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How to promote & conduct a
successful revival
How to Promote & Con-
duct a Successful Revival
pf^^ mm^,^
How to Promote <£^Con-
duct a Successful Revival
With Suggestive Outlines
EDITED BY
R. A, TORREY
Author of "How to Bring Men to Christ" "What the Bible
Teaches," etc., etc.
New York
Fleming H. Revell Company
London
Edinburgh
COPYRIGHT, I9OI,
BY FLEMING H.
RKVELL COMPANY
INTRODUCTION TO FOURTH EDITION
The first edition of this book was published the year
before we began our evangelistic tour around the world.
For two years or more hundreds of us had been praying
together for a world-wide revival and we had reached the
point where we were absolutely sure that the revival was
coming, and this book was prepared as a preparation for
that revival and as a help to it. I had not decided at that
time to go around the world. The decision was made
shortly afterwards. In looking over the book since my
return home, I have been surprised to see how closely we
have followed the lines of action suggested in this book,
and have been rejoiced to see how God has set His seal
upon the principles enunciated in the book. At the time
that the book was given to the public, the editor was
known more as a Bible teacher and as a pastor than as an
evangelist. His evangelistic activity had been largely
confined to those churches of which he himself was pastor.
Since the publication of the book, God has seen fit to
lead him out into the evangelistic field and he has had
the privilege of applying on a very wide scale the princi-
ples which he enunciates in the book and he has found
that these principles work successfully, even beyond his
own anticipation. I am more firmly convinced than ever
of the truth of the statement found on the eighteenth
page of the book :
" When any church can be brought to the place where
they will recognize their need of the Holy Spirit, and
INTRODUCTION TO FOURTH EDITION
take their eyes off from all men, and surrender absolutely
to the Holy Spirit's control, and give themselves to much
prayer for His outpouring, and present themselves as His
agents, having stored the Word of God in their heads and
hearts, and then look to the Holy Spirit to give it power
as it falls from their lips, a mighty revival in the power of
the Holy Ghost is inevitable."
R. A. TORREY.
PREFACE
Revival is in the air. Thoughtful ministers and
Christians everywhere are talking about a revival,
expecting a revival, and, best of all, praying for a
revival. There seems to be little doubt that a revival
of some kind is coming, but the important question is,
What kind of a revival will it be? Will it be a true
revival, sent of God because His people have met the
conditions that make it possible for God to work with
power, or will it be a spurious revival gotten up by
the arts and devices of man? A business man who is
in touch with religious movements in all parts of the
country said to me recently, *' There is little doubt
that a revival of some kind is coming, and the revival
that is coming will be either the greatest blessing or
the greatest curse that has ever visited the church of
Christ."
There are many who are trying to promote a revival
by pushing to the front doctrines that have never pro-
duced a revival in all the history of the church of
Christ. These doctrines are called new, but they are
in reality as old as the early heresies that crept into
the church. They have never had power in the past
6 PREFACE
to produce conviction of sin, conversion or regenera-
tion, so presumably they will not have that power
to-day.
Others are advocating a forward movement along
lines utterly untried, and that seem to have little
promise in them. Some of the methods described in
this book will doubtless appear novel to many, but
they are methods that have been tried and proved
effective. There is absolutely no mere theorizing in
the book. Men whom God has used in winning souls
to Christ and building up believers, have been asked
to write out of their own experience. No one who has
been asked to write has declined. Such a book as this
seems to be an absolute necessity of the hour. There
are thousands of ministers and other Christian workers
in the land longing for a true revival of God's work,
but with no experimental or even theoretical knowl-
edge of how to go to work to promote such a revival.
It is our earnest prayer and confident expectation that
this book will prove helpful to all such
CONTENTS
PAGB
The Holy Spirit in a Revival — R. A. Torrey . 1 1
The Place of Prayer in a Revival — R. A. Torrey i 9
The Preaching Needed in Revivals — Rev. Louis
Albert Banks, D.D 32
The Minister as an Evangelist — Rev. William
Patterson 3^
Organizing for Revival Work — Rev Len. G.
boughton 55
The Sunday-School Teacher as a Soul-Winner
— Marion Lawrance 66
Decision Day in the Sunday-School — Rev. H. W.
Pope 76
The Conversion of Children — Rev. E. P. Ham-
mond AND R. a. Torrey 94
The Importance of Open Air Work — Rev.
William Evans m
The Use of Tracts and other Literature to
Promote a Revival — Rev. H. W. Pope . .125
Personal Work— R. A. Torrey 145
Drawing the Net — R. A. Torrey 157
The After-Meeting — Rev. A. C. Dixon, D.D. . 162
How TO Make the Work Permanent — Rev. E. P.
Goodwin, D.D 172
How TO Make a Success of the Christian Life —
R. A. Torrey 184
Music in a Revival — Prof. D. B. Towner . . .191
Advertising the Meetings — A. F. Gaylord . . 198
7
8 CONTENTS
PAGE
How TO Win Souls for Christ — C H. Spurgeon. 207
The Great Revival of 1857-58 — C. H. Spurgeon. 227
Miscellaneous 248
The Work of the Spirit — Rev. Joshua Stans-
field 248
Honoring the Holy Spirit— Rev. W. S. Har-
rington, D.D 251
The Revival with a Plan — Rev, Isaac Crook,
D.D ... 252
Seven Vital Paragraphs — Charles W. Baldwin 255
Praying-Bands — B. H. Hart 256
Getting Under Way — W. P. Macvey . . .257
An Important Facter in Revivals — Rev. Louis
Albert Banks, D.D 258
Exalt Personal Effort— Rev. Geo. B. Wight,
D.D. 258
An Unlooked-for Revival — Rev. Robert Watt,
D.D 260
O for a Baptism of Prayer! — Mrs. M. N. Van
Benschoten . . . , 263
Suggestive Outlines 264
Regeneration — D. L. M 264
The Gospel, I.— D. L. M 265
The Gospel, II.— D. L. M . 265
Christ as a Deliverer — D. L. M 266
Compassion of Christ — D. L. M 266
Christ's Mission to the World — D. L. M. . .267
Retribution — D. L. M 267
Love— D. L. M 268
Confessing Christ — D. L. M 268
Seeking the Lord— D. L. M. ...... 268
Grace, I.— D. L. M 269
Grace, II.— D. L. M 269
CONTENTS 9
PAOK
What Will You Do with Jesus?— D. L. M. . 269
On Trusting in the Mercy of God — C. G. F. . 269
The Savior Lifted Up, and the Look of Faith
—C. G. F 271
The Excuses of Sinners Condemn God — C. G. F. 273
The Spirit not Striving Always— C. G. F. .275
God's Love Commended to us — C. G. F. . .277
Salvation of the Lord— C. H. S 278
Salvation to the Uttermost — C. H. S. . . .279
The Royal Prerogative— C. H. S 280
Salvation by Knowing the Truth— C. H. S. .281
The Plain Man's Pathway to Peace— C. H. S. 282
The Great Arbitration Case— C. H. S. . . . 284
Only Trust Him! Only Trust Him!— C. H. S. 285
Jesus Only— C. H. S 287
Faith: What is it? How Can it be Obtained?
— C. H. S 288
All Things are Ready. Come — C. H. S. . 290
Every Man's Need of a Hiding Place — R.A.T. 291
Refuges of Lies — R. A. T 293
A Solemn Question — R. A. T 294
What it Costs not to be a Christian — R. A. T. 295
How Shall We Escape?— R. A. T 295
To-day"— R. A. T 296
David's Sin— R. A. T. 297
What Shall We Do With Jesus?— R. A. T. .298
What Are You Waiting For?— R. A. T. . . 299
The Price of Power.— R. A. T 300
The Drama ot Life in Three Acts— R. A. T. 300
Infidelity: Its Causes, Consequences and Cure
— R. A. T 301
Eternal Life, or the Wrath of God — Which —
R. A. T 302
lo CONTENTS
PAOB
Suggestive Outlines by C. B 303
The Water of Life— C. 1 309
Repentance — C. 1 310
Forgiveness — C. I , .310
A Sevenfold View of the Love of God— C L 310
Ten Steps in the Prodigal's Life — C I ,311
Justification — C. 1 311
Redemption — C. I ,?ii
Mercy — C. I sm
Sin— C. I , 312
Jesus, the Friend — H. M 312
Rules for Evangelists — M. R. .... 313
Conversion — F. S 314
He Still Waits— F. S 315
A Great Conditional Promise — F. S. . . .316
Christ Our Example — F. S 316
Christ Our Mighty One — F. S 317
Christ Our Friend— F. S 317
Saving the Lost— R. A. T 317
God-Given Conviction— R. A. T 318
Saved— R. A. T 319
How to Become Sons of God — C. N. H. . .320
* 'God Calling F^/"—C. N. H 321
** Convicted, but Not Regenerated"— C. N. H. 322
*'Salvation:" A Lawyer's View — C. N. H. 323
*'Christ or the Robber"— C. N. H 324
God's Justice and His Mercy — C. N. H. . . 325
Topics and Texts for Sermons and Bible Read-
ings 326
HOW TO PROMOTE AND CON-
DUCT A SUCCESSFUL REVIVAL
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN A REVIVAL
BY R. A. TORREY
Two passages of Scripture might well form the
watchwords of every true revival, watchwords that
should never for a moment be forgotten. The first is
a portion of Zech. 4: 6, '*Not by might nor by power,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts"; the second
is, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing" (John 6:6$). In the conduct of any real
revival, the Holy Ghost must occupy the place of
supreme and absolute control. Revival is new life, and
only the Holy Ghost can impart life.
I. THE HOLY spirit's PART IN A REVIVAL
Let us look definitely at the Holy Spirit's part in a
revival, or, in other words, at what the Holy Spirit
must do if there is to be a true revival,
I. In the first place ^ the Holy Spirit must inspire us
to and guide us in prayer. In regard to the great
revival that is to come some day to Israel, God says,
"I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the
inhabitants ot Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of sup-
plication.'' So also, if there is to be a true revival in
any church or community or nation, God must pour
out upon them the spirit of grace and of supplication.
II
12 THE HOLY SPIRIT IN A REVIVAL
The work must begin with Him. We are living in a
day when there are many indications that God is doing
His part to do this very thing for us. Prayer is the
vital breath of a true revival. Prayerless revivals are
a sham. But we know not how to pray as we ought,
and if there is to be acceptable and effective prayer,
the Holy Spirit must help our infirmity and teach us
how to pray (Rom. 8: 26, 27). We need to cry to God
that He will not only pour out upon us a spirit of
grace and of supplication, but that He will also by His
Holy Spirit teach us how to pray. Doubtless He is
already doing this in a measure, but we need a larger
measure.
2. The Holy Spirit must have the superintendency and
direction of all the revival activities. It was so in the
apostolic church, which was a revival church. The
Holy Spirit chose the officers (Acts 20: 28), He directed
where His chosen servants were to preach and work
(Acts 13: 1-2), He oftentimes directed in a most minute
way, and in ways that those directed did not altogether
understand (Acts 16:6-8). All the plans for the
revival, and all the details of the plans should be sub-
mitted to the Holy Spirit for His guidance; He
should be the recognized chairman of every committee.
3. The Holy Spirit must give power to the preaching
and to the testimony. When Jesus gave to the disciples
the great commission to go out and evangelize the
world. He said, "Ye shall receive power after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you." Paul in writing to
the church at Corinth said, "I was with you in weak-
ness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN A REVIVAL 13
of power, that your faith should not stand in the wis-
dom of men but in the power of God." Again, in
writing to the church in Thessalonica, *'Our Gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power,
and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance."
Whoever does the preaching in the revival, whether
it be the pastor or the evangelist, the whole depend-
ence for results from the preaching must be upon the
Holy Spirit. Whoever testifies, we must look to the
Holy Spirit to give power to the testimony. Many a
preacher of very small gifts has been mightily used of
God because he and the people looked to the Holy
Spirit, and ,many a man of naturally large gifts has
accomplished nothing of real and permanent value
because the dependence was upon him and not upon
the Holy Ghost.
4. The Holy Spirit must convict men of siii. Jesus
said in promising the Holy Spirit to the disciples, "and
He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect
of sin. " A revival without conviction of sin, deep, pun-
gent, overwhelming, is not a true revival. It is true that
a great many may be converted and born again with-
out the deep and overwhelming conviction of sin that
others have. They may come in as quietly as Lydia,
whose heart the Lord opened, but when there is a deep
and true work of grace, there will be a deep and over-
whelming conviction of sin on the part of many. It
was so on the day of Pentecost ; as Peter preached in
the power of the Holy Ghost a loud cry went up from
men who were pricked in their heart, "Men and
brethren, what must we do to be saved?" There has
been similar conviction of sin at every genuine and
lasting revival since. This is beginning to be so in
14 THE HOLY SPIRIT IN A REVIVAL
the church to-day. From all directions come reports
of deep conviction of sin. Now it is the work of the
Holy Spirit to convict men of sin, and we must depend
upon Him to do it. We must ask Him to do it. We
must expect Him to do it. Nothing is more futile
than to try to convict men of sin by any unaided
powers of reasoning that we may possess. The nat-
ural heart is so blind, and especially so blind as to its
own condition, that the supernatural grace of the
Spirit is necessary to open the eyes of the soul to its
real condition. But the Holy Spirit, where depend-
ence is placed upon Him, is constantly administering
His power to convict even the most careless of sin.
5. The Holy Spirit must regenerate. Revival is new
life, and new life to the unsaved comes through
regeneration, and it is the Holy Spirit's work to
regenerate. Men are saved not through works of
righteousness which they themselves have done, but
according to God's mercy, who saves us by the wash-
ing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit
(Titus 3:5). *' Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ' '
If there is to be a mighty revival in any church, min-
isters and people must look to the Holy Spirit to
regenerate men. He can do it; He is doing it every
day where dependence is placed upon Him. He is
touching the hearts of men and women, seemingly
almost beyond the reach of the grace of God, and quick-
ening and transforming them by His almighty power.
Let us ask Him and expect Him to do it in our own
community. What He did in Saul of Tarsus in
Damascus, He can do in many another Saul of Tarsus
in Chicago, or in any city or village of the land.
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN A REVIVAL 15
6. The Holy Spirit must sanctify, consecrate and fill.
A revival means not only life for those dead in tres-
passes and sins, but, furthermore, new life, life more
abundant, for those who already have some life. It
means complete surrender to God, a setting apart for
God, a filling with God, for Christians; and all this is
the Holy Spirit's work. He is the sanctifier and the
filler (i Pet. 1:2; Eph. 5: 18). Many are trying to
cleanse and fill themselves. No! no! Look to the
Spirit to do it for you and for others.
II. HOW TO SECURE THE HOLY SPIRIT'S WORK WITH
POWER
We have seen how much depends in a revival on the
Holy Spirit's work, how, in fact, everything depends
upon Him. Some one might think, then, that all we
have to do is to sit down and wait for the Holy Spirit
to work, but this is not so. The Holy Spirit is always
willing and anxious to do His work if the proper con-
ditions are supplied. It is true that the Holy Spirit,
like the wind, bloweth where He willeth, but He
always willeth to blow where He can consistently, that
is, where certain conditions are supplied. What are
these conditions, or, in other words, what must we do
to secure the Holy Spirit's work with power?
I. First of all, we must recognize our need of Him,
The Holy Spirit only works with power when men
deeply realize their need of Him. In many a so-called
revival men feel that they are themselves quite suffi-
cient for the work in hand. They think that if they
can only have the right plans, and the right machin-
ery, and the right advertising, and the right sort of
singing and preaching, the desired results will follow.
i6 THE HOLY SPIRIT IN A REVIVAL
For <<ome years in our country, we have been trying
theviC machine-made revivals, and the result is a sorry
and sickening failure. We must feel our utter help-
lessness and dependence upon the Holy Ghost. Do
we feel that to-day? Much that is said and written
about the coming revival would seem to indicate that
we do not.
2. In the next place ^ we must take our eyes off from
men. If we get our eyes on any man, or any company
of men, the Holy Ghost cannot work. God tells us
that He has chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise, and the weak things of the world
to confound the things that are mighty, and the base
things of the world, and things which are despised,
and things which are not, to bring to naught things
that are. Then God tells us why He has chosen the
foolish things ; in order that no flesh should glory in
His presence (i Cor. i: 27-29). God will not give His
glory to another, and if we get our eyes fixed on any
man, God will withhold His power and blessing.
**Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high
degree are a lie, in the balances they will go up, they
are together lighter than vanity." Power belongs
unto God and to Him alone, and if our dependence is
upon men of low degree or men of high degree, the
almighty power of God will not be manifested.
If we wish the Holy Spirit to do His glorious work,
we must keep our eyes fixed upon Him, and Him
alone.
3. We must surrender absolutely to the Holy Spirifs
control. We have already said that He must control
everything, but we on our part must gladly recognize
His right to control, and submit whole-heartedly to it.
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN A REVIVAL 17
God gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him
(Acts 5:32). If we would see a mighty work of God's
grace, the deepest longing of our hearts should be that
in all our meetings everything about them should be
surrendered absolutely to the control of the Holy
Spirit. Then shall we see great things.
4. We must pray. If there is anything absolutely
clear in the Word of God, in Christian history and in
individual experience, it is that the Holy Spirit is
given in His fullness in answer to definite prayer
(Luke 11: 13). The Holy Spirit was given at Pente-
cost after a ten days' prayer meeting; and if He is to
come in mighty power in these days, there must be
much private and much united prayer.
5. We must furnish some one for the Spirit to work
through^ and something for the Spirit to use,
(i). The Holy Spirit works through men. When
Cornelius was to be converted, and there was to be a
revival in Caesarea, the Holy Spirit did not go directly
to Cornelius; He sent Peter, and Peter presented him-
self as an agent for the Holy Spirit's power. So must
we do. The Holy Spirit convicts men, but He con-
victs them through us. In speaking to His disciples
Jesus said, **It is expedient for you that I go away, for
if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you,
but if I depart I will send Him unto you, and when He
is come [that is, come unto you] He will convict the
world in respect of sin." So it is evident that the
Holy Spirit who convicts the world does it through the
believer. He comes to the believer and convicts
the world through him. Will we now present our-
selves to the Holy Spirit as the agent through whom
He may do His glorious work any way He chooses? It
i8 THE HOLY SPIRIT IN A REVIVAL
may be in invitation work, in tract distribution, in per-
sonal work, in singing, in preaching, in any way He
will. There is a great revival coming. The Holy
Spirit wants agents for this work. How many of us
are willing to be His agents, absolutely at His dis-
posal?
(2). The Holy Spirit not only works through men,
but He works through a certain instrumentality, that
is, the Word of God (Eph. 6: 17). If the Holy Spirit
is to work mightily, we must get the Word of God into
our heads and into our hearts and upon our lips. On
the day of Pentecost, the Word of God which Peter
had been storing in his heart for years, got onto his
lips, and a mighty revival followed. In Acts 6 : 4
Peter and the rest of the disciples decided to give
themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.
What the result was we read in verse seven, *'The
Word of God increased and the number of disciples
multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a g^eat number
of priests were obedient to the faith."
When any church can be brought to the place where
they will recognize their need of the Holy Spirit, and
take their eyes off from all men, and surrender abso-
lutely to the Holy Spirit's control, and give themselves
to much prayer for His outpouring, and present them-
selves as His agents, having stored the Word of God
in their heads and hearts, and then look to the Holy
Spirit to give it power as it falls from their lips, a
mighty revival in the power of the Holy Ghost is
mevitable.
THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL
BY R. A. TORREY
The first great revival of Christian history had its
origin on the human side in a ten-days* prayer-meet-
ing. We read of that handful of disciples, "These
all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer."
(Acts i: 14, R. V.) The result of that prayer-meeting
we read of in the second chapter of the Acts of the
Apostles, "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit
gave them utterance" (v. 4). Further on in the chap-
ter we read that "there were added unto them in that
day about three thousand souls" (v. 41, R. V.). This
revival proved genuine and permanent. The con-
verts "continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching
and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the
prayers" (v. 42, R. V.). "And the Lord added to
them day by day those that were being saved" (v. 47,
R. v.).
Every true revival from that day to this has had its
earthly origin in prayer. The great revival under
Jonathan Edwards in the eighteenth century began
with his famous call to prayer. The marvelous work
of grace among the Indians under Brainerd had its
origin in the days and nights that Brainerd spent
before God in prayer for an enduement of power from
on high for this work.
A most remarkable and widespread display of God's
19
20 THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL
reviving power was that which broke out at Rochester,
New York, in 1830, under the labors of Charles G.
Finney. It not only spread throughout the State, but
ultimately to Great Britain as well. Mr. Finney him-
self attributed the power of this work to the spirit of
prayer that prevailed. He describes it in his auto-
biography in the following words :
**When I was on my way to Rochester, as we passed
through a village, some thirty miles east of Rochester,
a brother minister whom I knew, seeing me on the
canal-boat, jumped aboard to have a little conversa-
tion with me, intending to ride but a little way and
return. He, however, became interested in conversa-
tion, and upon finding where I was going, he made up
his mind to keep on and go with me to Rochester. We
had been there but a few days when this minister
became so convicted that he could not help weeping
aloud at one time as we passed along the street. The
Lord gave him a powerful spirit of prayer, and his
heart was broken. As he and I prayed together, I
was struck with his faith in regard to what the Lord
was going to do there. I recollect he would say,
* Lord, I do not know how it is ; but I seem to know
that Thou art going to do a great work in this city. *
The spirit of prayer was poured out powerfully, so
much so that some persons stayed away from the pub-
lic services to pray, being unable to restrain their feel-
ings under preaching.
**And here I must introduce the name of a man,
whom I shall have occasion to mention frequently, Mr.
Abel Clary. He was the son of a very excellent man,
and an elder of the church where I was converted. He
was converted in the same revival in which I was. He
THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL 2t
had been licensed to preach ; but his spirit of prayer was
such, he was so burdened with the souls of men, that he
was not able to preach much, his whole time and
strength being given to prayer. The burden of his
soul would frequently be so great that he was unable
to stand, and he would writhe and groan in agony. I
was well acquainted with him, and knew something of
the wonderful spirit of prayer that was upon him. He
was a very silent man, as almost all are who have that
powerful spirit of prayer.
"The first I knew of his being in Rochester, a gen-
tleman who lived about a mile west of the city called
on me one day and asked me if I knew a Mr. Abel
Clary, a minister. I told him that I knew him well.
*Well,' he said, *he is at my house, and has been there
for some time, and I don't know what to think of
him. ' I said, 'I have not seen him at any of our meet-
ings. * 'No,' he replied, *he cannot go to meeting, he
says. He prays nearly all the time, day and night,
and in such agony of mind that I do not know what to
make of it. Sometimes he cannot even stand on his
knees, but will lie prostrate on the floor, and groan
and pray in a manner that quite astonishes me.* I
said to the brother, 'I understand it: please keep still.
It will all come out right ; he will surely prevail. '
"I knew at the time a considerable number of men
who were exercised in the same way. A Deacon
P , of Camden, Oneida County; a Deacon T ,
of Rodman, Jefferson County; a Deacon B , of
Adams, in the same county; this Mr. Clary and many
others among the men, and a large number of women
partook of the same spirit, and spent a great part of
their time in prayer. Father Nash, as we called him,
22 THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL
who in several of my fields of labor came to me and
aided me, was another of those men that had such a
powerful spirit of prevailing prayer. This Mr. Clary
continued in Rochester as long as I did, and did not
leave it until after I had left. He never, that I could
learn, appeared in public, but gave himself wholly to
prayer.
"I think it was the second Sabbath that I was at
Auburn at this time, I observed in the congregation
the solemn face of Mr. Clary. He looked as if he was
borne down with an agony of prayer. Being well
acquainted with him, and knowing the great gift of
God that was upon him, the spirit of prayer, I was
very glad to see him there. He sat in the pew with
his brother, the doctor, who was also a professor of
religion, but who had nothing by experience, I should
think, of his brother Abel's great power with God.
**At intermission, as soon as I came down from the
pulpit, Mr. Clary, with his brother, met me at the pul-
pit stairs, and the doctor invited me to go home with
him and spend the intermission and get some refresh-
ments. I did so.
*' After arriving at his house we were soon sum-
moned to the dinner-table. We gathered about the
table, and Dr. Clary turned to his brother and said,
* Brother Abel, will you ask the blessing?' Brother
Abel bowed his head and began, audibly, to ask a
blessing. He had uttered but a sentence or two when
he broke instantly down, moved suddenly back from
the table, and fled to his chamber. The doctor sup-
posed he had been taken suddenly ill, and rose up and
followed him. In a few moments he came down and
said, 'Mr. Finney, brother Abel wants to see you.'
THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL 23
Said I, 'What ails him?' Said he, 'I do not know, but
he says; you know. He appears in great distress, but
I think it is the state of his mind.' I understood it in
a moment, and went to his room. He lay groaning
upon the bed, the Spirit making intercession for him,
and in him, with groanings that could not be uttered.
I had barely entered the room, when he made out to
say, 'Pray, brother Finney.' I knelt down and helped
him in prayer, by leading his soul out for the conver-
sion of sinners. I continued to pray until his distress
passed away, and then I returned to the dinner table.
"I understood that this was the voice of God. I saw
the spirit of prayer was upon him, and I felt his influ-
ence upon myself, and took it for granted that the
work would move on powerfully. It did so. The
pastor told me afterward that he found that in the six
weeks that I was there five hundred souls had been
converted."
Mr. Finney in his lectures on revivals tells of other
remarkable awakenings in answer to the prayers of
God's people. He says in one place, *'A clergyman
in W n told me of a revival among his people,
which commenced with a zealous and devoted woman
in the church. She became anxious about sinners,
and went to praying for them ; she prayed, and her
distress increased ; and she finally came to her min-
ister, and talked with him, and asked him to appoint
an anxious meeting, for she felt that one was needed.
The minister put her off, for he felt nothing of it.
The next week she came again, and besought him to
appoint an anxious meeting ; she knew there would be
somebody come, for she felt as if God was going to
pour out His Spirit. He put her off again. And
24 THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL
finally she said to him, ' If you do not appoint an anx-
ious meeting I shall die, for there is certainly going
to be a revival.' The next Sabbath he appointed a
meeting, and said that if there were any who wished
to converse with him about the salvation of their
souls, he would meet them on such an evening. He
did not know of one, but when he went to the place,
to his astonishment he found a large number of anx-
ious inquirers. * '
In still another place he says, **The first ray of light
that broke in upon the midnight which rested on the
churches in Oneida County, in the fall of 1825, was
from a woman in feeble health, who, I believe, had
never been in a powerful revival. Her soul was
exercised about sinners. She was in agony for the
land. She did not know what ailed her, but she kept
praying more and more, till it seemed as if her agony
would destroy her body. At length she became full of
joy and exclaimed, 'God has come! God has come!
There is no mistake about it, the work is begun, and is
going over all the region!' And sure enough, the
work began, and her family were almost all converted,
and the work spread all over that part of the country.'*
The great revival of 1857 in the United States
began in prayer and was carried on by prayer more
than by anything else. Dr. Cuyler in an article in a
religious newspaper some years ago said, "Most reviv-
als have humble beginnings, and the fire starts in a
few warm hearts. Never despise the day of small
things. During all my own long ministry, nearly
every work of grace had a similar beginning. One
commenced in a meeting gathered at a few hours'
notice in a private house. Another commenced in
THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL 25
a group gathered for Bible study by Mr. Moody
in our mission chapel. Still another — the most
powerful of all — was kindled on a bitter January
evening at a meeting of young Christians under my
roof. Dr. Spencer, in his 'Pastor's Sketches' (the
most suggestive book of its kind I have ever read),
tells us that a remarkable revival in his church sprang
from the fervent prayers of a godly old man who was
confined to his room by lameness. That profound
Christian, Dr. Thomas H. Skinner, of the Union
Theological Seminary, once gave me an account of a
remarkable coming together of three earnest men in
his study when he was the pastor of the Arch Street
Church in Philadelphia. They literally wrestled in
prayer. They made a clean breast in confession of
sin, and humbled themselves before God. One and
another church officer came in and joined them. The
heaven-kindled flame soon spread through the whole
congregation in one of the most powerful revivals ever
known in that city. ' '
In the early part of the sixteenth century there was
a great religious awakening in Ulster, Ireland. The
lands of the rebel chiefs, which had been forfeited to
the British crown, were settled up by a class of colo-
nists who for the most part were governed by a spirit
of wild adventure. Real piety was rare. Seven min-
isters, five from Scotland and two from England,
settled in that country, the earliest arrivals being in
16 1 3. Of one of these ministers named Blair it is
recorded by a contemporary, "He spent many days
and nights in prayer, alone and with others, and was
vouchsafed great intimacy with God." Mr. James
Glendenning, a man of very meager natural gifts, was
26 THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL
a man similarly minded as regards prayer. The work
began under this man Glendenning. The historian of
the time says, "He was a man who never would have
been chosen by a wise assembly of ministers, nor sent
to begin a reformation in this land. Yet this was the
Lord's choice to begin with him the admirable work
of God which I mention on purpose that all may see
how the glory is only the Lord's in making a holy
nation in this profane land, and that it was *not by
might, nor by power, nor by man's wisdom, but by
My Spirit, saith the Lord.' " In his preaching at Old-
stone multitudes of hearers felt in great anxiety and
terror of conscience. They looked on themselves as
altogether lost and damned, and cried out, "Men and
brethren, what shall we do to be saved?" They were
stricken into a swoon by the power of His Word. A
dozen in one day were carried out of doors as dead.
These were not women, but some of the boldest spirits
of the neighborhood; "some who had formerly feared
not with their swords to put a whole market town into
a fray." Concerning one of them, the historian
writes, "I have heard one of them, then a mighty
strong man, now a mighty Christian, say that his end
in coming into church was to consult with his compan-
ions how to work some mischief."
This work spread throughout the whole country.
By the year 1626 a monthly concert of prayer was held
in Antrim. The work spread beyond the bounds of
Down and Antrim to the churches of the neighboring
counties. So great became the religious interest that
Christians would come thirty or forty miles to the com-
munions, and continue from the time they came until
they returned without wearying or making use of
THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL 27
sleep. Many of them neither ate nor drank, and yet some
of them professed that they "went away most fresh and
vigorous, their souls so filled with the sense of God."
This revival changed the whole character of northern
Ireland.
Another great awakening in Ireland in 1859 had a
somewhat similar origin. By many who did not know,
it was thought that this marvelous work came without
warning and preparation, but Rev. William Gibson,
the moderator of the General Assembly of the Presby-
terian Church in Ireland in i860, in his very interest-
ing and valuable history of the work, tells how there
had been preparation for two years. There had been
constant discussion in the General Assembly of the low
estate of religion, and of the need of a revival. There
had been special sessions for prayer. Finally four
young men, who became leaders in the origin of the
great work, began to meet together in an old school-
house in the neighborhood of Kells. About the spring
of 1858 a work of power began to manifest itself. It
spread from town to town, and from county to county.
The congregations became too large for the buildings,
and the meetings were held in the open air, oftentimes
attended by many thousands of people. Many hun-
dreds of persons were frequently convicted of sin in a
single meeting. In some places the criminal courts
and jails were closed for lack of occupation. There
were manifestations of the Holy Spirit's power of a
most remarkable character, clearly proving that the
Holy Spirit is as ready to work to-day as in apostolic
days, when ministers and Christians really believe in
Him and begin to prepare the way by prayer.
Mr. Moody's wonderful work in England and Scot-
28 THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL
land and Ireland that afterwards spread to America
had its origin on the manward side in prayer. Mr.
Moody made little impression until men and women
began to cry to God. Indeed, his going to England at
all was in answer to the importunate cries to God of a
bed-ridden saint. While the spirit of prayer continued
the revival abode in strength, but in the course of time
less and less was made of prayer, and the work fell off
very perceptibly in power. Doubtless one of the great
secrets of the unsatisfactoriness and superficiality and
unreality of many of our modern so-called revivals, is
that more dependence is put upon man's machinery
than upon God's power, sought and obtained by
earnest, persistent, believing prayer. We live in a
day characterized by the multiplication of man's
machinery and the diminution of God's power. The
great cry of our day is work, work, work, new organi-
zations, new methods, new machinery; the great need
of our day is prayer. It was a master stroke of the
devil when he got the church so generally to lay aside
this mighty weapon of prayer. The devil is perfectly
willing that the church should multiply its organiza-
tions, and deftly contrive machinery for the conquest
of the world for Christ if it will only give up praying.
He laughs as he looks at the church to-day and says to
himself :
** You can have your Sunday Schools and your Young
People's Societies, your Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciations and your Women's Christian Temperance
Unions, your Institutional Churches and your Indus-
trial Schools, and your Boys* Brigades, your grand
choirs and your fine organs, your brilliant preachers
and your revival efforts too, if you don't bring the
THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL 29
power of Almighty God into them by earnest, persist-
ent, believing, mighty prayer. ' '
Prayer could work as marvelous results to-day as it
ever could, if the church would only betake itself to it.
There seems to be increasing signs that the church
is awaking to this fact. Here and there God is laying
upon individual ministers and churches a burden of
prayer that they have never known before. Less
dependence is being put upon machinery and more
dependence upon God. Ministers are crying to God
day and night for power. Churches and portions of
churches are meeting together in the early morning
hours and the late night hours crying to God for the
latter rain. There is every indication of the coming
of a mighty and widespread revival. There is every
reason why, if a revival should come in any country at
this time, it should be more widespread in its extent
than any revival of history. There is the closest and
swiftest communication by travel, by letter, and by
cable between all parts of the world. A true fire of
God kindled in America would soon spread to the
uttermost parts of the earth. The only thing needed
to bring this fire is prayer.
It is not necessary that the whole church get to
praying to begin with. Great revivals always begin
first in the hearts of a few men and women whom God
arouses by His Spirit to believe in Him as a living
God, as a God who answers prayer, and upon whose
heart He lays a burden from which no rest can be
found except in importunate crying unto God.
HOW CAN WE GET OUR PEOPLE TO PRAYING ?
First of all, we as ministers should begin praying
ourselves. Those who read this book who are not
30 THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL
ministers should also begin praying themselves. It is
recorded of a young minister that there came to him
such a burden for the salvation of the lost that he offered
this prayer to God, *'0 God send us a revival or let me
die." This seems extravagant, but is it any more
extravagant than Moses' prayer in the mount? **Yet
now if Thou wilt, forgive their sin ; if not, blot me, I
pray thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written. ' *
Is it any more extravagant that Paul's expression of
love for his unsaved brethren? '*! could wish that I
myself were Anathema from Christ for my brethren's
sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Extrav-
agant or not, God answered this young minister with
a mighty outpouring of His Holy Spirit. When we
as ministers have something of a similar burden of
prayer for the perishing, revivals will soon appear.
Having been brought by God's Spirit into such a
place of earnest prayer ourselves, we should seek out
the more spiritual members of our flock, and gather
them around us for prayer, then, in due time, the
whole church can be gathered for prayer. There
should be prayer meetings at the church, but not only
at the church ; there should be prayer meetings in the
homes. Cottage meetings should be instituted, where
neighbors gather together to pray for a revival. In
country districts neighborhood meetings should be held
in the school houses, or wherever the farmers and
their families can be gotten together. The godly
ones, who are sick and shut in, and the very aged ones,
who may not be able to get out, should be especially
enlisted in this ministry of prayer. Others at a dis-
tance can also be enlisted by correspondence. Not a
little of the marvelous results of Mr. Newell's great
THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN A REVIVAL 31
Bible classes in Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis is due
to the fact that he secured from all his friends the
names of the godliest people they knew, far and wide,
and began writing to them and thus enlisting them in
a work of prayer in behalf of these classes.
Let each one get to praying, and get as many others
as possible to praying for his own community, and
then for the world at large.
THE PREACHING NEEDED IN
REVIVALS
Firsts Revival preaching to be effective must be posi-
tive. The doubter never has revivals. The man who
finds it necessary to be all the while hedging and ex-
plaining and apologizing for the Gospel message which
he brings, will never arouse revivals under his preaching.
A revival is a revolution in many important respects,
and revolutions are never brought about by timid,
fearful or deprecatory addresses. They are awakened
by men who are cocksure of their ground, and who
speak with authority. So the men who arouse reviv-
als by their preaching are men who believe the Bible,
and who hold its great message to not only be true but
infinitely important. And they preach it with the
positive force of a man who is certain that he stands
on solid rock. The message is true. The man who
believes it shall be saved; the man who does not
believe it will be damned. Eternal destiny hangs
upon it. Christ is able to save the sinner. No one
else can save him. The sinner can be saved now.
These great facts must be central and positive in the
preacher's mind and heart, and he must utter them
with positive emphasis.
Second^ revival preaching must be direct. It must
be addressed to the people right then and there before
32
PREACHING NEEDED IN REVIVALS 33
the preacher. He is not giving out a message to be
diffused around through the community. He is a
messenger from heaven with a free pardon in his hand
for a man condemned to die, and that man sits right
there in the pew before him. He must get the man to
see the pardon, to feel his need of it and to accept it
before he leaves the house. He must get on to some
basis by which he can make that man feel as well as
understand the message.
Thirds revival preaching must be sympathetic. If it
is not it may arouse men and yet fail to win them. It
must get at men from their human side. The preacher
must find a man's heart and warm it to himself, as
well as to the Christ whom he preaches. There are
many people who can be won largely through personal
reasons. They are just as certainly won as though
they were won in another way. But they come to
know Christ through the preacher who proclaims Him.
The sympathy and tenderness and love of the preach-
er's heart, which show forth in his sympathetic words
and manner, attract them like a magnet, and they are
drawn away from their sins and drawn toward Christ.
Fourth^ revival preaching must be directed toward
the heart and not the head. In spite of all that is said
about agnosticism and infidelity there are very few
who, down at the heart, are really unbelievers in the
divine power of Jesus Christ to forgive sins and save
the soul. Where there is one such, there are a
hundred who are believers, so far as a wicked man is
ever a believer, but whose heart -lusts and sinful pas-
sions hold them away from Christ and righteousness.
The conviction of the head wiU never v/in them to
Christ. The heart must be aroused ; they must feel
34 PREACHING NEEDED IN REVIVALS
the baseness of their ingratitude ; they must see the
heinousness of their sins; they must appreciate the
certainty of punishment and feel that, hanging over
their guilty heads, even now, is the weight of condem-
nation of guilt. Get hold of the heart and the head
yields easily. Men continue in sin because their hearts
are evil. Make the heart feel its guilt, let the heart
see Christ as the "one altogether lovely," and as the
helm turns the course of the ship in the hands of the
pilot, who has just been taken on from the pilot-boat,
so the life will change just as suddenly from the
changed heart to which you have made your appeal.
Fifth, revival preaching must be simple and clear.
There is no time to let a man study about it for a week
and reason out what you have told him. You are like
a lawyer before a jury, on the last day of the trial,
when he knows that the jury is to go out to make its
decision immediately on the close of his speech. All
his desires to make a great impression on the jury, that
may help him in some future case, are thrust aside.
What he must do is to make the jury understand the
case now, and look at it from his standpoint. He will
not use a word, if he knows it, that is not compre-
hended at a glance by the jury. What he says must
be absolutely clear and simple and stand out distinct
in their minds if he is to win his verdict. Revival
preaching is like that. No man who wants immediate
effect in the conversion of sinners ought ever to say
anything in a sermon that a boy ten years old, brought
up in a Christian family, would not easily comprehend.
There is perhaps as great a weakness at this point as at
any other among preachers who try to have revivals.
They want to preach too big sermons. I had a man
PREACHING NEEDED IN REVIVALS 35
come to me once who was very serious and deeply
anxious to have results in the conversion of sinners
under his ministry. During the conversation he made
this remark : * * I cannot get the consent of my mind to
so lower the literary and philosophical standard which
I have set for myself, to do the kind of preaching
which seems to win men to decision for Christ. * * That
was a real confession. He had hit the root of the
matter. He always reminded me of that moral, rich
young man who came to Christ, and who was such a
good young fellow that Christ loved him, and yet he
went sadly away with a frown on his brow from the
very door of the kingdom. This man of whom I have
spoken has never got the consent of his mind to do the
right kind of preaching, and as a result has never had
a revival. And he never will have until he surrenders
to Christ to do the kind of preaching that will accom-
plish the result he desires.
Sixthy revival preaching must be illustrative. It
must be in pictures. It must seize hold of the imag-
ination. The Master used pictures. His sermons are
full of stories and parables. He made men see His
message as well as hear it. His message lived again
in the imagination. We can bring men to action in
the same way. No man has ever been a great revival-
ist who scorned a generous use of illustrations. It is
a common thing for the great evangelists, and the pas-
tors who have great success in winning men to Christ,
to be criticised by the so-called eloquent and profound
preachers who nevei have any revivals of their own,
as being only story-tellers, and not being "strong"
preachers. This is all nonsense. A sermon is strong
only when it is powerful to produce the effect for
S6 PREACHING NEEDED IN REVIVALS
which a sermon is made. If the great end of a ser-
mon is to arouse a man to hate his sins, and see in
Christ a divine Savior, and so awaken him as to cause
him to immediately accept Christ and find forgiveness,
then that sermon is a strong sermon which brings
about that result ; and the man who attempts to do it
in any other way, and fails, has preached a weak ser-
mon, no matter how scholarly nor how splendid its
rhetoric, nor how profound its thought, nor how dig-
nified its delivery. Sermons are strong that pull down
the works of the devil and capture sinners for Jesus
Christ.
Seventh, revival preaching must be intense. It
must be more than earnest; it must be charged with
suppressed moral electricity. A man must be excited
in his emotions, and yet hold them in restraint. He
must so feel his message that he could cry aloud on the
street-corner, and yet must hold himself in leash, as a
hunter holds back his dog, that quivers with excite-
ment and yet keeps silent until the proper moment.
So the man who is seeking to win souls by his message
must hold his emotions in leash, but they must be
there, and if they are not there the sermon will fail of
its highest effectiveness. If there is any lack of this
feeling it can only be brought about by putting him-
self in the place of the man to whom he is preaching
until he feels like Paul — that he is in prison with him,
bound with him in like chains — and thus his message
will become real.
Eighth, to preach effectively in revivals the preacher
must absorb a great deal of the Bible. The sermon
must be saturated with the Bible. God has promised
to bless his own Word, and the people to whom we
PREACHING NEEDED IN REVIVALS 37
preach must feel that we are loyal to the Word of God.
Illustrations drawn from the Bible are peculiarly
effective in times of revival.
Ninths the preacher must be conscious that he is
God's man. He must feel like Elijah did when he
strode into the presence of Ahab and his wicked queen,
and said: "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before
whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these
years, but according to my word." He must feel as
Nathan did when he stood before David, and told him
the story of the ewe lamb until David has committed
himself, and then, with whitened cheek and flashing
eye and accusing finger, says to the startled and
astounded king: "Thou art the man!" If the
preacher feels sure that God is with him, that he
stands in the presence of the living God, there will be
a glorious independence of speech, mingled with a
deep and tender love for the people to whom he
speaks, that will be marvelously effective.
Tenth^ he must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. He
must be in the frame of mind and heart that Philip
knew when he was caught away from the city into the
desert, and which he felt and yielded to when he
climbed into the chariot of the Ethiopian treasurer,
and preached to him Christ. The presence of the
Spirit of the living God in our hearts, giving holy
unction to the message, is the crowning glory of the
revival preacher. I have not time to speak of many
other things, but must not fail to say that here, as
everywhere else, true manhood, unspotted life and
genuine character, frank and open and read of all
men, is tremendously powerful.
THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST
REV, WILLIAM PATTERSON, PASTOR OF BETHANY CHURCH,
PHILADELPHIA
The work of the Minister, according to the teaching
of the New Testament, is threefold.
First, he is to feed the church of God — the babes,
with the sincere milk of the Word ; and those who are
more advanced with the strong meat of its doctrines.
Second, he is to care for those over whom he has
been placed as an overseer or under-shepherd. This
twofold aspect of the work was very clearly brought
out by our Savior, on that early morning when He
stood by the Lake of Gennesaret and commanded
Peter to feed the sheep and the lambs and to shepherd
them. We are all agreed as to the importance of these
two departments in connection with the minister's
work ; in fact, we can hardly overestimate the impor-
tance of building up Christian people in faith and in
knowledge, and also in caring for them as the shepherd
cares for the sheep, by leading them to the green pas-
tures and the quiet waters.
Third, he is commanded to do the work of an
Evangelist; in other words, to reach out after the
unsaved and to bring into the fold those who are out-
side. This part of the work was surely referred to
when Christ called the disciples and told them that, if
they would follow Him, He would make them **fishers
38
THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST 39
of men;" that as they had in the past drawn the fish
out of the sea by the net, they would in the future
draw men from the sea of iniquity to the rock of safety.
If we look at our Lord as the great example, we will
see that while He was the greatest of all teachers and
the one who was preparing His disciples for their life
work, yet His great mission to this world was the sav-
ing of the lost. His very name meant Savior, and
He Himself said that the Father sent Him into the
world that the world might be saved through Him,
and He informed the murmuring Pharisees that the
Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was
lost. Paul, speaking of the Savior's work in after
years, said that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners; but it is not necessary to multiply pas-
sages of scripture, in order to prove that the great mis-
sion of the Master was to save the lost.
In commanding the disciples, He told them that as
the Father had sent Him into the world, in like man-
ner He was sending them. They were to be the sav-
iors of men — not in the sense in which He was, by
making an atonement for sin, but by telling to the lost
ones that an atonement had been made ; that God was
reconciled and that for them there was redemption if
they would turn to the Savior. Again, before He
ascended on high after His reurrection. He com-
manded His followers to go into all the world and to
preach the Gospel to every creature; to preach
repentance and the remission of sins in His name,
beginning at Jerusalem.
The great work of the church is the evangelizing of
the nations and the saving of the lost, through pro-
claiming the Gospel of the Son of God. We are not
40 THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST
discussing the question of evangelists. Some say they
have a place in the New Testament and some say they
have not. We know that many of them have been
instrumental in accomplishing great good; that God
has set His approval on their work and that, to-day,
there are multitudes rejoicing in the salvation of Christ
through the labors of evangelists. We know on the
other hand that some of them, through lack of grace
or lack of wisdom, have been the means of breaking
up congregations; but what has been said of evan-
gelists could be said of ministers with equal truth.
Many of them have been wonderfully blessed in
advancing the cause of God, but is it not true that
some of them have broken up congregations and
injured the cause they were representing? The question
we are discussing is ''The Minister as an Evangelist."
At the very beginning we are met with the asser-
tion that many ministers have not the evangelistic gifts.
It is true that some ministers are better adapted for
preaching the deep things of God and for edifying the
church of God than they are for reaching the unsaved;
while others are better adapted for evangelistic work
than for the work of teaching and edifying the church;
but while this is true, every minister should be able to
show the unsaved the way of salvation. If we expect
our Sabbath School teachers to bring their scholars to
Christ through their teaching, we should expect the
ministers to be able to bring sinners to a knowledge
of Christ as their Savior through their preaching. It
will not do for a minister to say: **I have not the evan-
gelistic gift, and therefore the lost are not being saved
in my congregation.** If a minister is not qualified to
preach to sinners, he is not qualified to be a minister,
THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST 41
and he should never be set apart for that work by a
Presbytery, a Council or a Bishop.
What is evangelistic preaching, or what does it mean
to do the work of an evangelist? It is not being able
to tell anecdotes in an interesting manner, or to clothe
stories with beautiful language, but it is the present-
ing of the truth to men in such a way that they will
see themselves as sinners, and then presenting Christ
to them as the Savior of sinners in such a way that
they will receive Him as their personal Savior, and
thus be saved.
If we glance back at the history of the church we
shall see that this has been done by men who are not
designated as evangelists. John the Baptist, for
example, was an evangelistic preacher, for he was
calling men to repentance ; and on the Day of Pente-
cost Peter's sermon was evangelistic. He did two
things in that sermon — he convinced the multitudes
that they were sinners, that they had with wicked
hands crucified the Son of God; and when they came
to see themselves as sinners, lost and condemned,
Peter presented unto them the way of salvation
through Christ. Three thousand of them believed his
words and were baptized. Surely this was an evan-
gelistic sermon, and, if we follow through the Acts of
the Apostles, we will discover that not only Philip,
who was called an evangelist, but that the Apostles
and teachers as well were evangelistic preachers and
were instrumental in bringing men into the Kingdom
of God.
If we come down to the days of the reformers we
will find that men like Luther and Knox were evan-
gelistic in their preaching, for they preached justifica-
42 THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST
tion by faith. Coming down further in the history of
*^he Church, we see men like Rutherford and Mc-
Cheyne, who were wonderfully gifted for edifying
Christians ; yet these men were great evangelists, for
through them many were brought to a saving knowl-
edge of the truth. Again, Chahners, while he was a
great philosopher and wonderful theologian, was also
an evangelistic preacher, and the same could be said
of Jonathan Edwards, under whose preaching men
trembled and cried out: "What must we do to be
saved?" then, if we turn to Spurgeon, we will meet a
man who was a preacher to preachers, and yet one of
the greatest evangelists of the century ; for his taber-
nacle was spoken of as a "soul trap," a place where so
many sinners were caught and brought out of the
darkness of sin into the light of God.
Dr. John Hall, of New York, was also evangelistic,
and presented the truth in as forcible and clear a man-
ner as any evangelist ever did. On one occasion, when
the audience were going out of the church on Fifth
Avenue, a man was heard to say, "The old man gives
a fellow no chance to dodge" — in other words. Dr.
Hall closed up every false way of escape with such
thoroughness that the sinner could see no way of
refuge save in Christ.
The question now comes, are the ministers of this
country and of this age doing the work of evangelists,
and, if they are, how shall we account for over fifteen
hundred congregations in one denomination reporting
no additions to the church by profession of faith dur-
ing the year, and over nineteen hundred in another
denomination who could not say they had been instru-
mental in saving any during the twelve months of the
THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST 43
year? This is a terrible state of affairs. Can it be
that ministers are leaving the work of soul-saving to
those who are called evangelists? The evangelist
should be to the minister and congregation what the
Sabbath School is to the home — or what it should be to
the home. But if the Sabbath School takes the place of
the home, it fails to accomplish its mission, and that is
not the fault of the Sabbath School. If the evangelist
is taking the place of the minister in his work as a
soul-winner, he is not fulfilling his mission, and the
fault is not his, but the minister's.
It may be that this is true to a certain extent, and
that ministers do not look for or expect conversions
except when they are having what are called "special
meetings." The minister should expect conversions
at every service where the unsaved are present. Do
not let us blame the evangelists unless we are sure
that they are to blame, and that we, as ministers, have
done our duty in this respect. There is still a little bit
of the old Adam left in us which leads us to roll the
blame over on others, or try, like the young lawyer, to
justify ourselves.
I hear a great deal of discussion in this country
about the evening service. The question is, how are
we to reach the people, and how are we to get them
to come out to the evening service? I do not wonder
that the evening congregations in many churches are
very small when I see advertised the subjects upon
which the ministers preach. So many of these sub-
jects are sensational trash or semi-religious topics.
Some ministers seem to think that if they are to draw
a congregation, they must discuss some political or
scientific subject, but they never made a greater mis-
44 THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST
take, for there is nothing that will draw an audience
and interest an audience like the evangelistic truth
contained in the Scriptures. A woman who was
speaking to a minister concerning the crowds of
people who went to hear him, said: "It must be the
Lord who is bringing them, for it is not the singing,
and I am sure it is not the preaching." It was rather
a strange way of putting the case, and yet it was true,
for singing will not fill an empty church; that is, the
classic singing we hear so much about will not. It has
been tried in this country and it has failed. There
are churches which pay a great deal of money for sing-
ing, and yet the pews are not crowded ; neither is it the
preaching which will draw, apart from the truth of
God, for we have many preachers who are bright
scholars, cultured men, gifted and fluent speakers, and
yet their churches are far from full.
