THE EXCITING THING

As a youngster I listened to Winston Churchill’s speeches over the radio during World War II and was greatly moved. Later, I acquired some tapes of his more famous speeches and was again captivated. That man knew how to hold an audience without a rope. He used words as a general would use his troops marching into battle. It was powerful stuff.

It was not until I read William Manchester’s biography of Winston Spencer Churchill that I learned of the Irish-American lawyer and congressman Bourke Cockran and the impact his oratory made on Churchill. Cockran advised Churchill that he should avoid scurrility, affectations, and cant. He said, “What people really want to hear is the truth. It is the exciting thing. Speak the simple truth.”

Plato, centuries before Cockran, stated, “There is nothing so delightful as the hearing of the speaking of truth.”

Jesus came into the world speaking the truth, and the people heard Him gladly. Even those officers sent to arrest Him returned without fulfilling their mission. Their explanation? “No man ever spoke like this man!”

Later, the apostles of Jesus would be accused of turning the world upside down. How was it accomplished? Not through military might, intellectual brilliance, or political maneuvering, but truth, simple truth.

In our world, so beguiled by lights, glamour, noise, and motion, nothing could be more exciting than the speaking of truth.

John Gipson

Angleton Accents

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