Every-day evangelism, personal, trained, co-operative

Contents

Page

Introduction, - - Bishop J, F, Berry 5

I. Christianity's Greatest Problem, - 17

Introduction

The number of books dealing with the different phases of evangelistic work is already large. New ones are constantly coming from the press. But three out of four of these are theoretical rather than practical. The little book which I now have the pleasure of introducing to the Christian public belongs to the latter class. While it is not ostensibly a manual of revival methods, it will, nevertheless, serve that useful purpose. In many years of editorial experience I never examined a manuscript dealing with this vital matter which struck me as more suggestive.

The book in your hands puts emphasis upon pastoral evangelism. That is well. The recognition by the minister of his mission as an evangelist and the renewal of confidence in his ability to lead sinners to Jesus Christ is one of the most urgent needs of the hour.

I have no criticism of the confederation of ministers and Churches in gigantic meetings for mutual inspiration, convocations where Christians come

6 Introduction

together in a great tabernacle or hall and for a time listen to some far-famed evangelist and the solos of his equally famous singer. Such meetings often prove to be a great school of Christian culture, and do much good. But the real work of seeking and saving the lost in any community must be done by individual Churches. Indeed, it must be done by individual Christians. And in this work the pastor is the logical leader. Any influences which break down his leadership are to be deplored. Every normal minister of Jesus Christ is an evangelist. If he is not an evangelist, he is not a normal minister. He may not have the resourcefulness which will enable him to organize forces and manipulate great congregations. But he will lead sinners to the Savior of the world. What a field of opportunity the pastor has! The community with its many personal friendships, the congregation with its unsaved members, the young people's society with its buoyant, inspiring young members, many of whom are unconverted, the Sunday-school with its hundreds of boys and girls at an age when the heart is most susceptible to spiritual appeal — the pastor is the center of all this life, and if he will, he may win it for his Lord. I meet pastors who have lost faith in their ability to evangelize. They would like to have revivals,

Introduction 7

but the secret seems to have been lost. So with sad hearts they turn to others to lead their unsaved people to decision and salvation. What a pity! By every reason which the logic of the situation suggests, the pastor himself should have the joy of winning these souls. When 80,000 evangelical ministers recognize the truth that they are the 80,000 evangelistic leaders of the Church, we will have such an ingathering as has not been seen for generations ! And will not that ingathering be largely of the continuous sort?

It is also true that every real Christian in the ranks of the laity is an evangelist. He must be or he is not a Christian. The philosophy of the world's evangelization is individualism, both in praying and in working. One saved soul going after an unsaved soul with yearning heart and eager step and tender entreaty — this is the Christian's unspeakable privilege. And it is a duty. It is a duty which can not be escaped. It is a duty which no one will seek to escape whose heart has been quickened and illumined by the Holy Spirit. So many of our Christians are such only in name. They are indifferent to spiritual things. The passion of the Christian propaganda is not upon them. They need to be brought under conviction, aroused from their lethargy, renewed by

8 Introduction

the Holy Spirit and endued with power for personal service. If even one quarter of our vast membership could be enlisted in the work of individual evangelism, what a spiritual revolution there would be!

Because of the convictions expressed in the two preceding paragraphs, I am glad my friend has written his book. It will prove a most valuable contribution to the literature which heralds the dawning of the new era of pastoral, personal, every-day evangelism. Dr. Leete is himself the embodiment of much that he has written. He does not deal in theories. The plans he commends to other pastors he has used himself. That these methods will stand the test of actual use is shown by their extraordinary success in his own Church. For several years the Central Church of Detroit has been in a continuous revival, and Dr. Leete has become one of the most successful pastoral evangelists of our day. He consented to write the pages which follow only after I had earnestly urged him to do so, and I trust his burning words may be made a blessing to thousands upon thousands of those who, both in pulpit and in pew, are called of God to do effective and fruitful evangelistic service.