On the other hand, there are churches where the
ministers could not be called scholarly, or eloquent,
and where the singing is not by any means classic, and
yet they have large congregations; and men are being
saved week after week because the Gospel is preached
in sincerity, in simplicity, and with power.
I take it for granted that those who shall read these
pages are anxious to be instrumental in bringing sin-
ners to a knowledge of the Savior, and I shall now
refer to what I consider a few essentials in the accom-
plishing of this. First of all, we must have power
with men if we are to reach and win them, and in
order to have this power we must be right with God.
I believe that there are many ministers and Christian
workers whose names are in the Book of Life, and yet
who have no power because there is something wrong
THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST 45
in their lives. It is probable that Jacob was a child of
God from the night when he first met the Lord at
Bethel ; yet for twenty years, as far as we can gather,
his life was powerless and fruitless. But when he met
with the angel who changed his name from Jacob to
Israel, he was informed that he would have power with
men because he had power with God ; and that power
made itself manifest on the following day, when the
wrath of his brother, Esau, was turned away.
David was a man who had power with God and
power with men; yet he lost that power through
sin and, in Psalm 51, he is praying for a restoration of
the joy of salvation for cleansing; and he adds that, as
a result, sinners will be converted unto God. It has
pleased God to save sinners by what may be called the
foolishness of preaching. God is reaching the unsaved
through those already redeemed — through His Church,
which is the one and only divine institution in the
world. Men and women who have put their confi-
dence in Him are the channels through which His sal-
vation is to reach all who are outside the Kingdom of
God, and, if there is anything wrong with that channel,
to that extent the work of saving the world will be
affected.
We may take an illustration to make this more plain.
Suppose we have a great reservoir full of water, on
a hill, and a city in the valley, and pipes connecting
the reservoir with the homes of the people. The
water which they receive from the reservoir will come
through these pipes as the channels. Something may
happen to the pipes — they may be frozen by the cold
atmosphere surrounding them or they may become
choked with sand or earth getting into them ; in either
46 THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST
case the water will cease to flow and the inhabitants
will suffer. The same may happen to those who are
the channels conveying the love and forgiveness of
God to the sinners who are unsaved. Christians may
become so cold and so indifferent or they may become
so engrossed with science or philosophy or the things
of the world that they may cease to be the channels
through which God's forgiveness will reach men; and
as the water-pipes to which we have referred cannot
thaw themselves nor cleanse themselves, neither can
men who have got into this state restore themselves to
a state of usefulness. The power to do this must come
from without; and so we find David calling upon God
to cleanse him and to stay him with His free spirit so
that sinners might be converted.
The first essential, then, is to see that we are right
with God — that we are in perfect fellowship with Him
— and then we can be the channels through which He
can reach the ungodly and the sinful.
Another essential in this work is love. In speaking
of the gifts which were given to men in i Cor., chapter
12, Paul exhorted them to choose the best gifts; and
then he went on, in chapter 13, to show them the more
excellent way. There he speaks of love as the great-
est and most enduring of all the gifts; and without it,
he says, a man is as sounding brass or tinkling cymbal.
We will never reach men nor be instrumental in saving
them unless we love them ; and the more of Christ we
have in our hearts, the more compassion we will have
for the lost.
How many wonderful pictures of Christ are pre-
sented to us in the Gospels. At one time we see Him
looking with compassion upon the multitudes because
THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST 47
they are as sheep without a shepherd ; at another time
we see Him beholding the great city through His
tears, and hear Him cry out, "O Jerusalem, Jerusa-
lem, how oft would I have gathered thee, but ye would
not." If we look at Paul, His greatest Apostle, we
will see this same truth made manifest. Before his
conversion he hated men and consented to the stoning
of Stephen; after his conversion, he said that his
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel was that
they might be saved. Though these very people were
persecuting him. He could say with all his soul:
** Grace be with all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ
in sincerity and truth." But, in addition to this love
for the saints, he had a passion for the souls of the
lost. When our hearts become full of love to Christ,
they will go out in compassion and in love to the lost
sheep who have wandered from the fold and, like the
faithful shepherd, we will be anxious to go after them,
though the night be dark and though difficulties lie in
the way. The work will be a pleasure if our hearts are
in it, and we will be anxious to bring back those who
have gone astray ; but without this love the work of the
minister is the greatest drudgery and the fruits will
never be made manifest.
Another essential to success is obedience, and it is a
proof of love, for Christ said: '*If ye love me keep my
commandments." Now, I believe that some of us are
failing in the work because we have not obeyed the
voice of God in all things, and there is nothing that
will take the place of obedience. If we go back to the
history of the Old Testament, we shall discover that the
failure of Saul was due to his disobeying the voice of
the Lord. He had everything in his favor at the start,
48 THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST
yet he made shipwreck of himself and of the nation,
and we know, from Samuel's message to him, that all
his failure was brought about through his disobeying
the voice of the Lord. On the other hand, if we look
at David, who seemingly had everything against him
at the start, we see that he overcame all dfficulties,
gathered together the scattered fragments of the nation,
established a throne so great and so glorious that the
Son of God was spoken of as the Son of David, and
the key to David's success we find in the prayer, "Show
me Thy way, O Lord." He had his failings, and some
of his sins were great and grievous, but all his strength
and all the success he ever attained lay in his obedi-
ence to the voice of God.
Take as another example the prophet Jonah. He was
commanded to go to Nineveh and preach to the people,
but for reasons known to himself and only guessed at
by us, he turned his back upon the great city and made
for Tarshish. While in the path of disobedience he
was unhappy himself and brought sorrow to the sailors
and great loss to those who had sent their merchandise
on the vessel in which he took passage ; but just as
soon as he got into the path of obedience and went to
the city as he was commanded, he was instrumental
in bringing the whole city to repentance and in turn-
ing away the wrath of an angry God.
If we turn to Saul or Paul, the greatest Apostle of
New Testament times, we get the key to his wonder-
ful success in the second question which he asked the
Lord, when he said: ''What wilt Thou have me to
do?" If we follow him all through his missionary
journeys, we will see that his desire to obey the divine
will makes itself manifest continually. If God tells
THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST 49
him to leave Asia he will go, no matter what the result
may be ; if God tells him to enter into Europe he will
go, no matter what the difficulties may be which stand
in the way. Like a faithful soldier, he was continually
awaiting the command of his captain, and his delight
was to obey.
If God sends any of us to a certain field, and if, for
reasons known to ourselves, we refuse to go, we need
not expect to be instrumental in saving the lost. God
has a plan for every man and a field for every worker;
if we are where He wants us to be, and are doing the
work that He wants us to do, success will surely crown
our efforts. To obey is better than sacrifice and, if
we commit our ways to Him, He surely will direct our
steps. If we are anxious to do His will, we will hear
a voice saying: '*This is the way; walk ye in it."
Whether the field be large or small, whether the work
be popular or obscure, if we are in the place where He
has put us we can look to Him for the power and the
help without which our efforts would be in vain.
Another essential for soul-saving is wisdom, or tact.
When the Savior was sending His disciples out He
told them to be wise as serpents. In trying to reach
men we must know how to deal with them. Looking
at some of the figures which our Savior used will help
us to understand it more fully. He spoke of Himself
as the physician and, in a certain sense. His disciples
and followers are physicians for the healing of the
souls of men. Now, it is not only necessary for a phy-
sican to understand the remedy, but he must also
understand the patients and diseases for which these
remedies are intended ; because what would give heal-
ing to one might bring death to another; so he must
50 THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST
make a diagnosis of the cases, and treat the man
accordingly. It is so in dealing with men spiritually ;
it is not enough for us to know the Word of God and to
be thoroughly acquainted with its doctrines, but we
must know something of the spiritual condition of the
people with whom we are dealing. Understand, there
is no use talking to a man who has had no sense of sin
about the salvation from sin. He does not want a
Savior because he has never felt his need. We often
err by bringing men to Mt. Calvary who have never
seen Mt. Sinai. The first thing to do with a man who
has never seen himself as a sinner is to convince him,
by the use of God's Word, that he is lost, and then
salvation will have some meaning for him ; or, when
we have a man who is being crushed through a sense
of his sins and who is almost in despair, it would not do
to bring that man the passages of scripture that speak
about the wrath of God. We must reveal to him the
remedy, and show him God as a refuge for those who
are in trouble.
Then we are spoken of as ** fishers of men," and, if
the figure means anything, it means that wisdom and
skill are necessary to accomplish this work. A fisher-
man must in some way come in contact with the fish
before he can catch them. He must go to where they
are, or else get them to come where he is. He must
study their ways so as to know how best to catch them.
There are two kinds of fishermen who never catch any
fish — one class take nothing with them but the hook,
and the fish look at it and pass on ; another class take no
hook, but a considerable amount of bait. As a general
thing the latter have a large following. The fish enjoy
and appreciate such men ; they swallow their bait and
THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST 51
go their way, and the fisherman congratulates himself
upon seeing so many fish in the clear stream that go
after his bait, but he has not made a catch. How
often this is done by ministers! Some present the
truth in such a bald bare way that men keep clear of
them. Others give the people nothing but bait,
stories, anecdotes and a lot of stuff that people seem
to be pleased with, but there is no divine hook, and
the preacher fails to save men. The true method is
to have the hook and the bait, to be all things to all
men, like the Apostle Paul, that we may gain some.
It is true that the wise fisherman, having everything
that is necessary, may fail to catch all the fish in the
stream ; and it is just as true that the wise or faithful
minister may fail to reach all the unsaved in the com-
munity, but surely it is equally true that as the fisher-
man cannot catch any fish without complying with
certain laws and fulfilling certain conditions, neither
can the minister reach men if he violates the laws
according to which the Spirit of God works in the con-
viction and salvation of men. God has promised wis-
dom to those who ask, and if we are wise to win souls
the reward will be glorious; for *'we shall shine as the
stars forever and ever."
Another essential in this work is realizing the value
of a soul and what it means for a soul to be saved or to
be lost. Our Savior informed us that there is joy in
the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who
repents. This joy is not among the angels, but in their
presence; and it must mean that the joy is in the
Father's heart, as the joy was in the shepherd's heart
when he found the sheep and in the woman's heart
when she found the coin and in the father's heart
52 THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST
when the lost son was found. God doesn't rejoice
over trifles, and we see the other side of this when we
look at the tears of Christ over the doomed city ; and
we may rest assured that Christ never wept over trifles.
We have God the Father rejoicing over a sinner being
saved ; we have God the Son weeping over sinners who
are perishing; we have God giving His Son to save sin-
ners ; we have Christ bearing the agony of Gethsemane
and the shame of Calvary that the lost might be saved.
Surely this ought to convince us of the value of a soul
in the sight of God, and, if once we realize this, we shall
then have a passion for souls, but we shall never be
satisfied with our efforts so long as the unsaved are
around us or in our congregations. This thought will
help us in preparing our sermons; it will help us in
delivering the sermons ; it will give us a goal to strive
after ; it will enable us to reach the highest and truest
result — the bringing of these men to the feet of the
Savior.
Now, a word about methods. I have tried as a pas-
tor to do the work of an evangelist for fourteen years
in one congregation. As a general rule, the morning
sermons were more for building up Christians, and the
evening sermons were intended to reach sinners. Of
course there were exceptions, because there are the
unsaved who come to the morning services, and there
are many Christians who come to the evening services,
and this has to be taken into account; but, as a
general rule, I think it is well to have most of the
preaching in the morning for the Christians, and
most of the preaching in the evening with a view
to reaching the unsaved. I have never resorted to
any sensational methods, never advertised subjects,
THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST 53
but preached the Gospel in its simplicity as I knew
it and as I believed it, and those in connection
with the church to which I refer would bear me
testimony that during the fourteenth year of my
ministry the audiences were larger, and more people
were unable to gain admittance to the evening serv-
ices during that winter than ever before. During
these years 2,750 people united with that congrega-
tion, of which number 1,449 "united by profession of
faith, and a large number, during these years, who
were converted at the regular services, united with
other churches. This was the regular work of a min-
ister who at the same time was trying to do the work
of an evangelist.
I have been frequently told that methods which are
successful in Toronto might not be successful in
other cities ; but I have tried the same style of preach-
ing in the city of Boston in the month of August and
in the month of January with the same results which I
had in Toronto, and at the present time I am trying
the same methods in the city of Philadelphia, with the
same results which I had in Toronto. I make this
personal reference for the purpose of showing that I
am not talking theory, but in this article speaking of
things of which I know.
When a student at college, I believed in the power
of the Gospel to attract men and to save men. I went
out of college more than fourteen years ago into the
ministry, and I am now more thoroughly convinced
than ever that the Gospel is the power of God unto
salvation. If it is presented in sincerity and in sim-
plicity it will interest the people ; and it is our business
as ministers not only to study the Word of God, but to
54 THE MINISTER AS AN EVANGELIST
prepare and to deliver our sermons in such a way that
people will be interested and that sinners will be
saved. I fully realize the meaning of what our Lord
said to the disciples in the fifteenth chapter of John,
*' Without me ye can do nothing," but I am sure that
if we are doing our best in His name and in His cause
that He will own our efforts.
The question now comes, are we doing our best, or
are we offering to Him our second best? Are we rest-
ing satisfied if the finances and other things in con-
nection with the congregation are satisfactory, while
all around us the souls of men are dying and the Mas-
ter is calling for us, not only to build up His people in
faith, but to do the work of an evangelist? Surely, if
He died that men might be saved, we should put forth
every effort to make known unto men the way of life
through the crucified, the risen and the exalted
Redeemer.
ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL V^ORK
BY REV. LEN G. BROUGHTON
To have a "successful revival in any community,
whether city, village, or country, there is needed a
certain amount of organization. The fact is, nothing
goes well to-day without organization. I know a mar.
who represented his district in Congress four consecu
live sessions, and never had any kind of organization
and never made a speech in the district. He simple-
would announce himself a candidate, and that was the
end of it so far as his work was concerned. But this was
a long time ago. In that same district to-day, if that
man desired to go to Congress he would have to organ-
ize his forces into one large club, and it would be
divided into smaller clubs, and they would split up
into still smaller bands, and these divide up into per-
sonal workers. This would be necessary to find every
voter in the district. I saw a statement some years
ago to the effect that during one presidential campaign
there could not be found a single doubtful voter who
had not been seen by somebody with reference to his
vote. What thorough organization these politicians
have ! And what a lesson the church to-day ought to
get from studying their methods. Jesus Christ him-
self was a man of organization. He had His disciples
and then divided them up and sent them out two by
two.
Not long after I entered the ministry I went to a
55
56 ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL WORK
certain town to hold a series of meetings. It was one
of those good Southern towns, the inhabitants of
which banked on aristocracy and fed their souls upon
the glory of departed days. They had never known
what it was to be spiritually warm. The first night I
was there I preached to a great audience. That was
in my early ministry, when I made many propositions.
The first one I made that night was for anyone to
stand who wanted prayers offered for his friends.
As soon as I made it a little boy got up and walked out
into the aisle, where he stood looking me square in the
face. I said: *'God bless you, little man!" and he sat
down. I then asked anyone who wanted the prayers
of God's people to rise. That boy got up in the aisle
again and looked me in the face, and again I said:
•'God bless you!" I asked if there was anybody pres-
ent who was willing to accept Jesus. That boy stood
up again and looked me in the face, and again I said:
" God bless you!" Nobody else stood up that night,
and I began to think I had struck the hardest and cold-
est crowd I had ever run up against.
The next night I preached as hard as I knew how to
sinners and, when I finished, I asked anybody who
wanted to be prayed for to stand up. That same little
rascal popped out into the aisle as he had done the
night before and stood looking at me till I saw him,
and said, "God bless you!" I thought I'd vary the
thing a little, so I asked if anybody present was will-
ing to come forward and give me his hand as an indi-
cation that he would accept Jesus. That same boy
came shuffling out of his seat, straight down the aisle,
and gave me his hand. I saw smiles on the faces of
some in the congregation. Nobody but the boy
ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL WORK 57
showed any interest, and I went off somewhat dis-
heartened. The third night I preached, and when I
asked all who wanted prayer to rise, that boy popped
out into the aisle. The people had begun to regard it as
a joke, and they nudged each other with their elbows,
while a broad smile flared from one side of the house
to the other. When I asked anybody who was willing
to accept Jesus to come and give me his hand, that
boy came, and the congregation smiled broader than
before, and some actually tittered. After the meeting
the deacons came to me and told me that the boy must
be stopped, as he was a half-idiot, and was throwing a
damper on the meeting. I said "Stop nothing! How
are you going to throw a damper on an ice-house?"
For the whole of that week the boy was the only per-
son in the house who showed any interest in the meet-
ing. Then he wanted to join the church. The pastor
was absent, and I was to open the doors of the church.
I said: "Look here, brethren, I want to take this
responsibility on my hands. I'm going to put that
boy on you, and if you choose to reject him, his blood
be on your hands. ' ' At the conclusion of the morning
service, I invited all who desired to unite with the
church to come forward. That boy came. I asked
him if he had accepted Christ for his personal Savior.
That's all I ever ask. He said he had. "Brethren,"
said I, "you hear what this boy has to say. What will
you do with him?" An ominous silence fell on the
congregation. After a time, from way back by the
door, I heard a muffled and rather surly, "I move he
be received." Another painful silence followed, and
then from the middle of the church I heard a muffled,
"I second the motion. " When I put the motion about
S8 ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL WORK
half a dozen members voted "Aye" in a tone so low
that it seemed as if they were scared. I gave the boy
the right hand of Christian welcome awaiting baptism,
and then dismissed the congregation.
The next day the boy went out to see his old grand-
father, a man whose whitened head was blossoming
for the grave, and whose feet were taking hold upon
the shifting sands of eternity. "Grandfather," said
he, "won't you go to church with me to-night and hear
that preacher?" We always feel kindly towards those
who are afflicted, you know, and we are willing to
please them ; so the old man agreed to go.
That night I saw the boy and the old man sitting
away back near the door. When the sermon was fin-
ished one of the members of the church arose and
said: "I have a request to make. We have with us
to-night Mr. Blank, one of the oldest and most
respected citizens, but he is out of Christ. I want
special prayer offered for this, my special friend."
With that he laid his hand upon the head of the old
man, down whose furrowed cheeks the tears were
streaming. The next night I saw the old man sitting
half way down the aisle. When all who wanted to
accept Jesus were invited to come forward and give
me their hand, I saw the half-idiotic boy coming down
the aisle leading the old man by the hand.
That little boy's father kept a saloon. The follow-
ing day the child went there, and climbing up over the
high counter, he peeped down upon his father and
said: "Papa, won't you go to church with me to-night
to hear that preacher?" "You get out of here, child,
go out of here," said the father; "don't you know you
mustn't come in here?"
ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL WORK 59
Strange, strange, how fathers will keep places into
which their children cannot go !
**But, papa," continued the boy, "won't you go to
church with me to-night?" *'Yes, I'll go, but you get
out of here."
That night the man came with the half-idiot boy and
sat about where the old man had sat the night before.
When I asked all who would accept Christ to come for-
ward, he walked down the aisle and gave me his hand.
He asked if he could make a statement, and when I
said "Yes," he faced the congregation and said: "My
friends, you all know me, and I want to say that so
long as I live I will never sell another drop of whisky,
for I have given my heart to God to-night, and from
this day forward I propose to serve Him." The meet-
ing warmed up at last, the town was set on fire for
God, every saloon-keeper was converted, and every
saloon for seven miles in the country was closed and the
keeper was converted to God. This experience taught
me a valuable lesson at the very beginning of my min-
istry, and I thank God for every blessing that has come
to me through the exercise of it till this day.
HOW SHALL WE ORGANIZE?
Of course, every man has his method and every
community will have to vary according to the local
conditions. But, generally speaking, I would insist
first of all upon at least a week of united prayer on the
part of the church or the general movement which
may be made up of any number of churches. Let the
burden of the prayer be for the enduement of power
for the workers, and guidance of the Holy Spirit in
6o ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL WORK
the details of the work. I would suggest at these
meetings of prayer that special Bible studies directed
to the deepening of the spiritual life of the Christians,
and the salvation of the souls of the unsaved, and the
Holy Spirit's work, be given.
After this week of prayer on the part of the church
or the group of churches, let the church or general
movemeHt appoint a general committee, making it
large enough to meet the emergency and yet not so
large as to be cumbersome. This committee is to
carry on for a week a series of cottage prayer-meet-
ings. This can be done in country districts as easily
almost as in cities or villages. By this committee
the territory is to be divided and a superintendent
appointed for each division. Then he will group
around him a certain number of men and women who
will agree to stand by the meetings, from house to
house, rain or shine. The homes of the rich as well as
of the poor are to be taken in and every section at all
in touch with the church or churches should be cov-
ered in this way. At these cottage meetings not only
should there be Bible-study along the lines already
suggested for the week of prayer by the church or
churches, and not only have prayer for the work and
the workers, but a carefully prepared list of the
unsaved and the backsliders and all lukewarm Chris-
tians should be taken. At the close of this week of
prayer, which will be seen to have been also a week of
the very best advertisement and of gathering statistics
concerning the very matter that is desired in the meet-
ing which is to be held, these names, taken by these
workers in their respective meetings throughout the
various sections of the community, are to be turned
ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL WORK 61
over to the chairman of the cottage meetings, who will
carefully arrange them to be used by the workers when
the meeting proper has begun.
THE REVIVAL STARTS
Now, then, when this preparation has been made, we
will suppose the meeting to begin on Sunday. At the
first general service of the meeting the preacher or
evangelist in charge would find it greatly to the
advantage of the meeting to have an after meeting for
the purpose of conferring with and further organizing
the workers. The pastor or pastors connected with
the work should then appoint as many special personal
workers, both men and women, as will be needed to
thoroughly look after the work in the church or place
where the meeting is held. Of course, those who
have already been in the organization would do good
work in this capacity. What he wants is workers
whose sympathies are thoroughly enlisted and who are
filled with the Spirit.
I would say in an ordinary church meeting there
should be from fifty to a hundred men, and the same
number of women, appointed to do this work. A
chairman is to be selected for each group. They are
then to be assigned to their places throughout the
audience. Try as far as possible to put them within
ten feet of each other. - The chairmen of these groups
will of course be expected to keep the number up to
the point of necessity. If more are needed, they must
find more. If some drop out others must take their
places. These men and women are expected to bring
their Bibles, and are to be given instructions as to how
62 ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL WORK
to use them in pointing the unsaved to Christ. After
the sermon, when an effort is made to reach the
unsaved, these workers thus arranged are able to begin
at once doing personal work. When someone stands
up or comes forward confessing Jesus, they are in close
enough touch to reach him and give him a handshake
and a hearty, "God bless you!'* furnish him with a
card, obtain his name and address and perhaps his
church preference.
Thus organized, the meeting will always move with
smoothness from start to finish. Meanwhile, the list
of names of the unsaved and lukewarm is being
looked after by the chairman of the cottage committee
and these cottage workers, who obtained them, are of
course expected to see to it that those obtained by
them come to church and are reached if possible.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED
Now, in this connection, it seems to me to be proper
to give the workers a list of objections that they will
most assuredly have to meet in doing their personal
work. The following arrangement, which I invariably
use in meetings, will be found very helpful.
I. Not such a sinner.
Rom. 3 : 23 — "For all have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God."
I John 1:8 — "If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
John 3: 18 — "He that believeth on Him is not con-
demned: but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of
the only begotten Son of God.'*
ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL WORK 63
2. Not good enough.
Mark 2: 17 — "When Jesus heard it, He saith unto
them, They that are whole have no need of the phy-
sician, but they that are sick : I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
3. Got too much to give up.
Matt. 16:25-28 — "For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my
sake shall find it."
^. Inconsistency of others.
Luke 13: 3 — "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish. ' '
Rom. 14: 12 — "So then everyone of us shall give
account of himself to God."
5. Can't hold out.
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
6. Afraid He won't save me.
Rev. 22:17 — "And the Spirit and the bride say.
Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And
let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let
him take the water of life freely."
7. Time enough yet.
Prov. 27: I — "Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for
thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."
CLOSING UP THE MEETING
In closing up the meeting there is nothing that I
know of that will be so helpful to Christian workers,
and, indeed, to all concerned, as a sort of spiritual love-
64 ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL WORK
feast, a meeting of testimony. The workers who have
been blessed in the meeting will readily respond, and
many who have been saved will be glad to testify, and
the church or group of churches conducting the work
will find themselves greatly uplifted and all ready to
settle down to the business of training and developing
themselves into still further usefulness.
SINGING
I have said nothing about the music. This is no
small part of a revival. There is nothing that equals
spiritual, devotional singing. I would always have if
possible a chorus choir, and secure the very best leader
possible. If I could not get a good soloist and congre-
gational leader combined, I would do without the solo,
although where this combination can be found a good
devotional solo now and then will be found very, very
helpful. There should always be plenty of song-books
or card-slips, which can easily be prepared for the
occasion, and everybody should be urged to take part
in the singing.
SACRED LITERATURE
I have also found that it works well in a meeting of
this character for the church or churches engaging in
the work to provide a good selection of sacred liter-
ature. Such books as are furnished by the Colportage
Library Association will be found exceedingly helpful,
not only to the meeting while it is in progress, but to
the good of the work when the meeting is over.
These books are very cheap, and people can easily be
ORGANIZING FOR REVIVAL WORK 65
induced to buy them. Let them be sold practically at
cost, or make the usual profit and let the money go to
some definite work of charity in the community, or to
the general expenses of the revival movement. It is
not the money that we are trying to make, it is the
good we want to establish in a permanent way by
sacred literature.
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER AS
A SOUL-WINNER
MARION LAWRANCE
I am very sure, dear friends, that with me you have
been singing the doxology in your hearts as we have
been listening to these wonderful testimonies of Mr.
Hadley and Mr. Monroe and Mr. Reed, and I have a
fear that what I shall say may sound somewhat tame
after these words to-night; but it is just for the pur-
pose of making that sort of testimony less frequent
that we are so interested in the Sunday School.
The government has two ways of saving life on the
ocean. It takes a number of men and plants them
in this place and says: "You are to conduct a live-sav-
ing station." They have all the apparatus for that
sort of work, but they must wait imtil the ships are on
the rocks, until the men are struggling in the water for
their lives before they can send men out to save them.
Then the government has another way — the light-
house. It plants this house and says: *'You live in
this house, and before the ships get onto the rocks
you warn them off, and show them from the place of
danger into a place of safety." The rescue-mission
work that these dear brothers are giving their lives for
is the life-saving station, but the Sunday School is try-
ing to save life by the light-house plan rather than the
66
THE TEACHER AS A SOUL-WINNER 67
life-boat plan. We are trying to keep these boys and
girls off the rocks,
I was in Pacific Garden Mission not long ago, and
saw a blear-eyed, drunken man come staggering in,
and I knew that that man had once been an innocent
little boy ; in the Jerry McAuley Mission, where I spent
an evening a while ago, I saw a woman in the same
condition. I knew she had once been an innocent
little girl. Our work is for the boys and girls, and
your hearts are all interested in these. I was sitting
one day with Mr. Wannamaker, and he said: "We have
the best end of it. When you save a man or a woman,
you save a unit; but when you save a boy or a girl you
save a whole multiplication table. " It is a great thing
to save a soul at any age, but it is the greatest thing to
save a soul plus a life. The child is the center of the
world. That little child Jesus put in the midst has
been in the midst ever since, and the world revolves
around it. The little child is king and queen. We
are glad to do the bidding of the baby. I have known
of people walking the floor all night because the baby
wanted it that way. Some time ago there was a little
child lost in New York City in Central Park, and the
papers were full of it. A short time after that the child
was found, and the papers came out in great headlines
announcing the finding. In a few months there was a
great battle, the battle of Santiago, where many precious
lives were lost, and the papers again came out in great
headlines announcing that; but there were more
newspapers sold in New York because they announced
the finding of that child than there were at the time
of the battle of Santiago. Everyone is not interested
m war, but everyone is interested in a little child.
6S THE TEACHER AS A SOUL-WINNER
There are 25,000,000 in the Sunday School army, and
it is a wonderful power. Out of all the people that
join our churches by conversion, S^ percent come out
of the Sunday School. Dr. John Watson was being
dined in this country once, and was asked: **What is
it, in your judgment as a foreigner, that does most to
make America great among the nations of the earth?"
He said: *'It is the Sunday School."
I am to talk to you about the teacher. I know you
are all either teachers or interested in Sunday School
work. I want to talk practically along the line of the
teacher's work. The office of teacher is a divine
office. Jesus chose to be a teacher because He thought
it the most important business in the world. His last
command, in Mark 16: 15, was a command to you and
to me to go and teach, and that command is on every
man and woman, everyone that has the ability to
teach and the opportunity to teach. I believe, as a
superintendent, that the teacher is the most important
factor in any Sunday School. The teachers really do
the work for which the Sunday School is held. 1
know of no place on the footstool so fraught with
opportunity and responsibility as to stand with the
open Bible before a class of children and try to bring
them to the Savior. Dan. 12:3 reads: *'And they
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma-
ment ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the
stars forever and ever. * ' If you will take a reference
Bible, you will see that the word translated *'wise"
may with equal correctness be translated *'teachers. "
In Prov. 11: 30 we read: "The fruit of the righteous
is a tree of life ; and he that winneth souls is wise. ' '
Knowledge is how much we know, wisdom is the use
THE TEACHER AS A SOUL-WINNER 69
we make of it. The purpose of all teaching is pri-
marily instruction ; in Christian work it is primarily for
edification and salvation.
I want to speak very briefly of the use of the Bible.
This is a very much neglected part of our work. We
try to teach too much without the Word of God. The
Word of God has its mission and place, and should be
used. Ps. 119:130 reads: "The entrance of thy
words giveth light. * ' God wants the darkness of the
world driven away, and there is only one way to get
darkness out, and that is the very way the janitor
drove the darkness out of this room to-night — by put-
ting in the light — and this is the only way to drive sin
out of the world. The Word of God is the light. Ps.
119: 105, **Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light
unto my path." When God wants anything done, He
has an agency to do it. Isa. 53 : lo-ii : "For as the rain
Cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and return-
eth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the
sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be
that goeth forth out of my mouth ; it shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I
sent it." If God wants the earth watered He has a
way. If He wants the earth saved He has a way.
Take the Bible into your Sunday School work, into
the teaching of your lesson.
Let us look a little further at the teacher's work,
and what kind of work we do as teachers. We need
the teacher ; the teacher must be a living teacher ; we
want the living teacher. That was what God meant
when He took Philip away from the promising work in
^o THE TEACHER AS A SOUL-WINNER
Samaria and led him away down that desert road and
pointed out to him the eunuch. The eunuch was
reading the Word, but he needed the touch of the liv-
ing heart. We need the teacher, and so we must have
some qualifications and some helps for our teachers.
First of all, I would like to name some of these. We
must prepare. It is not a general preparation that is
needed, but specific study. Prepare early. If you
begin in the early part of the week to prepare your
lesson for the coming Sunday, then all through the
week you are looking at everything through your
Sunday School spectacles. The very best illustrations
are those that come from your own observation and
reading and intercourse with your friends. I heard
one the other day that I thought was real good. It
was not intended as an illustration, but I used it. One
time a young lady was presented with a book by an
older lady friend. The young lady took the book
home and tried to read it, but found it so dry she gave
it up. She said to herself: "I wonder why my friend
gave me such a dry book. * ' The next day she saw
this friend, and was so afraid that she would ask her
if she had read the book that she was very uncomfort-
able while in her presence, and made up her mind she
would go home and read that book even if it was dry.
So she tried again, and again she was compelled to
give it up. Three times she tried, and then laid the
book away. Some time after she met a young man in
whom she became very much interested. He became
interested in her, too, and in due time they became
engaged. Shortly after this she happened to pick up
this book and noticed that the name of the author
was the same as that of her lover. The next time he
THE TEACHER AS A SOUL-WINNER 71
came to see her she said: "I have a book here which
has your name in it, initials and all. ' ' He blushingly
acknowledged himself to be the author. That night
she sat up all night to read it, and wondered why she
had ever seen a dry line in it. What was the differ-
ence? W/iy^ she was in love with the author. It is the
save way with the Bible. Who loves God's book and
who does not? When do we love God's book and when
do we not?
Prepare more than you expect to teach. You can-
not teach all you know and teach with power. Another
thought : Prepare from the Bible. I think the Bible is
the best commentary in the whole world. I have seen
some commentaries of late-day manufacture upon
which I think the Bible would throw a great deal of
light. We want more of the Scripture in our Sunday
School teaching.
I believe in lesson helps, but I do not believe they
ought to take the place of original Bible study. At
the world's Sunday School Convention in London I
heard Rev. Richard Glover give three rules for the use
of helps: (i) Use lesson helps, but don't depend solely
on lesson helps; (2) use them with the Bible, and not
apart from the Bible; (3) those lesson helps are the
best helps which set you thinking and not save you
thinking.
We need to study methods of presenting the lessons,
and we need to study the scholars. I am so glad of
this convention ! It pays to stop and get the tools in
order. This illustration was once given me : A man
was shoveling sticky clay. Beside him he had a pail
of water. He would dip his shovel into the water, and
then into the clay, then go back and dip it into the
72 THE TEACHER AS A SOUL-WINNER
water, and then into the clay, and it took him just as
long to keep his shovel in condition to do the work as
it did to do the work. But did the man who hired him
complain? No, indeed! for if he had not taken the
time to keep his shovel in the proper condition, it
would soon have been so covered with the clay as to be
useless for the work which he was hired to perform.
It is always best to take time to keep the tools in order ;
so we need to study methods and principles of teaching.
The essential conditions of a good teacher are regu-
larity of attendance, punctuality, cheerfulness. There
is mighty little religion in a whine. We need more of
the gospel of a shining face and an open hand. Mr.
Reynolds once told me of a man in his Sunday School
who did not have the ability to teach, but he used to
stand in the door and shake hands with every one who
went in or out, and Mr. Reynolds said that man
shook more boys and girls into the kingdom of heaven
than any of his teachers taught in. There is power in
a smile. A little boy once said: ** Please, Mister
Superintendent, let me go over to that class where the
teacher smiles so much."
In the twenty-second verse of the ninth chapter of i
Corinthians, Paul said: *'I am made all things to all
men, that I might by all means save some." The
successful teacher adapts himself to the situation.
That is tact. This business takes tact. It does not
do to ask a man if he is saved when he is running to
make a train. You must know the persons in your
class, and adapt yourself to the disposition and need of
each.
A teacher, to be a success, must have beyond his
teaching the spiritual life. For, after all, it is what the
THE TEACHER AS A SOUL-WINNER 73
teacher is that really tells. Emerson said: "How can
I hear the words you say, when what you are is thun-
dering in my ears. " One boy said to another: "I don't
take any stock in my teacher any more." "Why?"
said the other. "Because when you add him up there
is nothing to carry." Teachers, you are more than
instructors. You want to be what you seek to have
your scholar become, and a good lesson is absolutely
spoiled by a bad life. The Gospel gets into a man's
heart not so much by words as by wedges. A man
told this story of his conversion. He said: "I was a
gambler, and I went into Pacific Garden Mission one
night and heard a man testify who said: 'Jesus Christ
saved me, and I was a gambler. ' The next night I
went again, the same man got up and said: 'Jesus
Christ saved me, and I was a gambler.' I listened to
that testimony for six straight weeks, forty-two nights
in succession, and I made up my mind if that story was
true for six weeks it was true for me, and I was saved. ' '
It is what we are that tells the story.
Look for results. Would it be a surprise to you if a
dozen of your scholars should come to you and say:
"What shall I do to be saved?" One of Mr. Spur-
geon's students went to him and said: "I am discour-
aged, I don't see any results from my work." Mr.
Spurgeon said: "You don't expect to see results com-
ing along all the time, do you?" "Why, certainly
not." "Well, that is the reason you don't have them."
But do not be discouraged if you do not see results.
Some will say: "I have taught and I have not seen my
girls saved. " It does not say, "Be thou successful,"
but, "Be thou faithful." Some folks seem to be such
good seed-sowers that God lets them do the sowing and
74 THE TEACHER AS A SOUL-WINNER
someone else do the reaping. A dear Christian man
who had been teaching a class of boys for some time
was about to go out into the next world. He called his
wife to him, and spoke of his boys, and said: "Oh, not
one of my boys has been saved!" She comforted him
by telling him that he had been faithful. When that
man's body was laying in the casket those boys came
and dropped bitter tears upon it, and shortly after
every one of them gave his heart to Christ.
The Christian world had prayed and prayed for a
single woman to go away to the cannibal islands to be
a missionary. Finally Harriet Newell volunteered to
go. Much money was spent on her training. They
had a great jubilee meeting in New York City when
she started. There was great rejoicing. But before
the ship landed on those islands she died. The letter
that came back with the sad news brought sorrow and
disappointment to the Christian world. But that letter
had not been on American soil three months when fifty
young women were ready to go. Harriet Newell' s was
a magnificent success, though she never did one
moment's work in her chosen field. Fidelity is success.
Do personal work if you want to be successful. I
have had teachers come to me and say: "I have only
one scholar in my class to-day; don't you think I had
better let him go in some other class, and I will go
home?" On nineteen different occasions Jesus sat
down and taught one scholar. Our scholars are not
won by classes, but one by one. It is hand-picked
fruit we want. Andrew is only mentioned separately
three times in the Bible, but one time it is said he
brought in his brother Peter, and do you know, it
seems to me that Andrew will get a whole lot of stars
THE TEACHER AS A SOUL-WINNER 75
In his crown for the three thousand souls Peter won
on the day of Pentecost. One time in Toledo there
came a knock at my door, just as we were sitting down
to breakfast. I opened the door, and there stood a
young man seventeen years of age. He said: "You did
not feel very much encouraged over the work in Sunday
School yesterday. I want to tell you that it was your
words that led me to Christ." That boy is Tracy
McGregor, now superintendent of the McGregor Help-
ing Hand Mission in Detroit. I believe it was the
best day's work I ever did, and I don't know when I
spoke the word.
Love is the hammer that breaks the heart. Our
scholars are drawn by the power of love. Love will
do what nothing else will do. These boys and girls
^vant to know right away that we love them and are
interested in them. My daughter teaches a class of
little girls. One morning there was a knock at the
door, and when Louise went to the door there stood
one of the little girls in her class crying most piteously.
When Louise put her arms around her and asked her
what the trouble was, she said: "My little baby brother
died last night, and I wanted to tell you and have you
cry with me. ' ' That scholar knew the teacher loved
her. Love is the hammer that breaks the stony heart.
DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY
SCHOOL
A mistake which many Sunday School teachers make
IS that of trying to develop the fruit of the Spirit from
an unregenerate life. They teach their scholars to
love one another, to be joyful, patient, and unselfish,
before they have been converted. They might as well
hang oranges on a Christmas tree and expect it to
bear that kind of fruit. The fact is, one cannot evolve
the fruit of the Spirit from a life in which there is no
Holy Spirit.
I have a friend who has fifty green -houses and about
five acres under glass. A large part of his business is
the culture of roses. He imports the wild rose stock
from Ireland and France, and buds or grafts it with
scions from the choice roses which he wishes to pro-
duce. It requires two men several months to do the
budding. Now this florist is not foolish enough to put
the wild stock into the green-houses and spend thou-
sands of dollars in cultivating it. If he did, the result
would be only wild Irish roses which would not sell
for ten cents a thousand. On the contrary, the first
thing he does is to insert a new life in the wild stock.
Then he puts it in the green-house and applies all the
methods known to modern science; and the result is
those elegant Marechal Niel and General Jacque roses
which sell for several dollars a hundred.
76
DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 77
Many a teacher is trying to evolve the fruit of the
Spirit from a life in which there is no Holy Spirit,
because the scholar has never either consciously or
unconsciously accepted Christ as his Savior. The
first thing to aim at is conversion and, after that, what
might be called Christian culture may properly follow.
The attention of the writer was called to the value
of Decision Day in the foUowingVay : He was spend-
ing a Sunday in a Presbyterian church, and was asked
to address the Sunday School. He suggested to the
pastor that as it was the last Sunday in the year it
might be well to explain to the boys and girls just how
to become a Christian, with the idea of leading them to
begin the new year with a new life. The result was
that twenty-five or thirty accepted Christ as their
Savior. Apparently they were just waiting for an
opportunity.
The next Sunday he was in another city, in a Bap-
tist church. When asked to speak to the school he
told the superintendent what occurred the Sunday
before, and was urged to use the same method. He
did so, and quite a number of conversions followed.
So much interest was awakened that they wished to
continue the services through the week. The next
Sunday he was in a Congregational church, and had a
similar experience. In this place the officers of the
school were so surprised at the results that they tried
the plan themselves the following Sunday, and had
several more conversions. They then planned for a
series of meetings in which some of the worst men in
town were converted, and out of which grew a Men's
Band and a Gospel Mission.
The experience of these three Sundays in churches
78 DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
of different denominations, in both city and country
schools, led me to realize the importance of giving
young people a definite opportunity to accept Christ.
I said to myself, doubtless there are thousands of
schools in the land which are in precisely the same
condition that these were. They have had faithful
preaching and teaching, but for some reason there has
been no effort to gather in the harvest which years of
seed-sowing should have produced. Since then I have
seen the same method employed in scores of schools,
and I can hardly recall an instance in which conver-
sions have not occurred.
Mr. Moody often said that what led him to give up
business and devote all his time to Christian work was
an experience which he had with one of his Sunday-
school teachers. This teacher was taken seriously ill
and was obliged to leave the city. He came to see Mr.
Moody and expressed great sorrow at leaving his
class of young women, since none of them were Chris-
tians. Mr. Moody proposed to him to take a carriage
and go and visit each of them and tell them just how
he felt. He did so, and the result was that every one
of those young ladies gave her heart to God. Mr.
Moody, who went with him, was so impressed with the
possibilities of definite hand-to-hand work in winning
souls that he resolved to devote his whole time to it.
In the State of Iowa, the fourth day of February,
X900, was observed as Decision Day. The reports
were very incomplete, but the 172 schools which sent
in returns reported 3,476 conversions, including three
Sunday School teachers. This was an average of over
twenty for each school. In their report they said
nothing has ever so stirred the teachers and revealed
DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 79
to them the possibility of winning souls. In Phila-
delphia not long- ago about three hundred schools
observed the day, with the result that about five thou-
sand young people decided for Christ. Over two hun-
dred entered the new life in one school alone. In
another city I know of a class in which fifty-five young
ladies accepted Christ on a single day as the result of
an earnest plea by one who taught the class for that
day only.
METHOD
1. Announce to the school some weeks in advance
that a Decision Sunday will soon be observed, not stat-
ing, however, which Sunday it will be. This will set
the scholars thinking and, very likely, will lead to
decisions before the day arrives. It will also increase
the prayerfulness of parents and teachers and those
scholars who are Christians already.
2. On the evening before, let all the teachers be called
together for special prayer and conference. Let the
pastor explain precisely what is involved in becoming
a Christian and just what steps to pursue in leading a
soul to Christ. Many a teacher has no idea how to go
about it. Let each teacher have a list of all the uncon-
verted members of his class, and let each one be
prayed for by name, taking one class after another.
Then let all unite in earnest prayer for a special
anointing of the Spirit to fit them- for the work of the
coming day, and let no one leave the place until
assured of it. (i John 5: 14, 15.)
3. When the day arrives let the pastor preach a ser-
mon which will prepare the way for the service which
is to follow. When the school is in session let the
8o DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
attendance be marked, and the offering taken at the
very outset, so as to have nothing to distract attention
from the main object. It would be better to dispense
with library books altogether for that Sunday. Let
the superintendent announce that the lesson study will
be omitted for to-day, as there is more important busi-
ness, and then state what the object of the meeting is,
and in a tender, loving way show how anxious he is
that every unsaved member of the school should decide
for Christ that very hour.
Select hymns which are personal and persuasive,
such as, "There is a Green Hill Far Away," *' Almost
Persuaded," *'Just as I Am," etc. Arrange for sev-
eral prayers by the most spiritual teachers. Then let
an address be given by the pastor or whoever seems
best qualified to do it. In this address I would espe-
cially emphasize three things. First, the fact that all
have sinned against God ; second, the suffering which
Christ endured for our sins, and our debt of gratitude
to Him; third, explain very clearly just what one
needs to do in order to become a Christian.
For the sake of those who have had no experience in
such a service we give an outline sketch of one which
has been found useful.
Suppose you ask the scholars how many of them
have ever seen a flock of sheep. Then remind them
that although sheep are very tame and docile, they are
also quite stubborn and willful ; they like their own
way. Furthermore, they are great imitators. If one
of the flock jumps over the wall, all the rest will go
tumbling after it, and you cannot stop them. You
may catch them by the head or the heels, but they will
go, and you will go too, unless you let go.
DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 8i
Now, God says that we are very much like sheep — we
are determined to have our own way. In Isaiah 53:6
He says: *'A11 we like sheep have gone astray"; and
in the next sentence He explains what He means by
going astray: "We have turned everyone to his own
way." That is the real essence of sin, that the sinner
is determined to have his own way. It may not be a
dishonest way, or an immoral way, or an untruthful
way. It may not be nearly so bad as someone's else
way, but it is his way, and not God's way.
What do we say of a sheep that has gone astray?
Why, we say it is lost. Yes, and that is what God says
about those who have had their own way and refused
to walk in His way. They are lost, and that applies
to all of us, doesn't it — for we have all had our own
way. Adam was a kind of black sheep who jumped
over the wall, and the whole race has gone tumbling
after him.
However, there has been just one person who did
not have His own way, but always walked in God's
way. Who can tell who that person was? Jesus.
Yes, Jesus, the Lamb of God.
Suppose you had a flock of sheep and wished to drive
them in a certain direction, but they all ran off another
way, except one good lamb who stayed by your side.
You would not take a whip and punish that innocent
lamb instead of those which ran away. And yet, do
you know something almost like that has occurred in
your case and mine? God has allowed His Son Jesus,
the only innocent Lamb in the whole flock, to suffer for
the sins of all the rest of us who went astray, *'A11
we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every
one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him
82 DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
the iniquity of us all." He is the Lamb of God who
taketh away the sin of the world.
Then I would turn to the twenty-seventh chapter of
Matthew and show what Jesus suffered for our sins.
I would paint that picture, if possible, so that they
would remember it to their dying- day. Show how the
soldiers stripped Him and put on a scarlet robe as if
He were a king. One of them said, '*A king ought to
have a golden scepter," and another ran out and
brought in a piece of reed and placed it in His hand.
*'What else does He need?" "A crown, of course.
Who ever heard of a king without a crown?" ** Surely,
I will get one," said another, and he ran out and broke
off a piece of thorn bush and twisted it up in the form
of a crown, and brought it in and placed it on the head
of Jesus. Now, the king has a royal robe and a crown
and a golden scepter, and they began to mock Him
and say: '*Hail, King of the Jews!" Then some of
them took the reed out of His hand and struck Him on
the head with it, and others went up and actually spit
in His face. Think of it! It is enough to make one's
blood boil with indignation — the way they treated our
dear Lord ; and it was all for our sins, too.
Then show how they stripped off the royal robe and
made Him carry His cross up Calvary's hill; how He
fainted and broke down, and how Simon took His
place. Then describe the crucifixion briefly, avoiding
all that is ghastly and gruesome, but making it as
vivid and realistic as possible, in order that each one
may see the picture, and realize clearly the relation of
Christ's death to his own sins.
Many people, both old and young, have never stood
at the foot of the cross and looked up into the face of
DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 83
the dear Lord, and said to themselves: "That Man
died in my stead." Make them stand there — for once
in their life, at least — and feel the full force of that
thought.
A friend of mine, who had a Working Girl's Club in
New York, was showing them some photographs of
famous paintings. Among them was a Crucifixion
scene by Tintoretti. At the right of the picture is to
be seen one of the thieves who has been nailed to the
cross, and the cross has been erected. On the left is
the other thief. The soldiers have laid him on the
cross and have driven the nails through his feet. The
thief is resisting with all his might, and is trying to
raise himself from the cross, while one soldier is bru-
tally crowding down his arm, and another is trying to
drive the spike through his hand. In the center of the
picture you see the Lord Himself. They have laid
Him down upon the cross — no, I think He laid Him-
self down and suffered them to drive the nails through
His hands and feet. The thieves doubtless made the
air hideous with groans and curses, but Jesus did not
groan, did not complain, did not even open His mouth.
"He is led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His
mouth." Then the soldiers took the cross, with its
precious burden, and dropped it into the deep hole pre-
pared for it. As the cross went down it brought a
strain upon the hands and feet which produced an
agony which no mortal words can describe, but the
artist has brought it all out in the expression of the
countenance and, as you look into the face of the dear
Lord : you see what unearthly suffering He is enduring
for the sms of the world.
84 DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
As this picture came into the hands of one of the
girls she drew back with an expression of horror, say-
ing: **Oh, Mrs. P , you don't mean to say that
Jesus was crucified alive, do you?" "Yes, my dear,"
said the teacher. "Why," said the girl, "I never
realized that before. Oh, it is awful!" "Yes, my
dear," said her teacher, "Jesus suffered all that and
much more, for your sins and mine." "Well," said
the girl, "if Jesus suffered all that for me, then I want
to live for Him," and then and there she gave her
heart to the Lord.
Many of you doubtless feel as that girl did ; you are
grateful for what Christ has done for you, and you
want to give your heart to Him, but you do not know
just how to do it. Listen, then, and I will try to make
it plain.
Salvation is a two-sided thing. On God's part it con-
sists in giving something, and on our part it consists in
receiving something, but the thing given by God and
received by us is not a thing at all, but a person.
"And this is the record that God hath given to us
eternal life, and that life is in His Son: He that hath
the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life" (i John 5: 11, 12).
Then show how simple a thing it is to receive a gift.
Here is a leaflet. I will give it to anyone who will
accept it. Someone takes it and I ask him whose it is
now. "It is mine." "How do you know it is yours ?"
"Because I accepted your offer." "That is right, but
why does it not belong to that other boy? I offered it
to him as much as I did to you." "Yes, but he did
not accept your offer and I did." "Very true. Now
God has given His Son to be the Savior of all sinners
DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 85
who will accept Him. Some of us have accepted God's
gift and we have a Savior. Some of us have not
accepted God's gift and we haven't a Savior, and we
see the reason why, do we not? It is simply and
solely because we have not been willing to accept
God's gift."
*'How long did it take that boy to become the owner
of that leaflet?"
'*Not a quarter of a minute. "
"It would not take you any longer to accept God's
gift and obtain a Savior."
Nor is it a question of feeling, as many suppose.
Turning to the boy who accepted the leaflet I would
say: "Did you have any special feeling of joy when
]^ou took that leaflet?" "No, I can't say that I did."
"Have you had any particular joy since you became
the owner of it?" "No, I do not even know what it
is, for I have not read it." "But suppose you should
open it and find a hundred-dollar bill in it, would you
have any feeling then?" "I think I should." "Quite
likely, but would that tract be any more yours with all
the feeling that came from finding a hundred-dollar
bill in it than it is now without any feeling?" "Not at
all."
"You see, then, that the question of feeling has
nothing to do with the ownership. It was the accept-
ance of my offer which made it yours. So, one may
accept Christ with feeling or without it, as the case
may be. God does not say, "As many as felt happy,
or as many as felt sinful were saved" ; but, "As many
as received Him, to them gave He power to become the
sons of God. ' '
Perhaps you are saying: "Suppose I should receive
86 DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
Christ as my Savior right here and now, what would
happen to me?" In the first place, He would forgive
your sins, for He says, in i John 1:9, "If we confess
our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."
