Proclaimer Blog
His masters voice
For various reasons which are too complex to explain I've been flicking through Lloyd-Jones Preaching and preachers again (now, sadly, out of print). There are some real nuggets here and perhaps I will blog on one or two. Some are surprising too. My great mentor used to listen to classical music at the beginning of his sermon work which I always found slightly puzzling until I read this:
Music does not help everyone, but it greatly helps some people.
He then cites the example of Karl Barth who used to listen to Mozart every morning.
I can tell you why Karl Barth went to Mozart. He did not go to him for thoughts or ideas, he went to Mozart because Mozart did something to him in a general sense. Mozart put him into a good mood, and made him feel happy in his spirit. He released him, and set him free to do his own thinking, A general stimulus in that way is often more helpful than a particular intellectual one….anything that does you good, puts you into a good mood or condition, anything that pleases you or releases tensions and relaxes you is of inestimable value. Music does that to some in a wonderful way. So put on your gramaphone record, or whatever it is – anything you know that will help you.
I guess there are lots of pieces of advice one could download from the 'doctor.' This is probably one of the more obscure…! (For the very young reader, this picture is 'His master's voice' – what we would now call a logo. It was a music label sold to EMI. However the name lives on….in the abbreviation HMV).