By Catherine Marshall
If you don't know this man called Peter, let me encourage you to meet him. Catherine Marshall's biography, A Man Called Peter is worth the read.
Peter Marshall was a Scots-American Presbyterian pastor who served as Chaplain of the Senate from 1947 until his early death (at 46) in 1949. A Scotsman by birth, Marshall immigrated to the United States in 1927. Gospel patrons in a Georgia Sunday School class provided the financial help that enabled Peter to attend and graduate from Columbia Seminary. He pastored the Westminster Presbyterian Church from 1933 until his call to New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. in October 1937. Marshall began his ministry at the "The Church of the Presidents," at thirty-five years of age. In fact, he interviewed with the elders just one day following his marriage to Catherine Marshall (22 at the time).
Catherine Marshall's loving biography of her husband is honest, honoring, and revealing:
1. The power of a call: The Olympian Eric Liddell cast a holy shadow over Peter Marshall. Catherine Marshall said, "He influence on Peter's life can scarcely be measured" (p. 13). When Liddell announced he was going to China as a missionary, God gripped Marshall with that same holy hand. Peter surrendered: "I have determined to give my life to God for Him to use me wherever He wants me" (p. 15). Marshall said, "Sometimes this going out in obedience to God's command is more dramatic than at other times . . . sometimes more spectacular . . . sometimes more brave . . . but always it is a venture into the unknown. Such was the case for the man who would preach to thousands and pray over the Senate of the United States. However, as A Man Called Peter reveals, the path was more serpentine than straight.
2. The humility and humanity of Peter Marshall: Marshall paints a careful portrait of her husband. His Scottish heritage shines through in his love for seascapes, hard work, thrift, as well as patriotism and love for national independence both that of Scotland and the U.S. (Marshall became a naturalized citizen on January 26, 1938). As Catherine Marshall noted, "The fact remains, however, that most people are still surprised when they find that preachers are human" (p. 129). But it is the wholly human Peter we see, one who loved and served God with all his might, but who also enjoyed film, collecting things, games of all types (his family called him the GGP, "Great Game Player"), Washington Senators baseball, and annual Cape Cod vacations.
This wholly and holy humanity did not go unnoticed. One woman wrote, "I first heard Dr. Marshall preach in Atlanta, I had him up on so high a pedestal that no human being of flesh and blood could ever climb down from such dizzy heights. It was good to see him play and to realize how deeply human he was… We, who knew him personally, were greatly blessed by that contact… (p. 130)
3. "Ministry" and the single life . . . and the married life: Catherine Marshall does a great service to individuals when she describes the delights and strains on their marriage. The love was obvious, but the challenges too. Peter and Catherine did not marry until he was 34 (she was just 22). She writes, "I did not understand, at that time, the full force of the inner compulsion that drove Peter to preach and preach, even at the risk of his health" (p. 118). Additionally, the age gap coupled with Peter's life patterns, made for unique challenges:
Peter was 34 when we were married. His taste and habits were already solidly formed. He lived a bachelor existence for many years. In my husband’s case, there was no question about whether his home life or his ministry had priority. He loved me; there was no doubt about that – but, he had been “tapped on the shoulder" by the Chief. Therefore, he was the first, last, and always God's man and his servant, at the beck and call of thousands of people. I, his wife, would simply have to except that fact completely.
His circumstances had forced him to be independent. Having had no home of zone, he had fallen into the habit of keeping all day office hours in his study at the church. Neither did he take a day off each week. Therefore, after we were married, I did not see him all day long. At night he usually has a meeting or speaking engagement. In addition, he was frequently out of town for a series of services a week at a time.
4. Every preacher is a limited edition of one. I love that description from Warren Wiersbe. It is true of every preacher and particularly evident in Peter Marshall. he was a poet-preacher, "an artist in phrase-making" (p. 43), a story-teller par excellence, made so by a sanctified imagination, and the ability to help others to see what he saw.
