PAM. 
 N. AMER. 
 
 C|)e experience of 
 ©ne Cl)ttrt|) 
 
 91 ^^orn of Wxtnm 
 
 By 
 
 CHAS. EDWIN BRADT 
 
 Pastor of ths First Presbyterian Church 
 WitJiita, Kansa* 
 
 OPEN DOOR EMERGENCY COMMISSION 
 MISSIONARY SOCIETY 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 Price, 75 cent! per hundred 
 
Cije Cjrpertence of one 
 
 HE experience of a par- 
 ticular church is simply 
 of local interest as long 
 as it remains purely local 
 in its enterprises. But 
 given a church that views 
 
 its local parish as a place to plant the 
 lever of a faith with which to move the 
 world, and you have a church that is sure 
 to come into world-wide prominence, and 
 one in which will be interested all who 
 are praying for the kingdom of God to 
 come on the earth. 
 
 To tell the experience of such a church 
 is not to boast with Nebuchadnezzar: "Is 
 not this great Babylon that I have built 
 for the house of the kingdom by the 
 might of my power and for the honor of 
 my majesty?" But it is to bear witness to 
 what God hath wrought; how he can take 
 the weak things of the world and con- 
 found the mighty, and the things that are 
 
4 THE EXPERIENCE OF ONE CHURCH 
 
 not and bring to naught the things that 
 are, that no flesh should glory in his 
 sight. For, "except the Lord build the 
 house, they labor in vain that build it: 
 except the Lord keep the city, the watch- 
 man waketh but in vain." (Psa. 127. 1.) 
 
 Several years ago conditions prevailed 
 in Wichita, Kansas, which made the con- 
 tinued existence of any institution, how- 
 ever free from internal embarrassment, 
 more or less precarious. But the First 
 Presbyterian Church was burdened with 
 many thousands of dollars of debt, with no 
 assets that had any marketable value. 
 The members, though heroic and gen- 
 erous, had personal obligations and re- 
 sponsibilities which taxed them almost 
 beyond the limit of endurance. These 
 conditions made the problem of a bare 
 existence as a church organization and 
 the maintenance of the stated services of 
 the church a great question. The fact 
 is, such an existence had not been finan- 
 cially sustained for some time previous, 
 and in consequence a floating indebted- 
 ness, rising higher and higher each year, 
 was threatening to submerge the church, 
 and extinguish the lighted candlestick, or 
 cause its removal. When, added to thife 
 state, they looked not upon a fair harbor 
 
THE EXPERIENCE OF ONE CHURCH 5 
 
 in whlcli they might anchor for a time 
 until the storm was pasaed, but upon the 
 frowning cliffs and rocks of a large 
 bonded debt of $18,000, for which they 
 laad nothing to show, and with which 
 they had no means, apparently, to 
 grapple, it is not surprising that they 
 were well-nigh discouraged. 
 
 At this time, however, the Lord ap- 
 peared unto the church, as truly as he 
 appeared unto Paul of old, and said to 
 her what he said to Paul: 
 
 "Rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I 
 have appeared unto thee for this purpose, 
 to make thee a minister and a witness 
 both of these things which thou hast seen, 
 and of those things in the which I will 
 appear unto thee; delivering thee from 
 the people, and from the Gentiles, unto 
 Tvhom now I send thee, to open their 
 eyes, and to turn them from darkness to 
 light, and from the power of Satan unto 
 God, that they may receive forgiveness 
 of sins, and inheritance among them 
 which are sanctified by faith that is in 
 me. 
 
 "All power is given unto me in heaven 
 and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and make 
 disciples of all the nations, baptizing 
 them into the name of the Father, and of 
 
6 THE EXPERIENCE OF ONE CHURCH 
 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching 
 them to observe all things whatsoever I 
 have commanded you; and lo, I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the 
 world. Amen." 
 
 In the face of these facts the doctrine 
 was preached, that Christ had condi- 
 tioned his presence and his almighty 
 power, the Holy Spirit, upon practical 
 willingness, on the part of his people, to 
 obey the great commission. One cold 
 bleak January morning the pastor 
 crossed the threshold of the church with 
 ifhis conviction in his heart, prepared 
 with a message for his discouraged peo- 
 ple, that their salvation as a church, 
 financially and every other way, de- 
 pended upon their taking the little flour 
 they had in the barrel and the little oil 
 they had in the cruse and undertaking to 
 feed first of all the starving millions of 
 heathen souls with the bread of life. 
 From the sacred precincts of the empty 
 pews and galleries of the church that 
 pastor seemed to hear whispers as he 
 passed along the aisles of the church to 
 the session room to meet the elders for 
 prayer before the service. The import of 
 those whisperings seemed to be that the 
 pastor had gone crazy, that he had lost 
 
THE EXPERIENCE OF ONE CHURCH 7 
 
 his mental balance. But at every step a 
 voice within said, "Lo I am with thee." 
 And he knew it to be the voice of the 
 Son of God. When he reached the session 
 room he looked in the faces of those men 
 of God for encouragement in the delivery 
 of his message. As they prayed eyes 
 were filled with tears, and as the pastor 
 turned his face to the wall to hide their 
 flow, through his tears he saw the Son 
 of God, and again he heard him say, "Lo 
 I iEm with thee," And the Lord did 
 stand with him while he delivered his 
 jm^essage that morning, and Christ re- 
 vealed himself as a world Saviour to the 
 people. Whereupon this church was not 
 disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but 
 undertook to show unto them of China, as 
 well as at Wichita and of our own land, 
 that they should repent and turn to God 
 and do works meet for repentance. That 
 very day the church took for support a 
 missionary pastor on the foreign field, 
 Dr. Hunter Corbett, of Chefoo, China. 
 And that very year, too, the church closed 
 its books without a deficit in its current 
 expenses, and with its floating debt re- 
 moved — ia condition it had not enjoyed 
 for ten years previous, according to the 
 showing of the treasurer. The next year 
 
8 THE EXPERIENCE OF ONE CHURCH 
 
 tlie church more than doubled the 
 amount contributed to foreign missiohs 
 the previous year, and added to its pay 
 roll a home missionary; and that year it 
 removed its bonded debt, closing the year 
 with money in the treasury and all finan- 
 oial obligations met. 
 
 The philosophy of the church's salva- 
 tion at that time was this: the church 
 became enamored with Jesus Christ and 
 the work for which he gave his life, and 
 in consequence she entered upon a life of 
 faith to give even the little meal she had 
 in the barrel and the oil in the cruse for 
 Jesus Christ, and to go with Christ even 
 unto the uttermost parts of the earth to 
 help save lost men. In consequence 
 Christ verified his promise to be with the 
 church. 
 
 The foreign pilgrimage has cost the 
 church during the past eight years about 
 $20,000, with which she has sustained and 
 is sustaining four American foreign mis- 
 sionaries and about twenty-five native 
 pastors and assistants, and much other 
 work. The church last year contributed 
 an average of about four dollars a mem- 
 ber to foreign missions. 
 
 But the fact that the church went so 
 far away from home in her interests and 
 
THE EXPERIENCE OF ONE CHURCH 9 
 
 with such an increase of contributions 
 is not the only thing that has caused 
 comment, or awakened curiosity, not to 
 say wonder, in the minds of some people. 
 This, to be sure, was done at a time 
 when the church was financially embar- 
 rassed at home, and her very life and 
 existence threatened. Hence it seemed 
 to some suicidal and foolish. But during 
 this very time, by reason of this same 
 love for Jesus Christ, born of a fresh 
 vision of the Son of God, revealed 
 through his Word in the clear light of 
 the great commission, the church has 
 been enabled to do as much for home 
 missions as for foreign, and upward of 
 $20,000 during the past eight years has 
 been put upon the altar of God for this 
 work also. 
 
 But this is not yet the most astonish- 
 ing result of becoming enamored of 
 Jesus Christ when the church perceived 
 the heavenly vision and received the 
 great commission. So greatly was the 
 church wrought upon by the Spirit tak- 
 ing the things of Jesus and showing his 
 attractive beauty unto her, namely, his 
 self-denial for the lost world, that she 
 has been enabled to contribute not only 
 thus to further the gospel at home and 
 
10 THE EXPERIENCE OF ONE CHURCH 
 
 abroad, but out of what seemed her pov- 
 erty she has brought so generously that 
 during the past eight years upward of 
 $60,000 has been contributed by her to 
 sustain the preaching of the gospel and 
 establish the kingdom of God in Wichita. 
 So that to-day the church has not only no 
 debt, but she has and maintains in 
 Wichita one of the largest plants doing 
 business for God anywhere in the United 
 States, with a pastor, assistant pastor, 
 minister of music, two office assistants, 
 a city missionary, a central church of 
 1,300 members, a Bible school, about one 
 hundred officers and teachers, seven hun- 
 dred scholars, a men's department, with 
 a men's club and two boys' clubs, a girls' 
 Industrial department, a girls' club, two 
 Christian Endeavor Societies, two Ladies' 
 Societies, a Young People's Missionary 
 Society, a Junior Missionary Society, a 
 Children's Mission Band, a Bible training 
 department, three prayer meetings, a 
 printing department, issuing many thou- 
 sands of pages of printed matter each 
 year, and a missionary magazine. 
 
 Such is the effect of a true vision of 
 Jesus Christ. We think we see Christ 
 sometimes when we do not really see 
 him, at least not in his real character as 
 
THE EXPERIENCE OF ONE CHURCH 1 1 
 
 a Saviour. A true vision of Jesus Christ 
 as he is revealed in the Word of God is 
 to see him with his pierced hand out- 
 stretched, pointing to the unevangelized, 
 starving millions for whom he died, say- 
 ing with eloquent words of tenderness 
 and love, "Go, preach the gospel to them! 
 Give ye them to eat." This is truly for 
 God to make his glory pass before us. 
 To see Jesus Christ thus is to believe in 
 hiin and obey him, which means to re- 
 ceive his Spirit and the verification of 
 his promise to be with us with his 
 almighty power and superabounding 
 blessing.