Buffalo, N. Y. Joseph F. Berry.

Foreword

The greatest human undertaking is the effort to increase the number of those who, being saved from the guilt and power of sin, rejoice in the love and service of Jesus Christ.

To engage upon this work the Church of Christ is divinely called. It is not something to be chosen if one pleases ; it is a duty to be discharged in the spirit of loving obedience, and whose neglect is sin.

In "The Man of the Hour," a Socialist St. Francis expresses this burning truth: "The redemption of humanity is not an alms, It is a religion.'' Attached to this service has been a sense of merit like that of the Martyrs and Confessors, which is altogether out of place. To seek access to the hearts of men, bringing to them the gospel; to lead those who do not know Him into the light of Christ's presence and love, is the natural expression of true faith, as well as the strong impulse of the spirit which is conscious of God's grace, and which realizes and responds to the deepest needs of men.

There is a growing conviction that definite 11 individual approach to individual minds is the law of growth, both for Christians and for the Kingdom of Christ. To use the term of Dr. W. B. Riley, this is the "perennial revival," which, inspired and instructed through the regular offices of the Church and supplemented by such special meetings as are deemed wise, is to reach the next generation with the Christian evangel.

One of the strong features of personal evangelism is that it is largely free from the charge of "crude emotionalism," and wholly so from "crowd coercion," perhaps too radically opposed by Professor Davenport and others. But let it not be thought that it is an indifferent matter, or one to be done dispassionately, to teach Christ, and to lead those who have not known it into a vital Christian experience. On the part of those who forget that men have affections as well as brains, emotional as well as mental faculties and processes, it is not unfashionable to speak lightly of zeal with reference to evangelism and Christian service. It is sometimes regarded as giving proof of superior wisdom to patronize or even to disparage this earnestness. Rather is not this evidence of degeneracy.'^

In all great movements there are three periods, and Christianity has more than once passed through them all. There is the time of power and achievement. Minds are active, hands are strong, hearts are warm ; therefore does the cause prosper. Then comes the cooHng process. The world encroaches ; on the part of many, stereotyped phrases replace sturdy faith, and trite methods are made ridiculous by constantly weaker reproductions and imitations. The third period is that of the critics, who preach not the gospel, but about the gospel, who save no souls themselves, but discuss those who, striving against adverse tendencies and the deadness both within and without the Church seek to do this; dissecting their message, their modus operandi, and even their motives, not hesitating to alienate their public, some at least of whom they would otherwise keep from wrecked lives and Christless graves. This is small business and it would be left to the small minded, were it not that some men of good intellect have little hearts. Thus in many places during recent years we have the unpleasant spectacle of faithful Churches and pastors seeking to bring the masses of unsaved people about them into Christian experience, and to develop the faith and activities of Church memberships, while others wittily or even coarsely depreciate their efforts, or satisfy themselves that they are doing the work of God in proselyting the more prosperous and worldly members of sister Churches.

The remedy for all this is a new spiritual movement, a gracious reinspiration of the Church, such as God effected through the Wesleys and their helpers. How shall it be realized? In answer to prayer, and by the introduction of many Christian people into such a love of Christ and desire for the coming of His kingdom as results only from the effort to bring others into a new life, or to lead them to dedicate themselves to the offices of Christian usefulness.

There are signs that the materialism and consequent decay of conscience, too painfully evident in recent years, are being conquered by a better spirit, and one which gives more hope to those who desire the world's salvation. When gold is king, or pleasure, or success, there is small chance for ideals. Now that there is a loud cry of protest against commercial and political dishonesty, and an insistent demand for obedience to a higher law than that of expediency and gain, there is hope of the cultivation of the spirit which seeks to lay up treasure above. As the civic movement begotten of an ineradicable Christian consciousness, aided by a new generation of literary men whose thought is upon ethical standards, struggles for improved conditions in public affairs, there will be strong reciprocal relations with the definite redemptlve work of Christianity. If conscientiousness deepens, and if the present tendency to emphasize the value of the higher possessions and qualities of life continues, the effect upon evangelism and upon Christian service will be marked and most encouraging. Certainly the whole Church of Christ should increase its pressure in this direction, for quickened moral sensibility is proof that its mission to the world is not in vain, and the confidence is strengthened that in the end its full aims will be realized.

