"_He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth Me._"
--JOHN xiv. 15-24.
Yes, but how can I keep them? Some one sent me a bulb which requires a
certain kind of soil, but he also sent me the soil in which to grow it. He
sent instructions, but he also sent power. And when I am bidden to keep a
commandment I feel as though I have received the bulb but not the soil!
But is this God's way of dealing with His people? I will read on if
perchance I may find the gift of the soil.
"He that abideth in Me ... the same bringeth forth much fruit." That is
the gift I seek. For the keeping of His commandments the Lord provides
Himself. I am not called upon to raise fruits out of the soil of my own
will, out of my own infirmity of aspiration or desire. I can rest
everything in God! I can "abide in Him," and I may have the holy energies
of the Godhead to produce in me the fruits of a holy and obedient life.
The good Lord provides both the bulb and the soil.
It is the tragedy of life that we forget this, and seek to make a soil-bed
of our own. And thus do we suffer the calamity of fruitless labour, the
heavy drudgery of tasks beyond our strength. "Come unto Me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
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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.