Daily Inspiration Quote by John Strachan

Hearing was believing in Strachan's world, and that is the quiet power move in this line: it turns eloquence into a form of authority that cannot be fully audited on the page. By insisting the bishop "must have been heard" to be properly understood, Strachan shields both the man and the institution from mere textual scrutiny. The claim is flattering, yes, but it also functions like a gate. If you weren't there, if you don't belong to the circle that witnessed the performance, your judgment is secondhand and therefore smaller.

The phrasing carries the polished deference of Anglican hierarchy: "late venerable" does double duty, sanctifying the bishop through age and death while pre-loading the audience to treat critique as bad manners. "Superior excellence" is less a description than a credential, the kind that travels well in a colonial society where reputation is political capital. Strachan, a major architect of Upper Canada's Anglican establishment, understood that sermons weren't just religious instruction; they were public theater, civic messaging, and elite networking rolled into one.

The subtext is institutional self-defense. Strachan isn't only memorializing a bishop; he's reaffirming a model of leadership where charisma in the pulpit validates authority in the polity. "Commanding eloquence" signals not merely persuasion but command - a reminder that in an era before mass media, the sermon was a key technology of influence, and the church wanted to own the microphone.