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Tte ‘BLESSING OT UNREALIZED IDEALS
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb . Len G. "Broughton, D. D.
Stenotraphically reported for The Golden Age. —Copyright applied for
Text: “But Jehovah said unto David my father,
Whereas it was in thy heart to huild a house for
my name, thou didst well that it was in thy heart”
(2 Chron. 6:3).
HERE is a story told of one of Napo
leon’s soldiers that when he was being
operated upon by a surgeon for the pur
pose of removing a ball that had lodged
somewhere near his heart, the soldier
looked into the face of the surgeon as
his knife went closer and closer to his
heart, saying, “Cut a little deeper, doc
tor, and you will find the emperor.”
T
This was his way of saying that he had the em
peror enshrined in his heart. There is a similar
story told concerning Queen Mary. Not long be
fore she died she said to some who were watching
beside her bed, “When I am dead, you will find
Calais engTaved upon my heart.” Calais was the
beautiful port in France just across the English
channel from Dover. There was never a day in her
life that Queen Mary did not grieve over England’s
loss of this beautiful place.
DAVID’S UNREALIZED IDEAL.
It was something like this with David. David
had purposed in his heart to build the temple for
the glory of God. It was the one ambition of his
life. It was his dream by day and by night. It
constantly stood before him. I am quite sure if
there had been some method like the X-ray light
that could reveal the secret thoughts of David,
and it had been brought to bear on his brain and
heart, it would have revealed a magnificent temple.
And yet it is a known fact that David never put
one stone upon another; he never put any two
pieces together to erect that house of God. He
never saw a single stone on stone, or timber on
timber, though he had planned it and worked upon
it and thought about it all through his public life.
He finally died without seeing the realization of his
aspirations, and in this connection he stands out as
an illustration of the unrealized ideals of the world.
There is not a great man recorded in all the history
of the race that has not in the end had to admit
that his ideals have been shattered and his hopes
blasted, no matter what he has accomplished. Every
good and great man has planned far ahead of his
realization, and had he not, he never would have
been what he was to the world. You remember how
it was with Abraham, who was in search of a land
-of his own. He had every hope that that land
would become his possession, and yet you remember
Abraham died without owning a foot of ground.
It was also true of Jacob. He started out with
the same kind of aspiration, and he died a stranger
in a strange land. It was likewise true of Joseph.
He had the desire to go back to his father’s coun
try, but we read of him as simply occupying a
coffin in Egypt. It was true of Moses. He started
out with the ambition of leading the children of
Israel into the promised land. He took them from
the cruel hand of bondage and led them through all
their wanderings, and yet he never set foot in
Canaan.
And so, my brethren, it has been with every great
man that history records. The only man who ever
graced the face of this earth who accomplished what
He set out to accomplish is the man Christ Jesus.
He came from heaven to this earth imbued with the
idea of redeeming the lost race, and that He ac
complished. The race of humanity is today just
as certainly bought back to God as if every man
and woman and child that lives on the face of
the earth were saved. All that Jesus came to this
earth to accomplish was accomplished when he
said on the cross, “It is finished.” But even
Christ has his unrealized ambition, for the very peo
ple whom He has bought back to God refuse to ac
cept the redemption price.
But it must not be taken for granted that 6uch
The Golden Age for December 24, 1908.
men as I have been speaking of and others that I
might continue to speak of have not been better
because of their ideals. The fact that they never
saw the realization of their dreams is no evidence
that they were not better men because of their
dreams. David was a far better man because of
his dreams concerning the temple of God than had
he not dreamed at all. Our text is an approval of
David, not for his achievement, but for the purpose
that he had in his heart. David was a better man
personally because of his elevated aspiration. Sol
omon never spoke a truer sentiment than when he
said, “As a man purposeth in his heart, so is he.”
The thoughts of our hearts find expression in the
deeds of our lives. David made many mistakes and
did many wrong things, but he had far less to
answer for had it not been for the aspirations that
seized him and held him fast to his purpose, to
build a temple for the glory of God.
It is said that after Michael Angelo had finished
that marvelously beautiful head of David, the head
that seems more to have been the product of the
chiseling hand of the skies than of the hand of man,
that it was observed by his friends that his own
face had softened; the hard lines of his own rugged
countenance had disappeared; his voice had modu
lated, and his temper and temperament had changed;
so much so that he immediately sat down and wrote
the sweetest of his poems.
My brethren, if it be true, and it is, that con
stant meditation upon lofty purposes and holy as
pirations find their expression even in the lines of
our faces and the modulations of our voices and the
sentiments of our souls, why should it not be true
that it affects us in the formation of our characters,
our dispositions, our temperaments'?
FORMATION OF CHARACTER.
