Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1914 — Short Sermons FOR A Sunday Half-Hour [ARTICLE]

Short Sermons FOR A Sunday Half-Hour

THE ENLARGEMENT OF LIFE.

BY THE REV. C. C. ALBERTSON.

"He brought me into a large place.” —Psalms xviii:l9.

Someone asked the chaplain ot George IV. if he felt qo fear, when preaching to royalty, and the good man replied. ‘T Garget that there are princes before men and remember only that there are souls to instruct in godliness.” The author of this psalm forgot that he was a king when he wrote these verses, and remembered that he was a sent, that he had been he:ped and by Whom he had been helped.—There are three singular facts about this psalm. It occurs twice in the Holy Scriptures, once in II Samuel and once in the Psalter. It contains two verses quoted in the New Testament, one in Romans and the other in Hebrews. These verses are ascribed to Christ, as they appear in the New Testament; sb we may believe that it is something mor* then a psalm of David —that King David’s Lord speaks through it. • But here, at the nineteenth verse, it Is a human soul .speaking,. He is reli< arsing many mercies.of.i£e Lord. He has Just said, “He delivered me from my strong enemy. He drew me out of many waters. He was my stay.” You know what a stay is in building. It is a prop. As applied to persons, a stay is a stand-by, and the GAtk for stand-by is “Paraclete,” and we translate it "Comforter,” or “Advocate.** “If any man.sin, we have an Advocate with the Father.” So the Psalmist says, “The“Lord —waamyAdvocate."Now follows the text. “He brought me forth into a large place." And this is not the least precious fact here adverted to, by any means. David was born in a small place, moved in a small circle until the Lord led him out. Not at once was he led into a large place, He mounted to the throne by - way of many a hardship and many a battle. It was so with Joseph. He reached the palace byway of prison. But he came to the large place in time, as did Abraham before him. Ur of the Chaldees was a small place. Abraham bad no outlook there, but he found a large place In Canaan, a large place on earth and a large place in history. Even so Moses was led. Egypt was a small place, not small in extent of dominion, lor In Its power among the nations of the world —but its horizon was,small. The palace Is a poor place -for * prophet. Better the desert. Better the meadows of Median. Better the

mountains of Moab. Better the wandering through the wilderness. Better the Sinai of law, the Nebo of glory. This has been th© song of all God’s servants in every age—"He brought me forth into a large place.’’ Obedl ence to God never contracts our powers. Christ does not lead men backward, but onward, outward, upward. Matthew was led into a large place when he left the toll-booth to follow Jesus. Peter bad never seen anything .larger than the Sea of Galilee until Jesus made him a fisher "of men. Paul at,his best was only a theological halt-splitter, a heresytranter," until Chr Istappeared to him and filled his heart with a passion for the preaching- of the _G os pel and the glory of the cross. If the voice of patr'arch and. prophet and apostle could be heard to day it would cry, "Never say ‘No’ to God. If He call thee, go. He will lead thee Into a large place.” No experience is more common to the mostr of us than a certain contempt for the littleness of the things by which we are compelled t® live. We are crowded and hemmed in by our circumstances. We are painfullylimited. The farm boy who leaves the country goes to the city to seek a more abundant life. He dreams the city calls him to large enterprises. He does not know how cramped are th® lodgings of most dwellers In th® city. Blessed is travel, for it enlarge® the horizon of the traveler if he be a close observer. It is a distinct step in one’s mental development when he first acquaints himself with the language and customs of another country than bis own. It is an cld saying, "A man La as many men as he can sp«ak languages." 1 know a German shoemaker who speaks nine languages, and he has acquired t£em by traveling through foreign lands. He goes abroad every year -or two, trampu through the country he visits, lives the life of the people, and then comes back to his little shop to cobble and to live over in memory the scenes of his now numerous pilgrimages. Blessed Is literature, for it broadens life. To most of us time to travej Is denied. But books are not, denieu us —books of travel, of hlfciory, of science, of fiction. A late writer advises us to-read that fiction which portrays life aa different'aa possible from our own. We hardly need that counsel. A certain instinct guides us In that direction. - Blessed is the religion that take’ as out of ourselves, makes us supexlosto our limitations, creates. a new world for us. Supremely blessed 1 th® Goepel of Jesus Christ, for o! all religion* that the world has sees it offers its disciples the most abun tent life.