[The following is from an article Lloyd Douglas published in The Christian Century on April 14, 1921, under the title, “Saving the Minister’s Soul.” He writes:]
“So steady a character as the Tarsan [St. Paul] once candidly admitted that, having preached to others, it was by no means certain he himself might not become a castaway. These were brave words coming from the self-confessed pioneer of an exalted moral code engaged in its first struggles to gain a following. It would have been easy for Paul to say to his congregation, ‘I have discovered two forces at work in you – virtue and vice; so inextricably mixed that, even when you would do good, evil is present!’ It was quite another matter when he declared, ‘I find two laws within me – a law of my mind and a law of my members, and these two laws at war; o wretched man that I am!’
“The present-day preacher who would thus phrase repentance in the first person singular might give his congregation an uneasy moment for fear he was about to make some startling disclosure of moral turpitude. It is considered much more becoming in him to speak of sinfulness in the third person; or, at most, in the second person. It is assumed that he himself bears a charmed reputation and inviolate character, safe as Caesar’s wife from the ordinary frailties of the race.”
[Douglas will continue his essay in my next post…]
The Lloyd C Douglas Page 