Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1914 — Short Sermons FOR A Sunday Half-Hour [ARTICLE]

Short Sermons FOR A Sunday Half-Hour

THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT. BY CHARLES E. JEFFERSON, D.D. Blessed be God, even the Father jof jsur Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Mercies, and the God of all Comfort.—ll Cor, 1, 3. £ This 1b Paul’s name for God. It is a name which *has healing in it. Discouragement is an experience which comes to all. If we are not discouraged we have been, or if we have not yet been we shall he. To every discouraged heart the religion of Jesus comes with words of comfort and good cheer. “Let not your heart be troubled,” so It says, when the skies are gray and the case seems hopeless. It wipes away the tears by revealing a God who pities and forgives. The New Testament gives large space to the sins of Simon Peter because it is a book inspired by the God of all comfort. Christ picks out a man, weak, blundering, sinful, and builds him as the first stone into the edifice of the institution which is to save the world in order to teach us that even if we are frail we can serve divine ends; that we are imperfect and unworthy, nevertheless we may have a place in the rising walls of the temple which shall be on earth the shine of thejeternal glory. If we are depressed by our sense of weakness Christ reveals to us a God of power. If we cry “Impossible” we are at once reminded that when the human will is linked with God all things become possible. The wind is blowing and the sea is rough and many a man today cries out in terror, but he who believes in the omnipotence of God can look undismayed into the teeth of the fiercest tempest. The earh is filled with human wrath, but God can compel the wrath of man to praise him. In spite of all appearances righteousness is stronger than iniquity, truth is mightier than error, love will finally conquer hate. Even when truth is on the scaffold and wrong is on the throne the Christian heart is not undone, knowing that some day, somewhere, all will be well. In a growing world like this processes of development cannot be completed before sunset, nor can all wrong things be righted before life’s course is run; but in the Father’s house there are many rooms, and what is left unflnshed in one room is completed in the next. Earthly failure should never disconcert or daunt a man who believes in the life everlasting. Failures are a prophecy of glory yet to come. Falling-short of one’s highest aspirations is evidence that there is another world. ' The.failures of earth point to thevictory beyond; the night which comes upon us when we have failed in our best efforts is proof of the boundless dawn; the sense of imperfection and the consciousness of blundering are intended to lead us onward and upward to the throne of the Eternal. Robert Browning tells it all superbly. Paraceluss begins life with vast ambitions. He determines to master all knowledge. Years are given to the quest and he comes home defeated.\ He then determines to become master of the kingdom of love. He gives himself to the great enterprise and at last sinks down defeated,. The time arrives when he must die, with the shout of a victor. His last words are: - If I stoop Into a dark, tremendous sea of cloud It is but for a time. I press God’s lamp Close to my breast. Its splendor soon or late Will pierce the gloom. I shall emerge one day.