"_In the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge._"
--PSALM lvii.
Could anything be more tenderly gracious than this figure of hiding under
the shadow of God's wings? It speaks of bosom-warmth, and bosom-shelter,
and bosom-rest. "Let me to Thy bosom fly!"
And what strong wings they are! Under those wings I am secure even from
the lions. My animal passions shall not hurt me when I am "hiding in God."
The fiercest onslaughts of the devil are powerless to break those mighty
wings. The tenderest little chick, "one of these little ones," nestling
behind this soft and gentle shelter, shall be perfectly secure; "none of
its bones shall be broken."
I do not wonder that this sheltering psalmist begins to sing! "_I will
sing and give praise!_" I have often listened to the sheltering chicks,
hiding behind the mother's wings, and I have heard that quaint,
comfortable, contented sound for which our language has no name. It is a
sound of incipient song, the musical murmur of satisfaction. "I will sing
unto Thee ... for Thy mercy is great."
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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.