Bssssssa 
 
 MASTER'S METHOD 
 OF WINNING MEN 
 
 DWIGHT MALLORY PRATT 
 
OCT 28 1925 
 
 BV 3790 .P8 1922 
 Pratt, Dwight M. 1852-1922 
 The Master's method of 
 winning men 
 
),^\ Br rnincSf^ 
 
 OCT 28 ^.9?5 
 
 Master's Method of 
 Winning Men 
 
 By -y 
 DWIGHT MALLORY l^RATT, D.D. 
 
 Author of "A Decade of Christian Endeavor," etc. 
 
 Introduction by 
 FREDERICK L. FAGLEY, D.D. 
 
 Executive Secretary of the Commission on Evangelism of the 
 National Council of Congregational Churches 
 
 New York Chicago 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1922, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANTT 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 
 Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 
 Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 
 
TO MY WIFE 
 My Best Helper in the Master's Work 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ABOUT the first of April, 1922, Dr. Pratt 
 sent me this manuscript to read over and 
 to place with a publisher. At that time he 
 was kind enough to ask me to write a brief intro- 
 duction, which I was very glad to do. Within two 
 weeks a message from Mrs. Pratt brought the word 
 of his passing into the larger life. In the light of 
 this one does not care to write an introduction of the 
 usual sort. 
 
 Many men and women will read these chapters 
 and be greatly strengthened in the inner life by his 
 message; others who have not come into an experi- 
 ence of understanding will be encouraged to trust 
 and venture forth in the quest of spiritual reality. 
 
 To those who knew Dr. Pratt intimately, these 
 words will be a priceless heritage, summing up his 
 experience with God and man, rich in personal testi- 
 mony and vital with the Spirit's power. 
 
 Dr. Pratt worked on this book for a long time. 
 Ten years ago, when I was a pastor in Cincinnati, 
 he told me of his purpose, and we discussed fre- 
 quently the plan and scope of his outline. I well 
 remember one day in particular, as we sat in his 
 library surrounded by choice books. Dr. Pratt read 
 to me during the afternoon a manuscript upon the 
 spiritual life, which I recognize as two of these 
 
 5 
 
« INTRODUCTION 
 
 chapters. How his face glowed with anticipation 
 and his voice thrilled with joy as he thought and 
 spoke of his ambition to be of help to true seekers 
 after spiritual knowledge through personal experi- 
 ence. 
 
 This is his message — the message the world needs 
 and longs for, and seeks until it be found. 
 
 Frederick L. Fagley. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 THE mission of the Church, and of all Chris- 
 tian believers whether considered indi- 
 vidually or collectively, is to win the world 
 to God through the love and grace and power of 
 Jesus Christ. Every agency that represents the 
 spirit and genius of Christianity should be employed 
 to this end: music, art, literature, architecture, and 
 every other product and invention of human thought. 
 Any agency should be utilized that informs the mind, 
 appeals to the heart, influences the judgment, moves 
 the will, or commands and renews the spirit, through 
 any of the five avenues to the soul: sight, hearing, 
 feeling, taste, and the sense of fragrance. Through 
 any of these channels the sense of beauty, goodness 
 and truth may gain access to man's innermost being. 
 
 The three methods, however, that have been most 
 blessed of God to the saving of men, from the dawn 
 of Christianity to the present hour, are personal testi- 
 mony and appeal, public preaching and the services of 
 worship associated with it, and the written and spoken 
 Word of God as recorded in the Bible. These have 
 been effective in the order given. The first disciples 
 were won by the personal influence of Jesus; then 
 these, whether the original twelve, or later the seventy, 
 or the one hundred and twenty after the resurrection, 
 were sent out, often two by two, to tell the good 
 
 7 
 
8 FOREWORD 
 
 tidings of God's love and saving grace to all whom 
 they might meet in the country or villages along the 
 way. The first classic instance of the good results 
 that flow from this method is given in the first chap- 
 ter of St. John's gospel. Jesus convinced John, his 
 forerunner and prophet, John won Andrew, Andrew 
 brought his brother Simon, Simon evidently in- 
 formed his fellow-townsman Philip, Philip found 
 Nathaniel, and Nathaniel brought some one else to 
 confess that Jesus was the Son of God, the King of 
 Israel, the Saviour of the world. 
 
 This method of personal communication was the 
 one most effective in winning the Roman empire, in 
 three centuries to an espousal of Christianity as the 
 state religion. The beauteous lives of the early 
 Christians and their ceaseless testimony in words, 
 whether as slaves in Caesar's household or in other 
 realms of civic and social life, at last accompHshed 
 their transforming work, as light penetrates dark- 
 ness, or as leaven sends its contagion through the 
 entire mass. This personal witness, by word and 
 deed, by character and conduct, to the saving power 
 of the risen Christ, was absolutely irresistible. It 
 won a wondering empire from bitterest antagonism, 
 deadliest hostility and most inhuman persecution to 
 final surrender and allegiance. 
 
 Public preaching is only another emphasized form 
 of personal instruction and appeal. Jesus employed 
 it constantly. His sermon on the mount is the most 
 marvelous exposition of truth that ever fell from 
 human lips. Later on Peter's impassioned sermon 
 on the day of Pentecost resulted in the conversion of 
 
FOREWORD 9 
 
 thousands and in the establishment of the Christian 
 Church. From that day to this the glowing sermons 
 of prophets, apostles and eloquent preachers have 
 been one of the chief glories and most effective 
 agencies of our religion. 
 
 Finally the written word. The Bible of itself has 
 converted entire nations. The historian Green in 
 accounting for the great moral change that came 
 over England during the reign of Elizabeth, says : 
 " England became the people of a book, and that 
 book was the Bible. * * * ^]^q whole temper of 
 the nation was changed. A new conception of life 
 and of man superseded the old. A new moral and 
 religious impulse spread through every class. * * * 
 The whole nation became, in fact, a Church." 
 
 The same can be said of Puritan New England. 
 Its devotion to religion, its nobility of character, the 
 exceptional quality of its spirit, its constructive power 
 in the life of America, are to be traced to the Puri- 
 tan's knowledge of and passionate love for the Bible. 
 
 The first of these three methods is the one upon 
 which this little volume seeks to lay special emphasis. 
 It is usually defined by the now well-worn term 
 " personal evangelism." 
 
 D. M. P. 
 
Contents 
 
 PART I 
 THE CHURCH'S SUPREME TASK 
 
 I. The Church Discovering Its Need . 13 
 
 11. The Master's Method . . . . ai 
 
 III. Qualifications 28 
 
 IV. The Difficulties of the Task . . 34 
 
 V. The Partnership of Personal Testi- 
 mony AND Public Preaching . 39 
 
 VI. The Opportunities of the Work . 47 
 
 VII. The Psychology of Soul Winning . 50 
 
 VIII. The Skill of a Great Evangelist . 54 
 
 IX. Soul Winning as an Art . . -59 
 
 X. The Evangelism op the Apostles . 65 
 
 PART II 
 A SPIRITUAL CLINIC 
 
 XI. The Miracle of Regeneration . . 70 
 
 XII. Storming the Citadel of the Will . 75 
 
 XIII. The Battle of the Soul . . . 8i 
 11 
 
12 CONTENTS 
 
 XIV. The Evolution of a Normal Chris- 
 tian Experience .... 85 
 
 XV. The Conversion of a Moralist . . 89 
 
 XVI. A False and Obstructive Humility . 92 
 
 XVII. Honest Difficulty with a Creed . 96 
 
 PART III 
 
 AN ESTIMATE OF VALUES 
 
 XVIII. The Rewards of Personal Evan- 
 gelism 102 
 
 XIX. Conclusions 106 
 
 XX. A Final Word OF Testimony . .118 
 
PART I 
 THE CHURCHES SUPREME TASK 
 
 I 
 
 THE CHURCH DISCOVERING ITS NEED 
 
 MANY signs indicate that the world is on the 
 threshold of a great spiritual awakening. 
 Only such a universal revival can save 
 mankind from rushing headlong to self -incurred de- 
 struction. The hour is supremely critical. Human- 
 ity is at the fork of the roads,. The course the na- 
 tions now choose will determine the destiny of the 
 race for generations to come. Yet, in face of the 
 gravest uncertainties, the follower of the living 
 Christ must ever be an optimist. He knows in his 
 innermost being the recuperative power of the Chris- 
 tian faith. As a student of history he is thoroughly 
 conversant with the fact that Christianity has re- 
 deemed many a dark era from utter spiritual desola- 
 tion, and sent humanity forward under the impulse 
 and energy of a newly created life. The key to the 
 future is in the keeping of the Church. 
 
 During the first decade and a half of the Twen- 
 tieth Century, up to the fatal year 19 14, the Church 
 was at ease in Zion. Universal peace and prosperity 
 had soothed the world into contentment and self- 
 esteem. A rich, powerful, luxurious materialism 
 
 13 
 
14 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 had nourished in mankind a sense of profound satis- 
 faction and false securityu The Church itself grad- 
 ually and unconsciously came to share in this com- 
 placency, and to feel that man was steadily and 
 surely evolving into a being of moral refinement and 
 virtue. Its representatives were no longer under the 
 compelling power of the mighty convictions, and the 
 passion for humanity, that made the church of for- 
 mer generations so ceaselessly ardent in its zeal to 
 seek and save that which was lost. In the foremost 
 empire of the world it had become the tool of the 
 state, and the servant of an ambitious and aggressive 
 militarism. The educators of the civilized nations, 
 trained for their vocations in the renowned universi- 
 ties of this empire, absorbed the negative beliefs of 
 its critical agnosticism. They not only lost interest 
 in the doctrines and destinies of the church, but in 
 many cases came to look with indifference, not to 
 say contempt, upon Christianity itself. The entire 
 atmosphere of the scholastic and religious world was 
 changed. Its benumbing influence seemed irresist- 
 ible. Ministers of the Gospel lost their evange- 
 lical earnestness and enthusiasm. Their convictions 
 and fervour relaxed. Their religious terminology 
 changed. Certain great words, characteristic of the 
 New Testament and of the theology of the Church 
 for nineteen centuries, gradually dropped out of the 
 vocabulary of its popular instructions: sin, perdition, 
 atonement, redemption. The doctrine of a natural 
 ethical development took the place of salvation 
 through the mercy and grace of a sacrificial Re- 
 deemer. 
 
CHURCH DISCOVERING ITS NEED 15 
 
 Then came the sudden and appalling cataclysm of 
 the great war. Civilization itself seemed to collapse. 
 The Church was impotent to stay the universal de- 
 bacle. The confident hope of a self-reliant world was 
 blasted in a moment. Beneath all the gloss and cul- 
 ture and scientific achievement of the age man was 
 found to be the same abysmal sinner as when, on 
 the threshold of recorded history, " God saw that the 
 wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that 
 every imagination of the thought of his heart was 
 only evil continually." The brutalities and crimes of 
 kultur outdid the cruelties and inhumanities of an 
 earlier barbarism. Superficial minds, overwhelmed 
 with pessimism and despair, affirmed that Chris- 
 tianity had failed. These gloomy interpreters of 
 passing events lost all distinction between Church- 
 anity and Christianity, between the body and the 
 spirit, between the frailties of an impotent advocate 
 and the truth which he so weakly betrayed. 
 
 In its latest diagnosis of world conditions, the 
 Church, in the person of its most vital and competent 
 representatives, has come to realize that its impo- 
 tence and crucial failure were due to the superficial- 
 ity of its religious and spiritual life, and to its lack 
 of thorough instruction in the great doctrines of its 
 historic faith. The picked young men of the world, 
 who constituted the armies that saved civilization, 
 were, for the most part, found to be appallingly ig- 
 norant, not only of the fundamental beliefs of the 
 Church, but even of the very essence of Christianity 
 as revealed in the New Testament. This same pa- 
 thetic and devitalizing ignorance is known, also, to 
 
16 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 characterize the rank and file of vast numbers en- 
 rolled in the membership of the Church. Their 
 Oiristianity, sincere as far as it goes, is necessarily 
 superficial and nominal because uninstructed and 
 uninformed. It has no adequate hold on their con- 
 victions or intelligence, and thus no self-propagating 
 power either in the home or the outside world. This 
 accounts for the failure of the Church to master and 
 mould, to penetrate and vitalize all the other realms 
 of human life, as it should and as it is inherently able 
 to do: education, politics, commerce, industry, gov- 
 ernment, and all international and interracial rela- 
 tionships. 
 
 A better day is near at hand. Prophetic minds and 
 hearts are confident of this. The hour of awakening 
 has come. The Church is summoning itself anew to 
 its task. It is realizing as not for a generation that 
 Christ's passion for humanity must have its counter- 
 part in the soul of every true disciple. It has already 
 introduced a new era of organization and benevo- 
 lence, and is now studying with determined purpose 
 the problem of its spiritual life and religious efii- 
 ciency. Religious leaders in England and America, 
 in increasing numbers, are alive to the seriousness of 
 the times. Their solicitude is evidence that a world- 
 wide revival has begun, or is at least possible. 
 Hearts are turning with eager desire to the saving 
 truths of the evangelical Gospel and to the simple 
 means of grace that were such a redemptive power 
 in days gone by: Bible reading and instruction, 
 prayer, the family altar, the " upper room " of social 
 fellowship and devotion, public worship, Scriptural 
 
CHURCH DISCOVERING ITS NEED 17 
 
 preaching, and personal ministry to individual need. 
 The spiritual life of men to-day is as dependent, as 
 in any former age, upon the religious faith and de- 
 votion that made Abraham the father of the faithful, 
 Moses a prophet and religious statesman, Samuel the 
 inaugurator of a new spiritual era in Israel, Isaiah a 
 seer and optimist in spite of his nation's decline and 
 moral degradation, John the Baptist the forerunner 
 of a new dispensation, Peter and John the apostles 
 of a victorious gospel, Paul, next to his Divine Mas- 
 ter, the profoundest philosopher and interpreter of 
 the spiritual life in human history, and Jesus the 
 atoning Saviour of mankind. 
 
 The Church's power is internal, not external. It 
 captures and controls institutions only as it converts 
 and saves men. Instead of leading the world, it has 
 too often allowed itself to be led. Instead of cap- 
 turing civic and commercial influence and energy for 
 the Kingdom of God, it has through the lack of an 
 all-mastering spiritual vitality permitted selfish, god- 
 less, unscrupulous men to control our civilization for 
 their own nefarious ends. 
 
 The Church is awakening to the fact, with vivid- 
 ness and conviction, that it must save the nation and 
 the world if it would save itself. It is gaining a new 
 consciousness of its divine mission. The passion to 
 communicate its spiritual life to mankind, every- 
 where, must be kindled to its original Pentecostal 
 glow. A religion that is not worth passing on to 
 others is not worth possessing. The evidence of its 
 value and vitality is seen in its desire for personal 
 evangelism. It becomes a manly thing when lived, 
 
18 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 (discussed and proclaimed by manly men. It must be 
 virile and robust as well as gentle and devout. The 
 chosen disciples most noted for their love and spir- 
 itual enthusiasm were called " sons of thunder." 
 Softness is not catalogued among the Christian 
 graces; nor is heroism the mark of the man who 
 despises things sacred and holy. 
 
 The religion of Jesus will become popular when it 
 shines forth from regal lives, and is witnessed to by 
 manly lips. 
 
 A man of fine business gifts and graces was urged 
 to participate more fully in the missionary work of 
 his church. He replied : " A man cannot shed light 
 until he has it." He realized his inability to enthusi- 
 astically advocate missions, until his own soul was 
 on fire with conviction as to their importance and 
 necessity. 
 
 It is so in the realm of personal religion. The 
 supreme need of the people in our churches is to get 
 enough religion to give them " tongues of fire." The 
 very effort to lead one's acquaintances and friends 
 to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ is often the 
 surest and quickest way to rectify his life, vitalize 
 his faith, and make spiritual things seem real. In 
 other words, the surest way to save one's self is to 
 endeavour to save some one else. An advocate must 
 necessarily be a convert. A wideawake convert be- 
 comes God's chosen agent for saving others. 
 
 Again we affirm, with renewed emphasis, that the 
 key to the immediate future, as well as to the ulti- 
 mate destiny of mankind, lies in the keeping of the 
 Church. The Church must, consequently, inaugurate 
 
CHURCH DISCOVERING ITS NEED 19 
 
 a new crusade in the interest of the world's spiritual 
 welfare. Society is saved from moral disintegration 
 to the extent that its individual constituents are 
 saved. Institutions are upHfted and made beneficent 
 as men are uplifted and redeemed. The task of re- 
 newing the world's spiritual life is the most stupen- 
 dous ever committed to human enterprise and intelli- 
 gence. The Church has not always taken its calling 
 seriously, but under the pressure of the world's 
 present emergency the time has come for the center- 
 ing of its best intelligence and energy upon its God- 
 given mission. Those who see must communicate 
 their vision to those who do not see; those whose 
 hearts are warm with the glow of divine love must 
 kindle other hearts with the flame of their own 
 heaven-inspired passion; those who have gifts for 
 organization and leadership must see to it that the 
 spiritual forces and resources of the Church are en- 
 listed in a new campaign of redemptive effort that 
 shall leave no element in society untouched, and no 
 portion of humanity outside the reach of Christian 
 sympathy and love. 
 
 Some signs, in the midst of the world's present dis- 
 tractions and woes, are exceptionally heartening. 
 The leading statesmen of Great Britain and of the 
 United States, with the statesmen of other nations 
 consenting and co-operating, are bending all their 
 energies to the extermination of war and the estab- 
 lishment of permanent international unity and 
 brotherhood, through the application of Christian 
 principles and ideals to all human relationships. The 
 Washington Conference could never have been pos- 
 
20 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 sible had not Christianity and the Church trained 
 these international leaders for the momentous task. 
 The results achieved are prophetic of a new world 
 of moral sanity, mutual trust and fraternal regard. 
 The vision of such possibilities should thrill all Chris- 
 tian believers with new hope, and energize them with 
 new purpose, passion and power. Their indifference 
 and silence causes the outside world to be indifferent 
 to its own need. For this reason the gospel message, 
 from many a pulpit, has lost its power of appeal. 
 A dead church can neutralize the effect of the most 
 vital sermon. A humble ministry in the pulpit be- 
 comes " mighty through God to the pulling down of 
 strongholds " when re-lived and re-spoken by a 
 people on fire with the love of Christ for the unsaved. 
 This, then, must be the program of the Church for 
 the coming days. Men are just as reachable to-day 
 as they ever were, provided there are enough vital 
 hearts to create the atmosphere of conviction and 
 make the appeal. Young Christians, especially, 
 should be trained from the first for personal work, 
 and made to feel that they have not really appro- 
 priated the teachings, life and spirit of the Divine 
 Master until they are eager to win others to a knowl- 
 edge of His love and service. Our churches should 
 all become schools of personal evangelism and cen- 
 ters of outflowing spiritual power. The nature of 
 this work is the theme of the chapters that follow. 
 
II 
 
 THE MASTER'S METHOD 
 
 THE surest way to discover truth is through 
 the study of a soul. No study is more 
 fascinating. Nothing is so interesting as 
 life; and the highest form of life is soul-life. John 
 gave one of the strongest proofs of Jesus' greatness 
 when he said : " He needed not that anyone should 
 bear witness concerning man, for he himself knew 
 what was in man." 
 
 It is not known what access Jesus had to the litera- 
 ture of the ancient world. Nothing is recorded re- 
 garding his scholarship or early education. It is evi- 
 dent, however, that he was familiar with the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. His soul was saturated with its sacred 
 truths. He knew by heart its wonderful histories, 
 laws, lofty poetry, inspired prophecy. Messianic 
 hopes and majestic revelations of God. His knowl- 
 edge of God was the secret of his knowledge of men. 
 And the marvelous thing in his ministry and teach- 
 ing was that his knowledge of men was the means 
 of expressing his knowledge of God. His entire 
 work and teaching were personal. He lived with 
 men, in touch with their every-day lives. He loved 
 men and his whole interest centered in their spirit- 
 ual welfare. He walked and talked and communed 
 with people in the common relationships of daily life. 
 He studied souls. He availed himself of every op- 
 
 21 
 
22 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 portunity to instruct, comfort, help, guide, and be- 
 come intimately acquainted with souls. From the 
 Sermon on the Mount to the giving of his final great 
 commission he was dealing, in word and deed, with 
 the inner life of his fellow-men. His parables have 
 no meaning and can be interpreted only as read in 
 the light of the persons to whom they were spoken. 
 They are all character studies. They are revelations 
 of man's inner life. His interpretation of the mental 
 and spiritual condition of mankind everywhere has 
 no equivalent in human experience. He is unap- 
 proachable in his power to unveil the secrets of the 
 soul. No one could conceal from him his character 
 or Intent. He fathomed with the ease and accuracy 
 of divine intuition the heart of a child. Rabbi, Phari- 
 see, publican, demoniac or saint. " He knew what 
 was in man." 
 