But that is not all He would do. He would also come
into your heart and take possession of your life, for He
says, in Rev. 3: 20, "Behold, I stand at the door and
knock ; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I
will come into him."
You see, then, that if any of you should invite
Christ to come into your heart and be your Savior,
He would do it, because He says He will. You would
not go home alone to-day, you would not sleep alone
to-night, because you would have the constant com-
pany of the Lord Jesus. "Lo, I am with you alway,
even to the end of the world."
"But how can we know that Christ is in our hearts, if
we accept Him? "Well, in the first place, you have
His word for it, which ought to be sufficient, but in
addition to that He promises to reveal His presence to
those that obey Him. In John 14: 21 He says: *He
that hath my commandments and keepeth them . . .
I will manifest myself to him. ' In other words, when
you pray to Him He will seem to answer back ; when
you read His Word, He will speak to you out of it;
and every time you make any real sacrifice for Him,
there will come a thrill of joy into your heart, and His
blessed, 'Well done, good and faithful servant,' will
ring in your ears."
"Here, then, is a definite promise that if you confess
your sins He will forgive them ; if you invite Him into
your heart He will come, and if you obey His com-
mandments He will manifest Himself to you."
DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 87
**In view of these promises, how many of you are
willing to accept Christ as your Savior now? You all
expect to do it sometime, of course, but there is no
time so good as the present. Will all the school please
bow their heads?"
"Now we will have a few moments of prayer, in
which I wish that every unsaved person in the house
would confess their sins and receive Christ as their
Savior. I will pray for you, and I will put it in such
a way that if you will make my words your prayer it
will bring Jesus Christ into your heart."
After the prayer, made just as simple and direct
as possible, I would assume that some of them had
accepted Christ. Then I would say:
"The first step in beginning the Christian life is to
accept Christ as one's Savior, and that I am sure
some of you have done. The second step is to confess
Christ as your Savior. In Romans 10: o we read, *If
thou Shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
Shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.' You have
accepted Christ, and the next thing to do is to tell
someone of it. If I were you I would tell my teacher
that I had settled the question, and had decided to live
a Christian life."
At this point give the school five minutes for this
purpose, saying: ''Now, teachers and scholars, just
have a free talk with each other about this important
matter. "
After a suitable interval let the leader say, "I would
advise those of you who have accepted Christ to-day to
tell your parents what you have done, and ask them to
help you in your Christian life. If you care to come
88 DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
and tell me, I should be glad to give you a Life Card,
which I am sure you will find very helpful. ' ' On the
first page is a covenant which I would read to them,
and suggest that after they arrive home they read it
carefully, and then kneel down and ask God to help
them keep it, and then sign it with pen and ink, put-
ting down also the date when they signed it, and the
place where they live. Say to them :
*'You will find this covenant useful in many ways.
For instance, the devil will very likely come around
to-morrow morning and try to make you think you are
not a Christian. He will say, perhaps, 'You thought
you became a Christian yesterday, but you were mis-
taken, for this morning when your brother hid your
shoes under the bed and made you late for breakfast
you lost your temper, now didn't you?' and perhaps
you may have to confess that you did. 'Well,' he will
say, 'that proves that you are not a Christian, for if
you were you would not lose your temper.' This
statement is not true, as I can show you by a simple
illustration. Suppose you should go to work to-mor-
row for a man whose name we will call Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Johnson is now your new master, is he not? Sup-
pose that the first day you should spoil a yard of cloth
or break a machine. Would that prove that Mr. John-
son is not your new master? By no means. Have
you left his employ? No. Do you intend to leave it?
No. What does it prove, then — the fact that you have
damaged his work or broken his machine? It only
proves that you have not been as careful to please your
new master as you should have been, or that you did
not fully understand his work; that is all. So, if you
have taken Christ as your new Master to-day, and
DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 89
to-morrow morning should lose your temper, what
does that prove? That Jesus Christ is not your new
Master? By no means: Has He discharged you?
No. Have you left His service? Certainly not. Do
you want to leave it? By no means. Then what does
it prove — the fact that you lost your temper the very
first day? Why, it only proves that you were not as
careful to please your new Master as you should have
been ; that is all. I hope you will not do it, of course,
but if you should, the thing to do is to kneel right
down and confess your sin, and He will forgive it
instantly; and then be more careful to please Him in
the future.
"Now, suppose you had taken one of these Life
Cards and signed it, see what a help it would be to
you. You could take it out and show it to him and
say, *See here, Satan, can you read writing? If you
can you will see my name at the bottom of this cove-
nant. I signed it not in the Sunday School, not under
any excitement or pressure, but all by myself in
my own room. I signed it because I meant it, because
that is the kind of a life I propose to live. I meant it
then and I mean it now, and if I didn't mean it then, I
do mean it now. So Satan, you can move right along.
I haven't any more use for you, I have a new Master.*
Or, perhaps, ten years from now you might open your
Bible and fine this covenant, and it would bring back
this hour to your mind, and you would say: 'I haven't
been as faithful to Christ as He has been to me,
but, thank God, I haven't withdrawn from that posi-
tion which I took in that Sunday School, and that
position is the Christian life.* And thus your weak
faith may often be strenthened by this outward and
90 DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
visible evidence of the covenant which you made with
God a few moments ago. ' '
Having offered to give a Life Card to any who
come for it I would then dismiss the school. The
teachers, who have been previously instructed, will
encourage their pupils to come and get the Life Card,
and if necessary will come with them. Often a teacher
will come bringing a whole class of boys or young men
with her. As they come, the leader can ask each one
personally if they have really accepted Christ as their
Savior, and when they did it. In many instances
they will say, "I did it while you were praying, or
while my teacher was talking with me. " It is a good
plan to ask them to shake hands with you as a token of
their sincerity, and make them promise to sign the
Life Card as they take it. Then say to each one:
*' There is one thing more I wish you to do, and that
is to go and tell your pastor just what you have told
me. Will you do it?" In this way you pass them on
to him, and commit them to their purpose still more.
Occasionally one will come for a card who has not
really accepted Christ, but is only thinking of it, but
usually he can be persuaded to settle the question in a
moment or two, if one is wise and tactful.
After all have come who are likely to, I would sug-
gest that all kneel down and tell the Lord audibly what
they have said before in their heart, and to make it
easy for them it would be well to lead them in prayer,
asking them to follow you in concert, sentence by sen-
tence. It is a great help to them to hear their own
voice as they enter into covenant with the Master, and
you also make sure that they say the things you wish
them to say.
DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 91
I would then lead them in prayer, making sure that
they confess their sins, and invite Jesus to come into
their heart and take possession of their life.
When they had risen I would question each one
something after this fashion: "Henry, you knelt and
confessed your sins and asked God to forgive you for
Christ's sake. Did you really mean it?" "Yes, I
did." "Do you think He has forgiven you?" "I
don't know, I am sure." "What did He say He
would do, if you confessed your sins?" "He said He
would forgive me. " "Do you think God has lied to
you?" "Of course not." "Then where are your
sins?" "They must be forgiven. " "What makes you
think so?" "Because God says so."
Or I would say: "Jesus says in Rev. 3: 20, *Behold,
I stand at the door and knock ; if any one hear my
voice and open the door, I will come into him.* I
heard you ask Him to come into your heart. Did you
really mean it?" "I did." "Do you think He has
come into your heart?" "I do." "Why do you think
so?" "Because I feel better, because I am so happy."
"Very well, but suppose you wake up in the morning
with a headache. You wouldn't feel happy then,
would you?" "I suppose not." "Then where would
your hope of salvation be? Do you not see that if
your hope of acceptance depends upon your feelings it
will vary from day to day?" Then show him that if he
has honestly invited Jesus to come into his heart he
has His promise that He would come, which is the
best evidence that a Christian can have.
If one has time it is well to give the converts some
instruction concerning the dual nature of the Christian
life. Show them that while the unsaved person has
92 DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
only one nature, and that the selfish, sinful nature, the
Christian has in addition a new Divine nature which is
Jesus Christ. Let them understand that the old
nature is not one whit better now than it was before
their conversion, and that all their temptations will
come from this source. However, ''Greater is He
that is in you, than he that is in the world." And,
*'God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to
bear it."
In holding such a service it is best to exclude the
smaller children from the main room, and have a
separate service with them if desired. Some may also
prefer to call for an expresson by rising, or by entering
an inquiry-room, but do not fail to deal personally with
each one and see that they have a scriptural reason for
their hope of salvation.
FOLLOWING UP RESULTS
This is very important. Indeed, it is a question
whether it is wise to hold such a service unless it is to
be carefully followed up. A Decision Day opens the
way for conversation with every person in the parish,
and a careful canvass should follow to lead to Christ
those who did not accept Him during the service.
The parents of all who decided should be visited, and
their co-operation secured. In some instances where
the parents were not Christians, such a visit has led to
their conversion.
A class for the converts should be formed for instruc-
tion in the duties and doctrines of the Christian life,
DECISION-DAY IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 93
and in due season they should be received into the
Church. The Life Card is a four-page leaflet which
contains many useful hints on Christian living, how to
grow in grace, how to use the Bible, etc. It may be
obtained of the Bible Institute Colportage Association,
250 La Salle Avenue, Chicago, 111. Price, 4 cents per
dozen, 30 cents per hundred.
The covenant which the converts are asked to sign
and keep in their Bibles, where they may often see it,
reads as follows :
In obedience to God's cojnmand, I do here and now turn from
every known sin, and believe the Gospel that Christ died for my
sins, was buried and rose again. I receive Jesus as my Redeemer,
who bore my sins in His own body on the cross (2 Cor. 5: 21 ; Gal.
3: 13; I Pet. 2: 24), and who has power to forgive my sins (Mark
2: 10; Acts 5: 31). as my teacher to whom I will submit all my
thoughts (John 6: 68), as my guide to whom I will commit the
direction of my life (Acts 9: 6), as my risen Savior whom I will
trust to keep me from falling (Jude 24) and save me to the utter-
most (Heb. 7: 25) and resting upon God's assurance, I believe all
my sins are forgiven and / have eternal life.
(Signed)
19 Place ,
THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN
REV. E. P. HAMMOND AND R. A. TORREY
No revival is what it ought to be if a good deal of
attention is not given to the children, and much
prayerful effort put forth for their conversion. If
Christian people use the divinely appointed means to
lead souls, young or old, to Christ, they may confi-
denty expect God's blessing, but this is pre-eminently
true in dealing with children. Dr. Duff, of Scotland,
went to India and labored for the conversion of the
heathen, yet with all his eloquence I heard him say in
the Free Church Assembly Hall of Edinburgh, that his
labors were a comparative failure until he turned his
attention to the children, and held up Christ as the
atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, then their
hearts were touched, and many repented and believed
in the Lord Jesus. From that time on he began to
speak of certainties instead of continuing to speak of
possibilities. **Take heed," said Jesus, ''that ye
despise not one of these little ones. ' ' The word trans-
lated "despise" is a very suggestive word. It means
literally to think down, to think little or nothing of.
Take heed that ye think not down one of these little
ones. The conversion of a child may be of very little
importance in our sight, but it is of immense impor-
tance in Jesus's sight.
94
THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN 95
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN
1. The conversion of a child is important in the first
place because children oftentimes die. Most people
in Chicago die in childhood. For every one who dies
between twenty and forty there are many who die
between birth and twenty. So with very many of the
children at any time upon the earth, they must be con-
verted in childhood or pass into eternity unconverted.
In spite of the large number of children's caskets that
pass us in hearses, it is hard to bring people to realize
how likely children are to die. We look at the white-
haired man and say he is likely to die soon, but we
look at the little child and think that child has many
years before it. That is not at all sure. We have
very rude awakenings from this dream. Mothers and
fathers do you realize that your children may die?
Up quick, then, and lead them to Christ before that
day comes. If you do not it will be the darkest day
you ever knew, but if you have led them to Christ it
will not be a dark day. Lonely it will be but not
dark. Nay it will be glorious with the thought that
the voyage is over and the glory land reached quickly
by one you love. Sunday School teachers do you
realize that any one of the boys or girls in the class
you teach may die any day? Up, then, and win them
to Christ as speedily as you may.
2. The conversion of children is important, in the
second place, because it is much easier to win a child
to Christ than an adult. I once heard Dr. E. N. Kirk,
of Boston, say, '*If I could live my life over again, I
would labor much more among children. " During a
series of meetings lasting sometimes five or six weeks,
96 THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN
I have seen more children converted the first week
than adults in all the weeks following. Children have
no old prejudices to overcome as many grown people
have. With the help of the Holy Spirit they are easily
led to feel the great love of Christ in giving Himself to
die for them, and when the simple story of His suffer-
ing and death is read and explained from God's Word,
they believe it, and exercise saving faith, and there
and then the Holy Spirit effects a change of heart.
Mr. Spurgeon once said in my hearing, "I could spend
days in giving details of young children whom I have
known and personally conversed with, who have given
evidence of a change of heart," and he added, "I have
more confidence in the spiritual life of such children
whom I have taken into my church, than I have in the
spiritual condition of adults thus received. I will go
further and say that I have usually found a clearer
knowledge of the Gospel and a warmer love toward
Christ in the child convert than in the man convert.
I may astonish you by saying that I have sometimes
met with a deeper spiritual experience in a child of ten
or twelve than in some persons of fifty or sixty. I
have known a child who would weep himself to sleep
by the month together under a crushing sense of sin.
If you would know deep and bitter and awful fear of
the wrath of God, let me tell you what I felt as a boy.
If you want to know what faith in Christ is, you must
not look to those who have been bemuddled by the
heretical jargon of the times, but to the dear children
who have taken Jesus at His word, and believed on
Him, and therefore know and are sure that they are
saved."
Every year that passes over our heads unconverted
THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN 97
our hearts are less open to holy impressions. Every
year away from Christ our hearts become harder in
sin. That needs no proof. The practice of sin
increases the power of sin in our lives. God and
heaven and Christ and holiness lie very near child-
hood, but if the child remains away from Christ, every
year they become farther and farther away. When I
see a child walk into the inquiry room of a Sunday
evening, I feel quite certain that if a worker of any
sense gets hold of that child it is going to be con-
verted; but when I see a man or a woman walk in
there I do not feel at all as sure. The adult has
become so entangled in sin, the mind has become so
darkened by the error and skepticism that arise out of
sin, there are so many complications added by each
year, that the case of an adult is very difficult as com-
pared with that of a child. The fact is, that with very
many if they are not converted in childhood they will
never be converted at all. Fathers and mothers, that
is true of the children in our homes. Sunday School
teachers, that is true of the children in your Sunday
School classes. It is now or never.
3. Conversion of the children is important, in the
third place, because converted children are among the
most useful workers for Christ. They can reach per-
sons who are inaccessible to everyone else. They can
reach their schoolmates and playmates, the Jewish chil-
dren, the Catholic children, the children of worldly
parents and infidels. They can bring them to Sunday
School or to children's meetings, and to Christ. You
and I cannot get close enough to them to show them
how beautiful Jesus is, and what joy and blessing He
brings. They can. Then they can reach their par*
98 THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN
ents oftentimes when we cannot. They will not listen
to US, but they will to their children. There was a
rough, drunken gambler in Minneapolis, Minn. He
often went by the mission door, but when a worker
invited him in he repelled him with rude insults. But
his child, about ten years old, was gotten into the Sun-
day School and won for Christ. Then she began to
work and pray for her drunken papa, and a cottage
meeting was at last held in his wretched home. The
father took down his overcoat to go to the saloon.
Little Annie asked him if he would not stay to the
meeting. He roughly answered, "No. " "Won't you
stay for my sake, papa?" The man hung up his coat.
The meeting began, and the man was surly and wished
he was out of it. They knelt in prayer while he sat on
the end of the sofa. One after another prayed. Then
all were silent. Then Annie's little voice was heard in
prayer something like this: "God, save my papa." It
broke the wicked man's heart, and then and there he
accepted Christ. He afterwards became a deacon in
my church. When New Year's day came and many
had testified for Christ, Annie arose and said: "Papa
used to drink and mamma used to drink, grandpa
used to drink, and grandma used to drink. But papa
is a Christian now, and mamma is a Christian now, and
grandpa is a Christian now, and grandma is a Christian
now, and Uncle Joe is a Christian now, and auntie is a
Christian now. I guess we are all Christians down to
our house now." But the little girl herself led the
way. Wasn't the conversion of that child important?
Many a hardened sinner and many a skeptic has been
led to Christ by a child.
When in Scotland I heard a touching story, showing
THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN 99
how a child's simple question was used in leading a
scoffing skeptic to the feet of Jesus. It is a true story.
I was acquainted with the father of the child. Let the
skeptic tell the story:
"As I stepped upon the platform at the railway
station, a hand was laid upon my arm, and a voice
said, * Norman, is this you?'
'*I turned and looked at the speaker. It was an old
classmate, Richard , with whom I had agreed to
pass a few weeks and had not seen for years. After
we had pushed our way through the noisy crowd and
were seated in his carriage I looked at him again, and
exclaimed :
** * Richard, how you have altered! how different
now from the wild youth of old ! *
'* 'Yes, Norman, there have been many changes
with me since we parted ; but the greatest has been
here, ' said he, smiling and gently touching his breast.
" 'Humph!' was my ejaculation, which elicited no
reply.
"That evening, as he, his wife, and myself were
walking in the conservatory, and I was admiring some
jessamines, he said to me, 'Norman, I have yet a little
treasure to show you, and, although it is small, it is
greater than all these, almost the greatest one I have.
Can you guess?'
"When we went back to the drawing-room he
showed to me his beautiful little girl, his only child,
his little Bessie. I was not fond of children, but
strangely did the little maiden win her way to my
heart. Eight cloudless summers of her sunny life had
passed, and had each one as it gently glided by left with
her all its charms she could not have been more beautiful.
loo THE CONVERSION OP CHILDREN
**That evening, sweet in memory to me, we became
firm friends. She loved me because, when she asked
papa, he said he did.
"The next day we all went out for a drive. Little
Bessie was bright and beautiful as the day, but some-
times there was a strange thoughtfulness of expression
upon her face which troubled me as being beyond her
years.
As I was talking to her father I said something jeer-
ingly about Him Who had led the only pure life on
earth. Richard said not a word in reply, but motioned
me to look at Bessie. She was looking into my face
with a gaze of mingled horror and surprise — an
expression such as I never saw before nor since, and
which I shall never forget. It was for a moment. No
one spoke. Then the little maid burst into a flood of
uncontrollable tears, and I felt a certain shame that in
the presence of one so pure I should have spoken what
she had never heard before. Then she looked at me in
a sort of pitying way, and said, *I thought you loved
my Jesus; oh, how could you have said that of Him?'
During the rest of the drive she lay upon her father's
bosom in perfect silence.
"The next morning I was alone in my room think-
ing of all that had occurred, and a strange unaccount-
able feeling of seriousness was creeping over me, a
sort of longing to be like her, when suddenly the little
one was at my side. I started as I saw her, and met
the tender gaze of love and pity which she bent upon
me. Her head was laid upon my arm, and for a
moment both were silent. Then the silence was
broken with the words, 'Won't you love my Jesus?'
and she was gone.
THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN loi
**I could not ridicule that lovely spirit. The next
morning, and the next, and the next, the little girl
came in the same way, said the same words and disap-
peared. I never answered her, and at no other time
did she allude to the subject; but she never failed to
come at that morning hour.
"One day I said to her: *Tell me how, Bessie.' She
looked at me a moment, and the next was seated on
my knee, and the words that flowed, those simple,
childish words in which she told the story of Christ's
love, never shall I forget. My eyes w^ere far from dry
when she went away, but there was less sorrow on her
face than usual. Morning after morning she came,
and never seemed weary of. telling the sweet tale.
But one morning she did not come, and I waited a
long time in vain. No little feet came pattering along
the hall ; no little hand was clasped in mine ; no little
words of instruction were lisped in my ear. Presently
there came a hurried knock at my door. It was
opened without waiting for permission, and her father
was with me.
'* 'Norman,' said he, *she has just waked from a long
and heavy sleep and is fearfully ill. Will you come?
Tell me if you know what it is. '
*'I went. There lay the little one with eyes closed,
and in a sort of stupor. I knew at a glance it was
scarlet fever. How I told those two aching hearts I
know not; but they were wonderfully calm in their
anguish. The doctor soon confirmed my statement,
but there was so painfully little to be done for the dear
sufferer that two days passed almost in silence as we
watched over her precious form. We knew from the
first that she was no longer of the earth, and, indeed,
I02 THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN
it was a heavy burden for us to bear to think that she
no longer would be the light of our hearts. I say we,
for, though I was perhaps mistaken, the little one had
so taken possession of my heart, that it seemed to me
that she could not be dearer to those who had the first
earthly claim upon her affections. At the end of the
second day her life seemed partially to return. She
opened her eyes and, smiling, said, 'Dear Uncle Nor-
man, won't you love my Jesus? Mamma loves Him,
papa loves Him, and I love Him, and am going to
Him, and I want to tell Him that you will love Him.'
** * Bessie,' said I, "tell Him my heart and life are His
forever more. '
** * Mamma, papa, I am so happy now. Now I have
all I want. Now I come. I come. Lord Jesus!' and
the youthful spirit, so pure, so holy, returned whence
it came. God's little messenger had turned a soul to
righteousness, and was called home. ' '
4. The conversion of children is important because
persons converted in childhood make the best Chris-
tians. If one is converted when he is old he has
learned many bad tricks of character and life that have
to be unlearned, and it is generally a pretty slow
process. But when one is converted in childhood
character is yet to be formed, and it can be formed
from the beginning on right lines. If you wish to
train a tree into a thing of beauty and symmetry you
had better begin when it is young. If you want to
form a character of Christlike symmetry and beauty
you would better begin in childhood. That Christlike
man of the olden time, Polycarp, who ended his life
as a martyr at ninety-five, was converted at nine.
That fine young man of the New Testament, Timothy,
THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN 103
was brought tip on Scripture from a babe. I rejoice
with all my heart when an old broken-down drunkard
is brought to Christ. It means so much. But it
means so much more when a child is brought to Christ.
5. The conversion of children is important once
more because there are so many years of possible
service before them. If one is to live to eighty, say, if
converted at seventy there is a soul saved plus ten
years of service. When the boy Polycarp was con-
verted there was a soul saved plus eighty-six years of
service. I think enough has been said to show that
the coversion of the children is tremendously impor-
tant, in fact, the most important business the Church
of Christ has on hand. Surely it was well that Jesus
said, **Take heed that ye despise not one of these little
ones."
II. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE
CHILDREN?
Now we come to another question, Wko is responsible
for the conversion of children? An easy question to
answer.
I. First of all, the parents are responsible for the
conversion of the children. The first and greatest
responsibility of parents regarding their children is
their salvation. The responsibility to feed and clothe
and educate our children is nothing to our responsi-
bility to bring them to Christ and bring them up in
Christ. The parent who fails to bring his children to
Christ has failed at the main point of parental responsi-
bility. Yet parents are willing to leave the conver-
sion of their children to others, to the minister, to the
Sunday School teacher, or even to chance. What
I04 THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN
would you think of yourself if you left the feeding of
your children and the clothing of your children to
others or to chance? You would despise yourself, and
well you might, but you would not really be as despic-
able as if you left the salvation of your children to
others. This is your highest and most solemn obliga-
tion as a parent to bring your children to Christ.
Have you done it? If not, then go at it at once. I sat
in the station at Evansville, Ind., one day waiting for
a train. A man and wife came in with two babes, one
a year and a half old, the other three. They sat down
to wait for another train. I turned to the man and
said, **Are you a Christian?" '^No, sir." ''Then," I
said, "you are not fit to be the father of those chil-
dren. God has laid a solemn responsibility upon you
in giving you those children to bring up for Him. ' *
And I say to every parent who is not a Christian, an
out and out Christian, you are not fit to be a parent.
The highest responsibility of fatherhood and mother-
hood, you are unfit for. Get fit to-day by taking
Christ and then begin at once to lead your children to
Christ. And you who are professed Christians, seek
power for this work and begin at once.
2. In the next place, the responsibility for the con-
version of the children rests upon all pastors, evan-
gelists and preachers of the Word. We are too
exclusively occupied with the grown-up people. But
Christ's first direction to the great preacher Peter was
that he was to prove his love by feeding the lambs.
The minister or evangelist who overlooks the young is
disobeying Jesus Christ, and the warning of Christ
should come to him with great power, "take heed that
ye despise not one of these little ones." The fact is
THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN 105
that it is our pride that leads us to neglect the children.
It is gratifying to our vanity to think that the grown
people and especially the men flock to our ministry.
Anyone, we fancy, can interest the children, but it
takes men of our own great mental caliber to interest
the men. Oh, take heed, take heed ! In the eyes of
our Master the children are of first importance.
3. In the third place, the responsibility for the con-
version of the children rests upon the Sunday School
teacher. The first and highest duty of the Sunday
School teacher is to lead his scholars to Christ. The
Sunday School teacher has not done his whole work
when he interests his scholars or even when he
instructs his scholars with good, sound, orthodox Bib-
lical doctrine. His business is to convert them, to win
them to Christ. Sunday School teacher, the proba-
bility is that there are scholars in your class that will
be led to Christ by you or else will never come. Do
you realize that? When you next sit before your class
let this thought sink deep into your heart, some of
these scholars are to be won to Christ by me or lost
forever. Oh, it is a glorious thing, but it is a solemn
thing to be a Sunday School teacher. What an oppor-
tunity! What a responsibility! Yet many and many
a Sunday School teacher allows scholars to drift into
their class and drift out of their class without any
definite word to convert and save them! Under the
first sermon I ever preached in Chicago a young
woman was deeply stirred. She was elegantly
dressed, and occupied a respectable place in society,
but only because her history was not yet known. She
was as truly a sinner as any woman of the street. The
next night, in conversation, she told me all her shame-
io6 THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN
ful story. I pleaded with her to accept Christ, and
have her vileness washed away. She said that I was
the first person who had ever spoken to her about
her soul. Her mother was worldly, but for six
years she had been a regular attendant at one Sunday
School, but never once had her teacher approached
her personally about accepting Christ. And she had
gone out into the world to sin and shame. What a
responsibility rests upon the heads of that young
woman's Sunday School teachers! Oh! teachers, be
soul winners, realize the immense importance of the
conversion of the children to Christ and feel deeply
your own responsibility for those in your class.
4. After Sunday School teachers the responsibility
for the conversion of the children rests upon all work-
ers. We must save the old if we can, and, thank God,
in many cases we can, but we must save the children
anyhow. In church, in inquiry meeting, on the street,
in the home, everywhere, look out for the children,
and take every possible opportunity to bring them to
Christ.
III. HOW TO CONVERT THE CHILDREN
We come now to the last question and the all-impor-
tant one. How can we convert the children?
I. First of all, by prayer. True conversion and
regeneration is the Holy Spirit's work. It is He con-
victs of sin and righteousness and judgment (John
16:8-11). It is He that leads to saving faith. It is
He that makes children as well as adults new creatures
in Christ Jesus. And He works in answer to prayer.
There must, then, be very definite prayer for the con-
viction and conversion and the regeneration of the
THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN 107
children. We had one child that did not seem natu-
rally as religiously inclined as the rest. One night I
was led to ask prayers for that child. That very night
(or perhaps the next) when I went home I was told
that the child burst into tears as she went to bed, and
when her sister asked her what was the matter she
replied, "Oh, I am afraid I shall die and go to hell!'*
She did die, but, thank God, before the hour came
prayer had been answered, and she was trusting Jesus
and went to be with Him forever. Oh, parents, pray
for your children. Sunday School teachers, pray.
Pray definitely, pray earnestly, pray expectantly. Of
all that I heard in my own Sunday School days nothing
impressed me so as a story of a teacher who prayed
earnestly for all her scholars and all were converted.
I was a mere boy when I heard it, but when in later
years I got back into Sunday School as a teacher I
remembered it and I prayed. My class was composed
of reckless boys, but I saw every one of them, with
possibly one exception, make a profession of faith in
Christ.
2. The second step towards the conversion of the
children is the use of the Word of God. The Word of
God is the instrument God has appointed for convic-
tion, conversion and regeneration (i Pet. 1:23; Jas.
1:18). Fathers, mothers, Sunday School teachers,
study your Bibles to find out just how to use them in
leading a soul to Christ, and then use them in that
way with the children in the Sunday School class, in
the home, in the inquiry room and everywhere.
3. If we are to convert the children we must be bap-
tized with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "Ye shall
receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
io8 THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN
you." Holy Ghost power is what every parent needs
and must have. Holy Ghost power is what every
Sunday School teacher needs and must have. I once
met a gentleman and lady who had read an address
on the Baptism with the Spirit, and they had sought
and received this baptism; so when I visited the
city where they lived, they came to see me. Their
hearts were full of joy. The man told me what won-
drous things God had done for him by the Holy
Spirit's power. Then the wife broke in and said,
*'Yes, and the best part of it is that I have been able
to get into the hearts of my own children, which I was
never able to do before. " Ah! that is what we want,
parents, to get into the hearts of our children. The
baptism with the Holy Spirit is the secret. It is not
enough that we can interest and amuse and instruct
the children. It is not enough that we can draw
pretty pictures on the blackboard and play kindergar-
ten games, and sing bright songs, and get texts of
Scripture, and pretty notions into the children's heads.
We must get Christ into their hearts. We must get
them to take Jesus as their own Savior, to trust in
the shed blood of Calvary and to surrender to Christ
as their Lord and Master, and confess Him as such
before the world. We must get them saved. Much
of our Sunday School work and of all our children's
work in this day is tomfoolery and an abomination in
the sight of God. We get the children — yes, v/e get
them in droves, and we amuse them, and we instruct
them, and we delight them, and we send them home
happy and resolved to come again, and then we fancy
we have done a good work for God, but in reality we
have done nothing for God but much for the devil. If
THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN 109
the children are not converted your work is a failure.
The conversion may not alwayst be immediate. It
takes time to effect real conversion, and sometimes the
fruit may not appear until years after, but if there is
not converting power in your work either now or
ultimately, your work has been a failure. That there
may be converting power in our work we must have
the Holy Ghost. It is not enough that we know the
lesson, it is not enough that we understand all these
new-fangled ways of teaching and interesting the
scholars, we must have the Holy Ghost. Ah! the
teacher that knows nothing about using the blackboard
and that sort of thing, but knows the power of the
Spirit, is worth a hundred who have gone to all the
schools of methods and can draw as well as Frank
Beard himself, but don't know the power of the
Holy Ghost.
4. We should hold special meetings for children.
In these meetings as the children come in they should
be placed in classes of four or five, with a teacher at
the end of each class. There should be first a class of
boys and then a class of girls. This will prevent dis-
order and noise. There should be a good deal of sing-
ing, and the hymns should be bright and fresh and of
a character that the children can understand. They
should be taught the hymns verse by verse, and the
meaning of the hymns should be explained. Hymns
setting forth God's love and the atoning death of
Christ should be especially used. Children enjoy sing-
ing the same verse over and over again until the truth
has sunk itself way down into their hearts.
The sermon should be short and simple, emphasizing
the great facts, that all, including children, are sin-
no THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN
ners, and that Jesus has borne our sin in His own body
on the tree. It should be made very clear just what
one must do to be saved. When the sermon is over,
there should be a few moments of silent prayer, then
the conductor of the meeting should lead in a simple
direct prayer to God, having the children follow him
audibly, sentence by sentence. When this is done,
each teacher of a class should deal personally with
each child in the class, seeking to bring each one to an
immediate and intelligent acceptance of Christ as Sav-
ior. I have found this prayer, that is simple and
easily remembered, of great help :
••Jesus take this heart of mine,
Make it pure, and wholly thine.
Thou hast bled and died for me,
I will henceforth live for thee."
(For further description of how to conduct children's
meetings, see chapter on "Decision Day in the Sunday
School.")
I.— THE IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR
WORK
OPEN-AIR MEETINGS OF WILLIAM EVANS
This is seen by the indisputable fact that the great-
est and most influential preachers and teachers of the
ages past, and the age in which we now live, have made
constant use of it.
The messages of the prophets were delivered in the
open air. God's call to the prophet was: "Go, pro-
claim these words in the streets of the city" (Jer. ii : 6).
The sublime evangelical predictions of Isaiah; the
mournful dirges of Jeremiah; the symbolical and pic-
turesque visions of Ezekiel — all these, for the most
part, were announced in the streets of the great cities
of Jerusalem and Babylon. Throughout the streets of
Nineveh resounded the warning voice of the prophet
Jonah. The message of Micah, Nahum, and the rest
of the minor prophets was, without question, "a song
of the winds." Nehemiah's great revival sermon — a
sermon which resulted in an almost national revival —
was preached in the street of Jerusalem, close to the
water-gate. (Neh. 8: i, 3.)
The open-air worker and preacher of to-day, then,
is in **the goodly order of the prophets."
The Apostles of Jesus Christ were noted open-air
workers. The command of their Lord and Master
112 IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK
was: "Go out into the streets of the city, and say.'*
Paul's greatest sermon — that masterstroke of homilet-
ics — was delivered in the open air, preached on Mars
Hill. Peter's "Magnum Opus," that great pentecos-
tal sermon, was delivered in the streets of the great
metropolis of Palestine. The Apostles of our Lord were
great street-preachers, and the open-air workers of to-
day are not only in "the goodly order of the prophets,"
they are also "in the goodly fellowship of the Apos-
tles, ' ' even though they have not the honor of being
Episcopalians.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Exemplar of
Christianity, was a great open-air worker. His great-
est sermon, the "Magna Charta" of our holy religion,
that incomparable code of Christian ethics, that Ser-
mon on the Mount, was delivered with the hillside for
a pulpit and with the sky for a sounding-board. That
our Lord was noted for street-preaching is implied
from the fact that in the record of the last judgment,
recorded in Matthew, twenty-fifth chapter, those being
judged exclaimed: "Didst thou not preach in our
streets?" He who engages in street-preaching and
open-air work is following in the footsteps of his Mas-
ter. Beloved, the call to open-air work comes to us
one and all just as new and just as true to-day as when
the sands of Galilee were fresh with His footprints and
the temple's marble pavement echoed with His tread.
The Church of England sustains a great many open J
air preaching-stations. Noted among the men who
preach at these stations are the Bishop of Bedford and
Lord Radstock. Many of the prominent ministers
and laymen of the Established Church are often to be
seen conducting these services. In Whitechapel, Lon-
IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK 113
don, there is a pulpit built in the wall, from which
some clergyman addresses those who come to hear.
The Presbyterians of London are also very aggres-
sive in this line of work. They have a standing com-
mittee appointed to take charge of open-air work there.
The famous Presbyterian preacher, John McNeil, may
be heard preaching in the open-air meetings.
Spurgeon, the greatest preacher of the century, was
an indefatigable open-air worker. Read his lectures to
students, and see what rousing talks he gives them on
this kind of work. When asked one day what he
thought of ■ this kind of work, he said: "Give us all
you can of it; the more the better." Whitefield,
Wesley , Moody, Meyer — in fact, the best men and
preachers the age has produced for the ministry of the
Gospel, have been and are open-air workers.
One of the laws of the Presbytery of Glasgow is that
every minister, once a month, shall obey the command
of the Lord Jesus Christ and "go out into the high-
ways and the hedges and compel sinners to come in. * *
I feel constrained to say that I think this would be a
good thing for all our Theological Seminaries, our
Bible Institutes, our Training Schools for Christian
work to insist on. 1 hope to see the day — yea, I
believe it is not far distant — when every such institu-
tion shall have in its possession and for its constant use
a Gospel wagon and a Gospel tent; that a place shall
be provided in their faculties for a teacher and pro-
fessor of open-air work ; and that it shall be considered
a part of the training of every student for the ministry
of the Evangel of Jesus Christ to go out into the
streets and preach the Gospel to the masses, and thus
follow the example of Him who brushed the dew from
114 IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK
the Judean lilies as He went about doing good and
preaching the Gospel of the kingdom.
IL— THE VALUE OF OPEN-AIR WORK
I use the word value, not in the sense of the com-
parative worth of this kind of Christian work to that of
any other branch of the same work. I use the word
in the sense of utility — as to what its value is to every
one who engages in it.
/. // will enable you to reach people you could not
otherwise reach.
This is true with regard to both quality and quantity.
Your audiences will be composed of people moral and
immoral, church-going and non church-going, righteous
and unrighteous, honest and dishonest ; the father and
the debauchee, the mother and the harlot, old and
young, male and female, national and international.
There will be a goodly representation of all sorts and
conditions of both men and women. Such a hetero-
geneous assembly, such a motley crowd, would not
and could not be gathered into any church in the land
— no, not even in our so-called institutional churches.
Then, as to quantity — as to numbers. Just look at
the crowds you can reach! Some of our ministers who
have only a handful to preach to might have hundreds
if they would go out into the open air and preach.
There is no need, in this day of our Lord, of our min-
isters complaining because they cannot get a large con-
gregation to preach to. If you want an audience, you
can find one anywhere. I think it would be a good
thing, when, during the excessive heat of the summer
months, our evening services are so poorly attended —
IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK 115
I think it would be a good thing to close the church
that contains but the handful and go out into the
parks, into the streets, where are the multitudes and
there preach to them the Gospel of the grace of God.
This, then, is one value of this feature of Christian
work — you will reach people you would not and could
not otherwise reach.
2, It ivill enable you to reach men.
That is the great problem every minister of the Gos-
pel has to face to-day — how to get hold of the men.
Our audiences are composed very largely of women.
They are in the great majority. We are glad the
women are there. We thank God for the godly
women of the churches, and we esteem it to be a glori-
ous privilege to preach to these mothers of the nation.
But we want, and we ought to have, men. When Jesus
Christ called His disciples to follow Him in His work
and labor of love. He said: "From henceforth ye shall
catch men.'' We ought to have as many men as women
in our audiences each Lord's Day. This may not be a
possibility in some towns and states where the census
shows many more women than men ; but it is possible
in this city. If you cannot get hold of the men in your
church, then go out into the streets and get hold of
them there. You will find your audiences to be com-
posed almost wholly of men.
J. It will give you freedom of speech not always pos-
sible in the pulpit of your church.
How often we preachers have to take the sharp cor-
ners off some of our sentences because such might
offend Mr. Brown, or Mrs. Smith! How aimless are
some of our sermons because of that very thing! I
remember reading of a plain but godly preacher being
ii6 IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK
asked to preach in a fashionable city church. Just
before the hour for the service one of the church
people came to him and said: "Brother Williams, I
understand that you preach against Christians playing
cards. May I suggest to you that you refrain from
mentioning that this morning, because Deacon G
indulges in the game and has a weekly card-party at
his house. He might be offended and leave the church
if you were to speak against card-playing." Hardly a
minute had passed before another one came and asked
him not to preach against the dance, and another not
to preach against the theater. Feeling somewhat at a
loss to know what to do and say, he said to one of these
men: "What would you suggest that I preach about,
then?" The church-member turned to him and said,
"Give the Jews hail Columbia; there's not one within
forty miles of here. ' ' This story may be true or it
may not be. It illustrates my point, however, and
that is, that we oftentimes are restricted in our speech
from the pulpit. In the open-air work you need not
be so sparing. You can be more pointed in your
preaching. You can say things there that you would
not dare say, and which would not be wise to say, from
the pulpit of your church. That may be the only time
you will have the privilege and opportunity of speak-
ing to or seeing those people, hence you can say some
striking things to them.
^. It will give you good development of the lungs.
This is not a thing to be lightly esteemed. More
than you or I have ever imagined depends on possessing
good lungs. I feel no diffidence in saying that if we
had more open-air preachers we would have fewer con-
sumptive preachers. Instead of the weak, thin,
- IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK 117
squeaky, collar-button voice, characteristic of so many
preachers to-day, and which is an intolerable nuisance
to listen to, you would have good strong lungs, and a
voice rich, full and resonant; one which it would
be a pleasure rather than a pain to listen to.
III.— THE NATURE OF THE OPEN-AIR
MEETING
Under this heading I will include the Speaker, the
Time, the Place, the Order of the Meeting.
/. The speaker.
He ought to be the best man that can be had for the
place, or that the place can afford. The Bible says:
*' Wisdom crieth aloud in the streets." Mark that.
Wise ones, not fools, cry aloud in the streets. If there
is one place in the world that you need to have a man
of tact, it is in the open-air meeting. Banish from your
minds the false thought that any kind of an inexperi-
enced man will do. Such a man will never hold a
crowd on tjie street-corner. He might possibly hold
one in a church where, for propriety's sake, they would
not get up and go out. The street-audience, however,
is not bound by any such etiquette. If you are not
interesting and tactful you cannot hold an audience.
You can get an audience. Yes! — a fool star-gazing can
do that. It is one thing to get an audience, however,
and it is another thing to hold it. It is still another
and a greater thing to hold it and to impress it with the
saving truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. London
puts into her street-preaching such men as Spurgeon,
John McNeil, Newman Hall. America can afford to do
no less. Now, do not misunderstand me on this point
ii8 IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK
and infer that I mean that none but the best preachers
should preach in the open air. That is not my point.
I am seeking to do away with the false ideas so prev-
alent among mission-workers, and that is, that any
man will do to speak in the open air.
Then he must be a patient man. He must have
the patience of Job and the hide of a rhinoceros.
He must be invulnerable to attack, proof against
ridicule ; one that shall be able to return blessing for
cursing, and a smile for a frown. In short, he must
be a man who has complete control of his temper.
He must keep his equilibrium. To lose that is defeat.
It means a death-blow to all that he has said in the
meeting. If anywhere, here more, is it true that, *'a
soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words
stir up anger. * '
2. The nature of the meeting.
There ought to be good singing. Song is a drawing
card. There are very few people in this world who do
not love singing. Music makes life worth the living.
I knew an individual who did not care for music or
song — he is the only man of that sort I have ever met
— he was a bachelor, he always will be, he ought to
be. He was the sourest individual I ever met in my
life. He was as sour as a pickle. Thank God, his
number is not legion. The overwhelming majority
of people love singing and will walk many a mile to
hear it, too. I was walking down a certain street the
other day and I noticed, that, as person after person
came to a certain house each one stopped and, look-
ing up to a third-story window, seemed as if they were
listening to something. I followed their example, and
soon found myself with the crowd listening to the
IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK 119
words of a beautiful hymn. Brethren, music draws
people. Do not forget that. Remember, it is true
not only for outdoor work, but also for indoor work.
It is a good thing to have an organ accompaniment. I
prefer a cornet accompaniment^ however. Its tone-
carrying qualities are much better. I preached on the
Boston Common a few weeks ago. They had a cornet
leading the singing. I was able to hear it at a very
great distance from the platform. It drew a great
many people. Mr. Moody recognized this fact. I
remember, during the World's Fair year, when Mr.
Moody was preaching in Forepaugh's mammoth tent,
he wrote me a letter asking me to come and assist in
the singing with my cornet. Said he: ** Towner has a
good strong voice, but nothing but a cornet will carry
the lead in such a large tent. ' '
Then the address — if you choose to call it such —
should be interesting and picturesque. Get crammed
full of good illustrations; not from books, but from
life. If there is anything that is stale it is one of those
illustrations culled from some cyclopedia of illustra-
tions. The world is full of illustrations. Get them !
Keep your eyes and ears open : observe the signs of the
times; interpret present-day events; get illustrations
from every-day life, and you will never be a dull,
uninteresting speaker. That is what our Lord did.
Read the sermons He delivered in the Temple and in
the synagogues, and you will notice that they do not
abound in illustrations, as do those delivered in the
open air. There is a wonderful lesson in this thought
for the street-preacher.
Do not be dogmatic.
Paul says: ''Beware of dogs:" Someone else has
I20 IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK
added to that, *' Beware of dogmatists!" If you have
any hairs to split, split them before you go out into
the open air to preach Christ. Do not hit at denomi-
nations, but preach Jesus Christ crucified and risen
from the dead. I know an open-air worker who
scarcely ever holds a meeting but what he pounds the
Roman Catholics almost to death. Many Christian
workers are themselves responsible for the trouble they
have in open-air work. If a man preaches Christ, and
preaches Him in a loving spirit and tone, nine times
out of ten he will get a quiet and respectful hearing.
Do not make long addresses. Do not preach long
sermons. Rather be too short than too long. I think
ten minutes should be the limit for one speaker. Have
more than one speaker. Variety is the spice of life.
This is especially true in open-air work. Let your talk
be studied before you go to the meeting. This is not
at all contrary to one's dependence upon the Holy
Spirit for the message. This thing of taking a pas-
sage of Scripture which belongs to the Apostles only,
and that under certain peculiar circumstances, and
applying it to ourselves is all wrong. Some men have
taken that passage in the Gospel, "It shall be given
you in that hour what ye shall speak, " as a Scripture
that can be taken as a ground for no previous prepara-
tion for preaching. This is all wrong. If I have been
so busy in the service of the Master that I have not
had the time to prepare, or if I am called on unexpect-
edly to speak, then I believe that passage will be ful-
filled in my experience ; then I can open my mouth
wide and God will fill it with good words — words of
power. In cases where I could have prepared, but was
too indolent to do so, my mouth will be filled with
IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK 121
wind, but surely not with good words. Inasmuch,
then, as it is harder to preach to people in the open air
than it is in the church, so much the more is it neces-
sary to be well prepared for street-preaching. Do not
refer to politics in your address. When you preach
the Gospel preach it in love. Do not engage in ham-
mer-and-tongs preaching. Few men can do that suc-
cessfully. Your audiences will be composed principally
of men who have been abused and cuffed about all
the day ; some who have been idle for weeks, and are
going home to a famished wife and starving children.
They will need a clear, kind word to cheer their hearts
and show them the way everlasting.
"Tell them the story of Jesus,
Impress on their hearts every word;
Tell them the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.
Tell how the angels in chorus
Sang as they welcomed His birth
Glory to God in the highest !
Peace and good tidings on earth !
•*Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,
Writhing in anguish and pain ;
Tell of the grave where they laid Him
Tell that He liveth again.
Love in that story most precious
Clearer than ever I see ;
Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
Love paid the ransom for me."
Now, just a word as to time and place. With regard
to the place, let me say if you want to catch fish go
where the fish are. You will find the street-corner,
the steps of some public building, the ship wharves,
the race-course on race days, the parks, especially on
122 IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK
Sundays — these you will find to be good places to hold
open-air meetings. Many preachers are in the habit of
holding an open-air meeting right on the steps of their
churches just before the evening service. This is a
good plan, because you can immediately, on the con-
clusion of that meeting, invite them into the church to
attend the evening service. This is the method the
great preacher, Newman Hall, of London, used. He
did this for many years. I think this is a good way to
get a good audience on a hot night.
As to the time. That will depend altogether on cir-
cumstances. Some people like to hold open-air meet-
ings in the daytime. That is a good time. You can
catch people then that you would not catch at any
other time. Others, and this is especially true of open-
air workers in England, prefer the nighttime for these
meetings. They hold them after sunset. They "love
darkness rather than light" in this respect. I think a
great many of the people they preach to in these meet-
ings do also. There are some people who would not
stop to listen to an open-air address in the daylight.
They naturally shrink from it. Others do not want to
be seen at such a gathering. The Nicodemuses are
not all dead yet. One of the common recollections of
my earlier life in England is that of seeing, on each
Sunday evening, groups of people at the principal street
comers of the city of Liverpool, under the light of the
torch lamp, listening to the story of the Cross. Men
who will not patronize an open-air meeting in the
daytime will steal up under cover of darkness and
listen to your story, and perhaps be touched. Breth-
ren, if the people will not come to the evening service,
then take the evening service out Jo them.
IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK 123
IV.— AND, FINALLY, RESULTS OF OPEN-AIR
WORK
I speak now especially of spiritual results. In the
first place, they cannot be counted in figures. I do not
believe much in figures, anyway.
"So you believe in figures. I do not.
Where do all large ideas, all great aims,
All schemes that uplift humanity, have birth?
In the majority? Ah, no, my friend;
In the minute minority of one.
In God, Heaven, Man, one is best."
To have the privilege of leading a man like C. H.
Spurgeon or D. L. Moody to Christ means to be the
indirect cause of leading thousands to the foot of the
Cross.
The results of open-air work are, for the most part,
never known to the workers. The present Bishop of
Liverpool was converted while listening to a talk given
at an open-air meeting. He does not know the name
of the man who spoke the word of life that night, and
the man who spoke the word does not know that it
touched the Bishop's heart and was the means of lead-
ing him to Christ. That man might have gone home
that night and said to himself: "Well, what is the use
of preaching in the open air anyway? Nobody seems
to be converted. I see no results of my work. ' ' Yet
how different was the case ! He had that night added
one more jewel to the diadem of our Lord. One man
at least will meet him in the everlasting habitations,
and say: "It was through your instrumentality that I
was led to become a Christian." Preaching in open-air
work is like casting bread upon the waters. It is a
124 IMPORTANCE OF OPEN-AIR WORK
work of faith. And that man who has not the most
implicit faith in God's Word — that it will not return to
Him void — had better not preach that word. Not
time, but eternity alone will reveal the true results of
the work.
We are allowed, however, now and then to see its
results. I was at a home missionary meeting- the other
evening, and noticed that two churches reported that
they had been holding open-air meetings right near
their churches, and that in one case sixteen and in the
other twenty-three members had been added to the
church through these meetings, held during the sum*
mer months.
Brethren, preach the Word in faith and power.
That, and that alone, is our duty; leave the results
with God. If it is wise to let you see them He will do
it; if you do not see them as you would like to, still
plod on, always remembering that *'he that goeth
forth with weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubt-
less come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves
with him."
THE USE OF TRACTS AND OTHER
LITERATURE TO PROMOTE
A REVIVAL
REV. H. W. POPE
The indiscriminate use of tracts by those whose zeal
exceeds their wisdom has led many good people to
have a strong prejudice against them. The character
of the tracts used has also strengthened this prejudice.
Some tracts are so antiquated as to be almost useless
in the present age. They were good in their day, but
their day has gone by. Others are so lacking in pith,
point or power as to be of little value. To use a
modern phrase, they do not '*get there." Others still
are so offensive in style as to defeat the very end for
which they were written.
It is foolish, however, to allow prejudice against
poor tracts to blind us to the value of good ones. And
good ones can be had. The choicest thoughts of the
best writers can now be found in leaflet form, and
there is moral dynamite enough in some of them to
shatter terribly the strongholds of Satan. Indeed, the
Bible itself is only a collection of sixty-six little tracts
bound in one volume; for, as someone has said, *'holy
men of God wrote small books on great subjects."
Making due allowance for unwisdom in the use of
tracts and for the inferior quality of many that are
used, it yet remains true that a great deal of good has
125
126 THE USE OF TRACTS
been done by them. Many a soul has been awakened
by one of these little "leaves of healing'* which the
Holy Spirit has blown into the hand at just the right
moment.
A man stepped into a street-car in New York, and
before taking his seat gave to each passenger a little
card bearing the inscription: "Look to Jesus when
tempted, when troubled, when dying." One of the
passengfers carefully read the card and put it into his
pocket. As he left the car he said to the giver: "Sir,
when you gave me this card I was on my way to the
ferry, intending to jump from the boat and drown
myself. The death of my wife and son had robbed me
of all desire to live, but this card has persuaded me to
begin life anew. Good-day, and God bless you!"
Doubtless many people smiled when these cards
were distributed, but who will smile on the day when
the Book of Life is opened?
