Thoughts at the end of Thirty-Seven Years in Ministry
A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Written one year ago, this was submitted last month. Sadly, it appears here, followed by David Marshall’s obituary. David Marshall was the minister at St. Enoch Presbyterian Church, in Hamilton, Ontario, since 1977.
Here is a little piece of autobiography. Its purpose is to share some of my experience nearly 40 years in the Christian ministry. My hope is that my sharing may strengthen others toiling. May one minister’s experience help ministers, elders and others, also.
I. MEMORY
a) Home
My eyes first saw the light of day in a London, England suburb when MacKenzie King was already a household word in Canada. I was born into a Congregationalist home, but our services were very similar to Presbyterian ones. For instance, I can remember the Bible being carried into the pulpit before the minister arrived there for the beginning of a morning service. So when I first preached for one of our Toronto congregations, I felt that I was back in the atmosphere of the church where I spent the first seventeen years of my life, even though it was thousands of miles away.
b) Environment
I was blessed with loving Christian parents who gave me a stable home, took me to church and never tired of showing me the difference between right and wrong. I shall not forget my father presenting me with a Bible on my eighth birthday. He made me feel that it was more valuable than the gold in the Bank of England. But the Bible was virtually a closed book to me for the next twelve years.
c) A teenager
When I was fifteen, I had a vague feeling that I ought to be a minister; however, as I continued in my teens I felt that it would be inconvenient to be a minister. I preferred to contemplate school-teaching and the prospect of being a choir master and organist at some fashionable London church. A series of unhappy experiences confronted me again with a sense of call to the ministry. So while a conscript in the post-war Royal Navy I took the first steps to becoming a Congregational minister.
MINISTRY
a) Ordination
November 2nd, 1991 was the 37th anniversary of my ordination. My memories of that ordination day are more vivid than those of anything that happened last week. Then I managed to assemble some of the top brass of the non-conformist clergy in England to take part in the service. Dr. Micklem, principal emeritus of Mansfield College, Oxford, presided; Dr. Marsh, the newly elected principal, gave the charge to the church, (where John Bunyan was once minister); and Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gave the charge to me, the ordinand. The people were told to pray for me, and I was told, among other things to read the Bible through every year. I have tried to do that.
Now more than 37 years later, it is good still to be alive and well, and to know that I have been a minister for a long time. Many of life’s lessons can only be learnt through its changing scenes.
The world of 1954 was in many ways different from the one to which we wake up every morning. Then, memories of the Second World War were still vivid, painful, or horrible, according to your identity, and everyone was aware of the cold war, and the nuclear threat. At the same time Billy Graham held his (greatest?) campaign in Harrington Stadium, and there seemed some hope of a new awakening among the churches. Life in those days was in some ways simpler than it is now. For instance there was only one serious alternative to the old King James Version of the Bible – the newly produced Revised Standard Version. I did not possess a copy.
At that time I began my work as a minister. Little did I know what the future held in store.
b) Lessons?
Did I learn anything between then and now? I hope so. I can now see some things much more clearly than I could at the time of ordination. Here are two examples.
i) The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin. Romans 7:13 (KJV)
I can remember when I was about nineteen I boasted that whoever was a sinner, I was not. Such boasting as I now see showed perverse blindness as to the truth about myself, and a desperate ignorance of part of the Bible’s message.
Now I know better. “Whatever became of sin?” is a question still with us. We live in superficial times, and it is so easy to suppose that the parable of the Prodigal Son applies to drunkards, prostitutes, and drug-users, but not to the respectable people who still attend Presbyterian churches on Sunday mornings.
But Christ teaches us that it is the sins of the spirit which damn the deepest, and whether it be the love of things instead of the love of God, the squandering of time instead of redeeming it, or the cursing of our enemy instead of forgiving him or her; all this and much more is offensive in the sight of the living God in whom we live, move and have our being.
“I believe in the forgiveness of sins,” through the cross of Christ; and in this I find the entrance into the peace of God which passes all understanding. I believe that if our churches could recover a healthy sense of sin, many of their problems would melt away, and a new day of evangelism would dawn.
Many of the biblical saints and many since, have been at the gateway of despair; then they have heard the conquering word, “My grace is sufficient for you” just as they were about to surrender at the end of a seemingly impossible struggle. If I have made any progress in these weary decades, it is not because I am a natural warrior, but because I learned through St. John and others that “grace and truth came [and come] through Jesus Christ.”
ii) “The Exceeding Riches of His Grace” Ephesians 2:7 (KJV)
This is a phrase which those of us raised on the old version of the Bible will never forget.
Many of the biblical saints, and many since, have been at the gateway of despair; then they have heard the conquering word, “My grace is sufficient for you,” just as they were about to surrender at the end of a seemingly impossible struggle. If I have made any progress in these weary decades, it is not because I am a natural warrior, but because I learned through St. John and others that “grace and truth came [and come] through Jesus Christ.”
I cannot understand those who are not filled with hope when they hear of grace, nor those who fail to take account of sin when they see problems, nor those who neglect to pray for the Spirit, when they are distressed by rusting ecclesiastical machinery.
III. FAITH
In conclusion let me spell out some of the chief ingredients of Christian faith that finally overcomes all things. I do so under three headings.
a) The Past
My introduction to the power of Christianity began with a sermon heard when I was ten years old. The preacher, whose theology later made me uncomfortable, preached on the resurrection of Christ. I believe the Word then came to me with such power that my adolescent doubts were scattered to the winds for ever. “Christ is risen from the dead,” I thrilled to think, “and that makes all the difference!”
