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Charles E. Cowman
Charles Elmer Cowman (1868 - 1924). American missionary and co-founder of the Oriental Missionary Society (now One Mission Society), born in Toulon, Illinois. Raised Methodist, he worked as a telegraph operator from age 15, rising to a high-paying role in Chicago by 19. Converted in 1894 after hearing A.B. Simpson at Moody Church, he married childhood friend Lettie Burd in 1889. In 1901, they moved to Japan, co-founding the society with Juji Nakada and Ernest Kilbourne, establishing Bible training institutes in Tokyo by 1903. Cowman led the Great Village Campaign (1913-1918), distributing Gospels to 10 million Japanese homes across 161,000 square miles. Known for holiness preaching and organizational zeal, he authored no books but inspired Streams in the Desert by Lettie. They had no children. Health issues forced his return to Los Angeles in 1917, where he continued guiding the mission. His work sparked revivals and trained thousands of native evangelists.
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Charles E. Cowman delivers a sermon reflecting on the cup of sorrow that God gives us to drink, emphasizing the importance of receiving God's gifts of myrrh in the right spirit to shape us into the highest and noblest form in His sight. He warns against stifling or ignoring these feelings, as it can cause greater harm to the soul. Cowman encourages opening our hearts to pain, as it can bring more good than being full of feeling and devoutness.
Receive the Cup of Sorrow
"Shall I refuse to drink the cup of sorrow which the Father has given me to drink?" (John 18:11, Weymouth). God takes a thousand times more pains with us than the artist with his picture, by many touches of sorrow, and by many colors of circumstance, to bring us into the form which is the highest and noblest in His sight, if only we receive His gifts of myrrh in the right spirit. But when the cup is put away, and these feelings are stifled or unheeded, a greater injury is done to the soul that can ever be amended. For no heart can conceive in what surpassing love God giveth us this myrrh; yet this which we ought to receive to our souls' good we suffer to pass by us in our sleepy indifference, and nothing comes of it. Then we come and complain: "Alas, Lord! I am so dry, and it is so dark within me!" I tell thee, dear child, open thy heart to the pain, and it will do thee more good than if thou wert full of feeling and devoutness. --Tauler "The cry of man's anguish went up to God, 'Lord take away pain: The shadow that darkens the world Thou hast made, The close-coiling chain That strangles the heart, the burden that weighs On the wings that would soar, Lord, take away pain from the world Thou hast made, That it love Thee the more.' "Then answered the Lord to the cry of His world: 'Shall I take away pain, And with it the power of the soul to endure, Made strong by the strain? Shall I take away pity, that knits heart to heart And sacrifice high? Will ye lose all your heroes that lift from the fire White brows to the sky? Shall I take away love that redeems with a price And smiles at its loss? Can ye spare from your lives that would climb unto Me The Christ on His cross?"
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Charles Elmer Cowman (1868 - 1924). American missionary and co-founder of the Oriental Missionary Society (now One Mission Society), born in Toulon, Illinois. Raised Methodist, he worked as a telegraph operator from age 15, rising to a high-paying role in Chicago by 19. Converted in 1894 after hearing A.B. Simpson at Moody Church, he married childhood friend Lettie Burd in 1889. In 1901, they moved to Japan, co-founding the society with Juji Nakada and Ernest Kilbourne, establishing Bible training institutes in Tokyo by 1903. Cowman led the Great Village Campaign (1913-1918), distributing Gospels to 10 million Japanese homes across 161,000 square miles. Known for holiness preaching and organizational zeal, he authored no books but inspired Streams in the Desert by Lettie. They had no children. Health issues forced his return to Los Angeles in 1917, where he continued guiding the mission. His work sparked revivals and trained thousands of native evangelists.