Other thoughts on manner and message…

Lord, how can man [speak] thy eternal word? 

He is brittle, crazy (distorted) glass:

Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford 

This glorious and transcendent place,  

To be a window, through thy grace. 

but when thou dost anneal (burn) in glass thy story, 

Making thy life to shine within 

The holy [speaker’s]; then the light and glory 

More rev’rend grows, and more doth win: 

which else shows watrish, bleak, and thin.

Doctrine and life, colours and light, in one 

when they combine and mingle, bring 

A strong regard and awe: but speech alone 

Doth vanish like a flaring thing, 

And in the ear, not conscience ring.

—George Herbert, “The Window”

The combination of message and manner (“doctrine and life”) is like light shining through a lovely stained-glass window: the glass makes the light more awe-inspiring. 

When the word is “speech alone”— a message delivered apart from our Lord’s gracious manner “shining through”—it is "waterish, weak and thin.” Our neighbors may hear it “in the ear,” but it does not ring true.

So Peter writes, “Honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). In that way, the message "more rev’rend grows, and more doth win."

Thus, it seams, the good news only sounds good when it’s announced with good manners.

David Roper

7.11.20