* Though scoffers ask, ' Where isyour gain? *
And mocking say, * Your work is vain, *
These scoffers die and are forgot,
Work done for GOD, it dieth not.
•• Press on, press on, nor doubt nor fear,
Through every age these words may cheer;
Whate'er may die and be forgot.
Work done for GOD, it dieth not."
We adore the kind Providence that led Philip to
cross the path of the Ethiopian at the very moment
when he was needed, but we forget that the same
thing occurs every day. There is no such thing as
chance in God's world, and those who seek to be led
by the Spirit often find themselves messengers of
THE USE OF TRACTS 137
mercy to some weary soul. A lady once traveled
nearly two hundred miles to tell the writer personally
how a little leaflet that he had given her the year
before led her to conversion. By the use of a similar
card a young man was led to give his heart to the
Lord, and through his influence both his father and
mother were brought into the Master's service. A
Christian worker in Nottingham, England, tells the
following incident: *'I was called to see a dying
woman. I found her rejoicing in Christ, and asked
her how she found the Lord. 'Reading that,' she
replied, handing me a torn piece of paper. I looked
at it, and found that it was a part of an American
newspaper containing an extract from one of Spur-
geon's sermons. 'Where did you find this newspaper?'
I asked. She answered: 'It was wrapped around a
parcel sent me from Australia. * Think of that ! — a ser-
mon preached in London, conveyed to America, then
to Australia, part of it torn off for the parcel dis-
patched to England, and after all its wanderings giv-
ing the message of salvation to that woman's soul!
Truly God's Word shall not return unto Him void."
PEOPLE WHO SHOULD USE TRACTS
There are at least five classes of people who can use
tracts to advantage.
First, ministers. Some ministers make constant use
of them in their pastoral work. They open the way
for conversation, and oftentimes they are better than
words, for a soul in exercise will sometimes quarrel
with the one talking to him. but could hardly quarrel
with a tract. A tract never gets out of patience, never
128 THE USE OF TRACTS
answers back, and it sticks to what it has said. In
many places where a Christian could not enter, a tract
can slip in and speak a word for Christ. The sick, the
aged and, above all, the boys and the girls, appreciate a
leaflet adapted to their condition. Other pastors use
tracts to supplement their preaching. The tract
recalls the sermon and deepens the impression made.
A judicious use of the right kind of tracts has in some
cases been a mighty factor in promoting a revival.
HOW REV. EDWARD JUDSON USES TRACTS
During a ministerial experience of twenty years this
very successful pastor has made constant use of
tracts. He seldom makes a pastoral call without
having in his pocket an assortment of tracts adapted to
almost every member of the family, and especially to
the children. In this way he leaves behind him
definite souvenirs of his visit and seeds of truth which
will bring forth fruit later on. Then each tract
generally, has printed on it the notice of his services,
and acts as a constant invitation to church.
At the close of the Sunday-evening preaching serv-
ice he has often put some good brother in the chair,
and while the meeting proceeds he goes down into the
audience and gives to each person a choice leaflet, at
the same time improving the opportunity to say a
timely word. In this way he comes into personal
touch with the whole audience, gives every stranger a
cordial welcome and leaves in his hand some mes-
sage from God.
At least once a year he selects some one tract that
has in it the very core of the Gospel. On this he
THE USE OF TRACTS 129
prints a notice of the services and, selecting his
church as a center, he has this tract put into the hands
of every person living within half a mile in each direc-
tion, regardless of creed or condition. He sometimes
uses ten thousand tracts at one distribution a^d finds
it very fruitful in results.
A second class is business men. Some business men
use them constantly, passing them out when the right
person appears, or inclosing them in packages of
goods. Ticket agents give them out with tickets.
One agent says that twenty persons wrote to him that
they had been converted by the tracts he had given
them. I remember a business man who said to me:
**1 am a timid man and cannot speak in meeting, but
if you will buy some good literature I will pay for it
and enclose it with our packages of goods. * ' He dealt
largely with fishing- vessels, and thus he *'cast his
bread upon the waters. ' ' Recently I read of a drum-
mer who stopped in St. Louis and called on a merchant
to sell him some diamonds. The merchant said: '*I do
not need anymore diamonds." "Never mind," said
the drummer, *'I am going to show you my goods, if
you have no objections." He opened his case, and
exhibited his wares so attractively that in a short time
he sold the man a bill of goods in spite of himself.
Then closing up his samples, he said: **Now I have
something to show you better than all these. Here is
something very choice ; it is the pearl of great price. ' *
And pulling out a little pocket Bible, he said: **Are
you a Christian, my friend?" And then for a few
moments he talked Jesus Christ to him in the same
earnest way he had talked of diamonds before. Mix
religion with your business. Let the two go hand in
ISO THE USE OF TRACTS
hand. I believe in doing as did the blacksmith in
southern Vermont, who, after he was converted, was
asked to shoe a horse on Sunday. *'No, sir!" said he.
*'I am a Christian now, and I do not work on Sunday.*'
The man met him with an oath, but he replied: **Hold
on, friend ! you can't swear in this place. I want you to
understand that this is a Gospel shop. * * So should we
maintain a Christian atmosphere in every place which
we control, and not allow anything to be said or done
there which would displease our Master.
There is no better way of rebuking profanity than
by the use of little cards or leaflets prepared for this
purpose. Here is one man's testimony:
"The other evening I arrived at S , and walked
over to the hotel. I entered, and, after checking my
things, started to mail a letter, previous to going in to
supper. Between the coatroom and the mailbox
stood three traveling-men. Two of the number
swore, as they talked, imagining doubtless that they
were emphasizing their point more forcibly.
*' Overhearing them, and praying for guidance, I
took from my pocket some attractive cards, with differ-
ent colored backs, which had upon the reverse side,
*Why do you swear?' while underneath were four
Scripture texts against swearing. I walked toward
the group and, without uttering a word, threw the
cards out between my hands, with the backs up, and
offered them to the first drummer, a little fellow who
had sworn the most. He looked at me curiously,
reached out his hand and drew a card. I immediately
turned to the other man who had sworn, and offered
him the cards, and he drew one. Then, without pay-
ing any attention to the third man, or even looking at
THE USB OP TRACTS 131
him, I mailed my letter and started for the dining-
room, without having all this time spoken a word.
Turning the corner, I heard a shout of laughter from
the drummer who had not sworn, and knew my shot
had taken effect.
**I was just comfortably seated at the table, when
the little drummer came to the dining-room door and,
looking around, spied me at the table. He walked
right in and, coming up to where I sat, said: *Say, that
is the best rebuke I ever had in my life ; and I want to
say I'm sorry I spoke as I did and that I had no busi-
ness to do so. Could I get two or three of those cards?*
** *Yes, but be sure before you give them to anyone
that you set the example yourself by not swearing
again. '
*** All right, I will do so.'
**So I gave him the cards and he left. The follow-
ing Saturday I found my man in Albany in a large
retail grocery store. The minute he saw me he pulled
out one of the cards, showed it to the buyer of the
department, told him his experience and read the
upper text: *Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guilt-
less that taketh his name in vain. ' God not only used
His Word, as printed upon the cards, to rebuke this
man, but also used him as an instrument in His hands
all over the country in passing on the message to others. "
I know of many business men who use tracts con-
stantly, passing them out with a pleasant word to their
customers, or putting them in their correspondence.
One man who did the largest business of any firm in
his line between New York and Chicago, always had
one-half of his private desk devoted to a choice assort-
132 THE USE OF TRACTS
ment of tracts. A Chicago business man had a thou-
sand leaflets printed and scattered them among his
friends. Some time afterwards he received a letter
from another city asking him to plan to spend a Sun-
day there when he next passed through. He did so,
and was driven to a new church in the outskirts of the
city. *'What do you think of that?" asked his host.
**Why, that is a very pretty church, I think, but what
of it?" *'That church is the result of a tract which
you sent me some time ago. I read it and my soul
was so aroused by it that I read it in the Endeavor
Society, and it had the same effect upon them. As a
result we looked around to see what we could do for
the Master, and finally started a mission in an empty
store which has grown into this church. ' '
A business man in Brooklyn saw a tract lying on his
desk and, without much thought, put it into a letter
and mailed it. No sooner had he done this than the
devil whispered to him: *'You have made a fool of
yourself. What do you suppose that man will think of
you to put a religious tract in a business letter?" For
a moment he was ashamed and he turned to the Lord,
saying, "Was it a mistake?" Back came the answer:
*'Why would it not be a good idea to put a tract in
every letter you send?" "Lord, I will," was the
reply. This was in 1882, and a few days ago the man
told me that to the best of his knowledge he had never
sent out but one letter since without enclosing some
kind of Christian literature, and in that instance he
was ordering some goods and forgot to put one in, and
the goods proved to be the worst lot he ever received —
"Presumably," he said, "because I did not enclose a
tract."
THE USE OF TRACTS 133
A third class who can use tracts profitably is teach-
ers. The writer owes more to a district schoolteacher
than to all the professors he ever met in college or
seminary. Dr. Channing used to say: "There is no
office higher than that of a teacher of youth, for there
is nothing on earth so precious as the mind, soul and
character of a child." Professor Tyndall said: "If
there is one profession of paramount importance, I
believe it to be that of the schoolmaster."
Granted that the special work for which teachers are
employed is to educate the mind ; still, is it not their
duty also to lead them into the realms of spiritual
knowledge and, above all, to introduce them to the
Great Teacher, who said: "Take my yoke upon you,
and learn of me . . . and ye shall find rest unto your
souls. ' ' We all know that young people do not like to
have religion thrust upon them continually, but they
do, without exception, admire a manly Christian char-
acter, and they appreciate a loving interest in their
welfare and an occasional earnest word upon the subject.
Those who cannot talk freely with their pupils can,
at least, put into their hands the wise words of others ;
and who can estimate the good that would be done by
occasionally giving to each pupil a choice leaflet on
some vital subject? Old-fashioned tracts will not do
for boys. They need something down to date, some-
thing which sets forth in a terse and manly way the
attractions of the Christian life and the dangers which
beset the pathway of youth.
Another class of people who ought to use tracts is
housekeepers. Have them on the parlor table, so that
callers may read them while waiting. There is time
enough for a person to be converted while a lady is
134 THE USE OF TRACTS
finishing her toilet ; and time enough to backslide, too,
before some people get down to the parlor. Place
them in your guest-chamber, so that your friends will
have something to ti^rn their thoughts toward the
Blessed One. White Cross tracts will do your boys
and girls no harm, and even Bridget may absorb a
good deal of the Gospel through an innocent little
leaflet. Give them to the butcher and marketman,
always accompanied with a kind word and a prayer,
and God will not fail to bless them.
The last class which I wish to speak of embraces all
who were not included in the other four classes.
Tract work is one which everybody can engage in.
Here is something which all can do, old and young,
rich and poor. It is a business that does not require
much time or capital, but it does require tact and
prayerfulness and an earnest desire to be used of
God. Timid people can in this way **hold forth the
word of life. * *
How many people are mourning because they **do
not know what to say" — but here is a way by which
they always have something to say. Some who have
begun very timidly to engage in this silent evangeliza-
tion have become not only brave, but enthusiastic, and
by their efforts have enlisted many others in the same
work.
HOW TO USE LEAFLETS
That depends upon the person you are addressing.
First of all, you must know what you are using and
not be giving tracts on swearing to Sunday School
teachers or *' Growing Old Gracefully" to little chil-
dren. If you meet an acquaintance on the street you
THE USE OF TRACTS 135
can say to him, in a playful way, as you pass a
leaflet to him, ''Don't say that I never gave you any-
thing." Or you can say: "I have something here that
I think you will be interested in. Will you read it if
I give it to you?" To a stranger on the cars who has
no newspaper: "Would you like something to read?'*
Then it is an easy matter for you to inquire: *'What do
you think of it?" Sometimes you can interest people
in a leaflet by telling them some fact concerning it ; as,
for instance, you can say of Dr. Chickering's "What la
It to Believe on Christ?" "Here is a little book which
has a remarkable record. The author before he died
had the names of over seventeen hundred people who
had written him or told him personally that they
attributed their conversion to this tract."
Another way is to say: "Here is a little book that
has helped me. Perhaps you would enjoy it. " Leave
them in the cars when you travel, or on the parlor
table in the hotel. Give one to the waiter. He will
appreciate it and read it especially if you have pre-
viously shown your interest in him in some substantial
way. Never use cheap-looking tracts. They belittle
the cause you wish to help.
Never be ashamed of the work you are doing, but
act as if you were conferring a favor upon people,
which is really true if you are sowing good seed in a
Christian spirit.
I am convinced that churches and Christian workers
could greatly increase their influence by a more
liberal use of printer's ink. The methods of using
tracts are innumerable. Let each member be encour-
aged to keep on hand a choice supply to inclose in his
letters. After a missionary sermon, let there be given
136 THE USE OF TRACTS
to each person as he passes out a good tract bearing
upon benevolence or missions. Tracts on temperance
or narcotics may be wisely distributed in the Sunday
School. Visit the jail, almshouse or hospital, and give
to each inmate an occasion to thank God on your
behalf. It is said that there is a gentleman in France
who watches the obituary column in the morning
papers and sends to the bereaved ones little tracts
adapted to their situation. Some railroad companies
will allow a box to be kept in the station filled with
good literature for the use of waiting passengers.
Occasionally select a good tract and, printing upon it
the name of your church, Sunday School or Endeavor
Society, with an invitation to attend the services, can-
vass the whole neighborhood, leaving a tract at every
house. Have a rubber stamp for this purpose.
Accompany each tract with a silent prayer that God's
blessing may attend it. Make yourself familiar with
what you distribute in order that you may bestow
them wisely, and remember that if you trust Him the
Holy Spirit will guide you in every detail of this work.
Some tracts will doubtless be wasted, just as many a
sermon fails to reach the hearts of careless hearers ;
but we are encouraged to **sow beside all waters," and
we never know on what soil the good seed may fall.
One thing we do know, however, and that is that Jesus
will appreciate the effort, for He hath said: "Inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my
brethren, ye have done it unto me. ' '
USEFUL IN OPENING CONVERSATION
It is not an easy matter to open conversation on the
subject of religion, especially with a stranger, but a
THE USE OF TRACTS 137
leaflet will often open the way very happily. I sat
down beside a stranger in a railroad car. He called
my attention to a fire which had occurred the night
before, and then went on to speak of his own experi-
ence in having a factory burned and the difficulty
which he had in collecting his insurance. When he
had finished talking I handed him a card saying: "If
you insure in that company you never have any trouble
in securing your money." The card contained the
question: "Are you Insured in the Ev^erlasting Life
Insurance Company?" with an attractive description
of its advantages. After he had read it I asked him if
he had ever taken a policy in that company. He said:
"No, I never did, and it is a strange thing that I
haven't, too. My family are all Christians, and if any
man ever tried hard to get hold of it I am the man.
Perhaps you can tell me wherein I failed to grasp it."
The result was a delightful talk on how to become a
Christian and, as he left me, he thanked me warmly for
the help I had given him. Think of it! two entire
strangers sit down together and, in five minutes' time,
each is laying bare his heart to the other on the most
sacred of all subjects. Without that leaflet to open the
way, it would have been well-nigh impossible.
USEFUL TO CLOSE CONVERSATION
Often a conversation is interrupted by the entrance
of a third party, or the lack of time, and one has to
leave before he has finished what he had to say. In
such cases an appropriate tract will carry on the con-
versation and perhaps lead the soul to Christ. Riding
X38 THE USE OP TRACTS
on a train, I fell into conversation with a stranger.
He said that he was a skeptic and was puzzled to know
which of the many different religions was the best.
*'The Mohammedans say their prophet is the one to
follow, and the Chinese have another, and the Mor-
mons another. I suppose you would say that Jesus
Christ is the one to worship. " I said: **My friend, did
you ever embrace any of these religions?" **No, I
never did, ' he replied. ** Don't you think it would be
better for you if you would? If you think Moham-
medanism is the true religion, give your heart to
Mohammed ; and if you can get salvation from it, well
and good. If that fails, try Buddhism, or become a
Mormon, and if these do not satisfy, then become a
Christian." There is a fable which tells of a horse
which stood between two stacks of hay, each of which
was so fragrant that he could not tell which to bite
from, and so he stood there and starved to death
because he could not decide which to choose. This
man was in precisely the same position on the subject
of religion, and I tried to make him see it and realize
that he was starving his soul because he could not
decide which to choose. As I urged him to embrace
some religion, and that, too, without delay, he said:
**My friend, there is a good deal of truth in what you
say. I am sorry I have to leave you for this is my
station. I hope we shall meet again." I put into his
hand Dr. Chickering's tract, "What Is It to Believe on
Christ," and Mr. Torrey's "Life Card," both of which
make the way of life plain to any honest inquirer.
The man had to leave me just as he was becoming
interested, but the tracts enabled me to carry on the
conversation even after he had left me. On the same
THE USE OF TRACTS 139
journey I had an opportunity to talk with two other
unsaved men without leaving my seat and, in each
instance, just as they became really interested, they
had to leave the train. In both cases, however, I gave
them an appropriate leaflet which would preach to them
long after I had to stop.
USEFUL TO COUNTERACT INFIDELITY
There is much infidel literature in circulation among
the factory population, and thousands of pernicious
books and pamphlets are scattered among the schools
of the land. Unless Christians do something to coun-
teract this influence we are allowing the devil a very
g^eat advantage. In some cases the young people's
societies have done excellent work in the spread of
good literature.
How tracts can be used to counteract error was well
illustrated in Portland. Col. Robert Ingersoll came
there and lectured, it is said, to fifteen hundred people.
Christians could not hinder it, but they could and did
do something to counteract his influence. At the sug-
gestion of one of the ministers, eighteen Christian
Endeavorers stood at the door of the hall on the night
of the lecture and gave to each person as they came
out a copy of Rev. H. L. Hasting's address, **Will the
Old Book Stand?" A more powerful refutation of
Ingersoll's talk could hardly be found, and his attacks
upon the Bible would make them all the more eager to
see what could be said upon the other side. Wherever
any apostle of infidelity appears, let Christian people
answer his arguments in the same effective way.
I40 THE USE OF TRACTS
USEFUL IN PROMOTING A REVIVAL
The first thing to do in promoting a revival is to
awaken the spirit of prayer and expectation, and to
set Christians talking about Jesus Christ and the Great
Salvation. Suppose a minister, or, better still, all the
ministers in the place, preach on a given Sunday on
the same subject, ** Prayer,** and at the close of the
sermon let each minister say to his people that as they
go out of the house they will receive at the door a
choice leaflet on the theme of the sermon. Let him
urge them to read it and pass it on to someone else.
If they wish more of the same kind they can obtain
them of such a person. In this way the whole town
will be led to talk and think about the same subject all
the week. The next Sunday let the ministers all
preach on Repentance or Conversion or Sin or the
Holy Spirit and follow the sermon with a good tract
on the same subject. In a little while scores of people
will be found using tracts to supplement their conver-
sation, and in their correspondence, and a deeper in-
terest in spiritual work will be awakened.
RESULTS OF TRACT WORK
While Barnum's circus was in Brooklyn a member of
the troupe came into the prayer meeting of the Grace
Baptist Church. He paid very close attention and, at
the close of a hymn, he arose and said, with a voice
full of emotion: *'I have never heard that hymn since
I heard it in Sunday School the day before I ran away
with the circus. I was then nine years old ; I am now
fifty. During all these years I have led a life of sin,
THE USE OF TRACTS 141
and the only thing I had to remind me of my innocent
childhood was a little tract given me in Sunday School
the day before I ran away. I was led to come here
to-night by seeing the light in the windows, and I want
you to pray that if there is any mercy for such a sinner
as I am the Lord Jesus may save me." He went
home that night rejoicing in a Savior. He began at
once to work among the members of his troupe, giv-
ing them tracts and inviting them to come to church,
and of those who came one professed to be saved, and
another, of his own accord, asked the prayers of God's
people. A good report has since been heard from the
first man, who, through all those forty-one years' had
treasured that little souvenir of his Sunday School days.
A pastor gave a tract to a young man who came tc
call on him. He was converted, and then his fathei
and mother, and all three became active workers in
the cause of Christ.
A servant girl in New York placed a searching leaflet
on the dressing-case of her mistress. Her attention
was arrested, her heart touched and, though a woman
of wealth and a leader in fashionable society, she
became a humble Christian and devoted her splendid
talents to the Lord, ever after giving much of her time
to the distribution of tracts.
I know of many instances, and I think it is safe to
say that more than two-thirds of those who publish
tracts have been led to engage in this work through
some personal benefit received from tracts themselves.
A lady in Virginia writes us that in reading the
King's Business she came upon an article on '*The
Use of Tracts," and sent at once for the appended list.
At first she gave them out very timidly, but so eager
i4a THE USE OF TRACTS
were the people for them that now she can hardly keep
any by her. "Last night I was talking with a poor
wretched man who has hitherto evaded me, but now
manifests a deep interest in his salvation, and, on
inquiring the reason of the change, found that he had
been reading some tracts which I gave to a neighbor
of his some months ago.
**Last fall I sent out two hundred tracts to the
employes on the Pulaski Division of the Norfolk &
Western R. R. Returning here in May, I was told by
an engineer that the tracts had been read and passed
from hand to hand until literally worn out, and there
had been at least ten conversions among the trainmen.
**I am but a beginner in this work, with no training,
and no methods, but I go on my knees for all I need
to know, and ask God for opportunities, and for the
wisdom and power of the Holy Ghost. All the time
and everywhere I go I find the way opening till, in
view of the great need of workers, I am constrained to
cry out: 'Lord, send forth more laborers into the har-
vest. * All my work is by littles, so little that I can-
not tell much about it, and yet I do know of quite a
number who have been converted. My eyesight is so
poor that I seldom can write a letter, and read no book
but the Bible, but I pen a few words on the tracts
which are then sent forth on the wings of prayer. ' ' If
this feeble woman, an invalid in fact, can accomplish
so much for Christ in this way, what could others do
who have more strength?
A little boy belonging to a Sunday School in Phila-
delphia was telling a friend of an expected visit into
the country and what he was going to do there. **And
what do you expect to do for your heavenly Father?"
THE USE OF TRACTS 143
his friend asked. **Why, nothing," said the boy;
**what can such a boy as I do for God?" *'You can
do much," was the reply. "Now, I will give you a
bundle of tracts to take with you, and you can dis-
tribute them among your friends." He had not been
in the country many days when a boy in the neighbor-
hood asked him to help drive his cows home. Here
was his chance to use the tracts ; so, taking out one of
his silent preachers, he gave it to him, saying: *' Here's
something for you."
**What is it?" looking it over. **What is it?"
**It is something good to read," said the lad.
*'But I cannot read. Never mind, I'll take it home;
they can read it there. "
Some days after, the country boy met his city friend.
*'Well," said he, "that little book you gave me made a
great stir at our house, I tell you. ' '
"Did it, though? How do you mean?"
"Why," he replied, "they read the tract, and then
they read the Bible, and when Sunday came they
made me get out the old carriage and clean it up, and
then we all got in that could, and the rest got on
before and behind, and rode off to church. That
tract's done great things, I tell you."
Subsequently it was ascertained that this one tract
was the means of converting several souls.
PERSONAL WORK
R. A. TORREY
By personal work we mean hand-to-hand dealing
with individual men, women and children. This is the
most effective method of winning lost souls. The
Apostle Peter was brought to Jesus by the hand-to-
hand work of his brother Andrew. Andrew first
found Christ himself, then he went to Peter quietly
and told him of his great find, and thus he led Peter to
the Savior he himself had found. I do not know that
Andrew ever preached a sermon ; if he did it is not
recorded; but he did a great day's work when he led
his brother Peter to Jesus. Peter preached a sermon
that led to the conversion of 3,000 people, but where
would Peter's great sermon have been if Andrew had
not first led him to Christ by quiet personal work?
Mr. Kimball, the Boston business man, led D. L.
Moody, the young Boston shoe clerk, to the Savior.
Where would all Mr. Moody's wonderful work for
Christ have been if he himself had not been led to the
Savior by the faithful personal work of his Sunday
School teacher? I believe in preaching. It is a great
privilege to preach the Gospel, but this world can be
reached and evangelized far more quickly and thor-
oughly by personal work than by public preaching.
Indeed, it can only be reached and evangelized by per-
sonal work. When the whole church of Jesus Christ
shall rouse to its responsibility and privilege in this
matter, and every individual Christian become a per-
145
146 PERSONAL WORK
sonal worker, the evangelization of the world will be
close at hand. When the membership of any local
church shall rouse to its responsibility and privilege in
this matter, and each member become a personal
worker in the power of the Holy Spirit, a great revival
will be close at hand for the community in which that
church is located. Personal work is a work that wins
but little applause from men, but it accomplishes great
things for God.
There are many who think personal work beneath
their dignity and their gifts. A blind woman once
came to me and said, **Do you think that my blindness
will hinder me from working for the Master?" **Not
at all ; it may be a great help to you, for others seeing
your blindness will come and speak to you, and then
you will have an opportunity of giving your testimony
for Christ, and of leading them to the Savior." **0h,
that is not what I want," she replied. *'It seems to
me a waste of time when one might be speaking to five
or six hundred at once, just to be speaking to an indi-
vidual." I answered that the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ was able to speak to more than five thousand at
once, and yet He never thought personal work beneath
His dignity or His gifts. Indeed, it was the work the
Savior loved to do. We have more instances of our
Savior's personal work recorded in the Gospels than
of His preaching. The one who is above personal
work is above his Master.
I. ITS ADVANTAGES
Let us look at the advantages of personal work.
I. All can do it. In an average congregation there
are not more than four or five who can preach to edi-
fication. It would be a great pity, too, should all
PERSONAL WORK 147
attempt to become preachers; it would be a great
blessing if all would become personal workers. Any
child of God can do personal work, and all can learn to
do effective personal work. The mother who is con-
fined at home by multiplicity of home duties can still
do personal work, first of all with her own children,
and then with the servants in the home, with the
butcher, the grocer, the tramp who calls at the door,
in fact, with everybody who comes within reach. I
once knew a mother very gifted in the matter of bring-
ing her own children up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord, who lamented that she could not do some
work for Christ, I watched this woman carefully, and
found that almost every one who came to the house in
any capacity was spoken to about the Savior, and she
was, in point of fact, doing more for Christ in the way
of direct evangelistic work than most pastors.
Even the one shut up at home by sickness can do
personal work. As friends come to the sick bed, a
word of testimony can be given for Christ, or even an
extended conversation can be held. A little child of
twelve who was dying in the city of Minneapolis let
her light shine for the Master, and spoke among others
to a Godless physician, to whom, perhaps, no one else
had spoken about Christ. A poor girl in New York
City, who was rescued from the slums and died a year
or two afterwards, was used of God to lead about
one hundred men and women to Christ, while lying
upon her dying bed.
The servant girl can do effective and personal work.
Lord Shaftsbury, the great English evangelist, was
won to Christ in a Godless home by the effective work
of the nurse girl.
148 PERSONAL WORK
Traveling men have unusually good opportunities
for doing personal work, as they travel on the trains
from town to town, as they stop in one hotel after
another and go from store to store. A professional
nurse once came into my Bible class in Chicago, and at
the close of the meeting approached me and said:
* ' I was led to Christ by Mr. [a traveling man
connected with a large wholesale house]. I was in a
hotel parlor, and this gentleman saw me and walked
across the parlor and asked me if I was a Christian,
and when I told him I was not, he proceeded at once
to show me the way of life. I was so startled and
impressed to find a traveling man leading others to
Christ that I accepted Him as my Savior then and
there. He told me if I ever came to Chicago to come
to your Bible class." I have watched this woman for
years since, and she herself is a most devoted Christian
and effective worker.
How wonderful would be the results if all Christians
should begin to be active personal workers to the
extent of their ability! Nothing else would do so
much to promote a revival in any community, and in
the land at large. Every pastor should urge this duty
upon his people, train them for it, and see that they
doit
2. It can be done anywhere. There are but few
places where one can preach. There is no place where
one cannot do personal work. How often, as we pass
factories, engine houses, lodging houses and other
places where crowds are gathered, do we wish that we
might get into them and preach the Gospel, but gener-
ally this is impossible, but it is altogether possible to
go in and do personal work. Furthermore, we can do
PERSONAL WORK 149
personal work on the street, whether street meetings
are allowed or not. We can do personal work in the
homes of the poor and in the homes of the rich, in hos-
pitals, workhouses, jails, station houses, and all sorts
of institutions — in a word, everywhere.
3. It can be done at any time. The times when we
can have preaching services and Sunday Schools are
quite limited. As a rule, in most communities, we
cannot have services more than two or three days in
the week, and only three or four hours in the day, but
personal work can be done seven days in the week, and
any time of day or night. Some of the best personal
work done in this country in the last twenty years has
been done on the streets at midnight and after mid-
night. Those who love souls have walked the streets
looking for wanderers, and have gone into dens of vice
seeking the lost sheep, and hundreds upon hundreds of
them have thus been found.
4. // reaches all classes. There are large classes of
men that no other method will reach. There are the
shut-ins who cannot get out to church, the street-car
men, the policemen, railroad conductors, sleeping-car
men, firemen, the very poor and the very rich. Some
cannot and others will not attend church or cottage
meeting or mission meeting, but personal work reaches
them all.
5. // hits the 7nark. Preaching is necessarily gen-
eral ; personal work is direct and personal. There is
no mistaking who is meant, there is no dodging the
arrow, there is no possibility of giving what is said
away to some one else. Many whom even so expert a
Gospel preacher as Mr. Moody has missed have been
afterwards reached by personal work.
ISO PERSONAL WORK
6. It meets the definite need^ and every need of the
person dealt with. Even when men are aroused and
convicted, and perhaps converted by a sermon, per-
sonal work is necessary to bring out into a clear light
and into a satisfactory experience one whom the ser-
mon has thus aroused, convicted and converted.
7. // avails where other methods fail. One of my
best workers told me a few weeks ago that she had
attended church for years, and had wanted to become
a Christian. She had listened to some of the best-
known preachers, and still was unsaved, but the very
first inquiry meeting she went into she was saved
because some one came and dealt with her per-
sonally.
8. It produces very large results. There is no com-
parison whatever between what will be effected by
good preaching and what will be effected by constant
personal work. Take a church of one hundred mem-
bers; such a church under an excellent pastor would
be considered as doing an exceptionally good work if
on an average fifty were added annually to this mem-
bership. But suppose that that church was trained to
do personal work, and that fifty of the one hundred
members actually went at it. Certainly one a month
won to Christ by each one would not be a large
average. That would be six hundred a year instead of
the fifty mentioned above. A church of many mem-
bers, with the most powerful preaching possible, that
depends upon the minister alone to win men to Christ
by his preaching, would not accomplish anything like
what would be accomplished by a church with a com-
paratively poor preacher, where the membership
generally were personal workers.
PERSONAL WORK 151
II. HOW TO SUCCEED
Certain things are necessary to do effective personal
work, but these things which are necessary are within
the reach of every Christian.
1. The first is a clear knowledge of Christ as a per'
sonal Savior. Paul was an effective worker because
he himself knew Christ as his own Savior. He could
effectively bring others to Christ because he could say,
**This is a faithful saying and worthy of all accepta-
tion, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save
sinners, of whom I am chief. * *
A clear knowledge of Jesus as a personal Savior
includes three things: first, a knowledge of pardon
through the atoning blood of Christ ; second, victory
over sin through the risen Christ ; third, absolute sur-
render to Christ as Lord.
2. A clear and firm conviction that any man who has
not accepted Christ is lost. Jesus said, "I am come to
seek and to save that which was lost." It was this
clear apprehension and deep conviction that men were
lost that drove Him to work day and night to seek and
to save them. In like manner Paul tells us that he
ceased not to admonish men night and day with tears.
It was doubtless the conviction that men were lost that
urove him to those earnest efforts, and brought from
him those tears of compassion. The conviction that
men are lost will fill us with a desire for their salva-
tion, will make us tireless in our efforts to save them,
and will give pathos and power to our words as we
speak with them.
But how can we get this conviction? By the study
of the Word and faith in the Word. Deep convictions
come through knowledge of the truth. If one would
152 PERSONAL WORK
have a deep conviction that men are lost, he should
dwell upon this truth as set forth in the Word of God,
and ask God by His Holy Spirit to give this Word
truth and power in his heart and life. The conviction
that all men out of Christ are lost is largely missing in
professing Christians and even in ministers to-day, and
this goes far toward accounting for the powerlessness of
the average church-member and average minister as a
soul winner.
3. A practical knowledge of the Bible, The Bible is
the one instrument that God has appointed to produce
conviction of sin, and to bring men to faith in Jesus
Christ, and to regenerate. In order to be used of God
to produce conviction of sin, and to lead men to faith
in Christ, and to bring about the new birth in their
experience, we must know how to use our Bible so as
to produce these results. One may have a wide and
profound general knowledge of the Bible, and yet be
absolutely at sea in its practical use. In an after-
meeting I once asked one of the best-known and most
useful teachers of the Word of God in America to
speak with a woman and show her how to be saved,
and he replied, "I do not know how to do that." This
is something that every child of God ought to know,
and it is something that every child of God may know,
because there are books that tell very plainly just how
to do it.
4. Love, Nothing wins like love. It is the Savior
lifted up on the Cross, thus revealing His infinite love,
who draws men unto Him, and we, by our love to
men, can win them to the Savior. At the close of a
meeting in one of the suburbs of Chicago, the first
person that rose was a very large man. I was
PERSONAL WORK 153
attracted by his appearance, and afterwards spoke to
him. He told me that he had attended church and
prayer meeting for years, but had only gone to criti-
cise ; that when men would get up and speak in prayer
meeting he would take out his note book and "keep
tab on them, ' ' writing down what they said, and then
comparing it during the week with the way they lived.
At last he was taken very sick, and was supposed to
be dying. A minister of the town called upon him,
and asked the privilege of praying with him. He
replied, "You can pray if you want to." "As the
minister knelt to pray," he said to .me, "I kept tab on
him, too. I thought I was dying, but I lay there with
my eyes open watching the preacher to see if he was
real, thinking nothing about my own soul, but about
him. As I watched, I saw a tear stealing down his
face, and I said, 'This man is real, he loves me,
though I am nothing to him,' and that broke my
heart." This man recovered, and has become an
untiring worker for Christ, but he was not won by my
sermon, or by my dealing with him, but by the other
minister's love, and that minister did not know that he
had accomplished anything by his prayer.
5. Self-renunciation. Jesus said to His disciples,
"Come ye after me, and I will make you to become
fishers of men." It is only by coming after Him that
we can become successful fishers of men; but He
says, "If any man would come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me." If we
are to be largely used in personal work, or any kind of
work for the Master, there must be an utter putting
away of personal interest, our own comfort, our ease,
our pride, our feelings. Pride is one of the greatest
154 PERSONAL WORK
hindrances to effective personal work. Oftentimes it
keeps us from attempting work for fear of rebuff. It
makes us unwilling to seem beaten in an argument,
and so we keep on arguing, when it would be far
better for the disputant to leave him alone ; it leads us
to get angry when the one with whom we are working
seems to get the best of us, and nothing is more unfor-
tunate than when the worker loses his temper. A
cowardly worldling once spit in the face of a converted
prize-fighter. He knew that the prize-fighter could
whip him very easily, and the prize-fighter felt
tempted to do it. The hot blood rushed to his face,
but he simply took out his handkerchief and wiped the
spittle from his face and said, *'The blood of Jesus
Christ could wipe away all your sins as easily as I
have wiped this spittle from my face." That con-
quered.
6. Prayer, **The effectual fervent prayer of a right-
eous man availeth not," but there is no line in which
prayer avails more than in the line of personal work.
The worker must pray for wisdom. God has promised
to give it to us when we ask Him for it (James 1:5).
We need it with every case with which we deal. No
matter how thorough our knowledge may be of the
Word of God, and of men, each case presents its own
peculiarities, and only the wisdom which God gives is
sufficient.
We should pray for power. ** Power belongeth unto
God, * ' but the power that belongs unto God is at our
disposal in answer to prayer.
We should pray for those with whom we are dealing
that God will open their eyes to see the truth and
move their hearts to obey it. When the work is done
PERSONAL WORK 155
we should pray for God's blessing upon the seed sown,
and oftentimes the work that has appeared fruitless
will become fruitful by the blessing of God.
We should pray for the definite anointing of the
Holy Spirit that we may become effective workers.
Many a man has tried ineffectively for years to be a
successful personal worker, but by coming to know
the privilege of being filled with the Holy Ghost has
stepped out of a place of powerlessness into a place of
power. The prayer must be real, earnest, persistent.
7. Perseverance. There is one text that a personal
worker needs to let sink deep into his heart: "Let us
not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall
reap if we faint not." No work requires as much
patience and perseverance as soul-winning. No work
is more worthy of it. We should show our patience by
the way we deal with each case. Many say a few
words to one, and then a few words to another, and
then to another. They keep flitting here and there;
they are not the successful workers. Others, when
they once begin to deal with a man hold on to that
man until, if it is in any wise possible, he has been led
to Christ. I have workers in my church who if they
get hold of a person in an inquiry meeting I feel
reasonably confident will lead that person to Christ.
If one attempt fails with a man, we should show our
perseverance by making another and another and
another. We should study how to get at men who are
unreachable. There is an avenue of approach to
every soul if we can only find it. It is worth much
time and thought and study to find it. It took me
fifteen years to win one man, but when that man, after
several years of effective ministry, lay silent in death.
156 PERSONAL WORK
as I stood beside his coffin I was glad that God gave
me the perseverance to work fifteen years for his con-
version.
We should show our perseverance by seeking another
person when we have apparently failed with one, and
if we fail again, seek still another, and if again, still
another.
8. Constant activity. **In the morning sow thy seed,
and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou
knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that,
or whether they both shall be alike good. ' ' The per-
sonal worker's motto should be, "At it, and always at
it," by day and by night, in the home, in the place of
business, on the street, in hotels, in the cars, every-
where. Nothing was more characteristic of Mr.
Moody, and nothing went further to make him the
mighty man of God that he was, than the fact that he
was always on the watch for souls, and always sowing
the seed which is the Word of God. He would speak
to the conductor who took up his ticket on the car, to
the reporter who came to interview him, to the servant
in the home, to the man he met in business. He was
at it and always at it, and so God gave him blessing
and victory.
God is calling all Christians to rouse up and go to
work, witnessing for Christ and striving by personal
effort to bring all within their reach to Christ. Who
will hear the call? A glorious reward awaits all who
do. They ** shall shine as the stars forever and ever."
DRAWING THE NET
R. A. TORREY
Many a mighty preacher fails to get the results he
might from his preaching because he does not know-
how to draw the net. He is skillful at hooking fish,
but does not know how to land them. A friend told
me three days ago that he heard a man that evening
preach to a large congregation of men one of the best
sermons he ever heard, and, continued my friend, "I
believe there would have been fifty decisions right
then, but just at the critical moment the evangelist did
not know what to do, and he let the meeting slip
through his fingers. He asked them all to stand up
and sing some hymns. The men began to go out in
crowds. Then he tried to get hold of things again,
but it was too late, though there were some inquirers
there was nothing like the result there ought to have
been. The moment the last word of the sermon is
littered, there should be opportunity for decisions.
This opportunity may be given in a variety of ways.
You may ask the audience to bow a few moments in
silent prayer, insisting courteously but firmly that no
one go out for a few moments. If the interest is deep
enough you may then ask *'all who wish to be saved,"
or "all who have made up their minds now and here to
accept Christ as their personal Savior, to surrender to
Him as their Lord and Master, and to begin to confess
Him as such before the world, ' ' to rise (or come forward
157
IS8 DRAWING THE NET
and give me your hand ; or come kneel at the altar).
If you think the interest hardly warrants that, you can
ask "all in the audience who are burdened for unsaved
friends," or "all who are anxious for the salvation of
some friends in this audience," to rise. When they
have risen, invite all who wish to be saved right now
to rise. It is not well usually in the general meeting
to ask all Christians to rise, as this makes it awkward
for the unsaved, and they may not come back again.
Another good way is to say, "We are going to sing a
hymn and I don't want anyone to go out until it is
finished. The Holy Spirit is working in this meeting
(don't say that unless He is), and anyone moving
about may disturb some one just on the verge of a
decision for Christ. Now, while we sing the second
verse, all who will accept Christ (don't say, "if any one
will") arise. Stop when the second verse is sung and
call for decisions. Then sing the third, and the
fourth, etc., in a similar way. If you are fortunate
enough to have an altar in the church where you are
preaching, it is often better to have them come to the
altar. If you have no altar, you can have the front
seats emptied and use them for an altar. A solo may
be used in place of a congregational hymn. Still
another way is to say, as you close your sermon, "We
are going to have a second meeting to give those who
have been converted here to-night and all who are
interested an opportunity to accept Christ now and
enter at once into the joy of the Christian life. We
want every man who is interested in his soul's salva-
tion and all Christians to stay to that second meeting.
You can't afford to go away." It is usually better to
have the second meeting in another room, if there is
DRAWING THE NET 159
one that the people have to pass as they go out.
Have wise workers posted at every door of this room
to invite and urge the people to come in as they pass.
When the interest is very deep you can have the
second meeting in another building. Have the singing
in the second meeting begin at once as the people
come in. When all are in, have absolute silence, and
then silent prayer. Perhaps two or three audible
prayers by men and women whom you can trust as
really knowing God may follow. (Don't take any
chances at this point and let some crank spoil youi
meeting.) The next thing to do varies with circum-
stances. You may call for an expression at once. If
the interest is very deep, call at once for those who
wish to accept Christ to rise or come forward. On
other occasions ask **all who have accepted Christ and
know that they are saved and are walking in fellowship
with Christ" to arise. Now you and your workers see
•^ho the persons to deal with are. Next ask those who
wish to become Christians to arise. It may be well to
sing one or several verses as this is done. One and
another and another and then many will arise.
Wherever it is possible it is well to have now still a
third room into which those who have risen as desiring
to become Christians shall go. Have a wise man in
charge of this room until you get there yourself.
Have him put one worker, and only one, with each
inquirer. These workers should be trained for the
work. Every church should have a training class for
this purpose. When you have gotten all you can into
the inside room, turn the outside meeting into a meet-
ing for testimony and prayer, which either you or some
wise worker manages. It is a great advantage to have
i6o DRAWING THE NET
a choir leader who can do that. The unconverted ones
who have not gone into the inside room can be gotten
hold of personally in this testimony meeting or after-
ward. Don't have any holes in your net anywhere if
you can avoid it. Sometimes, in the second meeting,
it is well to ask all who were converted after they were
fifty to rise, then those who were converted after they
were forty, thirty, twenty, ten, before they were ten.
Then ask all who will accept Jesus to-night to rise.
Then all who really desire to know the way of life.
A good method to use occasionally in the second meet-
ing is te ask all who were converted after they were
fifty to come forward and gather about the platform,
then those who were converted after they were forty,
etc. This will gradually thin out those who are
seated, and the unconverted will find themselves being
left behind, and it will set some of them to thinking.
Especially will this be true if a man sees his wife leav-
ing him, or a son sees a mother. Some one may think
that there is too much method and maneuvering in all
this, but it wins souls, and that is worth maneuvering
for. Jesus Himself told us to be ^'*wise as serpents,"
and also said that *'the sons of this world are for their
own generations wiser than the sons of light." Evi-
dently Jesus would have us exercise all honest
ingenuity in accomplishing His work, especially the
work of soul winning. It is lawful, as Paul's example
shows, to catch them **with guile" (2 Cor. 12:16).
The methods suggested will suggest still others. The
great purpose of all these methods is to get many to
commit themselves and to bring them to a decision to
accept Christ. Much good preaching comes to nothing
because it is not driven home to the individual and the
DRAWING THE NET i6i
individual brought then and there to an acceptance
and confession of Jesus as Savior and as Lord. When
one has been led to accept Jesus, an immediate public
confession (then and there) should be insisted upon,
(Rom. lo; 9, lo,)
THE AFTER-MEETING
The owners of mill-ponds have a way of drawing off
the water now and then for the purpose of catching- the
fish. If the pond covers ten acres of land, and the fish
are distributed all through its waters, it is difficult to
find them, and impossible to catch them without
stealthy approach and enticing bait. But after the
bulk of the water has been drawn off and the area
reduced to half an acre, the fisherman casts in his net
and draws the fish ashore with ease. Such is the
object of the after-meeting. It gets rid of the ele-
ments in a crowd which are not a help, but a hindrance
to the work of soul-winning. It enables us to come
nearer to the inquirer, and to point him to Jesus in
face to face conversation. It reduces the size of the
pond so that the Gospel hand-net may be used with
good results. This reducing process may continue
even in the after-meeting. If you have a man or a
woman whom you know has grace for soul-winning, get
together a group of inquirers and put him or her in
the midst of them. The whole group may be rejoic-
ing in Christ before the meeting closes. If you have
small separate rooms to which you can invite these
groups, all the better.
The Bible is the text-book for an after-meeting, as
it ought to be for every religious service. The leader
162
THE AFTER-MEETING 163
may take a few minutes to make plain the way of life
from some text or paragraph of the Book. But let
him remember that the purpose of the meeting is not
edification, but salvation. An address to Christians,
unless it be a few words at the close urging them to
go out and seek the lost, is out of place in the after-
meeting. If no unsaved person remains, it would be
well for the Christians to have a season of humiliation
and prayer. There should be earnest heart-searching
while they ask God and each other, "Am I an Achan
in the camp hindering the work of the Lord?"
The testimony of Christians as to the Scriptures
which led them to Christ, or into larger faith and
brighter hope, is a most important part of the after-
meeting. Let me give, as nearly as I can remember,
what was done and said in an after-meeting which I
attended a few weeks ago. As soon as quiet was
restored, there was an earnest prayer for guidance.
The leader then arose and said: "We will now hear
from as many as can speak in five minutes the Scrip-
tures which God used in showing them the way of life.
We want simply the Word of God without comment.
Rise and speak distinctly, with a prayer that God will
bless others through the truth as He has blessed you."
The first one to respond was a young woman who
quoted with a clear voice: "Him that cometh unto Me
I will in no wise cast out." The leader said: "That
invitation is also a promise; it implies that all who
come to Christ He will receive, but it says very much
more. He will receive and never cast out. There is
in it saving and keeping power. It is the Scripture for
those of you who are afraid that you may not hold
out." The next witness was a man of middle age,
i64 THE AFTER-MEETING
who said: "He is able to save to the uttermost all who
come unto God by him. " The leader: "God is all-
powerful, but you make Him able by accepting the
Lord Jesus Christ, and this ability is based upon the
fact that He ever liveth to make intercessions for us."
Third witness: "Come unto me all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Leader:
"Do you want rest of heart? Come to Jesus for it
now." Fourth witness: "Look unto me and be ye
saved all ye ends of the earth." Leader: "Looking is
not a long process. You can look as quick as a light-
ning flash; look this moment and live." Fifth wit-
ness: "There is therefore now no condemnation to
them who are in Christ Jesus." Leader: "We who
have accepted Christ need not fear the judgment day.
Our case has been settled in the court of mercy where
Jesus Christ is the Advocate." Sixth witness: "To
as many as received Him to them gave He power to
become the sons of God." Leader: "And if sons, then
heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Will
you not accept this rich inheritance through Christ this
evening?" Seventh witness: "The blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." Leader:
"Then do not try to cleanse yourself, and do not divide
your trust between the blood and ordinances. The
Blood is all-sufficient; accept Jesus Christ and the
Blood cleanses at once.
•♦ 'There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains. ' "
Eighth witness: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved." Leader: "It does not say
THE AFTER-MEETING 165
believe on Jesus nor believe on Christ nor believe on
the Lord. Jesus means Savior, and a Savior from
sin we need. Christ means the anointed one, the high
priest and an intercessor, an advocate we need. Lord
means Master, and the Master we need to rule our
lives. You cannot accept Him as Savior while you
reject Him as Lord, nor can you follow Him as Lord
while you reject Him as Savior. His intercession is
for those who accept Him as both Savior and Lord.
So you see, Paul preached to the jailer the full Gospel
when he said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved.* The little word on is very
important ; it does not say believe about the Lord Jesus
Christ; you may believe all about Him without believ-
ing on Him. I believe much about Washington, Lin-
coln, and Grant, but I am not conscious of believing
on either of them in the sense that I am depending
upon them for anything. When your faith about
Christ has been translated into faith on Christ, you are
saved." The invitation was then given, and a num-
ber came forward and gave the leader their hands,
confessing Christ as their Savior and Lord, the leader
remarking that it was well to begin the Christian life
with a handshake and pass it on to others.
This all took seven or eight minutes, and I do not
say that it is a model method, but it has the advantage
of being full of God's Word.
I would not, however, always wait till the close of
the after-meeting before asking converts to confess
Christ. We ought to expect God to save people while
we are preaching, and Jesus Christ is worthy of the
most public confession. If the purpose of the after-
meeting is to make it easy for people to confess Christ,
i66 THE AFTER-MEETING
because the unsympathetic crowd who might scoff
are gone, it had better be abandoned. That scene
on Calvary was not in a corner. Our Lord's shameful
death on the cross was public, and it is fitting that our
confession of Him should be *' before men," not before
Christians only, if we would have Him confess us
before the Father and the holy angels.
It is well to have it understood that it is in order for
the new convert to confess Christ at any time. There
might be a little confusion now and then, but a glo-
rious confusion it would be if caused by the confession
of new-bom faith in the Savior. While I was preach-
ing to the unsaved, urging an immediate decision,
about the middle of the sermon I saw a tall young man
near the door rise up, step into the aisle, and come
walking toward the pulpit. He stood just in front of
me for a moment looking up into my face as if he
wanted to say something. My first thought was that
he was a little *'off," and might create a disturbance;
so I paused for an explanation, when he reached out
his hand and said, with a voice full of genuine emo-
tion: "Excuse me, sir, but I have just accepted the
Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, and I felt I could
not wait for you to get through before I told you."
There was no need of any more sermon. The Spirit
of God fell upon the audience. Oh, that our praying
and preaching may be with such power that men and
women will not wait for us to ask them to request us to
pray for them, nor to confess Christ, but under the
conviction of the Spirit will cry out as at Pentecost,
What must we do? And when they have accepted
Christ, so full of faith and joy that they will not
wait for formal invitations, but at once **make
THE AFTER-MEETING 167
known to all around what a dear Savior they have
found."
The praying in an after-meeting should be brief, and
for but one thing — the salvation of the lost. Long
general prayers that take in everything and everybody
are apt to be powerless anywhere, but they are
specially out of place in a meeting with a definite
object.
In dealing with an inquirer, when you see that he
has come to the point of accepting Christ, it is well to
ask him to kneel with you and pray aloud. His prayer
will be an index to his heart. If he begins with con-
fessing sin and thanking God for the gift of Christ,
you may be sure that he is saved. If he apologizes for
sin and fails to make a full confession, he needs further
instruction.
The workers in an after-meeting should be on fire
with love to Christ and souls. If they are mature
Christians with large experience, all the better, pro-
vided they do not tell their experiences to inquirers,
and thus put them to seeking a similar experience
rather than Christ. Young, intelligent Christians with
a great Savior and a little experience make very
effective workers. Preach Jesus in the after-meeting,
and spend no time in answering curious questions.
A young college student rose for prayer in one of my
meetings, and made an engagement to see me in my
study next morning at ten o'clock. When alone with
him I asked him: "What is it that troubles you?"
