"_When thou passeth through the waters they shall not overflow thee._"
--ISAIAH xliii. 1-7.
When Mrs. Booth, the mother of the Salvation Army, was dying, she quietly
said, "The waters are rising but I am not sinking." But then she had been
saying that all through her life. Other floods besides the waters of death
had gathered about her soul. Often had the floods been out and the roads
were deep in affliction. But she had never sunk! The good Lord made her
buoyant, and she rode upon the storm! This, then, is the promise of the
Lord, not that the waters of trouble shall never gather about the
believer, but that he shall never be overwhelmed. He shall "keep his head
above them." Yes, to him shall be given the grace of "aboveness." He shall
never be under, always above! It is the precious gift of spiritual
buoyancy, sanctified good spirits, the power of the Christian hope. When
we are in Christ Jesus circumstances shall never be our master. One is our
Master, and "we are more than conquerors in Him that loved us, and washed
us from our sins in His own blood."
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John Henry Jowett was born in Halifax, England in 1864. Jowett's father had arranged for him to begin working as a clerk for a lawyer in Halifax, but the encouragement of his Sunday school teacher, Mr. Dewhirst, turned Jowett's heart toward the ministry.
After theological training at Edinburgh and Oxford, Jowett assumed the pastorate of the Saint James Congregational Church. His six effective years of ministry brought him to the attention of the Carr's Lane Church in Birmingham, England, on the death of their pastor. For the next fifteen years the church grew and prospered. Their pastor's vision led them to increase their efforts to bring people to Christ. In 1917, the mayor of Birmingham said the church had changed the town with "crime and drunkenness having decreased."
Jowett came to America for the first time in 1909 to address the Northfield Conference founded by D. L. Moody. While in America he preached twice at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. The church immediately asked him to come as its pastor. Jowett refused, having received a petition, signed by more than 1,400 members of his church in England, begging him to stay. The Fifth Avenue Church called him again, and then a third time. Finally Jowett concluded that this was God's leading for his life. He assumed the pastorate in 1911.
Although his preaching style was not dynamic (he read all of his sermons), the depth of his knowledge, the clarity of his language, and the power of his life commanded respect. Attendance at the church which had dropped to 600 on Sunday morning rose to 1,500. Lines up to half a block long formed, waiting for unclaimed seats. Jowett began preparing his Sunday sermons on Tuesday, following a meticulously detailed schedule.
When G. Campbell Morgan resigned the Westminster Chapel in London in 1917, Dr. Jowett once again crossed the ocean to take a new church. This would be his final pastorate. Declining health forced him to give up preaching in 1922, and his death in 1923 took from the world one of its most gifted and dedicated preachers.