Chapter I

The conversion of the world is the supreme problem of Christianity! It is not the defense of truth, for in the end truth may be depended upon to take care of itself, and it can never fail. Nor does the material prosperity of the Church need to be the chief concern. That which has value will always bring a price ; moreover, in its poorest days the Church has generally grown strong, not only in its inner life, but in accessions. The real issue is the salvation of mankind, the conquest of the evil lusts of humanity, and the transformation of the race into the nature and graces of Christ. But this is being very, slowly accomplished. Vast populations are filling the earth who, living and dying, know not God. Throngs of men and women crowd the temples of vice in the great cities, giving themselves to self-indulgence and folly. On every side are evidences of the ravages of intemperance and 2 17 licentiousness. The fruits of sin constantly produce sorrow and shame. In spite of education and science, disease, poverty and pain still curse lands which God made fair and which were intended to be abodes of purity and joy. The optimist may shut his eyes to this, but whenever he opens them he receives a shock. However firmly one may believe that the world is bettering, he must confess the tardiness of the process, and deplore the fact that uncounted millions are unsaved.

The solution of the problem of evangelization will not appear less difficult by considering a few of the serious hindrances.

First should be named the decay of faith in the great doctrines of the Bible which relate to spiritual life and death ; the doctrines of sin ; of a necessary atonement as well as pardon for violations of divine law; of justification by faith in Christ's redeeming love, not of personal merit; of the punishment of wickedness and the reward of righteousness ; of the eternal profit of goodness and of the everlasting destruction of all that is unholy. When men are taught such truths as these, being brought to see that they are grounded in Scripture and in sound judgment, they are likely to act in the direction of wisdom and peace. A milk-and-water gospel never converts people of strong souls and vigorous

I passions. It is surely time for teachers of Christianity to recognize the fact that soft sayings about virtue, the poetic portrayals of a sentimental God who loves prayer and praise more than He loves righteousness, are not likely to Christianize the world. There must be more iron in the blood of the Church. She must renew her adherence to the teachings of Christ, applying them to the facts of the human heart and conduct. She must do this with no uncertainty of sound or of soul, for as John Stuart Mill said, "One person with a conviction is worth a hundred mere believers." Only as the Church and ministry are clear and definite in the conviction that God has spoken, that He means just what He has said, and that eternal destinies depend on our attitude to Him, is it possible so to impress the selfish and worldly that they will make the surrender of their wills and ways which Christianity requires.

All will admit that the grievous lack of religious instruction, both in the modern home and school, renders the conversion of youth an ever more difficult undertaking. In the deepest matters of life parents are the natural teachers of their children. No one can replace them or do their work so effectively. Next to them in opportunity are the educators of the public schools, many of whom would gladly train their pupils in the history if not in the ideals of Christianity were it not that unequal lawsj imposing upon the children of the vast majority the will of a free-thinking or sectarian minority, forbid their undertaking this task. It is hard to see for what sensible reason parents so largely neglect the religious needs of their families, but the fact is .too general and too evident to be questioned. A threefold burden is thus thrown upon the Church — to do its own work and to discharge as well the highest functions of home and school. It is an unfair shifting of responsibility and one whose discharge is almost if not quite impossible. The Church gets so small a portion of the time of young people! It deals with large numbers, and with other large numbers it gets little chance to work at all, at least to the best advantage. The coming generation is growing up ignorant of the Bible, unaccustomed to the habits and forms of worship, and untaught in those ethical and spiritual principles which mold character and which shape conduct unto righteousness. A determined endeavor should be made to awaken in home-makers a new sense of duty. By pastoral and personal effort families without worship should be led to establish daily Bible reading and prayer, for in these exercises, even without more careful instruction, there is in no small degree a Christian education. Equal pains should be taken with the schools. It is to be noted that so far as the many are concerned, the day of training in denominational schools is passing. Christianity must capture the day-school and the university. Teachers must be taught and encouraged to become teachers of Christ. If they do their work as Christians wisely, as a rule they will suffer no interference. If they should lose a position by reason of non-sectarian religious teaching, they would quickly find another under some superintendent better disposed towards the faith. The day has come for a sensible effort to Christianize educational institutions, and to use them as factors in world-wide evangelism, and in a truer and better nation-making.

