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PITTS
THEOLOGY
LIBRARY
EMORY UNIVERSITY
ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30322
Jtt Dfotttartam
Rev. JOHN HENRY JOWETT, m.a„ d.d.
in memoriam
Rev. JOHN HENRY JOWETT, m.a„ d.d.
Printed by
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
New York
THE news of Dr. Jowett's death was received on December
19th, and on the forenoon of Sunday, December 30, 1923,
a service in memory of him was held in the Fifth Avenue
Presbyterian Church. The music included Stainer's anthem, Lead
Kindly Light, and Handel's I Know That My Redeemer Liveth,
and the well-known hymn, For All The Saints Who From Their
Labors Rest. Dr. Kelman opened the service with the following-
invocation:
I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the
dead who die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the spirit, that they
may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast; nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet in a death so noble.
The first prayer, offered also by Dr. Kelman, was as follows:
O Lord God Almighty and Everlasting, we come into Thy house this
morning to remember. We will remember Thee and all that immortality
of Thine wherein mortal men have hope. We will remember also those
living dead whom Thou hast called to Thyself after they have finished their
course upon the earth. We will indeed remember them this day. The
mystery of death is near us, and we meet under its shadow so near that
we can almost hear the beating of the dark angel's wings. But they are
free. To us all is mystery, but they are initiated. They know that secret
which is so deeply hidden from us. We, left behind and knowing not the
secrets of immortality, tearfully and wistfully remember them; for much of
all that made life precious to us has gone with them through the veil.
We pray for all those who mourn, for all widows and orphan children,
for all friends whose life is left lonelier by the departure of their beloved.
We beseech Thee that Thou wilt comfort them with Thy rich and full com-
fort, and that Jesus Christ may be very near to their hearts, revealing all
that tenderness which He showed of old to mourners whom He loved.
Very specially do we remember this day Thy servant whom Thou hast
so richly blessed in this and other places: and as we leave him in Thy eternal
keeping we beseech Thee to comfort the partner of his life and their child in
all the sorrow that has fallen upon their hearts. They are greatly beloved
in this place, and they will never be forgotten.
We turn back to the memory of his rich and fruitful ministry. We
thank Thee for his knowledge of man's struggle, and his sympathy with
the poor: for the courage and the success of his own career, in which he
reached such high distinction. We thank Thee for the part Thou didst give
him in forming the thought of his time, and comforting with his lofty faith
[6]
IN MEMORIAM
those who were beset with doubts. Thou didst make him a great leader of
men, and trust him with service such as is given to few. We bring with us
today the memory of all those he helped, and all those he guided, and all
those he built up and edified in their faith. Some of them are here present
with us, and some have already gone before us. These are the dead who in
their lifetime were blessed by his message, and who today seem to rise up
from their silent places and return to call him blessed, and to join us in giv-
ing Thee thanks for him.
We thank Thee for all that the Scriptures meant to him, and especially
for all that he found in Saint Paul, that great apostle of the faith. We
thank Thee still more for the wonderful measure in which he was led to
send on that knowledge. To him to live was Christ, and he explored the
depths of love in the heart of the Divine Redeemer with constantly renewed
wonder and adoration. For all that Christ was to him we give Thee thanks
with all our hearts, and we beseech Thee that He Who led His servant so
near to His own heart may still reveal Himself to others through his
memory.
We thank Thee for so noble a life spent entirely in Thy service and the
service of Thy children. Thou didst draw him high above the discordant
sounds of his time. Thou didst open heaven to him here on the earth. It
was the light eternal in which he walked and which he reflected here in the
darkness. We thank Thee that Thou didst grant to him at the last, victory
over weakness of body, and peace and gladness made perfect forevermore.
For this good man's life which we now lay down before Thee and leave
with Thee, and for the tender memories which it awakens in many hearts,
we give Thee thanks. We beseech Thee that Thou wilt give us grace to
follow in his footsteps as he followed in Thine. May God Who received
His servant receive us also unto Himself, and grant unto us to follow in the
ways of Christ in wisdom and in quietness all the days of our life. May
our hearts be full of thankfulness for the gift of good men and for the un-
speakable gift of the Son of God, until we also enter into rest: through
Jesus Christ Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep we might live
together with Him. Amen.
The second prayer was offered by the Rev. James Palmer, Ph. D.,
and was as follows:
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth
good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of God,
that publisheth salvation; that saith to Zion, Thy God reigneth!
O Lord our God, we thank Thee for Jesus Christ, the messenger of Thy
Good Tidings. We are glad of His coming and the glory of it; His life
upon the earth and the truth He brought to us; His death upon the cross
for our salvation; His resurrection and the power of His endless life. He
[6]
IN MEMORIAM
called men to Himself and made them the ministers of the Gospel of His
grace; He endued them with His spirit, and sent them forth to be His
servants.
We thank Thee today for John Henry Jowett, Thy servant, our friend,
whom Thou has called home. We thank Thee for all His ministry, and es-
pecially for his ministry to this, Thy church. He lived in Thy presence,
he entered into the secret of Thy will and ways, and he made us very con-
scious of Thy presence here in the great congregation.
For the beauty and purity of his home life and the devotion of his love
to his wife and child, we give Thee thanks. He sanctified home in our
midst.
We remember his friendship and the fidelity of his regard for the circles
with which he surrounded himself. We remember his interest in the affairs
of the nations, his concern for the welfare of the people. With a great
loyalty he loved his own country, and with self-sacrificing devotion to duty
he was not disobedient to the call of her need. We remember his passionate
zeal for the great missionary enterprise of the Church. He rejoiced in
every opportunity of sending the Gospel to the distant parts of the earth,
for he believed that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all
who believe. And most of all we reverently remember him as a preacher
of the gospel of Thy grace. We thank Thee for the simplicity of his words
to little children. We thank Thee for his great sympathetic understanding
of our common human nature. He knew the human heart. Statesmen were
better statesmen because they heard his preaching. Business men were
better business men because of his message to them. Preachers were better
preachers because they heard him preach. His feet were shod with the
readiness of the gospel of peace. He looked down the ways of life and saw
souls in spiritual bondage, men and women whose lamps of hope had almost
gone out, and he gave them encouragement. He made the sinner and the
broken and the forsaken see a great, loving, forgiving God.
We thank Thee for his great compassion for all who were in trouble or
affliction. With his clear eyes he saw into the depth of their need, and with
a sympathetic voice, which is yet in our ears, he spoke Thy message of con-
solation to them. How often we have heard him say, "Death is not the
master of the house, the Lord is the master. Death is but the porter who
opens the door to life." And now the porter has opened the door again.
He, too, has entered in. He has come to the innumerable company of the
angels, and to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to Jesus Whom he
loved.
Bowing reverently before Thee, O God, we would have such men in re-
membrance. We beseech Thee to bless this church and prosper it. Thou
hast favored this congregation in its ministers. May it ever abide loyal to
the truth of Thy gospel which they have proclaimed. Through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.
[7]
IN MEMORIAM
The address following was delivered by the Rev. Arthur J.
Brown, D. D., LL. D.
Surely Dr. Jowett would have said with Tennyson:
".. .. may there be no moaning of the bar
When I put out to sea;
.... no sadness of farewell
When I embark.
"For tho' from out our bourne of time and place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar."
Devotion to his divine Pilot was the key to Dr. Jowett's life and minis-
try. It enables us to understand his personality. It was a gracious, a
winning personality. All who met him "took knowledge" of him that he
"had been with Jesus". It is true that he had a naturally beautiful char-
acter and winning disposition, but such grace as he developed could only
have been the product of long walking and communing with Christ. There
was none of the traditional solemnity about his Christian experience. I
well remember as a boy in New England the severity which was thought
to characterize a true Christian. I imagined that to be pious was to be
stern and uncomfortable, and that laughter was frivolity that bordered on
sin. But Dr. Jowett's piety was cheerful. How infectious his laugh! He
exemplified one of the readings of the fifth verse of the thirty-fourth psalm:
"They looked unto Him and were radiant". His saintliness was so uncon-
scious to him and yet so manifest to others that we cannot imagine any one
talking coarsely or profanely in his presence. A Christian character, sweet
without being sentimental; strong without being stern; gentle without being
weak. Such a character is the finest flower of our holy religion.
His devotion to his Lord had all the intensity of a passion. He could
say with Zinzendorf: "I have one passion and that is Christ, He only"; or
with Henry Martyn: "I am born for God only. Christ is nearer to me than
father or mother or sister—a nearer relation, a more affectionate friend,
and I rejoice to follow Him and to love Him"; or with Livingstone: "My
Jesus, my King, my Life, my all—I again dedicate my whole life to Thee";
or with Augustine: "I love a kind of light, a kind of melody, a kind of fra-
grance, a kind of food and a kind of enhancement when I love my God. . . .
