RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 JAMES ELVIN WAGNER 
 B V 3790 | 
 
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Book ,WO, 
 
 Copyright i\'° 
 
 COKKRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
Rural Evangelism 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES ELVIN WAGNER 
 
 THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 
 
 NEW YORK CINCINNATI 
 
>K 
 
 Copyright, 1920, by 
 JAMES ELVIN WAGNER 
 
 §>CU604298 
 
 20 i920 
 
72 
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 TO MT MOTHER 
 
 ANNIE JOSEPHINE WAGNER 
 
 WHO FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS POURED HER SOUL INTO MINE 
 
 THAT FOR THE THIRTY YEARS SINCE HER DEATH* 
 
 MY WORK MIGHT IN LARGE MEASURE BE HERS 
 
 THESE PAGES ARE DEDICATED 
 
Issued for 
 
 The Department of Evangelism 
 
 Board of Home Missions and Church Extension 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapteb PAGE 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 Foreword ; 9 
 
 I . What is Evangelism? 13 
 
 II. Every Pastor an Evangelist 32 
 
 HE . The Evangelistic Message 55 
 
 IV. The Revival Meeting 71 
 
 V. Personal Evangelism 85 
 
 VI. Pastoral Calling and Evangelism 104 
 
 VII . An Evangelistic Program 127 
 
 VIII . Child Evangelism 147 
 
 IX . Conservation 166 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The need of evangelism in the local church 
 that is participated in by the membership in 
 general is to-day most insistent. And espe- 
 cially is this true in rural communities where 
 pastors, in many instances, are obliged to min- 
 ister to more than one community. 
 
 It is encouraging, therefore, to see coming 
 from the press a book on Rural Evangelism 
 such as Dr. James Elvin Wagner has here 
 written. Its simple, straightforward presenta- 
 tion of practical methods of leading a church to 
 active participation in the task of winning 
 others to the fellowship with Jesus Christ and 
 service for him is so absolutely free from any 
 academic flavor that it will be a positive force 
 in the ministry of every pastor of a rural com- 
 munity who is fortunate enough to come in 
 contact with its message. 
 
 Like all great messages, this one on Rural 
 Evangelism grows out of the developing per- 
 sonal experience and practice of the man deliv- 
 ering it. He knows whereof he speaks, and 
 those who rejoice in a knowledge of the kingdom 
 of God because of his ministry are many. 
 
 As a help in the efforts which the Depart- 
 
 7 
 
8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ment of Evangelism of the Board of Home 
 Missions and Church Extension of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church is making to bring the 
 best in the field of evangelistic literature and 
 method to the attention of pastors throughout 
 the church, this volume from the life of a rural 
 pastor is most welcome. And it is recom- 
 mended enthusiastically for reading and study 
 by the host of Methodist Episcopal pastors who 
 are laboring heroically to make the rural com- 
 munities of the land veritable garden spots of 
 God. 
 
 The nation is looking to the Church of Jesus 
 Christ as never before to fulfill its mission in 
 making Christian every activity of life, in fur- 
 nishing moral and spiritual stamina and vision 
 for the youth of the land, and in giving mature 
 life that poise of Christian experience which 
 makes possible years of useful service. 
 
 To render the aid necessary to make this pos- 
 sible is the purpose of every Methodist Episco- 
 pal church. This little book will help every 
 pastor to fulfill this purpose. 
 
 George B. Dean, 
 
 Superintendent, Department of Evangelism, 
 Board of Home Missions and Church Ex- 
 tension of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The following chapters are lectures deliv- 
 ered before the students of twelve colleges and 
 theological seminaries, and the Summer Schools 
 for Rural Pastors held during the summer of 
 1919 under the direction of the Department 
 of Rural Work of the Board of Home Missions 
 and Church Extension of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church, as representative of the Depart- 
 ment of Evangelism of the Board. 
 
 It was found that while the lectures had 
 been carefully prepared and written, contact 
 with rural pastors in the Summer Schools sug- 
 gested some modifications. These have been 
 incorporated in the text as here presented. 
 The direct conversational style used when first 
 delivered has been preserved in order that the 
 group intimacy may prevail in class room use 
 of the lectures. 
 
 In preparing these lectures I have used my 
 heritage of having been born in the country 
 and having served as pastor of rural charges 
 for fifteen years. I also have drawn on my 
 extensive reading on the subject and thorough 
 
10 FOREWORD 
 
 discussion with Dr. George B. Dean, Superin- 
 tendent of the Department of Evangelism of 
 the Board of Home Missions and Church Ex- 
 tension of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 In presenting plans — and I have tried to 
 do only that — I have confined myself to such 
 as have been approved by successful experience. 
 They are equally applicable to the country 
 circuit and to the larger town or city charge. 
 I do not make this statement hesitatingly, 
 but with the assurance which actual testing in 
 both country and city churches has given me. 
 I began using the Unit or Group plan for 
 evangelistic and other ends years ago, and 
 have no fear in presenting it with the sugges- 
 tions here set forth. 
 
 If the limits of this booklet permitted, three 
 additional chapters, or lectures, should be in- 
 cluded. The first would be on "The Church 
 Hymnal and the Evangelistic Campaign, " the 
 second on "A Preaching Program," and the 
 third on "Dangers of Professionalism." For 
 lack of room I have given a little space to each 
 subject in other lectures. 
 
 It is with feelings of deepest humility, and 
 with many misgivings that I commit these 
 pages to the public. I should not do it but 
 
FOREWORD 11 
 
 for the insistence of some in authority who 
 believe they are needed. May their judgment 
 be better than mine! 
 
 I make grateful acknowledgment to all who 
 have given friendly criticism of the lectures as 
 they were delivered; to the rural pastors who 
 constituted the student body of the Summer 
 Schools, for their courteous attention and 
 kindly reception of my suggestions; to Mr. 
 Ralph A. Felton, who, under the direction of 
 Dr. Paul L. Vogt, Superintendent of the De- 
 partment of Rural Work of the Board of 
 Home Missions and Church Extension of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, has been directly 
 in charge of the Summer Schools for Rural 
 Pastors, for suggesting their further usefulness; 
 to the Rev. Harold E. Wilson, of the Bureau 
 of Publicity, for complete revision of the man- 
 uscript; and, finally, to the Rev. George B. 
 Dean, D.D., Superintendent of the Department 
 of Evangelism of the Board of Home Missions 
 and Church Extension, for friendly counsel and 
 criticism in the original preparation of the 
 lectures from which these pages have grown. 
 James Elvin Wagner. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 WHAT IS EVANGELISM? 
 
 An old English Grammar in defining "word" 
 said, "A word is the sign of an idea." Very 
 true; but how inconvenient it is that the same 
 word does not uniformly connote the same 
 idea to each of us! Previous experience, en- 
 vironment, age, occupation, training, have 
 their influence upon the idea which any par- 
 ticular word will convey. So simple and 
 familiar a word as "love" depends for its 
 meaning upon the age, the experience, and the 
 character of life previously led by the one 
 using or hearing it. To the child it will mean 
 something very different from what it suggests 
 to the "maid in love"; and something more 
 different still to a young mother holding her 
 own first babe in her arms; while its richest 
 meaning belongs to an old couple who have 
 reared their children, seen them mated for 
 life, have dandled their grandchildren on their 
 knees, have worshiped God throughout life, 
 and now in the twilight face the setting sun 
 
 13 
 
14 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 together, and wait the summons to "come up 
 higher/ 5 Love will convey different ideas and 
 emotions to a clean-minded, clean-living man 
 and to a voluptuary. 
 
 Evangelism is our subject. What does the 
 term signify to your consciousness? Were you 
 converted in a "gracious revival meeting" where 
 the people sang with unction and the minister 
 preached with power, and a strange spell was 
 upon the multitude? Then examine your con- 
 sciousness and see if you have not thought of 
 that kind of a meeting when you have heard 
 the term "evangelism." And, equally, if you 
 were converted in a Sunday school class, where 
 there were restless boys and girls, but a teacher 
 who knew God and helped you to find him; 
 or if you had a wise mother who brought you 
 early to choose God as your God, you have 
 probably thought of those experiences. They 
 are definitely associated in your mind with 
 the term "evangelism." 
 
 To get anywhere in these lectures we must 
 each have the same concept when the term 
 "evangelism" is used. It is important that as 
 ministers we should understand terms alike; it 
 is even more important that our lay hearers 
 understand as we do the terms we use. What 
 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM ? 15 
 
 do we mean, then, by the term "evangelism,' 5 
 and what do laymen generally understand us 
 to mean? 
 
 I wonder if something like the following has 
 not happened in many charges: It is six weeks 
 since a Fall Conference adjourned when Brother 
 Bundy was appointed to Rockwell charge. He 
 was on duty and made a splendid impression 
 the first Sunday after Conference, and by his 
 pulpit work and visitation among the people 
 since then has deepened that good impression, 
 and his people are ready to follow his leader- 
 ship. Thanksgiving time has arrived, and 
 January with the revival meeting is only five 
 weeks away. Rockwell is a splendid country 
 village of a thousand population, in the midst 
 of a thickly settled and very rich farming 
 community, and the membership of Brother 
 Bundy's church is the cream of the village and 
 community around. It is Monday morning 
 before Thanksgiving, and walking to the post 
 office the new minister meets his leading mem- 
 ber, a splendid farmer living in the finest home 
 in the county. They stop for friendly greeting 
 and after some conversation the minister says: 
 "Fm glad we met this morning, Brother 
 Shanks. I was intending to go out to see you. 
 
16 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 You know January will soon be here, and I 
 was wondering what we ought to do about our 
 evangelistic campaign this year. What ought 
 we to do?" 
 
 Many things can pass through an alert mind 
 in a brief moment, and Brother Shanks has 
 such a mind. What is his mental reaction to 
 the term "evangelistic"? Does he first think, 
 "A revival! And I raised my subscription so 
 much this year that I have nothing in reserve. 
 Wonder what it will cost me"? 
 
 Now, this good man is not stingy. He be- 
 lieves in giving liberally to every good cause. 
 And there is no harm in the fact that revivals 
 cost money. The danger lies in the fact that 
 Brother Shanks thinks "money" when evan- 
 gelism is mentioned. 
 
 We must manage some way to use that 
 term, or another as good, without making 
 Brother Shanks think first of dollars. 
 
 At that moment something like this may go 
 through Brother Shanks's mind: "You have 
 begun mighty well, Pastor; preached sane and 
 real gospel sermons, and I like you; we all 
 like you. I wonder if, when you get into re- 
 vival meetings, you will begin giving us a lot 
 of sensational slush and rubbish? I hope not, 
 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM ? 17 
 
 but it makes me uneasy to think about it. 
 Wonder why so many ministers preach so 
 differently in a revival than at any other time. 
 I simply can't stand teary stories, graveyard 
 horrors, and such efforts to get the people 
 worked up. Brother Bundy, I hope you can 
 preach revival sermons that have meat in 
 them." 
 
 There are reasons for the average layman 
 thinking such thoughts. I have known pastors 
 who did not really prepare their sermons until 
 the revival meeting arrived, and then they 
 quit thinking, quit sermon building, and began 
 simply "boring for tears," or trying to awaken 
 unusual sensations. Some evangelists cannot 
 get into their stride until they find "something 
 rotten in Denmark," and then they appear to 
 be perfectly happy, forgetting that they are 
 making many sore spots, and work of healing 
 for pastors to do after they have had their 
 little day of glory and are gone. So often the 
 "something rotten in Denmark" has to be 
 manufactured, or exaggerated, to gain the 
 point. No wonder Brother Shanks hopes his 
 pastor is not a sensationalist. Something must 
 be done to prevent him from having such 
 thoughts when evangelism is mentioned. 
 
18 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 Then, flashing on the heels of the fear of 
 sensationalism, there comes a memory to 
 Brother Shanks. It is not so much a thought 
 which can be put into words as a vision of 
 what once happened. There had been a 
 revival in his church, an enthusiastic evangel- 
 ist who liked to make a big showing had been 
 in charge. Everyone who had held up his 
 hand, or could be coaxed down to the front 
 of the tabernacle on any sort of proposition, 
 had been compelled — no other word will do — 
 to sign a card with a confession on it, and a 
 place for the name, address and church pre- 
 ferred. These cards had been jealously kept, 
 and finally had been divided among the pas- 
 tors, but not until the evangelist had stated 
 with great unction that the meeting had been 
 a glorious success; the church had been awak- 
 ened, souls had been saved, and the Lord had 
 been greatly honored. Then he took up the 
 cards, arranged in a number of neat stacks, 
 with a rubber band around each stack, and 
 distributed them among the pastors, taking 
 care not to say how many any particular 
 pastor received, lest there be hurt feelings, but 
 stating the total number of converts had 
 been five hundred and fifty. A magnificent 
 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM ? 19 
 
 work! Brother Shanks, at the time, had 
 wondered how many of those converts were 
 from the Sunday school, brought in by faith- 
 ful teachers; but he had not thought that 
 cards signed by such faithful church members 
 as himself, when urged to go forward to help 
 others, would be counted. He had also been 
 thankful for so many converts, and had felt 
 sure his own church would be strengthened by 
 the revival. He was glad, moreover, to do his 
 part in the collection, although it helped in- 
 evitably to lay a foundation for future thoughts 
 about dollars when his pastor should ask about 
 the evangelistic campaign 
 
 After the evangelist had gone, they went 
 over their cards. There were, for his church, 
 fifty cards signed by children of the Sunday 
 school, every one of whom would have been 
 brought into the church that very season by 
 the regular Decision Day service. Seventy-five 
 were signed by the most faithful members of the 
 church; twenty by newly arrived people who 
 had their church letters and would soon have 
 joined anyway; and twelve by supposedly 
 genuine converts, They had then gone about 
 finding those twelve. The first one they called 
 on laughed at them. He said: "Why, I don't 
 
20 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 want to join any church. I just wanted to 
 shake hands with 'Henry/ and when I went 
 down the sawdust trail to shake hands with 
 him, they put that card under my nose and 
 wouldn't let me go till I signed it. I put down 
 'Methodist 5 because my mother was a Method- 
 ist; but I'm not going to join any church" — 
 and that ended the matter. 
 
 Out of the twelve, they secured • five new 
 members, and held them fairly well. Brother 
 Shanks had wondered at the time why, if he 
 and his pastor and a few more earnest Christian 
 people had gone about it faithfully, they could 
 not have done as well, or better, without the 
 revival; and now he is fearful that Brother 
 Bundy also may be a "nose counter," or that 
 he may get that kind of an evangelist. We 
 must divorce evangelism and "padded returns." 
 
 And, just here, Brother Shanks glances in- 
 quiringly at his pastor again. This time it 
 has flashed through his mind, in a fraction of 
 a second, that this pastor, or the evangelist he 
 secures may take the bits in his teeth and run 
 the meeting after some cast-iron method suited 
 to himself but not to the community. Brother 
 Bundy, or his evangelistic helper, may take 
 the attitude of "I am it! Do as I say; work 
 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM ? 21 
 
 as I direct; or cause the damnation of your 
 neighbors and children/ 5 He is quite sure, in 
 his own mind, that the day when great evan- 
 gelistic results can be attained by the efforts 
 of one man, or through the counsels of one 
 man, is past. He believes that in order to 
 achieve best results every member of the church 
 must be engaged in the work, and that only 
 as they are urged to work in their own way 
 can they all be enlisted in the task. The 
 people must feel responsible, with the pastor, 
 for the work of evangelism. 
 
 Following this last thought, an expression of 
 pain passes over Brother Shanks' strong face. 
 He is wondering something like this: "Pastor, 
 I have not heard anything to suggest it in 
 your sermons, but in revivals you can never 
 tell what ministers will do. You have not 
 brought out any sort of hobby as yet, but I 
 wonder if, in a revival, you will trot one out, 
 or if you will get an evangelist who will ride 
 one into town and out again/ 5 The average 
 layman is almost compelled to think of this, 
 because so many ministers and evangelists who 
 really do keep their hobbies pretty well in 
 hand at other times let them loose during the 
 revival meeting. 
 
22 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 I know a pastor, as sane usually as the aver- 
 age, always devoted and sincere, who, under 
 the strain and fervor of revival preaching, 
 could see nothing of importance except damna- 
 tion through the dance. Dancing is no worse 
 during the revival than at other times, but 
 the preacher often becomes possessed during 
 that period with the feeling that all young 
 people are going to hell by that route, and he 
 effectually drives them away from his services, 
 not because they object to his condemning the 
 dance so much as that he emphasizes that evil 
 to the exclusion of all others and seems to 
 imply that they are all committing that par- 
 ticular sin. The average layman may not 
 approve of dancing, but he is absolutely shy 
 of a minister, any minister with a hobby. 
 
 There are two particularly dangerous hob- 
 bies which are likely to be trotted out in a 
 revival meeting. The first is the "second- 
 blessing-holiness-hobby." Many men who in 
 a sane way preach perfect love, sanctification, 
 holiness, throughout the year, at revival meet- 
 ing time will begin explaining the mystery of 
 sanctification, and urging faith in their par- 
 ticular theory of it, until they have about 
 them a small company of souls as possessed as 
 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM ? 23 
 
 themselves with the idea that they know all 
 the mystery of godliness. 
 
 I believe in holiness as sincerely as any man. 
 In my mind there is not the slightest doubt 
 that when one of the Lord's children comes to 
 him with all his redeemed powers and all his 
 possessions, and presents them upon his altar 
 for service, something wonderful and beyond 
 description happens to him. God takes him 
 at his word; he becomes his Lord's for service. 
 We need not less, but more preaching on con- 
 secration; not less, but more preaching on the 
 life of ''perfect love." But when a mere mortal 
 man begins telling all the details of what hap- 
 pens in a believing and consecrated soul, using 
 such terms as "old Adam," "carnal nature," 
 "inbred sin," "eradication," and meaning, by 
 "sanctification," that the roots of sin have 
 been removed after a given method, I feel like 
 rising to ask a question or two. How can a 
 man who cannot tell how a flower gets its 
 perfume, how our nostrils sense the perfume; 
 how the flower gets its color, or we see it; 
 how we digest food; think, feel, walk; under- 
 stand what gravity is, or light, or life, dare 
 attempt to tell what God does in a soul when 
 he accepts it as an offering and equips it for 
 
24 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 glorious service? Not the hobbyized doctrine 
 of sanctification, but the indisputable fact of 
 the power of a life rightly related to God 
 needs to be preached. 
 
 The second hobby so apt to be trotted out 
 just now is that of the immediate second ap- 
 pearing of our Lord. War and rumors of war, 
 unrest, strife, and fears in men's hearts always 
 bring forward this doctrine. Always a few 
 give heed to it and watch for a particular kind 
 of immediate appearing of Christ, while any 
 terrible happening or event out of the ordinary 
 brings a swarm of teachers and believers in 
 such an appearance. Just now the country is 
 full of this teaching and preaching. Every one 
 of us is thinking about it more or less, and 
 we ought to do so. But who knows enough 
 about it to begin riding it as a hobby? No 
 one knows either the manner or the time of 
 his coming. Christ even said that such things 
 were shut up with the Father. It ought not 
 to be of nearly so much importance when he 
 will appear, or how he will appear, as in what 
 state of mind and heart we shall live and 
 await his coming. Some way, some time, 
 the day of reckoning will come, and he will 
 be at hand. If we have lived according to 
 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM ? 25 
 
 his teaching, we shall be ready when he 
 comes. 
 
 The Scriptures afford one theme upon which 
 one may preach forever and never become a 
 hobbyist. Christ and his apostles and all 
 great leaders have preached that sin is ruin, 
 and that deliverance from sin can be had only 
 through Jesus Christ. That is theme enough, 
 and it needs to be testified and declared with 
 all that it involves as an experience of life 
 rather than explained as a philosophy. It is 
 not an explanation of the gospel that saves, 
 but acceptance of it as a fact. 
 
 It has taken but a moment for all this to 
 flash through Brother Shanks's mind, and now 
 he is ready to reply to his pastor's question. 
 "Why, Brother Bundy, I want to follow your 
 leadership, and I think all our people do. Get 
 your plans laid and we will meet you on them. 
 Don't think you must plan to do as we have 
 always done. Just go at it in your own way, 
 and count on us to fall in line." 
 
 These good and sincere men separate, each 
 going his own way and each thinking his own 
 thoughts. Does "evangelistic" mean the same 
 thing to each of them? Interpreted in terms 
 of method, Brother Shanks is anxious, a bit 
 
26 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 fearful, but courageous enough to go forward 
 in spite of his past and painful experiences; 
 while the pastor is perplexed only as to what 
 method will probably bring the best results. 
 Interpreted in terms of results, each of them 
 probably desires that the present membership 
 of the church shall be stirred to action, and 
 that the unsaved shall be brought into Chris- 
 tian fellowship. Brother Bundy thinks of the 
 considerable number of his church members 
 who are only nominal in their membership, 
 who attend church when they feel like it, who 
 are at prayer meeting not at all, and who can 
 be depended upon for nothing except a trifling 
 financial contribution, and wonders if evangelism 
 has a mission to them, and what method will 
 reach them. With a village and community 
 population of some three thousand souls, of 
 whom not more than seven hundred belong to 
 any church, or make any public confession of 
 faith, and where very few of the other twenty- 
 three hundred ever attend public worship, what 
 shall he do to bring the larger group to a con- 
 sciousness of the claims of religion upon them? 
 For him the great problem of evangelism is one of 
 method. For each of us, when we have reached 
 a definite decision as to the kind of product 
 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM ? 27 
 
 we hope the evangelistic mill will grind out, 
 the problem of building the mill and of making 
 it deliver the desired grist still remains. 
 
 A few months ago Roosevelt and others 
 were making hyphenated Americans very un- 
 popular simply by calling attention to them. 
 There were many loyal and splendid Amer- 
 icans of German descent in those days, and 
 we have them still, but it is not proper to call 
 them German- Americans; they are Americans. 
 Many of us just now are growing very tired 
 of other hyphenated citizens. It makes very 
 little difference what name one writes before 
 the hyphen; it is objectionable. For my own 
 part Irish-American sounds quite as bad as 
 German-American. Not because the Irish are 
 objectionable, but because for any one who 
 comes to our shores "American" is enough. 
 It is quite bad enough, it seems to me, to have 
 Democrats and Republicans lying one about 
 the other and slandering each other, without 
 giving place to members of foreign political 
 parties among us. Sinn Feiners may be all 
 right in Ireland, but America is no place 
 for them or their agents. Let us have no 
 hyphen in our American citizenship, political 
 party membership, or church membership. 
 
28 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 For we have hyphenated Methodists and 
 Baptists and Presbyterians. They are Worldly- 
 Methodists, Nominal-Baptists, Backslidden- 
 Presbyterians. It may be straining a point 
 to place a hyphen in these names, but they 
 indicate my meaning. Americanization seeks 
 to take the hyphen out of every name, and 
 to leave every citizen among us a pure, one- 
 hundred-per-cent American. That is an under- 
 taking worthy the zeal of the crusaders. But 
 if so, what of the work of evangelism? Should 
 not its purpose be to take the hyphen out of 
 the name of every churchman, every believer 
 in the land? That, and more. 
 
 A pastor was conducting Sunday evening 
 evangelistic services in an Eastern city. One 
 evening he called for seekers, and a fifteen- 
 year-old boy, small of stature, unkempt of 
 body and clothing, knelt at the altar and was 
 beautifully converted. He arose, his face 
 shining with the inner light of redeeming love. 
 It happened in that church that the "Money- 
 bags' ' was also the most spiritually minded 
 member, and was always deeply interested in 
 the work of evangelism. After the benediction 
 this good brother hurried down the aisle to 
 the altar and putting one arm around the 
 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM ? 29 
 
 pastor and the other about the lad, he ex- 
 claimed with genuine warmth: "Great, Pastor, 
 great! Just think what has happened here! 
 God has saved a soul, given himself to this 
 lad! Isn't it glorious?" 
 
 "Yes, Brother Count," answered the pastor, 
 "but what shall we do to save the lad?" 
 
 "What shall we do to save him? Why, 
 Pastor, I don't understand you. We have 
 nothing to do with it. God has saved him. 
 What do you mean?" 
 
 "Yes, I know. But do you know this lad, 
 and his home?" Just here one of the other 
 members of the church wanted to speak to 
 the lad, and the pastor and Brother Count 
 were left alone. 
 
 "You don't know the boy, or his parents, 
 but I know \hem all. This boy's father is a 
 drunkard and blackguard. His mother is a 
 drunkard and worse; she is a woman of the 
 street. He has an older brother who is a gen- 
 uine tough, and an older sister who is follow- 
 ing her mother. When he gets home to-night, 
 his father will be just about returning from 
 the saloon. Later his mother and sister will 
 come in. If they know where he has been 
 to-night, and what he has done, they will 
 
30 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 ridicule and maltreat him, and to-morrow will 
 put him to doing things no Christian 
 should do." 
 
 Brother Count had forgotten the beginning 
 of the conversation, and was thinking solely 
 of the boy and what to do for him, as he ex- 
 claimed, "Why, Pastor, what can we do to 
 save the child?" using the very words of the 
 pastor to which he had previously objected. 
 
 The pastor took the boy home with him 
 that night, and the next day he and Brother 
 Count found a good Christian home for him, 
 and in due time got him legally placed there. 
 Several years went by and the boy had be- 
 come a man, and one fine day he entered one 
 of the theological seminaries of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church to prepare himself for mis- 
 sion work in China. When was the work of 
 evangelism done for this lad? At conversion? 
 When placed in such an environment that he 
 had a decent chance? Did the work of evan- 
 gelism end for him at the church altar, or 
 did it extend through the act of securing for 
 him a Christian home? Probably redeeming 
 grace did its work at the church altar; the 
 people of the church did their part in bringing 
 him to the altar and in securing for him a 
 
WHAT IS EVANGELISM ? 31 
 
 Christian home; but he will not be finally 
 saved until he has "worked out his own sal- 
 vation" in faithful service where God shall 
 call him. 
 
 Evangelism has to do with getting men 
 saved. Laying aside all questions of method, 
 to save men is to bring them to a keen personal 
 sense of relationship with God, through con- 
 version; so to relate them to their environ- 
 ment that they shall have opportunity to 
 "work out their own salvation," and finally 
 to help them to a place for service. The work 
 of evangelism is to get men converted; to get 
 the social order in which they live converted; 
 to get converted men actually employed in the 
 effort to save the world. 
 
 This series of lectures is intended, not to 
 deal with what conversion is, what a Chris- 
 tianized social order is, but with the obligation 
 of gospel ministers to bring such things to pass, 
 and with methods for accomplishing that end. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 
 
 Using the term in the broad sense suggested 
 in the previous chapter, can, ought every 
 pastor to be an evangelist? Or, restricting 
 the term to mean only getting converts, can 
 every pastor be an evangelist? No doubt 
 some will be stronger, more effective evangel- 
 ists than others, but I unhesitatingly declare 
 that every pastor, to justify his right to be 
 in the ministry, must be an evangelist, must 
 get converts. 
 
 I once heard the pastor of a college church, 
 a man of attainments, of great ability and 
 mature years, state that he did not know 
 whether he had ever directly been the means 
 of leading a soul to Christ. He had held 
 meetings called revivals, but there had been 
 no converts whom he could confidently claim 
 as his own. No one had ever told him that 
 his preaching or personal effort had brought 
 him to Christ. He was not discouraged or 
 distressed, but remarked, "I think it is my 
 
 32 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 33 
 
 duty and call to edify the church." I felt at 
 the time, though I was but a student in the 
 college, that he was losing the most effectual 
 means for edifying the church when he failed 
 to secure converts. 
 
 Are there various kinds of work for a min- 
 ister other than evangelism, so that if he does 
 any one of them he justifies his calling? Cer- 
 tainly, ministers have other duties than evan- 
 gelism, but there is nothing any minister may 
 be called upon to do, no number of things, 
 however well he may do them, which can 
 excuse him from the one great task of soul- 
 winning and soul culture. Other things he may 
 do, probably must do, but this one thing he 
 must surely do. 
 
 There are singing ministers, and may the 
 Lord increase their number and power. If 
 through song they win men to Christ, they 
 do well. They may do well as leaders of 
 community singing, as stimulators of congrega- 
 tional singing, or good anthem singing, but 
 they must not forget the real object of their 
 being pastors. One privilege of every pastor 
 is to know and appreciate the church hymnal. 
 Any pastor who possesses a voice, whose ear 
 is not too dull to harmonies, ought to sing, 
 
34 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 and see to it that the hymnal is used correctly. 
 The little red-backed book, the compilation 
 of some ambitious leader of revival meeting 
 hymnology, may have a mission, but it has 
 no place or right in the worship of a Methodist 
 Episcopal church. There is no better collec- 
 tion of hymns and tunes than the Methodist 
 Hymnal, no more usable one, no more appro- 
 priate one for church worship, prayer meeting, 
 revival meeting, or Sunday school. Some one 
 said the other day, "Not one tune in twenty 
 in the Hymnal is singable." That is a rash 
 statement. There are but five hundred and 
 sixty tunes in the Hymnal, several of them 
 being used more than once. Then if only one 
 tune in twenty is singable, there are but twenty- 
 six singable tunes in the entire collection. 
 Altogether aside from the splendid body of 
 theology, worship, prayer, confession and in- 
 spiration contained in the written words of 
 the hymns, any lover of music for its own 
 sake can find at least two hundred and fifty 
 splendid singable tunes in this collection and 
 the remaining hymns will compare favorably 
 with the best to be found in the average little 
 red-backed song book. Real hymn tunes, like 
 the best Scripture texts, require and repay 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 35 
 
 study. The trouble with most churches which 
 find difficulty in using the Methodist Hymnal 
 is that they do not use it correctly. They sing 
 the hymns according to custom, with no 
 attention to time or accent. If there were 
 more singing ministers who had the grace and 
 good sense to insist that the Hymnal be used 
 correctly, the churches now using something 
 else would soon find that the Hymnal, next 
 to the Bible, is the best book of worship writ- 
 ten, and that its collection of tunes is not 
 excelled anywhere. But even such splendid 
 work as that cannot justify any minister in 
 neglecting or failing to win converts. 
 
 Some ministers are "glad-handers," "jol- 
 liers," and may the Lord increase their number, 
 provided they also are evangelists. To be a 
 real "mixer" means that one has a winsome 
 personality and is human. These are assets, 
 as much the gift of God as the power to sing; 
 and they are usable in the great work of evan- 
 gelism. But the minister who simply "glad- 
 hands" the people, who makes that an end, 
 and counts his work successful when he knows 
 everybody, and when the people call him by 
 his first name, but stops short of soul-winning, 
 is a failure, no matter to how many lodges he 
 
36 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 belongs, or how many special addresses and 
 sermons he is asked to preach. No one has 
 a better opportunity to be a real evangelist 
 than the man who finds it easy to meet people, 
 likes to mix with the crowd, and is welcomed 
 by the crowd. He has an advantage over his 
 less fortunate brother pastors which only adds 
 to his responsibilities. Let him use his gifts 
 as God ordained he should, and not as a means 
 for attracting a personal following, or securing 
 some added reputation or glory for himself. 
 He must be an evangelist. 
 
 Some men are, by nature, optimists, while 
 others are as naturally pessimists. Each needs 
 to cultivate the faculty of seeing things as 
 they are. One turns a telescope one way and 
 the other turns it the other way; but neither 
 sees things as they are. One will win in a 
 sharp, short pastorate, while the other will 
 probably never win any real success. But 
 even these handicaps cannot, do not excuse 
 any pastor from being a soul-winner. 
 
 What a blessing to the church and to the 
 ministry are those pastors whom we call 
 organizers! Some of them overdo it. Some 
 of them effect such organization as no other 
 man could run, and they so soon exhaust them- 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 37 
 
 selves attempting to run it that they must 
 move on. But the sane, steady organizer is 
 a blessing to the church. Not every man 
 has that gift, and those who do not have it 
 are handicapped and dependent upon others 
 for such tasks. But there is a danger which 
 organizers must avoid: they must not lose 
 sight of the object to be attained by organiza- 
 tion. Organization is not an end in itself; 
 it is a means to an end. A machinist who 
 would gather wheels, journals, belts, cogs and 
 shafts and build them into a mighty structure., 
 connect it with power, start it in motion, 
 listen to the smooth hum of the moving mass, 
 stand back with pride and shout, "See what 
 I have built," when his machine could grind 
 no grist, produce no product but motion,, 
 would be called a crank, or worse, a fooL 
 An organization is not a success merely be- 
 cause it moves. It succeeds or fails accord- 
 ing to the kind of product it produces, both 
 as to its quality and quantity. Let us have 
 more organizers among us, but let us not 
 forget that to justify pride in it, the organ- 
 ization must result in winning and training 
 souls for Christ and the church. 
 
 Can success as a financier justify a minister's, 
 
38 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 continuance in the pastorate, unless he also 
 is an evangelist? No doubt we need his pe- 
 culiar kind of work. Churches must be built, 
 community houses, parsonages and other enter- 
 prises must be put through, benevolences 
 raised, pastoral support brought to a more 
 satisfactory level, and all this the financier 
 does. Some pastors always leave a charge 
 in splendid financial condition — bills paid, 
 property in fine repair, benevolences advanced, 
 and the pastor's salary increased, all of which 
 counts tremendously. But all this is as sound- 
 ing brass or a tinkling cymbal unless souls are 
 won for Christ and the church. 
 
 Finally, there is the mighty pulpiteer, the 
 great preacher. Among us he is as a sort of 
 prince. Rounded sentences, chaste diction, 
 penetrating vision, brilliant imagination, unre- 
 mitting labor, a musical voice, marshaled by 
 a confident will, make him irresistible as a 
 preacher. May the Lord increase his number, 
 provided he aims his mighty cannon at the 
 right target. It is an indisputable fact that 
 some great pulpiteers are woeful failures as 
 evangelists. They need not be failures at this 
 point; they ought to win. If they will use 
 their gifts humbly and for the end preaching 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 39 
 
 is meant to accomplish, they will win. One 
 penitent at the altar after the sermon is higher 
 compliment for the preacher and his sermon 
 than a multitude pressing forward to compli- 
 ment him with honeyed words. The first 
 justifies preaching; the second is food for 
 vanity. 
 
 I trust we are agreed, brothers, that what- 
 ever else a minister may do, and do well, to 
 justify his being a pastor he must be an evan- 
 gelist. There are pastors who are weak as 
 revivalists. They cannot preach so-called 
 evangelistic sermons; they cannot waken in- 
 terest in the throng; they feel their need of 
 help. Shall they get a professional evangel- 
 ist to help them? Is it not better, if a pastor 
 cannot win alone, that he get help and have 
 a real revival, than struggle along alone? 
 There may be men and circumstances which 
 make it advisable to secure evangelistic help. 
 The occasion is rare, and oftener than other- 
 wise simply excuses the pastor from putting 
 forth effort to win by some such method as 
 he can use. I do not insist that every pastor 
 can or should be a revival-meeting evangelist. 
 To do that would imply that there is but the 
 one method of being an evangelist, when in 
 
40 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 fact there are several methods, some of them 
 far better than the revival meeting. I do 
 insist that every pastor must win souls, Chris- 
 tianize communities and put his converts to 
 work for God and humanity. Other methods 
 than the revival meeting will be discussed 
 later. Just now I want to point out some 
 dangers of professionalism. 
 
 We will go back to Rockwell charge, where 
 in the previous chapter we left Brothers Bundy 
 and Shanks considering the evangelistic cam- 
 paign. A few days have passed and they 
 meet again. 
 
 "Well, Pastor, have you decided what you 
 think best about that evangelistic campaign?' 5 
 this good layman asks. 
 
 "I'm not sure, but I think I would like 
 to get Black and Kerr to help us. I have 
 heard them so well spoken of, and they seem 
 to have such splendid success everywhere, that 
 I believe it would pay us to get them if we 
 can. I have written to know if they can come,, 
 and am waiting to hear. Would you favor 
 getting them if they can be secured at the 
 right time?" 
 
 Again, in a brief moment, several things 
 flash through Brother Shanks's mind. 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 41 
 
 "Why! I'm surprised. Brother Bundy is a 
 good preacher, as good as any evangelist we 
 can get. Why doesn't he hold his own revival? 
 I wonder why he thinks of getting an evan- 
 gelist. I had thought him big enough for 
 his job. Wonder if he has just a few sermons 
 and doesn't want to make more, or if he knows 
 he can't hold out long." 
 
 Why is not an average layman justified in 
 such thoughts when his pastor suggests getting 
 evangelistic help? As a matter of fact, there 
 is no question but that the pastor who asks 
 for help, or willingly accepts it, often loses his 
 grip to some extent on his people. At that 
 most vital point he ceases to be their leader, 
 and they must think either that he does not 
 care to make the effort to lead, or knows he 
 cannot lead to victory, which, in either case, 
 causes them to distrust his leadership. 
 
 Brother Shanks, then, has flashed before 
 him a memory which is not pleasant. Three 
 years ago they brought in an evangelist who 
 had been highly commended, and who came 
 on reasonable terms, and they had expected 
 great things from his coming. Five weeks 
 before he arrived the pastor had received 
 from him a mimeographed plan of organiza- 
 
42 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 tion, such as he sent to every community about 
 five weeks before he arrived on the scene. 
 Accompanying the plan was a personal letter 
 to the pastor. After general directions for 
 putting on the organization, the letter had 
 concluded about like this: "And now let me 
 say, dear brother, that if you will follow my 
 plan of organization exactly and with genuine 
 devotion and enthusiasm, I can guarantee you 
 a great revival; but if you fail in this, then 
 everything will probably fail. The meeting 
 will win or fail by what you do between now 
 and the time I get there." 
 
 The pastor had seen Brother Shanks at that 
 time, and they had talked over the entire 
 plan and methods for putting it on. They 
 agreed that if they were to have this gifted 
 leader, they must follow his plans, and to- 
 gether they considered the first things to be 
 done. Just as they were about to part the 
 pastor had said: "I don't quite like this bus- 
 iness. According to this letter, everything 
 depends on our putting on this organization. 
 If we fail, the revival fails and the blame is 
 ours. When the meeting is over this organ- 
 ization will be worthless and we shall have to 
 start all over again. Why, if we would de- 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 43 
 
 velop our own organization, with the same 
 enthusiasm with which we are developing his, 
 and if we would spend a little of what he will 
 cost us to put on a campaign of our own, 
 could we not do as well without him as with 
 him?" and they had agreed on that point 
 while going ahead with the prescribed organ- 
 ization. 
 
 They did their best in every way. The 
 pastor gave five weeks to preparation, and so 
 did his workers. The evangelist arrived and 
 on Sunday morning opened the series with a 
 succession of stories intended to arouse emo- 
 tion and awaken enthusiasm, and concluded by 
 telling the people about the plan which he 
 had sent the pastor, and assured them that 
 with this preparation there was no doubt of 
 what the outcome would be. As he went 
 home that day, Brother Shanks said to himself, 
 "Well, the evangelist is safe any way. He 
 has an alibi with the pastor, and also with 
 the congregation. If the meeting wins, he 
 did it; if it fails, our pastor and we are to 
 blame. I hope it wins, but it will take different 
 preaching than the kind he gave us this 
 morning." 
 
 At the end of four weeks there had been 
 
44 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 no stir, nothing accomplished. The evangelist 
 had found some flaws in the preparatory work, 
 and had pounced upon them caustically, ig- 
 noring the fact that at that point his plan 
 of organization was absolutely unfitted for 
 that community. But Sunday school Decision 
 Day was to be held the last Sunday of his 
 stay, and he was banking on that for results. 
 No appreciable result occurring up to that 
 time, on that day the children were brought 
 in, the teachers with their classes, and they 
 filled the central portion of the room. The 
 evangelist preached a sermon in which were 
 striking illustrations dealing with murder, black 
 hearts, the horror of sin, the danger of hell, 
 and at last the exhortation that all the chil- 
 dren come and kneel at the altar to be saved 
 from their sins and from hell. They were 
 assured that they would be lost if they did 
 not come. Teachers were exhorted and threat- 
 ened with what would come to them if they 
 did not bring all the members of their classes 
 down to the altar. Of course they all came. 
 The evangelist had a great time with them, 
 counted them, reported it a great victory, and 
 concluded with "Didn't I tell you we never 
 fail?" 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 45 
 
 All this, as an unpleasant memory, went 
 through Brother Shanks' s mind in a brief 
 moment. Who can blame him for his antago- 
 nism when his pastor suggested that they get 
 an evangelist? Not all evangelists are like 
 that one — not very many of them are — but 
 there are enough of them to cause the average 
 layman who loves his church uneasiness when 
 evangelists are mentioned, and to raise the 
 question whether the result likely to be gained 
 is worth the risk. But Brother Shanks replied: 
 "Well, I hardly know what to think, Pastor, 
 I am not much in favor of getting an evan- 
 gelist. I would much rather follow your 
 leadership, work harder myself, and get the 
 church to work with us. But if you think 
 best, I'll follow your judgment. I shall stand 
 by you, but be sure you are right before getting 
 an evangelist." 
 
 Again they separated, and when he reached 
 home Brother Bundy sat thinking for a long 
 time. He considered several things of which 
 a layman would probably not take account. 
 He also had memories. There was that time, 
 five years ago at Etta Springs, when evangel- 
 ist Bulger had helped him. It had been a 
 great meeting. Bulger was a fine preacher, 
 
46 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 sane and careful in his methods, and had done 
 good work. His only fault had been in the 
 length of his sermons. They were so long 
 that he carried his congregation beyond the 
 point where easiest response could be secured, 
 and when the crucial moment arrived, he 
 failed to get the results he might have had 
 thirty minutes earlier. He was too keen about 
 completing his sermon, and not sufficiently in 
 touch with his audience. But it had been a 
 good meeting, and about sixty had signified 
 their intention of uniting with the church. 
 
 His memory went back for a moment to the 
 hour of eleven that last Sunday night. The 
 meetings were over. Almost the entire con- 
 gregation had gone to the station with the 
 evangelist to see him off. He stood on the 
 back platform of the Pullman waving his 
 handkerchief, and the people stood watching 
 the train pull away, waving in return. There 
 were sixty converts to join the church next 
 Sunday, and some of them were now watch- 
 ing their spiritual father leave them orphaned, 
 and to the care of strangers. It was a dis- 
 tressing moment for them and for the pastor. 
 The following day he had spent in his study 
 with his records. He found that of the sixty 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 47 
 
 converts thirty were from the Sunday school 
 Decision Day service, which would have yielded 
 much the same results had Brother Bulger not 
 been there. He found that of the remaining 
 thirty-two or three, more than twenty had 
 been converted in their homes or offices under 
 the persuasion of their pastor. Only seven 
 were directly the product of the meeting. He 
 was greatly encouraged to find that, after all, 
 most of the converts were his own children, 
 and would naturally follow him as their leader. 
 Then his memory passed to the following 
 years, when he had tried to keep those seven, 
 and he was saddened to recall that although 
 the members won by his own private efforts 
 and from the Sunday school had remained 
 true, more than half of the evangelist's con- 
 verts had not been able to endure their or- 
 phaned estate and had fallen away. At last 
 he had concluded that it is difficult for anyone 
 else to care for new converts successfully 
 other than the one who brought them to Christ. 
 That accounts for the large number of revival 
 accessions who fall away from faith and the 
 church, particularly if the revival is led by a 
 professional evangelist who leaves the same 
 evening that the meetings close. The work of 
 
48 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 evangelism can never end with the revival. 
 When converts are secured, the work of saving 
 them has just begun, whether the pastor or 
 an evangelist has led the meeting. The danger 
 in professionalism, however, lies in the fact 
 that it is hard for a stranger to lead the new 
 convert. He had been attracted by the evan- 
 gelist, believes in him, is often half converted 
 to him. When the pastor or a helper attempts 
 to help him, he does not feel the inspiration 
 the evangelist gave him, is listless and in- 
 different, resents the attempt of another to 
 take the evangelist's place, and so falls away 
 through no fault whatever save his own pref- 
 erence for his spiritual father. 
 
 Suddenly Brother Bundy sat upright, re- 
 calling another incident which occurred soon 
 after the close of the meeting at Etta Springs. 
 Each morning he had walked down the village 
 street for his mail, and had usually stepped 
 in at the place of business of his best and most 
 beloved parishioner for a few moments' chat. 
 One Monday morning, three weeks after the 
 meetings had closed, he had stopped in as 
 usual. No one else was around, and he and 
 Moody, his Sunday school superintendent, had 
 talked freely about the church work. A 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 49 
 
 quizzical look had come to his friend's eyes 
 when they were about to part, as he smilingly 
 said, "You don't seem to me to preach with 
 as much punch as you did before the revival, 
 Pastor. Are you tired, working too hard with 
 the new converts, or am I just mistaken?" 
 After a bit of chaff and joking they had sep- 
 arated, but the pastor carried away a pain 
 in his heart. Never had he tried so hard in 
 the pulpit to meet the needs of his people. 
 Never had he so put his heart into his preach- 
 ing. What was the matter? At last he knew. 
 Brother Bulger had packed into a dozen ser- 
 mons all he had thought, all he had read, 
 all he had felt, all his faith and hope and 
 experience. Out of a large fund of illustrative 
 matter he had selected the best and had used 
 it in a masterly way. He had been a masterly 
 preacher. Brother Bundy had to prepare two 
 sermons each week besides other talks and 
 addresses, visited his people, conducted funeral 
 services, managed the details of his church, 
 never repeated illustrations, and the evan- 
 gelist's visit had simply made his task much 
 more difficult. That was it. The people 
 missed Bulger. That is the reason there is so 
 often a slump after a great evangelist has been 
 
50 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 in a church for a time. That is the reason the 
 pastor so often feels ill at ease when the evan- 
 gelist is gone and his people wonder what has 
 happened to his preaching. 
 
 Brethren, I do not believe in making any 
 man's load lighter than it ought to be. We 
 ministers are tempted almost beyond any 
 other class of men to be lazy, to take life easy. 
 No one demands our presence at the strike of 
 a clock, except on Sundays and prayer-meeting 
 nights. We can prepare our sermons when 
 we will, and be our own masters more com- 
 pletely than most men. It is to our everlasting 
 credit that there are not more lazy men among 
 us. There are a few of whom we are ashamed, 
 but they are only a few. On the other hand, 
 there is no call to make our task harder than 
 it normally is. To get a professional evangelist 
 is not to make our task less but more difficult. 
 We would be wiser to work a bit harder at our 
 main task, winning converts, and to ease the 
 burden at some other points. 
 
 And, finally, this question came with pound- 
 ing force to Brother Bundy's mind: "Why 
 have I thought or planned to get an evangelist? 
 Am I afraid to trust God, or myself? No! 
 Not that! Then am I afraid the people will 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 51 
 
 not follow me? That is a slander on the 
 people. They would rather follow their pastor 
 than anyone else. Am I lazy, and shrink from 
 the responsibility of this work?" Just there 
 Brother Bundy held a private prayer meeting, 
 and then, in the light which such prayer meet- 
 ings often bring, he faced himself and his 
 task and came to a definite decision upon which 
 he asked the blessing of God. He said to him- 
 self: "It was just the feeling that if I got a 
 skilled, professional evangelist, it would be 
 easier and a bit surer. I did shrink from under- 
 taking the work alone. I was making a sort 
 of refuge of the evangelist, excusing myself 
 from that task by thinking I could get some- 
 one else to do it better and easier, and letting 
 the people pay for it. I am not a great re- 
 vivalist, and I am poor at exhortation, and an 
 evangelist would probably get in some people 
 I shall not be able to reach; but with the 
 people supporting me, working with me, and 
 with a frank acceptance of the whole respon- 
 sibility I believe that it will be better to go on 
 without the evangelist. I'll just write a letter 
 to Black and Kerr this moment canceling the 
 engagement. Next time I see Brother Shanks 
 I'll tell him what I've decided and why, and 
 
52 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 next Sunday I will begin preparation for the 
 revival. I'm glad that's settled, and settled 
 rightly." 
 
 Brother Bundy had really gone to the heart 
 of the greatest danger in professionalism. 
 Ministers are as human as any one. Heavy 
 work distresses them, daunts them, just as it 
 does others. Why do so many men hire their 
 furnaces cared for? Surely not because they 
 do not have time to do it. They would be 
 better off if they did it themselves, for they 
 need the exercise. They hire it done to get 
 rid of an irksome chore. Why do many women 
 keep maids? Because they have not the time 
 or strength to care for their own homes? 
 Certainly not! They do it in order that they 
 may be free, have their liberty, get rid of 
 disagreeable work. Ministers have the same 
 impulse, and when there are professionals 
 galore begging for a chance to come and take 
 a heavy chore off their shoulders, it is not 
 surprising that a good many use them. The 
 chief danger is that the pastor may come, 
 finally, to lack enthusiasm for the thing he 
 can so easily turn over to another, and so 
 cease entirely to be an evangelist. 
 
 I have been dealing with this subject as 
 
EVERY PASTOR AN EVANGELIST 53 
 
 though a revival meeting were the only way 
 by which to do the work of an evangelist. 
 There are successful pastor-evangelists who do 
 not depend at all upon special meetings for 
 their converts. The day ought never to come 
 when Methodists will cease to hold special 
 meetings; but the day has already come when 
 Methodist ministers should not depend ex- 
 clusively upon any kind of revival meeting 
 for their converts. Every pastor can and must 
 be an evangelist, but not every pastor can be 
 a successful special meeting revivalist. 
 
 After this hour with himself and God, the 
 pastor called Brother Shanks on the phone: 
 "Hello! Brother Shanks? Lucky to get you 
 the first thing. Say, Fve been thinking over 
 our conversation of this morning, and have 
 made up my mind and hope you'll approve. 
 I have written Black and Kerr that we have 
 changed our plans and will not want them. 
 I want that we should trust ourselves and 
 God and go at it without an evangelist's help. 55 
 
 Then for a few moments there was eager 
 response from the other end of the telephone, 
 and from the expression of pleasure, mingled 
 with surprise, on the pastor's face one could 
 guess very accurately what was being said. 
 
54 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 After all, when a man has taken up his cross, 
 or accepted his task, to have good men say 
 that they believe he can win, and that he can 
 count on their support, gladdens the heart and 
 makes effort to the limit of power and en- 
 durance a delight. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE EVANGELISTIC MESSAGE 
 
 In considering the evangelistic message, the 
 reader may understand me to be referring 
 either to the message from the pulpit, called 
 a sermon, or to the personal appeal made to 
 a single individual. What may be properly 
 called an evangelistic message? I am not to 
 deal so much with the subject-matter of the 
 sermon as with the method and aim, or the 
 use to which such matter shall be put* Some 
 ministers are able to turn a very clean-cut 
 discussion of the philosophy of prayer to ac- 
 count as an evangelistic appeal, while others 
 with such a subject will flounder, get lost, or 
 be merely coldly logical. Phillips Brooks could 
 make any subject serve evangelistic ends e 
 Jonathan Edwards thundered the law and 
 threatened doom in such terms as would empty 
 a church in these days, but with such spirit 
 that he made himself the greatest evangelist 
 New England has ever produced. I propose 
 just now that we shall think more about the 
 
 55 
 
56 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 character of the message, its soul, its intent 
 and spirit, than of its substance. 
 
 In the first place, then, it will be a per- 
 suasive message. "Vengeance belongeth unto 
 me, saith the Lord," notwithstanding the fact 
 that some ministers indicate by the spirit of 
 their preaching that he has turned the job of 
 exacting retribution over to them. It is God 
 who will "hew to the line and lay judgment 
 to the plummet/ 5 though the thundering in- 
 vective and bitter denunciation indulged in by 
 some men in the pulpit might indicate that 
 they have ascended to the seat of judgment. 
 
 It is said that after Sam Jones had been 
 holding a meeting for about a week in a South- 
 ern city where he was well known, one evening 
 he said in his quaint way: "I've been here 
 about a week now, and I've found out a lot 
 of things about you folks that I'm going to 
 tell you to-night. Pact is, I'm just naturally 
 going to take your hide off, salt it, and hang 
 it up to dry. If any of you want to get out, 
 why now's the time to go before I begin. If 
 you start in, you must stay through." Every- 
 body laughed, thought it a good joke, and 
 stayed to hear what he had to say. Mr. Jones 
 did say frequently some very plain and em- 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC MESSAGE 57 
 
 phatic things in his original way which awak- 
 ened merriment and conviction and did good. 
 A young Methodist minister from up country 
 was there that night and thought it was truly 
 wonderful. He went home and next Sunday 
 morning when he got up to preach he said, 
 very solemnly — and he was noted for his sin- 
 cerity and solemnity — "I've been your pastor 
 now about two years, and during that time 
 I've learned a good deal about you, much of 
 it not to your credit. This morning I'm just 
 naturally going to take the hide off the last 
 one of you, salt it, and hang it up to dry. If 
 any of you don't want to see it done, you had 
 better leave right now." Knowing him and 
 his lack of humor, the people simply got up 
 and went home. The difference was that Sam 
 Jones said things like that with a loving pat 
 on the shoulder, and there was no spleen in it, 
 while the young man up country felt that he 
 was called to take the work of retribution out 
 of the hands of the Lord and attend to it 
 himself. 
 
 I recently heard Dr. George B. Dean, Super- 
 intendent of the Department of Evangelism 
 of the Board of Home Missions and Church 
 Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 
58 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 say that he likes to hear a church organ when 
 a strain of some familiar tune or hymn runs 
 through the music. Let the organ roar, rum- 
 ble, whisper, laugh, or weep, but always let 
 him hear "Home, Sweet Home/ 5 "I need thee 
 every hour/' or "Nearer, my God, to thee" 
 flashing like sunlight through it all. He then 
 said that in exactly the same way, the quality 
 of persuasiveness should run through every 
 sermon. His taste in music may not be above 
 question, but surely his judgment of what 
 constitutes real preaching is sound. When our 
 Lord called us to the ministry he did not 
 commission us to take a club, a baseball bat, 
 a flaying knife, and go into the world to con- 
 demn and punish every creature. Rather he 
 commissioned each of us to say, "I beseech 
 you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 
 We must denounce sin without hating the 
 sinner; we must warn the sinner and yet make 
 him feel that we love him; we must declare 
 the truth about sin and righteousness, but 
 with tenderness of heart and voice, and with- 
 out malice or rancor. 
 
 A good story is told of one of Methodism's 
 great scholars, a teacher in one of our theolog- 
 ical seminaries. Having scholarly instincts and 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC MESSAGE 59 
 
 accustomed himself to delve deep after truth, 
 he is not given in his lectures to much orna- 
 mentation. He seems to think that students 
 will be delighted to get the simple truth with- 
 out adornment. His classes sometimes delight 
 to get him off on a tanget, both to get light 
 on a side question, and to relieve their minds 
 from the tremendous task of following him in 
 deep places. He is lovingly called "Uncle 
 Henry" by his hundreds of friends and ad- 
 mirers. One day when the class was exhausted 
 in the attempt to keep pace with him, and on 
 the heels of a philosophical statement on the 
 subject of retribution, some one asked, "Doctor, 
 should we ever preach on hell?" 
 
 There was a moment's hesitation. Then 
 "Uncle Henry" slowly removed his glasses, 
 looked leisurely around the room, and replied 
 with more fervor than usual, "Yes, young 
 men. Preach on hell, after you have wept all 
 night the night before." 
 
 Too many, when preaching on hell, indicate 
 that they are glad there is such a place, and 
 that knowing some people who should go 
 there and having authority to put them there, 
 they purpose to make a good job of it. Hell 
 ought to be thought of with horror. The 
 
60 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 evangelistic pastor will think of it as a place 
 of doom to which he fears some of those to 
 whom he speaks will fall. He sees the place 
 vividly, but with no delight. He sees the people 
 on one hand, tempted, weak, blind, and hell 
 on the other, while he himself stands between, 
 commissioned to keep as many as possible 
 from coming even near the brink of it. He 
 feels his responsibility and the danger of the 
 people, but he knows that he cannot force 
 them back. He must persuade them, beseech 
 them to keep at a safe distance. Before he 
 preaches on hell he ought to "Veep all the 
 night before." 
 
 An evangelistic message will be well pre- 
 pared. It is a mistake for any pastor to feel 
 that he can prepare his sermon for each evening 
 day by day during the revival. That is where 
 the evangelist has the advantage over most 
 pastors. He has a definite series of sermons 
 into which he has put his best thought and 
 effort. He may not be much of a preacher, 
 but the best there is of him he has put into 
 those sermons. If a pastor purposes to conduct 
 special meetings each year, why should he not 
 begin early in the year, select a series of themes 
 for his meeting, study them, prepare them with 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC MESSAGE 61 
 
 great care, write them out and pray over them 
 until they literally saturate his soul, and then 
 go to his task? He will not then be at such 
 a disadvantage with the professional. If it is 
 urged that such an arrangement does not give 
 the Holy Spirit opportunity to guide in the 
 choice of themes, or the use of incidents in 
 the meetings as illustrative matter, I reply that 
 the Holy Spirit can see further than half a day 
 ahead, and that such latitude in preparation 
 may be allowed as will make it possible to 
 enforce the lessons of the meeting, just as the 
 evangelist himself might do. One reason, it 
 seems to me, why evangelistic services con- 
 ducted by the pastor have lost their swing, 
 and that professionals have come in, is in the 
 fact that pastors do not make such preparation 
 as they should. In the old camp-meeting days, 
 every preacher brought out his greatest ser- 
 mons and preached them over and over again. 
 They were well prepared, and the preacher had 
 victory before he began to preach. 
 
 That brings me to the second step in the 
 preparation of evangelistic sermons. It in- 
 volves the preparation of the preacher himself. 
 In my youth I often attended the sessions of 
 Gregory Presbytery of the Cumberland Presby- 
 
62 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 terian Church, and always expected Dr. Proctor 
 to preach a great sermon on the Sunday morn- 
 ing of the session. I shall never forget his 
 sermon at Archer City, in 1892. I do not 
 recall his text, or much that he said, but I 
 do recall that I saw the waters of the fountain 
 for sin and uncleanness, "which was opened 
 in the house of King David," go flowing by 
 that day. I saw the people go and bathe in 
 its waters; I went with them, and came away 
 with shouts in my heart. It was a wonderful 
 sermon and a wonderful day. 
 
 Later, when I was about to be installed as 
 pastor of a little church in Henrietta, Texas, I 
 wanted Dr. Proctor to preach the sermon, and 
 my own grandfather to deliver the charge. It 
 was a beautiful day and the people were 
 expectant. But Dr. Proctor preached a poor, 
 crippled sermon with no soul in it. I heard 
 him frequently after that, but never heard him 
 preach as he always did at Presbytery. Finally 
 I became well acquainted with him, and with 
 the daring of a young cub, I asked him one 
 day, "Dr. Proctor, please tell me why it is 
 that at Presbytery you always preach such a 
 wonderful sermon, and at other times you do 
 not get along so well." 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC MESSAGE 63 
 
 After a moment's hesitation he replied, 
 "Well, I always know I am to preach at Presby- 
 tery, and I get ready for it, I don't mean 
 that I prepare a sermon. Of course I do that, 
 I get the sermon ready weeks ahead of time; 
 but then I get myself ready. I know who will 
 be there, and I think about the ministers, their 
 families, their hardships, hopes, needs; and one 
 after another I take them to the Lord in 
 prayer, each time asking that I may be used 
 in that sermon to help them. Then I take up 
 the church where the service will be held, and 
 'pray through' for that. When I go to the 
 pulpit at last I simply open my heart and the 
 sermon comes through it from my head. At 
 other times I do not know the people, have 
 not prepared myself to serve them, and my 
 preaching is pretty dry." 
 
 For twenty-five years this method of prep- 
 aration for the pulpit has been in my mind, 
 and now I pass it on to you and commend it 
 to every one of you who sincerely wishes to 
 be an evangelist. Prepare your sermon early, 
 then leave time for the preparation of yourself. 
 To keep his own private skies clear is not the 
 final preparation of the preacher; he must be 
 in touch with his people, know their needs, 
 
64 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 feel their needs, and be determined to supply 
 the agency through which divine grace may 
 meet them. 
 
 Briefly, then, all this implies that evangelis- 
 tic preaching must be definitely personal. It 
 must meet the needs of individuals in their 
 efforts to be good; it must fit power to need; 
 it must awaken individual hope and confidence, 
 and lead to personal faith. The logical settle- 
 ment of all philosophical questions to the 
 satisfaction of every hearer will not so surely 
 accomplish this end as the personal testimony 
 of one heart to another, followed by the appeal, 
 with the emphasis upon the "thou" which 
 Moses made to Jethro, "Come thou with us, 
 and we will do thee good." 
 
 The evangelistic message must be unmis- 
 takably positive. In an Oklahoma town where 
 I was pastor many years ago, one Monday 
 morning the leading man of the community 
 called me into his office. He had been reared 
 a Methodist, but was attending another church 
 with his wife. I was very young, and having 
 been in the community only a few weeks, felt 
 much awed in the presence of the great man 
 who had never spoken tome before, and won- 
 dered what he could want with me. As soon 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC MESSAGE 65 
 
 as we were seated, he asked: "Mr. Wagner, 
 do you believe anything? and if you do believe 
 something, do you preach it?" 
 
 I was startled. My mind was a blank for 
 a moment. Then I gathered enough wit to 
 reply: "Why, certainly I do, sir. I surely 
 would not preach what I do not believe." 
 
 "Of course not. But do you believe any- 
 thing is positively true, and do you preach 
 that? This is why I ask. For over a year the 
 minister where I worship has been telling us 
 that Moses did not write the Pentateuch; that 
 Job never lived; that Jonah was never really 
 swallowed by a whale; that Isaiah was written 
 by a number of different men, and that much 
 in the book usually looked upon as prophecy 
 is really history; that probably most of the 
 miracles mentioned in the New Testament are 
 no more miracles than familiar events which 
 take place in our own time. He preaches what 
 he believes, but he believes much more intensely 
 that many things are untrue than that any- 
 thing is actually true. I want to know what 
 is true, not what is not true. I am sixty-odd 
 years of age. All my life I have had to fight 
 doubt. What little faith I have left, given 
 me by my Methodist mother, is my most 
 
66 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 precious possession. I need help to keep it, 
 not stimulus for my doubts. I want to hear a 
 minister stand up and say, as though thrilled 
 by the truth of it, that this is true and the 
 other thing is true, because he has tried it 
 out and knows. I can think up enough doubts, 
 find enough of them in the magazines and 
 books I read, without having them hurled at 
 me from the pulpit. Now, young man, if you 
 preach anything positive, Fm coming to hear 
 you. But for God's sake don't help the devil 
 — if there is a devil — to finish his work in me, 
 by making me lose faith in everything my 
 mother taught me about religion/ 5 
 
 There were tears in the old man's eyes 
 when he finished. He had asked for help to 
 escape the destruction the pulpit was working 
 in his soul. Let no minister, however erudite, 
 imagine that he is building the souls of men 
 when he is preaching negations. We must be 
 builders. If our people are cherishing empty 
 hopes, holding to dead faiths, let us give them 
 positive, reasonable hopes and living faith. 
 Quickened by these, they will clear away the 
 rubbish of mistake and error without our 
 help. How quickly one will move out of an 
 old house into a new, after the new one is 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC MESSAGE 67 
 
 built and offered him, and he is able to com- 
 pare the new with the old! But begin to tear 
 down the old house about his head, before he 
 even knows that a new one is to be built, and 
 you lose the opportunity to build for him a 
 new house. I do not fear destructive criticism; 
 let us welcome it where it belongs — in the 
 study of the scholar. But when it has de- 
 molished something, let us not begin imme- 
 diately to call the attention of our people to 
 that fact. Let us, rather, wait until con- 
 structive criticism has furnished something to 
 take its place, has built a new and better 
 house, and then without condemning the old* 
 let us invite our people into the new house. 
 They will discard the old quickly enough. 
 Evangelistic preaching must be positive preach- 
 ing. 
 
 We ministers may have our own troubles 
 with doubts in the field of philosophy. If we 
 think, we shall have doubts, and we will strug- 
 gle with them manfully. But to win, as preach- 
 ers, we must believe some things with abandon. 
 We must not be vague or driven about by 
 every wind of doctrine. There must be eternal 
 rock under our feet; we must build our houses 
 upon that rock. It is an omen for good that 
 
68 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 positive faith among us is stronger to-day 
 than it was yesterday. Never were our schools 
 of theology so positive in their teaching, or so 
 worthy of our earnest support. They are 
 building, and they are turning out builders. 
 It was not always so. Not many years ago 
 the students of an Eastern seminary were dis- 
 cussing matters of devotion. One young man 
 remarked that he did not believe people prayed 
 enough for students, particularly for theological 
 students, and that he wished some one would 
 write a good prayer for such students for the 
 people to study. He thought that a produc- 
 tion of that kind might stimulate the people 
 to such prayer. Every such group has at 
 least one wag in it, and the wag of this group 
 saw his opportunity and remarked: "Why, 
 don't you know there is such a prayer, suit- 
 able for us? It is in the Prayer Book of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, and is entitled 
 'Prayer for those at sea 5 ! 55 The laugh that 
 followed was good-natured, but the wag had 
 struck at a very grave danger among preach- 
 ers. We must not be "at sea" in our spiritual 
 sailing. 
 
 Evangelistic preaching must link people up 
 together in proper social contact. There is no 
 
THE EVANGELISTIC MESSAGE 69 
 
 place for the cloister, the hermit, in our times, 
 and what we preach will find its test and 
 prove its right to live in the effect it has upon 
 the social contacts of the people. We must 
 live together and we must live in peace. Re- 
 ligion must bring peace among men by making 
 them peaceable. And peaceable men must be 
 so organized and related one to the other that 
 the peace within them may have opportunity 
 to bear its normal and legitimate fruit. Two 
 men, each with a peaceable mind, may be 
 brought into conflict by an impossible social 
 order. While this is not the place to discuss a 
 Christian social order, it must be said that 
 evangelistic preaching has for its aim the saving 
 of both men and the social organization in 
 which they live. 
 
 Evangelistic preaching must dig down and 
 deal with the motives of life, seek out the 
 will and bring it into subjection to God's 
 will. Culture has its place in the work of the 
 church, and it is a large and honorable place. 
 If by that term culture of the heart is meant, 
 then it includes all of religion. But if we mean 
 merely polish, adornment of conduct, gentility 
 of manners, then evangelism must dig beneath 
 such veneer and plow deep in the heart. Mo- 
 
70 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 tives are spiritual; ideals are spiritual; faith 
 is spiritual; our message must be spiritual. 
 It must seek to sanctify motive, to Christian- 
 ize ideals and to anchor faith in God through 
 Jesus Christ. Such is the character of the 
 evangelistic appeal. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE REVIVAL MEETING 
 
 Revival meetings are of comparatively 
 modern origin. I cannot find that they are 
 commanded by the apostles. True we read in 
 Ephesians 4. 11 that "he gave some, apostles; 
 and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; 
 and some, pastors and teachers." Apostles, 
 prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers — that is 
 the order in which they are given, and sug- 
 gests that it is the order of their importance. 
 But in the Scriptures a prophet is a preacher; 
 an evangelist a missionary, establishing the 
 church where it did not exist; pastors care 
 for the moral and social welfare of the people, 
 and teachers fill the same office as at present. 
 There is no warrant here for either revival 
 meetings or modern evangelists, except such as 
 Bishops Thoburn and Bashford and Lewis. 
 Philip was such an evangelist, or missionary, 
 but from him to modern evangelists is a long 
 cry, just as there is a wide difference between 
 
 71 
 
72 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 his method of work with a community or a 
 single soul and modern revival meetings. 
 
 John Wesley was an evangelist in a land 
 where the Established Church was dull and 
 dead. But John Wesley conducted nothing 
 comparable to modern revivals, and used 
 nothing like their methods. He did preach in 
 the coal pits, on the streets and by the road- 
 side, and on occasion preached two or three 
 times a day for two or three days in succes- 
 sion at the same place. But this was usually 
 in communities where no class had been formed 
 and where no pastor was located, in order to 
 open the way for such organization. 
 
 Students of early American Methodism are 
 fond of saying that our fathers were compelled 
 to organize a new American church in order 
 that they and their neighbors might have such 
 means of grace as the sacraments, and the 
 privilege of calling their spiritual leaders "pas- 
 tors." It is said that at the close of the Revolu- 
 tionary War there were entire colonies with 
 scarcely an ordained minister in them. Ne- 
 cessity, "the mother of invention," called forth 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 In those days great circuits, requiring from 
 four to eight weeks to travel, were the rule. 
 
THE REVIVAL MEETING 73 
 
 As late as 1860, along the Mississippi River 
 and westward, there were still such circuits. 
 There were few church buildings, and not 
 enough ministers to reach their appointments 
 more than once in several weeks. At the best, 
 from six to a dozen sermons annually was about 
 all the service the people could expect. Again 
 something had to be done, and necessity 
 "invented" the camp meeting. What was more 
 natural, since the ministers could not take the 
 gospel to the people, than that the people 
 should come to the ministers? A camping 
 place was selected at a point convenient to 
 several communities, and the people came 
 from the country round for a week or ten 
 days of spiritual feasting. The movement 
 caught the imagination of ministers and people 
 of the entire country, and the camp meeting 
 was soon looked upon as the means ordained 
 of God for the saving of the world. 
 
 But the country developed, communities 
 grew larger, places of worship were built, min- 
 isters became more numerous, Sunday schools 
 were organized, and, finally, anyone could hear 
 if he cared to from one to three sermons each 
 week. The necessity which "invented" the 
 camp meeting was gone, and with it went the 
 
74 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 "invention/' Its departure was slow and 
 painful. There are not lacking even to-day 
 those who believe that their going was due 
 to the deadness and lack of spirituality in the 
 church. 
 
 But before the camp meeting was entirely 
 abandoned, and because the people did not 
 care to leave their homes to attend them, or 
 did not feel the need of such attendance, pas- 
 tors began holding special series of meetings, 
 patterned after the camp meeting, at a con- 
 venient time in their local churches. The 
 revival meeting, then, is a child of the camp 
 meeting, and in its modern phases does not 
 date its origin prior to that institution. It is 
 a miniature camp meeting and came forth to 
 take its place. Its roots are not in the founda- 
 tions of the gospel, but in the needs of an 
 age and social order. It is no more reasonable 
 to assume that people not given to revival 
 meetings of the evangelistic type are not 
 spiritual than that they are not spiritual who 
 do not attend a camp meeting. There is nothing 
 either in history or the Bible to make such 
 meetings the only, or chief, evangelistic agency 
 of the church. There is much in both reason 
 and history to commend other methods and 
 
THE REVIVAL MEETING 75 
 
 means, some of which are discussed in these 
 pages. 
 
 Along with the camp meeting there arose 
 mighty men of striking personality and ability, 
 as such meetings must have for their leader- 
 ship. Not every minister could be a success- 
 ful camp meeting preacher. Equally, revival 
 meetings require special personality and mental 
 equipment. Some pastors can never be suc- 
 cessful revival meeting evangelists. Such meet- 
 ings demand a peculiar power of exhortation 
 not possessed by most men. I recall an expe- 
 rience of my own which began as a sort of 
 nightmare, but turned into a blessed benedic- 
 tion. I was immature as a minister, but had 
 been asked to help in the revival at the 
 old home church where my grandfather had 
 preached until, broken in health, he had been 
 succeeded by his son. My uncle had asked me 
 to help him. I began preaching on Sunday 
 morning, and we held services twice each day. 
 Friday came, and I perceived conviction in the 
 large audience and believed it was time to 
 "cast the net." After preaching that evening 
 with what unction I possessed, I asked for 
 penitents to come to the "mourners' bench." 
 With all my soul I longed to see them come, 
 
76 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 and I exhorted with ringing voice and sincere 
 urgency, while the audience sang through a 
 long hymn. I felt that the people were moved, 
 that they were ready to act, but no one came 
 forward. I was about to give up when I felt 
 a gentle touch on my arm, and turned to see 
 grandfather standing by my side. What an 
 old-time giant he was! And how I had admired 
 him in the days of his strength! He was 
 seventy-five years old at this time, and ema- 
 ciated with the ailment which took him "up 
 higher" the next year. Tall of form, spare of 
 frame, with long beard, piercing eyes, and hair 
 scarcely turned gray, he stood and said, "Son, 
 let me try." He was like a "great rock in a 
 weary land," for I knew that if God would 
 give him voice and strength he would sweep 
 that audience to the altar. I do not recall 
 what he said. I dare say it was much the 
 same as I had said. I do recall how he said 
 it. At first deliberate and low of voice, within 
 two minutes every word could have been heard 
 through the block. His eyes were bright, his 
 shoulders thrown back, and the spirit of an 
 old charger was in him as he pleaded with 
 men to give their souls a chance. Aware of 
 his failing strength, and knowing that within 
 
THE REVIVAL MEETING 77 
 
 five minutes after he began to speak he would 
 be shaken with paroxysms of coughing, he 
 began the sooner to call them to the altar. 
 And they came and came until the altar was 
 filled with scores of seekers. It was a great 
 service. I have heard since then the greatest 
 preachers in America, and have been thrilled 
 by their eloquence. I have even tried to 
 pattern after some of them in the matter of 
 sermon building, and to obey the exhortations 
 of others. But I should prefer to-day, had I 
 my choice, to listen to such an exhortation as 
 I heard that night than to hear the greatest 
 preacher in the land. Possibly it would not 
 produce the same results as then; the day for 
 such things may be past. It probably is. But 
 if we are to do for our generation what the 
 preachers of that day did for theirs, we must 
 find some method that we can use as effectively 
 in the present as they found and developed 
 in the past. 
 
 I started to say that modern evangelists 
 have sprung up because of the demand for 
 specialists who can succeed in revival meet- 
 ings. The modern evangelist is the product 
 of the necessity of the revival meeting for a 
 leader. His calling arose out of the revival 
 
78 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 meeting. When the church discovers that the 
 revival is merely a bridge between the old-time 
 camp meeting and the day when we shall 
 get back to the evangelism of settled condi- 
 tions and a church working steadily the year 
 around, the need for the special evangelist 
 will have passed, and he will return to the 
 pastorate. He has filled an important place 
 among us, has done great service, but it is 
 time for pastors to take up and carry their 
 own burdens, and to cease to depend upon 
 others to do it for them. Probably the chief 
 weakness of modern church activity has been 
 the dependence of many pastors upon the 
 revival specialist to attend in a very short 
 time to the church's evangelistic obligations, 
 and thus free themselves from duties for which 
 they fancied they were not qualified. 
 
 There is a place, however, a vital place, 
 in our church life and work for the special 
 meeting, the revival. It will be a sad day 
 for the church when the pastors no more 
 announce the day for such a meeting. The 
 ministry of the revival has been twofold. It 
 has been the means of warming up the church 
 and of focusing attention on the work of 
 evangelism; it has held the church to its chief 
 
THE REVIVAL MEETING 79 
 
 mission and made the world aware that the 
 church was at its task, and by means of it 
 many have been saved. 
 
 For reasons I need not now discuss, revivals 
 are not as successful as they formerly were. 
 The pastor who depends upon a revival meeting 
 for his recruits for church membership, or for 
 fulfilling the mission of the gospel to save 
 souls, finds that few of his own people attend 
 the services, while the unconverted are con- 
 spicuously absent. After many disappoint- 
 ments in such efforts, he is beginning to seek 
 out a method better suited to his day, that 
 will accomplish genuine results. 
 
 It is well, however, to hold revival services 
 at least once each year. Such meetings serve 
 as a climax toward which a pastor may focus 
 his year's work, and should be a time of re- 
 joicing. There is something peculiarly inspir- 
 ing in the spectacle of a people coming together 
 night after night for the worship of God. 
 The church which will not do this for at least 
 a week each year is indeed at a low spiritual 
 level. In most communities the revival is not, 
 however, the best means for arousing such a 
 church in these times. In the chapter on 
 "An Evangelistic Program" a better method 
 
80 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 will be discussed. The mission of the revival 
 of the future will be to do for the laymen what 
 institutes and conventions do for ministers. 
 It will be a time for spontaneous praise and 
 rejoicing, but more particularly for learning 
 how better to do the work of the church. 
 
 The time set for the revival should be an- 
 nounced early in the year, and the activities 
 of the year focused upon it as a climax for 
 every undertaking. Like Commencement Day, 
 like the parade at the end of the war, like 
 Thanksgiving Day at the end of harvest, 
 the revival should signalize achievement, and 
 there should not lack hard work to provide 
 something over which to rejoice. If a revival 
 breaks out during the year, it only proves that 
 the work looking toward victory is being well 
 done; but it is fatal idly to wait, depending 
 upon a revival breaking out. Usually unlooked- 
 for revivals occur not where the church is 
 simply waiting for them, but where it is work- 
 ing faithfully with a revival in view but set 
 for some later day. Do not leave the revival 
 date unfixed. If a farmer could plant corn at 
 any time in the year, how different would be 
 his work! Because he must plant within a 
 period of about two weeks, he is ready for it 
 
THE REVIVAL MEETING 81 
 
 when the time comes. Lack of fixed dates 
 and purposes and program make the work of 
 many ministers correspondingly vague and un- 
 certain. Set the revival date and then do 
 the work necessary before that date arrives, 
 and the revival will come in truth. 
 
 Let the pastor lead his own revival. Why, 
 in this hour of rejoicing over victory, should 
 another take his place? If he has led his 
 church to victory, let him march at the head 
 of the procession in the great parade. Let 
 him not depend upon the revival for his con- 
 verts, but make it a time of rejoicing over 
 them, and it will be easy for him to be the 
 leader. 
 
 Do not plan for too extended a period of 
 revival. Such efforts are a weariness to flesh 
 and spirit. A week may be sufficient; two 
 weeks certainly will be. If a church has 
 worked faithfully throughout the year, if it 
 has accomplished anything, then it should not 
 require a protracted period to arrive at a 
 climax and rejoice over it. 
 
 The same suggestion may be made with 
 reference to the length of each service in the 
 series. Because people will go to a theater 
 and sit for three hours with apparent delight, 
 
82 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 is no argument that the same people, or even 
 deeply spiritual people who may never attend 
 a theater, ought to sit for an equal length of 
 time and with equal pleasure in a religious 
 service. A theater is a place of amusement, 
 of diversion, where one laughs, relaxes, takes 
 his ease. A religious service is or should be 
 tense, demanding close attention, and often 
 stirring deep emotion. It is not a time of re- 
 laxation but of high endeavor. As well say 
 that if one can sit in a theater three hours, 
 one can run swiftly for three hours, as that 
 one should enjoy a church service for that 
 length of time. The only way any normal 
 person could enjoy so long a service would 
 be to sleep through it. An hour is sufficiently 
 long for most services, and no service should 
 continue beyond an hour and a half. An hour 
 packed full and at high tide will be far better 
 than an hour and a half with the same con- 
 tent, but at lower pressure and of diminishing 
 interest. The service should close at its climax. 
 This is as good a time as any to say that 
 an entire evening of such a revival can well 
 be given to praise and testimony; to reports 
 of personal workers regarding their joy in 
 service; to reports from the Sunday school 
 
THE REVIVAL MEETING 83 
 
 superintendent, Epworth League president, and 
 presidents of the Ladies' Aid, Woman's Foreign 
 and Woman's Home Missionary Societies. An- 
 other evening could be given up to the official 
 board, to discuss the program of the church, 
 what its aims for the year just closing have 
 been, what its objectives for the next year 
 are to be, the financial situation, or other 
 urgent problems. 
 
 An entire evening could be given up to the 
 study of hymns and the Hymnal. A hymn 
 might be read, studied briefly, anecdotes about 
 it told, its music explained, and then the 
 hymn sung through, and repeated until it is 
 mastered. In this way about five or six hymns 
 could be studied in an evening. Two evenings 
 in a revival could easily be spent in this way 
 greatly to the profit of the church. If the 
 pastor can sing, he should conduct this service. 
 An evening could be devoted to the new con- 
 verts and those who had joined the church 
 during the year; and still another evening could 
 be occupied with an open discussion of the 
 meaning of church membership, the nature of 
 the church vows, the value of church ritual, 
 and similar questions. By following this 
 course and using some inventive genius in 
 
84 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 selecting additional subjects for other evenings, 
 the revival period can be made a season of 
 real ministry to the church, to be appreciated 
 and used accordingly. 
 
 As in other services of the church, conver- 
 sions will be expected and sought in the revival, 
 though that will not be its chief object. That 
 will be a by-product rather than the chief 
 result of such an undertaking. Evangelism 
 must be made the supreme business of the 
 church the year around, and that cannot be 
 done so long as it is supposed that a revival 
 will accomplish a year's work within a period 
 of two or three weeks. It would be a blessing 
 to the entire church if pastors and churches 
 would agree to employ the revival especially 
 for purposes of spiritual culture, and to do the 
 work of evangelism in the regular services of 
 the church throughout the year. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 PERSONAL EVANGELISM 
 
 I recently heard a well-known Methodist 
 minister say, "My mother's hands upon me 
 had much more to do with making a minister 
 of me than the hands of any bishop." Go 
 back to the beginning of Christian experience 
 in your own life and you will find some indi- 
 vidual to have been the direct agent of God 
 in your salvation. Even those of us who were 
 converted at the altar in an old-time revival, 
 if we think it over, will recall some person who 
 brought us there, or helped us to faith after 
 we took that step. 
 
 A few years ago Dr. J. 0. Peck wrote that 
 if to save his own soul he must win a thousand 
 converts in two years, and might choose one 
 method only in which to work, he would un- 
 hesitatingly choose the method of personal 
 appeal to individuals one by one. And Dr. 
 Peck was a great preacher. Bishop L. J. 
 Birney, formerly dean of Boston University 
 School of Theology, said recently to a group 
 
 85 
 
86 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 of New England pastors: "If twelve of us will 
 band ourselves together to win one person to 
 Christian experience this year, and so to train 
 him that in turn next year he shall win another 
 and likewise train him, so that the next year 
 he shall win still another and train him, and so 
 on for twenty-seven years, each of us and our 
 converts keeping up the record year by year, 
 there would not remain an unconverted or 
 untrained individual on earth. No one of us 
 would have saved more than one individual in 
 an entire year, but the world would be saved." 
 The real problem of evangelism is to get 
 Christians, all Christians, at work at it. Evan- 
 gelistic preaching must have for its aim the 
 conversion of sinners, and the stimulating of 
 believers to evangelistic effort for one soul at 
 a time. Some one has said that evangelism 
 is "Christian salesmanship," and that "we 
 need more salesmen as well as better salesmen." 
 Too long the preaching and revival-meeting 
 method have been our chief agencies for such 
 salesmanship, and the time has come for 
 singling men out and winning them one by one. 
 Laymen must engage in the task, but pastors 
 must stimulate them to it, and no pastor can 
 send others to do what he is not doing himself. 
 
PERSONAL EVANGELISM 87 
 
 I am speaking to pastors, and, my brothers, 
 you must practice personal evangelism; you 
 must win men one at a time. 
 
 The personal method is not the easiest 
 method* The sermon method, for ministers, at 
 least, is the easiest. In fact, is there anything 
 in the world so exhilarating, so perfectly thrill- 
 ing, as preaching? We ministers know, even 
 if some of our hearers do not, how exhilarating 
 preaching is. There is exhilaration for the 
 preacher in the preparation of a sermon. I 
 enjoy hunting and fishing. Think of a trout 
 stream in June! The trout are there without 
 doubt, but they are not striking your flies. 
 You stand back in the shadows, keep quiet a 
 while, change your flies, test your leader, try 
 again, cast after cast. Not a rise. You wan- 
 der off up stream, change flies again, try other 
 pools, but finally come back to that best pool 
 you have seen. You creep on hands and 
 knees. You dare not breathe a full breath, nor 
 let your shadow strike the water. You do not 
 disturb the grass or a bush along the stream's 
 margin. Again you cast a perfect cast at 
 exactly the right spot, below foamy waters 
 where the current flows on again beyond a 
 great bowlder. This time there is a strike, a 
 
88 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 stout jerk and then a steady pull, and you 
 forget everything else and just fight. 
 
 But now, let us say, it is Tuesday, or Monday 
 evening, and next Sunday you are to stand 
 up before a hundred or more men and women 
 and try to catch one of them for God. What 
 bait will attract them? No man is dull and 
 sleepy with his fly book in his hand and a pool 
 before him. No man ought to be dull and 
 listless with his Bible in his hand and the 
 people in his imagination. To get a sermon, 
 to feel confident that you have the right one 
 because you have consulted the highest author- 
 ity about it, and that this sermon will prove 
 to be the cast which will lure the soul by the 
 fisherman's art, is thrilling beyond words. 
 
 But again it is Sunday morning. The ser- 
 mon was finished long ago and lies back there 
 in the study and down in the minister's brain 
 and heart. With the assurance of orders 
 from Headquarters, he has come into his 
 pulpit. There are three hundred people be- 
 fore him, all there to hear him and offering him 
 a sportsman's chance to make a catch that 
 day. They have sung a hymn, the preliminary 
 service is over, and the preacher is in his 
 pulpit, his throne, and all eyes are upon him, 
 
PERSONAL EVANGELISM 89 
 
 all ears open to him. What is the excitement 
 of the trout fisherman compared with this 
 thrilling moment? He is not alone. God is 
 with him. His voice rings out, and God is 
 in it to enforce the message. Yonder is a 
 haggard face; over here a serene one with 
 heart ready for service; and there a perplexed 
 one, revealing some great problem to be settled. 
 There are little children whose confidence the 
 minister has held and still holds, young people 
 with wonder in their eyes as they look out on 
 the untried way of life, old people with the 
 mists of evening in their eyes as they approach 
 the time for evening devotions and well-earned 
 rest, strong men whose minds need temporary 
 deliverance from business cares, women who 
 need a glance into calm skies after the turmoil 
 of a week of household drudgery, and the 
 minister stands there with those needs before 
 him. Open your lips, you herald of good news 
 to a world in need, and speak with assurance! 
 What if your knees tremble, your hands shake 
 and your voice is vibrant with emotion? It 
 it time to make your cast, and this time you 
 shall land your catch! Who does not thrill 
 at such work? We sometimes talk about 
 ministers having a hard time, but they who 
 
90 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 say such things know nothing about the ex- 
 hilaration of preaching. If only one could 
 live on such pay, that alone would be sufficient 
 compensation for being a preacher. 
 
 Personal evangelism, on the contrary, is 
 never easy. It is delicate and difficult work. 
 It is so personal, deals with such intimacies 
 and secret depths of the soul, that one must 
 have a holy daring, a blessed effrontery, almost 
 a fearless audacity, to engage in it. It is 
 never practiced accidentally. One does not 
 drift into it. Deliberate choice alone leads to 
 this kind of work, and in that choice is the 
 spirit of sacrificial service. If it is not your 
 practice to do this kind of work, now is a 
 good moment in which to begin cultivating it. 
 After one has practiced personal evangelism 
 for years, he may find unexpected opportu- 
 nities for immediate victories, but usually he 
 will select the object of his endeavor, 41ay siege 
 to him and labor long for success. In fifteen 
 years of this kind of work, I have brought 
 in twenty-five after whom I deliberately went 
 out, to every one whom I succeeded in win- 
 ning without planning my campaign. 
 
 Begin by deciding to go at it, and make the 
 decision irrevocable. Then get out your church 
 
PERSONAL EVANGELISM 91 
 
 constituency list, and make up a smaller list 
 of not more than six or eight whom you will 
 make your immediate prospects. Write their 
 names in your address book. Then make 
 another longer list of more remote prospects 
 and, on winning one of the first list, imme- 
 diately transfer a name from this second list 
 to take his place. Always keep a half dozen 
 on the smaller list. Now, do not rush out and 
 tell those whose names you have on your list 
 that you have decided to win them to the 
 Christian life. Do not immediately tell any- 
 one but God. Begin at once to work out a 
 plan of campaign. First study your pros- 
 pects, get well acquainted with them, and do 
 not let them become suspicious that you are 
 planning to preach to them in private. Let 
 them feel at ease with you, so that you may 
 get deep into their secret hearts. 
 
 This lesson was forcibly impressed upon me 
 a few years ago. I was greatly flattered be- 
 cause a gentleman in my community, who 
 did not belong to my church or congregation, 
 but was an earnest worker in another church, 
 sought opportunity on every occasion to ride 
 or walk with me. We talked on every subject, 
 discussed our churches, the business world, the 
 
92 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 war, everything in general. Six months went 
 by, and then one evening this man called me 
 to the phone and said, "Doctor, I want to 
 come over and have a chat with you this 
 evening. Will you be at home?" 
 
 "Sure! Come right over. Glad to see you." 
 
 "Well, Doctor," he said, "I must tell you 
 before I come that I want to talk to you about 
 life insurance. You may not know it, but I am 
 the champion life insurance agent of Boston." 
 