The indifferent and sometimes hostile attitude of the modern newspaper is one of the great and menacing obstacles to Christianity's advancement. The change from individual to corporate ownership, which has taken place within the last generation, has not improved the press, when regarded from the ethical standpoint. With honorable exceptions, newspapers have become non-moral, if not immoral. Columns once free from such iniquities now teem with advertisements of various liquors, with obscene medical announcements, and with dangerous personals. In some instances nothing is refused which will pay the price. What wonder that the reading columns of papers so sustained contain jibes at temperance and morality, vulgar witticisms about the Bible, and more or less open and vicious assaults upon reformers, evangelists, and pastors. There are some cities in which widespread revivals have been made impossible, and in which the strength of the Church itself is being greatly impaired by the artful or coarse opposition of the daily papers. The influences back of this hostility vary. Sometimes it is the Romanist editor, whose anti-Protestant prejudice inspires him to write flippant leaders about abnormal and spurious religious movements, by inference relating his criticisms to local undertakings. Sometimes it is the immature reporter whose adolescent infidelity is permitted to flaunt itself in his accounts of religious meetings, and whose animadversions are perhaps the more vicious as representing his backslidings from the faith of his mother, and from his own early experience.

Sometimes the press opposition to revival movements is inspired by owners of theaters and other places of resort whose business is denounced by evangelists and pastors, and who burn to get even. These are but a few of the influences back of the antagonisms of the daily paper against religious enterprise. The great cause of all is the utter worldliness of the control and management of most journals of this sort, causing on the part of employees an absence of sympathy for those institutions whose service to the community is purely moral. Christian men of wealth and talent should go into the business of making newspapers, not with other worldly and impractical notions and purposes, but to redeem journalism from crass materialism and vulgarity, and to engage its vast popularity and power wholly in the support of the forces which have made society as strong and pure as it is, and which seek to transform it into ultimate harmony with the ideal of God. The daily paper is the public's university. More can be done to educate and Christianize the world by applying money, brains, and principle to the production of daily literature than by founding libraries, or increasing the endowments of colleges. Under present conditions such a use of riches and skill would be the truest philanthropy. Beautiful as is the charity which houses the poor, cares for the sick, and maintains the crippled and unfortunate, he would be doing men a greater service who sent forth into the market-places and homes of the people a stream of mental and moral influence, clean, wholesome, and elevating. That this good service is so largely omitted is no slight explanation of the slow advancement of Christianity.

The question is sometimes asked if there is not room for improvement in religious journalism, especially in its relation to the work of soul-saving. It must be confessed that there are Church papers which give little space to purely religious material and almost none to the work of evangelism. There are pages of Churchianity and of ecclesiasticism ; much attention is given to travel and incident*; considerable room is taken up with personals and with news of offices and honors ; something is said about the moral struggles of the time, but little space or thought is given to the great question, ^'How to save mankind from its sins." In too many cases, also, the praise of Church papers is given, not to Churches and pastors which are adding members by conversion, but to those whose prominence is based on quite difFerent considerations. Others, however, display interest in ministers who attend to their proper calling, putting the whole emphasis of their lives upon the work of Christ, and they also have a care for the reputation of Churches which have enough religious life to bring forth their own children and to take good care of them. In some journals and elsewhere in religious circles there is a new evangelistic note which is not only cheering to weary toilers, but which speaks well for the future of Christianity.

