3/EKY CHURCH 
 TS OWN EVANGEtlS 
 
 .OREN M. EDWARDS 
 
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 Every church its own 
 evangelist 
 
EVERY CHURCH 
 
 ITS OWN 
 
 EVANGELIST 
 
 BY ."" 
 
 LOREN M. EDWARDS 
 
 THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 
 NEW YORK CINCINNATI 
 
Copyright. 1917, by 
 LOREN M. EDWARDS 
 
 First Edition Printed October, 1917 
 Reprinted January, 1918; July, 1920 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Foreword 7 
 
 I. The Church's Evangelistic Pastor ... 11 
 
 II. The Church's Evangelistic Creed .... 26 
 
 III. The Church's Evangelistic Example. . 42 
 
 IV. The Church's Evangelistic Oppor- 
 
 tunity 62 
 
 V. The Church's Evangelistic Climate . . 78 
 
 VI. The Church's Evangelistic Cross .... 91 
 
 VII. The Church's Evangelistic Crown . . . 104 
 
 Afterword 122 
 
 Appendix 124 
 
TO MT FATHER, THE REVEREND CHARLEB C. EDWARDS^ 
 D.D., MY FIRST PASTOR, AT WHOSE ALTAR I HADE MT 
 FIRST CHRISTIAN CONSECRATION AND FROM WHOSE 
 FRUITFUL MINISTRY I LEARNED MY FIRST LESSONS IN 
 PASTORAL EVANGELISM, AND TO BELLE MCCLAIN 
 EDWARDS, WHOSE MOTHER LOVE AND PRAYERS HAVB 
 STAYED ME IN MY CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE AND 
 HAVE HELPED TO HOLD ME IN THE PATH OF EVAN- 
 GELISTIC MINISTRY, THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY 
 AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The man has not yet appeared who is to 
 say the final word on evangelism, nor is the 
 time ripe for saying it. The time is always 
 ripe, however, for the recital of experience in 
 a field so vast and yet so vital, so comprehensive 
 and yet so central, as the evangelistic field. 
 
 Evangelism cannot be epitomized in a sen- 
 tence, it cannot be compassed in an epigram, 
 it cannot be reduced to a formulary statement. 
 It is so much a part of the religious life of the 
 church that it cannot be galvanized into un- 
 changing forms nor comprehended in unchang- 
 ing methods. 
 
 If it is to reach the life of the day, it must 
 express itself in the nomenclature of the people; 
 if it is to win in the midst of the intense social 
 and commercial struggles and allurements, it 
 must adapt itself to modern methods, literally 
 becoming "all things to all men." 
 
 This modest volume is not an attempt to 
 present an exhaustive treatise in evangelism. 
 It is not a statement of theory nor a philosophy 
 of evangelistic procedure. 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 It is merely the testimony of a pastor who 
 has stressed the evangelistic note during a 
 ministry covering seventeen years and has used 
 as a working basis the hypothesis of personal 
 and social redemption as his lifework. Since 
 it has been found to be successful under diverse 
 conditions and over the stretch of these years, 
 he feels that certain deductions are reasonably 
 safe. 
 
 While giving full recognition and cordial 
 sympathy to those forms of social and world 
 evangelism which are now much in public 
 discussion, and while trying with all possible 
 fidelity to do a pastor's full work in the leader- 
 ship of community and social reconstruction 
 according to Christian principles, yet the limits 
 of this discussion are, necessarily, such that 
 those features of evangelism must be over- 
 passed. For the present, therefore, the scope 
 of our treatment will be the field of personal 
 and local church evangelism, which presents to 
 the pastor its urgent challenge and from which 
 he is able to reap rich harvests. 
 
 No special literary merit is claimed for this 
 book, but in the hope that experiences which 
 have been stimulating and methods which have 
 been successful and conditions which have in 
 
 8 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 them the elements of general interest may 
 perform a larger service, the activities of a 
 busy pastorate have been punctuated with 
 preparation for this work. 
 
 The evangelistic leaders of various com- 
 munions have been a constant inspiration to 
 me, and their plans and methods have been 
 adapted with utmost freedom to the condi- 
 tions with which I found myself confronted. 
 The nature of this book removes the necessity 
 of a complete bibliography, and yet there are 
 listed in the Appendix such discussions as 
 have been of special service in evangelistic 
 preaching and plans. 
 
 Many have written and spoken on the 
 various aspects of this theme. Out of the 
 studies of the years it is not unlikely that 
 absorption has been so thorough as to bear 
 even yet strong resemblances to the thoughts 
 and utterances of others. 
 
 The most that can be said now is that such 
 processes are quite unconscious at the date 
 of writing, except where quotation marks in- 
 dicate a direct following of another's trail. 
 
 It will be observed that the deductions 
 herein made are the result of evangelistic 
 experience in various kinds of pastoral fields — 
 
 9 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 rural, village, suburban, and city. Methods 
 and plans must always be adapted to the 
 local situation, but many of those detailed in 
 these pages have been operated with gratify- 
 ing success on charges out in the open country 
 as well as in town and city. 
 
 Much of the material used in the following 
 pages has been employed in public addresses 
 on evangelism at conferences, colleges, district 
 meetings, and institutes. In the assurances 
 given on such occasions that it might be used 
 of God in a wider range of service it is now 
 committed to pubHcation with the hopes and 
 prayers of 
 
 The Author 
 
 Baltimore, August, 1917. 
 
 10 
 
THE CHURCH'S EVANGELISTIC 
 PASTOR 
 
 The pastor of every evangelical church 
 should be his own evangelist. It seems almost 
 gratuitous to pause longer than is required 
 for the mere statement of such a proposition. 
 From the earliest traditions of the churches, 
 throughout the teachings of the fathers, on 
 to the latest, freshest experimental triumph, 
 the constant ideal, the highest goal, the loftiest 
 aim, the consuming passion of the real prophet 
 of God, is evangelism in some form. 
 
 And yet when one ponders the fact that in 
 five of our greatest denominations more than 
 thirty per cent of the local churches report 
 not a single accession on confession of faith 
 in twelve months' labor, the way is lighted 
 for just one conclusion, namely, that this 
 evangelistic ideal for pastors has not functioned 
 to any large extent. 
 
 To be sure, an exaggerated statement cuts 
 
 through its own scabbard and dulls itself, and 
 
 an undue emphasis upon evangelism in the 
 
 11 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 program of the pastor defeats its own purpose. 
 There are many lines of ministerial activity. 
 The minister is a religious teacher, his duties 
 are didactic, his training and habits are those 
 of the scholar, his workshop is his study. 
 Therefore there is some show of truth in the 
 contention on the part of many preachers 
 that their scholarly tastes and pursuits unj&t 
 them for evangelists. *T am not an evangehst," 
 announced the pastor of a large church, with 
 a suspicion of superiority in tone and man- 
 ner. 
 
 No one in a moment of sanity would cast 
 any aspersions at broad scholarship. Neither 
 would he discredit learning on the part of 
 the preacher. The minister needs the deep 
 and strong foundations of intellectual train- 
 ing for the fine structure of his later serv- 
 ice; his scholarship can be none too thorough 
 and none too accurate. But the scholar's 
 besetting temptation is in the direction of 
 coldness. He finds it difficult to keep human 
 interest alive in the midst of his studies of an- 
 tiquities or of abstractions of thought. More- 
 over, he is likely to give abnormal emphasis to 
 points of microscopic value while the currents 
 
 of truly great interest sweep past him unnoticed. 
 
 12 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC PASTOR 
 
 One who spends all his time digging into 
 Greek and Hebrew roots, who exhausts his 
 sympathies upon Egyptian mummies or ancient 
 Hittites, or the inhabitants of buried Drehem, 
 comes to feel that an iota subscript or a vowel 
 point is a real factor in human destiny, that 
 a Sumerian record of the sale of a box of pet 
 parrots is an absorbing human document, and 
 that if some storied king cannot be located as 
 to dynasty, century, and circumstances, civil- 
 ization in this day cannot advance. 
 
 Scholarship may adorn the pulpit as a queenly 
 gown adorns a lovely woman, but scholarly 
 activities should not overshadow all else. Let 
 our learned ministers lay their scholarly attain- 
 ments on the altar of the church, let them divide 
 their time of digging between Greek and 
 Hebrew roots and the darkened haunts of 
 vice and the festering purlieus of the wretched 
 all around them. Let them not exhaust their 
 sympathies upon the entombed mummies of 
 ancient cities, but save some portion of this 
 alabaster ointment for the weary heads and 
 the tired hands and the crushed hearts of 
 neighbors in the next block and of folks who 
 get their mail at the same post office. Let 
 them know that humanity in our day needs 
 
 13 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 even more than erudition and intellectual 
 brilliancy and the knowledge of encyclopaedic 
 learning, the red blood of encouragement, and 
 the warm fragrance of love. 
 
 Even a scholarly minister can take fire with 
 a holy passion for man, while a savant in the 
 pulpit may incandesce with the white fervor 
 of evangelism. 
 
 The minister is also a pastor, a visitor 
 throughout his parish, a caller on sick and 
 needy and afflicted. Yet no amount of parish 
 work and no number of pastoral calls can 
 atone for failure in the field of evangelism. In 
 truth, if the pastor will carry into his parish 
 visits the strength of Christian courage, the 
 optimism of Christian hope, the beauty of 
 Christian love, he will evangelize the peo- 
 ple. 
 
 The choice of Dr. Jesse O. Peck has become 
 classic. He declared that if his salvation de- 
 pended upon his winning a thousand souls to 
 the Christian life within ten years, and that 
 if he were given the option of exclusive pulpit 
 ministry or of exclusive personal interviews, 
 as he valued his eternal salvation, he would 
 choose the personal method. That great evan- 
 gelistic pastor of the last generation has spoken 
 
 14 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC PASTOR 
 
 for all pastors who sense the evangelistic oppor- 
 tunities of parish labors. 
 
 Again, the minister is an organizer, a pro- 
 moter, an executive, a man of administration 
 and action. He must deal with plans and 
 organizations, facts and statistics, property and 
 finance. But no amount of mere hustle, no 
 display of business genius, no power of admin- 
 istration can rescue from pathos the pastoral 
 career of a man who wins nobody to Christ. 
 
 Bishop Edwin H. Hughes once sat at my 
 table and talked of a seminary friend then 
 holding a charge within his episcopal area. 
 Upon special inquiry on my part, concerning 
 this bright, well-equipped young man, the 
 Bishop made this statement: "The trouble 
 with that brother is that he has never dis- 
 covered any form of evangelism into which 
 he could fit his abilities." He spoke slowly 
 and kindly, but I could not have felt worse 
 if he had pronounced his obituary. In fact, 
 when you can say of any pastor that he has 
 never discovered any form of evangelism into 
 which he can fit his abilities, you have pro- 
 nounced his obituary. 
 
 The demands of our day are strict and 
 increasingly keen. There is no place in the 
 
 15 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 modern pulpit for a lame, even though fiery, 
 exhortation to hide the ghastly nakedness of 
 one's utterance under the protecting garment 
 of "gospel preaching." 
 
 You can never kindle the flame of true 
 evangelism with such abominations as barren- 
 ness of thought, laziness of study, or shallow- 
 ness of preparation. Such materials will do 
 for a smudge, but when you blaze and glow 
 with the fervent heat of evangelistic incandes- 
 cence there must be fuel of more substantial 
 and permanent character. 
 
 I entered the ministry from a parsonage 
 home, a home whose Christian influence was 
 sufficiently wholesome and virile to send three 
 sons into the itinerancy of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. From the faithful, fruit- 
 ful ministry of my father I first learned that 
 the pastor's central task is evangelism. 
 
 I recall now, after the lapse of more than 
 seventeen shuttling years, the rude shock that 
 came to me at the first meeting of the pastors 
 of the district after my first winter's cam- 
 paign was over. I had come to that spring 
 meeting fresh from the victories of five months' 
 almost constant evangelistic labor. It had 
 been a winter of severe testing to me, but one 
 
 16 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC PASTOR 
 
 of genuine triumph. It has always been a 
 matter of sincere gratitude that God put his 
 seal of approval upon my ministerial commis- 
 sion in the results of that first year's cam- 
 paign for souls. In the alembic of that first 
 year's revival effort I tested my call and found 
 it divine. 
 
 With an afflatus not unnaturally coming 
 from such spiritual triumphs I went to the dis- 
 trict meeting of ministers. What was my 
 amazement when I heard expressions from 
 several of the older pastors indicative of doubt 
 or failure at the point of evangelism. One 
 man, then holding a prominent charge in the 
 district, admitted that he really did not know 
 how to lead men into the Eangdom. Another 
 man, past his prime, but beloved by all, con- 
 fessed that he had once had the evangelistic 
 passion, but had lost it, and that, whereas his 
 earlier ministerial years had been spiritually 
 fruitful, his later years had been barren. 
 
 Such sentiments were staggering and might 
 have unsettled me just then but for two things: 
 one was the continued evangelistic fruitfulness 
 of my father's ministry, and the other was 
 the victorious winter through which I had 
 just passed. 
 
 17 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 The evangelistic ideal for the pastor I have 
 never lost, but have tested it in a great variety 
 of churches and conditions: in the conservative 
 rut-ridden country church; in the weak subur- 
 ban church, where there was scarce enough 
 substance to hold the society together; in a 
 debt-burdened church with a dilapidated build- 
 ing; in an average county-seat church, where 
 the people were satisfied with past attain- 
 ments; and in the great Memorial Church, the 
 gift of a millionaire family, where the people 
 sit in mahogany pews and where furnishings 
 and appointments are the utmost refinement 
 of taste and costliness. In every case the 
 evangelistic program was given a chief place, 
 and in every case carried the day. 
 
 Again, the pastor is the logical leader in the 
 
 evangelism of any church. It is not necessary 
 
 to repudiate the professional evangelist; it is 
 
 not seemly to criticize those who are sweeping 
 
 great cities with the public evangelistic appeal; 
 
 it is not wise to refuse all fellowship with those 
 
 who promote the union tent and tabernacle 
 
 campaigns which have seen such a vogue. 
 
 Movements like these have their place and 
 
 have accomplished spectacular results. Such 
 
 evangelists have written their names large in 
 
 18 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC PASTOR 
 
 the religious history of our nation. God had 
 use for D wight L. Moody; he has use for 
 "Billy" Sunday and Gipsy Smith and Torrey 
 and Chapman. Without doubt he has use 
 also for many men of smaller ability and 
 influence who are devoting their entire time 
 to evangelistic work. 
 
 There come times in the history of almost 
 any community when great gain accrues from 
 a united evangelistic appeal, with larger re- 
 sources than can be commanded by a local 
 church, and with a mightier impact upon the 
 strongholds of iniquity. But certainly such 
 times are exceptional and occur but once or 
 twice in the period of a given pastorate. Let 
 the pastor know that the evangelistic task, even 
 if temporarily taken by others, is fundamentally 
 his own. If some Hercules strides his way 
 and lifts his burden from his shoulders, let 
 the pastor remember that he is the Atlas that 
 must speedily resume his world and carry it 
 through the years. 
 
 Expediency may direct various plans of evan- 
 gelistic leadership, neighboring pastors may be 
 enlisted, different helpers may be employed, 
 singers and personal workers may be secured 
 in special campaigns, but, year in and year 
 
 19 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 out, month in and month out, at the center 
 of the mighty evangehstic task of the church 
 is the pastor. 
 
 Only once in my ministry have I employed 
 an evangelist to conduct a campaign in my 
 church, and only once has my church united 
 in a general community- wide movement of this 
 character, and that was in addition to our reg- 
 ular campaign in our own church. For the re- 
 mainder of the time I have conducted my own 
 work in this field, with special singers now and 
 again, and particular help for a day at a time, 
 in some instances from nearby ministers. 
 
 However, in a ministry of five years in one 
 church, during which time revival campaigns 
 were conducted each year and additional serv- 
 ices at the Easter seasons, I have been my own 
 evangelist throughout. 
 
 Upon going to that church, with pastoral 
 evangelism an established policy and practice 
 in my ministry, I realized that such a pro- 
 gram would be subjected to a new and unusual 
 strain. The situation was extraordinary and 
 in certain features very trying. Within a few 
 weeks after entering upon the pastorate, we 
 dedicated what is often described as "the 
 cathedral of Northern Indiana Methodism.'' 
 
 20 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC PASTOR 
 
 Stately in architectural grandeur, chaste and 
 charming in its dignity, rich in its furnishings 
 and decorative appointments, it might be re- 
 garded as a difficult church in which to see 
 evangelism flourish. The fact that the build- 
 ing is a gift of a wealthy family as a memorial 
 to a father and mother seemed to accentuate 
 the delicacy of the situation so far as evan- 
 gelism was concerned. 
 
 That such was the current thought is re- 
 flected in the remarks of a brother minister 
 who exclaimed, "Imagine the tears of penitents 
 on a mahogany altar!" These conditions urged 
 me to gather the entire officiary of the church 
 at a dinner and to speak after this very direct 
 fashion: "You are the officials and I am the 
 pastor of this church, which has been dedi- 
 cated to the worship of God. I believe in evan- 
 gelism and I hold the assumption that you 
 believe in it likewise. We must not consider 
 that the dedicatory services for this building 
 have been completed until that mahogany 
 altar has been bathed with the tears of pen- 
 itents. We expect to win people to a life of con- 
 secration to Christ and his service, we expect 
 to conduct campaigns of evangelism, we expect 
 to give our church a constant exposure on the 
 
 21 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 sunny slope of evangelism. We cannot come 
 too soon to a complete understanding on a mat- 
 ter so vital. Absolute cooperation on the part 
 of pastor and officiary is indispensable to suc- 
 cess. If we enter a revival campaign, we must 
 enter it together and must stand together; but 
 if not, we may as well know the worst at once." 
 There was not a dissenting voice when the 
 vote was taken. 
 
 In the month's revival campaign which fol- 
 lowed there were more than one hundred and 
 fifty conversions, and on the following Easter, 
 that Easter when nearly all Indiana and Ohio 
 were deluged with the worst flood of a genera- 
 tion, I baptized and received into membership 
 almost one hundred persons. During that year 
 there were two hundred and twenty-five acces- 
 sions to the church, the last two being an aged 
 couple who joined on that Easter morning. 
 After receiving all the others, we were about 
 to begin the doxology when the final invitation 
 was given. These two old people were present; 
 each was over seventy-five; they had been 
 converted in youth and for many years had 
 been stanch Christians; but they had moved 
 to the city from the little country church and 
 had decided to take a Religious "rest." Such a 
 
 22 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC PASTOR 
 
 course, all too common, registered itself in 
 spiritual atrophy, becoming more "rust" than 
 "rest." But they had come to church that 
 Easter morning and their hearts had been 
 strangely warmed. The service was a spiritual 
 voice calling them back to consecration. The 
 dear old lady was crippled, so the husband 
 came to the altar, broken with emotion, to 
 tell me that he and "ma" wanted to begin 
 anew their Christian lives and be counted once 
 more among the forces of the church. Just 
 as he was explaining that she was so crippled 
 she could not walk to the front, there she came 
 hobbling along and reaching the side of her 
 companion, leaned up against him as she gave 
 me her hand. 
 
 Standing in the choir was one of the donors 
 of the Memorial Church. He completely broke 
 down. The entire service had profoundly 
 moved him, and as the service closed he made 
 this remark to his pastor: "You know some- 
 thing of the trying experiences through which I 
 have passed; you are aware that there has 
 come to me just about every sort of trial, and 
 yet this is the first time as a mature man that 
 I have been absolutely overcome. This morning 
 during the service of baptism and reception 
 23 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 of members, I recalled the money and thought 
 and attention to detail that have gone into 
 this building, and if nothing else ever happens 
 in this church besides what we have seen this 
 morning, it is worth every dollar of the in- 
 vestment." 
 
 But something else has happened, for 
 evangelism has become an established program 
 in this church, and the pastor is expected to 
 conduct the revival campaigns just as certainly 
 as he is expected to preach on Sunday. 
 
 If there ever was a day when evangelism 
 was considered an inferior type of ministerial 
 activity that day has, happily, passed. Men 
 of the broadest training, brightest intellect, 
 keenest scholarship, are devoting themselves 
 with abandon to the evangelistic phases of 
 their ministry. 
 
 In the introduction to his book on The Death 
 of Christ, the late Professor James Denney, of 
 Glasgow, refers to a remark once made by 
 Plato, like this: "If kings were philosophers, 
 or philosophers kings, we should have the 
 ideal state." To which Professor Denney per- 
 tinently adds, "If evangelists were theologians, 
 or theologians evangelists, we should at least 
 
 be nearer the ideal church." 
 
 24 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC PASTOR 
 
 Now that our strongest pastors are truly 
 evangelistic, and are bringing the rich treasures 
 of their learning, the fine capacities of their 
 brains, the warm affections of their hearts, the 
 keen interests of their studies, the broad 
 reaches of their achievements and centering 
 them on the problems of evangelism in their 
 churches, we are soon to light upon a condition 
 that will surely set the angel choir singing a 
 new doxology. 
 
 When the pastor is the evangehstic leader, 
 then the local church has started in the direc- 
 tion of its largest triumph, and the Kingdom 
 has begun to come. 
 
