The Potter and the ClayWinnington Ingram, Arthur F. (Arthur Foley)
Religion
The Potter and the Clay
Winnington Ingram, Arthur F. (Arthur Foley)
Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 20th century; World War, 1914-1918 -- Sermons
Well, if it is not middle age or old age, must be ourselves who are
to blame. Therefore let us ask for a revival of our keenness, and
not put down the want of it to old age or middle age. Of course, it
may be that a man--I want to be quite frank about that--a man has
been too long where he is. If you knew how much prayer and thought
I personally give to this matter, how anxious I am to move men
when I see a move would be for their good, you would realise how
distressing it is to me to keep a man in one place when he would be
much better moved, or promoted to a living. But the simple fact is
there are not enough livings to go round. I want you to realise how
urgently we at the centre feel the danger of men getting stale or
being kept in one place too long. But it is not from the man's point
of view that we ought to look at it. He may pray to have a change.
But while he is there he is the messenger to the people, who are
constantly changing. There is a new population constantly coming in.
He must be there ready for them. And those who remain in the parish
are still depending upon him. He is their messenger; he must not
let them suffer because he is tired of his particular post. I cannot
imagine any of those three men, whom I knew so well, in the least
letting the keenness of their message be diminished because they
thought they ought to be moved somewhere else. A man may feel very
sad because he cannot do more, but he must not let his work fall
off, although he may be praying that in GOD'S providence he may have
a change.
(3) Then comes the waiting before GOD for the message. Pheidippides
bowed his head even in the heat of the race, bowed his head and
listened. And, you know, one of the things we have certainly found
out lately is that the great fault of the Church of England is not
listening. We pray, but we do not wait for an answer. It is the ten
minutes after prayer that matters. It is listening for the answer to
come back. One of the reasons why English clergy need a Quiet Day is
that they are not good listeners to GOD. We talk to Him, we even,
as someone has said, chatter to Him like little children chatter to
their parents, but we do not listen for the reply. We must listen
for the reply when we speak to God. We must wait for our message.
It must be renewed every day. What is the message that I am to take
to the people? Rearrange all your time so that you may have time
for listening. That has been crowded out. It is not a question of
how many visits you can make in a day, but of the atmosphere you
take with you on those visits, and the atmosphere depends upon the
previous "waiting upon GOD." Then when you go on your visit the HOLY
SPIRIT opens the door of the heart of those to whom you go.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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