HEBREWS xi. 1-6.
With what voice shall we speak when we are dead? What will men hear when
they turn their thoughts toward us? What part of us will remain alive,
singing or jarring in men's remembrance? It is the biggest part of us that
retains its voice. In some it is wealth, in others it is goodness; some
go on speaking in their cruelty, others in their gentleness. Cain still
speaks in his jealous passion. Abel speaks in his faith. Dorcas speaks in
her "good works and alms-deeds which she did"; Judas Iscariot speaks in
his betrayal. Yes, something goes on speaking. What shall it be?
But these biggest things not only continue to speak in the ears of memory,
they persist as actual forces in the common life of men. Our faith is not
buried with our bones, nor is our avarice or pride. Our characters do not
die when our hearts cease to beat. "The evil that men do lives after
them," and so does the good. But deeper than our deeds, our dominant
dispositions persist and mingle as friends or enemies in the lives of
others. By them we, being dead, still speak, and we speak in subtle forces
which aid or hinder other pilgrims who are fighting their way to God and
heaven.
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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.