command; thai
OR eyes should be opened to all the
resources of God and to His own great
powers, which are available to our ne
cessity. It was to this eEd, therefore
that the nan of God prayed that the
gift of the opened eyes might be given
to the young man who jour1eyed with
him.
In the second place this battle
story reveals to US the fact that the
unseen world is a real world. That
there are infinite movements in life
that do not appear upon the Surface
of things; that there are great forces
in the universe which in the most 81
lent way d. their work and make
their contribution to the ministry OF
life. There was a man, who, in one
of his letters, wrote about "beile
comprised about with 50 great q
cloud of witnesses" and lived as
though all those spiritual presences
were visible to him. History is glo'
rious in the character aid deeds OF
great souls, OF great souls who have
endured las seeing him who is visi'
ble." And the questions Of doubt
never seem to shake their confidence
in the reality of the life that is un'
seen by e-es of flesh. In this story
there is a Young mai who is a type OF