"Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" Psa_43:5
It is one source of the eternal freshness of the Psalms that they tell the story of a struggling soul. They open a window on to that battlefield with which no other battle can be compared--the moral struggle of the individual with himself. And it is well that that story should be told in poetry, for there is nothing like poetry for describing battles. There is a rich suggestiveness in poetry, a rush of emotion, an enthusiasm that catches and conveys the excitement of the field. The dullest war correspondent grows poetical, his words become colored, vivid, picturesque, when he narrates the actions in the war. It was right, then, that for this warfare of the soul we should have the strong music of the Psalms.
Now as we read that story of the psalmist's struggle, one of the first things to arrest us is the likeness of that battle to our own. Ages have fled, and everything is different since the shepherd-king poured out his heart in melody. And yet his failures and his hopes are so like ours, he might have been shepherding and reigning yesterday. We are so apt to think we fight alone. We are so prone to think there never was a life so weak, so ragged, so full of a dull gnawing, as ours. We are so ready to believe that we have suffered more than any heart that ever loved and lost. And then God opens up the heart of David, and we see its failures and we hear its cries, and the sense of loneliness at least is gone. He prayed as we have prayed. He fell as we have fallen. He rose and started again as we have done. He was disheartened, and so are we.
Speaking of disheartenment, there is one temperament that is peculiarly exposed to that temptation. It is that of the eager and sensitive and earnest soul. If you are never in earnest about anything, you may escape disheartening altogether. To be disheartened is a kind of price we pay for having a glimpse at the heavens now and then.
"The mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain; And the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of the strain."
So the dull pain of being disheartened now and then is the other side of man's capacity for enthusiasm. Give me a flood-tide and I shall expect an ebb. Give me an earnest, daring, generous, loyal heart, and I shall know where to discover melancholy.
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George Herbert Morrison completed his university studies and then assisted Sir James Murray at Oxford in the preparation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Sensing a call to the ministry, he studied at Free Church College and went on to serve several churches, including the Wellington United Free Church of Glasgow, Scotland, from 1902 until his death. He has been characterized as one of the century's great "pastor-preachers," always seeking to meet life's need with a word from God.
Unique in its communication effectiveness, the preaching style of George H. Morrison cannot be defined according to a particular communication classification system. Morrison's preaching reflected his deep concern for the individual person through simplicity of language, certainty of word choice, confident assertion of Scripture, and careful poetic phrasing. This same high regard for his audience appeared in his loving presentation of the truth no matter how controversial the issue, in the absence of contempt for others in his sermons, in his attempts to lead his listeners from their own interests to a broader perception of Christian concern, and in his cultivated ability to preach directly to his audience without the use of notes. Morrison's preaching was further strengthened and distinguished by his integration of Biblical texts, supported by a sound theology and his own insights into the social, individual, technological, and political issues of his day.