 25 
 
n 
 
 THE CHURCH'S EVANGELISTIC CREED 
 
 The church beheves in evangelism. This 
 assumption is impHcit in our study and is 
 fundamental to the great movements for the 
 building of Christ's kingdom. 
 
 It believes, first, in Pentecostal evangelism, 
 its comprehensive program, its authoritative 
 purpose, its practical plan, and its easy adapt^,- 
 bility to the conditions of our day. We usually 
 describe Pentecost in its extraordinary and 
 miraculous features. For example, we speak 
 of the sound, like the rushing of a mighty wind; 
 yet the sound was but an alarm bell to call 
 the people to the place of assemblage. We re- 
 fer to the strange utterance of the disciples, in 
 that the peoples of the various races heard the 
 gospel in their native language, yet that was 
 but a temporary expedient to bring the Chris- 
 tian message speedily to the polyglot multi- 
 tudes gathered in Jerusalem for the feast. Or 
 we call attention to the tongues, often pictured 
 as forked flames crowning the disciples' heads, 
 
 26 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CREED 
 
 yet these were but symbols of the universal 
 testimony for Christ. 
 
 These features were but the signs and the 
 circumstances of the real Pentecostal wonder, 
 which is too often obscured under the emphasis 
 upon these unusual and emergent measures. 
 The wonder of Pentecost was simply this: 
 that God's personal plan for world redemption 
 was in full operation through the testimony 
 of Spirit-filled disciples, regardless of rank, or 
 order, or sex, or social standing. 
 
 "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit 
 and began to speak" — all of them. Not apostles 
 only, not men only, not the eloquent only, but 
 everyone had an experience and everyone had 
 a testimony. 
 
 Small wonder that Peter identified this 
 demonstration with Joel's ancient prophecy 
 which described the gift of spiritual proclama- 
 tion as poured out on all classes, even to men 
 and women slaves. 
 
 Just as long as the Pentecostal emphasis is 
 placed on that strange noise, or on the special 
 or miraculous elements in the gift of tongues, 
 just so long will we set Pentecost at an infinite 
 remove from us, and encircle it with such 
 phenomena of the wonderful and the miraculous 
 
 27 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 as to take it quite without the range of our 
 experience. But place the Pentecostal em- 
 phasis upon personal and individual testimony 
 empowered by the Divine Spirit, and instantly 
 Pentecost is brought within the field of present 
 and practical possibilities which may be actu- 
 alized in the life of any Christian and any 
 church. Therefore any pastor or Christian 
 worker who cannot see in Pentecost the norm 
 for his personal experience as well as for his 
 evangelistic program surely cannot see sunlight. 
 Again, the church believes in revival evan- 
 gelism. Sometimes we hear it said, even by 
 those in power and authority in the church, 
 that the day of revivals is past, or is passing. 
 If these friends mean that methods are chang- 
 ing, that emphasis is shifting, that a new 
 nomenclature is forming, then the question is 
 one of opinion and observation and need not 
 intrude itself in such a discussion. But, if 
 they mean that modern Christianity as ex- 
 pressed in the organized church is assuming 
 such a position that great spiritual awakenings 
 are fast becoming undesirable or impossible, 
 then the present-day Christian minister with 
 a capacity for spiritual interpretation of mod- 
 ern movements cannot believe it. 
 
 28 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CREED 
 
 Every church should set aside a definite 
 period each year for an evangehstic campaign. 
 It warms the atmosphere, it renews the lag- 
 gard, it is a spiritual tonic for the preacher, 
 worth while from the viewpoint of his own 
 religious life; it awakens the spirit of testimony, 
 it intensifies concern for the wayward, and if 
 no other consideration remains, this Gibraltar 
 is still unmoved by the waves and storms of 
 adverse criticism, namely, that the church is 
 largely recruited both as to members and 
 ministers from the revival. No odds what the 
 value of other methods of evangelism, no odds 
 what the spiritual deposit in our homes, once 
 decimate the lay and ministerial ranks of the 
 church of those who have entered the Kingdom 
 through the revival highway, and Gideon's 
 wholesale scheme of army depletion would be 
 retired to the rear as a back number. 
 
 Moreover, the church believes in the possi- 
 bility of a revival every year. Why not.^ It 
 is the harvest time. If the seed has been 
 sown, if the ground has been tilled, if the 
 growing grain has been cultivated, there will 
 be a harvest. It may not be as large some 
 years as others, nor as large in some places as 
 in others; but if his church is trained in evan- 
 
 29 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 gelism, thank God, no barrenness of soil, no 
 blight of sun, no bite of frost, no plague of 
 insect can defeat the faithful, spiritual hus- 
 bandman of some fruit. 
 
 It is obviously true that some fields are more 
 fertile than others, but we may well go straight 
 to the center of this problem and face this 
 fact, that when pastors and churches continue 
 their work year after year with no religious 
 awakening worthy the name of a revival, 
 then the fault is not with the year nor the 
 conditions but with the church and with the 
 preacher. * 'Those preachers that must have 
 revivals will have them." 
 
 It is true that the laymen in the church look 
 to the pastor for leadership in this as in other 
 religious matters, but once that is guaranteed, 
 the laymen will carry their end of the evan- 
 gelistic load. With pastor evangelists in our 
 pulpits we may confidently expect lay evan- 
 gelists in our pews. 
 
 There is a heresy of all too common credence 
 that one successful year in evangelism will not 
 follow another in a given church. This heresy 
 will not stand in the face of the experimental 
 tests of pastoral evangelism. 
 
 After the victories of the first year of evan- 
 30 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CREED 
 
 gelism in the Mishawaka Church there were 
 many who were generous enough in their pre- 
 dictions that it could not be done again. In 
 the radiant optimism of assured success, how- 
 ever, and without the sHghtest disposition to 
 surrender to the dull fears of pessimism, we 
 prepared for our second year's work. 
 
 A "Win-One" League was organized, the 
 request being made that the people sign the 
 following card: 
 
 THE "WIN-ONE" LEAGUE 
 
 Confidential to the Pastor 
 I hereby enroll as a member of the "Win-One" League 
 and will faithfully try to win at least one person to Christ 
 during the January Evangelistic Campaign. 
 
 My Name 
 
 Address 
 
 Name of the "One" 
 
 Address 
 
 "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over 
 ONE sinner that repenteth." — Luke 15. 10. 
 
 On the reverse side of the card was the fol- 
 lowing message: 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 The Evangelistic Campaign is on at the First Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Memorial Church. Your interest and 
 support are needed and are hereby urged. 
 
 31 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 If you are a Christian, you can certainly make the en- 
 rollment requested on the reverse side of this card. If 
 you cannot, then sign your own name as the "one'* and I 
 will join you in prayer for your spiritual peace and power. 
 
 You may have several friends on your list, but begin 
 with "one"; then, when won, take them "one" by "one,'* 
 but be sure to "win one.'* Return this signed card to me 
 at once. 
 
 Faithfully your Pastor, 
 
 LoREN M. Edwards. 
 
 One hundred and thirty-five of these "Win- 
 One" enlistments were made, including the 
 name of the "One," and were returned as a 
 confidential fist to the pastor. The richest 
 and the poorest, men and women, young and 
 old, all ages and classes of people joined this 
 "Win-One" League. 
 
 The plan suggested and successfully worked 
 by many was as follows: 
 
 First, the prospective member was made the 
 subject of earnest and definite prayer, then a 
 private interview was secured in which the 
 heart desire of the personal worker was poured 
 forth in passion and in love, and the invita- 
 tion to begin the Christian life definitely 
 extended. 
 
 Then an appointment was made for the 
 next or an early service at the church; the 
 
 32 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CREED 
 
 worker meeting the prospect in the home or 
 in the rear of the church before the service. 
 They sat together, sang together, joined in 
 the service together, and when the invitation 
 was given for pubHc surrender to Christ, it 
 was both easy and expected for the worker to 
 say, "Now, let us go together and settle this 
 question." 
 
 When such a plan had been followed in 
 patience and prayer, I have seen people yield 
 to a single invitation the very first service of 
 the campaign which they attended. In many 
 instances husband and wife have brought 
 husband and wife in this way. 
 
 After January, evangelistic services were con- 
 tinued, in what was called a "Revival Exten- 
 sion" on Thursday and Sunday evenings, until 
 April first. These services were held in the 
 main auditorium of the church. Chorus sing- 
 ing added to the brightness of the music. The 
 pastor preached earnest, straightforward, gospel 
 sermons, and made a direct appeal for de- 
 cisions. Nearly every service was fruitful of 
 results. The total number of accessions for 
 that one year was three hundred and twenty- 
 five. 
 
 One good evangelistic year may follow an- 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 other. In fact, five consecutive fruitful years 
 have been experienced in this church. In every 
 case the pastor and people have worked to- 
 gether without professional evangelistic help. 
 
 Once more, the church believes in evangelism 
 among the young. It does not discredit the 
 efforts made to win the children to Christian 
 life and service. It sees the open gates into 
 the Kingdom "on the East," on the side of 
 life's sunrise, and it devotes itself to recruiting 
 among the children and the youth. For one, 
 I do not apologize for the fact that one half 
 of a thousand converts in one church have 
 come from the ranks of the young. It is a 
 matter of obvious fact that the Sunday school 
 is the ripest evangelistic field in the church. 
 
 During a revival campaign special Sunday 
 school nights are promoted. The teachers, 
 particularly those below the Adult Department, 
 sit with their classes in seats reserved for 
 them. After an appropriate message by the 
 pastor the teachers and those scholars who 
 are already Christians make a personal appeal 
 to the others for an immediate surrender to 
 Christ. Often the entire altar has been crowded 
 with members of the Sunday school at such 
 services. In addition to this, meetings for 
 
 34 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CREED 
 
 boys and girls are held on occasion after school, 
 including a direct appeal for the Christian life. 
 
 Certainly, a Decision Day service will crown 
 all these other labors on the most appropriate 
 Sunday or Sundays during the campaign. If 
 no service is held below the Junior Department, 
 and if the Senior and Adult Departments meet 
 together, three services, at least, will be re- 
 quired. The pastor will be invariably in charge. 
 Then the crucial hour has come, the seed has 
 been sown, the climatic conditions are favorable, 
 the homes have been visited by teachers, and, 
 if possible, by the pastor, and the earnest, 
 burning, heart-searching appeal falls on respon- 
 sive hearts, and decision for Christ is made. 
 
 It is the policy of the evangelistic Sunday 
 school to make every endeavor to have no 
 child graduate from the Junior Department 
 who is not a Christian and a member of the 
 church. 
 
 To deprecate wholesome evangelistic work 
 among the children is regrettable indeed. Dur- 
 ing the first revival campaign conducted in a 
 certain charge there had been no visible re- 
 sults by Friday of the first week. Just before 
 going to church that evening a woman called 
 
 the pastor on the telephone and reported that 
 
 35 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 her son, a lad of eleven, was anxious to give 
 his heart to Christ and join the church. She 
 asked if it would be agreeable to have him 
 make the start that evening. Why, of course! 
 It would have been agreeable in the midst of 
 any success, but especially so in the presence 
 of no results. That lad was the only convert 
 of the first week's revival effort in that city. 
 Some people felt that very little had been 
 accomplished. But one father said, doubtless 
 with his thought on his absent son, "Suppose 
 it had been my boy.^" 
 
 During a long period of subsequent illness 
 this same lad took real pride and pleasure in 
 telling that he was the minister's first con- 
 vert in that city, and that if he should live he 
 expected to follow in his footsteps into the 
 ministry. Moreover, he did live, and his face 
 is now set toward the Christian ministry; and 
 sometimes when effort on the preacher's part 
 seems productive of slight returns, he cures 
 the heartache by thinking of that lad, the 
 only convert of a week's work, calling him his 
 spiritual father and dreaming of the time when 
 he will be a preacher too. Certainly, a big 
 week's job! 
 
 The church believes emphatically in personal 
 36 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CREED 
 
 evangelism. Too often personal work is in- 
 terpreted to mean merely the speaking of a 
 casual and unpremeditated and hasty word to 
 a friend or a seat-mate in the revival service. 
 If you had lived in a given community and 
 were not a Christian, and if you had friends 
 within the membership of a certain church, and 
 if none of these friends, in spite of many oppor- 
 tunities in your associations, had ever given 
 you an invitation nor had made a single Chris- 
 tian appeal; and if you should drop into an 
 evangelistic service in their church some even- 
 ing and one of these professors of religion should 
 come to you in the public congregation and, 
 without thought or preparation, invite you to 
 make an immediate consecration to Christ, you 
 would doubtless consider the act an imperti- 
 nence. If you were a stranger or a chance ac- 
 quaintance, then that stray opportunity might 
 be the very plan of Providence in the labor 
 of that personal worker. But in the case of 
 close associates and friends the divine element 
 in such a procedure is almost unthinkable. 
 
 Most of us have found that the way to do 
 effective personal work is to begin with a 
 campaign of prayer, bringing to the throne 
 
 of grace, in earnest intercession, the friends in 
 
 37 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 whom we are interested. In private interviews 
 we can best reveal our Christian concern and 
 more effectively press home our Christian 
 appeal. After such preparation and prayer and 
 with such faithful and persistent toil the invi- 
 tation at the church is as logical as it is success- 
 ful. No far-seeing and experienced pastor 
 would risk an evangelistic campaign without 
 the reenforcement of systematic personal work. 
 The greatest evangelistic leaders of our day 
 would not turn a wheel in a public campaign 
 without thorough organization and loyal co- 
 operation on the part of those who are expected 
 to do the personal work. 
 
 Once more, the church believes in church- 
 wide evangelism. This was the secret of the 
 prodigious success of the Christian Church in 
 the first century of its history. It was, likewise, 
 the secret of the unparalleled success of the 
 Methodist movement in England; and the mar- 
 velous triumphs of the Kingdom in the mission 
 fields to-day go back to the early adoption of 
 this same approved plan of personal evangelism 
 as an essential part of every individual Chris- 
 tian's program. 
 
 By the same token the secret of the poverty 
 and barrenness of the spiritual life in many 
 
 38 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CREED 
 
 of the home churches is not far to seek. Too 
 many members of the church have placed 
 soul-winning on the list of electives in their 
 curriculum rather than making it a major 
 study. Too many have regarded it as optional 
 rather than required. Too many have con- 
 sidered it a spiritual luxury for a favored few 
 rather than life and breath and being for all. 
 
 Finally, the church believes in triumphant 
 evangelism. The minister and congregation 
 who do not give the evangelistic program a 
 fair trial are the skeptics at this point. No 
 one who has ever worked evangelism doubts 
 that it will work. 
 
 While conducting the classes in personal 
 evangelism at an Epworth League institute a 
 few years ago, the writer detailed a piece of 
 work to a young woman who had never at- 
 tempted such a task before, although she had 
 been a Christian for some time. When she un- 
 dertook the task of winning a young friend on 
 the ground to the Christian life she felt the un- 
 dertaking to be a monumental one. She began 
 in prayer, and then with her Testament she 
 started out. Her success was so signal and 
 her sense of divine guidance was so real that 
 she was led into special work along evangelistic 
 
 39 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 lines and proceeded at once with a course of 
 special training in preparation for her work. 
 
 At another institute a girl was found in this 
 anomalous situation. She was president of her 
 local Epworth League chapter and a delegate 
 to the institute, but with a fierce hatred burn- 
 ing in her heart and with no sense of spiritual 
 experience. Arranging for an interview, she 
 bared her case. A young man had broken that 
 most sacred pledge which a man ever makes to 
 a woman, and this victim of his falsity hated 
 him. Through the mazes of doubt and hate 
 she was led to faith and peace in God, and on 
 Sunday dedicated herself to Christ and the 
 church as a missionary in the distant fields of 
 the Kingdom. 
 
 O yes! the church believes in a full program 
 of evangelism — a program that uses its natural 
 leadership, that enlists every member, that cap- 
 italizes every opportunity, that plans for every 
 week to register its evangelistic triumphs, that 
 begins with the children and continues through 
 the adolescent and mature years, that employs 
 every worthy method and every wholesome ap- 
 peal, that maintains its organization and ac- 
 tivity during twelve months in the year, but 
 climaxes its efforts during a given month each 
 
 40 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CREED 
 
 year and which seeks and secures the spiritual 
 eflBciency of the entire church in its growth and 
 progress. Indeed, the only thing which will 
 save the preacher from the sag and stain and 
 the barrenness of unchristian ideals in his life, 
 and the pathos of preaching with no redemp- 
 tional emphasis; the only thing which will save 
 the church from the atrophy of spiritual facul- 
 ties and the tragedy of spiritual paralysis; the 
 only thing which will save the world from the 
 blight of its sin and the peril of hastening 
 spiritual disaster, is to keep clear the' evan- 
 gelistic vision, keep strong the evangelistic 
 passion, and keep active the evangelistic 
 propaganda. 
 
 As is evident, the assumption of this chapter 
 is that the church does believe this evangelistic 
 creed. That there are exceptions to this rule is 
 so certain that it were a gratuity to make the 
 suggestion. But despite the exceptions, and 
 with due regard for the great variety of eccle- 
 siastical and theological programs, we are ready 
 to register the firm and certain conviction that 
 the church believes in evangelism not only as a 
 creed, but likewise as a working program. 
 
 41 
 
Ill 
 
 THE CHURCH'S EVANGELISTIC 
 EXAMPLE 
 
 It is said that on one occasion Julia Ward 
 Howe invited Charles Sumner to call at her 
 home to meet a distinguished guest. Sumner 
 replied, "I am losing my interest in individuals 
 and am becoming interested in the race." That 
 night Mrs. Howe wrote in her diary, "By the 
 latest accounts God Almighty has not gone so 
 far as this." 
 
 Nevertheless, this tendency exhibited by 
 Sumner becomes, in some form or other, a 
 temptation to many of us. To deal in generali- 
 ties, to speak to the crowd, to feel the sway of 
 the masses and the lure of things that are big — 
 this easily becomes an infection most diflficult to 
 check. We do not care to deal in units, to go 
 step by step, to bother with individuals; that is, 
 if we can manage some other way. Yet the 
 reaches of time expand second by second, the 
 infinite spaces of the universe are but a multi- 
 plication of points, and any mass is but an 
 accretion or product of a number of units. 
 
 42 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC EXAMPLE 
 
 Very properly, then, when Jesus came he 
 brought the individual into correct perspec- 
 tive. He spoke to the crowds, but he spent 
 many hours of those three priceless years in 
 his work with individuals. Many of his ser- 
 mons were delivered to an audience of one, 
 while at least one third of the gospel records 
 deal with those personal and private discourses 
 which developed and trained the inner circle of 
 the twelve. 
 
 The evangelism of Jesus may be described as 
 the individual method. He had a program for 
 the redemptive conquest of the world, and 
 "program" is the correct and discriminating 
 word. 
 
 Those who are willing to allow the work of 
 the church to go by chance, or to drift without 
 chart or compass, find scant comfort in a study 
 of the true inwardness of Jesus's ministry and 
 surely cannot lay serious claim to an under- 
 standing of the details of Christ's mission of 
 redemption. In his personal action and in 
 direct command he stressed the necessity for a 
 carefully articulated plan of redemptive proced- 
 ure. Such a program, when sharply dissected, 
 discloses two essential principles. The first 
 deals with the enlisting of recruits for the cam- 
 
 43 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 paign, while the second deals with the opera- 
 tion of the campaign. 
 
 After thirty silent years, broken only by that 
 Jerusalem experience at the age of twelve (a 
 tiny cameo of rare grace and beauty), Jesus 
 emerged from the domestic solitudes of Naz- 
 areth to receive baptism at the hands of John 
 and approval at the voice of God. Ready to 
 begin his mission of world Saviourhood, he did 
 not rush into the expected offices of Messiah- 
 ship. He did not blaze a trail of miracles for 
 the gaze of a wondering populace. He did not 
 even begin, at once, to preach. What he did 
 begin to do straightway was to win disciples. 
 
 On the second day following the baptism 
 John looked upon his retreating figure on the 
 shore of Jordan and said, "Behold, the Lamb 
 of God." Directly two young men who had 
 been disciples of John began to follow Jesus, 
 who turned at the sound of their footsteps and 
 invited them to his lodgings for the remainder 
 of the day. 
 
 Do you see it.f^ He did not announce himself 
 as the Messiah. He did not discourse on salva- 
 tion. He did not say "You are sinners and I 
 am Saviour," but with the most winning word 
 and kindly smile he said, "Come on home with 
 
 44 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC EXAMPLE 
 
 me." So mighty was the impression of that 
 invitation on one of the two of those young 
 men that many years afterward, when he pro- 
 ceeded to write down the record of those won- 
 drous days in a story of undying phrase, he 
 remembered that it was just four o'clock in the 
 afternoon when the invitation was given. A 
 little late in the afternoon, it would seem, to 
 do much, and yet Jesus thought it not too late 
 to win Andrew and John, the writer of the 
 Gospel that immortalizes his name. Moreover, 
 before the week was out our Lord had won 
 five more, whose names shine like a galaxy of 
 stars, and how many others nobody else knows. 
 Christ's method of recruiting workers for his 
 campaign was the personal method. He gath- 
 ered those nearer disciples one by one: John 
 and Andrew at the word of the Baptist; Mat- 
 thew as he was sitting at the booth of taxes, 
 and in response to Jesus's call arose with eager 
 and immediate enthusiasm to follow him; 
 Philip was found in the pathway of the Saviour 
 on the way to Galilee and answered the divine 
 call as he walked. And there were four fisher- 
 men mending their nets, and being summoned 
 to become fishers of men, they greeted the 
 summons with immediate abandon. It is very 
 
 45 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 clear that our Lord recruited the ranks of his 
 inner group of disciples through personal con- 
 tact and personal appeal. 
 