There shineth into my soul what space cannot contain, and there soundeth
what time cannot bear away. This is what I love when I love my God."
This devotion to Christ was the key to his preaching. To him Christ
was all in all. He could use the intensely fervent words of St. Paul: "I
am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him
crucified". ... "I am debtor .... I am not ashamed of the Gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that be-
lieveth". "Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel!"
r s l
IN MEMORIAM
Many of you can bear witness to the splendor of his preaching. Can
those who heard him ever forget the glow of his eloquence, the play of emo-
tion on his expressive countenance. The New York Times well said that
"the great throngs who sat enthralled by his preaching saw a great spiritual
teacher, a man of devout and imaginative nature, all on fire with a message
of religious help and inspiration, giving of his best thought and profoundest
experience week after week to those who came to his ministrations".
Were his sermons scholarly? Were they intellectual? Did he analyze
doubts, refute objections, argue logically? I do not know. I never stopped
to think. I was simply carried away by the power of his preaching. It
found me. It threw light into dark places in my life. It set bells to ringing
in my soul. It filled the air with music. I went away realizing that while
the foes of spiritual life were about me, he had done for me what Elisha
did for the young man of old—opened my eyes and enabled me to see that
"the mountain was full of horses and chariots".
It was a great thing to have such a voice in this conspicuous pulpit in
this great metropolitan city of America. He had no doubts about the
divine authority of his message. Theological controversy was alien to
him. His preaching, like his life, was not argumentative, or speculative,
but preeminently spiritual. He knew whom he believed. He did not hope
or surmise that Christ was adequate to the needs of man. He knew it.
His attitude toward the scoffer was that of the man in the first century
whom Richard Watson Gilder described as saying:
"If Jesus Christ is a man—
And only a man,—I say
That of all mankind I cleave to Him,
And to Him will I cleave alway.
"If Jesus Christ is God—
And the only God,—I swear
I will follow Him through heaven and hell,
The earth, the sea and the air."
He had no narrow conception of the Gospel. Christ was to him as to
St. Paul "the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world". Accordingly, he was profoundly interested
in Foreign Missions, realizing that missions were not simply a side issue
of the Church, an object for an occasional collection, but that they rep-
resented the supreme purpose for which the Church exists. He knew
that Christ was for the race, Jew and Gentile, American and European,
African and Asiatic alike. Therefore while he refused scores of invita-
tions to join other organizations, he gladly accepted appointment as a
member of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. His service in
that Board was faithful. He said more than once that the semi-monthly
meetings were the best things that he found in America outside of his own
church. There he felt that he was aiding in preaching to all men the
knowledge of the Christ whom he loved and served. It was interesting to
see the varying emotions that were reflected on his countenance as he listened
[9]
IN MEMORIAM
to the kaleidoscopic variety of business that comes before the Board at a
typical meeting—the successes and failures, joys and sorrows, humors and
tragedies incident to the lives of the "thin red line" of the soldiers of the
Cross on the far-flung battle front of the Church of God.
The same conviction led to his deep interest in the effort to promote
international justice and goodwill. He saw that the Great War had not
accomplished what we had hoped that it would accomplish; that none of the
objects which the allied and associated Powers had professed to be fighting
for had been realized; that the War had not "ended war"; that, on the con-
trary, there were more preparations for war, more soldiers under arms and
larger expenditures for armaments than there were prior to 1914. He saw
that fear and suspicion and hatred were permeating the minds of men and
nations. And he was convinced that the way out was not through larger arm-
ies and navies, not through diplomacy, not through secular education, but
only through Christ; that the world chaos will not be reduced to order, that
international and inter-racial jealousies and suspicions will not cease, and
that the frightful tragedies of war will not be prevented until the principles
of Christ are resolutely and consistently applied, not only to individual but
to political and international problems. Therefore with all the zeal of his
fervent soul he threw himself into this effort. He believed that the future
of the world, at least for a generation, depended upon America and Great
Britain, and he counted it a part of his ministry to interpret each to the
other and promote mutual understanding and fellowship. He had rare
qualifications for this for he knew and loved both lands. Nor was his mes-
sage of goodwill limited to these nations. He was an active member of the
World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship Through the
Churches. He was one of the representatives of the British Council at the
biennial meeting of the Alliance in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1922, and
was prominent and influential in shaping its conclusions.
