He had already been dead for thirty years, yet I heard plenty of stories about Peter Marshall (1902-1949) when I came to serve a church in the Washington, DC area. He was the gold standard for Presbyterian ministers back in the day. I used to frequent his church and wondered what it must have been like to speak to an overflow congregation every Sunday. As I read his sermons, I was struck by his vivid imagination and colorful word pictures to proclaim the gospel, expressed in his distinctive Scottish brogue.
Despite his enormous popularity, Peter didn’t regard his sermons as worthy of publication. His wife Catherine saw to it after his untimely death in his forties to publish a collection of his sermons. She also told his improbable journey of faith in her book A Man Called Peter, later to become an Oscar-nominated film. I’m trying to imagine a Hollywood feel-good feature film about a preacher in our day!
When Peter was appointed Senate Chaplain in 1946, Senators made it a point to be present at the outset of their legislative sessions just to hear him pray. Here is a brief excerpt from one of his prayers: