This week's Expositor's Quote is from a biography of G. Campbell Morgan (1863-1945), perhaps the finest expository preacher of the first half of the 20th century. He began preaching at the age of 13, and was mightily used by God in evangelistic meetings while a young man. But at the age of 25, when he tried to gain Wesleyan Methodist ordination, he was denied based on his preaching trial:
He wired to his father the one word, 'Rejected,' and sat down to write in his diary: "Very dark everything seems. Still, He knoweth best." Quickly came the reply: "Rejected on earth. Accepted in Heaven. Dad."
Jill Morgan, A Man of the Word: Life of G. Campbell Morgan, (New York: Fleming Revell, 1951) p. 60.
[Campbell Morgan also had a very difficult first pastorate, and wrote in his diary "Very glad to get away" when he left. God knew what He was doing, both in that first rejection and in the difficult first pastorate. And He knows what He is doing when your ministry is rejected in some way. Who called you? To whom must you be faithful? "Preach the Word in season and out of season" -- Coty]