BV 3790 .S862 1910 
 Stone, John Timothy, b 
 
 1868. 
 Recruiting for Christ 
 
RECRUITING FOR CHRIST 
 
sy' 
 
 RECRUITING 
 FOR CHRIST 
 
 HAND TO HAND METHODS 
 WITH MEN 
 
 JOHN TIMOTHY STONE 
 
 Author of 
 ** Footsteps in a Parish" 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
*p Copyright, 1910, by 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue 
 Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 
 
to 
 
 THE MEN IN THE CHURCH 
 OF CHRIST 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 This volume grew out of a course of ad- 
 dresses given in response to the united invita- 
 tion of the Brotherhoods and the Young 
 Men's Christian Association of Chicago. It is 
 a practical and inspirational study of the im- 
 portance and methods of personal work, 
 adapted to modern life. The course was given 
 during the winter of 1910 to several hundred 
 active laymen representing largely the evangel- 
 ical churches. 
 

 CONTENTS 
 
 
 CHAPTER 
 I. 
 
 Motive .... 
 
 PAGE 
 • 13 
 
 11. 
 
 The Men to Reach . 
 
 • 39 
 
 III. 
 
 Preparation 
 
 . 65 
 
 IV. 
 
 Approach . . 
 
 . 87 
 
 V. 
 
 Means and Method . 
 
 . 107 
 
 VI. An Early Church Illustration 127 
 
 VII. The Man Who Is Indifferent 147 
 
 VIII. Doubt and Doubters . -173 
 
 IX. Regaining Men . . . 195 
 
 X. Following up the Work . '213 
 
I 
 
 MOTIVE 
 
" Never fear to bring the sublimest motive to the 
 smallest duty, and the most infinite comfort to the 
 smallest trouble." — Phillips Brooks. 
 
 " Direct, control, suggest, this day 
 All I design, or do, or say; 
 That all my powers, with all their might, 
 In Thy sole glory may unite." 
 
 — Thomas Ken. 
 
 " Keep thy heart with all diligence ; 
 For out of it are the issues of life." 
 
 —Job 4: 23. 
 
 " Search me. Oh God, and know my heart." 
 
 Psalm 139: 23. 
 
 "They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of 
 the firmament; and they that turn many to righteous- 
 ness as the stars for ever and ever." — Daniel 12: 3. 
 
 " I need a friend who knows me 
 
 So justly through and through 
 He'll ne'er misjudge a motive, 
 
 Nor let me strain to do 
 More work than I can manage. 
 
 The work that is not mine. 
 Because of vain ambition. 
 
 Or conscience drawn too fine." 
 
 COURTENAY H. FeNN. 
 
RECRUITING FOR CHRIST 
 
 MOTIVE 
 
 AS we enter upon a practical study of 
 winning men to Christ, do we believe 
 that '' He that is wise winneth souls " ? 
 Do we also believe that : " He who converteth 
 a sinner from the error of his way xhe Spirit 
 shall save a soul from death"? ^^ ^""^ 
 
 Winning men to the Lord Jesus Christ is 
 the work of the Divine Spirit. He must really 
 do the work in us and through us. The heart, 
 the hand, the life, the brain, may work zeal- 
 ously, but if the inward life is not prompted 
 by God's Holy Spirit, our work will not avail. 
 Man cannot be used simply through his abil- 
 ities. His very gifts may retard his influence. 
 Genius without spirituality becomes a mere ex- 
 hibition. The man is known for his ability 
 rather than for his message. His words have 
 not the force of his conviction. 
 13 
 
14 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 Two men spent a Sunday in New York City 
 years ago. They desired to hear two great 
 preachers. Both heard one of rare power in 
 the morning. One said : '' I am going to hear 
 the other man to-night." His friend rephed : 
 " I am going back to hear this same man ; I 
 never heard such genius nor Hstened to such 
 remarkable utterance. I mean to go again to- 
 night." They met on Monday. " Did you 
 hear our friend again? " '' Yes," was the re- 
 ply. " The evening sermon was more marvel- 
 ous than the morning; I never heard such a 
 man or such sermons. What did you think of 
 your man?" His companion quietly replied: 
 '' I do not know just what I thought of the 
 sermon, or the man, but I went back to my 
 room in the hotel and got down on my knees 
 and asked God to forgive me and make me a 
 better man." The first preacher outclassed the 
 second in his gifts and ability ! But he was an 
 exhibition ; the second a Divine power. 
 
 What a man may do for God is not so im- 
 portant, but what God may do with a man. 
 When Gideon accomplished his great work 
 with his small band of followers, it was not 
 Gideon who accomplished it; it was God! 
 " The Lord clothed Himself with Gideon." 
 The world saw Gideon, but " God was Gideon- 
 
Motive 15 
 
 clothed " ! God is the great dynamic. A man 
 may see us outwardly, but only as God's Spirit 
 is within us are we able to win victories. Pri- 
 marily we must gain this truth in introducing 
 our subject. 
 
 A long cable stretches before us, perfectly 
 constructed, the central copper wire in its place, 
 surrounded, perhaps, by gutta percha, properly 
 encased and insulated, but this long cable lies 
 before us dead and useless. At one end there 
 is a great dynamo, at the other end a city, but 
 the cable between lies lifeless by itself. What 
 is needed ? Simply this : Connect the cable 
 with the dynamo. Then connect it with the 
 city. Light, heat, power are the result; the 
 city is illuminated; the city is warmed; the 
 wheels of machinery turn. That light means 
 knowledge; that heat means sympathy; that 
 power means activity. The cable is necessary, 
 — it is the agent of transmission, — it is the 
 human soul. God is that dynamo. The city is 
 the place of service. Man must be trained for 
 service, but this training cannot in itself avail. 
 He must receive the Divine indwelling. How ? 
 By connecting his soul with the Divine if he is 
 permanently to bless the human. Then man, 
 gifted, talented, trained, is used by God with 
 all his willingness, manliness, courage, and 
 
1 6 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 adaptability, to do the work of God. Without 
 this connection he is simply the lifeless cable, 
 brilliant, separate, powerless. 
 
 The first essential in our thought is that of 
 Motive. Why do we seek to win men? The 
 
 learned and devout scholar Bengfel 
 Motive , , , , . ^ 
 
 placed over the entrance to his ora- 
 tory: ''What seek ye?" He wanted men to 
 face the object of their work. Method, means, 
 and manner are all secondary to motive, for we 
 are not a class with a subject, but men with a 
 definite object — a motive which will inspire 
 and actuate purpose and work. Specific mo- 
 tive means universal light. " When thine eye 
 is single, the whole body is full of light." We 
 need a concentration of aim which may unify 
 our motive and centre it in God. This will 
 give us holiness in motive, and our work will 
 be God's own work. We will become " Co- 
 labourers with Him." 
 
 Men have seldom been used mightily for God 
 unless they have been directly aiming at the 
 conversion of souls. Such is the Divine mo- 
 tive. When Jesus Christ first called men, that 
 was His motive in calling them. " Follow 
 Me," He said, '' and I will make you fishers of 
 men." Mark made it more specific in his Gos- 
 pel : " Follow Me and I will make you to he- 
 
Motive 1 7 
 
 come fishers of men." That word " become " 
 impHes instruction and development. Motive 
 will gain power by its own motion and equip- 
 ment. Dr. Torrey says : " With a holy mo- 
 tive, we must be thoroughly converted, must 
 have a love for souls, must have a working 
 knowledge of the Bible, must pray much, and 
 be baptised by the Holy Spirit." To this may 
 be added two other requisites : common sense 
 and common sympathy. 
 
 Even with the right motive we will face vari- 
 ous dangers. There is danger in the very 
 thing which we seek — numbers! 
 Constantly the enthusiasm of num- 
 bers detracts from definite interest in individu- 
 als. Jesus Christ has won His millions. He 
 began His work, however, by selecting in- 
 dividuals. Motive, backed by individual loy- 
 alty and consecrated sincerity, is far greater in 
 influence than numerical or material strength. 
 Among those disciples there was rugged man- 
 liness and consecrated loyalty. And from 
 among fishermen and tax-gatherers the 
 Saviour chose His men of motive, disregard- 
 ing the human standards of numerical strength 
 and social prestige. 
 
 A very subtle danger may be found within 
 our very selves. Unconsciously selfish and am- 
 
1 8 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 bitious, we may desire personal praise, notori- 
 ety, general recognition. This danger may 
 lead to a pious egotism, an unconscious aim to 
 be known as good men, as personal workers, as 
 gifted in winning others. We should pray for 
 personal holiness in motive. '' Search me. Oh 
 God, and know my heart." With Paul we must 
 say : " Far be it from me to glory save in the 
 cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which 
 the world has been crucified unto me and I unto 
 the world." 
 
 The fact that so large a number of people are 
 
 unreached by the Gospel makes this work most 
 
 necessary. Churches have multi- 
 
 176C6SSitV 
 
 plied, organisation has been per- 
 fected, and still very many, especially in our 
 great cities, are entirely outside the Church 
 and apparently beyond the reach of the Church. 
 Instead of a discouraging fact, this should en- 
 courage us, as the very necessity of this work 
 is thus emphasised. 
 
 Preaching is a Divinely appointed means; 
 writing has its place, but the personal word 
 must be used as never before if this work is to 
 be accomplished. It is absolutely necessary. 
 There is no substitute for this personal, direct, 
 and individual approach. The objections to 
 the method are largely overstated and usually 
 
Motive 19 
 
 unfair, based frequently upon an argument 
 defending the conventional. Every general 
 and personal excuse has and will be given to 
 discredit this form of activity. Men without 
 experience naturally dread it, and shrink from 
 its responsibility. The excuse is not well 
 taken, because it does not hold in other things. 
 All questions of the day are discussed directly, 
 individually, personally, and practically. Sym- 
 pathy, cooperation, investment are sought and 
 gained through personal approach and inter- 
 view. The very fact that this excuse exists in 
 itself reiterates the necessity of this very form 
 of work. 
 
 There are immense numbers of men and 
 women who cannot be reached in any other 
 way. They have never formed the habit of 
 church attendance. Many look upon the 
 Church as a close corporation. Many consider 
 it composed of members who do not desire 
 outsiders or sinners. The Church as such can- 
 not reach these people. Only as the individual 
 is approached personally, and, through sin- 
 cere effort, gradually won, can confidence be 
 established and attendance at the House 
 of God gained. Our very difficulty is the 
 problem itself, and emphasises its dire ne- 
 cessity. 
 
20 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 We have alluded to the personal method as 
 the one preferred by Christ. 
 
 Although He talked with the multitudes and 
 preached Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins, 
 
 Importance still He gave Himself largely to 
 of the work dealing with individuals. He ap- 
 pealed to men as men. He frequently disre- 
 garded the multitude and left them to talk with 
 individuals. 
 
 The throng about Him was disregarded 
 when He spoke to an onlooker who had climbed 
 into a tree. 
 
 He stopped by a well-side to converse with a 
 fallen woman. 
 
 He made the hearts of men ''burn within 
 them " as He talked with them in the roadway, 
 giving His best self to personal interview. 
 
 He selected His apostles one by one, or two 
 by two, — Matthew, Philip, Nathaniel, James 
 and John, Peter and Andrew. He addressed 
 Saul of Tarsus as an individual on that Damas- 
 cus Road. He disregarded the great work in 
 Samaria and called Philip by name. He sent 
 him into the Desert, simply emphasising by 
 his errand the great importance of this work, 
 for in that Desert he was called upon to talk 
 with an individual, and that Ethiopian eunuch 
 a stranger. 
 
Motive 2 1 
 
 It is the only effective way to reach the en- 
 
 tire community. To reach all kinds and all 
 
 classes of people by all kinds and Eflfective- 
 1, 1 r ^T , . . ness of the 
 
 all classes of men. Nothmg is method 
 
 more potential in winning men to a change of 
 heart and life than personal testimony; like 
 wins like. National distinctions and misunder- 
 standings are unknown when '' Greek meets 
 Greek." Jerry McAuley knew how to ap- 
 proach a river thief, and the man approached 
 understood his language from the first word. 
 
 The college student who has thrown away 
 his chances and lost his ambition, immediately 
 finds a new hope when he hears the personal 
 story of Mercer. But the method is not con- 
 fined to '* like meeting like." Through this 
 method the natural adaptabilities of men have 
 fair play. The man whom one finds unap-. 
 proachable is approached easily by another. 
 The effectiveness of this method is not only 
 seen in business, but has actually become the 
 essential principle of business activity. It is 
 the modern method in business, as well as in 
 political life. 
 
 A large share of the work at one time ac- 
 complished within a warehouse or storeroom is 
 now accomplished hundreds or thousands of 
 miles away from the business centre. The 
 
22 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 work is largely done through the personal in- 
 terview of buyer and seller. The salesman 
 with samples, blue-prints, or catalogues takes 
 the place of long journeys and hours of selec- 
 tion. 
 
 In many cases even these are lacking, and the 
 simple personal testimony of trusted agents 
 and representatives is enough. Insurance, 
 bonds, investments of all kinds, are to-day re- 
 lated to this form of transaction. In many 
 cases a signature is substituted for a face or 
 personality. A man's name wins confidence, 
 gains prestige, sells goods. 
 
 Political life is filled with these methods. 
 Organizations, corporations, as well as plat- 
 forms. State and National interests, all have 
 their representatives, and do not hesitate to 
 press their claims personally, whether in office, 
 lobby, or on the street. 
 
 This is not confined simply to selfish ends and 
 aims. Moral reforms, from temperance is- 
 sues to questions of public education, opinions, 
 votes, signatures, are personally solicited. This 
 very principle has entered law and medicine. 
 Many of our young attorneys in city life are 
 detailed by larger firms to special and individual 
 interviews in the creation of public sentiment. 
 We have specialists at law who are sought for 
 
Motive 23 
 
 individual opinion. A well-stocked law li- 
 brary of half-calf is not to-day sufficient, but 
 the clear-cut, alert, personal opinion of the liv- 
 ing local man has weight in convincing and 
 winning other opinions. 
 
 The physician is not so much the general 
 practitioner, especially where great masses of 
 men accumulate and centre ; and, in cases of ex- 
 treme illness, even the rural district must have 
 the consultation of the individual who, as a 
 specialist, is an authority. 
 
 When we come into the realm of active busi- 
 ness life, not simply the work of the salesman, 
 but in the organisation of the modern office, 
 it is far-reaching, so far as the individual touch 
 is concerned. There is scarcely a great bond 
 or advertising house without the required ma- 
 chinery to address its mailing lists. The card 
 index has become a great business in itself; 
 every card represents an individual, tabulated 
 so that a complete record is known, not only of 
 present conditions, but of past transactions. 
 
 The effectiveness of modern individual 
 methods is thus recognised in all lines of activ- 
 ity. Why not within the Church of God? 
 
 The broad view of this whole matter will not 
 narrow itself to membership solicitation for 
 individual churches or denominations. Men 
 
24 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 will be active in winning men to Christ for 
 
 what Christ may do with them. The where of 
 
 their service will not be a matter of importance 
 
 compared with the what of their influence for 
 
 Him; we will be as interested in their uniting 
 
 with other churches as with our own. 
 
 Already, the effectiveness of this personal 
 
 method has received large emphasis in the for- 
 
 eig^n field. Korea is teaching: us a 
 
 Foreign field "=" . . , •u\ a a 
 
 great lesson m her sensible demand 
 
 made upon converts to win others to Christ 
 
 before being received into active membership. 
 
 If this became a condition of membership 
 
 throughout the Christian Church, how quickly 
 
 our cities and the entire country, to say nothing 
 
 of the world, would be evangelised! 
 
 If each Christian became a centre from 
 which radii went out to win other souls, with 
 what infinite rapidity and scope the work would 
 develop. Every single individual would be- 
 come a centre from which other individuals 
 would be reached. 
 
 What would this mean? Suppose in a 
 church of loo members, each member should 
 win one soul to Christ per week; this would 
 mean 5,200 people won in a year. Suppose 
 one-tenth of the membership in that church of 
 100 should win one soul to Christ a month, 
 
Motive 25 
 
 this would mean 120 won by that church, or 
 the membership more than doubled that year. 
 
 Even then 90 per cent, of the church might 
 be doing practically nothing in soul-winning. 
 Again, suppose in that church of 100 members 
 6 Communion services were held per year ; sup- 
 pose 25 per cent, of the membership won a 
 new member for each Communion service, this 
 would mean 150 new members added in the 
 year, although three-fourths of the church 
 members were doing nothing. Take the work 
 of the large church, any average good-sized 
 church, and see the results you would have. 
 In a church of 1,000 members, suppose 
 each member reached one new member per 
 month, 12,000 would be added in a year. 
 Some one says " ridiculous ! " Well, then, 
 let us take one-tenth of the membership, 
 leaving the 900 doing nothing, and let 100 
 members of that church of 1,000 win one mem- 
 ber per month, then 1,200 would be added per 
 year, or this church would have more than 
 doubled her membership. Suppose one-twen- 
 tieth of the membership reached one member at 
 each Communion service, i.e., once in two 
 months, 300 new members would be added in a 
 year; in other words, if 95 per cent, of the 
 members of a church of 1,000 did nothing in 
 
26 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 soul-winning and 5 per cent., or 50 of her 
 membership, reached one soul once in two 
 months, 300 new members would be added to 
 that church annually. Suppose 10 men in that 
 church reached one man a month, 120 would be 
 added in a year. 
 
 Over against these suggested figures place 
 the actual facts. We have, upon the authority 
 of the December, 1909, number of the Mis- 
 sionary Review of the World, the fact that 
 throughout the Evangelical Churches of the 
 United States an average of two new members 
 united upon confession of faith last year for 
 each minister, while in the foreign field forty- 
 six new members were added for each mis- 
 sionary. 
 
 The Church seems to be ready for this 
 work. Within a few years many religious 
 
 The writers have emphasised its im- 
 
 opportunity portance, and various text-books 
 and popular treatises have been published. In 
 presenting the subject practically and compre- 
 hensively, the forerunner of these recent pub- 
 lications was that masterpiece of simplicity and 
 personal illustration, edited by Henry Clay 
 Trumbull : '' Individual Work for Individuals." 
 This man incarnated his theme and, perhaps, 
 more than any other Apostle of recent days, 
 
Motive 27 
 
 first called to the attention of a thinking Church 
 her immediate opportunity in this important 
 branch of service. 
 
 The important books which have followed 
 have been adapted to certain classes and con- 
 ditions of men. And through these influences 
 and large emphasis given by press and Chris- 
 tian organisations, the subject no longer needs 
 endorsement and references. Men expect new 
 and modern methods. Everything is discussed 
 freely to-day. Every fireside has become a 
 rostrum, every schoolroom a debating club. 
 Even conversation has received new impetus 
 through argument and questioning. It is the 
 day of the interrogation point ! Practical con- 
 clusions are accepted as the result of personal 
 and general conversation. Discussions which 
 once would have been considered impertinent 
 have become commonplace. 
 
 Men are far more approachable than for- 
 merly. Religious questions have become so 
 closely related to ethical theories 
 and moral issues that the line of de- ^^ ^^° 
 
 marcation between the secular and religious, as 
 such, has been erased. Public opinion does not 
 regard the ceremonial garments as the sign 
 for religious recognition, although none the less 
 loyal to the insignia of holy ofhce, together with 
 
28 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 due regard for form and ceremony. There is 
 a very genuine antipathy to pretence and ex- 
 terior in the reahsm of to-day. 
 
 It is also a layman's day. We may disre- 
 gard it, oppose it, criticise it, but it is none the 
 
 less a fact. Many of our ablest lay- 
 laymen 1 r 
 
 men are to-day forced mto posi- 
 tions of opportunity and leadership in great 
 Christian movements which they reluctantly ac- 
 cept. Modest and retiring themselves, they 
 are compelled by public opinion to consider 
 questions of religious bearing. The great Lay- 
 men's Missionary Movement, the Lay Evangel- 
 ical Effort, the far-reaching influence of our 
 denominational and interdenominational Broth- 
 erhoods, the Forward Movements of our 
 Church, both missionary and philanthropic ; all 
 these are offering new opportunities for indi- 
 vidual appeal, until the entire Christian world 
 seems alive and awake to the definite personal 
 effort of man-to-man Christianity. 
 
 God's definition of sin differs from man's 
 definition. Man says sin is '' the breaking of 
 God's defini-the law; " God says sin is " failure 
 tion of sin to do the law." Simplified, man 
 says sin is ''doing wrong;" God says sin is 
 " failing to do right." " He that knoweth to 
 do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." 
 
Motive 29 
 
 Christ's teaching constantly reiterates this 
 thought. The parables of the Talents and the 
 Pounds! The Sermon on the Mount, 
 throughout its entire deep meaning, summing 
 up the truth in that wonderful expression: 
 '* Not every one that saith unto Me : Lord, 
 Lord, but he that doeth the will of my Father." 
 The saying of " Lord, Lord " and failing to 
 do God's will condemns. *' Inasmuch as ye 
 did it not to one of the least of these My 
 brethren, ye did it not unto Me." 
 
 In concluding, let us draw attention to a few 
 practical examples of our theme. 
 
 Few men have been used more mightily than 
 Henry Clay Trumbull. How was he led to 
 Christ ? He was a business man Henry Clay 
 in Hartford when he received an^^^"^^^^^ 
 earnest letter from a loving friend. ** The 
 power of one man over another so impressed 
 him," writes Robert E. Speer, that " he at 
 once began personal Christian effort for others, 
 which he continued through life." He has 
 won his tens of thousands. He has been to 
 countless young men their greatest religious 
 teacher. 
 
 Personally I remember that night in the late 
 '8o's, when he spoke to us at the Student Con- 
 ference at Northfield. As he came forward 
 
30 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 on the platform in Old Stone Hall, Mr. Moody 
 said to him : " Don't give us a lecture to-night, 
 nor anything you have prepared, simply talk 
 to us out of your life, tell us personal experi- 
 ences you have had in winning men to Christ." 
 None of us who heard him that night will ever 
 forget that message of power from a humble 
 heart, warmed with the love of God and trained 
 in personal service. Some of us date back our 
 genuine interest in personal work to the in- 
 spiration of that evening. 
 
 When Mr. Kimberly of Boston hesitated be- 
 fore that shoe store and, finally following his 
 
 Dwight L. inipulse, went in and talked with 
 Moody Mj-. Moody, the shoe clerk, he was 
 
 used of God to win his hundreds of thousands 
 through the influence of his convert. A single 
 instance : Last summer, at the Student Confer- 
 ence at Northfield, Charles Studd told us of 
 Mr. Moody's bringing his father to Christ. He 
 then told of his brother, who came in '85 or 
 '86 to America by Mr. Moody's invitation. 
 How his brother talked with Mr. Mott at Cor- 
 nell. Of the telegram which his brother sent 
 to Mr. McBurney, secretary of the New York 
 Y. M. C. A., as to " the student Mott," proph- 
 esying his future influence in the student 
 world. 
 
Motive 3 1 
 
 A few days later we learned, through Dr. 
 Grenfell, the influence Mr. Moody had over 
 him when he first heard him. The world 
 knows how that young physician of London 
 transferred his post from Great Britain to 
 Labrador, and we all know the hold he has 
 now, not only upon that ice-bound people, but 
 upon the hearts of Great Britain and America; 
 yes, the world. 
 
 Even as we discuss this subject we realise 
 the present influence of personal Christian serv- 
 ice in the colleges of this country, and even as 
 we speak and write, the echoes of the work at 
 Cornell, Yale, and the State universities of the 
 West, are coming to our ears. 
 
 From his own lips we heard Gipsy Smith tell 
 
 of the old Methodist class leader, that won him 
 
 by a personal word. When an- 
 
 \ ill i, -i Gipsy Smith 
 
 other muttered that he was only 
 
 a gipsy boy," the old man's hand was upon his 
 
 shoulder, and a kindly word won his heart as 
 
 he knelt at the altar. We heard him tell how 
 
 General Booth singled him out and called him 
 
 individually into public service. 
 
 All of us can give from our own experience 
 illustrations of personal work. 
 
 My first pastorate was in Utica, N. Y. 
 Around the corner from our little church was 
 
32 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 a small saloon kept by a German named " Ben- 
 Personai nett." I found that some of the 
 illustration older boys of the Sunday school 
 and church were frequenting his little beer 
 room. Strange tales came of what they were 
 doing. It did not seem wise to ferret it out, 
 but to go to the man himself. In calling one 
 afternoon I went in and asked him to come to 
 church. He jovially and laughingly replied 
 that " he did not take any stock in church, and, 
 of course, he would not come," but thanked me 
 for my invitation and tried to be courteous by 
 offering me a drink. I told him " I did not 
 drink, but that I was coming back to invite 
 him again." After frequent personal invita- 
 tions, he came one Sunday night, and then 
 again, and then the third time, and, after hear- 
 ing that third gospel sermon, he arose slowly 
 in an after-meeting (for the old man was pain- 
 fully rheumatic) and humbly and earnestly 
 confessed Christ ; and in his broken tongue he 
 told how he would destroy his liquors rather 
 than sell them, and he knew God would give 
 him some means of livelihood aside from the 
 business in which he was engaged. Week after 
 week he came into the church a penitent and 
 devout worshipper ; he was always in his place 
 with his family. Week after week I marked 
 
Motive 33 
 
 special chapters in his old German Bible, which 
 he read and reread. 
 
 A few years ago I learned that the old man 
 was dead. He had been burned to death ! He 
 had fallen on his stove, and was too crippled to 
 save himself. But in his last hours there were 
 words of happy testimony of his love to his 
 Lord and Master. 
 
 Some years ago, in another city, one who 
 had listened to the gospel and had been a reg- 
 ular attendant in a particular church for over 
 twenty-five years, was approached personally, 
 and the direct question of his relationship to 
 Christ presented. An appointment was made 
 late in the evening, which was kept. It was a 
 case of talking with a man past sixty years of 
 age and presenting to him personally the 
 claims of the gospel. Nominally, he was 
 recognised as a Christian, for he was a reg- 
 ular attendant at the House of God, but in 
 reality he had not given his heart to Christ. 
 After earnest words of invitation and appeal 
 he yielded, stating '' he would rather face the 
 Northern bullets ( for he had been a soldier in 
 the Confederate Army) than to stand before 
 the Church of Christ and make public con- 
 fession ;" but he stood there, and was baptised. 
 How well I can see his intense, impressive face, 
 
34 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 and note again the trembhng of his Hmbs ! But 
 that pubhc testimony led many a man to see 
 his own opportunity and obHgation, as was evi- 
 denced in years to come. More than one who 
 joined that church afterward dated his interest 
 to that man's confession. 
 
 I close with an incident from boyhood. It 
 was my first experience. We were trading 
 postage stamps together in the little hall bed- 
 room which I occupied in my father's home. 
 In the Albany Y. M. C. A. rooms, at 20 North 
 Pearl Street, a few of us boys had listened to 
 older ones talk of the blessing of personal 
 work, and had resolved we would try to win 
 some of our boy friends to Christ. How well 
 I remember that night. My sisters and some 
 of their friends were having a good time down- 
 stairs, and once or twice called for us to come 
 down. We kept on trading stamps, until, at 
 last, I plucked up enough courage to say to 
 my friend : " Jim, why don't you become a 
 Christian? " If I had hurled the stamp album 
 out of the window, he would not have been 
 more surprised. I know my voice trembled 
 and that what I said did not amount to any- 
 thing. The verses which I quoted were not 
 quoted exactly right in my embarrassment, but 
 he saw my heart, and God honoured the effort, 
 
Motive 35 
 
 and there in that little room, two of us boys 
 in knee trousers asked the Lord Jesus Christ 
 to help us live aright, and he gave his heart to 
 Christ. 
 
