William E. Sangster: In the Wake of the Wesleys
By David L. Larsen
Professor Emeritus of Preaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.
At the heart of London is Wesminster, with the houses of Parliament and four commanding churches: Wesminster Abbey, the national church (Anglican); Westminster Cathedral (Roman Catholic); Westminster Chapel (Congregational); and Westminster Central Hall (Methodist), across from the Abbey. The latter has been a great preaching palace; and in his 24 years as pastor, Dinsdale T. Young, a preacher of redemption and an evangelist, filled its 3,000 seats with the largest audiences in London (Oswald Chambers was his protege). He died in 1938; and the next year, William E. Sangster was appointed pastor.
Sangster (1900-1960) was born into the established church but converted in London at the Radnor Street Mission (Methodist). He served in the army in World War I and afterward felt the call of God to preach and prepared for the ministry at Richmond College, Surrey, where his gifts were in early evidence. With his beloved wife, Margaret, he served Methodist charges under the signal blessing of the Holy Spirit in Wales, Liverpool, Scarbourough and then Leeds (following Leslie Weatherhead), where he had a most unusual ministry of evangelism and Bible teaching.
Advertisement
At Westminster Central Hall, God gave him 16 marvelous years, including five years in the Nazi blitz on London, most of which he spent living and witnessing in bomb shelters.
A strong backer of the Billy Graham Crusades, he worked with Stephen Olford, Alan Redpath and the Bishop of Barking in spearheading these significant post-war outreach efforts. His son Paul has not only given us an outstanding volume on pulpit communication but a candid study of his father’s ministry entitled Doctor Sangster.
Tall, always gesticulating, very manly, he was old-fashioned in his dress (like Dinsdale Young) and quite Puritanical. On the impatient order, he entered every church he passed. The onset of a fatal disease was apparent in 1957, and in his last year he could not speak at all. After his departure, Central Hall lurched into radical politics with Donald Soper and has since declined, along with much of Methodism in England. Three characteristics of Sangster merit attention:
Effectiveness as a pulpit communicatorSangster’s short introductions and conclusions, saving sense of humor and emotional intensity (he was always dramatic) gave thrust and entre into human hearts in need. He had the gift of terse but memorable sermon titles like “Christ Has Double Vision” on
John 1:42 and “Remember to Forget!” on
Genesis 41:51. His books of sermons circulated widely on both sides of the Atlantic.
His wide reading was apparent but not “showy.” He explored “The Grammar of Grace” and “The Revenge of a Saint” in probing depth but practical warmth. He inspired me once to a series on “The Emotions of Christmas.” Advent, like Easter, is always a special challenge. His epigrams gripped as when he showed that “worship disinfects us from egotism.”