MI ST A K ES 569
Story★★★At an old seminary, there was a custom that the president could call on any student on any day for that morning’s chapel sermon. One young man was petrified, and each day he dreaded going to chapel for fear he would be called upon. Sure enough, one day the president rose, looked over the audience, pointed directly at him, and said, “Young man, you are to preach our sermon today:’ The student rose, but as he ascended the platform he was a nervous wreck.
Looking over the congregation, he couldn’t speak. His mouth was dry, his knees 1 Clipped from Eternity Magazine. were knocking together, his hands were shaking, his mind was reeling, and he felt he had a biscuit stuck in his throat. Finally he stammered, “How many of you know what I am going to say today?”
Nobody raised a hand. “Then neither do I,” he said, and sat down.
The next day as the students filed into chapel, the president again pointed to the young man, giving him a second time. But again, the young man was gripped with stage fright, his hands and knees shaking.
With a tremor in his voice, he finally stammered, “How many of you know what I am going to say today?” This time everyone raised their hand. “Then if you already know, I don’t need to tell you,” the young man said and promptly sat down.
The president of the seminary was angry, but he decided to give the young man one last chance. The next day, he again called on the student, and this time the student was even more nervous than before.
His mouth was thick and dry, and he felt he was going to faint. At last he muttered, “How many of you know what I am going to say today?” This time, half the students raised their hands and the other half didn’t. “Then those of you who know,” he said, “please tell those of you who don’t!”
And . . . And that is what a missionary is. Those of us who know telling those who don’t.1 I IM 1 This story \Vas told to me in the 1970s by an elderly gentleman with whom I shared a few minutes on the patio of the Pocket Testament League in Pennsylvania. 1 Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sennons, vol.
2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1983), 67. 3 Norman Vincent Peale, Stay Alive All Your Life (Carmel, NY: Guideposts A ssociates, Inc., 1957), 138.
The point
A terrified seminary student stumbles through an impromptu sermon by turning the congregation's own silence into his message, picturing what it means to be a missionary who tells others what they don't yet know.