PSALM xxxiv. 9-22.
Samuel Rutherford used to say that whenever he found himself in the
cellars of afflictions he used to look about for the King's wine. He would
look for the wine-bottles of the promises and drink rich draughts of
vitalizing grace. And surely that is the best deliverance in all
affliction, to be made so spiritually exhilarant that we can rise above
it. I might be taken out of affliction, and emerge a poor slave and
weakling. I might remain in affliction, and yet be king in the seeming
servitude, "more than conqueror" in Christ Jesus. It is a great thing to
be led through green pastures and by still waters; I think it is a greater
thing to have a "table prepared before me _in the presence of mine
enemies_." It is good to be able to sing in the sunny noon; it is better
still to be able to sing "songs in the night."
And this deliverance may always be ours in Christ Jesus. The Lord may not
smooth out our circumstances, but we may have the regal right of peace. He
may not save us from the sorrows of a newly-cut grave, but we may have the
glorious strength of the immortal hope. God will enable us to be masters
of all our circumstances, and none shall have a deadly hold upon us.
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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.