 And because he had been such a gentleman, 
 though I had long before decided I should take 
 out no more life insurance, I told him to come 
 over. My pride suffered a bit, as I awaited 
 his arrival, for I saw that I had been not so 
 much a friend sought as a prospect studied. 
 Though I had fortified myself against his 
 every argument before he arrived, because he 
 knew me so thoroughly he came very near to 
 writing me for five thousand dollars of in- 
 surance. If a life insurance agent can devote 
 six months of careful study to a prospect who 
 at most will bring him only a few dollars, what 
 ought we to do who capture men's souls for 
 eternity? 
 
 Study your prospect. Study him a long 
 time, if necessary, and do not lose him by 
 
PERSONAL EVANGELISM 93 
 
 allowing your enthusiasm to run away with 
 you. Speak only when you feel sure you are 
 ready to speak. Then do not employ any de- 
 ception. Be as frank as the insurance agent 
 was with me. Give your friend an opportunity 
 to prevent the interview if he chooses to do so. 
 Not in one case in a thousand will he avoid it. 
 Rather he will welcome it, since he has come 
 to know you as thoroughly as you know him. 
 Here is a case in point. A few years ago 
 a carpenter attended my church occasionally, 
 whose wife attended regularly and desired to 
 unite with us but thought best to wait for her 
 husband. That was a challenge to me. His 
 name went down on my small list of prospects. 
 For three months, at least once a week, I 
 either rode or walked with him to or from his 
 work, and we became good friends. I had 
 learned the carpenter's trade, so that we had 
 much in common. Finally I thought I knew 
 him and the point of easiest approach. Early 
 one morning I called him up and said, "John, 
 I want to call at your house to-morrow evening, 
 if you'll be at home, and have a real talk 
 with you. I want to do my duty by you as 
 your pastor, and help you to Christian faith. 
 How about it? May I come?" 
 
94 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 For a moment there was a little stammering. 
 But I had been square with him, had been his 
 friend and he mine, and I had shown that I 
 would not force the subject of religion upon 
 him without his consent. I knew he would 
 not deny me, and that if he consented to my 
 visit it was equivalent to an invitation to help 
 him become a Christian. So he finally said 
 with hearty sincerity, "Why, sure, Pastor. 
 Come right over and I'll be here. Guess it's 
 about time somebody lined me up, and I'd 
 prefer that it should be you." 
 
 An hour later John's wife called up Mrs. 
 Wagner and told her that I was to call at their 
 house that evening, and asked her to come 
 with me, for both of us to come early and have 
 supper with them. Of course she accepted. 
 It was a fine supper, and Mrs. Wagner, who 
 knows how to do team work, insisted when 
 it was over that they immediately clear the 
 table and wash the dishes. That left John 
 and me alone, and we wasted no time. I 
 knew what his excuses might be and how to 
 get at his heart, for I knew most of his life 
 story. I had learned it in our rides and walks 
 together. Soon the barriers were all down and 
 tears filled his eyes. We had just prayed 
 
PERSONAL EVANGELISM 95 
 
 through as the women came in from the other 
 room, and he arose with that light in his face 
 which shines only out of a heart that has 
 found God, and with trembling voice said: 
 "Bertha, I — I have just been converted, and 
 I want to join the church. Won't you join 
 with me?" It does me good yet to recall her 
 glad cry as her arms went round his neck. 
 There was little said for a while, and then 
 Bertha exclaimed, "John, I have been waiting 
 for you to join the church ever since we were 
 married, and I was almost giving up." 
 
 He had not been baptized. We telephoned 
 for a number of his friends to come in, and an 
 hour or so later, there in his home I baptized 
 him and took him into the church on proba- 
 tion. I like to do that — lead a man to Christ 
 at his own home altar, baptize him there, and 
 then say to him, "Now you have a family 
 altar. I hope you will never give it up but 
 will pray here with your family every day." 
 I am confident that John would not be in the 
 church now if I had depended on my preach- 
 ing to get him there, or if I had not taken time 
 to study him before I tried to win him. 
 
 One summer, over in the Adirondacks, I 
 fished a trout pool many mornings for a great 
 
96 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 old trout which lay in deep water under the 
 bank. I knew he was there, for I had seen 
 him on several occasions. For two weeks 
 every day but Sunday I tempted him with 
 every lure and device known to the fisher- 
 man's art, and never so much as secured a 
 rise from him. Then I decided to spend a 
 day studying him. At earliest dawn I crept 
 noiselessly to the bank above his lair, shaded 
 W eyes and waited. An horn" passed, two 
 hours, and nothing happened. Slowly the sun 
 rose; still there was no movement. The stream 
 came into the pool over shallow ripples only 
 a few yards above me. Growing weary of my 
 fruitless gazing into the deep water, just after 
 sunrise I glanced up at the ripples, and saw a 
 small trout, apparently in distress, hurt in 
 some way, feebly attempting to swim against 
 the current. I was wondering if some fisher- 
 men had hooked the little fellow and then 
 thrown him back as under size, when like a 
 flash the old king of the pool darted through 
 the water, snapped up the struggling fingerling, 
 and as quickly darted back to his lair. My 
 breath stopped and cold sweat stood on my 
 forehead as, upon my discovery, I backed 
 carefully away from the bank. 
 
PERSONAL EVANGELISM 97 
 
 At a safe distance I breathed again and 
 berated the old cannibal. I was so excited 
 I could hardly keep my fingers steady as I 
 arranged my tackle to whip a shallow place 
 some distance below where I was sure to 
 hook a small trout. In twenty minutes I had 
 him. In three more I had changed leaders, 
 had on a stout hook with my small trout, 
 still very much alive, tied securely to it by a 
 bit of silk thread, and flung him in the water 
 up stream among the ripples. How my pulse 
 jumped as I led my bait down through the 
 ripples to the deeper water. Darting this way 
 and that but unable to escape, it made a 
 desperate fight. I did not have to wait long. 
 Through the grass I saw a flash as the old 
 cannibal responded to the lure. I slacked 
 line and reel, let him take his prize back into 
 his den with him so that he would get hook 
 and bait deep into his gullet. Then I gave a 
 slight snap and the fight was on. And such 
 a fight it was! It ended with the great trout 
 lying on the grass at my feet quivering his last. 
 He had rebuffed me many times, laughed at 
 me, ridiculed me, insulted me, but I had not 
 given him up until he was mine. I studied 
 him, dreamed about him, found out his secret 
 
98 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 and landed him. Shall I not use as much 
 sagacity and persistence in dealing with men? 
 
 How many experiences of this sort I recall, 
 only they were in catching men instead of 
 trout! For example, there was Donald Ross. 
 When I went to that pastorate he was not 
 attending church. He and the leading mem- 
 ber of the church and official board were not 
 on speaking terms, though his name was on 
 the church book. His business was such that 
 it was natural for me to come in contact with 
 him two or three times a week, and I missed 
 no opportunity to be with him. Not once 
 for three months did I mention the church or 
 his trouble with my prominent official. But 
 at last I knew his vulnerable spots. There 
 were two of them. His mother, who was grow- 
 ing old, grieved because she went to church 
 alone, and that troubled him. His little son 
 was twelve years of age and thought his father 
 the greatest man in the world. Donald did 
 not want his boy to grow up out of the church, 
 as he was living. He had been really con- 
 verted and remembered it. 
 
 I chose Thursday for my visit to Donald, 
 because it was his day of greatest leisure. 
 I went in as usual and waited until he was 
 
PERSONAL EVANGELISM 99 
 
 alone, when I said frankly, "Donald, I have 
 come to talk religion and church to you. I 
 want you to go with me down to the basement 
 and give me a fair chance to talk it out with 
 you. Come on." 
 
 He held back at first as he said, "Now, 
 Dominie, it's been fine to be friends with you, 
 but better let me alone on this subject. You 
 know I can't go back to church with that old 
 hypocrite you have there." But he did come, 
 as I knew he would. 
 
 We talked that day, or, rather, he did, for 
 two hours, getting everything off his mind. 
 Beginning with bitterness he passed to the 
 humorous and the pathetic, and at last had 
 no more to say. Then I put my finger on his 
 first soft spot. I said, "Donald, doesn't it make 
 you a little heart-sick to see your old mother 
 going off to church alone every Sunday?" 
 
 He started and grew red, and then said 
 rather bitterly, "That's not fair, Dominie. 
 That's hitting below the belt. You know it 
 hurts; but what can I do about it?" 
 
 "Why, man, go with her," I replied. With- 
 out waiting, I went on: "And, Donald, are 
 you going to let Lawrence, your boy, grow up 
 feeling as you do toward the church and re- 
 
100 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 ligion? Do you want him to be the kind of 
 man your attitude will naturally make him?" 
 
 His eyes were full of tears as he said, "But 
 what can I do?" 
 
 "First, let's pray about it," I replied. "If 
 you will do that, with the will to do whatever 
 is right, you will find the way." 
 
 At last he stammered out a prayer, and 
 presently looked up at me with a smile. "It's 
 all right, Dominie," he said. "I'll go the whole 
 route, or die." 
 
 A little later he stood up in the church where 
 he and this church member had quarreled, 
 made an apology, asked the man's forgiveness, 
 although he was no more in the wrong than 
 the other, and the two shook hands and for- 
 got their grievances. But that would never 
 have taken place had I not taken plenty of 
 time to study my prospect. In an argument 
 he would have held his own, and mere ex- 
 hortation would have achieved nothing. 
 
 Then there was the case of John Lee, though 
 that is not his real name any more than Donald 
 was the name of the other. He did not attend 
 my church or any church. I met him in a 
 lodge to which both of us belonged, and where 
 we had done some work together. About the 
 
PERSONAL EVANGELISM 101 
 
 only reason a minister can have for belonging 
 to a lodge is to get acquainted with men whom 
 he may lead to a higher brotherhood, a better 
 fraternity. Well, during a period of about 
 six months, Mr. Lee and I became very well 
 acquainted, and it was impressed upon my 
 conscience that if he was ever to be converted 
 it would have to be through my instrumen- 
 tality. He went down on my list. Soon I 
 went to see him in his fine office over the 
 leading bank of the city. I brought up the 
 matter of religion at once, only to have it 
 waved aside in a courteous way with the 
 statement that he had settled that matter 
 many years before and did not care to take 
 it up again. My call was short, but as I left 
 I said, "I should like to call again some day, 
 Mr. Lee. You might change your mind in 
 this matter, you know/ 5 He told me to come 
 at my pleasure, and I went my way. 
 
 Regularly thereafter every other month for 
 three years I called at his office, and each time, 
 if I found him in, I spoke an earnest word for 
 Jesus Christ. If he was not in, I left a brief 
 note, with a similar message about our Lord.. 
 At the end of those three years I took up my 
 pen one day to cross off his name from my 
 
102 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 little book as hopeless, but changed my mind. 
 I decided to make one more effort, since the 
 following week was the time for my call. 
 
 The next Sunday morning I was to preach 
 a sermon on the idea that if one does not 
 strive to live up to his convictions, or attempt 
 to attain to his own moral ideals, he is his own 
 enemy and is blighting his own soul. Just 
 before time to begin the sermon I saw Mr. 
 Lee come into the church. There was no 
 seat for him down stairs, so the ushers con- 
 ducted him to the balcony, where they found a 
 seat for him near the center of the front sec- 
 tion. When the sermon began I promptly 
 forgot his presence, but the Lord helped me 
 to preach with conviction and some power. 
 The closing hymn was "A charge to keep I 
 have, a God to glorify," and before we began 
 to sing, although it was the morning service, 
 1 asked for penitents to come forward to the 
 altar. No sooner had we started to sing than 
 Mr. Lee began to make his way out of the 
 pew and down the side stairs before that 
 great audience, to the altar, where he made 
 his confession, was baptized and received into 
 the church. He said: "Brethren, no sermon 
 could have led me to do this. I heard all the 
 
PERSONAL EVANGELISM 103 
 
 great preachers years ago and they failed to 
 move me. But for three years a man who 
 probably would not care to have me mention 
 his name called regularly at my office to ask me 
 to be a Christian. I could not stand that steady 
 siege. I came to church this morning with no 
 notion of making this confession, but in the hope 
 that it would satisfy my conscience, and I heard 
 that for all these years I have been my own 
 worst enemy in the blighting of my character. 
 Here I stand and, if God will forgive me, I 
 want to be of use to him and to this church." 
 
 To multiply cases would be easy, each case 
 representative of a class. But these are suffi- 
 cient. Let no one say he cannot do such 
 work. Every man can do it, if he has Christ 
 in his life. It will not be easy to decide to do 
 it. It will not be easy to begin it. But we 
 are not here simply to do easy things; we are 
 here to do the needed things, and this is one 
 of them. No man's ministry is complete unless 
 it includes this work and the enlistment of 
 others in it also. It requires courage, per- 
 sistence, tact, zeal, and love for God and souls. 
 Any man who has all these but lacks tact 
 can, if he will, develop that faculty, and so 
 win as a personal worker. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 PASTORAL CALLING AND 
 EVANGELISM 
 
 A good many years ago, when I was pastor 
 in an Oklahoma town, two families which 
 were social rivals lived almost opposite one 
 another on the same street. One afternoon 
 in my pastoral rounds, I ended my calling 
 for that day in one of these homes, but did 
 not reach the other. The next day for some 
 reason I began work in another part of the 
 community and did not return to that street 
 for several weeks. Within a short time I 
 noticed a coolness on the part of the woman 
 in whose home I had failed to call, and later 
 heard that she was out of humor about some- 
 thing, but being very busy I soon forgot about 
 it. Later on, an official member said to me 
 that Mrs. B. was quite indignant about some- 
 thing I had done, and threatened not to come 
 to church any more. I hastened immediately 
 to her home to find out what was the diffi- 
 
 104 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 105 
 
 culty. At first she was very reserved and 
 refused to say what was the matter, but finally 
 said, "Why, you were on this street a few weeks 
 ago and called on Mrs. S. and left me out. 
 The neighbors all saw you there and thought 
 you had purposely slighted me, and it was 
 very embarrassing to be cut that way." Un- 
 wittingly I had been the means of tilting the 
 social scales in Mrs. S's favor and could not 
 be forgiven until I had restored the balance 
 by calling on Mrs. B. 
 
 Having straightened that out, I went my 
 way in some disgust, but feeling at least that 
 I had saved the day, only to be told soon 
 afterward that Mrs. S. was indignant about 
 something. As soon as I could I hurried to 
 her house, and she informed me that I had 
 recently called on Mrs. B., and the neighbors 
 were all wondering if I had cut her off my 
 calling list, since I had not called on her at 
 the same time. In order to keep the peace 
 in that community, I dared Hot call on one 
 of those families without calling also on the 
 other the same day. I was being used as a 
 sort of social lever. I did not succeed in be- 
 coming particularly popular with either family, 
 nor were my calls especially desired. I was 
 
106 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 obliged to treat both families exactly alike to 
 avoid trouble. 
 
 This is an extreme case, but I wonder if 
 every pastor has not heard complaints about 
 his neglect of this or that family because he 
 had called less frequently there than some- 
 where else. In every case such complaints 
 grow out of the idea that the minister's calls 
 are purely social, and if that view were cur- 
 rent, such complaints would have some justi- 
 fication. 
 
 If a pastor's chief desire is to be a "good 
 mixer," and to have his people so regard him, 
 his calling is apt to be a purely social affair. 
 I do not regard such an epithet as compli- 
 mentary unless I am able, through social 
 contacts, to turn my work as a pastor to better 
 account. A good mixer may be a good pastor, 
 but he will have continually to fight the tempta- 
 tion to let his visits dwindle into the shallowest 
 social intercourse. 
 
 Why should a minister call from house to 
 house? Surely not merely to keep his people 
 from thinking he neglects them! He scarcely 
 need occupy many hours each week in such 
 negative work. Does not the value of pastoral 
 calling inhere in the pastoral relationship? Is 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 107 
 
 any call worthy the name of pastoral which 
 does not aim to do for some one something 
 which it is a pastor's duty to do? Then a 
 pastoral call may be defined in terms of what 
 it is a pastor's duty to do for his people. If 
 it is his duty to be a social light among them, 
 to pass around his calls as if they were social 
 favors; or if his chief mission is to gratify his 
 people and keep them good-natured, regard- 
 less of how they are living, the pastor's calls 
 will tend to be light and frivolous. But if 
 it is a pastor's duty to help his people to be 
 good, to have faith in God and to know God, 
 to love the church and to be faithful in its 
 service, to comfort such as mourn and to 
 strengthen the weak, then a pastoral call must 
 always keep such ends in view, and in some 
 way seek to accomplish them. 
 
 There is no virtue in perfunctory pastoral 
 calls, made simply for the sake of the report 
 at Quarterly Conference. Such calls are a 
 burden to the pastor and of no value to the 
 church. They burden the pastor because his 
 aim is unworthy and it seems to be useless 
 work. Is there no remedy for this evil? Must 
 ministers go on thus wasting their time? If 
 pastoral calling is made what it should be, is 
 
108 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 linked up with evangelism, organized, planned, 
 it can be made a joy to the pastor and a bless- 
 ing to the church. 
 
 A pastor in a new field should begin his call- 
 ing at once. Not later than the second Sunday 
 in his new pulpit he should announce that he 
 will begin his pastoral visitation the following 
 day on some particular street, and that during 
 the week he will call on other streets which 
 he then should name; or, if it is a country place, 
 he will designate the roads he will follow. 
 He will assume that the visiting list prepared 
 for him by his predecessor is correct, and 
 will follow it in his first round. If the retiring 
 pastor did his duty, he left a visiting list which 
 gives the name and address of each family, 
 with the names and ages and birthdays of 
 the children, and indicating who are members 
 of the church. Usually this information is 
 not furnished, but at least street addresses 
 may be assumed to be correct. The new 
 pastor should provide himself with a loose- 
 leaf notebook, and before starting out each 
 day should write the name of each family he 
 is to visit that afternoon at the top of a page, 
 allowing an entire page for each family record. 
 He will have one fixed purpose in this first 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 109 
 
 round, and he will stick to that purpose as 
 tenaciously as an insurance agent sticks to 
 his. He will get acquainted with his people, 
 and do it in the most direct way possible. 
 
 At about two o'clock he will stop at the first 
 address on the first street on his list. Possi- 
 bly the lady of the house was not at church 
 either the previous Sunday or the week before, 
 and will not know him. He will forestall her 
 turning him away by quickly making himself 
 known, and will soon be admitted by an 
 embarrassed woman trying to make excuses 
 for not having been at church for two Sundays. 
 He will set her at ease very quickly, and at 
 once proceed to business. Taking out his 
 loose-leaf book, he will tell the lady his sole 
 purpose in this round is to find out all he can 
 about his people. He will know nothing 
 about this family, and will ask questions to 
 help in getting acquainted. Probably his first 
 questions, pencil in hand, will be what her 
 husband's initials are, what his business is, 
 and what is his business address. Next he 
 will ask for the names and ages of the chil- 
 dren, including their birthdays. Then he will 
 inquire who in the family are members of the 
 church. Of course he could get that informa- 
 
110 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 tion from the church record, but it will do the 
 family much more good and be fully as well 
 for him to get it directly from the father or 
 mother. If the lady replies that she is the 
 only church member in the family, and if 
 she has children above nine or ten years of 
 age, it gives the pastor opportunity to offer 
 to try to help her win her family for Christ 
 and the church. This puts her on record as 
 desiring and willing to work to that end. 
 When he is leaving, which will be immediately 
 on completing his record, the new pastor will 
 say, especially if* he is afflicted as I am — "Now, 
 Mrs. Jones, the next time I see you I will 
 know I have met you and that I ought to 
 know you, but I will probably not know your 
 name. Won't you help me a very great deal 
 by saying as soon as we meet, 'I am Mrs. 
 Jones 5 ? That will greatly help me. Thank 
 you. Good afternoon/' 
 
 "What," says some pastor, "not offer 
 prayer?" Well, that depends. If Mrs. Jones 
 invites it, or acts as if she would appreciate 
 it, or you feel in your heart you ought to do 
 it, then have prayer. Otherwise, wait until 
 Mrs. Jones knows you well enough to want 
 you to pray for her, before volunteering to 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 111 
 
 do so. The longer I stay in a pastorate, the 
 more places I pray in my calling, but in my 
 first round I pray mostly as I go to and from 
 the homes. To offer prayer in a home may 
 not do as much good as to pray on the walk 
 in front of it before you go in. I do not know 
 that offering a prayer aloud in a home will 
 help it any more than a prayer offered silently 
 out on the walk. Of course, if what is desired 
 is to have Mrs. Jones hear your prayer, why, 
 by all means pray; only remember that Jesus 
 said that they who pray for that reason "have 
 their reward," which intimates that they need 
 expect no more. The chief object of this first 
 visit is to get acquainted. 
 
 If the new pastor sticks to his object, he 
 will get over the ground quite rapidly, but 
 will be so busy that he will do little else in 
 addition to his sermon preparation. But when 
 he has been in every home in his parish, he 
 will take his loose-leaf notebook and will take 
 plenty of time thoroughly to digest all the 
 information he has gathered. He should then 
 make a list of all the brothers-in-law and 
 another of all the sisters-in-law to the church; 
 another for all the children of Christian parents, 
 arranging them by ages as well as by streets, 
 
112 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 and he should make a list of such families as 
 are of Christian faith, but are not in any way 
 attached to the church. When that is done, 
 he will know his field. He will have added 
 to his street list several families whom he has 
 discovered by inquiring in each home whether 
 there are other families near whom he should 
 visit, and these he will properly look after. 
 
 By this time he knows his members, his 
 constituency, his field for work, and his pros- 
 pects of success. I always feel a distinct 
 elation after this first round, if I find a good 
 many brothers-in-law to the church, or a good 
 many children of Christian homes not in the 
 membership of the church. Here is my field 
 for cultivation, and I welcome it. 
 
 When this is done, and not until then, let 
 the pastor call in half a dozen men whom he 
 knows to be interested and who are acquainted 
 with the people of the community, and with 
 them go over his constituency list and get 
 what help he can in estimating his material, 
 and determining his immediate program of 
 pastoral visitation. At this meeting or a 
 similar one, the plans suggested in the chapter 
 on "An Evangelistic Program" should be dis- 
 cussed. Just now we are concerned only in 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 113 
 
 the pastor's attempts to make plans for his 
 parish calls. After such an evening, studying 
 family after family, individual after individual, 
 the pastor will know much better where to 
 begin his efforts to win men to Christian 
 discipleship. 
 
