The Message and the Man:: Some Essentials of Effective PreachingJackson, J. Dodd (James Dodd)
Religion
The Message and the Man:: Some Essentials of Effective Preaching
Jackson, J. Dodd (James Dodd)
Preaching
And another thing is written in our experience for our reflection, and
it is this:--That it was for what we were that God called us into this
preaching work. _He_ had discernment of natural qualities in calling
even us, and counted upon them to be serviceable in His Kingdom. There
is surely no need to deny our manhood, or become ashamed of this being
that is "I" when _He_ chose it for employment in ambassadorship. It
was for what Peter was as Peter, dashing, impetuous, impatient, full of
driving power and combative energy, that Jesus called him from the
fishing of Galilee into the ministry of the word. It was for what John
was as John, intense, clear-eyed and trustful that he, too, was called.
Thomas was also called--that Thomas who found it hard to believe but
easy to love, and whose faith, when once achieved, brought a whole
heart's devotion to its gracious object--even he was called, not as
another, but as himself. Very different from them all was Saul of
Tarsus; logical, incisive, proud with the pride of ancient lineage and
of high culture, descendant of armoured kings, citizen of the first of
cities--he, too, was called for he, for himself, was needed. So
through the ages--what contrasts we behold, what differences as between
a Chrysostom and an Augustine, a Calvin and a St. Francis of Assisi, a
Wesley and a Fletcher of Madeley; as between William Booth and Charles
Haddon Spurgeon, called, every one of them, because he was what he was.
Then let us remember that if He chooses a man for what he is, it is
because He knows that the work needs just this very man. Many tools
will be called into service before the brown pebble hidden away in the
blue clay beneath the South African veldt becomes the glorious star of
a monarch's crown. One will tear it from its age-long concealment;
another will test and prove its value; others will grind; others
polish, and by others will it be set in its place of pride. Very
mysterious, again, are the correspondences and affinities existing
between human souls. It is very curious how one hearer will respond to
an appeal which would never touch another. "There is something about
him that always gets at _me_," remarked a hearer, adding, "and I cannot
tell what it is, or how it does it." The "something" was
individuality. Why it _did it_, was because, somewhere in the soul of
the hearer was a chord tuned to some string in the preacher's nature.
Such ships are reached by a given set of wireless apparatus as have
their instruments tuned to that apparatus. There is something between
men reminding us of this. Again, for a man's own sake it is a pity to
surrender this individuality of his. For in holding on to it with grim
resolve lies the only possibility of full self-realisation. Let a man
cultivate himself along the line of what he is if he would come to his
best and achieve any genuine success, any real happiness in life. The
world is full of men who have failed, simply because they left
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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