The Master Orator

The Master Orator

BY R. VERNE MC CULLOUGH

[At the M. I. A. Oratorical Contest held in Salt Lake City, June, 1914,

there were ten Church districts represented at the finals, in senior ora-

tions. "The Master Orator," by R. V. McCullough, was given first place. —

Editors.]

The human voice has been a factor most deeply significant in

the development of the race. It has commanded on battlefields and

inspired men to deeds of heroism. It has risen with incense from

the altar and drawn men

nearer to divine ideals. It has

championed truth, and truth

has made men free. Of the

innumerable voices that have

come to us from the past, some

have been sweet and rhyth-

mical. We call them singers.

Some have been strong and

persuasive. We call them ora-

tors. Of these orators some

have spoken to one age, some

to one people, but One there

was who spake to all ages and

to all peoples.

In presenting a study of

the life work of Jesus of Naz-

areth from an oratorical point

of view, it is not claimed that

oratory was the great and es-

sential fact of his life. Ora-

tory is not a fact, it is an inci-

dent not

; an end, but a

R. V. M! CULLOUGH

means. A man is an orator

because he is something greater than an orator. Webster was a

great statesman; incidentally an orator. Phillips Brooks was a

great preacher ; incidentally an orator. And just as we study the

that

oratory of Webster or of Phillips Brooks, fully conscious

above that mere incident are the great facts for which their lives

study

stand in the history of our nation, so it is possible for us to

discus-

the oratory of Jesus, fully aware that above any superficial

stands in the

sion lies the great fact for which the Christ Life

is possible

history and the development of our race. If, then, it

to consider this subject without misunderstanding, it may be of

928 IMPROVEMENT ERA

interest on such an occasion as this, to consider the teachings and

methods of One, who, if we can substantiate his right to the title

of orator, straightway becomes the model of all true eloquence.

Was Jesus an orator? It will be said that not enough of his

discourses survive to permit us to judge. But everyone will admit

that John the Baptist was an orator. Yet the surviving discourses

of Jesus exceed in number and power those of the Baptist. There

are old Greek poets not one word from whom has survived. Yet

our Greek scholars tell us of the glories of these men, not a line

of whose writings they have ever read. Alongside these hearsay

reputations I place the Sermon on the Mount, the invective against

the Pharisees, and the final words of the Master to his disciples.

The true test of oratory is the effect produced upon the

hearers. How did Jesus impress those who actually heard him?

"All bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which

proceeded out of his mouth." John the Baptist stands as the great-

est orator of his time, "the voice crying in the wilderness." When

the reputation of Jesus reached the courts of Herod, what did he

say? "This is John the Baptist." They associated him with

the greatest orator of their history.

The severest test of an orator is to convince an audience of

unpleasant truths. Demosthenes spoke to his own countrymen

against a foreign invader. Cicero championed the interests of the

best classes of Rome. Webster and Lincoln voiced the popular

sentiments of victorious political parties. This man came at a time

when Jewish life and civilization were founded upon the law, and

from the first to the last his entire effort was to destroy; not the

law, but, what was even worse, their conception of the law. Yet,

"the multitude heard him gladly." And more than this even his

:

enemies acknowledged his power. For when the High Priests

sent their officers to arrest him, they returned empty handed, and

their only excuse was : "Never a man spake as this man."

Now, what is the definition of oratory ? When Cicero spoke,

the Romans went forth, saying: "What a voice! what gestures!

what language !" When Demothenes spoke, the Athenians rushed

forth, saying : "To arms let us fight Philip of Macedon !" The

!

orator is not he who uses fine language, but he who makes you

forget language, voice, gestures, everything except the truth he is

teaching. The orator is he who makes you believe what he

says?

Yes; but greater is he who makes you do what he says. Elo-

quence is the ability, by the spoken word, to make truth a living,

vital force in the lives of the hearers. Was Jesus an orator? He

came upon this earth at a time when truth was lost. Greece had

sought for it, but the brilliancy of her orators, her poets,

and her

philosophers, had succeeded only in producing a civilization

upon

whose altars was inscribed, "to the unknown God." Rome had

sought for it. but the Republic of Cicero, of Cato, and of

Brutus

;

THE MASTER ORATOR 929

was becoming the plaything of a Nero. Israel had raised her

temple to the God of truth, but the highest inspiration from her

sacred mount was a series of "thou-shalt-nots." Into this at-

mosphere Jesus came, he went below the sophistry of the Greek,

the legalism of the Roman, the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and

deep in human nature he revealed eternal truth.

What an incentive, then, for us who gather annually in

friendly oratorical rivalry, to strive to learn the secret of Jesus'

power. Surely it is not to be found in the mechanics of voice,

gestures, or rhetoric. For however these may aid the orator,

however they are mistaken for oratory, they are at best incidentally

and external. What, then, are the great essentials which lie at the

heart of true oratory as manifested by a study of the teachings and

methods of the Master?

"He taught them as one having authority." Here is the first

essential of the orator eighteen years at the carpenter's bench

:

eighteen years of self-mastery eighteen years of character build-

;

ing and when at last he came forth, he taught them as one having

;

authority, because he first obtained authority over himself. Char-

acter is the foundation of oratory. When he said, "Let him that

is without sin first cast a stone," it was the character of the man,

the pure life behind that statement that gave it authority. What

preparation shall the orator make ? It is the character we build to-

day that thirty years hence will plead at the bar of justice. It is

character that will rise from the pulpit with a tongue of fire. It is

not what we say, but what we are in the depths of our lives, that

speaks to our audience then, character is the first essential of the

;

orator.

If there is any other essential than character, it is purpose.

"Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"

"My meat is to do the will of him that sent me." Jesus was

on fire with a purpose. Every act, every word of his life, was

subservient to that purpose. Never until some purpose gets a

hold of us that sweeps us out of ourselves, never until we can

look our audience squarely in the face and say, "Wist ye not that

I must be about my Father's business ?" can we be truly eloquent.

Not only did Jesus have a purpose, but he was true to that

purpose absolutely sincere and honest. Never did a man have

;

such temptation to be false to his purpose. Standing before Pilate

and the mob, when one flash of eloquence, one brilliant proverb,

gathering into itself the traditions of priest, prophet, and patriarch,

would have turned those cries of hatred into the hosannas of the

triumphal entry, shall he save his life, shall he forget his cause,

shall he be falsely eloquent?

"No, Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world," and he gave

to the orator the greatest example of all time — absolute fidelity to

a lofty, pure, immaculate cause.