The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1910-06-10
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
TIE REV. DR.. ROBERT M. MOORE.
Theme: The Resources of God.

He had large audiences morning and
evening. DIR. Moore's morning sub
ject was: THE Resources of Cod
He took his text from II. Kings 6:17:
Lord. | pray Thee, open his eyes,
that he may see." DR.. Moore said: !
Ben-hadad, King of Syria. was at
war against Israel. He had a supe-
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 some of his
trusted advisers he knew that the
fault was with the prophet of Cod
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 theologl-
cal schools. One morning, in serving
his master, he found that they were
practically captured by the SYRIAN
army, whose forces were encamped,
all about them. Immediately he be-
gan to think of escape and realized its
impossibility. He appealed to Elisha;
only to be laughed at, for the old a
had a vision that the young man did
not possess. The young man saw
only the forces of opposition; the old
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 CT us who are
seeking to estimate the resources OF
life or who find themselves In an un-
equal contest with threat of defeat. !
In the first place, we have here il
Illustrated the fact that one may look
and yet MT see. They see some
things but not all. They may ven
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, blu
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 d.
vine lesson; how few catch all the
beauty that is displayed. Bayard
Taylor has told us that one day in
looking over the Mere de Glace, he
stood beside an Englishman, whose
only comment was: "All 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." One
looked and saw, the other only looked
and saw nothing. Or, in oIr estimate
of humanity, how many of us get the
vision of the higher things. In our
estimate of a man, his wealth or So
cial position greatly influence u 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 lock at that
life and discern very God manifest in
the flesh, the Saviour of the world.
It 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
1%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 M liffoponon what nur nraod M W
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 ever un-
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 if
we felt that we would be victorious.
1t is highly important, therefore, that
our eyes should be open to all the
forces that are in alignment with our
cause; that we should know all the
powers that We may command; that
our eyes should be opened to all the
resources of God and to His own great
powers which are available to our ne
cessity. 1t was to this end, therefore,
that the man of God prayed that the
gift of the opened eyes might be given
to the young mar who j%ourneyed with
him.
In the eecond place this battle
story revsafs 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; hat there are great forces
in the universe which in the most 81
lent way do their work and make
their contribution to the ministry of
life. There was a man, who, in one
of his letters, wrote about being
comprised about with so great a
cloud of witnesses" and lived as
though all those spiritual presences
were visible to him. History is glo-
rious in the character and deeds of
great souls, OF great souls who have
endured "as seeing him who is WISH
BILE" And the questions of doubt
never seem to shake their confidence
in the reality of the life that is I'M
seen by eyes of flesh. In this story
there is a young man who is a type of
character which we often meet, who
saw only chariots of iron and the
horsemen and captains of an earthly
king. 1t was possible for him to see
the hills round about covered with
the chariots of God, but his eyes were
holden.
This unseen world is a real world;
as manifested in the interest dis
played by this celestial army. mar.
shaled by infinite love. What were
they doing on the hills if they had no
concern about what became of Elisha
and his helper? And they were there
for the purpose of defense, if neces-
sary, so that the reality of this unseen
world is manifested as being a help
ing world. Elisha c~ontended that
they that be with us are more than
they that be with them" We cannot
forget the statement of the sufferer
in Gethsemane, who declared that Il
could pray to My Father and He shall