The School of Calvary & The Passion For Souls: Sharing His Suffering

by John Henry Jowett, Anthony R. Mathenia (Editor)

The Apostle Peter says that Christ "suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps". Dr. Jowett, in "The School of Calvary", takes us on a wonderful journey with Jesus during the final days of His earthly life. Oh, that we would be better students in this school of our Lord, learning from His communion with His Father, imitating His love, and following His example! - Anthony Mathenia, Editor CCR

146 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this from a friend thinking the first portion--about learning from and sharing Christ's sufferings--would help me think through and faithfully live with some current hard things. It reminded me that the redemption story always goes down before it finally and eternally goes up. And Jowett writes about it in a way that feeds and inspires me. (Quotes below to prove it!) But I was not expecting the little tag-along book in this volume to touch me so much. The Passion for Souls is a collection of meditations on what a disciple for Christ should be like. "The Disciple's Watching for Souls," "The Disciple's Rest" and so on. I literally photocopied all of "The Disciple's Sacrifice" because it was too much to write in my commonplace book. So much wisdom in such a small book.

Quotes from The School of Calvary:
"Life becomes fruitful only when it becomes sacrificial...It is the man who appears to be expending strength who is really gaining it; the man toiling at the oar and resisting the stream, he acquires the power of the stream he resists." (page 27)

"You ask your Lord for sovereign joy. You know not what you ask. Deeper joy is the issue of deeper refinement; and so, instead of immediate joy, the Lord led you into the discipline of severity, that the chords of your soul might be rendered more sensitive, that so to their more delicate responsiveness there might be given more exquisite delight." (part of a much larger quote on pages 57-58)

From The Passion for Souls:
"My brethren, I do not know how any Christian service is to be fruitful if the servant is not primarily baptized in the spirit of a suffering compassion. We can never heal the needs we do not feel. Tearless hearts can never be the heralds of the Passion. We must pity if we would redeem. We must bleed if we would be the ministers of the saving blood." (page 91)

"Ease is an opiate; rest is a stimulant, say, rather a nutriment. Ease is the enemy of strength; rest is its hidden resource." (page 127)

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books that convicts and turns your eyes to Jesus. Things to meditate on, things to grow my faith...amazing perspective of looking to Jesus for what we need to learn.

[Sean Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found myself very edified by several chapters of this book. His writing is a bit “Spurgeon lite”—both in having similarly beautiful language and vision at times and similar weaknesses in biblical interpretation.