The Random Thoughts of Henry Holloway
I use the telephone quite a lot. When I want a number on my local exchange I just dial the number. If I want anyone beyond that I have to dial ‘O’ and ask the operator for the number I want. She, in turn, asks me for my number.
One day when I asked for a number the operator immediately said, ‘That's for so-and-so.’ I said, ‘How do you know that?, and she replied: ‘I recognized your voice.’ Out of all the different sounds of voices it was rather remarkable that she should recognize the voice.
There was once a young man. He was a fisherman and he lived beside a lake. His hands were hardened with working with wet ropes. His face was the face of a man who had weathered many a storm. His eyes were clear and steadfast. He was a man of courage. His name was Peter. Peter met Jesus one day and he had the courage to throw in his lot with Him. When Jesus was being arrested Peter took a sword and clipped off a man's ear. Then he followed his Master to the place of trial. Outside in the courtyard, there was a fire glowing and Peter stopped to warm himself. A servant girl passing by heard him speaking and said: ‘You, too, were one of this man's disciples.’ And Peter, the man of courage, failed in that moment for he denied that he ever knew Him. Then the girl said; ‘Oh yes! You are a Galilean. Your speech gives you away.’
A young fellow who was helping me once at camp told me about meeting two girls one night when he was out. They were lovely looking, he said, and they were nicely dressed, but ‘when they opened their mouths . . .!’ Now, many folk I know wear badges or uniforms to show that they belong to a particular movement or organization. It's one thing to wear a badge or uniform. It's another thing to live up to what they stand for. People may look at us and say: ‘Oh, you're supposed to be a member of so-and-so, but your speech gives you away.’
You see sometimes we do things and we say things that deny what we are supposed to stand for. It's like that sometimes with the church. Many good people say: ‘I wouldn't go to church. There are too many hypocrites there.’
It would be very easy to give a quick and glib answer to that one but we must admit that there is a little bit of truth in the statement. If we go to church on Sunday - and I'm not greatly worried as to which church it is - then we've got to play the game on Monday. Otherwise people will say: ‘You can profess as much as you like, but your speech, or your actions, give you away.’
Henry Ward Beecher was one of the great preachers of an older generation but it is doubtful if his best work was done in the pulpit. He met a little fellow one day who was in great trouble. He sold newspapers and the day was wet and stormy and the papers had blown away. The little fellow, tears in his eyes, was picking up the papers as best he could when Beecher came along and talked to him. ‘What’s the matter my little man?’ said Beecher. ‘Nothing, sir,’ said the lad. ‘Nothing! Now that you've come.’
The great preacher had won his way into the hearts of countless numbers of people, not so much by what he said, but by what he was.
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