Mr. Jones, Meet the Master: Sermons And Prayers Of Peter Marshall

Dr. Peter Marshall

• Publisher: Hauraki Publishing
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781786258892
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

A posthumous collection of sermons and prayers of pastor Peter Marshall of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.
In Mr. Jones, Meet the Master, Peter Marshall is addressing you. His practical sermons and heart-felt prayers will give insight, courage, and inspiration as you encounter the difficulties of everyday life. These are words to read, re-read, and treasure in your heart. They contain practical guidelines for Christian living.-Print ed.

THE PROBLEM OF FALLING ROCKS

DRIVING ALONG the highways that run through the mountains, you may have noticed the frequency of signs that read:

“Beware of falling rocks.”

I have seen them many times and have often wondered why they did not say, “Beware of fallen rocks,” for I do not know what one could do about rocks that were in the act of falling as one drove along.

Now this is a hazard of driving along these highways that no precautions can avoid.

Your rate of speed has nothing to do with it…

nor the way you handle your car

nor the condition of your tires.

It makes no difference whether you are a good driver or a bad driver, the hazard is there and there is nothing you can do about it.

It is typical of these troubles in life which no caution can avoid, and which have nothing to do with one’s conduct, be it good or bad.

The insurance people call them “Acts of God.”

When they come

they come

and that’s that.

This is not fatalism, but a recognition that God has set up in this world He has made certain natural laws that govern inanimate things.

The question I ask you to consider is what should be our attitude toward these troubles that we can do nothing to prevent?

The commonest attitude is one of worry, for this is the most common and widespread of the transgressions that mark our inconsistency as Christians.

I suppose the cartoon character, “The Timid Soul,” meeting one of these signs along the highway, would peer anxiously above his shoulders, and seeing the overhanging bounders would turn his car around and drive back.

But suppose he decided to drive on and risk it.

He might drive very carefully and worry all the time, lest one of these huge rocks break loose and come crashing down upon him and his new car.

But what good would his worrying do him?

It wouldn’t hold the rock up there; neither would it jar it loose.

The worrying of the driver has no effect upon the rock, but it has a tremendous effect on the driver.

People have never fully realized just how destructive a thing worry is.

It truly plays havoc with one’s life.

It ruins digestion

It causes stomach ulcers.

It interferes with sound sleep and forces us to face another day unrested and irritable.

It shortens our tempers and makes us snap at the members of our family.

Anxiety and tension, which are twins, bring on heart disease

high blood pressure

and nervous disorders.

Ask any doctor, and he will tell you that the patients who is apprehensive retards his own recuperation.

Hard work, even overwork, never killed anybody.

It is not the amount of work we do, or have to do, that harms us.

It is the strain or tension caused by our anxiety over the work that counts.

We would live longer, and do more and better work, if we could bring ourselves to the philosophy of an old Negro I read about, who said:

“When I works, I works hard;

When I sets, I sets loose;

When I worries, I goes to sleep.”

Would that sleep would overtake us when we begin to worry.

We would be healthier.

We would live longer.

Our dispositions would be sweeter.

We would be nicer to know and easier to live with.

Jesus had a lot to say about this very thing.

In the sixth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel you will find quite a full quotation on this theme in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus said…“take no thought for the morrow”—that is no anxious, troubled thought—

Or we might well say, “Don’t worry about tomorrow”—for that is precisely the meaning of His words.

“Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature?”

You can’t suddenly make yourself a foot taller than you are.

That is one of the things of life you have to accept.

Fretting about your lack of inches will not increase them.

If you borrow trouble from tomorrow, anticipate the difficulties that you see, or think you see ahead, are you the better able to cope with them?

Can you, by worry...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• PREFACE
• THE TAP ON THE SHOULDER
• DISCIPLES IN CLAY
• THE SAINT OF THE RANK AND FILE
• RESEARCH UNLIMITED
• THE ROCK THAT MOVED
• THE PARADOX OF SALVATION
• THE GRAVE IN THE GARDEN
• BY INVITATION OF JESUS
• MR. JONES, MEET THE MASTER
• KEEPERS OF THE SPRINGS
• THE PROBLEM OF FALLING ROCKS
• THE TOUCH OF FAITH
• NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS