UMASS/AMHERST 31EDbt.0133iS'^fil4 only, and CENTS a d the day indicated beloW DATE DUE CARD ^*^^. PAlIPIILIilTn ON THE COUTTTRY CHURCH » « » « Volume 3 4 3o.3oa. G& 5 V. 3 Federal oouncil of the churches of Christ in America, What every church should know about its community. General Association of Congregational Churches of Massachusetts, Advance reports of various committees, 1908 and 1909 McElfresh, F. The country Sunday school MclTutt, M. B. Modern methods in the country church McUutt , M^ B. A post-graduate school with a purpose Massachusetts Federation of Churches « Quarterly bulletin. Facts and factors » October 1910 "The part of the church in rural progress as discussed at the Amherst Conference," Root, E« T. State federations Taf t , A. B. The mistress of the rural manse Taf t , A. B» The tent mission Taylor, G^ Basis for social evangelism with rural applications Wells, G. F. An answer to the ITew England country church question. Wells, G» F. V/hat our country churches need Wilson, W. H» The church and the transient Wilson, W. H» Conservation of boys Wilson, W. H. The country church Wilson, W» H. The country church program Wilson, W» H. Don*t breathe on the thermometer Wilson, W» H. The farmers* church and the farmers' ^ college CO Wilson, W. IT. Getting the worker to church to Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/tentmission03taft Wilson, Wa PI» The girl on the farm Wilson a W. II» How to manage a country life institute Wilson, W. 11* "Marrying the land." Wilson, W. U^ iTo need to "be i.^oor in the country Wilson, W* H. Synod's opportunity Wilson, W« n» What limits the rural Evangel 9 4 9 'd 9 9 The church and country life. Pamphlet issued hy the Board of Home Missions of the Presby^ terian Church. Department of Church and Country Life, the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. A., 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. i THE j j TENT MISSION j I By ANNA B. TAFTj A <^Kt t^m> <^_> ^Hu ^^^. /__« ^^_> <^n, .,^_v ** /^NE of the most interesting forms of ^-^ rural work is the Tent Mission. This has been used very successfully in New Eng- land to reach the outlying districts. On the far margins of large parishes there is a scat- tered population that often presents problem- atic conditions. When the people are depleted in fiber as well as numbers these are breeding places for every evil known to isolation and loneliness. It is for localities such as these that the Tent Mission is specially designed and adapted. Distance from the church makes the work of the pastor difficult; sometimes he ignores this portion of his flock who persist- ently refuse to come to church, and are not over cordial when he makes his infrequent calls. The plan of the Mission is simple. As soon as it is warm enough to warrant camp life the tent starts out. There is in the equip- ment a large tent in which the services are held. This is suitably furnished with seats. folding organ, stand for a desk, hymn books, good lights and various leaflet literature. An adequate band of workers, usually three or four, go with the Mission, camping near the large tent, and working personally among the people, as well as conducting the services. A tent stand is from ten days to two weeks, and sometimes eight localities are visited during a summer. One of the most successful tent missions holds two services daily. The afternoon hour is devoted to the children, when a carefully prepared study course is used, much on the order of a Sunday-school outline. Frequently the boys and girls attending receive their first Biblical instruction in this class. Many times the children walk a mile or two to reach the tent, bringing their supper with them and staying over for the evening service. Often parents are reached through the interest of the children. One woman frankly said : "I can't keep Dick away from the tent, so I just dropped in to see what it is like." The evening service is evangelistic in its simplest sense. There is no "giving of testi- mony" on the part of the audience. Those who have become interested and are anxious to take some definite step are encouraged to sign a card containing a very simple declara- tion of the purpose formed. When the tent passes on, these signed cards are given to the minister in whose field the mission has been located. This furnishes a useful guide in following up the work. This same mission used with gratifying re- sults a stereopticon three or four evenings 'liSji-J.^ '^Pjll^x - during each stand. The pictures were care- fully selected copies of masterpieces illustrat- ing the life of Christ. These were given with a simple talk, following closely the Scripture narrative, and by the time the course was over many people had a reasonably clear idea of the life story of the Master who before were totally ignorant. Sometimes it was thought wise to take the tent into the more densely populated rural districts, but as a rule this did not prove sat- isfactory, and more and more it has found its largest service in the outlying districts. One energetic and successful country pastor started a Tent Mission of his own, modeled after the larger work in which he had been greatly interested. He was serving two churches with a wide territory to cover. About three miles from his home was a locality where ten or a dozen families lived, few of whom ever came to church. There was an attractive pine grove beside the road on the outskirts of this little settlement ; this he selected for a camping ground, pitched his tent, brought his wife and two children, and there they spent a happy and profitable week, getting in touch with an almost unknown corner of their parish. The people not only enjoyed the sim- ple meetings held every evening, but they came to know as they had never known be- fore their pastor and his family, and their at- titude toward the church was materially changed. During the summer he covered nearly every outlying part of