Free Through Suffering
Through suffering, we can experience enlargement and growth, developing human sympathy and becoming more like God.
Charles E. Cowman preaches on the profound testimony in Psalms 4:1, highlighting how God's moral government works through distress to bring about enlargement in our lives. Using Joseph's story, he emphasizes that suffering and sorrow are essential for personal growth and empathy towards others. Just as Joseph's dungeon experience led to his exaltation, our trials and limitations can pave the way for greater blessings and connections with humanity. Cowman encourages embracing the iron of suffering as a means to experience the gold of God's purposes and fulfill our true destinies.
Text
"Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress" (Ps. 4:1).
This is one of the grandest testimonies ever given by man to the moral government of God. It is not a man's thanksgiving that he has been set free from suffering. It is a thanksgiving that he has been set free through suffering: "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress." He declares the sorrows of life to have been themselves the source of life's enlargement.
And have not you and I a thousand times felt this to be true? It is written of Joseph in the dungeon that "the iron entered into his soul." We all feel that what Joseph needed for his soul was just the iron. He had seen only the glitter of the gold. He had been rejoicing in youthful dreams; and dreaming hardens the heart. He who sheds tears over a romance will not be most apt to help reality; real sorrow will be too unpoetic for him. We need the iron to enlarge our nature. The gold is but a vision; the iron is an experience. The chain which unites me to humanity must be an iron chain. That touch of nature which makes the world akin is not joy, but sorrow; gold is partial, but iron is universal.
My soul, if thou wouldst be enlarged into human sympathy, thou must be narrowed into limits of human suffering. Joseph's dungeon is the road to Joseph's throne. Thou canst not lift the iron load of thy brother if the iron hath not entered into thee. It is thy limit that is thine enlargement. It is the shadows of thy life that are the real fulfillment of thy dreams of glory. Murmur not at the shadows; they are better revelations than thy dreams. Say not that the shades of the prison-house have fettered thee; thy fetters are wings--wings of flight into the bosom of humanity. The door of thy prison-house is a door into the heart of the universe. God has enlarged thee by the binding of sorrow's chain.--George Matheson
If Joseph had not been Egypt's prisoner, he had never been Egypt's governor. The iron chain about his feet ushered in the golden chain about his neck.--Selected
Sermon Outline
- I. Suffering as a means of enlargement
- A. The moral government of God
- B. Suffering as a source of life's enlargement
- II. The need for iron in our lives
- A. The gold of youthful dreams vs. the iron of experience
- B. The chain of humanity
- III. The role of suffering in human sympathy
- A. Narrowed into limits of human suffering
- B. The shadows of life as the fulfillment of dreams
- IV. The enlargement of the soul
- A. The binding of sorrow's chain
- B. The door of the prison-house as a door into the heart of the universe
Key Quotes
“Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.” — Charles E. Cowman
“My soul, if thou wouldst be enlarged into human sympathy, thou must be narrowed into limits of human suffering.” — Charles E. Cowman
“The shadows of thy life that are the real fulfillment of thy dreams of glory.” — Charles E. Cowman
Application Points
- We must be willing to embrace our limitations and challenges in order to experience growth and enlargement in our lives.
- Suffering is an opportunity for us to develop human sympathy and connect with others who are going through similar experiences.
- We can view our sufferings as a means of enlargement by recognizing that they are opportunities for growth, learning, and development.