The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10 - Drummond to Jowett, and General Index by Unknown
page 30 of 178 (16%)
page 30 of 178 (16%)
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_I am the voice[2] of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the
way of the Lord_.--John i., 23. [Footnote 2: In the French version of the Scriptures it is "_a_ voice," and it is necessary to retain this reading in order to render precisely Pastor Wagner's thought.--_Translator_.] Nothing is rarer than a personality. So many causes, both interior and exterior, hinder the normal development of human beings, so many hostile forces crush them, so many illusions lead them astray, that there is required a concurrence of extraordinary circumstances to render possible the existence of an independent character. But when, God alone knows at the cost of what efforts and of what happy accidents, a vigorous and original personality has been able to unfold, nothing is rarer than not to see it degenerate into a mere personage. History teaches us that men exceptional in will and energy almost always become obstructive and mischievous. They commence by serving a cause and end by taking possession of it so completely that, from being its servants, they become its masters. Instead of being men of a cause, they make the cause that of a man, and they degrade the most sacred realities to the paltry level of their ambitious egoism. Thus, when we meet with strong natures, endowed with the secret of leadership and command, yet able to resist the subtle temptation to which so many of the finer spirits have succumbed, it behooves us to bow and to salute in them a greatness before which all that it is customary to call by that name fades into nothingness. If ever soul encompassed this greatness, it was that of John the |
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