I note two things in the intervening years: first, that I have sometimes forgotten what I learned then, to my great cost. We are not much different from old Israel in our ability to forget what is good. Second, I have tried to work out in doctrine, speech and practice the meaning of that great Word, “Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me.”
b) The Present
Convulsions in the world are matched by convulsions in the church. I came to believe that the Presbyterian form of church government is the best, providing a middle ground between congregational democracy and the constant episcopal tendency to tyranny.
But the struggle today is not first over church government but over the first principles of the Christian faith. The burning issue today is the Christian doctrine of God, with its climax in the glorious Nicene doctrine of Trinity. “Through him [Christ] we both have access by one Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:10).
That at any rate is the Pauline and Apostolic doctrine spelt out in timeless language by the Nicene Fathers in general and the noble Athanasius in particular.
But now in North America there are those who deny the Father by refusing to name him, crucify Christ afresh by misrepresenting him, and disown the Holy Spirit by substituting complex schemes which obscure human sin and divine grace.
I fall back on that great word grace. I have sometimes said that God is able to look after himself, and I have been reminded that the work is his not mine. When I say “himself,” and “his,” I do not mean that God is masculine but that our God is personal; and therefore we need not fear the personal pronouns used in speaking of God by the apostles and prophets.
c) The Future
Some friends now urge me to retire from the exhausting work of ministry in the nineties. Whatever happens I should like to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ until I have no more strength to do so. Then may the great King and Head of the Church renew his mercy and grant me peace at the last, as he has done through most of the years that have gone.
I rest in the promise of Psalm 130, interpreted by the rest of the Bible, and grandly expressed in Martin Luther’s majestic paraphrase. We sang it on Reformation Sunday…
“Our kind and faithful Shepherd He Who shall at last set Israel free From all their sin and sorrow.”
N.B. The Lord heard his prayer, although David hoped to continue in ministry anywhere in the world after formal retirement.
The Reverend David William Marshall
The Reverend David William Marshall, 65, minister of St. Enoch Presbyterian Church, Hamilton, Ontario, died on October 9th, 1992.
Born in Chingford, Essex, North London, England, David was the eldest child of Joseph William and Amy Loveday Marshall. His father was an executive with what is now British Telecom and fought in the trenches in the Great War. David’s parents were married at the “Round Chapel,” a large Congregational Church where David became organist on a superb three manual organ at age fourteen.
He was educated at Norman Hurst Preparatory School from 1933-37 and at Bancroft School, Woodford, Essex, from 1937-44.
In late 1945 he was called up to do National Service in the Royal Navy until 1948.
He was further educated at London University from 1948-51 where obtained a B.D. degree, followed by a post-graduate second degree, B.A. in Theology, at Oxford University, at St. Catherine’s and Mansfield Colleges from 1951-54.
David was ordained at Bunyan Meeting (Memorial) Congregational Church, Bedford, the charge to the minister was given by Rev. Dr. D.M. Lloyd-Jones; also preaching were Rev. Drs. Micklem and Marsh. He served there from 1954-60.
In 1960 he was called to Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, Congregational Church. While ministering full-time he also taught students for the London University B.D. in Dogmatics and New Testament Greek. He received him M.A. from Oxford University in 1959.
In 1970, Westminster Chapel, London called him as assistant minister, where he served for six years. At the same time he was Principal at the Watford School of Biblical Studies, training ministers and missionaries till 1977. All tutors were Ox-bridge trained.
In 1977 David felt led to follow a call to St. Enoch Church, Hamilton, where he was inducted in 1977.
David met his wife Lucia Elen Cattaneo at Oxford where she studied English to further her career in her native Switzerland. They were married in 1955 in the Swiss Reformed Church. Music held great interest for them both. Lucia was all her married life involved in and committed to David’s work.
David Marshall was a man who deeply felt that the ministry is a sacred calling, demanding his all and solid preparation. Preaching was his first love. He was well read and studied theology all his life and had a tremendous knowledge of Holy Scripture.
Aside from his duties as a pastor and his gifts as an evangelical expository preacher, David Marshall had two special gifts: music and writing. His skills at the piano and organ were often used in Presbytery and congregational affairs. From his pen came two published hymn tunes. A large number of tunes and preludes, etc., were never written down for lack of time. Alas…
In England he was a frequent contributor to journals on religious themes and as a speaker at conferences. These talents he brought to Canada, where his articles found a ready readership in The Presbyterian Record and elsewhere.
During debates in the Courts of the Church his voice was heard when needed, always appealing to the truth of the Scriptures. As both member and convener of church doctrine committees in all Church Courts he added a watch-dog dimension to the deliberations.
In the publication of “Living Faith,” which he advocated at the General Assembly in 1984, he supplied the prooftexts of the Scripture Index. Faithful in all that he undertook, he served as moderator of the Presbytery in Hamilton from 1987-88.
A widely attended funeral was held at St. Enoch Church, followed by burial in St. Marys, Ontario.
Surviving are his wife Lucia, sons Christopher and his wife Ruth, Paul and his fiancee Lisa, Rosalind and her husband Allin, and four grandchildren.
David preached the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ until he had no more strength after July 12,1992; all his life he preached two new sermons each Sunday. Then the unsuspected cancer consumed him in two and a half months.
He knew the Peace which passes all understanding. “For ever with the Lord…” Amen.