1 JOHN iii. 4-10.
Sin is transgression. It is the deliberate climbing of the fence. We see
the trespass-board, and in spite of the warning we stride into the
forbidden field. Sin is not ignorance, it is intention. We sin when we are
wide-awake! There are teachers abroad who would soften words like these.
They offer us terms which appear to lessen the harshness of our actions;
they give our sin an aspect of innocence. But to alter the label on the
bottle does not change the character of the contents. Poison is poison
give it what name we please. "Sin is the transgression of the law."
Let us be on our guard against the men whose pockets are filled with
deceptive labels. Let us vigilantly resist all teachings which would
chloroform the conscience. Let us prefer true terms to merely nice ones.
Let us call sin by its right name, and let us tolerate no moral conjuring
either with ourselves or with others. The first essential in all moral
reformation is to call sin "sin." "If we confess our sin He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sin."
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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.