 Jesus' entire ministry was spent in gaining access 
 to souls. He could chide, comfort or convince as the 
 need required. He won the wayward and broken- 
 hearted by the tender ministries of his inexhaustible 
 intelligence and sympathy. He was ever seeking to 
 communicate the gift of eternal life. Nicodemus, 
 the woman at the well, Matthew the publican, Zac- 
 chaeus, Jairus, bereaved parents, blind men, and those 
 crippled and diseased, and people in every condition 
 of mental, moral and spiritual need, were brought to 
 newness of life by his personal word. He was ever 
 meeting need because he was ever able to discern and 
 interpret need. 
 
 It was an impressive moment in the synagogue at 
 Nazareth when Jesus stood up in the presence of all 
 
THE MASTER'S METHOD 23 
 
 his home friends and neighbours and read that won- 
 derful passage from Isaiah which foretold his own 
 anointing as a preacher of the gospel : " The Spirit 
 of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to 
 preach good tidings to the poor." " To-day," he said, 
 " is this scripture fulfilled in your ears ; for it is my 
 mission to bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim 
 liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison 
 to them that are bound." His words were so modest, 
 so simple, so weighted with love and spiritual power 
 that " all bare him witness, and wondered at the 
 words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth." 
 
 Immediately after his baptism and spiritual test- 
 ing in the wilderness he began to preach, going about 
 teaching in all the synagogues, preaching the gospel 
 of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease. 
 It was an all-inclusive ministry to the minds and 
 bodies and souls of men. It brought to them the 
 comfort of physical healing, mental enlightenment, 
 and spiritual redemption and relief. It left no evil 
 unremedied, no sorrow unsoothed, no burden of guilt 
 unrelieved. 
 
 As we analyze this gracious and saving work we 
 find that Jesus' sympathy comprehended all phases 
 of human need. He dealt with individuals with as 
 much interest and absorbing devotion as with a mul- 
 titude. He was as ardent in his teaching and preach- 
 ing when he spoke to a single person or to a little 
 group as when he addressed a vast assembly. In all 
 these respects he was the ideal evangelist and set the 
 standard for all ministers, missionaries, teachers, and 
 
24 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 other representatives of the church, founded in his 
 name. 
 
 Some preachers have no enthusiasm unless they 
 can address a great crowd ; some find personal work 
 hard, not to say repellent. Their passion for souls is 
 not such as to make them comprehend the value of 
 the individual. They weary of the routine of pas- 
 toral work, and there are ministers of the gospel who 
 refuse to give time to personal or family visitation. 
 The spiritual greatness and effectiveness of this work 
 has never commanded their minds and hearts. Com- 
 pare with this the all-encompassing sympathy and 
 vision of Jesus. How marvelously he gave himself 
 without limit or thought of self to all whose need 
 made a claim upon his compassion and love. 
 
 I. Individuals. The classic illustration of per- 
 sonal ministry is Jesus' interview with the Samari- 
 tan woman at Jacob's well. With what absorbing 
 interest, intellectual skill, and spiritual ardour he 
 gave himself to the winning of this wayward soul to 
 God. With gracious tact he penetrated to the hidden 
 burden of her heart and saw that beneath all her 
 seeming unconcern and moral waywardness there was 
 a great hungering for truth and for a better life. 
 His thoroughness was both tender, skillful, scientific, 
 and uncompromising. He left no sin uncovered, and 
 no chance for evasion and escape. The masterfulness 
 of his method, coupled with its gracious sympathy, 
 won a soul from darkness to light, from impenitence 
 to peace, and made her a soul-winner among the very 
 people who had shared her sin and unbelief. 
 
 It is impossible to know men en masse without first 
 
THE MASTER'S METHOD 25 
 
 knowing intimately the character, quality, condition, 
 need, and experience of the individual soul. Jesus 
 knew men because he first knew man. His personal 
 work qualified him for his public work. He could 
 understand a multitude because he could fathom and 
 was thoroughly familiar with the inner life of the 
 individual men and women with whom he came in 
 contact daily. The profoundest psychologies of life, 
 of truth, and of human nature can be learned in no 
 other way. The effective and winsome preacher 
 must know the individual soul in order to know men 
 and deal with men in large aggregations. Here lies 
 the secret of Jesus' marvelous skill and power. Back 
 of all his public work lay the ceaseless energy and 
 accuracy of his personal work. It was one of the 
 chief sources of his intellectual power as well as of 
 his spiritual vision, and no man can attain a master- 
 ful grip on truth or any profound knowledge of 
 human nature without dealing at first hand and at 
 close range with the mental make-up, moral condi- 
 tion, and spiritual experience of individuals. 
 
 While Jesus went everywhere preaching the gospel 
 of the Kingdom, it would almost seem as though the 
 greater part of his time was devoted to deaHng with 
 people one by one, or in little groups. It was now a 
 man afflicted with some physical malady, blindness, 
 deafness, sickness, inherited infirmity; or some be- 
 reaved and broken-hearted mother following the life- 
 less body of her son to its place of burial. Such 
 instances in his career of ministering love are mani- 
 fold. Out of them sprang his effectiveness with the 
 multitude. 
 
26 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 2. Jesus loved also to deal with little groups of 
 men. A dozen inquiring disciples were to him a 
 great congregation. One who cannot thus appreciate 
 the worth of the few, and the supreme opportunity 
 that a little company presents, can never adequately 
 meet the needs of a vast assembly. The Master's 
 success with a dozen men laid the foundation of all 
 his future work and was the means of his establish- 
 ing a church which for two thousand years has 
 grown in effectiveness and power. The most con- 
 striicBve evangelism comes through instruction. 
 Jesus began to teach as well as to preach on the 
 threshold of his work. The educational part of his 
 ministry was conspicuous to the end. The heart can 
 love only as the mind becomes acquainted with the 
 true object of affection. Instruction in the Word 
 lies at the very basis of all redemptive work. Jesus 
 has contributed more to the intellectual life, energy, 
 and enthusiasm of mankind than all other persons 
 and influences combined. He put beneath the spirit- 
 ual life of men the foundation of substantial knowl- 
 edge. He made men know God in order to love Him, 
 and so of truth and of all the great spiritual realities 
 of our existence. 
 
 3. It is needless to emphasize Christ's ministry to 
 the multitude. He never saw a great concourse of 
 people without being moved to the depths of his 
 being with profound compassion. He loved all souls 
 because he saw the worth of individual souls. He 
 loved humanity as dear to the heart of God. He fed 
 the multitude, bodily, spiritually, that they might be 
 nourished in all the qualities of a divine manhood. 
 
THE MASTER'S METHOD 27 
 
 His passion for souls culminated in his supreme self- 
 giving on Calvary. His evangelism centers in his 
 cross. The outpouring of his life there was nothing 
 new in his experience and ministry. From the very 
 first his purpose and his way led to the mount of 
 sacrifice. All saving evangelism must take its pat- 
 tern from his method and spirit — it must know the 
 worth of the individual and give itself unstintedly 
 to personal work; it must gather little groups for 
 counsel and instruction; it must love the multitude 
 with a great compassion, and be willing to pour out 
 life in supreme sacrifice in order to save. 
 
 The Christian's inspiration to personal work comes 
 from the individual ministries of Jesus. His apostles 
 gained their wonderful power from imitating him. 
 Every great evangelist from Paul to the present day 
 became a soul-winner by reproducing his method and 
 spirit. The gospel is direct and personal from begin- 
 ning to end. There is not an abstract or indirect 
 word in all the teaching of Jesus. He ever stood face 
 to face with souls. His early disciples were all won 
 through personal influence and appeal. 
 
 In Christ's own personal ministries the Church has 
 the key to its true method and power; and every 
 pastor, evangelist and Christian worker the pledge of 
 his own success as a winner of souls. 
 
Ill 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS 
 
 THE first three qualifications for successful 
 personal evangelism are: 
 (a) An unquestioning assurance of the 
 fact and necessity of the new birth through one's own 
 vital experience of the regenerate life. 
 
 (b) Familiar acquaintance with the Bible and its 
 working passages. 
 
 (c) Ability to read men, coupled with tact and 
 skill in one's method of approach. 
 
 I. Any doubt as to the universal necessity of the 
 new birth cuts the nerve of conviction and power. 
 The whole question hinges here. Personal evangel- 
 ism finds its incentive and starting-point in the teach- 
 ing of Jesus in the third chapter of St. John's Gos- 
 pel. His word to Nicodemus, " Ye must be born 
 again," must be our word to every inquiring soul. 
 The third chapter of Romans is its counterpart : " All 
 have sinned and come short of the glory of God." 
 " There is none righteous, no not one." The neces- 
 sity of redemption and of a Saviour rests upon these 
 teachings of the Master and of his apostles. 
 
 All Scripture confirms this view of human need. 
 From Genesis to Revelation there is not a verse that 
 intimates that any member or portion of the race can 
 win, by his own inherent and acquired goodness, a 
 
 28 
 
QUALIFICATIONS 29 
 
 place in the Kingdom of God. Salvation is not of 
 works. Paul had in mind all humanity — the cultured 
 and virtuous as well as the debased and criminal — 
 when he said : " By grace are ye saved through 
 faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of 
 God." 
 
 The apprehension of this truth comes through ex- 
 perience. No regenerate man ever bases his claim 
 to divine favour on his own self-acquired righteous- 
 ness. His -spiritual renewal carries with it a pro- 
 found self -revelation. He discovers the sinfulness 
 and need of universal human nature when his own 
 heart is unveiled in the presence of the holy Christ. 
 He may have been brought up in an ideal Qiristian 
 home ; nourished by prayer and religious instruction ; 
 renewed in heart so early that he never could recall 
 the time when he did not love God, yet he is as 
 conscious of his unworthiness and inherent need as 
 if redeemed in later years from a wayward and cor- 
 rupt life. In fact the earlier the conversion, and the 
 more innocent the heart of blinding and benumbing 
 evil, the more intelligent and masterful is the con- 
 viction that the supreme need of mankind is spiritual 
 renewal through the saving grace of Jesus Christ. 
 
 2. Adequate intellectual and spiritual equipment is 
 gained only by familiar acquaintance with the Word 
 of God. The Bible is the text-book of the spiritual 
 life. It meets every variety of moral need. Its 
 working passages should be at the finger-tips and 
 tongue's end of every Christian worker. If fencing 
 with the sword is an art that requires practice and 
 skill, much finer is the mental and spiritual art of 
 
30 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 using effectively " the sword of the Spirit, which is 
 the Word of God." 
 
 A skeptic, a self-righteous man, a hypocrite, a 
 profligate, a timid, halting inquirer, cannot be dealt 
 with in the same way. They differ in intellectual at- 
 titude and desire, and in moral quality. Scripture 
 that applies to one may not apply to another. To 
 know how to select verses and passages with refer- 
 ence to the special case in hand soon becomes a facile 
 art under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The human teacher may also be of great service. 
 The writer is more indebted to a lay evangelist for 
 whatever skill he may have in the use of the Bible in 
 personal work than to the theological seminary. In 
 the seminary the student becomes familiar with exe- 
 gesis, theology, church history, and the method of 
 constructing sermons, but is not taught how to use 
 the Bible in dealing with individual souls. For this 
 reason a few weeks with a skilled evangelist is of un- 
 told value to one who wishes to become efficient in 
 winning men individually to God. 
 
 Nothing in such personal work is more useless 
 than mere argument. To convince the intellect is not 
 to convert the soul. People make little of logic in 
 moral choices and action ; and for this reason, as an- 
 other has ably said, "it is impossible to argue one 
 out of a belief into which he was not argued." 
 Moral causes lie back of mental processes. A bad 
 man's thinking is instantly rectified when his heart 
 is changed. Nothing will so quickly reach his heart, 
 convince his intelect and subdue his will as the Word 
 of God, tactfully, tenderly and intelligently used. To 
 
QUALIFICATIONS 31 
 
 relate its truths to the mental and moral state of an 
 eager, inquiring yet unrepentant soul is a divinely 
 beautiful art. By no process of study can one so 
 quickly and completely master the nature and laws 
 of the spiritual life, the secret of redemption, the con- 
 dition and need of the human heart, the deeper truths 
 of theology, as by the close application of the Word 
 of God to individual need. 
 
 3. Such personal work, intelligently and skilfully 
 done, results in a marvelous ability to read men. It 
 is nothing less than the science of interpreting souls. 
 It cannot be mastered without the clinic, any more 
 than chemistry can be mastered without the labora- 
 tory, or the physician's art without personal prac- 
 tice, or surgery without a body upon which to oper- 
 ate. Face to face with souls we become acquainted 
 with their innermost life. In the light of God's word 
 the secrets of the heart are unveiled. One who, as a 
 spiritual physician, is skilled in diagnosis, and, as a 
 spiritual surgeon, knows how to probe to the very 
 center of the malady, is able to read men far better 
 than they can read themselves. Face, voice, manner, 
 become infallible guides to the quality of the inner 
 life. Specialists in soul-winning, — and every pastor 
 should be a specialist, — become familiar with all 
 varieties of mental action and moral mood. The in- 
 tricacies of the soul's activities are very subtle. Sin- 
 cerity and self-deception; eager desire and evasion, 
 often seemingly go hand in hand. The accuracy of 
 Jeremiah's diagnosis becomes apparent in untold in- 
 stances : " The heart is deceitful above all things, 
 and desperately wicked; who can know it?" His 
 
32 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 very language implies that the heart may not be con- 
 scious of its own trickeries and insubordination. 
 
 No two individuals can be approached in the same 
 way. Unbelievers differ in temperament, training, 
 inheritance, education, moral capacity, motive and 
 condition. Some are antagonistic to truth, others 
 eagerly searching for it ; some sincere, others hypocrit- 
 ical ; some upright in conduct, others vicious and wil- 
 fully evil; some timid, hesitant, introspective, sensi- 
 tive in heart and conscience, others brazen, unrefined, 
 and utterly unconscious of any spiritual need. 
 
 One who ministers to the fundamental want of the 
 individual soul soon discovers that he must cover a 
 wide range of experience. He is likely to find in the 
 first twelve he meets as great a variety as Jesus 
 found in his strangely differing apostles, ranging in 
 temperament and character all the way from the lov- 
 ing and trustful John to the doubting Thomas ; from 
 the ardent and ultimately most loyal Peter to the 
 false and traitorous Judas. These varieties include 
 agnostics, skeptics, infidels, doubters of all kinds, 
 slaves to appetite and to every evil and ungoverned 
 passion, hypocrites, scorners, revilers, the self- 
 deceived, proud, wilful, worldly self-righteous, the 
 ignorant, spiritually blind, religiously untaught or 
 with perverted views of religion, the penitent, the 
 morally weak and disheartened, those dissatisfied 
 with self, hungry for truth, eager for something bet- 
 ter, craving friendship and help, ready for guidance, 
 those who have never through all their mature years 
 given up the prayers of their childhood nor the read- 
 ing of the Bible, and yet who are conscious of not 
 
QUALIFICATIONS 33 
 
 being in right relations to God, themselves or their 
 fellow-men, who are very near the kingdom of God, 
 but have not entered in. One who keeps in touch 
 with men and seeks helpfully to enter into the secret 
 of their inner life, finds all these varieties of mental 
 and moral condition, ranging from hostile unbelief 
 and bitter antagonism to the spirit of eager and pray- 
 erful inquiry. He must be able to enter intelligently 
 and sympathetically into the innermost thought and 
 experience of all these and minister as helpfully to 
 those reared in infidelity and sin as to those born to 
 a heritage of faith and devotion. 
 
IV 
 THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE TASK 
 
 THE storming of a fortress is child's play com- 
 pared with the storming of the citadel of 
 an individual soul. Any one with physical 
 courage and the enginery of war can do the former, 
 but it takes one enlightened by divine grace, ener- 
 gized by a mighty and discerning love, and fortified 
 with unhesitating conviction of a universal human 
 need, to place some people, unconscious of their spir- 
 itual condition, in the category of the unsaved, and 
 then face the personal task of winning them to God. 
 To classify them, in personal approach and appeal, 
 as " sinners," in supreme need of the saving grace 
 of an infinite and sacrificial love, from the human 
 point of view seems effrontery of the most offensive, 
 not to say insolent, kind. Yet no pastor, evangelist, 
 or personal worker is qualified to represent the teach- 
 ing of the Master, or do redemptive work until he 
 has learned that God is no respecter of persons, and 
 that the fundamental and universal human need is 
 the same in the suburbs as in the slums, in brightest 
 America as in darkest Africa. Let the philosophers 
 have their logomachies about the moral status of the 
 race, and theologians their controversies over the oft- 
 misrepresented and perverted term " total depravity " ; 
 but the winner of souls must never be doubtful or 
 
 34 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF THE TASK 35 
 
 timid in the presence of any person, however noble 
 in the terminology of earth, who is still unacquainted 
 with the saving grace of God as revealed in the sacri- 
 ficial work of Jesus. 
 
 The most difficult task in all preaching and per- 
 sonal work is to treat certain cultured, delightful, 
 well-environed people as sinners. The word sinner 
 is used intentionally, for until we can employ it in 
 our mental conception of an actual condition, we are 
 fundamentally skeptical of a universal spiritual need. 
 Nothing so paralyzes one's power and renders him 
 utterly impotent and useless in personal work as to 
 doubt the absolute necessity of the new birth. The 
 surgeon is compelled to be as thorough and scientific 
 in the home of wealth and comfort as in the home of 
 poverty and unsanitary conditions. The same hero- 
 ism and skill are imperative in spiritual diagnosis. 
 The most subtle and fatal forms of irreligion are 
 found under the garb of culture. A profound spir- 
 itual intelligence and an unflinching heroism are pre- 
 requisites in the scientific treatment of such spiritual 
 need. 
 
 With thoroughness must go a most gracious and 
 winsome tactfulness. To offend is to lose one's op- 
 portunity, except when offense is the result of God's 
 truth, lovingly and skilfully applied. In such case 
 the sign of anger or of being offended may be the 
 first step in the process of conversion and recovery, 
 and the certain proof that the Holy Spirit has begun 
 his work of breaking down the proud, stubborn, in- 
 subordinate will. 
 
 The offense must, however, not be personal. The 
 
36 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 issue must be between the inquirer's soul and God, 
 and not a controversy with his pastor and friend. 
 The natural heart, in its pride of intellect and in its 
 self-righteousness, resents the New Testament 
 declaration that the " mind of the flesh is enmity 
 against God." Men often become violently angry at 
 the impHcation of such enmity on their part. Such 
 anger is only increasing evidence that they are utterly 
 unacquainted with the antagonism of the unrenewed 
 heart to the wdll of God. The issue had perhaps 
 never before been intelligently made. The conflict 
 had, possibly, never been openly and consciously 
 joined. But it is without exception true that the 
 natural heart, the " mind of the flesh, is not subject 
 to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Human 
 society abounds in people of this class. They attend 
 our churches, are in our homes of intelligence and 
 culture, are morally upright, yet are living without 
 conscious relation to God or any conviction of their 
 supreme personal need of Him. 
 
 No class of people is so religiously neglected as 
 this. They seem unapproachable. They are appar- 
 ently self-satisfied and self-suflicient. To seek access 
 to their inner life seems obtrusive, not to say dis- 
 courteous. How, then, shall people of such refine- 
 ment and moral integrity be won to a conviction of 
 personal need? 
 
 This is the problem of the Church, of Christianity, 
 of personal evangelism. 
 