After his return to England he issued a summons to the Christian people
of all nations which literally thrilled the world. "The most commanding
social necessity of our time", he ringingly declared, "is for the Church of
Christ to organize her powers against the forces which are working for
international bitterness and alienation Explosive stuff is lying about
in every part of Europe. Some day a seemingly trifling match may fire it!
And so men are beginning to talk about 'the next great war', and they do it,
not in a tone of whispered horror, but in the ordinary levels of conversa-
tion as though it were the most natural thing in the world The
politicians have failed in establishing a righteous peace, and men are every-
where feeling the need of some power which shall lift all political relation-
ships out of the rut and mire in which they are fallen, and create the possi-
bility of national and international fraternity What is the power
which is to do this except the moral power of the Christian religion? And
what is to be the organ of both power and ideal except the Church of the
Living God? .... I am therefore eager that the Church should play her
[10]
IN MEMORIAM
part in the fateful hours of our own day. Let her declare the things which
have been revealed to her as the unchanging will of God. Let her proclaim
them, not in muffled tones of timidity, but with all the authority which has
been given to her of God Let believers in Jesus Christ rise in their
sanctuaries, standing before God and man, and assert their witness to the
ethical ideals of their faith, and their determination to have peace on earth
and goodwill among men."
Every newspaper in Great Britain and North America either published
that challenge or made comments upon it. It was a prophetic message to
our generation. He was quite undisturbed by criticisms that his proposal
was Utopian. "Am I" he replied, "confronted with the retort that all this
is impossible? Very well; the Church exists to do the impossible. Insti-
tutions which have no confessed relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ
can do the possible things. His Church is called to do the impossible. That
is to be her distinctive mark, and behind her are all the spiritual resources
by which the wonder is to be wrought." He put literal meaning into those
great words: "He is able"; "able even to subdue all things unto Himself";
"able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think". So he
would write the name of Jesus large across the sky of the world. He
would sound the voice of Jesus throughout the world. He would have the
principles of Jesus regulate all life, individual, community, national and
international.
The note of sympathetic responsiveness to human need ran, through all
his ministry. The sorrows and tragedies of humanity brought anguish to
his sensitive spirit. The effect of the War upon his native land nearly
broke his heart, and he felt called of God to the ministry of consolation.
This was one of the main reasons why he left New York to go to London.
From a worldly view-point his position here was ideal. He had a vast con-
gregation, a prosperous people, a salary that for the ministry was munifi-
cent. Acceptance of the London call meant smaller salary, heavier burdens
and greater strain; but he felt that his sorely-stricken countrymen needed
him and that he must go. He was haunted by the haggard faces of broken
men, widows whose husbands lay in the blood-soaked soil of France, children
who had been orphaned or beggared. He knew that, whereas the typical
New York family was happy, practically every family in England had been
bereaved by the death of husband, son, or other near relative. And so he
heard voices calling him. His arrival in London was a national event. The
Prime Minister and other distinguished men welcomed him. Throngs hung
upon his words, and thanked God for his coming.
But the transfer, followed by his herculean effort, after the Copenhagen
Conference, to arouse all the churches to their duty to seek the peace of the
world, probably shortened his life. That always delicate body and sensi-
tive spirit were not equal to the strain. He struggled on with heroic fidel-
ity, but ere long he was obliged to give up his earthly labors. He faced
the future undismayed and serene. He knew that there was more life for
[HI
IN MEMORIAM
him beyond. He felt as Robert Burdette did when he lay dying in southern
California: "I watch the sunset as I look out over the sea, and there is no
mystery beyond the horizon line, because I know what there is over there.
I have been there. I have journeyed in those lands Well, there is
another land that I look toward as I watch the sunset. I have never seen
it. I have never seen anyone who has been there, but it has a more abiding
reality than any of these lands which I do know. This land beyond the
sunset—this land of immortality, this fair and blessed country of the soul—
why, this heaven of ours is the one thing in the world which I know with
absolute, unshaken, unchangeable knowledge that is never shadowed by a
passing cloud of doubt. I may not always be certain about this world; but
the other world—that I know. And as the afternoon sun sinks lower, faith
shines more clearly, and hope, lifting her voice in a higher key, sings the
songs of fruition In a fairer land, with finer material and a better
working light, I will do better work."