**Well, sir," he replied, "I have been greatly troubled
for some time over the question as to where Cain got
his wife, and I think, if I could settle that, I could
take a step further." I answered the question as best
i6S THE AFTER-MEETING
I could, and it seemed satisfactory to him. But with
the next breath he asked another question just as
frivolous. I answered that, and he asked another. I
saw he was a sort of jack-in-the-box of questions, and
that it was wasting- time; so I said: "My friend,
answering these questions is profitless; if we could
answer them all and a thousand more like them,
neither 5'^ou nor I would be any nearer heaven. Will
you kneel with me and ask God to save you from sin?"
He consented, and while we prayed he surrendered to
Christ. I might have spent the whole day in answer-
ing his questions without leading him to Christ.
A man came to Mr. Moody in an after-meeting with
a long list of hard questions. Mr. Moody said, *'I will
answer your questions if you will promise me to do
one thing." *'What is it?" ** Promise me you will do
it before I tell you." "No sensible man does a thing
like that." "Will you promise me, then, that you
will try to do it?" "Yes, I can make that promise."
"Well, give your heart to Jesus Christ and then come
to me with your questions." The man went away
disappointed, but two nights afterwards he returned
with a radiant face and told Mr. Moody that he had
done what he asked him to do and that, for twenty-
four hours, he had been one of the happiest men on
earth. "Where are your questions?" asked Mr.
Moody. "I haven't any," he said. "The moment I
accepted Jesus Christ they were all answered, or
appeared so insignificant that they were not worth
answering." Philip might have spent hours answer-
ing the eunuch's questions about Isaiah, but he began
at the same Scripture and preached unto him JesuSc
Let us follow his example.
THE AFTER-MEETING 169
The open Bible in face-to-face work is indispensable.
Turn to the Scripture that suits the case and let the
inquirer look at it while you read. The truth may-
enter through eye-gate more readily than through ear
gate. A hand-book for soul- winners may be useful in
the worker's study, but do not take it into the after-
meeting. Let the inquirer read directly from the
Bible. The little New Testament which has about
one hundred texts marked with red ink may do good
service, and, if you can afford to give every inquirer
or convert the copy from which you have read, it will
be highly prized. God may continue in the home the
work which began in the after-meeting.
After dealing with a poor drunkard in two after-
meetings, and becoming a little discouraged because of
the fact that in the second the fumes of drink remained
upon his breath, I gave him a little Testament and
asked him to go to his room and read on his knees
John 3: 16. The next week I met him on the street
sober and rejoicing in the Lord. He told me that he
went at once to his garret-room, knelt down before the
only chair in it, with the little book open before him,
read aloud the verse I had marked, and while he read
light came into his soul. Since that hour God had
given him strength to pass saloons without entering,
and though the thirst for drink was not gone, he was
trusting God for grace to overcome.
As to the length of the after-meeting, that should
depend upon the work to be done. If there are
earnest souls seeking Christ, and loth to leave without
comfort, we should remain with them as long as we
think they need our services. The Holy Spirit may
not watch the clock as we do, and the nervous haste
that some Christians manifest to get away at a certain
I70 THE AFTER-MEETING
time may not be pleasing to Him. As I was about to
begin an evening service in a New York church, the
pastor whispered: "You must be careful to get
through the whole service by nine o'clock. " *'But,"
I replied, "suppose the Spirit should indicate we ought
to remain later?" **Oh, well, if you keep the people
later than nine they will not come back to-morrow
evening." We remained until 9:45, and the next
evening the audience was twice as large. To have
sent the people home at nine would have been to miss
the greatest blessing of the evening.
An after-meeting should be entered with the utmost
reliance upon the Holy Spirit. It is to be a time of
decision. There will be battles fought, and the
power of the Spirit is needed to give the victory.
Keep the upward look. If the Spirit seems to indicate
that the program you have formed should be laid
aside, let it go. Be willing that God should have
the right of way. Rejoice if He burns up all red tape
and makes the meeting thoroughly unconventional.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
If, as leader, you are under the complete control of
the Holy Spirit, you will be able to decide at once
what ought to be done or said. You will see at a
glance that a brother is talking from force of habit, or
for the purpose of airing a fad, and not with an earnest
desire to lead souls to Christ, and you will be able to
stop him with the right words and in the right tone.
In an after-meeting a few evenings ago, just as the
leader was giving an invitation for inquirers to accept
Christ, a brother rose and began to make a speech on
prayer. The leader was a stranger and had never
seen the brother before, but it was evident to him that
if the Holy Spirit to whom the meeting had been com-
THE AFTER-MEETING 171
mitted was leading it the brother's message was not of
the Spirit. He therefore quietly suggested that the
time would not admit of an address. The brother left
the room at once indicating by his manner that he was
angry, but the meeting, which would have been killed
by his long speech, went smoothly on with good
results. There are a class of Christians, especially in
great cities, who attend all meetings — not for the good
they can do or receive, but for the purpose of finding
an opportunity to speak on some favorite theme.
When they rise the meeting falls, and the leader needs
the wisdom that God alone can give in dealing with
this class of good but rather useless people.
A whispered word, or even an elbow-touch from a
friend may do more than twenty sermons in leading to
a decision. An earnest business man in New York
City told me it was not the sermon nor a word, but just
a touch on the shoulder which led him to confess
Christ before men. He had already accepted Him as
Savior, and just needed this little encouragement.
He said: ''While the evangelist was inviting all who
loved Christ to confess Him by going forward and giv-
ing him the hand, I felt a gentle touch on my shoulder.
I looked around and saw the face of an old friend
looking wistfully at me. He did not utter a word, but
I knew what he meant, and I went right up and gave
him my hand." This was the beginning of a bus-
iness man's Christian life."
For efficient work in the after-meeting our greatest
need is that we be endued with the Holy Spirit. And
this enduement comes in answer to prayer and a com-
plete surrender of the will to God. Then the right
word will be said to the right person, at the right
time, m the right way.
HOW TO MAKE THE WORK
PERMANENT
REV. E. P. GOODWIN, D.D.
All ministers and Christian workers who have to do
with evangelistic efforts find great difficulty in secur-
ing permanent results. I desire to name two or three
methods, tested by much experience, which have
proved of great value. Take first the common experi-
ence in nearly all revival meetings. People come
from everywhere. If the meetings are marked with
unusual power and are continued for some length of
time, there is sure to be a considerable class of persons
interested not identified with any church and not under
the eye or personal care of any pastor. Then, espe-
cially in the great meetings conducted by noted revival
leaders, multitudes of such are sure to be gathered in.
In Mr. Moody's meetings, it was no uncommon thing
to find scores of persons night after night in an inquiry-
room, and that in my own church, not one of whom
had I ever seen, and most of whom were never met
again after the meetings ceased. But more or less the
same is true of all revival services in our city missions
and in all such Christian work. Therefore, the name and
address of everyone rising for prayer or dealt with in
the inquiry-room should be secured. Every such person
should then be visited at his home or place of business
as soon as possible, and again and again, until fully
established.
172
TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT 173
In all dealing with souls, every Christian worker
will find it, I am sure, of prime importance that there
should be secured in some way a following up of the
work by systematic Scripture teaching. People need
something more than impressions to hold them fast.
Not everyone is brought down by a single arrow shot
at a venture. Some people have to be shot full of
arrows before they surrender. Impressions, impulses,
half-formed choices and purposes often fade and lose
their grip after the music and prayers are over. Men
need the Master of the assembly with His nails to
fasten things and make them stay. And this is what
regular meetings for instruction do. Then, besides,
there are difficulties to be met, doubts to be removed,
truths and duties to be emphasized and pressed home,
and all this takes time. Few people see and grasp
truth clearly and fully at a single glance, or in an
hour. Certainly if people are to be rooted and
grounded so as to stand fast, there must be time.
The gourd that shoots up in a day is like to wither in
a night. Most converts — yes, and most believers as
well — need line upon line, precept upon precept, here
a little and there a little, to make them able to give a
reason for the hope that is in them. It is a great
thing to be established and stand fast in the faith;
and, in order to do this, nothing, it is safe to say, is so
essential as the organizing of young converts into
classes for stated and continuous instruction in the
Word. It is not too much to say that, without this, it
is impossible to secure satisfactory results in evangel-
istic work, or growth and power in Christian life. In
my judgment, the chief reason for the failure of most
whom I have known who have dropped away from
174 TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT
their professions and fallen back into the world, lies
in their having no subsequent systematic training.
They accepted the truth, had good impulses, sincere
purposes, and meant to be true followers of Christ;
but they were chiefly ruled by impulses (had little
knowledge of truth, had no sufficient instruction as to
the meaning of the life they had accepted, no adequate
knowledge of the temptations of the world, the wiles
of the adversary, the deceitfulness of the heart or the
secret of success in standing fast), and so, having no
root, they withered away. If all such sincere inquir-
ers after salvation could be organized into classes for
Bible study, even for a few weeks, I believe but very
few would abandon their hope. The very agreeing to
meet for such instruction sifts out those who are only
transiently impressed. I should say unhesitatingly that
where such systematic teaching is secured, permanency
of Christian life is almost certain, while, where it fails,
permanency rarely results. I have in mind one series
of revival meetings, with which I had personally to
do, where there was a very large number of professed
acceptances of Christ. Very little thorough inquiry
work was done, and, so far as my knowledge goes, no
organized effort at instruction was attempted. Out of
nearly three thousand cards signed by those expressing
a purpose to lead a Christian life, I doubt if a hundred
ever took any step further. In two of the most ear-
nestly engaged churches but one person ever came
forward upon profession of faith. For myself I long
since ceased to expect results of any value except in
connection with such training.
I do not mean to discredit all such decisions reached
in inquiry-meetings or elsewhere, as ephemeral. Let
TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT 175
us hope that many are truly turned then and there
from darkness into light, and from the power of Satan
unto God. But commonly only a small percentage of
such prove effective in the Master's service. Our
churches are full of those who are like Gideon's army:
— only a handful are in dead earnest and to be counted
on when the battle is joined. Bible-trained workers,
inspired with the Master's love and equipped with
knowledge as well as zeal, are pitifully few in all our
churches ; but wherever one finds even a few such, they
are worth a host of others, for with them victory is
sure.
What has been said implies another condition of
great importance in making evangelistic work per-
manent. I mean the importance of making public
confession of faith and becoming members of the visi-
ble church of Jesus Christ. Observe, I do not say
that believers, those who truly accept Jesus Christ as
Savior and Lord, are to join this or that particular
church organization, but the church which the Holy
Spirit meant when under His guidance and control
the church of Christ was organized, and believers were
by the Lord daily added thereto. What I say now is this :
that it is not possible to fully meet the Lord's wish
and realize the larger measure of grace which He
desires to bestow, whether in the development of indi-
vidual Christian life or in power to witness and work
in His behalf, without public and continuous church
membership. I do not say that such persons cannot
be true believers. Unquestionably they can be. The
test of salvation is not the test of visible church mem-
bership. He that truly believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ is unquestionably saved. The Scripture plainly
176 TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT
declares that the thief on the cross was saved that way,
without any baptism and without joining the church.
So was the woman at the well, and so of the multitudes
of others. But that is not the question. The ques-
tion is this: Is such a standing aloof from the visible
church, as so many do, while yet in a way performing
Christian duty, meeting the wish of the Lord Jesus
and doing the work He wants believers to do in the
world? I say no, it is not. If anything is plain in
connection with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
and the gift of the Holy Spirit, it is that our Lord
established his church, a body of believers united to
Him by the Holy Ghost and made thereby His Body,
the body of which He is to be everlastingly the head,
and in whom and with whom all true believers are to
be finally associated with Him in glory.
The Lord Jesus was obviously not using words
lightly when He commanded His disciples to observe
the Last Supper, nor when, by the light of the Spirit
He organized the church and sent out His disciples to
be His witnesses and go everywhere preaching His
Gospel and calling upon men to believe and be bap-
tized. The Lord's ideal of the believer, in other
words, was of a believer led by the Spirit and seeking
always and with earnest and absorbing purpose to
carry out his Lord's wish and do His will. In the
very nature of the case, therefore, all who desire to
honor Him and secure the fullest measure of His favor
and power will do as His disciples did — openly and
gladly identify themselves with His church. In no
other way can they secure the closest union with their
Lord, and in no other way secure the fullest measure
of the energy of the Holy Spirit. He cannot so fully
TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT 177
impart Himself to believers who stand aloof from what
Jesus Christ Himself appointed. There are objections
and so-called reasons for holding other views, but in
my judgment they are without Scripture warrant.
One Scripture truth runs through all these teachings
of the book of Acts and the Epistles — records and
teachings which are divinely and infallibly inspired —
viz., one body of believers united by the indwelling of
the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ, and that one body
manifesting Him before all the world, witnessing His
Gospel and seeking to win men to believe on Him unto
salvation. So far as these Scriptures go, there is, in
my judgment, no scrap of authority or permission to
stand aloof from public avowal of Jesus Christ and
meanwhile claim to be doing His will as much as in
him lies.
What, then, it may be asked, as to those who, like
Mohammedans, may incur the penalty of death by
being baptized? It is enough to say that the Lord
made no exceptions, and that so far as we know the
Apostles made none. Nor in general have true believ-
ers ever shrunk from open avowals of their faith, as
the massacres of Christians all through the centuries,
and these so striking examples of believers in China
just now, show. The Lord has always put high honor
upon those who have stood fast in the faith, and have
counted it a joy to bear a witness that cost even life
itself.
But, in our country, none are called to endure such
a test, and no such reasons can be alleged for not mak-
ing open confession. I give it as my deliberate judg-
ment that all such standing aloof is nothing other than
a subtle device of the great adversary. Largely the
178 TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT
reasons given when thoroughly analyzed prove to be
excuses for worldly aims and practices, beliefs, habits
or fellowship condemned by the Word of God. I
have never known such a case where I could not detect
in my own mind either a plain worldly reason, or an
unscriptural belief, as the underlying cause of refusal
to make open confession of faith. And I go further.
It is a somewhat popular idea that there are those
who can accomplish more in serving the Master by
staying outside the church, and sometimes examples
are pointed out of those who are shining illustrations
of what Christian life can be without church profession
or obligation. By all means let us recognize and
rejoice in all true believing in Jesus Christ, whenever
it can be found, and let us not deny that there are such
genuine disciples whose names are not upon any roll
of the church. But, admitting this, I deny that such
are helping the Master whose names they refuse pub-
licly to own or to wear. His own word is decisive :
** Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,
him will I confess also before my Father which is in
heaven." He organized His church for all believers,
and gave His Holy Spirit to dwell in that church as
His publicly owned and recognized body. Into that
fellowship He calls all true believers to come and ally
themselves by being baptized and by participating in
the Lord's Supper. Whoever fails to do either, fails
therefore to fulfill to the letter our Lord's own
appointment. He may nevertheless be a sharer in
salvation, as has been already shown, but he cannot be
an example of what Jesus Christ wants a believer both
to be and to do, for he has never met and is not meet-
ing, day by day, Christ's plain requirements. More
TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT 179
than that, so long as he stands aloof from the church,
he is dishonoring the very name of Him to whom he
looks for salvation, and, practically, invites others to
disobey His commands. Such an example of disobedi-
ence to the Lord and to the Holy Spirit would be a
poor way to win men to the Master's service.
More than that, as a matter of fact, there is no
greater hindrance in persuading people to rank them-
selves upon the Lord's side than this very attitude of
non-professing believers. Those cherishing secret
hopes naturally say: '*If such non-churchmembers are
sure of salvation and are examples of Christian living,
we are as sure of salvation as they, and there is no
need of our joining the church." Every pastor in his
work has this argument to meet.
Then, besides this, such non-churchmembers almost
universally stand away from all the activity of the
churches. They take no part in prayer-meetings,
rarely engage in Sunday School work, and never, of
course, attempt to reach and bring in the unconverted
or in anywise bring them to decisions for Christ. In
the nature of the case, they can have no ardor for
revivals, no longing for souls. As a matter of fact,
they are hindrances instead of helps to all aggressive
Christian work. A community of such non-confessing
believers would never see a revival, and I doubt very
much whether it would ever win a soul. Jesus Christ
wants His sheep brought into the fold. That is the
only place where they can find safety and go in and
out and find pasture, and this fold is His church. To
stay out is to be puny and stunted and dwarfed.
Another thing that needs to be mentioned and
emphasized as a condition of securing permanency in
i8o TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT
evangelistic work, is the necessity of setting young con-
verts at work and keeping them at it. Indeed, that is
an absolute necessity for all Christians, old and young,
if they are to thrive and grow. Weeds will flourish of
themselves, but not flowers. They must have care and
painstaking, and this must be followed up.
We seem often to forget that in dealing with new-
born souls we are dealing with children. Too often,
after such have reached a decision, they are left to
care for themselves. Sometimes they are regarded as
too weak and immature to be leaders of others. It is
of course possible that such may be overzealous and
unwise; but, on the whole, there is no better way of
developing young Christians than to set them at work
reaching and bringing in others. The early disciples
may have made mistakes in going forth as witnesses
after Pentecost; but, if they did, we have no record of
it. The Holy Spirit, who took possession of that whole
company of believers, doubtless qualified them for their
work, and those whom the Lord added daily were
worthy of being received. No doubt there is need of
wisdom and judgment in seeking souls, but where
harm is done by one who is overzealous and injudi-
cious, it is quite safe to say that far more harm results
from keeping the arms folded and the lips shut. A
fervent '* Amen" or a "Glory to God," or "Hallelujah"
from a new-born soul would not hurt a prayer-meet-
ing, nor would a misapplication of Scripture, or a
prayer full of bad grammar. When a devout brother
with a remarkable history thanked the Lord in my
prayer-meeting one night, that "He and I had put up
a big job on him in getting him converted," there
were some smiles, but many hearts beat warmer and
TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT i8i
many *' Am ens" followed the prayer. We have little
need to fear an excess of zeal in most churches. If
four-fifths of our church members could be sent out
and kept out doing some form of Christian work
a part of every week, they would grow faster
and become more aggressive and stable and efficient
as believers than they now are, and our weekly
meetings would be less like refrigerators than
they often are. The best school for training Chris-
tians is trying to help others by telling them what
Christ has done for us. Paul kept repeating the story
of his own conversion, and that won others and helped
him. There is nothing safer or wiser for a new con-
vert than the telling others how he found salvation.
The less he tries to explain, philosophically, how men
are saved, how the Spirit moves upon the heart, how
a divine will gets a human will to decide and sur-
render, and the more he just sticks to what the Word
says and what he has found there, the better. I
believe that was what our Lord meant to have His dis-
ciples do when He said they were to go forth to the
ends of the earth as His "witnesses." They were not
to argue, or make speeches, or persuade men by their
eloquence, or logic, or learning. They were only to
be witnesses, and tell to men everywhere what Jesus
Christ had done for them. And to-day this is, above
everything else, what the world needs.
Then, as the new converts go forth, they will of
course find many forms of Christian activity in which
they are needed, and can be made most helpful. So,
some may become Sunday School teachers, Bible-class
teachers, visitors among the sick and poor and unfor-
tunate, workers in missions and helpers in many other
i83 TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT
ways. Such work is self-developing and potential.
The Holy Spirit delights to find such pupils and very
quickly turns them into helpers. He opens the truth
to others, clears their minds of misapprehensions,
strengthens their faith, reinforces their zeal with
knowledge, gives them fervency and power in prayer,
and in every' way increases their ability and efficiency.
This is clearly the way the early disciples were devel-
oped. Their School of Training, which for example
Paul so lovingly and gratefully commends in the last
chapter of Romans, was the school of Christian work
in which they had been mainly self-taught ; or, more
strictly, Paul was head master, and Phoebe and Pris-
cilla and Aquila his chief helpers. They and their
beloved associates, observe, were all pronounced and
active church members, and as such they all gave
themselves to individual Christian work in winning
and then helping to build up believers. What is the
ideal way of developing the church? Our Lord
described Himself as a man taking a far journey, giv-
ing authority to his servants, and ^Uo every man his
work.'* There was to be no one to be left idle, or
without some specific duty assigned. Paul says the
same thing when, in describing the gift of the Spirit,
which, it is to be remembered, was a gift intended, as
at Pentecost, for «//, he says: **But all these [divine
operations] worketh that one and the self-same Spirit
dividing to every man severally [individually] as He
will. * ' No one is left out ; or, in other words, no one
who is a true believer is to be without work. Only
get all true converts, and all true church members
engaged in such a fellowship with the Holy Spirit
interpenetrating, energizing, empowering all, and the
TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT 183
mystery of revivals and adding daily to the church
and hastening the Kingdom, will be solved.
Every new convert should be set immediately at the
daily study of the Bible. He should be given instruc-
tions in how to study the Bible. Perhaps the best
book in the Bible for a young convert to begin with is
the Gospel of John. It is true that this is one of the
most profound books in the Bible. But John says that
he wrote it *'that ye may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may
have life in His name." Now, this is just what the
beginner needs. The Gospel of John may well be fol-
lowed by the Acts of the Apostles. Then let the
young convert study the Epistle to the Romans, and
then Ephesians. Each of these books should be read
again and again. Topical study is also good for the
young convert, taking up such great subjects as Sin,
Grace, the Blood, Justification, Prayer, the Holy
Spirit, etc. The New Topical Text Book (F. H.
Revell) is inexpensive and useful for this purpose.
While the young convert should study chiefly the
Bible, there are other books that are very helpful —
the writings of D. L. Moody, Andrew Murray, F. B.
Meyer, G. Campbell Morgan, G. H. C. MacGregor and
R. A. Torrey being specially commended. Many of
these books are issued in inexpensive form, and cata-
logues may be obtained from the publishers of this
volume.
In the pages immediately following is reprinted
*'How to Make a Success of the Christian Life,"
which fittingly concludes *'How to Make the Work
Permanent." These pages are published separately
as a tract for circulation among new converts.
i84 TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT
HOW TO MAKE A SUCCESS OF THE
CHRISTIAN LIFE
BY R. A. TORREY
There are two classes of persons who start out in the
Christian life: those who make a complete or partial
failure of it and those who make a complete success of
it. The question at once suggests itself : "Is it pos-
sible to point out a plain pathway, in which any one
who will can walk, and following which will make
success absolutely sure? I believe it is. I believe that
God's Word gives a few simple instructions which if
followed will make success in the Christian life a cer-
tainty.
There are seven steps in the path marked out in the
Bible.
I. Begin right. What a right beginning is we see
John i: 12, "But as many as received Him^ to them
gave He power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on His name." Receive Christ.
Take Hint as your Savior who died for your sin. Trust
the whole matter of your forgiveness to Him. Rest
upon the fact that he has paid the full penalty of your
sin. 2 Cor. 5:21, "For He hath made Him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin ; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him." Gal. 3: 13, "Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us : for it is written, Cursed is every
one that hangeth on a tree." It is in this first step
that many make a mistake. They try to mix in their
good works as a ground of salvation. They think if
they are good God will forgive them, because of
Christ's death and their goodness. Take Him as your
TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT 185
Deliverer^ the one who will save you from the power
of sin, who will quicken you when dead in trespasses
and sins. Don't try to save yourself from the power
of sin. Trust Him to do it. Take Him as your
Master. Don't seek to guide your own life. Sur-
render unconditionally to His lordship over you. Say,
*M// for Jesus." Many fail, because they shrink back
from this entire surrender. They wish to serve Jesus
with half their heart, and part of themselves, and part
of their possessions. It is a wretched life of stum-
bling and failure, this life of half-hearted surrender.
It is a joyous life all along the way, the life of entire
surrender. If you have never done it before and wish
**to make a success of the Christian life, " go alone with
God, get down on your knees, and say, 'M// for
Jesus." Say it very earnestly; say it from the bottom
of your heart. Stay there until you realize what it
means and what you are doing. It is a wondrous
step forward when one really takes it. If you have
taken it already, take it again. Take it often. It
always has fresh meaning and brings fresh blessedness.
Taking Christ as your Master involves obedience to
His will, as far as you know it in each smallest detail
of life. This is one of the most essential conditions of
receiving "the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to
them that obey Him." Acts 5 : 32.
2. Confess Christ openly before men. Matt. 10: 32,
"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,
him will I confess also before my Father which is in
heaven." Rom. 10: 10, "For with the heart man
believe th unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation." The life of con-
fession is the life of full salvation. It is when we con-
i86 TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT
fess Christ before men that He confesses us before
**my Father in heaven," and that the fullness of His
blessing comes. It does not mean that we are to con-
fess Christ just once, as for example, when we unite
with the Church, but constantly. The one who would
make the largest success of the Christian life should
seize every opportunity of confessing Christ before
men — in the home, in shopping, at work, in the church,
everywhere. I once hsard a wise old preacher say,
*'If we make a good deal of Christ, He will make a
great deal of us." How many backsliders fell away
from Christ at this point! They went to a new city,
or a new place to work, and neglected to confess
Christ, and now they are back in the world.
3. Study the Word, i Pet. 2:2, "As newborn
babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye
may grow thereby." The Word of God is the soul's
food. It is the nourishment of the new life. One who
neglects the Word cannot make much of a success of
the Christian life. All who get on in the Christian
life are great feeders on the Word of God. Here many
fail. Ask any backslider, "Have you fed on the Word
daily?" I never have found one that could say that
he had.
Two points on Bible reading are: first, read for food
for your own soul ; second, read a great deal on your
knees. The Bible has become in some measure a new
book to me since I have taken to reading it on my
knees.
4 *'Pray without ceasing." I Thess. 5:17. The
one who would succeed in the Christian life must lead
a life of prayer. That is easy enough if you only set
about it. Have set times for prayer. The rule of
TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT 187
David and Daniel, three times a day, is a good rule.
Ps. 55: 17, "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will
I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice."
Dan. 6: 10, **Now when Daniel knew that the writing
was signed, he went into his house : and, his windows
being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he
kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed,
and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime."
Begin the day with thanksgiving and prayer — thanks-
giving for the definite mercies of the past, prayer for
the definite needs of the present day. Stop in the
midst of the bustle and worry and temptation of the
day for thanksgiving and prayer. Close the day with
thanksgiving and prayer.
Then there should be the special prayer in special
temptation — when we see the temptation approaching.
Keep looking to God. "Pray without ceasing." It
is not needful to be on our knees all the time. But
the heart should be on its knees all the time. If
"Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon
his knees," let us keep him trembling all the time.
We should be often on our knees, or our faces literally.
This is a joyous life, free from worry and care. Here
is the point (neglect of prayer) where many fail.
There are three things for which the one who would
make a success of the Christian life must especially
pray: first, for wisdom, "If any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God," James 1:5; second, for strength,
"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength," Is. 40: 31 ; third, for the Holy Spirit, "Your
heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask Him." If you have not yet received the bap-
tism of the Holy Spirit you should offer definite prayer
i88 TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT
for this definite blessing and definitely expect to
receive it. If you have already received the baptism
of the Holy Spirit you should with each new emer-
gency of Christian work pray to God for a new filling
with the Holy Spirit. Acts 4: 31.
5. Go TO WORK FOR Christ. Matt. 25: 29, "For unto
every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have
abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken
away even that which he hath." Note the context,
and you will see that this means, those who use what
they have will get more, and those who let what they
have lie idle will lose even that. The working Chris-
tian, the one who uses his talents, whether few or
many, in Christ's service, is the one who gets on in
the Christian life here, and who will hereafter hear
the, *'Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter
thou into the joy of thy Lord. " Find some work to
do for Christ and do it. Seek for work. If it is noth-
ing more than distributing tracts or invitations to
meetings, do it. Always be looking for something
more to do for Christ, and you will always be receiv-
ing something more fro7n Christ.
6. Give largely. Pro v. 11:25, "The liberal soul
shall be made fat." 2 Cor. 9:6, 8, "He which soweth
sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which
soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. And
God is able to make all grace abound toward you ; that
ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may
abound to every good work." Success and growth in
Christian life depends on few things more than upon
liberal giving. A stingy Christian cannot be a grow-
ing Christian. It is wonderful how a Christian man
begins to grow when he begins to give. Give syste-
TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT 189
matically. Set aside for Christ a fixed proportion of
all the money or goods you get. Be exact and honest
about it. Don't use it for yourself under any circum-
stances. A tenth is a good proportion to begin with.
Don't let it be less than that. After you have given
your tenth you will probably soon learn the joy of giv-
ing free-will offerings in addition to the tenth.
7. Keep PUSHING ON. Phil. 3:13, 14, "Brethren, I
count not myself to have apprehended : but this one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high call-
ing of God in Christ Jesus. " Forget that which lies
behind; press on to the better things that lie before.
"Press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus" (R. V.). Forget the
sins which lie behind. If you fail anywhere, if you
fall, don't be discouraged, don't give up, don't brood
over the sin. Confess it instantly. Believe God's
Word. I John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. * ' Believe the sin is for-
given; forget it; press on. Satan beguiles many a
poor soul here. He keeps us brooding over our fail-
ures and sins. He even makes us think this is humility,
as if it were humility to doubt God's Word and Make
Him a liar by not believing the sin is forgiven and put
away, when He says it is.
Forget the achievements and victories of the past
and press on to greater. Here Satan cheats many of
us out of the larger life. He keeps us thinking so
much of what we have already obtained and makes us
so contented with it and so puffed up over it, that we
I90 TO MAKE THE WORK PERMANENT
come to a standstill, or even backslide. I have seen
this in many individuals and many churches. *'How
well we have done ! ' ' they think. Our only safety is
in forgetting those things which are behind, and press-
ing on. "Excelsior!" "Higher!" should be the soul's
persistent cry. Press on ! There is always something
better ahead. You may have received a second bless-
ing, or a twenty-second, but there is still something
better until we "come . . . unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,"
Eph. 4: 13.
Young Christian friends and older Christians, the
road to certain success in the Christian life is plain
enough. Shall we take it? The truths of this tract
are familiar; but are you practicing them? Read them
over frequently and see if there is not some point at
which you fail. If you find there is, correct your mis-
take AT ONCE.
MUSIC IN A REVIVAL
D. B. TOWNER
The day is past when any intelligent person doubts
for a moment the helpfulness of singing in revival
services. The time was, when some very zealous
people objected to singing in church services, and who
even now do not encourage it to any great extent, and
yet these same people make the best use of singing
that they know how in revival meetings. Therefore,
no matter what the objection may be to singing in the
regular church services, all are agreed that for mission
and revival meetings singing is helpful. It would be
a very easy matter to prove by the Scripture that the
early Christians believed in singing, and that even our
Lord Himself approved of it and engaged in it, but
that is not the object at this time. The Wesleys cer-
tainly were heartily in favor of it, and made much of
it — and so have all the successful evangelists from
their day down to the present time. It is very gener-
ally conceded, we think, that Mr. Moody was the
prince of evangelists, and he perhaps made more of
singing than any man of his time, or before him, and
if any one doubts the wisdom of his course in this
direction, they have only to listen to the testimony of
men and women from every country where the Gospel
has been sung, to be convinced that the Gospel when
sung is as powerful to convert men and women as it is
when preached. One who was an actress, but is now
19 1
192 MUSIC IN A REVIVAL
an evangelist, says that the singing of a Gospel song
by a company of Christian Endeavorers in a public
park of Chicago convicted her of her sin and turned
her heart to God, and that she was saved on the spot.
A pastor in a large city of this country says that the
singing of a man and his wife brought him to Christ,
and these are only two of a great multitude who have
come under our personal knowledge, who have been
led to Christ through song. But one says, ** These are
isolated cases, and since so much singing is done that
seemingly does not produce conviction of sin, does it
not follow that singing is not of much importance in
revival services?" Not at all, no more than the fact
that many sermons do not convict of sin is proof that
there is no power in preaching to convert men.
Singing, like preaching, must be of the right sort to
be helpful in bringing souls to Christ. Many who are
disposed to use singing to promote evangelistic work
have erroneous ideas about it. They think that the
principal thing is a fine solo singer, and it does not
matter very much how the people sing, or whether they
sing at all. But quite the reverse is the correct idea.
While solos, duets, quartets, etc., are excellent, the
greater power lies in the singing of the people.
Therefore, to get the greatest help from the singing in
a revival meeting, the people must be made to sing.
Hence it is necessary that there be a good leader, and
by a good leader we mean a man skilled in music,
filled with the Holy Ghost, and a love for souls, a good
organizer and choir conductor, a good solo singer, and
a man with a fine sense of the fitness of things. Such
a man will be a channel through which the Spirit can
work, and will under God be a power in a revival. A
MUSIC IN A REVIVAL 193
man may be a splendid musician and have a magnifi-
cent voice, and yet be of absolutely no use in revival
work because he is not a spiritual man and does not
sing for the definite purpose of winning men to Christ.
Having the right sort of a leader of the singing, you
still must have a suitable collection of hymns and
tunes. I say hymns and tunes, because we so often
see a good hymn coupled with a poor tune, or a good
tune coupled with a weak hymn. In either case the
result will not be satisfactory. Because of this many
are opposed to the introduction of new books and songs
in a revival. But this should not be the case, for if
you have such a leader as has been described, and give
him the selection of the book, you have no more to
fear than you have in giving to the Spirit-filled
preacher the choice of subjects he should speak upon,
or the methods he shoul d employ. But so long as the
selection of a book is left to a committee who either
are not at all musical, or else are not in sympathy with
revival work, or want to get the book that costs the least
money, or are prompted by any other motive than to
obtain the book best adapted for the work of winning
souls, you will be crippled in the music. A poor book
is dear at any price, and does incalculable harm to the
meetings. For we say frankly, that many of the
so-called Gospel hymns have not a particle of the Gos-
pel of Christ in them, and many of the tunes are such
an abomination to every person with a knowledge of
or taste for music, that even if there is much blessed
and converting truth in the hymn it is lost sight of in
the dislike awakened by the bad tune. There are
two extremes which should be avoided in choosing
music for evangelistic meetings: first, the frivolous
194 MUSIC IN A REVIVAL
light songs, and, secondly, the too staid and grave
ones. I do not say classical, for the term classical as
generally applied to music is misleading. It is a prev-
alent opinion that classical music is difficult, which is
as great a mistake as it would be to measure hymns
by their length, or a picture by its size. Many of the
very simple tunes are truly classical, while much of
the difficult music is anything but classical. It often
requires time to determine whether a tune is a classic.
I venture that very few, if any, would have pro-
nounced "Old Hundred" classic in the year it was
written, and yet, to-day, no man of any caliber would
pronounce it otherwise.
While great care should be exercised in the selection
of music for revival meetings, yet one must not be
hypercritical about new songs. About twenty years ago
a committee of literary men and musicians were com-
piling a denominational hymnbook, and certain hymns
and tunes were rejected as not being of a high enough
order. But to-day those same tunes and hymns are being
used in all denominational books as they are revised
and compiled, and have proven by their vitality that
they belong among the classics. If a tune is well
written, no matter how simple, don't be afraid to try
it. If a hymn does not teach error, direct or implied,
don't be afraid to give it a trial; but if it does, no
matter what its literary merit may be, let it alone.
Let it be distinctly understood that we are not opposed
to the use of old hymns, not by any means, for quite
the contrary is the case. We believe that the good
old hymns are the heritage of the church, and should
be regarded as such, and that they should be sacredly
kept and perpetuated, and that each successive genera-
MUSIC IN A REVIVAL 195
tion should be taught to sing them well, but to hold on
to these to the exclusion of the new ones would be a
calamity. As new men come on the scene, they
embody the truth into new hymns, and it gives it a
freshness just the same as is the case with a new ser-
mon, and new tunes awaken new interest in these
themes, such as the old ones do not. As we become
familiar with a tune, it gradually loses its power with
us, even though we never become tired of it. But the
new tune arrests the attention, and gives the truth it
carries a chance to enter the heart. Some people seem
to outlive their usefulness, while others never do. It
is just so with songs. There are those that should be
m every selection, and there are others that seem to
have been embalmed, as it were, and laid away in the
denominational books which are never used. We do
not object, they have served well no doubt, now let
1 hem rest in peace, while others come on and do serv-
ice in their turn.
Then we believe there is a place for sentimental
songs in evangelistic meetings. By this we mean
songs with a good religious flavor, on topics calling to
mind home and dear ones, for through these songs the
emotions are stirred, and men are frequently made to
think and finally to repent. Of course, these songs
must be of a high order, and judiciously used.
In short, what is needed in revival or evangelistic
meetings is hymns that contain a message for the sin-
ner, founded on the Word of God, worshipful hymns
for believers, and hymns of thanksgiving and praise,
written by men and women whose hearts are aglow
with the love of God, presented by a leader who is a
musician anointed by the Holy Ghost for such service.
196 MUSIC IN A REVIVAL
When these conditions obtain, the music in evangel-
istic meetings will be a mighty power, and no one will
doubt but that it has the approval of Almighty God.
When the soloist sings he should do it with just as
definite a purpose of leading some one to Christ as the
preacher has when he preaches. He is not there to
entertain people, but to save people, and he needs the
baptism with the Holy Spirit for this work just as
much as the one who preaches the Word. The same
is true of the chorus. They should be trained to
realize that the salvation of some in the audience
hangs upon the way they sing and the way in which
they conduct themselves. Both the soloist and the
choir should come to the meeting after very much and
very definite prayer to God for His blessing upon their
work.
Mr. Moody made very much of solos and quartets
and choir singing and congregational singing, to get
the audience into a receptive mood, so that when he
preached his word dropped into prepared soil. He
would have them sing and sing until he saw just the
favorable moment had come, and then he would arise
and deliver his message. He attributed much of the
wonderful effects of that message to this fact — that the
singing got the people ready for it.
A suitable solo or duet or even chorus often serves
to clinch the message and bring people to immediate
decision. It is well for the preacher, oftentimes, to
say, *'Now I am going to ask Mr. to sing, and
while he sings I want to ask the Christians to bow
their heads and pray God to bless the song to some
one's conversion and let the unsaved think, and when
the song is ended I will give all who wish to accept
MUSIC IN A REVIVAL 197
Christ an opportunity to arise (or, come forward) and
say so in that way. ' ' Music can also be used very
effectively while all the Christians are standing, by
asking all those who wish to be saved to come forward
while we sing "Just as I Am," or some similar hymn
of invitation. People should be so familiarized with
a few choice hymns that they can sing them v/ithout
a book while kneeling at the altar or bowing in
prayer. Many a successful revival campaign has been
signalized by one or more hymns that have been the
keynote of the whole movement, and were not only
sung again and again at the meetings, but on the
streets, on the cars, in the home, and everywhere.
In the great reformation under Martin Luther in
Germany, the historic Huguenot movement in France,
the Methodist revival in England and America, hymns
were one of the mightiest instruments used of God to
spread and perpetuate the work. If we are wise we
shall make much of holy song in the great revival upon
which we are now entering.
ADVERTISING THE MEETINGS
A. F. GAYLORD
This subject is of far more importance than the
average minister or the average church realizes.
One great reason why so many of our churches have
such a small attendance is because the people are not
made to know what is going on, or that the meetings
are important, by frequent and judicious advertising.
By wise and persistent advertising the vacant seats in
most of our churches could be filled. Many churches
do not give this subject a second thought ; but up-to-
date business men are saying constantly: ** This ad-
vertising pays," or, "That advertising doesn't pay."
The church of Jesus Christ would do well to adopt
many ideas from the commercial world relative to
making important work known. The old saying,
"The best tie to connect business men with the public
is to advertise, " is as true to-day as when first uttered.
In announcements for the Lord's Day and other meet-
ings of the church, too great emphasis is laid upon
reaching the church-goers. One of the chief purposes,
if not the paramount purpose, of the church is to reach
the unsaved. The unsaved, as a rule, are within hear-
ing of the Gospel, but the majority of them are not in
actendance at our churches. C. H. Spurgeon used to
say that if you could get people to thinking you could
get results. Just so ; if we can get people to thinking
of the church and of their own responsibility thereto, we
198
ADVERTISING THE MEETINGS 199
can get results. The writer was much struck recently
by an illustration in a leading paper. The saloon,
brilliantly lighted within, the sidewalk in front clean,
and everything bright and attractive, holding out every
inducement to the young man from the country who
has just reached the city, was illustrated in one cartoon.
In another cartoon was represented the church with
this announcement: **Open Sunday and Wednesday
evenings. ' ' The sidewalk in front was covered with
snow and not a single light was to be seen. This is
a true picture of many of our well-equipped metro-
politan churches. Statistics show that every year
thousands of young men from the rural sections flock
to the cities. Many of them, while in the country,
have the advantages of church-life, and are brought
up under the influences of Christian homes ; but, when
they reach the city, they fall among less godly com-
panions, and forget their early training. It is the busi-
ness of the church to reach these young men. Just
how to reach them every church and every organization
must decide for itself, with a due regard to its environ-
ment.
The little weekly bulletin announcing the church,
its services and its church motto, together with when
and where the pastor may be seen, is a very attractive
way of reaching many. At all times, and on all occa-
sions, a large bulletin-board close to the church,
announcing in an attractive way the speaker and his
subjects, has proved a great help, as all who have
tried the bulletin know.
It is also well to place permanent bulletin-boards
where a great many people pass on foot or in the cars.
The bulletins should be large enough to be read from
200 ADVERTISING THE MEETINGS
the cars, and there should be frequent changes of mat-
ter, so that people will learn to watch to see what is
going on.
One of the best ways of advertising is by the use of
the large three and twenty-five sheet bulletin-boards.
They are expensive, but experience demonstrates that,
when they have been used to advertise evangelistic
and other special meetings, they have accomplished
great results. All the bill-boards of a large city were
utilized recently for notices of special revival services.
These notices were found in every part of the city.
The newspaper people noticed them, felt that some-
thing important was going on, and reported the meet-
ings daily.
A church may be well known in its own locality and
city, but the pastor may be more widely known ; and
his name, appearing in a striking way on the bulletin-
board, often attracts people who do not care for the
church, but who wish to hear him speak.
There is perhaps no better plan for the bulletin than
that followed by Mr. Moody in his wide evangelistic
work. He always used a white background with
plain black letters — letters that could be read a block
away. As an auxiliary to the large bulletin, Mr. Moody
made use very frequently of the free-admission ticket
— thus creating a personal tie between the meeting
and the recipient.
At the weekly prayer-meeting and other meetings,
the co-operation of each individual member of the
church should be obtained. They should be handed
all the tickets that they will take and judiciously dis-
tribute. These tickets should have printed upon them
the name and location of the church, the name of the
ADVERTISING THE MEETINGS 201
pastor, and also the subjects for the morning and even-
ing services. It is well to have some striking text
printed upon the back of the ticket. Distributing these
tickets is work that any Christian can do. What mat-
ter if many tickets are wasted ? — many bullets are
wasted in a war.
A very useful form of advertisement is an attractive
card about the size of the regulation visiting-card, neatly
printed, inviting people to the chuich service, and
reading, in the corner, "Presented by," with a blank
space for the name of the person immediately respon-
sible for the invitation. Members of the church
should be encouraged to carry these cards in their
pockets, signed by their own hand, and to give them
out to people whom they meet in business, socially,
on the train or in any other way.
In villages and cities where members of the church
have stores and business-houses, a plain window bul-
letin-board, from twenty-four to thirty inches wide,
with black letters announcing the church, its pastor
and when the services are held, keeps before the eyes
of the passers-by the fact that the church is at least
wide-awake and has something to offer. Experience
has shown that passers-by are attracted by these
things and remark upon the activity of the church
and are drawn to attend it. Why should not the church
be as zealous and wide-awake in the business for
which it stands as is the business man for the dollars
and cents that he may make while here? In one case
it is things temporal ; in the other, things eternal.
Small window-cards, twelve by eighteen inches,
printed so that they can be read from the street, are
very useful for special meetings — not only in revival
202 ADVERTISING THE MEETINGS
services, but at Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving or
other special occasions. These should be handed
around among the members of the church and their
friends to hang up in their windows. During a presi-
dential campaign the majority of us are quite willing
to wear the emblem of the party with which we intend
to cast our vote, or to hang our candidate's picture
in the front window, or some other conspicuous place,
and politicians say that much good is accomplished in
this way. We know that much good is accomplished
by these window-cards in advertising religious meet-
ings. A man who had placed one of these cards in his
window sat behind the curtain at another window and
watched the people passing by. Men, women and
children of all classes stopped and read the sign
through. Much good is accomplished by placing a
pointed text in the window where people may read it.
Many have been blessed by these texts. A recent
appeal from the pastor of the church with which
I am connected brought the hearty co-operation of the
members to put these cards in their windows, and
this one church gave out several hundred of them.
When a large number of these cards are noticed on
different streets, they at once awaken comment on
the part of the passers-by. They wonder what is
going on, and go to the church to find out. The great
object is to set the people to thinking about the meet-
ings and about Christ.
In cities, the advertisements in our surface and ele-
vated cars, and on the platforms of elevated lines,
are read by thousands of persons.
We have found transparencies very useful. They
consist of a wooden frame from eighteen to twenty-
ADVERTISING THE MEETINGS 203
four inches in length and about twelve inches high,
with white linen around the four sides, on which are
printed in black letters the announcements of the
meetings. To the wooden bottom tallow candles are
secured. When these are carried about in the evening
they do more to attract people than the most artistic
printed matter. Perhaps the novelty of the thing is
the strongest point in its favor. As many as pos-
sible of these transparencies should be sent out every
evening. Sometimes it is well to organize the whole
corps of transparency-bearers into a procession and
send it through the more thickly populated part of the
city.
In connection with special evangelistic meetings
recently held in the city of Chicago, a van eighteen
feet long and ten feet high was covered with black
cloth, on which was painted in white letters the
announcement of the meetings and speaker. This was
driven up and down the main thoroughfares of the
city and was read by thousands. Many say these
things are undignified; but they fill the churches
and result in bringing men to Christ. Not a few
churches are dying from dignity. The up-to-date
business-house sacrifices dignity in order to achieve
results. The writer has been greatly impressed with
the fact that the average church or religious institu-
tion falls far below the high standard established and
maintained by successful business-houses.
A thorough canvass of the locality where a church
is located is very effective. The names of all non-
church goers should be secured. There should be a
well-organized corps from some of the organizations
of the church to do the work, and it should be done in
204 ADVERTISING THE MEETINGS
as short a time as possible. An invitation should be
left at every house and, later, after all the names are
secured, a postal-card announcing the services of the
church, with a kind invitation from the executive
committee or the pastor, should be sent to each per-
son. These should be followed up by a personal let-
ter. What fails to reach one will reach another.
Here again a lesson may well be drawn from the busi-
ness man, who is all the time gathering the names of
prospective customers and, if he or his agent is
unable to call in person, he sends a letter soliciting an
order, or in some way puts his work before the desired
customer. Certainly a church should be as zealous
and aggressive in winning men to Christ as a business-
house is in winning customers. I have recently sent
out many letters of this kind and not one has been
returned.
The great question is, How can an interest be
aroused in the church? — and every possibility of reach-
ing those who do not want to be reached should be
* ' pushed for all there is in it. " A wise advertising com-
mittee of not more than two — better still one — which
prayerfully considers each and every step to be taken
before any printed matter is issued, and the hearty
co-operation of those who assist in getting out such
printed matter, is certain to accomplish large results
in reaching those for whom the church of Christ was
established.
In all our advertising we should not forget nor
neglect the newspapers. Most newspapers are will-
ing to assist to the utmost of their ability in pushing
the work of any church that shows itself alive and
aggressive. If notices and descriptions of meetings,
ADVERTISING THE MEETINGS 205
and outlines of sermons and othes: interesting matter
is sent to them, they will publish it. They will even
send reporters to the meetings ir there is anything
worth reporting; but it is not fair to leave it to the
papers to find out what is going on, when it is our
interest more than theirs that is in hand. Many min-
isters and churches complain of not getting satisfactory
reports in the newspapers, but they are more to
blame than the newspapers. They think that the
newspapers ought to know that they are alive and
important; but newspaper men are very busy men
and, though quite ubiquitous, they are not omnipresent.
Not a few abuse the newspapers and then wonder
why the newspapers do not support them. It is well
sometimes to utilize the advertising columns of the
newspapers. If this is done, an attractive advertise-
ment should be put in the amusement column, for that
is the column of advertisements read by people look-
ing for some place to go, by travelers and commercial
men, the very class which the church wishes to reach
and oftentimes fails to reach. A very large church
that we know, whose audiences usually filled the lower
floor only, advertised a special evening service, with
the subject, in the amusement columns of the papers.
The next Sunday evening the church was filled upstairs
and downstairs. Perhaps 800 or 1,000 additional
people were present. The church did not keep up this
special advertising for more than a week or so, but it
has kept full from that day to this, though five years
have passed.
The best kind of advertising of all is done by get-
ting individuals to go after individuals. They should
be encouraged to be persistent, going after the
2o6 ADVERTISING THE MEETINGS
same persons time and time again, at least until they
come.
Of course no kind of advertising-, no matter how
expensive or thorough, will do permanent good unless
there is something in the meeting to which people are
invited that is worth going for. Furthermore, the
people who are brought in by the advertising should
be given a hearty welcome by the church. This is
a matter that needs constant watchfulness, care and
prayer.
HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
C. H. SPURGEON, ADDRESS TO OPEN AIR "PREACHERS, " 1 887
It is a great privilege to have to speak to so noble a
band of preachers ; I wish that I were more fit for the
task. Silver of eloquent speech and gold of deep
thought have I none ; but such as I have, give I unto
you.
Concerning the winning of souls : What is it to win
a soul? I hope you believe in the old-fashioned way
of saving souls. Everything appears to be shaken
nowadays, and shifted from the old foundations. It
seems that we are to evolve out of men the good that
is already in them: much good may you get if you
attempt the process ! I am afraid that in the process
of evolution you will develop devils. I do not know
much else that will come out of human nature, for
manhood is as full of sin as an egg is full of meat ; and
the evolution of sin must be everlasting mischief. We
all believe that we must go to soul-winning, desiring
in God's name to see all things made new. This old
creature is dead and corrupt, and must be buried ; and
the sooner the better. Jesus has come that there may
be a passing away of the old things, and a making of
all things new. In the process of our work, we
endeavor to bless men by trying to make them tem-
perate; may God bless all work of that sort! But
we should think ourselves to have failed if we had
produced a world of total abstainers, and had left them
all unbelievers. We drive at something more than
ao7
2o8 HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
temperance ; for we believe that men must be born
again. It is good that even a corpse should be clean,
and therefore that the unregenerate should be moral.
It would be a great blessing if they were cleansed of
the vices which make this city to reek in the nostrils
of God and good men. But that is not so much our
work as this: that the dead in sin should live, that
spiritual life should quicken them, and that Christ
should reign where the prince of the power of the air
now hath sway. You preach, brethren, with this
object, that men may quit their sins, and fly to Christ
for pardon, that by His blessed Spirit they may be
renovated, and become as much in love with every-
thing that is holy as they are now in love v/ith every-
thing that is sinful. You aim at a radical cure; the ax
is laid at the root of the trees ; the amendment of the
old nature would not content you, but you seek for the
imparting, by a divine power, of a new nature, that
those who gather round you in the streets may live
unto God.
Our object is to turn the world upside down; or, in
other words, that where sin abounded grace may much
more abound. We are aiming at a miracle : it is well
to settle that at the commencement. Some brethren
think that they ought to lower their note to the spirit-
ual ability of the hearer; but this is a mistake.
According to these brethren, you ought not to exhort
a man to repent and believe unless you believe that he
can, of himself, repent and believe. My reply is a
confession: I command men in the name of Jesus to
repent and believe the Gospel, though I know they can
do nothing of the kind apart from the grace of God;
for I am not sent to work according to what my private
HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST 209
reason might suggest, but according to the orders of
my Lord and Master. Ours is the miraculous method
which comes of the endowment of the Spirit of God,
who bids His ministers perform wonders in the name
of the holy child, Jesus. We are sent to say to blind
eyes, "See," to deaf ears, "Hear," to dead hearts,
"Live," and even to Lazarus rotting in that grave,
wherein, by this time, he stinketh, — "Lazarus, come
forth." Dare we do this? We shall be wise to begin
with the conviction that we are utterly powerless for
this unless our Master has sent us, and is with us.