 Later he became a honoured worker in one 
 of the Baptist churches, and now, in a distant 
 city, he still works on in his home, loving the 
 same Lord and ever growing nearer into His 
 likeness. 
 
 A postal card does not mean much, but the 
 card which I received from Jim last Christmas 
 morning meant much to me, for it brought 
 back, as such tokens always do, the memory 
 of that beginning^ which was made in boyhood. 
 That verse, " In thy presence is fulness of 
 joy," never means so much as when we learn 
 its meaning in the companionship we have with 
 Him in personal service. 
 
II 
 
 THE MEN TO REACH 
 
" And there went out with him a band of men, whose 
 hearts God had touched."—/ Sam. lo: 26. 
 
 " Moses chose able men out of all Isv^LtX.— Exodus 
 18: 25. 
 
 *' And they said unto Elisha, Behold now, there are 
 with thy servants fifty strong men." — // Kings 2: 16. 
 
 " But the Lord said unto Ananias, Go thy way, for 
 he is a chosen vessel unto Me." — Acts g: 15. 
 
 " God give us men ! A time like this demands 
 Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands. 
 Men whom the lust of office does not kill, 
 Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy, 
 Men who possess opinions, and a will. 
 Men who have honour, men who will not lie. 
 Men who can stand before a demagogue 
 And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking. 
 Pure men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog 
 In public duty and in private thinking." 
 
 —J. G. Holland. 
 
II 
 
 THE MEN TO REACH 
 
 CHRIST died for all men, for all classes 
 of men, for all kinds of men. 
 
 Before we touch the subject of 
 Method, let us deal with this subject of Men. 
 
 Three general divisions are recognised : Con- 
 structive work, which, in itself, is preventive; 
 general work, or working amid Kinds of 
 one's own surroundings; rescue ™®^ 
 work, generally known as working among the 
 slums and with the fallen. 
 
 In working among this latter class there is, 
 aside from natural fascination, a very apparent 
 condition of urgent need. Immediately every 
 heart responds and universal human sympathy 
 unites in the cry: ''Save the lost!" Our 
 Saviour's very words encourage us : "" I was a 
 hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, 
 and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye 
 took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was 
 sick, and ye visited me : I was in prison, and 
 ye came unto me." 
 
 39 
 
40 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 The other two classes are not so popular 
 in our consideration, and still are relatively 
 of far greater importance when we consider 
 the practical motive of our study and the end 
 we have in view. 
 
 Taking up our first line of study, the con- 
 structive and preventive work, we primarily 
 consider the child, — the man when he is a boy. 
 The percentage of those who are won to Christ 
 in childhood is very great. Those who have 
 studied the question carefully give us facts 
 and figures. From the ages of eight and nine 
 there is a gradual increase to ten and eleven, 
 then an extremely rapid increase to sixteen, a 
 decline to twenty, a greater decline to thirty, 
 and conversions are very rare after that time. 
 With girls, the average age of conversion is 
 from fourteen to sixteen, and with boys it is 
 from sixteen to seventeen, although a large 
 number are reached earlier than either date. 
 
 Many of our church organisations, recog- 
 nising this condition, systematically aim to 
 reach the child through the direct 
 church channel; hence, in the Ro- 
 man Catholic, the Lutheran, the Protestant 
 Episcopal churches, and others, the '' confirma- 
 tion " formally reaches the child at an early 
 age. The opinion is prevalent, however, espe- 
 
 Childhood *^ 
 
The Men to Reach 41 
 
 cially among non-liturgical churches, that a 
 child should not be brought face to face with 
 this great decision for Christ until childhood 
 has ripened into manhood, and boyish fancies 
 deepened into mature thought. Here we are 
 making a senseless error: the greatest im- 
 pressions of our lives are the impressions of 
 childhood. We are at the impressionable age. 
 The Saviour Himself said : '* Except ye be con- 
 verted, and become as little children, ye shall 
 not enter into the kingdom of heaven." The 
 child-like spirit every great man in Christ's 
 service must possess. Many a child, far below 
 the age named, is perfectly ready to accept 
 Jesus Christ in the fulness of loyal, loving 
 obedience. 
 
 This very work with boys is a most under- 
 estimated work. We lose our men because we 
 do not win them at the very time they are be- 
 coming men. Within our very homes and in 
 our Sunday-school classes, and under the will- 
 ing care of the Church, we let them slip into 
 manhood unsaved, at the very time when, with 
 the least expenditure of time and energy, we 
 might win them for Hfe. 
 
 The Sunday school is comparatively a recent 
 institution. It dates back only 130 years. 
 Next year will be the anniversary year of the 
 
42 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 death of its founder, — Robert Raikes. Since 
 Sunday ^^ gathered those poor children of 
 school the Cathedral City of Gloucester 
 
 together in 1780, this great world-wide move- 
 ment of Christendom has organised for us the 
 children of the Church Universal. His work 
 was for the children of the street. Ours has 
 become a work for the children of the house 
 as well. The world text-book of the Sunday 
 school is the Word of God. The accepted 
 standard of the teacher should be his qualifica- 
 tion to teach God's Word and lead in spiritual 
 instruction. Are we winning our boys to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ ? 
 
 As we consider the men whom we are to 
 reach, are we not convinced now where our 
 greatest field is ? What the hoy is 
 the man zvill be. We have the 
 chance with the boy; are we using it? Ten 
 years from to-night the boys of Chicago will be 
 the greatest human asset this city has; hence, 
 what our city is to be twenty years from now 
 depends upon the boy of to-day. The boy 
 problem is in reality the man problem. It is 
 rightly termed '" The Problem of the Future/' 
 Are we winning the boys and girls to Jesus 
 Christ? 
 
 We are great boasters that " this is a man's 
 
The Men to Reach 43 
 
 age." As we quote those words of KipHng, 
 '' We are neither children nor Gods, but men in 
 a world of men," do we realise that that " world 
 of men " is a world of '' boy men/' as well as 
 men who vote ? We would not be boys again, 
 for as men we can win boys far better if we 
 gain their spirit and value their worth. 
 
 It is very easy to gain human sympathy for 
 the man who has fallen from a high building, 
 or who has met with disaster, or accident. We 
 are never too busy to take the time to call an 
 ambulance; but we seem too busy to build a 
 fence to prevent the man from falling! To 
 give the boy strength of limb, courage of self- 
 reliance, and intelligent insight will give him 
 the ability to live without falling. This prin- 
 ciple touches the whole great question of re- 
 form, and is the actual expedient in relieving 
 the destitute. We realise it is far better to tax 
 our cities that we may have the best school 
 system, than to tax them for reformatory 
 asylums and jails ! It is the same principle in- 
 terpreted in practical civic economy. Why not 
 deal with the individual boys in winning them 
 to Christ ? 
 
 This department of our subject touches an- 
 other great field of opportunity — that of the 
 young men who are getting a start in life. 
 
44 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 There are sections of this city and of every 
 great city, where tens of thousands of young 
 men may be found in rooming houses within a 
 radius of half a mile. Walk north, south, 
 east or west, any evening at the closing hours 
 of the offices and stores. Take the surface cars 
 or the elevated, and note the great throngs 
 of young people centring here. Very many 
 of them are away from home, without friends, 
 subject to the natural instinct of companion- 
 ship and friendship. They are accessible, they 
 are impressionable, and they are the men of 
 the future. Most of them are here through 
 self-denial, willingly submitting to conditions 
 of material discomfort in order to make their 
 way in the world. They are solicited con- 
 stantly by the forces of evil. They are sub- 
 jected to personal and fascinating temptations. 
 They are controlled largely by ambitions which 
 centre in industrial and commercial advance; 
 but they are responsive to that which is high- 
 est and best if they are sanely and sympa- 
 thetically approached, but we will take up this 
 subject again. 
 
 Our subject also touches the great student 
 
 world. More men are studying- in 
 Students , . , , . i , 
 
 higher education to-day than 
 
 ever before. Not many years ago one-half of 
 
The Men to Reach 
 
 45 
 
 one per cent, of the young men of this coun- 
 try were in colleges and universities ; to-day the 
 percentage is far greater. Not only educa- 
 tional schools and colleges, but our great State 
 and National institutions and universities have 
 awakened educational interest. Commerce and 
 science have united in the splendid competition 
 of present-day development. Many lines of 
 business life to-day are not open to the man 
 who is not intelligently equipped. The criti- 
 cism that educated men, trained in higher study, 
 are not practical men is becoming obsolete. 
 
 In this great student world there is an un- 
 limited opportunity for personal work. This 
 is closely related to our boy problem. If the 
 young men from our homes, Sunday schools, 
 and churches have gained the spirit of evangel- 
 ism, and have been won not only to Christ, 
 but to Christian service, they become the great 
 communicating mediums of power to others. 
 They become " cities set upon a hill " in their 
 various college communities. They become 
 centres of radiating influence for Christ among 
 the men who are to be the leaders in the world. 
 
 The great student movements to-day, such as 
 the Young Men's Christian Association and 
 Student Volunteer Movement, are encouraging 
 these very men in all kinds of personal en- 
 
46 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 deavour. Many of these students are pecuH- 
 arly susceptible to reHgious response when at 
 home on vacation. They have been away from 
 the home surroundings, they have been amid 
 other scenes, they are appreciative of their priv- 
 ileges as they compare their lives with those 
 who have not had the option of study. They 
 are willing to think upon this subject if it is 
 naturally and wisely presented. And then 
 there are numberless students from other 
 homes in our midst. Frequently, in parish 
 calling, we find whole houses given over to 
 students. In a single block recently thirteen 
 students were found in one house, ten in an- 
 other, and fourteen in a third. They were 
 cordial, responsive, appreciative, and several 
 from those very houses have become interested 
 through the influence of one young man. 
 
 There are men who quietly, but faithfully, 
 seek out just such young men, gain their con- 
 fidence, invite them to their homes, and win 
 them to Christ. There are medical colleges 
 where medical men, physicians, can have pe- 
 culiar access to the hearts of medical students. 
 There are law schools where a lawyer can ap- 
 proach with winsome propriety the individual 
 student, if he will make the effort. There are 
 business colleges where a business man could 
 
The Men to Reach 47 
 
 immediately win confidence with individuals, 
 and later win souls. 
 
 Another phase of preventive work is found 
 in the young family. Never a time in all the 
 world when a young father is more apprecia- 
 tive of attention and congratulation than when 
 he realises his fatherhood. He may have been 
 indifferent to spiritual matters, but there has 
 come into being in his own soul a sense of re- 
 sponsibility other than that he has previously 
 felt, and he begins to think of his child's wel- 
 fare rather than his own. Wise, inspiring 
 friendship will win that home to religious life, 
 and it is worth all the time it takes and the 
 price of every sacrifice. Let us win men when 
 they have their whole lives to give, when their 
 hearts are plastic and their minds open. I 
 would rather spend an evening in winning such 
 a life and home to Christy than to receive the 
 public applause of thousands in a vast audience 
 where an address might result merely in a 
 pleasing appreciation. 
 
 We now take up the general class, or work- 
 ing with those round about us. In aiming to 
 reach certain kinds of men we are nen 
 apt to overlook the fact that the around us 
 men whom we are most liable to reach are the 
 men of whom we see the most. If a man is a 
 
48 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 genuine Christian, his greatest influence is 
 where he Hves and works. If his hfe is in- 
 sincere and selfish, that is not true. Many a 
 man has carelessly and wrongly used the 
 passage : " A prophet is not without honour, 
 save in his own country, and in his own house." 
 Undoubtedly it is far easier for us to work 
 among strangers than with friends. Novelty 
 is always attractive. The other stream than 
 the one in which we fish always has the reputa- 
 tion for trout. Yesterday is reported to have 
 been a remarkable day, and to-morrow has the 
 unverified certainty of distance. The " en- 
 chanted land " is just ahead, or just a few 
 miles away. '' Abana and Pharpar, rivers of 
 Damascus, are they not better than all the 
 waters of Israel, may I not wash in them and 
 be clean?" But this is all fallacy, the real 
 opportunity of a man is where he is, his 
 greatest chance is the present chance near 
 at hand. 
 
 A bank clerk can win bank clerks to Christ 
 better than an outsider, if he is true and real, 
 and if he is a man's man with Christ's man- 
 hood. 
 
 An insurance man can reach an insurance 
 man or the boys in the office. The salesman 
 can reach a salesman. Some Christian trav- 
 
The Men to Reach 49 
 
 elling men to-day, one or two in particular, 
 have won not only their hundreds, but their 
 thousands to Jesus Christ. 
 
 How well I remember a wall-paper man who 
 was converted in central New York many years 
 ago. For years he had lived a careless, sinful 
 life. He gave his entire heart to Christ, and 
 immediately began to work for Him. His Bi- 
 ble went into his grip wherever he went, and 
 was constantly read. One night, in a Syra- 
 cuse hotel, four or five companions were with 
 him. They said : " Boys, let's go out and have 
 a night of it ! " A couple of them linked their 
 arms in his and said, " Come on," calling him 
 by his first name. Answering, he said, '' Let 
 me show you something," and pulled out of his 
 pocket a letter from a grandchild. Handing 
 it to the ring-leader, he said : " Jim, read that ! " 
 The letter was in a child's hand : *' Dear Grand- 
 father, we are so happy that you have Jesus 
 and have started for Him. Mother told me 
 you had the Bible in your grip. Baby says her 
 prayers for you every night. Please come and 
 see me." And then a baby's signature. 
 " Boys," he said, '' I am on a different track; 
 I am going up to read the old Book, and be- 
 fore I go to bed I am going to pray for you 
 fellows. I wish you knew how happy I am. 
 
50 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 I wish you knew what it was to have this kind 
 of happiness." His words went home. Al- 
 though a Christian but a few months, that man 
 had begun to win souls to Jesus Christ among 
 the men with whom he worked. 
 
 A banker in one of our cities was unpopular 
 with all the men in the office, — unconsciously 
 so. One day he expressed the opinion that 
 he would love to do Christian work in a rescue 
 mission or in the church prayer meeting. His 
 pastor suggested, with frank definiteness, that 
 he might begin to do some work in his bank 
 among some of the popular young fellows who 
 were subject to great temptations. He was man 
 enough to see the point and took the hint. 
 Within a few days he called one of the clerks 
 into his private office and, after closing the 
 door, told him that he had not taken as much 
 interest in him as he should ! That he remem- 
 bered years ago, when the lad's mother died, 
 she had spoken to his wife of the interest she 
 hoped they would both take in the boy. He 
 told him he did not know that he had seen 
 him in church, but wished he would take a 
 place in their pew. He wanted him to know 
 that he cared personally for his spiritual con- 
 dition, and was grateful when he looked at his 
 own boy that his mother had been spared to 
 
The Men to Reach 51 
 
 him, and not taken from him, as his had been. 
 Before they left that office, that manly banker 
 put the catch on his door and in a simple, 
 earnest prayer asked God to bless the lad. It is 
 not necessary to tell the rest of the story, but 
 that young man is to-day a power in that bank, 
 and is winning many of those other fellows to 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Why should we continue praying that God 
 would show us " Harvest Fields " when he 
 has placed us in grain that is higher than 
 our heads, and every grain yellow to the 
 harvest ? 
 
 A teacher may have a marvellous personal in- 
 fluence with the men in his class if he is will- 
 ing to exert it. A lawyer may invite many a 
 colleague to the House of God or the place 
 of prayer, where the invitation would be 
 spurned if it came from another. A letter- 
 carrier has a great chance to say the word for 
 Christ to his companion when they are starting 
 out on the route or waiting to sort the mail. 
 A motorman or conductor has many a chance 
 for slipping in the right word when they are 
 waiting to take their cars. An insurance man 
 has countless opportunities to solicit souls for 
 Jesus Christ, even when at times he may not 
 be successful in writing new policies. A con- 
 
52 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 secrated farmer can transform a township in 
 his generation if he hves and acts for Christ 
 just where he is. 
 
 How about special united efforts? The re- 
 vival has its place, but the best kind of a re- 
 
 Speciai vival is the kind which takes place 
 meetings r^ ^ c i 
 
 Special efforts "fty-t WO Sundays m a year, 
 
 through the regular channels of the Church 
 and its various organisations. It is not com- 
 mendable for a minister of the gospel, or an 
 officer or member of a church to be more pop- 
 ular or more effective as a public or private 
 speaker in other communities than his own. A 
 man with one speech may make a favourable 
 impression in fifty places if the speech is a 
 good one, but he may have lost the power to 
 make a second speech of any value in his own 
 home! Superficiality tends to roaming, just 
 as insincerity tends to discontent. The pur- 
 poseless life is the story of the child of the 
 fable, " chasing the rainbow." His chase is 
 visionary and he fails to see the blended colours 
 which he seeks in the very light in which he 
 lives. There is a great place for the special 
 effort, for the combined activities of the Church 
 in re-awakening movements, but the maximum 
 opportunity is in the ordinary and common- 
 place. 
 
The Men to Reach 53 
 
 ** Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be, 
 As more of heaven in each we see. 
 The trivial round, the common task, 
 Will furnish all we ought to ask." 
 
 Acting upon this very principle, every man 
 of us has an immediate definite opportunity of 
 accompHshing great things for God. We may 
 " Go home to our friends and tell them what 
 great things the Lord hath done for us." 
 
 This winning of men round about us to 
 Jesus Christ should begin in our homes. I 
 
 wonder how many of us have chil- 
 , - , . , , At home 
 
 dren, sons, daughters, wives, broth- 
 ers, and sisters unconverted? No doubt it 
 may be the hardest proposition we can face to 
 speak to them, and, perhaps, before we should 
 speak to them or could speak to them with any 
 influence, there are deeds and words and feel- 
 ings in our hearts which must be overcome. 
 
 A friend of mine once testified that he be- 
 gan his personal Christian service in soul- 
 winning by asking his sister if she would give 
 her heart to Christ. It was a lonely road 
 along which they were going home together 
 from the meeting. He knew she had been 
 touched, but was unwilling to yield. Again 
 and again he tried to speak to her. Finally, 
 with faltering voice and broken sentence, he 
 
54 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 abruptly asked her if she would not give her 
 heart to Christ, that he had been praying for 
 her. She burst into tears with the reply, that 
 " she had been waiting years for him to 
 speak." There they stood in the night to- 
 gether. She began a Christian life, which has 
 been increasingly useful and abundant through- 
 out the years. 
 
 The most impressive word of testimony 
 spoken at the funeral of Mr. Moody was the 
 statement of his son that, although their father 
 had many times lost patience with them (a 
 fault which was always corrected in quick 
 apology and loving spirit), yet he himself had 
 won each of his children personally to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 From the great mission field of Korea, 
 where, a little over twenty years ago. Dr. 
 Horace Underwood kneeled with seven Chris- 
 tians in that heathen land, the sole constituents 
 of the Church of Christ, there are to-day 
 150,000 Christians, and their aim is 1,000,000 
 souls for Christ this year. Thus they are 
 teaching the lesson of doing God's work at 
 home. 
 
 Some of the richest mineral lands have been 
 sold for a mere pittance as worthless, simply 
 because the surface soil was undesirable for the 
 
The Men to Reach 55 
 
 planter; beneath the apparent barrenness of 
 many of our surroundings there is the rich 
 mine of priceless value if we will but gain the 
 sub-soil by deepening the purpose and effort of 
 our lives. 
 
 " He came to seek and to save that which 
 was lost." Few of us as Christian men have 
 not been deeply moved by the sad The out- 
 scenes where the wretched and for- work 
 lorn have sought the power of religion. The 
 heart responds quickly to the eager look of 
 the castaway as he sees a long- forgotten ray of 
 hope. Hollow eyes, weakened features, 
 flushed faces, and filthy and ragged garments : 
 all these appeal to us universally, and when 
 fancy reads into these conditions the all too 
 real facts of half -starved children, cold des- 
 olate homes, broken furniture, and broken 
 hearts, our sympathy becomes extremely prac- 
 tical, and we say: "Of course we will work 
 in the missions, only give us the chance." What 
 a blessing comes from such service! How 
 many of us have gained that blessing? How 
 many of us are working or have worked in any 
 of the missions, great or small, in our city? 
 Might I add the question of how many of us 
 will visit and encourage this noble work? Yet 
 we all believe in this form of work and have 
 
^6 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 seen, perhaps many times, blessed results from 
 it. From the earliest history of the Chris- 
 tian Church this work has been honoured of 
 God. It was in a little mission room in 
 Rome which Paul, the prisoner, had himself 
 hired, in which he spoke to Onesimus, 
 the runaway slave. I can see this crim- 
 inal, a fugitive from justice, lost in the tens 
 of thousands of runaway slaves of Rome, him- 
 self a despised Phrygian slave, as he slunk into 
 a back seat as Paul was preaching. He be- 
 came interested, he knew the speaker was sin- 
 cere; the speaker gained his confidence, until 
 at last he confessed his story. His master was 
 Paul's friend, he was sent back to Philemon 
 to the city of Colosse, and in that letter Paul 
 wrote: ''If he hath wronged thee or oweth 
 thee aught, put that on my account." What 
 became of him we know not, but the Patristic 
 writers tell us of one Onesimus who became a 
 Bishop in the early Church. It may have been 
 he. 
 
 But, why go beyond the experience of our 
 own day. Jerry McAuley, a river thief, was 
 won to the Master; his Mission at 316 Water 
 Street, New York, has won thousands. 
 Drunken tramps have kneeled at that little 
 wooden bench to find Christ, and some of these 
 
The Men to Reach 57 
 
 very men are to-day prominent business men 
 in that very city. I have heard Samuel Had- 
 ley say that over twelve hundred souls have 
 found the Saviour kneeling at that same bench. 
 
 To-day, throughout the American colleges, 
 the life testimony of Mercer, to whom we have 
 alluded, is another vital instance of rescue 
 work. A graduate of the University of Vir- 
 ginia, from an old and honoured family, fallen 
 to the lowest, but now reclaimed, and honoured 
 and beloved by scores who have found the 
 Saviour and received new inspiration through 
 his splendid manhood and Christlike spirit. 
 And in our own city, from the days of Moody 
 to this present hour, this work goes on night 
 after night. When we sleep, these noble work- 
 ers are winning the outcasts to the Son of 
 God. 
 
 Aside from these three classes of men, let 
 us aim to reach strong, pivotal men to Jesus 
 Christ. It is natural for us to pivotal 
 
 seek those whose inclinations bring ^^^ 
 them to the House of God, or those who come 
 instinctively under the influence of Christian 
 teaching. 
 
 The small filings are quickly caught up by 
 the passing magnet, but not so easily are the 
 great bars of steel lifted. Christ can use and 
 
58 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 does use the weakest of His creatures to do His 
 work, but let us follow Him in seeking those 
 who are not so easily won. Out from the 
 ranks of the rough manhood of to-day let us 
 claim rugged strength for Him. Let us seek 
 the granite cliffs from which to quarry pillars 
 for the temples of our God. 
 
 Sin has stamped many a noble life with the 
 marks of the lower nature; but once gained 
 for God, the Divine Sculptor will cut away 
 the roughness until He gains a surface which 
 He Himself can polish. Out of a swearing 
 fisherman He may make a fearless champion, 
 — and he a character so controlled by sin that 
 almost three years of companionship did not 
 accomplish the work. But He most patiently 
 persisted until at last that Galilean tongue that 
 could so easily take the name of God in vain, 
 was used in fearless defence : *' Whether we 
 shall obey men or God, judge ye, for we can 
 but speak the things which we have seen and 
 heard." 
 
 He called the " Son of Thunder " to His 
 service and His side, that He might make him 
 " John the Beloved," a seer among those who 
 disclosed the mysteries of God. 
 
 And Paul himself, the hated, merciless per- 
 secutor of Judea, seeking the scattered pilgrims 
 
The Men to Reach 59 
 
 of the Cross in Damascus, arrested on the high- 
 way by the Divine call, summoned into service 
 by the persecuted Saviour, perfected through 
 toil, sacrifice, and suffering, until at last he 
 could say : " I am crucified with Christ, never- 
 theless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth with- 
 in me, and the life I now live I live by the 
 faith of the Son of God, who loved me and 
 gave Himself for me." 
 
 Men of the Church of Christ, let us seek the 
 men who are real and strong in their vital 
 influence and leadership. Let us reinforce the 
 ranks of the King from the very ranks of the 
 enemy, and let us have the faith, the wisdom, 
 and the courage to aim to win those who will 
 win others. 
 
 Years ago, in calling one afternoon, I heard 
 and saw the sad story of a home gone wrong. 
 I saw the suffering, shoeless children. I 
 looked into the worn face of a patient, godly 
 mother who worked on into the night to save 
 her little family. I sought the husband, found 
 him drinking, as was his wont, at a nearby 
 saloon. Back of that careless drunkard's life 
 I saw a man of splendid leadership and power. 
 A day or two later I faced him in his shop, told 
 him who I was, told him I wanted to talk with 
 him, asking him if he would take a walk with 
 
6o Recruiting for Christ 
 
 me Saturday afternoon, received a negative an- 
 swer, took hold of his great, rough, square 
 muscular hand, and said with a smile : " Well, 
 I won't let you go, I am coming back to-mor- 
 row and the next day, and mean to keep asking 
 you until you say you will." A day or two, 
 and he consented, none of the men laughed at 
 him, — he wasn't the kind of a man men laughed 
 at. He was the uncrowned monarch of that 
 shop, and his life of sin and carelessness was 
 meaning the ruin of scores of others, although 
 he knew it not. 
 
 We walked that afternoon over the hills to- 
 gether into the woods. At last I faced him. 
 I asked him what he thought of himself, what 
 he thought of his shoeless boy, what he thought 
 of his half-starved infants, what he thought 
 of his noble wife, fighting to the death alone, 
 still loyal to him, patient in her suffering, un- 
 complaining in her work. I asked him what 
 he thought God brought him into the world 
 for, why God gave him his influence, how he 
 was using it? He was big enough to an- 
 nihilate me, but I did not care much then 
 whether he did or not. But we did not stop 
 there: I spoke of the love of Christ for him, 
 that the Son of God died to save his soul, and 
 that Christ would help him to use his leader- 
 
The Men to Reach 6i 
 
 ship to help other men. I might have told him 
 of the men in that shop whom his career was 
 damning, but we had gained another vision. 
 Somehow, in that forest, we saw another wood- 
 land, and it was a garden. We looked off on 
 another hillside, and on it were three crosses, 
 and there, upon our knees alone, that great 
 strong man broke his heart in sorrow and 
 asked to be forgiven, and gave his heart to 
 God. Of course, he had a fight, but he won 
 out. A year later the owner of that shop told 
 me he would take his own wife and daughters 
 through that building without the least sense 
 of fear, for they would hear nothing that he 
 would not care to have them hear, but a year 
 before he did not care to enter himself. That 
 same shop declared a dividend and gave a pro- 
 rata increase to the men on the basis of profit- 
 sharing, as the result of the kind of work they 
 had begun to do. 
 
 Men, God wants pivotal men, find them, 
 pray for them, work for them, work with 
 them patiently, win them, and ''where Saul 
 has slain his thousands, David will slay his tens 
 of thousands," and we will discover what 
 Jesus Christ can do with a strong man, one 
 loyal to Himself. 
 
Ill 
 
 PREPARATION 
 
"And the word of Jehovah came to Ezekiel saying, 
 Be thou prepared, yea, prepare thyself, thou, and all 
 thy companies that are assembled with thee." — Ezekiel 
 38: I, 7- 
 
 " The preparations of the heart belong to man, but 
 the answer of the tongue is from Jehovah." — Frov. 
 16: I. 
 
