Bob Jones, Sr's opinion or Sam P Jones and the 'Great Lesson...'"Years
ago there lived in this country a unique platform man. He was a great
preacher. No man could excel him in the pulpit when he really preached.
That man was named Sam Jones..."
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Things I Have
Learned I
do not claim to be a scholar. I haven't had time to be a scholar. I have
moved too fast. I have been too busy. I haven't had. the time with books
I wish I could have had. I love good books. I love literature. I love
music. I love art. But God has called me to a strenuous, busy life; and
I haven't had time to be the scholar I should like to be. I have read
all I could, even on trains as I have traveled over the country. I have
tried not to waste my time. When I have had an opportunity I have looked
into good books, but I have had to do it in a hurry. While
I haven't lived with books, I have lived with people. Though I am not a
scholar, I do know people. I know what people think. I know the mental
processes of the masses of people. I am going to tell you this morning
and in some other messages to follow some of the things I have learned
in dealing with people.
Every successful person I
have ever met had come at some time in his life under the dominating
power of some great truth. If you succeed in this world it is going
to be because sometime you hear something, or you see something, or you
get an idea that grips your very soul. If you meet a great man anywhere
in this world and ask that great man, "How did you succeed?"
he will, answer "One time I heard somebody say something and I
began to think about it"; or he will say, "One time I came
across something in a book"; or "One time I was walking along
and got an idea and that idea made me." You will find that is
always true. If you go to Mr. Henry Ford at the head of probably the
greatest private business in the world and say, "Mr. Ford, you are
an old man. I want to ask you a question: How did you get to be a
successful business-man?" Mr. Ford will say, "Well, one day a
certain idea came to me."
Years ago there lived in this country a
unique platform man. He was a great preacher. No man could excel him in
the pulpit when he really preached. That man was named Sam Jones.
He was brought up down in Georgia, just a few miles from Cleveland,
Tennessee. Sam Jones was a little country Methodist circuit-rider. One
day he went to hear a man by the name of Simon
Peter Richardson. Simon Peter Richardson was a very unique
personality, well known throughout this southern country. Sam Jones,
just a little country circuit-rider, sat there and listened to that
unique man preach. Sam's face lighted up. Then he looked as if he were
thinking. His face lighted up again. When the sermon was over Sam walked
out and said to a crowd of young preachers, "Boys, I have learned
something today. I have learned that the pulpit is not a prison but a
throne. I have learned that the preacher is not a prisoner; the preacher
is a king with a scepter. He is on a throne of power!" Sam Jones
became probably the greatest platform man America ever produced. If
you succeed in life you are going to see something, you are going to
hear something, or you are going to get an idea that will make you. What
is the greatest idea you ever had? What is the greatest lesson you ever
learned? I
am going to tell you the greatest thought I ever had. It is a simple
little thing. One time as a country boy I was walking down a road.
Suddenly it occurred to me that I
had to live somewhere forever. Of course, I had known that. The
Bible taught me that. My mother had told me that. The Sunday School
teacher had told me that. But I had never realized it before. It dawned
on me in a moment that I had to live somewhere forever. I said to
myself, "It doesn't matter whether I want to live or not. I may
prefer to die and sleep a dreamless sleep in the silent dust, but I
can't do it. I've got to live. I've got to live as long as God Almighty
lives. I've got to live until God dies. I've got to live until angels
sing a funeral dirge over His grave. Like it or not like it, I've got to
live." I said, "Since I've got to live, I had better learn how
to live." A
young man came to me one time and said, "Life isn't worth living. I
am in trouble. I am a failure." I said, "How old are
you?" He said, "Thirty years old." Think of a man thirty
years old saying life isn't worth living! I am sixty, and let me tell
you something. Life was never as interesting as it is to me now. I have
a thousand jobs I want to do and a thousand dreams I am dreaming. Talk
about life not being worth living! Think of a fellow's ending his own
life--committing suicide! That
fellow said, "I am going to end my life." I said, "How
are you going to end your life?" He said, "I am going to blow
my brains out." I
said, "You can't blow your brains out; you haven't any brains to
blow out." He looked at me and said, "Don't make furl, of me.