 Emphasis is placed on this particular class, for no 
 one questions the imperative need of the lower 
 grades of society. It is taken for granted that if 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF THE TASK 37 
 
 evangelistic effort is to be made it will be made here. 
 Christianity, however, is a failure to the extent 
 that it leaves any realms of human life, high or low, 
 unentered and unsaved. The social nature of man 
 calls for social forms of religious life and work. 
 People cannot be reached at arm's length. The mes- 
 sage spoken from pulpit or platform may sometimes 
 carry truth from heart to heart, but the larger work 
 of the world's evangelization must be done through 
 personal touch. Hand must grasp hand; eye must 
 look into eye; heart must feel the sympathy and 
 friendship of heart. The fraternities of Christian 
 companionship and love are the most satisfying and 
 compelling on earth. To master the science of per- 
 sonal approach is the supreme duty and the noblest 
 achievement of the Church, and of the individual 
 disciple of Jesus Christ. The three thousand souls 
 converted on the Day of Pentecost have often, and 
 wrongly, been credited alone to the power of Peter's 
 sermon. That sermon did, indeed, have in it the pas- 
 sion and pathos of Christ's sacrificial love and the 
 new enduement of the Spirit; but back of it and in 
 and through it were the prayers and faith and testi- 
 mony of one hundred and twenty disciples equally 
 faithful in witnessing to the power of the risen 
 Saviour, equally dedicated to personal work, equally 
 eager for the souls of their fellow-men. Without 
 them Peter's sermon would have fallen lifeless upon 
 the hearts of the hostile and unbelieving multitudes 
 in the throbbing metropolis. Their tongues of fire, 
 their unity of spirit, and their manifest enduement 
 from on high, wrought the first great miracle of 
 
38 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 astonishment and conviction, and created the atmos- 
 phere of wonder, expectation and faith that made it 
 possible for Peter to harvest the mighty spiritual 
 fruitage of that marvelous day. So unspeakably im- 
 portant is this partnership of the people with their 
 minister in witnessing to the saving power of the 
 Gospel, that the following chapter is given entirely 
 to a study of the social, psychological and spiritual 
 processes that made possible the mighty miracle of 
 Pentecost, as recorded in the second chapter of the 
 Acts of the Apostles, and that resulted in organized 
 Christianity and the founding of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
V 
 
 THE PARTNERSHIP OF PERSONAL 
 
 TESTIMONY AND PUBLIC 
 
 PREACHING 
 
 THE preacher is not an independent advocate, 
 but a partner in a great spiritual enterprise. 
 The pulpit is not an isolated institution, but 
 simply one factor in an important social and religious 
 agency. The two are interdependent and neither 
 can attain extensive influence or permanent success 
 alone. The failure of the people to realize this ac- 
 counts for the corresponding impotence of the 
 Church. No successful modern evangelist, whether 
 a Moody, a Chapman, a " Gipsy " Smith, or a 
 " Billy " Sunday, accepts an engagement without the 
 assured co-operation and spiritual sympathy of the 
 people. He insists, as a primary condition of success, 
 upon their united participation in organization, effort, 
 prayer and spiritual preparation. This preliminary 
 work is both a psychological and a spiritual necessity. 
 It focuses the public mind upon the fundamental im- 
 portance of religion, and upon the need of personal 
 salvation. It puts the Church back of the enterprise. 
 It throws responsibihty for its success upon the 
 hearts and shoulders of the entire membership. 
 
 In doing this the evangelist recognizes a well- 
 known psychological law, operative in every realm of 
 
 3d 
 
40 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 human interest, viz., that Httle or no impression can 
 be made upon one who has no interest in or knowl- 
 edge of the subject to be presented. A lecture on art 
 attracts only those who are interested in art. A 
 majestic symphony or oratorio appeals to none but 
 lovers of music. Spiritual things mean nothing to 
 secular minds or to those who give themselves to dis- 
 sipation and pleasure. In accordance with this law, 
 a community must be awakened to curiosity or gen- 
 uine interest before it responds to religious influence 
 or appeal. 
 
 There is ancient and scriptural precedent for this. 
 No one can thoughtfully read the story of Pentecost 
 in the second chapter of Acts without being pro- 
 foundly impressed with the striking operation of this 
 law. Six score disciples, after forty days of frequent 
 and intimate fellowship with the risen Lord, after 
 receiving from him their commission to preach his 
 everlasting Gospel, and the promise of the Holy 
 Spirit's indwelling presence and power, gave them- 
 selves to many days of confident and expectant 
 prayer. In the fellowship of that experience they 
 were so moulded together in unity of love and pur- 
 pose that they became not only willing and glad re- 
 cipients of a new spiritual energy and passion, but 
 also ardent and eloquent witnesses to the wonder and 
 power of the Pentecostal miracle. Jerusalem was 
 stirred from center to circumference. The entire city 
 felt the impulse and impact of this new and mysteri- 
 ous life. People everywhere began to inquire as to 
 its nature and meaning. Some mocked, others were 
 stirred to fear and antagonism, while multitudes were 
 
PARTNERSHIP OF TESTIMONY 41 
 
 smitten with conviction and made conscious of their 
 need of God. Whatever the mood or emotion, the 
 impression made by the testimony of the disciples 
 was universal and profound. 
 
 At this point of public interest Peter arose and 
 made an address so eloquent and impassioned, so con- 
 vincing and inspired that thousands, in penitence and 
 confession, were moved to espouse openly the new 
 faith and become ardent disciples of the risen Christ. 
 This spiritual revolution on the part of three thou- 
 sand souls was the birth hour of the Christian 
 Church. It was not like the impulsive and fickle 
 movement of the populace at the time of Jesus' tri- 
 umphal entry into Jerusalem, but was the result of a 
 permanent spiritual reaction and renewal which 
 gained numbers and momentum as the days and 
 weeks and months went by. 
 
 It has been customary to ascribe this far-reaching 
 Pentecostal revival to the convicting and converting 
 power of Peter's heart-searching sermon, and cer- 
 tainly no one can gainsay its spiritual energy and ef- 
 fectiveness ; but had the apostle stood alone and 
 spoken under ordinary circumstances his words, in 
 spite of their passion and eloquence, would have 
 fallen impotently upon dull and unresponsive ears. 
 The foundation of his success was laid in the ardent 
 testimony and spiritual earnestness of his one hun- 
 dred and twenty fellow Christians. All Jerusalem 
 had been set on fire by the glow of their love, the 
 courage of their faith, the unity of their spirit, and 
 the convincing power of their words. 
 
 This preparatory work was all the more beneficent 
 
42 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 and far-reaching for being spontaneous rather than 
 intentional, impromptu in its expression of a new and 
 irrepressible love rather than a studied purpose to in- 
 fluence a metropohs ; nevertheless, it was propaganda 
 of the most wholesome and effective kind. It pre- 
 pared the way for Peter's eloquent and convincing 
 address. 
 
 The entire program of this exceptional day throws 
 a marvelous light on the psychology of social religion 
 and on the laws which operate in the spiritual life of 
 large aggregations of people. It compels one to 
 marvel at the sensitiveness of what may be termed 
 the community soul. Men do indeed think and act 
 as individuals, but just as truly they act under the 
 influence of a corporate consciousness. They are 
 swayed en masse. They move, often, as a unit, and 
 can be reached only as the popular interest and feel- 
 ing are enlisted for or against some particular inter- 
 est or cause. Consequently an address or appeal, 
 whether political or religious, becomes effective in 
 proportion as a city or community is prepared for its 
 presentation. This constitutes the significance and 
 purpose of all that is included under the much used 
 word " propaganda." The world has had sad occa- 
 sion to know the far-reaching and often fatal power 
 of this method of influencing men and nations. The 
 term " propaganda " may cover all kinds of secret, 
 subtle and malign influence intended to mislead and 
 pervert the people of an empire or a hemisphere. 
 Germany wrought her disastrous work upon her own 
 people, and upon the people of other lands in accord- 
 ance with this subtle psychological law. By pervert- 
 
PARTNERSHIP OF TESTIMONY 43 
 
 ing men's minds, everywhere, through falsehood, cun- 
 ning and deceit she hoped to prepare the way for her 
 long anticipated conquest of the world. 
 
 But propaganda, thus perverted and malignly used, 
 stands for a power and process that may be entirely 
 beneficent and essential to the spiritual recovery of 
 benighted, misguided or morally debased people. It 
 recognizes a psychological law and a social solidarity 
 that must be intelligently utilized before society can 
 be regenerated in the springs of its intellectual and 
 moral life. 
 
 Until the Church awakes to the necessity of a 
 similar preparatory work for the preaching of the 
 Gospel its expenditure of time, money and effort will, 
 largely, be in vain. The average Christian is not a 
 propagandist. He has no story to tell, no good news 
 to proclaim, no cause to advocate, no passion for 
 social redemption. Hence the Jerusalem of to-day is 
 unprepared for the prophetic message of its inspired 
 and divinely commissioned Peters. Hence it is that 
 the modern apostles are, so many of them, passion- 
 less and impotent. They are not vitalized by an en- 
 vironment of spiritual enthusiasm and purpose. They 
 hear no tongues of fire on the part of their fellow- 
 disciples, telling the story of God's grace to all classes 
 of people, in all parts of the community or metropolis. 
 
 Were the followers of the Divine Master alive 
 to their opportunity and mission, they could make 
 every village and city in our land throb with as in- 
 tense an eagerness and interest as did Jerusalem 
 when the one hundred and twenty went everywhere 
 telling the story of their new life through the power 
 
44 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 of the risen Christ. Assuredly, if Christians have 
 no story to tell, no testimony to give, no wondrous 
 gospel to proclaim, the populace will care little for 
 the individual Peters who stand in their separate pul- 
 pits and proclaim truth to which the public attention 
 has not been called. 
 
 There seems little hope of mastering and moulding 
 human society with the spirit, principles and teach- 
 ings of Jesus Christ until his disciples, in large num- 
 bers, become witnesses to the eternal verities and 
 spiritual potentialities of their faith. His final com- 
 mand was, " Ye shall be my witnesses * * * unto 
 the uttermost part of the earth." The Pentecostal 
 awakening that gave birth to organized Christianity 
 and to modern history was the product of the unani- 
 mous testimony and ardour of all of Christ's follow- 
 ers in Jerusalem. The word " propaganda," made 
 offensive by its perversions and malign uses, never- 
 theless stands for the most vital work the Church is 
 called to do. The great cities of America, and the 
 nation entire, could be made to pulsate with eager 
 inquiry and intense spiritual desire if all Christians 
 were vital and winsome propagandists of their faith. 
 In this way only has Christian Science made its rapid 
 and surprising growth. The great majority of its 
 adherents are ardent advocates of their cult. They 
 do not rely upon a prophetic priesthood or ministry, 
 but take upon themselves the espousal of the cause 
 to which they belong. 
 
 The mission of evangelical Christianity to win the 
 world to God will never be accomplished on any ade- 
 quate scale until it so vitalizes its adherents as to 
 
PARTNERSHIP OF TESTIMONY 45 
 
 make them propagandists of their divinely given 
 gospel. Every agency of the Church should now be 
 focused on enlisting its entire membership vitally in 
 evangelistic effort; that is in the fundamental and 
 preparatory work of awakening interest in Christian- 
 ity on the part of the outside world — the secular, ma- 
 terialistic, non-Christian portion of society. 
 
 When this extended testimony is given — that is, 
 when the members of the Christian Church begin to 
 talk about their religion in a normal, earnest and 
 practical way as they do about other things of com- 
 manding interest in the common fellowships of daily 
 life, the non-Christian world will open its eyes with 
 amazement, will begin to inquire the meaning of this 
 social interest and solicitude, and will be heard ask- 
 ing, " What must we do to be saved ? " 
 
 This is not a sentimental view of personal religion. 
 If the teachings of Christ are the foundation of 
 virtue and social order, if they contain the remedy 
 for all the world's moral corruption and chaos, for 
 its selfishness, inhumanities and misgovernment, if 
 they guarantee righteousness and brotherly love, spir-"^ 
 itual enlightenment and redemption for all mankind, 
 then no theme should be so much on the lips of in- 
 telligent people, and so thoroughly discussed and ad- 
 vocated, as the only hope of the race. The strange 
 human perversion that makes people silent upon the 
 one subject that is fundamental to all of mankind's 
 highest interests is one of the surest evidences of 
 their need of spiritual emancipation and renewal. 
 This bondage is due to the enslaving power of sin. 
 Tongues are loosed when the Spirit of God breaks 
 
46 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 through the social conventions that hold men captive 
 to earth. Hearts that never knew the courage and 
 the delight of freedom voice their new-found joy 
 when unshackled from the fetters of worldly fear. 
 The disciples in Jerusalem were not emotionalists, 
 but spiritually emancipated men and women, who 
 dared say their souls were their own, and who dared 
 to make their wondrous experience the theme of or- 
 dinary conversation. This is the emancipation that 
 the Christian Church most needs to-day, and which 
 it must experience if it is ever to carry the saving 
 truths of its religion out into the world of secular 
 thought and spiritual impoverishment, and make men 
 believe that there is a remedy for all their follies, 
 failures, sorrows, and sins. The world has lost its 
 bearings. It is perishing through its ignorance and 
 need of God. The time has come for the Church, 
 in all its membership, to recover its poise and pur- 
 pose, its passion and power, its convictions and cour- 
 age, its spiritual enthusiasms and enterprise, and 
 enter upon a new era of intelligent and confident 
 propagandism. For Christian believers to keep silent 
 to-day, in the midst of such universal need, is a sin 
 against the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, an unspeakable 
 wrong to one's fellow-men, and a practical impeach- 
 ment of the genuineness of our personal Christianity. 
 " Ye shall be my witnesses," is Christ's permanent 
 command to his disciples everywhere. 
 
VI 
 
 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE WORK 
 
 THE difficulties are not as many and great as 
 the opportunities. Jesus said, '' the fields 
 are white unto the harvest." It is ever so. 
 The human heart, out of fellowship with God, is 
 never satisfied. If approached tactfully and in the 
 spirit of genuine friendship, people, with rare excep- 
 tions, welcome conversation on the subject of re- 
 ligion, which means on the deepest and most funda- 
 mental problems of life. Even if skeptical of the 
 vital power of Christianity they are, nevertheless, 
 profoundly interested in the themes it presents and in 
 the discussion it compels. 
 
 A certain young man gifted with skill in personal 
 approach, and eager to help his associates to find the 
 secret of the Christian life, is constantly leading up 
 to conversation on the matter of personal religion by 
 such incidental questions as this : " Where did you 
 go to church yesterday ? " The answer may be : "I 
 do not go to church at all." This opens the way for 
 asking the reasons for not going. The rest of the 
 way is easy, for without any seeming desire to pry 
 into matters of personal experience, the conversation 
 drifts into a frank discussion of the most vital prob- 
 lems of the spiritual life. This earnest Christian 
 young man has conversed with scores of young men 
 
 47 
 
48 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 since hi^ public confession of Christ, and says there 
 is scarcely a fellow he meets that is not only glad, 
 but in many cases eager to discuss matters of faith, 
 personal religion, and the character and claims of 
 Jesus. 
 
 More people are waiting and wishing for the kind 
 interest of some earnest Christian in their spiritual 
 welfare than is ever suspected. The personal worker 
 soon discovers this fact, for many a person ap- 
 proached says to him : " I am grateful to you for 
 speaking to me on this subject; I have been waiting 
 for this for years and have wondered why it is that 
 Christian people, professing to believe as they do, 
 never speak to their friends about the salvation of 
 their souls." The writer once had the greatest diffi- 
 culty in making a splendid young man, reared in a 
 Christian home, believe there was anything real or 
 vital in the religion of Christ, because, he said: 
 " You are the first person that ever spoke to me on 
 the subject of my personal relation to God." " Why 
 is it," he asked, " if the salvation of the soul is of 
 such great importance, that people who profess to be 
 saved never speak about it? " 
 
 His perplexity was natural and well-founded. It 
 is a severe reflection on the religious genuineness and 
 vitality of the average church member that he seems 
 to take no personal interest in the spiritual redemp- 
 tion of his friends and associates in the daily walks 
 of life. To the onlooker it is thus made to appear 
 a matter of no concern. If the non-religious world 
 is indifferent and skeptical it must, in a large meas- 
 ure, be attributed to the indifference of those who. 
 
OPPORTUNITIES OF THE WORK 49 
 
 by their public profession of faith, have proclaimed 
 to the world their belief in the necessity of salva- 
 tion, — a necessity which they seemingly deny by their 
 silence and unconcern. 
 
 The people in a community who are unacquainted 
 with the vital and saving element in Christian experi- 
 ence would soon awake to great concern regarding 
 their spiritual state, were Christian people manifestly 
 and universally concerned in their behalf. The ex- 
 tent of their interest, under present conditions, is a 
 marked tribute to the fact that man is fundamentally 
 religious, and that in spite of his own neglect, world- 
 liness, and possibly wilful sin, he is still more inter- 
 ested in problems of the soul than in anything else. 
 His very nature cries out for a satisfaction that he 
 does not know, and which he is intuitively conscious 
 he ought to know. He experiences, even in his 
 skepticism, the soul hunger so vividly expressed by 
 the Psalmist when he said : " My heart and my flesh 
 cry out for the living God." 
 
 It is this fundamental need of the human soul that 
 gives the personal worker his ceaseless and promising 
 opportunity. It may always be counted on. Few 
 men are so lost to the claims of their own manhood, 
 to say nothing of the voice of God in the soul, as to 
 repel the approach of a love that is seeking their 
 highest good. For the most part they are coveting 
 the interest of some trusted friend, who is experi- 
 enced enough in the things of the Spirit, to help 
 them out of their perplexity and spiritual impotence. 
 
VII 
 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOUL-WINNING 
 
 THE word psychology is not here used in a 
 technical sense. A college professor or the 
 writer of a text-book may limit the term 
 exclusively to the study of mental phenomena and 
 the facts of consciousness ; but to the personal evan- 
 gelist — the winner of souls — the word soul includes 
 moral as well as mental capacity and condition. For 
 all practical purposes it is synonymous with spirit. 
 Intellect, reason, conscience, the affections and the 
 will are all faculties of the soul, and, in the realm 
 of morals, the religious psychologist must be an adept 
 in fathoming, all the hidden recesses of man's inner- 
 most being. ' Soul-winning is impossible without the 
 capacity thoroughly and accurately to diagnose the 
 mental, moral and spiritual status of the soul to be 
 won. The personal worker must be able to penetrate 
 to the secret of another's personality, and place him 
 in the moral and spiritual category to which he be- 
 longs. This is the highest form of psychological 
 science. We make no apology for using the word 
 psychology in this all-inclusive and practical sense. 
 
 The power to know and interpret the human soul 
 and spirit is preeminently a spiritual enduement. 
 " Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and 
 which entered not into the heart of man," God re- 
 
 50 
 
PSYCHOLOGY OF SOUL- WINNING 51 
 
 veals unto us through the Spirit : " for the Spirit 
 searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.'* 
 
 But the deep things of God include the deep things 
 of man, for the things which are foolishness to the 
 " natural man," and which he cannot know because 
 they are spiritually discerned, are so revealed to the 
 man spiritually renewed and enlightened that he can 
 '' judge," — discern, — all things, while " he himself is 
 judged (discerned, understood) by no man." 
 
 In other words, an intelligent, spiritually enlight- 
 ened, experienced Christian worker is able to read his 
 fellow-men, through and through, in all their mental 
 attitudes and m.oods, moral character and condition, 
 spiritual impotence and need. He is able to diagnose 
 their physical traits and inheritance ; their intellectual 
 limitations and gifts ; their moral status, environment, 
 and training; their spiritual apathy or aspiration. 
 This is psychological knowledge and skill of the high- 
 est order. 
 
 In the sense of soul-knowledge — the knowledge 
 of all the intricate workings of the human mind 
 and heart — psychology is impossible without a 
 deep and rich spiritual experience. Without it 
 there are realms of life which one never fathoms, 
 never even suspects. These are the realms where 
 vital religion enters, and the soul finds communion 
 with God. Not to possess this knowledge incapaci- 
 tates one to interpret, in any deep and fundamental 
 way, the moral condition and spiritual quality of any 
 personality. Never is it so true as in dealing with 
 the innermost secret of the soul, either in ourselves 
 or others, that " in his light we see light." Jesus is 
 
52 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 not only the effulgence of God's glory, but, for this 
 very reason, the effulgence of man's glory. 
 
 Fundamentally, then, psychology is pneumatology, 
 the most spiritual of all sciences; and, hence, to be 
 a psychologist and at the same time unspiritual or 
 non-religious is a contradiction in terms. An agnos- 
 tic, in the realm of experimental religion, occupying 
 a chair of Psychology in a higher school of learning, 
 is an affront to human intelligence and need. He 
 who would know man, must know God in whose per- 
 fect image man is made. The key to the human 
 heart is won through the renewing and enlightening 
 power of the Holy Spirit. The promise of Jesus is 
 all-inclusive : " When he the Spirit of truth is come, 
 he shall guide you into all truth," and that this truth 
 and all truth is personal is evident from the added 
 words, " for he shall take of the things of mine and 
 show them unto you." 
 