Of course, the inconsistencies and sins of Church members hinder the salvation of the world. Every one says so, especially the world itself, and the flesh and the devil, and in the agreement of many witnesses there is thought to be truth. But there is not so much in this, after all, as there is in the work of the world, the flesh, and the devil in the human heart. Admitting that many are badly impressed and evil disposed to the truth by reason of false professions and lying lives, yet no person becomes a sinner who is not "drawn away of his own lust and enticed." Every man is his own sinner; it is that within himself which is his undoing. And what an enemy to righteousness and Christianity this is, the desire of the fallen mind and heart of man! The real foe is within. If we would conquer the world for Christ, we must overcome the wickedness of the human heart. This can not be done save by presenting in every powerful, impressive, and attractive way the cross of Calvary, especially in lives of love and sacrifice and in earnest eff^ort to make conquest for that cross of all its opponents.

The cross of Christ will never conquer the world by indiff^erence. "Awake, put on thy strength, O Zion !" No truer word was ever spoken than this — "An anxious Church makes anxious souls." Lethargy and lukewarmness in the Church are always reflected in the community without, and so are religious interest and ardor. Let it be known of any Church that it is very much alive, and life comes flowing into it. Good, bad, and indiff*erent are attracted, the good to help in the good work, the bad to be converted to righteous thoughts and ways, the indiff^erent to be diff*erent and to act accordingly. If this be true of a single Church, what if all Churches should be aroused to a condition of vital piety, and to the zeal of the crusader? Even then the battles of Christianity would not be won in a day, or without severe struggles, but there would be mighty victories, hastening the final conquest, complete and glorious.

The irresponsibility of the average Christian who believes in the work of the evangelist, but who does not see or feel the pressure of his own duty in relation to it, is one of the greatest obstacles to be overcome. The cooling down of Christianity, so evident in the temper of religious literature, in the tone of pulpit and prayer-meeting, and in the lessening proportion of time and thought relatively given to spiritual matters, is the main cause. But there are many who are really willing and even eager to do the work of Christ, who do not know just how to go about it. They would quicken others, if set at definite tasks. There is need, therefore, not only of inspiration, but especially of suggestion and direction. Appeals which do not point to specific deeds, and which are not accompanied by instruction in the arts of Christian helpfulness, gradually lose force and fall to the ground. It is essential that those who have been doing their work too much by themselves become teachers of others, both helping them into and in their service by the exposition of ways and means. Let it be felt that the winning and culture of souls is not the business of ministers, missionaries, and evangelists alone, but of all Christians. Let it be seen that the work with converts is not finished when they are located in Church membership, but that for their own assurance and for the growth of the kingdom they should be at once enlisted in the ranks of those who strive to bring into the faith and keeping of Christ their friends and neighbors. Let it be taught that while there is truth in the saying, "He also serves who only stands and waits," yet no willing idler pleases God.

He who is satisfied with personal salvation, not troubling hi^nself about mankind in general, is in peril of his own soul, possessing little of the spirit of Christ. The unfruitful branch shall be cut off and cast into the fire. There is a just scorn which rests upon one who stands by while others perish. Society both condemned and effectually punished a man who stood on the banks of a slender stream while a golden-haired child drowned before his eyes. Not even the plea of inability to swim saved him from indignation. He should have made the effort, so thought the community. And so should every Christian make the effort to win others to Christ, and he can plead no defense at all, since the endeavor to rescue lost souls from the waves of sin and to make them helpers in the work of God is in no way dangerous to him who undertakes it, but strengthens all the forces of his own life.

