His Only Master Was Jesus

Fifty years ago, Marshall Keeble died at the age of 89. Leroy Garrett, in a book about the history of churches of Christ, called brother Keeble one of the princes of the church (Stone Campbell Movement, 680). Earl West, in his history Search for the Ancient Order identified Keeble as one of the three best preachers among churches of Christ in the first half of the twentieth century (Volume 4, 140). Marshall Keeble had no political power. He was not wealthy. His father had been born a slave. Yet he wielded, and continues to exert, great influence in the Lord’s church. He preached in small churches and clearings. He preached in large public auditoriums to a packed house. He preached in Europe and in Africa as well as in the United States; he baptized more than ten thousand people. Among his greatest achievements was his mentoring of young men who wanted to preach. In 1939, he became the President of Nashville Christian Institute, a school for training African-American preachers. Some of the students travelled with him on evangelistic campaigns and learned even more as they listened and as they watched. Although Keeble was a powerful preacher, he emphasized that he was not the focal point of the assembly. He pointed people to focus on Jesus, saying things like, “Don’t follow your Momma. Follow Jesus. He knows how to get to Heaven. He’s made the round trip. Your Momma don’t know the way to Heaven – she’s never been there” (Willie Cato, His Hand and Heart, 37). He exhorted his hearers to “prove all things, then hold fast to that which is good.” My parents took me to hear Marshall Keeble preach in 1964 when he was about 85 years old and I was 7 years old. He impressed me greatly with his fervent preaching that could capture the interest even of a small boy. As my family left the auditorium that night, I reached up to shake his hand and asked him if he would come to preach where I went to church. After asking me where I lived and worshiped, he was silent for a few seconds, then he smiled as he answered, “Maybe someday.” He loved to pray. He loved to preach. He loved his family and he enjoyed baseball. But more than anything else, he loved the Lord. The Lord Jesus was his master. His biographer observed that what made Marshall Keeble great was “…NO BODY and NO THING mastered him, except the Master himself.” (His Hand and Heart, 134). Let’s pray that they will say the same of us.