 " And next to him Johazabed, and with him a hundred 
 and fourscore thousand ready prepared for war; 
 those were they that waited on the King." — // Chron. 
 17: 18-19. 
 
 " Study to show thyself approved unto God, A work- 
 man that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright 
 the word of truth." — II Timothy 2: 15. 
 
 "That the man of God may be complete, furnished 
 completely unto every good work." — // Timothy 3.- 17. 
 
 *' Faithful prayer always implies correlative exer- 
 tion." — John Ruskin. 
 
 "Let prayer be the key of the morning 
 And the bolt of the evening." 
 
 — Matthew Henry. 
 
 " Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer." 
 
 — George Croly. 
 
Ill 
 
 PREPARATION 
 
 WE now come to the subject of Per- 
 sonal Preparation. This comes to 
 us in natural order. We are to pre- 
 pare ourselves for personal work. Some of 
 you will remember where Gipsy Smith started 
 
 when he first opened his work. 
 
 , , , . Preparation 
 
 You will remember he gave this 
 
 initial thought : '' Every one of us needs to 
 draw a chalk mark, a circle around himself, 
 and then work inside the circle;" and this is 
 true. We are to begin with ourselves. The 
 preparation must be here. We have many 
 books telling us how to do personal work, we 
 have teachers and Christian ministers who in- 
 struct us. We are told how to do it, but how 
 many of us are really doing it ? How many of 
 us have talked personally with some other man, 
 woman, or child, as to his or her personal rela- 
 tionship to the Lord Jesus Christ w^ithin the 
 last twenty-four hours, or even the last week, 
 for that matter? We are prepared, we say. 
 65 
 
66 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 We have the books, we know how, but we are 
 not doing it ! We are not " delivering the 
 goods " ! We are men, but we are not win- 
 ning men to Christ. Our motive is right, we 
 have the power, we know the kind of men to 
 win, but are we prepared to do it? Have we 
 the real preparation, or simply the tools? A 
 friend sent me a fine tool chest one summer. 
 Some of us like to putter with tools, so, when 
 I got away on my vacation, my impression was 
 that I could build 'most anything with those 
 tools, but it was a mistake. The work done 
 was not satisfactory work. The tool chest was 
 excellent, my zeal was ardent, my motive was 
 good, but I did not know how. The tools 
 could not do the work. Books cannot do it. 
 Preparation in mere equipment will not do it. 
 We must have personal preparation. We must 
 know how ourselves. 
 
 There must be certain great incarnate prin- 
 ciples. The first of these essential funda- 
 mental truths is prayer. Nine-tenths of us as 
 Christian people to-day are planning and pray- 
 ing, and this is not God's order ! His order is 
 '' Pray and Plan." 
 
 If we are to win for God we must begin by 
 prayer, knowing that God Himself will lead us 
 and answer us. 
 
Preparation 67 
 
 Do we actually believe that prayer is funda- 
 mental? Do we really believe that prayer is 
 the primary practical preparation 
 that we personally need. We 
 sometimes say we believe certain things when 
 we do not actually believe. How many of us 
 really begin our personal work with prayer? 
 How many of us actually start the day with 
 prayer? A man asked me the other day if I 
 believed in morning bed-prayers. I tried it the 
 next morning and went to sleep. Thinking, 
 perhaps, I was overtired, I tried it again with 
 the same result. The third morning I said : 
 " My friend is not built as I am. This cannot 
 do for me," and I got out of bed as usual, in 
 the spirit of prayerful determination and 
 meditation. After a man has washed his face, 
 he is far more liable to pray intelligently and 
 fervently without letting his mind wander. 
 Time and place and manner are secondary. 
 But personal definite actual prayer is primary 
 and fundamental. There is not a man of us 
 who has not an ideal, but there are many of us 
 who have experiences that do not check up 
 with our ideals. Most of us are like children 
 starting in to keep a diary. If they run for 
 fifteen days in January they do well, but soon 
 get discouraged, and no more diary until the 
 
68 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 next January ist. Why not start in right 
 where we fail? That is success. Why not 
 start in just where we know we have continu- 
 ally erred, and begin now to do the thing we 
 ought to do? This prayer is necessary. It is 
 the first essential of success in this work. 
 Whatever system or method helps you to be 
 faithful, that is the best system of prayer for 
 you. It makes very little difference what sys- 
 tem another uses. Use your own. Use prayer 
 as a power in your life. 
 
 The experience of prayer will qualify prayer 
 in your own life. How many of us have had 
 this experience? After praying definitely that 
 God would lead us to do a certain line of per- 
 sonal work, or lead us to some special in- 
 dividual, the way was suddenly opened. We 
 were all at sea how to reach him, but this op- 
 portunity opened in a way of which we had 
 never dreamed? This has been an experience 
 so many times in my life that it has defined 
 for me the supernatural. Many others have 
 referred to like experiences. No point of con- 
 tact, no method of approach, a lack of confi- 
 dence in myself, a distrust in any success of 
 my own, when suddenly God so easily opened 
 the way, and all was well. A dozen experi- 
 ences are fresh in my mind where, without 
 
Preparation 69 
 
 any suggestion from any human source, 
 method and opening have come through 
 prayer. 
 
 A man once wrote me a letter as to a certain 
 woman in the community who had large in- 
 fluence, stating that he hoped I would make 
 it a matter of prayer that she might be reached. 
 There was not a single plausible reason why 
 she should be in our church the following Sun- 
 day, but she came up and spoke to me after 
 the service, thanking me for the sermon, and 
 introducing herself. I realised later that she 
 was the woman for whom we had been pray- 
 ing. It seemed so evident, so sure, that the 
 friend who had written had taken some initia- 
 tive in the matter that investigation was made. 
 He was more surprised than I. The world 
 would say, " A mere circumstance," but we say 
 " God." 
 
 In my life and in your lives there are il- 
 lustrations all the way along. There is no 
 human energy, nor knowledge, nor any human 
 gift, nor any human adaptability, nor any bril- 
 liancy, which compares with the power of 
 prayer in approaching men and winning men 
 to the Lord Jesus Christ. If a Christian man 
 does not believe this, he should pray that 
 he may believe it, for the first condition 
 
70 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 of success in winning men to Christ is 
 prayer. 
 
 What may this mean to us, to us as individu- 
 als? It may mean that we are to begin to 
 pray definitely for individuals, and pray that 
 we may have the grace and power to reach in- 
 dividuals. How many of us are praying daily, 
 specifically, for some definite conversion, pray- 
 ing that we may be used to reach some in- 
 dividual? We are not living up to our priv- 
 ileges if we are not. Many manifest that they 
 believe in this work, but that they are not ap- 
 propriating their belief! Are you not willing 
 to make the definite attempt? Will you not 
 appropriate it, and pray for some definite friend 
 or individual? 
 
 Now as to the method of prayer in our own 
 lives. There is a sentiment, — and it is a sen- 
 Method of timent, not a fact, — due, no doubt, 
 prayer ^q q^j. traditions and training, that 
 
 when we begin to pray for individuals, and 
 use the same methods used in business, we 
 lower the real dignity and devotion of prayer. 
 This is wrong. No possible criticism should 
 be made of any form of worship which 
 differs from that in which we may have been 
 trained. I have preached in a Baptist church 
 in the morning, in a Methodist church in the 
 
Preparation 7 1 
 
 afternoon, and have read the Scripture in an 
 Episcopal church in the evening, and the form 
 of prayer differed in each service. One com- 
 mon Lord makes us one in Him. But when 
 we come to personal prayer, any method which 
 can make it practical and real in my life or 
 yours, the appropriation of God's great gift 
 to us, is the best possible method. 
 
 My little girl runs into her grandmother's 
 room and, throwing her little arms around her 
 grandmother, climbs up on her knee, and they 
 read a book together, — a primer, perhaps, or 
 a story book. That dear child will sit in her 
 grandmother's lap an hour or more, and there 
 is sweet communion between them, but there 
 is none the less real affection in my heart for 
 my mother when each night at the close of the 
 day, before I seek my rest, I go to her room, 
 whether she is asleep or awake, and quietly 
 kiss her forehead. There is all the difference 
 in time, all the difference in method, all the 
 difference of age, — there is not one bit of 
 difference in the devotion except one is more 
 matured than the other. The essential thing is 
 the reality of it. We can pray anywhere, in 
 any form, at any time, if the heart directs. 
 
 Do you remember that an Indian prays with 
 his eyes open? Once at the Indian Confer- 
 
72 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 ence at Lake Mohonk, a converted Indian stood 
 silently before us, looking straight ahead at 
 the audience before he said a word. Finally, 
 with great simplicity and force, he spoke. Mr. 
 Smiley told us later that in his silence he was 
 praying. His tribe had a custom never to 
 speak to people until they first look to God with 
 a frank, earnest face, to ask Him to help them 
 speak aright to the people. That Indian was 
 standing there before us asking God to use his 
 simple message. What a lesson! Praying 
 will so enrich a man that he will not let Httle 
 things trouble him. Some months ago, when 
 dining with a noble soul, one of us spoke care- 
 lessly in regard to another. She said : " Oh, 
 let's keep to our subject; let us leave that detail 
 to the Lord." She lived above the little 
 things! The Saviour lived above those little 
 things because He always had the power of 
 prayer and communion. 
 
 I was once talking with one of the world's 
 great men in his private office when his tele- 
 phone rang. He excused himself for a mo- 
 ment, took the receiver off, and said : '' Oh, I 
 am so glad it is you. You say you are only 
 here for a few hours; well, will you ring me 
 up in a few minutes, I am busy just now with 
 a friend." Gladly would I have told him to 
 
Preparation i73 
 
 proceed, that I could easily wait, for I knew 
 from the way he spoke he was addressing a 
 close business friend, and a man of large in- 
 terests, but he said : " I am busy." From him 
 a wonderful truth was gained. You and I may 
 be on our knees when the telephone bell may 
 draw us away from God, and we are incHned 
 to let anything interrupt. We let anything 
 come between us and the place of the presence 
 and power of God. 
 
 Do we realise when we pray that the Al- 
 mighty God is with us, that the Almighty, the 
 Omniscient, the Omnipotent, the Omnipresent 
 God is there ? 
 
 How can we " expect great things from God, 
 or attempt great things for God," unless we 
 give Him first place? If we thus believe and 
 honour God in prayer. He will increase our 
 faith in specific petitions. From the simple 
 incidents that God has given as a direct an- 
 swer to prayer, even in childhood, many of us 
 learned this lesson. How well I recall one in- 
 cident. Placed in charge of a large party of 
 some forty children, we were all crowded into 
 one of those great excursion carry-alls. Two 
 or three ladies went with us. Realising the 
 driver was somewhat intoxicated, I got him 
 to stop at a country inn and sought other as- 
 
74 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 sistance within. In my absence he started 
 down a sharp hill with a railroad track at the 
 foot. It was absolutely impossible to do any- 
 thing. I was a boy sixteen or seventeen years 
 of age. Instinctively I tried to overtake him, 
 but, failing, I ran into an orchard, and down 
 under an apple-tree, on my knees, asked God to 
 save those children. I knew that I was abso- 
 lutely helpless and cried to Him for help. 
 Suddenly one of those women, once familiar 
 with horses, realised the condition of that 
 driver, and, taking the reins from him, brought 
 the horses to a standstill before they got to 
 the bottom of the hill. When I reached that 
 team, breathless, I had learned the lesson, — 
 that the absolute helplessness of a man is the 
 medium of God's power. (I have learned 
 more since, however. I would now pray as 
 I kept on running). The one great thing we 
 need is to believe in prayer, for " His strength 
 is made perfect in weakness." 
 
 The second essential is study, — prayer and 
 study. There is no easy way to knowledge. 
 Study means work. No man can 
 study for another if individual at- 
 tainment is to result. Study may be simple, 
 inspiring, attractive, but it must mean effort 
 and faithful personal labour. 
 
Preparation 75 
 
 What are we to study first? The Word of 
 God. What are we to study second? Men. 
 What are we to study third? Nature, — that 
 is, the natural conditions around us. What 
 are we to study fourth? Books. Books in- 
 clude the history of men, biography, experi- 
 ence, and all that goes with them. If we study 
 God's Word, Men, Nature, Books, we will find 
 that such study will result in our real prepara- 
 tion. 
 
 What is the best asset of study? Not what 
 a man learns, but what he learns how to use. 
 You studied chemistry when you were in col- 
 lege, and thought you learned something use- 
 ful, but to-day you could not recite the formulas 
 if you tried. How about the names of the 
 Presidents of the United States, if you were 
 called upon to give them ? The fact is, a great 
 many of the things which are a part of our 
 common education we do not remember. 
 Probably few of us could start in at Washing- 
 ton or Oregon and give every State in the 
 Union, but your thirteen-year-old boy can do 
 it, and do it quickly. The fact is, we are not 
 trained to be encyclopedias ! This is not study. 
 Study is not merely acquiring information, 
 but learning how to acquire; how to adapt, 
 and use. Study is not simply filling up our 
 
76 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 minds. Some of the brainiest men in the 
 world have been the most useless men. The 
 secret of power is not simply knowledge nor 
 memory. Not knowledge, but the power to 
 use and adapt knowledge. Consider the dif- 
 ference between the Eastern and the Western 
 mind. The Eastern mind is the mind trained 
 to memorise. We had a student in one of our 
 great universities who came to study in the 
 department of physics. When his examina- 
 tion time came, six months after his entrance, 
 every single question was answered verbatim. 
 The professor, believing that he was an honest 
 man, questioned him, " I want to ask you how 
 it is that you have given every single answer 
 exactly as it is in the text-book ? '* He quickly 
 replied : '' Why, I learned the book from cover 
 to cover." He had committed that entire text- 
 book to memory ! He also said : " From the 
 time I was a little boy I have always committed 
 to memory; that is nothing to me at all." He 
 had graduated from a college in Southern 
 India. It would be a great task for us to ac- 
 complish. The American mind is not the mind 
 that simply commits to memory. It is the 
 mind that learns to paraphrase, to think for it- 
 self. Your child is not learning to commit 
 page after page, but to acquire the thought. 
 
Preparation 77 
 
 He is trained to think. The American student 
 to-day is the one who can think for himself. 
 
 Now the memory has a marvellous place in 
 our study and preparation. You all know per- 
 fectly well how the memory may be used in 
 studying the Scriptures.* Too much em- 
 phasis cannot be placed upon the importance 
 of memorising Scripture. However, we need 
 more than this. We need a memory that can 
 quickly relate a truth to life. What we need 
 is truth that can immediately relate itself to 
 life, and, with this in view, we want to study 
 God's Word faithfully. Study it in such a 
 way that it becomes part of our lives. That 
 we can call upon it and use it just wh^en it 
 should be used. In dealing with men we must 
 realise this. But use it for results, not as an 
 exhibition of your own knowledge of Scripture. 
 
 In our preparation let us make our study the 
 very best study we can give. How many of 
 us study the Word of God to show ourselves 
 approved of God, workmen who need not to be 
 ashamed? Can we take His Word and use 
 and control it? Do we take it as food, that it 
 may make good red blood and make our lives 
 strong? How many of us go without break- 
 
 *See **How to Master the English Bible," by Dr. 
 James M. Gray. 
 
78 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 fast, or lunch, or dinner for a week, and then 
 make up in one meal when we hear a sermon 
 on the Bible? What sort of digestion does 
 this give, and what kind of muscle does it 
 create? We must study the Bible as we 
 eat our food. We must give our best to 
 Him with the regular and full vigour of our 
 minds. 
 
 But TIME comes up. When should we 
 study the Bible? Frequently? Yes, but let 
 us do it at specific times, and give God the pick 
 of our time. Recently, in talking with a 
 lawyer, he admitted he would like to study the 
 Bible, but had not the time. Gladstone gave 
 more time to God and to his Bible the very 
 days in which he had the hardest problems to 
 face. McCheyne tells us the harder the task 
 the more time he took to study the Bible to 
 prepare for it. 
 
 Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, who has helped so 
 many of us not only by his friendship, but by 
 his voice and pen, was once asked to speak fif- 
 teen minutes at the Mohawk Indian Conference 
 on " General Missions." When he excused 
 himself from an afternoon pleasure to pre- 
 pare, one laughingly said : '' Why, you do not 
 have to prepare, do you? " He replied : " If I 
 am to speak two hours I can prepare in fifteen 
 
Preparation 79 
 
 minutes, but if I am to speak fifteen minutes 
 it will take me two hours to prepare." 
 
 Many of us do not do more in personal 
 service because we do not know the Bible well 
 enough. We do not do more of this work be- 
 cause we do not know how to use God's Word. 
 We are not equipped. My experience is, that 
 a study of the Bible which is primarily a devo- 
 tional study, a personal soul study of the Bible, 
 the study that my own soul needs, is the most 
 profitable. Nine-tenths of all the sermons 
 some of us preach come out of our devotional 
 study. We need the very truth as applied to 
 our own hearts. In the course of that devo- 
 tional study, before we know it, sermon after 
 sermon is suggested. 
 
 The devotional study of the Bible will help 
 us primarily to win other people. This study 
 will lead us to use sections and chapters of 
 God's Word rather than simply texts and 
 verses. The thought and principle will thus 
 influence and convince. To illustrate : In deal- 
 ing with a man who did not believe in the in- 
 dividual method of winning men to Christ, 
 and who would not undertake it because he 
 considered it discourteous, he accepted an in- 
 vitation to come upstairs, and we read together 
 the chapter in Acts which told of Philip's work. 
 
8o Recruiting for Christ 
 
 As we read how this man was accompHshing 
 wonders in Samaria when God called him 
 away to deal with one man, he said : " What 
 do you think of that? I see I am all wrong. 
 The fact is, God's method is not my method, 
 I'm all wrong." 
 
 A student came to me one day and said: 
 " What do you think of this editorial? It rep- 
 resents what I believe. It is exactly the op- 
 posite of what you preached last Sunday night, 
 and I think you are all wrong." Upon asking 
 him where the author got his authority, he re- 
 plied, " I don't know. He is relating experi- 
 ence." We went up to the study and looked 
 into it. As we read together the passage of 
 Scripture without comment, he broke in by 
 saying : " I see your point. The writer of 
 that editorial hasn't the facts or the right 
 premise." That student is to-day a missionary 
 in China; all he needed was to study it through. 
 
 But we must know men. The man who is 
 
 prayerful and is studying the Bible, who does 
 
 not also know men, will never at- 
 Know men ' • , • , ^ ^c • • • • 
 
 tarn highest efficiency in winning 
 
 men to Christ. 
 
 And we must be our own natural selves if we 
 
 are to win men. We cannot drive men away 
 
 from God by any quicker method than by using 
 
Preparation 8 1 
 
 a holy tone when talking to them. When some 
 
 men speak of religion they seem 
 
 , 11 1 1 Naturalness 
 
 to lose all the natural power 
 
 God has given them by becoming unnatural. 
 
 Gipsy Smith said wisely, If he were giving 
 
 advice by means of music, he would go to the 
 
 organ and strike the key of " B Natural." Be 
 
 yourself and know men, and nature, and life, 
 
 so that you can adapt yourself immediately to 
 
 conditions. You can study men in the busy 
 
 life of the city activity. You can study nature 
 
 when in the woods and in the mountains. 
 
 Some of us recall the great influence at 
 Northfield back in '87 and '88, when men like 
 Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull, Dr. J. Hudson 
 Taylor, Dr. John G. Paton, and others were 
 there. We see those men now as they walked 
 over the hills, as they walked amid nature, and 
 kneeled with many a student beneath those 
 trees to pray. Occasionally Mr. Moody would 
 get up in the Auditorium in Old Stone Hall 
 and say : " Boys, get away from these walls, 
 go out into the woods^ and think and pray, 
 and let God speak to you through the Word 
 of God and nature." 
 
 I tell you I have seen men won to Christ on 
 a trout stream. Get your friend out into the 
 company of nature if you want to talk to him 
 
82 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 of Christ. Who is back of nature? God is. 
 He loves the hills, the streams, the fields. 
 Once, in the far reaches of an Adirondack 
 trail, my guide asked me if I believed God lived 
 in the vi^oods. It was my opening. We had 
 talked together of all the signs of wood and 
 wild life. He had pointed out to me the old 
 stump torn by the claws of the bear as he 
 sought grubs and ants. Now he wanted me to 
 show him God, and the Son of God. More 
 than trout were caught that day. *' Follow 
 Me and I will make you become fishers of 
 men." 
 
 Jesus Christ can use us and will use us 
 wherever we are. It was a happy moment in 
 my life years ago in the Adirondacks, when an 
 old woodsman, old Dan, said to me as we sat 
 before the old camp fire, '' Would you mind, 
 before we turn in, having a prayer and a short 
 reading? You know I found Christ." I tell 
 you, men, if we know nature and know men and 
 are ourselves natural, God will give us results. 
 Let us begin now. We have daily and hourly 
 all the opportunities we need to say something 
 for Jesus Christ. 
 
 Mr. Moody (and I love to refer to him, for I 
 believe Mr. Moody and Mr. Spurgeon were the 
 greatest human beings in the last century in 
 
Preparation 83 
 
 uplifting mankind) used to tell us that many 
 
 a night, after he had gone up to his 
 
 1 11 111 Practice 
 
 room m the hotel, he would leave 
 
 that room and go down again to the office, be- 
 cause he would not retire until he had made a 
 definite personal effort to win somebody to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. I have heard him say that 
 he had won many to the Lord by just such ef- 
 forts. 
 
 We can start now if we will. Men, prac- 
 tice makes perfect in this thing. Some of the 
 men who have become the strongest servants of 
 Christ have been men who have broken down, 
 or failed at first. No matter if you do make a 
 poor attempt. Who of us has not? Who has 
 not forgotten the verse he meant to quote, and 
 ended in apparent confusion and failure. Once 
 I ended up by saying: " I am making a fist of 
 this, but I'm dead in earnest." That was one 
 of the best pieces of work I ever did. That 
 man was mine ever after in close Christian 
 friendship. Mr. Spurgeon was right when he 
 said : " There is more in the matter of earnest- 
 ness than in anything else if souls are to be 
 won." 
 
 Prayer, study, and practice will prepare us 
 to do this work if we are dead in earnest; and 
 once having gained this holy enthusiasm, we 
 
84 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 will not draw back. Our souls will crave this 
 very work, and we will be prepared by the Holy 
 Spirit and filled with His power. The 
 " Greater things than these " shall be accom- 
 plished by the man prepared by God Himself. 
 
IV 
 APPROACH 
 
"A word spoken in season, at the right moment, 
 is the mother of ages." — Carlyle, 
 
 " Silence is less injurious than a weak reply," — Colton. 
 
 " Many can argue, not many converse." — Alcott. 
 
 "A wise man will make more opportunities than 
 he finds." — Bacon. 
 
 "A man convinced against his will 
 Is of the same opinion still." 
 
 — Butler. 
 
 "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the 
 strong, neither yet bread to the wise, not yet riches to 
 men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; 
 but time and chance happeneth to them all." — Eccle- 
 siastes 9: 11. 
 
 " If any of you t^ck wisdom, let him ask of God." — 
 James i: 5. 
 
 "Lo, I am with you Silwsiy."— Matthew 28: 20. 
 
IV 
 
 APPROACH 
 
 HOW are we to approach men? 
 After personal preparation, nothing 
 is more important than this subject of 
 *' Approach." Having the right motive, and 
 recognising the essential qualifications of de- 
 votion, preparation, and sincerity, we must 
 approach our man aright. 
 
 The place of '' impulse " is not to be over- 
 looked in considering approach. If a man is 
 
 consecrated to God, under the di- 
 
 t 1 1 • r TT- TT 1 f-. • • Impulse 
 
 rect leadership of His Holy Spirit, 
 
 he will act wisely by following impulse. At 
 times the incentive will be strange and unex- 
 pected, suggesting itself without any apparent 
 cause. Usually it is safe to regard and follow, 
 if the mind is normal and sincere. By way of 
 illustration : Some years ago, when reading one 
 evening, I was strongly impressed with the 
 sense of duty to go to a neighbouring street 
 and call upon a young man who had interested 
 me, and for whom I had prayed. The even- 
 87 
 
88 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 ing was passing quietly and in solitude. Such 
 evenings were at a premium, but so strong was 
 this impulse that it was followed prayerfully, 
 though with somewhat indefinite zeal. He 
 welcomed me cordially, and was in a most re- 
 ceptive frame of mind. I frankly told him 
 the circumstances attendant upon my call. 
 That call led to his conversion, and he be- 
 came a useful member of the Church. 
 
 Another instance, which emphasises the need 
 of immediate response : I was once driving in 
 New England with one of my little daughters. 
 Passing the house of a somewhat notable char- 
 acter, who was ill, I was prompted to turn in 
 and talk with him about his soul. Without the 
 slightest hesitation, I drew rein and found my- 
 self approaching him as he sat in the sunshine 
 on his veranda. Telling my little daughter to 
 stay in the yard and play with the chickens, I 
 hitched my horse and told him who I was, that 
 I had known of him, and without other intro- 
 duction, my errand was directly told. Already 
 signs of deep emotion were seen in his face. 
 He asked me in. Helping him in with his 
 wheel-chair, I talked simply and earnestly with 
 him, read the Scripture, asked him if he did not 
 wish me to pray with him, and then poured out 
 my heart to God in simple, fervent prayer. I 
 
Approach 89 
 
 have reason to beheve the old man was even 
 more than touched, and that the directness of 
 our united appeal to Christ found that same 
 ready response which is always given. He 
 died the next winter. The opportunity would 
 not have been repeated. He was a rough, but 
 kindly man, — a son of the forest. A man 
 whose earlier years no knotty elbow of wood 
 could challenge when he was swinging his axe. 
 A man who once almost severed his foot from 
 his limb when chopping, but refused even then 
 assistance to the house until overcome by weak- 
 ness through loss of blood. 
 
 Impulse unheeded seldom returns. And not 
 only ministers of the gospel, but all Christian 
 workers realise that many a life's sad experi- 
 ence is the consciousness of having failed and 
 lost forever the following of a definite inspira- 
 tion or impulse. 
 
 There is an irregular way of approaching 
 men, and this is a frequent way. Zealous, en- 
 thusiastic, eager, alert for an op- xhe 
 portunity, we approach the first irregular 
 man we meet — anywhere, anybody. We may 
 win him, but his response is largely relative 
 to the strength of his character. Strong men 
 are seldom won in this way. They reason 
 somewhat thus : '^ This man is carried away 
 
90 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 with this new notion, and I am the victim. 
 He was out looking for anybody, — hke the 
 man hunting birds, — I rose, he shot." This 
 method has been honoured of God constantly 
 and has frequently been successful, but there 
 is a better way, — not that we think the less of 
 this, but the more of the other. 
 
 Then there is the regular, orderly method. 
 The reaching of men through the regular 
 
 The church channels in the church, 
 
 regular after an impressive sermon, in the 
 
 prayer meeting, or Young People's Society, 
 through special services, when organisation and 
 inspiration prompt approach. However, the 
 men and women who are usually present at 
 the regular or special church services do 
 not need the gospel as those who are not 
 there. 
 
 In the work of the City Mission there is a 
 greater field frequently, in our great con- 
 gested centres. A large percent- 
 Missions , • 1 1 1 
 age here are without the gospel. 
 