The end was in the beauty of divine peace. Senator Shelby Moore
Cullom wrote in his Memoirs that he saw no reason to believe in the im-
mortality of the soul. But on his death-bed at the age of eighty-four, he
asked that record be made that his doubts had been expressed "when the
light was dim", and he passed away murmuring: "I believe in God, in
Christ, in immortality". "When the light was dim!" It always is where
there is no faith. But when to human vision the shadows fell on that De-
cember day in Surrey, Dr. Jowett's clarified eyes saw a glow in the eastern
sky, golden arrows shooting zenithward, mountain tops aflame with light,
darkness swiftly retreating over wide plains and through secluded valleys,
until the day broke and the shadows fled away, and the splendors of eter-
nity burst upon the eager soul in "the light of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ."
Yes, it was a noble life nobly lived, a radiant life spent in the joy of
his Lord, and as his Lord would have had him spend it. The alabaster box
is broken, but the place is "filled with the odor of the ointment". Like
Enoch of old, he "walked with God". We who walked with him for a
while were the better for his companionship. We could go with him only
to the edge of the valley, which was shadow to us but not to him. He
walked calmly on until he passed from human sight into the land where
"there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain". As we think of him we say what James Whitcomb
Riley said of his brother:
"I cannot say and I will not say
That he is dead.—He is just away;
With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand,
He has wandered into an unknown land;
And left us dreaming how very fair
It needs must be, since he lingers there.
And you—O you, who the wildest yearn
For the old-time step and the glad return,
f!21
IN MEMORI AM
Think of him faring on, as dear
In the love of There as the love of Here;
# * * * *
Think of him still as the same, I say;
He is not dead—he is just away."
It is for us who remain to give to the cause of Christ, as he did, "the
last full measure of devotion." And may "a double portion" of his spirit
be upon us!
For his children's sermon Dr. Kelman used the following ex-
tract of Dr. Jowett's:
"The range of three score years and ten is not the limit of our life.
Our life is not a land-locked lake enclosed within the shore-lines of seventy
years. It is an arm of the sea, and where the shore-lines seem to meet in
old age they open out into the infinite. And so we must build for those larger
waters. We must lay our life plans on the scale of the infinite, not as
though we were only pilgrims of time, but as children of eternity!"
Dr. Kelman then preached upon the text from Acts XIII:36,
"For David, after he had served his own generation by the will
of God, fell on sleep," and closed with the following words:
The first time that I saw Dr. Jowett must have been in Edinburgh in
his college days. He was slightly junior to myself, and he and I were
students in Edinburgh at the same time. I did not know him then and I
very distinctly recollect my first meeting with him. We were both young
men, and it was in the late eighties when a student conference was held in
Birmingham, at which we were both invited to speak. He was a most
striking figure, and before he had begun his address a certain distinction
of personality had gone forth from him which gave the promise, so abun-
dantly fulfilled, of his personal power throughout thirty years. His sub-
ject was, The Danger of Handling Great Things in a Small Spirit, and
among countless messages delivered and forgotten, that has stood out in
my memory as one of the arresting and commanding principles, both of
private and of ministerial life.
I have followed his career with growing admiration, and I seem to see
him steadily, like a lark in the morning light, soaring into higher and ever
higher regions of spiritual atmosphere, and singing all the time. Of late
years it always seemed to me that he, more than any man I knew, with
the exception of a very few, had left the earth and found his congenial
level far up in the heavens. He did not, as a rule, meddle with the ques-
tions of the hour nor enter into its controversies. He had indeed strong
views, both ecclesiastical and theological, but his home was not among
these. His spirit dwelt in a region above them all, where one could see
the unimportance of differences which divide Christendom down below, in
view of the pure light and eternal worth of those spiritual experiences and
[13]
IN MEMORIAM
realities which abide, while earth changes. That is his main impression
on my memory. He was one who had escaped into the spiritual region and
was less troubled than other men are by false values and exaggerated and
vehement opinions as to the forms and earthly shows of things.
One other impression is very strong, and that is a technical one. As
a master of the art of preaching it is probable that Dr. Jowett had no rival
in his time. Of him more than of almost anyone it could be said, "This one
thing I do". The one thing was his own particular line of preaching,
which he developed to a point of finished and perfected art very seldom
reached in the modern pulpit. While he was in America he refused all
manner of outside invitations, denied himself many opportunities of de-
lightful intercourse with interesting men and societies, kept his eye steadily
upon the one object he had in mind, and did it to perfection. His line of
preaching was what might be called the exposition and application to life
of spiritual doctrine. So far as I have heard he did not spend much
time upon apologetic, and as a rule he avoided topical allusions, either to
current history or politics. In this he seemed to be guided by a singularly
accurate instinct. It is said that there are machines used for the purposes
of science for drawing innumerable lines upon a small surface of glass, and
that these machines are so delicate that they cannot be used except far in
the country, where there is no vibration to deflect their work. So Dr.