 Let us assume that this pastor is a member 
 of a Spring Conference. By the time his first 
 round of calling is completed, summer is at 
 hand, and by September the pastor's constitu- 
 ency list is perfected. As complete a study 
 as possible of his material has been made, 
 and plans determined upon for his second 
 round. The other features of his church 
 program will harmonize with these plans and 
 all will be made to focus upon some definite 
 thing which he wishes to accomplish early in 
 the season. For example, since the chief work 
 of a church is evangelism, the subject which 
 we are considering, we will assume that he 
 wishes to make that the supreme object of 
 his effort in the early fall and winter. He 
 will focus his sermon-building, his calling and 
 his prayer meetings upon that objective, and 
 will urge the Sunday school teaching force and 
 church in general to join him in that endeavor. 
 The chief weakness of pastoral effort is, in 
 
114 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 many cases, lack of unity. One thing is sought 
 through sermons, another thing through the 
 prayer meeting, another in the Sunday school, 
 and still another through pastoral visitation, 
 so that there is no decisive and unified cam- 
 paign for any definite victory. And for its 
 own stimulus and spiritual tonic a church 
 needs an occasional victory. How can it be 
 won without a definite effort being made to 
 attain a definite end? Let the pastor plan 
 his work with this fact in mind and he will 
 see larger accomplishment. 
 
 Again, from the pulpit or through the church 
 calendar on the previous Sunday, the pastor 
 will name the streets on which he will call 
 during the week, and then will hold to his 
 schedule. This time he is out to win people 
 to Christ and the church, or at least to make 
 a beginning in that direction. He began his 
 last round, let us suppose, in the Jones family, 
 where there are four children, all above ten 
 years of age, and where Mrs. Jones is the 
 only member of the church. By reference to 
 the Sunday school records, he has found that 
 the two elder Jones children do not regularly 
 attend Sunday school; and from the ushers 
 that Mr. Jones does not attend either church 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 115 
 
 or Sunday school; and that Mrs. Jones is her- 
 self very irregular in church attendance and 
 never attends prayer meeting. 
 
 He is now beginning his second round at 
 the same home, has planned his campaign and 
 has a definite object to attain on this second 
 visit. Evidently, unless there are circum- 
 stances not revealed on the surface, either 
 Mr. Jones has the stronger influence over the 
 family and is actively opposed to the church, 
 or else Mrs. Jones is not very active in her 
 own Christian life. Something must be done. 
 The pastor will not hesitate to attempt to 
 do his duty. What is needed is not so 
 much for the minister to pray in such a home 
 as to get some one already in the home to 
 praying. 
 
 After kindly greetings, the pastor begins by 
 saying that he wants to be a real help to Mrs. 
 Jones in bringing her family into the church, 
 and that he has been wondering what would 
 be the best way to go about it. He tells her 
 he has found that the elder children seem to 
 be dropping out of Sunday school, while they 
 seldom, if ever, attend church service or Ep- 
 worth League. The reason for that must be 
 found and removed, he assures her, before 
 
116 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 they can be led to faith. He reminds her that 
 the other children are regularly at Sunday 
 school. 
 
 At this point he gives Mrs. Jones oppor- 
 tunity to make whatever explanation or excuse 
 she cares to offer. Then, without the least 
 indication of impertinence, the fact that Mrs. 
 Jones herself does not attend prayer meeting, 
 is irregular at church, and that Mr. Jones is 
 never present may be brought out, with the 
 suggestion from the pastor that perhaps she 
 would be there if she could, and that he is 
 wondering if there is anything he can do to 
 attract Mr. Jones to the church. He will seek 
 to make Mrs. Jones feel that the salvation of 
 her family depends largely upon her own 
 efforts and example, but that he is eager to 
 help. He offers to see Mr. Jones and the girls 
 personally, or to call at the home some evening 
 when all will be there. He will, of course, 
 pray for them, but he points out that his 
 efforts will fail unless they are reenf orced by a 
 sincere desire and effort on her part. He 
 urges that her own more regular attendance 
 at church and at least occasional attendance at 
 prayer meeting, with such help as she can 
 give in interesting the rest of the family, is 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 117 
 
 very necessary for any sort of success. Thus, 
 two things will be accomplished: the good 
 woman will be made to feel her own respon- 
 sibility, and that in living up to it she is to 
 have real help. 
 
 At another home, where every one eligible 
 to church membership is a member, and 
 where there is some ability and disposition 
 for service, the pastor may express gratification 
 at their regularity at the church services, his 
 appreciation of their willingness to work, and 
 then give to them one or two names of people 
 on his list of most hopeful prospective mem- 
 bers with the request that they try to win 
 them to Christ. When he is leaving he may 
 remark: "You may see me pass your house 
 quite frequently when I shall not stop. My 
 work and time must be given to people who 
 need me most. You know Christ said, 'They 
 that are whole need not a physician, but they 
 that are sick/ and so I shall often pass you 
 by. I hope you will take it as a compliment 
 that I do so." By following this method in 
 such homes, a pastor will have an increasing 
 number of families who take pride in being 
 able to do without pastoral visitation except 
 when something special is wanted of him. 
 
118 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 Even then, a letter will often take the place 
 of a call. 
 
 Each day, before starting out, a pastor 
 should study the list of families where he is 
 to call that day and plan his visit to each of 
 them. He will know the needs of these homes 
 and what opportunities they offer for minis- 
 try, and will have a distinct object in each 
 visit. In one there is no church paper, in an- 
 other no one attends prayer meeting, in another 
 there is some one who ought to teach a Sunday 
 school class, in another the children are losing 
 their interest in Sunday school, and in an- 
 other he proposes to leave the name of a 
 prospective church member who shall be 
 their special charge and ward. Each day, on 
 returning from his work, all the information 
 gathered will be carefully recorded. Children 
 not in Sunday school and new comers will 
 be immediately reported to the proper teacher, 
 or membership secretary, and new families will 
 be reported to the visitation committee. The 
 aim of this visitation will be, in general, evan- 
 gelism — winning people for Christ and the 
 church — but a variety of methods will be 
 used, the proper method being suited to each 
 family. Such work is a fascinating and ex- 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 119 
 
 hilarating exercise, and will lead to sure vic- 
 tory. 
 
 In later visitations the pastor will maintain 
 the evangelistic aim, but he may give special 
 attention to some definite need or phase of 
 church work in each home. For example, his 
 first visit is to get acquainted, to gather in- 
 formation; his second is to begin work for 
 accessions and to assign work to others; his 
 third will continue this, but may lay emphasis 
 on good literature in the home; the fourth may 
 have particularly to do with Sunday school, 
 or prayer meeting, or the evening service; 
 another visit may aim to develop sociability, 
 to see that socially isolated families and indi- 
 viduals are brought to the attention of those 
 who will help to get them into church fellow- 
 ship. In one church I made an entire round 
 of visitation, mentioning in each home half a 
 dozen excellent families who had fallen into the 
 habit of never going to church, and whom I 
 wished very much to bring back, I just men- 
 tioned them and suggested in a few places 
 ways in which they could help. By the end 
 of the visitation four of the families were back 
 in the church, and all of them but one were 
 active within a short time. 
 
120 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 Just here let me say a word or two of the 
 way in which a live pastor may relate his 
 pastoral visitation to his evening service. What 
 is the chief purpose of his pastoral calling? 
 To win converts? Then to urge those whom 
 he seeks to win to attend the evening service 
 will help, providing the evening service is made 
 distinctly evangelistic. Without being too per- 
 sonal in his preaching, one may nevertheless 
 be able to answer every question raised by 
 those visited during the week. I recall one 
 period of nearly three months of my ministry 
 when at every evening service there were 
 confessions at the altar of the church, and in 
 every instance those who came were the fruit- 
 age of my efforts during the preceding week. 
 Visitation and Sunday evening sermon work 
 well together. I cannot urge this method too 
 strongly. 
 
 A good many years ago a young college 
 student pastor was appointed to a small coun- 
 try village charge in the West, where he found 
 that his constituency were entirely wealthy or 
 retired farmers. His college work was heavy 
 and kept him away from home so much of 
 the time, the college being in another town, 
 that he was unable to do more during nine 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 121 
 
 months of the year than look after the sick 
 and aged and to prepare his sermons. The 
 remaining three months were the busiest of 
 the year for his parishioners, and yet during 
 those months he must do a year's pastoral 
 visiting. He decided that, since he was reared 
 in the country and knew how to farm, his best 
 way was to call with a hoe, a plow or a pitch 
 fork. It was what in the corn belt is called 
 a backward season, and many farmers were 
 behind with their work. He consulted two 
 leading laymen, retired farmers, who lived in 
 the village, and secured their help. These two 
 agreed to find out each Sunday who in the 
 congregation was most in need of help, and to 
 report to the pastor at the close of the service. 
 When the pastor that morning greeted the 
 farmer most in need of help, he would say: 
 "Have an extra hoe ready about seven in the 
 morning. I'm coming out to hoe for you. I 
 hope your chickens are fat, too, Mrs. Belmot, 
 for hoeing always makes me hungry." Soon 
 another would pass out and he would say: 
 "Have an extra pitchfork ready in the hay 
 field Wednesday morning, Brother Wyant. 
 I'll be out by seven o'clock to help you for 
 a couple of days with your haying. Mrs. 
 
122 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 Wyant, you have no idea how fond I am of 
 hot apple pie." Everyone would be a bit 
 envious of the two families singled out in this 
 way for momentary attention, but glad for 
 them, and they said to themselves, "He's a 
 real man/ 5 
 
 They soon found their pastor was as good a 
 farmer as he was a preacher; that he needed 
 no sympathy when he worked; and that if 
 several men were on the job a zest and swing, 
 a jollity and good will were added to the work 
 when he arrived which made everyone accom- 
 plish more than on other days. Some one 
 would take him back to the village in the 
 evening, where, after the deep sleep of physical 
 weariness, he would awake with a vigor and 
 relish for work equal to any farmer. He worked 
 at least four days of each week. By August, 
 when threshing began, he had done at least 
 one day's work on every farm in his parish. 
 
 The day threshing began, he was early at 
 the threshing place and ready for work. Every 
 farmer in that vicinity knew that he liked a 
 joke as well as any of them, and they began 
 jokingly to boast that they would put the 
 preacher on the strawstack and "snow him 
 under" before noon. No one really expected 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 123 
 
 him to go on the strawstack, the hardest place 
 around the thresher. But it happened that in 
 his home community he had been the champion 
 strawstack builder, and he accepted the assign- 
 ment with a jolly laugh, and would not give 
 it up when others suggested an easier place 
 for him. It was his first experience with a 
 blow stacker, and for a time he was at a loss 
 to know how to shape his work, but he soon 
 found a way. What a day of toil and sweat 
 and leg-weariness it was! But not for the 
 farm would he have shown the white feather 
 or called for help. When night came the job 
 was done, and the entire community gathered 
 about the strawstack, as the tired and be- 
 grimed preacher slid to the ground, and gave 
 him a hearty cheer. Four days a week for 
 three weeks he spent on the strawstack, until 
 he grew to be as expert at managing the blow 
 stacker as he had been in managing the carrier 
 stacker. 
 
 Then, one Thursday noon, the wealthiest 
 man in the community, who was neither church 
 member nor church attendant, came to him 
 and said, "Dominie, they go to my place 
 to-night. I want you to build my stack to- 
 morrow." 
 
124 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 Now the pastor had uniformly refused to 
 work on Friday, reserving that and the fol- 
 lowing day for sermon preparation and for 
 pastoral work in the village, so he replied: 
 "But I don't work on Friday and Saturday. 
 I've got to try to keep some of these wicked 
 neighbors of yours from going to the bad, 
 you know/ 5 
 
 The men standing around began to laugh, 
 but the farmer grinned as he said, "Come 
 on now, Dominie. Fve got to have as good a 
 stack as any Methodist, and if I'm to get it, 
 you must build it for me. Come on. I'll give 
 you four dollars to build my stack to-morrow. 
 Let the sermon go for once." 
 
 It had been the pastor's plan if anyone 
 offered to pay him for a day or two of work, 
 to say: "No. My time belongs to the church. 
 You can put what my work is worth into the 
 benevolent collection." He replied, therefore, 
 to the farmer's proposal: "Sorry, but money 
 doesn't count in this case. I must get those 
 sermons." 
 
 After increasing his offer to six dollars and 
 being refused, the farmer, feeling that he must 
 win out, and taking a good deal of pleasure 
 in the contest with the preacher in the presence 
 
PASTORAL CALLING 125 
 
 of his neighbors, exclaimed: "Now I'm going 
 to see if you are as good a sport as you are 
 stack builder. I don't know a thing about 
 your preaching, for I don't go to church, but 
 you are going to build that stack if you have 
 any sporting blood in you. I'll let you set 
 your own price. Build that stack and I'll 
 pay the penalty whatever it is. My neighbors 
 will tell you I live up to my word, even if I 
 don't go to church. Now then, how about it?" 
 
 The preacher saw his opening and took it. 
 "I'll go you on that, sir. You may put what- 
 ever you think my work is worth in the col- 
 lection at the church when the benevolences 
 are taken about a month from now, and, in 
 addition, you and your family all be at church at 
 half -past ten next Sunday morning. You want 
 me to come to see you; you come to see me." 
 
 For a moment there was silence, and then 
 the farmers began to laugh, and even to shout 
 their glee, for their neighbor was well known 
 for his witticisms at the expense of church- 
 going people. He was game, however, and in 
 a moment turned to the crowd and said with 
 mock anger, "Shut up, you unmannerly Rubes. 
 Don't you know how to behave when my 
 preacher comes to see me? I'll be at church 
 
126 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 next Sunday to see how many of you fellows 
 stick to your preacher as well as I do to mine.' 5 
 
 His was the largest stack-building job in the 
 community. Work began at sunrise the next 
 morning, and ended barely before dark, but 
 the great semicircular stack was finished, and 
 when the preacher slid to the ground his legs 
 would hardly hold him and his feet were so 
 sore he could scarcely walk. He was tired 
 to the point of exhaustion — too tired to eat 
 the supper prepared for the workmen at nine 
 o'clock that evening. 
 
 The farmer was as good as his word and 
 the next Sunday morning he and his family 
 were at church. To-day they are not only 
 members but pillars in that church, and six 
 farmers 5 families, besides many others, joined 
 the church in the early fall because while 
 building strawstacks, haystacks, or plowing 
 corn, the pastor had not lost sight of the main 
 purpose of a pastoral visit. He had visited 
 in over-alls and brogans, with a pitchfork or 
 hoe, but he had won people for God and the 
 church. Not the form but the object sought, 
 and the fidelity and skill with which that 
 object is attained, make a call worthy the 
 name "pastoral visit." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 AN EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 
 
 Pastors, laymen, district superintendents, 
 and bishops have been heard recently to 
 complain of "handed-down" programs. It is 
 even threatened in some quarters that there 
 will be rebellion if there are more of them. 
 There have been programs, it is true, of every 
 sort "handed down" and from every quarter. 
 Some of them overlap, indicating that our 
 leaders have not always planned in unison. 
 It is not possible successfully to put on two 
 programs at the same time, each of them 
 requiring two services a week and using all of 
 a pastor's available time. 
 
 But have distressed and hurried pastors 
 stopped to think that probably, if not surely, 
 this "programming" from above is due to 
 failure on the part of pastor and people to have 
 any definite program of their own? I have 
 been a pastor for twenty-six years, have never 
 occupied any other position, and I speak from 
 experience and observation when I say that 
 
 127 
 
128 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 nothing in these twenty-six years past has so 
 stimulated the church, so stirred pastors and 
 official boards to the adoption of definite pro- 
 grams for their local churches, as have these 
 "handed-down" programs so much complained 
 of. Let us complain at them less and learn 
 from them more, and follow with open-minded- 
 ness the way they lead. 
 
 In giving these lectures in more than a 
 dozen institutes to nearly fifteen hundred pas- 
 tors, I have uniformly asked this question: 
 "Who of you has a Committee on Evangelism? 
 Raise your hands/' Not more than ten per 
 cent have responded in the affirmative. The 
 next question has always been, "Who of you 
 has a Finance Committee? Show your hands," 
 and not less than ninety per cent have raised 
 their hands. This can mean only one thing: 
 the church, as a working force, has some 
 kind of financial program, but no evangelistic 
 program. The pastor may have a plan of his 
 own and may be trying to work it out; but 
 the church has none and therefore is not 
 working at evangelism in any definite way. 
 The term "program" may be overworked, but 
 the idea back of the term is scarcely being 
 realized in the field of evangelism. Does that 
 
AN EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 129 
 
 appear to be a rash statement? Let us see if 
 it is true. 
 
 A program must have in it two elements 
 without which there can be no program worthy 
 the name. First, there must be a definite 
 objective, a desired end, clearly stated and 
 earnestly sought; and, second, there must be 
 an equally definite plan by which it is proposed 
 to attain that objective. The war has made 
 us see these two elements of a program very 
 clearly. In that great crisis the objective was 
 to conquer the Central Powers, to win the 
 war. But to achieve that end, lesser objectives 
 were sought: so many kilometers advance each 
 day, each hour, in a given drive, until some 
 larger objective was finally attained. St. 
 Mihiel, the Argonne, Chateau Thierry — these 
 were set as objectives to be attained by first 
 attaining lesser objectives; but there was never 
 an advance without a definite objective clearly 
 fixed and aimed at. The soldier might sing, 
 "Where do we go from here? 5 ' but at least 
 his superiors knew where they were headed. 
 There was also an equally decisive plan for 
 attaining each lesser objective, and all these 
 plans together formed the great strategy for 
 achieving the final goal. 
 
130 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 Our supreme evangelistic objective is set by 
 the command of our Lord, "Go ye . . . and 
 disciple all nations." That has not been ac- 
 complished by nineteen hundred years of 
 effort. It remains our ultimate objective yet 
 to be attained. But what have been and what 
 are the objectives of the church for this year, 
 or this quadrennium, or this decade? What 
 has been and what is the definite objective of 
 any given church for this same period? The 
 Centenary has set Methodism an objective for 
 this year — a very definite objective. There are 
 not lacking objectors to this definiteness who 
 even condemn it. Let us have programs, 
 these critics seem to say, but let us avoid 
 figures and statistics. But there can be no 
 program without a goal. Nor are vague ob- 
 jectives, such as "A Revived Church/' "A 
 Working Church/ 5 or the slogan, "The whole 
 world for Christ," sufficient. For my part I 
 glory in the challenge of the leadership of the 
 church which has at last set us an objective, 
 and is commanding "Forward, march!" for we 
 know whither we are marching. 
 
 The slogan, "A Million for Christ," is no 
 more than a general objective for a local 
 church. One pastor, one church organization, 
 
AN EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 131 
 
 cannot win a million in a year. Even though 
 to this challenge my church and I respond, 
 "We are with you; we will do our best/' no 
 definite goal for our attainment has been set. 
 How much is our "best 55 ? Until we settle 
 that, our objective is too general for definite 
 endeavor. Who knows what is the best a 
 local church can do, until it is set at some 
 Specific task? Indefiniteness is the weakness — 
 I had almost said the sin — of the church* 
 For myself and for my church a definite goal 
 must be set before we can outline any real 
 program. A twenty-five per cent increase in 
 membership may not be the proper objective 
 for many churches. The constituency of some 
 is too small, and of others is too large, for 
 that ratio. Ten per cent may be enough for 
 the former, while the latter, where a large 
 constituency awaits cultivation, should make 
 fifty per cent increase. 
 
 In the church of which I am now pastor, dur- 
 ing 1912 a gain of a little less than seven per 
 cent was made; in each of the three years, 1913 
 to 1915, one per cent was lost; while in 1916 
 neither gain nor loss was recorded. In the 
 Conference year 1917-18 a gain of nearly 
 twenty per cent was made, and in the follow- 
 
132 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 ing Conference year again about one per cent 
 was lost. Finally in 1919-20, there was a 
 gain of more than twenty-five per cent. Thus, 
 in a period of eight years, almost exactly a 
 fifty per cent gain has been recorded, of which 
 one half was made in the past Conference 
 year. For the eight years the average gain 
 has been six and a half per cent. Almost 
 exactly one half that gain has been by letter 
 and the other half, or three and a quarter 
 per cent, has been from probation. This is 
 about in keeping with the general advance of 
 the Methodist denomination for this period, and 
 therefore, so far as securing conversions goes, 
 this is about an average church. It ought to 
 be stated, also, that seventy-five per cent of 
 the accessions for the past Conference year 
 have been by way of probation; or nearly 
 twenty per cent in net gain for the year through 
 conversion. This gives evidence of a healthy 
 condition. 
 
 After a careful study of Quarterly Confer- 
 ence, official board and membership records, 
 and diligent inquiry among various members 
 of the church, no trace of any sort of a def- 
 inite evangelistic program has been found 
 until the year 1917. On the records of the 
 
AN EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 133 
 
 official board for the early fall of that year 
 appears a resolution to the effect that "it 
 shall be the objective of the church for this 
 year, ending at the next session of Conference* 
 April, 1918, to gain a ten per cent increase 
 in the membership of the church/' Until that 
 year it had been the policy of the church to 
 receive into fellowship those who presented 
 letters of transfer, and any others who might 
 offer themselves for membership, and to bring 
 in the children of the Sunday school through, 
 a probationers 5 class. But no definite objective 
 had been set, and no definite method of evan- 
 gelistic endeavor had been adopted. 
 
 The contrast between these methods is 
 apparent when it is stated that from 1912 
 until 1917 a total gain of only about four and 
 one half per cent was made, while in 1918* 
 the first year with a program, there was an 
 increase of about twenty per cent. In the 
 Conference year 1918-19 again no evangelistic 
 program was adopted, the church devoting all 
 its attention and energy to war work and the 
 Centenary, and a loss of one per cent in member- 
 ship was sustained. In 1919-20 once more an 
 evangelistic program, aiming by definite meth- 
 ods to effect a twenty-five per cent increase 
 
134 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 in membership, was adopted, and more than 
 that percentage was actually gained early in 
 April before Conference. 
 
 It is more than an accident that advance 
 in membership by conversion should be uni- 
 formly made when there was a definite pro- 
 gram, and that a static condition should 
 prevail when no such program was being fol- 
 lowed. Unhesitatingly I urge every pastor and 
 official board to set up a definite objective at 
 which they shall aim. Having done that, they 
 are ready to begin working out plans for 
 success. When an objective has thus been 
 determined upon and definite plans have 
 been made for attaining it, then, and not till 
 then, may a church be said to have a pro- 
 gram. 
 
