MATTHEW xix. 16-22.
The rich young ruler consecrated a part, but was unwilling to consecrate
the whole. He hallowed the inch but not the mile. He would go part of the
way, but not to the end. And the peril is upon us all. We give ourselves
to the Lord, but we reserve some liberties. We offer Him our house, but
we mark some rooms "Private." And that word "Private," denying the Lord
admission, crucifies Him afresh. He has no joy in the house so long as any
rooms are withheld.
Dr. F. B. Meyer has told us how his early Christian life was marred and
his ministry paralyzed just because he had kept back one key from the
bunch of keys he had given to the Lord. Every key save one! The key of one
room kept for personal use, and the Lord shut out. And the effects of the
incomplete consecration were found in lack of power, lack of assurance,
lack of joy and peace.
The "joy of the Lord" begins when we hand over the last key. We sit with
Christ on His throne as soon as we have surrendered all our crowns, and
made Him sole and only ruler of our life and its possessions.
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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.