Peter believed that the use of the sanctified imagination, the painting of word pictures, using the vehicle of a story, was Jesus's way of teaching. It will forever be, he believed, the most effective method (p. 192).
It seems he never understood the strength of his preaching prowess. "All his life he has been haunted with an inferiority complex about the fact that he did not have a college degree" (p. 105). And if he, like many preachers, was not the best judge of his craft, others saw his greatness clearly. One Washington clergyman said, "Peter was able to preach rings around any of us-- and we knew it . . ." (p. 105).
5. Christ is all. What drove Peter Marshall? It was Christ, the reality of Christ, of serving Christ, of preaching Christ, of helping people see Christ, and ultimately seeing Christ himself. Marshall was not afraid of death. Perhaps that is why, even after suffering a heart attack and facing an early death if he didn't slow down, he pressed on. Catherine Marshall said, "What could we do about it? How could we stop him? . . . It was like reasoning with a closed door" (p. 229). Marshall said,
I have determined to give my life to God for Him to use me wherever He wants me.
He continued that pursuit and it did cost him his life. He died at 46. His final words to Catherine before the doctor ushered him to the hospital were, "See you in the morning." Always looking forward, that was A Man Called Peter.
Eleven quotes from A Man Called Peter
1. On Preachers: "If a preacher is to be effective, he has to be convinced that Christ is Lord of the street corner and the market place, as well as of the cathedral.” Catherine Marshall (p. 22)
2. On Meeting Christ: “When we eventually reach the goal to which we are all striving, God will look us over, not for diplomas, but for scars. . . .” Peter Marshall (p. 49)
3. On Dreams: “Dreams carried around in one’s heart for years, if they are dreams that have God’s approval, have a way suddenly of materializing.” Catherine Marshall (p. 68)
4. On Decision-Making: “My own experience back up what Abe Lincoln said once, ‘When God wants me to do or not to do anything, He can always find a way of letting me know!’” Peter Marshall (p. 223)
5. On Religious Liberty: "Religious liberty to worship God according to the dictates of one’s own conscience and equal opportunity for all men . . . These are the twin pillars of the American Dream. . . . A Covenant Nation is one which recognizes that God and His Purposes stand over and above the nation . . . that the highest role a nation can play is to reflect God’s righteous in national policy.” Peter Marshall (From the sermon, “The American Dream”), p. 269.
6. On Power: "With power comes responsibility." Peter Marshall (p. 275)
7. On Peace and Politics: "The blessing of peace is not a product of politics—but a fruit of righteousness. God’s order is always righteousness and peace—not peace and righteousness. The Bible has been telling us that for centuries. When will we learn it? Peter Marshall (From “The American Dream,"), p. 277.
8. On Home: "God gave all men all earth to love, But since our hearts are small, Ordained for each one spot should prove, Beloved over all." Rudyard Kipling, The Five Nations (p. 88)
9. On a living faith: "Christ and his life must be very real to you; otherwise, you could not make Him so real to others." (A Judge writing to Peter Marshall after a communion service), p. 125.
10. On Death:" It is not the length of life that matters, but how it is lived. That is the thing that counts. It is not 'how long' but 'how well.'" Peter Marshall, (from the sermon, "Go Down Death"), p. 253.
11. On Family: "In your zeal for your parish work and your willingness to be of service to all that need you, do not neglect your own family. They need you too! Remember when you marry, you are a husband and a father, as well as a pastor. I should not soon forget the indictment I heard in our little boys prayer one night. 'Thank you, God' he prayed, 'that you let my daddy stay home this one evening.'" Peter Marshall speaking to young seminarians. (p. 161). Catherine Marshall said, the one shadow over their happy family times was, "There were not enough of them." p. 118.
12. On significance: When a minister friend dropped in on Peter Marshall after his heart attack: "Well, Peter," the friend asked, "I'm curious to know something, What did you learn during your illness?" Peter answered promptly, "I learned that the Kingdom of God goes on without Peter Marshall." p. 234