 Moreover, it was no unknown thing for him 
 to devote himself utterly to individual needs 
 and problems. He talked with Nicodemus on 
 through the night while the paschal moon was 
 awane. He stopped a great and pressing throng 
 to comfort an afflicted woman who had touched 
 in desperation the hem of his garment. He 
 braved the meaningful surprise of the twelve to 
 talk with a Samaritan woman about the water 
 of life. Many of his cures were individual in 
 their application, and much of the amazing and 
 miraculous which characterized his healing min- 
 istry was enacted before individuals or small 
 groups. 
 
 In harmony with this face-to-face, heart-to- 
 heart method of the Master, the earliest dis- 
 ciples employed the personal invitation in their 
 work for Christ. Philip at once found Nathan- 
 ael, an acquaintance and friend, and greeted 
 him with the glorious announcement of the 
 newly discovered Christ. "We have found 
 him," said he. "Come and see." And then 
 how the story of Andrew thrills us ! Introduced 
 to Christ by the Baptizer, he thought at once 
 
 46 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC EXAMPLE 
 
 of his brother, Simon Peter, and went in haste 
 to find him. He knew his brother well, his 
 weaknesses and his excellences, and doubtless 
 guessed what a tower of strength Peter would 
 be if only he could be brought under the spirit- 
 ual power of Christ. 
 
 Andrew could not have done a greater thing 
 for Peter nor a greater thing for Christendom 
 than just the thing which he did do. Peter was 
 eloquent and mighty and picturesque. He stood 
 yonder in Jerusalem and delivered that match- 
 less sermon at Pentecost, . but let no one forget 
 that it was Andrew who led him to Christ. 
 
 Perhaps no preacher since apostolic days has 
 surpassed Charles Spurgeon in the wide range 
 of his influence and might of his power. Yet a 
 humble and now unknown minister won him to 
 the Christian life. 
 
 Dwight L. Moody went into the fashionable 
 pulpits of Great Britain and stirred the congre- 
 gations with his message, winning converts by 
 the multitudes, but it is well to reflect that his 
 Sunday school teacher led him to Christ. 
 
 One night I stepped into a service at Pacific 
 Garden Mission in Chicago, where Harry Mon- 
 roe was laboring with a handful of penitents, 
 but in another city "Billy" Sunday was win- 
 
 47 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 ning the converts by the thousand. Then I 
 reminded myself that it was in that same 
 humble room in Chicago and at the hand of 
 that same Harry Monroe that Sunday was led 
 away from a life of sin to a consecration for 
 Christ. 
 
 I have in my library a little book on personal 
 work which is worth reading again and again 
 because of two features. First, the inscription 
 by the author; second, the story of the author's 
 own conversion. This is the inscription: 
 
 "To Edward R. Graves, of Lockport, N. Y. (for many 
 years a commercial traveler), whose persistent and tactful 
 personal efforts brought the author to Jesus and into work 
 for the extension of Christ's Kingdom, this volume is 
 gratefully inscribed.'* 
 
 This is Mr. S. M. Sayford's fine tribute to the 
 man who led him to Christ. Yet such glowing 
 words are modesty itself when one remembers 
 that Mr. Sayford was a worldly, godless mer- 
 chant in Massachusetts when Mr. Graves, a 
 traveling salesman for a New York paper bag 
 concern, began the siege for his soul. 
 
 First it was a leaflet on drinking, for Sayford 
 drank; then one on profanity, for Sayford 
 swore; and finally the request of Graves to place 
 the name of his customer on his prayer list. In 
 
 48 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC EXAMPLE 
 
 Sayford's private oflSce Mr. Graves displayed a 
 memorandum book containing the names of 
 business acquaintances who had given their 
 consent to have prayers offered for their salva- 
 tion. "May I have your name on the same 
 condition.^" asked Graves. 
 
 The request seemed so reasonable that Say- 
 ford consented. "I want you to write it," said 
 Graves, with fair diplomacy; "I want your au- 
 tograph." Mr. Sayford's hand trembled as he 
 wrote his name, despite his positive declaration 
 that he never expected to become a Christian. 
 But the arrow of conviction had struck home 
 and the dynamic of prayer in faith functioned 
 here as before and since, and the next time 
 Graves came to see Sayford they were both 
 anxious to get to the former's room in the 
 hotel, where they wept and prayed and re- 
 joiced together over Sayford's conversion. Mr. 
 Sayford became an earnest Christian and he 
 won C. K. Ober to Christian service. Ober won 
 John R. Mott to the devotion of his life to 
 Christian work among the students in the col- 
 leges, while John R. Mott has won thousands to 
 Christ in every part of the world. 
 
 Simon may preach at Pentecost, but Andrew 
 won him to the Saviour. Spurgeon may sway a 
 
 49 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 tabernacle full of people, but a humble preacher 
 led him to Christ. Moody may cross the ocean 
 with a message that stirs an empire, but his 
 Sunday school teacher was the means that 
 brought him to Christian confession. Sunday 
 may stand before eager thousands, but it was 
 old Harry Monroe who started him in the way 
 of consecration and service. Mott may go 
 round the world and turn the students of the 
 Orient to the Saviour, but old man Graves was 
 the personal worker who began that mighty 
 movement that at length circled the globe. 
 
 Furthermore, Christ had a plan of operation 
 for his campaign which he tested first and then 
 passed on to the disciples, in a clear word and 
 definite command. Jesus went straight away 
 from this gathering of his earliest disciples to 
 the center of Jewish life at its capital city, 
 tarrying, let it be admitted, for the wedding 
 supper at Cana, thus blessing the family fes- 
 tivities. So that his p^ublic ministry may be 
 said, with all fidelity to fact, to have begun in 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Again, Jesus went direct to the temple which 
 was the very center, as it was the very embodi- 
 ment of the best life of the Jewish capital. The 
 scene is one of the most stirring in the New 
 
 50 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC EXAMPLE 
 
 Testament. Face to face with those huckster- 
 ing, bargaining temple attendants, he "apos- 
 trophized them with words of bitter invective,'* 
 turned over their tables, scattered their money, 
 and drove out the beasts which were being sold 
 for the sacrifice. 
 
 What the temple was the city would be, for 
 if the house of God had been made a house of 
 merchandising and of extortionate robbery, then 
 such would be the houses of men. If the church 
 is not held sacred as a house of prayer; if 
 reverence does not capture those who enter the 
 sanctuary doors; if worship and devotion do 
 not pervade the sacred place as a holy presence, 
 then what may we expect in oflSce, and school, 
 and home.f^ If Christ's glory ever fills a city, 
 the center of its radiance must be the church of 
 God. 
 
 Thence Jesus went into Judaea for a brief 
 
 period of ministry, notable for its popularity 
 
 and the reaches of its power. From the city 
 
 he went forth unto his nation with the message 
 
 of redemption, as any true minister and true 
 
 church must do. In so doing he set the example 
 
 for the apostles to whom he gave that final, 
 
 imperial commission to begin at Jerusalem, 
 
 where he began; to proceed into Judaea, where 
 
 51 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 he proceeded; and (as we shall presently see) to 
 continue into Samaria, and Gentile regions be- 
 yond, which were finally to spread until they 
 became the ends of the earth. 
 
 Finally, our Lord went into Galilee and 
 pushed his way up even to the borders of 
 Phoenicia, with an ever-widening circumference 
 of power, until he began that process of re- 
 trenchment and withdrawal which sought to 
 leave more time for the personal instruction of 
 his disciples. In a miniature but real sense he 
 had begun at Jerusalem and had touched the 
 world. Beginning with individuals, he had 
 passed to multitudes, and then, in an increasing 
 degree, to individuals once more. 
 
 In the application of the program of Jesus 
 the first item, of course, is to enlist the worker; 
 and this may be broadly stated as the effort to 
 make workers out of all the members. A church 
 in which ministry alone comprises the working 
 force may do well enough for an ecclesiastical 
 hierarchy, but cannot be successfully operated 
 in this day of broad democracy by any church 
 which seeks real contact with the masses. 
 
 We go back to those days when the Christian 
 Church was in its first glow of Pentecostal 
 triumph, and we find that every disciple was a 
 
 52 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC EXAMPLE 
 
 witness, every member a worker, every believer 
 a personal evangelist. The first thing neces- 
 sary, therefore, is the enlistment of the indi- 
 vidual, the consecration of the gifts of per- 
 sonality, the maintenance of such recruiting 
 plans as to make of every announced disciple of 
 Jesus a pronounced campaigner for his Master. 
 
 The Church of Christ needs better methods, 
 but, more than that, it needs better men. It 
 needs more members, but even more keenly it 
 needs more workers. It needs clearer plans, 
 but with a far more tragic need it needs in- 
 tenser passion. 
 
 We talk about a "forward movement" in the 
 church; such a movement, needed at so many 
 places, is needed in no other place quite so 
 much as this — a forward movement of the 
 scores of church members who are not moving 
 so as to notice it. That is to say, what is 
 needed is to coin workers out of the too largely 
 unused, unpolished, and unrefined bullion of 
 our membership. 
 
 A certain woman stated that she did not see 
 how she could leave the church in a neighboring 
 city, when moving to a new location, because 
 she was regarded there as an indispensable 
 worker. Rejoicing at the prospect of an addi- 
 
 53 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 tional worker to his force, the pastor asked her 
 what was her particular sphere of usefulness. 
 To this she innocently replied, "Why, for eigh- 
 teen years, whenever we had a church supper, 
 I always made the mayonnaise dressing." De- 
 spite this he determined to give her a larger 
 employment, for, with her family, she united 
 with the church where she had come to make 
 her home. After trial she was ready to accept 
 more responsible and more productive positions. 
 There are many encouragements to the pas- 
 tor in this direction. Now and again I look over 
 the "Win-One" enlistments of several years ago, 
 the cards of which I retain for reference. They 
 make interesting reading. Many of the names, 
 entered as prospects, are now earnest, faithful 
 workers in the church, now enthusiastic in per- 
 sonal evangelism. Some of the relationships on 
 the cards are very suggestive. A mother gives 
 the name of her son as the "one" for whom she 
 is praying. A father and a mother give the 
 names of their sons, adding "our boys." A 
 young man writes "Father," and presses into 
 his pencil point the agonized intercession of a 
 son. Neighbors enroll to win neighbors, friends 
 to win friends, and estranged relatives or asso- 
 ciates begin the way to reconciliation by the 
 
 54 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC EXAMPLE 
 
 path of intercession. Among those who en- 
 rolled as workers were new members and old, 
 business and professional men, clerks and 
 teachers, shopmen and farmers, high school 
 students and athletes, timid women and girls, 
 husky boys and strong men. It is a demon- 
 strable fact that if a layman is given a definite 
 piece of evangelistic work to do, speaking by 
 and large, he will do it. 
 
 In the operation of the campaign exemplified 
 by Christ in the local church, one of the most 
 encouraging features is this fact. Here is a 
 method of evangelism that any Christian can 
 use, namely, the personal method. It is inter- 
 esting to know how Jesus evangelized, but is 
 more significant to know that when he did 
 evangelize he employed a method which every 
 one of us can use. He was doing something in 
 Galilee that he expected to be done in India or 
 in Indiana or in Oregon or in Maryland, and, 
 indeed, can be done. 
 
 Therefore one of the most jubilant things that 
 can be said about personal evangelism is just 
 this: anybody can do it. It does not require 
 superiority of gifts, nor brilliancy of intellect; 
 it does not depend upon eloquence of speech, 
 nor logic of argument; one does not need to 
 
 55 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 have physical charms nor powers of endurance. 
 All that is required is a faith in Christ, a love 
 for men, a joy of release from the staining 
 power of sin, and a simple, earnest, straightfor- 
 ward appeal: this is personal evangelism, and 
 it can be operated anywhere. 
 
 Personal evangelism, moreover, links itself 
 with every form and adapts itself to every 
 field of Christian work. This fact the varied 
 ministry of Jesus fully illustrates. Preacher, 
 Teacher, Missionary, Healer, his program of 
 personal contact registered his greatest tri- 
 umphs. The same is true in our own day. 
 The great evangelist who preaches to multi- 
 tudes and who counts his converts by the 
 thousands, owes no small measure of his suc- 
 cess to his organized personal workers. The 
 pastor who faces the great congregation and 
 sends forth his message with unction and zeal 
 really does his biggest, strongest, hardest work 
 when he faces an audience of one and presses 
 home the claims of Jesus Christ. Even the 
 missionary, often pictured as surrounded in the 
 public squares and open spaces by the curious 
 throng, probably does his most eflScient work 
 in a hand-to-hand conflict and a face-to-face 
 instruction. 
 
 56 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC EXAMPLE 
 
 Likewise at home, no matter what the field of 
 labor, whether in the Sunday school or the 
 Young People's Society, or in other organiza- 
 tions of the church, the personal method is found 
 to be preeminent in every field of service. 
 
 Again, we need to consider the inspiring fact 
 that the method of evangelism which Jesus 
 used and which everybody can use is precisely 
 the method which brings the greatest results. 
 There will be dangers here, and we need have 
 caution. One danger is that apart from the 
 crowd, in the personal struggle, we may feel 
 that it is small business and does not count for 
 much; but it is big business. It decides the 
 destiny of immortal souls. It makes the great 
 ingathering possible, and furnishes the initial 
 measures for those mass movements that finally 
 may touch time's far distant shore. 
 
 A young minister found on his first charge an 
 old gentleman eighty-two years of age. It had 
 been his habit for years to attend the church, 
 but to pose as a "free thinker," to argue with 
 the preachers and to answer their theology. 
 During the young pastor's revival meetings, 
 white and bent and aged, and leaning on his 
 cane, he came to the services and listened, and 
 went out. That little community was stirred. 
 
 57 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 Many families were led to Christ during the 
 meeting. Leading citizens were brought into 
 the Kingdom, but this old man stayed out. 
 Several, including the pastor, spoke to him 
 about Christ, timidly and doubtfully, perhaps 
 then feeling that full duty had been discharged, 
 then were relieved that it was all over. The 
 meeting closed. That man did not yield — 
 nobody expected him to. Wait! Nobody .^^ 
 Yes, there were two that did. That old 
 wrinkled, broken companion who had prayed 
 for him for sixty years, and a maiden daughter 
 who had never lost hope for her father. This 
 daughter went to the pastor after the close of 
 the campaign, and said in heart-broken despera- 
 tion, "Pastor, I believe father can be won to 
 Christ, if you will go and talk to him." 
 
 How could he win him? Besides he had gone, 
 but how.? He would go, and go to win! Prayer 
 was real intercession before that call. The hum- 
 ble little home in the country settlement was 
 six miles away. One can think many things in 
 riding six miles. He trembled as he hitched his 
 horse in front of the house. The old man was 
 sitting in his chair. How the ordinary common- 
 places of greeting grated with their trivialities! 
 That preacher was there on bigger business. 
 
 58 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC EXAMPLE 
 
 The first word spoken to the old man 
 startled him. He knew that the man of God 
 was in dead earnest. Christ was held before the 
 old man's dimming eyes. There was no argu- 
 ment, no trial at theology; Christ, the Saviour 
 for him, was exalted. The readiness with which 
 he accepted the offer was a puzzle. The young 
 preacher was unhorsed; he felt that the old 
 man was fooling somehow, but when the eyes 
 were found filling, and the lips quivering, he 
 knew that the feeble "I will" was a surrender 
 which angels wrote down in the Book of Life. 
 After the revival services were over, at the 
 next preaching service, the trembling hands 
 were taken in the strong glad hands of the 
 pastor as the aged convert was welcomed into 
 the church. 
 
 Just a few years ago, while on that charge 
 again, at the dedicatory services for a new 
 church, that daughter came several miles to 
 tell that pastor of her father's last days, and 
 of his triumphant death, and to thank him 
 again for the thousandth time, perhaps, for his 
 part in those closing peaceful years, and happy 
 ending. His part.^^ It was not much; think of 
 the constant prayers of that wife and daughter; 
 think of the margin by which the young preacher 
 
 59 
 
EVERY CHUECH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 all but missed the chance. His part? It was 
 simply the part of the personal evangelist point- 
 ing a wanderer to Christ. 
 
 Such a course was simply following the ex- 
 ample of our Lord when he was gathering his 
 disciples, and it cannot be bettered to this day. 
 It was the method that won John B. Gough 
 and J. Wilbur Chapman and John Bunyan, 
 and the most of those who have come to prom- 
 inence in the various fields of Christian ac- 
 tivity. 
 
 Now, having seen Christ at the task of evan- 
 gelism, and having felt the thrill of his example, 
 what is to be done about it? Is all this to be 
 passed as the impossible ideal of a day gone by? 
 Is this to be regarded as the superheated en- 
 thusiasm of a Man beside himself? Must our 
 day be held to the old, staid conservatism? 
 Must this program be marked down at a dis- 
 count of fifty per cent? Will the common 
 round drag on with its socials and business and 
 full quota of engagements? Or will this pro- 
 gram of personal evangelism, sanctioned both by 
 the example and the command of Christ, halt 
 us and set our feet in the path of this Christ- 
 appointed, time-honored, heaven-blest, and 
 
 most successful of all plans for personal and 
 
 60 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC EXAMPLE 
 
 social redemption? We will kindle with this 
 holy flame of spiritual enthusiasm, we will give 
 this program its full and proper appraisal, we 
 will win our friends and acquaintances to Christ, 
 or die of heartbreak. 
 
 61 
 
IV 
 
 THE CHURCH'S EVANGELISTIC 
 OPPORTUNITY 
 
 The first item in the evangelistic oppor- 
 tunity of the church is possession. 
 
 The church possesses Jesus Christ as living 
 Lord and Leader. No claim would be made 
 that it has exclusive possession, but it does 
 have him as Saviour and Redeemer. This 
 statement is made in the present tense, active 
 voice, indicative mood, without question or 
 qualification. This is an assumption which is, 
 or should be, always true, and should be main- 
 tained until disproven. 
 
 Christian experience is an assumptive pos- 
 session of the Christian Church and no apol- 
 ogy is required or expected for making it. 
 Here is the evangelistic point of departure for 
 the entire church. Christian experience need 
 not be removed to a realm of superior and 
 mystical spiritual affluence, attainable only by 
 a favored and select few. It is a gratuitous and 
 compromising procedure to begin by inscribing 
 
 an inner circle within the circle of the church 
 
 62 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC OPPORTUNITY 
 
 membership and confining spiritual reality and 
 experience to that inner group. 
 
 If a person is a member of the church, the 
 pastor should start with the assumption that 
 he is a live Christian, and should maintain 
 that assumption until the development of fact 
 discredits it. If a man is an official in the 
 church, the pastor, with perfect justice and 
 propriety, assumes that he will pray as well 
 as pay; that he will attend revival meetings 
 as well as official meetings; and that he will 
 accept assignment for special personal duty as 
 readily as for committee work of a business or 
 financial character. 
 
 When such position is made clear to the offi- 
 ciary of a church by a tactful pastor, and when 
 the expectation is voiced that an official meeting 
 will be practicabl©^ any evening after a revival 
 service, with a majority present and with no pre- 
 vious announcement, the faith and assumption of 
 the pulpit usually function in a responsive pew. 
 
 When assigning tasks to our personal workers 
 
 I, for one, assume that the people are ready 
 
 for duty. Sometimes it transpires that such is 
 
 not the case, but, in any event, the best and 
 
 quickest way to clear up the situation is to 
 
 make the assignment. 
 
 63 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 There are those, among both clergy and 
 laity, who take issue on this point. W^hen I 
 read out my first list of personal workers at a 
 certain church some of the members nearly 
 fainted. In breathless haste they came to me 
 and said, "You have read the names of cer- 
 tain people who never did such work and never 
 will; why, they will be scared to death when 
 they receive this list." And more of the same 
 advice. You cannot scare anyone to death 
 who is already dead; and if one is not dead, a 
 proposition of this kind will stir him into 
 action. 
 
 During one of our revival campaigns, a mem- 
 ber of the official board came to me at the 
 close of a stirring Sunday evening service. He 
 had shown no great concern for the more spir- 
 itual activities, but on this particular evening 
 a man of his close acquaintance was in the con- 
 gregation. This friend's wife and daughter were 
 recent converts, and the time seemed ripe for 
 decision and surrender. My official brother 
 came up all a-quiver and whispered, "There 
 is that man back there," calling his name, "and 
 I beheve that he can be reached if you will 
 go back and speak to him." This was my 
 answer: "I beheve that he can be reached 
 
 64 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC OPPORTUNITY 
 
 to-night if you will go back and speak to him." 
 His face flushed, as he replied, "I never did 
 such a thing in my life." Giving him a friendly 
 push in the man's dir«ection, I said: "You can- 
 not begin any earlier." 
 