Jowett's mind seems to have made for itself a quiet place where it could
draw its spiritual lines undeflected by the course of events, literally work-
ing not for time but for eternity, among the things which abide unchanged.
In this he has set a brilliant example for us all. The present day is
lamentably wasteful of young ministers. It distracts their energies among a
thousand unnecessary and unimportant trifles which the popular conscience,
and other modern substitutes for wisdom, insist on calling duties. Then
having got them thoroughly distracted, it leaves them ineffective, even in
their own lines. Dr. Jowett being dead yet speaketh to all men, warning
them first of all to discover what they can do well and best, and then to
cast to the winds all other inducements, as temptations of the devil.
His strongest line in preaching was undoubtedly exposition of a rare
fineness and delicacy. His mind did not scintillate from point to point of
light in discursive brilliance. It settled itself down upon an idea, and it
did not rise until it had seen every possible and imaginable relation that
that idea had to the life of a Christian man who was trying to live in the
spirit. His gold was beaten very fine, yet, so far as I have read or heard
of him, he never allowed himself to become trivial. Every sentence brought
out some new aspect of the truth with which he was dealing, and captivated
and held the interest of his congregation or his readers.
His methods of work were quite unusually regular. He had his hours for
everything, and with a strenuousness which often required firm resolution,
he kept to the plan for the day. Very often of late years he must have
been working beyond his strength, and if it had not been for this conscience
[14]
in memoriam
of regularity he could not have endured the strain. It is pathetic, and
at the same time it is very inspiring and noble, to contemplate this figure,
frail and slight so far as bodily appearance goes, and bearing the marks
of premature age, yet firm as a rock in his knowledge of himself, his lines
of work, and his strongest powers of service, unswervingly following the
sense of duty which was revealed to him by experience, and making more
of a little strength than almost any man of his generation.
No words can describe the influence which he had upon his congrega-
tion and upon the United States. The news of his death last week came
like a personal bereavement to the land, the city, and the Church. On all
hands one meets with those who frankly acknowledge that they owe their
souls to him, or the light in which their souls live. I believe it is safe to
say that no man has ever crossed the Atlantic westwards and brought with
him richer spiritual help for men and women than Dr. Jowett did. His
life was radiant with a light whose secret was his own; or rather it was the
secret of Christ Who, amid the dimness of these latter days, still does
illuminate the lives and minds of disciples who live near enough to Him.
The following minute was adopted unanimously by the Session
at their meeting, held on the evening of January 3, 1924:
The Session desires to put on record its deep sense of the loss to the
Church of Christ, and the personal sorrow of its members, in the death of
Dr. John Henry Jowett. Dr. Jowett leaves behind him the memory of a
career of great distinction, and no part of that career was more dis-
tinguished than the seven years which he spent in this congregation. He
was a man greatly beloved, a friend, and guide, and helper of men. We
remember with heartfelt thanks his ministry, expressed both in the spoken
and the printed word. His sympathy and understanding of the needs of
humanity, his testimony to the ideals of true democracy, his patriotism
and his willingness at all times to obey its call, are remembered on both
sides of the Atlantic, and will be a source of inspiration to the rising gen-
eration.
His devotion to Jesus Christ was expressed in his whole ministry here.
He lived and preached in a region of high spirituality in which he was
manifestly and entirely at home. He maintained through his preaching a
steady flight of thought upon the highest levels, and impressed those who
heard him as one who dwelt familiarly in heavenly places.
It is with a great sense of the loss that has been sustained by the
religious world and the cause of Christ, as well as of a deep and personal
bereavement, that we record our sorrow at his removal. We desire also to
tender to Mrs. Jowett and their daughter our very affectionate sympathy
in their grief. For such lives as his we are better men, and we shall seek
to remember the example of his life and faith, that these may always be a
guide and strength to us.
[15]
My Father in Heaven, help me never
to forget Thy love to me. It comes
with the light of the morning, and it re-
mains with the stars of the night. It
looks up at me in the beauty of the
flower. It shines upon me in the smile of
a friend. All beautiful things are the
gifts of Thy love. Help me to be thank-
ful, and to link every beautiful thing with
Thee. Amen.
JOHN HENRY JOWETT.