 The personality of Christ is the key both to the 
 knowledge of God and man, and thus the key that 
 unlocks the secret of all soul life and of truth, for, 
 be it ever remembered, truth is personal, and apart 
 from infinite and perfect personality can never be 
 accurately or fully known. This is as true in the 
 realm of Science and Nature as in religion, for the 
 mathematics of Christianity and astronomy and the 
 truths of the material universe, stand for the Mind, 
 the Personality that Is back of all existence. 
 
 The interpreter of life must be a vital possessor 
 of life, must know life at its source ; for, as the Mas- 
 ter himself said: "This is life eternal, that they 
 should know thee the only true God, and him whom 
 
PSYCHOLOGY OF SOUL-WINNING 53 
 
 thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." To one thus 
 quaUfied for personal evangelism, by experience of 
 life, and by intimate acquaintance with the Author of 
 life, souls become luminous. Their moods and tem- 
 pers, their sincerities and self-deceptions, their re- 
 sponsiveness or rebellion, their sense of need or their 
 indifference, and all their varied subtle, sullen, sym- 
 pathetiCj mystic spiritual conditions, are clearly 
 known. 
 
 Nothing is more marvelous in the experience of a 
 winner of souls than this power to fathom the secret 
 of another person's life. He is able to unveil his 
 spirit; interpret its moral quality, fathom its pur- 
 pose, follow with keenest intelligence the intricacies 
 of its gropings and conflicts, and the changing nature 
 of its volitions. To assist a soul in discovering itself, 
 and to guide it from spiritual ignorance to spiritual 
 knowledge, and through struggle and controversy to 
 victory and peace, is the most fascinating, rewarding, 
 masterful, yea, most beneficent and blessed work on 
 earth. 
 
 The mental skill, the spiritual intelligence and in- 
 tuition required in such successful personal evangel- 
 ism were never more wonderfully illustrated than in 
 the work of one of the most successful evangelists of 
 all time, as recorded in the following chapter. 
 
VIII 
 THE SKILL OF A GREAT EVANGELIST 
 
 IT was the writer's privilege, as a theological stu- 
 dent, to follow closely the method, spirit and 
 results of Dwight L. Moody's notable evangel- 
 istic campaign in Hartford, Conn., at the time of his 
 greatest effectiveness and renown. He not only 
 studied into the secret of his power as a preacher, 
 but took special pains to get close enough to him in 
 his after meetings to gain an intimate knowledge of 
 his method and skill in personal work. Although he 
 was not technically a scholar, and had had no oppor- 
 tunity for scientific training in psychology, it is no 
 exaggeration to say that few men in the world have 
 had a deeper, keener, truer insight of human nature 
 than he. His intuitive knowledge of men in all 
 classes and conditions of society was surprisingly re- 
 markable. He read men, almost instantly, through 
 and through. He seemed to see the uncovered 
 human soul. His questionings speedily determined 
 whether an inquirer was sincere and genuine or hypo- 
 critical and evasive. With astonishing rapidity he 
 could turn a man, mentally and morally, inside out; 
 expose his fallacies, moral inconsistencies, perver- 
 sions, wilfulness and alienation from God. His 
 work, both psychologically and spiritually, was 
 searching, profound, accurate, masterful. 
 
 94 
 
SKILL OF A GREAT EVANGELIST 55 
 
 The secret of his power lay not in his exceptional 
 natural gifts, but in his marvelous spiritual insight, 
 gained from his regenerate experience as a Christian, 
 from his wonderful knowledge of the Bible, and 
 from his intimate and prolonged study of the inner- 
 most life of his fellow-men. By his skill as a per- 
 sonal worker and winner of men he demonstrated the 
 inseparable unity of the mental and moral life, and 
 that it is impossible, in any profound and accurate 
 sense, to know a man mentally without first knowing 
 his moral status, and his relation to the character and 
 will of God. 
 
 This lesson is one of D. L. Moody's most notable 
 contributions to the religious life of his generation. 
 He demonstrated, experimentally, the unity of man 
 in all the attributes of his personality, and in all the 
 activities of his mental, moral and spiritual being. 
 He proved the indissoluble partnership of the mental 
 and moral life, and that psychology is superficial and 
 inadequate except as it is based on the deeper in- 
 sights of spiritual knowledge and experience (pneu- 
 matology). In other words, the moral and spiritual 
 life are so linked up with the mental that a knowl- 
 edge of the former is essential to a thorough and 
 worthy knowledge of the latter. Mr. Moody fath- 
 omed the mental processes of his fellow-men because, 
 with an almost infallible accuracy, he could discern 
 the motives, moral character and spiritual conditions 
 that lay back of them. 
 
 This deeper psychology accounts for the thorough- 
 ness and permanence of his work. Appearances did 
 not deceive him. Wealth, learning and external cul- 
 
56 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 ture did not mislead or intimidate him. He could 
 say to any man of eminence, if not confessedly and 
 vitally a Christian, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, " Ye 
 must be born again." He was so deeply versed in 
 the subtleties, pride and self-deceptions of the human 
 heart that he knew its strange, inherent, fatal aliena- 
 tion from the will of God, apart from the renewing 
 and creative work of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus 
 defined as regenerative or the " new birth." As a 
 result, people converted under his preaching experi- 
 enced a radical moral revolution, through the creative 
 power of a genuine spiritual renewal. Mr. Moody 
 gave a new vitality to the religious life of his genera- 
 tion in two continents, and his name will stand per- 
 manently among the greatest spiritual leaders of 
 modern history. 
 
 To know men is better than to know books on 
 psychology. One hour at close grips with an inquir- 
 ing, or agnostic, or rebellious, or skeptical soul will 
 teach one more of the inner workings of the human 
 mind and spirit than can ever be learned from the 
 mere study of a technical science. The more of ac- 
 curate scholarship the better, but lacking the illumi- 
 nation of spirit which comes through the processes 
 of spiritual renewal, the ablest mind is incapable of 
 fathoming the true status of the human soul. 
 
 The Church can never lose its hold on these vital 
 realities without loss of its renewing and transform- 
 ing power. There are phases of modern church life 
 that are very assuring — the growing breadth and 
 heartiness of its fraternal spirit, its organized activi- 
 ties, its enlarging benevolence, its increasing con- 
 
SKILL OF A GREAT EVANGELIST 57 
 
 sciousness of its spiritual deficiencies. Other phases 
 of its life, however, call for serious and prayerful 
 study — its failure to deepen the devotional and spir- 
 itual life of its members, its neglect of family wor- 
 ship, its spiritual barrenness as seen in its inability 
 to reproduce an able and adequate ministry, its loss 
 of conviction as to the necessity of a universal human 
 redemption, its avoidance of the New Testament doc- 
 trine of sin, of the cross, and of the new birth. 
 
 The passion for souls that gave birth to the great 
 reformers and evangelists of the past, from Paul to 
 Luther, from Luther to Knox, Wesley and White- 
 field, and from Whitefield to D. L. Moody, that in- 
 spired the majestic hymnology of the Church, that 
 created modern missions, and sent the throb of 
 divine love into all lands through countless heralds 
 of the cross, is the passion that can never die if the 
 Church is to live and penetrate all human institutions 
 ■with its moral ideals, its spiritual energy, its recrea- 
 tive and saving power. 
 
 Jesus' personaHty has indeed become the center of 
 human thought as in no former age, but in spite of 
 this its recent teaching is not laying emphasis where 
 he laid it, on the universal sinfulness of man and 
 the need of divine grace for his salvation. The 
 church of to-day can recover its spiritual vision and 
 its passion for souls only by putting the third chap- 
 ter of John's gospel at the very forefront of its 
 preaching. The heart of Christ's teaching is here. 
 Here the story of man's need and of God's redeem- 
 ing love is best told. Here from Jesus' own lips 
 
"58 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 came the glad promise of the Holy Spirit's renewing 
 and saving work. 
 
 Add these deeper truths, convictions and experi- 
 ences to the splendid organization, equipment and 
 enterprise of the church of to-day and it would 
 sweep round the world with resistless power. Other 
 institutions and agencies, even in the political and 
 commercial world, would bow to its moral supremacy 
 and leadership. The enlightened and redeemed na- 
 tions would acknowledge the folly and crime of war, 
 the wickedness and failure of unrighteousness, hatred 
 and strife in every realm of life, and the prayer 
 taught by the Divine Master would be answered in 
 the coming of His Kingdom and the doing of His 
 will here on earth as it is done in heaven. 
 
IX 
 
 SOUL-WINNING AS AN ART 
 
 A Chapter Especially for Pastors 
 
 |^^>|APACITY to approach people of every class 
 %. A ^^^ condition; utterly diverse in tempera- 
 ment, training, inheritance and moral char- 
 acter, and accurately interpret them, making them 
 acquainted with their own spiritual needs and win- 
 ning them to a complete and hearty acceptance of 
 the truth as it is in Jesus, is not only an art, but a 
 gift. Some people are incapacitated by nature for 
 so keen and delicate a task. They lack tempera- 
 mental ability to read men. No amount of training 
 could give them psychological skill. Others are en- 
 dued with a subtle intuition that can penetrate to the 
 secret of another's thought, purpose, character. This 
 skill is essential to eminent success in the practice of 
 medicine. The physician who would accurately di- 
 agnose disease must be able to read his patient 
 through and through, taking into account all the sub- 
 tle differences of inheritance, nervous temperament 
 and mental moods. To become a masterly salesman 
 one must be able, in like manner, to adjust himself 
 to all the unique and diverse characteristics of the 
 men he meets in travel and trade. A teacher is an 
 affliction to a generation of young people in school 
 or college who cannot distinguish with an infallible 
 
 59 
 
60 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN ' 
 
 and loving sympathy the different natures upon which 
 he works. He should be able to deal with each pupil 
 on the basis of his own individual temperament, 
 mental endowment, natural tastes and tendencies. 
 
 But if an intuitive skill, that can penetrate to the 
 secret of another's individuality, is essential to these 
 so-called secular vocations, what shall be said of the 
 need of it in the divine art of ministering to the 
 deepest needs of the soul. More than a natural gift 
 is imperative here. The human spirit that would be- 
 come masterful in dealing with the innermost life of 
 one's fellow-men must receive special enduement 
 from on high. There is such a thing as a divine 
 illumination through the power and in-dwelling of 
 the Holy Spirit. St. Paul affirmed this special en- 
 duement when he said : " We received, not the spirit 
 of the world, but the Spirit which is from God ; that 
 we might know the things that were freely given to 
 us of God. Which things we speak, not in words 
 which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit 
 teacheth." 
 
 A person thus gifted by nature and endued by 
 the Spirit soon acquires exceptional skill in dealing 
 with the intricate problems and perplexities of the 
 human soul. Practice rapidly perfects him in the 
 art of soul guidance and soul winning. He develops 
 an alertness of mind unknown in any other of his 
 mental processes. The desire for conquest in this 
 keen process of mental co-operation, competition or 
 controversy; the intense eagerness of Christian love 
 to save the reluctant or inquiring soul ; the passion 
 of Christ in him which makes him affectionately per- 
 
SOUL-WINNING AS AN ABT 61 
 
 sistent in seeking and saving that which is lost, oper- 
 ate on his mind and heart like an inspiration from on 
 high. Who shall say that in such ardent personal 
 evangelism one is not specially guided, illuminated, 
 empowered by the Holy Spirit. He certainly is 
 lifted above his ordinary vision and ability in such 
 heart to heart work. His mind springs to its task 
 with the conscious strength and assurance of the 
 athlete. It anticipates every inquiry and want of the 
 seeker after truth, and every objection of the one 
 who is resisting the claims of the Master and the 
 leadings of the Holy Spirit. Conscious power, a 
 growing sense of spiritual intelligence and masterful- 
 ness, increasing accuracy of intuition, as well as an 
 ever-increasing joy in the work, are the sure rewards 
 of persistence and fidelity in the effort to win souls 
 to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as their per- 
 sonal Saviour. 
 
 Faithful, persistent, universally applied pastoral 
 work makes a far more profound spiritual impres- 
 sion on a community than the most earnest preach- 
 ing. The best audience a soul-winner can have is an 
 audience of one. Every word then has directness 
 and meaning. It cannot be evaded. If an impeni- 
 tent man comes to feel that you are ceaselessly anx- 
 ious about his spiritual condition, he cannot avoid 
 becoming anxious about himself. Half the battle is 
 won when a person becomes solicitous concerning his 
 own spiritual welfare. He is then accessible to the 
 influence of the Holy Spirit, which up to this mo- 
 ment of concern, he has either ignored or resisted. 
 As John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus, 
 
62 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 so any wise and worthy Qiristian may be the fore- 
 runner of the Holy Spirit to an unconverted and im- 
 penitent soul. By his own approach and appeal, he 
 prepares the way of the Lord. 
 
 Such pastoral work, if wisely and faithfully done, 
 begets universal respect and love on the part of the 
 people. They soon discover that their minister is 
 their best friend, devoted soul and body to their high- 
 est good. His views modify or become their views. 
 They begin to see through his eyes, and to feel the 
 pulse-beat of his spiritual life. The sentiment of an 
 entire community thus gradually and unconsciously 
 changes. The conviction becomes prevalent that re- 
 ligion is after all a very vital thing, and that a person 
 must (to use a time-worn phrase) experience religion 
 if he would enter the kingdom of heaven. In other 
 words, it is possible by persistent and wisely con- 
 ducted pastoral work to create throughout an entire 
 community the conviction that every man, woman 
 and child in the community needs to be saved. The 
 supreme difficulty in a great city is to create this 
 community im.pression. The smaller the parish the 
 greater the opportunity for personal work, and thus 
 the greater the possibility of a widespread popular 
 conviction of need. The young man who desires to 
 step at once into a city pastorate is likely to lose the 
 supreme opportunity of his life for spiritual effect- 
 iveness and growth, and for mastering a knowledge 
 of men and the truth that will transform and redeem 
 them. Next to the diligent study of God's Word, 
 the most rewarding work in the world is the diligent 
 study of the spiritual state of individual men. It 
 
SOUL-WINNING AS AN ART 63 
 
 marvelously quickens the intellect, compels directness 
 and clearness of statement, teaches one how to make 
 truth personal, acts as a tonic to faith, aids better 
 than all the commentaries in the world in the inter- 
 pretation of the Bible, brings into clear vision all the 
 secret conditions and processes of the human soul, 
 makes preaching personal, passionate, prophetic. 
 
 Five years of this specific personal evangelism pre- 
 pared an entire community for a deep and far-reach- 
 ing work of grace. No eminent evangelist was 
 needed to secure a revival. The revival, anticipated 
 by no one, was gradually taking place in the minds 
 and hearts of the people. It only required the call- 
 ing of the community together for extra services dur- 
 ing the annual week of prayer in mid-winter, to give 
 this latent popular feeling a chance to blossom into 
 vital expression in public confession and definite re- 
 ligious choice and action. It became a veritable 
 Pentecost, coming down quietly and effectively, upon 
 half a township. Blizzards, snow-drifts and zero 
 weather could not keep the people from flocking to 
 the house of God. Scores and hundreds were con- 
 verted. It was no wave of superficial sentiment, but 
 a deep and quiet work of grace, due to an intelligent 
 consideration of life's fundamental problems in the 
 light of God's Word and the teachings of Jesus 
 Christ. Whole households, including grandparents, 
 parents and children, gave themselves in prayer to 
 God and made public confession of their faith. The 
 adult population, as well as practically all the young 
 people, gave evidence of genuine conversion and 
 spiritual renewal. People in the seventies and in the 
 
64 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 eighties, and one aged person of ninety-two, came 
 as little children to the Lord's table and made con- 
 fession of Christ as their Saviour. Family altars 
 sprang up, under pastoral guidance and help, in 
 many homes. Saloons and places of cheap amuse- 
 ment were closed through lack of patronage. The 
 moral tone of society changed. The wholesome effect 
 was apparent to surrounding communities. Visitors 
 and traveling salesmen exclaimed at the moral trans- 
 formation of the people. The prevalent skepticism 
 of the former generation silently disappeared as 
 snow dissolves under the genial warmth of the re- 
 turning sun. Two village churches each added 
 nearly one hundred to their membership. The re- 
 generating effect of this work of grace was perma- 
 nent in the lives of individuals and in the township 
 at large. The religious lapses that follow many re- 
 vivals did not, in any known instance, occur. The 
 power of the Holy Spirit was so manifest in this 
 marvelous movement and in the lives of the people 
 that lifelong skeptics made acknowledgment of its 
 divine reality. After nearly four decades the fruit- 
 age of that spiritual harvest is still visible in the com- 
 munity, and the work of grace then wrought was 
 duplicated in a similar revival twenty years later. 
 
 The opportunities that come to a Christian worker 
 in such a widespread movement are innumerable, and 
 the experience gained in close spiritual converse with 
 households and individuals furnishes an ideal and a 
 demonstration, and becomes a spiritual asset that 
 directs and strengthens the work of all the subse^ 
 quent years. 
 
THE EVANGELISM OF THE APOSTLES 
 
 THE apostles learned their evangelism from 
 Jesus. Before they were at all qualified 
 for their work he found it necessary to im- 
 press upon them, by oft-repeated instruction, many 
 fundamental truths which they were slow to com- 
 prehend: 
 
 V I. The infinite worth of the human soul. Com- 
 mon humanity had never been appreciated until 
 Jesus came. He told his disciples that no material 
 wealth, however great, could for one moment com- 
 pare in value with a single human life, and that if a 
 man should gain the whole world and lose his soul 
 ^e had lost everything. 
 
 { 2. The inestimable value of a child. So little did 
 the chosen twelve appreciate the spiritual worth and 
 possibilities of young children that they indignantly 
 refused to let parents bring them to Jesus, and he 
 was compelled to rebuke them with great severity, 
 saying : " Suffer the little children to come unto me ; 
 forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
 heaven." "Except ye be converted and become as 
 little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of 
 heaven." " It would be far better to be drowned in 
 the depths of the sea than cause one of these little 
 ones to stumble." 
 
 05 
 
66 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 r. 
 
 3. The need of ceaseless and intimate spiritual 
 union with Christ. ]" Ahidt in me." "Without me 
 ye. can do nothing."' 
 
 (^4. The need of a special enduement of power 
 through the baptism and indwelling of the Holy 
 Spirit. They were not to venture forth upon their 
 apostolic career until they had received this endue- 
 ment. 
 
 Equipped with these instructions and assurances of 
 divine aid, the apostles began their work with super- 
 natural power. Conscious, after long discipline and 
 oft-repeated failure, of their spiritual impotence, they 
 waited in prayer for the promise of the Father. 
 Pentecost was its fulfillment. Energized in mind and 
 spirit, from on high, they preached the love and 
 power of the risen Christ with flaming tongues and 
 passionate hearts. Their testimony in a score of dif- 
 ferent languages and their eloquent preaching stirred 
 Jerusalem from center to circumference. Thousands 
 were converted, on that first wondrous day, to the 
 new faith and entered the membership of the newly 
 organized church. They did personal work every- 
 where, even in prison, making a convert of the jailer 
 and his entire family. 
 
 Even before Pentecost, soon after receiving their 
 call to discipleship, the apostles were instructed in 
 these effective methods of work. They were sent 
 out, two by two, on extended missions of instruction 
 and soul-winning. They were commissioned by Jesus 
 to go from house to house, from city to city, pro- 
 claiming the good news of the kingdom. They must 
 be ready for suffering and sacrifice, and even for 
 
EVANGELISM OF THE APOSTLES 67 
 
 martyrdom, and must be bold to confess their Lord 
 before rulers and men everywhere. By teaching, 
 preaching, and personal appeal they were to win 
 disciples of all nations. The chosen twelve were 
 themselves, in the very origin and constitution of 
 their apostolic band, a striking illustration of the 
 power of personal work. They had won each other, 
 one by one, to an acceptance of the Lordship of Jesus. 
 Disciples multiplied through the zeal and personal 
 witness of those who had found the secret of the 
 new life. 
 
 The apostles who began their ministry in Jeru- 
 salem and extended it to all the regions round about, 
 Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee, ultimately became 
 world-evangelists. Their original commission neces- 
 sitated missionary enterprise on a widely extended 
 scale. They were to make disciples of all nations, 
 going even to the uttermost parts of the earth. If 
 tradition can be trusted, they did this with great 
 heroism and sacrifice: Peter carried the gospel to 
 Rome, John to Asia Minor, Thomas to India, An- 
 drew to Scythia, Philip to Phrygia, Bartholomew to 
 Parthia, Matthew to Ethiopia and possibly Mace- 
 donia, and Thaddeus to Syria. The very existence 
 of these traditions, even if they cannot all be verified, 
 proves the far-reaching influence and work of these 
 divinely commissioned men. But the work thus 
 dimly outlined in the apocryphal writings of the early 
 Christian centuries became, in the apostolic career of 
 Paul, a majestic historic certainty. His evangelistic 
 ministry covered, in three prolonged and extended 
 tours, the principal cities and provinces of western 
 
68 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 Asia, Macedonia, and Greece, culminating in Rome, 
 the renowned capital of the world. 
 