 Now, what happened.^ Here was this man 
 to whom religion had never been an afflatus, 
 this official who never had done that kind 
 of work, and was not expected to do it, this 
 very fellow went straight for his man. When a 
 business man undertakes a task of that kind 
 he usually goes at it to win. What he said 
 to him first, I do not know, for I was busy in 
 another direction, but when I came up to them 
 they were standing together in the aisle and 
 the official was pleading for an immediate sur- 
 render to Christ. 
 
 Taking these men and a few others, including 
 the wives of some of the men, we went into 
 the pastor's room for an after service. We 
 prayed and talked in an informal fashion, 
 stayed until the seeker was conscious of his 
 personal acceptance, and had a blessed little 
 meeting. The first thing we knew this erst- 
 while indifferent official was talking with the 
 others, giving a real Christian testimony. 
 
 On the following evening we had a general 
 65 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 testimony service in the revival meeting, and 
 the new convert, the man gathered in after the 
 service was over on the preceding night, arose 
 and gave a testimony. I watched the effect 
 upon my oJ0Bcial brother, who was in another 
 part of the room : it was immediate and electric. 
 Here was this man, the first he had ever tried 
 to win, testifying for Christ. On the instant 
 he was on his feet giving his first spoken Chris- 
 tian testimony in a public meeting of that 
 kind. Christian experience is so central to 
 all Christian activity that it should be assumed 
 as a personal possession of the church until 
 disproven by fact. 
 
 The next item in the evangelistic opportunity 
 of the church is association. 
 
 That was a happy phrase which, several 
 years ago, found expression in Epworth League 
 evangehsm, "Win-My-Chum Week." That 
 phrase gave a much-needed focus to the evan- 
 gelistic efforts of the young people. Very much 
 of our talk on evangelism is vain because 
 visionary; and very much of our work in 
 evangelism is futile because we make no con- 
 nection between our general program and the 
 pressing and practical opportunities at our 
 elbows. "Win-My-Chum" makes this needed 
 
 66 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC OPPORTUNITY 
 
 connection. "The light that shines farthest 
 shines brightest at home," and an evangehstic 
 passion which reaches the stranger in the dis- 
 tant corners of the earth, or the fallen in the 
 city's slums, will burn its brightest and blaze 
 its hottest for the unsaved friend and com- 
 panion. Through its members, the church has 
 many lines of association with those who are 
 not Christians. Knowing their problems, their 
 difficulties, their strength, their weakness, their 
 objections, there is a tremendous leverage for 
 appeal. The ground is fallow, the highway 
 straight and smooth, the case accessible. 
 
 Within sight and sound of any church there 
 are available prospects for the kingdom of 
 God. In the circle of the acquaintance of 
 every member there are people who are access- 
 ible to the Christian appeal. Without doubt 
 there are those who prefer to do their evan- 
 gelistic work among strangers. Parents say as 
 much concerning their children, wives often 
 feel the same concerning their husbands, etc. 
 Yet the closer the relationship of Life, the 
 greater the evangelistic opportunity. 
 
 A certain man has been the subject of much 
 
 evangelistic effort. Three members of his 
 
 family are members of the church. There have 
 
 67 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 been times when an intensive campaign of 
 prayer, persuasion, and pressure seemed cer- 
 tain to move this man, who is outwardly moral 
 and exemplary in many ways. More than 
 once that son has poured out his burdened 
 heart in intercession for his father, and has 
 wept hot tears of anguish for the surrender 
 that did not come. The case was a puzzle 
 for a time, for there seemed to be every reason 
 why the prodigious labors that had been put 
 forth would be crowned with victory. Then 
 a discovery was made. One day something 
 happened in the operation of the affairs of the 
 church that these people resented with an 
 outburst of violent emotion at home. Feel- 
 ings were hurt, there was much sulking, and the 
 free criticisms uttered lifted the church and 
 church people into a frankly unfavorable light. 
 Such an episode in a home in the presence 
 of non-Christian members of the family will 
 stifle a thousand jprayers, counteract a thousand 
 appeals, silence a thousand words of personal 
 entreaty. When such things happen, and when 
 the prospect knows in advance that it is likely 
 to happen, then what should be the supreme 
 evangelistic opportunity has been squandered. 
 
 If all the families now represented in the 
 68 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC OPPORTUNITY 
 
 membership of the church could be won in 
 entirety to Christ, the church rolls would be 
 substantially increased. If all business, social, 
 fraternal, and domestic associations were made 
 the thoroughfares of evangehstic appeal, the 
 advances in Christian declaration and enroll- 
 ment would be notable and far-reaching. 
 
 But the church's evangelistic opportunity is 
 more urgent still; it has the moral quality of 
 obligation. It becomes charged with the spir- 
 itual magnetism of high responsibility. When 
 opportunity is but the pleasure of choice, it is 
 on one plane; but when opportunity becomes 
 the pressure of obligation, it rises by the hy- 
 draulic of moral demand to heights supreme. 
 
 One summer, at an Epworth League institute 
 at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, there was great 
 excitement. On a certain afternoon of the 
 week, an excursion was planned which would 
 include the members of the institute on a 
 pleasure trip around the lake. The steamer 
 which had been chartered for the trip was 
 just making the pier when what seemed to be 
 a terrible accident happened. The pier was 
 crowded with the eagerness of youth bent on 
 pleasure, and the crowd began to push forward 
 ready to take the boat. Built "L" shaped, 
 
 69 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 that part of the pier that connected with the 
 shore broke away and went into the water, 
 carrying down nearly one hundred people. 
 Panic was but momentary — then a united effort 
 to save each endangered life. 
 
 In the struggling mass in tne water were 
 old men, a baby, girls who were unable to 
 swim, and frightened women. Opportunity 
 assumed the aspect of obligation. All who 
 could were under imperative duty to use their 
 utmost powers of rescue. This was done with 
 such dispatch that not a single life was lost. 
 
 The same principle operates in the spiritual 
 realm and in evangelistic rescue. We owe it to 
 the struggUng ones in the engulfing waters of 
 sin's terrible despair to throw them the life line, 
 to man the lifeboat, to reach them with the 
 life preserver. Whatever Christ is to us that 
 we owe to every accessible one who knows not 
 this soul-satisfying truth. If a physician makes 
 a discovery that will heal disease and save life, 
 the ethics of his profession require him to im- 
 part his secret to those whom it might help 
 and save. If a Christian makes a discovery 
 concerning the Christian life and its saving 
 values, the ethics of his profession require him 
 to pass the redeeming truth on to others. Once 
 
 70 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC OPPORTUNITY 
 
 the church awakens to its real obHgation in the 
 field of evangelism, then opportunity will leap 
 to dimensions that are truly startling. After 
 two years of successful evangelistic efforts in 
 the "Cathedral Church," there were those who 
 wondered where we would find the people for 
 further triumphs. They were in the ranks of 
 the constituents, the very people to whom the 
 church was bound by the ties of association, 
 the very people to whom the church owed the 
 evangelistic message, the very people who fur- 
 nished it with its real evangelistic opportunity. 
 During this year the emphasis was placed 
 upon personal evangelism to a degree even 
 greater than before. Special stress was laid 
 upon the enlistment of the rank and file of our 
 membership in this work. During the summer 
 a complete constituency list of the church was 
 compiled, showing that in the Sunday school, 
 congregation, in the various church organiza- 
 tions and families, there were more than eight 
 hundred non-Christian people, not members of 
 any church, who looked to this church for what- 
 ever spiritual ministration or pastoral service 
 they received. Here were found the husbands 
 of wives who were members, and in several 
 
 instances, the wives of husbands; the children 
 
 71 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 of the church families and of the Sunday school 
 but not members of the church; parents of 
 children in the Sunday school and church, 
 attendants of the congregational services, and 
 all others who had received from the church 
 and its minister such services as marriage or 
 baptism or had called the pastor in hours of 
 sickness, death, or other distress in the family. 
 
 This hst was typewritten with both names 
 and street addresses. It was then transferred 
 to cards — one name with the address to each 
 card. The official action of the church made 
 that year's campaign a Layman's Evangelistic 
 campaign, with personal work in the prominent 
 position. Well in advance of the nightly meet- 
 ings in the church a plan of careful cultivation 
 of this constituency was adopted and pursued. 
 
 The young people worked separately, met in 
 a class conducted by the pastor on personal 
 evangelism, and went out after their young 
 friends for Christ. The Sunday School Board 
 entered heartily into the plans, and each 
 teacher above the Primary Department was 
 given a list of his or her scholars who were not 
 Christians. These they were urged to see at 
 once on "business for the King." The other 
 names were taken by other workers. Once a 
 
 72 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC OPPORTUNITY 
 
 week, at a special meeting for that purpose, 
 these workers made their reports. They had 
 been given cards to use with the prospects 
 bearing the following triple pledge: 
 
 I will accept Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. 
 I will publicly acknowledge him as such. 
 I will join the First Methodist Episcopal Memorial Church 
 on or before Sunday, December 6th, 1914. 
 (Date for the ending of the campaign) 
 Name Address 
 
 Returns began coming in with cards signed 
 at the very first meeting for the workers' re- 
 ports. Special attention should be directed to 
 an item of our constituency list which brought 
 some real surprises. 
 
 Several years ago the Cradle Roll in the 
 Sunday school was given to an energetic woman, 
 with the suggestion that there was a chance 
 to make a record. There were fewer than 
 forty names on the roll of babies under three 
 years of age. She started out to do something 
 conspicuous with that Cradle Roll and she 
 did it. The enrollment is kept well above the 
 four hundred mark, despite the constant drain 
 from the Beginners' Department. Some time 
 ago the pastor said to her, "Suppose we have 
 a Cradle Roll Day at church," and she was 
 
 73 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 delighted. Plans were made accordingly, and 
 in the autumn a regular Sunday morning ser- 
 vice was given over to the babies of the Cradle 
 Roll and their parents. That was not all. It 
 was suggested that the superintendent make a 
 list of all the parents of these babies who were 
 not Christians or members of the church. The 
 surprising fact was discovered that more than 
 half of them were in that list — over four hun- 
 dred parents of babies on the Cradle Roll not 
 Christians or members of the church! That 
 list was divided into thirds: one for herself, one 
 for the parish visitor, and one for the pastor. 
 Then, so far as possible, the afternoons and 
 evenings of that week were spent in calling on 
 these people and making the evangelistic appeal 
 through their children. On the first afternoon, 
 when the pastor was ringing the doorbell at 
 his seventeenth home, it occurred to him that 
 not a mother had been away from home that 
 day, and when, in the early evening hours, he 
 went after the fathers, in nearly every case 
 they were at home. There is not a piece of 
 more available or accessible constituency than 
 parents of tots under three on the Cradle Roll. 
 In all those appeals, moreover, there was not 
 a rebuff. Not that all accepted Christ, but it 
 
 74 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC OPPORTUNITY 
 
 became clear that when the evangelistic plea is 
 made through the babe, there is no rejoinder. 
 
 On that Cradle Roll Day parents were bap- 
 tized, with their children, while then and later 
 many of them were led into Christian faith 
 and service. 
 
 On an appropriate Sunday a social and 
 religious canvass was made of the entire mem- 
 bership urging evangelistic cooperation. 
 
 "Win-My-Chum" week was incorporated in 
 the plan, and the personal work was continued 
 in fruitful fashion. Meetings for prayer were 
 held in the homes and there were several 
 conversions. 
 
 Then for three weeks nightly meetings were 
 conducted in the church auditorium with the 
 campaign intensifying in toil, in interest, and 
 in results. Special organizations "promoted" 
 each service, various forms of publicity were 
 used, and we came to the last day of the cam- 
 paign with the note of triumph ringing out 
 clear and strong. 
 
 In the Sunday school there were more than 
 thirty decisions for Christ; at a men's meeting 
 in the afternoon there was intense conviction 
 but no surrender. Then came the evening 
 service. The pastor felt confident of victory, 
 
 75 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 yet after preaching and making the appeal, and 
 after singing two invitational hymns, there was 
 no response and but one or two personal workers 
 stirring in the congregation. The preacher was 
 desperate. It seemed to him that to close the 
 meeting then would break his heart. Many 
 were at decision's gateway. One man who 
 promised he would yield that night stood 
 hesitating. The last stanza of the second invi- 
 tational hymn had been sung. All were fight- 
 ing against heavy odds for victory. The 
 preacher left the pulpit, "not knowing whither 
 he went." After descending the pulpit stairs, 
 he turned and walked across the front of the 
 church, down the side aisle to about the fourth 
 pew, where in the very end, stood the man who 
 had promised. He stopped. The man's hand 
 rested upon the end of the pew. The pastor's 
 hand rested on his, and, addressing himseK to 
 the people in that section, he poured out his 
 heart in an agony of passion for them to yield. 
 The words were general; the message direct 
 to this man. Then he went around into another 
 aisle where he saw a man with whom he had 
 talked and prayed and pleaded in his home. 
 He was almost persuaded. The minister ap- 
 pealed to him for instant surrender, though 
 
 76 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC OPPORTUNITY 
 
 the appeal was couched in terms sufficiently 
 general for others. In another aisle, he did the 
 same; then returned to the pulpit. He asked 
 the choir to sing one stanza of "Just as I am." 
 He urged the workers to give the word of loving 
 invitation and announced that if no one came 
 during that first verse he would close the 
 meeting. The man who had promised came on 
 the run, followed by his wife. The obstinate 
 man, almost persuaded, said "Yes" to a friend 
 who invited him. The entire audience melted. 
 From every part of the building they came, men, 
 women, children, and young people, until the 
 altar was crowded. That notable victory 
 crowned the campaign with a total of more 
 than one hundred converts. 
 
 Opportunity brings responsibility, but its 
 discharge brings success. When option issues 
 in action, then action registers in consumma- 
 tion. The church that bravely enters the lists 
 of evangelistic conquest will soon shake out 
 the radiant banners of victory. 
 
 77 
 
THE CHURCH'S EVANGELISTIC 
 CLIMATE 
 
 In Matthew's statement of Jesus 's return 
 to Nazareth we have this melancholy summary 
 of the fact: "And he did not many mighty 
 works there because of their unbelief." After 
 a brief absence from home, during which the 
 public ministry had begun, Jesus returned to 
 Nazareth and, at the Sabbath service in the 
 synagogue, pronounced himself the fulfillment 
 of Isaiah's familiar prophecies. But the mes- 
 sage struck no responsive chord, the announce- 
 ment was met with the determined and hostile 
 opposition of jealous and skeptical rage. So 
 that in Nazareth, where he had spent the days 
 of his childhood, and from whose silences he 
 had gone forth to his public ministry, in Naz- 
 areth he could not do mighty spiritual works 
 because of unbelief. 
 
 Moreover, the fact of embarrassing and re- 
 tarding influences against the Saviour's work 
 is proclaimed with more or less directness in 
 
 the Gospels again and again. So that such 
 
 78 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CLIIVIATE 
 
 observations and conclusions may be reduced 
 to this simple statement of fact, namely, that 
 surrounding conditions had a real influence upon 
 the spiritual and evangelistic successes of Christ 
 himself. And if he needed sympathetic and 
 cooperative belief as the warm and wholesome 
 climate in which to work his plans of redemp- 
 tion, then such conditions are of vast and vital 
 importance in our evangelistic activity. 
 
 What are These Climatic Essentials? 
 
 First, an atmosphere of spiritual certainty 
 is a prime requisite for successful evangelism. 
 Theories, whatever their value elsewhere, are 
 of little or no consequence in this grip with 
 spiritual realities involved in pointing a soul 
 to the path of love and light. With full con- 
 cession to all intellectual and professional train- 
 ing, yet the personal worker simply invites de- 
 feat if he goes to his work with the uncertain 
 dependence upon hearsay or upon theory. The 
 personal and conscious knowledge that Christ is 
 the worker's own Saviour, and the calm cer- 
 tainty that the real dynamic of the effort is not 
 plan nor method nor word but the Spirit of God, 
 are indispensable to the personal evangelist. 
 
 It is such an atmosphere that "Billy" Sunday 
 79 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 carries with him and which quickly becomes a 
 contagion wherever he goes. Some are offended 
 because he takes into his preaching the Hugo 
 of the street and the ball-field, but he is succeed- 
 ing where others fail, because God is real to 
 him and the dependence upon spiritual power 
 gives him the confident assurance of victory. 
 
 "Gipsy" Smith seems to fairly radiate this 
 same atmosphere of spiritual certainty. When 
 he came from his gypsy tent into the pulpit 
 with the wild freedom of the English moors and 
 the love of nature that was a passion, he came 
 with something more fresh and more beautiful 
 still: it was his first-hand knowledge of divine 
 reality, and it is this reality that he is able 
 to imprint upon the hearts of his Hsteners 
 and which lifts them into the very presence of 
 God. 
 
 This was, likewise, the secret of the wonder- 
 ful power of Moody. He went directly into 
 London pulpits where form and dignified ritual 
 and scholarly discourse had held sway for a 
 century with negligible results, and in uncouth 
 speech and with awkward manner and with 
 colloquial phrase gave a thrilling personal testi- 
 mony, interpreted Scripture in terms of expe- 
 rience, charged the whole religious atmosphere 
 
 80 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CLIMATE 
 
 with the electricity of spiritual certainty — and 
 his notable successes are an open book. 
 
 In a certain revival campaign which was 
 conducted several years ago there was this 
 most unusual and interesting experience: A 
 woman who was a stranger in the community 
 save to the sister-in-law whom she was visiting, 
 came into the service on an evening when 
 several girls had accepted the invitation to 
 acknowledge Christ and were bowing at the 
 altar. During the altar service the minister 
 stepped back to speak to her, inquiring regard- 
 ing her attitude toward religion. She rephed: 
 "I pity those girls yonder, for there is nothing 
 to religion. They are making a spectacle of 
 themselves and will live to rue this act." Her 
 words were so vitriolic and her demeanor was 
 so curt that the preacher was stunned, so, 
 without another word, he went back to the 
 pulpit. She attended with her sister-in-law the 
 services, however, and while many observed her 
 increasing interest in what was transpiring, no 
 further words were had with her on the sub- 
 ject of religion. 
 
 One evening, in answer to the public appeal, 
 
 without her relative's knowledge, and with no 
 
 special solicitation, this woman came to the 
 
 81 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 altar. She did not want anyone to speak to 
 her; she asked that audible prayer and singing 
 be stopped, for she wanted perfect quiet. After 
 what seemed an interminable silence she arose 
 from the altar with a smile on her face and a 
 new light in her eye. She returned to her seat 
 and the congregation was dismissed without a 
 word with her. 
 
 The next Sunday morning she asked for 
 permission to recite her experience. She said 
 that as she bowed at the altar the front of the 
 organ seemed to be illumined with a strange 
 light, and then there appeared a wonderful mo- 
 saic, and out of it came the benignant face of 
 Christ, whom she recognized as her Saviour. 
 She was then received into the church, and 
 somewhat later she went to her distant home a 
 changed wonian. 
 
 It is gratuitous to say that her testimony 
 exerted a tremendous influence, and not only 
 at the time; it has continued through the years, 
 as that pastor has frequent opportunity to 
 know. Its power was in the reality of the 
 experience and in the calm and quiet certainty 
 that just such miracles as had been wrought in 
 her life might register in the lives of others also. 
 
 Again, an atmosphere of personal gracious- 
 
 82 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CLIMATE 
 
 ness must surround the evangelistic worker. 
 Tendencies of disposition which would discredit 
 the message or repel the prospect are so serious 
 as to require the drastic action of spiritual 
 surgery. Pettiness, sourness, crankiness, fault- 
 finding, carping criticism — such propensities, 
 which may seem to be mere individual ex- 
 crescences and to have no moral content, really 
 create a climate so trying to moral health and 
 successful evangelistic labors as to merit serious 
 thought and plans of speedy elimination. 
 
 A certain man really tried to be a Christian 
 and made plenty of profession. He was a 
 class leader in the church and the teacher of 
 a class of boys in the Sunday school. His 
 usefulness was seriously impaired and his re- 
 ligious experience distressingly hampered by 
 most unfortunate tendencies of disposition. He 
 was a chronic complainer, and there was 
 nothing concerning the church or minister or 
 members but that he could and did find some 
 fault. There was just one person who escaped 
 the thrust of his sharp and critical tongue (not 
 his wife), and that was a shoe cobbler who was 
 also a class leader in the church and was just 
 as unquenchable a whiner as he. These two 
 men considered it their religious duty to meet 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 in the cobbler's shop, and when he would get 
 out his hammer for the shoes both of them 
 got out their hammers for the church and be- 
 gan on everybody and everything. 
 
 One Sunday morning, when the Sunday 
 school superintendent administered a public and 
 well-deserved reproof to his class, this teacher 
 arose, livid with rage, and gave a sharp answer 
 to the superintendent, resigning at the next 
 meeting of the Sunday School Board. The 
 scant success which attended his labors to win 
 those boys to Christ was as certain as the day. 
 