Chapter II Evangelistic Efforts

Among the just criticisms which have been brought against evangelistic efforts, are that they have been too often abnormal, partial, and periodic. The first of these is of least importance, for who is to say what is normal and what is abnormal ? And considering the abnormal conditions into which so many have been brought by their transgressions of the law of righteousness, what proof is there that all men can be recovered to virtue and faitli by processes which by persons of refinement may be termed normal? Rough work requires rough handling. Severe sickness demands severe treatment. In the works of nature there is room for tempest as well as for sunshine, for tides, floods, and earthquakes, as well as for smooth, mild seasons. It would be strange, therefore, if there should not be place in the operations of Divine grace for currents of emotion, for discharges of accusation and exhortation with resultant explosions of feeling, which to culture may seem hysterical or even hypocritical, but which are the power of God encountering and overcoming strong oppositions. There is no ministering to elemental natures and needs without elemental measures. This may be the explanation for the religious attitude of a large part of the common people — the Church steps in patent leather, uses kid gloves, talks in velvet phrases, and invites with dignity. There is more than a suspicion on the part of the Church itself that its evangelistic efforts are too normal, usual, and jflat. There is sometimes a longing for the simple worship, plain preaching, and vigorous and heartfelt enthusiasm which is more often found in backwoods communities and in rescue missions. To one who has studied the matter, it is not surprising to find cultured Christians, when drawn into gospel halls. Salvation Army barracks, or McCauley missions, profoundly impressed and greatly moved. They are thus brought near to nature's throbbing heart, to that universal reservoir of feeling in which we were all baptized in childhood, and from which, if we had never departed, we would find in life and in religion more interest and satisfaction.

The charge that evangelism has been fragmentary and occasional in its character is both true and serious. The failure of the gospel more swiftly to win its way is not to be attributed wholly to the difficulties and hindrances before it, but also to the incompleteness of its attack. It is a relatively small number of Christians who are invited to assume any definite responsibility in connection with this work. In general terms all believers are urged from pulpit and platform to help Christianize the world, but usually obedience to the desire or purpose thus created is left to chance, or at best to individual initiative. The result is just what it would be in any other undertaking — ^business, for example. Persons capable of establishing a new enterprise or even of profitably directing their own energies are relatively few. System is needed, and captains of industry benefit the world by skillfully adapting various processes of manufacture and distribution of goods to the abilities of the masses, and by drawing them into productive activity. In Christianity there is too much oratory and too little application. He is considered very great who can earnestly and pathetically talk about work. There are famous preachers, whose fervid appeals delight vast audiences at summer resorts and elsewhere, who have not by knowledge and patience produced in their own fields a working plant with the efficiency of a toy windmill.

Noted laymen make powerful speeches at conventions, who would hardly be recognized if met face to face by any actual worker of their home Church. The time has not come when Christian leaders are measured by results, or when the justice of President Eliot's saying is recognized, that to arouse emotion without leading it to a suitable expression is a sin. This is also the height of folly. Suppose a manufacturer should call together on Monday morning three or four hundred workmen, should give them a carefully wrought and able lecture on the value of labor, closing with a touching incident or two from the history of the world's workers, and with some reference to the future rewards of toil, and should then permit them to go home, to comment favorably or unfavorably upon his address, to eat their dinner with a sense of having well discharged their duty, but without having been directed to any special task, and not to be called together again until another speech is ready, perhaps this time upon the aesthetic influence of the higher arts, or on the esoteric philosophy of Browning. How many goods would be turned out of an establishment so conducted .f^ What wages would be earned there, or what values produced to enrich society? A Church conducted on this plan is scarcely more useful to any practical purpose. Let it not be thought that no good is attributed to the mere planting of ideas in the minds of hearers, or to the kindly offices of unaggressive pastors and societies. It is not that there is no good done, but that there is no growth, no production of the sway of the Church to larger limits, no lengthening of the cords of the tent, increasing its inmates to their infinite good and to the glory of God.