This is an old quotation from Samuel H. Miller, the Dean of Harvard Divinity School but its truth comes with power:“Let your soul speak for itself. Some souls hold conversation with God in music, and some in the sowing of seed, and others in the smell of sawed wood, and still others in the affectionate understanding of their friends. All souls are not alike. Utter your own prayer, in the language of your own joy. Repent of your own sin and let your lament be your own sorrow and not another’s. When you worship, thank God for whatever has given your joy, though it be so slight that no other soul would think it worthy of mention . . . Quit dressing your soul in somebody else’s piety. Your soul is not a pauper. Let it live its own life!”
Samuel H. Miller, The Life of the Soul.
Via Walter Shurden, Walter B. Shurden’s Preaching Journal, Vol. 2, Number 16, August 2009.
Walter ‘Buddy’ Shurden is Minister at Large, Professor Emeritus of Christianity, Mercer University, Macon, GA, USA.
For his bio and email to request Walter’s monthly journal follow this link.
Dr Geoff Pound
Geoff can be contacted by email at geoffpound(at)gmail.com on Facebook and Twitter.
Image: “Some souls hold conversation with God in music.”