 Attracted by the music, light, or warmth, with- 
 out shelter or home, — they are easily gathered. 
 Generally their emotional natures are quickly 
 aroused and genuine human sympathy creates 
 an atmosphere of quick response. 
 
 This is also somewhat true in street work. 
 
Approach 91 
 
 Whether conducted under the auspices of the 
 Salvation Army, bands of Christian laymen, 
 gospel wagons, or summer outposts in the 
 parks; all of these afford opportunities in gen- 
 eral to reach large numbers of people. A great 
 many men ought to begin in these very places. 
 It is far easier to get used to this work there 
 than elsewhere. Men expect it. Convention- 
 ality is not known. Perfect freedom is the 
 order of the day. These assemblies are demo- 
 cratic in form and conduct. A recent Satur- 
 day evening, in one of our Wells Street mis- 
 sions, a few of us who were present felt the in- 
 fluence of this very thing. A dozen men must 
 have responded, apparently eager and willing 
 to accept Christ, and anxious for our prayers. 
 These men and women belong to the " down- 
 and-out " class. They are ready for any gen- 
 uine practical help, spiritual or physical. The 
 inspiration of such work develops not only abil- 
 ity, but also inclination and readiness. 
 
 This we would call ordinary work, but there 
 is an extraordinary work to do. By this we 
 mean definite work for individual Extraor- 
 men, — men whom we have se- binary 
 lected, — men for whom we are especially work- 
 ing. These men may be needy, neglected, 
 thoughtless, indifferent, immoral, weak, or self- 
 
92 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 righteous. Whatever their characteristics, 
 among them are men who are strong and in- 
 fluential, and men who have marked person- 
 ahties. 
 
 Look ont for the man with a strong, vigor- 
 ous personaHty. Stop and watch those boys 
 
 who are playing marbles on the 
 Personality . ^tt i ^ 
 
 Street just now. We know that 
 
 spring is here, not only because the birds have 
 begun to sing, but because the boys are play- 
 ing marbles and spinning tops. Yesterday I 
 saw a crowd of a dozen or fourteen. One lit- 
 tle fellow controlled the whole situation. He 
 was the homeliest chap of the lot. But when 
 one of the older boys imposed on a little chap 
 he did not stand for it a moment, and the whole 
 crowd swung into line. If I wanted to win 
 that crowd of boys I would get that little fel- 
 low and let the rest go, for he had the whole 
 crowd with him. No matter what their char- 
 acteristics, get hold of the men with personal- 
 ity, they are the pivotal men. To 
 Pivotal men . "^ , '^ . ^ ^, . 
 
 wm one such man for Jesus Christ 
 
 means that he will be the means of winning 
 hundreds. Some men can win their tens, some 
 their thousands, and some their tens of thou- 
 sands. Jesus Christ followed this principle in 
 selecting His apostles. He selected men who 
 
Approach 93 
 
 would lead anywhere because of their striking 
 personalities. 
 
 We now turn to the subject of planning our 
 work. In all activity for God we should look 
 ahead. Prayer precedes plan, but 
 does not substitute for it. The 
 most valuable lesson that I learned at the 
 World's Fair in '93 was learned, not in any 
 exhibition or building, but in the life of the 
 companion with whom I came to Chicago. He 
 had studied law before entering the theological 
 seminary where we were studying together in 
 the East. His peculiar method of conducting 
 his devotional exercises, of saying his 
 prayers at night, aroused my attention. After 
 I had finished mine and gotten into bed, he 
 would still be sitting in his chair looking off 
 into space in an intense sort of way, and finally 
 kneel and pray briefly. One night Thinking 
 I said to him: "Judge, you cer- and playing 
 tainly conduct your devotions in a peculiar 
 manner, and I am inquisitive enough to ask 
 you how you do it? " He replied in the same 
 companionable spirit with some such words as 
 these, " Well, I studied law, as you know, 
 before I entered the seminary. We were 
 trained to think things through before we 
 started to plan our campaigns. I feel, when 
 
94 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 I pray, that I am approaching my Heavenly 
 Father and my Divine Friend. He should 
 have the very best I have. Hence I think be- 
 fore I pray. I think over carefully the things 
 for which I wish to express gratitude; then 
 the things which I need and want and, after 
 thoughtfully deciding, I pray from my heart." 
 This is not only a suggestion as to prayer, but 
 properly introduces aright the necessity of plan- 
 ning in our work. Aside from praying for 
 men and deciding whom we are to aim to reach, 
 we should study our man, study his nature, his 
 tastes, his temperament, his training, his sur- 
 roundings, his business, his employment; his 
 inclination, his attitude, his companionships. 
 
 Some years ago a number of men were ap- 
 pointed to present a large philanthropic enter- 
 prise to one of our great national financiers. 
 He was a very busy man, almost unapproach- 
 able, his time held in great value. Finally an 
 appointment was made, — it was to be brief. 
 The matter was to be presented in a few min- 
 utes. In preparing to present the matter in 
 five minutes, the chosen spokesman spent five 
 or six hours in getting ready to make a five- 
 minute speech. He studied the man's life, 
 went into the details of his experience, read 
 magazine articles about him, studied his busi- 
 
Approach 95 
 
 ness, consulted with some who knew him bet- 
 ter than he; disregarded secondary matters, — 
 cut out a story here or there, — discriminated 
 with great care as to just what should be said. 
 
 (Just here it is well for us to note 
 , , , . , , Humour 
 
 that the man who is always known 
 
 as a great story-teller is seldom known as a 
 first-class business man. The first-class busi- 
 ness man may be a good story-teller, but the 
 man who makes it his business to tell stories 
 and is noted for that primarily, seldom is 
 noted for anything else. A great English 
 statesman, when asked his opinion as to a cer- 
 tain diplomatic appointment, replied : " The 
 man is not eligible : he is too prominent for his 
 humour.") The success of this particular in- 
 terview was the result of careful preparation 
 for the few minutes of active conversation. 
 
 In planning for our man we should consider 
 the WHOr HOW? WHAT? WHEN? and 
 WHERE? of it all. First, WHO 
 
 11 1 -% -rr Who? 
 
 can reach the man best? If our 
 object is to win the man^ we will not care who 
 wins him. Some men are approachable with 
 one who are not with another. A zealous col- 
 lege lad, who was ill-kept and careless in his 
 dress, as well as in his manners, approached a 
 fellow of entirely different tastes and training. 
 
g6 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 whose hncn was always immaculate, who mani- 
 cured his finger nails, and whose trousers were 
 always perfectly creased ; he approached him 
 in a ready, careless manner, clapping him on 
 the shoulder, and asked him why he did not 
 become an active Christian. It was enough 
 to antagonise him throughout his entire course, 
 and the Y. M. C. A. was always associated 
 with unpleasant memories and an unjust 
 opinion. This man might easily have been 
 won by another. It was just a case of care- 
 less campaign, of ignorant and thoughtless 
 zeal. If we are after strong men, let us plan 
 to use the right men to approach and reach 
 them. Business men are exceedingly careful 
 who plans an interview, and by whom they 
 are introduced: Frequently salesmen arrange 
 among themselves who should approach cer- 
 tain firms and men, knowing that others would 
 not make a corresponding impression. Heads 
 of firms are most particular on this very line, 
 not only in the allotment of territory, but in 
 the assigning of individuals. 
 
 HOW are we to approach men? Some by 
 
 appointment, others by happenstance; some 
 
 boldly, directly, frankly; others in 
 
 general statements and quietly. 
 
 Here more than anywhere else common-sense 
 
Approach 97 
 
 intuition must be exercised. We must know 
 how to be silent as well as to speak, how to re- 
 frain from criticism or expression, as well as 
 to use audible argument. Frequently such 
 men are reached by bringing them into the 
 hearing of able men, — arranging general ap- 
 pointments rather than personal; discovering 
 the kind of men who would appeal to them, and 
 then making it a point to invite and, perhaps, 
 accompany them to such a gathering. We also 
 may plan new acquaintanceships for them with 
 men whose influence cannot fail to be felt, and 
 this all unconsciously and naturally. 
 
 But, WHAT are we to say to them ? What 
 are we to do? What are we to follow up? 
 
 Just as necessary as these questions 
 
 *^ . What? 
 
 are their opposites. What are we 
 
 to refrain from saying? What are we to re- 
 frain from doing? What are we to let alone, 
 biding God's time? The good conversation- 
 alist is not necessarily the man or woman who 
 does the most talking! A good conversation- 
 alist is usually an excellent listener. Some 
 years ago, when attending an afternoon tea 
 (not that we dote on them), I found it quite 
 unnecessary to have much, if anything, to say. 
 Although talking with five or six women dur- 
 ing the half-hour, I do not think I opened my 
 
98 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 mouth, — except to casually remark that " the 
 tea was excellent." What was my surprise 
 when, coming down the stairs, hat in hand, to 
 overhear two or three ladies speaking my name, 
 and, all unconscious that I was near, I heard 
 them say enthusiastically : " Isn't he a charm- 
 ing conversationalist?" I learned my lesson. 
 
 The best way to convince some men of the 
 reality of the Christian faith in which they have 
 been trained, is to keep still and let them talk. 
 They may talk against theories and dogmas 
 which are very clear to you. They may criti- 
 cise right and left, but if we keep a sweet 
 spirit and do not antagonise in reply, very fre- 
 quently they come around of their own accord 
 and confess that they are talking for the sake 
 of talking. 
 
 We used to do the same thing when we came 
 home from college. We were filled up with 
 new thoughts as to philosophy, we were proud 
 that we were studying psychology, we had got- 
 ten well into logic, then rhetoric, and we loved 
 to talk with our mothers, and tell them how il- 
 logical the old faith was, and how absurd many 
 cherished beliefs of childhood; but, if our 
 mothers did not antagonise us, but showed the 
 same sweet spirit which they had always shown, 
 after a while we came around and admitted in 
 
Approach 99 
 
 our boyish language that we were " talking 
 through our hats." It was simply a case of 
 " trying our wings." 
 
 It is not always WHAT we say. Truth 
 does not always need a defender, nor theology 
 an apologist. A great many times a quiet, 
 gentle spirit wins when a brainy argument 
 drives away. 
 
 One of the most interesting cases came to my 
 mind about two or three years ago. I was 
 calling at the Christmas season upon one of 
 our faithful and honoured missionaries, who, 
 with his wife, was at home on his furlough 
 from South America. He and his noble wife 
 met me with dimmed eyes, but they were tears 
 of rejoicing. '' I have just had the happiest 
 Christmas gift of my life," he said. He then 
 went on to tell me it was a letter from his son, 
 a merchant in a South American city, who had 
 just written to them of his earnest conversion. 
 The wife of this son was a Romanist. The 
 priest in their city had come to talk with him 
 and win him over to Romanism. The young 
 man, schooled from childhood in the Scripture, 
 had argued with the priest, and apparently 
 worsted him at every step; finally the priest 
 went away disgusted and angered. The young 
 man said to his wife: '' Why, I believe all this 
 
lOO Recruiting for Christ 
 
 I have said to him, — I really believe it ! " It 
 resulted in his uniting with the Church, and his 
 wife coming with him. The very means which 
 we sometimes use to argue men into the King- 
 dom seems to stir up the worst side of their 
 opposition. It might almost be well to take 
 the other side with some men, merely for the 
 sake of argument, that we might act as mirrors 
 to show them their real belief in their own 
 natural truthful response. 
 
 The time of approaching men is most im- 
 portant. Wise men always plan their time. 
 Why approach a man just before 
 dinner, or in the busiest moment in 
 his office, or when his mind is filled with other 
 things? Why take the time which is due to 
 his children and his home, and rob him of his 
 greatest joy and comfort? Then, if we are 
 patient, there are certain times which are pe- 
 culiarly apt. You have been waiting for the 
 right time, perhaps waiting for years. There 
 is a wreath near the bell at the front door, 
 and a bit of crape or ribbon ; don't speak to him 
 then, when his heart is so tender. The pathos 
 of the Cross is the return from Calvary! Look 
 at Herbert Schmalz' great picture, " The Re- 
 turn from Calvary," as he portrays this very 
 scene. A rift in the cloud shows the three 
 
Approach loi 
 
 crosses on the distant hill. The Roman Guard 
 is moving out of the city. Mary, the mother 
 of Jesus, abject and hopeless, leans upon the 
 bosom of John as she takes his arm. Mary 
 Magdalene gives all her attention to the pros- 
 trate Mother. The others look back over their 
 shoulders to the crosses. It is the return from 
 Calvary! Those long days and long evenings 
 will soon come. Your friend will be at home 
 and alone. The busy, rushing street has 
 ceased to know his sorrow. Even the careless 
 cartman tried to quiet his horse as he passed 
 the house when the service was going on, but 
 the world has now long since forgotten. There 
 is a time now. It is God's time. It is your 
 opportune time to let heart and head act in 
 thoughtful emotion, and all because of a wise, 
 sympathetic friendship. 
 
 Anywhere? Yes, everywhere. But the 
 trysting-place is God's place. Let associations 
 
 hallow certain places. Old scenes 
 
 11 r 1 1 r o 1 Where? 
 
 call forth latent forces. Seek to 
 
 get men to the places where they are naturally 
 impressed; among the companions who will 
 help. It may be a walk together on a half- 
 holiday. It may be the planning of a two 
 weeks' vacation together. The result of many 
 a vacation has been the winning of strong men 
 
102 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 to Christ. It may be a day's outing. It may 
 be a call. All this may have been arranged by 
 'phone, by letter, or by invitation far ahead. 
 No method will be seen in it, but the result may 
 prove the wisdom of your far-seeing plan. 
 
 But always remember that two are a com- 
 pany and three are a crowd. 
 
 Never talk personally with men as to their 
 soul's salvation when three are present. Sel- 
 dom even with a man and his wife, — except 
 when a little baby binds them together in the 
 new joy which has transformed a house into a 
 home. Always have a man alone, and talk 
 to him where there can be no possible inter- 
 ruption of word or view from another. Let 
 a man talk it over with his wife usually, rather 
 than trying to see them both; Christ usually 
 called men one by one, and great soul-winners 
 have been dealers with individuals. 
 
 Never hurry, take plenty of time. If not 
 successful once, come back and back again. 
 
 Persever- Never make the error of persisting 
 ance i^ winning men the first time you 
 
 call. Almost invariably you will lose them. 
 Win a man's confidence, no matter how long 
 it takes. Then the matter of winning his soul 
 and life will not be difficult. The greatest 
 surgeons are the men who are never hurried 
 
Approach 103 
 
 in their private offices. Scores may be waiting 
 without, but their best attention is given to 
 the individual case; and in winning victory 
 over disease, repeated treatment and operation 
 may be necessary. This is also true in reach- 
 ing men in business. I had an insurance man 
 call upon me thirteen times before he wrote 
 a policy, and then I did not want the policy 
 half so much as I wanted to remain in his 
 good graces, for he had become a friend. It 
 would hardly be fair to say I wanted to get rid 
 of him. Win the confidence of men. Show 
 your sincerity, your persistency, your deter- 
 mination, but show it wisely, sympathetically. 
 Don't try to wholesale your work, — retail it. 
 Take time for prayer and thought. In entering 
 a ** tournament of activity " don't try to win 
 the whole series in one game. Omit your 
 argument, — show heart rather than head. Use 
 earnestness, and don't be afraid of genuine 
 feeling and emotion. 
 
 Always be frank. What has made Amer- 
 ican diplomacy known the world over? The 
 
 Eastern diplomats cannot under- 
 
 , , . . Frankness 
 
 stand why American statesmen are 
 
 so successful. " You have no great schools of 
 
 diplomacy," they say, and still they recognise 
 
 our strategic and statesmanlike accomplish- 
 
I04 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 ments. It is nothing more or less than a frank, 
 truthful, manly expression. 
 
 Let friendship do its work. How well I re- 
 member that manly grasp of a close, dear 
 friend, who had lived and worked for years 
 on the other side of the globe. We had been 
 in close touch as the years had gone by, he 
 working in his place and I in mine, both for 
 the same Lord and in the same Kingdom. We 
 met for only a few moments. We knew each 
 other's friendship. When that strong hand 
 grasped mine in farewell he said, " God bless 
 you. We'll keep true to one another on our 
 knees," and then he added : " I love you." As 
 I walked from that train as it pulled out 
 across the continent, I wiped from my eyes 
 tears of real gratitude. The heart and head 
 were working in true expression together. Let 
 us be true to the holy emotions of friendship, 
 and let us use them aright in approaching men 
 and in winning men to Christ. 
 
V 
 MEANS AND METHOD 
 
"Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only."— 
 James i: 22. 
 
 " The God of Peace make you perfect in every good 
 work to do His will, working in you that which is well 
 pleasing in His sight." — Hebrews 13: 20-21. 
 
 " The shortest way to do many things is to do only 
 one thing at once." — Cecil. 
 
 "There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit." — 
 / Corinthians 12: 4 
 
 " Let all things be done decently and in order." — 
 / Corinthians 14: 40. 
 
 " God nothing does, nor suffers to be done 
 But what thou wouldst thyself — couldst thou but see 
 Through all events of things as well as He." 
 
MEANS AND METHOD 
 
 THERE are two great means which God 
 has given to us — personal human ef- 
 fort, and the proper use of the Word 
 of God. Back of these there is the consistent, 
 
 consecrated Hfe. There must also 
 
 . Means 
 
 be prayer power, a firm belief m 
 
 men, and mutual cooperation in various lines 
 
 of activity. 
 
 Taking all into consideration, we have these 
 two great forces : The part of God's Holy Spirit 
 in the use which He makes of our personal 
 effort, and the use of the Word of God, God's 
 Holy Spirit in guiding us, and God's Holy 
 Spirit in using the Word. 
 
 A question came up recently which was an- 
 swered by a wise leader as to the use of the 
 Word of God in winning men to Christ. I 
 think he answered most wisely and practi- 
 cally. The verse method in itself is often help- 
 ful, but has frequently been misused because 
 107 
 
io8 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 not thoroughly understood, and because of 
 the omission of the real interpretation and 
 sequence. 
 
 The most successful use of the Word of God 
 is not simply by verses of Scripture, but by the 
 illustration of Scripture which brings out the 
 truth, and gives clearly God's meaning as the 
 Spirit interprets. 
 
 When we come to method, let us consider 
 
 that there are certain natural primary means 
 
 which must come before us, and. 
 Method 
 
 among these, I wish to emphasise 
 
 two : Conversation and correspondence. (The 
 Correspond- second of these is often disre- 
 ence garded by many of us, or at least 
 
 is not sufficiently emphasised. ) 
 
 The most ordinary means, and that which 
 affords the greatest opportunity is conversa- 
 tion. At the outset let us note that we cannot 
 be helpful in winning men to Christ in con- 
 versation unless we manifest the genuine spirit 
 
 of sympathy. How many times 
 Compassion ,, , , , , ^ « 
 
 all the way through the Gospel we 
 
 read that Christ had compassion on the multi- 
 tude ! jit was compassion in the heart of Christ 
 that led Him to talk to the woman of Samaria. 
 That led Him to look up at that man in the tree 
 — Zaccheus. Compassion that led Him to 
 
Means and Method 109 
 
 Matthew. Compassion, as well as Divine in- 
 sight, that led Him to Peter. 
 
 It was this that gave Him power to 
 recognise in a man like John a deep, genu- 
 ine, sympathetic nature and winsome per- 
 sonality. 
 
 First of all, we must love men if we are to 
 help them. It must not be shown externally. 
 No method should be seen. Any 
 condition which discloses machin- 
 ery or reveals method will usually lose power. 
 
 People seeing method are led to misjudge 
 the motive and purpose. 
 
 We should not do away with the method, but 
 let it be unseen. In conversation with men let 
 us first show that we love them. We must 
 have a devout and genuine affection for men, or 
 we will not approach them with the right spirit. 
 The longer we live the more we realise that the 
 spirit of a man is his great means of usefulness. 
 We may differ doctrinally, in creed or in inter- 
 pretation of truth, and we may differ from 
 men in method and manner of thinking, and in 
 temperament, but if we know the spirit of a 
 man and that man sees in us the spirit of 
 Christ, we can help one another. We must 
 gain this at the very start in conversation, for 
 this is what counts. We lose a man at once, 
 
no Recruiting for Christ 
 
 or we gain him at once, by the very spirit which 
 we manifest. 
 
 This leads to the thought that in conversation 
 we must be careful not to make an exhibition of 
 our lives. Many a man has not been used by 
 God because of his very brilliancy. His own 
 wit, his own personality, his very intellect have 
 stood out so that men have seen him exhibited 
 instead of the truth which he would really give 
 to others. 
 
 A rare leader spoke years ago to a body of 
 students. His brain and ability so overcame 
 
 ^n him that he unconsciously made an 
 
 exhibition exhibition of his life. The criti- 
 cism of those men was just. The man 
 impressed them with his intellect instead 
 of impressing them with his truth and his 
 message. 
 
 Now, men, if we ever do this in conversation 
 with a man and draw attention from the mes- 
 sage to ourselves, then men see us instead of 
 the truth. 
 
 We must lose ourselves in service, and men 
 must fail to see us, save as devoted messengers, 
 if Christ is to be seen. We must gain con- 
 versational power in presenting truth simply, 
 lovingly, sincerely, as we give to man the con- 
 sciousness that our words are the very ex- 
 
Means and Method iii 
 
 pression of God's truth, uttered for His sake. 
 Then they will gain His Spirit, and will not 
 listen to us so much as to the truth which we 
 are speaking. 
 
 It is generally a great mistake to use argu- 
 ment. It may be a means to divert 
 
 - - . T 1 Argument 
 
 rather than convmce. It was sel- 
 dom used by Jesus Christ and His servants in 
 winning men. 
 
 Of course, there are some men who must 
 have doubts explained away, but usually argu- 
 ment is a cloak for something else, and very 
 few men comparatively have been won to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ by its means. You start in 
 opposition and you provoke opposition, instead 
 of gaining response. 
 
 In my experience as a personal worker, I 
 have never known a strong man won to Jesus 
 Christ merely through argument. Last year 
 at the Student Conference at Northfield one of 
 our best speakers, a man who perhaps belonged 
 to the practical rather than the theoretical 
 school, asked a class of about two hundred 
 students how many of the men had been 
 won to Christ or to a better life through 
 argument, and not a single man responded. 
 Finally, one man rose and said : " I was logi- 
 cally convinced by a man whose knowledge 
 
112 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 of Scripture was far clearer than my own, 
 but I had to go deeper than my mind to 
 decide." 
 
 I think the best thing to do is to open the 
 Bible and let the Word of God speak, without 
 argument. We argue with men because we 
 do not know how to do anything else. It is 
 the easiest method in the world, the most 
 natural way. 
 
 The man who knows the least about the Bible 
 is the man who is always anxious to argue. 
 The man who knows the most about the Bible 
 wants to take the Word of God and read 
 and study it. 
 
 You will find the man who uses argument 
 like one using a knife-blade in battle against a 
 sword, and God has equipped man with another 
 *' sword " with which to fight. The man of 
 the world has all the power of human nature 
 to refute the spiritual arguments you present. 
 Naturally he does not wish to accept and take 
 your position. 
 
 Some of us may have fenced with broad- 
 swords. We used to love to go through the 
 various motions in duelling. I re- 
 member once when fencing with a 
 West Point cadet, he said : '' The trouble with 
 you is this, you only dabble in this thing once 
 
Means and Method 113 
 
 in a while on vacation; we are at it systemat- 
 ically all the time." 
 
 This is our fault. How many of us are just 
 dabbling in the things pertaining to the Word 
 of God, without making the study of the Bible a 
 regular, systematic exercise of our lives? 
 
 This is where we fail. We are using it as a 
 plaything! If we used the Word of God and 
 studied it constantly and devotionally, we would 
 learn its power and gain marvellous skill in 
 conversation in winning men to Christ. 
 
 Let us recall one other point as to conversa- 
 tion, to which we have alluded elsewhere. Let 
 the other man talk the thing well through be- 
 fore you break in on him; in other words, let 
 him talk first. He will tell you many things 
 which will give you the chance to leave out 
 many things you were expecting to say. One 
 can condense what he has to say. Much speak- 
 ing often defeats success. 
 
 I remember hearing a man some months ago 
 at a convention. He had a splendid speech, — 
 at least the last twenty minutes of it, — but his 
 address was an hour long ! He ought to have 
 cut out the first forty minutes, and started with 
 the last twenty. 
 
 At one time I had a very important decision 
 to make. Going to the wisest friend I had, one 
 
114 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 who lived very near to God, I asked him to give 
 
 me the evening-. We both went 
 Concentration , , ,, . 
 
 to another town nearby to talk it 
 
 over, that we might be free from disturbance. 
 He was a counsellor, and a man whose clear 
 judgment was most exceptional and conclusive. 
 He had that marvellous genius of mind which 
 some men have. Speaking familiarly, he said : 
 '' Tell me your story, tell me the whole thing." 
 He did not interrupt me. I spoke an hour or 
 more, and then he said : " Have you told me 
 all ? " Then adding a few questions which 
 showed me I had omitted certain points he de- 
 sired, I talked a half-hour longer, and then an- 
 other point was touched. Fifteen minutes 
 more resulted, and then he sat and thought 
 without speaking. In perhaps ten minutes he 
 began and analysed my problem for me thor- 
 oughly. 
 
 For the moment I almost lost what he was 
 saying in sheer wonder at the exact way in 
 which he had grasped the entire situation. 
 Then he stopped right in the midst of his out- 
 line and said : '' Let us ask God to take ab- 
 solutely out of our hearts the personal element. 
 I am conscious that you are thinking of me In- 
 stead of our subject. I do not know why, but 
 I am conscious that you are following my mind 
 
Means and Method 115 
 
 instead of what we want to get out of this as 
 to God's leadership." And then we prayed to- 
 gether that we might be led by God's Spirit, 
 He then spoke, and spoke with concentration, 
 discrimination, and power. 
 
 This illustrates for us one other thought — - 
 We do too much talking. Here is a man be- 
 fore us we want to help and win. We said 
 last week that we must win his confidence first, 
 no matter how many times we go to see him. 
 You will win him when you are conscious that 
 he has given you his heart, and that you have 
 his confidence. Why, Paul could never have 
 talked to that runaway slave, Onesimus, in 
 Rome, if he had not won his heart! Do you 
 suppose he would have told Paul he had run 
 away from his master, Philemon, — the very one 
 Paul was going to send that letter to? Let us 
 talk less until we win the life, letting the man 
 talk to us, and thus finding out what he needs. 
 The wise man in this world is the man that has 
 learned what not to say. 
 
 How many of us have written letters to men 
 individually as to their soul's salvation? How 
 many of us to-night can think of correspond- 
 men who are unsaved with whom ^^^^ 
 we have influence ? Some men whom we know 
 and whose confidence we have, are without 
 
Ii6 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 Christ, and we have never written to them per- 
 sonally upon this subject. 
 
 I am not pleading for a correspondence that 
 carelessly throws in a religious word anywhere 
 for the sake of doing religious work, or ap- 
 peasing a fanatical zeal to do something. 
 Some men always put tracts in business letters. 
 Personally I question their wisdom, but admire 
 their zeal. It is a far different thing to insert 
 them in a personal letter. 
 
 But now referring to correspondence. In 
 this there is a great means of winning men to 
 Christ. A personal testimony in this matter 
 from my own experience may help, even if it 
 surprise. As far as I can judge (and we all 
 realise how poorly we can judge results), this 
 kind of service has directly won more men and 
 women to the Lord Jesus Christ than any other, 
 aside from personal direct appeal. More have 
 given the direct testimony of their personal sal- 
 vation resulting from personal letters than 
 through sermons or special services. I can sit 
 down to-night and from the record of sixteen 
 years in the Christian ministry, give more 
 definite results of men reached through per- 
 sonal correspondence than by means of any 
 other single method. 
 
 The very success of business life to-day is 
 
Means and Method 117 
 
 largely due to correspondence. Work which 
 is not so much of a personal as of a construc- 
 tive nature. The postage stamp has become a 
 mighty means of power. 
 
 I went into one of our great bond houses re- 
 cently. The president took me into a private 
 room and showed me how great quantities of 
 circulars were being stamped and addressed. 
 Thousands could be turned out in an hour. 
 What is this? It is the use of the postage 
 stamp practically applied to modern business 
 methods. 
 
 If you cannot use long hand, dictate a letter. 
 Talking with a travelling man of New York 
 City, he said : '' I never let a day end without 
 dictating a letter to some personal friend about 
 his soul's salvation." And then he added 
 quietly : '' I want to tell you this : All uncon- 
 sciously to me^ three stenographers in the last 
 few years have been won to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, won through the letters I have dictated, 
 and in each case I did not know a single word 
 I said was being taken to heart by them." 
 
 Another illustration. Young Mercer is 
 called by a lot of the college fellows, '' Postal 
 Card Mercer." I had a postal from him this 
 winter, when he was speaking to the Johns 
 Hopkins boys on my old stamping ground in 
 
Ii8 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 Baltimore. Another came yesterday from an 
 old Northfield Cornell boy, who is travelling 
 in Spain, who had learned the value from him. 
 He wrote on the card : " You see, I am * Mer- 
 cerised ' ! " He was keeping up that which had 
 so helped him. This correspondence method 
 can even be thus carried on with postals. It 
 is the human touch through '' Uncle Sam." 
 
 Now, when a man sits down and writes you a 
 letter or a postal, you know he means busi- 
 ness. You open the letter hur- 
 A letter 
 
 riedly and read : " Dear William, I 
 
 am alone in my room to-night, and I have felt 
 a definite impulse to write you a letter about 
 the thing that is nearest my heart. I have 
 been praying for you, that you might know my 
 friend, the Lord Jesus, personally. You know 
 what my life was before I found Him. There 
 is plenty of inconsistency in my life now, but 
 my heart is hungry to help you. If there is 
 anything I can do to open this matter up, I 
 want to do it. Don't answer this letter if it 
 troubles you, but just know, in my heart of 
 hearts, I am praying for you, and if there is 
 anything in God's world that I can do to make 
 you thoughtful I want to do it." 
 
 What will the receiver say? ''Ned is cer- 
 tainly daft on religion. What has he got up 
 
Means and Method 119 
 
 his sleeve?" He may say that, but he will 
 never get away from that letter, even if he 
 does. There is life blood in that letter, and 
 human nature cannot get away from life 
 blood! You cannot kill life blood with a flip- 
 pant remark. Later he will say in his heart: 
 '* Now do you know it was a mighty fine thing 
 of Ned to write me that letter. Look at the 
 time he spends in driving in the evening. Look 
 at the entertainments that are going on, and he 
 thought enough of me to put in his time that 
 way. He is in earnest, — I wonder if I am! " 
 He knows that he values him, and he also 
 knows that it was a tremendous effort for him 
 to write that letter. The fact comes over him 
 that this man really values him and loves him. 
 
 And then we can use all kinds of openings. 
 Think of the opportunities that come to us 
 every day of our lives. 
 
 A young woman wrote me : ''I want you to 
 pray for such and such a friend. She has re- 
 cently met you, and she made a single remark 
 the other afternoon that showed me she believes 
 you are sincere and earnest. That is a good 
 deal for her to admit. With the natural op- 
 portunity of approach that you as a minister 
 in her community have, I ask that you will use 
 your influence in calling, and I believe that at 
 
I20 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 just this time, if you can only get her to church, 
 you could say the word that would make her 
 life count for Christ." 
 
 A few years ago in Baltimore one of our 
 pastors told me his heart was so saddened that 
 no one was coming into the church at a coming 
 Communion that he wept as he kneeled and 
 prayed. Suddenly the thought came into his 
 mind: ''Why don't you use your pen?" He 
 said he rose and immediately wrote eight let- 
 ters. In some of those letters he used long 
 passages of Scripture. He wrote them to 
 eight young men in his church who had not 
 previously confessed Christ. He told me, 
 without another single influence, except fol- 
 lowing those letters up, six of those eight 
 united with the church three weeks from that 
 Sunday morning, and the other two came in 
 afterward. A consecrated pen will win men 
 to Christ, not as a substitute for the personal 
 word, but as an assistant. 
 
 If we are to start on this method, it will be- 
 come practical and natural to us through use, 
 
 and in no other way. This is a di- 
 Starting . , . , 
 
 rect way of preachmg the gospel 
 
 for laymen as well as ministers. It may be 
 
 more to us as ministers also. 
 
 We are not using this means as we should, 
 
Means and Method 121 
 
 and that is why we are not having results. 
 
 What are we here in this world for? For 
 anything else than the definite actual help we 
 can give one another for this very thing? 
 How much real good have we done others? 
 How much real help will it mean to our city? 
 To our churches? 
 
 Will you not form the habit and gain the 
 power by starting in now to do some of this 
 very work? 
 
 I want to call attention to a wonderful fact 
 in correspondence — distance is eliminated! 
 Correspondence absolutely eliminates distance. 
 
 This acts like a Marconi wireless. I used to 
 think if any important problem Eliminating 
 came up, the only thing to do was distance 
 to take the train at once and go to the in- 
 dividual. 
 
 I have learned that we can do a great deal 
 with a postage stamp or a telegram, and some- 
 times with a better result. We annihilate dis- 
 tance, and we can reach any one by this 
 method. 
 
 To-day a letter came from India from a dear 
 friend. It was so clear, so explicit, so far 
 ahead of the letter I sent him a few months 
 ago, that he has largely convinced me he is 
 right and I wrong. Now I might have talked 
 
122 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 with that man three or four hours without so 
 satisfactory a result. 
 
 The other day word came to one of the min- 
 isters in this city that a classmate was stag- 
 gering under a tremendous burden in the East. 
 He sat down and promptly wrote him a letter, 
 which said : " I am with you heart to heart." 
 The answer came back : " You will never know 
 how just in the moment of need that letter of 
 yours gave to me a new strength and a new 
 bound of courage, and I am going on in my 
 work here and win out. Your letter is just 
 what has done it." 
 
 Men, we are too busy to converse with men, 
 and too busy to correspond with men, and it 
 is the old thought over again — the man we 
 were told to watch is gone! 
 
 The first eleven chapters of Romans taught 
 that " Justification by faith " is God's method. 
 But the twelfth chapter made the application 
 and appeal : *' I beseech you therefore, brethren, 
 by the mercies of God, that ye present your 
 bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
 God, which is your reasonable [common sense] 
 service. And be not conformed to this world, 
 but be ye transformed by the renewing of your 
 mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and 
 acceptable, and perfect will of God." 
 
Means and Method 1 23 
 
 I challenge you to whom these words come 
 to begin. 
 
 WHAT are we, WHO are we, and WHO is 
 HE ? And to Whom are we pledged ? I chal- 
 lenge you to get busy for Christ with brain, 
 heart, and pen, and if this is not your purpose, 
 stay out of the arena! For the blessing we do 
 not use passes from us. The power and 
 strength which we do not use cease to be ours. 
 We MUST. 
 
VI 
 
 AN EARLY CHURCH 
 ILLUSTRATION 
 
"Whatsoever He saith unto thee, do."— John 2: 5. 
 
 " I know no future but God." — Catherine Booth. 
 
 " Who goeth the way which Christ hath gone, is much 
 more sure to meet with Him than one that travelleth 
 byways." — Selected. 
 
 "With bowed heads and open hearts we offer our- 
 selves, we can do no more, and we dare do no less." — 
 Westcott. 
 
 I said, ' Let me walk in the fields,' 
 He said, * No, walk in the town * ; 
 
 I said, * There are no flowers there,* 
 He said, ' No flowers, but a crown.' 
 
 I said, ' But the skies are black, 
 There is nothing but noise and din,* 
 
 And He wept as He sent me back: 
 * There is more,' He said, ' there is sin.* 
 
 I said, ' But the air is thick. 
 
 And fogs are veiling the sun,* 
 He answered, * Yet hearts are sick. 
 
 And souls in the dark undone.* 
 
 I said, * I shall miss the light, 
 And friends will miss me, they say,* 
 
 He answered, ' Choose to-night. 
 If I am to miss you or they.' 
 
 I pleaded for time to be given, 
 
 He said, ' Is it hard to decide ? 
 It will not seem hard in Heaven, ^ 
 
 To have followed the steps of your guide." I 
 
 — MacDonald. 
 
VI 
 
 AN EARLY CHURCH ILLUSTRATION 
 
 TURN to the eighth chapter of the Acts 
 of the Apostles. We wish to study 
 the best illustration upon our subject 
 in the entire Word of God. 
 
 In this chapter we see clearly presented a 
 most remarkable illustration of individual per- 
 sonal work. Notice the first men- 
 tion of Philip in the fifth verse: 
 *' Then Philip went down to the city of 
 Samaria, and preached Christ unto them." 
 Now go back, if you will, to the time when 
 this man of God begins in the Church, when 
 he is chosen a deacon (sixth chapter, fifth 
 verse). And before we read that fifth verse, 
 read the third verse of the sixth chapter: 
 ** Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you 
 seven men of honest report, full of the Holy 
 Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint 
 over this business." 
 
 What was the first characteristic of these 
 127 
 
128 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 men? — "Honest report." What would you 
 give as a synonym of those two 
 words to-day? ''Reputation" — 
 yes, I want another word ? " Character " — 
 yes, another? You are leading up to it? 
 ''Consistency!" That is the word I want. 
 " Honest report " means the consistency of a 
 man's life. An inconsistent man is out of 
 the work from the standpoint of influence. 
 A great difficulty to-day in doing personal 
 work is found in the inconsistency of God's 
 children. 
 
 Others say this, and we resent it, for we be- 
 lieve a large proportion of the Church of God 
 to-day are consistent. Still, inconsistency is 
 the first great barrier to service. 
 
 What was the second requisite? "Full of 
 
 the Holy Ghost and Wisdom." Now, if we 
 
 paraphrase that sentence we would 
 Spirituality u o • •. v^ ^y -i-t. 
 
 say — Spirituality. They were 
 
 men of genuine piety, but they were more. 
 
 What is a synonym for wisdom ? " Common 
 
 sense,"— yes ? " Tact,"— yes ? " Cleverness," 
 
 — yes, but a more exact word ? " Discretion ! " 
 
 Discretion is wisdom in action? A man who 
 
 knows how to act wisely just at the right time. 
 
 How is wisdom distinguished from knowledge? 
 
 "It is the practical side of it." Wisdom is 
 
An Early Illustration 129 
 
 knowledge applied. God wants men who 
 know, but He wants men who have wisdom, — 
 men who know how to act. God's men then 
 must be men of spirituality and discretion. 
 
 These three words stand out first in this 
 chapter as requirements of character — consis- 
 tency, spirituality, and discretion. 
 
 Christ needs in His work men who have all 
 three of these qualities. Not two out of three, 
 but three. 
 
 Suppose a man has consistency and discre- 
 tion, but lacks spirituality ! Or, discretion and 
 spirituality, but lacks consistency! Or, con- 
 sistency and spirituality, but lacks discretion! 
 He is not the man to do effective personal 
 work for Christ. There are many such peo- 
 ple. They are always getting into trouble, and 
 cannot understand why. One of these is lack- 
 ing; apology follows constantly, and ordinarily 
 apology means weakness. Christ wants con- 
 sistency, spirituality, and common sense in all 
 things. This form of Christianity wins men. 
 I was once preaching to a lot of coloured men 
 in Baltimore, and laid down the law rather di- 
 rectly as to consistency of life. I said : " You 
 must be consistent if you have the Spirit of 
 Christ in your life, and then you must also be 
 wise. If you are consistent Christ will use you, 
 
130 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 but if you are not honourable God cannot use 
 you." A man suddenly rose and said : " Min- 
 ister, you are right, and I tell you now I am go- 
 ing to pay Brother Jones $25 that I owe him," 
 Brother Jones, further back, got up and 
 shouted : " Hallelujah, this is a revival ! " 
 
 Do you know, eight coloured men were con- 
 verted and received into the Baptist and Meth- 
 odist churches (none of them happened to be 
 Presbyterians). Consistency, spirituality, and 
 common honesty constituted a revival there. 
 
 A man sometimes has a spiritual inclination, 
 but lacks the common-sense consistency of life 
 which counts. A man cannot be spiritual unless 
 he is true to the ideals of right, — although he 
 may be self -deceived or deluded. If, however, 
 with a sincere moral and spiritual purpose, a 
 man looks to God for help, God will give him 
 discretion. 
 
 (Verse 5, chapter 6.) "And the saying 
 pleased the whole multitude: and they chose 
 Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy 
 Ghost, and Philip/" Now go over again to 
 the eighth chapter, the fifth verse, which we 
 were considering: ''Then Philip went down 
 to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ 
 unto them." 
 
 Is there a distinction between preaching 
 
An Early Illustration 131 
 
 Christ and preaching about Christ ? Is there a 
 distinction between preaching in the Power of 
 the Spirit, and preaching about the things of 
 the Spirit? The point I want to bring out is 
 that " He preached Christ." 
 
 If a man preaches Christ he must have 
 Christ in him. He may preach about Christ 
 without having Christ in him. preaching 
 There has been too much preaching Christ 
 about Christ and about the Word of God, and 
 not enough preaching Christ and the Word. 
 It is certainly true that the man who preaches 
 Christ and preaches the Word has a hearing 
 to-day, but there are countless men who are 
 preaching about Christ and about the Word 
 who do not have. What the world wants is 
 Christ, and Christ must be incarnate in man 
 if He is to be real. 
 
 But this verse has also the thought of sim- 
 plicity: "He preached Christ unto them." 
 What w^as the result? " The peo- 
 ple with one accord gave heed unto 
 those things which he spake." What is the 
 rest of that verse? " Hearing and seeing the 
 miracles which he did." What word do we 
 want now? "Results." The greatest testimony 
 of effective service is the result of that service. 
 You do not have to tabulate results in order to 
 
132 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 have people beHeve them. Some one has said : 
 *' There are three kinds of Hes in the world — 
 white lies, black lies, and statistics!" If re- 
 sults are gained in the lives of men, they are 
 not merely figures. These results have be- 
 come realities, and people believe. 
 
 People cannot be permanently deceived in 
 what they see and hear. What did Peter say 
 when the Council told him to keep his mouth 
 shut and stop preaching? He fearlessly re- 
 plied : " We cannot but speak the things which 
 we have seen and heard/' The result was sure 
 because of what he had seen and heard. 
 Miracles had counted. It was so in Samaria. 
 The result was that '' Unclean spirits cried out 
 with a loud voice and came out of the people 
 possessed with them." 
 
 What is the order of such service? Sim- 
 plicity, attention, results. 
 
 What next ? Read the eighth verse : " And 
 there was great joy in that city." Put down 
 
 Simplicity, the word " Happiness." God wants 
 resuUs°^' happy faces and happy lives and 
 happiness enthusiastic service. You know 
 the word enthusiasm means " God in us," and 
 that means joy. The first chorus at Bethlehem 
 was the joy cry of the angels : '' Behold I bring 
 you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to 
 
An Early Illustration 133 
 
 all people." We have no right to be anything 
 but happy, and if we are happy in our Chris- 
 tian lives almost all our difficulties will be re- 
 moved. 
 
 I was tired out last night. I went to sleep 
 and woke up this morning a new man. Every- 
 thing I considered last night troubled me. As 
 I tossed, this verse came to mind : " Thou wilt 
 keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
 on Thee." Sleep followed and I woke up this 
 morning as happy as a lark. God wants us just 
 to trust Him and be cheerful. Did you ever 
 know a cross man who was helpful ? You pick 
 up the telephone in the morning and the ex- 
 change does not answer promptly. You say 
 excitedly : '' Well, I have been trying to get this 
 number for five minutes." We do not realise 
 that the telephone girl is human. And then 
 we perhaps say: " Who is this, anyway? " (and 
 that remark will anger anybody over the tele- 
 phone). 
 
 Think of a Christian man starting in the 
 day that way. Why not realise : ** Thou wilt 
 keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
 on Thee." 
 
 How much new business can a man do in 
 that way? The business men who are suc- 
 cessful are those who are cheerful and con- 
 
134 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 sistent, — men who carry good nature with 
 them. 
 
 Many a man to-day is unsuccessful in his 
 business Hfe simply because he has not realised 
 that God can help him overcome ill-temper. 
 
 " There was great joy in that city." Well, 
 "Simon" came along (verse 13). He had 
 his hand in his pocket ! He was a mercenary 
 man ! He was the man looking out for every- 
 thing that was coming his way. Read verse 9 : 
 " There was a certain man called Simon, which 
 be foretime in the same city used sorcery, and 
 bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out 
 that himself was some great one, to whom they 
 all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, 
 saying. This man is the great power of God. 
 And to him they had regard, because that of 
 long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. 
 But when they believed Philip preaching the 
 things concerning the Kingdom of God, and 
 the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, 
 both men and women." 
 
 li you are a personal worker for God, chosen 
 because you are consistent and spiritually 
 minded and discreet, and if you have gone at 
 your work in simplicity, people have given you 
 attention. But you will surely find some peo- 
 ple who are hypocritical. Do not let them 
 
An Early Illustration 135 
 
 trouble you. Perhaps some are making the 
 Church a ladder for social climbing. Some 
 years ago a woman wrote to me, saying, " I 
 want my son to join your church, because I 
 am socially ambitious for him." (I had a talk 
 with each of them before he joined.) There 
 are also people who are associated with the 
 Church who are doing wrong. 
 
 But note, Philip did not say anything about 
 Simon. Do you know the best way to destroy 
 these things? Preach Jesus Christ and win 
 men to Him. " Overcome evil with good.'* 
 The evils of to-day have in some cases received 
 advertisement from the good people who have 
 talked of them. Philip did not do that. He 
 just went on preaching Christ. What was the 
 result? (Verse 12.) ''But when they be- 
 lieved Philip preaching the things concerning 
 the Kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus 
 Christ, they were baptised." '' And when they 
 believed/' Men came; men will come as the 
 jailer came to Paul that night and will say: 
 " What must I do to be saved ?" 
 
 We do not realise that we will not be con- 
 demned for our sin, but for our unbelief. This 
 point is not emphasised in dealing with the un- 
 converted. Men are not going to be con- 
 demned for their sins, but for their unbelief in 
 
136 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 Christ. Because they do not believe. The 
 great sin is the sin of unbelief ! Every other 
 sin is related to it. And belief is very 
 definitely associated with life. When men be- 
 lieve, what follows and what the results? 
 ** They were baptised, both men and women." 
 A word suggested by this statement as to 
 confessing Christ. I like the word " con- 
 fession " better than the word 
 
 Confession ,. r • „ a r r r 
 
 profession. If ye confess Me 
 
 before men." The word *' profession " is 
 much associated to-day with '' professional." 
 It is not enough to lead men to belief, we want 
 to lead them into open confession of Christ by 
 uniting with His Church. Go with them, if 
 wise, when they take this step. 
 
 In the 25th verse we read : " And they, when 
 they had testified and preached the Word of the 
 Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the 
 gospel in many villages of the Samaritans." 
 But the 26th verse surprises us, " And the 
 Angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, 
 ' Arise and go toward the south, unto the way 
 that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, 
 which is desert.' " 
 
 What a strange command! Was not his 
 work being greatly honoured? Could this be 
 God's command ? 
 
An Early Illustration 137 
 
 What did Philip do? ''He went." Im- 
 mediate response. 
 
 Spontaneous obedience to God's call. That 
 
 meant no reasoning, no argument. It was 
 
 the definite, quick response of his life to 
 
 God's order and direction. I think 
 
 , . . . , , Obedience 
 
 almost any mmister of the gospel or 
 
 Christian worker would naturally question, if 
 
 in Philip's place, why he should leave Samaria. 
 
 We cannot help being influenced by numbers. 
 
 Could not Philip have justly said, *' Think 
 
 of these poor despised Samaritans, they are 
 
 happy and believing, and are confessing Thee. 
 
 Oh Lord, why take me away from this work? 
 
 I surely ought to stay here and reap these great 
 
 results for Thee ! " No, God said, '' Go to the 
 
 desert," and Philip went to the desert. God 
 
 never sends a man without going before him. 
 
 God spells his word "" Go " — " C-o-m-e." God's 
 
 *' go " always means *' come." qq ^nd 
 
 You can trace it from Genesis right ^^^^ 
 
 through the Word of God. When He told 
 
 Noah to go into the Ark He said : '' Come thou 
 
 into the Ark." He never sent a missionary to 
 
 a dark land without going before Keith 
 
 him. Keith Falconer, when a Falconer 
 
 young student of England, a rare linguist in 
 
 Eastern languages, said, '' I am going to 
 
138 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 Arabia." He went there, but he followed 
 Christ in going. Christ was in Arabia before 
 him. He died there, but what has he done? 
 Hear the great echo coming back to-day from 
 the men who are going to that land. Keith 
 Falconer heard God say *' Go," but it was 
 " Come." 
 
 Alexander Duff did not say in India, *' God 
 sent me here," — no, '* God called me here." 
 
 Alexander God never sends us anywhere that 
 ^^^ He does not go ahead and make 
 
 ready for us. 
 
 In the next chapter of Acts (verse 10), 
 we read that when Saul of Tarsus was con- 
 verted God went ahead to this city of Damas- 
 cus ; " And there was a certain disciple at 
 Damascus, named Ananias, and to him said the 
 Lord in a vision, ' Ananias.' And he said, 
 * Behold, I am here, Lord.' " The Divine mes- 
 senger continues, " For behold, this man, Saul 
 of Tarsus, prayeth, and hath seen in a vision 
 a man named Ananias coming in and putting 
 his hand on him that he might receive his 
 sight." ..." But the Lord said unto him, Go 
 thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to 
 bear my name before the Gentiles." The 17th 
 verse says : " And Ananias went his way, and 
 entered into the house; and putting his hands 
 
An Early Illustration 139 
 
 on him said. Brother Saul, the Lord, even 
 Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as 
 thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest 
 receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 God always goes ahead of us to prepare the 
 way. If one of us has a peculiar incentive to 
 do some concrete personal work for God, be as- 
 sured Jesus Christ will go before you and pre- 
 pare the way. 
 
 Well, what did Philip do in the desert? 
 
 (Verse 27.) He found a needy man there, " a 
 
 man who came to Jerusalem to „, ^ 
 
 *' The desert 
 
 worship." Be careful how you 
 criticise the man who does not agree with you 
 in his particular faith. There are those who 
 do not believe just as we do as to Jesus Christ 
 and His teaching, and sometimes we in- 
 stinctively say, " I cannot have anything to do 
 with these people." 
 
 There are also those who differ from us in 
 their forms of worship. Wait, they may be 
 reading in the desert, and our hostile attitude 
 may keep them from the truth. Our question 
 should be, are they sincere men, not, do these 
 men agree exactly with me. If we have the 
 truth, let us ask God to give us power to give 
 it to them. 
 
140 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 (Acts 8: 28-30.) This Ethiopian " was re- 
 turning, and sitting in his chariot, read Esaias 
 the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto PhiHp, 
 Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And 
 Phihp ran thither to him and heard him read 
 the Prophet Esaias." 
 
 What did PhiHp do— walk? No, he RAN! 
 Study in the Scripture the word " ran." " Run- 
 ning " is Scriptural exercise. Did 
 Running . . -r^ -i 
 
 you ever notice how David met 
 
 Goliath? He picked up the stones, and then 
 he RAN toward him. I can see him stop a 
 moment and poise himself as he whirled that 
 sling. Christ wants us to be aggressive for 
 Him. 
 
 Did you ever see a football team win that 
 simply did defensive work? You won't put 
 the ball over the goal line for a touch-down 
 simply by defensive play. Offensive play is 
 needed. Defensive work has its place, but 
 what the Church needs is offensive, aggressive 
 work for Him. 
 
 Philip RAN to that chariot. He could not 
 get there fast enough. See what sort of a 
 
 reception awaited him. He was in 
 XiQ.m6stn6ss 
 
 earnest. Earnestness glows, it at- 
 tracts. We need more enthusiasm to do His 
 work aright. 
 
An Early Illustration 141 
 
 I wish I had time to tell you about a lad who 
 started a church in one of our suburbs in Balti- 
 more. No one encouraged him, but he saw 
 the opportunity. One day, calling his dog to 
 follow, he said, '' Come on, Fido, let's go out 
 into the woods and pray it all out. The Lord 
 is with us." It was nothing more or less than 
 his belief in God and his splendid running to 
 his work. A splendid growing church of over 
 two hundred members is now the result. Read 
 Mr. Moody's sermon on " Enthusiasm." I 
 have read it many dozens of times. It will help 
 you run to your work. 
 
 The open Bible did the rest. Two or three 
 Jews were interested in the gospel but still did 
 not g-ive their hearts to God. 
 Those men began to read the Gos- 
 pel of John, and the result was their conversion. 
 They became most active men in their own city, 
 and are to-day. 
 
 (Verse 30.) Philip said to the eunuch, 
 " Understandest thou what thou readest ? " 
 and he replied, '' How can I, except some 
 man should guide me? And he desired 
 Philip that he would come up and sit with 
 him." 
 
 Think of the democracy of reading and 
 studying God's Word! Here was this noble- 
 
142 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 man saying to a desert stranger, " Come 
 up and sit in this chariot and read with 
 me." 
 
 (Verses 34-35O The eunuch said unto 
 Phihp (and reading the Bible will always set 
 people to asking questions), "Does he speak 
 of himself or some other man? " 
 
 " Then Philip opened his mouth and began 
 at the same Scripture, and preached unto him 
 Jesus." 
 
 If our hearts are right before God and we 
 know the Word, we can begin at that same 
 Scripture and win men. 
 
 The greatest personal work is with the open 
 Bible, when men go through a chapter together, 
 taking time to do it thoroughly, not hurriedly 
 and excitedly, but where we can go into it 
 carefully. 
 
 We can reach men as they are going, and go 
 with them till decision comes. 
 
 (Verses 36-37.) "And as they went on 
 their way, they came unto a certain water, and 
 the eunuch said. See, here is water; what doth 
 hinder me to be baptised? And Philip said, 
 If thou believest with all thine heart, thou 
 mayest." (And, thank God, that is the 
 only requisite that Jesus Christ asks.) I do 
 not know an Evangelical Church that will ex- 
 
An Early Illustration 143 
 
 elude a man from confessing Christ, if he 
 will express this simple faith. If he sincerely 
 says, '' Lord, I believe." 
 
 It was Jesus Christ whom he had preached 
 to the eunuch. '' I believe," he said, *' that 
 Jesus Christ is the Son of God." 
 
 (Verses 38-40.) "He commanded the 
 chariot to stand still ; and they both went down 
 into the water, both Philip and the eunuch ; and 
 he baptised him. And when they were come 
 up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord 
 caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him 
 no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. 
 But Philip was found at Azotus; and passing 
 through he preached in all the cities, till he 
 came to Cesarea." 
 
 Suddenly Philip vanishes, and is not heard 
 of for twenty-five years. 
 
 This is one of the best examples of unre- 
 corded service we have in all the Scripture. 
 The missionaries from Africa have told us that 
 down in that dark continent of heathenism, 
 where there is not a written language, they find 
 a tradition passed on from generation to gen- 
 eration, that a great soul far up in the North 
 Country died on a cross for his fellow-men, 
 that somehow the mighty God might be ap- 
 peased. From mouth to mouth, for twenty 
 
144 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 centuries, — almost sixty generations, — in a land 
 of sin and wretchedness and night. 
 
 In this wonderful story we have found an 
 illustration of the Almighty God saying to some 
 of us, '' Do not think so much about numbers, 
 about records and statistics and annual reports, 
 but go into the desert for one soul." The 
 desert is the place where Moses found God! 
 And Paul, and John the Baptist, and Christ. 
 In the desert they found Him. 
 
 And in that desert He may still be found. 
 Philip found his greatest follower there. There 
 He may give to us the power to reach single 
 men individually, and open to them the Scrip- 
 tures, that they may go on their way rejoicing. 
 
 " Where He leads me I will follow." 
 
VII 
 
 THE MAN WHO IS 
 INDIFFERENT 
 
" There is less practical discouragement in the oppo- 
 sition of bad people than in the inertia of good 
 people." — Dr. Boyd. 
 
 " The depreciation of Christianity by indifference is a 
 more insidious and less curable evil than infidelity 
 itself." — Whately. 
 
 " Ring out the care, the want, the sin, 
 The faithless coldness of the times. 
 Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, 
 But ring the fuller minstrel in." 
 
 — Tennyson. 
 
 "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, 
 and not unto men." — Colossians 3: 23. 
 
 " Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor 
 hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." — Revelation 
 3: 16. 
 
VII 
 
 THE MAN WHO IS INDIFFERENT 
 
 SOME words have become trite from neces- 
 sity; simply because they have no exact 
 synonym. This word '^ indifferent " is 
 an illustration. It has no synonym which ex- 
 actly defines the class. By far the largest 
 number of those who are unreached to-day be- 
 long to the '' indifferent," — those who are with- 
 out any real interest in vital Christianity. They 
 may be subdivided many times, for among 
 their number all kinds of differing conditions 
 and temperaments are found, — the self-satis- 
 fied, the egotist, the self-righteous, the critic, 
 the cynic, the worldly-wise, the careless, the 
 weak, the coward, the inconsistent, the unfor- 
 giving, the blackslider, the hardened : all these 
 and many others have their place within the 
 ranks of the indifferent. This is the greatest 
 field of opportunity we have, and still we are 
 inclined to feel that the indifferent man is an 
 impossibility. If this were the accepted con- 
 147 
 
148 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 elusion in the business world to-day, how 
 quickly commercial activity would retrograde. 
 On the other hand, the indifferent men form 
 the great battlefield of enterprising business 
 activity. The mere motto, " Write New Busi- 
 ness," faces this field of indifference and con- 
 quers it. The man who lacks interest is the 
 very man whom we should try to win. 
 
 We are not to let him think we are trying to 
 win him. If wise, we will not even let him 
 infer that we look upon him as belonging to 
 this class. If we are to gain his interest, we 
 simply handicap our approach if we give him 
 the impression that we look upon him as a 
 problem. Let us rather consider this man 
 sanely and practically. He is not indifferent 
 by purpose, but by result. To misjudge or 
 misconstrue his motive in life is unfair. He has 
 not aimed at a life of religious indifference. 
 Frequently the very fact that he is so tre- 
 mendously in earnest in other things is the 
 cause of this very effect. 
 
 The greatest cause of religious indifference 
 in our day is found in mans engrossing fidel- 
 ity to other things. Most men are 
 Absorbed ,. , . . . , 
 
 not spendmg their time m the pur- 
 suit of culture, philosophy, art, literature, logic, 
 but are controlled with life's affairs. Esti- 
 
The Indifferent Man 149 
 
 mating from personal experience, over fifty 
 per cent, of the men who do not attend church 
 and who are looked upon as indifferent to all 
 church matters, if approached frankly, will say 
 something like this : " Well, I ought to be in the 
 Church and should take more interest. I want 
 my boy to be in the Church and Sunday school. 
 I believe in the Church and in Christianity, but 
 the fact is I have been too busy, and I am too 
 busy." 
 
 It is not his opposition to the Church, nor his 
 critical attitude. He is absorbed in other 
 things. 
 
 Among young men, the pursuit of pleasure 
 is oft-times absorbing, and with some this is 
 not entirely overcome in maturer years, espe- 
 cially where self-indulgence or appetite con- 
 trols. The recent rapid development of cheap 
 forms of amusement and public entertainment, 
 not only in our great cities, but in our towns 
 and even rural districts, is noteworthy. More 
 than one magazine writer has re- 
 cently quoted statistics showing the 
 vast amount of money being spent in erecting 
 places of amusement. In some communities 
 more money has been spent recently upon this 
 form of structure than upon any other. Where 
 there is a demand there will be a supply, and a 
 
150 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 pleasure-engrossed people seem to become in- 
 toxicated with the mere temporal fascination of 
 the hour, heart and mind absorbed in this de- 
 sire to have a good time. There is something 
 pathetic, as well as prophetic, in the long line 
 of varied humanity edging its way forward 
 step by step before one of our cheap theatres 
 at the matinee. Just in the thick of the busy 
 hours of valuable time, amid the throb of activ- 
 ity and the enterprise of the thrifty, we see 
 men, women, and children, well-dressed and 
 ill-clad, crowding each other forward with 
 the one thought of the best seat possible at the 
 cheap show. 
 
 But this form of absorption is not the pri- 
 mary one, especially in the industrious age in 
 which we live. The larger share are intent 
 upon the things which have to do with their 
 engrossing ambition. They may be selfish, but 
 they are thrifty. They are enthusiastic chil- 
 dren of a far too material age. Bodies and 
 brains grow so tired and wearied with six 
 
 Over- days' hard labour, — and too fre- 
 
 worked men quently a seventh day, — that their 
 indifference becomes almost a physical neces- 
 sity. With perfect frankness they say : '' We 
 have no time for the Church or Christian activ- 
 ity." Then, when physical break comes, they 
 
The Indifferent Man 151 
 
 are usually incapacitated both mentally and 
 nervously, to face the great moral and spiritual 
 question. These men must be reached, for the 
 very qualities which now direct their lives, if 
 rightly attracted and guided within the Church 
 of God, will accomplish great things. These 
 men are being reached Men are to-day com- 
 ing, chosen by their fellow-men to lead in the 
 great religious enterprises which are meeting 
 with such marked success. These men are 
 harnessing business ability with spiritual en- 
 thusiasm, and, although before solely interested 
 in other things, they are now giving like direc- 
 tion to the things pertaining to Jesus Christ 
 and His Kingdom. 
 
 In the Word of God we learn how to win 
 these very men. Jesus Christ sought men from 
 this very class. Let us approach these men 
 with a personal, intense, enthusiastic knowl- 
 edge and belief in Divine Power. To appeal 
 with examples of success and accomplishment 
 is far better than the negative approach of 
 failure and loss. In referring to the parable 
 of the Pounds, as found in Luke 19, or Mat- 
 thew 21, let us not quote the verse " Take from 
 him the one pound," but the other side, '' Lord, 
 thy pound hath gained ten pounds," thus ap- 
 pealing to the man's opportunity. We have not 
 
152 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 a Saviour who simply saves us from sin, but 
 One who saves us for service. To arrest the at- 
 
 Saved for tention of an engrossed man, giv- 
 service {^ig his hfe to the temporal work 
 
 about him, we must inspire him with a loftier 
 purpose. Appeal to the opportunity to-day in 
 Christian service. Show how a man may mul- 
 tiply himself as an agency for God in winning 
 strong men. Talk of the men who have done 
 something in life and are doing something in 
 life, and skip references to the man whose life 
 has been thrown away. 
 
 This attention cannot be gained easily, nor 
 carelessly, but it must be the result of informa- 
 tion and fact, and this means that we must 
 cease using commonplace platitudes as to 
 religious needs, and startle men by real and 
 striking information backed by fact and knowl- 
 edge which have become our own. The 
 thoughtful man to-day not only has access to 
 the best which the past has offered in the rare 
 culture of the ages, but he has the ready ap- 
 proach to the present-day activities and accom- 
 plishments of those who are in the van of 
 Christian service. To buy a modern book 
 alive with such record, and inscribe the fly-leaf 
 with a sentence which will insure its reading, 
 may mean an arrested mind and an enthusi- 
 
The Indifferent Man 153 
 
 astic recruit from among these indifferent 
 friends. 
 
 Again, appeal to these men with the argu- 
 ment of real life values. The appeal that the 
 
 mere possession of thinsfs is not 
 
 , , ,. , .,,,., Real values 
 
 worth the disregard of all higher 
 
 values is strong. By inference this truth may 
 be backed up with such a reference as Matthew 
 21 : 37-38. Those wicked husbandmen disre- 
 garded all law and justice through the terrible 
 influence of the craving for possession. They 
 overlooked the rightful inheritance, even to an 
 insane foolishness of deed. We read : " But 
 last of all he sent unto them His Son." So far 
 did this insane craving control that they slew 
 Him. Such striking illustrations demand at- 
 tention. The hearts of most men revolt at 
 the mere suggestion of such criminal extrem- 
 ity, but cannot disregard that a principle is in- 
 volved. That principle suggests that men who 
 are not criminals, or who would not even break 
 the law, are to-day robbing life and themselves 
 of their greatest possible inheritance in their 
 thoughtless eagerness for possession. Of what 
 use is money or mere possession if health and 
 love do not make its use valuable? What 
 greater possession is there in the world, what 
 greater inheritance can you leave a child than 
 
154 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 the training and memory gained by a God- 
 fearing fireside? Will not this inheritance 
 cause children to rise up and call the man 
 blessed who has thus accumulated life's real 
 values ? 
 
 This suggests another opening too seldom en- 
 tered. It applies to the man who has a home, 
 
 — the man with a family. He is 
 The home ,.,.,.,, ^^ 
 
 mterested m his children. Every- 
 thing which suggests real benefit to his chil- 
 dren immediately appeals to him. No matter 
 how dissatisfied he may be with his own life, 
 he longs and aims for higher things for his 
 children. Indifferent as to his own spiritual 
 life, he instinctively responds to a genuine in- 
 terest in their moral development. It is not 
 necessary to deliver lectures to him upon child- 
 training, — in fact^ that is the very sort of thing 
 he will not endure. But if, with genuine and 
 frank approach, you show your interest, natu- 
 rally he responds. It may be only a casual re- 
 mark : '' Your boy Henry is getting on finely 
 in school, I understand. I had a short walk 
 with him on the drive the other day." This 
 may lead to another cjuestion, " Why don't you 
 knock off a little early at the office and go out 
 and see the boys play ball in the park some 
 evening ? They have a good time, and Henry 
 
The Indifferent Man 155 
 
 plays a clever game at third. It would do you 
 good to get your hand in a bit and knock out 
 to the infield in practice." That father may 
 reply, '' Well, that was my old job on the team 
 at college." True enough, Henry will be sur- 
 prised if his father does show up, even to stand 
 and watch the game a few moments, but this 
 very thing may not only accomplish your ob- 
 ject of gaining an approach to the father, but 
 it may also get the boy into closer touch with 
 his father. Many an indifferent man is reached 
 through his son in just this way. You now 
 have an opportunity to talk with him about the 
 boy. The boy is interested in uniting with the 
 Church. He is thinking seriously about these 
 matters. A single word from the son may in- 
 fluence the father to think seriously upon this 
 very subject. The word will not be forced, 
 but spontaneous, and the father knows it. 
 This father is a representative of a great host 
 of men who have not given religious matters 
 a single thought in recent years, simply be- 
 cause of the absorbing control of other things 
 in their lives. Back of all this exterior they 
 really do value the genuine in religion and 
 want to have their children interested to a 
 greater extent than they have been. The child 
 may lead the father and the father the child, 
 
156 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 if we can get them in touch with one 
 another. 
 
 A httle photograph on my study mantel sug- 
 gests an ilkistration. It shows a schoolgirl 
 standing in her little sailor-suit, with her hands 
 behind her back; her merry face seems almost 
 to tell the story that she hates to have her pic- 
 ture taken, and wishes she could be out of the 
 studio and away. She calls back to my mind 
 an afternoon many years ago in a distant par- 
 ish. There she is running like the wind down 
 the hill from the street, where she lives around 
 the corner, in lead of the other girls. I whistle ; 
 she hears me and is at my side. " Coming to 
 call at our house?" she said. "No, not to- 
 day, dear, some other day. Are you all well 
 at home? " '' Yes, indeed, but please come to 
 the house." " No, not to-day, but give my 
 love to all and have a good time. Here, I will 
 time you up to the top of the hill, and all of 
 you race." Of course she wins. No, she 
 doesn't. When she was near the top of the 
 hill she saw how hard the second girl was run- 
 
 A child's "iiig"' ^^^ how disappointed she 
 story looked, and she, little pretender that 
 
 she was, made out that she was out of breath, 
 and the other girl got there two or three steps 
 ahead. " Oh, you fraud ! " I shouted, but same- 
 
The Indifferent Man 157 
 
 how walked the faster and felt a thrill of grati- 
 tude and a new impulse in the child's self-ef- 
 facement and unconscious sacrifice. But one 
 
 day she stopped after prayer meet- 
 
 1 1 1- 1 r 11 Influence 
 
 mg, and the little face seemed sober 
 
 and so earnest, and we stepped aside a moment 
 from the others and she told me that she was 
 praying very hard for her father. He was 
 such a good man and so kind and loving, and 
 they were so happy in their home, but she did 
 so want him to love the Master and she wanted 
 me to pray for him, and she had my promise, 
 and it was kept. One evening she had him at 
 church, but he did not seem especially inter- 
 ested, but a few weeks later he stayed with her 
 after the service, and she introduced him, and 
 when she went by me as they went out, she 
 said in an undertone: " Don't ever tell, but keep 
 right on;" and we did. One Sunday night she 
 came to church in the evening with two or three 
 friends, and, when most of the others were 
 gone, she quietly came up in front of the pulpit 
 and said, "Are you praying for him still?" 
 and I said, " Yes, my dear ; let us go in a back 
 room a moment, and we will pray together." 
 The prayer was simple and direct, but the 
 prayer that was simpler still was the brief, child- 
 like, earnest petition that she made : " Dear 
 
158 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 Father in Heaven, help my father to love Jesus 
 the way You helped me to love You. I want to 
 love Thee, dear Lord, as much as I love my 
 father, and more, and I want to be good and to 
 show him how Thou hast helped me. Help 
 me to be obedient and kind, and help me to help 
 him, and help him, please, to love YOU. For 
 Jesus' sake." It was dark in the room, and 
 better so, for when we slipped out into the light 
 she was away with her '' Good-bye," and, some- 
 how, she seemed more than thirteen or four- 
 teen in her faith life. But the prayer went on, 
 and the father came, and Sunday after Sunday 
 he listened, for he was regular now at the 
 service, and one morning his face told the story 
 of his earnestness; and that evening he came 
 up of his own accord and said that once he had 
 been more thoughtful and now wanted to be a 
 Christian, and come into the Church. Then the 
 happy day; the face of the child; the joy of 
 her life, for only a short time before she, too, 
 had confessed her Lord and Master; and now 
 her joy was complete, and the father's joy was 
 too, and they both were in the prayer meeting, 
 where his voice was heard — and so simple, so 
 manly, so fervent, so real. No wonder the 
 child had learned to pray. How she always 
 waited and came out the door where the min- 
 
The Indifferent Man 159 
 
 ister stood, and always wanted to shake hands 
 when she said good-night ! And somehow the 
 little daughter seemed no more proud of the 
 father than the father of the child. The 
 months went by, and in a Northern forest, just 
 returning from a fishing-trip into the woods, a 
 telegram was torn open. It was from a distant 
 Southern city. The dear child could not bear 
 the strain of the fever. Her little life had 
 gone, not gone forever, but gone ahead. The 
 little photograph on the mantelpiece is still be- 
 fore my vision but I seem to hear the choir of 
 a countless heavenly host, and as I seek my rest 
 again, I find myself humming an old tune: 
 
 *' Around the throne of God in heaven 
 Thousands of children stand, 
 Children whose sins are all forgiven, 
 A holy, happy band, 
 Singing, * Glory, glory, 
 Glory be to God on high.' " 
 
 And this verse is on my lips : " A little child 
 shall lead them." A child has changed indif- 
 ference into loyal, active faith. 
 
 It is sometimes possible to gain the man who 
 is totally indifferent by a direct, striking sen- 
 tence. He had been at church a ^ striking 
 night or two before. He had not sentence 
 been particularly interested. The sermon had 
 
i6o Recruiting for Christ 
 
 been upon the old patriarch, Noah. He 
 showed no interest until the sentence was 
 reached : '' You cannot hope to have your son a 
 better man than you are, unless you lead him 
 to a higher life." He turned as if struck, and 
 I saw his heart. The thought was amplified. 
 When Noah said to his sons : " Come thou into 
 the Ark," they followed him. He did not tell 
 them to ^0.^ He himself was there first! You 
 cannot push men up into the Kingdom of God 
 from below, but, like Peter and John and the 
 lame man at the gate of the Temple, you can 
 reach down and lift them to their feet. I did 
 not see him for a week or two. I was walking 
 through a train to find a seat. He rose and 
 asked me to share his seat with him. I knew 
 his face and was not surprised to hear him 
 allude to a recent sermon which he had heard. 
 I said, " Yes, I noticed you were interested in 
 one sentence." He was surprised and said, 
 " What do you mean ? " and asked me to what 
 I referred. This was my opportunity, and I 
 frankly told him that I had noticed his entire 
 change of attitude when I referred to a father's 
 influence over his son, and asked him if he had 
 sons of his own. His face flushed for a mo- 
 ment, and he said, '* That was the one sentence 
 in the sermon that interested me, and I would 
 
The Indifferent Man i6i 
 
 like to talk it over with you." A little less 
 than an hour, and we were in the city of his 
 destination, but we were friends. He trusted 
 me and I trusted him. That friendship rip- 
 ened. Within a month he stood before the 
 Church of God and confessed Jesus Christ. His 
 life had been careless, and sinful, and yet a 
 popular life among men. He was a salesman 
 of large merit. His boys, his home, his entire 
 circle of business friends and companions, were 
 influenced by his clean, strong, and loyal Chris- 
 tian life. A frank, clear-cut fact had won 
 him. 
 
 Some men have been most successful in 
 arousing intense interest with men of large 
 worth by setting them to work in Christian 
 activity before they realised what they were 
 doing. Some years ago, in one of our great 
 Eastern universities, a young man of influence 
 induced one or two strong men in the fresh- 
 men class to take hold of a city mission 
 proposition. It was not called a mission ; they 
 were not called missionaries. They worked 
 with a lot of street boys in the neighbourhood, 
 led them in gymnasium classes, trained them on 
 the athletic field, showed them how to play 
 baseball and football. They gradually inter- 
 ested them in a class of city and national 
 
1 62 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 topics, bringing out and emphasising the real 
 meaning of citizenship. The boys became en- 
 thusiastic, but no more so than their teachers. 
 Before some of those college men graduated 
 they were officers in the Y. M. C. A., — one of 
 them the president. Their influence during 
 their college days was for wholesome, manly, 
 Christian life, but they were the last fellows 
 in the class who would have started in for any 
 such activity. 
 
 Many a man at our summer student confer- 
 ences is won in the same way. Some fraternity 
 chum, some athletic mate, has prompted these 
 men to attend the conference. Their interest 
 is awakened by some strong address, or the per- 
 sonality of the speaker. They enter the class- 
 rooms which consider the practical matters of 
 
 Summer our city problems or the broad 
 conferences vision of a world-field with a dif- 
 ferent spirit, and, before they themselves know 
 it, they become leaders and find themselves as 
 the influencers of men. We term them 
 " Finds," because they were not known be- 
 fore, but they belong to that great number 
 of indifferent fellows, in whose ranks 
 the Spirit of God has many of his chosen 
 leaders. 
 
 The indifference of some men is physical. A 
 
The Indifferent Man 163 
 
 man may be lazy, or immoral, in his life. In 
 either case, until he is conscious of Physical 
 his own worthlessness or sin, he causes 
 cannot become interested. The man who be- 
 longs to Lowell's " Common herd who only 
 sleep and feed " is not worth the effort, unless 
 the Spirit of God changes him into a different 
 character. This second class, the man whose 
 life is not pure, usually is dishonest as well in 
 his intellectual aspect. He is very liable to 
 place himself in the class of the doubter, where 
 he does not really belong, for a dishonest 
 doubter is not a doubter at all. He has no 
 right to any intellectual consideration, for he 
 is blaming his brain for that for which his body 
 is responsible. The immoral and indulgent life 
 which he is living is the cause of his careless- 
 ness and stupidity, and he is half -asleep as a re- 
 sult of his sin. Neither his brain nor the 
 Church of God is responsible for his condition, 
 but simply his poor, wretched, weak, worth- 
 less self. If this man can be led to feel 
 that there is a Divine Power we can reach 
 him and save him from himself; but usually 
 it takes a dash of cold water in the face, 
 by means of some sharp, drastic measure of 
 reproof or justice, to even change his ex- 
 istence into life. But there is the other 
 
164 R«cruitlng for Christ 
 
 man whose body is responsible for his indif- 
 ference, but who really desires better things, 
 and is an honest struggler with an uneven foe. 
 These are the men for whom we should work 
 and with whom we may gain results. I have 
 in my pocket a letter received recently through 
 two mutual friends. It is the story of a poor 
 fellow whom drink and drug had 
 made a hopeless, forlorn inebriate. 
 A prize graduate of a Canadian college, an 
 honour man in medical school, with bright 
 prospect in the community where he settled, 
 but one who gradually yielded, until he sunk to 
 the lowest, and wife, children, parents, broth- 
 ers, sisters, and friends gave him up as a hope- 
 less case. But he found the Saviour, and in 
 this letter which I would love to read to you, 
 but which you will see some time in other 
 print, he testifies of the love of Jesus Christ, 
 found through the faithful confidence and pa- 
 tient companionship and watchfulness of a 
 young minister who came to his town. 
 
 We need no greater testimony of the power 
 to reach such men than the recent book of Har- 
 Twice- old Begbie, entitled " Twice-born 
 born men Men." What that little Salvation 
 Army woman did for the off-scouring of Lon- 
 don, existing in that wretched district of the 
 
The Indifferent Man 165 
 
 great city, tells us what God can do with those 
 whose lives have had all vitality taken from 
 them by sin. 
 
 We have touched upon the power through 
 putting men to work for God. This not only 
 applies to the college man, the business man, 
 the successful member of society, but it also 
 may be a vital force in reaching the fallen. A 
 poor morphine and liquor victim had again 
 fallen after many months of victory. He was 
 not only discouraged, but morose. " What 
 is the use?" he mumbled to himself. "Why 
 did I ever try ? " He was found when drunk, 
 or partially so, and begged and plead for a 
 little money that he might be able to lose all 
 self-consciousness. There was no use argu- 
 ing with him or reproving him, but back of all 
 his weakness there was sympathy. *' Jim, do 
 you know there is a poor fellow that used to 
 work with you in the woods, who is up the road 
 drunk and friendless and sick. He is an older 
 man than you are, but he needs a friend. I am 
 going up to see him to-night and try to do 
 something for him." The words were scarcely 
 uttered when the half-drunken lad replied, " I 
 will go with you. I will go up and help him." 
 The old craving came back, and back again, 
 even as we trudged to see his old pal, but the 
 
1 66 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 inner motive conquered, with the help of a 
 mere suggestion which was sympathetic. When 
 I left him with his old pal, who was sick, slowly 
 dying, I said, '' Just remember, Jim, you can 
 ring me up by this country 'phone if you need 
 me, and I will get out of bed and come up here 
 if necessary; but I will be here in the morning, 
 and meanwhile you are standing guard, and 
 remember I trust you." He was nearly sober 
 now and penitent, although he did not know it, 
 or admit it. Of course, his feelings were 
 freely expressed. It is not strange to see the 
 big tears come into a man's eyes in his state, 
 but he meant it when he said, '' You can count 
 on me. I am going to help him through. I 
 Doing for won't call on you unless he is going 
 others to ' kick the bucket.' I could not 
 
 stand that alone." The poor old fellow died, 
 but that sympathetic effort and response saved 
 poor Jim and he has stuck it out ever since. 
 He is doing the same thing with other men 
 now. What he needed was an inspiration to 
 do something for somebody else, and that was 
 the one inspiration which the Spirit of God 
 used to bring him again to the feet of Jesus 
 Christ in penitence. " He is able to save to 
 the uttermost them that come unto God by 
 Him ;" but that verse means as well that He is 
 
The Indifferent Man 167 
 
 to save them completely. The Work of God 
 and work for others go hand in hand. 
 
 Some men are indifferent to the Church be- 
 cause of their loyalty to surroundings and 
 present companionships. That environment 
 and those companions may be slowly dragging 
 a man down, but he feels that it would be dis- 
 loyal or discourteous to separate himself from 
 them. He might be called a '* prig " or a 
 "" hypocrite." They might think he considered 
 himself better than they. It is not so much 
 that that man is indifferent to the Church as it 
 is that he is afraid of ridicule or misunder- 
 standing. It is wise to get this man gradually 
 into different surroundings, or at least to win 
 his confidence sufficiently to talk to him plainly 
 as to the foolishness of his position. Of what 
 real use is he to those men or they to him? 
 What might he be able to do for them if he 
 had a genuine faith in God and the strong 
 Christian impulse. But if you cannot go so 
 far with him as this, gain for him new friends 
 among those who are strong in character and 
 faith, and let the personality of a new friend- 
 ship overcome the lowering influence of the old 
 until he is sensible enough to assert himself. 
 
 Three things in conclusion we would em- 
 phasise. Study your man. Study the Word 
 
1 68 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 of God, that you may deal with him aright, 
 and then work for him. This means knowl- 
 edge, prayer, effort, and these three will break 
 the walls of the indifferent. I would empha- 
 sise especially the place of the second — prayer 
 — in dealing with these men. The praying 
 man, if he is thoughtful and energetic, is the 
 effective man. 
 
 Recently two young men were mentioned 
 as men of character and force. One of them 
 cared nothing for the Church. He would not 
 attend the church, hence that avenue of ap- 
 proach seemed closed. He could not be ap- 
 proached personally. One or two attempts 
 had failed. These men were constantly re- 
 membered before God. Months passed with 
 no apparent result. One morning, after 
 church, a man came up and was introduced to 
 me, and his name happened to be that of one 
 of the men for whom I was praying. Asking 
 his full name, I was inwardly delighted to 
 know that he was one of my men. I expressed 
 my pleasure at meeting him, saying I had heard 
 of him. He replied with equal cordiality, and 
 stated that he had been interested in my ser- 
 mons, and helped by them for the past three 
 months. He left me with the remark, '' To 
 tell you the truth, I want to get busy along 
 
The Indifferent Man 169 
 
 this Une." Through him the other man was 
 reached. 
 
 But, men, I want to tell you that this ex- 
 pression strengthened my faith in prayer in- 
 calculably. Right here in our midst, out of 
 the actual of to-day, now, God is using indif- 
 ferent men and winning indifferent men to 
 Him, not only by the organised efforts we are 
 making, not only by our individual study of 
 God's Word that we may adapt the truth, but 
 in the power of prayer. 
 
 One evening recently, at the meeting of the 
 Men's Club of a local church, 285 young men 
 were present. When General F. D. Grant be- 
 gan to speak, instinctively those men drew their 
 chairs up nearer about him. The meeting was 
 intense in its informality. We were thrilled 
 by the spirit of the evening, and the loyalty of 
 patriotism of these men. One among them 
 was moved to say, '' Young men, we not only 
 need what our speaker has brought to us, and 
 that for which he stands, and for which his 
 honoured father stood in our nation, but we 
 need a loyalty to Jesus Christ and to His 
 standards." Those men rose up and sung one 
 verse of *' My Country, 'Tis of Thee " for 
 General Grant, and followed with a verse of 
 *' Onward, Christian Soldiers," for Jesus 
 
lyo Recruiting for Christ 
 
 Christ. Their faces and voices spoke. We 
 were thrilled to our very hearts as we saw and 
 heard them. They sang with the loyal patri- 
 otism of young American manhood for our 
 country, but they sang with equal enthusiasm 
 for Jesus Christ. 
 
 There are scores of men who are ready to 
 sing " Onward, Christian Soldiers," if we ap- 
 peal to them with a manly message which comes 
 from our hearts, and which is backed by con- 
 sistent living. What the indifferent man wants 
 is inspiration blended with sincerity, sympathy, 
 and truth, and if we cannot give that message, 
 the Lord Jesus Christ can give it through us 
 if we are willing to be filled with His Spirit. 
 
VIII 
 DOUBT AND DOUBTERS 
 
"One single positive weighs more, 
 You know, than negatives a score." 
 
 — Prior. 
 
 " Go to thy birth-place, and if faith was there, 
 Repeat thy father's creed, thy mother's prayer." 
 
 — Holmes. 
 
 " I do not seek to know in order that I may believe, 
 but to believe in order that I may know." — Augustine. 
 
 " Doubt is the vestibule of faith." — Colton. 
 
 " Doubt cramps energy. Belief is power." — F. W. 
 Robertson. 
 
 " Intellectually the difficulties of unbelief are as great 
 as those of belief, while morally the argument is wholly 
 on the side of belief." — Dr. Arnold. 
 
 "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." — Mark 
 9: 24- 
 
 "They could not enter in because of unbelief." — 
 Hebrews 3: 19. 
 
 "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye; but not 
 to doubtful disputations." — Romans 14: i. 
 
VIII 
 DOUBT AND DOUBTERS 
 
 WHY be afraid of doubt and the 
 doubter? Many of the most loyal 
 supporters of the truth have come 
 from this class. To doubt honestly is any- 
 thing but a disgrace, for it shows not only 
 thought fulness, but the blending of personality 
 mind and conscience. The doubter °^ ^^i*^ 
 becomes the believer, not when he fully un- 
 derstands, but when he trusts and loves. Saul 
 of Tarsus, the unbeliever, became Paul the 
 Apostle when he knew Whom he believed. He 
 then could say, " I am not ashamed of the gos- 
 pel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto 
 salvation." The philosophy of faith is not 
 half so important as the personality of faith. 
 The why and wherefore of the Christian life 
 becomes secondary when we have once learned 
 to know the Who and learned to love Him 
 who is the embodiment and incarnation of our 
 belief. It took a great man like Augustine 
 173 
 
174 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 to write that marvellous sentence at the close 
 of his career : " I do not seek to know in order 
 that I may believe, but to believe in order 
 that I may know." 
 
 But doubt, after all, is the expression of 
 weakness rather than strength. Assurance 
 wins victories where doubt does not admit or 
 accept defeat. Henry Clay Trumbull has well 
 begun his splendid book upon this subject with 
 this sentence : " A man has more power 
 through believing one thing than in disbeliev- 
 ing ten thousand things." He also adds : " No 
 man is capable of disbelieving or doubting in- 
 telligently and sensibly unless he first has strong 
 and positive belief." Doubt is inherent in 
 many. It is as natural for some men to doubt 
 as it is to breathe. They must be convinced, 
 but when convinced, their faith is enthusiastic. 
 
 Instead of fearing doubt and running from 
 it, we should approach it prayerfully and cour- 
 
 Approach- ageously. Instead of criticising it 
 ing doubt ^^ should appreciate the opening it 
 offers us for conversation and enlightenment. 
 We do not refer to doubt for the sake of 
 doubt, nor to that self-assertive bravado of 
 speech which is the manifestation of super- 
 ficiality and egotism. We are dealing with the 
 subject in the genuine. Doubt is troubling 
 
Doubt and Doubters 175 
 
 many a life. Doubt will lift like the fog when 
 the sunlight shines through. It will lift from 
 below and rise until hidden points stand out 
 clearly in the morning light, but that sun must 
 be the Sun of Righteousness, that Light that 
 lighteth every one that cometh into the world. 
 Personified belief, incarnate truth, must an- 
 swer the question of unbelief. *' Lord, we 
 know not whither Thou goest, and how can we 
 know the way? " There was but one answer; 
 the Master used it : " / am the way, the truth, 
 and the life.'' 
 
 Again He replied when misunderstood, " Ye 
 search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye 
 have eternal life, and they are they which 
 testify of Me, and ye will not come unto Me 
 that ye may have life." No substitution, even 
 of God's Word, could make up for the per- 
 sonal Christ, Whom to approach and know 
 was to believe. The old fable of the man 
 meeting his brother in the fog is as true to 
 life as it ever was, for doubt befogs the purest 
 and divinest truth. But when that dubious, 
 unrecognised object approaching comes nearer 
 and nearer until you stand face to face, lo, he 
 is not a prodigy, but a brother beloved. 
 
 Disregard and narrow criticism of doubt 
 and the doubter are neither fair nor sensible. 
 
176 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 It is so easy to dismiss this class from our 
 thought with an impatient or irritable criti- 
 cism, but this is as unwise as it is senseless. 
 What splendid men to-day doubt from neces- 
 sity rather than choice ? How reasonable they 
 are, and how frequently we find them eager to 
 overcome this condition! Kindly and fair 
 leadership, with patience, will clear their vision, 
 and win their confidence. The open Word of 
 God, backed by a consistent character and a 
 clear brain, will transform conditions. Cour- 
 teous and discreet approach finds ready re- 
 sponse. The Master's voice was filled with 
 love when Thomas could not believe, but when, 
 at last, that voice was heard again, and bid 
 him reach hither his finger, that loyal soul had 
 not only lost his doubt, but gained his life 
 and inspiration as he replied : '' My Lord, and 
 my God." 
 
 There are two classes — the honest and the 
 dishonest doubter. There is little hope in 
 
 Dishonest dealing with the doubter who is 
 doubt dishonest. Usually he is seeking 
 
 to cover up his sin on the basis of his doubt. 
 As we previously stated, the man who is at- 
 tempting to make his poor brain bear the re- 
 sponsibility of his indulgent body, is the man 
 who is naturally insincere. True, he may be 
 
Doubt and Doubters 177 
 
 self-deceived, but where this sad condition 
 exists, until the Holy Spirit leads him to peni- 
 tence for and confession of the sin that lies 
 back of his apparent doubt, there is little hope. 
 There are doubters who, in one sense, belong 
 to neither class, or, rather, they are a com- 
 bination of both. They are not 
 
 , , ,• , , 1 Exaggeration 
 
 altogether dishonest or altogether 
 
 honest. They belong to life's exaggerators. 
 They exaggerate their feelings, their thoughts, 
 their condition, and the conditions of others. 
 Exaggeration is sin, but the exaggerator 
 scarcely knows he sins, for he is unconscious of 
 his exaggeration and usually defends it or re- 
 sents reproof. The superficial doubter fre- 
 quently belongs to this class. To help him is 
 to hold him down to facts, but in a wise way 
 and with a kindly spirit. He gradually will 
 realise that he is not a doubter after all, — ^at 
 least, that many things which he has supposed 
 were perplexing, are clear. It is not best to get 
 into a controversy with him unless upon a mat- 
 ter of principle. There are times when we 
 must talk plainly, but when such a course is 
 necessary it should always be with the in- 
 dividual alone. Never talk personally with a 
 man, or, at least, touch upon personal char- 
 acteristics or problems, in the presence of an- 
 
178 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 other. Wait for a more opportune time. Let 
 such conversation not only be plain, but direct 
 and fearless, but never in a belligerent or 
 critical spirit. You may win a dishonest 
 doubter to the Lord Jesus Christ if he is dis- 
 honest through error, and not through motive. 
 Don't let him fool you or think that he fools 
 you. If his doubt is superficial, show him his 
 limited vision by giving him a broader view. 
 In other words, lead him to the heights, that 
 his own eyes may gain the expanding view 
 without suggestion. Show him himself. God's 
 truth is a mirror; hold that mirror before him. 
 A mirror does not reflect other than the scene 
 which is before it. 
 
 We are sometimes deceived in men. Those 
 whom we think are honest are dishonest, and 
 the reverse is true. I have believed in men im- 
 plicitly, and been blessed as they have joined 
 me in audible, quiet prayer, only to discover 
 later it was all a means to an end. 
 
 The dishonest doubter, after all, is sec- 
 ondary. Until God changes his heart we can- 
 not help him. Our main work is with the man 
 of honest convictions, or lack of them. 
 
 First let us study our man, find out his point 
 of view, get him to talking. Learn his story, 
 put yourself in his place. You know the old 
 
Doubt and Doubters 179 
 
 controversy — one man said the fence was black, 
 and his companion affirmed it was Honest 
 
 white. They almost came to doubt 
 blows, but the real facts were that both 
 were right, — one side of the fence was 
 white-washed, the other was weatherbeaten 
 and black. They had viewed it from differ- 
 ent sides, and both were correct. Quiet in- 
 vestigation would have cleared the whole mat- 
 ter, or, if either had waited to learn where 
 the other stood there would have been no 
 trouble. Let us find out where the other man 
 stands, and, if necessary, let us take time to 
 go with him to his point of vision. Too many 
 times we argue from the traditions of life 
 with which we are familiar, and forget that 
 there are other traditions. The Eton youth is 
 foolish to discuss a school tradition with a 
 youth from Rugby. True enough, they are 
 both lads of England, but the great schools 
 of England have their various traditions and 
 customs. You cannot convince a Yale man 
 that crimson is a better color than blue, but 
 you can convince a Yale man that a Harvard 
 man would not be a Harvard man unless he 
 preferred crimson. The day has passed when 
 a Baptist ridicules a Congregationalist because 
 he does not believe in Immersion. But the day 
 
i8o Recruiting for Christ 
 
 has also passed when the Congregationahst 
 does not concede that the Baptist has a right to 
 his view and to his interpretation. Helpful 
 discussion accepts differing premises, but it dis- 
 tinguishes between essentials and non-essen- 
 tials. We ought, then, to discover where a 
 man's difficulty lies — what does he doubt? In- 
 terpretations as well as standards have changed. 
 Questions have arisen which were not ques- 
 tions a generation ago. Not only cause and 
 effect, but sources and authorities, are chal- 
 lenged. This is not only true as to theology, 
 but we have to face it as to the very Word of 
 God. 
 
 How are we to deal with the men who do 
 not accept the authority of Scripture? Those 
 who are not loyal to the doctrines and dogmas 
 of the past? What is the first thing to do? 
 Doctrinal or theological discussion, after all, 
 is not a very popular difficulty, but the ques- 
 tion as to the authority of God's Word is. 
 How are we to deal with it? A man opens a 
 discussion as to the authenticity and authority 
 of the Bible. How are you to answer him 
 back? Do not answer him, but be familiar 
 enough with God's Word to turn to the very 
 passage and let the Word of God answer for 
 itself. Frequently the discussion will take an 
 
Doubt and Doubters i8i 
 
 entirely different form, and accuracy will take 
 the place of inaccuracy, and this very enlight- 
 enment as to what the Bible really says will 
 clear the whole question. To cite a personal 
 illustration : In a former parish, an old college 
 acquaintance, contrary to his usual custom, at- 
 tended the Sunday night service. He seemed 
 interested, and was extremely attentive. As 
 he was a man of force and influence, I sought 
 an interview. He was an honest unbeliever. 
 Upon asking him what he thought of the 
 service, he replied with a smile, " The service 
 was all right, but what you said was all non- 
 sense from my point of view." Well, we both 
 smiled. I replied that I expected him to say 
 just about that same thing. We were not 
 fencing, but sincere, and both of us believed 
 in one another. My answer surprised him: 
 " That is exactly what the Bible says a man 
 in your position is going to think," I said. 
 Then, when he asked me to explain, I turned 
 to the first chapter of First Corinthians, and, 
 placing upon his desk the very verses, read to 
 him as he followed : '' Preaching of the Cross 
 is foolishness unto them that are perishing, 
 but unto them that are saved it is the power of 
 God." He knew that I was not seeking to 
 classify him, but simply to show that his criti- 
 
1 82 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 cism was not unexpected. From this our con- 
 versation extended and was continued later. 
 It resuUed in his beginning to study the Bible. 
 He had been a student of literature, but, aside 
 from a few truths of the Bible and stories of 
 the Old Testament, learned in childhood, the 
 Bible had been a closed book for twenty years. 
 He was a student not only in his profession, 
 but of literature. The study of God's Word 
 brought him into a clear definition of faith, 
 which was sufficient to change his attitude to 
 life and identify him with the Christian Church 
 and Christian activity. He could have an- 
 nihilated any argument I could have brought 
 to him, but the Scripture accomplished what 
 it accomplished with Philip, for " beginning 
 at that scripture he preached unto him Jesus." 
 Another instance relates to the 13th chap- 
 ter of First Corinthians. A friend, who was 
 also a student, spoke lightly of mankind in 
 general and of the typical wickedness repre- 
 sented in many of the godly characters of the 
 Old Testament. Asking him if he was willing 
 to read a chapter in the New, we read that 
 wonderful chapter on " Love." " Love suffer- 
 eth long and is kind, love envieth not, love 
 vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not 
 behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is 
 
Doubt and Doubters 183 
 
 not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth 
 not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; bear- 
 eth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all 
 things, endureth all things; love never fail- 
 eth." How about this chapter and the in- 
 adequacy of Scripture to help us believe in man- 
 kind? There was no need for an argument. 
 He grasped my hand and added : " That is the 
 most worth while thing I have read for years." 
 
 But there are men who cannot be approached 
 or influenced by this means. We must first, 
 then, find out what they do believe. Commit 
 them to something in the way of belief. With 
 such men it is not unwise to talk on the other 
 side for a time. A man will frequently de- 
 fend that which he has criticised if he is suf- 
 ficiently off his guard to be perfectly frank 
 and to be loyal to his real self. If you know 
 your man, it is just as well to start just where 
 he would start naturally, and take his side of 
 the argument. He might take yours, for every 
 thoughtful man has a natural disposition to 
 argue, and arguing means opposite view. This 
 very action on his part without comment of 
 yours may result in a changed view. A great 
 many men belong to this very class. We have 
 belonged to it in earlier days ourselves. 
 
 Again we come into contact with a great 
 
184 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 many who are influenced by much of the super- 
 ficial BibHcal criticism of to-day. Usually 
 when you find a man who says the Bible is full 
 of discrepancies it is well to get the best book 
 on the subject you can find, and read it or 
 send him a copy. It is not best simply to rely 
 upon a proof-text, but answer the man's specific 
 difficulty. In nine cases out of ten the matter 
 will be easily cleared up. Where it is not, the 
 man has at least grown to respect your care- 
 ful interest in his problem. Frequently his 
 difficulty is the result of second-hand thought, 
 — the editorial which he read, the chapter 
 which confused him, the sentence which mis- 
 led, is another man's interpretation, and he 
 himself has not thought the matter through, 
 nor given much attention ; but, like a comet, it 
 attracted far more attention than the fixed 
 stars or planets. It is well to put into the 
 hands of such men some of the splendid books 
 of constructive Biblical criticism, the books 
 which command confidence, elevate the in- 
 tellect, and honour highest scholarship. Many 
 such books are popularly written to-day. But, 
 better still, is a sufficient knowledge of the 
 Word of God, to give spiritual nourishment by 
 means of first-hand food instead of that which 
 is pre-digested. 
 
Doubt and Doubters 185 
 
 Another smaller class of doubters may be 
 represented by those who are studying the dif- 
 ficulties of the Bible and reading" 
 ^1 u • . 1 r ^r ,, 1 Literalism 
 
 the mistakes of Moses, who 
 
 have begun to feel that everything in history 
 and prophecy is symbolic and metaphorical. 
 They have lost all devotion to literalism. 
 What are we going to do with the non-literal- 
 ist? We certainly do not want to antagonise 
 and lose him at once by affirming that his posi- 
 tion is dangerous, misleading, and inaccurate. 
 We surely have very much in which to agree 
 if he is willing to study and read for himself. 
 The great principles underlying the historical 
 and prophetical books are common principles. 
 The life of Jonah is certainly a revelation of a 
 man's duty to obey God without hesitation 
 and excuse. We have an opportunity to talk 
 to this man as to these great characters of 
 God's Word, because he is studying them. 
 Omit some of the answers you would like to 
 make to his alleged discrepancies and supposed 
 errors. Get inside the outer shell of the thing. 
 The rarest crystals are the stalactites and stal- 
 agmites of life. But these are found inside 
 the cave, and the entrance to that cave means a 
 journey, and the mysteries of darkness are the 
 mysteries of the windings of the cavern; but 
 
1 86 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 they are worth the venture, and will call forth 
 the admiration of the one who has followed 
 you into this hidden recess. 
 
 One night a medical student sat down in 
 the study. He had been reading somebody's 
 volume on the " Mistakes of the Old Testa- 
 ment Narratives " as to a splendid old char- 
 acter. After talking a few moments we turned 
 to our open Bibles with the question, " Let us 
 get down to the real mission of this book and 
 its life." Why did God put this in here ? Why 
 did he select this man? The other men of 
 his time are almost unnoticed. God called 
 him to do hard things. To face enemies right 
 and left. He was not a coward, he was a 
 hero, but he was human, and at times wicked, 
 but he had a work and a message. 
 
 He performed that work, he delivered that 
 message. He inspired his family and his na- 
 tion to righteous living. We gained a vision 
 of that man's life and soul that night, and the 
 criticisms and discrepancies were scattered to 
 the four winds. When he went out there was 
 not a word. In fact, he had really forgotten 
 the discussion which brought us together, and 
 he became one of the strongest Sunday-school 
 teachers in the city where he lives, a faithful 
 student and expounder of the Scriptures. 
 
Doubt and Doubters 187 
 
 We may believe the Bible from cover to 
 cover, but let us be able to work with the men 
 and guide the men who have not our belief or 
 interpretation. The trouble is, when a man 
 gets to studying what he does not believe in 
 the Bible he is tempted to read every book 
 man has manufactured, instead of reading the 
 Bible itself! 
 
 Some of us have to deal occasionally with 
 an entirely different class of doubters — those 
 who have no faith in their own day. xhe sancti- 
 Men who do not believe in their °^o^i°^s 
 own time and day. They doubt the hand of 
 Providence in it all. They point to the white 
 slave traffic and the saloon power and say, 
 "What's the use?" "God in His world? 
 No ! God working to-day ? No ! " This man 
 is a dangerous doubter, and he sometimes lives 
 under the very shadow of the Church, and is 
 even termed a " pious " man by some who 
 know him. His pessimism assumes a sort of a 
 holy tone, and he uses a prophetic holy voice. 
 He, too, needs the Word of God as well as a 
 physician's prescription. You and I cannot 
 prescribe, but we can, with cheerful, sympa- 
 thetic tact, open the Bible with him and help 
 him. We can open the Word of God just 
 where He would have us, and find Jesus Christ 
 
1 88 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 weeping over Jerusalem, and from that scene 
 we can lead to another in which the Master 
 took the time to deal with and pray for in- 
 dividuals. This Man of Sorrows was a man 
 who dined with Zaccheus, who sat down with 
 the godless, who talked with the harlots, who 
 did not allow the awful contagion of sin and 
 the discouraging license of a wicked govern- 
 ment to disqualify Him for personal service. 
 This Saviour found a joy in seeking the lost 
 and in saving them. Before we leave these 
 very doubters we can pray with them, and we 
 will invariably find that the bended knee is 
 the great disarmer of doubt, and we will rise 
 to united service to the Common Lord. 
 
 But the great contest of the Church, after 
 all, has been upon the question of the super- 
 natural. This is uppermost in the minds of 
 vast multitudes to-day. The question varies. 
 A few years ago it was the Resurrection, then 
 the Miracles, then the Immaculate Conception, 
 now it seems to be the Miracles again, and all 
 the time it is an endless wheel — the human 
 mind combating the supernatural, whether in 
 Scripture or in life. But what would life be 
 without the supernatural ? We see it all about 
 us. The realities of scientific discovery would 
 have met with almost hysterical ridicule a few 
 
Doubt and Doubters 189 
 
 years ago. Ships that pass in the night miles 
 away bearing messages one to another with- 
 out words or sound! Transportation entirely 
 changed on our avenues and streets by the 
 mere rapid explosions of gasoline! Airships 
 following their own courses and working on 
 schedule! Then touch the realm of disease 
 and its cure. The operation which fifty years 
 ago was a miracle is to-day almost common- 
 place. Certain fatal diseases are no longer 
 considered such if properly diagnosed and 
 treated. Far greater the meaning of the su- 
 pernatural in the spiritual realm. Read the 
 fourth chapter of the First Book of Corin- 
 thians, where Paul says, *' We are the stewards 
 of the mysteries of God." The Christian 
 ceases to be a Christian when he simply be- 
 lieves what he can understand, and passes that 
 on to others. He is '' a steward of mystery." 
 Faith is not a matter of sight, but of the un- 
 seen. Quote the first verse of the nth chap- 
 ter of Hebrews, as we read it in the Revision : 
 " Now faith is the assurance of things hoped 
 for, the conviction of things not seen." If a 
 man doubts the supernatural, do not argue with 
 him, but read the nth chapter of Hebrews 
 through with him, and take the time to do it. 
 Of course, the belief in the supernatural is pri- 
 
190 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 mary. Augustine made it such. He did not 
 believe, but his mother did. All through those 
 years she followed him from city to city, even 
 when she knew he was living a wrong life. The 
 preaching of a great soul who believed in the 
 supernatural aroused his intellect and touched 
 his conscience. A great doubter in that which 
 he could not understand became the author of 
 a great book like '' The Confessions," and 
 scores of other volumes. He became a steward 
 of the mysteries of God. The great doubters 
 of this world have become the great champions 
 for Jesus Christ. Let us bring the men who 
 doubt to the Cross. Let us neither antagonise 
 nor argue, but work out the problem as we sit 
 together at His feet. Let us use patience (see 
 I Thess. 1 13), wisdom (James 1 15), sympathy 
 (Hebrews 12:1-3), ^^^^ more than all, let us 
 pray with and for them. Pray in the power 
 of that mighty prayer of Paul's (Ephesians 
 3:14-21), " For this cause I bow my knee to 
 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . ." 
 And in the power of those words he wrote to 
 the Philippian Church (Philippians 4:6), *' In 
 nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer 
 and thanksgiving let your requests be made 
 known unto God." And let us crown our 
 faith with the 13th verse of that same chapter, 
 
Doubt and Doubters 191 
 
 " I can do all things through Christ which 
 strengtheneth me," knowing that " God will 
 supply all our need according to His riches in 
 glory " (verse 19). 
 
 And the doubter will be won. This power 
 of spiritual victory is born of a living faith, 
 and we can win men who disbelieve because we 
 believe, because we believe God believes in 
 them, and because we, too, believe in them. 
 
IX 
 REGAINING MEN 
 
"What's gone and what's past help should be past 
 grief." — Shakespeare. 
 
 "This is the place, stand still, my steed, 
 Let me review the scene. 
 And summon from the shadowy past 
 The forms that once have been." 
 
 — Longfellow. 
 
 " Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which 
 are spiritual, restore such an one." — Galatians 6: i. 
 
 *' Honour thy father and thy mother." — Exodus 20: 12. 
 
 " Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, 
 Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; 
 Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, 
 Chords that were broken will vibrate once more." 
 
 —Bishop Doane. 
 
IX 
 
 REGAINING MEN 
 
 WE now take up the important subject 
 of reaching the men who are already 
 Christ's, but are inactive or unrecog- 
 nised. We aim to reach the unconverted. 
 Stop a moment and consider the immense 
 
 amount of waste material that there _ , , 
 
 Keacnlng 
 
 is in the Church of God. Import- those already 
 ant biisiness interests have devel- 
 oped out of saving the waste! Utilising the 
 useless. The very word " by-product " has 
 become an important word to-day. There 
 are thousands of men who have become suc- 
 cessful because they have appreciated the value 
 of by-products. That verse in the New Testa- 
 ment, '' Lest I myself become a castaway," does 
 not refer to a lost soul! But the castaway in 
 the sense of useless! To illustrate: This is a 
 jack-knife: suppose it is lost and left out in 
 the rain for two years! You could take the 
 rusted blade and snap it with a finger, but you 
 195 
 
196 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 could not turn it back into iron ore ! It is still 
 a jack-knife, but it is useless. It is a castaway. 
 Many a Christian that has become a castaway 
 still belongs to Christ. Many of those who 
 are castaways and useless have become so be- 
 cause they have not been active for the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. They have at one time taken a 
 stand in His Church, but they have fallen out. 
 Now we will not attempt the means, the 
 method, the philosophy, the psychology of this 
 condition, but we will consider the practical side 
 of the remedy. 
 
 These men are, or, rather, may be a great 
 influence for Christ if reclaimed. These very 
 men we usually do not consider when we talk 
 of the men to be won to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Suppose a man is apparently lost, so far as 
 service is concerned. Why give him up? 
 Why not work for him? He certainly has 
 much in his life that will respond quickly if 
 Jesus Christ is genuinely presented. That 
 man has a sympathetic response in his life, — 
 there is a chord there that will vibrate if 
 touched by Christ. We must realise that these 
 men must be reclaimed. 
 
 They are everywhere. They are in every 
 part of the city by the thousand. You can 
 go through any street of the city where people 
 
Regaining Men 197 
 
 live and find case after case where unplaced 
 church letters lie in drawers or desks, letters 
 never placed in a local church. 
 
 There are thousands of others who have 
 never sent for their letters, many of whose 
 names are upon some distant church 
 
 church roll, their present addresses letters 
 probably unknown. Those people need to be 
 found, and encouraged into active church 
 service. Tens of thousands of such members 
 drift into oblivion every year. They are the 
 waste forces for Christ outside the Church. 
 Many of them are earnest Christians, who feel 
 the loss of spiritual fellowship. 
 
 In a single week one of our pastors came in 
 contact with three different families whose let- 
 ters were not placed in any church, 
 
 111.1 - . ,, Old workers 
 
 and had not been for years. All 
 
 happened to be prominent leaders in the 
 
 churches from which they came. One a 
 
 former Sunday-school superintendent in a 
 
 school of over four hundred. For two years 
 
 he had not been inside of a Sunday school in 
 
 Chicago, and had only attended church six or 
 
 seven times. All he awaited was a knowledge 
 
 of need and a cordial invitation. This 
 
 brought him to a realisation that he was not 
 
 doing his duty. A second was a teacher of 
 
198 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 thirteen girls, and eleven of those thirteen girls 
 had confessed the Lord Jesus Christ under her 
 leadership. Still, for months she had been 
 without a church home. The third had been 
 a substitute teacher in her church at home. 
 One of them said : '' Do not tell people I have 
 been active, for I am ashamed that I have not 
 been more alive here." Now, some of these 
 very people have been leaders, but have gotten 
 into new conditions, strange surroundings, in a 
 city with far larger problems than they had 
 ever known, and before they knew it they 
 had drifted away or lost touch with active 
 work. 
 
 Then many are circumstanced this way: 
 Here is a girl who was married and immedi- 
 
 The young ately came to the city. Her hus- 
 famiiy band was of another denomination, 
 
 and they did not agree or settle upon a church 
 home. They wander from church to church, 
 and, after four or five months of this, they be- 
 come what we call " sermon tasters," or, more 
 probably, '' music tasters." After going along 
 a time in this way, they naturally become in- 
 different. Then, perhaps, God sends His best 
 gift into that little home, and the mother does 
 not want her husband to be away in the even- 
 ing. Perhaps they do not get up early enough 
 
Regaining Men 199 
 
 on Sunday morning. They do not go to 
 church, they have gotten out of the habit. 
 
 There is never a time in a man or woman's 
 life when there is a chance to mould the home 
 for God as when that house is changed into 
 a home by the coming of a little child. The 
 father, if he is approached the right way, will 
 respond, and that home may become a home 
 of God. That is why the Cradle Roll is doing 
 such a work in our Sunday schools. Other 
 children come into the home and cares multi- 
 ply. Then the time comes when they begin to 
 think. When the children ask : " Father, 
 mother, why don't you go to church? Kath- 
 erine goes to Sunday school ; Donald's minister 
 came to see his mother the other day. I do 
 not see why some minister does not call on us. 
 I do not see why we do not go to church." 
 
 There is another class. A number of good 
 people have lost sympathy with the church. 
 What is the trouble ? Often some past 
 
 trivial experience. They went into prejudice 
 a church in a new locality, and when shown to 
 a pew the people who rented the pew came in 
 unexpectedly, and were neither cordial in look 
 nor word. That was enough. They felt un- 
 comfortable throughout the service, and were 
 not helped. In fact, listened to little in sermon 
 
200 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 or Scripture. '' I will never darken the doors 
 of the church again," was his remark, and his 
 action. Well, that is a most foolish, careless, 
 superficial, and un-Christlike thing to say, but 
 he was hurt, and he was not big enough to over- 
 look the other man's littleness. After one has 
 spoken this way, he seems to think it cowardly 
 or disloyal to forget it or change his mind. 
 But the sad part of it all is that their children 
 are growing up without God, and all because 
 their parents became indifferent through this 
 incident. 
 
 Some of these very people can be reached 
 easily if their confidence is patiently won. A 
 little attention and sympathy will overcome 
 the prejudice of years. They won't tell you at 
 first why they do not attend church, but after 
 a while you awaken within them the latent 
 longing, and when you invite them into your 
 pew, and perhaps even call for them Sunday 
 morning, they come back, and you not only 
 save them and their children, but their chil- 
 dren's children after them. 
 
 Others have received unfair treatment from 
 members of the church. Here is a man who 
 
 Thought- k^pt ^ small corner grocery store, 
 lessness ^nd had to make a living through 
 
 very small amounts. He only made one-fifth 
 
Regaining Men 201 
 
 of a cent a pound on some staple goods, and 
 had to sell a great deal to clear anything. He 
 had children to put through school, and he 
 tried to do it honestly. Some one, — an of- 
 ficer in the church, possibly, kept him waiting 
 two months for his money, and was appar- 
 ently angry when he sent his bill. 
 
 Another is a poor dressmaker, and some 
 woman in the church who owed her a bill left 
 on her summer outing without paying for the 
 dresses she had worked late into the evening 
 to finish. She had worked faithfully. Her 
 friend had come to her and said to her : " You 
 must get that dress done in time," and she had 
 done her best. But the weeks went by, and 
 the bill had not been paid, and, needing the 
 money, she walked over to see her about it, 
 only to find the house, that splendid, great 
 house, closed, the door and windows boarded. 
 That meant '' no vacation " for her. And she 
 is forced back to her long summer of sewing. 
 Is it strange she says to herself : " Yes, she's 
 a member of the Missionary Society! I do 
 not think I'll go there to church." 
 
 Sometimes those who have the most money 
 are not the most thoughtful of those who have 
 the least, and are the most faithful. There 
 are people all through the very communities in 
 
202 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 which all of us live who have suffered just such 
 experiences, and they love the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, but have been kept from confessing 
 Him by thoughtless inconsistency in others' 
 lives. It is our business to win them back 
 into the churchy and to their own proper place 
 there. 
 
 And then that other woman, the one who 
 v^as thoughtless and went away forgetting the 
 one whose bill was not paid, she no doubt would 
 weep to-day if she knew the circumstances. 
 
 I once gave such an illustration from actual 
 life in a sermon, and noticed that a woman in 
 the back of the church whom I did not know 
 was very much affected. 
 
 A strange coincidence followed. A humble 
 member of the church within a few weeks 
 showed me a letter from a total stranger. The 
 woman that wrote the letter never dreamed 
 that it would come to my eyes. I read : *' Our 
 pastor last Sunday morning said something 
 that opened my eyes to a condition I had never 
 known. I have always paid my bills at the 
 dry-goods stores every six months. It is cus- 
 tomary. They only send bills then. I never 
 thought of paying them any other way. I 
 never dreamed that every one did not have the 
 same credit, that my poor dressmaker did not 
 
Regaining Men 203 
 
 have a chance," and then she went on to say: 
 '' I am enclosing a small gift with this check, 
 and I hope it will add some comfort and joy to 
 you this summer, and if my carelessness has 
 ever robbed you of rest or change in your life, 
 it will tell you my regret and give me now the 
 pleasure of sharing in some coming joy." I 
 saw that letter. There are a lot of people 
 whom you and I condemn in wholesale fashion 
 who only are thoughtless. 
 
 Again there are those who have suffered the 
 great mysteries of sorrow, not being able to un- 
 stand them. They have never had The 
 a sympathetic heart help them out sorrow 
 of their distress. Men, this class seems to in- 
 crease more and more. In a village toward the 
 South land there was an aged Episcopal rector. 
 They told me that there was not a man in the 
 whole county who had the influence he had. 
 The Roman Catholics would stop and bow to 
 him on the street, and say " Good-morning, 
 Father." The Protestants universally looked 
 to him as the very Bishop of the whole com- 
 munity, and every other minister loved him. 
 "How do you account for it?" the stranger 
 asked, only to learn his story. His wife and 
 five children, within eighteen months, one after 
 another, the Lord had taken away. Through 
 
204 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 it all, every Sunday, he was in his place. His 
 prayer, his sermon, revealed a great heart sus- 
 tained by God. There was not a man, woman, 
 or child in sorrow or distress, if he knew it, to 
 whom he did not quietly find his way. He 
 would go into that home, where a father was 
 suffering, where a mother was dying, where a 
 brother or sister longed for sympathy, and 
 with a single word or look he would comfort 
 and help. Everybody loved him, for, some- 
 how, they knew he suffered with them, and 
 had borne up with Christian fortitude in his 
 own intense sorrow, deeper than any of them 
 had known. He won all classes into loving 
 sympathy with the Church of Christ Uni- 
 versal. 
 
 There are many who have been driven away 
 from the Church and from Christ by these 
 very mysteries of sorrow and the perplexing 
 distresses of personal grief; but we may re- 
 gain them if we will patiently serve. 
 
 Sometimes a disgrace is associated with 
 estrangement. Sometimes the mind is not nor- 
 mal. There are all kinds of conditions, and 
 men cannot understand, and their hearts cry 
 out to God, "How long, how long!" They 
 need human, intelligent sympathy, and some 
 one to lead them to The Man of Sorrows. 
 
Regaining Men 205 
 
 Oh, how many people there are in this world 
 who need help because they have been driven 
 away by the worldly interpretation of a Divine 
 revelation. They fail to see the colour blended 
 in the rainbow, arching and uniting earth and 
 heaven, because the sun shines through the 
 storm. 
 
 There is another class of people who are sub- 
 ject to surroundings of evil temptations and 
 bad companions. One Sunday Evil 
 night, at the evening service, I was companions 
 speaking upon " Getting the Right Start." 
 Among other things I said : '' If any of you 
 young men are in bad boarding-houses, get 
 out of them. If you are surrounded by in- 
 fluences where you cannot serve Christ, get 
 away from those influences." Three different 
 young men have spoken of these words since, — 
 two by letter and one in person. One said : 
 " You drove in that nail right to the head. 
 The trouble is, I did not want to get out of my 
 surroundings, but I have gotten out, and I feel 
 more a man." The other two men wrote that 
 the single sentence as to changing boarding- 
 houses had solved for them the problem. 
 
 This has taught me a lesson. Right among 
 us are thousands of men who are surrounded by 
 those who are keeping them away from Christ, 
 
2o6 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 and they need the companionship of some one 
 who will bring them to Christ. 
 
 Take the college problem. Our Yonug- 
 Men's Christian Associations in the colleges, 
 The college realising the work they can do, be- 
 probiem gjj-j vv^ork early with the men. They 
 
 cannot begin too soon to tie up good compan- 
 ions to the freshmen. To associate them with 
 the right kind of men at the very beginning 
 of the course, during the first weeks. The first 
 four weeks in college has more to do with the 
 future of many students than all the rest of the 
 time put together. This is especially true 
 where men are rushed and pledged at once to 
 the fraternities. 
 
 Are we careful enough to see who chums 
 with that boy? Why not plan the campaign? 
 
 Again, it is true that thousands of young 
 men are coming to the city month after month 
 into new surroundings. Many of them have 
 come from Christian influences, but they will 
 soon drift into sin unless associated with true 
 companions. They have been identified with 
 the Church of God in the old home, where re- 
 ligion and the services of the church had been 
 the habit of their lives, but they find themselves 
 suddenly in a whirlwind of activity, rushing on 
 without a thought of God or His Church. A 
 
Regaining Men 207 
 
 few months, sometimes a few weeks, and they 
 are lost amid the throng. They must be sought 
 out, regained, and associated with those who 
 are ahve for Jesus Christ. 
 
 We have no right to overlook another large 
 class who are the rightful and choice inher- 
 itance of the Christian Church. The sons 
 We refer to the sons and daugh- tert of^t^" 
 ters, the grandsons and the grand- Church 
 daughters, of those who a generation ago were 
 the reliable and honoured leaders and constitu- 
 ents of the Church. The downtown church 
 has a smaller proportion of these to-day than 
 the rapidly growing prosperous suburban 
 church. The very transfer of home and prop- 
 erty has had much to do with this. The old 
 residences are now down town. Some of them 
 have been sold for boarding-houses, rooming- 
 houses, or have been reconstructed into small 
 apartment houses, or torn down and replaced 
 for business or manufacturing purposes. With 
 the old homestead many of the old traditions 
 and customs have gone. The new surround- 
 ings have been fascinating and controlling. 
 Many have gone from the old home to the col- 
 lege or university, to return after four or seven 
 years in academic study, perhaps a longer time 
 spent in travel. During those years changes 
 
2o8 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 have come, friendships have scattered, associ- 
 ations been broken. Soon individual homes 
 have been started, the young people have gone 
 with the current. The attractive plans which 
 the young architect has drawn up appeal to 
 all that is artistic and homelike. There is a 
 bit of landscape gardening thrown in on a 
 small scale. It is only thirty-five minutes from 
 down town. Transportation facilities are ex- 
 cellent. 
 
 Or, they have gone out into the new apart- 
 ments. A great choice of selection is theirs. 
 Hundreds of these splendid buildings have 
 gone up rapidly. The servant question will 
 not trouble them. The problem of dirt and 
 dust is reduced, and two or three college chums 
 are going to be only a building or two away. 
 
 The young church in the community is 
 
 struggling, although assured of a splendid 
 
 The future. It is not considered the 
 
 suburban , . 1,1 
 
 church thmg to go to church out here as 
 
 it used to be. Upon accepting the invitation 
 of a friend for a Sunday morning service they 
 met conditions different from any they had ever 
 experienced. The choir could not touch the 
 splendid quartet of the old home church. Per- 
 haps they failed to realise that their standard 
 of judgment as to music was far in advance 
 
Regaining Men 209 
 
 over that of the pre-college days. The min- 
 ister may have been judged by a similar un- 
 just standard. The fact of it is they are out 
 of sympathy with church-going. It is no 
 longer an accepted condition of duty. It is no 
 longer a habit. 
 
 We cannot deny that such illustrations may 
 be multiplied by the hundred everywhere. 
 Neither can we deny that there are among these 
 people the descendants of the very best leaders 
 the Church of God has ever known. We con- 
 tend that these people are worth working for. 
 They deserve our patient, persistent effort. 
 Their parents and grandparents deserve it. 
 Many of our older churches were built by the 
 self-denial of the forebears of these very peo- 
 ple. If once won, they will soon find their 
 place of responsibility and leadership. They 
 have the very blood of the Church in their 
 veins. What if they do speak lightly of sacred 
 matters? It is not intentional irreverence. It 
 is the natural expression of their thoughtless- 
 ness. When the serious side of it all appeals 
 to them, they will be the most dependable men 
 and women the Church possesses, ^ discrim- 
 for they have behind them the ination 
 heritage of countless unanswered prayers, and 
 a covenant-keeping God. You may not be able 
 
210 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 to attend quite so many public meetings 
 or conventions if you go in to win them. 
 It will mean many an evening spent in a 
 home in quiet conversation and friendliness, 
 instead of public recognition and applause, 
 but it will pay. It is needed to-day fully as 
 much as the rescue work in the great mission 
 among the outcasts. True, it has not the 
 same fascination nor recognition. It is far 
 easier to pray kneeling at a wooden bench 
 than kneeling on a Persian rug. It is easier 
 to put your hand of sympathy on the 
 shoulder of a forlorn " down-and-out," than it 
 is to touch the heart of a successful young 
 merchant or professional man. But the 
 Saviour who sought the woman of Samaria, 
 sought Zaccheus and dined in his home. The 
 Saviour who told the story of the prodigal son 
 appealed to the rich young ruler and reasoned 
 with him, and it is our duty as Christian men 
 to enlist in the ranks of the Church the sons 
 and daughters of God's honoured soldiers and 
 warriors of the past. 
 
 There are Sons and Daughters of His Rev- 
 elation, as well as Sons and Daughters of our 
 Revolution. 
 
X 
 FOLLOWING UP THE WORK 
 
" When Jesus knew that His hour was come, — having 
 loved His own, — He loved them unto the end." — 
 John 13: I. 
 
 " It is finished." — Jesus Christ. 
 
 " He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and 
 I will be his God and he shall be My son." — Revelation 
 21: 7. 
 
 ** Be thou faithful unto death." — Revelation 2: 10 
 
 « 
 
 " Every noble work is at first impossible." — Carlyle. 
 
 " If knowledge is power, patience is powerful." — 
 Robert Hall. 
 
 " There is no well-doing, no God-like doing, that is 
 not patient doing." — Dr. Holland. 
 
X 
 FOLLOWING UP THE WORK 
 
 IT is one thing to win men to Christ, and 
 another, we are told, to win them for 
 service. But, is it another thing? Or, at 
 least, should it be? Saul of Tarsus said: 
 "Who art thou. Lord?" That was his first 
 question. His second had to do salvation 
 with activity. " Lord, what wilt and service 
 thou have me do? " When a man believes in 
 Jesus Christ and accepts Him as his Master, 
 he is not interested in the mere philosophy of 
 religion, but he is interested immediately in a 
 philosophy of service. The greatest work of 
 the Church of Christ is the extension of His 
 Kingdom. But extensive work begins with in- 
 tensive affection. And intensive affection in- 
 variably leads to extensive activity. The work 
 of the Church is to place those who have come 
 into her membership in permanent service. 
 
 We have already dealt with the man who has 
 discontinued or strayed, or lost his ardour. We 
 are now considering the man who has come 
 213 
 
214 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 into the Church. How can he be held and de- 
 veloped ? 
 
 What is joining the Church, is it a means or 
 an end ? "A means," you reply. Yes, but 
 
 Joining ^ lot of us seem to think it is an 
 the Church q^^^^ ^g ^ woman once said to 
 me : " Now that my boy has joined the Church, 
 he will surely be safe for life." When I re- 
 plied, '' Don't you believe it ; he has only 
 started," she seemed surprised, and wanted me 
 to explain. 
 
 Uniting with a church is a means to an end. 
 When a man comes into the Church he has only 
 started. His work has only begun, and it is 
 the business of all of us who are in the Church 
 to see that he is kept by the power of God and 
 trained to become an efficient workman. Still, 
 many come into the Church and stop there, 
 thinking it is the final instead of the initial step. 
 As if a man received his diploma as soon as he 
 matriculated at college! His very matricula- 
 tion implies a long and steady course of study. 
 And that course of study in itself is simply a 
 means to an end, for it is to fit him for his life 
 work. 
 
 Who would think of putting lambs out to 
 pasture, and then leaving them unguarded and 
 alone, upon the ground that they were safe 
 
Following up the Work 215 
 
 enough simply because they were within the 
 enclosure, and had passed through the entrance 
 bars. Confessing Christ is only the beginning, 
 the passing through the gateway. Every night 
 the faithful Shepherd folds those lambs, and 
 all through the weeks and years there must be 
 the Christian training in and out of the church. 
 Food and work which must mean growth and 
 development. 
 
 The statistical reports of our churches natu- 
 rally influence us to lay much stress upon the 
 importance of large additions to church 
 
 membership, but there are no statistlcg 
 statistical incentives to follow this work up. 
 Here we are liable to fail. An increased mem- 
 bership without corresponding spiritual and 
 practical growth represents dead wood instead 
 of living timber. 
 
 In Brown Memorial Church in Baltimore 
 for many years we had a printed list of all the 
 varied activities of the local church, Every one 
 the denomination, the church at ** ^^^^ 
 large, city philanthropies, settlements. Chris- 
 tian associations, charity organisations. All 
 who came into the church were asked to check 
 up the work they were willing to undertake, 
 and were immediately referred to the one hav- 
 ing that particular work in charge. Some 
 
2i6 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 worked in the Sunday school, some in the mis- 
 sionary societies, others in the hospitals, mis- 
 sion schools, training classes; in fact, all over 
 the city. Many were friendly visitors under 
 the city charity organisation. This work was 
 carefully followed up by an efficient leader in 
 each particular field. So varied are the oppor- 
 tunities offered in a large city that individual 
 temperaments and abilities may each exercise 
 the largest possible personal influence. Thus 
 a missionary in Central India, or a local news- 
 boy on the street, may be the recipient of active 
 church assistance. Such work is contagious. 
 The man or woman who is not busy about 
 something which counts becomes the exception, 
 and the inclination, as well as reputation of a 
 church seems to call for individual cooperation. 
 Such work, however, must always be tem- 
 pered with wisdom and sanity, as well as eager- 
 ness to engage all in activity, for we must 
 never disregard the far greater need of faith- 
 ful and patient work within the home circle. 
 Phillips Brooks wisely cautioned us to remem- 
 ber the importance of caring for our appointed 
 work first; for the work of a mother in the 
 home, or a clerk in the store, or bank, is just 
 as much a part of Christian service as the ex- 
 ternal which commands more marked attention. 
 
Following up the Work 217 
 
 This should not deter us, however, from 
 reahsing that our work as Christian leaders is 
 not finished when we get people into the 
 Church. The mere public confession of 
 Christ is not enough. We must tie them up 
 to wise activity. 
 
 Criticisms have arisen very generally as to 
 
 the multiplicity of Church organisations. 
 
 Many affirm that an over-emphasis 
 
 , , . . . Organisations 
 
 has been given to organisation. 
 
 Some churches, we hear, are ahve externally, 
 but dead at the heart. There is reason for 
 this. The Church is cold and useless if it is 
 calling attention to machinery and organisation 
 rather than to life and human need. The 
 business which is successful permanently is not 
 a mere matter of personal advertisement. Su- 
 perior production is self -advertising. Where 
 raw material is being transformed into superla- 
 tive finished product, the public are asking 
 questions, and the axiom holds good — ^that 
 " deeds speak louder than words." Those who 
 are doing the most real work in the world are 
 those who have the least time to talk about it. 
 The church well organised and 
 systematically governed and reg- 
 ulated is usually the useful church in the 
 community, but there is no need of advertising 
 
2i8 RecFuitIng for Christ 
 
 the organisation and system, for such publicity 
 attracts men to the material rather than to the 
 spiritual side. It tends to distract from the 
 real mission of Christianity, and creates self- 
 satisfaction, pride, and egotism. The best pos- 
 sible organisation is that which is not seen. The 
 gestures of the truly eloquent are not noticed. 
 The machinery of a spiritual church is driven 
 by an Unseen Power. The world sees the prod- 
 uct and believes, but the machinery is behind 
 closed doors, and scarcely the hum of the 
 wheels heard without. 
 
 A large church which had received members 
 by the hundred recently found upon examina- 
 tion that almost half of those who had united 
 within the past five years were unknown to any 
 member of the session, and the pastor himself 
 could give no information whatever as to a 
 large number. This led to two things : A com- 
 mittee of visitation was appointed, which found 
 that many of these new members had dropped 
 out of the church life, ceasing even to attend 
 services within a few months from the time 
 they united. The general impression had gone 
 out throughout the community that the pastor 
 was simply interested in urging strangers to 
 join the church. Homes which he had entered 
 repeatedly with this in view had not been en- 
 
Following up the Work 219 
 
 tered for years after they had been admitted. 
 Frequently those who had united with the 
 church were addressed by him and members 
 of his session, as well as by prominent members 
 of his church, as if they were total strangers, 
 and in some instances had been urged to unite 
 with the church of which they were already 
 members. It also led to a revolution in the 
 working policy of pastor, session, and people. 
 Instead of continuing in this extensive solicita- 
 tion, they began to work among their own 
 members and to become better acquainted. Re- 
 ceptions were held for those who had come into 
 the church recently. Systematic calling was 
 done by older members upon more recent com- 
 municants. Although the church continued to 
 grow numerically, a very different spirit 
 quickly prevailed. The Sunday school began 
 to increase, as well as the prayer meeting; al- 
 though fewer came into the church, the congre- 
 gations became much larger. The offerings 
 increased, and the general influence of the 
 church was manifestly felt. 
 
 A working church without doubt is a win- 
 some force in a community, but it is just as 
 much the duty of the church to work with its 
 own as to work outside its own. We live in 
 an age of team work. The church that sue- 
 
220 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 ceeds with superlative results is the church 
 which trains every member to become a work- 
 man. 
 
 No football captain could hold his influence 
 through a second game if he did not lead his 
 men to work in a unit, and he would not be a 
 successful captain if he did not discover the 
 weak man in his team, and strengthen or re- 
 move him. 
 
 As leaders in the Church of Christ, we must 
 use the same methods. In the very forefront 
 of the work ourselves, we must train men to 
 work with us. Those men will train others to 
 work with them, and before we are aware of it, 
 the Church will be a great working internal 
 force, strengthening itself as it works with a 
 unity of purpose and effort in gaining the 
 ground of the enemy. 
 
 A rather discouraging condition not infre- 
 quently experienced to-day is that of a large 
 membership of men with scarcely any who are 
 fitted or willing to take responsible positions, 
 especially to fill offices of spiritual trust. We 
 know of churches where there are strong 
 brotherhoods and men's associations in which 
 it is almost impossible to find any strong char- 
 acters to fill vacancies on the official boards of 
 the church. Men have united and been mem- 
 
Following up the Work 221 
 
 bers for years and even decades, but they seem 
 to be just about where they were years before. 
 
 The wisdom of giving proper attention to 
 the boys and young men applies here. The 
 bright lads who are growing so rapidly, whom 
 we see in short trousers to-day, and long trou- 
 sers to-morrow, are the ones we mean. With 
 these boys lies the future of the Church. To 
 hold them and train them is the priceless priv- 
 ilege of older men. Time spent with them in 
 spiritual training will return a hundred fold. 
 Realising the importance of work among a lit- 
 tle older class, one of our city churches has this 
 last winter attained definite and large results. 
 Under the Men's Club about twenty young 
 men met for lunch each week in one of the 
 central down town hotels. They had a room 
 to themselves. The lunch was provided by an 
 interested member of the club. They met 
 promptly at 12 :30 for one hour. The pastor 
 of the church always met with them as well as 
 the president of the club. It was understood 
 that any man who had a shorter time was at lib- 
 erty to leave at will. This particular church 
 was located in the centre of a neighbourhood of 
 thousands of young men who filled the board- 
 ing- and rooming-houses for blocks about. 
 
 Utilising three or four of their number who 
 
222 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 had more time than others, a thorough canvass 
 of every house in each block was made. The 
 work was done so systematically and followed 
 up so accurately by means of special diagrams 
 and card indexes, that everything was checked 
 up week by week. Each week, from fifty to 
 a hundred new names were wisely distributed 
 among the various members of the committee, 
 discriminating in appointing men of certain 
 characteristics to call upon those with whom 
 they would have the greatest natural influence. 
 These cards were filled out and returned the 
 following week, with such information as could 
 be obtained upon the initial visit. All this was 
 done without obtrusive publicity, and in a 
 manly and straightforward spirit. Cases of 
 loneliness, discouragement, and special need 
 were wisely reported. Sickness and sorrow 
 received immediate and sympathetic attention. 
 Spiritual help was given in many cases when 
 opportune. What has been the result? The 
 Men's Club has grown to an active list of over 
 seven hundred membership within eight 
 months, coming into direct contact with over a 
 thousand young men. Several of the public 
 meetings of the club for men only have been 
 attended by over three hundred men. The 
 Sunday evening services, under the care of the 
 
Following up the Work 223 
 
 club, have been largely attended, with a propor- 
 tion of more than two-thirds young men pres- 
 ent. Conversions have resulted week after 
 week through the personal work of this com- 
 mittee and other members. Over fifty of those 
 who have united with the church during the 
 year were directly reached through this agency. 
 Another feature has developed which is en- 
 couraging. The pastor has received letters 
 from far-away New England farms, from the 
 extreme West, from the South, and from 
 nearby villages, from grateful parents and 
 friends, enclosing in many instances letters 
 from the young men themselves. Some of 
 these letters would bring tears to the eyes of 
 any one : '' My boy has been in your city for 
 five years. His father and I sometimes feared 
 we had almost lost him, but every night he had 
 his own place in our prayers. You perhaps may 
 know something of the joy that came to our 
 hearts when we received the enclosed letter. 
 We can never thank the young men of your 
 church for what they have done for him. His 
 letter will show you how close he feels to the 
 Men's Club in your church. And to think 
 that he confessed Christ last Sunday morning. 
 Our hearts are too happy to tell you how we 
 feel, but may God bless you and the young men 
 
224 Recruiting for Christ 
 
 who are working with you. We wish our 
 boy in the Far West could be in your city, too." 
 This letter is typical. 
 
 A phase of this work which has deepened 
 its power will never be known in its far-reach- 
 ing influence, for many of these very young 
 men have been trained as never before for 
 others, and prayer and personal work have gone 
 hand in hand. 
 
 But it is not enough merely to lead men to 
 confess Christ. We must follow the work up, 
 that the Holy Spirit may prompt men to study, 
 pray, and work for others. If, as men within 
 the Church of Christ, we can bring about this 
 condition, differences and littlenesses will dis- 
 appear; glowing coals, close to one another, will 
 grow brighter and brighter. White heat will 
 radiate a warmth and glow whch will attract 
 and bless, and the Church of Jesus Christ will 
 become the fireside where son and stranger are 
 always equally welcome; a place where mag- 
 netism of human sympathy blends with the 
 power of the Son of God. 
 
Princeton Theological , Seminarv ybraries 
 
 1012 01235 9057 
 
 Date Due 
 
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