By all accounts, President Warren...
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By all accounts, President Warren Harding wasn't an especially intelligent person.
However, he suffered the disability of being tall and good-looking, with a splendid voice.
These difficulties, some historians say, led him to the White House. As he rose through
the political system, it's claimed he never distinguished himself in any way. One person
described his speeches as "an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in
search of an idea."
Contrast Harding's body and rhetoric with the apostle Paul. His Hebrew name, Saul, was dropped when he left the mostly Hebrew areas and traveled into the greater Mediterranean world that was mostly Greek and Roman. He was called by the Latin nickname "Shorty" (Paulus being Latin for "short").
Paul didn't impress people with his bodily presence or his voice. He quotes his detractors, "For they say, 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.' " Paul, instead of purveying "an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea," writes clear and specific things for believers to do and reasons to do them: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Contrast Harding's body and rhetoric with the apostle Paul. His Hebrew name, Saul, was dropped when he left the mostly Hebrew areas and traveled into the greater Mediterranean world that was mostly Greek and Roman. He was called by the Latin nickname "Shorty" (Paulus being Latin for "short").
Paul didn't impress people with his bodily presence or his voice. He quotes his detractors, "For they say, 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.' " Paul, instead of purveying "an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea," writes clear and specific things for believers to do and reasons to do them: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