 In that illuminating message of John in the 
 first chapter of his Gospel, in which he holds 
 up to view the incarnate Christ, he declares 
 that when the race beheld his glory, it was 
 "full of grace and truth." Does the sequence 
 here have a significant emphasis.'^ What if 
 it does.^ What if it was a necessary order of 
 Messianic revelation that Christ should reveal 
 the graciousness of his manner before he re- 
 vealed the truth of his message? When he did 
 begin his public work, as we have already seen, 
 he appeared more anxious to win friends to 
 his cause by his friendliness than to proclaim 
 the vibrant truth of his mission. Without doubt 
 Jesus understood what all evangelistic workers 
 
 84 - 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CLIMATE 
 
 must come to learn, that if we would be winning 
 people to the Christian life, we must be win- 
 some people ourselves. 
 
 No church can successfully prosecute evan- 
 gehsm in an atmosphere of misunderstanding 
 among the workers. Fuss and feud among the 
 members will counteract the evangelistic efforts 
 of any pastor and his helpers. Three gripping 
 reasons make such labor abortive. The first 
 is that the Holy Spirit cannot use such a church 
 in the plans for world redemption. The out- 
 pouring of spiritual influences upon discordant 
 persons in the same household of faith, or in 
 different households of faith, is as unthinkable 
 as the effort to drive two horses at once when 
 they insist on going in opposite directions. 
 The second reason is that strife and contention 
 in a church spoil the spiritual conditions in the 
 lives of the workers themselves, so that energies 
 of spiritual effort that are required for evan- 
 gelism are stunted and dulled and distorted 
 to such an extent as to make effective evan- 
 gelism impossible. And the third reason is 
 that thinking people who desire a spiritual 
 haven in the church will not be attracted to a 
 company of alleged Christians that is torn 
 with constant dissension and strife. 
 85 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 If the church would be its own evangelist, 
 let it begin with its officials and members. Let 
 it cleanse the inside of the platter first, let it 
 pluck the beam from its own eye first, let it 
 bathe its own troubled soul with the warm 
 waters of salvation before striding forth on the 
 highways of the world to save others. 
 
 Neither can a church hope to win triumphs 
 in evangelism whose members do not square 
 their lives with the demands of moral integrity. 
 The residents of any community must believe 
 implicitly in the Christians who display an in- 
 terest in their spiritual welfare. Otherwise the 
 appeals of evangelism will seem like "sounding 
 brass and a clanging cymbal." 
 
 In a certain manufacturing city were two 
 men who were professing Christians and mem- 
 bers of a certain evangehcal church. About 
 equally prominent in the church and com- 
 munity, both were manufacturers, both had 
 fine families and beautiful homes. One of 
 these men, however, was unable to get those 
 around him to follow him into the church. His 
 children joined when very young, but soon 
 wandered away. His workmen ridiculed the 
 kind of religion that their employer had. Those 
 who knew him best had least confidence in his 
 
 86 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CLIMATE 
 
 integrity and least respect for his religion. 
 Not long ago this man died, leaving a desolate 
 home, a broken-hearted widow, and the re- 
 proachful memory of a false life and a dubious 
 profession. 
 
 The other case was different. This man bore 
 a name that was synonymous with integrity. 
 His family loved him, his employees honored 
 him, the entire community respected him. His 
 two daughters married excellent young men 
 who are taking their places in the church. The 
 men of his factory who have been led to Christ 
 by that employer are many, and now that he 
 is gone his name is a fragrant memory and his 
 life a benediction. Whenever an evangelistic 
 effort is compelled to feel the oppressive damp 
 of uncertain moral living on the part of the 
 church members, it is sure to be suffocated with 
 little or no spiritual success. 
 
 Once more, a wholesome social atmosphere 
 in a church is an essential to victorious evan- 
 gehsm. Any attempt to interject a discussion 
 of the amusement question into such a treatise 
 on evangelism would be gratuitous and would 
 defeat its own purpose. Nevertheless, the prob- 
 lem of the social atmosphere is so involved in 
 successful evangeUsm that it voices its own 
 
 87 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 message. If there were no debatable paragraph 
 in any book of church discipline, if there were 
 no amusement prohibitions in the program of 
 any church, it would still be true that any 
 social fellowship that causes the life to sag, 
 that any social custom that brings physical 
 strain beyond wisdom, that any social inter- 
 course that results in mental vacuity, or the 
 lowering of the standards of moral equity, or 
 the dulling of the sense of fine chivalry must 
 find classification as "taboo" for the person 
 who desires to keep alive the spiritual impulses 
 and continue to be of service as a winner of souls. 
 The earnest Christian, anxious to function 
 his life in the direction of personal evangelism, 
 will settle his relation to questions of recreation 
 on the basis of spiritual and moral atmosphere 
 rather than on the basis of church leniency or 
 prohibition. The question is not always one 
 of absolute right and wrong, but often becomes 
 a problem of tendency of sensitiveness of ethical 
 and spiritual efficiency. It is dangerous for 
 the Christian to linger in any marginal terri- 
 tory or rest on any debatable ground. "What 
 is subject to debate is not subject to indul- 
 gence," declares Robert Speer in an epigram 
 as true as it is incisive. 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CLIMATE 
 
 When the individual Christian and the body 
 of church workers and the group of evangehstic 
 laborers come to adjust the question of the 
 recreational and amusement life on the basis 
 of wholesome and invigorating atmosphere, then 
 no paragraph will stand in the way of the 
 proper choice and no church prohibition will 
 hamper their largest freedom. 
 
 There was a time when gigantic animals 
 stalked through the marshes of these North 
 American wilds. From the rocks their fossil 
 remains are now being chiseled, and with in- 
 finite scientific pains their skeletons are being 
 restored. So huge they were as to be almost 
 beyond belief. Compared to them the elephant 
 of the present day is but a pigmy. Feeding 
 out of the tops of trees, and uttering such cries 
 as must have rent the air for miles, what spec- 
 tacles these animals certainly were! 
 
 What killed this race of mammal giants? 
 Did lurking enemies shoot them down.? Did 
 animals still stronger than they overcome them 
 in mortal combat? Did prehistoric man slay 
 them to extermination? Though no historian 
 wrote down their history, what happened was 
 just this: the climate changed. Into that tropic 
 warmth came the icy winds from the north. 
 89 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 Over the swamps there came crushing their 
 slow but certain way the mighty glaciers bear- 
 ing even mountains of stone and dirt and ice 
 and snow. Chilled into numbness, these great 
 animals were crushed and buried beneath this 
 icy avalanche. And when the ice had melted 
 and the glaciers had receded, the story of the 
 tragedy was written by God's finger in the 
 rocks. 
 
 If climate killed the mightiest ^race of animals 
 that ever trod these shores, then we may well 
 give pause to any habit or bearing or disposition 
 or indulgence which will dull or chill or weaken 
 the vitality of the spiritual life. For if our 
 Lord himself must keep himself fit, and if 
 spiritual atmosphere had a bearing on the suc- 
 cess of his labors, so much the more should we 
 take heed to ourselves and to the Church of 
 God if we expect to enter into his program of 
 redemption through evangelism. 
 
 90 
 
VI 
 
 THE CHURCH'S EVANGELISTIC CROSS 
 
 Two fallacies regarding evangelism are cur- 
 rent among the churches and they are as 
 deadly as they are current. The first fallacy 
 is that evangelism as a church program is so 
 difficult that the average church cannot operate 
 it successfully. Staggered by the magnitude of 
 the task, many ministers and congregations do 
 not undertake it through fear. The second 
 fallacy is that evangelism may become so easy 
 that the plan can be operated without difficulty 
 and without special concern on the part of the 
 church. Deluded by the ease of the task, many 
 Christian workers fail through complacency. 
 
 It has been the consistent aim of this volume 
 to prove by demonstration that the evangelistic 
 task is not too great for the average church 
 and minister, and to sound the solemn note 
 that if a church fails here, its failure is dire 
 and utter. 
 
 It must not be forgotten, however, that evan- 
 gelism is no rocking-chair ajffair; it is no holi- 
 day engagement; it is no dress-parade maneuver. 
 
 91 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 It is toil, it is struggle, it is bloody sweat, it is 
 intercession, it is soul-passion, it is heart an- 
 guish. Jowett was right when he said: "When 
 we cease to bleed we cease to bless. The gospel 
 of a broken heart demands the ministry of 
 bleeding hearts." 
 
 Evangelism is not easy, no odds what the 
 plan or method. WThether it is evangelistic 
 preaching, or the conduct of public revival 
 services; whether it is intercessory prayer for 
 the unsaved or the personal grip of the private 
 interview and invitation to Christ, no one can 
 engage in it without knowing that virtue has 
 gone out of him. The price of successful evan- 
 gelism is high, but the values are eternal. Mr. 
 H. Clay Trumbull, for many years editor of 
 the Sunday School Times, was one of the most 
 successful personal evangelists of his day. He 
 did the work so continuously and with such 
 apparent ease that it has been commonly sup- 
 posed that it became "second nature" to him. 
 His own testimony, however, is quite contrary 
 to that understanding. 
 
 Many were the times, he admits, when it 
 seemed that the circumstances were not favor- 
 able to a word for Christ, and often he was 
 on the verge of defeat because of the constant 
 
 92 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROSS 
 
 temptation to pass by an evident opportunity 
 to press home the gospel message upon a chance 
 acquaintance, and was saved from failure only 
 by earnest even if silent prayer. Whenever one 
 can breeze into the presence of a person who is 
 a prospect for Christian consecration, and in 
 a light vein and nonchalant manner approach 
 the most vital of all subjects, it is easy to pre- 
 dict that no permanent deposit for righteousness 
 will be made. 
 
 If soul passion is an essential to successful 
 evangelism, it is of the utmost importance for 
 the church to know that soul passion is just 
 what the phrase expresses. It is a suffering 
 of soul for the unsaved, a sorrow for the tragedy 
 of the lost, a real travail of spirit for the sinning. 
 
 At the height of his popularity Jesus fed the 
 five thousand by the lakeside while "Galilee's 
 sun was westering and Galilee's waves were 
 whispering on the strand." At once the enthusi- 
 asm of the people voiced itself in the clamor to 
 make him King. Seizing this popular fallacy 
 with the grip of his imperial authority, he dis- 
 persed the crowds before their riot of mob 
 madness could bring all to destruction. More- 
 over, he sent the disciples out onto the lake, 
 where in toilsome rowing and in the fright of 
 
 93 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 the night's storm, they might forget their mad- 
 dening dream of temporal power. 
 
 When, on the next day, the crowds came 
 again and tried to force the crown of worldly 
 Messiahship upon his brow, he precipitated 
 with calm and deliberate precision the crisis of 
 his ministry. Forthwith he tore the delusive 
 vision from their eyes; he blasted with hard and 
 pitiless words their misguided hopes; he told 
 them with the blunt clearness that could not 
 be dodged that his kingdom was a spiritual 
 kingdom; and that the pathway to his corona- 
 tion was the red highway of sacrifice and suffer- 
 ing and death which was to end at Calvary. 
 
 He held up the cross until they felt its horror. 
 He told them that his body must be broken 
 and his blood shed upon it. Then, striding on 
 to the personal application, he declared that 
 those who would follow him must eat of his 
 body and drink of his blood, must enter sacri- 
 ficially into the very spirit of redemption. He 
 pictured for them a career of hardship and of 
 suffering as they would be broken and scarred 
 and scorned for him. 
 
 When the people could rally from the blow, 
 
 they wailed, "This is a hard saying, who can 
 
 hear it?" On the instant the crowds began to 
 
 94 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROSS 
 
 melt, the wild clamor toward kingship ceased, 
 the loud applause hushed upon their lips, and 
 John added this heart-breaking word: "Upon 
 this many of his disciples went back, and 
 walked no more with him." When the people 
 caught sight of the cross they wavered and then 
 went back. 
 
 There is really no ground for wonder at this 
 proceeding, for true Christian consecration 
 which follows Christ in the way of evangelism 
 leads straight to a cross, and when it comes to 
 that, more's the pity, so many go back ! 
 
 Kingsley once wrote: "It is quite honor 
 enough (and I suspect before we get done we 
 shall find it work enough) to get one soul saved 
 alive, before we die. There can be no real 
 success in winning souls without sacrifice." The 
 call to evangelism is no call to an easy, dilettante 
 sort of Christianity; it means tired feet and 
 aching head, and often a weary heart. 
 
 The evangelistic worker, whether minister or 
 layman, must settle with himself those per- 
 plexing and persistent questions which cluster 
 around self and self-interest. A primary prin- 
 ciple of all Christian service is this: "It is more 
 blessed to give than to receive"; and that 
 
 principle found its most glorious, though most 
 
 95 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 tragic, fruitage on the cross of Calvary, when it 
 was said of the dying Christ: "He saved others; 
 himself he cannot save." 
 
 Efficient evangelism means an outlay of time 
 that might be spent in personal and pleasurable 
 pursuits; it means a consumption of physical 
 and mental and nervous energy that ends in 
 exhaustion; it means fellowship with such heroes 
 as Henry Martyn, who, as he set sail for India, 
 cried out, "I desire to burn out for God!" 
 That is the discriminating word, after all — 
 "burning out for God!" 
 
 That is the John Baptist standard of Chris- 
 tian service, for Christ described him as a 
 "burning and a shining light." "As the oil 
 wastes the flame aspires." You cannot illumine 
 the house with the oil and still retain the oil 
 in the lamp; you cannot invest your money in 
 property and still keep it in pocket; you cannot 
 sow your seed broadcast, expecting a harvest, 
 and still hoard it in your full granary; you can- 
 not spend your life in evangelistic service and 
 still save it for yourself. 
 
 An Alpine traveler reminds us that in the 
 Swiss Alps there is a lower shoulder of the moun- 
 tain called the Furren Alp, whose rocky head 
 looks down into the beautiful valley of Engle- 
 
 96 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROSS 
 
 berg. One's guidebook tells him that in cross- 
 ing this rough shoulder he will come to a place 
 where the visible track will cease. Reaching 
 the spot, the traveler finds the end of the road 
 just as described, then looks about in uncer- 
 tainty. Soon he is likely to catch sight of what 
 seems to be a splash of blood upon a rock, and 
 at a little distance another, and so on, each one 
 bringing into view another one a bit further on. 
 Ere long it dawns upon the traveler that these 
 are his guideposts; that by the red road of 
 these blood marks across the waste he is to 
 find his destination. 
 
 The pathway of successful evangelism is the 
 red highway of self-sacrifice, self-abnegation, 
 self-denial. By the blood marks of his own 
 soul-suffering he is to find his way to evan- 
 gelistic triumph; by losing his own life the 
 evangelistic worker is to find it in the lives of 
 others. 
 
 An additional implication of successful evan- 
 gelism which lifts up a cross for the church or 
 worker and which causes some "to go back" 
 is the outgo of personal sympathy. 
 
 When the prophet Elijah had taken the dead 
 son of the Zarephath widow to his own room, 
 and had stretched himself upon the child, with 
 
 97 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 his face to the child's face and his heart to the 
 child's heart, then life for the child returned. 
 Not until our yearning hearts pulsate with a 
 holy love for the unsaved, not until we come 
 close enough to the wayward to hear their 
 heart-throb and feel their hot breath upon our 
 faces, can we expect to lead them to salvation. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. W. J. Dawson tells of a certain 
 English criminal who was being led to his 
 execution on the scaffold and was being offered 
 by the prison chaplain what are known as the 
 "consolations of religion." The wretched man 
 turned fiercely upon the chaplain and cried: 
 **Do you really believe that? If you believe 
 that, why did you not act as if it were true, 
 why did you not act as if you cared .^ If I be- 
 lieved that, I would crawl across England on 
 broken glass to tell men that it was true." 
 Though the world may sometimes seem cal- 
 loused to the gospel message, yet people will 
 flock from all walks of life and all sorts of sta- 
 tions to the place where there is real sympathy. 
 If the church really cares, it will count no 
 sacrifice too great to carry the evangelistic 
 message to those who are not Christians; but 
 if the church does not really care, it is not 
 likely to go very far with the story of a Saviour. 
 
 98 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROSS 
 
 One night the pastor noticed a man in the 
 revival service who had taken a conspicuously 
 hostile attitude toward the church. His wife 
 was a member, but his association of the church 
 with industrial leaders in the community led 
 him to regard it as his enemy. At the close 
 of the service the preacher made a particular 
 point to see him and have an earnest word 
 with him. "I am mighty glad to see you here, 
 for you have a lot of friends in this church who 
 are keenly alive to your interests and would 
 like to see you a Christian." 
 
 "Is that so?" he queried. "I didn't suppose 
 that anybody here cared about me." 
 
 Not many nights after that brief interview 
 that man bowed in humble surrender to Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 In another instance a man in the com- 
 munity was so bitter against the church that 
 he forbade the minister to come to his home, 
 and when he did go on one occasion to call on 
 a sick member of the family who was a parish- 
 ioner, he refused to let the preacher offer a 
 prayer for his own sick and suffering daughter. 
 Later misfortune overtook his family, the 
 church was almoner of bounty, the church 
 ministered to their wants, the pastor proved 
 
 99 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 a friend in need, and the warm devotion of 
 benevolence and kindness thawed his cold 
 heart and it became the minister's sweet joy 
 to kneel beside that man as he made his con- 
 secration to Christ and to receive him into the 
 church which he had so bitterly hated. 
 
 When the church shows the world that it 
 actually cares, and when it brings its tender, 
 loving heart and its fragrant sympathy close to 
 the crying needs of the people, they will not 
 refuse its love. When the church robs its 
 labors of the professional taint and puts blood 
 into its toil, and tears into its invitations, its 
 work in evangelism will be crowned with the 
 finial of success. 
 
 There is a young fellow who is a preacher's 
 son and a good Christian. Three years ago 
 he was given the first-year class of Junior 
 boys in the Sunday school. When the time 
 arrived for the Decision Day services in the 
 Junior Department, in response to the evan- 
 gelistic appeal he brought his entire class to 
 Christ and into the church. The next year 
 he did the same, and likewise the third year. 
 In three years that red-blooded, athletic, virile 
 young man has actually led into the Kingdom 
 
 every boy who stayed under his instruction 
 100 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROSS 
 
 long enough to face him with Christian de- 
 cision. 
 
 With a new class each year composed of 
 boys of nine, ten, and eleven, the truly regal 
 and exceptional quality of his work becomes 
 evident. How does this fellow do this? By 
 getting close to the boys, by becoming a big 
 brother to them, by entering into their joys 
 and their sorrows, by showing them that he 
 cares. 
 
 Again, there is certain to be a cross for the 
 church that enters fully into the program of 
 evangelism because it implies comradeship with 
 Christ in the redemptive offices of his ministry. 
 The church that puts itself into sympathetic 
 touch with the sinful and the tempted and 
 the needy, the church that tries to help the 
 strugglmg souls around it to a life of spiritual 
 victpry, stands shoulder to shoulder with Jesus 
 Christ. It hears his tender invitations, his 
 loving calls, his gracious messages. It sees the 
 anguish of the divine heart over the sinful 
 and the lost. It goes with him to lonely moun- 
 tain fastnesses for midnight prayers. It com- 
 panions with him even unto Gethsemane with 
 its cup of wormwood and to Calvary with its 
 cross of shame. In a privilege so rare that 
 101 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 angels well might covet it, it enters into the 
 birth pangs of Saviourhood. 
 
 The supreme mission of the church is to be 
 Saviour to its community, to its constituency, 
 to its world. The supreme joy of the minister 
 or member of the church is to be for some one 
 a Saviour. 
 
 The moving process, that time of trial and 
 strain for the preacher, was in operation. He 
 discovered that the drayman who was carting 
 the goods was an interesting, good-hearted 
 fellow, but loose in his habits and far off from 
 Christ. He became aroused to a battle for 
 the man's soul, but after trying several plans 
 had no apparent success. While spending a 
 season in European study and travel, he sent 
 this man a post card view of some noted scene 
 and wrote him a sentence full of passion for 
 his spiritual welfare. He was captured. He 
 had never received until then a piece of foreign 
 mail in all his life. He was touched at the 
 preacher's interest, even if he was so far away 
 and so occupied with other things. Within a 
 month of his return from abroad he had the priv- 
 ilege of seeing that man, who had not been in 
 church in years, kneel at the altar in a Sunday 
 evening service and consecrate himself to Christ. 
 
 102 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROSS 
 
 After leaving that church as pastor that 
 preacher was called back for a service, and 
 while walking along the principal business street 
 of the town this drayman spied him, left his 
 horse and wagon standing in the middle of 
 the street and rushed over to the sidewalk, 
 taking the parson in his big brawny arms as 
 he would a child. One is not accustomed to 
 embraces of that kind on the street, and it 
 might have been embarrassing except for its 
 meaning. And this was its meaning; somehow 
 in that man's mind he coupled that minister's 
 name with the name of Saviour. To be called 
 "Saviour" is life's rarest honor. It is the 
 supreme word possible in any biography, it is 
 the highest meed of praise for any church. 
 
 Yet Saviourhood involves a cross; that is 
 the reason why many do not undertake it, or, 
 having begun, turn back when once the vi- 
 carious elements come into view. But those 
 who go on and are not affrighted and are not 
 swerved from the way come triumphantly to 
 the Christian's success in the coronation of 
 evangelistic victory; but that is the theme for 
 our next and final chapter. 
 