his parish in this way, and the season ended by putting the same tent on the church lawn and using it for a fair, a social and a mid-week meeting. The greatest danger lies in failing to tie up this temporary work of the Tent Mission def- initely to a local church. Pastors sometimes complain that the people who have become interested at the mission refuse to come to church and are no more interested than be- fore its advent. It is true that the mission has sometimes made the mistake of entering a field with merely the unwilling consent of the pastor; justifying this course by local needs or the urgent voice of the people. This has without exception been a bad thing ; it fosters rather than overcomes feeling against the church, and makes it impossible to do the very work for which the mission exists. Again, a minister is glad to get some work done that he does not have to do himself. He willingly allows the tent entrance, gives it his blessing the first night and then lets it alone. Failure inevitably follows such a course. Where the mission has lived up to its nor- mal possibilities the pastor of the local church has heartily co-operated. Before its coming it has been well advertised, its purpose and mission explained, and the field carefully can- vassed. The pastor has attended and assisted at the meetings, often bringing with him in- terested and sympathetic members of his church. In this way the whole spirit of the community is helped, and often a branch Sun- day-school is started for the outlying locality, and the miles to the church no longer prevent attendance at the morning service. vy¥JiS(i,>=-.l»'*'!".-- ' . S' '«e*»*t.B«i-£i*se3s?^S!K:^: ■1*1 Eggifitgf Published Four Times a Year, January, March, May, and November, by the Chicago Theological Seminary Vol. VII. JANUARY, 1914 No. 2 Evangelism ^ &■ % n*%| C^A^4m^ lA^An' uhrT M Entered as second-class matter 3i March, 1908, at the post-office at Chicago, Illinois, under the act of Congress of 16 July, 1894 CHICAGO 20 North Ashland Boulevard ILLINOIS ®ll? Published Four Times a Year, January, March, May, and November, by the Chicago Theological Seminary Vol. VII. JANUARY, 1914 No. 2 Evangelism Entered as second-class matter 31 March, 1908, at the post-office at Chicago, Illinois, under the act of Congress of 16 July, 1894 CHICAGO 20 North Ashland Boulevard ILLINOIS Evangelism is the great task of the church of to-day — and of any day^, in fact. Yet there is a peculiar fitness in the asser- tion now, for the times seem tuned to the harvest song. The mornings of sowing and the evenings of hands not withheld, as they have checked off the lives of many who rest from their labors, are telling us that others have labored and that we are about to enter into their labor. The gospel mission, as in the days of Jesus, is for those who can lift up their eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest. • This little book is the contribution of a group of co-work- ers toward the task of the reaper. In its growth it has been interesting to note with what earnestness, not to sa}^ zest, each writer has come to the theme. The fact shows how central evangelism is to the whole range of theological inquiry, and also how practical are the standard courses in a seminary curriculum. We hope that the reader may find the hour spent in the perusal of these pages to be profitable on three counts, namely, a deepening of the conviction that evangelism should be the su- preme endeavor of the Christian minister; a broadened sense of what evangelism means and of its relation to every phase of the minister's work, and finally a quickened determination to work the works of him that sent Jesus, while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. THE EEGISTER 3 THE EVANGELISM OF THE PEOPHETS. Frederic B. Oxtoby. The prophets were preeminently preachers. They spoke their message not in solitude, but to groups of people, to au- diences interested in their words, however hostile they might be to their message. Their voices were heard in the great cities, at Bethel, at Samaria, "at Jerusalem, before the crowds assem- bled at the temple feasts, at the great fairs, and at the city gates. Practical men they were, speaking to the need of Israel, knowing its sin, and also its possibilities for good. Courageous souls they were, fearlessly making known God's will, and urging their hearers to be obedient to that will. They were full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and unto Israel his sin. The Spirit gave them enthusiasm for their mission, courage for their task, a message for their time. The prophets recognized clearly and felt deeply the sin- fulness of sin, and in their condemnation of it they were un- sparing. In no uncertain language they rebuked sin. "Ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, that oppress the poor, that crush the needy — Ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail, saying, when will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? and the Sab- bath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit ; that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat? — They know not to do right, saith Jehovah, who store up violence and robbeijy in their palaces — Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds ! when the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand — Ye who hate the good, and love the evil; who also eat the iiesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the cauldron^ — They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say. Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us — They all lie in wait for blood; the} hunt every man his brother with a net. Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently ; the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth the evil desire of his soul; thus thev weave it together— Her 4 THE EEGISTER princes in tlie midst of her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they leave nothing till the morrow. Her proph- ets are light and treacherous persons ; her priests have pro- faned the sanctuary^ they have done violence to the law." The prophets did more than denounce sin, and speak against the social and religious evils of their- day. They had also a positive message. They emphasized the need of deep, sincere repentance, and spoke of God^s willingness to forgive. With their knowledge of God's nature and character they asked for a right attitude toward God, and for right relations between man and man. "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well ; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow — Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool^ — He will tread our iniquities under foot ; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea — Sow to your- selves in righteousness, reap according to kindness ; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Jehovah, till he come and rain righteousness upon you — I desire goodness and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings — Let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as an ever- flowing stream — He hath showed thee, man, what is good, and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God.'' The prophets were idealists. Their visions were of a new Israel in a new age when there would be no more sin. Look- ing forward to the future they sought to usher in an era of righteousness and holiness, peace and brotherly love, when each man would love Jehovah with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with al] his might, and Jehovah would be Israel's God, and' Israel His people. Prophecy after prophecy is filled with the hope of the establishment of God's kingdom upon earth, an ideal society ruled by an ideal King. "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks ; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more — But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree ; and none shall make them afraid — The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth — Jeru- salem shall be called the city of truth — And the name of the city from that day shall be, Jehovah is there — And the govern- ment shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince THE EEGISTER 5 of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his king- dom, to establish it, and to uphold it with Justice and with righteousness, from henceforth even for ever — And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and under- standing, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah. And his delight shall be in the fear of Jehovah — With righteousness shall be judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth — Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins — The earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea.'^ The prophets were indeed evangelists, bearers of good news, as they declared from age to age God's purpose and announced the glad tidings of His power to save. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth !" The evangelism of the prophets was a preparation for the Good News of a later time when God sent His Son to reveal more fully His character. The Christ was the greatest of the prophets as He preached good tidings to the poor, proclaimed release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, . and the setting .at liberty them that are bruised. He came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill. 6 THE EEGISTEE THE EVANGELISM OF JESUS AND PAUL. Benjamin W. Robinson. Suggestion is stronger than statement. Stirring a man's sympathies by a simple story will save his soul more surely than straightening out his system. Hence in telling the "good news" we turn instinctively to the parables and metaphors of Jesus. Perhaps we do not always realize how completely Jesus covers the range of a man's or a woman's experience in those parables. If we take Jesus as our guide we shall find the way to a man's heart by searching out a mother's anxiety, a father's love, all those hidden and unsullied depths of experience which are never polluted by the passing storms of life. The birth of a child never becomes common. "Ye must be born again," said the Master. No man or woman ever gets beyond the soften- ing influence of a little child such as Jesus used for an example. Who can turn a deaf ear to the description of a wedding day or a bridegroom's joy ? All the vital issues of family or business Jesus uses in the same way, as suggestive of higher truths, even down to the very end, to death itself: "Whosoever loseth his life, shall find it." But Paul also, like his Leader, told the good news by sug- gestion and story. We have buried his pictures in our system of Pauline theology. Nevertheless they are there. A little digging uncovers them. Paul was a man of the big city. His illustrations were from the athletic contest, the court room, the slave life of the factory or the business house. But they are illustrations, never- theless, and should not be robbed of their original vital appeal. The athletic contest is still familiar. Few of us, however, know the judge or the prison wall as intimately as Paul knew them. Paul would put his hand on your shoulder and ask : Were you ever arrested? Perhaps you were a guilty man. Do you remember how you trembled at the thought of meeting the judge face to face? It was a long hard trial. Finally the verdict was ready. You took your place to hear your fate. According to the law of Rome your ofl^ense might be punishable by death. As the judge prepared to speak you were calling yourself a miserable criminal. Then you heard the words "not guilty." You walked out of the room a free man ! If you have been through such an ordeal, says Paul, and such an inexpressible joy of freedom you can form some idea of what Jesus has meant to me. From Him I heard those words THE EEGMSTER 7 of the Great Judge "not