But if He that sent us is with us, all things are pos-
sible to him that believeth. O preacher, if thou art
about to stand up to see what thou canst do, it will be
thy wisdom to sit down speedily ; but if thou standest
up to prove what thine almighty Lord and Master can
do through thee, then infinite possibilities lie about
thee ! There is no bound to what God can accomplish
if He works by thy heart and voice. The other Sab-
bath morning, before I entered the pulpit, when my
dear brethren, the deacons and elders of this church,
gathered about me for prayer, as they are wont to do,
one of them said, "Lord, take him as a man takes a
tool in his hand when he gets a firm hold of it, and
then uses it to work his own will with it. " That is
what all workers need ; that God may be the worker
by them. You are to be instruments in the hands of
God; yourselves, of course, actively putting forth all
your faculties and forces which the Lord has lent to
you; but still never depending upon your personal
power, but resting alone upon that sacred, mysterious,
divine energy which worketh in us, and by us, and
with us, upon the hearts and minds of men.
2IO HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
Brethren, we have been greatly disappointed, have
we not, with some of our converts? We shall always
be disappointed with them so far as they are our con-
verts. We shall greatly rejoice over them when they
prove to be the Lord's work. When the power of
grace works in them (** Glory!") then it will be, as my
brother says, *' Glory!" and nothing else but glory; for
grace brings glory, but mere oratory will only create
sham and shame in the long run. When we are
preaching, and we think of a very pretty, flowery pas-
sage, a very neat, poetical paragraph, I wish we could
be restrained by that fear which acted upon Paul when
he said that he would not use the wisdom of words,
**lest the cross of Christ should be made of none
effect. " It is the duty of the Gospel preacher, indoors
or outdoors, to say, "I can say that very prettily, but
then they might notice how I said it ; I will, therefore,
so say it that they will only observe the intrinsic value
of the truth which I would teach them." It is not our
way of putting the Gospel, nor our method of illus-
trating it, which wins souls, but the Gospel itself does
the work in the hands of the Holy Ghost, and to Him
we must look for the thorough conversion of men. A
miracle is to be wrought by which our hearers shall
become the products of that mighty power which God
wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead,
and set Him at His own right hand in' the heavenly
place far above all principality and power; and for
this we must look out of ourselves to the living God.
Must we not? We go in, then, for thorough, down-
right conversion; and therefore we fall back upon the
power of the Holy Spirit. If it be a miracle, God
must work it, that is clear; it is not to be accom-
HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST 211
plished by our reasoning, or persuasion, or threaten-
ing; it can only come from the Lord.
In what way^ since the winning of souls lies here^ can
we hopefully expect to be endowed with the Spirit of
God^ and to go forth in His power? I reply, that a
great deal depends upon the condition of the man him-
self. I am persuaded we have never laid enough
stress on the work of God within our own selves in its
relation to our service of God. A consecrated man
may be charged with the divine energy to the full, so
that everybody round about him must perceive it.
They cannot tell what it is, nor whence it comes, nor,
perhaps, whither it goes ; but there is something about
that man which is far beyond the common order of
things. At another time that same person may be
feeble and dull, and be conscious to himself that he is
so. See ! he shakes himself as at other times, but he
can do no mighty deed. It is clear that Samson him-
self must be in a right condition, or he can win no vic-
tories. If the champion's locks be shorn, the Philistines
will laugh at him ; if the Lord be gone from a man, he
has no power left for useful service. Dear brethren,
look carefully to your own condition before God.
Take care of the home farm ; look well to your own
flocks and herds. Unless your walk be close with
God, unless you dwell in that clear light which sur-
rounds the throne of God, and which is only known to
those who are in fellowship with the Eternal, you will
go forth from your chamber, and hasten to your work,
but nothing will come of it. The vessel, it is true, is
but an earthen one ; yet it has its place in the divine
arrangement, but it will not be filled with the divine
treasure unless it is a clean vessel, and unless in other
212 HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
respects it is a vessel fit for the Master's use. Let me
show you some ways in which much must depend in
soul-winning upon the man himself.
IVe win some souls to Christ by acting as witnesses.
We stand up and testify for the Lord Jesus Christ con-
cerning certain truths. Now, I have never had the
great privilege of being bamboozled by a barrister. I
have sometimes wondered what I should do if I were
put into the witness-box to be examined and cross-
examined. I think I should simply stand up, and tell
the truth as far as I knew it, and should not make an
attempt to display my wit, or my language, or my
judgment. If I simply gave straightforward answers
to his questions, I should beat any lawyer under
heaven. But the difficulty is, that so often when a
witness is put into the box, he is more conscious of
himself than of what he has to say; therefore, he is
soon worried, teased, and bored, and, by losing his
temper, he fails to be a good witness for the cause.
Now, you men in the open air are often bamboozled;
the devil's barristers are sure to come to you, he has a
great number of them constantly retained in his serv-
ice. The one thing you have to do is to bear witness
to the truth. If you enquire in your own mind, "How
shall I answer this man cleverly, so as to get a victory
over him?" you will not be wise. A witty answer is
often a very proper thing ; at the same time, a gracious
answer is better. Try to say to yourself: *'It does
not, after all, matter whether that man proves me to be
a fool or not, for I know that already. I am content
to be thought a fool for Christ's sake, and not to care
about my reputation. I have to bear witness to what
I know, and by the help of God I will do so right
HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST 213
boldly. If the interrupter questions me about other
things, I shall tell him that I do not come to bear wit-
ness about other matters, but this one thing I do. To
one point I will speak, and to no other."
Brethren, the witnessing man, then, must himself be
saved, and he should be sure of it. I do not know
whether you doubt your own salvation. Perhaps I
should recommend you to preach even when that is the
case ; since, if 5^ou are not saved yourself, you yet wish
others to be. You do not doubt that you once enjoyed
full assurance ; and now, if you have sorrowfully to
confess, '*Alas! I do not feel the full power of the
Gospel on my own heart," you can truly add, '*Yet I
know that it is true, for I have seen it save others, and
I know that no other power can save me. ' ' Perhaps
even that faltering testimony, so truly honest, might
bring a tear into your opponent's eye, and make him
feel sympathy for you. "I preached," said John Bun-
yan, "sometimes without hope, like a man in chains to
men in chains, and when I heard my own fetters rat-
tle, yet I told others that there was deliverance for
them, and I bade them look to the great Deliverer."
X would not have stopped Mr. Bunyan in preaching so.
At the same time, it is a great thing to be able to
declare from your own personal experience that the
Lord hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars
of iron in sunder. Those who hear our witness say :
**Are you sure of it?" Sure of it? I am as sure of it
as I am sure that I am a living man. They call this
dogmatism. Never mind about that. A man ought to
know what he is preaching about, or else let him sit
down. If I had any doubt about the matters I preach
from this pulpit, I should be ashamed to remain the
214 HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
pastor of this church ; but I preach what I do know,
and testify what I have seen. If I am mistaken I am
heartily and intensely mistaken ; and I risk my soul
and all its eternal interests upon the truth of what I
preach. If the Gospel of what I preach does not save
me, I shall never be saved, for what I proclaim to
others is my own personal ground of trust. I have no
private lifeboat ; the ark to which I invite others holds
myself and all that I have.
A good witness ought himself to know all that he is
going to say ; he should feel himself at home in his
subject. He is brought up as a witness, say, in a cer-
tain case of robbery ; he knows what he saw, and has
to make a declaration of that only. They begin to
question him about a picture in the house, or the color
of a dress which was hanging in the wardrobe. He
answers: *'You are going beyond my record; I can
only witness to that which I saw. " What we do know,
and what we do not know, would make two very large
books, and we may safely ask to be let alone as to the
second volume.
Brother, say what you know, and sit down. But be
calm and composed while speaking of that with which
you have personal acquaintance. You will never
properly indulge your emotions in preaching, so as to
feel at home with the people until you are at home
with your subject. When you know what you are at,
you will have your mind free for earnestness. Unless
you open-air preachers know the Gospel from the
beginning to end, and know where you are in preach-
ing it, you cannot preach with due emotion; but
when you feel at home with your doctrine, stand up
and be as bold and earnest and importunate as you
HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST 215
please. Face the people feeling that you are going to
tell them something worth hearing, about which you
are quite sure, which to you is your very life. There
are honest hearts in every outdoor assembly, and every
indoor assembly too, that only want to hear honest
beliefs, and they will accept them and be led to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you are not only witnesses^ you are pleaders for
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in a pleader, much
depends upon the man. It seems as if the sign and
token of Christianity in some preachers was not a
tongue of fire, but a block of ice. You would not like
to have a barrister stand up and plead your cause in a
cool, deliberate way, never showing the slightest care
about whether you were found guilty of murder or
acquitted. How could you endure his indifference
when you yourself were likely to be hanged? Oh, no!
you wish to silence such a false advocate. So, when a
man has to speak for Christ, if he is not in earnest, let
him go to bed. You smile ; but is it not better that he
should go to bed than send a whole congregation to
sleep without their going to bed? Yes, we must be in
downright earnest. If we are to prevail with men, we
must love them. There is a genuine love to men that
some have, and there is a genuine dislike to men that
others have. I know gentlemen, whom I esteem in a
way, who seem to think that the working classes are a
shockingly bad lot, to be kept in check, and governed
with vigor. With such views they will never convert
workingmen. To win men, you must feel : "I am one
of them. If they are a sad lot, I am one of them ; if
they are lost sinners, I am one of them ; if they need a
Savior, I am one of them." To the very chief of
ai6 HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
tinners you should preach with this text before you:
''Such were some of you." Grace alone makes us to
differ, and that grace we preach. Genuine love to
God and fervent love to man make up the great quali-
fications for a pleader.
I further believe, although certain persons deny it,
that the influence of fear is to be exercised over the
minds of men, and that it ought to operate upon the
mind of the preacher himself. "Noah, moved with
fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house."
There was salvation for this world from perishing in
the flood in the fears of Noah ; and when a man gets to
fear for others, so that his heart cries out, "They will
perish, they will perish, they will sink to hell, they will
be forever banished from the presence of the Lord,"
and when this fear oppresses his soul and weighs him
down, and then drives him to go out and preach with
tears, oh, then he will plead with men so as to prevail !
Knowing the terror of the Lord, he will persuade men.
To know the terror of the Lord is the means of teach-
ing us to persuade, and not to speak harshly. Some
have used the terrors of the Lord to terrify ; but Paul
used them to persuade. Let us copy him. Say "We
have come out to tell you, men and brethren, that the
world is on fire, and you must flee for your lives, and
escape to the mountain, lest ye be consumed." We
must give this warning with the full conviction that it
is true, or else we shall be but as the boy who in fool-
ishness cried "Wolf!" Something of the shadow of
the last tremendous day must fall upon our spirit to
give the accent of conviction to our message of mercy,
or we shall miss the pleader's true power. Brethren,
we must tell men that there is pressing need of a Sav-
HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST 217
ior, and show them that we ourselves perceive theif
need and feel for them, or else we are not likely to
turn them to the Savior.
He that pleads for Christ should himself be moved
with the prospect of the judgment day. When I come
in at yonder door at the back of the pulpit, and the
sight of that vast crowd bursts upon me, I frequently
feel appalled. Think of these thousands of immortal
souls gazing through the windows of those wistful
eyes, and I am to preach to them all, and be respon-
sible for their blood if I be not faithful to them. I
tell you, it makes me feel ready to start back. But
then fear is not alone. I am borne up by the hope and
belief that God intends to bless these people through
the Word which He will enable me to deliver. I
believe that everybody in that throng is sent there by
God for some purpose, and that I am sent to effect
that purpose. I often think to myself, when I am
preaching: "Who is being converted now?" It never
occurs to me that the Word of the Lord will fail. No,
that can never be. I often feel sure that men are
being converted, and at all times that God is glorified
by the testimony of His truth. You may depend upon
it that your hopeful conviction that God's Word can-
not return to Him void is a great encouragement to
your hearers as well as to yourself. Your enthusiastic
confidence that they will be converted may be like the
little finger of a mother held out to her babe, to help
it to make its way to her. The fire within your hearts
may dart a spark into their souls by which the flame
of spiritual life shall be kindled in them. Do let us all
learn the art of pleading with the souls of men.
Still, dear open-air preachers, and all of you Chris-
ii8 HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
tian people here, we have not only to be witnesses and
pleaders^ but we have also to be examples. One of the
most successful ways of taking wild ducks is the use of
the decoy bird. The decoy duck enters the net itself,
and the others follow it. We need to use more, in the
Christian Church, the holy art of decoy ; that is to say,
our example, in ourselves coming to Christ, in our-
selves living godly lives in the midst of a perverse
generation, our example of joy and sorrow, our exam-
ple of holy submission to the divine will in the time of
trouble, our example in all manner of gracious ways,
will be the means of inducing others to enter the way
of life. You cannot, of course, stand up in the street
and tell of your example; but there is no street-
preacher who is not known better than he thinks.
Some one in that crowd may be in the secret of the
speaker's private life. I once heard of an out-of-doors
preacher, to whom a hearer cried out, **Ah, Jack, you
dare not preach like that at your own door!" It so
happened, unfortunately, that Mr. John had
offered to fight one of his neighbors a little while
before, and therefore it was not likely that he would
have done much preaching very near home. This
made the interruption an awkward one. If any man's
life at home is unworthy, he should go several miles
away before he stands up to preach, and then, when he
stands up, he should say nothing. They know us,
brethren ; they know far more about us than we imag-
ine, and what they do not know they make up. At
the same time, our walk and conversation should be
the most powerful part of our ministry. This is what
is called being consistent^ when lips and life agree.
My time is short; but I must say a word upon
HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST 219
another point. I have said that the working of the
Holy Spirit depends largely upon the man himself,
but I am bound to add that much will also depend upon
the kind of people that are round about the preacher.
An open-air preacher who has to go out quite alone
must be in a very unfortunate position. It is
extremely helpful to be connected with an earnest, liv-
ing church which will pray for you ; and if you cannot
find such a church where you labor, the next best thing
is to get half a dozen brothers or sisters who will back
you up, and go out with you, and especially, will pray
with you. Some preachers are so independent that
they can do without helpers, but they will be wise if
they do not affect solitude. May they not look at the
matter in this way; By bringing in half a dozen men
to go out with me I shall be doing good to these young
men, and shall be training them to be workers? If
you can associate with yourself half a dozen who are
not all very young men, but somewhat advanced in
their knowledge of divine truth, the association will be
greatly to your mutual advantage. I confess to you
all that, although God has largely blessed me in His
work, yet none of the credit is due to me at all, but to
those dear friends at the Tabernacle, and indeed, all
over the world, who make me the special subject of
their prayers. A man ought to do well with such a
people around him as I have. My dear friend and
deacon, Mr. William Olney, once said: "Our minister
has hitherto led us forward, and we have followed
heartily. Everything has been a success ; do you not
believe in his leadership?" The people cried *'Yes."
Then said my dear friend: *'If our pastor has brought
us tip to a ditch which looks as if it could not be
220 HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
passed, let us fill it up with our bodies, and carry him
across," This was grand talk; the ditch was filled;
nay, it seemed to fill itself up at once. If you have a
true comrade, your strength is more than doubled.
What a blessing is a good wife! You women, who
would not be in your right place if you began to preach
in the streets, you can make your husbands happy and
comfortable when they come home, and that will make
thejn preach all the better! Some of you can even
help in another way if you are prudent and gentle.
You can tenderly hint that your spouse was a little out
of line in certain small matters, and he may take your
hint, and put himself right. A good brother once
asked me to give him some instruction, and he pleaded
thus: *'The only instructor I have had was my wife,
who had a better schooling than fell to my lot. I used
to say: *We was,' and *Us did it,' and she quietly
hinted that people might laugh at me if I did not
attend to grammar." His wife thus became to him a
professor of — of English language, and was worth her
weight in gold to him, and he knew it. You who have
such helpers ought to thank God daily for them.
Next to this, it is a very great assistance to join in
brotherly league with some warm-hearted Christian
who knows more than we do, and will benefit us by
prudent hints. God may bless us for the sake of
others when He might not bless us for our own. You
have heard, I dare say, the moiikish story of the man
who had preached, and had won many souls to Christ,
and congratulated himself upon it. One night, it was
revealed to him that he should have none of the honor
of it at the last great day ; and he asked the angel in
his dream who then would have the credit of it, and
HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST 221
the angel replied: **That deaf old man who sits on the
pulpit stairs and prays for you, was the means of the
blessing. ' * Let us be thankful for that deaf man, or
that old woman, or those poor, praying friends who
bring down a blessing upon us by their intercessions.
The Spirit of God will bless two when He might not
bless one. Abraham alone did not get one of the five
cities saved, although his prayer was like a ton weight
in the scale ; but yonder was his nephew Lot, who was
about the poorest lot that could be found. He had
not more than half an ounce of prayer in him ; but
that tiny fragment turned the scale, and Zoar was pre-
served. Add then your odd half-ounce to the mightier
weight of the pleadings of eminent saints, for they
may need it. Dear brethren^ if we are going to win
souls ^ we must go in for downright labor and hard work.
And, first, we must work at our preaching. You are
not getting distrustful of the use of preaching, are you?
("No.") I hope you do not weary of it, though you
certainly sometimes must weary in it. Go on with
your preaching. Cobbler, stick to your last ; preacher,
stick to your preaching. In the great day, when the
muster-roll shall be read, of all those who are con-
verted through fine music, and church decoration, and
religious exhibitions and entertainments, they will
amount to the tenth part of nothing ; but it will always
please God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. Keep to your preaching ; and if
you do anything beside, do not let it throw your
preaching into the background. In the first place
preach and in the second place preach and in the
third place preach.
Believe in preaching the love of Christ, believe in
222 HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
preaching the atoning sacrifice, believe in preaching
the new birth, believe in preaching the whole counsel
of God. The old hammer of the Gospel will still break
the rock in pieces ; the ancient fire of Pentecost will
still burn among the multitude. Try nothing new,
but go on with preaching, and if we all preach with
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, the results of
preaching will astound us. Why, there is no end, after
all, to the power of the tongue ! Look at the power of
a bad tongue, what great mischief it can do ; and shall
not God put more power into a good tongue, if we will
but use it aright? Look at the power of fire, a single
spark might give a city to the flames; even so, the
Spirit of God being with us, we need not calculate how
much, or what we can do: there is no calculating the
potentialities of a flame, and there is no end to the
possibilities of divine truth spoken with the enthusiasm
which is born of the Spirit of God. Have great hope
yet, brothers, have great hope yet, despite yon shame-
less midnight streets, despite yon flaming gin-palaces
at the corner of every street, despite the wickedness of
the rich, despite the ignorance of the poor. Go on!
go on! go on! In God's name, go on! for if the preach-
ing of the Gospel does not save men, nothing will. If
the Lord's own way of mercy fails, then hang the skies
in mourning, and blot out the sun in everlasting mid-
night, for there remaineth nothing before our race but
the blackness of darkness. Salvation by the sacrifice
of Jesus is the ultimatum of God. Rejoice that it
cannot fail. Let us believe without reserve, and
then go straight ahead with the preaching of the
Word.
True-hearted open-air preachers will be sure to join
HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST 223
with their preaching very much earnest private talk.
What numbers of persons have been converted in this
Tabernacle by the personal conversation of certain
brothers here, whom I will not further indicate ! They
are all about this place while I am preaching! I
recollect that a brother was speaking to me one Mon-
day night, and suddenly he vanished before he finished
the sentence which he was whispering. I never quite
knew what he was going to say ; but I speedily saw
him in that left-hand gallery, sitting in the pew with a
lady unknown to me. After the service, I said to him,
** Where did you go?" and he said: "A gleam of sun-
light came in at the window, and made me see a face
which looked so sad that I hurried upstairs, and took
my seat in the pew close to the woman of a sorrowful
countenance." '* Did you cheer her?" "Oh, yes! she
received the Lord Jesus very readily; and just as she
did so I noticed another eager face, and I asked her to
wait in the pew till after the service, and I went after
the other — a young man. " He prayed with both of
these, and would not be satisfied until they had given
their hearts to the Lord. That is the way to be on the
alert. We need a body of sharpshooters to pick out
their men one by one. When we fire great guns from
the pulpit execution is done, but many are missed.
We want loving spirits to go round, and deal with in-
dividual cases in the singular by pointed personal warn-
ings and encouragements. Every open-air preacher
should not only address the hundreds, but he should
be ready to pounce upon the ones, and he should have
others with him who have the same happy art. How
much more good would come of preaching in the
streets if every open-air preacher were accompanied
224 HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
by a batch of persons who would drive his nails home
for him by personal conversation !
Last Sunday night, my dear brother told us a little
story which I shall never forget. He was at Croydon
Hospital one night, as one of those appointed to visit
it. All the porters had gone home, and it was time to
shut up for the night. He was the only person in the
hospital, with the exception of the physician, when a
boy came running in, saying that there was a railway
accident, and someone must go round to the station
with a stretcher. The doctor said to my brother:
*'Will you take one end of the stretcher if I take the
other?" "Oh, yes!" was the cheerful reply; and so
away went the doctor and the pastor with the stretcher.
They brought a sick man back with them. My brother
said: **I went often to the hospital during the next
week or two, because I felt so much interest in the
man whom I had helped to carry." I believe he will
always take an interest in that man, because he once
felt the weight of him. When you know how to carry
a man on your heart, and have felt the burden of his
case, you will have his name engraven upon your soul.
So you that privately talk to people, you are feeling
the weight of souls; and I believe that this is what
many regular preachers need to know more of, and
then they will preach better.
When preaching and private talk are not available,
you have a tract ready ^ and this is often an effectual
method. Some tracts would not convert a beetle:
there is not enough in them to interest a fly. Get
good, striking tracts, or noua at all. But a telling,
touching Gospel tract may often be the seed cf eternal
life ; therefore, do not go out without your tracts.
HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST 225
I suppose, beside giving a tract, if you can, you try
and find out where a person lives who frequently hears
you, that you may give him a call. What a fine thing
is a visit from an open-air preacher! '*Why," says the
woman, "there is that man come to see you, Bill; that
gentleman who preaches at the corner of the street.
Shall I tell him to come in?" "Oh, yes!" is the reply;
"I have heard him many times; he is a good fellow."
Visit as much as you can, for it will be of use to your-
selves as well as to the people.
What power there is also in a letter to an individual!
Some people still have a kind of superstitious rever-
ence for a letter ; and when they get an earnest epistle
from one of you reverend gentlemen, they think a
great deal of it; and who knows? — a note by post may
hit the man your sermon missed. Young people who
are not able to preach might do much good if they
would write letters to their young friends about their
souls; they could speak very plainly with their pens,
though they might be diffident in speaking with their
tongues. Let us save men by all the means under
heaven ; let us prevent men going down to hell. We
are not half as earnest as we ought to be. Do you not
remember the young man, who, when he was dying,
said to his brother: "My brother, how could you have
been so indifferent to my soul as you have been?"
He answered: "I have not been indifferent to your
soul, for I have frequently spoken to you about it. ' *
**Oh, yes!" he said, "you spoke, but somehow, I think,
if you had remembered that I was going down to hell,
you would have been more earnest with me; you
would have went over me, and, as my brother, you
226 HOW TO WIN SOULS FOR CHRIST
would not have allowed me to be lost." Let no one
say this of you.
But I hear it observed that most fellows, when they
grow earnest, do such odd things, and say such strange
things. Let them say strange things, and let them do
strange things, if these come out of genuine earnest-
ness. We do not want pranks and performances which
are the mere sham of earnestness ; but real white-heat
earnestness is the want of the times, and where you
see that^ it is a pity to be too critical. You must let a
great storm rage in its own way. You must let a liv-
ing heart speak as it can. If you are zealous, and yet
cannot speak, your earnestness will invent its own
method of working out its purpose. As Hannibal is
said to have melted the rocks with vinegar, so earnest-
ness will one way or another dissolve the rocky hearts
of men. May the Spirit of God rest upon you, one and
all, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
THE GREAT REVIVAL
AN ADDRESS ON THE REVIVAL OF 1857
AND 1858
DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, MARCH 28, 1 858, BY
THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE MUSIC
HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS
"The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the
nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our
God. " — Isaiah £2 : 10.
When the heroes of old prepared for the fight they
put on their armor; but when God prepares for bat-
tle He makes bare His arm. Man has to look two ways
— to his own defense, as well as to the offense of his
enemy; God hath but one direction in which to cast
His eye — the overthrow of His foeman ; and He disre-
gards all measures of defense and scorns all armor.
He makes bare His arm in the sight of all the people.
When men would do their work in earnest, too, they
sometimes strip themselves, like that warrior of old,
who, when he went to battle with the Turks, would
never fight them except with the bare arm. "Such
things as they," said he, "I need not fear; they have
more reason to fear my bare arm than I their scim-
itar.'* Men feel that they are prepared for a work
wh.en they have cast away their cumbrous garments.
Ana so the prophet represents the Lord as laying aside
for awhile the garments of His dignity, and making
227
228 THE GREAT REVIVAL
bare His arm, that He may do His work in earnest and
accomplish His purpose for the establishment of His
church.
Now, leaving the figure, which is a very great one, I
would remind you that its meaning is fully carried
out whenever God is pleased to send a great revival of
religioQ. My heart is glad within me this day, for I
am the bearer of good tidings. My soul has been
made exceedingly full of happiness by the tidings of
a great revival of religion throughout the United
States. Some hundred years, or more, ago, it pleased
the Lord to send one of the most marvelous religious
awakenings that was ever known; the whole of the
United States seemed shaken from end to end with
enthusiasm for hearing the Word of God; and now,
after the lapse of a century, the like has occurred
again. The monetary pressure has at length
departed ; but it has left behind it the wreck of many
mighty fortunes. Many men, who were once princes,
have now become beggars, and in America, more than
in England, men have learned the instability of all
human things. The minds of men, thus weaned from
the earth by terrible and unexpected panic, seem
prepared to receive tidings from a better land and to
turn their exertions in a heavenly direction. You will
be told by anyone who is conversant with the present
state of America, that wherever you go there are
the most remarkable signs that religion is progressing
with majestic strides. The great revival, as it is now
called, has become the common market-talk of mer-
chants ; it is the theme of every newspaper ; even the
secular press remarks it, for it has become so astonish-
ing that all ranks and classes of men seem to have
THE GREAT REVIVAL 229
been affected by it. Apparently, without any cause
whatever, fear has taken hold of the hearts of men ; a
thrill seems to be shot through every breast at once ;
and it is affirmed by men of good repute that there
are, at this time, towns in New England where you
could not, even if you searched, find one solitary
unconverted person. So marvelous — I had almost
said, so miraculous — has been the sudden and instan-
taneous spread of religion throughout the great
empire, that it is scarcely possible for us to believe
the half of it, even though it should be told us. Now,
as you are aware, I have at all times been peculiarly
jealous and suspicious of revivals. Whenever I see a
man who is called a revivalist, I always set him down
for a cipher. I would scorn the taking of such a title
as that to myself. If God pleases to make use of a
man for the promoting of a revival, well and good;
but for any man to assume the title and office of a
revivalist, and go about the country, believing that
wherever he goes he is the vessel of mercy appointed
to convey a revival of religion, is, I think, an assump-
tion far too arrogant for any man who has the slightest
degree of modesty. And again, there are a large
number of revivals, which occur every now and then
in our towns, and sometimes in our city, which I
believe to be spurious and worthless. I have heard of
the people crowding in the morning, the afternoon
and the evening, to hear some noted revivalist and,
under his preaching some have screamed, have
shrieked, have fallen down on the floor, have rolled
themselves in convulsions and afterwards, when he
has set a form for penitents, employing one or two
decoy ducks to run out from the rest and make a con-
230 THE GREAT REVIVAL
fession of sin, hundreds have come forward, impressed
by that one sermon, and declared that they were, there
and then, turned from the error of their ways ; and it
was only last week I saw a record of a certain place, in
our own country, giving an account, that on such a
day, under the preaching of the Rev. Mr. So-and-so,
seventeen persons were thoroughly sanctified, twenty-
eight were convinced of sin, and twenty-nine received
the blessing of justification. Then comes the next
day, so many more ; the following day, so many more ;
and afterwards they are all cast up together, making a
grand total of some hundreds who have been blessed
during three services, under the ministry of Mr. So-
and-so. All that I call farce ! There may be some-
thing very good in it ; but the outside looks to me to
be so rotten that I should scarcely trust myself to
think that the good within comes to any very great
amount. When people go to work to calculate so
exactly by arithmetic, it always strikes me they have
mistaken what they are at. We may easily say that
so many were added to the church on a certain occa-
sion, but to take a separate census of the convinced,
the justified and the sanctified, is absurd. You will,
therefore, be surprised at finding me speaking of
revival ; but you will, perhaps, not be quite so surprised
when I endeavor to explain what I mean by an
earnest and intense desire, which I feel in my heart,
that God would be pleased to send throughout this
country a revival like that which has just commenced
in America, and which, we trust, will long continue
there.
I should endeavor to mark, in the first place, the
cause of every revival of true religion; secondly, the
THE GREAT REVIVAL 231
consequences of such revival; then, thirdly, I shall givs
a caution or two, that we make not mistakes in this
matter, and conceive that to be God's work which is
only man's; and then I shall conclude by making an
exhortation to all my brethren in the faith of Christ, to
labor and pray for a revival of religion in the midst of
our churches.
I. First, then, the cause of a true revival. The
mere worldly man does not understand a revival ; he
cannot make it out. Why is it that a sudden fit of
godliness, as he would call it, a kind of sacred epi-
demic, should seize upon a mass of people all at once?
What can be the cause of it? It frequently occurs in
the absence of all great evangelists; it cannot be
traced to any particular means. There have been no
special agencies used in order to bring it about — no
machinery supplied, no societies established; and yet
it has come, just like a heavenly hurricane, sweeping
everything before it. It has rushed across the land,
and of it men have said, *'The wind bloweth where it
listeth ; we hear the sound thereof, but we cannot tell
whence it cometh or whither it goeth. " What is, then,
the cause? Our answer is. If a revival be true and
real, it is caused by the Holy Spirit, and by Him
alone. When Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost,
and preached that memorable sermon by which three
thousand persons were converted, can we attribute the
remarliable success of his ministry to anything else
but the ministry of the Holy Spirit? I read the notes
of Peter's discourse ; it was certainly very simple ; it
was a plain narration of facts ; it was certainly very
bold, very cutting and pointed and personal, for he
did not blush to tell them that they had put to death
232 THE GREAT REVIVAL
the Lord of life and of glory, and were guilty of His
blood ; but on the mere surface of the thing, I should
be apt to say that I had read many a sermon far more
likely to be effective than Peter's; and I believe there
have been many preachers who have lived, whose ser-
mons, when read, would have been far more notable
and far more regarded, at least by the critic, than the
sermon of Peter. It seems to have been exceedingly
simple and suitable and extremely earnest, but none
of these things are so eminently remarkable as to be
the cause of such extraordinary success.
What, then, was the reason? And we reply, once
more, the same word which the Holy Spirit blesses to
the conversion of one, He might, if He pleased, bless to
the conversion of a thousand; and I am persuaded
that the meanest preacher in Christendom might
come into this pulpit, this morning, and preach the
most simple sermon, in the most uneducated style, and
the Holy Spirit, if so He willed it, might bless that
sermon to the conversion of every man, woman and
child within this place: for His arm is not shortened.
His power is not straitened and, as long as He is Omni-
potent, it is ours to believe that He can do whatsoever
seemeth Him good. Do not imagine, when you hear
of a sermon being made useful, that it was the sermon
itself that did the work. Conceive not, because a cer-
tain preacher may have been greatly blessed in the
conversion of souls, that there is anything in the
preacher. God forbid that any preacher should arro-
gate such a thing to himself. Any other preacher,
blessed in the same manner, would be as useful; and
any other sermon, provided it be truthful and earnest,
might be as much blessed as that particular sermon
THE GREAT REVIVAL 253
which has become notable by reason of the multitudes
who by it have been brought to Christ. The Spirit of
God, when He pleaseth, blows upon the sons of men.
He finds a people hard and careless; He casts a desire
into their minds — He sows it broadcast in their spirits
— a thought towards the house of the Lord, and
straightway, they know not why, they flock in multi-
tudes to hear the Word preached. He casts the seed,
the same seed, into the preacher's mind, and he
knows not how, but he feels more earnest than he did
before. When he goes to his pulpit, he goes to it as
to a solemn sacrifice, and there he preaches, believing
that great things will be the effect of his ministry.
The time of prayer cometh round ; Christians are found
meeting together in large numbers ; they cannot tell
what it is that influences them, but they feel they must
go up to the house of the Lord to pray. There are
earnest prayers lifted up; there are earnest sermons
preached and there are earnest hearers. Then God,
the Almighty One, is pleased to soften hard hearts,
and subdue the stout-hearted, and bring them to know
the truth. The only real cause is, His Spirit working
in the minds of men.
But while this is the only actual cause, yet there are
instrumental causes ; and the main instrumental cause
of a great revival must be the bold, faithful, fearless
preaching of the truth as it is in Jesus. Why, breth-
ren, we want every now and then to have a reforma-
tion. One reformation will never serve the church;
she needs continually to be wound up and set a-going
afresh ; for her works run down, and she does not act
as she used to do. The bold, bald doctrines that
Luther brought out began to be a little modified, until
234 THE GREAT REVIVAL
layer after layer was deposited upon them, and at last
the old rocky truth was covered up, and there grew
upon the superficial subsoil an abundance of green and
flowery errors, that looked fair and beautiful, but were
in no way whatever related to the truth, except as they
were the products of its decay. Then there came
bold men who brought the truth out again and said:
*' Clear away this rubbush; let the blast light upon
these deceitful beauties ; we want them not ; bring out
the old truth once more!" And it came out. But the
tendency of the church perpetually is, to be covering
up its own naked simplicity, forgetting that the truth is
never so beautiful as when it stands in its own
unadorned, God-given glory. And now, at this time,
we want to have the old truths restored to their
places. The subtleties and the refinements of the
preacher must be laid aside. We must give up the
grand distinctions of the school-men, and all the lettered
technicalities of men who have studied theology as a
system, but have not felt the power of it in their
hearts; and when the good old truth is once more
preached by men whose lips are touched as with a live
coal from off the altar, this shall be the instrument, in
the hand of the Spirit, for bringing about a great and
thorough revival of religion in the land.
But added to this, there must be the earnest prayers
of the church. All in vain the most indefatigable
ministry, unless the church waters the seed sown, with
her abundant tears. Every revival has been com-
menced and attended by a large amount of prayer. In
the city of New York, at the present moment, there is
not, I believe, one single hotir of the day wherein
Christiaus are not gathered together for prayer. One
THE GREAT REVIVAL 235
church opens its doors from five o'clock till six, for
prayer ; another church opens from six to seven and
summons its praying men to offer the sacrifice of sup-
plication. Six o'clock is past, and men are gone to
their labor. Another class find it then convenient —
such as those, perhaps, who go to business at eight or
nine — and from seven to eight there is another prayer
meeting. From eight to nine there is another, in
another part of the city, and what is most marvelous,
at high noon, from twelve to one, in the midst of the
city of New York, there is held a prayer meeting in a
large room, which is crammed to the doors every day,
with hundreds standing outside. This prayer meeting
is made up of merchants of the city, who can spare a
quarter of an hour to go in and say a word of prayer
and then leave again ; and then a fresh company come
in to fill up the ranks, so that it is supposed that many
hundreds assemble in that one place for prayer during
the appointed hour. This is the explanation of the
revival. If this were done in London — if we for once
would outvie old Rome, who kept her monks in her
sanctuaries, always at prayer, both by night and by
day — if we together could keep up one golden chain
of prayer, link after link of holy brotherhood being
joined together in supplication, then might we expect
an abundant outpouring of the Divine Spirit from the
Lord our God. The Holy Spirit, as the actual agent
— the Word preached, and the prayers of the people,
as the instruments — -and we have thus explained the
cause of a true revival of religion.
II. But now what are the consequences of a
REVIVAL of religion? Why, the consequences are
everything that our hearts could desire for the
236 THE GREAT REVIVAL
church's good. When the revival of religion comes
into a nation, the minister begins to be warmed. It
is said that in America the most sleepy preachers have
begun to wake up ; they have warmed themselves at
the general fire, and men who could not preach with-
out notes, and could not preach with them to any pur-
pose at all, have found it in their hearts to speak right
out, and speak with all their might to the people.
When there comes a revival, the minister, all of a sud-
den finds that the usual forms and conventionalities of
the pulpit are not exactly suitable to the times. He
breaks through one hedge ; then he finds himself in an
awkward position, and he has to break through
another. He finds himself, perhaps, on a Sunday
morning, though a Doctor of Divinity, actually telling
an anecdote — lowering the dignity of the pulpit by
actually using a simile or metaphor — sometimes per-
haps accidentally making his people smile and, what
is also a great sin in these solid theologians, now and
then dropping a tear. He does not exactly know how
it is, but the people catch up his words. "I must
have something good for them," he says. He just
burns that old lot of sermons ; or he puts them under
the bed and gets some new ones, or gets none at all,
but just gets his text, and begins to cry : ' * Men and breth-
ren, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall
be saved." The old deacons say: **What is the matter
with our minister?" The old ladies, who have heard
him for many years, and slept in the front of the gal-
lery so regularly, begin to rouse, and say: "I wonder
what has happened to him? How can it be? Why, he
preaches like a man on fire. The tear runs over at his
eye ; his soul is full of love for souls. ' ' They cannot
THE GREAT REVIVAL 237
make it out; they have often said he was dull and
dreary and drowsy. How is it all this is changed?
Why, it is the revival. The revival has touched the
minister; the sun, shining so brightly, has melted
some of the snow on the mountain-top, and it is run-
ning down in fertilizing streams to bless the valleys;
and the people down below are refreshed by the min-
istrations of the man of God who has awakened him-
self up from his sleep and finds himself, like another
Elijah, made strong for forty days of labor. Well,
then, directly after that the revival begins to touch the
people at large. The congregation was once num-
bered by the empty seats, rather than by the full ones.
But on a sudden — the minister does not understand
it — he finds the people coming to hear him. He never
was popular, never hoped to be. All at once he
wakes up and finds himself famous, so far as a large
congregation can make him so. There are the people,
and how they listen! They are all awake, all in
earnest ; they lean their heads forward, they put their
hands to their ears. His voice is feeble ; they try to
help him ; they are doing anything so that they may
hear the Word of Life. And then the members of the
church open their eyes and see the chapel full, and
they say, "How has this come about? We ought to
pray. ' ' A prayer meeting is summoned. There had
been five or six in the vestry; now there are five or
six hundred, and they turn into the chapel. And oh!
how they pray ! That old stager, who used to pray for
twenty minutes, finds it now convenient to confine
himself to five; and that good old man, who always
used to repeat the same form of prayer when he stood
up and talked about the horse that rushed into the
238 THE GREAT REVIVAL
battle, and the oil from vessel to vessel, and all that,
leaves all these things at home, and just prays: '*0
Lord, save sinners, for Jesus Christ's sake." And
there are sobs and groans heard in the prayer meet-
ings. It is evident that not one, but all, are praying ;
the whole mass seems moved to supplication. How is
this again? Why, it is just the effect of the revival,
for when the revival truly comes, the minister and the
congregation and the church will receive good by it.
But it does not end here. The members of the
church grow more solemn, more serious. Family
duties are better attended to; the home circle is
brought under better culture. Those who could not
spare time for family prayer, find they can do so now ;
those who had no opportunity for teaching their chil-
dren, now dare not go a day without doing it ; for they
hear that there are children converted in the Sunday
School. There are twice as many in the Sunday School
now as there used to be ; and, what is wonderful, the
little children meet together to pray ; their little hearts
are touched and many of them show signs of a work
of grace begun ; and fathers and mothers think they
must try what they can do for their families — if God is
blessing little children, why should He not bless theirs?
And then, when you see the members of the church
going up to the house of God, you mark with what a
steady and sober air they go. Perhaps they talk on
the way, but they talk of Jesus; and if they whisper
together at the gates of the sanctuary, it is no longer
idle gossip; it is no remark about, "How do you like
the preacher? What did you think of him? Did you
notice So-and-so?" Oh, no! "I pray the Lord that
He might bless the word of His servant, that He might
THE GREAT REVIVAL 339
send an unction from on high, that the dying- flame
may be kindled, and that where there is life, it may be
promoted and strengthened, and receive fresh vigor.**
This is their whole conversation.
And then comes the great result. There is an
inquirers' meeting held. The good brother who pre-
sides over it is astonished ; he never saw so many com-
ing in his life before. **Why," says he, ** there are a
hundred, at least, come to confess what the Lord has
done for their souls! Here are fifty come all at once
to say that under such a sermon they were brought to
the knowledge of the truth. Who hath begotten me
these? How hath it come about? How can it be? Is
not the Lord a great God that hath wrought such a work
as this?" And then the converts who are thus brought
into the church, if the revival continues, are very
earnest ones. You never saw such a people. The
outsiders call them fanatics. It is a blessed fanaticism.
Others say, they are nothing but enthusiasts. It is
a heavenly enthusiasm. Everything that is done is
done with such spirit. If they sing, it is like the
crashing thunder; if they pray, it is like the swift,
sharp flash of lightning, lighting up the darkness of
the cold-hearted, and making them for a moment feel
that there is something in prayer. When the minister
preaches, he preaches like a Boanerges, and when the
church is gathered together, it is with a hearty good
will. When they give, they give with enlarged liber-
ality ; when they visit the sick, they do it with gentle-
ness, meekness and love. Everything is done with a
single eye to God's glory; not of men, but by the
power of God. Oh ! that we might see such a revival
as this 1
240 THE GREAT REVIVAL
But, blessed be God, it does not end here. The
revival of the church then touches the rest of society.
Men who do not come forward and profess religion,
are more punctual in attending the means of grace.
Men that used to swear, give it up ; they find it is not
suitable for the times. Men that profaned the Sab-
bath and that despised God, find it will not do; they
give it all up. Times get changed; morality prevails;
the lower ranks are affected. They buy a sermon
where they used to buy some penny tract of nonsense.
The higher orders are also touched; they, too, are
brought to hear the Word. Her ladyship, in her car-
riage, who never would have thought of going to so
mean a place as a conventicle, does not now care where
she goes so long as she is blessed. She wants to hear
the truth ; and a drayman pulls his horses up by the
side of her ladyship's pair of grays, and they both go
in and bend together before the throne of sovereign
grace. All classes are affected. Even the senate feels
it ; the statesman himself is surprised at it and won-
ders what all these things mean. Even the monarch
on the throne feels she has become the monarch of a
people better than she knew before, and that God is
doing something in her realms past all her thought —
that a great King is swaying a better scepter and
exerting a better influence than even her excellent
example. Nor does it even end there. Heaven is
filled. One by one the converts die and heaven gets
fuller; the harps of heaven are louder, the songs of
angels are inspired with new melody, for they rejoice
to see the sons of men prostrate before the throne. The
universe is made glad: it is God's own summer; it is
the universal spring. The time of the singing of birds
THE GREAT REVIVAL 341
is come ; the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
Oh ! that God might send us such a revival of religion
as this!
III. Now we shall have to turn to the third point,
which was a caution. When Christmas Evans
preached in Wales, during a time of revival, he used
to make the people dance ; the congregation were so
excited under his ministry that they positively danced.
Now, I do not believe that dancing was the work of the
Spirit. Their being stirred in their hearts might be
the Holy Spirit's work, but the Holy Spirit does not
care to make people dance under sermons; no good
comes of it. Now and then among some of our
friends there is a great break-out, and we hear of a
young woman in the middle of a sermon getting on
top of a form and turning round and round in ecstasy,
till she falls in a fainting fit, and they cry, ''Glory
be to God ! ' ' Now, we do not believe that that is the
work of the Spirit; we believe it is ridiculous non-
jense, and nothing more. In the old revivals in
America, a hundred years ago, commonly called "the
great awakening," there were many strange things,
such as continual shrieks and screams and knockings
and twitchings, under the services. We cannot call
that the work of the Spirit. Even the great White-
field's revival at Cambuslang, one of the greatest and
most remarkable revivals that was ever known, was
attended by some things that we cannot but regard as
superstitious wonders. People were so excited that
they did not know what they did. Now, if in any
revival you see any of these strange contortions of the
body, always distinguish between things that differ.
The Holy Spirit's work is with the mind, not with the
242 THE GREAT REVIVAL
body in that way. It is not the will of God that such
things should disgrace the proceedings. I believe that
such things are the result of Satanic malice. The
devil sees that there is a great deal of good doing.
**Now," says he, "I'll spoil it all. I'll put my hoof in
there and do a world of mischief. There are souls
being converted ; I will let them get so excited that
they will do ludicrous things ; and then it will all be
brought into contempt. ' ' Now, if you see any of these
strange things arising, look out. There is that old
Apollyon busy, trying to mar the work. Put such
vagaries down as soon as you can, for where the Spirit
works. He never works against His own precept, and
His precept is: "Let all things be done decently and in
order." It is neither decent nor orderly for people to
dance under the sermon nor howl nor scream while
the Gospel is being preached to them; therefore it
is not the Spirit's work at all, but mere human excite-
ment.
And again, remember that you must always distin-
guish between man and man in the work of revival.
While, during a revival of religion, a very large num-
ber of people will be really converted, there will be a
very considerable portion who will be merely excited
with animal excitement, and whose conversion will not
be genuine. Always expect that and do not be sur-
prised if you see it. It is but a law of the mind that
men should imitate one another, and it seems but
reasonable, that when one person is truly converted,
there should be a kind of desire to imitate it in
another, who yet is not a possessor of true and sov-
ereign grace. Be not discouraged, then, if you should
meet with this in the midst of a revival. It is no
THE GREAT REVIVAL 243
proof that it is not a true revival ; it is only a proof
that it is not true in that particular case.
I must say, once more, that if God should send us a
great revival of religion, it will be our duty not to
relax the bonds of discipline. Some churches, when
they increase very largely, are apt to take people into
their number by wholesale, without due and proper
examination. We ought to be just as strict in the
paroxysms of a revival as in the cooler times of a
gradual increase, and if the Lord sends His Spirit like
a hurricane, it is ours to deal with skill with the sails,
lest the hurricane should wreck us by driving us upon
some fell rock that may do us serious injury. Take
care, ye that are officers in the church, when ye see the
people stirred up, that ye exercise still a holy caution,
lest the church become lowered in its standard of piety
by the admission of persons not truly saved.
IV. With these words of caution, I shall now gather
up my strength, and with all my might labor to stir
you up to seek of God a great revival of religion
throughout the length and breadth of this land.
Men, brethren, and fathers, the Lord God hath sent
us a blessing. One blessing is the earnest of many.
Drops precede the April showers. The mercies which
He has already bestowed upon us are but the forerun-
ners and the preludes of something greater and better
yet to come. He has given us the former, let us seek
of Him the latter rain, that His grace may be multiplied
among us and His glory may be increased. There are
some of you to whom I address myself this morning
who stand in the way of any revival of religion. I
would affectionately admonish you and beseech you
not to impede the Lord's own work. There be some
244 THE GREAT REVIVAL
of you, perhaps, here present to-day who are not con-
sistent in your living. And yet you are professors of
religion; you take the sacramental cup into your hand
and drink its sacred wine, but still you live as world-
lings live, and are as carnal and as covetous as they.
Oh, my brother, you are a serious drawback to the
church's increase. God will never bless an unholy
people ; and in proportion to our unholiness, He will
withhold the blessing from us. Tell me of a church
that is inconsistent, you shall tell me of a church that
is unblest. God will first sweep the house before He
will come to dwell in it. He will have His church pure
before He will bless it with all the blessings of His
grace. Remember that, ye inconsistent ones, and
turn unto God, and ask to be rendered holy. There
are others of you that are so cold-hearted that you
stand in the way of all progress. You are a skid upon
the wheels of the church. It cannot move for you. If
we would be earnest, you put your cold hand on every-
thing that is bold and daring. You are not prudent
and zealous ; if you were so, we would bless God for
giving you that prudence which is a jewel for which
we ought ever to thank God, if we have a prudent man
among us. But there are some of you to whom I
allude who are prudent, but you are cold. You have
no earnestness, you do not labor for Christ, you do not
serve Him with all your strength. And there are
others of you who are imprudent enough to push
others on, but never go forward yourselves. O ye
Laodiceans, ye that are neither hot nor cold, remember
what the Lord hath said of you — *'So then, because
thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of
my mouth/* And so will He do with you. Take
THE GREAT REVIVAL 245
heed, take heed, you are not only hurting yourselves,
but you are injuring the church. And then there are
others of you who are such sticklers for order, so given
to everything that has been, that you do not care for
any revival, for fear we should hurt you. You would
not have the church repaired, lest we should touch one
piece of the venerable moss that coats it. You would
not cleanse your own garment, because there is ancient
dirt upon it. You think that because a thing is
ancient, therefore it must be venerable. You are
lovers of the antique. You would not have a road
mended, because your grandfather drove his wagon
along the rut that is there. *'Let it always be there,"
you say; '*let it always be knee-deep." Did not your
grandfather go through it when it was knee-deep with
mud. Why should not you do the same? It was
good enough for him, and it is good enough for you.
You always have taken an easy seat in the chapel.
You never saw a revival ; you do not want to see it.
You believe it is all nonsense and that it is not to be
desired. You look back ; you find no precedent for it.
Doctor So-and-so did not talk about it. Your vener-
able minister who is dead did not talk so, you say;
therefore it is not needed. We need not tell you it is
scriptural ; that you do not care for. It is not orderly,
you say. We need not tell you the thing is right;
you care more about things being ancient than
being good. Ah, you will have to get out of the way
now; it isn't any good; you may try to stop us, but
we will run over you if you do not get out of the
way. With a little warning we shall have to run over
your prejudices and incur your anger. But your preju-
dices must not, cannot, restrain us. The chain may
246 THE GREAT REVIVAL
be never so rusty with age and never so stamped with
authority, the prisoner is always happy to break it and,
however your fetters may shackle us, we will dash
them in pieces if they stand in the way of the progress
of the kingdom of Christ.
Having thus spoken to those who hinder, I want to
speak to you who love Jesus with all your hearts and
want to promote it. Dear friends, I beseech you
remember that men are dying around you by thou-
sands. Will you let your eye follow them into the
world of shades? Myriads of them die without God,
without Christ, without hope. My brother, does not
their fearful fate awaken your sympathy? You believe,
from Scriptural warrant, that those who die without
faith go to that place where "their worm dieth not and
their fire is not quenched." Relieving this, is not
your soul stirred within you in pity for their fate?
Look around you to-day. You see a vast host gathered
together, professedly for the service of God. You know
also how many there are here who fear Him not, but
are strangers to themselves and strangers to the cross.
What ! Do you know yourself what a solemn thing it
is to be under the curse, and will you not pray and
labor for those around you that are under the curse
to-day? Remember your Master's cross. He died for
sinners; will not you weep for them?
*'Did Christ o'er sinners weep;
And shall your cheek be dry?"
Did He give His whole life for them, and will not you
stir up your life to wrestle with God, that His purposes
may be accomplished on their behalf? You have
unconverted children — do you not want them saved?
THE GREAT REVIVAL 247
You have brothers, husbands, wives, fathers, that are
this day in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of
iniquity — do you not want a revival, even if it were
only for their sakes? Behold, how much of robbery,
of murder, of crime, stains this poor land. Do you
not want a revival of religion, if it were merely for
quenching the flames of crime? See how God's name
every day is blasphemed. Mark how, this day, trades
are carried on, as if it were man's day, and not God's.
