Sermons & Devotionals by John Henry Jowett
John Henry Jowett
THE GIVER'S HAND
GENESIS iv. 3-15. Cain and Abel both brought an offering unto the Lord, but one was accepted and the other rejected. It is the giver who determines the worth or the worthlessness of the gift. God looks not at the gift, but at the hand that brings it. "Your hands are full of blood!" "Your hands are u... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE GOD OF THEIR SUCCEEDING RACE
EXODUS vi. 2-8. "I appeared unto Abraham.... I will be to you a God." The covenant made with the father was renewed to the children. The father's death did not disannul the promise of the Lord. Death has no power in the realms of grace. His moth and his rust can never destroy the ministries of Divin... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE HILL COUNTRY OF THE SOUL
PSALM cxxi. There should be a hill country in every life, some great up-towering peaks which dominate the common plain. There should be an upland district, where springs are born, and where rivers of inspiration have their birth. "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills." The soul that knows no hill... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE HOME-BIRD
PSALM xci. 1-12. I read a sentence the other day in which a very powerful modern writer describes a certain woman as "having God on her visiting list." We may recoil from the phrase, but it very vitally describes a very awful commonplace. Countless thousands have God on their visiting lists. They pa... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE LARGER OUTLOOK
GENESIS xv. 5-18. "And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven!" The tent was changed for the sky! Abraham sat moodily in his tent: God brought him forth beneath the stars. And that is always the line of the Divine leading. He brings us forth out of our small imprisonments and ... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE LOST SHEEP
EZEKIEL xxxiv. 11-19. And now, again, I am bidden to contemplate the gracious ministries of the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd searches the "far country" for His lost sheep. "_I will bring them ... out of all places where they have been scattered._" He goes into the hard wilderness of cold indiffe... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE LUST OF THE EYE
GENESIS xiii. 10-18. Look at Lot. He was a man of the world, sharp as a needle, having an eye to the main chance. He boasted to himself that he always "took in the whole situation." He said that what he did not know was not worth knowing. But such "knowing" men have always very imperfect sight. Lot ... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE MIGHT OF FRAILTY
PSALM cv. 23-36. That is the wonder of wonders, that the Almighty God will use frail humanity as the vehicles of His power, and will make Moses and Aaron shine with reflected glory. Man can send an electric current into a fragile carbon film and make it incandescent. He can send his voice across a c... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE MINISTRY OF PRAISE
PSALM cxv. "The Lord hath been mindful of us: He will bless us." In that joyful assurance there is both retrospect and prospect. There is the trodden pathway of Providence, and there is the star of hope! The eyes are steadied and refreshed in sacred memories, and then they gaze into the future with ... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE MIRACLE IN A DRY PLACE
PSALM cvii. 33-43. "He turneth ... the dry ground into water-springs." This is one of the miracles of grace. The good Lord makes a dry experience the fountain of blessing. I pass into an apparently waste place and I find riches of consolation. Even in "the valley of the shadow" I come upon "green pa... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE NEVER-FAILING SPRINGS
GENESIS xvii. 1-8. "I will establish My covenant." The good promises of God are never revoked. They are like springs which know no shrinking in times of drought. Nay, in time of drought they reveal a richer fulness. The promises are confirmed in the hour of my need, and the greater my need the great... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE PASSING OF THE BEAST
EZEKIEL xxxiv. 23-31. When the Good Shepherd has charge of His flock "_the wild beasts will cease out of the land_." All beastly passions shall be destroyed. The fair gardens of our souls shall no longer be ravaged by sleek pride, or fierce appetite, or ravenous lust. "Thou shalt tread upon the lion... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE PERILS OF POSSESSIONS
GENESIS xiii. 1-9. There is nothing more divisive than wealth. As families grow rich their members frequently become alienated. It is rarely, indeed, that love increases with the increase of riches. Luxurious possessions appear to be a forcing-bed in which the seeds of sleeping vices waken into stre... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE PROCESS AND THE END
"_Ye have seen the end of the Lord: that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy._" --JAMES v. 7-11. And so we are bidden to be patient. "We must wait to the end of the Lord." The Lord's ends are attained through very mysterious means. Sometimes the means are in contrast to the ends. He works ... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE ROCK AND THE BOWING WALL
PSALM lxii. Here are two symbols by which the psalmist describes the confidence of the righteous. "_He only is my rock._" Only yesterday I had the shelter of a great rock on a storm-swept mountain side. The wind tore along the heights, driving the rain like hail, but in the opening of the rock our s... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE SOUL IN PRISON
"_Bring my soul out of prison!_" --PSALM cxlii. I too, have my prison-house, and only the Lord can deliver me. There is _the prison-house of sin_. It is a dark and suffocating hole, without friendly light or morning air. And it is haunted by such affrighting shapes, as though my iniquities had incar... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE SUBTLETY OF TEMPTATION
JAMES i. 12-20. Evil enticements always come to us in borrowed attire. In the Boer War ammunition was carried out in piano cases, and military advices were transmitted in the skins of melons. And that is the way of the enemy of our souls. He makes us think we are receiving music when he is sending e... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE TEST OF FULNESS
DEUTERONOMY viii. 1-10. "And thou shalt eat and be full, and thou shalt bless the Lord thy God." Fulness is surely a more searching test than want. Fulness induces sleep and forgetfulness. Many a man fights a good fight with Apollyon in the narrow way, who lapses into sleepy indifference on the Ench... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE THOUGHT AFAR OFF
PSALM cxxxix. 1-12. "Thou knowest my thought afar off." That fills me with awe. I cannot find a hiding-place where I can sin in secrecy. I cannot build an apparent sanctuary and conceal evil within its walls. I cannot with a sheep's skin hide the wolf. I cannot wrap my jealousy up in flattery and ke... Read More
John Henry Jowett
THE THREE GARDENS
REVELATION xxii. 1-14. The Bible opens with a garden. It closes with a garden. The first is the Paradise that was lost. The last is Paradise regained. And between the two there is a third garden, the garden of Gethsemane. And it is through the unspeakable bitterness and desolation of Gethsemane that... Read More
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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.