39. George H. Morrison (1866–1928)
Whenever pastors get together and discuss their favorite preachers, they are sure to repeat such names as Charles H. Spurgeon, G. Campbell Morgan, Alexander Whyte, and J. H. Jowett, to name but a few. Rarely—only rarely—will you hear a pastor ask, “Have any of you read the sermons of George H. Morrison?” And the reply is usually, “George Morrison? Never heard of him! Who is he?”
No alert pastor in Great Britain during the first quarter of the twentieth century would have asked that question! “Morrison of Wellington” was easily the most popular preacher in Scotland. And he was not only a popular preacher, but also an effective pastor. His personal records reveal that he made over one thousand visits in an average year! When he died, he left a rich legacy of books of his messages that spoke meaningfully to hearts fifty years ago and still speak to hearts today.
Tragically, most of Morrison’s writings are to be found only in secondhand bookstores. One that should be reprinted is The Wings of the Morning, one of his matchless volumes. Like most of Morrison’s books, this is a collection of Sunday evening sermons. Morrison, like most Scottish pastors of his day, preached weighty expository sermons in the morning services, but his evening preaching was refreshingly different. He himself wrote: “It has been my habit at the morning service to handle the greater themes of the Christian revelation and then at the evening worship to allow myself a wider scope . . . to win the attention, in honorable ways, of some at least of that vast class of people who today sit so lightly to the Church.”
And he succeeded! During the more than twenty-five years he pas–tored the Wellington United Free Church in Glasgow, great crowds would queue up in anticipation of the evening service, while at other churches the evening congregations were meager if not totally absent. It was not Morrison’s fiery eloquence or oratory that drew and held his congregation. His voice was rather weak and his presentation anything but dramatic. Following one service, a lady turned to the famous A. J. Gossip and said, “Didn’t Dr. Morrison preach a wonderful sermon?”
“Madam,” Gossip replied, “I did not hear half of what he was saying.”
“Neither did I,” said the woman, “but wasn’t it a wonderful sermon!”
Morrison’s preaching strength lay in his knowledge of the Bible, his knowledge of his people and their needs, and his ability to put both together in an imaginative way that reached the heart.
In this day of “telling it like it is,” Morrison’s sermons and some of his sermon titles might be dismissed as sentimental and poetical. Such titles as “The Fault of Over-Prudence,” “The Religious Use of Holidays,” and “The Higher Ministries of Sleep” would not excite congregations today. But what about “Wasted Gains” (on Prov. 12:27—look it up!), “The Deceptions of God” (Jer. 20:7), “Unobserved Sins” (Exod. 2:12), and “The Intolerance of Jesus” (Matt. 12:30)?
His sermon on Isaiah 27:8 is a masterpiece. The text says, “He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.” Morrison’s points are: (1) our trials are timed; (2) our sufferings are measured; and (3) our lives are compensated. This sermon reveals both the pastor’s heart and the scholar’s mind. Or consider his message on Matthew 14:30,
“Beginning to Sink.” He brought out these lessons from Peter’s experience: Peter began to sink in familiar waters, he began to sink after loyal discipleship, he began to sink on a permitted path, he began to sink when he began to fear, and when he began to sink his Savior was not far away. That is preaching! Some of Morrison’s sermons would give today’s preachers ideas for a whole series of messages. “The Refusals of Christ” is one example, and another is “The Lonely People of the Gospel” (Mary—the loneliness of love; Thomas—the loneliness of doubt; Judas—the loneliness of sin; etc.).
As you read Morrison’s sermons, you discover a man acquainted with the Bible, alert to the news and problems of the day, sympathetic with suffering (he lost his wife while pastoring in Dundee, and he lost a son in the war), and able to say the most profound truths in a remarkably simple way. In fact, the simplicity of his preaching is utterly disarming. He never used too many words but always seemed to use the right words, making truth glow in an imaginative way. For example: “One of the saddest stories ever written is just the story of our mismanaged triumphs.” Or, “Faith is expectant, eager, childlike, buoyant. Its opposite is not doubt, but death.” Or, “Christ will have nothing of the culture of the brain, at the expense of the culture of the character.”