Don't laugh at me. I am going to end my life." I said, "You
can't end it. You can blow a hole in your head. You can get up on the
house and jump off. You can close the doors, stop all the cracks, and
turn on the gas. You can go uptown and buy some strychnine at the drug
store and take it. But you can't
stop living. We will take your old body and put you to bed with a
shovel and throw dirt in your face, but you can't stop living!" Young
people, listen to me! You've got to live. Like it or not like it, you
have got it to do! You have to live forever and forever and forever! You
are a fool if you don't learn how to live. That is what is the matter
with the world: people do not know how to live. We have been building
schools and colleges and all sorts of technical institutions to teach
people how to make a living. But a few years ago the highways of America
were crowded with university graduates who couldn't make a living.
Anybody can make a living now under war conditions. Uncle Sam makes a
living for you now. But there are hard days ahead of you. Jobs will be
scarce. Mark my word, you will see the time when it will take character
to hold a job. You don't have to have character to hold one now. but you
will see another day in this country when efficiency will be in demand
and character will be what folks are looking for. A
few years ago university presidents would make commencement addresses
and say, "Young ladies and young gentlemen, you are up against it.
I am sorry for you." At that time I stood on the platform and
offered anybody a thousand dollars who would find one graduate of Bob
Jones College out of work, unless he were sick. When these highways were
crowded with university graduates who couldn't get a job, a graduate of
Bob Jones College without a good position could not be found. The reason
was that Bob Jones College teaches people how to live. That is the
greatest lesson in the world. We teach science. We teach literature. We
teach history. We teach all the academic subjects. But we teach students
how to live. Some
of the biggest "nuts" I ever met in my life were Doctors of
Philosophy. I had a letter one time from a man who said, "I have a
Doctor of Philosophy degree from a certain great university and my wife
has a Doctor of Philosophy degree from another university. My major was
in a certain field and her major was in another field. Both of us are
out of work. I had a position in a school and couldn't hold it. My wife
had a position and couldn't hold it. We are misfits. We have tried and
tried and tried to get a job. We are hungry. We have nothing to eat. If
you will give us a place to sleep and something to eat, we will come and
teach in Bob Jones College." That is pitiful. It is bad enough to
have a "Ph.D." married to a "Ph.D.," but think of
two "Ph.D.'s" without any common sense and unable to make a
living! There
is something wrong with the present system of education. When the
scholars and educational leaders were making the greatest effort ever
made on earth to teach people how to make a living there were more
college and university graduates out of work than at any other time in
the history of the country. Put this back in a pigeonhole of your brain
and let it stay there: I have had a wide experience and
I have never yet found a man who knew how to live who ever had any
trouble making a living. If you will learn how to live, you can make a
living. I
believe in home economics. But my old country mother could make better
biscuits than any home economics teachers on the American continent. She
could fry the best ham and scramble the best eggs. She could make the
best sweet potato custard and the most wonderful cake-she could
sugar-coat every bit of it exactly right! And she never saw a home
economics teacher! My
old country father never attended an agricultural school in his life,
but he knew how to tickle the ground and make it smile with harvest. He
could produce yam potatoes as big as you ever saw, and ears of corn that
made the neighbors almost worship at the granary shrine. You
learn how to live! Learning to cook is easy. Learning to plow is easy.
You think it is hard to learn mathematics. That is easy. You think Greek
and Hebrew are hard. They are easy. You learn to live! You can graduate
from college and go through the graduate school and be a fool. And we
are not turning out fools! We let the fools go before they finish! This
is not a "nut" factory! A
good old saint, a well-educated man, died years ago. He had read
everything. He knew all the books. He could tell a person anything he
wanted to know. He died. His remains were brought into the church. The
preacher got up and said, "My dear Brethren, Mr. So-and-So is not
here in the coffin. He is with the Lord. This is just the shell, the old
'nut' is in Heaven." We
don't tolerate in Bob Jones College slovenly work in the classroom. You
can't skim over the job here and get away with it. We want you to study
hard and do a good job not for just what you are going to learn in
books. We want you to build your character by that effort. If you
haven't taken some subject in college that you hate, I am tempted to
hate you. Any student who comes to a college like this and doesn't take
something he despises has no business being in college. If you like
music, take music. If you hate mathematics, take mathematics. Offset one
with the other. Build character. Learn how to live! A
lot of people are going to heaven when they die-and the sooner the
better! They are going to make it. God is awfully good. His grace is so
wonderful. But there are a lot of saved people who do not know how to
live. They can't fit into any situation. They can't get along anywhere.