 As regards method, theme, spirit and aim, Paul is 
 the pattern for all effective and ideal evangelism. 
 Never a man had a greater devotion to Christ, a 
 surer intellectual grasp of the processes and princi- 
 ples of spiritual experience and redemption, a pro- 
 founder experimental knowledge of the law of the 
 spirit of life in Christ Jesus, or a greater passion for 
 souls. He was a constructive statesman in the King- 
 dom of God, a brilliant and masterful expounder of 
 Christian truth, a philosopher, prophet, and seer. He 
 used voice and pen alike in instruction and personal 
 appeal. He traversed continents to win men to 
 Christ; he wrote letters to individuals and churches 
 to instruct them in doctrine and in the principles of 
 Christian living ; his one theme was, " Jesus Christ, 
 and him crucified," and his one aim, to save men and 
 penetrate society and all human institutions with the 
 teachings and spirit of his Master. He was as 
 ardent, enthusiastic, and happy in making a Christian 
 convert of young Timothy as in establishing a church 
 in some great metropolis. He gave himself as whole- 
 heartedly to saving a runaway slave as in founding 
 Christian communities in Ephesus, Colossae, Corinth, 
 or Rome. 
 
 Back of the constructive processes of the modern 
 centuries in Europe, and in all this western hemi- 
 sphere, lie the spiritual passion and constructive 
 statesmanship of the great apostle. The currents of 
 life that flowed in such mighty volume from his conse- 
 crated soul are still sweeping around the world with 
 
EVANGELISM OF THE APOSTLES 6^ 
 
 ever-increasing momentum. Apostolic evangelism 
 made modern history, and just in proportion as the 
 preachers, teachers, and apostles of to-day proclaim 
 the same redemptive gospel, and have the same pas- 
 sion for saving men and reconstructing society ac- 
 cording to the principles and purpose of Jesus, the 
 [world will go on in its progress toward the ultimate 
 perfection and brotherhood of the Kingdom of God. 
 
PART II 
 A SPIRITUAL CLINIC 
 
 Some Notable Conversions and Experiences 
 
 XI 
 
 THE MIRACLE OF REGENERATION 
 
 NO facts in physical science are more capable 
 of indisputable demonstration than the 
 spiritual miracle of the new birth. Jesus 
 compared the mysterious process to the invisible 
 wind, " which bloweth where it will, and thou hear- 
 est the sound thereof, but knowest not whence it 
 cometh, and whither it goeth ; so is every one that is 
 born of the Spirit." The unseen wind is heard, its 
 tremendous power felt, and its effects definitely 
 known; and just as definitely does the invisible work 
 of God's creative Spirit become manifest in the out- 
 ward life of all who are vitally renewed and trans- 
 formed by His power. Regeneration is not a natural 
 process, but a supernatural. This can be better illus- 
 trated in actual life than in the clearest attempt at 
 verbal description. 
 
 During the remarkable revival referred to in a 
 preceding chapter, which changed the moral and re- 
 ligious character of an entire community, a certain 
 man resisted with bitterness and anger the influences, 
 human and divine, that were pressing upon his mind, 
 
 70 
 
MIRACLE OF REGENERATION 71 
 
 heart and conscience for decision. He was a man 
 of business and social standing in the village, being 
 treasurer of the local bank, postmaster, and also pro- 
 prietor of a substantial store. He had a devoted wife 
 and two beautiful boys; yet for some hidden reason 
 was antagonistic to and rebellious against the truth 
 that sought his conversion. 
 
 At the close of an exceptionally impressive service, 
 in which mature men and women were giving them- 
 selves to God, he said to his pastor : " I wish you 
 would never speak to me on the subject of religion 
 again." The latter replied : " We do not intend to 
 bore you with this matter, but you tremendously need 
 God, and we shall not cease to pray for your 
 salvation." 
 
 Not long after this, this man suddenly disappeared. 
 Not even his wife and most intimate friends knew 
 where he had gone. His affairs were put in the 
 hands of a receiver. It was found that he had em- 
 bezzled money from the bank of which he was treas- 
 urer, from the post-office under his care, and that he 
 had also borrowed substantial sums from friends who 
 confided in his integrity. In all he had absconded 
 with a total of several thousand dollars. After a 
 month of investigation his business was declared 
 bankrupt. His whereabouts remained unknown, and 
 owing to the strange silence and mystery, it was sus- 
 pected that he might have committed suicide. 
 
 This experience, so utterly distressing to his family 
 and friends, continued for about six weeks, when all 
 unexpectedly he returned. He came directly to his 
 pastor and unburdened his heart in a full and frank 
 
72 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 confession. He had escaped to Canada, in order to 
 avoid capture and the clutch of the law. One night, 
 oppressed with the burden of his sin and guilt, he 
 passed a store in which he saw an illuminated motto 
 with words which said in substance, " All sin may be 
 forgiven." Like the sword of the Spirit, which is 
 the Word of God, their message brought instant con- 
 viction to his wayward and rebellious soul. He has- 
 tened to his hotel room, fell on his knees, and gave 
 himself to God. The next morning he bought a rail- 
 road ticket and started for home. As just related, 
 he first went to his pastor, fully aware that the one 
 who had so persistently sought his salvation was, 
 next to God and his devoted wife, his best friend. 
 He unbosomed the full story of his wrong. The 
 battle in his soul had been so fierce that, as he said, 
 " it was either surrender or suicide, and he decided 
 to surrender." 
 
 He voluntarily came before the Church committee, 
 made the same unreserved confession, and asked the 
 privilege of uniting with the Church and publicly 
 acknowledging Christ as his Saviour. No one ob- 
 jected to such action except the man who had audited 
 his accounts and was fully conversant with the nature 
 and extent of his wrongdoing. He found it impos- 
 sible to believe in his sincerity and in the genuineness 
 of his conversion, suspecting that he was taking this 
 course in order to avoid the penalties of the law. It 
 was evident, however, to the other members of the 
 committee that the Spirit of God had wrought his 
 wondrous miracle of renewal and change in this 
 
MIRACLE OF REGENERATION 73 
 
 man's life, and that he should be cordially received 
 into the fellowship of Christian believers. 
 
 Results proved the wisdom of this decision, as well 
 as the mighty power of God in re-creating the inner 
 life of a penitent soul. For twenty years he re- 
 mained in the community to witness to the reality of 
 this supernatural work. The change in his spirit, 
 temper and quality of life, in his relation to God and 
 man, was so remarkable; the genuineness of his re- 
 ligious experience so universally recognized, that it 
 was not long before he was reinstated in the full con- 
 fidence of his fellow-townsmen. In due time he was 
 elected superintendent of the Sunday School and 
 deacon of the very church in which he had mani- 
 fested such antagonism to the truth and to the Spirit 
 of God. What is even more remarkable, his former 
 business associates and friends, who had known of 
 his embezzlements, expressed their undoubted confi- 
 dence in his regeneration and in the integrity of his 
 Christian character by again electing him treasurer 
 of the bank that he had defrauded, and postmaster 
 of the office that he had robbed. 
 
 Until the day of his death he was a living witness 
 to the wonders and power of that miracle which 
 Jesus said was the fundamental necessity of the 
 human heart, and which he defined in the familiar 
 words : " Except one be born anew, he cannot see 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 Such reconstructions of human life are not possible 
 by any natural process or power. When one is 
 actually " born again " he is " not born of blood, nor 
 of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
 
'74 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 of God " ; or, as other Scripture puts it, he is " be- 
 gotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incor- 
 ruptible, through the Word of God, which liveth and 
 abideth forever." 
 
 Sometimes a generation wearies of the terminology 
 of former generations, and in doing so unwittingly 
 reacts from the truth embodied in the earlier manner 
 of speech. To many " regeneration " is such an out- 
 worn and theologically abused term, yet it is one of 
 the great classic words that has no modern equiva- 
 lent, no worthy and adequate substitute. Whether 
 the Church retains this time-honoured term or its 
 literal counterpart, " born again," it must ever keep 
 the truth contained therein, vital in its faith and 
 spiritual work. Men lose their passion for humanity 
 when they lose confidence in the reality and in the 
 universal necessity of this wondrous miracle of grace. 
 
 " Except one be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
 into the kingdom of God." 
 
XII 
 STORMING THE CITADEL OF THE WILL 
 
 CONVERSION in the case of a mature person 
 is the voluntary action of the will. It is a 
 deliberate turning, choice, decision, surren- 
 der, acceptance. The heart that has resisted says, 
 " I will." It is no superficial emotion or desire, but 
 a fundamental and determined purpose. It is putting 
 Jesus Christ on the throne of one's being. It is the 
 obedience of man's will to God's will ; the acceptance 
 of the lifelong guidance and authority of the Holy 
 Spirit as He speaks to the soul through the inspired 
 Word. It is the summoning of one's entire mind, 
 heart, and spirit to an unreserved and permanent 
 allegiance to Jesus Christ as Saviour, Lord, and 
 Master. 
 
 Conversion is thus the most supreme act of self- 
 mastery known to human experience. No man knows 
 the meaning of self-conquest until he has himself 
 well enough in hand to say " I will " to God's call, 
 command, invitation, and ideal. This act of self- 
 command involves the surrender of all known evil, 
 potentially and by voluntary choice. It is not a half- 
 hearted or partial process. It is the renunciation of 
 everything known to be contrary to God's righteous 
 will. It challenges every form of self-love and love 
 of the world. It is a fundamental reversal and over- 
 
 75 
 
76 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 turning of all the tendencies of the unsanctified mind 
 and heart. And this is why conversion is often so 
 long delayed and resisted, and the longer it is post- 
 poned the more self-reliant and insubordinate be- 
 comes the human will. 
 
 No battlefield in the world calls for such heroism, 
 strength, struggle, and self-command as the battle- 
 field of the human soul in the process of conversion. 
 He who conquers here can face any foe and endure 
 any martyrdom. When the issues have become clear 
 and decision imperative, the spiritual conflict is a 
 splendid, awful fight for one's soul, manhood, life. 
 
 A certain individual, intimately known by the 
 writer, who illustrated conspicuously and character- 
 istically this conflict of the will, was in the mature 
 strength of an exceptionally vigorous manhood. He 
 was no subordinate in a large business, but accus- 
 tomed to command and to have men do his bidding 
 without questioning or delay. His energy was the 
 moving power of the whole vast enterprise. He was 
 not accustomed to take orders from any one, and 
 when it came to the question of accepting the au- 
 thority of Jesus Christ as promptly and fully as he 
 expected others to accept his, it was found to be no 
 easy process. However, at the beginning he was not 
 aware of the secret of his difficulty. 
 
 After years of intimacy and introductory personal 
 work, his pastor visited his home one Sunday after- 
 noon determined, if possible, with the help of God, to 
 secure a definite decision. His initial words were 
 
 these : " Mr. , you are a clear-cut business 
 
 man and always come directly to the point in every 
 
THE CITADEL OF THE WILL 77 
 
 business transaction, and I want to put to you a very- 
 direct and personal question — * Why are you not a 
 Christian?' He replied, 'I do not know/" This 
 seemed strange for so intelligent a man, clean in his 
 moral life, perfectly upright in business, a regular 
 attendant at church, and a man who had been trained 
 from childhood religiously. It was evident that he 
 must interpret the man's inner life to himself. The 
 following questions and answers followed in rapid 
 succession : 
 
 " Do you believe in a personal God, to whom you 
 owe worship and obedience?" "Most certainly 
 I do." 
 
 " Do you believe in Jesus Christ as God's beloved 
 Son sent to be the Saviour of the world? " "Yes." 
 
 " Do you believe that you are, like all the rest of 
 us, a sinner and need Christ as your personal 
 Saviour?" "Yes." 
 
 " Have you accepted Him definitely and con- 
 sciously as your Saviour?" "No, I do not think I 
 have." 
 
 " Why not? " " I do not know." 
 
 " Do you not think it is necessary to come to a 
 definite choice and decision in this matter ? " " Cer- 
 tainly I do." 
 
 " Why not make that definite decision now ? " "I 
 am not ready." 
 
 " Your answer lets one into the secret of your 
 whole difficulty ; your trouble lies in your will. You 
 are not letting God have His way in your life. Jesus 
 said : * If any man is willing to do His will, he shall 
 know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or 
 
78 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 whether I speak of Myself/ You are accustomed 
 to give orders and be obeyed ; you are not willing to 
 take orders and obey, even though they come from 
 your Divine Lord and Master. You can never be a 
 Christian and enjoy the comfort, hope, and satisfac- 
 tion of the Christian until you say ' I will ' to God. 
 Your whole trouble lies in the unwillingness of 
 your will." 
 
 He answered : " I see it clear as day. You have 
 hit the very center of my trouble." 
 
 " In a business transaction, when you see a thing 
 as clearly as that, you act with great promptness and 
 decision. Will you be as businesslike now, and say 
 right here and now, * I will ' to the will of God." He 
 replied with a courteous but clean-cut and positive 
 negative, " No ! " 
 
 " Why not? " " I am not ready." 
 
 " Will you not kneel with me and let me pray that 
 God may make you willing?" Again he replied, 
 "No!" 
 
 " Will you not, then, promise that before you re- 
 tire to-night you will yourself kneel and ask God to 
 make you willing?" "No, I will not promise." 
 
 "Why not?" "That would settle the whole 
 business." 
 
 If a person wishes to study psychology, fathom the 
 secrets of the moral will, follow the intricate proc- 
 esses of the human spirit in its dealing with eternal 
 issues, he gains his supreme opportunity in such an 
 experience as this. This man of iron will held this 
 personal question at arm's length for two whole 
 years. Every moment of that time he knew that he 
 
THE CITADEL OF THE WILL 79 
 
 was deliberately holding God off from the control of 
 his life. During this entire period he was thoroughly 
 aware that he was taking great chances, considering 
 the uncertainties of life, and that he ought to give 
 his heart to God. 
 
 The two years passed. A deep work of grace 
 visited the city through the united work of the 
 churches and the able preaching of a skilful evangel- 
 ist. It came over him that he could not trifle with 
 this question of his soul's salvation longer, and he 
 decided in his own home that, if the opportunity for 
 public decision came, he would be the first on his 
 feet, whatever the message might be or whether he 
 was the only one to respond. True to his purpose, 
 he was the first of many to give himself publicly to 
 God, and when it was his pastor's privilege to grasp 
 his hand in the joy of deep gratitude and congratula- 
 tion, his first word of response was this : " You are 
 responsible for it." 
 
 Such is the reward that comes from persistent, 
 prayerful, loving, Scriptural work in behalf of indi- 
 vidual souls. The highest rewards and the deepest 
 happiness are the enduring fruitage of such effort. 
 It was an untold privilege to receive this converted 
 man into the Church. He gave the first weeks of 
 his new life in Christ to telling the story of God's 
 grace to unconverted friends. He came at once to 
 the front in the activities of his Church, and for 
 years has been a leading member of the Board of 
 Trustees and Board of Deacons, and a strong finan- 
 cial giver to its support. 
 
 His entire career since conversion is striking evi- 
 
80 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 dence that in adult life the whole process of vital 
 and saving religion begins with and hinges upon an 
 intelligent and decisive act of the will. This citadel 
 of power must be surrendered to God. Jesus Christ 
 must be invited, without reservation, to occupy the 
 throne of one's moral being and reign without a 
 rival there. 
 
 "Our wills are ours, we know not how; 
 Our wills are ours to make them Thine." 
 
XIII 
 THE BATTLE OF THE SOUL 
 
 SPIRITUAL conflict and conversion is not 
 confined to mature manhood. Boys and girls 
 who understand the nature of the Christian 
 life and what full allegiance to Jesus Christ signifies, 
 experience the same struggle of soul as older people 
 in the matter of decision. The odds against them 
 are, indeed, not as great, but proportionate to their 
 years the battle is just as strenuous. At times it 
 becomes a fierce fight for the soul, even in young 
 people religiously trained. 
 
 The experience of an earnest boy of fourteen 
 vividly and beautifully illustrates this battling of the 
 soul for life. He had back of him the piety, faith, 
 prayers and instructions of wise. Christian parents. 
 The church had been helpful in its teachings and 
 influence. Through these agencies he came to a 
 clear sense of his spiritual need. A time of excep- 
 tional religious interest brought the question of de- 
 cision to definite issue. He was fully aware that the 
 time had come for him to decide what kind of a man 
 he ought and wanted to be. 
 
 One can become intimately and sympathetically 
 acquainted with the inner life of young people only 
 as he knows the strenuousness of the mental, moral 
 and spiritual conflicts through which they pass in 
 
 81 
 
82 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 the years which bridge the space between childhood 
 and young manhood and womanhood. The wisest 
 and most tender guidance is needed through these 
 years of inner storm and stress. 
 
 During the after meeting of an impressive even- 
 ing service the earnest boy in question had a per- 
 sonal interview with his pastor. He was under deep 
 conviction of his need and duty. In the quiet and 
 trustful relationship of the private conference his 
 pastor said to him : " It is very evident that the 
 Holy Spirit is working in your heart, seeking to lead 
 you to give your life to God. Are you not ready 
 to take Christ as your Saviour and from this day 
 on to live for him ? " He replied : " I cannot." 
 " Why not ? " His exact and startling answer, for 
 one so young, was this : " It is a fight with the devil 
 and with myself." His face was pale through the 
 strenuousness of his inner conflict. 
 
 " My dear boy, if what you say is true, you can- 
 not afford to go out of this meeting to-night de- 
 feated." 
 
 Over and over again he affirmed his inability to 
 decide. 
 
 " Let us, then, kneel," said his pastor, " and pray 
 that God may give you the victory over yourself and 
 over the great enemy of your soul. Your only hope 
 and strength in this hour of need is in Him. Let us 
 each pray, in turn, that He may enable you to de- 
 cide this matter now." 
 
 On his knees the victory was won, and when he 
 rose he exclaimed with a note of triumph : " I will." 
 
 The inner change at once became visible in his 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE SOUL 83 
 
 outer life. A smile of new happiness was on his 
 face, his head was erect with the consciousness of 
 a new manhood, and in look, manner and speech it 
 was evident that a deep and fundamental transfor- 
 mation had taken place in his moral and spiritual 
 life. From that hour to mature manhood a life of 
 steady fidelity and growing strength confirmed the 
 genuineness and thoroughness of his conversion. 
 Years after, in a chance meeting with his early pas- 
 tor on a railway train, he said : " Do you remember 
 that evening we spent together in the church, when 
 I made my decision for Christ?" 
 
 " Most vividly, to the minutest detail," was the 
 reply. 
 
 ** That was the turning point in my life," he said. 
 " The decision I made then was the making of me. 
 I now have a happy Christian home, a family altar, 
 and we are giving our children Christian instruction 
 daily, and in addition I am doing all that I can as 
 an officer in the church to make its work a blessing 
 to the community in which we live." 
 
 A chief defect and difficulty in many a professedly 
 religious life and experience is that the work of con- 
 version was not thoroughly done. The choice of 
 Christ meant little beyond the conception and accept- 
 ance of an ethical ideal. The issue between Him 
 and the world, between holiness and sin, between 
 self-will and the will of God, was not made definite 
 and clear. For this reason people are often re- 
 ceived into church membership who never fought 
 to a finish the spiritual conflict that proved so strenu- 
 ous in the experience of this resolute boy, and who 
 
84 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 are consequently troubled with a sense of indefinite- 
 ness and insecurity as to the genuineness of the re- 
 ligious life. They miss that deep and satisfying joy 
 which comes from the assurance of forgiven sin, and 
 of being in consciously right relations with God. In 
 many instances church officials themselves seem to 
 have lost the conviction of the necessity of that 
 fundamental and revolutionary experience which 
 Jesus termed the nezv birth, and which he made a 
 condition of entrance to the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 A philosophy of religious experience has come 
 into vogue in recent years that cancels the line of 
 demarcation between the saved and the unsaved. 
 The whole process is treated as a natural evolution 
 rather than as one of intelligent moral choice. Under 
 wise religious instruction and guidance a child may 
 become a Christian without ever knowing the time 
 of his spiritual renewal, but no greater wrong can 
 be done one who has reached the age of mature self- 
 determination than to receive him into church mem- 
 bership while he is still uncertain as to his funda- 
 mental attitude to Jesus Christ. A professedly 
 Christian experience that has never known a spir- 
 itual conflict or a battle of the moral will, is neces- 
 sarily unacquainted with the vital issues and the 
 vital nature of the Christian life. It is as Jesus said, 
 " If a man milleth to do his will he shall know of 
 the teaching, whether it is from God, or whether I 
 speak from myself." Clear issues at the beginning 
 of the Christian life save one from superficiality, in- 
 definiteness and disappointment later on. 
 
