--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - R. Verne McCullough collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 10 published: 1914-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'R. Verne McCullough, "The Master Orator," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 10 (August 1914): 927–929.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17010unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera17010unse start_page: 927 end_page: 929 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17010unse publication_year: 1914 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # 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.