David, because of the fact that he constantly kept
before him this lofty ideal was a better man in
character, a man of loftier conduct; a man of hap
pier disposition than if he had never built an air
castle. It is also true that it told upon the sum
total of his life. No man ever hits higher than he
aims. He may hit below the mark at which he
aims, but he hits higher if he aims high than if he
had taken a low aim. David had before him the
highest possible conception that a man could have —
the building of such a temple as he contemplated
under such circumstances as environed him. But
the height of his aspiration, the loftiness of his pur
pose', caused his life to sum up far more than
it could ever have summed up had his aim been upon
the level of the people with whom he associated.
It is said that one of the first missionaries that
ever went to India wrote back to his board directly
after landing that he expected to see the whole of
this great country at the feet of Jesus. Doubtless
they thought he was speaking as a fanatic, and in
a sense he was, but though his dream was far great
er than he could have any expectation of accom
plishing, he accomplished far more than he would
have accomplished had he aimed at the common
level of the people that environed him, for he lived
to see coming into the kingdom of God and into
the church more than twenty-seven thousand souls.
I remember a young man who came to college
when I was there. He announced with great bold
ness that he purposed to take the A.B. degree from
that college in the short space of three years. He
never took his A.B. degree, nor any other degree,
in three years. It took him five years to get the
lowest degree in college, but he got the lowest de
gree because he aspired to the highest, for it took
the summing up of all the resources of his mind to
get a degree at all.
And so; my friend, let me say to you, don’t try
to put out the fires of high and lofty aspirations
if today they burn upon the altar of your heart and
let no man discourage you with the tl ght that
they are beyond your powers of realize on.
Then, too, DaVid was a far more man to
those about him by reason of his aspiration. Man
is a very peculiar compound. In one way he is like
the sensitive plate that the photographer uses. It
has been said that no two men ever came together
and separated as they met; the stronger will ever
leave his impress upon the weaker. And so as
David mingled with the people of his day and held
up before them the possibility of this temple, the
necessity for the temple, the manner of building the
temple, and as he gathered material for the purpose
of finally using it himself in the construction of the
temple, David inspired every man about him with
loftier and higher ideals.
INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT.
I have read the story of an English mother who
on one occasion went to her pastor telling him of the
leaving home of the last of her seven boys, each
of them, one by one, having gone to sea to live the
life of a sailor. The pastor called on her, and as
he entered the room bis eyes fell upon a splendid
painting of a ship with sails fluttering in the wind.
On the deck were merry passengers waving their
handkerchiefs at a passing ship. It was an inspir
ing picture; you could almost feel the sea breeze
fanning your cheek as you looked at it. As his eyes
rested upon this picture, he turned to this mother
saying, “I have found the explanation of your loss.
When did you get that picture?”
■She said, “It was presented to my husband and
me when we were married.”
Then he said, “Your boys have been reared under
the inspiration of that picture, and it is not surpris
ing to me that it has fashioned their ambitions and
purposes.”
My brethren, if it be true that a mere lifeless pic
ture can speak like that, can fashion heart’s desire,
and shape character and determine destiny, what of
having daily contact with a living, moving, pulsat
ing life, fired with an ambition and a purpose like
that of David? It is impossible for a man like
that to live a life in vain. It is impossible for him
to keep the fires of such an aspiration from burning
their w r ay into the hearts and consciences of the
world.
I am reminded of that old Roman, Cato, who
thought that Rome would never come into the full
possession of her rights and privileges until Car
thage was destroyed. Roman history tells us that
Cato had but one speech and that he made it every
time the Roman senate convened, and that was,
“Carthago delinda est,” “Carthage must be de
stroyed.” They got tired of hearing this speech,
for it was the same old story all the time, line upon
line, precept upon precept. Cato never lived to
see Carthage destroyed. He died being called an
old crank and fanatic; a dreamer, a wild specula
tor in air castles; but after his death Rome was
forced to realize the force of what he had said,
and it is said that when Carthage was destroyed the
spirit of Cato arose from the grave.
David was a great help also in a material way
toward the building of the temple. He gathered
much of the material together with which finally
the temple was built, and he taught his son Solo
mon how it was to be built and how the material
was all to be obtained. He prepared the hearts
and the consciences of the people and gathered
much of the material with which finally the temple
was built, but he never saw it done. But Solomon
his son had a comparatively easy task in bringing
together the material that David his father had ar
ranged, and in the atmosphere of receptivity which
David had formed, i* v.as an easy matter for Solo
mon to awaken the desire of the people for the im
mediate building of the temple.
How true to history this is! Frances Willard,
that incarnation of the greatness of American wom
anhood, started out with her great crusade, firmly
believing that she would live to see the saloon put
out of America, Frances Willard never saw her