 103 
 
VII 
 
 THE CHURCH'S EVANGELISTIC 
 CROWN 
 
 It is a custom among certain native tribes of 
 Central Africa to teach their youth the lessons 
 of prowess and bravery in a school of heroism. 
 When the boys reach the age to become real 
 warriors they are sent out into a place of sol- 
 itude in charge of the boldest, bravest, fiercest 
 leaders of the tribe. There they are taught 
 the essential lessons of a warrior's life in rough 
 and vigorous fashion. These tribal warriors 
 hurl spears at the youth, hack him with knives 
 and subject him to every conceivable torture. 
 Now, if there happens to be in that group of 
 boys a son of the chieftain, he is subjected to 
 extraordinary severities. Their naifve concep- 
 tion is that this young fellow who aspires to 
 be called "prince" or "chief" must be proven 
 worthy of the honor. He must show that 
 royal blood really courses through his veins. 
 Therefore, as a final test, all the warriors ar- 
 range themselves in two parallel rows, a few 
 paces apart, each one with a sharp knife in 
 104 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROWN 
 
 his hand. As this candidate for royal honors 
 walks dehberately between these two rows at 
 every step he receives a cut on the back of the 
 neck or shoulders. If he survives and does 
 not falter or cry out with pain, his royal heritage 
 is secure. 
 
 During the World's Fair in Chicago, attend- 
 ing the Parliament of Religions was a very 
 black man, who one day strolled into the 
 African village on the "Midway." In conversa- 
 tion with the native attendants, he announced 
 himself as a prince of a certain tribe. In- 
 stantly two or three of these Africans flew at 
 him, tearing away the clothing from his neck 
 and shoulders, and behold, there were the 
 royal marks. 
 
 The marks of Christian royalty are marks 
 of spiritual service. We prove our blood kin- 
 ship to Jesus Christ not by name, nor by form, 
 nor by shibboleth, but by lifting the world 
 up to God with the hydraulic of intercession 
 and the dynamic of evangehstic toil. We are 
 in Christ's royal line if the resources of our 
 lives are laid under tribute in a ministry like 
 that one described in the words, "He went 
 about doing good." Our present task is to set 
 forth some of the essential corollaries of this 
 105 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 final proposition of evangelistic coronation for 
 the church. 
 
 The evangelistic church wears the crown of 
 honorable succession. This succession is not 
 one of necessity. It does not involve ordina- 
 tion of its clergy nor an unbroken history from 
 the apostolate. Where is the successor of 
 Paul if not the church or Christian worker 
 that goes from city to city and nation to nation 
 as tireless missionary itinerant? Since Peter's 
 eager voice is hushed, who may claim his suc- 
 cession but he who preaches the gospel with 
 Pentecostal fervor and stands like basaltic rock 
 against the powers of darkness.^ Who have 
 been the holders of the regal scepter of the 
 Christ through the Christian centuries? Who 
 but such noble spirits as Saint Francis and 
 Bernard and Augustine? Who but Luther and 
 Huss and Ridley and Latimer? Who but 
 Moffat and Livingstone and Morrison? Who 
 are now the true Christian apostles but the 
 men and the women who in all lands and in 
 all ways are bringing in Christ's kingdom? 
 
 The successors in this Christian royalty may 
 
 not sit upon thrones, they may not wear the 
 
 crown of gold, they may not wield the scepter 
 
 of empire. They will be found in the busy 
 
 106 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROWN 
 
 highways and the lonely bypaths of life. They 
 may be covered with the sweat and grime of 
 honest toil. They may climb the rickety stairs 
 to some dark garret where want stares out 
 from the blanched faces of dwarfed children 
 and where manhood and womanhood have 
 been deflowered by the crushing hand of 
 industrial oppression. They may walk the 
 darksome ways of the alley or back street at 
 midnight seeking for the wanderer and the 
 lost. They may stand before starving, dying 
 multitudes breaking unto them the bread of 
 life. They may pierce the jungle or brave the 
 arctic rigor for the love of those never before 
 seen or known. They may cross the seas and 
 traverse the continents and climb the moun- 
 tains and track the deserts for the sake of 
 Christ and those for whom he died. The real 
 successor of priest or preacher, of monk or 
 missionary, of reformer or religious leader, of 
 saint or Saviour is the Christian Church or 
 Christian worker that goes to the uttermost 
 length of service in the effort to bring peo- 
 ple to Christ. Moreover, the evangelistic 
 church wears the crown of true worthwhile- 
 ness. 
 Out in the world a very striking character- 
 107 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 istic of human nature is involved just here. 
 The very objects of covetous desire, the very 
 ends for which people strive, the very pleasures 
 and pursuits which seem to give such breadth 
 and wealth and horizon to life are the very 
 things which harden the heart, which sap the 
 sweetest juices of the life, which contract the 
 sky, which shrivel the powers of the soul, and 
 which hasten the coming of the night: while 
 a service which seems to be sacrifice, a self-con- 
 trol which may be called self-denial, an outflow 
 of treasured resources which betokens exhaus- 
 tion, a forgetf ulness of self which finds its rarest 
 satisfaction in the uplift of others — these things 
 so enrich and enlarge sympathy, so deepen 
 and intensify purpose, so purify and strengthen 
 motives that life is kept constantly at its high- 
 est levels, is appraised at its largest values, and 
 bestows its richest benefactions upon others. 
 
 Any church is at its best when its program 
 is a ministry for others rather than a means 
 of self-congratulation or the culture of a smug 
 self-satisfaction. Paul keyed his own life up 
 to its highest pitch when he swept its strings 
 in sympathetic and cheering melodies to glad- 
 den others' hearts. His sacrificial ministry, 
 which brought him shipwreck and stonings, 
 108 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROWN 
 
 imprisonment and the marks of self-denying 
 service, made his life worth preserving in a 
 literature that will never die. John was re- 
 warded for his life of love and surrender with 
 an exile's rough fare on lonely Patmos. And 
 yet Patmos became his watchtower from which 
 he looked into the glories of the City Celestial 
 and set down for the discouraged church his 
 promise of future Christian dominion. The 
 testimony of all the Christian centuries is a 
 further proof of this same proposition. 
 
 The engaging thing about our present dis- 
 cussion is the crown of glorious success which 
 is worn by the evangelistic church. In a never- 
 to-be-forgotten story Jesus hinted at prodigious 
 results from Christian effort in his parable of 
 the sower and his seed, that sometimes one 
 might expect a harvest of thirty and sixty and 
 even an hundred fold. In no other field is the 
 fulfillment of that promise likely to climb to 
 such startling heights as in evangelism. Here a 
 single word may weigh tons; here a slight 
 effort may bring an amazing harvest; here a 
 trivial act may decide a destiny, and the 
 individual convert may be multiplied, not an 
 hundred but a thousandfold. 
 
 Several years ago a family moved into the 
 109 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 town where I was the pastor, the parents being 
 members of the church. I secured their trans- 
 fers and during the next year the older son, a 
 lad of fifteen, made a quiet, almost unnoticed 
 consecration to Christ. The decision was made 
 after a mere word from the preacher and 
 created no special comment. He began to work 
 in the church and Sunday school where he won 
 his scholars to Christ. Finishing high school at 
 the head of his class, he entered a college of 
 the Central V^'est. He became a factor in stu- 
 dent activities, editor of college publications, 
 college orator, and is facing life with a firm 
 consecration to some form of Christian service, 
 probably the ministry. 
 
 The infinite possibilities of thoroughgoing 
 evangelism have never been given a real trial. 
 Evangelism has been tried in spots, and by 
 spurts, and by some churches and preachers, 
 but never with the perseverance and thorough- 
 ness which is required to properly assize its 
 value. 
 
 The "Win-One" movement goes forward by 
 geometrical rather than by arithmetical pro- 
 gression, for each new convert becomes (or 
 should become) a new center of growth and 
 
 power. It has been pointed out that if Jesus 
 110 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROWN 
 
 were just ascending to heaven and were leaving 
 but twelve disciples as the result of his earthly 
 ministry, and each of the twelve would win 
 one convert apiece in a year's time, and each 
 new convert would win another in a year's 
 time, and the process be maintained without 
 lapse or loss, then the babe that is now in its 
 cradle would be but twenty-eight years old 
 when the whole world would be evangelized. 
 
 Wherever evangelism has been tried it has 
 registered in amazing triumphs. Those churches 
 and pastors that give it the proper place of 
 centrality in their program believe in its prac- 
 ticability and rejoice in its success. 
 
 In the fourth year of evangehsm at 
 Mishawaka our church joined in a city- wide 
 simultaneous campaign. The preparatory work, 
 the cottage prayer meetings, the publicity plans 
 were all directed by a union committee, but 
 when we came to the meetings themselves 
 each pastor conducted his own services in his 
 own church. 
 
 Our plan of reorganization was the most 
 complete of any we had yet tried. The entire 
 membership of the church was organized into 
 five evangelistic teams. Team A was com- 
 posed of church officials with their wives and 
 111 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 some others whom I selected to work with them. 
 The deputy postmaster was leader of this team. 
 
 Team B was made up of men recruited 
 largely from the Brotherhood and the Men's 
 Bible Class. The mayor of the city was the 
 team leader. 
 
 Team C was the women's team, and there 
 was an army of them, the teacher of the largest 
 adult class in the Sunday school being the 
 leader. 
 
 Team D was composed of young people, very 
 largely from the Ep worth League forces, with 
 the Epworth League president as the leader. 
 
 Team E was the Sunday school team, com- 
 posed of all the teachers below the adult de- 
 partment, the department superintendents, 
 many of the Sunday school workers and schol- 
 ars. The superintendent of the school was 
 the leader of this team. 
 
 A letter was mailed to every resident mem- 
 ber of the church assigning each one to one 
 of these five teams and calling them for a pre- 
 liminary meeting. The first week of the cam- 
 paign proper was given over to these teams, 
 one team a night. Under the pastor's guidance, 
 each team organized, conferred as to plans, and 
 spent much time in prayer. 
 
 112 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROWN 
 
 Committees were appointed as follows: 
 
 A committee to have charge of the opening devo- 
 tional service on each night that the particular 
 team promoted the meeting. This was once a 
 week. 
 
 A committee to arrange for some special musical 
 numbers each team night. 
 
 A committee of ushers. 
 
 A committee to have charge of the personal work 
 and to apportion the names of the prospects and 
 constituents (already prepared) among the 
 workers. 
 
 A committee called the "Check Up" Committee. It 
 was its duty to check up the team members each 
 night after the service for which its own team was 
 responsible, and to get on the trail of the absent 
 members the next day. 
 
 Following the first meeting of the team, the 
 leader sent a personal letter to each absentee 
 calling attention to the team organization, and 
 the work expected and urging his cooperation. 
 
 Thus, before the nightly meetings began, 
 every member of the church had received one 
 personal letter concerning the campaign, and 
 if not present at the preliminary meeting had 
 received two, and if not present during the 
 first week, had received three personal re- 
 minders of the big business on hand. 
 
 It will be seen that this plan of organization 
 113 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 provides for three classes of people most neces- 
 sary to real success in evangelism. 
 
 First: it provides for the regular workers 
 in the church, in that it assigns a definite task 
 to each one. 
 
 Second: it provides for the non-active, non- 
 attending members of the church, in that 
 some member of the "Check-Up" Committee 
 goes after every such laggard each week of the 
 campaign. 
 
 Third: it provides for the non-Christians, in 
 that the entire constituency of the church is 
 divided among the personal work committees 
 of the teams, and a personal invitation to the 
 services and to Christian confession and con- 
 secration is extended to each. 
 
 Again, this hand-picked method of getting 
 the prospects to the services does not bring as 
 great a number on any one night, but there is 
 much more of a chance of winning those who 
 do come than by any wholesale plan. 
 
 Instead of having a hundred non-Christians 
 at a service and by the drag-net method land- 
 ing ten, you have ten or more there who come 
 after personal invitation and entreaty, and 
 there is a good chance of landing all or most 
 of them. 
 
 114 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROWN 
 
 With this organization completed and en- 
 gaged in personal interviews nightly services 
 are begun which are conducted for three weeks 
 in the church auditorium. 
 
 A big mixed chorus leads the singing under 
 the direction of a specially secured leader. 
 The pastor of the church does the preachings 
 but everybody helps. 
 
 Decision Day services are conducted on 
 successive Sundays in the Junior, the Inter- 
 mediate, and the Senior departments of the 
 Sunday school. 
 
 Conversions occur at nearly every service. 
 No sensational things are done, but the meet- 
 ings are deeply spiritual and enthusiastic. 
 
 When the last service of this campaign was 
 over, closing the greatest day of the campaign, 
 on which there had been sixty -nine conversions 
 and accessions, we found that the converts 
 numbered one hundred and fifty and the acces- 
 sions one himdred and thirty-five. 
 
 In the cooperation of the people, in the 
 spirit of the meeting, in the deep impress upon 
 the church and community, this had been, 
 perhaps, the best campaign of all. 
 
 It has been proven beyond a peradventure 
 
 that any church can, if it will, meet the con- 
 115 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 ditions for successful evangelism. The confi- 
 dent optimism of pastor and people, the spirit 
 of patient, passionate prayer, the thorough- 
 going organization and painstaking plans that 
 would characterize any worthwhile undertaking 
 — these will function in evangelistic triumphs 
 more or less notable, under the leadership of 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Evangelism is the regular program in the 
 normal, growing church. It is its divinely 
 commissioned task and cannot be shifted with- 
 out shame nor shirked without disaster. The 
 successful church will be its own evangelist. 
 No matter what accessory aid may be regarded 
 as proper or profitable at times, it simply cannot 
 deputize its responsibility nor substitute the 
 faith and labor of outside helpers for its own. 
 
 » Moreover, it is becoming increasingly clear 
 that the churches are ready for evangelism as 
 quickly as the pastoral leaders point the way. 
 The laymen of every kind and condition will 
 follow a consecrated, far-visioned pastor to the 
 end of the evangelistic program. 
 
 As the old year was nearing its close it 
 occurred to a pastor that it might be possible 
 to register, in the interest of personal conse- 
 cration, the many good resolutions which mark 
 116 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROWN 
 
 the beginning of each new year. If New 
 Years is a time when people think deeply 
 concerning eternal issues and turn, half hesi- 
 tatingly and half impetuously, new leaves on 
 which they hope to write a better record than 
 before, then why not help these persons to 
 function their good intentions in definite and 
 immediate Christian decisions? This was his 
 query, and then followed his plan. 
 
 The plan called for at least seventeen people 
 who would compose a "seventeen" class to be 
 received into the church on the first com- 
 munion Sunday of 1917. 
 
 Compiling a list of seventeen prospects with 
 whom he had talked and who might be regarded 
 as ready for the final step toward Christ and 
 his service, he made them the subjects of daily 
 prayer for ten or twelve days before unfolding 
 the plan to a single person except the mistress 
 of the manse. 
 
 Next he selected with diligent care seventeen 
 workers from the congregation, wrote each a 
 letter unfolding the proposed plan, and called 
 them to a conference at the close of the eveninjg 
 service on Sunday, December 31. At that 
 time the details of procedure were fixed. Each 
 of these leaders would be the center of a prayer 
 117 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 group of not fewer than three and not more 
 than seven. They would select their own 
 group members and would settle upon one, 
 two, or three prospects. For these they would 
 pray and toil for the next fortnight. 
 
 Cards were provided these workers and were 
 passed to those in the pubhc congregation who 
 would take them. These cards contained this 
 proposition: 
 
 MY DECISION FOR 1917 
 
 I will accept Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. 
 
 I will publicly acknowledge him as such. 
 
 I will be one of a class of at least seventeen to be received 
 into the First Methodist Episcopal Memorial Church 
 on Communion Sunday, January 14, 1917. 
 
 Name Address 
 
 Although the entire church knew of the plan 
 and all were urged to participate, yet the chief 
 reliance for the work was placed in the selected 
 seventeen leaders, the congregation as a whole 
 being unaware of the inner and more intensive 
 campaign that was being waged. 
 
 The campaign was in progress an entire 
 
 week before the minister had interviewed a 
 
 single person on his list. He wanted to test 
 
 the preparatory values in prayer to the fullest 
 118 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROWN 
 
 extent, was anxious for the Holy Spirit to have 
 a fair chance before the appeal should be made, 
 and was determined that when they came to 
 the interview the very atmosphere would be 
 heavy with prayer. 
 
 Of course the goal of "seventeen" was ex- 
 ceeded — why not? When the class filed into 
 their seats reserved for them in the front of 
 the church Sunday morning it was found that 
 they were, not seventeen, but twenty-eight. 
 This aggregate included two sick men, father 
 and son, to whose home the pastor went in the 
 afternoon and in a touching service baptized 
 and received them into the church. 
 
 There were other significant facts. Five 
 of the people, long on preparatory member- 
 ship, had been stirred into action and, after 
 indifference, renewed faith and consecration. 
 Three letters that had reposed in the pastor's 
 desk for months and, in one case, for more than 
 a year, were requisitioned as the revived mem- 
 bers were transferred to the church roll. Four- 
 teen of the total were men, including the 
 superintendent of schools, the principal of the 
 high school and the athletic coach in the high 
 school. Ten were husbands of wives, five 
 couples were beginning their religious lives to- 
 lls 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 gether. One man, a grocer, while the pastor 
 was in the grips with him in his oflSce, called 
 in a clerk and the two made their surrender to 
 Christ, so that when this business man stood 
 at the chancel of the church, he had in that 
 very class one trophy of his evangeHstic appeal. 
 With three exceptions, all were adults, not 
 that children are discredited as converts, but 
 the effort was designed for adults and the 
 children were diligently provided for in other 
 ways. 
 
 Finally, the reflexive influences of such a 
 program upon the church are rich and monu- 
 mental. A thousand converts in five years in 
 one church means more than a statistical 
 record for the local church or the denomina- 
 tional year book. It means that the stream of 
 spiritual progress and blessing is flowing in 
 many directions. It means that the Sunday 
 school has doubled its average attendance, that 
 the church has increased its local budget at 
 least one hundred per cent, that the spirit of 
 stewardship has been quickened, and it means 
 that benevolent giving has risen to a tide 
 nearly three times greater than any previous 
 mark. It means additional salaried workers 
 for the local church and a missionary pastor 
 
 120 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC CROWN 
 
 in lands across the seas. It means that young 
 people from its ranks are going into prepara- 
 tion for special Christian service. It means a 
 much broader field of service and a more in- 
 tense interest in the problems of the local com- 
 munity. It means that the preacher has 
 loftier spiritual ideals and a clearer redemptional 
 emphasis in his preaching. It means that the 
 laymen have broader vision, larger sympathy, 
 greater liberality, and are increasingly available 
 in various fields of service. It means that the 
 church is willing to add to its social responsibil- 
 ities and to project its arms of helpfulness even 
 across the seas and around the world. It means 
 that such a program of evangelism gives a 
 vitalizing impulse to every unit of power and 
 every item of service that keeps a church pure 
 and strong and ready for the militant conquest 
 of the world. 
 
 121 
 
AFTERWORD 
 
 The bearing of this entire book is toward 
 local church evangeHsm under pastoral direc- 
 tion and with the generous cooperation of the 
 laymen. Rob it of such emphasis and its mes- 
 sage fails. Yet this writer would be among 
 the last to discredit the mission and the success 
 of many of the itinerant evangelists. A dim 
 boyhood recollection pictures Dwight L. Moody 
 preaching in a tent meeting in Chicago during 
 the Columbian Exposition in that city. And 
 while not as vivid as it might be, it is a cher- 
 ished memory. I have heard to my immense 
 profit such preachers of the evangelistic gospel 
 as Gipsy Smith and Torrey; it was a sermon 
 preached at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, by J. 
 Wilbur Chapman, that led directly to my 
 consecration to the ministry, while I have 
 had the good fortune to be associated, through 
 an entire campaign of seven weeks, with that 
 doughty champion of righteousness, "Billy" 
 Sunday. 
 
 These experiences and associations are en- 
 shrined in memories most dehghtful and in 
 
 122 
 
AFTERWORD 
 
 inspirations most uplifting. Nevertheless my 
 keener interest has been stimulated by evan- 
 gelistic pastors, who, with a full quota of parish 
 responsibilities and administrative duties, have 
 sounded the evangelistic note from their pul- 
 pits and have so organized their membership 
 for personal evangelism that they have been 
 able to build up the Kingdom in one community 
 year after year. 
 
 123 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 BOOKS ON EVANGELISM 
 
 Broadhurst: Personal Work. 
 
 Brushingham: Catching Men. 
 
 Chapman: The Personal Touch. 
 
 Dawson : The Evangelistic Note. 
 
 Goodell: Pastoral and Personal Evangelism. 
 
 Hughes: Letters on Evangelism. 
 
 Johnston: God's Methods of Training Personal Workers. 
 
 Studies for Personal Workers. 
 
 Jowett: The Passion for Souls. 
 
 Leete: Every Day Evangelism. 
 
 MacDonald : The Revival — A Symposium. 
 