Mark how multitudes are going the downward course,
merry on their way to destruction. Do you not feel
for them? Are your hearts hard and stolid? Has your
soul become steeled? Has it become frozen like an ice-
berg? O Sun of Righteousness, arise! and melt the icy
heart and make us all feel how fearful it is for immor-
tal souls to perish — for men to be hurried into eternity
without God, and without hope. O, will you not
now, from this time forth, begin to pray that God may
send forth His Word and save them, that His own name
may be glorified?
As for you that fear not God, see how much ado we
are making about you. Your souls are worth more
than you think for. O that ye would believe in
Christ, to the salvation of your souls!
MISCELLANEOUS
We are indebted to the editor of The Epworth Herald for the
privilege of reprinting the articles in this section. They have
appeared in several of the special Revival Numbers of The
Epworth Herald and are specially helpful and suggestive.
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT
REV. JOSHUA STANSFIELD
In revival work the spirit counts for more than any-
thing else ; not alone the Holy Spirit in personal work
upon the unconverted, but the spirit of Christ and of
holy zeal as made known in the believer. Neither
numbers nor prestige is the determining factor. It is
not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the
Lord. That is to say, success is not primarily nor
principally by either intellectual, numerical or organ-
ized advantage, but by the spirit of God in the work-
ers.
Numbers, caliber and organized effort may be
an advantage or a disadvantage. The brightest and
brainiest of our workers may always be used to high-
est advantage if their work be in the Spirit. Other-
wise, they are seeking results according to the capital
invested — namely, brains, brilliance, social prestige
and systematic work. By these they may, and prob-
ably will, secure accretions to the church, but not
conversions. In our glorious twentieth-century move-
248
MISCELLANEOUS 249
ment, the aim is, and should be, to secure conversions —
persons who have received Christ and thereby become
the sons of God. Persons born, not of blood nor of
the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of
God.
Let it be clearly understood, then, that with excel-
lent material and numbers, or without them, God can
work unto salvation. He can use the many or the
few; the few or the many. But success depends
largely upon the spiritual character and condition of
the workers.
On one of my first charges, in the earlier years of
our young people's work, after diligent and careful
attention to the matter, we secured a weekly attend-
ance of seven persons. This continued for nearly
eight months, during v/hich time we had systematic
and faithful work according to the organization under
which we were then living. As early as possible after
the organization of the Epworth League we became a
chapter of the same, and the spirituality and fidelity
of these faithful few were the nucleus from which
there grew one of the most vigorous chapters of the
league, and has so continued to this day. Success has
been not by numbers, but by the spirit in and of the
membership.
Take an apposite case. Last year I conducted
special revival meetings at Albion College, Michigan.
Of the four hundred or more students in the college,
over seventy percent were Christians ; some of them
were only nominally so, but a goodly number both of
the young men and young women rejoiced in the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
I found among them some of the brightest young
2SO MISCELLANEOUS
people it has ever been my privilege to meet, using
the best of their powers in the highest of all work, the
salvation of souls. There were, however, on the part
of about fifty persons, an intelligent consecration for
spiritual power and an intense zeal in their labors such
as I have not seen for many years, if indeed ever.
Private prayer and group prayer meetings between
class hours; personal and written invitations to the
unsaved to come to Christ; deputations of two persons
or more to bring certain individuals to the services;
an accurate list of the names of all the students, with
the church standing and largely the present religious
condition of each person.
A grand revival did not "break out. " It came. It
had to come from such conditions. On the fourth day
of the meeting seventy-five persons were at the altar
at one time. The president and professors, as well as
a number of the fourth-year men, were pointing the
unsaved to Christ and the unsanctified to a better
life.
Of all the young men who came forward not one
came alone, for some spirit-filled, earnest Christian
either brought them or came with them. One hundred
and two persons gave intelligent testimonies to saving
grace in twenty minutes on the closing evening. But
surely one of the brightest parts of that whole work was
to see the president, professors and senior men —
strong, cultured men — leading souls into the kingdom.
With such conditions and such a spirit it was not
surprising that, before the brief meeting closed, it was
stated that there were not twelve unconverted students
who had not been to the altar in prayer.
**It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,
MISCELLANEOUS 251
saith the Lord. " Let the weakest person or chapter in
our league take courage. Here is our help. Let the
largest and best of our Epworthians bring all they
have and are to the direction and endowment of that
same divine spirit, and our beloved Methodism shall
surely record two million conversions and more, to the
glory of God in the church.
HONORING THE HOLY SPIRIT
REV. W. S. HARRINGTON, D.D.
The place — the small village of S N , in
Chenango County, N. Y. The time — 1840, or '41.
The spiritual condition of the community was one of
stagnation.
In this town stood a Methodist house of worship,
and by its side the home of a Methodist physician. In
that home was a commodious kitchen where the social
meetings of the church were often held. The society
was small and its members did not feel able to supply
fuel and lights for special services in the church
edifice. The circuit was large and the pastor unavail-
able at that point because employed elsewhere. A few
devout souls gathered in that kitchen night after
night, crying mightily to God for help. He heard
and answered the cry of these hungry ones. The
Spirit fell upon them. Believers were sanctified.
These tidings reached the ears of those who had been
uninterested and they began to come to the meetings.
Sinners were converted. Night after night every
unconverted person in attendance was brought to
Christ. Some curious ones hardly dared enter, so
252 MISCELLANEOUS
they stood outside observing the course of the meet-
ing. Some of these, while standing outside, were
stricken with conviction, and came into the house cry^
ing for mercy.
One very small boy who belonged to that home can
never forget those services, so Spirit-filled, so preg-
nant with good to many people. That home belonged
to the father of this writer. That small boy was
myself. I do not know of any others living who had
part in those wonderful meetings, but the memory
thereof, after these sixty years, continues to warm my
heart and has been an inspiration to me through the
more than forty years of my ministry.
The conditions above named were very unfavorable,
but as these devout souls pleaded for the Holy Spirit,
the divine promises were to them fulfilled. Nothing
is too hard for God. No place is so remote, no society
is so weak, but there may be a glorious revival if the
Holy Spirit is properly honored. *'Ye shall receive
power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you."
THE REVIVAL WITH A PLAN
REV. ISAAC CROOK, D.D.
It began in my study. I was a "transfer." My
predecessor, a gifted, beloved man with entrancing
pulpit ability, had twice served that same church. He
was idolized, and deserved it.
The church was generous, magnanimous, thrifty,
but had not grown by revivals. The young, vigorous
city — Winona, Minn. — had seen little of that sort of
work. The writer was not a ** revivalist.'*
MISCELLANEOUS 253
Seated in my study one forenoon, some time after
conference, prayerfully thinking over the state of the
church, a plan of campaign broke in upon me. I
resolved to propose it to the official board at the next
meeting. When it was outlined, one of the younger
men of the board promptly moved its adoption. It
was done with a unanimity that brought assurance of
victory. It was of the Lord. The main feature of the
plan was a visit fro^n the church to the church and
congregation. A committee was selected to choose
workers and assign the work. It required many a
night's session and careful adjustment. No battle was
ever more carefully planned. As subsidiary and
essential to this was the appointment of evening meet-
ings, to which the people were to be invited. But
there was no evangelist nor strange singer as an attrac-
tion.
The visit was to be more than an invitation. It was
a proposal to co-operate.
Another meeting, at eight in the morning, was
announced, not solely nor mainly as a prayer-meeting,
but as a council of war and to plan definite work for
the day. Of course, there was prayer for help to do
this, but no throwing off duty on the Lord.
The arrangement was a sifting process. One of the
committee, a man of large business, said :
**This is ticklish business. What if we have not
treated some of these folks right to whom we are
assigned?"
*'Then all the more go and apologize," was the
answer.
When the plan was ready and the visitors called out,
there were about fifty of them. The request was made
254 MISCELLANEOUS
that others ready to do visiting should tarry. This to
prevent a feeling that any were slighted. None such
reported, so well had the work been done. In fact,
some of the visitors' names appeared among those to
be visited. There was no "nobler than thou" in the
arrangement. It was a co-operation.
Soon the nightly audiences swelled to overflow.
The pastor preached a short sermon. The young
people sang and many of them were saved. The
church members personally asked seekers to go with
them to the prayer-meeting room at the rear of the
pulpit. They were often almost in the kingdom
before they had walked the aisle into that room, where
they prayed, talked, sang and were saved.
Mary C. Nind, then out on her missionary district,
coming home after a few weeks of such work, said:
*' What has come to pass? I meet people on the street,
and find them talking religion. We never saw it in
this fashion."
Families were saved. Drunkards redeemed and
some went to heaven in a year's time. Children born
again. Dance clubs broken into. One young man
gave up an inherited fortune to come with us. One
young woman surrendered a marriage engagement
rather than Christ. A bookkeeper in a wholesale
liquor-house, who had a family dependent upon him,
left his desk. He never suffered and went home in a
year. Universalism was knocked out of a drunken
policeman, who lost his place on the force, but he soon
went to heaven. A Roman Catholic, heartbroken over
the death of his wife, came in as a fruit of the revival,
and said: *'Had I known what I was missing no four-
horse team could have kept me from it." The work
MISCELLANEOUS 255
was pervasive. It extended by correspondence to dis-
tant states. *' Those were days of the Son of man."
The revival had three essential elements in it:
It came as an answer to prayer.
It went forward by lay -workers in co-operation.
It was guided by the Holy Spirit.
These all will characterize the twentieth -century
movement.
SEVEN VITAL PARAGRAPHS
CHARLES W. BALDWIN.
1. Make up your mind it is your work and your
people's, and by God's blessing you can and will do it.
2. Get together such as are disposed to lay hold with
you. Pray and plan. Pledge all you can to personal
effort, immediate and continuous, and to mighty
prayer.
3. Before public meetings are held visit every house.
Take with you the best man or woman you can. Talk
about religion and the revival and pray, yourself and
assistant, by turns. Make your visits short.
4. Preach the Word. Preach Christ. His divine
and supernatural character. His human heart of love.
His readiness to forgive. His vicarious death and His
shameful sufferings. His resurrection. His ascen-
sion and His heavenly intercession. Declare the
judgment day, heaven and hell. Preach the necessity
of being born again and invite sinners and backsliders
to come to Jesus.
5. Have your best people around the altar or inside.
Some time during every meeting get all the church, if
256 MISCELLANEOUS
possible, to come and stand around the altar. If the
members come forward, a kind and urgent request to
everybody, who wants to see the meetings prosper, to
stand in the pews close behind the church members,
will usually be heeded. Tact and perseverance will
get nearly all to move. This makes the congregation
mobile and tractable, and one step may be followed by
another.
6. Exhort much, not from chancel only, but up and
down the aisles, and, kneeling with the people in the
aisles, pour out your soul in prayer. Let all see that
you are in earnest.
7. Do not be discouraged. Keep at it and always at
it. Love the work and devote yourself to it. Believe
God, and thus justify your name as a believer.
*' Knowing the terror of the 'Lor^ persuade men."
PRAYING-BANDS
B. H. HART.
One thing I never fail to do. About three months
before I begin my special revival services I begin to
preach on revival themes and subjects exclusively — to
the church at the morning service, and to the unsaved
in the evening. I never permit special services of any
kind to interfere with this purpose. I try to pack
these sermons full of love, compassion, rewards, etc.,
leaving the penalty for neglect until the special meet-
ings are well under way. Another great help to me
has been the praying-band. This is nothing more
than a company of young men or women (never both)
who have covenanted with the pastor to go wherever
MISCELLANEOUS 257
he might send them for the purpose of praying with
the unsaved. I am aware that other pastors, equ-ally
happy in the work of saving men, do not approve of
this aid. But I am quite certain that a faithful trial
will convince them of its efficiency. In what I am
pleased to look upon as the greatest revival of my
ministry — one in which more than four hundred souls
were converted — such a band of young men did splen-
did service. They would go anywhere, at any hour of
the day or night, and pray with anyone I might sug-
gest.
GETTING UNDER WAY
W. p. MACVEY.
Several specific things can be done :
1. You will be impressed that certain persons ought
to be reached. Make a list of them — not indiscrimi-
nately of the unsaved, but of all for whom some godly
heart is burdened. In nine cases out of ten ninety per-
cent of such people will be saved, and ninety percent
of the total converts will have been thus listed.
2. You will "feel" that certain persons are adapted
to be lieutenants — not because of position, but because
the Spirit points them out to you. Get in touch with
them, work with them, understand them, pray to-
gether.
3. Preliminary meetings, notably cottage-meetings,
are in order. Let the lieutenants have charge of
them. The league can plan them. Let the people
pray until they are burdened for the salvation of
others. Inquiry-meetings, following the Sunday
preaching service, prepare the way.
258 MISCELLANEOUS
4. There is little use in trying to reach others until
the heart of the church is right. When this beats
responsive to the heart of God you cannot help but
save others ; an irresistible spiritual law works out that
result.
5. Abundant visitation, judicious advertising, inspir-
ing music, good janitorship, cordial ushering, reason-
able hours (there is no need to tire the people out), all
contribute to success.
But life is the gift of God and a revival is the work
of the Holy Spirit.
AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN REVIVALS
REV. LOUIS ALBERT BANKS, D.D.
The most remarkable conversions which have
occurred under my ministry in times of revival have
been those which took place in the homes of people
who sometimes had not been present at all in the meet-
ings. Personal visitation by the pastor and wise
Christian workers while the revival is going on is a
very important factor in revival work.
EXALT PERSONAL EFFORT
REV. GEORGE B. WIGHT, D.D.
Get thoroughly baptized by the Holy Spirit. This
will give you a proper sense of the importance of the
work of saving souls, a right preparation for it, and
the needed enthusiasm in it, without which there can
be no success. This is more important than all human
MISCELLANEOUS 259
helps. Evangelists, music and methods, all have their
place in the work, but power and result come from the
Spirit only.
Be persistent and do not weary in well-doing.
Some meetings accomplish but little because they are
discontinued too soon. I knew a meeting to be held
three weeks without apparent result; at nine o'clock
on the evening which began the fourth week, not a per-
son had been forward ; at quarter past nine, forty were
seeking salvation and a great work followed. Results
belong to God, so do not be discouraged if they are
not seen at once. Work faithfully and pray earnestly
and leave the rest to Him.
Personal work is of the utmost importance. You
can do much in the public meeting, but much
preparatory work can be accomplished by personal
interviews with the unconverted at their homes or
places of business. I have often heard expressions of
surprise because certain persons went to the altar,
when no one knew they were under concern; but I
was not at all surprised, for I knew what good brother
or sister had for days been quietly working up those
cases. I cannot too strongly urge upon you this per-
sonal work. Persistent, intelligent and systematic,
when directed by the Holy Spirit, it will be more
effective than any other agency you can employ except
the direct preaching of the Word.
From a number of cases of the results of personal
work which I have known, the following may be of
interest: A Sunday School teacher once told me that
she expected her entire class of young ladies would be
converted in the meetings which were about to be held
in her village. She had asked God for their souls and
36o MISCELLANEOUS
she knew He would answer her prayers. With this
assurance she worked judiciously and prayerfully and
the result was according to her faith ; every one of her
class was soundly converted to God.
AN UNLOOKED-FOR REVIVAL
REV. ROBERT WATT, D, D.
The subjoined incident may be of some service to
the cause of Him "whose we are and whom we serve."
It occurred during the second year of the writer's
ministry, on this wise :
The usual week-night prayer service was being
held. The only unusual feature that evening was that
a visiting minister made the address. His remarks
were not as felicitous as could have been desired, and
the devotional spirit might have been more propitious.
The mention of a special service, beginning that night,
would have provoked a broad smile. It seemed wise,
under the circumstances, to conclude the service.
With that thought in mind the pastor rose to announce
a closing hymn. At that juncture, however, an
unlooked-for event happened. There came upon him
an almost resistless impulse to open his heart to the
people. And yet there was such an utter absence of
so-called "special indications" that the impulse was
about to pass unheeded. So persistent, so insistent
was it that it could not be disregarded entirely.
Something must be done, and quickly, too, for the
burden was becoming unbearable.
Relief was at hand. Seated in that quiet room that
autumnal night was a goodly company of young
MISCELLANEOUS 261
people whose respect and love had been gained by the
pastor. Why not make use of this to win them to the
Master? Surely the thought was divinely given.
The fact was referred to in those closing words.
Allusion was made also to the heart-hunger for souls
felt by every true pastor. The words, falteringly
spoken, were listened to with an interest that was sur-
prising. Feeling deepened and intensified. Many
eyes were luminous with the mist of unshed tears.
Why not open the door of opportunity at once?
Without waiting to parley or debate the wisdom or
unwisdom of such a course, the suggestion was acted
on. Imagine the feelings of that inexperienced pas-
tor, when, in response to a simple invitation, twelve
young people — some of whom had been conspicuously
careless hitherto — rose and requested the prayers of
the church ! It is needless to add that the service did
not close at the usual hour. The dreamed-of revival
had come! The tide must be taken at its flood.
Services for the rest of the week were announced, and
that series of meetings continued for over six weeks.
The revival in that obscure little church became the
subject of general remark throughout the whole com-
munity. Its seen results were seventy souls saved,
believers edified and a discouraged, struggling church
put on its feet so that it became one of the best charges
in the conference.
I have called it the * *unlooked-for revival, " for such it
was. There was no season of formal preparation, no
"Scolding of the church — there were some hearts long-
ing for a revival and — it came !
And what a blessed revival it was! Its memory
abides and, not infrequently, has it proved a spiritual
262 MISCELLANEOUS
tonic when faith was languid and the "signs" lacking.
How my heart glows as it all comes back again through
the mist of years ! And with this memory comes this
passage: '*They joy before thee according to the joy
of harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the
spoil." Fortunate the pastor and the church who are
sensitive to the presence of **the King," and whose
faith is keen-visioned enough to detect the sign of the
Son of man.
O FOR A BAPTISM OF PRAYER!
MRS. M. N. VAN BENSCHOTEN.
He was the principal of the academy in the place
and a member of my Bible-class. I had been told he
was skeptical in his views. I found him keen, alert,
and appreciative. For three months I prepared every
lesson with reference to him. When the revival serv-
ices commenced I thought: **Now is the time to bring
him in." For two weeks he was indifferent and at
times frivolous. One afternoon I was reading about
the destruction of Sennacherib's host, when suddenly
I could read no more, for a strange strength took hold
of me. I said: "This mighty God is ours. He is the
same yesterday, to-day and forever. He who an-
swered Hezekiah's prayer can give me this soul."
I arose at once and, with a commanding faith that
thrilled me, I slowly ascended the stairs to my secret
place of prayer. I had only uttered, *'Oh, thou God
of Hezekiah!" when a tidal wave of intercession was
rolled upon me. An hour passed ; but still I wrestled
against the powers of darkness, and with God, that
Christ might gain that soul.
MISCELLANEOUS 263
At last a great calm came over me. I heard the
rush of dark wings ; the morning broke ; the clear light
shone ; I knew I was victor.
That night I could not go to meeting and I learned
he was not there. It did not disturb me; it had passed
out of my hands; all anxious care was gone. The
second night I was again detained, but my husband,
on his return, said: "The professor was there and
came forward and was gloriously saved. He said he
had been under great conviction, but had resisted, for
he knew if he was converted he must preach — *But,*
said he, 'I have surrendered, and Jesus is mine.' "
That young man has been preaching the Gospel for
several years.
Oh, Sunday School teacher, pray mightily to God,
and win that unsaved soul in your class to Jesus !
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
These outlines have been very carefully selected from the pub-
lished sermons of those whose preaching has been blessed to
the salvation of men. The outlines are obtained by reducing
to their present form many of the best sermons of such emi-
nent evangelists as: D. L. Moody, Charles G. Finney, C. H.
Spurgeon, Chas. Ingles, Harry Moorehouse, R. A. Torrey,
and others. The compilation and editing is by the editor of
this volume. THE PUBLISHERS.
REGENERATION
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God."— John 3: 3.
I. Regeneration is an absolute necessity.
II. What regeneration is not.
1. It is not going to church.
2. It is not good works.
3. It is not reformation.
4. It is not baptism.
5. It is not the Lord's Supper.
III. Necessary for every one without regard to
CHARACTER OR REPUTATION.
IV. Not THE WORK of man, but OF God.
V. Wrought through faith in Jesus Christ.
VI. Accomplished by the Holy Spirit.
VII. The only way to see heaven and heavenly
things.
I. Changed into a new man with a new nature.
364
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 265
2. With power to overcome temptation.
3. Fitness to dwell in heaven.
4. Singing a new song.
5. Seeing sainted ones in glory.
— D. L. M.
THE GOSPEL— I
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the Gospel to the poor."— Luke 4: 18.
I. What is the Gospel?
II. Good tidings.
1. Takes away the fear of death.
2. Tells us we shall rise again.
3. Promises the forgiveness of sins.
4. Gives assurance of everlasting life.
5. Proclaims God's love for even the chief of
sinners.
D. L. M.
THE GOSPEL— II
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the Gospel to the poor."— Luke 4:18.
I. To WHOM SHALL THE GOSPEL BE PREACHED?
1. To every creature.
2. To the sinning and to the unworthy.
3. To all who take the place of guilty sinners.
II. For whom is there blessing?
1. For all the poor and needy.
2. For those who believe Christ died in their stead.
3. For all who accept Him.
D. L. M.
266 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
CHRIST AS A DELIVERER
"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive
delivered? But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the
mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be
delivered : for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee,
and I will save thy children."— Isaiah 49: 24, 25.
I. There are two classes of people.
1. Those bound by Satan.
2. Those delivered by Jesus.
II. Some do not know they are bound by satan.
III. All are born into slavery.
IV. Christ came to deliver the captives.
V. The proclamation of deliverance is to all.
VI. To KNOW the truth is to be made free.
VII. Christ delivers now from the power of every
SIN.
VIII. All who believe in Him are delivered.
-d. l. m.
COMPASSION OF CHRIST
"And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was
moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick." —
Matt. 14: 14.
I. Christ knows the history of each one of us.
II. He is moved with compassion when we tell it
over to Him.
III. A sinner's confession moves Christ with compas-
sion.
IV. Christ has compassion for all kinds of sinners.
V. He receives all who come to Him with any dis-
tress.
VI. The sad stories of your life will move His heart
with compassion.
— d. l. m.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 367
CHRIST'S MISSION TO THE WORLD
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is
lost" — Luke 19: 10.
I. God sent His Son into the world to do a work.
II. He gave Him power to do that work.
III. Ask Him to use His power in your behalf.
IV. He gives an instantaneous salvation.
V. His salvation is genuine and thorough.
VI. Salvation is for those who are lost.
VII. Take the place of a lost sinner and be saved.
— D. l. m.
RETRIBUTION
"Son, remember. "—Luke 16.25.
I. There is everlasting retribution, future punish-
ment.
II. There will be a quickened memory and condemn
nation for all sin.
III. The Bible plainly teaches future retribution,
IV. Justice demands that there be future retribu-
tion.
V. There is a place where Jesus will not come
offering salvation.
VI. Present Christian privileges despised, will there
be remembered for judgment.
VII. A REAPING in kind MUST FOLLOW THE SOWING OF
TARES.
VIII. Grace refused hardens the heart and makes
FUTURE RETRIBUTION MORE SURE.
IX. Mercy spurned makes a death-bed the fearful
BEGINNING OF UNENDING PUNISHMENT.
— D. L. M.
36S SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
LOVE
"Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort,
be of one mind, live in peace: and the God of love and peace
shall be with you."— 2 Cor. 13: 11.
God is love.
I. His love is universal.
II. His love is unchangeable.
III. His love is everlasting.
IV. His love is unfailing. — d. l. m.
CONFESSING CHRIST
"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." — Rom. 10: 10.
I. Confessing Christ must follow believing on Him.
II. Some professed Christians are moral cowards.
III. Christians are in darkness because they do not
confess Christ.
IV. Pride is the one hindrance to their confession.
V. Christ confesses in heaven those who confess Him
ON earth.
VI. Confessing Christ brings great blessings in this
life.
VII. Confession of salvation through Christ leads
OTHERS TO Him. — D. L. m.
SEEKING THE LORD
"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him
while he is near. "—Isaiah 55: 6.
I. The sinner seeking the Lord.
II. It is a direct command.
III. With all the heart.
IV. Must be in earnest.
V. While He is near.
VI. When He may be found. — d. l. m.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 269
GRACE— I
I. What is grace?
II. It is a free gift.
III. Unto whom is it given?
1. To those who confess they are lost.
2. To those who take the lowest place.
3. To those who know they are unworthy.
4. To those who stop working for salvation.
5. To all men. — d. l. u
GRACE— II
I. Law cannot save the sinner.
II. The distinction between law and grace.
III. What is it to be under grace?
IV. Unbelief is a hindrance to grace.
V. How TO BE PARTAKERS OF GRACE.
VI. Every necessity is provided for in grace.
— d. l. m.
WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH JESUS? ^
"Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which
is called Christ?" — Matt. 27: 22.
I. It IS A direct question.
II. It is a disturbing question.
III. It is a personal question.
IV. It is an imperative question.
V. It is a present question. — d. l. m.
ON TRUSTING IN THE MERCY OF GOD
"I will trust in the mercy of God forever and ever." — Psa. 52: 8,
I. What mercy is,
1. Meicy is not to be confounded with mere good-
ness.
2. Mercy is a disposition to pardon the guilty.
3. Mercy is exercised only where there is guilt.
27© SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
4. Mercy can be exercised no farther than one
deserves punishment.
II. What is implied in trusting in the mercy of God.
1. A conviction of guilt.
2. That we have no hope on the score of justice.
3. A just apprehension of what mercy is.
4. A belief that He is merciful.
5. The conviction of deserving endless punish-
ment.
6. The cessation from all excuses and excuse-
making.
III. The conditions on which we may safely trust in
God's mercy.
1. Public justice must be appeased.
2. We must repent.
3. We must confess our sins.
4. Make restitution so far as lies in our power.
5. Must really reform.
6. Go the whole length in justifying the law and
its penalty.
7. Must be entirely submissive to those measures
of the government bringing him to conviction.
8. Must close in cordially with the plan of salva-
tion.
IV. Mistakes which are made on this subject.
I Many really trust in justice and not in mercy.
2. Many trust professedly in the mercy of God
without fulfilling the conditions on which
mercy can be shown.
3. Sinners do not consider that God cannot dis-
pense with their fulfilling these conditions.
4. Many are defeating their own salvation by self-
justification.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 171
5. Many pretend to trust in mercy who yet profess
to be punished for their sins as they go along.
6. Persons, in the letter, plead for mercy who
often rely really upon justice.
7. Some are covering up their sins, yet dream of
going to heaven.
8. We cannot ask for mercy beyond our acknowl-
edged and felt guilt.
(a) If we ask for little msrcy we shall get none
at all.
(b) To deny the desert of endless punishment is
to render salvation impossible.
(c) All are not saved because they defeat the
efforts God makes to save them.
— c. G. r.
THE SAVIOR LIFTED UP, AND THE
LOOK OF FAITH
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have eternal life." — John 3: 14, 15.
"And 1, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me. This he said signifying what death he should die."—
John 12: 32, 33.
The object was to save men from perishing.
I. Christ must be lifted up as the serpent was ih
THE wilderness.
1. As a remedy for sin.
2. As a full and adequate remedy.
3. As a present remedy.
4. As a divinely certified remedy.
5. As one crucified for the sins of men.
272 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
II. Christ must be looked at when He is lifted up.
I. Look expecting divine power to save.
a. Looking to Jesus implies that we look away
from ourselves.
3. Salvation must be the object for which they
look.
4. Sinners must look to Christ as a remedy for all
sin.
5. Sinners may look at once without the least
delay.
6. Must look, for blessings, not to works, but to
faith.
Bemarkg
1. A great multitude will be saved.
2. Faith is here put to the test.
3. Many perish through mere unbelief.
4. Many are stumbled by the simplicity of the Gos-
pel.
5. Natural man seeks for a way of salvation credit-
able to himself.
6. Many have religion, but with Christ out of view.
7. Many are looking for some wonderful sign or
token.
8. Many also perish from delay.
9. Some are driven oflE into the wilderness through
despair.
10. Others neglect to look because they think they
are improving.
11. Many refuse to look because full of doubts.
12. Sinners look every other way but toward
Christ. — c. G. F.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 273
THE EXCUSES OF SINNERS CONDEMN GOD
* 'Wilt thou even disannul my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me,
that thou mayest be righteous?"— Job 40: 8.
I. Every excuse for sin condemns God
1. Nothing can be sin for which there is a justifi-
able excuse.
2. If God condemns that for which there is a good
excuse, He must be wrong.
3. But God does condemn all sin.
4. Consequently every excuse for sin charges
blame upon God.
II. Consider some of these excuses in detail
1. Inability.
2. Want of time.
3. A sinful nature.
4. Willing to be a Christian, but hindered.
5. Waiting God's time.
6. Circumstances are very peculiar.
7. Temperament is peculiar.
8. Health is too poor to go to the meetings.
9. The heart is so hard there is no feeling.
10. My heart is so wicked I can't.
11. My heart is so deceitful.
12. I have tried to become a Christian.
13. It will do no good to try.
14. I have offered to give my heart to Christ, but
He won't receive me.
15. There is no salvation for me.
16. I cannot change my own heart.
17. I cannot change my heart without more convic-
tion.
18. I must first have more of the Spirit.
274 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
19. God must change my heart.
ao. I can't live a Christian life if I were to become
a Christian.
ai. This is a very dark and mysterious subject.
a a. I can't believe.
2$, I can't realize these things.
34. I can't repent
III. All excuses for sin add i^msult to injury
X. A plea that reflects injuriously upon the court
is an aggravation of the original crime.
a. A plea that is false, made in self -justification, is
an aggravation of the crime charged.
3. It is truly abominable for the sinner to abuse
God and then excuse himself for it.
Remarks
I. No sinner under the light of the Gospel lives a
single hour in sin without some excuse to justify him-
self.
a. Excuses render repentance impossible.
3. Sinners should lay all their excuses at once
before God.
4. What infinite madness to rest on excuses which
you dare not bring before God now.
5. Sinners don't need their excuses. God does not
ask for even one.
6. Sinners ought to be ashamed of their excuses and
repent of them.
7. Admit your obligation and you are, of course,
estopped from making excuses.
8. To admit the obligation and still plead excuses is
to insult God to His face and charge Him with infinite
tyranny. — c. g. f.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES »j$
THE SPIRIT NOT STRIVING ALWAYS
And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with
— Gen. 6: 3.
I. What is implied in the assertion, **My spirit
SHALL not always STRIVE WITH MAN"?
1. That the Spirit does sometimes strive with
man,
2. That men resist the Spirit.
II. What is not intended by the Spirit's striving?
III. What, then, is the striving of the Spirit?
IV. How MAY it be known WHEN THE SpIRIT OF GOD
STRIVES WITH AN INDIVIDUAL?
I. When one finds his attention arrested to the
great concerns of his soul.
a. When a man finds himself convinced of sin.
3. When the mind is convicted of the great guilt
and ill desert of sin.
4. When the soul is convicted of the guilt of unbe-
lief.
5. When men see the danger of dying in their sins.
6. When sinners feel the danger of being given
up of God.
7. When sinners are convicted of the great blind-
ness of their minds.
8. When sinners are shown their total alienation
from God.
9. When men are convinced that they are ashamed
of Christ.
10. When sinners are convicted of vorldly minded-
ness.
11. When such a personal application of the truth
is made as to fasten the impression.
»76 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
I a. When sinners are convinced of the enmity of
their hearts against God,
13. When sinners are powerfully convicted of the
deceitfulness of their own hearts.
14. When, not infrequently, the sinner is stripped of
his excuses, and clearly shown his great folly
and absurdity.
15. When men are convicted of the folly of seeking
salvation in any other way than through
Christ alone.
16. When men are convinced of the great folly and
madness of clinging to an unsanctifying hope.
17. When sinners are convinced that all their good-
ness is selfish.
18. When self-deceived men feel that they are now
having their last call from the Spirit.
V. What is intended by the Spirit's not striving
ALWAYS ?
VI. Why God's Spirit will not strive always.
1. Because longer striving will do the sinner no
good.
2. Because to strive longer not only does the sin-
ner no good, but positive evil.
3. Because sinners sin willfully when they resist
the Holy Ghost.
4. Because their resistance tempts the forbearance
of God.
5. Because there is a point beyond which forbear-
ance is not a virtue.
VII. Consequences of the Spirit's ceasing to strive
with men.
I. A confirmed opposition to religion.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 277
2. An opposition to revivals and to Gospel min-
isters.
3. Men betake themselves to some refuge of lies
and will settle down in some form of fatal
error.
4. Those who are left of God come to have a
seared conscience.
5. This class of sinners will inevitably wax worse
and worse.
6. Another consequence of being abandoned by
the Spirit will be certain damnation.
7. Again Christians find themselves unable to pray
in faith for such sinners.
8. When the Spirit has ceased to strive with sin-
ners no means whatever, employed for the
purpose, can be effectual for their salvation.
Remarks
1. Christians can account for the fact why there are
some for whom they cannot pray.
2. Sinners should be aware that light and guilt keep
pace with each other.
— c. G. F.
GOD'S LOVE COMMENDED TO US
"But God commendeth His love towards us, in that while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us." — Romans 5: 8.
I. How DOES God commend His love to us?
II. Why does He commend His love to us?
III. He would show that His love is unselfish.
IV. Again God designed to reveal the moral char-
acter OF His love for men, especially its justice.
278 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
V. He sought in thus commending His love to us
TO subdue our slavish fear.
VI. He would lead us to serve Him in love and not
IN BONDAGE.
Remarks
1. We see that saving faith must be the heart's belief
of this great fact that God so loved us.
2. God would have men see His love in the gift of
His own dear Son.
3. Men find it difficult to repent because they do not
receive this great fact in simple faith.
4. In no other way could God so forcibly demon-
strate His great love to our race.
5. If we had been His friends, there had been no
need of His dying for us.
6. It is not sinless beings but sinful men that move
God's heart to its very foundations.
7. Christ died for us that He might save us; not in
hvitfrom our sins.
8. You must infer that Jesus is willing to save you
from wrath if you truly repent and accept Him as your
Saviour.
9. You may infer that God, having spared not His
Son, will also with Him freely give you all things else.
— c. G. F.
SALVATION OF THE LORD
"Salvation is of the Lord."— Jonah 2: 9.
Where Jonah learned this sentence of good theology!
I. An exposition of the doctrine of salvation.
1. The plan of salvation is entirely of God.
a. It was of the Lord in execution.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES J79
3. It is of the Lord in the application of it.
4. It is the Lord who sustains the work in any
man's heart.
5. The ultimate perfection of salvation is of the
Lord.
II. How God has hedged this doctrine about.
1. Salvation is not the result of natural tempera-
ment.
2. It is not the minister who converts men.
III. What is — what should be the influence of
THIS doctrine upon MEN?
1. With sinners it is a great battering-ram against
their pride.
2. With saints it keeps from error and distrust.
3. It nerves one to work for God.
IV. What is the obverse of this truth ?
I. Salvation is of God: then damnation is of man.
— c. H. s,
SALVATION TO THE UTTERMOST
"Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for
them."— -Heb. 7: 25.
Revelation affords us a complete history of salva-
tion. Nowhere else can we find any trace thereof.
I. The people who are to be saved.
1. Where these people come to.
2. How they come.
3. What do they come for?
4. In what style do these persons come?
II. What is the measure of the Saviour's ability?
I. To the uttermost extent of the sinner's guilt.
28o SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
2. To the uttermost of the sinner's rejection of
Him.
3. To the uttermost of the sinner's despair.
4. To the uttermost of the saint's distress.
III. Why is Jesus Christ able to save to the utter-
most?
1. Because He died to save.
2. Because He lives to make intercession.
(a) A warning. There is a limit to God's
mercy.
(d) A question. Christ has done so much for
you; what have you ever done for Him?
c. H. s.
THE ROYAL PREROGATIVE
"He that is our God is the God of salvation: and unto God the
Lord belong the issues from death. But God shall wound the
head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth
on still in his trespasses." — Ps. 68: 20, 21,
We gather from the text that death is in the hand
of God; that escapes from death are manifestations
of His divine power and that He is to be praised for
them.
I. The sovereign prerogative of God.
1. To God belongs the right to exercise it.
2. The Lord has the power of this prerogative.
3. The Lord has actually exercised this preroga-
tive.
4. Let Him have all the glory of it for your
deliverance.
II. The character of the sovereign in whom that
PREROGATIVE IS VESTED.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 281
I. Salvation is the most glorious of all God's
designs.
a. The most delightful works which the Lord has
performed have been works of salvation.
3. To those who can call him *'Our Lord," He is
specially and emphatically the God of salva-
tion.
III. Hear the solemn warning of our Sovereign
Lord.
1. He will by no means spare the guilty.
2. He is not indifferent to human character.
3. He has the power to smite those who rebel
against Him.
4. He will smite with a terrible, even an utter,
overthrow.
— c. H. s.
SALVATION BY KNOWING THE TRUTH
"God our Savior: who will have all men to be saved, and to
come unto the knowledge of the truth." — i Tim. 2: 3, 4.
It is the wish of God that all men should be saved.
I. It is by a knowledge of the truth that men are
SAVED.
1. It is a knowledge of the truth.
(a) This knowledge saves him from carelessness.
{V) This knowledge saves him from prejudice.
{c) This knowledge saves him from despair.
2. How a saving knowledge works.
(a) Shows a man his personal need of being
saved.
{p) Reveals the atonement by which we are
saved.
flSa SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
(c) Shows us what that faith is by which the
atonement becomes available for us.
3. How we are to know the truth.
{a) By a believing knowledge.
(b) By a powerful knowledge.
(c) By an experimental knowledge.
II. Two INFERENCES.
1. To you that are seeking salvation.
2. To you who desire to save sinners.
— C. H. S.
THE PLAIN MAN'S PATHWAY TO PEACE
"And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed
him, crying and saying. Thou son of David, have mercy on us.
And when he was come unto the house, the blind men came to
him : and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do
this? They said unto him. Yea, Lord. Then touched he their
eyes, saying. According to your faith be it unto yoiL And their
eyes were opened ; and Jesus straitly charged them, sajring, See
that no man know it." — Matt. 9: ay-sa
The extreme simplicity of the cure. Conversion as
a work of the Holy Ghost is likewise extremely
simple.
I. Many persons are much troubled in coming to
Christ.
1. In some cases it is ignorance.
2. In many cases men are hindered by prejudice.
3. With others the hindrance lies in downright bad
teaching.
4. Then there is the natural pride of the human
heart.
5. In some instances the trouble arises from a
singularity of mental conformation.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 383
6. Some are kept from coming to Christ through
remarkable assaults of Satan.
II. This is not at all essential to a real saving;
TO a coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I. It is very hard to see how despairing feelings
can be essential to salvation.
a. Much of all this struggling and tumult within,
which some have experienced, is the work of
the devil.
3. Many instances prove that all this law and work
and doubting and fearing and despairing and
being tormented by Satan are not essential,
because there are scores and hundreds of
Christians who came at once to Christ, as
these two blind men did, and to this very day
know very little about these things.
4. There are all the essentials of salvation in the
simple, pleasant, happy way of coming to
Jesus just as you are.
5. The Gospel command implies in itself nothing
of the kind, which some have experienced.
III. Those persons who are privileged to come to
Jesus Christ softly, pleasantly and happily, are
NOT losers.
1. They may lose a sensational religious experi-
ence, but there is not much in that.
2. Do not suppose that persons who come thus
gently lose something by way of evidence
afterwards.
3. Do not think that those who come gently to
Christ lose a good deal of adaptation for after
usefulness because they will not be able to
sjmipathize with those who are in deep per-
284 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
plexity and in awful straits when they are
coming to Christ. — c. h. s.
THE GREAT ARBITRATION CASE
"Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his
hand upon us both." — ^Job 9: 33.
There is an old quarrel between the thrice holy God
and His sinful subjects, the sons of Adam. The
infinite grace of God proposes an arbitration.
I. What are the essentials of an umpire_, an arbi-
trator OR A daysman?
1. Both parties should be agreed to accept him.
2. Both parties must be fully agreed to leave the
case entirely in the arbitrator's hands.
3. To make a good arbitrator it is essential that he
be a fit person.
4. He should be a person desirous to bring the
case to a happy settlement.
II. Enter into the court where the trial is going
ON AND SEE THE LEGAL PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE GREAT
DAYSMAN.
1. He opens His court by laying down the prin-
ciples upon which He intends to deliver
judgment.
(a) strict justice.
(5) Fervent love.
2. Next He calls upon the plaintiff — the Great
Creator — to state His case.
3. Then the defendant — the guilty sinner — is
called upon by the daysman for his, and he
pleads :
(a) 1 confess to the indictment, but I say I could
not help it.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 285
(d) I am no worse than other offenders.
(c) I have done a great many good things.
(d) I promise that for the future I will do better.
{e) I have with me a friend to help me out —
Ritualism.
(/) I have nothing more to plead, I appeal to
the mercy of the plaintiff.
4. The plaintiff declares He will not spare the
guilty ; he has offended and he must die.
5. The arbitrator now gives Himself for the sin-
ner, with the pledge to suffer in His own proper
person all that the weeping, trembling sinner
ought to have suffered.
III. Let us now look at the daysman's success.
1. The case has been settled conclusively.
2. The case has been settled on the best principles.
3. The case has been so settled that both parties
are well content.
4. But what is more wonderful still, both parties
have gained the case.
5. Both parties have come to be united in the
strongest, closest, dearest and fondest bond
of union.
— c. H. s.
ONLY TRUST HIM! ONLY TRUST HIM!
"And as lie entered into a certain village, there met him ten
men that were lepers, which stood afar off, and they lifted up
their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And
when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto
the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were
cleansed." — Luke 17: 12-14.
It was required by the Saviour to perform an act of
faith in Him before there was the slightest evidence
iS6 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
in themselves. He had wrought a good work upon
them.
I. What signs are commonly looked for by uncon-
verted MEN AS REASONS FOR BELIEVING IN ChRIST?
1. A consciousness of great sin and a horrible
dread of divine wrath, leading to despair.
2. The experience of quite a blaze of joy before
they can trust Christ.
3. Others expect a text to be impressed upon
their minds.
4. Some expect an actual conversion to be mani-
fest in them before they will trust the Sav-
iour.
5. Others have an idea that if they were to be
saved they would experience some very sin-
gular sensation.
II. What the reason is for our believing in Jesus
Christ.
1. God's witness concerning His Son Jesus Christ.
2. The next warrant for our believing is Jesus
Christ Himself.
3. Again, the warrant for believing is in the fact
that God commands us to believe.
4. Moreover, there is the promise made to us and
to every creature: ** Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
5. These poor lepers believed because they had
heard of others whom He had cleansed.
III. What is the issue of this kind of faith that
I HAVE been preaching?
I. The very existence of such a faith as that in the
soul is evidence that there is already a saving
change.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 287
(a) It will be an evidence also that you are
humble.
(d) It will be the best evidence that you are
reconciled to God.
2. Before long, sooner or later, you will become
delightfully conscious of the fact that you are
saved.
(a) By simply trusting Christ alone, without mir-
acles, signs or evidences, you will have within
you a power which will carry you through
life and preserve you in holiness even to the
end.
(d) This is faith to die with as well as to live
with ; it is to trust because of what /esus is
and not because of what j^ou are,
— c. H. s.
JESUS ONLY
"And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man,
lave Jesus only." — Matt 17: 8.
The quiet but delightful ordinary fellowship with
** Jesus only," which ought to be the distinguishing
mark of all Christian life, is better for every day than
the excessive strain of the transfiguration glory.
I. What might have happened to the three dis-
ciples AFTER THEY HAD SEEN THE TRANSFIGURATION.
1. They might have seen nobody with them on
the holy mount.
2. When they lifted up their eyes they might have
seen Moses only.
3. As a third alternative, they might have seen
Elijah only.
288 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
4. Or they might have seen Moses and Elias with
Jesus.
II. What really did happen.
1. "Jesus only" was all they wanted to see for
their comfort.
2. ** Jesus only" was enough as their power for
future life.
3. ** Jesus only" shall be our reward — to be with
Him where He is.
III. What we anxiously desire may happen to
THOSE WHO HEAR US.
1. For ourselves and fellow Christians, that, more
and more, the great object of our thoughts,
motives and acts may be "Jesus only."
2. For those who are not yet believers in Jesus our
desire is that this may happen to them — that
they may see "Jesus only."
— c. H. s.
FAITH: WHAT IS IT? HOW CAN IT BE
OBTAINED?
"By grace are ye saved through faith." — Ephes. s: £.
The fountain-head of our salvation is the grace of
God. Faith is the channel along which the flood of
mercy flows down to refresh the thirsty sons of men.
I. Faith^ what IS IT?
1. It is made up of three things: knowledge,
belief and trust.
2. It is believing that Christ is what He is said
to be.
3. It is believing that Christ will do what He has
promised.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 289
4. It is expecting this of Him.
5. Sometimes it is little more than a simple cling-
ing to Christ.
6. Another form of faith is to freely follow Christ
as a leader.
7. Again, one exerts faith in Christ while learning
of Him.
8. A higher form of faith is that which grows out
of love.
9. Again, faith also realizes the presence of the
1 iTing God and Saviour.
10. A firm form of faith arises out of assured
knowledge.
11. This faith makes it easy to commit our soul and
all its eternal interests into the Saviour's
keeping.
II. Why faith is selected as the channel of sal-
vation.
1. Because there is a natural adaptation in faith to
be used as the receiver.
2. Because it gives all the glory to God.
3. Because it is a sure method, linking man with
God.
4. Because it touches the springs of action.
5. Because faith again has the power of working
by love.
6. Because, moreover, faith creates peace and joy.
III. How CAN WE OBTAIN AND INCREASE OUR FAITH ?
1. If you have a difficulty concerning faith, take it
before God in prayer.
2. The Holy Spirit will enable you to believe if
you hear very frequently and earnestly that
which you are commanded to believe.
290 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
3. Next consider the testimony of others.
4. Note the authority upon which you are com.
manded to believe.
5. Think over what it is that you have to believe.
6. Think upon the person of Jesus Christ. You
cannot doubt Him.
7. Submit yourself to God. Yield to Him.
— C. H. Sw
ALL THINGS ARE READY. COME
"Come, for all things are now ready." — Luke 14: 17.
The readiness of everything on God's part is the
argument why men should come and partake of His
grace.
I. It is God's habit to have all things ready,
WHETHER FOR HiS GUESTS OR FOR HiS CREATURES.
1. God's thoughts go before men's comings.
2. This also proves how welcome those are who
come.
II. This readiness should be an argument that
His saints should come continually to Him to
find needed grace.
1. Therefore come to the storehouse of divine
promise.
2. Come next to the mercy-seat in prayer.
3. Christ is always ready to commune with His
people.
4. All things are ready for every daily duty.
5. Those who aspire to a higher degree of holiness
can come.
III. The perfect readiness of the feast of divine
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 291
MERCY IS EVIDENTLY INTENDED TO BE A STRONG ARGU-
MENT WITH SINNERS WHY THEY SHOULD COME AT ONCE.
1. Come, for all things are now ready.
2. Come, for all things are now ready,
3. Come, for all things are now ready.
4. Come, for all things are now ready.
IV. This text disposes of a great deal of talk about
THE sinner's readiness OR UNREADINESS.
1. The unreadiness of those who were bidden
arose out of their possessions and out of their
abilities.
2. Personal condition does not constitute an unfit-
ness for coming to Christ.
3. It is a great truth that what we regard as unfit-
ness is often our truest fitness.
— C. H. S,
EVERY MAN'S NEED OF A HIDING-PLACE
Text: "And a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind,
and a covert from the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place,
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." — Is. 32; 2.
Introduction: The man of this text is the man Christ
Jesus. Every man needs a hiding-place from five
things: The displeasure of God; his own conscience;
the power of sin within; the power of Satan; the
wrath of God.
I. Every man's need of a hiding-place.
I. From the displeasure of God, All have sinned
and God is holy.
a. From the accusations of his own conscience. No
torment like the torment of an accusing <X)n-
science. Illustrate from the Bible, literature
292 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
and experience. Conscience sometimes
sleeps, never dies; the time of awakening
comes. Illustrate.
3. From the power of sin within. No man is able
in his own strength to overcome the evil
within. Any one who fancies he is, is self-
deceived. Illustrate.
4. Front the power of Satan. Some people do not
believe there is a devil, {a) The teaching of
the Bible; {p) evidence of the devil's exist-
ence all around us; the devil is too cunning
and too strong for us.
5. Fro7n the wrath of God. Many in this day do
not believe in the wrath to come, {a) The
Bible teaches it and it is safe to depend upon
the Bible ; {b) common sense also teaches it.
II. Christ the refuge every man needs.
1. Christ is a refuge from the displeasure of God.
(John. Z'-Z^'^ — Experience.
2. Christ is a refuge from the accusations of con-
science.
3. Christ is a refuge from the power of sin within.
(John 8: 36.) Illustrations from life.
4. Christ is a refuge from the power of Satan.
Satan is too strong for us; not strong enough
for Christ, (i John 4:4) Illustrate from life.
5. Christ is a refuge from the wrath to come, (i
Thess. i: 10.) Common sense teaches that
the Christ who can save us from the power
of sin here can save us from the consequenceg
of sin hereafter.
Conclusion: Close with an appeal.
— R. A. T
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 293
REFUGES OF LIES
Text: "The hail shall [sweep away the refuge of lies." — Is.
28: 17.
Introduction: Every man needs a refuge from the
displeasure of God, the accusations of his own con-
science, the power of sin within, the power of Satan
and the wrath to come. Almost all men have some-
thing in which they are trusting. How many are
trusting in a false refuge, a refuge of lies!
I. Tests whereby a refuge of lies can be known.
A true refuge must have five characteristics:
I. It must meet the highest and the fullest demands
of our own conscience ; if it does not it is not
a refuge from the accusations of our con-
science ; neither is it a refuge from the dis-
pleasure of God.
a. Trust in it must make us better men. If our
refuge is not making us better men, it is not
a refuge from the power of sin nor the power
of Satan; neither is it a refuge from the
wrath of God. The refuge that does not save
us from the power of sin here will not save
us from the consequences of sin hereafter.
3. It must stand the test of the dying hour.
4. It must stand the test of the judgment day.
5. It must stand the test of God's Word.
II. Refuges of lies.
I. Trusting in our own goodness. Apply the tests
gfiven above.
7. Other people's badness. *'I am not as bad as
other men." Apply the tests given above.
3. Hope that God is too good to let any one go to
hell. Apply tests.
294 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
4. Infidelity. Apply tests.
5. Religion. To have religion is one thing, to
have Christ is another; many trusting in their
performance of religious duty. Apply tests.
III. Christ a true refuge.
I. Apply the tests.
Conclusion: Appeal to throw away all confidence in
refuges of lies, and flee to Christ at once.
— R. A. T.
A SOLEMN QUESTION
"Where art thou?"— Gen. 3:9.
God puts to every man and woman a very solemn
question.
I. A QUESTION ALL OUGHT TO ANSWER.
1. We should want to know how we stand before
God.
2. We must answer the question some day.
II. How TO CONSIDER AND ANSWER IT.
1. Seriously.
2. Deliberately
3. Honestly.
4. Prayerfully.
5. Scripturally.
III. The most important points to consider in re-
gard TO OUR STANDING.