A man said to me one day, "I just can't get along with that old
maid. I just can't work in the organization with her." I said,
"Well, what is the matter with you?" He said, "What is
the matter with me? Nothing. What is the matter with her?" When
I can't get along with people personally I always figure there is
something wrong with me. Of course there are times when my convictions
about what is right create friction. But that is not personal. That is
principle. I have learned never to "pass the buck" to somebody
else. If I can't fit in I don't blame the hole. I blame myself. People
say you can't fit a round peg into a square hole or a square peg into a
round hole. Well, if God has a round hole for you and you are a square
peg, you ought to turn into a round peg. If God has a square hole which
He wants you to fit into and you are a round peg, square up and get in! Now,
hurriedly I will give you a few of the practical things I have learned
along life's way. No
man ever succeeds in life who does not learn to finish every job he
undertakes.
Finish the job! Finish the job!! Don't shine one shoe and leave the
other one unshined. Shine both of them! Don't wash one ear and leave the
other one dirty. Don't pull out the eyebrows over one eye, you girls,
and not pull them out over the other eye. If you are going to act the
fool, go the "whole hog." Don't have any fights you can get
out of having. But if you have to fight, go through with it. Do a good
job! I
used to have a friend who was always in a fight and, strange to say, he
licked every man he fought. One day I asked him how he did it. He said,
"It is easy-get in a good lick and get done with it." Joe
Louis might give you some lessons on finishing the job. He didn't mess
around when he had it to do. He did it. Here
is a college girl who goes to her room at night. She says, " I have
a hard day tomorrow. I must get my 'math' because that 'math' is hard
... no, I believe I will get my English. English is awfully hard. The
lessons are long, too . . . no, I believe I will get my history . . .
well, no, I am going to write John a note!" That is the way she
lives--never finishes anything. If that girl does not learn to get down
to business and finish something, I pity the poor fool who marries her.
Learn while you are young the lessons of finishing the job. If you have
something to do, do it and be done with it. I
think I am doing about as much as any one private citizen you ever saw.
I write letters every day that take as much mental effort as it takes
for the average preacher to prepare both sermons on Sunday. I give a
chapel talk every day when I am at home, and once in a while I say
something original. We turn out from our office on an average of a
hundred personal letters a day. We are doing a thousand and one things
that I couldn't even mention. Somebody said, "How can you do
it?" The answer is: Finish every job and get through with it. It is
marvelous what a man can do if he will learn while he is young to finish
the job. Get through with it. Dismiss it from your mind. Go on about
your business. Get done with what you have to do and be done with it. No
doubt the trouble is with you!
Young people, don't start out in life blaming anybody but yourself.
Learn to take responsibility. When you fail don't blame the teacher.
Don't blame conditions. Don't blame circumstances. Don't make alibis.
Start out in life always to take responsibility. You are a Christian,
aren't you? You have God to help you, haven't you? You have Omnipotence
back of you, don't you? You are trusting God, aren't you? Well, isn't
God Almighty greater than any difficulty in life? A
fellow came to my office one time and asked me for financial backing.