 McConaughty: Christ Among Men. 
 
 McKinley: Educational Evangelism. 
 
 Morgan: Evangelism. 
 
 Peck: The Revival and the Pastor. 
 
 Sayford: Personal Work. 
 
 Sheridan : The Sunday Night Service. 
 
 The Experimental Note. 
 
 Stone: Recruiting for Christ. 
 Swift: Gospel Cheer Messages. 
 Torrey: How to Bring Men to Christ. 
 Trumbull: Individual Work for Individuals. 
 
 Taking Men Alive (Charles Gallaudet). 
 124 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 SAMPLES OF EVANGELISTIC PLANS, 
 LETTERS, LITERATURE, ETC. 
 
 The following samples of Plans, Letters, Lit- 
 erature, etc., were all used in our evangelistic 
 program as carried out in a five-years' pastorate 
 in the Memorial Methodist Church, Mishawaka, 
 Indiana. 
 
 They are presented with the feeling of re- 
 luctance because of the excessive personal ele- 
 ments, and yet they may carry more of 
 suggestion for that very reason. 
 
 During one year's campaign the regular 
 church Bulletin was used for pubhcity pur- 
 poses, as is seen in the following examples: 
 
 First Week 
 
 DO I WANT A REVIVAL IN MISHAWAKA? 
 
 This is the question which will be the central theme at 
 the midweek service next Thursday evening. You cannot 
 afford to miss this service. 
 
 We begin our Evangelistic Campaign next Sunday with 
 the Third Quarterly Meeting. At the morning service 
 there will be Communion, Baptism, and Reception of 
 Members. 
 
 I NEED THE REVIVAL AND THE REVIVAL 
 NEEDS ME. 
 
 125 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 Second Week 
 
 THE EVANGELISTIC PREPARATION 
 
 Prayer and consecration. Scripture reading and medita- 
 tion, harmony with God in his purposes of salvation and 
 harmony with the present plan of campaign — these things 
 are necessary as preparatory to our revival movement. 
 
 THE EVANGELISTIC PASSION 
 
 This work will not succeed without a baptism of holy 
 enthusiasm. Evangelism needs the warm atmosphere of 
 fervor and utter abandon. Indifference and coldness will 
 kill the revival more quickly than hostility. When this 
 church exposes to this community a heart broken in sym- 
 pathetic sorrow and tender in passionate love for the 
 wayward, then the response will be immediate and far- 
 reaching. 
 
 THE EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 
 Monday 
 
 Prayer and personal interviews. 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 Church families at supper at 6:30 in the social 
 rooms of the church. Brief session of the Quarterly 
 Conference at 7:30 with an evangelistic address by 
 Dr. Somerville Light. 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 Social and prayer meetings in each company of the 
 Loyal Legion at 7:30. 
 126 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Thursday 
 
 Evangelistic rally at the church with the pastor in- 
 charge, at 7:30. 
 
 Friday 
 
 Conference of committees, personal workers, and 
 captains of the Loyal Legion at 7:30, at the church. 
 Saturday 
 
 Prayer and personal invitations, with every Chris- 
 tian a member of the "Win-One" League. 
 
 Third Week 
 
 The campaign was actually on. 
 
 The great campaign is on! 
 
 Revival services will be held in the auditorium of the 
 church each evening of this week except Saturday. 
 
 Services will begin at 7:30, a men's chorus will sing, the 
 Billy Sunday songs will be used, the pastor will preach 
 and victory is expected. 
 
 These special services will close on Sunday, February 
 first, so that what is done must be done quickly. The pre- 
 paratory work has been done, the seed has been sown, the 
 ground has been cultured, the climatic conditions are 
 favorable — now for the harvest! 
 
 SPECIAL NIGHTS THIS WEEK 
 Monday 
 
 The OflBcial Board and famiHes. 
 Tuesday 
 
 Loyal Legion Night. 
 
 127 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 New Members' Night. All who have been received 
 
 into this church during the present pastorate are 
 
 especially urged to come. 
 Thursday 
 
 Woman's Home Missionary Society Night. 
 Friday 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL NIGHT. 
 
 Fourth Week 
 
 The Revival is now in full swing. The attendance has 
 increased from night to night aggregating 2,412 for the 
 week. 
 
 The pastor rejoices in the interest and faithful work of 
 so many of the members. However, "there remaineth yet 
 very much land to be possessed." Scores of our member- 
 ship have not attended a single service, hundreds of pros- 
 pects have not yet been reached. But two weeks remain 
 of this campaign, and they should be crowded with prayer, 
 personal work, and Christian service. 
 
 The "Win-One" League is at work, results are showing, 
 prospects are heartening. Have you enrolled.'* If not, 
 why not? 
 
 SPECIAL NIGHTS THIS WEEK 
 
 Monday 
 
 Ladies' Aid Society Night. 
 Tuesday 
 
 Brotherhood Night. 
 
 128 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 Shimron Bible Class Night. 
 Thursday 
 
 Young People's Night. 
 Friday 
 
 Dorcas Society Night. 
 
 Fifth Week: Final of the Campaign 
 
 We are entering the final week of our revival campaign. 
 God has been graciously blessing us. Many have been en- 
 tering the Christian life, and many more have been re- 
 newing their consecration. 
 
 Nevertheless, the time for shouting over victories has 
 not yet arrived; the present situation demands the most 
 faithful devotion to the work we have in hand. 
 
 PERSONAL PROGRAM FOR THIS WEEK 
 
 Each day at least one Bible Chapter, prayers for the 
 revival at seven and twelve and six, at least one personal 
 interview on the subject of religion, attendance upon the 
 evening service with a non-Christian friend. 
 
 How many will earnestly strive to execute this program, 
 God being their helper? 
 
 SPECIAL NIGHTS THIS WEEK 
 Monday 
 
 Membership Rally Night. 
 Tuesday 
 
 Boy Scouts' Night. 
 
 The Boy Scouts will attend in a body and be seated 
 
 in reserved seats. 
 
 129 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 MEN'S NIGHT 
 
 All men of Mishawaka, young and old, rich and 
 poor, business, laboring and professional, are in- 
 vited. Reserved seats for all men. 
 
 Thursday 
 
 WOMEN'S NIGHT 
 
 Every woman is urged to attend this service with 
 her friends. Seats reserved for women. 
 Friday 
 
 Sunday School Rally Night. Our Aim: All mem- 
 bers of the school present with their parents and 
 friends, and all Christians. 
 
 After the nightly services were completed a 
 Revival Extension was decided upon, according 
 to the following announcement: 
 
 THE REVIVAL EXTENSION 
 
 The splendid revival of the past month will be extended 
 indefinitely in two services a week. One of these will be 
 the Sunday evening service in which the message will be 
 evangelistic and the opportunity will be given to confess 
 Christ as personal Saviour. 
 
 The other will be the midweek service which will be 
 held in the church auditorium, with choral music, a ser- 
 mon by the pastor, and the direct and personal evangelis- 
 tic appeal. This will be a great service for the entire 
 church and the general public. 
 
 The Revival Extension Service will be held in the 
 church auditorium on Thursday evening beginning at 
 130 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 7:30. The Epworth League Chorus will sing and Young 
 People's Night will be observed. All young people and 
 their friends are urged to be present. This is your evan- 
 gelistic opportunity! 
 
 The Sunday evenmg service furnishes an excellent 
 chance for the members of the church to serve their 
 friends and acquaintances. A cordial invitation to join 
 you at the evening service may be the opening of the 
 highway to Christ. Try it! 
 
 During the 1915 campaign, as well as in 
 preparation for it, the church Bulletin was 
 capitalized to the fullest extent as a publicity 
 medium, as will appear below. 
 
 First Week 
 A Church Membership Catechism 
 
 1. How many names are on the Membership Roll of this 
 church? 
 
 2. How many united with this church last year? 
 
 3. How many of these were transfers of membership 
 from other Methodist churches? 
 
 4. How many persons have united with this church on 
 confession of faith or by probation in the last five 
 years? 
 
 5. What is the total number of names on the Church 
 Roll from the organization of the society until the 
 present time, including the Probationers' Roll? 
 
 131 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 6. What is the chief reason for the difference between the 
 total roll and the present Membership Roll? 
 
 7. Have we any plan for renewing the lapsed and unin- 
 terested? 
 
 8. Is there any vital relation between the local church 
 and the Nonresident Roll? 
 
 9. What methods were used, chiefly, in securing the 
 present membership? 
 
 10. Has this church an all-the-year-round Evangelistic 
 Program? What is it? 
 
 11. How many names are on your Constituency Roll? 
 
 12. Are you expecting to see every unsaved person in your 
 community brought to Christ? 
 
 Beginning the Laymen's Evangelistic 
 Campaign 
 
 All who will agree to engage in personal work during 
 our Laymen's Evangelistic Campaign are urged to meet 
 the pastor in the main Sunday school room on Wednes- 
 day evening at 7 :30. The names of our Constituency Roll 
 will be ready for distribution at that time. Let it be un- 
 derstood that the practical organization of our campaign 
 will be effected at this meeting, and its importance cannot 
 be overestimated. 
 
 The most of this work is to be conducted in private, so 
 that this call is simply for those of our membership who 
 will agree to take the names of several non-Christians and 
 interview them on the subject of the Christian life. YOU 
 are in that class of workers. 
 
 132 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Second Week 
 
 During this week our workers will be busy with our 
 personal evangelistic campaign and the first reports will 
 be received at the Personal Workers' Meeting on Wednes- 
 day evening. The main Sunday school department should 
 be crowded at 7 :30 sharp next Wednesday evening. 
 
 /Prayer 
 You can easily remember I Plan 
 
 J Purpose 
 these seven P'S as essentials < Perseverance 
 
 . . j Patience 
 
 to evangelistic success. / Passion 
 
 \ Power 
 
 Please remember the new midweek service program for 
 Thursday evening. In the Shinu-on Class room the pastor 
 will conduct the Epworth League class in Personal Evan- 
 gelism for all the young people. This class will begin at 
 7:15 and close at 8 o'clock. At 7:30 a layman will have 
 charge of a praise and prayer service in the main Sunday 
 school room, and at 8 o'clock the meetings will be com- 
 bined with the pastor in charge. 
 
 These services will have a vital bearing on our Evan- 
 gelistic Campaign and should make their appeal to the 
 entire church membership. 
 
 Be sure to read this triple pledge: if you need to 
 sign any part of it, do so, and hand or mail to the pastor; 
 if not, present it to some non-Christian friend or ac- 
 quaintance. 
 
 I will accept Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. 
 I will publicly acknowledge him as such. 
 133 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 I will join the First Methodist Episcopal Memorial 
 Church on or before Sunday, December 6, 1914. 
 
 Name 
 
 Address 
 
 Note:— 
 
 Are you using your church attendance card? 
 
 Your presence and sympathy are greatly needed in our 
 forward Laymen's Evangelistic Movement. 
 
 Beginning with next Sunday we shall swing our Lay- 
 men's Evangelistic Campaign into a series of general 
 services in the church auditorium with meetings each 
 night except Saturday, a men's chorus with Mr. Harvey 
 Crawford, of Elkhart, as director, and an intensive pro- 
 gram which will culminate on Sunday, December 6th. The 
 time is short and every other engagement shoidd be side- 
 tracked that this Revival Campaign may have right of 
 way. 
 
 The personal work is going forward. Some are faith- 
 fully engaged in interviewing friends and acquaintances on 
 the subject of religion and their personal relation to Jesus 
 Christ. Results are beginning to come in and there is 
 every reason for encouragement. Nevertheless, it is im- 
 perative that very many more of our members get into 
 this campaign at once. If you are a Christian and a 
 church member, what excuse have you for not being en- 
 gaged just now in personal evangelism? 
 
 The service on next Thursday evening will be in the 
 
 nature of an evangelistic rally among all the forces of the 
 
 church of all ages. The pastor will have charge and 
 
 earnestly desires that the meeting be up to evangelistic 
 
 134 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 pitch in every way. You can help it to be such if you will 
 pray for it, invite a friend and bring him with you. 
 
 The measure of our opportunity is likewise the measure 
 of our responsibility. Candidly determine your evangelis- 
 tic responsibility upon that basis. 
 
 Here are samples of the pastor's page as em- 
 ployed to boost the 1916 evangelistic cam- 
 paign : 
 
 Union Cottage Prayer Meetings will be held in 
 various parts of the city on Tuesday and Friday evenings 
 for the next two weeks. The city has been divided into 
 six districts and each cooperating church will have charge 
 of the prayer meetings within a given district. On the 
 south side of the river the Christian Church will direct the 
 work in the section west of Spring street, the Methodist 
 Church has the section from Spring to Union and the 
 Presbyterian Church has the section east of Union. On 
 the north side of the river Christyann and Ann streets are 
 the division lines, the First Baptist Church having the 
 east section, the Evangelical Church the central section 
 and the Emmanuel Baptist Church the west section. 
 
 A Prayer Covenant is desired which shall federate 
 our supplication with Christians of all the churches in 
 South Bend and Mishawaka, as well as the churches all 
 over Goshen District and North Indiana Conference, for 
 this evangelistic campaign is not merely a city-wide 
 movement — it includes our entire Conference. 
 
 Let us take 6 o'clock in the evening as our regular 
 time for daily prayer for this campaign. The chimes will 
 riug out the hour of prayer, at which time, whether at 
 135 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 work, on the street or at home, let us breathe a prayer for 
 the success of this great revival campaign. 
 
 Let Us Evangelize these Sunday evening services 
 which remain until the nightly meetings begin. Let those 
 who do not usually do so make it a point to attend the 
 evening services and begin the campaign of personal work 
 by bringing a friend with you to the services this evening. 
 Why wait for two or three weeks? "Why Not Now.''" 
 
 Both the South Bend Daily Papers have given 
 editorial commendation to the evangelistic plans now 
 being operated. These papers declare that as much 
 interest should be aroused and as much good done under 
 such an arrangement as if a notable evangelist were to 
 conduct the meetings. The spirit of expectancy is in the 
 air. The desire to cooperate is seen on every side and the 
 results will doubtless be gratifying. The favorable atti- 
 tude of the press is especially encouraging and the space 
 which the papers are devoting and will continue to devote 
 to this movement is deeply appreciated by ministers and 
 churches. 
 
 My Part in the Campaign, what is it.^ Will I do my 
 part or fail? Am I a worker or a shirker? 
 
 Watch the Evening Papers on Monday and Thursday 
 for the announcements of the cottage prayer meetings in 
 various parts of the city. Let the churches go forward in 
 this mighty evangelistic effort on their knees. 
 
 The Rev. J. J. Fischer, of North Manchester, a 
 minister with an unusually good voice and a man who 
 has had considerable success in evangelistic services, will 
 assist the pastor during two weeks of our revival meet- 
 ings, having direction of the music and helping in every 
 way possible to bring victory to the campaign. 
 136 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 On Next Wednesday Evening at the church the 
 pastor desires to meet for conference and prayer the fol- 
 lowing classes of people: (1) all members of the "Time 
 Legion"; (2) all team leaders of the recently appointed 
 membership teams; (3) all who have done or will do per- 
 sonal work either in private interviews or public invita- 
 tion; and (4) all who will join in prayer for the revival in 
 general and for a special prayer list in particular. Let us 
 meet promptly at 7:30. 
 
 There Will Be a General Rally of all our forces at 
 the Thursday evening prayer service in the interests of 
 the evangelistic campaign. The pastor will have charge, 
 the Men's Chorus will sing, and an excellent meeting is 
 anticipated. 
 
 MY DETERMINATION 
 
 Realizing that I need help and can help in the great 
 task of Christian living and service, I am determined, 
 with the help of God, to live a better life and render him 
 better service, as indicated in the items marked below: 
 
 Christian Decision 
 
 I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. 
 
 I will unite with the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 I will join the Epworth League. 
 
 I will make a pledge toward the expenses of the church. 
 
 I will give up any habit I believe to be hurtful. 
 
 I will seek to live a Spirit-filled life. 
 
 Christian Devotion 
 I will read the Bible thoughtfully every day. 
 I will pray daily for myself and others. 
 137 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 I will attend faithfully the following services unless I 
 have a reason for not doing so which I believe God would 
 accept: Sunday morning worship, the Sunday school, the 
 Epworth League, Sunday evening worship, the prayer 
 meeting. 
 
 Christian Service 
 
 I will unite with the pastor and other members of the 
 church in daily prayer for a revival of religion in our 
 midst. 
 
 I will do all that I can to interest the careless and indif- 
 ferent in religious matters and Christian living. 
 
 I will gladly make the revival meetings of the church 
 my chief interest while they last. 
 
 That the Organization for Our Revival may be at 
 once simple and efficient, the entire membership has been 
 divided into five teams — ^A, B, C, D, and E. These teams 
 are to have their own leader, promote one night meeting a 
 week, have charge of the opening services on such nights, 
 and work as teams in the items of invitation, interview, 
 and personal appeal. Here is a chance for the last avail- 
 able member to carry his share of this evangelistic load. 
 
 The Pastor Will Meet These Teams on the evenings 
 of this coming week as indicated in letters already mailed. 
 Monday, team A; Tuesday, team E; Wednesday, team B; 
 Thursday, team D; and Friday, team C. The general 
 public is not expected at these conferences, but the mem- 
 bers of the team ARE expected and it is earnestly hoped 
 that only the most pressing and emergent reasons will 
 keep anyone away. This is "team week," one team at a 
 time, and a most important part of our general campaign 
 it is. 
 
 138 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Next Week There Will Be Public Services con- 
 ducted in the church auditorium every evening except 
 Saturday. The Men's Chorus will lead in the singmg and 
 the pastor will preach. Team A will promote Monday 
 evening's service, team B Tuesday evening's service; 
 team C Wednesday evening's service; team D Thursday 
 evening's service, and team E Friday evening's service. 
 
 Let These Points Be Understood: 
 
 1. That anyone is welcome at any service during the 
 coming week, but the team members are expressly ex- 
 pected according to the above schedule. 
 
 2. That past successes will not suffice for present re- 
 sponsibilities. Such success should serve to strengthen 
 our faith and increase our courage and inspire our hope 
 for greater victories. 
 
 CARDS FOR PERSONAL WORKERS 
 
 Are ready to-day with the following pledge: 
 
 I will accept Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. 
 I will publicly acknowledge him as such. 
 I will join the First Methodist Episcopal Memorial 
 Church during the February Revival Campaign. 
 
 Name 
 
 Address 
 
 This Week's Program will be full of interest. Mon- 
 day, 7 :30, team A in charge of the preliminary service and 
 promoting the meeting. Tuesday, team B; Wednesday, 
 team C; Thursday, team D; Friday, team E. 
 
 Team Leaders Have Been Appointed as follows: 
 team A, D. H. Wilbur; team B, R. W. Gaylor; team C, 
 139 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 Mrs. H. W. Jt)nes; team D, Floyd Stebbins; team E, 
 George A. Studley. 
 
 Now Everybody Ready for the first general week- 
 night service in the church auditorium with music by the 
 Men's Chorus. 
 
 Reports Are Most Encouraging from the various 
 cooperating churches over South Bend and Mishawaka. 
 Without doubt revival is in the very air. The same is 
 true in Goshen District and throughout the entire North 
 Indiana Conference where revival fires are beginning to 
 burn on many altars. 
 
 Dr. Edwards Asks that the six o'clock prayer hour be 
 observed just as generally as possible. Our prayers will 
 have a wide range, inclusive of all who are engaged in 
 revival efforts and all who should be touched by such 
 efforts. 
 
 The Enthusiastic Spirit and the earnest cooperation 
 of the various teams during the past week of organization 
 and preparation have been very gratifying to the pastor. 
 The spirit of prayer is manifest, expectancy is in the air, 
 and surely there are many foretokens of victory. 
 
 Dr. Edwards' Sermon Themes for the Week 
 
 MONDAY— "When God Advertises.'* 
 TUESDAY— "The Man With Too Much Business." 
 WEDNESDAY— "Light First, Then Safety." 
 THURSDAY— "Sin and Salvation in an Ancient Song." 
 FRIDAY— "Making the Great Choice." 
 
 Bring TOUR Red Book To-Night 
 
 The Revival Is In Full Swing in our own church as 
 well as the other churches of Mishawaka and South Bend. 
 
 140 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Many campaigns are on, likewise, all over the North 
 Indiana Conference. What a federation of Christian 
 thought and prayer and effort! What a generous re- 
 sponse on the part of the people! What a wonderful 
 victory we are going to have if we will claim and actualize 
 it, for "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even 
 our faith." 
 
 The Teams Have Been Faithful during the past 
 week and the spirit manifested is excellent. Now for a 
 long pull and a hard pull, and a pull all together ! 
 
 Dr. Edwards' Sermon Themes for the Week 
 
 MONDAY— "Witnessing for Christ," 300 Preachers. 
 TUESDAY— "The Excluded Christ." 
 WEDNESDAY— "A Death Bed Repentance." 
 THURSDAY— "The Supreme Passion." 
 FRIDAY— "The Boy Who Was Lost and Found." 
 
