Jowett Preached About Christ and People Changed
John Henry Jowett pastored some of the most famous churches in the world.
ON THIS DAY, 25 August 1864, John Henry Jowett was born in Halifax, England. “I was blessed with the priceless privilege of a Christian home,” he later remarked. He said he gained his sweetest inspirations from his devout mother and, “Whenever I wish to think of a Christian man, I think of my father.”
Jowett’s father wanted his son to become a lawyer, and Jowett willingly prepared along those lines. However, his Sunday school teacher said one day, “I had always hoped you would go into the ministry.” The words electrified Jowett.
Following his ministerial training, he accepted a call to St. James Congregational Church in Newcastle on Tyne, preaching to audiences of hundreds from the start. The depth of his sermons combined with his holy life made an impact wherever he went. He rose every day to study, at the same time as workmen on their way to earn their daily bread, saying, “Shall their minister be behind them in his quest of the bread of life?”
After six years at St. James, he was called to Carr’s Lane Church in Birmingham, England where his preaching resulted in a notable dip in the city’s rates of crime and drunkenness. There he also oversaw a ministry to poor children.
James McGraw said of Jowett, “He preached like one who believed with all his heart that his message was the only hope of his time.” Jowett himself described his message as Gospel-focused: “This gospel of redeeming grace is the cardinal necessity of our time.” Typical of his teaching is this opening to a devotional: “‘Doth our law judge a man except it first hear from himself and know what he doeth?’ But that is Christ’s fate every day and all the days. He is judged from hearsay. Men will not come face to face with Him and ‘know what he doeth.’”
In 1911, after repeated requests, Jowett accepted an invitation to come to the United States and pastor the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Every Sunday, crowds had to be turned away. Never at ease in America, Jowett was happy to return to England in 1917 as pastor of the famed Westminster Chapel, where he succeeded G. Campbell Morgan. He preached there until his retirement in 1922, forced by pernicious anemia. Jowett died in 1923. Among his many books was The School of Calvary.
—Dan Graves
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For a taste of Jowett's thoughts, read the devotional "We Need First-Hand Knowledge of Christ," or other devotionals for the following days, May 28, "We Can Be Sons of God," July 12, "God prepares those who will serve him," September 9, "Confess your secret sins," September 22, "God hangs great weights on slender wires," November 22, "Learn to recover lost strength," and November 28, "Overcome evil with good"