 Many expedients and activities of the church 
 have been utterly futile because they aimed 
 at nothing. These activities resulted in no 
 definite product. Activity, to be moral, must 
 have motive, and motive grows out of aims 
 ami objective. Activity for its own sake is 
 without moral quality. As I have already 
 remarked, a machinist might gather wheels, 
 belts, journals, cogs, and gear them to power, 
 and exclaim as his mountain of machinery 
 
AN EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 135 
 
 began to move, "See what I have built. It 
 works! It works!" and at once begin to pro- 
 claim his achievement. But careful investiga- 
 tion must show something produced or some 
 service rendered to justify pride in one's in- 
 vention. If there is no product, the machine 
 is a failure, no matter how well it works. 
 Church machinery must be constructed, not 
 with a view to activity, motion, but to product. 
 A church and its pastor engaged in endless 
 activities do not prove necessarily the existence 
 of a program. It takes the product to prove 
 that, and the product must be of the kind 
 planned for and expected; in other words, 
 those who make church plans should aim at 
 definite result, and with at least some success 
 should achieve it. Tested by this twofold 
 standard, not a few church plans must be 
 discarded. 
 
 In determining an evangelistic program for 
 a local church, then, first fix upon a definite 
 objective. It ought to be a sufficiently large 
 objective not only to challenge, but even to 
 startle, the attention of the church. I have 
 previously remarked that every church needs 
 an occasional victory for the sake of its own 
 spiritual health. But a victory accidentally 
 
136 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 won, or won unexpectedly, only awakens 
 curiosity, while a cause championed and at- 
 tained after persistent endeavor constitutes a 
 real victory. Make the evangelistic aim large 
 and keep it before the people. No matter if 
 a few timid souls say it can never be attained. 
 Such forebodings but challenge the faith of the 
 courageous. Get the church to adopt as its 
 own the end sought. Get it down on the 
 official board records, as well as the records 
 of the Sunday school, the Men's Club and the 
 Missionary Society, that these organizations 
 and, indeed, the church as a whole have started 
 somewhere, a very definite somewhere. 
 
 Before the objective is definitely fixed, a 
 wise pastor will have specific plans worked out 
 for attaining it. His plan will be developed 
 in considerable detail, leaving room, however, 
 for initiative on the part of his helpers. Imme- 
 diately after the aim is fixed he will come 
 forward with his plans and have them adopted, 
 if possible as a matter of record. He will 
 then have divided the responsibility for his 
 completed program between himself and his 
 people, and he can begin to urge the command, 
 "Forward, march!" and his people will know 
 where and how they are to march. 
 
AN EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 137 
 
 Now for the plan of campaign. A revival? 
 Yes, to be sure, but by what method? I do 
 not believe I can better discuss this part of 
 my subject than to tell you the method of 
 my own church and how it is worked. 
 
 Early in September the official board adopted 
 as its aim a twenty-five per cent increase in 
 membership to be attained by Easter Sunday. 
 At the same meeting a committee of three on 
 evangelistic program was appointed with the 
 pastor as chairman. The pastor had his own 
 plans already laid; but he 'felt that the church 
 should develop its own program. A little 
 later the Quarterly Conference met and con- 
 firmed the objective and program which had 
 been adopted by the official board. 
 
 Before calling the Committee on Program 
 together, the pastor divided the church con- 
 stituency into fifteen Units, containing from 
 eight to ten families each and made up about 
 equally of members and non-members of the 
 church. He then selected fifteen of his best 
 and busiest laymen as leaders of these Units. 
 
 When this was done the Committee on Evan- 
 gelism was called together and the possibilities 
 of the Unit System as an evangelistic agency 
 were strongly presented. The slogan "Fifteen 
 
138 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 revivals in this church" was suggested, and 
 that fifteen men could be found to lead them 
 was confidently asserted. It was urged that 
 although the constituency of the church was 
 small, it was large enough, if systematically and 
 enthusiastically worked, to produce more than 
 the twenty-five per cent increase sought. It 
 was also pointed out that very soon the regular 
 midweek prayer meeting could be turned over, 
 at least once in two weeks, to Unit Leaders for 
 reports, discussion of plans, appeals for help 
 or celebrations of victory, and that the entire 
 scheme could be related to the Sunday evening 
 service when every leader might encourage his 
 Unit to bring in their sheaves. 
 
 The only objection raised, as the discussion 
 proceeded, was that considerable time would be 
 required to arrange the Units, select leaders 
 and secure their consent to serve. The pastor 
 then produced his loose-leaf notebook in which 
 these lists had been laboriously worked out. 
 An hour was spent in going over the Units, 
 perfecting them, rearranging them and finally 
 adopting the plan as a working organization. 
 Then the list of Unit Leaders was presented 
 and after some changes had been made it was 
 voted to recommend the entire plan to the 
 
AN EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 139 
 
 official board, where it was finally unanimously 
 adopted. 
 
 Before the plan was presented to the official 
 board, however, the pastor called the proposed 
 leaders to his home for an evening's conference. 
 Thirteen of the fifteen were present, and not 
 a man refused to take his assignment. For 
 two hours the pastor conferred with these 
 leaders, answering questions, allaying fears, and 
 suggesting expedients. After prayer, a few 
 words on the general plan, and the acceptance 
 of his assignment by each leader, the pastor 
 said: "Now, brothers, while you go over your 
 lists and talk them over among yourselves, I 
 want to take up Unit No. 1 with Brother Jones, 
 its leader, and make sure we understand each 
 other. Then, Brother Walker, we will take up 
 your list, and so on around." 
 
 Then Mr. Jones and the pastor together 
 went over Unit No. 1. It contained nine 
 families of forty-two persons, twenty church 
 members and twenty-two non-members. Two 
 entire families on his list were not members 
 of the church and very little interested in it, 
 while at least two other families in which 
 some individuals were church members were 
 only lukewarm in their interest. After noting 
 
140 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 these facts the pastor said: "Now, I suggest 
 that, first, you get the members of the church 
 in your Unit together at your home next 
 Monday evening, and I will come and meet 
 with you. We will then see what can be done 
 and work out a plan to get at those who are 
 not members of the church." 
 
 "But, Pastor," exclaimed Mr. Jones, in some 
 consternation, "I don't know how to do this. 
 You know I'm not as pious myself as I ought 
 to be. How am I going to get this done? 
 Why, I'm scared already." 
 
 "That's good. I'm glad you are. It will 
 do you good. But you just get those folks out 
 at that meeting, and in the meantime go over 
 your list carefully and pick out your surest 
 prospects, and we will see what we can do at 
 the meeting. Really your biggest task just 
 now is to get the church members of your 
 Unit out Monday night." 
 
 By ten o'clock each leader had been dealt 
 with in about the same fashion, a date fixed 
 for a meeting with each Unit which the pastor 
 could attend, and the leaders urged to get the 
 church members out to the meeting and to 
 have selected the likeliest prospects. In deal- 
 ing with each leader it was pointed out that 
 
AN EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 141 
 
 lie and his group ought to win a definite num- 
 ber, which was named, by Easter Day. Care 
 was taken to suggest such goals for each Unit 
 that the entire number would be just a few 
 more than the total necessary to reach the 
 church objective. 
 
 A thoughtful reader will see that this plan 
 involved a clearly defined program for each 
 Unit. On the evening set for the first Unit 
 meeting the pastor found about half the 
 church membership of the Unit present. At 
 first he was disappointed, but then considered 
 that if half of the church membership was 
 regularly present at the Sunday evening serv- 
 ice, it would be doing very well indeed; also 
 that Monday evening was a difficult night to 
 get people out. 
 
 After a song was sung, Mr. Jones stated the 
 object of the meeting and read the list of the 
 Unit membership, indicating the names of their 
 prospects for conversion and church member- 
 ship. He was himself very much enthused and 
 eagerly appealed to the persons present to be 
 ready for the campaign just beginning. He 
 spoke briefly about the victory sure to come 
 if they would simply do their part in the work 
 assigned them. Then the pastor added a few 
 
142 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 words of encouragement and urged them to 
 do the work of their Unit in their own way. 
 
 In about three weeks a similar meeting was 
 held with each Unit. One or two of them 
 came very near being failures, while others were 
 much better than the first one. Every Unit 
 had decided upon a definite aim and a method 
 for attaining it, and had gone to work. It had 
 not been an easy period for the pastor. There 
 had been a few objectors, a few pessimists, a 
 few failures; but altogether he was gratified 
 and greatly encouraged. 
 
 The immediate results of this campaign did 
 not fully meet the expectations of the pastor 
 or his committee. They had hoped for an 
 immediate increase in attendance at prayer 
 meeting and Sunday evening service, and later 
 for accessions into the church. The multipli- 
 cation of cottage prayer meetings, however, 
 tended for a few weeks to prevent any large 
 increase at the regular midweek service. 
 
 The first noticeable effect of the campaign 
 was a frequent telephone request from a 
 leader, or one of his helpers, for the pastor to 
 call at a certain place where someone was 
 anxious to see him. Soon these special calls 
 consumed practically all of his time, and very 
 
AN EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 143 
 
 fruitful calls they were. One evening soon 
 after the campaign opened, the pastor re- 
 marked to his wife, "I never knew people to 
 be so ready to accept Christ, so eager to re- 
 ceive help and so easily led to open confession." 
 At a church social gathering at about this 
 time the pastor met two couples, men and 
 their wives who were strangers but who had 
 heard the general invitation at the Sunday 
 evening service, Within five minutes after 
 meeting the first couple he found that neither 
 the husband or wife had ever belonged to any 
 church; that they had three small children, 
 and that they had recently come to the com- 
 munity. Immediately they were given a cordial 
 invitation to accept Christ and come into 
 church fellowship. The man looked at his 
 wife, hesitated a moment and then said: 
 "We had been talking about it, and we knew 
 we ought to do it. Why, yes, we will come 
 next Sunday evening and begin right." True 
 to their word, they came and at the close of 
 the sermon knelt at the altar and gave them- 
 selves to Christ and were received into the 
 church. During that same evening, the pastor 
 also met the second couple, and two weeks 
 later they came in precisely the same way, and 
 
144 RURAL EVNAGELISM 
 
 since then their eldest son has also joined on 
 probation. Beginning with the first Sunday 
 in November, soon after the campaign was 
 launched, until Easter Sunday, there were con- 
 versions every Sunday evening. Some of those 
 who were won had not been seen by Unit 
 Leaders or their helpers, and a few the pastor 
 had never heard of until they presented them- 
 selves in response to the general invitation at 
 the close of the sermon. The spirit of revival 
 simply was in the air, was contagious, and it 
 seemed to become easy for men and women 
 to decide for Christ. 
 
 When the campaign for fifteen revivals be- 
 gan, there were not twenty young people, 
 twelve or more years of age, in the church 
 homes of the community who had not already 
 given their hearts to Christ. The work of the 
 Sunday school had been well done right along. 
 To gain the desired twenty-five per cent in- 
 crease in membership, not more than twenty- 
 five could be expected for a probationers' class 
 from that source. In view of this fact, it will 
 not be taken as an objection on my part to 
 the conversion of children when I say that 
 ninety per cent of those who were won in the 
 evening services were mature young people, or 
 
AN EVANGELISTIC PROGRAM 145 
 
 adults, a good many of them being fathers 
 and mothers. 
 
 The campaign is now ended and its results 
 known. A gross increase of thirty-one per cent, 
 seventy per cent of whom came by conversion, 
 was received into church fellowship. The net 
 increase was greater than had been set as a 
 goal. More individual workers had a part in 
 the victory than could have possibly helped 
 in an old-time series of special meetings, and 
 the Unit Leaders were especially helped and 
 encouraged by their successes. Palm Sunday 
 the last probationers' class, numbering forty- 
 two, besides a few who came by letter, stood 
 at the altar and were received into full mem- 
 bership — the largest class ever taken in at 
 one service in this church. During Holy Week 
 services were conducted each evening, not so 
 much to secure conversions as to give the 
 Unit Leaders and their coworkers opportunity 
 for rejoicing over victories won. No great 
 Crowds attended these meetings, but they were 
 deeply spiritual and a power for good, and 
 led up to a victorious service on Easter morn- 
 ing, when the largest Sunday morning audi- 
 ence seen in this church in twenty-five years 
 was present. 
 
146 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 Do not these results justify the insistence 
 that a program with definite objectives, defi- 
 nitely sought for, brings results? The aim of 
 this chapter is not to urge the particular 
 method employed or goal established in this 
 instance as an objective to be adopted by every 
 pastor or church. There are other methods, 
 and other objectives may be advisable. But 
 let no pastor or church fail to have some 
 definite objective, and an equally definite plan 
 for its attainment, for every department of 
 church work. 
 
 An evangelistic program? By all means! 
 Objective? A twenty-five per cent increase in 
 membership. Method? The Unit System ad- 
 justed to evangelistic purpose and aiming at 
 as many revivals in the church as there are 
 Units, all welded into one great revival for 
 the entire church. Result ? Objective attained ; 
 everybody active and happy; the church doing 
 its normal work in a normal way. 
 
CHAPTER Vin 
 CHILD EVANGELISM 
 
 Every child bom into this world has an 
 earthly father and n other and a heavenly 
 Father. It is no more surely related to its 
 earthly father and mother than it is related 
 to its heavenly Father. It derives physical 
 life from its physical parents and spiritual life 
 from its heavenly Parent, and is as surely 
 alive spiritually as it is physically. Every 
 babe is a child of God. The church is God's 
 agent or representative to care for his chil- 
 dren and keep them in health, to bring them 
 to maturity, and guard them through life in 
 the knowledge and honor of their Father. It 
 is entirely correct to say that children need 
 no conversion, that they are born with "eternal 
 life. 55 It is, however, very unsafe and unwise 
 to make such an assertion without further 
 explanation. 
 
 I shall not now attempt to deal with matters 
 of theology or philosophy, but shall confine 
 mvself entirely to practical suggestions con- 
 
 147 
 
148 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 cerning child evangelism. That the child needs 
 to be evangelized when it has been born God's 
 child, needs some explanation. I offer no 
 apology for citing my own experience of con- 
 version as affording fairly clear reasons for 
 the apparent dilemma. I come of good old- 
 time Presbyterian stock, which taught in my 
 mother's day that children are born in sin, 
 in an unredeemed state, but that if they die 
 in infancy, they are saved by a special dis- 
 pensation of Providence. While this is a vast 
 improvement upon the doctrine that even some 
 children are elected to eternal death, and that 
 there are "infants in hell not a span long/' 
 as I once heard a Calvinist say, it is a long 
 way from the teaching of Christ that "of 
 such is the kingdom of heaven/ 5 According 
 to the faith of my mother's day, unredeemed 
 childhood, as soon as it is able to understand, 
 had to be brought to saving faith through the 
 gospel, and devoted motherhood did not fail 
 to accept and undertake this task. I do not 
 recall when I learned to pray, nor when I first 
 learned of Christ. I seem always to have 
 known the story, and I was early taught its 
 meaning. 
 
 We lived in those days in a log cabin near 
 
CHILD EVANGELISM 149 
 
 Montague, Texas. It was 1876, and I was 
 but five years of age. Each afternoon mother 
 allowed me to have a piece of bread, and if 
 I asked for it, I might have molasses on it. 
 Often I would forget to ask for the molasses 
 and later would notice the oversight and 
 remedy it in my own way. In the cellar under 
 the kitchen, reached by an outside door, was 
 a barrel of sorghum molasses, our year's supply. 
 A metal faucet permitted easy drawing, and 
 when I wanted to sweeten my bread I formed 
 the habit of going to the barrel and drawing 
 it for myself. One day mother discovered my 
 habit and told me I must not do that any 
 more. She explained that if I wanted mo- 
 lasses I should ask for it, for fear that other- 
 wise I might some day leave the faucet open 
 and spill it on the floor. I understood perfectly 
 and had no other thought than to obey. 
 
 After some days I forgot again to ask for 
 molasses until I was playing in the yard, when 
 with a guilty feeling I stole into the cellar 
 and drew it. Sure enough, in my guilty nervous 
 haste I let the faucet slip too widely open 
 and spilled about half a pint on the floor. 
 It was a dirt floor, and I tried to conceal the 
 evidence of my disobedience with dirt. Think- 
 
150 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 ing I had accomplished my purpose, I went 
 on about my play. Later in the afternoon 
 mother discovered what I had done, and 
 called me in. She sat sewing or knitting, and 
 had a small box near her feet, and she told 
 me to come and sit there, for she wanted to 
 tell me a story. How I loved mother's stories! 
 particularly those out of the Bible! At first 
 I did not think of the molasses at all. That 
 had gone entirely out of my mind. She began 
 by telling me what sin is, what it does, what 
 God thinks of it, how it ruins us and prevents 
 us from being his children any more. She told 
 it so vividly that I began to realize that sin 
 is the very worst thing in the world. Then I 
 thought of the molasses. There seemed to 
 be a river of it and every one, but particularly 
 God, could see it. Mother talked about 
 heaven and the "bad place," and how awful 
 it is to sin and make God sorry, and to be 
 outside God's family. 
 
 I do not know how she managed to do it, 
 holding the theology of that day, but I know 
 the thing which most deeply concerned me 
 then was that I had been God's little boy until 
 I drew that molasses, and that then I was not 
 his little boy any more. I do not recall think- 
 
CHILD EVANGELISM 151 
 
 ing about the devil, or hell, or of being lost. 
 I simply wanted to be God's little boy. I 
 can imagine from the way I felt how I looked. 
 Despair was in my heart, utter black despair. 
 I asked mother, and I remember how my 
 voice startled me, "W-w-will just one sin make 
 me be God's little boy no more, mother — 
 just one sin?" Her voice was very quiet and 
 sad as she replied, "Yes, just one sin will do it. 1 ' 
 
 I think, wise woman that she was, that she 
 saw my despair, and she immediately began 
 telling me about Jesus, of his love for us, and 
 how his death washes our sins away, and 
 makes us God's children again when we have 
 sinned but are truly sorry and promise never 
 to sin any more. She made a beautiful story 
 of it, and her voice was to me like music the 
 angels must make before God's throne. At 
 first I could hardly listen for despair. Then 
 I began to see hope, and I got up from the 
 box and came and stood right before her, and 
 when she finally ended with a smile and looked 
 into my eyes, I was crying and smiling at the 
 same time. She asked, "Was that a good 
 story, son?" and I replied, 
 
 "The best you ever told." 
 
 "Well, you may run along and play again 
 
152 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 now/' she said, and I went out into the yard. 
 She had not mentioned the molasses, but 
 from that day until this I have not poured 
 molasses or syrup without recalling that day 
 and my conversion. I did not know it was 
 conversion then, nor did my mother know it. 
 She was simply trying to make her boy under- 
 stand the danger of sin. I do not believe she 
 thought I had sinned, I was so young! 
 
 Years passed and when I was ten years old 
 I went to the old time "mourners' bench" in 
 a "tabernacle meeting," professed conversion 
 and joined the church. More years passed 
 and I was sixteen years of age when at another 
 revival I heard a good man whom I honored, 
 a Methodist minister, say, "You must be able 
 to point to the time and place of your con- 
 version, and to describe it, or you are not 
 saved." 
 
 He had just described his own wonderful 
 experience of conversion and I began contrast- 
 ing it with my own. I knew the time and 
 place where I had professed conversion but 
 how about the experience? I sat aghast! I 
 was convinced all at once that I was utterly 
 lost and without hope. The call for penitents 
 came, and I hurried again to the "mourners' 
 
CHILD EVANGELISM 153 
 
 bench" and tried to mourn, but without 
 success. At home next morning I told mother 
 what had happened. She comforted me, but 
 felt that I ought to go on until I "became 
 satisfied/ 5 But the meeting closed without 
 giving me relief. During the next two years 
 at almost every opportunity I went forward 
 to the anxious seat, and was all the time in 
 secret an earnest seeker after a Christian 
 experience. I wanted to be converted. 
 
 Then I went away to college. Before my 
 arrival I worried a good deal over the ques- 
 tion as to whether I should take my stand as 
 a Christian, or be reckoned among the unsaved 
 in the college. A revival was to begin two 
 weeks after college opened and I had to take 
 sides. To be counted among the unsaved 
 seemed to be proper, but was utterly repellent 
 to me. I wanted to be with those who would 
 work to save others, but I dared not be a 
 hypocrite. On the Saturday before the meet- 
 ing began I spent the entire day in the woods 
 alone. It was my day of great battle! Had 
 my soul been large enough and a Milton 
 present, there would have been a theme for 
 another epic. 
 
 Toward night I grew calm, and certain 
 
154 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 decisions were slowly made, and I whispered 
 them over: "I have done everything I have 
 been told to do, everything I know how to do. 
 If I know my own heart, there is nothing I 
 have neglected. I may be lost; may be one 
 of those who are not ordained to be saved; but 
 I want to be reckoned among Christian people, 
 to live a Christian life and to help others to 
 be saved. I'll go on and say I am a Christian, 
 do my best to live like one, work like one, 
 pray and serve God as nearly as I can as a 
 Christian should, and if I die at last and am 
 lost I can't help it." I arose to my feet and 
 like a flash from the skies, there swept through 
 my memory that day when I had drawn the 
 mo asses and mother told me what sin is. 
 For a moment I was stupefied with the joy of 
 it. Then I began to hurry toward the college, 
 and at twilight met one of the professors and 
 said to him, with a thrill of voice and heart, 
 "I was converted when I was five years old 
 at my mother's knee." He was startled, 
 seemed uncertain what to reply, and I hurried 
 on to my room. 
 
 Now, what had happened to me at five 
 years of age, and again at eighteen when the 
 memory of that early event returned to me? 
 
CHILD EVANGELISM 155 
 
 Was I converted in the sense that I had re- 
 ceived something which I had not possessed 
 before, a quality of life, an endowment of grace? 
 Was I regenerated, born again, in the same 
 sense that a Bowery bum is regenerated when 
 he repents in the Jerry McAuley mission? 
 
 If I was born the Lord's child, before I could 
 cease to be his I must "backslide/ 5 Had I 
 done that? Not consciously and intentionally! 
 What was the nature of the remorse I felt 
 while mother told me of the meaning and effect 
 of sin? Was that genuine repentance, a sense 
 of moral degradation such as wicked sinners 
 must feel when they repent? I think not. 
 It was horror at the idea of going on in life 
 without God, my Father, rather than any 
 fear of punishment or regret for the failure 
 of my own character. There is no doubt that 
 something happened to me, something definite 
 and decisive. What was it? 
 
