The G. Campbell Morgan Archive

(A News Piece from a Welsh Newspaper "Western Mail")
by Glyn Roberts

he radio, the cinema, and the gramophone, so we have been told time and time again, are killing off the old-time preacher by the slowest most insidious and surest method- by gradually reducing to nothing the demand for his type.
echanical amplification- by microphone and otherwise- has done away with the need for ministers developing those glorious voices for which, if report does not lie, at a radius of three miles with ease.
hy shout when a few discreet amplifiers will make every whisper perfectly intelligible to a concourse of fifty-thousand? The technique of preaching is changing radically.
s this invasion of the arts by scientists and mechanics likely to bring the list of great Welsh preachers to an end? Surely not, for the primary need for the new type of preacher is a good voice and good voices have never been lacking in Wales.
Appeal to Reason
he Welsh voice, to judge by all the signs, reproduces quite exceptionally well. Whether over the telephone by wireless or by the gramophone.
erhaps the most pronounced change in the methods of the preacher will be his appeal will be directed very much less to the emotions than in the past, and more to the reason of his hearers. And perhaps this will be no bad thing. The slightest trace of insincerity is surprisingly obvious in a radio address, and any shortcut to the hearts of the congregation is apt to be noticed very much more rapidly than in the old days.
here are some great Welsh practitioners of the preacher's art functioning at the moment. Names from very varied denominations which leap to the mind are those of the Rev, J.D. Jones of Bournemouth- a voice bordering on the miraculous, this of Pastor Jeffreys , the young man who can fill Albert-hall, and of Bishop Vaughan of Menevia.
A Great Artist
n expert judge, however, considers that the outstanding welsh preacher of the day is none of these. He believes that in the technique, pure and simple, of delivering a sermon Dr. G Campbell Morgan has no superior in the British Isles, and only one equal (whom he does not name).
r. Campbell Morgan is a great artist. Of so distinguished a theologian and so fine a religious leader the word "artist" may almost seem disparaging, flippant. I do not think it need to be taken so: my concern here is not with his theology or with his character- with neither of which I am qualified to deal- but simply with his methods and degree of success as a preacher.
o watch and listen to Dr. Campbell Morgan delivering one of his brilliant sermons is to experience the keen intellectual and aesthetic pleasure one can always derive from a man- and only from a man- who is complete master of his medium.
Church Always Packed
here is nothing haphazard or slapdash about his methods of transmitting his message. He is as deliberate and as conscious an artist as George Arliss, whom, indeed he somewhat resembles. Every gesture is perfectly timed, controlled, and execute; not an atom of energy is wasted, not a word fails to carry its maximum of effectiveness.
r. Campbell Morgan is to be heard today at the Westminster Congregational Church, which is not far from Buckingham Palace. This church, which he made famous in the years 1904-1917, and to which he now has returned after 10 years in the United States, is a large oblong building high in the roof, and with acoustics which, to my mind, are not the best.
t is always packed. To many in Wales this may seem a matter of course. In Wales it would be; in London a full house of worship is rather rarer than a four-leafed clover. I lately attended an evening service at a large church in the West End at which the attendance, apart from the choir, was four, including myself. There were huge queues outside the cinemas.
No Shallow Optimism
r. Campbell Morgan is one of the very, very few men in London today who can fill any building in whichthey are announced to speak. Why is this?
artly, I think because he does not play down to his listeners. There is very little easy emotionalism in his sermons; there is absolutely no facade, shallow optimism. He does not pump up his hearers for the moment with a glib cheerfulness that deserts them as soon as they return to the thousand and one horribly real, if small, problems of their lives.
is sermons, in fact, are rather difficult; they demand of his congregation a continued attention and well oiled brain-boxes. He appeals to your intellect; his sermon follows a strictly logical framework: if your attention lags you are lost, for he does not waste words.
e delights in a nice point in the Scriptures, in a delicate question of conduct. He is worldly-wise, humane, resilient, and has a pronounced sense of humor. Anecdotes and aphorisms, always entirely to the point, bespatter his sermons, he carries enormous learning easily.
Takes the Offensive
nother reason why Dr. Morgan is able to keep his meeting so notably alive is that he is, in an age when the churches give a sorely troubled and rather dubious world the impression of hesitancy and inadequacy, confident and aggressive. He carries the fight to his opponent: from his oipening words he takes the offensive. Of such men as him the churches stand in dire need today.
rail, lean, dynamic, he is a mass only just, controlled nerves in the pulpit. One feels that John Knox and Savanarola were much as he is. His face is almost fanatical, with a large prominent nose and a very high forehead crowned by silvery white hair. His voice is penetrating and mellifluous. He gesticulates freely, but never needlessly. He does not favor the "hwyl," but covers a goodly range of notes. He shouts rarely, and the shout marks a "high spot" in the intellectual content of his message.
Ten Years in America
ompletely without inhibitions in his platform manner, he walks about freely on the large circular dais supporting his pulpit. If he wishes to pause for half a minute he does so. His manner is the perfect medium for the transmission of his matter. In fifty years he has learnt his job, and that is what I mean when I said that Dr. Campbell Morgan is- among other things- a great artist.
orn in Gloucestershire of Welsh parents, Dr. Morgan is today 70. In manner he is as young as any man I know. He is the author of over forty religious works of variosu lengths: one "The Analyzed Bible," runs to ten volumes. Ten years in America- during which he worked in Philadelphia, in Boston, the home of Mary Baker Eddy, and in Los Angeles, the home of Aimee McPherson- have added to his experience of the world and helped to develop his present voice, which is- as nearly as I can judge- almost accentless, the perfect organ for preaching.
n Sunday Dr. Morgan confessed today the churches must adopt modern business methods. Publicity, he thinks, they need.
r. Campbell Morgan is the very best advertisement for Christianity I have seen for some time.