Never has the church been so able in analyzing its
difficulties. The books that come off the presses almost daily give expert
analysis and diagnosis. But there is never any solution. We spend the whole
time circulating round and round and reasoning and communing and talking
together concerning our difficulties, and this has a paralyzing effect. Forgive
me for using the following anecdote. It is because of my desire to bring out
this point clearly. I shall never forget an incident that happened in my own
ministry.
I remember preaching in my homeland
of Wales one Sunday in the early 1930s. I was preaching in a country place, at
an afternoon and then an evening service. And when I finished the service in
the afternoon and had come down from the pulpit, two ministers came to me. They
had a request to make. They said, “We wonder whether you’ll do us a kindness?”
“If I can,” I said, “I’ll be really
happy to.”
“Well,” they said, “we think you
can. There’s a tragic case. It’s the case of our local schoolmaster. He’s a
very fine man, and he was one of the best church workers in the district. But
he’s got into a very sad condition. He’s given up all his church work. He just
manages to keep going in his school. But as for church life and activity, he’s
become more or less useless.”
“What’s the matter with him?” I
asked.
“Well,” they said, “he’s got into
some kind of depressed condition. Complains of headaches, and pains in his
stomach, and so on. Would you be good enough to see him?”
And I promised I would. So after I
had had my tea, this man, the schoolmaster, came to see me. I said to him,
“Well, now, you look depressed.” He was like the men on the road to Emmaus. One
glance at this man told me all about him. You saw the typical face and attitude
of a man who is depressed and discouraged. I said, “Now, tell me, what’s the
trouble?”
“Well,” he said, “I get these
headaches. I’m never free from them. I wake up with one in the morning and I
can’t sleep too well.” He added that he also suffered from gastric pains, and
so on.
“Tell me,” I said, “how long have
you been like this?”
“Oh,” he said, “it’s been going on
for years. As a matter of fact, it’s been going on since 1915.”
“I’m interested to hear this,” I
said. “How did it begin?”
He said, “Well, when the war broke
out in 1914, I volunteered very early on and went into the navy. Eventually I
was transferred to a submarine, which was sent to the Mediterranean. Now the
part of the navy I belonged to was involved in the Gallipoli Campaign. I was
there in this submarine in the Mediterranean during this campaign. And one
afternoon we were engaged in action. We were submerged in the sea, and there we
were, all engaged in our duties, when suddenly there was a most terrible thud
and our submarine shook. We’d been hit by a mine and down we sank to the bottom
of the Mediterranean. You know, since then I’ve never been the same man.”
“Well,” I said, “that’s all right.
But please tell me the rest of your story.”
“But,” he said, “there’s really nothing
more to say. I’m just telling you that that’s how I’ve been ever since that
happened to me in the Mediterranean.”
“But, my dear friend,” I said, “I
really would be interested to know the remainder of the story.”
“But I’ve told you the whole story.”
This went on for some considerable
time. It was a part of my treatment. I said again, “Now I really would like to
know the whole story. Start at the beginning again.” And he told me how he had
volunteered, joined the navy, was posted to a submarine which went to the
Mediterranean, and everything was all right until the afternoon they were
engaged in the action, the sudden thud and the shaking. “Down we went to the
bottom of the Mediterranean. And I have been
like this ever since.”
Again I said, “Tell me the rest of
the story.” I am vey glad you are laughing, because you are really laughing at
yourselves, as I shall show you. For the final time I said, “Let’s go over it
all again.’ And I took him over it step by step. We came to this dramatic
afternoon—the thud, the shaking of the submarine.
“Down we went to the bottom of the
Mediterranean.”
“Go on!” I said.
“There’s nothing more to be said.”
I said, “Are you still at the bottom of the
Mediterranean?”