XIV 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF A NORMAL 
 CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 
 
 A DEVOTED teacher in the Sunday School 
 found it necessary to give up her class. 
 Without consulting the superintendent, 
 her girls, about fourteen years of age, asked a cer- 
 tain estimable and attractive young lady to become 
 their teacher. She consented, even though she was 
 not a member of the church. Discovering the situa- 
 tion, the superintendent came to his pastor and said: 
 " I am in a difficult and embarrassing position, these 
 girls have secured Miss M. as their teacher, and she 
 is not a Christian, and cannot give them the help 
 and spiritual instruction they need. What shall I 
 do?" He answered: "Miss M. is a young lady of 
 serious mind and purpose. She has evidently as- 
 sumed this responsibility with serious intent. She 
 will soon discover her need and either give up her 
 class or become a Christian." 
 
 " You have greatly relieved my mind," said the 
 superintendent, " I will let matters rest awhile and 
 see how the case develops." 
 
 Exactly as predicted, the new teacher, in about 
 six weeks, came to her pastor and said : " I find that 
 I cannot lead my girls to Christ unless I know 
 Christ." 
 
 85 
 
86 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 " Do you wish to know Him, and become His 
 true disciple?" "I do," she replied, "that is why 
 I have come to see you to-day." After stating as 
 clearly as possible the nature of the Christian life, 
 and that it was a complete yielding of her will to 
 the will of Jesus as her sovereign Lord and Master, 
 and an unreserved, complete, joyful and trustful 
 abandonment of her life to the guidance of the 
 Divine Spirit as revealed in the teachings of the 
 inspired Word, she was asked if she was ready to 
 accept Christ on these terms. She unhesitatingly 
 responded in the affirmative. Her decision was 
 definite and discriminating. 
 
 Nothing was then said about a public profession 
 of her faith, in order to avoid confusion of issues 
 and the seeming identification of church membership 
 with Christian experience. She went forth as one 
 relieved of a heavy burden, spiritually emancipated, 
 happy, joyously free. 
 
 Again, in another six weeks, she called at the par- 
 sonage to talk over the problems that had been work- 
 ing in her mind. " I have been thinking," she said, 
 " that it is my duty as a Christian to make a public 
 confession of my faith in Christ and unite with the 
 Church, but there are certain things that I do and 
 enjoy and see no harm in that some Christians look 
 upon with disapproval, and I do not want to sub- 
 ject myself to criticism or to being misunderstood. 
 Under these circumstances, what is best for me 
 to do?" 
 
 " When you began the Christian life," she was 
 
EVOLUTION OF EXPERIENCE 87 
 
 asked, " did you expect to be a growing Christian ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Do you desire to be a growing Christian ? " 
 
 " Yes, most assuredly." 
 
 " When you accepted Christ as your Saviour, did 
 you also accept him as your Light, * the Light that 
 lighteth every man that cometh into the world ? ' " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Are you willing to receive and welcome light as 
 it comes to you on the various problems of char- 
 acter and conduct ? " 
 
 " Yes, if I know my cwn heart, I am." 
 
 " Your only course, then, is to go forward at once 
 and unite with the Church. You have only one 
 Master, and that is Christ. Your conscience must 
 be subject to him and to him alone in all these intri- 
 cate life problems. If there is anything questionable 
 in the things to which you have referred you will 
 ultimately be assured of it, under his guidance. 
 The Church cannot be conscience for you, nor your 
 pastor, nor any earthly advisor or friend." 
 
 Thus relieved in mind and heart, with the nature 
 and philosophy of the Christian life made intelligible 
 and clear, she at once united with the Church, and 
 was exceptionally happy in her decision. 
 
 Another six weeks passed. Again she made a con- 
 fidant of her pastor: " I want to tell you something; 
 for some time I have been a member of a club that 
 meets weekly on a certain evening. That is the 
 evening of our church prayer meeting. It soon be- 
 came evident to me that I, as a Christian and a 
 church member, must choose between the club and 
 
88 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 the prayer meeting; and now I have given up the 
 club altogether. Moreover, I have somehow lost 
 my relish for what I once thought so essential to 
 my enjoyment." 
 
 No finer or more beautiful illustration could be 
 given of the normal processes of Christian discovery 
 and growth. The secret of Protestant Christianity 
 lies in its power to secure spiritual intelligence, free- 
 dom from conscience, and capacity for initiative and 
 self-government under the guidance of the Spirit, in 
 the individual Christian. The Church can never 
 legislate for the individual believer. The disciple of 
 the Master has no human or ecclesiastical authority 
 with any right of sovereignty over the realm of his 
 inner life; no Pontiff to prescribe laws or dictate 
 terms. Christ makes all true disciples of his kings 
 and priests unto God, forever, and the only secret 
 of a successful Christian life is to be absolutely sub- 
 ject to his will in all things in order to be absolutely 
 free in the realm of intelligent and divinely ordered 
 self-government. 
 
 The young lady whose experience has just been 
 given soon became one of the most devoted and 
 effective leaders in her church. Her entire influ- 
 ence was religiously constructive and spiritually 
 vital, and all because she was supremely loyal to her 
 Divine Master in every choice and decision, begin- 
 ning with and following her acceptance of His 
 sovereignty over her innermost life. 
 
XV 
 THE CONVERSION OF A MORALIST 
 
 THE Bible has truth suited to every kind of 
 mental and moral need. One's chief reli- 
 ance in meeting such need is the Word of 
 God, which is " living and active," and which, like 
 a two-edged sword, " pierces even to the dividing of 
 soul and spirit, and is quick to discern the thoughts 
 and intents of the heart." No class of persons is 
 more difficult to reach, and to bring to contrition 
 and a sense of spiritual need, than that of the Moral- 
 ist who for years, possibly a lifetime, has wrapped 
 himself securely and contentedly in a mantle of self- 
 righteousness. He seems utterly impervious to 
 truth. Secure behind the fortress of his own in- 
 tegrity he resists and resents the imputation that he 
 still lacks, like the rich young ruler, the one thing 
 needful. 
 
 The experience of such a man is here recorded. 
 He was approximately three score years and ten. 
 He prided himself on his clean moral life and his 
 right relations to his fellow-men. He compared 
 himself favourably with professing Christians, and 
 justly so as regards his outward conduct and deed. 
 He had been brought up in the Universalist faith, 
 and like all men of that creed who believe that all 
 men are to be saved, he gradually lost sight of the 
 
 8» 
 
90 MASTEK'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 grace that saves. He was sufficient unto himself. 
 He did, indeed, acknowledge the superlative good- 
 ness of the Christian life, but his apparent humility 
 only served to reveal a moral pride and self-esteem 
 that resented every suggestion of moral unworthi- 
 ness even in the presence of God's infinite perfection. 
 Argument was useless ; human effort of no avail. 
 
 One day his pastor, with New Testament in hand, 
 had a chat with him over his garden fence. He gave 
 expression to his deep solicitude, and his conviction 
 that his elderly friend needed a new vision of the 
 grace of God as revealed in the love and sacrifice 
 of Jesus. Instead of arguing with him about the 
 great doctrines of the Christian faith, he asked the 
 privilege of reading to him the opening verses of the 
 tenth chapter of Romans, which is the most marvel- 
 ous passage on self-righteousness in the Bible. He 
 pictured to him Paul's solicitude for his countrymen 
 who were outwardly righteous, but still unacquainted 
 with the character, grace and will of God : " Breth- 
 ren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel 
 is that they may be saved. For I bear them record 
 that they have a zeal for God, but not according to 
 knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's right- 
 eousness, and going about to establish their own 
 righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the 
 righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the 
 law unto righteousness to every one that believeth." 
 The words italicized were emphasized and inter- 
 preted in the reading. They proved the Spirit's mes- 
 sage to the self-righteous man's soul. They con- 
 victed him of lifelong sin in ignoring and dishonour- 
 
CONVERSION OF A MORALIST 91 
 
 ing God. They made him conscious of a great moral 
 defect and need. They revealed to him, with over- 
 whelming power, the perfect righteousness of Christ, 
 and his own unsaved condition. They tarried in his 
 mind until they melted him to penitence and shame. 
 A few days later, his pastor, feeling that a crisis 
 had come in the old man's life, called upon him. The 
 latter met him at the door, and even before the 
 morning greeting could be given, with tears in his 
 eyes, he said, " I want to find Jesus." When the 
 nature of the Christian life was thoroughly ex- 
 plained, and the way of confession and acceptance 
 made clear, he joyfully knelt in prayer and gave him- 
 self with glad eagerness to God. That very day he 
 established a family altar, and the life that for sev- 
 enty years had been prayerless was changed to a 
 life of earnest and intelligent daily devotion. He at 
 once found himself, also, in a relation of spiritual 
 intimacy and unity, of spiritual acquaintance and 
 companionship with his Christian wife, that he had 
 never known or even suspected as possible. He 
 made the sad discovery that for a lifetime his re- 
 ligious agnosticism had shut him out of the sweetest 
 joys and richest experiences that true marriage and 
 a religious home can ever know. He did his best to 
 atone for this ignorance and neglect. He made a 
 public confession of his new-found faith, united with 
 the Church, and for a goodly number of years lived 
 to witness to the transforming power of God's grace 
 in the life of a true believer. 
 
XVI 
 
 A FALSE AND OBSTRUCTIVE HUMILITY 
 
 TO adjust one's self to all kinds of tempera- 
 ments and satisfy all varieties of mental 
 and spiritual need is a supremely fine art. 
 The study of the inner life of personalities under the 
 inspiration of the evangelical motive and passion de- 
 velops intuitive skill, sensitiveness of sympathy, and 
 tactfulness and winsomeness in personal approach. 
 
 A man of vital religious experience, somewhat 
 past middle life, had never publicly acknowledged 
 himself as a Christian. Self-depreciating, and pos- 
 sessed of an exceptionally retiring disposition and an 
 over-sensitive conscience, he shrank from any act 
 that seemed like assuming special attainment in 
 Christian character or knowledge. Notwithstanding 
 his extreme diffidence, he daily conducted the family 
 devotions, impelled by a high sense of Christian duty. 
 The courage which overcame his natural reticence 
 was the product of a religious inheritance and train- 
 ing in the most spiritually intelligent and God-fear- 
 ing home in the community. It was, however, seem- 
 ingly impossible for him to break through the reserve 
 of his shrinking modesty and step out, publicly, into 
 the joyous freedom of liberty in Christ. His diffi- 
 culty came, not from any uncertainty as to the gen- 
 uineness of his religious experience, but from (to his 
 
 92 
 
FALSE AND OBSTRUCTIVE HUMILITY 93 
 
 sensitive mind) the appalling significance of the word 
 " profession " as it was used in the terminology of 
 the Church in his earlier years. To him the word 
 was forbidding and repellent because of its seeming 
 assumption of exceptional attainment and worthi- 
 ness. " Profession," to him, was little else than 
 boasting of peculiar merit and a superior righteous- 
 ness. His humility was real, yet painful, misleading 
 and obstructive. 
 
 Some new and luminous, not to say startling, way 
 of presenting truth was necessary to shake him out 
 of his lifelong habit of thought and his false con- 
 ception of public confession. 
 
 " Do you really think," he was asked, " that you 
 are so much better than other people that you do not 
 need to acknowledge your need of a Saviour and 
 your dependence on Christ ? " 
 
 He was almost shocked, if not hurt, by the inquiry, 
 and denied that he had ever entertained such a 
 thought regarding himself. 
 
 It was then made clear to him that until a person 
 has acknowledged himself a sinner, in the sight of 
 God and men, by publicly confessing his need of a 
 Redeemer, he is standing before the community in 
 his own name and righteousness, as sufficient unto 
 himself. He is practically saying to his fellow-men 
 that his own goodness, effort and attainment were all 
 that he needs. 
 
 The truth flashed upon him with great vividness. 
 It became plain to him that Jesus made confession 
 one of the first evidences and requirements of dis- 
 cipleship : " Every one who shall confess me before 
 
94 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 men, him will I also confess before my Father who 
 is in heaven." 
 
 The refined and sensitive man, in the light of this 
 explanation, saw what he had never seen before, and 
 what many others have never seen, that in the act 
 of public confession, one, for the first time, acknowl- 
 edges his miworthiness before the world, and ascribes 
 glory to Jesus as the " only name under heaven, 
 given among men, whereby we must be saved." 
 From this moment he had an altogether new con- 
 ception of the Church. Instead of being composed 
 of individuals who considered themselves better than 
 others, veritable " saints," it was composed of those 
 who publicly confessed their moral unworthiness and 
 their dependence upon the mercy and grace of a for- 
 giving God. For the first time in his life he realized 
 that the Church is a school for learners, and not con- 
 stituted of people who profess to have made superior 
 attainments in knowledge and character; that it is a 
 hospital where the spiritually sick and infirm come 
 to be cared for and cured. It dawned upon him that 
 he had been treating the Church as though it were 
 an assembly of boasters, religiously proud and con- 
 ceited, a " better-than-thou " sort of people, who like 
 the Pharisees of old dishonoured God and despised 
 men, saying, as they drew about them their robes of 
 self-righteousness and religious seclusiveness, " We 
 thank God that we are not as other men are." 
 
 It was a revolutionary discovery. This humble, 
 retiring, self-depreciating man, now saw that all un- 
 consciously he had been the secliisive one, standing 
 before his fellow-men in the attitude of self-suffi- 
 
FALSE AND OBSTRUCTIVE HUMILITY 95 
 
 ciency and self-dependence. He instantly and 
 eagerly sought to remedy the mistake of a lifetime 
 by the immediate public confession of his Christian 
 faith in the act of uniting with the Church. The 
 decision, however, came too late, for on the very 
 Sunday when he hoped to take his first Communion 
 with the people of God he passed away, expressing 
 great grief that he could not make this public testi- 
 mony to his devotion to Christ before he died. The 
 community, however, was not ignorant of his new- 
 found joy, and was impressed by the decisive pur- 
 pose of this humble, quiet, retiring, self-depreciating, 
 yet splendidly courageous man. 
 
 The loss in this man's religious life could not be 
 attributed so much to a failure in his own purpose 
 and desire, as to the defect in the religious instruc- 
 tion of his childhood days. The terminology of the 
 Church gave a wrong conception of the nature and 
 significance of public confession by the common use 
 of the word " profession " ; while its officials rather 
 hindered than helped young people to give public ex- 
 pression to their religious purpose, experience and 
 desire in early years. The entire history of this de- 
 vout and modest man witnesses to the need of an 
 alert, intelligent, sympathetic evangelism on the part 
 of all who deal with childhood in the home and in 
 the Church, or in any other of the vital and forma- 
 tive relationships of life. 
 
XVII 
 HONEST DIFFICULTY WITH A CREED 
 
 INTELLECTUAL difficulties to belief in a creed 
 usually vanish when moral difficulties are re- 
 moved. Skepticism is more of the heart than 
 of the head. There are exceptions to this rule. For 
 example, people trained to one system of belief do 
 not easily adjust themselves to the doctrinal teach- 
 ings of another. It seems inherently impossible for 
 one born and trained a Catholic to absorb Protes- 
 tantism. Romanism is rarely eradicated from the 
 blood. This is an extreme illustration. Among the 
 Protestant sects there is, at least, the kinship of 
 mental freedom, and on the great doctrines of God, 
 sin, redemption and immortality, a practical unanim- 
 ity of belief. The differences that divide denomina- 
 tions have to do for the most part with metaphysical, 
 philosophical, or theological discussion of subordinate 
 doctrines, i. e., doctrines not fundamentally essential 
 to salvation, or with such pure externalities as forms 
 and ceremonies, rituals and polities, and the simple 
 method of doing things. 
 
 The following experience is a beautiful and in- 
 structive illustration of honest intellectual difficulty 
 with the most profound metaphysical problem of 
 Christianity, — the doctrine of the Trinity. The per- 
 son wrestling with this problem was by birth and 
 
 96 
 
HONEST DIFFICULTY WITH A CREED 97 
 
 education a Unitarian. She was a woman about 35 
 years of age, intelligent, thoughtful, devout, relig- 
 iously earnest, and a thorough believer in Christ as 
 the Redeemer of the world. Although within easy 
 reach of a prominent Unitarian church, she was by 
 preference a regular attendant at another church, 
 where worship was warmly evangelical and the 
 Deity of Christ unhesitatingly proclaimed. 
 
 After a year or more of regular fellowship, both 
 at the mid-week prayer meeting as well as at the 
 Sunday services, she was asked if she did not desire 
 to enter into still more vital relations as a member 
 of the church. She replied, " Yes, I would, but I 
 cannot conscientiously subscribe to the first article 
 of your creed. I was brought up a Unitarian, and 
 your creed begins with a statement of your belief in 
 the Trinity." 
 
 " What led you, then, to prefer this church to 
 your own? " 
 
 " The fact that I find myself, in religious experi- 
 ence, more in harmony with and more vitally related 
 here than to the church of my own faith in the city. 
 Moreover, I am more helped and satisfied in my spir- 
 itual life here than there. In all the matters of per- 
 sonal and practical religion I am more truly in fel- 
 lowship with this church than with the church of my 
 childhood." 
 
 "Why, then, not identify yourself with us in 
 church membership?" 
 
 " It would, as I said, not be intellectually honest 
 for me to do so, as I cannot conscientiously subscribe 
 to the doctrine of the Trinity." 
 
98 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 " Your position can be frankly stated to the church 
 committee and to the people of the church, so that 
 you would be relieved of all subterfuge or incon- 
 sistency in the matter." 
 
 " Yes, but this would not satisfy my own heart 
 and conscience, for in subscribing to your creed I 
 would still have to make a mental reservation or 
 evasion." 
 
 " Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God's well- 
 beloved Son, sent to be the Saviour of the world? " 
 
 " Yes, I have no doubt as to that point, but simply 
 as to his equality with the Father, — his standing in 
 the God-head." 
 
 " Have you accepted him as your Saviour, just as 
 we accept him to be our Redeemer ? " 
 
 " Yes, I am sure that I have." 
 
 "Your place, then, from every point of view ex- 
 cept as regards an intricate, not to say infinite meta- 
 physical problem, which no one can ever adequately 
 fathom, is here and not with the Unitarians. Ex- 
 perimentally you are one with us, and on all matters 
 of doctrine, except the one just referred to, you 
 ought to be with us in permanent church fellowship. 
 We believe confidently in the doctrine of the Trinity 
 and in the Deity of Jesus, not because we have 
 fathomed all the mysteries of that historic doctrine, 
 but because we cannot accept Jesus's teachings re- 
 garding himself and the frequent reference to the 
 Trinity in the New Testament without accepting this 
 also. It seems the greater wisdom and reason so to 
 do. Moreover, you have unconsciously paid a 
 tribute to the vital power of this doctrine in ac- 
 
HONEST DIFFICULTY WITH A CREED 99 
 
 knowl edging the greater spiritual vitality of the 
 evangelical faith than of the faith in which you were 
 educated. If it can be made thoroughly plain to our 
 people that you have not yet solved the problem of 
 the doctrine of the Trinity, and that like the rest of 
 us you are still a learner in this, as well as in all the 
 other great truths of the creed, do you think you 
 could consistently unite with us ? " 
 
 She answered, " You have made this so plain that 
 I am willing to do so, provided the people thoroughly 
 understand my position." 
 
 The matter was presented to the congregation at 
 the mid-week service, in her presence, in a way to 
 satisfy her and all concerned. On the Sunday fol- 
 lowing this action she united with the church, and 
 was happy in so doing. Her testimonies to Christian 
 faith and experience in the weekly prayer meetings 
 of the church were among the most vital and spir- 
 itually intelligent given by those who gladly wit- 
 nessed to the saving grace of their Divine Lord. 
 
 As time went on her intellectual difficulties, as to 
 the doctrine of Christ's deity, disappeared. The 
 metaphysical problems of this truth gave way to its 
 practical power. In her beautiful and consistent 
 Christian life she came, unconsciously, to substan- 
 tiate St. Paul's declaration, that faith in the deity of 
 Jesus is not an intellectual but a spiritual acquisition, 
 and that " No man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the 
 Holy Spirit." 
 