 We Abe Entering Upon the Final Week of our 
 Revival Campaign. The spirit of the meeting has been 
 excellent, the cooperation on the part of the members has 
 been gratifying, and the results thus far have been en- 
 couraging. But the big pull is just ahead of us. This will 
 be the climactic week. Let the teams redouble their efforts, 
 let us keep the days and nights clear so far as possible, 
 and let us do our utmost to bring to these evangelistic 
 labors the greatest success that has yet crowned our work. 
 
 This Is to Be "Win-One" Week in our great cam- 
 paign. Now is the time for intensive evangelism; the 
 program of prayer and effort should be directed toward 
 individuals. Take them one at a time. Let the soul 
 passion be real, give the earnest invitation, then try 
 another and then another. Splendid as have been the 
 141 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 results thus far, this last week should show the biggest 
 returns yet. 
 
 Notice That Monday Evening's Service is adver- 
 tised with 300 preachers. May be that number is not 
 large enough; it ought to be 500. The pastor is engaging 
 them NOW just as YOU read these lines. This is a new 
 departure, its success depends on you. The pastor calls 
 for YOUR help and you surely will not fail. Monday, 
 February 14, will be the greatest St. Valentine's Day we 
 ever witnessed if we get together on this plan. 
 
 Closing Sunday 
 
 This Is Coronation Day in otu- Evangelistic Cam- 
 paign. We are confidently expecting it to be in every 
 sense the crowning day of all. Faith tells us that many 
 will, this day, crown Jesus Christ as King of their lives 
 and start forth on careers of devoted, consecrated service. 
 
 A Suggested Plan for this afternoon is this : After the 
 happy reunion at the family dinner table a season of 
 private and family prayer for God's blessing upon the 
 climactic service to-night. Then an hour or two spent in 
 personal interviews and special invitation to the evening 
 service, an appeal for the Christian life, a promise to meet 
 the prospect before coming to the church and then bring 
 the friend or friends in time for the opening note of the 
 organ. When the invitation is given it will then be easy 
 to offer to lead the way to Jesus Christ. 
 
 If You Usually Do Not Attend the Sunday evening 
 service, please try to arrange to do so to-night. We need 
 every prayerful, sympathetic heart, every particle of faith, 
 every atom of service in this closing appeal for Christ. 
 
 142 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 When the forces of the church are fighting for the last 
 enemy's trench, complacency at home or elsewhere is 
 unthinkable in a loyal Christian soldier. If you cannot 
 be here you will certainly be in prayer. If it is at all pos- 
 sible for you to be present, your post of duty is here. 
 
 Mere Words Cannot Convey the pastor's gratitude 
 for the faithful and efficient service which has been ren- 
 dered during this revival by the membership of this 
 church. Never have the responses been more numerous 
 or more generous. The plans have been accepted with 
 alacrity and executed with enthusiasm. The devotional 
 services have been conducted in a helpful way, the music 
 has been exceptionally good, the committees have been 
 faithful, the ushers have been attentive, the people gen- 
 erally have rallied in a noble way to the standards. The 
 pastor is especially grateful to the team leaders who have 
 shouldered so much of the responsibility. 
 
 Following Up the Revival 
 
 In a Blaze of Glory our Evangelistic Campaign 
 closed on last Sunday night. Never has there been 
 greater enthusiasm nor more blessed results than in our 
 meeting this year. Converts numbered 150, while there 
 have been 135 accessions to the church. There are other 
 prospects who are expected to make their consecration 
 soon. The spirit of revival should continue, although the 
 nightly meetings have stopped. 
 
 Speclil Plans for the Last Month of the Conference 
 year have been made. The Sunday morning services are 
 expected to be of unusual interest, the Sunday evening 
 services will be evangelistic with our big chorus leading 
 the singing and overflow crowds are looked for. Then on 
 143 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 Thursday evenings the services will be in the church 
 auditorium, with the chorus singing and with other special 
 music, a cheery evangelistic service with the teams pro- 
 moting the services as they did during February. 
 
 The Following Is the Team Schedule: 
 Thursday, March 2, Team A. 
 Thursday, March 9, Team B. 
 Thursday, March 16, Team C. 
 Thursday, March 23, Team D. 
 Thursday, March 30, Team E. 
 
 In Next Sunday's Bulletin we expect to publish the 
 list of new members for February. 
 
 I On Sunday, March 26, the closing Sunday of the 
 church year, the pastor expects to baptize and receive the 
 probationers into full membership. Any parents desiring 
 to present their children for baptism may do so at that 
 time. 
 
 A Lenten Program 
 
 The Lenten Campaign "vill be on during this week 
 and the message of the pastor at the Thursday evening 
 services will be in harmony with the season. The expec- 
 tation is that every member of the church will try to win 
 at least one person to Christ before Easter. 
 The Passion Week Program is as follows: 
 Sunday, March 27, 11 :00 a. m.— 
 
 Sermon, "The Kmgly Christ," Pastor. 
 
 SKK) p. m. — Organ Recital, Mr. Edwin Arthur 
 
 Kraft. 
 7:30 p. m.— Sermon, "The Religion of the Cross," 
 Pastor. 
 
 144 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Monday, March 28, 7:30— 
 
 Sermon, by Rev. C. Claude Travis, 
 
 Pastor Wayne Street Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, Fort Wayne. 
 
 Tuesday, March 29, 7:30— 
 
 Sermon, by Rev. James A. Beebe, 
 
 Pastor First Methodist Episcopal Church, En- 
 glewood, HI. 
 
 Wednesday, March 30, 7:30— 
 
 Sermon, by Rev. M. H. Appleby, 
 
 Superintendent South Bend District. 
 
 Thursday, March 31, 7:30 — Holy Communion. 
 Friday, April 1, 7:30— 
 
 Sermon, by Rev. Somerville Light, 
 
 Superintendent Goshen District. 
 
 Easter Sunday, 11:00 — 
 
 Baptism and Reception of Members. 
 7:30— "The Religion of the Open Tomb," Pastor. 
 
 I 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS SAMPLES OF EVAN- 
 GELISTIC ADVERTISING, ETC. 
 
 1. Used at the beginning of a campaign to 
 aid in consecration, and to help in enrolling 
 "prospects." 
 
 145 
 
EVERY CHUECH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 I am a church member and desire prayer that I may do 
 better service for Christ. 
 
 Name 
 
 Address 
 
 I am a Christian, but not yet a member of a church, and 
 desire prayer that I may follow the commands of 
 Christ. 
 
 Name 
 
 Address 
 
 I am not a Christian and desire your prayer that I may be 
 saved. 
 
 Name 
 
 Address 
 
 2. Advertising a men's meeting for Sunday 
 afternoon during a campaign: 
 
 MEN'S AlEETING 
 METHODIST MEMORIAL CHURCH 
 
 SUNDAY. NOV. 29, 3 P. M. 
 Rev. Loren M. Edwards will speak on 
 
 "MANHOOD WEIGHED 
 
 IN THE BALANCE" 
 
 MR. CRAWFORD, MALE QUARTET 
 AND CHORUS WILL SING 
 
 ADMIT BEARER 
 
 146 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 3. Easter campaign advertising. The Program : 
 
 Pasisiion Wttk ^tv\)ittsi 
 
 t 
 
 jftr£(t iflettobtftt Episcopal 
 iWemorial Cfjurcd 
 illtsffjatoafea, ainb. 
 Horcn iW. Cbtoarbsf. $a£(toc 
 
 PALM SUNDAY 
 11:00 a. m.— "Comrades of The Cross." 
 7:30 p. m.— "The Life that Lasts." 
 
 PASSION WEEK 
 Monday, April 17 — A Day of Prayer. 
 
 At least one call and invitation to Christ and the 
 
 Church. 
 Tuesday, April 18—7:30 p. m. 
 
 Men's Night — Men's Chorus. 
 
 Subject— "Behold the Man." 
 Wednesday, April 19 — 7:30 p. m. 
 
 Women's Night — Women's Chorus. 
 
 Subject — "Christ a Bethany Guest.** 
 Thursday, April 20—7:30 p. m. 
 
 Young People's Night — Mixed Chorus. 
 
 Subject— "The Young Man of Galilee." 
 Friday, April 21—7:30 p. m. 
 
 Communion and Declaration Night. 
 
 Church Quartet will sing. 
 
 Converts making their declaration for Christ will re- 
 ceive the Holy Communion first, followed by the 
 
 entire church membership. 
 
 EASTER SUNDAY 
 
 11:00 a. m. — Baptism and Reception of Members. Of- 
 fering from Self-Denial Week. 
 7 -.30 p. m.--"America's Easter Debt to the World." 
 
 147 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
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 Detached from the foregoing card. 
 
 THE WEEK'S MINIMUM PBOGRAM 
 
 At least one prayer each day for the unsaved. 
 At least one definite invitation for Christ. 
 At least one night service attended. 
 At least one prospect at Communion. 
 At least one convert for Easter. 
 
 At least one dollar, if at all possible, for Christ's war-torn 
 world. 
 
 SEE OTHER SIDE 
 
 Reverse side of above stub to be torn off and 
 handed to pastor. 
 
 Count on me for Minimum Program for Passion Week 
 to the best of my ability. 
 
 Name. . 
 Address . 
 
 TEAR OFF AND HAND TO PASTOB 
 
 149 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 4. A boost from the Official Board (postal 
 card) : 
 
 Mishawaka, Ind., Jan. 8> 1914. 
 Dear Fellow- workers: — 
 
 The campaign is on and every one of us must have a 
 part in it. The results will depend largely upon your 
 active interest. 
 
 Some things that you must do. 
 
 Get right with God. 
 
 Be right with your fellow men. 
 
 Spend much time in prayer. 
 
 Be an evangelist, winning some one for Christ. 
 
 Make this campaign your first interest. 
 
 L. V. Albert 
 
 F. R. Eberhart 
 
 G. A. Studley 
 Com. from Official Board. 
 
 150 
 

 
 
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 151 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 6. A decision card used to good advantage by 
 personal workers. 
 
 / will accept Jesus Christ as my personal Sanour. 
 
 I will publicly acknowledge him as such. 
 
 I tvill join the First Methodist Episcopal Memorial Church 
 on or b^ore Sunday, December 6, 1914' 
 
 Name 
 
 Address : 
 
 To increase efficiency in personal oversight 
 over new members, twenty-six companies of a 
 "Loyal Legion" were organized, with a captain 
 and a lieutenant over each. The plan called for 
 a meeting of each company once a month, with 
 reports concerning sick, new people, special 
 cases for pastoral care, etc., and resembled in 
 many features the old-time class meeting. 
 
 These cards were used for announcements and 
 reports: 
 
 152 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Jf tr£(t Mtt^oWt €pt£(copal Mtttmisd Ctatcl^ 
 iHtsiljatDafea, Snbiana 
 
 Report of Co of the Loyal Legion for month of 
 
 19 ... . G). meetings this month attendance 
 
 Literest Co. members members this church 
 
 elsewhere Church attendants Sunday 
 
 School Prayer Meeting 
 
 Sick 
 
 Strangers 
 
 Pastor 
 
 CaUon 
 
 New Members 
 
 For Ch. or S. S 
 
 Capt Lieut 
 
 Please hand or mail to Pastor the first day each month. 
 
 LOYAL LEGION 
 
 jFixsit Mttfiohifit €pt£;copal MtmatisH Cf^uvtt^ 
 
 Dear Friend : — 
 
 Company of the Loyal Legion will hold its 
 
 next meeting on at 
 
 at The meeting will be an important 
 
 one and as a member of this company you are urged to be 
 
 present. 
 
 Capt. 
 
 Lieut. 
 
 153 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST. 
 
 JOIN 
 
 Evangelistic advertising: 
 
 THE ARMY of People 
 
 AT THE METHODIST MEMORIAL CHURCH 
 
 Next Sunday, February 20, 1916. 
 Closing Day of the Revival Campaign. 
 
 At 9 :45, AH Departments of the Sun- 
 day School. 
 
 Dr. Loren M. Edwards will preach 
 morning and evening. 
 11:00— "Marvel Not.'' 
 7:00— "The Last Day. " 
 
 The Rev. J. J. Fischer wiU sing at 
 both services and will direct a chorus 
 of fifty voices. 
 
 I^ou are tnbiteb to attenb tibe Special 
 jlWeetings; noto in prasre£J£( at tfie jFim jWetl)= 
 obtsit jiflemottal Cburci). Special Vermont;. 
 <@oob jBnuit, tnclubtng Mtn*^ Ct)orus(. 
 
 Committee *W 
 
 You will be welcome any ni^ht. 
 
 Tuesday ni^ht is Men's Ni^ht 
 
 154 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The mails were extensively used by the pas- 
 tor to carry his plans, appeals, encouragements, 
 and exhortations to the members of the church 
 and to prospects. Samples of evangelistic let- 
 ters follow: 
 
 (The following letters were issued in type- 
 written form and bore the pastor's signature:) 
 
 Mishawaka, Indiana, 
 
 January, 1914. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 We are now in the midst of Revival Meetings at the 
 Methodist Memorial Church. They are being held to 
 quicken the spiritual lives of those who are Christians 
 and to win for Christ and the Christian life those who 
 are not. Therefore all of us have some interest in this 
 forward movement, and will be benefited in any part we 
 may take in it. 
 
 This campaign is expected to close on Sunday, February 
 first, so that whatever is done must be done quickly. 
 
 I shall be glad to see you attending these services and 
 identifying yourself with this work. Whatever step you 
 may take in that higher and better life toward whose 
 goal we are striving will rejoice my heart. 
 
 You may be assured of my prayers and of a desire to 
 help you in any way possible. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 LoREN M. Edwards. 
 155 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 n 
 
 January 14, 1914. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 You probably know that the Revival Campaign is now 
 in full swing at the church. Every meeting is important, 
 and every service which you can render is needed. 
 
 To-night has been called "New Members' Night" at 
 the Revival, and, personally, I am very much interested in 
 the result. 
 
 All who have been received into our church during the 
 present pastorate are to be included in the "New Mem- 
 bers," so you are earnestly urged to be present at the 
 service to-night. 
 
 Two other things I want to ask of you: First, that you 
 remember the meeting in prayer for a decisive victory; 
 second, that you bring a friend with you, if possible, who 
 is not a Christian, but who may be considered a prospect. 
 
 I feel a very close and personal interest in all the new 
 members and seek your help in this plan for to-night. 
 With a Pastor's prayers and hopes, 
 
 LoREN M. Edwards. 
 
 m 
 
 The Parsonage, 
 
 January 21, 1916. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 You know, of course, of the great simultaneous move- 
 ment in evangelism which is just before us in Mishawaka 
 and South Bend. 
 
 Thirty churches have united their plans, their prayers, 
 and their efforts in this general campaign. 
 156 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Our church has long ago committed herself to this 
 program and expects to be in this work to the last avail- 
 able member. 
 
 For purposes of compact organization and efficient ser- 
 vice ill this Revival I have divided our membership into 
 five teams. Each team will have its ov/n leader, will be 
 responsible for the promotion of one evening meetmg a 
 week, and will do team work in the items of visitation, 
 invitation, and personal appeal. 
 
 I have taken the liberty of assigning you to Team "D," 
 composed of young people only, and I am hoping for 
 your loyal cooperation, for the urgency is great. Each 
 one of us must be faithful if this plan is carried to success. 
 
 There will })e a conference between the pastor and the 
 members of your team at the church on next Thursday 
 evening at 7:30. This meeting is for prayer, counsel, 
 organization, and the launching of the campaign of your 
 team. 
 
 I am counting on you to do your best in this important 
 movement, for the young people have been among our 
 best workers. 
 
 Faithfully, Your Pastor, 
 
 LoREN M. Edwards. 
 
 IV 
 
 December 27, 1916. 
 As the pastor of the church I am writing you concern- 
 ing a matter of great importance. Knowing your con- 
 stant interest in the spiritual welfare of the church and 
 the salvation of those around you, I take the liberty of 
 including you in a plan of personal evangelism in which 
 there is, I believe, a great outcome. 
 157 
 
EVERY CHUECH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 The first of the year is just ahead; a time when many 
 people give serious thought to the eternal issues, and 
 when they make resolutions for the future. Why not 
 capitalize this fact for Christ and his kingdom? I propose 
 a plan for receiving a class of at least seventeen new 
 converts into the church on the first Communion Sunday 
 of nineteen seventeen; that will be on January 14. 
 
 For my part, I have a list of seventeen prospects who 
 are now the subjects of my special prayers and will be 
 interviewed by me concerning their own surrender to 
 Christ and reception into the church on that Communion 
 morning. 
 
 I would like to have seventeen people who will be the 
 leaders of groups of sevens for prayers for definite persons 
 and who will conduct a personal work campaign for these 
 prospects with the above object in view. 
 
 I want you to be one of these leaders with the privilege 
 of selecting your own group members. 
 
 There will be a meeting of the group leaders at the 
 church following the regular service on next Sunday 
 evening for further counsel and prayerful planning for 
 this unique but very promising hand to hand campaign. 
 
 These seventeen leaders have been selected with great 
 care and after earnest and prayerful meditation, so that 
 it is with the confident hope and expectation that I 
 assume that you can serve. 
 
 Meantime will you please be much in prayer that we 
 may be divinely guided and that rich results may crown 
 our labors.'^ 
 
 158 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 It would be helpful for you to sit down and write out 
 your own list of seventeen names of those for whom you 
 would be willing to join with others for their salvation. 
 
 Expecting, unless notified to the contrary, to see you at 
 the time and place indicated, and with gratitude for your 
 cordial spirit of cooperation, I am 
 
 Faithfully Your Pastor, 
 
 LoREN M. Edwards. 
 
 The Parsonage, 
 
 January 31, 1917. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 As you know, preparations are now in full swing for our 
 great evangelistic campaign in February. I know of your 
 interest in the movement and in the salvation of those 
 around us. I have your enrollment card signifying your 
 willingness to be a member of one of the "Friendly Fif- 
 ties," and it cheers my heart to know your fine spirit of 
 cooperation. 
 
 I have assigned you to team A, and desire to meet 
 every member of this team on Monday evening, February 
 5, for plans, conference, and organization. This meeting 
 is, of course, very important, and I indulge the confident 
 hope that if at all possible you will be present at that 
 time. 
 
 I want to call your attention also to a general meeting 
 of all the teams and workers for Friday evening, February 
 9, under the pastor's leadership. 
 
 159 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 Let me ask you to be much in prayer for the work of 
 your team and for the success of this campaign. I would 
 suggest that you compile a list of prospects now, this list 
 not to exceed five or six, and begin a definite program for 
 the salvation of these people. Interview them, if possible, 
 on the subject of their personal consecration, and invite 
 them to the services in the church. It would be well also 
 to select some nonactive member of the church as your 
 special charge and insist upon his coming to these ser- 
 vices. This is work requiring time and effort and perhaps 
 sacrifice, but is immensely worth while. 
 
 Thanking you for your past interest, and good spirit of 
 cooperation in the work of the church and the kingdom, 
 I am 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 LoREN M. Edwards. 
 
 VI 
 
 The Parsonage, 
 
 February 8, 1917. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 You know of the campaign of evangelism which is now 
 on in ours and other churches. This effort is to bring 
 many individuals to personal consecration to Christ and 
 to enlist them in personal service, and also to give spiritual 
 uplift to the community at large. 
 
 I have a list of prospects for whom I am offering daily 
 prayer in the confident hope that they may make the 
 great consecration at this time, and enroll with the forces 
 of righteousness in the community. Your name is on 
 this list, and I hope to have an early interview with you 
 in this vital subject. 
 
 160 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 However, I am taking this opportunity of telling you 
 how I feel in this matter, and to express the earnest wish 
 that you may do this thing which will mean so much to 
 you and to others. If your friends are praying for you, 
 will you not do as much and pray for yourself; and, hav- 
 ing prayed, will you not help answer your own prayer by 
 immediate and definite decision? 
 
 This is the hope and prayer of your friend, 
 
 LoREN M. Edwards. 
 
 vn 
 
 The Parsonage, 
 
 February 19, 1917. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 I am sending you a hurried but very personal word 
 in the midst of these strenuous days. You, of course, 
 know of the great evangelistic campaign now in progress 
 at our church. After a week given to conference and 
 team meetings, and another one to nightly services in 
 our church, we have not found you cooperating so far as 
 outward appearances are concerned. It may be that 
 sickness or other unavoidable circumstances have pre- 
 vented your attendance. Or it may be that the work 
 you have been able to do has been of a private and per- 
 sonal sort. 
 
 With no disposition to criticize, I am sending out this 
 *'S. O. S." call for a general rallying of our forces. May I 
 suggest that even if you are deprived of privileges of the 
 public services you may be much in prayer, and avail 
 yourself of every possible chance of personal interviews. 
 If you know of some prospect for whose salvation you are 
 
 161 
 
EVERY CHURCH ITS OWN EVANGELIST 
 
 working, and desire help to win this one to Christ, kindly 
 mail or phone the name and address to me and I will see 
 that it is cared for. 
 
 If at all possible, swing into the main currents of the 
 movement this week, for time is short and opportunities 
 are passing. Grateful for your interest in the work of the 
 church, and with prayers for your efforts in this present 
 
 campaign, I am 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 LoREN M. Edwards. 
 
 162 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 
 
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