1. Are you saved or are you lost?
2. Are you a child of God or a child of the devil?
3. Are you for Christ or against Him?
4. Are you an earnest, consecrated Christian or
a lukewarm and worldly one?
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 295
Conclusion:
1. Some know where they are — saved.
2. Others cannot answer the question so.
3. Answer the question definitely and at once.
R. A. T.
WHAT IT COSTS NOT TO BE A CHRISTIAN
Introduction: Show the folly of making ventures in
all phases of life without counting the cost.
I. It costs the sacrifice of peace of conscience.
(Isaiah 57:21.)
II. It costs the sacrifice of the sense of perfect
security which the christian enjoys. (Isaiah 26:3.)
III. It costs the sacrifice of the highest joy of
which the human soul is capable, (i Peter i :i8.)
IV. It costs the sacrifice of the hope the chris-
tian has. (Titus 1:2; I Peter 1:4; Rom. 8:17.)
V. It costs the sacrifice of the highest manhood
AND womanhood.
VI. It costs the sacrifice of God's favor. (Heb.
11: 6).
VII. It costs the sacrifice of Christ's acknowl-
edgment. (Matt. 10:32, 33.)
VIII. It costs the sacrifice of eternal life. (John
3:15, 16; John 3:36.)
— R. A. T.
HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE?
*'How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?"—
Heb. 2 : 3.
There are some things it will not do to neglect — the
folly and wickedness of neglecting the salvation offered
to us in Christ Jesus.
296 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
I. Because of the greatness of that salvation.
1. In the way in which it was given.
2. In what it cost.
3. In what it accomplishes.
4. In the greatness of the opportunity.
II. Because it is the only salvation.
III. Because we incur the just and awful dis-
pleasure OF God.
1. There need be no grave offense against
morality.
2. No conscious or unspoken rebellion against
God.
3. No speaking against the salvation.
4. No decided refusal ; simply a neglect.
5. All one needs to do in order to be lost is to
do nothing.
— R. A. T.
"TO-DAY'
"The Holy Ghost saith to-day. "—Heb. 3:7.
Men say *' to-morrow"; the Holy Ghost saith
**to-day. " There are many reasons why all should
accept Jesus *' to-day."
I. Because Jesus brings peace to the tormenting
CONSCIENCE AND A WISE MAN WILL WISH THAT PEACE
AS SOON AS HE CAN GET IT.
II. Because Jesus brings joy unspeakable and full
OF GLORY, AND A WISE MAN WILL WISH THAT GLORY AS
SOON AS HE CAN HAVE IT.
III. Because Jesus brings deliverance from sin, and
A wise MAN WILL WISH FOR THAT DELIVERANCE AS
SOON AS HE CAN GET IT.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 297
IV. Because Jesus brings beauty of character, and
A wise man will desire that beauty of character
as soon as he can have it.
V. Because Jesus fills our lives with highest use-
fulness, AND every wise MAN WISHES TO BEGIN BEING
USEFUL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
VI. Because the sooner we come to Christ the
RICHER WILL BE OUR ETERNITY, AND A WISE MAN
WISHES TO BEGIN AT ONCE.
VII. Because if we do not come to Jesus to-day we
MAY never come AT ALL, AND A WISE MAN WILL WANT
to come at once before it is too late.
Conclusion: Many things that may make this the last
opportunity and a refusal now, fatal.
1. Death is ever lurking at our doors.
2. Loss of opportunity may come.
3. A hardened heart may seal your doom.
— R. A. T.
DAVID'S SIN
*'The thing that David had done displeased the Lord." — 2
Sam. 11: 27.
Wherefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord to do that
which is evil in his sight." — 2 Sam. 12: 9, la
The Bible is faithful to recount the sins as well as
the virtues of its characters, thus teaching us good les-
sons, as in the case of David's sin.
L We are taught that a very good man, if he gets
HIS EYES OFF FROM GOD AND HiS WORD MAY EASILY
fall into very gross SIN.
II. We are taught that God never looks upon any
man's sin with the least degree OF allowance.
298 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
III. We are taught that whatsoever a man sow-
ETH HE SHALL ALSO REAP; AND, LIKE THE FARMER, HE
WILL REAP MUCH MORE THAN HE SOWS.
IV. We ARE TAUGHT THAT THE SINS OF GoD'S SERVANTS
GIVE GREAT OCCASION FOR ENEMIES OF THE LORD TO
BLASPHEME,
V. We ARE TAUGHT THAT THE SIN OF God's PEOPLE IS
BASE INGRATITUDE TOWARD GOD.
VI. We ARE TAUGHT A BRIGHTER LESSON FROM THIS
DARK STORY — THAT THERE IS FULL, FREE AND ABUNDANT
PARDON FOR THE VILEST SINNER.
VII. We ARE TAUGHT THAT God's PARDON IS TO BE
FOUND BY THE CONFESSION OF OUR SIN.
— R. A. T.
WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH JESUS?
"What shall I do then with Jesus?" — Matt. 27: 22.
The most important question one can put to himself.
I. How MUCH DEPENDS ON DOING THE RIGHT THING
WITH Christ.
1. Our acceptance or condemnation before God.
John 3: 18.
2. Our peace of conscience depends solely on this.
Rom. 5:1.
3. Our becoming sons of God. John i: i«.
4. True joy. i Peter i : 8.
5. Eternal life. John 5: 24; 3:36.
II. What we must do with Him.
1. Accept Kim or reject Him. John 12: 44-48.
2. Let Him in or shut Him out. Rev. 3: 20.
3. Confess Him or deny Him. Matt. 10: 32, 33.
4. Be for Him or against Him. Matt. 12: 30.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 399
III. Think who He was.
1. Your divinely anointed King. Acts 2 : 36 ; 5:31.
2. The Son of God.
3. Your Saviour. Is. 53:5.
Conclusion: Sum up and put the question : What will
you do with Jesus right now? Illustrate by Pilate's
awful mistake and its consequences.
— R. A. T.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
•*And now why tarriest thou?"-— Acts 22: 16.
There is no reason for delay for which the Word of
Go ' has not an answer.
I. **I AM WAITING UNTIL I AM CONVINCED." (Johu 7 :
17.)
II. "I AM WAITING UNTIL I HAVE ENJOYED THE WORLD
ENOUGH.'* (Mark 8:36.)
III. "I AM WAITING FOR MY FRIENDS." (Matt. 10:37.)
IV. "I AM WAITING UNTIL CHRISTIANS ARE MORE CON-
SISTENT." (Rom. 14:12.)
V. "I AM WAITING UNTIL THERE IS NOT SO MUCH TO
GIVE UP." (Phil. 3:7, 8.)
VI. **I AM WAITING FOR FEELING." (ActS 16:31: Johu
i;i2.)
VII. **I AM WAITING UNTIL I AM BETTER." (Matt.
9:13)
VIII. "I AM WAITING UNTIL I AM SURE I CAN HOLD
OUT." (Jude 24.)
IX. *'I AM WAITING FOR GOD*S TIME." (2 Cor. 6\2.)
X. **I AM WAITING UNTIL I DIE." (PrOV. 29:1.)
R. A. T,
300 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
THE PRICE OF POWER
*'And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and
signs among the people." — Acts 6: 8, R. V.
This poor world needs men and women of power,
and God has made it possible. We can become such by
paying the price of power.
I. Power costs the putting away of all sin.
II. We must set right the things we have done.
III. There must be absolute surrender to God.
IV. It costs a large expenditure of time and
strength and time in prayer.
V. It requires a large expenditure of time in Bible
STUDY.
VI. There must be the entire renunciation of
SELF-INTEREST AND SELF-SPARING IN ALL THEIR FORMS.
VII. There must be humiliation of self.
R. A. T.
THE DRAMA OF LIFE IN THREE ACTS
(Luke 15: 11-33.)
I. The first act — the wandering, going away from
FROM home ; or, the nature of sin.
Scene i. The young man in his beautiful and
sumptuous home. The beginning of sin, a
desire to be independent of God.
Scene 2. The young man with his portion of
goods goes from home. The growth of sin.
His heart went first, his feet afterwards.
II. The second act — the desolation in a far coun-
try ; or, "mEFRuiTS of sin.
Scene i. Is one^f gaiety. The first fruit of sin
is pleasure.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 301
Scene 2. Is one of hard times. The second fruit
of sin is want.
Scene 3. Is one of utter wretchedness. The
third fruit of sin is degradation and abject
slavery.
III. The third act — the wanderer's return home
AGAIN ; OR, the REMEDY FOR SIN.
Scene i. His thoughts are turned homeward and
fatherward. Serious reflection the first ingre-
dient in the remedy for sin and its bitter conse-
quences.
Scene 2. His threefold resolution, (a) To go to
his father; (d) to confess his sin; (c) to seek
acceptance.
Scene 3. His welcome home. *'He arose and
came to his father. " The father is watching for
him, and seeing him coming runs to meet him,
and welcomes him with the best his heart and
hand have to give. — r. a. t.
INFIDELITY- ITS CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES
AND CURE
I. Its causes.
1. The misrepresentation of Christianity by its
professed disciples, (a) in doctrine; (6) in
life.
2. Ignorance of what the Bible contains and
teaches.
3. Conceit. Men become infidels because they
find things in the Bible they cannot under-
stand.
302 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
4. Sin. This is the commonest and most funda*
mental cause of infidelity.
5. Resistance to the Holy Spirit.
IT. Its consequences.
1. Sin. Infidelity breeds sin.
2. Anarchy. Anarchists are almost, if not always,
infidels.
3. Wretchedness and despair.
4. Suicide.
5. Hopeless graves.
6. Eternal ruin.
III. Its cure.
1. Christlike living on the part of professed Chris-
tians.
2. A surrendered will on the part of the infidel.
John 7:17.
3. Study of the Word of God. Ps. 119: 130.
— R. A. T.
ETERNAL LIFE, OR THE WRATH OF GOD
—WHICH?
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth upon him." — John 3: 36.
The great question that confronts each of us:
Eternal life or the wrath of God. Which shall it be?
I. The things contrasted.
I. *' Eternal life." What is it?
(a) It is really life.
(b) It is fullness of life.
(c) It is life of highest knowledge,
(d) It is the life of God.
{e) It is endless life.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 303
«. ''The wrath of God. " What is it?
(a) It is the intense and settled displeasure of
the infinitely holy Being who created us, and
all things, and who has the absolute control
of all the powers of this universe.
II. How TO DECIDE BETWEEN THEM-
I. God answers the question.
(a) Believe on the Son of God.
(d) Accept God's testimony concerning Jesus
Christ. — R, A. T.
"The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and
saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." — Ps. 34: 18.
The Lord knoweth the proud afar off. Ps. 138: 6.
But he dwells with him that is of a contrite spirit.
Is. 57: 15.
When the sinner feels his distance from God, then it
is that he is drawing nigh to God.
He has a broken heart, and God draws nigh to him.
Luke 15: 18, 20.
I. In a broken heart there is,
1. A sense of sin. Ps. 38: 4; Luke 18: 13.
2. Self-abhorrence on account of sin. Job 42:6;
Ezek. 16: 6^.
3. Justifying God's dealings. Ps. 51: 4.
4. A view of the love of a dying Saviour. Zech.
12 : 10.
5. A confidence in returning to God. Hos. 6:1;
Luke 15: 18.
II. The Lord is nigh, and saveth them.
I. He accepteth such a heart as His sacrifice. Ps.
51:17: Is. 66: 2.
304 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
3. He maketh such a heart His abode. Is. 57 : 15.
3. He speaketh peace to such a heart. Is. 57: 18;
Luke 7: 50.
4. He healeth such a heart. Ps. 147: 3; Is. 61: i.
Let us search into the cause of hardness of heart.
Guard against the continuance of a careless spirit.
Direct the eye of faith constantly to the cross of
Jesus.
Be faithful to the first convictions of the Spirit.
Cease not to pray, till such a frame of mind be
obtained.
Look forward to the time when we shall no longer
complain of hard hearts —
And when broken hearts shall be healed forever.
Rev. 7: 17; 21: 4. — c. B.
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest." — Matt. 11: 28.
I. What is rest?
1. That which every human creature is seeking.
Ps. 4:6.
2. That which the world offers. Prov. 9: 16, 17.
3. But can never give. Eccles. i : 13, 14; 2 : 22, 23,
II. Where is it to be obtained?
1. Not in sin. Is. 57: 10, 20; Jer. 2:36.
2. Not in riches. Ps. 39:6; Eccles. 5:10, 12.
3. Not in idleness. Prov. 15; 19.
4. Not in pleasure. Eccles. 2:1.
5. Not in fame. Eccles. 2:16.
6. Not in knowledge. Eccles. 1:18.
7. Not in self -righteousness. Heb. 4:3, lo.
8. But only in Christ. Heb. 4: 3.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 305
{a) In His atonement. Rom. 5:10.
(d) In His righteousness. Ps. 32: i, 2.
(c) In His intercession. Rom. 8 : 34.
(d) In His glory. Heb. 4:9; Rev. 7: 16, 17.
Therefore, come to Him:
At all events and hazards. Matt. 15: 22.
Guilty. Luke 7: 37, etc.
Naked. Rev. 3: 18.
Lost. Matt. 8: 25.
Ignorant. Luke 10: 39.
Tempted. 2 Cor. 12: 7, 8.
Backsliding. Jer. 3:22.
Abide in Him. John 15: 9.
Follow Him. Matt. 11:29. — c. b.
"And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for
me with all your heart." — Jer. 29: 13.
I. What is the disposition of mind here intended?
1. It is not lip-service. Jer. 3:10; Ezek. 33:31;
Matt. 15:8.
(a) Indolence. Cant. 3:1.
{b) Impatience. 2 Kings 6 : 33.
2. But it is a heart perfect with God. 2 Chron.
16: 9; 15: 17.
(a) Steadily fixed on God's. Ps. 108:1; Is.
26:8, 9.
3. It is the earnestness of Jacob. Gen. 32:24-28.
(a) The confidence of David. Ps. 27: 7-14.
{b) The perseverance of the woman of Canaan.
Matt. 15: 22.
(c) The importunity of the widow. Luke
18:3-5. (See Is. 62:6, 7.)
3o6 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
II. What is the blessing promised?
1. Ye shall fin dme. 2 Chron. 15:2, 4, 15; la.
45:19; Matt 7:7, 8.
(a) In time of contrition. Deut. 4:29: Jer.
3: 22; Hos. 14: 2, 4.
(b) In time of affliction. Ps. 50: 15.
{c) In time of perplexity. 2 Chron. 20: 12.
(a) In ever}^ time. Heb. 4: 16.
2. Let every sin be mortified. Ps. 66: 18.
3. Let the heart be prepared. 2 Chron. 19:3.
4. Let the assistance of the Spirit be sought.
Rom. 8: 26; Eph. 6: 18; Jude 20.
— c. B.
"And they 77ent out, and preached that men should repent" —
Mark 6: 12.
Repentance is a distinguishing grace of the man of
God.
He cannot know himself to be a sinner without deep
shame and humiliation of soul.
What have I done? What have I neglected to do?
The first sign of spiritual life is an awakened sense
of sin.
Therefore the ministers of Christ *' go out and
preach that men should repent*'
I. Mark the necessity of repentance.
1. As saving from deserved punishment. Ezek.
18: 28, 30; Luke 13: 3-5; Rev. 2: 5; 3: 3.
2. As justifying God in the punishment of sin.
Jos. 7: 19; Ps. 51: 4.
3. As a means of forgiveness. Job 33: 27, 28;
Luke 24: 47; Acts 2: 38; 3: 19; 5: 31^
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 307
II. Mark its character.
It has many counterfeits.
I. Natural repentance produces
(a) Alarm. Matt. 27: 3.5; Acts 24: 25.
{d) Conviction, 20.
(c) Confession, i Sam. 25: 24, 30; Matt. 3: i, 6.
(d) Resolutions. Ex. 9: 27, 28; 10: 16, 17.
(e) Partial amendment. 2 Kings 21 : 27-29.
a. Spiritual repentance has all these, but it has
more.
(a) It is connected with faith. Acts 20: 21.
3. It includes a hearty sorrow for sin. 2 Cor.
7: 10.
(a) An entire forsaking of all sin. 2 Chron.
33:12, 15, 16; Ezek. 18:28.
(b) An instant return to God. Hos. 5:15; 6:1:
Luke 15: t8-2o.
{c) An evidence in godly fruits. Matt. ^:8;
Acts 26: 20; 2 Cor. 7:11.
III. Its origin is of God.
1. The gift of Almighty God. Ezek. 36:26; Acts
11: 18; 2 Tim. 2: 25.
2. The blessing of an exalted Saviour. Acts 5: 31.
3. The work of the Holy Spirit. Zech. 12: 10.
Produced—-
By a sight of our own guilt and need. Ps. 51:4;
Jer. 31: 18, 19; Luke 15: 16, 17.
By a sight of the love and sufferings of Christ.
Zech. 12: 10; Acts 2: ^6^ 37.
Deepened—
By a view of the character of God. Job 42:5,6.
By an assurance of pardon. Ezek. 16: 63.
— c. B.
3o8 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
"If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that
believeth." — Mark 9: 23.
The very nature of faith supposes difficulty.
I. It is opposed to sight. John 20:29; 2 Cor. 5:7;
Heb. II : 27.
3. It rises above sense and feeling. Job 13: 15.
3. It puts reason to silence. Luke i : 34-38 ; John
6: 12-16.
4. It implies a consciousness of weakness. V. 24 ;
Matt. 15: 25.
5. And a dependence upon Almighty strength.
2 Chron. 14: 11; 20: 12; Ps. 40: 17; 2 Cor. 3: 5.
Let us mark some of the achievements of this won-
derful principle. ''''All things are possible to it.**
1. It overcomes all the temptations of time and
sense. Heb. 11:8-10, 24-26; i John 5:
4, 5.
2. It stands firm in the promise, notwithstanding
all natural impossibilities. Rom. 4:17-21;
Heb. II : 11.
3. It is unshaken by all seeming contradiction.
Heb. 11: 17-19.
4. It obediently ventures upon present difficulty.
Exod. 14:2, 15; Heb. 11:29.
5. It performs the greatest work by the weakest
means. Judges 7:16-22; Is. 41:14, 15; i
Cor. 1:21; Heb. 11:30.
6. It overcomes even the prescript of the Divine
will. Deut. 23:3, with Ruth i, 16; 4:10.
Matt. 15; 24-28, with 10: 5, 6.
7. It triumphs over the forebodings of the most
frowning providences, i Sam. 30:6; Hab.
3: 17, 18.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 309
8. It maintains an assured confidence under con-
flict and chastening. Ps. 65:3; Mic. 7:8, 9.
9. It prevents hard thoughts of God under the
most afflicting dispensations. 2 Kings 4:26;
Job i: 21.
10. It obtains the supply of grace to the utmost of
our desire. Ps. 81: 10; Matt. 21: 22.
Be sure that faith is grounded upon the clear war-
rant of Scripture, i John 5:14.
Act present faith as the way to encourage its fruit-
fulness. Matt. 25:29; 2 Pet. 1:5.
Face the most appalling difficulties in the resources
of faith. Zech. 4: 7; Mark 11: 22, 23; Phil. 4: 13.
Connect the exercise of faith with every Christian
duty. Luke 17: $-6.
Let the habitual exercise of faith prepare you for
every emergency. Gal. 2 : 20. — c. b.
THE WATER OF LIFE
I. Its character.
1. Living. Jno. 4: 10.
2. Clear. Rev. 22 : i.
3. Pure. Rev. 22: i.
4. Abundant Ezek. 47 : 1-9.
5. Free, Rev. 21 : 6.
II. For whom provided.
1. The thirsty. Rev. 21 : 6.
2. Whosoever. Rev. 22 : 17.
III. Way to obtain it.
1. Come. Rev. 22: 17.
2. Take. Rev. 22: 17-
3IO SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
REPENTANCE.
The nature of. Matt. 21:9.
The source of. 2 Tim. 2 : 25.
The necessity for. Acts. 8 : 22.
The results of. Luke 15:7; Luke 17:3.
By whom commanded. Acts 17:30.
In whose name? Luke 24:47. — c. i.
FORGIVENESS
The foundation of it — His blood. Eph. 1 17.
The author of it — God. Eph. 4:32.
The completeness of it all. Ps. 103 : 3.
The proclamation of it is preached. Acts 13 : 38.
The reception of it — all that believe. Acts 13: 39.
The certainty of it — are forgiven, i Jno. 2: la.
The results of it — saved. Luke 7:50.
The results of it — peace. Luke 7:50.
The results of it — blessed, Ps, 32; i. — c. i.
A SEVENFOLD VIEW OF THE LOVE OF GOD
It is infinite in its character. Jno. 17 : 23.
It is constraining in its power. 2 Cor. 5: 14.
It is inseparable in its object. Rom. 8 : 35-37.
It is individual in its choice. Gal. 2 : 20.
It is universal in its extenTs Jno. 3:16.
It is unchanging in its purpose. Jno. 13:1.
It is everlasting in its duration. Jer. 31:3.
--C. I.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 311
TEN STEPS IN THE PRODIGAL'S LIFE
His demand. — "Give, .portion." Luke 15 : 12.
His departure. — "Took. .Journey." Luke 15:13.
His Distress. — "Famine." Luke 15: 14.
His condition. — "In want." Luke 15: 14.
His depravity. — "Feeding swine." Luke 15:15.
His conviction. — "Came to himself." Luke 15 : 17.
His determination. — "I will arise." Luke 15: 18.
His confession. — "I have sinned." Luke 15 : 18.
His contrition. — "No more worthy." Luke 15 : 19.
His conversion. — "The best robe, etc." Luke 15 : 22.
JUSTIFICATION
What is it? Rom. 4:5-8.
The One who justifies. Rom. 8 : 33.
Whom He justifies. Rom. 4 : 5.
How He is justified. Rom. 3 : 24 and v. 9.
From what He is justified. Acts 13 : 39.
Result of being justified. Rom. 5; i.
REDEMPTION^
I. What i am redeemed with —
1. By blood. I Pet. i : 19.
2. By power. Neh. 1:10.
II. What i am redeemed from —
1. Bondage. Ex. 6: 6.
2. Enemy. Ps. 106 : 10.
3. Iniquity. Titus 2 : 14.
4. Curse of the law. Gal. 3 : 13.
III. What the Lord has redeemed —
3ia SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
1. The soul. Ps. 49 : 8.
2. The body. Rom. 8 : 23.
3. The life. Ps. 103 : 4.
IV. The beauty of the redemption —
1. It is plenteous. Ps. 130:7.
2. It is precious. Ps. 49 : 8.
3. It is eternal. Heb. 9: 12. — c. i
MERCY
The author, i Pet. i : 3.
The ground. Rom. 3 : 25.
The SUBJECTS. Luke 17:13.
The character. Ps. 103 : 4.
The measure. Ps. 103 : 8.
The EXTENT. Ps. 103:11.
The DURATION. Ps. 103 : 17. — c. i
SIN
The servants. Rom. 6 : 20.
The wages. Rom. 6 : 23.
The deceitfulness. Heb. 3 : 13.
The PLEASURES. Heb. 11:25.
The sacrifice. Heb. 10: 12.
The eternal consequences. Jude 7. — c. l
JESUS, THE FRIEND
I The sinner's friend. Matt. 11: 19.
2. My friend. Cant. 5: 16.
3. Who satisfies. Cant. 5:1.
4. Who sticketh closer than a brother. Pro v. 18 : 24.
5. The unchanging friend. Prov. 17:17-
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 313
6. The surety. Prov. 6:1,
7. Who dies. John 15: 13.
8. Who reproves. Prov. 27:6.
9. Who counsels. Prov. 27:9, 10
10. Communion. Prov. 27: 17.
11. Resurrection. John 11: 11.
My Beloved is my friend. Christians need an object
for their heart. Joy clings (17 Matt). Jesus only.
His photograph: altogether lovely. My beloved.
No fear. Welcome. Paul. Loved me. My friend.
— H. M.
RULES FOR EVANGELISTS
(Being those given by Paul to Timothy.)
1. **Stir Up the gift that is in thee." 2 Tim. i : 6.
2. *'Be not thou ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord." 1:8.
3. '*Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou
hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus" (i: 13); and again, in v. 14: "That good thing
which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy
Ghost which dwelleth in thee."
4. You want strength; then, **Be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. ** 2 : i.
5. "Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ." 2:3.
6. Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David,
was raised from the dead (2:8). Evangelists, that is
the doctrine for you. Christ raised from the dead is
God's receipt in full for the sinner's justification.
7. ** Study to show thyself approved unto God^ a work-
314 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
man that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the Word of Truth. " 2:15.
8. "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteons-
ness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the
Lord out of a pure heart. " 2:22.
9. "Foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing
that they do gender strife. " 2 : 23.
10. '"Continue thou in the things which thou hast
learned." 3: 14. Not only preach to others, but live
out the truth you preach.
11. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God**
(3: 16). Be persuaded of the inspiration of the Scrip-
ture. Use it, for it is the sword of the Spirit.
12. "I charge thee, therefore, before God and the
Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Preach the Word, be instant in
season, out of season." 4:1, 2.
13. "Do the work of an evangelist" (4:5). Do the
work, don't merely talk about it, or be satisfied with
the title of an evangelist. DO the WORK— it is
tough work, hard work, but blessed work.
— M. R.
CONVERSION
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and he will have
mercy upon him, and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.'*
—Is. 55. 7.
To be converted means to be turned about or to be
turned to God. Man has turned his back upon God,
but, when converted, he faces a loving and forgiving
God.
I. The first step toward conversion is an earnest
DESIRE AND INTENTION TO FORSAKE SIN.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 315
II. The second step toward conversion is a will-
ingness TO ACCEPT God's salvation, whatever it
MAY REQUIRE.
III. The third step toward conversion is making
UP YOUR mind to believe WHAT GoD WANTS YOU TO
KNOW IN ORDER TO BE SAVED.
1. That the race is totally depraved.
2. That the death of the Son of God was vicari-
ous.
3. That the Word of God gives assurance of your
salvation. — f. s.
HE STILL WAITS
•'And therefore will the Lord wait." — Is. 30: 18.
Now that God has done all He can do for our sal-
vation, He has to stop and wait for us.
I. The FIRST CLASS OF PEOPLE THAT THE LoRD HAS TO
WAIT FOR IS THE CHRISTIAN.
I. There are three reasons why Christians ought
to be willing to respond to God in efforts to
save the lost:
(a) Is the honor conferred upon us in working
fpr God.
(d) Is the great privilege we have to at once
work for God.
(c) Is the great reward that comes to the faith-
ful in God's service.
n. Another class that God has to work for is the
BACKSLIDER.
III. Still others God is waiting for are those who
THUS far have REJECTED God's GRACE.
— F. S.
3i6 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
A GREAT CONDITIONAL PROMISE
*'Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou
shouldest see the glory of God?" — John ii: 40.
Something to be done in order to enjoy the accom-
plishment of the divine promise. Look at some of the
stones to be rolled away :
I. Is THE AWFUL STONE OF UNBELIEF.
II. Is THE MISERABLE STONE OF PREJUDICE.
III. We need to get rid of criticism.
IV. Another one to remove is the stone of excuse.
V. Again is the want of ability to do anything.
1. We must believe that until we do our part
God will not, or, I may say, cannot do His
part.
2. We must also believe that when we do our part
there is nothing impossible with God.
— r. s.
CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE
"If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in dark-
ness, we lie and do not the truth." — i John i : 6.
The moment we accept the Son of God as our
Saviour, we must take Him as our example.
I. In His devotion to His father.
II. In His submission to God.
HI. In His compassion.
IV. In His humility.
V. In His patience.
VI. In His love for communion with the Father.
— F. s.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 317
CHRIST OUR MIGHTY ONE
•'Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for
them." — Heb. 7: 25.
Look at some of the things He is able to do for us.
I. He is able to keep us from falling.
II. He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.
III. He is able to deliver us when tempted.
IV. He is able to prepare us for every good work.
F. S.
CHRIST OUR FRIEND
"The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say,
Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans
and sinners." — Matt. 11: 19.
I. He is the friend of sinners.
II. He is the friend that sticketh closer than a
brother.
HI. He is the friend that loveth at all times.
IV. He is the faithful friend.
V. He is the friend that gives us hearty counsel.
VI. He is the friend that makes us like himself.
F. S.
SAVING THE LOST
"The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is
lost." — Luke 19: 10.
A soul saved or lost — which?
I. Lost.
I. Every soul out of Christ is lost.
(a) In that they are all sinners. Rom. 3 : 22, 23.
(d) In that they are all the slaves of sin. John
8:34.
3i8 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
(c) In that if they do not turn to Christ they
will be lost eternally. John 3 : 36.
II. Saved.
1. Christ is seeking to save.
(a) By His providence.
{d) By His Spirit.
(c) By His Word.
2. He can save.
(a) From the gfuilt of sin. Acts 10: 43.
(b) From the power of sin. John 8 : 36.
(c) From hell, i Thess. i : 10.
(d) To the uttermost. Heb. 7 : 25.
3. He came to seek the utterly lost,
4. He is seeking to save now. — R. a. t.
GOD-GIVEN CONVICTION
"They were pricked in their heart."— Acts 11: 37.
To be pricked in the heart with the conviction of sin
is not a pleasant experience, but if rightly received
leads to very great blessing.
I. Why these men were pricked in their hearts.
I. They saw the appalling enormity of the sin of
rejecting Christ. V. 36.
II. How they were pricked in their hearts.
I. It was by the preaching of the Word of God.
a. It was by Peter's testimony to a risen and
exalted Saviour.
3. It was by the power of the Holy Spirit.
III. The results of their being pricked in theib
hearts.
I. They turned from their awful sin. V. 38.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 319
2. They publicly confessed their sin and their
acceptance of Christ. V. 41.
3. They were saved. V. 47.
4. They found a deep and lasting joy. V. 46.
5. They received the Holy Spirit. V. 38, 39.
— R. A. T.
SAVED
"For by grace are ye saved through faith." — Eph. 2: 8.
One of the greatest words in the English language
is the word *' saved. " Expand and illustrate.
I. Who are saved?
I. Every one who believes in Jesus Christ.
II. From what are we saved?
1. From all guilt.
2. From God's displeasure.
3. From the condemnation of our own conscience.
4. From the power of sin.
5. From future judgment.
III. To WHAT ARE WE SAVED?
1. We are saved to peace and joy.
2. We are saved to a true and pure and holy and
useful life.
3. We are saved to God's favor and delight.
4. We are saved to sonship.
5. We are saved to eternal life.
6. We are saved to an inheritance incorruptible,
etc.
IV. How WE ARE SAVED.
1. We are saved by grace. Salvation is a gift.
2. We are saved by grace through faith.
— R. A. T.
320 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
HOW TO BECOME SONS OF GOD
**But as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
— John i: 12.
To be a child of God involves so much — so much in
the life that now is, so much in the life which is to
come.
I. What is involved?
1. Our absolute security in this present life,
2. The supply of every real need.
3. Joy.
4. Peace.
5. Likeness to God.
6. Infinite glory hereafter.
II. How MAY WE BECOME SONS OF GOD ?
1. We are all God's offspring, but we are not all
sons of God. Acts 17: 28; John 8: 44.
2. We are made sons of God by receiving Jesus.
John 1 : 12; Gal. 3:26.
3. To receive Jesus is to receive Him as He offers
Himself to us.
(a) As our atoning Saviour. Matt. 20: 28.
(b) As our Deliverer from sin's power. John
8:36.
{c) As our Rest-giver. Matt. 11: 28.
{d) As our Teacher. John 13: 13.
(e) As our Way of Access to God. John 14: 6.
(/) As our King.
(g) As our Lord and God. John 20: 28; John
5: 22.
III. Who may become sons of God in this way?
I. Anyone. How sweeping it is! "As many as."
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 3^
2. The loveliest character or the vilest sinner.
3. It is possible to anyone at this moment.
•♦BeUeve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."—
Acts 16: 31.
Introduction: This text makes the way of salvation
as clear as day.
I. There can be no doubt that this is the true
WAY TO BE SAVED AND A SURE WAY TO BE SAVED.
1. An inspired apostle whom God sent for this
very purpose declares it.
2. Positiveness: *' Thou shalt be saved."
II. What is involved in believing on the Lord
Jesus ?
1. Trust in Jesus for pardon for all my sin.
2. Surrender to the Lord Jesus as Lord and Mas-
ter of my thoughts and acts.
3. Confession of Jesus as my Lord. Rom. 10; o
10 (R. v.).
4. Looking to the Lord Jesus for guidance in all
I do.
5. Obedience to the will of the Lord Jesus as far
as His will is known. Luke 6 : 46.
6. Study of the words of Jesus in order to know
His will.
7. Dependence upon Jesus and not upon self or
others for strength to do His will.
•*GOD CALLING, YET'*
Text: Gen. 6: 3.
I. God calls in many ways. Rev. 22:17; Acts
2: 21; 2 Pet. 3: 9.
I. Calls by pastors; Sunday School teachers.
3^2 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
parents' prayers, Bible, songs, memoriea
His Spirit.
a. Unusual ways. Still small voice. Cyclone,
Lightning. Death of child or loved one. Loss
of business, etc. Heb. 12:6; Eccle. 7: 14.
II. God is always calling.
But man is not always heeding! The heart
hardens like the hand — like the bone — like
the face. ** While the lamp holds out to
burn, the vilest sinner may return." But
WILL he? May is God's part! Will is man's
part! John 7:17; Heb. 4: 2.
III. God is able^ willing^ ready to save.
But man is difree moral agent . **Tho' God be
good and free be heaven, no force divine can
love compel."
There are two parties to every gift — the giver
and the receiver. John i: 11, 12, 13; Rom.
10: 13. — c. N. H.
"CONVICTED, BUT NOT REGENERATED"
(Texts: Acts 24: 25, and John 3: 5.)
I. This was Felix's chance of heaven. He lost it —
no other ever came. Heb. 3: 15; 2 Cor. 6: 2; Heb.
2:3; Eccle. 12: I.
I. It is a terrible thing to be lost. Shut out; not
shut in, John 8:21; Rev. 21:8; 2 Thess.
1 : 7-9.
II. Paul, a prisoner, ^^ reasoned** before Felix, a
prince in purple.
I. Religion is the only reasonable thing! It is not
Just emotion, prayer, song, ceremony, creed.
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 323
It IS that and more; it is life — life as Christ
would have us live it. Rom. 12:1, 2; Isa.
i: 18.
a. Paul reasoned of righteousness. Yet he talked
** Christ and Him crucified." Rom. 14:17;
Rom. 10: 4.
3. Of temperance in self -control, John 8: 32-36.
4. Oi judgment. Heb. 9:27; Heb. 10:27; i Pet.
4: 17; John 5: 22.
III. '^^Xm trembled. The devils ^^/^Vz/^^ and trembled,
but were not saved. One must not only tremble,
but turn from sin to Christ. '''Almost persuaded" —
but LOST.
C. N. H.
"SALVATION:" A LAWYER'S VIEW
Text: "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"
—Heb. 2: 3.
I. The great doctrine of jurisprudence, as of grace, is
neglect. Not reject, spurn, abuse — just neglect.
1. Companion texts. **What shall it profit a man
if he gain the whole world and lose his own
soul?"
2. **What is the hope of the hypocrite, tho' he hath
gained^ when God shall take away his life?"
II. God's salvation is measured by His gift — "His
ONLY Begotten Son." Saved from what? The
penalty of sin ! The guilt of sin ! The power of sin !
X, To make it practical. Saved so you won't
think only of self — so you won't lie, cheat,
drink, swear, gamble, use tobacco or play
cards or dance.
324 SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES
a. Saved to what? Life abundant here. Ja^^^
lo: 10. Life eternal hereafter. John 17: ♦,.
III. How? By accepting Jesus Christ as Savioi*
When? Now/ Rom. 10:13; John i:ii, 12, j;
Rom. 10: 10. — c. N. H.
"CHRIST OR THE ROBBER?"
Text: *' Whosoever committeth sin is a servant of sin." "Th
Holy Ghost ts given to them that obey."— Matt. 27. 17 and 22.
One is either a child of obedience or a child of dis-
obedience ; of God or of the devil !
I. Man can choose Christ. If he does not choose
Christ he has chosen the Robber. Paul, Peter, John,
chose Christ ; Judas, Felix, Pilate, chose the Robber.
Life is made up of decisions; they soon become
permanent,
I. Pilate was influenced by his friends against
Jesus. But no one could crucify Jesus that
day but Pilate. You alone! The world —
society, ambition, politics — says: "Crucify
Him!" But hold! Let's wait until we have a
reason for it. Pilate wanted the world's
friendship. He got it, but oh — the price he
paid!
II. The Robber to-day! Worldliness — love of money,
love of ease, love of pleasure, cards, theaters, danc-
ing, slander, liquor, tobacco, evil thinking, etc. All
cry out as of old: *' Crucify Him!"
III. I choose Christ! *'As for me, my house will serve
the Lord." *'Take the world, but give me Jesus."
**A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand,"
Good-bye, Robber! Come in, Jesus!
SUGGESTIVE OUTLINES 325
**GOD'S JUSTICE AND HIS MERCY"
(Text: John 3: 16.)
I. Preach justice, wrath from standpoint of Love.
"God is love." "Everyone that loveth is born of
God" (i John 4: 7). But God is 2X^0 Justice. For
our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12 : 29). Wrath,
justice, judgment are more often mentioned in the
Bible than love !
II. The test of love is something surrendered. God
gave ^'' His only Begotten Son.*'
1. The purpose: "That man might not perish.**
2. But by receiving "the gift" have everlastingXxi^.
3. In law it '" presumed that a man will not do an
idle thing. What an idle, absurd, foolish
thing God did in giving His Son to die upon
the cross — unless there was a purpose ! What
other purpose could there be than that stated?
III. In law, mercy is never asked until guilt is ad-
mitted.
I. Sin is against God. Hence only God can for-
give sin. (Ps. 51:4). "Without shedding of
blood is no remission." Heb. 9: 22.
— C. N. H.
TOPICS AND TEXTS FOR SERMONS
AND BIBLE READINGS
Genesis i : 26; i Cor. 15 : 45. The Two Adams.
5:24. Walking with God. (The Secret of Abid-
ing Peace.)
5 : 24. How to move in the Best Society, or
Walking with God.
7:1. Noah and the Deluge.
Exodus 8: 10. The Fool's Day.
12: 13. The Power of the Blood.
Numbers 13: 30. Faith of Caleb and Joshua.
32: 23. Found Out.
Joshua I. Courage and Enthusiasm.
I Samuel 8:4. ''Disobedience."
I Kings 18. Elijah at Carmel.
18: 21. ''How Long Halt Ye?"
18: 38. A Mighty Prayer.
Psalms 1 : 1-3. God's Picture of a Happy Man.
14: I. The Fool's Creed.
32 ; I. How to Be a Happy Christian.
51. David's Confession and Prayer.
51 : 10. *' Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God.**
62: II. Power: Its Source and How to Obtain It.
103 J 3. 5- **II^ Forgiveth Our Iniquities."
Ji9» 59» 6o- "A. Message for the Dying Year.
119:126; 8:5, 6. The Need of a General Revival.
139:23,24. David's Prayer: ** Search Me and
Know Me."
326
TOPICS AND TEXTS 327
Proverbs 8 : 36. Our Most Dangerous Enemy.
11: 30. Business That Always Pays and That Is
Open to All.
13: 15. A Hard Road.
14:9. The Awfulness of Sin. ** Fools make a
mock at Sin. ' '
27: I. Uncertain.
Isaiah 9 : 6. The Wonderful Jesus.
49: 24, 25. *' Christ as a Deliverer.'
53: 4, 5. **Death of Christ."
55:6. "Seek Ye the Lord While He May Be
Found."
55:6; Heb. 11:6; Hos. 10:12. A Wise Secret.
57:7. Seven Facts about the Way of the Wicked.
57: 21. Peace.
Jeremiah 17: 9. The Heart of Man.
21:8. Two Ways.
23:28. The Bible: Wherein It Differs from All
Other Books.
23:29; Heb. 4:12; Luke 8:11. The Power of
the Word.
33: 17. God's Power to Save a Drunkard.
Ezekiel 33' i^- *'Why Will Ye Die?"
3$: 18. A Mad Choice.
Daniels. A King's Folly and What It Cost: A
Tragedy.
Amos 4:12. A Great Meeting for Saint and Sinner,
Believer and Infidel.
Malachi 3:8. A Remarkable Robbery.
Matthew 4: 19. A Sermon to Christian Workers.
5 : 29. Hell.
6: 24. **No Man Can Serve Two Masters," etc
7 : 6. Hopeless Cases.
328 TOPICS AND TEXTS
Matthew 7:13. Paths to Perdition.
7: 22, 23. False Hopes.
10: 32. The Duty of the Hour.
11: 19. A Friend Worth Having.
11:19. A True Friend.
11: 27-30. *' Coming to Christ."
11:28. ''Come."
II : 28. The Cure for All Our Woes.
11: 28, 29. Every Man's Great Need Met.
12: 24-32. Sin against the Holy Ghost.
12:30. With or Against: Which?
22: 14. Speechless before God.
22 : 42. "What Think Ye of Christ?"
23: 37, 38. The Failure of Jesus Christ.
24: 35. Certainties and Uncertainties about the
Future.
24: 44. "Be Ye also Ready, for in Such an Hour
that Ye Think Not the Son of Man Cometh."
27:22. The Great Question of the Day.
27: 22. Decision.
27: 22. The Question of Questions.
Mark 8 : 36. An Idiotic Bargain.
10: 26. Then Who Can Be Saved?
II : 22. Have Faith in God.
13: 22, 23. False Christs and False Prophets.
13: 34. "To Every Man His Work."
14: 1-20. Parable of the Sower.
14: 14. "Compassion of Christ."
15: 25, 26. Who Can Be Saved?
16: 16. How to Be a Daniel.
16 : 16. How to Be Saved and How to Be Damned.
Luke 2:7. No Room for Christ.
4: 18. The Blessed Gospel.
TOPICS AND TEXTS 329
Luke 4: 18. '*The Gospel in the New Testament."
5: 27. Sudden Conversions.
7 : 48. * * Thy Sins Are Forgiven. "
7:50. A Woman Who Is Sure to Be in Heaven.
9. Losing Sight of Self.
10: 25-37. Christ the Good Samaritan.
12 : 20. God's Estimate of a Certain Rich Man
14: 18. Profitless and Wicked Manufacturing.
15 : 4-7. The Lost Sheep.
15:11-24. Prodigal Son.
15:14-23. The Road from Starvation to Plenty.
16: 25. ''Retribution."
17:32. A Woman Wh Should Never Be For-
gotten.
18: 9-14. A ''Good Man" Lost, and a "Bad Man"
Saved.
18: 22. "One Thing Thou Lackest."
18:35-43; Mark 10: 46-52. Bartimaeus.
19:1-10. An Extraordinary Case : A Rich Man
Saved.
19: 10. "Christ's Mission to the World."
19: 10. Saved or Lost.
19: 14. High Treason.
24: 34. Easter Promises and Warnings.
24 : 49. The Christian Worker and the Holy Spirit.
John i: 38; Matt. 6: 33. "What Seek Ye?"
1:41. Working for Christ.
2 : i-ii. Christ's Miracle at Cana of Galilee.
3: 7. "Ye Must Be Born Again."
3: 16. "For God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believ-
eth in Him should not perish, but have ever-
lasting life."
330 TOPICS AND TEXTS
John 3: i6. Amazing- Love.
3; 16. God Is Love.
3: 16. The Most Wonderful Thing in the World
3: 16. The World's Greatest Gift: Enterprise.
3: 18. Condemned.
4: 14. Eternal Satisfaction.
5 : 40. A Strange Refusal.
6: 35. Christ, the Bread of Life.
6: 44. God's Cables.
8: 32. Freedom for All Men.
8:36. Liberty.
9. Christ Restoring the Blind.
10. Christ, the Good Shepherd.
10. The Shepherd and His Sheep.
12: 42, 43. Open Confession of Christ.
14:6. The Way to God.
15 : 9. An Open Door.
15: 25. A Strange Hatred.
15 : 25. *'They Hated Me v^ithout a Cause."
16: 5. Where Will You Spend Eternity?
18: 38. Some Absolute Certainties.
18:40. A Strange Election.
19:30. '*It Is Finished."
Acts 1 : 8. Witnessing for Christ.
2: 1-4. Pentecostal Power.
4: 12. No Salvation except in Christ.
4: 12. An Imperative and Immediate Need.
4: 31-35. A Model Church.
6:7. Stephen.
8 : 4. Spreading the Gospel.
9: i; 22: 10. A Brilliant and Bitter Infidel Con-
verted.
11:13, 14. Sincere but Not Saved.
TOPICS AND TEXTS 331
Acts 11: 13, 14. What a Man Must Believe and What
He Must Do to Be Saved.
13: 39. Taking God at His Word.
16: 25-34. In Jail at Midnight.
16: 30. Genuine Salvation and How to Get It.
16:30-31. A Plain Answer to a Great Question.
16: 33. All in One Hour.
17:30. "God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent." A New Year's Call.
18: 8. Family Religion.
20: 31. Love for Souls.
24: 25, R. V. A Fatal Mistake.
26: 28. A King's Costly Folly.
Romans 1:1. A Servant of Jesus Christ.
1 : 16. God's Power at Man's Disposal.
1 : 16. Salvation for Everybody
i: 22. Where Infidelity and Liberalism FaiL
3:22. Man's Great Failure.
3: 22, 23. The Universal Equality of Men.
5 : 6. God's Love for Sinners.
6:23. An Easy Question for a Wise Man to
Answer.
6:23. Outrageous AVages.
6:23. Eternal Life: What It Is and How to
Get It.
8: 17. Joint Heirs with Christ.
9: 20. Man's Right Attitude before God.
10: I. How to Get Men Saved.
10:13. Saved by a Cry.
I Corinthians i: 18, 31. "God's Instrumentalities.'*
1:27. Weak Things Employed to Confound the
Mighty.
3:11. The Only Foundation.
332 TOPICS AND TEXTS
1 Corinthians 5:6, 7. Little Sins.
13. Love.
13:5. Self -Examination.
15:16. Some Certainties Connected with the
Resurrection of Christ.
15:57. Glorious Victory.
2 Corinthians 2:11. The Devices of the Devil.
6: 17, 18, R. V. Separation.
11:13-15. Ministers Who Are Doing the Devil's
Work.
Galatians 3: 10, R. V. A Wonderful Contrast.
5:22. Fruits of the Spirit.
6:7. • * Be Not Deceived. * '
6:9. Perseverance.
Ephesians 1:2, 12. Men Out of Christ. Their Condi-
tion To-day.
2: 12. No Hope.
4:30. Grieving the Spirit.
5: 15. Fools in God's Sight.
5:16. Redeeming the Time.
5: 25-27. Christ and the Church.
Philippians 3:7,8. A Great Sacrifice for a Greater
Gain.
4. Seven Privileges of the Believer.
4: 4. How to Be Always Happy.
1 Timothy i : 6. The One Thing to Get.
1:15. Why Jesus Christ Came into the World.
1:15. One Thing That Every Man Should
Believe.
4:8. A Paying Investment.
2 Timothy 2. God's Pattern for a Christian Worker.
2:15. An Approved Workman.
3: 14, 15. Saving the Children.
TOPICS AND TEXTS 333
Hebrews 2:3. A Startling Question.
2 : 3. No Escape.
3: 13. Hardened.
7: 25. Christ Mighty to Save.
9:27. The Judgment.
10: 11; 13: 14. Heaven: What Sort of a Place It
Is and How to Get There.
12:25; 10:28. Three Classes.
James 4: 2. The Power of Prayer.
4: 3. Hindrances to Prayer.
5: 16, R. V. The Prayer of the Righteous Man.
1 Peter i : 4. 5. A Great Inheritance and How to Get It.
1:8. How to Be Unspeakably Happy.
1 : 8. Why Christians Sing.
2:21. In His Steps.
2 Peter 2:1. Infamous Ingratitude. '
3 : 9, R. V. Not God's Fault.
I John 3:15, 17. The World.
4: 8. God Is Love.
5. The Glory of the Believer as Seen in i John 5.
5: 15. The Prayer That God Hears, or How to
Pray so as to Get What You Ask.
Jude 20. Praying in the Holy Spirit.
Revelation 3: 17. Blind Eyes.
12:9. How the Devil Fools Men.
22: 17. God's Last Call.
Christ's Call to Peter.
John 1 : 40.
Matt. 14: 28.
Luke 9: 28.
John 6 : 66.
Luke 22: 45.
134 TOPICS AND TEXTS
Christ— The Bread of Life.
Christ in the Old Testament.
Confession of Sin.
Divinity of Christ.
Five Things That No Man Can Do.
1. Romans 5 : 6-8.
2. Romans 3 : 20.
3. John 14: 6.
4. John 6 : 44.
5. Hebrews 12: 14,
Foundations of Faith, The.
I Peter 3: 15.
Matt. 24: 35.
John 9 : 25.
John 4: 29.
Fourfold View of Christ.
Gal. 3: 13.
Gal. 2 : 20.
Rom. 15: 14.
John 14: 1-13.
Four Skeptics : Nathaniel, Thomas, Pilate, the King's
Courtier.
God's Attitude toward the Wicked.
1. Matt. 5 : 44.
2. Heb. 11:6.
3. John 3: 16.
4. Rom. 5 : 6-8.
5. Ps. 7: II.
6. Is. 57: 21.
7. Ps. 86:5.
8. 2 Pet. 3 : 9.
9. Heb. 7 : 25.
Hebrews 11.
Holy Spirit, The.
TOPICS AND TEXTS 33S
Holy Spirit and the Word, The.
Hope.
How to Study the Bible so as to Get the Most Good
out of It.
Importance of Bible Study.
John the Baptist.
Joseph of Arimathaea.
Jesus and Sinners.
1. Luke 15: 2.
2. Matt. 9: 13, R. V.
3. Luke 19: 10.
4. I Tim. i: 15.
5. Rom. 5 : 8.
Life and Character of Jacob.
Life and Character of Joshua.
Life and Character of Peter.
Nicodemus.
Power of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm Thirty-second.
Priceless Possessions.
1. Eph. 1:7, 2.
2. Phil. 3:8, 9-
3. Rom. 5 : I.
4. I John 2: I.
5. Eph. 3:18.
6. John 6: 47.
Salvation Free. Is. 55: i, 2.
Salvation Full. Heb. 7:25.
Salvation Forever. Heb. 5 : 9.
Seven Comes.
Isa. 55:1.
Isa. 55:3.
Mark 6: 31.
Matt. 11: 28.
336 TOPICS AND TEXTS
Some Reasons Why Every Sensible Man Should Be a
Christian.
Six **One Things," The.
1. Mark lo: 21.
2. John 9: 25.
3. Luke 10: 42.
4. Matt. 20:8.
5. Phil. 3: 13.
6. Joshua 21 : 45.
Twenty-third Psalm.
Three Fires.
Matt. 3:11.
1 Cor. 13: 15.
2 Thess. 1 : 29.
What?
Mark 8 : 36.
I Pet. 4: 17.
Matt. 27: 22.
What It Is to Believe on Christ.
What Christ Is to Those Who Believe on Him-
1. I Pet. 2 : 24.
2. 2 John 2: I.
3. Rom. 7: 24, 25.
4. Matt. II : 28.
5. John 10: 28.
Why Jesus Christ Is Coming Again.
Why I Believe that Jesus Is the Son of God.
Why the King Came.
I.
Matt.
5:
17.
2.
Matt.
9:
13.
3.
Luke
19;
: 10.
4.
John
10:
10.
5.
Mark
10
:45.
6.
John
10:
28.
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