 This experience of honest difficulty in entering a 
 church because of inability to apprehend, intellectu- 
 ally, some article of faith, made it evident to the en- 
 
100 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 tire church that subscription to a creed should not 
 be made the condition of membership, but, rather, 
 vital faith in Jesus Christ as one's personal Saviour. 
 The church should, indeed, have its clear statement 
 of doctrine, expressing its consensus of belief and 
 its historic faith, but how can a child, or a person not 
 educated to mature religious thought, intelligently 
 subscribe to a comprehensive creed which required 
 the profound scholarship of able and devout theolo- 
 gians to produce ? It would be utter folly to dispense 
 with such a creed in order to meet the whim, the 
 ignorance or the limitations of an individual member, 
 but it is equal folly to insist, as a condition of mem- 
 bership, that a person of such Hmitations shall sub- 
 scribe to a statement of doctrine which he can, by 
 no possibility, understand. If he can say, " I believe 
 in God ; and that He is my Father ; and that He sent 
 Jesus His well-beloved Son to be my Saviour; I 
 accept him as such, and promise to do his will as 
 best I know how, as taught in the Bible and by the 
 Holy Spirit," this experimental faith is all that any 
 church has a right to ask of any candidate for mem- 
 bership. 
 
 So convinced was the church of this fact, in its 
 admission of this new member, so troubled with in- 
 tellectual difficulty and so conscientious in her hesi- 
 tancy to unite with the church, that by unanimous 
 vote it supplemented its articles of faith with the fol- 
 lowing conditions of membership: 
 
 "The foregoing articles embody the maturest 
 wisdom of the church on matters of Christian faith 
 and doctrine. They are intended as an expression 
 of the fundamental teachings of the Biblical revela- 
 
HONEST DIFFICULTY WITH A CREED 101 
 
 tion, and not as a test of qualification for church 
 membership on the part of those new in faith or im- 
 mature in Christian knowledge. 
 
 The basis of membership in the Kingdom of God 
 is not intellectual acceptance of a creed, but re- 
 pentance of sin, faith in Christ as personal Lord 
 and Saviour, and a purpose to serve Him with all 
 the heart. The Scriptural injunction to grow in 
 knowledge, as well as in grace, implies ignorance 
 and immaturity. The church is the school of faith. 
 Its mission is to educate immature disciples in doc- 
 trine, not to receive those exclusively who have 
 solved all the mysteries of a supernatural revelation. 
 
 Rejection of fundamental Biblical truth would, 
 necessarily, disqualify one for Christian fellowship; 
 otherwise all, however limited their knowledge or 
 rudimentary their faith, who with reverent and 
 teachable mind love Christ and believe themselves 
 /to have been renewed in heart by the Holy Spirit, 
 are entitled to membership in the Church." 
 
 This statement relieved many minds, made the 
 relation of immature Christians to their public con- 
 fession of faith consistent and normal, and pre- 
 vented any recurrence of the difficulty through 
 which the church had just passed. 
 
PART III 
 
 AN ESTIMATE OF VALUES 
 
 XVIII 
 
 THE REWARDS OF PERSONAL 
 EVANGELISM 
 
 NO joy can surpass that of winning a soul to 
 Jesus Christ, or to a higher plane of spir- 
 itual life. This is the " joy of the Lord," 
 the joy felt " in the presence of the angels of God 
 over one sinner that repenteth.'* This was the Mas- 
 ter's abiding happiness, the spiritual contentment and 
 satisfaction that he promised his disciples when he 
 said: "That my joy may be in you, and that your 
 joy may be full." 
 
 " He that winneth souls is wise ; " " And they that 
 be wise," says an ancient prophecy, " shall shine as 
 the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn 
 many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." 
 
 Such are the rewards that come to an efficient 
 workman in the harvest fields of the Master. 
 
 Christianity has been well characterized as the 
 highest form of friendship. It is a friendship not 
 born of human love, a God-inspired affection, an 
 abiding spiritual kinship, the love of Christ repro- 
 ducing in us its own seeking and saving purpose and 
 passion. When this love becomes manifest in a 
 Christian worker, it is welcomed by unchristian men 
 
 102 
 
KEWARDS OF PERSONAL EVANGELISM 103 
 
 with a feeling of confidence, dependence and trust. 
 In the toil, temptation and stress of daily life, human 
 hearts crave the counsel and companionship of some 
 wise and assured friend. The " confessional " is 
 based on a fundamental human need. Young people, 
 especially, with their hunger for the best, their eager 
 outlook on the future, their troubles, doubts, per- 
 plexities and defeats, delight to come to a wise and 
 trusted friend and confide to him their innermost 
 purposes, hopes and desires. This is true, also, of 
 people of any age and in any experience of joy or 
 sorrow or need. 
 
 The following narrative illustrates the intimacy 
 and mutual confidence of such spiritual companion- 
 ship : A young man, from a far-off home, came as a 
 stranger to our church. Although not a professing 
 Christian, he was eager to make his life morally and 
 materially a success. He had not yet settled the 
 problems of personal religion, but was purposing to 
 seek and find the truth as God would have him know 
 it. The welcome given him warmed his heart and 
 stimulated his interest. He was invited to many a 
 personal interview. He responded ardently to Chris- 
 tian ideals of character, and to the light that made 
 the truth and the way plain. It was not long before 
 he and his most intimate friend, in whom this ex- 
 perience was being duplicated, were ready to make 
 public confession of their faith in Christ. As soon 
 as he had made this expression of his consecration 
 and life-purpose, he set to work to interest all young 
 men within the reach of his influence, in the church 
 and in the higher things of life. He became, as did 
 
104 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 his room-mate, a ceaseless, wise, tactful, winsome 
 personal worker, without making it appear as any- 
 thing out of the ordinary. His personal approach 
 was so normal and friendly that it did not appear 
 obtrusive, or even as specifically a religious pro- 
 cedure, but simply a natural conversation upon 
 things of ordinary and mutual concern. He always 
 had in view, however, the basal facts in life, which 
 when rightly presented are to any normal person of 
 absorbing interest. Business promotion soon took 
 him to another city, and one cannot better illustrate 
 the gratitude and affection that reward one for help- 
 ing another to assured ground in faith and religious 
 experience than by quoting from the letter which he 
 wrote after he had gone: 
 
 " I want to tell you what the past year has meant to me 
 in my spiritual life. When I came to C. I had all the de- 
 sires and possibilities for Christian character. I had 
 passed through the sphere of popularity at school and had 
 found it decidedly bubble-like in its termination. Mv habits 
 and desires were Christian; but I held back a considerable 
 part of myself, not knowing that real happiness lies in giv- 
 ing to others. In the wonderful atmosphere of cordiality 
 that surrounded me while in the company of your dear 
 people, I have awakened to the real things of life. In so 
 far as I am permitted I shall work for God's kingdom on 
 earth. 
 
 This is one phase of the change wrought in me, and 
 now I come to another, — not as important as the other, be- 
 cause a result rather than a fundamental. I have been 
 
 successful in my work with the Railroad. But 
 
 do you know that my power to advance has been God-given? 
 The very things that have enabled me to grow in Christ 
 have made it possible for me to go ahead. I am told that 
 I have original methods of organization. I should hardly 
 call them that. My power to gain the co-operation of those 
 under me is due to the fact, whether I realize it or not, that 
 each action of mine is coming more and more to be done 
 in the inspiration of my Christian life. 
 
REWARDS OF PERSONAL EVANGELISM 105 
 
 I am happy as I never knew happiness before. My daily 
 Bible readings are under the halo of a new-found appre- 
 ciation. 
 
 I had wanted to tell you these things by word of mouth, 
 but as it could not be, I have written. In this change of 
 mine your share has been no small one. Words can never 
 express my appreciation of the influence of your spiritual 
 vision upon me. I shall probably never get the opportunity 
 to return it in like measure to you and yours, but I can 
 and will pass it on to others. 
 
 I shall always think of you as among my choicest friends. 
 Your influence has been second to none but my mother's 
 and father's. 
 
 With a son's affection." 
 
 One would not be warranted in publishing such 
 a letter did it not reveal so beautifully the soul con- 
 fidences, the spiritual intimacies that grow up be- 
 tween those who help and those who have been 
 helped in their religious life. One could well afford 
 to give years to unremitting Christian service for the 
 reward of such affectionate gratitude as this. 
 
 No work on earth is so dear to the heart of the 
 Master, so rich in its compensations, so productive 
 of spiritual fruitage in the life of the worker. Face 
 to face with souls he catches his best visions of 
 God; fathoms the laws, processes and mysteries of 
 the human spirit ; discovers the secret of revealed 
 truth; and becomes immovably confident of the 
 eternal verities of the Gospel, made known in him 
 and through him who brought life and immortality 
 to light, and who saici : " He that hath seen me, hath 
 seen the Father." 
 
XIX 
 
 CONCLUSIONS 
 
 THESE narratives of work with individuals 
 could be indefinitely extended. Nothing 
 remains longer or more vividly in mind 
 than the conversations held with persons whom one 
 has sought to win to a vital Christian life. The mind 
 is compelled to be so alert, the heart so full of the 
 passion of the Master, the spirit so under the guid- 
 ance of the Divine Word, that these personal inter- 
 views with souls become a permanent part of one's 
 conscious life. 
 
 I 
 
 One impression that abides after years of the 
 closest work of this kind is the need of a divinely 
 courageous thoroughness in dealing with soids. All 
 souls are alike as regards the universal problem of 
 surrendering the Hfe to God. There may be degrees 
 of conflict, struggle and resistance, but the process 
 and problem in each case is the same, viz.: that of 
 the yielding and obedience of the will to the sover- 
 eignty of God. Jesus Christ must be accepted as 
 Lord and Master, if he is to be received as Saviour, 
 otherwise conversion is superficial, and the Christian 
 hope grounded in self-deception and error. 
 
 This revolutionary work is fundamental to Chris- 
 106 
 
CONCLUSIONS 107 
 
 tian character, and to spiritual intelligence and 
 growth. This is what Jesus meant by being born 
 from above. The Holy Spirit accomplishes his re- 
 newing work when the will of man voluntarily yields 
 to the will of God. Jesus himself is the model here. 
 He said it was ** his meat and drink to do the will 
 of his Father." He lived and moved and had his 
 being in the will of God. It was his supreme aim 
 and delight to " always do those things that are 
 pleasing in his sight." 
 
 To enter the Christian life understanding this, and 
 unreservedly accepting it, guarantees thorough con- 
 version and a life of subsequent growth, satisfaction 
 and joy. 
 
 II 
 
 Oft-repeated and long-continued personal work 
 with people in adult life creates the assured and pro- 
 found conviction that early childhood is God's or- 
 dained time for conversion and spiritual renewal. 
 
 In infancy and before the period of mature and 
 intelligent volition the will is the willing servant of 
 the affections. It chooses gladly what the heart 
 loves. This is true of all undeveloped and undisci- 
 plined persons whether child or adult. The will has 
 not taken its rightful place of sovereignty on the 
 throne of one's being. If the heart always loved 
 what is right and good, the will would have an easy 
 task, and could follow the leadership of the affec- 
 tions without risk to character. All of life's moral 
 disasters come from unregulated affections to which 
 the undisciplined will becomes subservient. 
 
108 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 In childhood the task of guiding the heart to the 
 love of the beautiful, the true and the good, is easy. 
 Children prefer the good to the bad, that which is 
 lovely to that which is ugly, for " of such is the king- 
 dom of heaven." If they are taught early to love 
 the good and the right, the will, under the sway of 
 the pure affection, comes automatically and uncon- 
 sciously into glad harmony with the good. If Christ 
 is loved the will responds to his goodness and sover- 
 eignty, just as a loving and trustful child delights 
 to do the will of a wise and loving parent. This is 
 the work which in the adult is termed conversion. 
 It is exactly the same fundamental process of yield- 
 ing the will to God which in the grown person is at- 
 tended with so much conflict and struggle. In the 
 child the work is far more thorough and complete 
 because it has been accomplished without reserva- 
 tion, distrust and antagonism. The love of a little 
 child knows no hesitancy, fear or resistance. The 
 whole being responds to the goodness and will of 
 God, for the infant heart has never been vitiated by 
 suspecting any difference between his goodness and 
 his will. We enter the realm of life's perversion and 
 falseness when we fear that his will is not good, and 
 are thus despoiled, by doubt and distrust, of the very 
 qualities which Jesus said characterized the little 
 child as belonging to the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 The problem, then, of religious education is to 
 teach the little child to love Jesus Christ, and the 
 beautiful, the true and the good, as they are revealed 
 in him. When the boy and girl of ten or twelve, 
 after a decade of such intelligent, spiritual instruc- 
 
f CONCLUSIONS 109" 
 
 tion, begin to come to self-discovery and self-inter- 
 pretation they find that their wills are set on the side 
 of Christian character and ideals. They instinctively 
 resent evil and fear it because the fundamental 
 energy of their moral being, — the will, — is positively 
 on the side of God and the right. Through an en- 
 tire decade it has been the willing servant and part- 
 ner of a loving heart, of a pure and heaven-inspired 
 affection, and its moral bent is toward the worthiest 
 object of affection and desire. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible to tell, in this beautiful 
 process of development, when the renewing work of 
 the Holy Spirit is accomplished. There are instances 
 in which the spiritual heritage is so vital and strong 
 as to warrant the belief that the second birth, the 
 " new birth," is synchronous with the first, the spir- 
 itual with the physical. God's covenant promise in- 
 cludes such a spiritual possibility. 
 
 The modern psychologist who would postpone 
 conversion until the period of adolescence, and prac- 
 tically identify it with the changes wrought by 
 nature in the physical system at this crucial era, is 
 nothing less than a pure theorist. He is entirely 
 outside the realm of practical knowledge and experi- 
 ence. He is innocent of the certified conclusions of 
 those who have gained their knowledge in the clinic 
 of personal work with youthful souls. 
 
 The storm and stress of the adolescent period do, 
 indeed, deeply affect the religious nature and render 
 the battle of the soul described in an earlier chapter 
 strenuously intense. This period of physical and 
 emotional change awakens the consciousness of per- 
 
110 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 sonal independence and individuality. It is the time 
 when mind, heart and will begin to resent interfer- 
 ence and outside control. The young person takes 
 the reins of control into his own hands, becomes a 
 law unto himself, rebels against authority, pulls 
 away from restraint and guidance, and battles with 
 conscience and the call of God. Under sympathetic 
 and helpful leadership many a boy and girl win the 
 good fight in this era of moral conflict, but their con- 
 version is anything but a natural evolution. They 
 are victorious only as the moral will makes an intelli- 
 gent and definite issue between right and wrong, be- 
 tween God and self. 
 
 Instead of being the normal time of conversion 
 it is by the very nature of the case one of the most 
 difficult times. The work of religious education and 
 moral choice should have been accomplished before 
 this period of change. Early conversion prepares 
 one for this era of stress and safeguards him while 
 passing through it. It makes the battle less intense 
 and more certain of a favourable issue. It tides one 
 over and carries him through the most critical period 
 in life by the power of a love already centered upon 
 the good, and allegiant to Jesus Christ. No risk is 
 greater than that of deferring the soul's absolute 
 commitment to God until the age of adolescence. 
 The entire moral and spiritual being should be cen- 
 tered in Christ long before this era. Any pastor 
 who has done thorough and intelligent work knows 
 that the average child of seven can understand and 
 definitely appropriate the gracious and saving love 
 of God at that early age. There is sometimes a very 
 
CONCLUSIONS 111 
 
 beautiful and surprising spiritual maturity in little 
 children. Religion is as suited to the early youthful 
 mind and heart as sunshine to flowers, as music to 
 birds, as beauty to the eye. Purity and love are the 
 element in which they were born to live and move 
 and have their being. The Catholic church is far 
 more discerning of this possibility of the child's spir- 
 itual nature than the average Protestant church. Its 
 entire method of instruction and discipline is con- 
 ducted on the principle that the whole bent of the mind 
 and soul should be definitely and permanently fixed 
 before the adolescent age. Its hold on its adherents, 
 be it good or bad, is due to this intelligent philosophy 
 of the spiritual possibilities of the child. 
 
 Some of the most beautiful, satisfactory and in- 
 telligent conversions the writer has ever known have 
 taken place in children of seven years of age. And 
 the work of grace wrought then is always deeper, 
 more stable, more enduring than that wrought in 
 adult life. It gets possession, then, of the entire 
 heart and moral being. The attempt to convert adult 
 people whose religious nurture was neglected in 
 childhood is not only a difficult task, but one that is 
 performed at the cost of an enormous expenditure, 
 not to say waste, of energy. It means the overcom- 
 ing of a will long set in the wrong direction, the mas- 
 tery of long established habits, the reversal of the 
 very currents of one's being, — thought, belief, affec- 
 tion, desire, purpose. This can, by the grace of God, 
 be permanently achieved in multitudes of people. 
 The Holy Spirit can work this miracle of spiritual 
 renewal in any heart, at any period in life, when the 
 
112 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 will of man becomes responsive and obedient to the 
 will of God. But what a saving of conflict and effort 
 to believe that God*s time for this gracious and glori- 
 ous work is in infancy and early childhood. 
 
 The writer has received a goodly number of chil- 
 dren into the church at the early age of seven. 
 Their religious experience was in some instances as 
 definite and remarkable as an adult conversion. At 
 the close of a mid-week prayer meeting a child of 
 seven came to her pastor with her mother and said: 
 " I would like to unite with the church at the 
 next communion." "You do, my dear. Why?" 
 She answered, "You know that I have been very 
 sick. One day I heard father and mother praying 
 that God would spare my life, and that I might get 
 well. I knew that I must be very sick, and I prom- 
 ised Jesus that if he would spare my life I would 
 love him with all my heart and live for him, and 
 unite with the church; and now I want to keep my 
 promise." The dear child had wrought the problem 
 out by herself. It was a very deep and beautiful 
 work of grace. Her parents had not directed her 
 at all in the matter. She united with the church at 
 the appointed time. Her Christian life to full-grown 
 womanhood and to motherhood has been one of the 
 most serene, strong, victorious and steadily beautiful 
 lives her pastor has ever known. 
 
 Other children of seven have come to him with the 
 same request, asking the privilege of confessing 
 Christ as their Saviour in public. In each case the 
 child had had, even at that early age, some spiritual 
 conflict or crisis, or some marked and blessed experi- 
 
CONCLUSIONS 113 
 
 ence of the love of God in Christ Jesus. The ca- 
 pacity of a child of seven to know God, and the 
 maturity of its spiritual experience are rarely dis- 
 cerned, understood, appreciated. The doubting of 
 this early capacity is one of the severest reflections 
 on the spiritual intelligence of adults, and one of the 
 chief sins of religious teachers against the plan and 
 will of God, as well as against the spiritual nature 
 of childhood. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Personal evangelism reveals the divine insight and 
 power of the Word of God, and the necessity of its 
 constant and familiar use in the work of winning 
 souls to Jesus Christ. It is the text-book of the spir- 
 itual life. It is scientific in its method and in the 
 subtle accuracy of its knowledge. It is the only book 
 in the world that makes known " the law of the spirit 
 of life in Christ Jesus " by which men are " set free 
 from the law of sin and death." What Jesus is in 
 his moral perfection and ideals to the moral life of 
 mankind, his recorded words and the writings of 
 Paul and John are to the knowledge of the human 
 soul. No other writings can be made a substitute 
 in guiding men into the light. Back of all experience 
 and personal testimony must be the corrective and 
 authority of the Holy Scriptures. Their searching 
 tests are never to be modified or displaced. The 
 Bible is veritably the Book of Life. It is the instru- 
 ment of the Spirit in conviction and conversion. It 
 is a lamp, a light, a sword, a hammer breaking the 
 flinty rock in pieces, an interpreter of the inner life. 
 
114 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 a quickener of the mind, a regenerator of the soul 
 through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through its 
 power the personal evangelist is able to convict men 
 of sin and show them the pathway to life. Without 
 it argument and appeal are practically useless. Its 
 working passages should be at the tongue's end and 
 finger-tips of every would-be winner of souls. 
 
 As a text-book in psychology it surpasses all the 
 discoveries, skill, science and philosophies of the 
 world's most eminent specialists. It never theorizes, 
 it proclaims. It never guesses, but speaks with the 
 authority of known truth. It makes man acquainted 
 with himself because it makes him acquainted with 
 God. As regards the fundamental qualities of his 
 moral and spiritual being, self-knowledge is impos- 
 sible without this higher vision. Without an experi- 
 mental knowledge of the Word of God the personal 
 worker can neither know himself nor his fellow- 
 men. In all winsome and effective ministry this 
 must be his constant companion and guide. 
 