George Herbert Morrison was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on October 2, 1866. After completing his university studies, he was not sure of his vocation. He became an assistant to Sir James Murray at Oxford, helping with the New English Dictionary while trying to “find himself.” No doubt this experience helped make him such an accurate writer and give him a love for words. It is worth noting that G. Campbell Morgan, J. H. Jowett, and Alexander Whyte were all, like Morrison, great students of words and readers of dictionaries.
While working at Oxford, Morrison felt the call to preach. He entered the Free Church College in Glasgow and graduated in 1893. At that time a second providential event occurred in his training: he was chosen to assist the famous Alexander Whyte at Free St. George’s in Edinburgh. Morrison’s responsibility was to conduct the then-new evening service, a challenge he accepted with confidence. He remained with Whyte only a year, but that one year with the gifted preacher gave him spiritual values which controlled his ministry for the rest of his life. His diligent study, his concern for his people, his sanctified imagination, his love of books (he had a library of over six thousand volumes)—all were strengthened and stimulated during that year at Edinburgh. We wonder what would happen to younger preachers today if they spent a year as understudy to some successful pastor. We might have fewer ministerial dropouts.
Morrison pastored at Thurso in northern Scotland, and after four years moved to Dundee. Later he accepted the call to the Wellington United Free Church in Glasgow and became known as “Morrison of Wellington.” Until his unexpected death in 1928, Morrison gave his best to his people, both as pastor and preacher. With clock-like regularity he spent his mornings in the study, his afternoons with his people in their homes, and his evenings either at church meetings or at home studying and writing. Like Whyte, he took long holidays, using the summer months for additional study, meditation, and rest. “The only piece of advice Whyte gave me when I was with him,” said Morrison, “was to take long holidays!” To this Whyte later replied, “And did you or your people ever regret it?” Although today’s overworked pastors might not be able to take two months off each summer, an occasional interruption for incubation would no doubt improve the minister and the ministry.
Morrison did not wrestle with biblical criticism or seek to explain the great questions of his day, even though he was a scholar and a voracious reader. Morrison felt his responsibility was to encourage his people with the truths of Christ that he had proved in his own life, not to discourage them with academic questions. He faced and solved these important questions in his study, but he always stepped into the pulpit with exclamation points, not question marks.
Preaching in a church located directly across from the university, Morrison had a special concern for the youth. He kept up with the honor list and always sent a personal note to students who made it. He did not preach what we would call youth messages, but the students flocked to hear him. He organized “The Round Table” and met with students following the evening service to discuss questions that troubled them. At the open forum the pastor did not permit himself pulpit privileges. It was Morrison unfrocked who won their hearts and helped direct their lives. This personal interchange helped to make the students better Christians and Morrison a better preacher and pastor.
The preacher who reads The Wings of the Morning probably will not be satisfied until he secures everything else Morrison wrote. He will want to get The Wind on the Heath, The Ever Open Door, The Afterglow of God, Flood-Tide, The Unlighted Lustre, The Weaving of Glory, The Footsteps of the Flock (a remarkable devotional book for each Sunday of the year, taking the reader through the key passages of the Bible—a gold mine of sermonic material!), The World-wide Gospel, The Return of the Angels, Sun-Rise, and others. The wise preacher will index these great sermons. If he is wiser still, he will read each message carefully, first for his own heart and then to improve his ministry. Morrison himself read one sermon a day from a different preacher. Morrison’s sermons would be a good place for us to start today!
As he lay dying, Morrison’s final words were: “It’s an ever open door, never closed to anyone. It’s open for me now and I’m going through!” By means of his reprinted sermons (and, we trust, additional volumes will follow), Morrison helps today’s preachers point others to that “ever open door,” which is Jesus Christ.