JOHN x. 1-18.
The Good Shepherd knows His sheep, and knows them by name. And that is
what I am tempted to forget. I think of myself as one of an innumerable
multitude, no one of whom receives personal attention. "My way is
overlooked by my God." But here is the evangel--the Saviour would
miss me, even me!
At a great orchestral rehearsal, which Sir Michael Costa was conducting,
the man who played the piccolo stayed his fingers for a moment, thinking
that his trifling contribution would never be missed. At once Sir Michael
raised his hand, and said: "Stop! Where's the piccolo?" He missed the
individual note. And my Lord needs the note of my life to make the music
of His Kingdom, and if the note be absent He will miss it, and the
glorious music will be broken and incomplete.
There is a common vice of self-conceit, but there is also a common vice of
excessive self-depreciation. "My Lord can do nothing with me!" Yes, my
Lord knows thee and needs thee! And by the power of His grace thou canst
accomplish wonders!
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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.