 IV 
 
 Instruction in personal evangelism should be a part 
 of the curriculum of every church and of every 
 theological seminary. 
 
 Back of it, as its prime essential, should be such 
 a vital belief in the gospel, and such a spiritual vital- 
 ity as to create, in its membership, Christ's passion 
 for souls. But inspiration must be followed by spe- 
 cific instruction; quickening of mind, heart and 
 spirit, by commitment to definite personal work. 
 
 Every Sunday School teacher should be a winner 
 
CONCLUSIONS 115 
 
 t 
 
 of souls, a skilled evangelist. His work fails utterly 
 of accomplishing its purpose unless it issues in the 
 conversion of the young people committed to his 
 care. All the officers of a church should be capable 
 of being entrusted with the delicate task of leading 
 an inquiring soul into the light. They should be 
 made to feel that official spiritual leadership is in- 
 consistent without qualification for this supreme 
 work. To this end their office was created. For this 
 purpose the church itself, in all its administrative 
 functions, exists. A church that does not make all 
 its executive and spiritual work focus on the salva- 
 tion of all the individuals to whom it ministers is not 
 fulfilling its God-given mission. 
 
 The ministry itself should be qualified to educate 
 and organize the church for this supreme task of 
 winning men to Christ. If our theological semi- 
 naries cannot have the equivalent of a clinic in this 
 department of instruction, they should be religiously 
 vital enough to impress and convince every candidate 
 for the pastorate, that his first duty is to be qualified 
 to lead men to God, and to make his church a con- 
 verting and redeeming agency in the community. 
 Because this fundamental aim of the church is not 
 ceaselessly kept at the front in all departments of 
 theological instruction, many men consecrated to the 
 ministry spend their lives in conducting services and 
 in running the machinery of an organization. Dr. 
 G. Campbell Morgan is right in saying that a so- 
 ciety, department or organization of any kind in the 
 church has no right to exist except its specific and 
 fundamental aim is to assist in the process of win- 
 
116 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 ning men vitally to Jesus Christ. Its social work 
 should all be a means to this end. Its amusements, 
 as truly as its preaching and devotional services, 
 should be planned and conducted with this ultimate 
 end in view. Secular entertainment in the church 
 gradually undermines its spiritual influence and robs 
 it of its spiritual motive and power. In meeting the 
 social needs of people and their desire for recreation 
 and a good time, the church must ever keep vividly 
 in mind the end in view, viz.: the salvation of the 
 soul, and its effort to be attractive and winsome must 
 be lifted to this lofty point of vision and purpose. 
 
 " It took me six months to get spiritually warmed 
 up after leaving the theological seminary," said a 
 gifted young minister. He affirmed that the em- 
 phasis on intellectual work was so exclusive, and the 
 treatment of the Bible and religion so cold, philo- 
 sophic and rationalistic that he found himself with- 
 out a message for his people and unable to minister 
 to their spiritual needs. He said that the first half- 
 year in his work as pastor and preacher was a most 
 painful experience, for he was compelled to readjust 
 most of his thinking, and warm up a heart that had 
 become scholastic, perfunctory, and passionless. That 
 this is too common an experience is a severe reflec- 
 tion on the quality of spiritual work done, and the 
 religious aim generated in some of our theological 
 seminaries. 
 
 While this was not the writer's experience he, 
 nevertheless, cannot credit the seminary with any- 
 thing that approximated specific instruction in the art 
 of personal evangelism, or oft-repeated emphasis 
 
CONCLUSIONS 117 
 
 upon the fact that it is the minister's first task to 
 make himself a winner of souls, that every sermon, 
 every department of work, every society and organ- 
 ization in the church should have this as its initial 
 and ultimate aim. 
 
 Religious experience is not an emotional and senti- 
 mental thing, but the most intelligent, deliberate, ra- 
 tional factor in life. It is the discovery and appro- 
 priation of life according to God's ideal and plan. 
 The passion of the great apostle who said, " Breth- 
 ren, I beseech you, by the mercies of God, to present 
 your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to 
 God, which is your reasonable, — rational, spiritual, — 
 service," illustrates .the motive that should give in- 
 spiration to every theological teacher, every minister, 
 every church, every official and member in the 
 church. In other words, there must be a revival of 
 the spiritual passion of the early Christian, through- 
 out the rank and file of the church to-day, if the 
 church is to make itself the leading and the con- 
 structive power in the life of our age. It will be 
 swamped, amid the seething currents of our indus- 
 trial, commercial, political, and grossly worldly social 
 life unless it has this all-conquering passion. 
 
 The church must put new emphasis on its evan- 
 gelistic mission. It must recover its effectiveness in 
 winning souls. It must train its officials and teach- 
 ers, and inspire its new converts to this end. It will 
 then find itself coming back to a normal, sane, vital, 
 joyous, winsome, convincing, victorious spiritual life. 
 
 That this new day is dawning is the confident 
 belief of many of the spiritual leaders of our time. 
 
XX 
 
 A FINAL WORD OF TESTIMONY 
 
 ONE who has watched the course of human 
 events and the transmutations of thought 
 during an active ministry of forty and two 
 years would have a dull heart and a barren experi- 
 ence had he no convictions to record and no testi- 
 mony to give after such a period of observation and 
 discovery. Among the indelible impressions made 
 by these more than two score years, are : 
 
 I 
 
 The change ahleness and unreliability of human 
 thought. The rapidity with which new theories, 
 isms, doctrinal fads, and scientific pronouncements, 
 succeed and displace each other, is a startling evi- 
 dence of this fact. 
 
 Christianity would be in a sad plight if its adher- 
 ents must needs be thrown into perturbations by 
 every wind of doctrine, scientific or religious, that 
 sweeps across its horizon. Unless it is grounded in 
 elemental truth, and in laws, principles, processes 
 and experience that are the same from age to age, 
 then its house is built on shifting sand. If the an- 
 cient psalmist, with great calmness of faith, could 
 say, " Be still, and know that I am God," much more 
 can the Christian believer of to-day. If Paul, in the 
 118 
 
A FINAL WORD OF TESTIMONY 119 
 
 maelstrom of seething conflict and persecution could 
 with quietness and serenity affirm, " I know him 
 whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is 
 able to guard that which I have committed unto him 
 against that day," surely the faith of this later :\gQ 
 should be even more peaceful and assured. " The 
 peace which passeth all understanding " is no myth 
 of an outgrown sentimentalism, but the permanent 
 heritage of those who have experienced " the power 
 of an endless Hfe." He who is hesitating, timid or 
 apologetic in his attitude to or in his proclamation 
 of the Gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, 
 has not gone deeply enough in his religious experi- 
 ence to apprehend the verities of his own faith, or 
 the eternal vitalities of the Christian religion. A 
 new note of confidence throughout the Church and 
 the pulpit of to-day would be like ozone to gasping 
 lungs, or like tonic to an enfeebled heart. 
 
 (i) During the first decade of the period under 
 consideration the Christian world was thrown into 
 violent discussion and controversy by the theory of 
 a Second Probation for the unsaved, after death. 
 Born of the personal incompatibilities, not to say 
 antagonisms, of two eminent professors in one theo- 
 logical seminary, the conflict of feeling soon preoc- 
 cupied the pulpit and press of Protestantism, and at 
 last converted the platform of the oldest Foreign 
 Missionary Board in the country into a battle-ground 
 of contending opinions, on which the giants of the 
 denomination matched each other with impassioned 
 eloquence and masterful debate. It was a brilliant, 
 heated controversy which stirred men's souls to their 
 
120 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 profoundest depths. The most eminent, historic, 
 Puritan church in New England threw down the 
 gauntlet to the American Board by refusing to con- 
 tinue its munificent contributions to missions unless 
 a certain young advocate of Second Probation was 
 commissioned to the foreign field. Against the best 
 wisdom and conservative judgment of the Board, for 
 the sake of peace, this concession was made. Time 
 soon passed verdict on this action. The young mis- 
 sionary, finding himself without an adequate evangel 
 and unfitted for his uncongenial task, early sought 
 refuge in another vocation. The universal silence 
 that followed his resignation was more eloquent than 
 speech. In a decade the contention that had filled a 
 hemisphere with its logomachies and had grieved the 
 Church with its needless and useless strife, suddenly 
 dropped out of public interest and discussion. The 
 issue has never been revived. 
 
 (2) Speedily another tidal wave of controversy 
 swept over the entire Christian world, as the result 
 of the new views of the Bible presented by the often 
 misunderstood science of " Higher Criticism." The 
 negative and " destructive " nature of some of its 
 conclusions did, indeed, threaten the authority and 
 integrity of the Bible. In their extreme form they 
 found expression in the kaleidoscopic colours of the 
 Polychrome Bible. The minute and fanciful analysis 
 which assigned the Biblical text, by sheer guess- 
 work, to an indefinite number of imaginary authors, 
 caused the eminent professor, George Park Fisher, 
 to judicially affirm : " These colours will fade." 
 They faded before the general public had oppor- 
 
A FINAL WORD OF TESTIMONY 121 
 
 tunity even to see them. Another keen valuation of 
 this extravagant type of literary conjecture is given 
 in the following quotation from the writings of 
 Dr. George A. Gordon, one of the profoundest 
 philosophers and metaphysicians and one of the most 
 liberal preachers of this generation : " A work of 
 pure skepticism, directed against historical criticism, 
 would greatly clear up a confused, an almost intoler- 
 able situation. Analysis and elimination, on the basis 
 of arbitrary like and dislike, have done their work; 
 the theory that, in order to get the historical situa- 
 tion represented by an ancient literary production, it 
 is necessary first to tear it to tatters, is beginning to 
 lose interest for sensible men. * * * it would 
 seem that one is hardly justified thus to reduce 
 author or editor or both to lunacy or want of con- 
 science, in order to buttress a theory. General cleav- 
 ages are evident, grand outlines obviously declare 
 their difference; it is another matter to reduce criti- 
 cism of ancient documents to the play of a puppy 
 with a rag." 
 
 Time has drawn a clear line of demarcation be- 
 tween the constructive and destructive elements in 
 modern Biblical studies, and the Church is no longer 
 solicitous as to the security and trustworthiness of 
 the inspired Word. 
 
 (3) The Theory of Evolution, in its turn, com- 
 manded the center of human thought, with its amaz- 
 ing reversals of human opinion as to the age of the 
 world and the method of its creation. The Chris- 
 tian world soon came to realize that a difference in 
 method in no way controverts belief in the neces- 
 
122 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 sity of an infinite, omnipresent and omnipotent 
 Creator, that truth in one realm can never conflict 
 with truth in another realm, and that true science 
 and true religion must not only be in harmony with 
 each other, but also in actual partnership, both being 
 expressions of the same infinite Intelligence , and 
 purpose. 
 
 A revival of the outgrown controversy by certain 
 modern literalists is a unique illustration of incon- 
 sistency, inasmuch as the Fundamentalists refuse to 
 be guided and assured by the wisdom and sane ad- 
 vice of Gamaliel, who prevented the belligerent con- 
 servers of orthodoxy in his day from killing the 
 advocates of the new faith, saying : " Refrain from 
 these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or 
 this work be of men, it will be overthrown: but if 
 it be of God, ye will not be able to overthrow them ; 
 lest haply ye be found even to be fighting against 
 God." 
 
 The Church in its sanest leadership, to-day, is 
 resting in the calm assurance that truth is ultimately 
 its own vindicator, and that error or false doctrine 
 cannot long contend successfully against it. 
 
 3. Another phase of the world's rapidly changing 
 thought is seen in 
 
 (4) The lamentable and ominous estrangement, 
 on the part of many of the larger colleges and uni- 
 versities, from the Church, and even from vital 
 Christianity. There are splendid exceptions to this 
 rule. Some of our smaller colleges still retain their 
 evangelical spirit and purpose. 
 
 As indicated in the preceding paragraphs, the past 
 
A FINAL WORD OF TESTIMONY 123 
 
 two decades and more have been a period of scien- 
 tific investigation and inquiry. No department of 
 the universe has intentionally been left unexplored. 
 Nothing has been taken for granted. Ancient sanc- 
 tities have been ignored. The iconoclasm of cher- 
 ished beliefs has been ruthless. The quality of per- 
 sonal religion has declined, and the devotional life, 
 on the part of multitudes, has suffered eclipse. 
 Moreover, speciahzation in departments of science 
 has dwarfed technical students to narrow realms, in- 
 terest and vision. Human values have been lost to 
 view. Character, the chief end of education, a gen- 
 eration ago, has ceased to be an object of concern 
 on the part of the average college instructor. Facul- 
 ties, once constituted of devoutly religious, spirit- 
 ually minded men, now rarely acknowledge interest 
 in the work and worship of the Church. The ex- 
 treme to which this agnosticism can go is illustrated 
 by this verbatim quotation from the recent utterance 
 of the head of a department in one of our largest 
 state universities : " To me the world seems a rotten 
 apple, covered with vermin, swung at the end of a 
 string by an idiot boy, by the light of a guttering 
 candle." Such is the creed of this scientific mate- 
 rialist. If this is all that scientific scholarship can 
 give the world, such scholarship is not worth the 
 having. It dwells in a cave of its own making, which 
 shuts out the blue vault of heaven and the radiance 
 of skies luminous with sunlight or with the splen- 
 dour of constellations that open to undimmed eyes a 
 universe abounding with evidence of an infinite, al- 
 mighty and all-wise Creator. 
 
124 MASTER^S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 The picture is not one of unrelieved gloom. The 
 very questionings of an age, if sincere, are evidence 
 that the human mind will not rest satisfied until its 
 problems are solved. Moreover, the Church may be, 
 in part, to blame for the negations of the hour. As 
 soon as it gives proof of possessing the dynamic of 
 divine power, and the purpose and passion of an 
 exhaustless love, its testimony will be irresistible and 
 skepticism will vanish in its presence as the mists of 
 morning are dissolved by the warmth and glory of 
 the rising sun. 
 
 II 
 
 Another verified impression of the passing years 
 is the incapacity of the mind to apprehend the deeper 
 truths of life and religion apart from the intuitions 
 of a renewed spirit. The indwelling love of God is 
 the light of all our seeing. " In him was Hfe ; and 
 the life was the light of men." 
 
 It is difficult to understand how any man can 
 escape becoming a rationalist, in view of life's mys- 
 teries and of the limitations of human knowledge, 
 unless he has had some evidence of supernatural 
 power. As far as the writer is concerned, a far- 
 reaching work of grace that visibly and permanently 
 transformed the lives of nearly two hundred people, 
 in his early ministry, forever banished doubt as to 
 the verities of Pentecost and the miracle of the new 
 birth. That work, so deep and abiding, so beneficent 
 and redemptive, steadied him through all the shift- 
 ing phases of human thought in after years, and dis- 
 pelled uncertainty as to the divinity of Jesus, the per- 
 
A FINAL WORD OF TESTIMONY 125 
 
 sonality of the Holy Spirit, and the need of spiritual 
 renewal on the part of all mankind. Without such 
 showers from on high and such confirmations in 
 one's innermost life, the fountains of the deep dry 
 up in the human soul, and the intellect becomes 
 agnostic as to the deeper verities of truth and Hfe. 
 
 Books are essential to the nourishment of the 
 mind, but books alone leave the intellect high up on 
 the sands and rocks of a surfless shore. Only as 
 one launches out into the deep, and lets down the 
 net, and draws it in laden with fish, has he the proof 
 that every spiritual being needs of God's presence 
 and renewing power. The sight of one life gen- 
 uinely saved has more confirming effect on one's con- 
 victions and faith than all the intellectual gropings 
 of a lifetime. The supreme need of the Church and 
 of its ministry to-day is the confirming evidence of 
 such spiritual renewals of its own life and of the life 
 of the outside world. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Such are the conditions, opportunities and prob- 
 lems that evermore confront the Church. Can the 
 Church meet and vanquish the stupendous obstacles 
 that challenge its power? Can it win the agnostic 
 scholarship in our higher institutions of learning to 
 faith and to sympathetic co-operation with its God- 
 given task? Can it purge politics of corruption, and 
 industry and trade of unfraternal strife? Can it re- 
 organize society on the basis of brotherly love, and 
 make the principles and spirit of the kingdom of God 
 operative in all human afifairs? These are the ques- 
 
126 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 tions that underly and give inspiration to all intelli- 
 gent and effective evangelism. 
 
 For the Christian there is but one answer to these 
 inquiries. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day 
 and forever. The potentialities of the Gospel do not 
 vary from age to age. The evangel that made the 
 early Christians victorious over the paganism of a 
 benighted and hostile empire can, from the stand- 
 point of its present prestige and renown, work 
 mightier miracles than past centuries have ever 
 known. The marvel of Christianity is its timeless- 
 ness. Its truths are not subject to the moods and 
 tendencies of the fleeting generations. They do not 
 veer with every shifting wind of human doctrine. 
 He alone, of all men, is up-to-date who stands side 
 by side with the Master at the van of human prog- 
 ress, thinking his thoughts and doing his work. 
 
 The Golden Age of Christianity lies in the future, 
 not in the past. Multiplying signs indicate that the 
 Church is on the threshold of a new heroic era, sur- 
 passing in glory and achievement the brightest era 
 of days gone by. There are those, in increasing num- 
 bers, who are confidently assured of this, and who 
 are preparing themselves in mind and heart for their 
 God-given opportunity and task. The problem of 
 the Church is to equip its membership for the new 
 crusade. If the forbidding, agnostic, immoral eigh- 
 teenth century could blossom out into the evangel- 
 istic and missionary fervour of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, through the preaching of Wesley and his godly 
 confreres, surely this era of calamity and war, of 
 materialism and gross evil, can and will experience 
 
A FINAL WORD OF TESTIMONY 127 
 
 a similar reaction, revulsion and revival, until the 
 very forces of our material civilization become agen- 
 cies of spiritual power in the kingdom of the living 
 God. 
 
 IV 
 
 Finally, the most assured, invincible, restful con- 
 viction that has resulted from a life study of spir- 
 itual verities in self and in others is that the Church 
 must return to its original evangel of salvation 
 through faith in the mercy, grace and forgiving love 
 of a Divine Redeemer. This is not merely a question 
 of the modern interpretation of the Person of Jesus, 
 or of the efficacy of the atonement, but of man's per- 
 manent and inherently right relation to an infinitely 
 holy God. The doctrine of Justification by Faith 
 runs far back of any conception of Christ's person 
 and sacrificial work. Abraham apprehended it when 
 he abandoned all claim to an adequate, self-acquired 
 and satisfying righteousness of his own. His justifi- 
 cation was the result of a faith which surrendered 
 all title to personal merit, and which was " reckoned 
 to him for righteousness," because in its renounce- 
 ment of self-worthiness and in its utter abandon- 
 ment to the will and guidance of Jehovah, it poten- 
 tially included the righteousness which God required. 
 
 The spiritual life of the modern Church is becom- 
 ing too shallow to apprehend the philosophy of the 
 Gospel, which is the philosophy of redemption. Uni- 
 tarianism, notwithstanding its intellectual culture and 
 its ethical idealism, stands not only for an inadequate 
 appreciation of Christ's person and work, but also 
 
128 MASTER'S METHOD OF WINNING MEN 
 
 for a superficial spiritual life. " No man can say, 
 Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit." The secret 
 of an effective evangel is in making men conscious 
 of their spiritual poverty and of their need of God's 
 infinite and saving grace. Irrespective of Christ's 
 presence in history this is the permanent need of the 
 v^orld. Through his capacity to reveal and meet this 
 need, Jesus becomes " the Way, the Truth and the 
 Life " for all mankind. From Abraham to the fifty- 
 third chapter of Isaiah, from Isaiah to Paul, from 
 Paul to Luther, and from Luther to the present hour, 
 the gospel that has had a revolutionary effect on 
 human character and life, that has actually redeemed 
 men from the love and power of sin, has been the 
 gospel of a sacrificial love embodied in the teachings 
 of Jesus, and defined and expressed in the historic 
 doctrine of Justification by Faith. To surrender this 
 doctrine is to abandon Christianity as a redemptive 
 religion. 
 
 Whenever the Church has allowed the New Testa- 
 ment to speak its own unqualified message, without 
 apology or adulteration, it has gripped the conscience 
 and regenerated the life of entire generations. Its 
 unhesitating proclamation to-day will accomplish the 
 same re-creative work, and will prove the Gospel, as 
 twenty centuries have already proved it, to be " the 
 power of God to every one that believeth." 
 
 Printed in United States of America 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 
 
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