Which Watson?

Someone asked when I posted that I had these old preacher books about the D Watson books.  Perhaps they were thinking of David Watson (and I used to have some of his writing). But no. There are other Watsons. John B Watson (1767-1839) was a noted preacher. Not him. John Watson (1850-1907), also known as Ian Maclaren, an author of fiction. Yes, him. Beginning in the Free Church of Scotland he gained fame as a writer and preacher, especially celebrated for his Yale Lecture 1896 The Cure of Souls. I have this with two other books; The Mind of the Master, The Inspiration of our Faith.

I dislike cannibalizing nuggets from a man's lifetime work but it's a way of retrieving at least something from their past contribution. From his collection of sermons one is titled: Jesus' Criticism of Emotion.  Intriguing?  He focuses on Luke 9: 57-62  

This incident when Jesus refused three disciples is the most remarkable in His life....His preaching was one long invitation to enter the Kingdom of God...he would cast none out. But it is evident that Jesus on occasion could be cold in manner...They heard Jesus preach and were so moved that they resolved to join his fellowship. The first he repelled by an extreme illustration of the hardship of a disciple's lot - he would not have where to lay his head; the second he daunted with an almost impossible commandment - that he should leave without burying his father; the third he declared unfit for his kingdom - because he wished to bid his friends farewell. This was the drastic way in which Jesus dealt with three apparently honest men.

This was in perfect keeping with his attitude to mere emotion. ..Jesus was never weary of denouncing false emotion which ends with itself and he has done all he could to save his disciples from its enticing snare...There are two reasons why Jesus was so critical of emotion and so anxious that it should be rigidly tested. 1) Christianity itself is charged with the most beautiful emotion...Jesus teaching is an evangel, a revelation, a splendid imagination. When the spirit of Christianity touches our soul we must take care while we rejoice in the ideal that we lay stress on the real. It's good to magnify the cross if we are carrying our own; good to think of heaven if we have its earnest in holiness within. The soul must stand on the rock of practical obedience. 2) Emotion is so seductive. Nothing can be more agreeable...than to sing hymns of passion, to dwell on the love of God. Nothing can be harder than denying ourselves, and keeping Christ's commandment, and serving others, and submitting to the divine grace. Nothing is more severe than duty, nothing is more soothing than sentiment.  Many prefer to take their religion in feeling rather than in practice. 

Let us be more faithful with ourselves, and more suspicious of every emotion which has been reduced to action. The final judgment of life after all is not emotion but action.  

I was greatly impacted when I first studied The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Of course he writes about this text too  He describes how in the first step of discipleship - Jesus' call cuts us off from our previous existence so that we are put in a situation where faith is possible.  Oh, so much to challenge!

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