 My own opinion of what took place at that 
 time may best be set forth by describing an 
 event which happened in my own home at 
 Kingfisher, Oklahoma, in 1901, when my 
 daughter was just six years of age. One day 
 she had been guilty of some misdemeanor for 
 which her mother had reproved her, and told 
 
156 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 her she must do no more. The child was 
 offended, not at the reproof, but at the com- 
 mand to do the thing no more. After a few 
 moments of sulky silence she said, poutingly, 
 "If I was Mrs. Miller's little girl, she would 
 let me do it." 
 
 Scarcely thinking what the child meant, her 
 mother said, "Well, I guess you had better go 
 and be Mrs. Miller's little girl then." 
 
 Without a moment's hesitation the child 
 said, "All right, I will," and went immediately 
 about packing up her things to go. The 
 Miller family lived in the next block and were 
 our very dear friends. My study was at the 
 back of the house, and soon Mrs. Wagner 
 came and told me what had happened, and 
 said, "She's packing up, but I guess she'll 
 get tired of it and quit pretty soon." She 
 looked worried, however, as she went back to 
 the sitting room; and in half an hour came 
 back exclaiming "The child is all packed up, 
 clothes, playthings, everything, and is actually 
 going. What in the world shall I do?" 
 
 Now, of course, having given her consent 
 for Alta to go, her mother could not change. 
 Any way, what was needed was that Alta, 
 not her mother, should change. We went back 
 
CHILD EVANGELISM 157 
 
 to the sitting room together. Alta had on her 
 hat, and her bags and boxes were ready to send, 
 and she was smilingly waiting to say good-by. 
 More to spar for time than anything else, I 
 squatted on the floor beside her, fumbling with 
 her satchel to see that it was properly fastened, 
 and said: "So you are going to leave us, Alta? 
 Mother and I are awfully sorry. We thought 
 we had a little girl for always, and now we 
 will have none, and your little brothers will 
 have no sister. Will you come to see us some- 
 times?" 
 
 I think my voice shook a little, and a queer 
 look came into Alta's eyes, and then she looked 
 at her mother and saw tears running down 
 her cheeks, and with a smothered cry she 
 threw off her hat and sobbed, "I don't want 
 to be Mrs. Miller's little girl! I want to be 
 mamma's and papa's little girl." Of course 
 there was glad making up and then unpacking, 
 and we "lived happily ever after." 
 
 But what happened to Alta that day? She 
 did not become her parents' child. She had 
 been theirs all along. She had not been defi- 
 nitely aware until that morning of the fact 
 that she preferred her mother above all other 
 mothers. That she was her mother she had 
 
158 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 accepted as a fact with which she had nothing 
 to do and to which she gave no thought. But 
 that morning she had opportunity to choose 
 which one in all the world she wanted for her 
 mother, and she chose her own mother. That 
 did not change the mother's relationship to 
 the child, but it did change the child's rela- 
 tionship to her mother. After that she was 
 her mother's both by relationship and by her 
 own election, her own choice. She had faced 
 the opportunity to choose and had chosen 
 her mother. There had been a bit of unpleas- 
 antness, not on her mother's part but on 
 Alta's part, and she had almost chosen another 
 woman as mother, and in a child's way suf- 
 fered remorse when she realized that, after all, 
 she did not want any other mother. 
 
 I think that is what happened to me back 
 there at Montague, Texas. I came to the 
 place where I could choose another spiritual 
 master than my Father. I could choose self, 
 or any one of a number of masters, and I 
 began to do it. But my mother told me that 
 if I should do that, my heavenly Father would 
 be sad, and I could not be his little boy any 
 more, so I just then and there elected him as 
 my Father. That did not in the least change 
 
CHILD EVANGELISM 159 
 
 his attitude or relationship to me; but it did 
 change my attitude toward him. After that 
 I was conscious that he was my Father by 
 my own election. It was a matter of my own 
 will. The day I joined my will to his I be- 
 longed to him. As to what change divine 
 grace may have wrought in me at that mo- 
 ment, I will let the philosophers answer. 
 What I know and urge is that it is the business 
 of ministers, Sunday schools, Christian fathers 
 and mothers, and the church to bring children 
 at as early an age as possible to elect God as 
 their Father, and he can be trusted to do for 
 them whatever they need. 
 
 By what method can this voluntary choice 
 be brought about? The crown of motherhood 
 is not simply to bear children, but to "bring 
 them up in the nurture and admonition of the 
 Lord, 55 to teach them to honor their earthly 
 parents and love their heavenly Father. What- 
 ever pastors, Sunday school, or church may 
 do for childhood, it should not be necessary 
 for them to lead children to choose God as 
 Father. That should be the highest privilege 
 of the father and mother. The supreme 
 service a pastor can render to childhood is to 
 teach mothers how to bring their own children 
 
160 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 to Christ. But when the fathers and mothers 
 fail, as they do fail, then the pastor and the 
 church must not fail. Then is the church's 
 great opportunity. 
 
 The pastor's part in this great work is to 
 know the children, the little ones as well as 
 those who are older. If he has a good memory 
 he should know them all by name, but he 
 must at least know their faces and recognize 
 them when he meets them on the street. And 
 it is important that the children know him. 
 Of course they will always know his name 
 and that he is the preacher in their church; 
 but they must know him better than that. 
 They must know that he loves them, and that 
 he is the warm-hearted friend of every one 
 of them. He must also teach them. His 
 probationers' class should not be an ordeal 
 but a delight to every child in it. They should 
 delight to have him talk to them, and they 
 will if they know he cares for them, and they 
 will be proud to say that they are in the pas- 
 tor's class. 
 
 The teachers in the Primary and Junior 
 Departments occupy the most important posi- 
 tions in the Sunday school. Some time be- 
 tween the ages when children enter the Primary 
 
CHILD EVANGELISM 161 
 
 and leave the Junior Department, they are 
 going to make their choice of God as their 
 Father, or elect something else to the mastery 
 of their lives. It is not unimportant to re- 
 claim wandering children of God and restore 
 them to the Father's house and love; but it 
 is even more important to prevent his little 
 ones from going astray. It is the high priv- 
 ilege of primary and junior Sunday school 
 teachers to guide those children aright whose 
 parents fail to do their duty. Whatever else 
 he neglects or for lack of time fails to do, the 
 pastor should not fail to see that these teachers 
 are of the right kind and qualification. Too 
 often the Primary Department is considered a 
 teacher training class, where young girls who 
 have the will to serve are sent to learn how 
 to teach, on the theory that in the Primary 
 Department pleasant stories and kindly dis- 
 positions are all that are needed. Young 
 mothers who are dealing faithfully with their 
 own children, and have fresh in their minds 
 the methods and spirit which win them to 
 acceptance of their heavenly Father, will do 
 best in these Departments, although anyone 
 who has the mother love and the evangelistic 
 vision, with some common sense, may become 
 
162 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 efficient here. When some teacher, after a 
 few years of experience, reveals particular abil- 
 ity in such work, see that she remains there. 
 
 However wisely parents may do their duty 
 by the religious life of their children, or Sun- 
 day school teachers may do theirs, a time 
 must come when the child shall choose for 
 himself. I like to think of life as a highway, 
 leading very plainly forward for the child until 
 the day when he comes to a fork in the road. 
 One of these roads stretching ahead leads to 
 pleasure and indulgence, away from God's 
 highway which turns more steeply up the 
 hills and leads to service. Left to himself, any 
 child will select the road that seems easier 
 and promises more pleasure. Up to this time 
 he has been traveling the normal road of 
 childhood. But now he must choose for him- 
 self one or the other of diverging ways. It 
 was there that I stood at that moment after 
 I had drawn the molasses. It is there that 
 every mother some day stands with her child. 
 It is safely past that point that every teacher 
 of primary or junior classes must seek to 
 bring her pupils. It is not enough that during 
 these years proper teaching and persuasiveness 
 should be brought to bear upon the child. 
 
CHILD EVANGELISM 163 
 
 He must be led to declare his choice. It is 
 "with the mouth confession is made unto sal- 
 vation/ 5 My mother's failure to recognize 
 that fact and to lead me to a declaration at 
 that moment left open for me the wilderness 
 in which I wandered for thirteen years, and in 
 which I might easily have lost my way. How 
 blind are some pastors and many parents at 
 this point ! 
 
 How old ought a child to be to join the 
 church? Just old enough to choose God as 
 his Father. Last Sunday I preached to children. 
 It was a simple sermon, explaining to them 
 this matter of choosing God as Father. A 
 five-year-old youngster sat between his parents 
 just in front of me. How his eyes sparkled 
 and snapped at times, and how his face lighted 
 up with real spiritual vision, as he, in his 
 childish way, chose God to be his own Father! 
 I could gladly take such a child into the church. 
 Understand? Certainly he does not under- 
 stand doctrines, the battles which are before 
 him, the temptations of life in maturity. But 
 who does understand them? Who has fore- 
 sight? Not I. But the child may understand 
 that he chooses God, as revealed in Jesus 
 Christ, to be his Father and the ruler of his 
 
164 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 life and that he trusts him and loves him. 
 What more can an adult do? The only thing 
 such a child lacks is open confession and 
 acknowledgment of his choice. Therefore the 
 Sunday school should hold at least once a year 
 <a Decision Day service, in which the children 
 may openly confess their faith and declare 
 their choice of God and the Christian life. 
 
 The method of this Decision Day is not 
 important, except that the teacher must have 
 a place in it, and the confession should be 
 made openly. It is my custom to have the 
 entire Sunday school attend preaching service 
 on that day, to preach a simple sermon giving 
 an invitation to the children to come to the 
 church altar with their teachers, and by so 
 doing to declare their purpose to accept Christ. 
 This, of course, must be followed by the pro- 
 bationers 5 class, where the pastor himself will 
 lead the children in the practice of prayer and 
 testimony, and will teach them the meaning 
 of church membership and the Christian life. 
 The final and climactic event will be the day 
 of their reception into full church membership. 
 
 I have departed slightly in this chapter 
 from my purpose to discuss only practical 
 methods and not ideals and doctrines. I do 
 
CHILD EVANGELISM 165 
 
 not want another man to tell me how to deal 
 with the children of my church. My love for 
 them must find its own way. But I do not 
 want young pastors to pass through the Slough 
 of Despond which was mine for ten years 
 while I thought my way through on the ques- 
 tion, "Must a child be converted, and at 
 what age should he be brought into church 
 fellowship ?" Some of the grounds upon which 
 I have reached conclusions satisfactory to my- 
 self have been here set forth. I believe a 
 child does not require the same kind of con- 
 version as an adult, but that for himself every 
 child must make his choice and by an act of 
 his own will set himself apart as God's own. 
 This act of the child does not change God's 
 attitude toward him, but changes the child's 
 attitude toward God. This decision should 
 be made and acknowledged and declared as 
 early as the child is able to choose for himself. 
 Some children will do it very early. I did it 
 at five years of age and I know others who 
 have done it even younger. On the other 
 hand, I have known children at twelve who 
 had not done it. Parents, teachers and pas- 
 tors will find here an opportunity for using 
 Godly judgment. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 CONSERVATION 
 
 It is said that Methodists "believe in back- 
 sliding. 5 ' It would almost appear that the 
 slander is true from the way many converts 
 of revivals and other campaigns are too often 
 left to "sink or swim" without help or seeming 
 care from pastor or church. We do not "be- 
 lieve in backsliding," though we recognize that 
 it is possible, even is likely to occur, and 
 should fortify against it at every point. 
 
 I was sent occasionally, when a lad, to at- 
 tend "round-ups" on the ranges of western 
 Texas. The great cattle-kings would gather 
 all the cattle for miles around, their own and 
 other people's, unless the few farmers should 
 keep their own small herds safely fenced in 
 on that day and the day preceding. Even 
 then some "strays" or some fence breakers 
 would be in the "round-up," and the owners 
 must look after them or they would be driven 
 out of the country. The vast herd, numbering 
 tens of thousands, would be gathered at a 
 
 166 
 
CONSERVATION 167 
 
 convenient place in a valley and corralled on 
 every side. Each owner would select a con- 
 venient spot, place herders there, and then 
 send in cowboys to "cut out" his brand and 
 drive each animal to his own herd, where it 
 would be held. The small farmers would be 
 present, each of them owning a private brand, 
 and they would select a place where as a 
 company they could hold their cattle. While 
 a few of them attempted to herd their cattle, 
 others went into the herd to "cut out" and 
 drive their small holdings to this place of 
 safety. 
 
 Two things were necessary for success in 
 this task: there must be keen-eyed and skill- 
 ful horsemen who would quickly recognize a 
 brand, and have skill to "cut out" the animal 
 bearing it and drive it to the proper herd. 
 Then the herders must see to it that no ani- 
 mal once "cut out" should stray away again 
 to some other herd. To permit that would 
 make the efforts of "cutting out" of no value. 
 Revivalists have been good hands at "cutting 
 out," but how about the herders? It is not 
 enough to secure conversions; we must save 
 such as are converted. 
 
 To call the work of winning converts "herd- 
 
168 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 ing" is a poor figure. Men cannot be herded 
 into the kingdom of heaven; they must choose 
 the kingdom of their own free will and remain 
 in it of their own volition. However, the 
 question of conservation of evangelistic effort 
 is clearly before us, and we must face it. 
 
 Herbert Hoover has been pleading for greater 
 production while some extreme social agitators 
 are insisting that three hours' work a day, 
 three days in the week, is sufficient to provide 
 the world with all material goods necessary 
 for its comfort. Mr. Hoover says the world 
 needs increased production, and common sense 
 urges that what the world needs is not less 
 but more work. Work is not a calamity but 
 a blessing. It is "three generations from shirt 
 sleeves to shirt sleeves," some one has said. 
 "Shirt sleeves" come the second time because 
 the middle generation is denied the blessing 
 of labor. One secret of strong physical, mental, 
 and moral fiber is labor. 
 
 The world needs moral and spiritual help, 
 character production, and this comes only 
 through labor of heart and head as well as 
 body. Not a trip to heaven "on flowery beds 
 of ease" is the promise of religion; but "Go ye 
 and disciple all nations" is its command, and 
 
CONSERVATION 169 
 
 that requires work. Too long, however, work 
 has been urged for the world's sake, without 
 sufficient emphasis on the virtue in it for the 
 worker. It is not enough for a man to produce 
 his share of the world's goods, or to do a meager 
 share toward saving the world, if he is able 
 to do more. Every man for his own sake 
 must work to the limit of his ability. Labor 
 is not a calamity; it is a blessing, and they 
 are rich who have plenty to do and the will 
 to do it. 
 
 Then to save their converts a pastor and 
 his church will put them to work. Without 
 adding to present machinery, let us notice 
 what a variety of opportunities the church 
 affords for Christian service. First, there are 
 the women's Missionary Societies, two of them 
 and each of them worthy. Their dues are 
 not large, though opportunities for large giving 
 are not lacking, and the field for work is almost 
 boundless. Every woman in the church should 
 belong to one if not both of these, and the 
 pastor will do his best to encourage such 
 membership. Have no fear, timid soul! The 
 trouble with the church is not "money, money, 
 money, 9 ' or "work, work, work," as some 
 would have us believe. The trouble is rather 
 
170 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 spiritual idleness, laziness, stinginess! Get a 
 missionary society organized, and thank God 
 for the chance to put some of your people to 
 work in it, and for the opportunity to get 
 their hearts stirred by the messages they hear. 
 
 Then there is the Ladies' Aid Society. Yes, 
 by all means there ought to be such a society, 
 and it ought to have every woman in the 
 church in its membership. If the spirit of 
 Christ is in its members, it will prove a potent 
 factor for democracy in the social life of the 
 church and will afford an opportunity for some 
 to work who might not have talent for other 
 forms of church work. Remember, I am speaking 
 especially now of the value of the work to the 
 worker. The Ladies' Aid Society will furnish 
 work at which some of its members may com- 
 plain, because they have no vision of its ulti- 
 mate purposes, but if they do the work they 
 will receive help whether they have the vision 
 or not. 
 
 And there is the Men's Club, or Brother- 
 hood, or Class. I confess that I prefer the 
 last term. A Brotherhood, or Club suggests a 
 purely social organization, while the term 
 "Class" indicates other purposes than mere 
 entertainment. Every man in the church 
 
CONSERVATION 171 
 
 should be a member of the Class, and it should 
 be organized for study, as well as for sociabil- 
 ity. It should cooperate with the Ladies' Aid 
 Society, on occasion should entertain that 
 Society and the church, and should keep an 
 eye on the church property. Its social com- 
 mittee should be on the lookout for strangers, 
 transients, and outsiders, and help make the 
 Class a real evangelistic agency. 
 
 Then there is the Epworth League for the 
 young people. God grant it may really be 
 for the young people. In some churches, 
 where there are organized classes for young 
 people in the Sunday school, there may be 
 less demand for the League, but in the or- 
 dinary church there is still a place for it, and 
 every young person of teen age in the church, 
 at least those above fourteen, should be in 
 its membership and find work there. 
 
 Sunday school classes, except in the Adult 
 Department, should be small, not more than 
 six or seven to a class, and five would be better. 
 Providing these classes with teachers opens 
 up a field for a large number of workers. Of 
 course this is not work for new converts, but 
 they may be trained for it and encouraged to 
 serve in that capacity, as well as in other 
 
172 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 official positions in the Sunday school. Every 
 class in the school should be organized with 
 the proper officers. By this means half the 
 children and young people above the Primary 
 Department will continually be in official 
 position of some sort, and if tenure of office 
 is not long, all of them in the course of the 
 year will have some experience in leadership. 
 
 To keep class organizations alive and active, 
 every class should have some aim, some ob- 
 jective toward which it strives and for which 
 it works. This may be the raising of mis- 
 sionary money; the support of an orphan; 
 missionary work in the community by which 
 new members are to be brought into the school; 
 some service to the pastor, such as distributing 
 handbills, messages, etc.; or carrying flowers to 
 the sick and shut-ins. The character of the 
 community will determine the nature of the 
 activity, but there should be work of some 
 sort. A dead church is a church without work, 
 and it is dead because it tried to exist in idle- 
 ness. The theory that one must work only 
 enough to produce what he himself needs will 
 not harmonize with Christ's spirit, nor will 
 it save the world or a single soul. And the 
 regularly organized activities of the church 
 
CONSERVATION 173 
 
 afford ample opportunities for giving most of 
 the people abundant work to do. 
 
 Then there is the Unit System. Thank 
 God that John Wesley gave it to us, and that 
 we have had sense enough to return to it. 
 Units must not be too large. Eight families 
 will be enough and six might be better. One 
 should be the leader with a will to see to it 
 that every member of his Unit who is a church 
 member has something to do. If there are 
 twelve members of the church in the Unit, 
 one may be an officer in a missionary society, 
 two may be teachers in the Sunday school, 
 one an Epworth League officer, and all vari- 
 ously but actively at work. So far as he can 
 avoid it, a Unit Leader will not add to the 
 labors of those who are already occupied, but 
 having made a list of such as are not at work, 
 he will study how, beginning with small tasks, 
 such as helping to get others out to some 
 committee meeting, finally to lead them to 
 some steady employment. One member of the 
 Unit should keep a record of Unit attendance 
 at morning worship, while another could keep 
 a record for the evening service. They should 
 make monthly reports to the Leader, and 
 with him and other helpers devise means for 
 
174 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 improving the Unit record in church attend- 
 ance. 
 
 One Unit member could be the Sunday 
 school representative in that Unit, keep in 
 touch with the members of the group and 
 report prospective teachers, or absentees, and 
 help, if possible, to get the latter back, and 
 in various ways help both the Unit and the 
 school. Other Unit members can attend to 
 the interests of the prayer meeting, Epworth 
 League, the circulation of the church paper, 
 while others may assist the Cradle Roll Superin- 
 tendent, Home Department Superintendent, or 
 those who desire helpers in connection with 
 the church budget and the benevolences. In 
 this way it should be possible to put every 
 church member in each Unit immediately to 
 work, giving him responsibility and thus 
 arousing his interest and conserving him for 
 the church, as well as getting work done which 
 makes genuine contribution to the progress of 
 the Kingdom. If such work as has been 
 suggested is not sufficient, there is always the 
 work of evangelism, the effort to win converts, 
 and each Unit has a field for such activity 
 where consecrated endeavor saves the lost 
 and saves the church as well. 
 
CONSERVATION 175 
 
 No pastor could or should attempt to manage 
 such an organization as I have suggested, except 
 through genuine Unit Leaders. Reports to him 
 should be made by Leaders only. All other 
 workers in the Units should report and be 
 responsible to their Leader. This will not 
 give anyone an impossible task. I have found 
 the busiest men in my church willing to accept 
 the leadership of these Units. None of them, 
 perhaps, has done perfectly the work possible 
 in such a responsible position, but all of them 
 have done some part of it effectively, and the 
 fruitage of their labor is visible through all 
 the church life and activities. 
 
 Finally, let every convert be associated 
 with some reliable Christian man or woman 
 for friendly counsel, guidance and help. For 
 children, let their Sunday school teachers be 
 such counselors; for youth, let older men and 
 women as well as Sunday school teachers be 
 appointed; and for adults, let the pastor sug- 
 gest to some neighbor or friend of the convert 
 that he is placing on him or her the respon- 
 sibility for keeping up that convert's enthusi- 
 asm and activity. The pastor himself will call 
 more often on new converts than on other 
 people, but will never call without having 
 
176 RURAL EVANGELISM 
 
 some definite purpose in view. He will have 
 a bit of information to bring them, a book 
 for them to read, or he will want them to 
 help win some one for Christ, or do some 
 special work in the church. It is definiteness 
 of aim in such calls that makes them at all 
 effective. Get your head and your heart to 
 work on this great problem, brothers, and 
 you will find a way to hold the children. 
 
 Infant mortality is being steadily lowered. 
 It is being done not by sentimental but by 
 scientific methods. New converts are infants 
 in the church and mortality among them will 
 be lowered by the same zeal and patience and 
 common sense which, in the last analysis, 
 mark the scientific method. The heart may 
 furnish fire and enthusiasm for the task — it 
 must do that if there is to be any power for 
 it — but the mind, with cool and passionless 
 reasoning, must find the method for its accom- 
 plishment. Head and heart go well together. 
 
 For community programs, social activities, 
 clubs and parish house plans, I commend you 
 to the lectures and books of experts along 
 those lines, and urge that you think of them 
 as definite methods, by conserving its fruits, 
 for completing the work of evangelism. 
 
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