 
Evangelism

A Firm Foundation for Effective Evangelistic Meetings

G. Campbell Morgan

Contents

Editor's Foreword

Ch. 1: The Evangel

Ch. 2: The Evangelistic Church

Ch. 3: The Evangelist

Ch. 4: Evangelistic Church Services

Ch. 5: The Present Opportunity

G. Campbell Morgan – A Brief Biography
Editor's Foreword

G. Campbell Morgan dedicated his original book to the faculty and students of Hartford, Chicago, Berkeley, and Dayton theological seminaries, where he spoke in 1903 and 1904. Morgan wrote, "To whom it was my pleasure and privilege to speak on evangelism at their request, these stenographic reports of those addresses are dedicated with the earnest hope that they may be of some service in at least one branch of the ministry of the future."

We believe the heart of Morgan's message on the Christian evangel (the gospel) still holds true for today's readers, and we want a new generation to experience a voice that made a difference in the lives of so many in ministry already. Although he was British, Morgan visited the United States fifty-four times in his lifetime, lectured often, and lived in California for a time. This manuscript was transcribed from the speeches he gave while in America, and he hinted at American culture in several places in the book.

This modern adaptation of Evangelism has been edited with the sole purpose of adding clarity to the language and expressions of more than a century ago. In the process of updating, we have carefully researched any terms that were specific to the culture of the early 1900s and updated them into modern terms, while preserving the theme of Morgan's message. Morgan used masculine pronouns throughout the original manuscript, as it was a common practice in his era when making a generic reference to everybody.

Reference information and biographical notes have been added wherever possible, which will help readers identify the specific people whom Morgan mentioned and will clarify terms. This information will provide curious readers with a starting point, should they wish to complement their reading with further research, or read books by some of the other greats in Christian history.

We have used the Jubilee Bible to update the references from Scripture used throughout the book, except for where Morgan used a phrase that was specific to another translation.

If it weren't for the reader knowing the original date of publication was well over a century ago, one might think he wrote parts of this book within the last decade. What Morgan taught in 1904 still holds true today, and our culture is experiencing an even greater need to hear the good news of the gospel.

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Chapter 1

The Evangel

This is an age characterized by renewed interest in evangelistic work. Men of all shades of opinion, and those who do not seem to have very profound opinions of any sort, are even turning their attention toward the great subject of evangelism. I suppose there are a few people in the Christian church who have no particular interest in the subject. All I can say of this is that they are living in the mental mood of years ago.

A new interest in evangelistic work is manifesting itself in different ways. Some people are giving themselves to prayer that God will give us an old-fashioned revival. On the other hand, so many people who are equally devoted and sincere, yet who are out of harmony with what they call the older methods of theological thinking, are still looking for some new visitation from God. Instead of praying for an old-fashioned revival, they are attempting to forecast the lines of what they call "the new evangelism."

Now I do not want to be unkindly critical, for I am profoundly conscious that the underlying fact in each case is of supreme value, but I would never pray for an old-fashioned revival, nor would I attempt to forecast the lines of a new evangelism. Why not pray for an old-fashioned revival? Because I want whatever means the Lord is using today. And why not forecast the lines of a new evangelism? Because one gospel is enough for all time.

In all probability, if a person is praying for an old-fashioned revival, when God's visitation comes, he will not be conscious of it. I can imagine how years ago, people who remembered the marvelous movement under Charles Finney might have prayed for an old-fashioned revival such as that which accompanied his preaching. Then it is more than likely that when God raised up Dwight Lyman Moody, such people would be out of agreement with all his methods for a long while, for the teaching of the two movements was utterly different. Or to go back even further before the Great Awakening under Finney, perhaps some prayed for an old-fashioned revival like that under John Wesley and George Whitefield. If so, they almost certainly lacked sympathy with the new methods at first.

Fresh Awareness of the Same Gospel

God fulfills himself in many ways. In every new awakening there are fresh manifestations of God, new revelations of truth meeting the requirements of the age. The evangel is always fresh as the break of day, and yet as old as the continuity of daybreak through the ages. We ought to live in such a way that when God begins his great triumphant march, we will fall in with the first battalion and have part in the first victories.

It is equally false to speak of a new evangelism because there is to be no new evangel – no new gospel. When I read what that very brilliant and very devoted Christian man Dr. John Watson says the lines of the new evangelism are to be, I am in agreement with all he says and out of agreement in that there are things he does not say. All he says is true. But there are important things he omits.

The next great movement will have within it the themes of the social and the ethical. But the themes of blood redemption and spiritual regeneration will not be omitted from it. These are the truths we have to keep in mind. When I hear of people speaking of a new evangelism, it is good to ask their definition of the term evangelism. When I see Mr. Benjamin Fay Mills has gone out into evangelistic work, the first impulse of the heart is to rejoice. But when I find he is simply preaching a doctrine of a social kingdom without insistence upon the necessity for regeneration, then it is time we declare our separation.

To say that the new evangelism is to be ethical, and by that to seem to criticize the old, is to prove a misunderstanding of the old and also a misunderstanding of the deepest necessity of the times in which we live and serve. When someone tells me the next revival will be ethical, does he mean to say that the last one was not? If the great movements under Wesley, Whitefield, Finney, and Moody were not ethical, what were they? They were movements that took hold of vast masses of men, and moved them out of back streets into front ones, and if that was not ethical, surely nothing can be. Beginning with the regeneration of the person, they changed his environment and made him a citizen of whom any city might have been proud. That is the true ethical note.

More to Understand and Learn

In approaching a constructive statement concerning the evangel, I must ask you to take two things for granted: first, the finality of Christianity, and second, that the New Testament is the authoritative interpretation of it. By the finality of Christianity, I mean that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is correct in his estimate as declared in his opening sentences.

God, having spoken many times and in many ways in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last times spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the ages; who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his substance and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. (Hebrews 1:1-4)

God speaks to people. He has spoken to men in the past in diverse amounts and in diverse ways. All the messages of prophets, seers, and psalmists, of rites, ceremonies, and symbols were but broken lights of essential truth. But he has spoken to us through his Son, and he has no more to say to men than he has said in Jesus Christ. That does not mean for a single moment that we have perfectly understood the message of the Son yet. I believe there is still more light and truth than anyone has ever seen to break out from the words of Jesus and from the truth of Christ in the world. But God has said everything he has to say, and as a result, any new, so-called revelation that conflicts with what God spoke in his Son is proven to be not of the Spirit of God but from beneath and of the devil.

In the second place, the New Testament must also be accepted as the authoritative interpretation of Christianity. I hear a good deal today about the Christian consciousness as the true court of appeals in matters of faith and practice. I am searching for that Christian consciousness. Is it that of the pope or my own? Is it consensus of opinion? Then where will I find it expressed? I decline to accept it as expressed in any doctrine. Where is it then?

The fact is, the Christian consciousness is a variable quantity, according to differing experiences, and is therefore wholly unreliable as a criterion of doctrine or character or conduct. The Christian consciousness must always be judged by a standard, and that is to be found in the New Testament. If you ever take away the New Testament as the final court of appeals in matters of faith and practice, you will lose the Christian consciousness in half a century. It has been done once. The New Testament was lost to the churches in the Dark Ages. Then Luther arose, and following the restoration of the New Testament, the Christian consciousness came back. The court of appeals is the New Testament.

The Definition of Evangel

What is the Christian evangel? There is a preliminary question that I will first attempt to answer. What is an evangel? This word evangel has come to us from the Latin evangelism, which simply means "a gospel," for the word was introduced to the language during the ecclesiastical period. So we must pass back behind this word as it came to us from the Latin and find it as it stands on the pages of our Greek Testament. There it simply means "a good message." A good message! There is no note of sadness in an evangel. There is not a tone of terror in an evangel. An evangel is good news. An evangel is a good message.

In the New Testament, the thought is invariably that of glad tidings, of good news, of a message that ought to fill the hearts of those who hear it with hope and gladness and joy. The word, and similar words, are used by the writers of the New Testament who deal especially with the subject of the work of Christ in its first application to the needs of men and women. And these words are singularly absent from those writings that deal with the deeper truths of Christian experience.

Take the Gospels, which we speak of as synoptic – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – and you will find the words recurring all the way through – evangel, or evangelist, or some similar word. But in the Gospel of John, the word is never used, simply because the Gospel of John deals with the mystery of Christ's person, and this can only be appreciated by those born again. The evangel is the wicket gate – the access – to the kingdom. It is also this way with the other writings. Paul, and Peter in his first epistle, and the writer of the letter to the Hebrews have these words, and this is because in all these writings they are dealing with the initial facts. But the words are notably absent from the writings of John and James and Jude, and the second letter of Peter. All this indicates the principal thought of evangelism and the value of the word as it is used in the New Testament.

Good News

The gospel does not denounce sin. It does not pronounce punishment. It announces salvation. That is its great value. This is not to say that the preacher will not have to discuss the subject of sin or will not have to proclaim the punishment of sin. But it is to say that the preacher who deals with and denounces sin will never end his message with such denunciation. He proclaims God's evangel – good news – when he announces that Christ is able to save from sin, and consequently to save from its penalty.

So also, the evangelist will certainly have to deal with the more severe aspects of truth. He will have to tell others that for anyone who has heard the evangel, for anyone who has been confronted with the claims of Jesus Christ, there can be no escape if they turn their back on that which is God's utmost in the way of saving people. But he will never proclaim that alone. He must add on the great and glorious and hopeful declaration that the one who hung on the tree bore their sins, and by his bearing them, in the infinite mercy and justice of God they may go free.

Therefore, an evangel is good news to whoever needs it. Joy is in it, the message of hope and of optimism. It comes to a person in the darkness and brings him or her light. It comes to those in bondage and announces the way of escape.

It comes to people under the sentence of death and tells them that the sentence has been canceled.

The Message of the Gospel

What then is the Christian evangel as revealed to us in the New Testament? It has four essential teachings: vision, value, virtue, and victory.

The evangel proclaims first, the lordship of Christ; secondly, the cross of Christ; thirdly, the resurrection of Christ; and finally, an indwelling of Christ by the Holy Spirit.

First, the lordship of Jesus. Now you may say to me, have you put these in their right order? Isn't it true that the first business of the evangel – the gospel – is to preach the cross of Christ? I don't think so. I believe the first teaching of the true gospel is that of announcing the lordship of Christ. I am quite willing to admit that this first teaching has largely been omitted from much evangelistic preaching that has been blessed by God, and yet I am profoundly convinced that the evangelist who is going to take hold of the masses must return to the old apostolic method of preaching Jesus as Lord first.

But some may object that he cannot be lord of a person's life until the person is saved. Quite true, but the vast majority of people will never begin to feel their need of his salvation until they have been brought to stand in the light of the claim of his lordship, and so I insist on putting this first.

The Vision of the Lord

This was the apostolic method. In the second chapter of the book of Acts, we have the first sermon preached in the power of the outpoured Spirit, which is a perfect pattern for true Christian homiletics until the end of time. It is from first to last an appeal to the men and women who were listening. Peter was not preaching in front of the people and wondering whether they would like it. He was preaching to them. And the difference between the preaching that does nothing and the preaching that does something is the difference between preaching before people and preaching to people. On the day of Pentecost, Peter began to preach:

Then Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words; for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. (Acts 2:14-16)

This Jesus God has raised up, of whom we all are witnesses. Therefore being raised up by the right hand of God and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye now see and hear. (Acts 2:32-33)

Let's look at this structure. There are two divisions. First, this is that. Secondly, he has poured out this. In the first part Peter said, This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, where he sets the present manifestation in its relation to old-time prophesying. This day of Pentecost is the fulfillment of the past. He has poured out this which ye now see and hear. The past was fulfilled through Jesus. He was the center, heart, and life of the first sermon. And the final word of the sermon, to which everything led up, was:

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. (Acts 2:36)

Thus, on the day of Pentecost, Peter was proclaiming the lordship of Christ. Confronting blind belief, flippant skepticism, idle curiosity, surging sorrow, blinding sin, masterful passion, and everything else, he said, "Jesus is Lord." That was the first teaching.

The evangelist, therefore, has to first confront this age and say to it, "There is one King, one Lord, one Master, one seat of authority, one tribunal to which people may make their appeal. There is one who holds in his hands the balance of justice, from whose verdict there can be no appeal, and who is at this moment the Lord Jesus Christ."

This is not a small theme. Begin preaching that, and you will find you will not finish it the next Sunday morning, nor even in a month of sermons. Buddha and Confucius will have a great rest, and Browning and Tennyson and all the others with their rushlights will not pull you from the great essential light, the lordship of Jesus Christ.

We don't only have to claim Jesus is Lord, but we also have to demonstrate that he is Lord. We have to show to this age in the light of a new century, with all its advance and progress and civilization, that Jesus Christ is Lord, not merely because God has appointed him King – though that is true – but also because of his inherent royalty. God did not randomly appoint Jesus to kingship. He appointed him to kingship because he is King in the very fiber of his nature and in the very fact of his personality. We challenge the world today, and we say that the Jesus of the New Testament – the Jesus of the virgin birth, the virtuous life, the vicarious dying, and the victorious resurrection – stands amid this age with all its fierce light, its boasted civilization, and its new psychology, facile princeps, as the crowned Lord because of the supernal glory of his own character.

But you tell me these things are not authentic, that you have abandoned the Gospel of John, that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are not to be trusted, and that in all probability this man never existed. Very well. Then my business is to find the man who imagined this man, Jesus, for the man who imagined him must be as great as the man he imagined. You do not get away from the revealed person of God when you think you have abandoned the books of Scripture. He stands out in the midst of this age, our Master and Lord, and there never has been one like him.

You and I have to tell men and women to test all sides of their nature by Jesus Christ. They have to bring their intellect, their emotions, and their will up to his royalty. They have to test their belief, their character, and their conduct by him. He has moved into this new century with all its electric gaudiness, with the celestial loveliness of the King of men. And no one should dare come into the presence of the Man of Nazareth revealed in the Gospels, and say, "I am mightier or better than you," or, "I know more than you know, O Man of Nazareth." He is the Lord of all people, and our business is to proclaim it, to insist upon it, and to die for it if need be.

The Value of the Cross

But if you stop there, you are not preaching the gospel. See what follows. If Jesus is indeed preached as Lord, there must always be as the issue of it an application of the truth to individual needs. No one has ever stood in the spotlight of that revelation of life without having to bow his or her head with shame and say, "I am a sinner." To preach the living lordship of Christ is to create the necessity for his cross. Do we sufficiently realize this?

If I said the first teaching of the evangel is the lordship of Christ, I am quite willing to grant that the heart of the gospel is the cross. This age is peculiarly characterized by a loose sense of sin among men and women. Today, we have to preach to people who are not really willing to admit they are sinners – pleasant, refined, cultured people, whom we hardly feel inclined to tell that they are sinners, and who, if we did, would not feel quite like believing it. There are people who will never have any consciousness of sin as long as we keep them at Mount Sinai. But there isn't a man or woman who, if you bring them into the presence of Jesus Christ and say, "that is your King; his law is your standard and his realization of life is your ideal," will go down in the presence of that and will admit they are a sinner.

I have the most profound sympathy for the young man in the Gospels who said, All these things I have kept from my youth up (Matthew 19:20; Luke 18:21). I was born in a Christian family, and through that gracious fact – never to be undervalued – I was strangely and wonderfully delivered from many of the more vulgar methods of sin, and I want to say to you in all honesty and all sincerity, I never trembled when I heard the law of Moses. But when I came into the presence of the holiness of Christ, when I heard his teaching, and when I saw his perfection, then I said, "If that is what I ought to be, O my God, how I have sinned!"

I stand in the presence of an external ethical code such as that of Moses, and I do not tremble. But whenever I come near the incarnate purity and into the presence of the incarnate love, I am ashamed, debased, and bowed in the dust. Brothers and sisters, we must preach Christ as Lord, and as a result, a sense of sin, and a consciousness of inability, of failure, and of breakdown will come to our people. There is no other way of bringing men and women into this consciousness.

Then, thank God, we have the next teaching of the evangel. Oh, how shall we tell it? May God keep us living so near to it that it will always be an element of astonishment to us!

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

"Love so amazing!" Are we amazed at that love? Are we astonished at that love? Think of it; that ideally perfect one, that infinite Lord and Master, went down to death. If you are only preaching his lordship, that is not enough. If all you have to preach to men and women is his example, that is not enough. Unless all that the New Testament claims there is in that death is there, then that death is the severest reflection upon the goodness of God that the world has ever seen. Unless there is a meaning in it, such as the New Testament declares to be in it, then in the presence of the cross, I lose my faith in God.

If death is simply the tragic ending of so beautiful a life, and nothing more, then God has done nothing when he ought to have done something. But when I take the New Testament and see what Christ says about his own death and what the inspired writers of the New Testament say, and when added to Christ's thoughts and the thoughts of the apostles, the answer of my heart to the inner meaning of the cross becomes clear. Then I know that the cross is the heart and center of a great gospel. We are to tell men and women we fail, but the one who never failed took our place.

You cannot get away from the words vicarious atonement – Jesus became the vicarious object of God's justice. The cross is supremely the heart and center of our great evangel. But I am told today that there are men and women so cultured and refined that they do not care to talk about blood; there are those who cut out from the singing of the church such hymns as "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood," and who object to singing "Not All the Blood of Beasts."

Why do you object to those things? You say they lack refinement? Refinement! Do you go to the cross for refinement? You go to the cross to see what sin is. Is blood objectionable? Of course it is. Is the brutal murder of a perfect man awful? Certainly it is. But why was it necessary? Because of sin.

Sin is not refined, and I come to the cross to know the meaning of my own sin. I find my sin when I stand in the presence of the light of the cross. But I never know its meaning until I see the Lord Christ crucified. Certainly there is no refinement in it. We must get back to the cross to know all its ruggedness, to know all its brutality, its wood baptism – a cleansing place. It is only there that the heart finds the conscience cleansed.

I am going to put this superlatively. I am talking out of my deepest conviction when I say that if God would forgive me without the cross, then I never can be satisfied with his forgiveness. My own conscience is not at rest. There is that sin in the past, and if God says he will forgive on the basis of pity, that is not enough, for it is still there.

But God says to me, "It is not there; he, the Son of my love, took it. The one in whom there was no sin was made sin, and in the passion of his death, in the agony of his baptism, in the blood of the brutal cross – all of which had no place in his life – he dealt with your sin."

This is when my heart begins its song, the song that will never end while eternity lasts. My conscience demands this cross, and God answers that deepest human consciousness of mine, which he himself made. We must be very suspicious of any new gospel that has no cross in it.

There is yet another thing, and I am trying to trace them as they come in the order of experience. A person stands upright until he sees the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then is afraid until he sees the value of the cross of Christ, and he says, "I am a sinner forgiven. Now what else? I have to live in the same place, in the midst of circumstances against me, suffering the same temptations, still within the midst of forces which will entice me to sin, though I am forgiven."

The Virtue of Christ's Life

Then we must preach the value of the resurrection, that he has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10), that men and women may have life – not merely eternal life, but also life as a force and virtue, a power and possibility in the life. I like my Lord's words better than any other:

I am come that they might have life and that they might have it in abundance. I AM the good shepherd; the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I have received of my Father. (John 10:10-11, 18)

And that is what he did. He laid it down in death, and took it again in resurrection. If righteousness is credited to me because he died for me, holiness and a new righteousness are imparted to me because he lives in me. And that is the great message we have to bear to men and women today. There are thousands of people who will hardly thank you for the doctrine of forgiveness unless you can tell them there is salvation from the slavery of sin.

And yet once again, a person will say, "I saw the vision, and I knew I was a sinner. I have received the value and am forgiven by the cross. Its virtues have been given to me, and I am enabled to do the things I could not do. But what other forces are there? Must I fight this battle alone?"

Victory in the Spirit

And there comes the crowning declaration of the gospel, never to be put off as a second subject, as a second blessing, or as anything else. Right here in line is the coming to man of Jesus by the Holy Spirit, that Spirit to be the Paraclete, the Advocate, the one who is the dynamic in the life, the force that will produce the coming victory in the man.

And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. (John 14:16)

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all the things that I have said unto you. (John 14:26)

What then shall I say to those to whom I preach the gospel? One thing only: submit to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if a person does that, what then? Then the Lord Christ by the Holy Spirit will transfer over to him the value of his dying, will communicate to him the virtue of his living, and will pour into him the victory of the indwelling Spirit. These three things are the necessary consequences of the submission of life to his lordship. People will not be saved by understanding the atonement. They will not be saved by explaining the mystery of the resurrection. They will not be saved by explaining the mystery of how the Spirit comes. They will just be saved by yielding to the Lord Christ. In the moment of yielding, he transfers over to them all the virtues and values.

I have attempted to speak of the New Testament evangel. Let me close by saying, the gospel is the only one that meets the essential needs of human nature in any age. It is ageless. You cannot say it is old or new. It must be zealously guarded from addition or subtraction. To add conditions to the gospel of the New Testament, or to limit it, is to make it valueless and vicious.

To deprive the gospel of any message is to make it inoperative. If you are preaching an evangel with no vision of the Lord Christ, it is emasculated. If you are preaching an evangel without the value of his death, it is anemic. If you are preaching an evangel with no virtue in it, it is sentimental. If you are preaching an evangel with no victory, it is hopeless.

If we have this great whole – the vision of the Lord, the value of his cross, the virtue of his life, the victory of his indwelling by the Spirit – you have yet to find me the city, the village, the nation, the people, the man, woman, or child that will not find this to be the good news they are waiting for, and apart from which there can be no hope.

* * *

 Evangel is a term that means "gospel" in the context in which Morgan uses it.

 Charles Finney (1792-1875) was an American Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States. He has been called The Father of Modern Revivalism.

 Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899), also known as D. L. Moody, was an American evangelist, writer, and publisher who founded the Moody Bible Institute.

 John Wesley (1703-1791) was an English cleric and theologian who, with his brother Charles and fellow cleric George Whitefield (1714-1770), founded Methodism.

 Most likely Dr. John Watson (1850-1907), Scottish theologian and author of Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush and other works, who was known by the pseudonym of Ian Maclaren.

 Benjamin Fay Mills (1857-1916) was an American evangelist and Christian Socialist.

 Wicket gate is a reference from John Bunyan's seventeenth-century novel The Pilgrim's Progress. As the first stage of the journey of Christian to the Celestial City, it is the entrance to the King's Highway.

 Morgan wrote this book in 1904, just past the turn of the century.

 A Latin term for "easily the first" or "best."

 From a hymn by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" (published in 1707).

 A hymn by William Cowper (1731-1800).

 A hymn by Isaac Watts.

 The Greek word for "Holy Spirit."
Chapter 2

The Evangelistic Church

Evangelism apart from the church is impossible. Christ was and is the one evangelist. Now he fulfills his great work of proclaiming the good tidings through his body, which is the church. In the four Gospels we have a picture of Christ, and at the opening of his second book – Acts – Luke uses words that indicate the character of the gospel narrative and suggest that of the book of the Acts.

The former treatise I have made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which, having given commandments by the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen, he was received on high. (Acts 1:1-2)

That sentence reveals to us the character of the gospel story. The former treatise is the story of the beginning of the work and the teaching of Jesus. The latter is, therefore, by inference, the story of the continuity of the work and teaching of Christ. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus says he is anguished – or as the King James Version says, straitened – until his baptism could be accomplished.

But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am anguished until it is accomplished! (Luke 12:50)

In the book of the Acts, we see the same Jesus no longer anguished, for the passion baptism is accomplished. He has risen, ascended, been enthroned, and has come into a new relationship with men and women by the Holy Spirit to continue his work through the church by the Spirit. Consequently, the gospel proclaimed by Christ to some extent during his life is proclaimed by Christ in full by the Holy Spirit through the church in this age.

The Church, Both Local and Universal

Evangelism apart from the church is apart from Christ and therefore, is not evangelism. There can be no evangelism except for that of Jesus Christ, and that can only be spoken by Christ himself through his people, by the Holy Spirit. Anything calling itself evangelism that is not the outcome of that new life of Christ – realized in the souls of people, and spoken through them by Christ – is not evangelism.

Unattached and unauthorized evangelism, even by individual members of the church of Christ, is the least, unwise, and not the most fruitful of permanent results. I do not desire to unkindly criticize any movement that acts independently of the churches, although I do not hesitate to say that I have serious suspicion of everything that boasts that it is undenominational. I have a very great love for everything that is interdenominational, which is quite another matter. But all unattached, freelance work, unauthorized and ungoverned by the church, is not the best work possible and tends to lead to disorder and confusion.

We must hold to the very highest doctrine of the church, or our evangelism will be weak and one-sided. Believing, therefore, that the relationship between the church and evangelistic work is all important, we will carefully consider the church regarding its creation, its nature, and its purpose.

The New Testament deals with the church in two ways: as catholic – meaning "universal" – and as local. It deals with the whole church of the living God, and a church in any given locality. Sometimes I am asked what church I belong to. When I reply, "I am a catholic churchman," I have seen people look surprised. Yet that is exactly what I am. Catholic means "universal." The catholic church is the whole church, which is different from the Roman Catholic Church. Such a phrase as "Roman Catholic" constitutes an absurd contradiction of terms. If it is catholic, then it is not Roman. If it is Roman only, then by no means is it catholic. That is equally true of the term "Anglican Catholic."

The New Testament deals with the whole church, but it also deals with the local church. The word church is used sometimes of the whole church of God and sometimes of a church in a given locality, as in Ephesus, in Corinth, in Thessalonica, or in Philippi.

As far as the records reveal, the Lord only referred to the church twice in the course of his public ministry. He used the word church once in its catholic sense and once in its local sense, so the general New Testament uses of the word harmonize with that of Christ.

The first occasion was when Peter had made the supreme confession of the messiahship of Jesus. Then he said unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Peter answered and said unto him, Thou art the Christ! (Mark 8:29). At that parting of the ways, the first half of our Lord's work was accomplished. He had taught a little group of men – the nucleus of his kingdom – that he was the Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah of God. And then he immediately began to teach them a new thing, to bring them into view of the pathway through which the Messiah would accomplish the purposes of God. He began to talk to them of the cross, but before mentioning the cross he said, And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, a small rock and upon the large rock I will build my congregation, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against her (Matthew 16:18).

That is a perfect, final, and all-inclusive declaration concerning the church. First, upon the large rock I will build my congregation, and secondly, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against her. It is not one concept that he repeated, but two distinct facts about the church. I think we have too often read the passage as though the Lord said the same thing twice. In the King James Version it says, upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But if you follow the figure carefully, you will find that Jesus was the absolute master of metaphors. There was no blunder and no intellectual inaccuracy in the figures he used. Upon the large rock is the declaration of the impregnable strength of his church against the attacks from without. I will build is an affirmation of the certainty of its perfection and completion.

But what follows? The same thing repeated in another form? By no means. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against her does not mean the church is impregnable against attack, but rather that she is unconquerable when she goes forth to attack.

An attacking force never carries its own gates up to besiege a city. If Hades is contemplating an attack upon the church, it will not carry its gates with it. The idea is not that Hades will attack the church, but that the church will attack Hades, and as she does, the very gates of Hades will yield before her.

Thus, we have two declarations about the church by the Master: she is built by Christ on the rock, and when she goes forth on the conquests of Christ, she conquers all intervening foes, and eventually, the last enemy, the very gates of Hades, will yield to her. She will conquer through life, through death, and unto the endless ages. That is the church I belong to, the church impregnable, unconquerable, marching out in perpetual triumph into the ages beyond. That is Christ's appraisal of the church.

On a subsequent occasion, Jesus mentions the church again.

Therefore if thy brother shall sin against thee, go and reprove him between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the congregation; but if he neglects to hear the congregation, let him be unto thee as a worldly man and a publican. (Matthew 18:15-17)

That is the local church. It is impossible to tell anything that is between your brother and yourself to the whole universal church, but it can be told and it ought to be told to the local church if that brother refuses to listen. It is a perfect picture of the church's discipline. The church is to be so constituted – a fellowship of souls in Christ – that the wrongdoing of one is felt by and affects the whole, and the purity of the entire church must be maintained even at the cost of the excommunication of a brother or sister who persists in wrongdoing.

Thus, we learn from the words of Jesus that the church is the building of Christ on the rock, that the church is the aggressive force that Christ leads to ultimate victory, and that the church within herself is a fellowship exercising discipline, caring for her own internal life, and able to exercise final and divine authority in the case of all those in membership. These things are true of the catholic church and also of the local church.

From these first uses of the word in the New Testament, it is at once seen that the local church is a model of the catholic church, that all the truths concerning the catholic church are true in measure and in degree of the local church, and if we would understand what the function and the force of the local church is, we will have to attempt to get a vision of the function and the force of the catholic church.

The Church Congregation

As I move ahead from these words of Jesus, one or two words concerning the use of the word congregation in Acts will be fitting.

And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food together with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having grace with all the people. And the Lord added to the congregation daily such as should be saved. (Acts 2:46-47)

Where the translation above says congregation, the word church is used in the King James Version. It is not in the original text. Its introduction is of the nature of explanation, and translators almost invariably break down when they attempt to explain it. The literal statement there is that "the Lord added together them that were being saved," and the translators likely thought it must mean "added to the church." Seeing that the word church was not there in the original, the English and American revisers altered it and put added to them, that is, to the disciples. That also is only true in a secondary sense. The thought here is that he added them to himself. Of course, it is true that when he adds a person to himself, he adds him to the church.

Throughout Acts, the word church is sometimes used of the universal church and sometimes of the local church, and the local is always treated as a part of and a model of the universal. The actual word ecclesia, also spelled ekklasia, is used of the congregation of Israel in the wilderness once. In the nineteenth chapter the word is used in the purely Greek sense.

Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was confused; But if ye enquire any thing concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly. (Acts 19:32, 39, 41, emphasis added)

That word assembly here comes from ecclesia. I am not suggesting that the translation is improper. I think it is wise that the word assembly is used on this occasion. What was the assembly here referred to? It was the gathering together of the members of one particular trade. It is the first record we have, so far as I know, of a trade union meeting, and the word assembly indicates the truth. The reference is not to the great promiscuous crowd that was congregated to see what was going on, but rather to that particular and select number, bound together by a common purpose under a common impulse.

The Greek word is used there in its simplest form. It means a called-out assembly. It is the assembly of the silversmiths, and it is the assembly of the town government. That is the word ecclesia in its simple linguistic intention.

That word has been taken hold of by the Christian force and has become the great word for the church. And it means, very simply, an assembly of people, called out, selected from the rest. In the letter to the Ephesians, we have a picture of the church in these wonderful words:

There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)

There is nothing in all of the New Testament that is more wonderful in its revelation of the nature of the true church. Notice first the apostle describes the church as one body. What is the body? Christ and every believer. It's not the believers without Christ. The body includes the Head. Of course, if we speak of the Head and the body, then for the single moment we mean by the body, all except the Head. But in the statement there is one body in this passage, the apostle is taking in the whole context – Christ who is the Head and all members. One Spirit is the life of the one body, the intelligence of the one body, the emotion of the one body, and the will of the one body. He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), so that the whole body of the church is one with the Head, and the Head is one with the body, and that one unifying Spirit of God, in Christ and in all believers, creates the one body. It is one dominating life – that of the Spirit – in Christ and in the believer, unifying Christ and the believer and all believers with each other, because all are united with Christ.

The passage from Ephesians above says, There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. That is to say, there is one calling for Christ and the believer, for the whole church that is the body. In the former part of the epistle, that calling is declared to be that of showing the grace of God to the ages to come and teaching the manifold wisdom of God to the principalities and powers in the spiritual realms. That will be the work of Christ and his people forever.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the lords of this age, rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in the heavens. (Ephesians 6:12)

One body, Christ and all the members. One Spirit, filling the whole body up to its last reach. One calling, the eternal calling of Christ in union with the church and the church in union with Christ. This is a general statement concerning the organism, the life, and the calling of the church.

Next, the apostle shows how individual members become members of the church and how the units enter this living unity. One Lord, the object of faith; one faith, set upon the one Lord; and one baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit that unites the faithful soul with the living Lord. That is the whole process.

The first teaching in the gospel is that of the lordship of Christ. Jesus is Lord by virtue of the splendor of his character, by virtue of the victory of his cross, by virtue of the power of his resurrection. That one Lord is presented to the soul as the object of faith. The answer of faith to the vision of the Lord is the whole of human responsibility. That is the one faith. Its nature is that of believing on him and receiving him as Lord. It is the act of the will in surrender. That act of faith is responded to by the one baptism, that baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby the soul that believes on the Lord is made a member of the Lord himself.

Thus, the individual enters the church. The one Lord is presented to him. He believes. The Spirit baptizes him, and he is a member. The human responsibility is belief; the divine answer is the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby that person is merged into the Christ life and becomes a member of Jesus Christ. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Membership in the Church

This is how he is building his church. People cannot become members of the universal church. No one is admitted into the church by water baptism, nor by vote of a church meeting, nor by the decision of a session. A person enters the church when the Holy Spirit baptizes him or her into Christ. All the other things may be necessary so the discipline of the local church may be maintained. There ought to be solemn recognition of some kind when a man or woman joins the outward and visible church, but all such matters are outward and visible recognitions of the inward and invisible facts. The only condition on which any person should be admitted to a local church is that evidence is given of membership in the universal church by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Once again, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all. That is the last fact of the sevenfold unity. It indicates the glorious realization of the purpose and plan of God in his government of, operation through, and union with the ransomed society.

This great church of the firstborn is being built, and so far, humans have never seen it. We see parts of it, but the scaffolding is all around it yet, and sometimes it seems as though there is more scaffolding than church. But when he comes, all the scaffolding will go, and the glorious church of the firstborn, made up of ransomed souls baptized into the life of Christ – the great entity and unity through which God will manifest himself to ages and to principalities – will be revealed in all its radiant splendor.

Now let's think of the local church in the light of this. Every church is, as is the catholic church, an assembly of those submitted to the lordship of Christ. That is the gate, that is the entrance, and that is the foundational fact. A local church is therefore an assembly of souls submitted to the lordship of Christ. That does not tell all the story, but it gives the key to the whole truth. Everything else follows, and to understand that, let's go back to our gospel. The first teaching is that of the lordship of Christ. Men and women submit to that lordship by believing on him. Then, not only do they see the vision of the Lord, but they also share the value of his death, the virtue of his life, and the victory of his presence. In Romans we see how these things are realized within the church in the living members who are baptized into union with Christ.

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled with God by the death of his Son, much more, now reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10)

For if by one offense, death reigned because of one man; much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of gifts and of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus the Christ. (Romans 5:17)

We are reconciled with God by the death of his Son to reign in life. Now as an aid to memory, let's take three words: reconciled, regenerated, and reigning. These words mark the truth in the case of every individual believer. The individual believer submitted to the lordship of Christ is reconciled to God by the value of his death, regenerated by the virtue of his life communicated, and reigns by the indwelling of Christ through the Holy Spirit.

The Impact of the Church

Now, believing that a church is an assembly of such persons, what results follow? Every church is intended to be within itself a manifestation of all the purposes and the facts of the kingdom of God. A church is an assembly of people who, in the power of the indwelling life of Christ, realize the ideals of Jesus, obey the teachings of Jesus, and take part in the activities of Jesus. It is here where perhaps the church has most sadly failed in the past and where the failure of the church today is most apparent.

We have looked too much on the negative side, which has to do almost exclusively with facts that constitute the saving of the individual from sin and from punishment. These are most important facts. But the great society of God, vitally one, essentially one, socially one, and aggressively one – where is it at the present hour? The church ought to be a society accepting the ideals of Jesus and realizing them in the power of his life. Consequently, it ought to be a society of people who obey the moral code of Jesus, and therefore a society of people who manifest to the world the extent and beauty and beneficence of the kingship of God in and through Jesus Christ. Is that what the church is? That is what the church ought to be, for that is the divine intention.

But someone will say, "What does all this have to do with the evangelistic church?" The very fact of the question reveals the weakness of the hour; the church has largely failed in evangelism because the church has not realized within her own borders the force of her own life. We ask how it is that the masses refuse to listen to her gospel and treat her, in such a marked degree, with contempt. It is because the masses see perfectly well that she is not obedient to her own Master's ideals, and she does not realize his purpose.

That is the severest criticism and it ought to make us blush and hide our heads with shame that the church is not fulfilling her Master's ideals. The evangelistic church is the church that shares Christ's life, and in the power of it obeys his law and thus manifests him to the world. Thus, the church alone can engage in his work and carry out his enterprises. When the church realizes and manifests her Lord in her personal membership and corporate capacity, then and only then is she doing his work, the work of seeking and saving the lost. That is the evangelistic church, and that is the true church of Jesus Christ.

The purpose of the church is certainly that of conserving the life of the saints, but only in order for every saint, and all the saints, to be strong to carry out the purposes and the work of Jesus Christ.

But ye shall receive the virtue of the Holy Spirit which shall come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

Ye shall be witnesses unto me, not witnesses as mere talkers, but evidences, credentials, demonstrations, and proofs among men. The only church that is truly evangelistic is the church that fulfills all the will of her Lord and Master Jesus Christ within her own borders.

Strength of spiritual life always brings in the manifestation, through the church to the world, of the facts of the kingship of God in Christ and the power of Jesus Christ to deal with all the things in human life that are contrary to the mind and will of God. The church is to be aggressive, capturing men and women, fighting against wrong, urging the claims of Jesus Christ everywhere and always, and she can only be this when the purposes of God are realized within her own borders.

In conclusion, the evangelical church is necessarily evangelistic. There are some things so obvious they ought not to need stating. Yet there seems to be a prevalent idea that it is possible for a church to be evangelical and not evangelistic. It is not possible.

A friend of mine in the ministry – a man of whose scholarship and whose devotion there can be no doubt – was talking to me about evangelistic work and accounting for his own lack of interest when he said, "Well, I am profoundly evangelical, but I am by no means evangelistic."

There would seem to be many who take that view. Let me say to you, my brothers and sisters, that this is an absurd contradiction of terms. No person is truly evangelical unless he or she is evangelistic also. What did my friend mean? He meant that he held the evangelical doctrines of our holy faith, but he was not interested in the specific work of winning men and women to Christ.

Now, what are the foundational doctrines of our holy faith? Evangelical faith affirms that the death of Christ was rendered necessary by the ruin of the race and that it is God's provision for man's salvation. It moreover declares that Jesus' life is at the disposal of people for their new life of holiness. Are we evangelical? Do we believe Jesus died in order that he might save people? If not, then we cannot claim to be evangelical. But if we do, can we seriously assert that in holding the doctrines we are still content to do nothing for the people for whom Christ died? Knowing that we have the deposit of truth, the great gospel sufficient for the salvation of people, are we careless about making it known?

Sometimes one reads an advertisement that declares a sure and certain cure for cancer has been discovered. A person advertising this is wholly despicable because, in the first place, the assertion is a lie, and in the second place, if it is true, that person is a rogue to hold a secret for purposes of personal gain that should immediately be given to the world for the cure of that awful disease.

Sometimes someone tells me he is evangelical, he holds the truth about salvation, and is thankful to God for the salvation of his own poor miserable soul. But I deny it. If the cross of Christ in his own life has meant deliverance, cleansing, and purity, that consciousness will drive any person out into evangelistic work and effort.

Evangelism Begins in the Church

Evangelism demands a church, and wherever the church of Jesus Christ is, there is an instrument for evangelistic work, because there is a company of men and women in whom the gospel has won its victory and through whom it is manifested as a life and proclaimed as a message.

Let me say to all ministers, you will find you must have your church act with you if you are going to do any evangelistic work. And to church members, it is no use wasting breath in the criticism of a minister because he is not doing evangelistic work. Let the church fall into line. One of the first missions of the ministry will be to bring his church to support the commission, and that will often need a great deal of common sense and patience.

No church ought to be allowed to exist that has not added to its membership by confession of faith. If a church exists only by letters of transfer, it's time for the doors to be closed, and "Ichabod: the glory of the Lord has departed" to be inscribed across them.

This evangelism must begin in the churches. The churches themselves must be turned back to the work of evangelism. We are entrusting too much to organizations outside the church. It is in the church the work must be done. We will have to labor in birth for the souls of our own people. When all the forces of the Christ life are operative without hindrance in our own church life, then men and women will be brought under the sound and power of the great and glorious gospel. May God make all our churches to be churches after the pattern of the catholic church, with one body, one Spirit, one calling, and one God over, through, and in all, moving to his purpose and accomplishing that purpose through the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

* * *

 Note that on the word congregation in the Jubilee Bible, there is a footnote indicating that this is translated from the Greek word ekklesia, which means "called-out ones." It is the same Greek word used in Matthew 16:18 when Jesus talked to Peter about building the church on the rock. This word is not used in Acts 2:47 in the NASB Greek Lexicon.

 A reference to a name in 1 Samuel 4:21 given to the grandson of Eli, the high priest, when a series of consequences for their disobedience descended on the household.
Chapter 3

The Evangelist

The doctrine of New Testament ministry lies wholly within the doctrine of the church. The ministry serves the church under the lordship of Christ. That is not to say that ministers are servants of the church in the sense of obeying the church. They do serve the church, but they obey the Lord Christ. From that statement we can deduce and remember two initial truths: one, the ministry has no right to lord it over God's heritage, and two, God's heritage has no right to lord it over the ministry.

I have used Peter's phrase on purpose. Writing to the elders and the bishops he said, not as having lordship over the heritage of the Lord.

Feed the flock of God which is among you, caring for her, not by force, but willingly; not for shameful lucre, but with willing desire; and not as having lordship over the heritage of the Lord, but in such a manner as to be examples of the flock. (1 Peter 5:2-3)

The word heritage there is klēros, the word from which we derive our word clergy. According to Peter, the whole church was the clergy, and bishops were men who were to serve the clergy, and not lord it over them. Every believer is in the priesthood, and the whole church is the clergy, and yet within the whole church there is a distinct ministry.

Our present subject is concerned principally with that section of the Christian ministry indicated by the word evangelist. But in order to properly understand the function of the evangelist, we must take time to establish that particular aspect of the ministry in relation to the whole. Too often there is a measure of friction between the evangelist and those who are exercising other gifts of the ministry, and this friction acts in two ways. Pastors and teachers sometimes entertain a feeling that almost amounts to contempt for evangelists. On the other hand, the evangelist very often manifests a contempt for pastors and teachers.

Now this is all utterly false; it is contrary to the spirit of the New Testament, contrary to the spirit of love, contrary to the spirit of wisdom, and contrary to the Spirit of God. If we may only see the interrelationship of these gifts – that a person is in the ministry not by his or her own choice, but by the choice of the Holy Spirit, and that the work of each is not contradictory to the work of the rest but complementary instead – then we will be a lot closer to understanding the true place of evangelists and making their proper place for them in the work of the church of Jesus Christ.

The Roles of Ministry

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints in the work of the ministry, unto the edifying of the body of the Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-12)

We have often interpreted some translations of this passage as if these gifts were bestowed so those receiving them might perfect the saints and do the work of the ministry. As a matter of fact, what the apostle meant was that these gifts are bestowed on people in the church so they can perfect the church by their ministry and so the church can do the work of the ministry.

The fullest facet of ministry includes the whole church, and the people in it who have received special gifts, have received those in order that they may perfect the church for its work of ministry. The translation of the American Standard Version makes this more clear. And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ.

He gave some to be apostles. The specific work of the apostles is the perfecting of the doctrine, the fundamental basis of teaching. He gave some, prophets. The work of the prophet is the perfecting of the forthtelling, the declaration of the truth. He gave some, evangelists. The work of the evangelist is the perfecting of the whole body of the church by calling men and women into relationship with Christ. He gave some, pastors and teachers. Their work lies wholly within the church and is that of perfecting the character of the members of the church in order for the whole church to be perfectly equipped for its ministry. These are the true orders of the Christian ministry. These are the fundamental and spiritual orders, and we must recognize them if there is to be any fulfillment of the whole function of our ministry.

The Role of Minister

Now let's examine how a person in the church becomes a minister within the church. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 12. Here we have a chapter on the subject of church order that always ought to be read side by side with the fourth chapter of Ephesians. Notice the similarities:

Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. And God did set certain ones in the congregation: first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that faculties, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? do all have faculties?

Do all have gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? (1 Corinthians 12:27-30)

However, in this chapter you will find that the apostle, when beginning a section about spiritual things (verse 1), doesn't talk about the specific work first. Instead, he deals first with the lordship of Jesus and then with the ministry of the Spirit of God and with the gifts bestowed by the Spirit as a subsection of the ministry of the Spirit. He deals with gifts far larger than those of the ministry to which he refers in Ephesians. In the course of his argument he makes a statement of vital importance, that the Spirit operates all these things, dispersing to each one his own gift as he wills (1 Corinthians 12:11).

In Ephesians, the same principle is declared – that he made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. The whole emphasis of the truth is that the capacity for ministry in any form is a gift, and it is a gift bestowed by the Head of the church through the Holy Spirit, according to his own pleasure.

Therefore, no person can choose to be a minister of Jesus Christ, which is different from the way any person might choose the profession of medicine or of law. No person ever really enters the Christian ministry in the deep spiritual sense of the term except that he or she receives a gift from the Christ, the Head of the church, by the Holy Spirit, who perfectly equips them for the work they have to do.

We hear a great deal in these days about the lack of people entering our theological seminaries. I have been asked if I would urge young people to give themselves to the ministry, urge them to adopt the ministry as a calling in life that is high and holy and beautiful. And my reply always is, "I dare not urge any man."

No one can enter the ministry of their own will and choice. The only way in which someone can possibly enter the ministry is when the Holy Spirit of God bestows upon them a gift from the Head of the church – Christ. By that gift he is made a minister of Jesus Christ. Nothing short of that makes a minister, and so nothing can prevent them from being a minister except their own disobedience to the heavenly calling.

I would very solemnly urge young people to consider well whether they have not had the gift and the calling and are refusing it. Somewhere and sometime, have you had a burning passion to preach the Word come upon your soul – a great constraint and a sure conviction that you can preach it? And have you allowed some secular calling or some material advantage to persuade you that you can still be a good Christian and make money? It is to the peril of your soul that you stay there. If the gift is once given, then how terrible it is for that person if he or she doesn't preach the gospel.

For though I preach the gospel, I have no reason to glory, for it is an obligation laid upon me; for woe is me, if I do not preach the gospel! (1 Corinthians 9:16)

Spiritual Gifts for Ministry

Notice next that the gifts in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians refer to special spiritual qualifications for the work of special spiritual service. What is a gift that is given to a person? What is the gift of the apostle, the gift of the prophet, the gift of the evangelist, the gift of the pastor and teacher? I do not mean what is the specific value or the distinction between these, but what is the underlying quality in each? What is a gift?

The gifts are certainly not the kind that may be designated as natural endowments. They are spiritual quantities and qualities given for the doing of spiritual work. A person receives the gift of an apostle. Then in him or her there is a spiritual force, a spiritual vision, a spiritual fitness that other brothers and sisters do not have – the spiritual qualities that equip the gifted ones for doing a distinctly spiritual work, the work of an apostle. It is the same with all of the gifts. The gift is a spiritual qualification.

But while it is true that the gift is given and is not merely a natural ability, it is also perfectly certain that the Spirit of God never bestows a spiritual gift for service except upon people who have natural abilities that will enable them to use it. There is nothing in the economy of God that is out of joint and out of place. There is perfect harmony between God's first creation and the bestowal of special spiritual gifts. The new birth does not mean the death of everything essential and noble in the first birth, but rather its life. So also, when God bestows the gift of the apostle, or the prophet, or the evangelist, or the pastor and teacher upon a person, the gift will be bestowed upon people who have natural aptitudes and fitness and abilities for their work. A young man in my church tells me God has called him to preach. Then I immediately give him opportunities to preach.

I find him an event in the mission hall or in a home, and my brothers in the clergy will oversee along with me. They will hear him, not critically, but with the attentiveness of a great and passionate desire to help him. If, after a little while, we find that the man has no natural ability, I would say to him in love and in all honesty, "My friend, you have evidently made a mistake. God has never called you to preach, or you would be able to preach."

We have made the terrible mistake of putting people through the theological seminary, and when they have completed their courses we find, and they find, that they are not preachers, and so they write essays to the end of time.

Essays are excellent things, but the writing and reading of them is not preaching. We must find the men with natural abilities and the spiritual gifts. If a person has that twofold equipment and is responsive to the heavenly vision, you cannot stop them from preaching, and you cannot stop their preaching with power. The gift is a spiritual quantity and quality, bestowed upon a person having natural endowments. The gift of the pastor and teacher will be a spiritual quality of appreciation of truth bestowed upon a person who is a born teacher and a born shepherd. The gift of the prophet will be an appreciation of truth in its application to the needs of our current time, bestowed upon a person who, if they were not a preacher, must be a speaker somewhere or other. It is said that some people with absolutely no gift of speech have received the spiritual gift and have become great preachers. Personally, I have never known such a case.

Some years ago in England, I was told by a dear man – who held very strongly that all spiritual power in service was merely spiritual – that there was no connection between man's natural capacity and the spiritual gift. The instance cited was D. L. Moody, and I was told he had no natural gifts of speaking and that everything he had was the spiritual equipment. I am not undervaluing the spiritual equipment, but if D. L. Moody had gone into politics instead of preaching, you would have found that he would have swayed vast audiences, and that he was a man of natural endowment. A gift is a spiritual quantity and quality bestowed upon those who are naturally endowed to receive it by Jesus, the Head of the church, at his own will and through the Holy Spirit. That is the fundamental truth concerning the vocation and the force and the power of the Christian ministry.

Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, and Pastors

Now let's notice the interrelation of these gifts. The apostle was the first messenger. The work of the apostle consisted of the proclaiming of truth first and then in the committal to sacred writings of the truth. It is written of the early disciples:

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. (Acts 2:42)

In that phrase doctrine we have the indication of one part of the work of the apostle. I am inclined to say the gift of the apostle is still given under certain circumstances for specific work. At the birth of all great missionary movements there has been an apostle, a first messenger, one with a specific gift to go forth and tell at the beginning the doctrines of the Way.

Then we have the work of the prophet. The peculiar and distinctive note of prophetic utterance is that a person who is a prophet foretells the truth from God without any reference to the pleasure or anger of the people. This is the prophetic message. You find it in the old prophecies in the words God spoke to Ezekiel:

And thou shalt speak my words unto them, but they will not hear nor forbear, for they are rebels. (Ezekiel 2:7)

They will not hear nor forbear. The prophet is not an evangelist. The prophet does not come down into personal dealing and constraint of individual lives. The prophet is one whose voice is lifted in an age, pouring out truth, compelling the generation to at least hear it. Whether they will obey or not is not his responsibility. That is the characteristic message of the prophet in all time periods, and God has never been without prophets in this Christian era.

The evangelist is a name that signifies a person who tells the glad tidings, always with a view to compelling – by the gospel – the person who listens toward the good news of which the gospel bears testimony. I am inclined to think that the opportunity of the evangelist is often made by the prophet today – that in prophetic utterances and prophetic ministry there is a stirring of conscience and inquiry, and the evangelist comes to that with his or her personal and individual message of the lordship of Christ, the value of his cross, the virtue of his resurrection, and the glorious victory of his indwelling. Therefore, the evangelist is the one who, in the name of the church, tells men and women outside of the church how they may come inside, and declares the glorious glad news of the infinite gospel.

When in response to the message of the gospel people crowd to the Christ, confess him as Lord, receive the value of his death, the virtue of his life, and the assurance of victory, then the pastor and teacher begins to teach them, train them, and watch over them. There are two words that mark the work of the pastor and teacher: overseer and pastor. He is one who watches and feeds the flock of God.

John Milton, when speaking of false pastors and their failure in the ministry, describes them in a most remarkable phrase. He speaks of them as "blind mouths," and he says in his poem "Lycidas" that "The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed." It is a terrible indictment and that's because it is scriptural. Blind mouths appears to be a contradiction in terms, but it isn't, because as John Ruskin points out, Milton brought together the two facts in the work of the pastor and teacher. His first work is to watch over the flock, but Milton says the false pastor is "blind." His second work is to feed the sheep, but Milton says instead of doing that, the false pastor is trying to be fed himself; he is a "mouth."

Let no evangelist think that the pastor and teacher, who year by year patiently feeds the flock, isn't doing God's work because he is not doing that of the evangelist. And let no pastor and teacher think that those passing over the country like a flame of fire, proclaiming salvation, and compelling people to acceptance are merely sensational.

Oh, this great church of Jesus Christ, if we could only realize it, with its great gifts – the apostle who is the first messenger to the new region, the prophet who is the perpetual voice proclaiming truth, the evangelist who is the perpetual voice calling people to the Christ, and the pastor and teacher who is instructing, leading, guiding, and culturing the saints.

Two Types of Evangelists

But I must leave that larger outlook. I have at least said enough to show the place of the evangelist and to show there is no antagonism between the work of the different orders. I once heard W. L. Watkinson, one of the most wonderful preachers in England in my time, and who had a marvelous gift of sanctified satire, say in a great congregation of ministers:

"The pity is we do not understand each other. I go to one man in the regular pastorate, and I say to him, 'What do you think of these special men?'

"And he replies with a curl of his lip, 'Sensation.'

"And then I come to a special man and I say to him, 'What do you think of that quiet man down there?'

"And he says, 'Oh, stagnation!'"

And that tells the truth of the attitude that is too often indulged in against each other. In the light of this great truth of the complementary nature of the gifts, we ought to recognize that every person in the ministry – while one will have a specific gift above all others – will still have sympathy with all the rest. For I still believe the Holy Spirit bestows gifts of this type in the church, giving some to be prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

The church whose ecclesiastical order will allow it to make room for a person to exercise the gift God has bestowed is certainly happy, and the church will be unhappy if it wants each of its ministers to be a little of a prophet, a little of an evangelist, and a little of a pastor and teacher; thus, making them a little of each makes them all of nothing. We want room for the orderliness of the Spirit of God in our ecclesiastical arrangements.

But now, where this is established and we see the interrelation of these gifts, and we see how there is no conflict but perfect harmony where the whole church and ministry is under the dominance of the Spirit, we may turn to the specific gift of the evangelist. In the New Testament only two men are definitely spoken of as evangelists. Philip is called an evangelist, and in the final charge of Paul to Timothy, he says, But watch thou in all things, labour, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry (2 Timothy 4:5). It is at least significant that the two men who are called evangelists are in entirely different circumstances, and I think it suggests the two types of the evangelist.

Philip was a man at large. He was not definitely in charge of any church, nor was he, I believe, set apart by any apostolic function to his work. He was an evangelist prepared to tell the gospel by the bestowal of a qualification for telling the gospel. He moved from place to place. He went to Samaria, then he spoke to the individual eunuch and was caught away to Azotus. Then we find him moving up through Caesarea, at last settling down, his children coming up after him and uttering the same great gospel. That is one evangelist as I see him in the book of Acts.

The other is a man who oversaw the church at Ephesus, who was placed in charge through certain difficulties that arose there, and the letter of the apostle is written to instruct him in his work. I am inclined to think that the more special work of Timothy was that of the evangelist, moving from place to place. But Paul saw the necessity of a certain supervision at Ephesus and sent him there. And he wrote to him of his charge, the church, and gave instructions about how he should take leadership. But the last thing the apostle urged was that he not forget that though he was now overseeing the church through certain ecclesiastical difficulties, he was to fulfill his ministry and do the work of an evangelist. It is at least significant that these two men are described by the term evangelist – the one moving from place to place, and the other settled in leadership of a church.

The Gift of Evangelism

Having simply referred to that by way of illustration, in order that we may understand that the evangelist could be a person called to move from point to point or may be a person placed by God to oversee a church, I want to speak of this gift itself. I have said that all of these gifts are spiritual quantities and qualities. There is no specific description in the New Testament of either of these gifts given. However, we may safely argue the nature of the gift from the work. A person who receives the gift of the evangelist is one to whom there is given a clear understanding of the gospel; a great passion in his or her heart results from the clear vision, a great optimism fills his soul, born of confidence in the power of Christ to save every person.

Growing out of that passion and that confidence, a great compulsion seizes him or her to tell somebody, to tell everybody the glad news of salvation by Jesus Christ. Those peculiar qualities are not found in all people called to the ministry. Every person will have sympathy along these lines; however, there are other forms of spiritual gifts, as we have seen. But where this is the all-consuming fire, there you have an evangelist.

Assuming that a person has the gift, on what course is he or she to be trained for using it? A person must be trained in theory and in practice, and the training of theory and practice must go side by side during the whole time of preparation for the application of the gift. Wherever possible, I would give a person the most profound and fullest academic training possible, but I would put each theological seminary in – or not far from – a great city, and I would send the theological students down into the slums to teach and to preach. There are people advising us to save people by education, and the latest thing I hear suggested is salvation by psychology. However, this kind of suggestion is always confined to theory, and it does not get beyond the book in which it is discussed. A good many books are published that would never see the light if the writer had to go into the slum district or suburban quarter for the definite business of saving people while the writer was thinking out his or her problem.

A person must be trained, but the person who has this passion must exercise it – he must use it. Anyone who has this compulsion must not be hindered from going out to exercise the gift, or else the gift within them will burn down to cinders and ashes.

While exercising the gift, let this person be trained in every way. The evangelist ought to be a person, a whole person, a person who is to be a perfect instrument for that perfect gospel he or she is called to preach. The evangelist is to train physically, is to train mentally, and above everything else, is to train spiritually. We have no right to assume that while all the other vocations of life – the lawyer, the doctor, the businessperson – demand preparatory hard work and training, that we could successfully put untrained people into the work of the ministry.

If God takes hold of a person whom he has called to the work and it is really impossible for that person to obtain training, and if they become a veritable flame of fire, that is no reason for other people to shirk training and slip carelessly into the work of the evangelist. The very magnificence of your gospel and the very majesty of your work demands you should take time; take your whole being, and attempt to make it a suitable instrument for the proclamation of the great gospel.

I would like to say a good deal about physical training. If a person is going to preach this gospel, he or she has no right to trifle with their own physical powers. My body is to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, who will proclaim this gospel through me, and I am to see to it as far as I am able, so that in all its powers it is an instrument fit for the Master's work.

It is the same with the mind. Ignorance is not a qualification for evangelism. My dear young brother or sister, are you looking forward to an evangelistic ministry? Then I plead with you to do what it says in the King James Version of the Bible: gird up the loins of your mind – prepare your minds for action – and obtain all the knowledge possible.

Therefore, having the loins of your understanding girded with temperance, wait perfectly in the grace that is presented unto you when Jesus, the Christ, is manifested unto you. (1 Peter 1:13)

No single branch of knowledge is out of place for the person who is going to do the work of an evangelist. You may gather illustrations from all sciences and from all literature, and if you are only living close to the center and close to Christ, you will see light gleaming and breaking everywhere. Don't hurry through training in order to do this work, but while the training goes on, practice what you learn all of the time, and through the process you will gain strength and become presently an evangelist proclaiming the message with the stamina of physical strength, with the wisdom of mental equipment, and with the dynamic of spiritual force. The world waits for people such as this at this moment – for the preaching of this great gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Work of the Evangelist

If this is the gift and the training of evangelists, what is their work? The evangelist is to go forth and preach the lordship of Christ, preach him as Lord until in the presence of his lordship, people become conscious of their own failure. Then the Great Commission begins of declaring to them that by his cross, salvation has come to them – that they can be all that they are not and they do not need to be all that they are, and the things that they are but don't want to be can be canceled in blood. We declare that by having life in the Spirit, they can be the things they aren't yet. Oh, this is a great message, the gospel of the cross.

But is the proclamation everything? By all means! The evangelist must compel people to obey. There must be that wonderful wooing note that breaks people's hearts and sweeps them to Christ. That is the final and most remarkable teaching of the real evangelist, by which he or she compels people. It isn't merely the declaration of the evangel, not merely the announcement of the lordship of Christ and the declaration of the cross, but also the ability to take hold of people and compel them to Christ.

Of course, some worldly critic will call this personal magnetism. That, however, is not all the truth. It is the influence of the personality of Christ through the personality of consecrated people that wins.

Think of the great evangelists who were very often stern men, and yet their sternness always melted into tears. Every great evangelist has been of that nature. The late Robert W. Dale of Birmingham, England, greatest of our theologians, said to me as we sat in his study one day, "I think I have only known one evangelist that I felt had the right to speak of a lost soul."

I asked, "Who was it?"

He replied, "It was D. L. Moody, and it was because he never spoke of the possibility of a man being lost without having tears in his voice."

He turned from fiery admonition of sin into quiet, plaintive, tearful, heartbroken urgency. It is the great equipment. It is the great secret.

The Character of an Evangelist

If all this is true, what manner of person should the evangelist be in his or her own character? First of all, each must be a credential of the gospel he or she preaches. It is no use for me to preach the lordship of Christ unless I am loyal to him. I may eloquently describe his kingship and I may defend him against the attacks of others with acumen, but if my life isn't loyal, my eloquence is sounding brass, a tinkling cymbal, a blasphemy that is brash and disrespectful.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13:1)

And the person who preaches the cross must be a crucified person. You may preach the cross and it is nothing but a Roman gallows unless you preach it from yourself. It is the crucified person that can preach the cross. When Jesus appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, Thomas wanted to see evidence:

The other disciples, therefore, said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he [Thomas] said unto them, Unless I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. (John 20:25)

Dr. Parker of London said that what Thomas said about Christ the world is saying about the church. And the world is saying to every preacher, "Unless I see in your hands the print of the nails, I will not believe."

It is true. It is the preachers who are at the end of themselves, who have come to the end of reputation and the end of earthly ambition, the ones who have died with Christ, who can preach the cross of Christ.

And there is still more. They are not only loyal to his lordship and do not only realize the power of his cross, but they also reveal the glory of his resurrection in a life that rises above the things of this life, that triumphs every day – not merely the man of the cross, but also the man of Easter morning.

Dear brother and sister of mine and preacher of the gospel, are you an Easter morning man or woman? It isn't only the cross. It is the cross and the resurrection. Have you come to resurrection by the way of the cross? Is the radiance of its glory on your brow? Is the song of an assured victory in your heart? If you are doubting, you cannot inspire faith. If you are not sure how this thing is going to turn out, no one will be persuaded. You must be the person of certainty, a person on the resurrection side of the grave, with the old life behind.

There is an old story of a boy flying his kite. He could not see it. A gentleman passing by said to him, "What are you doing?"

"Flying my kite."

"Oh, but you cannot see it," he said.

"No, but I feel its pull."

It is the person who feels the pull of the unseen things that is going to preach this gospel, and the only one who does that will be the person who, by the way of the cross, has come out into the resurrection life.

Consequently, evangelists are people who not only preach the possibility of victory by the indwelling Christ, but they are also truly optimistic about the power of personal realization of victory in their own lives. Pessimism paralyzes power in evangelistic preaching, but the great optimism of the indwelling of Christ is a perpetual power.

All of this means unceasing vigilance is necessary. The person who is to be an evangelist, the voice of the church that proclaims the glad news, must zealously and jealously guard the gift committed to them. Personal examination and correction are necessary if this work is to be perfectly done. Oh, the subtle and insidious foes of the minister – sloth, ambition, pride, and distraction – these are the things that spoil us.

My brothers and sisters, how we must guard against them. Evangelists need to live in perpetual fellowship with God. They need to earnestly devote themselves to the hardworking, brain-sweating study of their message. And evangelists need to be perpetually on the watch for souls.

Keeping the Gifts Alive

Let me gather up and conclude. An affiliation with the evangelist is in every person who is gifted by the Spirit, though all may not have the specific gift. The varieties create the harmonies. Harmony is a concord of differences. So whether you have that specific gift or not, you have support for it and an affinity with it if you are Christ's own minister. At least keep that affinity alive and warm. Don't let anything freeze it out or paralyze it.

My special word is to you, my brothers and sisters – perhaps only to a few – whom God has called to this special work. Let your spirit be carefully guarded. And let me say even more strongly that as a witness in the church and as one who has the gift of the evangelist, you ought to be able to inspire everyone you meet – people in your church – with the sympathy and passion that consumes you. That is your first and greatest work even as an evangelist.

As there is no calling more wonderful than that of the evangelist, therefore, none demands more in cost and in labor.

And now this final word to those in whose hearts a fellowship and support for evangelists burns. By your prayer, by your cooperation, by your determined attempt to sweep every roadblock out of the way, help these men who are called and gifted for the proclamation of the message. And if you have discovered that the pastor of your church is someone in whose heart there is this great passion and persuasion – a driven desire to win souls – oh, I beg you not to hinder him or her. Don't bind them, don't prevent them, and don't demand that they should put the gift of evangelism to wrong use by taking care of you. Instead, in your cooperation, catch the same spirit and carry on the same great, glorious work. Thus, all of us in some measure, while some through specific equipping, may be evangelists of the cross.

* * *

 See Strong's number G2819.

 The early church movement of the apostles was referred to as "the Way."

 John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667).

 John Ruskin (1819-1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as a prominent social thinker and philanthropist.

 William Lonsdale Watkinson, also known as W. L. Watkinson (1838-1925).

 Robert William Dale (1829-1895) was an English Congregational Church leader.

 Joseph Parker (1830-1902) was an English Congregational minister.
Chapter 4

Evangelistic Church Services

This is the phase of our subject that I would personally prefer to omit. I freely confess to a fear of the study of methods. I am well aware that such a study is necessary, but I am always a little afraid lest we should attempt to press the infinite Spirit of God into some ready-made method.

The wind blows where it desires, and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell from where it comes or where it goes; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

These words of our Master have very wide application. They indicate the spontaneity of the work of the Spirit. No one can tell from where the wind comes or where it goes. No one can foretell the line along which the Spirit of God will operate toward the accomplishment of the divine purpose. Nevertheless, it is true that no one will make the wind his or her servant except that they learn the true method of answering its law.

The wind blows where it will, but if I want the wind to be my servant and propel my boat across the sea, I must know how to construct my boat and my sail to catch the wind. And so, while the Spirit of God is the one worker, without whom nothing can be done along the line of true evangelism, it is also true that it is important for us to discover the methods by which he works most easily and naturally. In proportion to how we do this, we will be able to cooperate with him in all his great work and purpose.

In dealing with the conduct of an evangelistic service, it must be distinctly understood that I would not attempt to compel every person to use one method, and above all, I would not attempt to suggest that I have discovered the final or best method by which the Spirit may work.

Evangelism and Sunday Preaching

I want to speak first of all about the place of evangelistic services in the course of the regular ministry and then of the work of evangelism at special seasons in the life of a church or community.

The presence in our congregations of those who are not actually and personally submitted to Christ must always create the necessity for such service. Nothing can be more paralyzing to the lives of ministers themselves, or to the congregations that assemble regularly to hear them as they preach the Word, than that they should come to think or should preach in such a way as to make their people think a definite decision for Christ is not important in every individual life. There is a very great peril along that line to all of us in the work of the regular ministry.

I am very thankful to be able to speak to you from the standpoint of twelve years of experience in the settled work of the ministry. I know exactly what it is to face a congregation Sabbath after Sabbath. There is nothing more full of delight than that kind of work. But there is a danger that we take too much for granted about the people to whom we preach, and if we are not careful we will drift into the opinion that because these people are attending services, it means there is no need for the direct appeal of the gospel to be made to them. We must forever remember that it is necessary that every individual person should come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

We must remember that no child is born a Christian. For one single moment, the question of whether or not the children of Christian parents are born within a covenant is not to enter into any discussion – as I believe they are – yet they are still not born Christians. And I very strongly hold – and my own life's experience is the most remarkable testimony to the truth of the fact – that when a child is born of Christian parents and is trained in a Christian home, the actual acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord by that child is likely to be natural and simple, without revulsion, without earthquake shock, as soft as the kiss of morning on the brow of nature, as sweet as the passing zephyr over the fields of flowers.

Yet there must be definite submission, and no child born of Christian parents is a Christian because of birth. In all our preaching we need to remember that the dear children of our own members, the ones who come with them to worship – and there is no fairer sight to my own eyes than that of seeing father and mother and children sitting in front of me Sabbath after Sabbath – must each one for himself and herself, at some age of understanding and discretion, yield their own life to Jesus Christ, or else they can never be Christians.

Now with that conviction in the heart of the minister, he will at once see how there must be a desire for the salvation of these in his preaching, even though he is primarily a pastor and teacher. There must occasionally be some message, some appeal, and some opportunity given to those who sit under his ministry to make an immediate decision and a definite confession of Jesus Christ.

No person can have the lordship of Christ as the burden of his or her preaching – whether the special quality is that of the prophet, or that of the evangelist, or that of the pastor and teacher – without bringing a conviction of sin to the consciences of those who listen. In the first of these lectures, I placed special emphasis on the first lesson of the gospel, the lordship of Christ. It is the great theme of preaching. It is the message of the prophet to his or her generation. It is the message of the evangelist to the individual. It is the message of the pastor and teacher to the people. The prophet proclaims that Jesus is Lord over all the activities of men and women.

The evangelist proclaims that Jesus is Lord in the realm of the salvation of the individual. The pastor and teacher insists upon the lordship of Christ in the actual life of the believer. And no person can preach that lordship in all the spaciousness of its meaning without those who hear it becoming conscious of sin.

Wherever, as the result of the preaching of the lordship of Christ, conviction of sin results in the consciences of those who hear, the necessity for the proclamation of the way of salvation is immediately created, or in other words, there is the opportunity for the evangelistic service.

Therefore, I submit that ministers of Jesus Christ ought to occasionally hold meetings where they urge immediate decision and give the opportunity for it. We must not be led astray from the essential work of the Christian ministry by imagining we have some gift that liberates us from responsibility for the decision of the men and women who listen to us. There is no ministry gift that does not include something of the evangelistic necessity within it, of urging the claim of Christ upon individuals. I believe that no regular ministry is complete where there is never an opportunity for immediate decision on the part of those who are brought into contact with the fact of the lordship of Christ and who hear the gospel of salvation.

Evangelism in Regular Preaching

As to time and season, my own conviction is that in the vast majority of cases in the work of the regular ministry, it is not wise to decide that on every Sunday night there will be an evangelistic service. There are exceptions to this rule. The local circumstances must always decide. In the Moody Church in Chicago, where Sunday by Sunday a promiscuous crowd is gathered together, no Sabbath evening passes without an evangelistic appeal and without decisions for Christ.

Some people imagine that because it is done there, it ought to be done everywhere. That is by no means a logical result. Neither do I think it is wise to hold an evangelistic service at stated intervals. That is too mechanical of an arrangement. The pastors who live in fellowship with the Spirit of God and who seek to receive their messages directly from God, will discover when the moment has come that they must declare the gospel and make their appeal. That is the occasion for the evangelistic service.

If I may refer to my own experience as a pastor, I have gone on from Sunday to Sunday, sometimes for one or two months with an evangelistic service after each evening service. On the other hand, there have been periods when only once in the month, or perhaps twice, such services have been held, and sometimes months would pass with no such service. I never went to my pulpit knowing whether I would have such a service or not. I went with a burden and a message, and because I endeavored to lead and train my church in cooperation with me, they were never surprised if I had an after-meeting. If I did hold one, I found my officers and workers ready to do the necessary work.

There are a thousand people who do not have the specific gift of the evangelist who are yet able to do evangelistic work occasionally as opportunity occurs. There are a thousand people who do not have the particular quality that draws the promiscuous and large multitude to their church, but who still are in the ministry by the gift and appointment of God, and their special work will be that of preaching regularly to a congregation composed very largely of the same people, but into which strangers will constantly be coming. There is no congregation made up entirely of saints. Consequently, there will be an element of those interested but not submitted in all congregations, and the minister must ever have on his heart the burden of such people.

A great many ministers say to me, "We don't feel we can conduct evangelistic services like that. How shall we do it?"

First of all, by the use of your natural endowments. There are people who have remarkable powers of persuasion at an election, who still say they cannot urge people to make a decision for Christ. If you have influenced people to vote as they ought to vote for the good of the country, you should be able to win them for Christ.

A person in the ministry of Jesus Christ, whose heart has been touched with the Spirit of God, must feel the compassion of the heart of Christ toward people and must feel the winning and drawing power of the Christ over them. If a minister has no compassion for people, no yearning for souls, and no knowledge of what it is to labor in birth for the souls of people, he should search his own heart and life and see what it means. For there must be something wrong between him and his Lord, or that compassion and power of persuasion would most certainly be there.

The Importance of Opportunity for Decision

As to the conduct of an after-meeting, the first thing necessary is that the minister should preach so as to make an after-meeting necessary. It is no use conducting an after-meeting after any kind of preaching. If a decision has been urged in the preaching, then I cannot help thinking that if an appeal is made for immediate response in the power of the Spirit, it will be realized.

Two or three years ago, it was my privilege to take part in the simultaneous mission arranged by the Free Church Council of England. Some people will tell you that mission was a failure. That is only partially true. I am quite prepared to admit that it did not succeed in any large extent in reaching the vast masses of the unchurched people. There were exceptions, of course, but both in London and in the provinces, there were whole regions – residential regions very often, as well as slum regions – that were hardly touched at all.

But the movement was a glorious success in that it aroused an interest in evangelistic work in the hearts of hundreds of pastors and turned them to evangelism in their own churches. The provincial mission that I conducted was held in the town hall of the city. All of the Free Churches were united in that mission. God greatly blessed the services, and many were brought to Christ.

The last meeting I held was with the ministers, a conference where they asked what they could do to take up and carry on the work. I suggested that on the next Sunday night every preacher, whether he had ever done so before or not, should preach to his own congregation with the distinctive and declared purpose of persuading many of the ones whom they loved, but who had not yet yielded to Christ, to yield to him at once.

They agreed to this, and on that next Sunday night every minister preached an evangelistic sermon to his own people, held an after-meeting, and throughout the city men and women were saved. I believe that every minister who would prayerfully hold such a service in their own church, and among their own people, would have actual and definite results.

Evangelistic Services at Special Seasons

Now as to special evangelistic services, such seasons may arise in some individual church or in some union movement among the churches. I do not propose now to discuss the union movements. I am not discrediting them. I thank God for all of them that are so blessed in my own country and in this. I thank God perpetually for the splendid work being done by Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander. But what I am principally interested in is a new devotion to evangelistic work in our churches, and consequently, I want to confine myself very largely to the special mission of evangelism in the church.

In the work of a faithful ministry, there will come special seasons when the minister and office-bearers alike will be given the conviction that the time is ripe for harvest. The movement may begin with some woman who prays and keeps on praying quietly and alone, making no talk about it, until a conviction that God is beginning to work takes possession of the whole church. That is the occasion for the work of the special evangelist. Very many feel the minister himself is the true person for the work. It may be true in some instances, but it is more fitting in the majority of cases that the minister should seek for some person to cooperate with him whose gift is specifically that of the evangelist.

Let's talk about the method and management of this occasion. When the church is conscious of imminent divine visitation, the most careful and watchful preparation must take place. It should begin in the gathering together of the church for united prayer. I think that when the church is conscious of divine visitation, of the movement of the Spirit of God, there doesn't need to be an indecent hurry. Nothing is lost by a time of waiting, during which the church is gathered together for solemn preparation by consecration and intercession. Then there must be systematic preparation as to the needs of the whole neighborhood. If a church in a district or neighborhood is going to hold a series of special meetings, that is the moment where that church stretches out in actual endeavor to reach the whole neighborhood.

Every house in the neighborhood will receive invitations to the services, and they should see to it that an invitation reaches every person – not once or twice, but a dozen times – before the services begin. That is very detailed and technical, I know, but it is along such lines of hard work and consecrated prayerful preparation that the greatest blessings have come to services held in connection with individual churches.

During the course of the meetings, every member of the church should be a worker. Some may admonish that this is a counsel of perfection that can never be carried out. At least let it be a counsel of perfection, and let every church attempt to fulfill it. Some may object that it is not necessary that every church member be a worker. And yet nothing is more important. There are many kinds of workers needed in connection with evangelistic meetings – house-to-house visitors, Christian men and women in the choir to sing the gospel, Christian men as ushers, specially trained and qualified inquiry-room workers, and beyond all these, a group of men and women who are unable to help in any of the ways indicated but who should work together with the rest in earnest, pleading prayer.

The church membership should be called together and the burden of this matter laid upon them in the spirit of prayer. Then let arrangements be made. Finding out what each is fitted for, give each person an assignment.

The importance of house-to-house visitation is very great. The visitation should be courteous and kind and yet insistent about the claims of Jesus Christ, devoid of arrogance, but characterized by a winning, courteous manner. Do it that way time after time, until it will be impossible for any human being in the neighborhood of the church to say as King David did, I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no one that would know me; I had no refuge; no one cared for my soul (Psalm 142:4).

As for the singing, if there is one thing not wanted in evangelistic work, it is a number of unconverted men and women leading the singing. Christians are needed, who in all their singing show the tender and matchless power of Jesus Christ, and they should be gathered from within the church.

As for the stewards and ushers, aren't we sometimes a little in danger of forgetting the importance of them? The way a person is met at the door and shown to his chair may make his decision for or against God. The way a person is welcomed or repulsed may attract her to Christ or drive her from Christ. In all such special services, the greatest care should be taken so those attending would be welcomed by people who manifest the love of Christ. You may have all your unfriendly, peculiar, crotchety ushers when only the church is there (if you must), but you want the men of gracious strength, tender heart, loving welcome, genial face, and sweet Christian life to welcome people into the house of God when you are going to urge them to make a decision for Jesus Christ.

And finally, let's talk about the inquiry-room workers. Let me utter a solemn word of warning here. Make your inquiry room secure against the intrusion of any unknown person. If you let anybody have the right to enter the inquiry room, all the radicals of the district will be there first. I was jealously and zealously careful to guard my inquiry room against the intrusion of any person not known to me. That means the minister must prepare the workers, and there ought to be an inquiry-room class where the preacher meets with a chosen group of people and instructs them in the method of dealing with souls. These need to be appointed and arranged with great wisdom and care.

The Role of Prayer in Evangelistic Events

If the membership is not used up by these assignments, then all of the rest can pray. I am greatly impressed today as I meet with men whom God is using, and find their experience coinciding so closely with my own. Today, more than I ever did in my life, and with a greater longing than I have ever felt, I crave to know that men and women are praying for me.

When I was in New York, three men came to me, and these three men looked into my face and said, "For five years we three have prayed for you every day by solemn covenant."

I cannot tell you what that meant to me. If our evangelistic work is going to be a success, we must get our people to regularly and systematically pray. Epaphras agonized in prayer.

Epaphras, who is one of you, a slave of Christ, salutes you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand firm, perfect and fulfilled in all the will of God. (Colossians 4:12)

Not everyone is called to spend long hours in prayer. Thank God for the men and women who can do it. God does not intend for everybody to do that. But we can form the habit of prayer so that we can pray here, there, anywhere, and everywhere.

Encourage the members to group themselves together to pray. It has often been pointed out that it is a remarkable thing that when Paul preached on Mars Hill, there were few converts, if any, but when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, thousands were swept into the kingdom of God. And it is an interesting question why in the one case there were so few, and in the other so many were attracted and influenced.

No one would like to suggest that Peter was more surrendered to God than Paul was. Peter preached in the midst of a company of praying men and women, and Paul did not. Account for it as you will, and go into the mystery and philosophy of it as you will, but the fact remains that the Holy Spirit of God works more easily in the atmosphere of praying men and women than without them.

Enlisting Other Skills of Members

The combined business acumen of the church members should be consecrated to this work. Oh, when will all the business ability in the church be consecrated to the work of the church? Some men think they need their business ability for their business and that it is enough to give a check to the church. If a man is offering to sell something that he hopes will make a profit for himself, he will push it in front of your eyes wherever you go. I cannot travel any distance without seeing the virtues of some soap extolled under my eyes wherever I look. If I could only get hold of the business ability and turn it into profit for the kingdom of God.

I don't quite like the comparison, but I am going to use it. When the church begins to run the business of Jesus Christ like the world runs the business of selling soap, we will do something. I will tell you a story out of my own experience. One time I went to conduct a series of special services in a district in England. I was to be there for two weeks. One of the officers wrote to me just before I went and said, "Our chapel has been renovated, and very beautifully renovated, and we are afraid the crowds may spoil it, and we are going to have the services only for one week."

Oh, the shame of it! The preservation of paint was more important than the salvation of souls! Let the businessmen of the church recognize that they are in business partnership with Jesus Christ, and let them apply all the push and go that they use in their own business to the business of the kingdom. That should be so always, but especially in the time of the special mission. Such preparation is mechanical, but it is the mechanism through which the Holy Spirit of God may do his work. The work of the evangelistic mission in our churches first demands all our consecrated effort. If we attempt to do it in any other way, we will fail, as we deserve to do.

If, for instance, we say we will hold some special services and then issue 250 four-inch-square flyers, and we open the doors and imagine we have done everything, we demonstrate our unbelief in our own enterprise, and the world is very apt to measure the importance of those things by the standard of the church's estimate of their value.

We must put sinew and brain, muscle and blood into the work of saving men and women, and then we will begin to move the world.

Details of Conducting a Special Service

Finally, I want to say something about the actual conduct of an evangelistic service, whether it is the occasional service in the regular work of the pastorate, or whether in the special series.

The whole conduct of an evangelistic service must be conducive to the one business of winning men and women. I begin with the smaller matters first. The physical conditions must be remembered. The building in which the evangelistic service is to be held must be one in which it is possible for people to be physically comfortable.

There was a good man in Sheffield, England, named Tom Graham, who was remarkable in his success in winning souls and who used to say something that was not elegant in expression, but perpetually true: "I never knew a man saved with cold feet."

It is of prime importance that we attend to the physical conditions. The building must be one people can at least be comfortable in, and by being comfortable, they can forget the physical and attend to the spiritual. As long as a person is conscious of the physical, it is very hard for him or her to attend to the spiritual. The building must be properly warmed and ventilated. The physical conditions must be the best.

The next point of importance is that those who enter the building for an evangelistic service should be welcomed. The caretaker and the ushers must be chosen with great care if this is to be so. Then accommodation must be provided, and as much as possible, those coming must be courteously seated and attended to. In love, we must make people feel they are more welcome to this service than they ever were in a saloon or theater.

Then, further in the evangelistic service, the general tone of the proceedings should be carefully guarded. There should be an absence of merely formal dignity on the part of the minister and the office-bearers of the church. D. L. Moody once said that dignity was not one of the fruits of the Spirit anyhow. If a poor man comes into the church and is patronized, the chances of winning him are greatly reduced. And yet the tone should not only be free from formality, it should also be free from all undue frivolity. Nothing should be done by a speaker, singer, or anyone else for the sake of simply raising a laugh. I am sorry for the person who lacks a sense of humor, but humor should be the play of summer lightning, clearing the air, and not the degradation of turning the pulpit into entertainment where the main object is to make people laugh.

The tone should be that of a reverent gladness, the hymns pulsating with hope, the attitude of every person taking part in the work as that of one who believes in God and in the possibilities of the man or woman that has come in. Let the true evangelistic service be reverent and hopeful in all things.

And once again, in the hands of the evangelist, the whole service should advance to the one matter in hand, that of winning men and women for Christ – this means the singing, the Scripture, the prayer, and the sermon. I don't believe it is wise in an evangelistic service for the evangelist to hand the oversight of the singing over to any second person. In the actual service, preachers should select their own hymns, the kind that will lead up to their subject, and that will appeal to the people along the line of the subject.

I would have half an hour of singing before the main service begins, under the charge of the director, but the moment I come to the platform as the evangelist, I want to select my own hymns. I don't want a hymn sung absolutely out of harmony with anything I am going to say. There needs to be this harmony. It is the same with the matter of the Scripture reading and the same with the prayer prayed. An evangelist will be very careful about whom he or she asks to pray. It is a great mistake to take hold of the Reverend Mr. So-and-So, who does not believe in evangelistic meetings, and get him to lead in prayer in order to enlist his sympathy. I don't want to do him good just now. I am after this sinner here, and I want the person to pray who knows the way into the secret place, who knows how to get at the heart of God. All these things are important. I do not think we can afford to miss a single detail.

The Message

In an evangelistic service the sermon must be aimed at the capture of the will for Jesus Christ. Different congregations will require different methods. One method of presenting truth will appeal to one class of the community, and another method will be necessary for another class. Thomas Champness says that the most remarkable text on how to be a soul winner is, I will make you fishers of men (Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17). I once heard him speak on that text, and during his sermon he said, "A fisher is very careful about his bait. If I want to catch codfish, I fling them out a bait as big as a clock weight, and they swallow it. But if I am going for salmon, I have a fly and whip the stream with delicacy and art."

There are some preachers who will appeal along the line of the intellect and reason. There are people caught on the flood tide of emotion. But behind the intellect and emotion is the citadel – the will – and it is for that the preacher strives. Whether he captures the will through the intellect or through the emotion depends on the people addressed and on the preacher, but the supreme business is to appeal to the will and bring it into submission to the lordship of Christ. The business of the evangelist is to get a verdict for Jesus Christ then and there. Therefore, everything else in the sermon must be subservient to that achievement – the preacher's literary reputation, the preacher's rhetorical reputation, yes, the preacher's theological reputation – all are secondary.

In the preaching of the evangelistic sermon, the evangelist will not be principally occupied with literary form or rhetorical expression, or even of theology as such. His or her business will be to get that person for Christ, and when that is remembered, the sermon will get its true tone, its true quality.

One other word. The true evangelist will be very careful to avoid the possibility of spoiling his message with a passion for numbered results. I sometimes fear in case the desire to have large statistical returns might tend to make a person make the way of salvation unduly easy. I think there is a danger. We have been preaching, "Believe," and we have not sufficiently said, "Repent, repent, repent." And we still have to preach this truth: that unless people turn to God from idols, then even though they boast of it, their faith is dead and worthless.

There is no question of precedence. The quality of faith must be that of repentance, and the dynamic of repentance must be that of faith. And when we urge people to believe on the Lord Jesus, we must say that belief means submission to the lordship, and that means turning from every other lord that has held dominion over the soul.

We must not lower the claim of truth as presented to the people. Therefore, the evangelistic sermon must be as carefully prepared as any other sermon. We cannot dare to imagine that we have the right to face a great crowd of people and declare the gospel unless we have taken solemn time to know the evangel, its terms, its content, and its message to men and women. When some of our best-trained men, the most highly mentally equipped, turn to aggressive evangelism, then we will have the most successful evangelists.

Response to the Message

A word about the after-meeting. I feel very strongly that the best method of conducting an after-meeting is that of making it an after-meeting rather than a continuance of the first meeting. That runs counter to many ideas. Let every person be fully persuaded in their own mind. Personally, I do not like an after-meeting at which any are unwillingly present. I ask that all those who would like to stay behind do so. I never make an appeal (or very rarely under pressure of circumstances) until I have given an opportunity for everybody who desires to leave to do so. It is sometimes said that by such means we miss so many people upon whom the Spirit of God has put his control. I do not believe it, and I would rather have a dozen people compelled, convicted, and converted, than a hundred caught in some emotional movement in which there was no real depth of conviction and result.

The after-meeting is designed to give people an opportunity to make a decision for Christ and confess him immediately and openly. This is the place for inquiry-room work. There is no sacramental virtue in an inquiry room. The inquiry room is simply for inquiring souls to come so they may be dealt with intelligently about the spiritual perplexities. And that makes the training of inquiry-room workers necessary. You cannot deal intelligently and correctly with a hundred at once.

Every case has an individual problem, and there are two words that cover the ground of such work: diagnosis and direction. By diagnosis, I mean that the intelligent inquiry-room worker will take hold of the case and find out where the particular difficulty is. It is not at all wise to say, "All you have to do is believe." The difficulty in each case must be discovered, and there needs to be careful, spiritual, proper training, so it may be done. When the difficulty is discovered, then there must be the quiet, clear pointing of that soul to Christ.

Then, whether in the after-meeting or in the inquiry room, there is a point where the preacher or worker must stand aside and leave the soul with God alone. I have seen workers go with their Bible to an inquirer, and say, "Now do you see that verse?"

"Oh, yes."

"Well, can you read that verse?"

"Oh, yes."

"Read that verse."

And that person will read that verse, and then the worker says, "Now do you believe that?"

"Yes, I believe that."

"Then you are saved."

Now, we have no business to tell any person they are saved. There is a point where we have to stand aside and let God and the person deal alone with each other. We can help, lead, point, counsel, warn, and plead, but ultimately, regeneration is the coming of God to the soul that comes to him, and we have to move aside and leave the individual to God.

I close as I began. I do not like lectures on methods, and I pray you receive what I have said only as I have attempted to show principles, and not as I have attempted to lay down rules. But the great and supreme matter is that every church of Jesus Christ ought to have evangelistic work going on regularly or periodically in it and should add to its membership as people are led to Christ individually and directly.

* * *

 A subsequent meeting held shortly after a church service or other religious assembly.

 Most likely the National Council of Free Churches of England and Wales. Morgan wrote an article about the council titled "Church Federation in England," published in The American Monthly Review of Reviews in 1905. The council was made up of nonconformist Christian churches.

 In England and Wales in the late nineteenth century, the new terms free churchman and Free Church started to replace dissenter or nonconformist. In English church history, a nonconformist was a Protestant who did not conform to the governance and usages of the established Church of England.

 Reuben Archer Torrey (1856-1928) was an American evangelist, pastor, educator, and writer. Charles McCallon Alexander (1867–1920) was a native of Tennessee and a popular nineteenth-century gospel singer who worked the evangelistic circuit, touring with Torrey for many years.

 It was a custom to have rooms set aside for seekers go at the end of the preaching to receive counsel and prayer and to confess their sin and repent. This was an alternative to an altar call.

 Definitive information about Tom Graham is unknown.

 Thomas Champness (1832-1905) was a former missionary to West Africa.
Chapter 5

The Present Opportunity

It is always difficult to correctly measure the times in which we live. It has been said that no man can write the history of his own times. Consequently, it is not easy for one to understand the spirit of their own age, and yet those who are called to lead must know something of that spirit; indeed, it is one of the essential qualifications for leadership.

When the tribes came up to make David king at Hebron, it was said of the children of Issachar that they understood the times, they knew what Israel should do, and immediately afterwards all their brothers listened to what they said.

And of the sons of Issachar, two hundred chief men, who had understanding of the times and were wise to know what Israel ought to do; and all their brethren followed their word. (1 Chronicles 12:32)

That is to say, the men that led were the men of Issachar, and all the rest of the tribes were willing to follow their lead. That was the qualification of leadership – those who had understanding of the times knew what Israel ought to do.

To any of us God calls to leadership, and I do not mean only conspicuous examples, but those called into the ministry of the Word in any form, one of the prime qualifications is an understanding of the times. It is preeminently difficult to form an estimate in spiritual matters. There is a wide application in the words of Jesus:

The wind blows where it desires, and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell from where it comes or where it goes; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

There are things about the blowing of the wind we do not know, so also with regard to the spirit of the age. And yet the Master rebuked the men who did not understand their own generation.

But he answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather, for the heaven is glowing with an aurora. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today, for the heaven has an aurora and is cloudy. O ye hypocrites, ye know how to make decisions based on the face of the heaven, and regarding the signs of the times are ye unable? (Matthew 16:2-4)

Recognizing both the difficulty and necessity then, I want to speak first of the spirit of the age and then to ask, do we have a gospel that meets the demand?

The Prevailing Thought of This Age

The spirit of an age is not always to be discovered at first glance or by a mere casual survey of the field. Much that is around us is the issue of a past age, and the true spirit of an age is not to be defined by the general consensus of opinion but by the single voices that are beginning to sound – that are startling and full of surprise for the moment.

If I casually survey the age, the first thing I notice is its materialism. We are cursed by materialism. Commercial prosperity has seemed as if it would grind all spiritual life under its heel. That is the general outlook. Yet if someone should say that the spirit of the age is that of materialism, they have missed the deepest message. They have not heard the deepest voice, but have taken the casual outlook. A general survey is not what we need.

It was said of President William McKinley that he was a great statesman because he had the capability of putting his ear to the ground and listening for the things that were coming. It was a remarkable ability. Someone who knows how to listen for the new voices and see the fresh visions is the true statesman. In the words of the Bible, he is a person who has understanding of the times and knows what the people ought to do.

We don't want to be led astray by the clamor of the mob. We want to listen for the new voices, the voices that are forming public opinion. If that is understood, I want to say three things. I think the spirit of the age is characterized first by a revolt against materialism. That is the very opposite of the first impression. Yet I believe that is the message that is sounding clearly at the present moment. And next, there is abroad a new passion for the practical. Call it altruism, or utilitarianism, if you will. I prefer the former phrase because it is simpler. And the third fact is that there is a great sense of some coming visitation present in the hearts of people today. These three messages mark the spirit of the age in which we are called to live and serve: a revolt against materialism, a new passion for that which is practical, and a great, mystic, and mysterious sense of some coming visitation.

The Revolt against Materialism

First of all, I suppose having referred to materialism, and then having declared that there is a revolt against materialism, it is perfectly fair to ask me to demonstrate my statement. One of the evidences that there is a revolt against materialism in the air is the marvelous and astounding growth of Christian Science. As to Christian Science itself, I believe it is characterized by an absence of anything Christian, and an ignorance of science. But it is a large movement, and it is fair that we should ask, "What does it mean?"

I have traveled on your railways over eighty thousand miles, visited cities, and touched all sections of the Christian ministry, and there is hardly a place where Christian Science is not successful. It is not only that they gather fanatics or people characterized by neurosis into their fold, but some of the sweetest and best Christians have also gone over to them. What is the secret? Christian Science stands for two things: the negation of sin and the affirmation of the spiritual. That is an attempt to get at the heart of it.

It says there is no material; everything is spiritual. Matter does not exist. It is a mental fault, a mental miscalculation to imagine you have matter. Thus, they emphasize the spiritual, falsely emphasizing it as we believe, and absurdly too, but this very emphasis of the spiritual has been the attraction of a people who are tired of materialism. The materialism of the past said, "Matter is everything." But today, Christian Science says, "No. Matter is nothing, the spiritual is everything." We believe the argument to be ridiculous and absurd and laughable, but the underlying principle is the thing that draws the multitudes, a reaffirmation of the spiritual.

And then there is the negation of sin. Here is where we supremely have a conflict with Christian Scientists. They are calling something Christian that denies atonement, because it denies sin. Any theory that denies the sin of men and women and denies the cross of Christ is something to be dreaded. And yet, even though they deny the atonement of Christ, they endeavor to get rid of sin by denial.

I do not hesitate to affirm that if the Christian church had only been true to the gospel of spirituality and the gospel of holiness, there would have been no room for Christian Science. And yet the presence of it in our midst is evidence of a revolt against materialism, and though it is but a will-o'-the-wisp that dances among the marshes, men would rather have the will-o'-the-wisp than the dense, black darkness of materialism. It is a sign of the times.

But still far more striking is it that the affirmations of science at the present hour most remarkably demonstrate the truth that the age is characterized by revolt from materialism. Huxley, Spencer, Tyndall, and Darwin denied the reality of anything except matter twenty-five years ago. We heard much of the atom, of the protoplasmic germ, and of the fortuitous concurrence of atoms, and these were presented to us as the final solution of which man was capable, of the whole riddle and mystery of the universe. Lord Kelvin, the wise old sage of British scientific thought and perhaps the most remarkable living man of science, has said, "Science positively affirms Creative Power, and makes everyone feel a miracle in himself." He said, "It is not in dead matter that we live and move and have our being, but in the creating and directive Power, which science compels us to accept as an article of belief."

The latest scientific pronouncement of the age is that there is something at the back of matter, that there is a spiritual force behind it. Science has not yet gone far enough to define it, but it has absolutely abandoned the position of twenty-five years ago – that everything that exists is the accidental coming together of atoms. Darwin's evolutionary theory has passed, but the evolutionary theory in general has not passed but has come to stay. It is probably true in certain realms. But the evolutionary theory of Darwin is not held by reputable scientific men today. There can no longer be any doubt that some germ of truth lies within the theory, but now we are coming to see that while the evolutionary theory may have an application to the material realm, it does not account for spiritual life at any point. And some scientists are acknowledging it.

Two very remarkable books have recently been issued. The first is that of Professor William James of Harvard University, entitled The Varieties of Religious Experiences. This is a book written not from the viewpoint of a Christian man, a book written not by a professor in a Christian theological seminary, but by a professor of psychology, plainly and simply upon the basis of scientific study of the psychological problems of life. He has gathered up all kinds of religious experiences, and after carefully and systematically examining his data, has made his deductions.

Let me share with you one sentence from the part of the book in which the professor gives his conclusions. He claims they are scientific conclusions based upon an examination of data. "We and God have business with each other, and in opening ourselves to his influence, our deepest destiny is fulfilled."

Here is a scientific testimony that thousands of men and women are reading today. People who call themselves scientists take up this book up and they read that after examination of the experiences of men, the professor has come to this twofold conclusion – first, that humans have dealings with God, and second, that human life can only fulfill its deepest destiny when people are submitted to the government of God. The influence of such a deduction by such an eminent scientific thinker is bound to be that of creating a revolt from materialism in the minds of thousands of the thinking youth of our colleges and universities.

Since Professor James's book, another has been published – a book by Frederic W. H. Myers. The history of Myers is an interesting one. He was a native of Oxford, England, and a pronounced High Churchman, and during that period of his adherence to High Church beliefs, he wrote the poem, "St. Paul," which is to me at least one of the most exquisite pieces of poetry in the English language. After that, he passed into agnosticism – reverent agnosticism – never attacking Christianity, but declaring himself to be unsure. He lived there for years and became interested in the work of the Society for Psychical Research, of the phenomena of spiritual existences as they manifested themselves in ordinary life and outside of the church. He has left a two-volume work, published after his death, the title of which reveals the subject: Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death.

Such a book is received by scientists; they will read this book and will not all agree that he has proved his case. But as Myers said, twenty-five years from now, no reputable scientist will question the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. In the next twenty-five years we have to speak to people in whom there will be a reawakened sense of the reality of the spiritual. There is nothing more encouraging than this – that in the world of purely scientific investigation there is a reaffirmation of all the things we stand for.

Passion for the Practical

The next message of the age is a passion for the practical. In speaking to American audiences, I hardly need support to prove the truth of this. You have a passion for the practical, for you have no respect for ancient things. Americans have no respect for institutions merely as institutions, and I confess I have the profoundest sympathy with them. It is the altruistic spirit that governs this great people, and it is in the forefront of humanity at the present moment. The cry today is for an ethical and social gospel. Everywhere people are crying for a social and ethical gospel, for something that touches all the needs of people's lives.

There is a passion everywhere for something that conditions actual life and affects the details of every person's doings. It is a true passion. The passion for the practical is manifesting itself in England in a new antagonism to Christianity. Robert Blatchford has written the most definite articles of attack on Christianity. He is rousing all of the pulpits in England to consider and answer them. A paper as strong as The British Weekly has thought it necessary to devote space to answering these attacks. What is it this man is attacking? He attacks the miraculous and supernatural elements in Christianity, the virgin birth of our holy Lord, and his resurrection. Why? Because Christianity fails to do what he thinks it ought to do, and consequently, this very antagonism of Blatchford's is a new sign of the passion for the practical.

A Sense of Coming Visitation

Lastly, there is a sense of coming visitation, of which we hear from all sides and from diverse voices. There may be mistakes of interpretation, but the general fact is recognized. Men and women everywhere are looking for something, but they hardly know what.

Thus, I believe that today the age is characterized by revolt against materialism, by a passion for the practical, and by a sense of daybreak at hand.

Now let me ask, does our gospel fit the needs of the age? Do we have any need to find a new evangel, or what shall we do? I submit that the gospel of Jesus Christ exactly answers the need created by the spirit of the age, for it is a protest against materialism and an assertion of the variety of the spiritual; it is practical, or it is nothing. The visitation that is to come must have the very gospel committed to us to declare as its essential message.

The gospel is exactly in harmony with the spirit of the age in its revolt against materialism. What is the gospel that we have to preach? What are the messages of the gospel?

The Key Messages of Our Evangel

The first teaching in the evangel of Jesus Christ is the assertion of his lordship. The preaching of the lordship of Christ will answer this cry for spirituality. Lord Kelvin has affirmed the divinity of creation or the deity behind creation. Long ago, Jesus stood among the flowers and birds and said, God clothes these flowers and feeds these birds.

Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? (Matthew 6:26, 28-30)

The last scientific assertion synchronizes with the simple statement of the Nazarene many years ago, that behind the flower, the bird, and everything, is God. Dr. William James said, "We have dealings with God." That is the last affirmation of psychological science. Listen, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33). That is the answer of our King.

The last affirmation of psychological science harmonizes with what Jesus taught. Frederic Myers, in his posthumous publication, affirms in this day that human personality is stronger than death – strong enough to exist after the death of the body, and a person does not cease to exist when his body ceases to exist. That is the whole declaration of two great volumes. Listen, fear not those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). In neither of these cases did Jesus Christ defend what these men are affirming. They refer to them as discoveries. He referred to them incidentally as established truths.

What this age needs is to show that Jesus is Lord in the intellectual realm, and that the last things scientists are saying are in harmony with the things Jesus Christ said centuries ago. He was not the half-educated and half-ignorant Galilean peasant some would have us believe, but was supreme among men in the intellectual realm, and stated as the common places of his knowledge the things they have taken nineteen hundred centuries to spell out.

He affirmed the reality of the spiritual. He told people what they need is eternal life, and eternal life is not a quantity but a quality – life that touches the infinite, that is housed in God, and that takes in eternity. All this sighing after the spiritual is to be answered by preaching Jesus Christ as Lord and bringing people into submission to him. He will lead them into life, and they will find they have an answer to their deepest cry, the sense of the spiritual.

And then comes the passion for practical things. How is it manifested? We are told we must have a social and ethical gospel. Where will you find it? It is a remarkable thing that these very people refer to the Sermon on the Mount when they tell us what they want. Whose gospel was that? It is the gospel of our King. You say you want a practical gospel and that this age must have a social and ethical gospel. Well, here it is.

But Christianity, as it delivers its message, is more practical than the people who are crying for practical things. People are saying, "We want an ethical and social gospel. We don't want to hear about the cross. We have had enough of the cross. Give us something social and practical." Christ is so practical that he never asks people to obey his laws unless they are spiritually reborn.

Christ takes into account the paralysis in human life. You cannot build up a regenerated society unless you have regenerated people. You will find that Christianity is preeminently practical. It does not attempt to construct a living society out of dead matter, nor does it attempt to realize a pure order among corrupt men or attempt to give a perfect ethic to paralyzed individuals. It takes hold of the person first and remakes him or her, and then remakes society. It takes hold of people fast bound in sin and breaks their chains, and then it tells them to walk upright. People will never be influenced by a social gospel until they have heard and obeyed the gospel of regeneration.

Hope for the World

Let's thank God for the wider outlook of the age in which we live. Oh, how many children are crying in the night, and with no language but a cry. Our business is to interpret the cry of the child to itself. People want something. They will sob out all sorts of foolish things and tell us what they think they want. Let's never forget that they will never have the satisfactory answer to their profoundest and widest prayer except along the line of personal regeneration.

It is a sad thing indeed when a minister of Jesus Christ thinks of himself as an interesting entertainer, as merely an intellectual instructor of his people, or a social reformer, or a mere political agent. He ought to have something else to do.

The principal work to which a minister is called, wherever he may be sent, is that of bringing individuals in touch with spiritual realities, and in proportion as a minister is able to lead people to Christ individually, he answers the cry of the age for the spiritual and for the practical, and contributes to that great visitation for which people are sighing and waiting in the darkness.

The voices of the age are full of hope. I know the other side. I know the pressure of the burden and the apparent strength of sin. These are but the symptoms of a day. God is moving toward victory. May he make us fellow workers with him.

* * *

 Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) was an English biologist known for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was an English philosopher, biologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era. John Tyndall (1820-1893) was a prominent nineteenth-century physicist. Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was best known for his contributions to the science of evolution.

 William Thomson, First Baron Kelvin (1824-1907) was a Scots-Irish mathematical physicist and engineer. From an article titled "Lord Kelvin on Religion and Science," originally published in The Times, 1903.

 William James (1842-1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.

 Frederic William Henry Myers (1843-1901) was a poet, classicist, philologist, and a founder of the Society for Psychical Research.

 A member of the Church of England who prioritizes the aspects of Anglicanism that distinguish it from Calvinism and other Protestant denominations, and that it has in common with Catholicism, especially the authority of the priesthood and the importance of church ritual.

 A nonprofit organization in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1882, its purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal.

 Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford (1851-1943) was a socialist campaigner, journalist, author, and a prominent atheist in the United Kingdom.
G. Campbell Morgan – A Brief Biography

Dr. George Campbell Morgan began preaching at thirteen – an age when most young men are focused on just about anything but ministry – and spent more than sixty years in the ministry before he stepped into glory. After preaching that first sermon at Monmouth Methodist Church, he regularly preached as a "boy preacher" in country chapels on Sundays and holidays.

Morgan was born on a farm in Tetbury, England, on December 9, 1863. His father was a member of the strict Plymouth Brethren but eventually became a Baptist minister. Campbell Morgan received private tutoring at home because of poor health as a child. He was ten years old when the renowned Dwight L. Moody came to England to preach for the first time, and that visit inspired Morgan to want to be a preacher.

In 1886, at the age of twenty-three, Morgan left the teaching profession and devoted himself to preaching and Bible exposition. He was ordained to Congregational ministry in 1890. At the age of thirty-three and at the invitation of D. L. Moody, Campbell Morgan visited the United States for the first time in 1896. He was a guest lecturer for the students at the Moody Bible Institute. This was the first of fifty-four times he crossed the Atlantic to preach and teach.

In 1897, Morgan accepted a pastorate in London. There, he often traveled as a preacher and was involved in the London Missionary Society. After the death of Moody in 1899, Morgan assumed the position of director of the Northfield Bible Conference in Massachusetts. After five successful years in this capacity, in 1904, he returned to England and became pastor of Westminster Chapel, London, where he served for the next thirteen years – from 1904 to 1917. Thousands of people attended his services and weekly Friday night Bible classes.

From 1911 to 1914, he was also the president of Cheshunt College in Cambridge, which eventually merged with Westminster College. He left London for the United States, where he conducted a fourteen-year itinerant preaching and teaching ministry.

He had no formal training for the ministry, but his devotion to studying the Bible made him one of the leading Bible teachers of his day. In 1902, Chicago Theological Seminary conferred on him an honorary doctor of divinity degree. Although he did not have the privilege of studying in a seminary or a Bible college, he wrote books that are used in seminaries and Bible colleges all over the world.

Morgan taught at Biola University in Los Angeles, California, for a short time (1927-1928), and at Gordon College of Theology and Mission in Boston (1930-1931). He served as a pastor of the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1929-1932). Finally, in 1932, he returned to England, where he became pastor of Westminster Chapel once again, and remained there until his retirement in 1943.

Westminster Chapel flourished with his teaching, fundraising, and social programs. When he preached, so many people gathered that even police involvement was sometimes necessary. He was a prolific author and sought-after preacher. In his sixty years of ministry, he preached an estimated 23,390 times and wrote about eighty published works. This number does not include the ten-volume set of sermons, The Westminster Pulpit, or the sermons that were published independently as booklets and pamphlets, or the works published posthumously. He wrote commentaries on the entire Bible and on many devotional topics related to the Christian life and ministry.

Morgan may have been ahead of his time when he said, "The reason why men do not look to the church today is that she has destroyed her own influence by compromise." Among his popular works are titles such as Discipleship (1897), All Things New, A Message to New Converts (1901), God's Perfect Will (1901), Evangelism (1904), The Life of the Christian (1904), and The Practice of Prayer (1906).

His essay entitled "The Purposes of the Incarnation" was included in a famous and historic collection called The Fundamentals, a set of ninety essays edited by the famous R. A. Torrey, who himself was successor to D. L. Moody both as an evangelist and a pastor. The Fundamentals is widely considered to be the foundation of the modern Fundamentalist movement.

Morgan was a respected husband and father. He was married to Annie, better known as Nancy, and they had four boys and three girls. His four sons followed him into the ministry.

He was instrumental in bringing Martyn Lloyd-Jones to Westminster in 1939 to share the pulpit and become his successor. Morgan was a friend of F. B. Meyer, Charles Spurgeon, and many other great preachers of his day.

Morgan died on May 16, 1945, at the age of 81.

* * * *

"What we do in the crisis always depends on whether we see the difficulties in the light of God, or God in the shadow of the difficulties." – G. C. Morgan
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Evangelism – G. Campbell Morgan

Revised Edition Copyright © 2018

First edition published 1904

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Scripture quotations marked "American Standard Version" are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked "King James Version" are taken from the King James Bible, which is in the public domain.

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