His shoes were cracked across the top (that was before shoes were
rationed). The heels were run-down. His fingernails were dirty. He had a
history of sorrow-the whole universe had been organized against him. And
he was against everything. He reminded me of the fellow who dropped into
a church conference one Saturday. He came in late and sat down. Then he
got up and said, "Brother Moderator, I don't know what you are
discussing, but put me down as being 'a-gin' it." You have seen
these people who are "a-gin" everything. I used to have a
friend who gave a lecture on "A-ginits." This
fellow, to hear him tell it, had been mistreated all his life. His
mother was mean to him. His old daddy who was dead and gone had treated
him bad. His grandmother was a reprobate. His maternal and paternal
ancestors had cursed him before he was born! The Republican Party had
ruined him and the Democrats had cursed him and spit on him. Prohibition
had ruined the country and him, too. I sat there and thought how pitiful
it was that the poor, miserable failure would blame everybody in the
world, when there was nobody to blame but himself. There
is nobody but you to blame for your failure. Let that sink in. One time
a girl in Bob Jones College came in to see me. She said, "One of
the teachers has it in for me." "Why," I said, "you
are not that important. You have to be somebody before people get it in
for you." Of course the devil has it in for you, but God is on your
side and God Almighty can make even the wrath of men to praise Him. He
can hitch human hatred to your chariot and pull you through all the mud
of difficulty. Quit blaming anybody but yourself. You will be a failure
if you "pass the buck" to somebody else. Years
ago while conducting an evangelistic campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
a man told me about an old "bum" who went to sleep on some
whisky barrels in the rear of a saloon. The poor old bum had a beard of
almost two weeks' growth. While he slept a man rubbed Limburger cheese
into his beard. After awhile he waked up and began to sniffle a little.
He smelled his hands. He walked out in the street and whiffed the air.
He went on out to the park and plucked a flower and smelled of that. He
slowly turned around and started back to town. When he got to town he
went into a drug store, went up to the druggist and said, "Would
you mind my smelling some of this perfume?" "No," the
druggist said, "that is all right. Go right ahead." He opened
the bottle, smelled of the perfume, and closed the bottle. He started
back down the street and passed a man and said, "He smells
bad." He passed a beautiful woman in a fur coat. She had cologne
all over her and smelled lovely to everybody else, but to him she
smelled awfully bad. He entered a saloon, walked up to the bar and said,
"I have one dime, Mister; give me something to drink right
quick." The fellow poured out a glass of cheap liquor and handed it
to him. He took it and started to drink it and said, "Ain't it
awful?" The saloonkeeper said, "Ain't what awful?" The
fellow said, "Can't you smell it-the whole world smells
rotten!" Young
people, if you smell anything around here it is your own smell. Don't
you walk around here and say, "I went to the Dean's office and,
say, it just smelled awful! I don't see why people talk about Bob Jones
College being such a wonderful place, it surely smells bad to me. I went
in to see Dr. Bob Jones and he smelled bad. I went in to see Dr. Bob
Jones, Jr., and he smelled worse than his daddy! I just can't get
anywhere near that registrar. He is awful. He smells terrible!" Any
smelling you smell around here is your own smell. Don't forget that.
Don't you go around "smelling" up this place and then blame
somebody else! Wait a minute. I'm not joking. I'm not playing with you.
I'm driving something home to you. While you are young don't "pass
the buck" for how you smell and what you are. You will be a failure
as long as you live if you look at life like that. We
will have another class in practical philosophy here at chapel tomorrow
morning. If your professor of philosophy tells you something different,
just remember I am talking to you out of life. I did not get this out of
books. I think you will probably find that his philosophy and mine are
in agreement. I got mine in contact with people through a period of many
years, and that is where all the other philosophers got theirs, if they
got it right. Let us pray. _______ The following is from 'Laughter in the Amen Corner': In 1977 Jones was reappointed to the DeSoto Circuit. Simon Peter Richardson was his presiding elder, the supervisor of all the ministers in the Rome District. Richardson was "the most unique and original member of the body," a minister wrote when ""Uncle Simon" retired after fifty-four years in the itineracy, "the youngest old man we ever had." Brought up a Lutheran in South Carolina, after his conversion to Methodism Richardson boasted that he was a better Methodist than John Wesley. Richardson was untainted by higher education, and proud of it. ... Richardson saw the pulpit as a promontory, a favorable position from which to rain down righteousness, and "woe to the man who fell under his withering sarcasm." ... "I learned more from him than from all other preachers I have ever come in contact with," Jones wrote of Richardson. "I first learned from him that the pulpit was not a prison, but a throne; that instead of bars and walls and boundary lines, I might have wings and space as my heritage. To think the thoughts of God is a freeman's right, with as little reverence for the Nicene Creed as for the resolutions of the General Conference or the Baptist Convention ... assured of the human origins of both alike." (A delightful discussion of Richardson, from which these quotes are taken is found in 'Laughter in the Amen Corner' by Kathleen Minnix, beginning on p49. U of GA Press)
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