guilty." I was no longer in the power of the law which I had broken. My whole soul awoke within me. How could I have been justified when in fact I was guilty ? How could a righteous God justify me? Here we must drop the figure of the court room. That story had only one purpose, the portrayal of the Christian's joy. God's righteousness is dif- ferent from man's. As you plainly see, there has been revealed, quite apart from legal scruples, a righteousness of God whereby it is possible for God to freely pronounce guiltless those who come to Him in the right spirit. For all have sinned and come short of the legal standard of righteousness. It is for the mani- festation of the real nature of His righteousness that God sent forth His Son into the world, to show just at this time that righteous justice of God whereby He can be just Himself and can at the same time justify any man who has a right spirit of faithful service such as Christ had. But perhaps you have never been put on trial for your life. Let us take a different parable. Have you "fallen out" with your best friend? He used to be all the world to you. Then came that misunderstanding. Though it caused such anguish of heart the break became deeper and deeper. After long years of pain you were reconciled, you were on good terms again. Do you remember the rush of gladness, the peace of mind, the exaltation of soul? You had regained your beloved. Never again would the world lose aught of its brightness, its lustre. The joy of living came back to you with redoubled force. You felt as though the break and the period of strained relationship had made the bond of mutual loyalty ten fold closer than before. If you have had such an experience you understand how I felt when, through the kind mediation of Jesus, I was recon- ciled to my God, to the greatest Friend I ever had. The recon- cilation brought a joy which I should never have known had it not been for that time of misunderstanding and coldness. I have heard men who were once slaves say that no one really appreciates freedom unless he has previously been a slave. So no one knows the peace of reconciliation save he who has sinned and been estranged from God. Even the angels who have never sinned know it not as I know it. I have a joy unknown in heaven, The new-born peace of sin forgiven! Tears of such pure and deep delight. Ye angels, never dimmed your sight. 8 THE REGISTER Ye saw of old on chaos rise The beauteous pillars of the skies ; Ye know where morn exulting springs. And evening folds her drooping wings. But I, amid your choirs, shall shinC;, And all your knowledge shall be mine; Ye on your harps must lean to hear A secret chord that mine will bear. Justification and reconciliation have become the greatest doctrines of what we call "Pauline Theology." But let us not forget the simple, searching stories which appealed so strongly in their first freshness and vividness. Let us call them back to life and usefulness. For Paul was the greatest evangelist the world has known. He painted pictures like these from every great event of life. He painted the birth of an in- fant, a perfect child; he described the liberation of a slave; he told of a ionic that is better than wine; he portrayed a love that is more exalting than the love of man and woman; he described a death with Christ which meant a resurrection. You live in a big city. Years ago you had a rich relative. But you yourself were obliged to work long hours for no pay. You had been passed on by a former master in his will to your present lord. One day the rich person died. By his will you inherited the price of your freedom and a reward out of all proportion to your services. Do you remember how you felt on that day ? Then you know the difference between the former will and testament and the new one ! THE EEGISTEE 9 THE EVANGELICAL SUCCESSION. Henry Hammersley Walker. Two books have recently been in my hands which are well worth the reading, both by the spiritually discouraged, who view with alarm certain drifts in our age away from the moral and religious moorings of the past, and by the spiritually op- timistic who read in the deeper yearnings of today the promise of an earl}^ awakening of spiritual life and power. One of these books, "Revivals, Their Laws and Leaders,^^ by James Burns, throws upon the canvas the portraits of six notable leaders in Christian history, beginning with Francis of Assisi and includ- ing the names of Savonarola, Luther, Calvin, Knox and Wesley. All of these men belong to the evangelical succession. In their own souls the eternal Gospel experienced rebirth. Each lighted his torch at the flame of Christ's deathless passion for men. They represent four different centuries, the 13th, 15th, 16th, and 18th, and Ave different lands, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, England. The circumstances of their age and environ- ment were widely different. Their early life, the movement of the Spirit of God calling them to service, the story of their labors, problems, achievements,— all these are vastly different the one from the other. Yet back of all the differences, the infinite variety of personality and of historical setting, certain common factors in the picture impress themselves upon us. One of them is this, that every one of these masters of the spiritual life sprang into being out of the subsoil of a human need of moral and spiritual rejuvenation. St. Francis of Assisi lived in such a time as this. The 12th century, which marked his birth was one of turmoil. The old realities were growing dim: the old verities were slipping away. Religion was under a cloud. The Church was under suspicion. The machinery was there, more indeed than ever before, but the Spirit had departed from the wheels. On every side sects were springing up, each trying in its own crude way to voice the deep cry of the human heart for God. Then Francis came, in- carnating the spirit of his age, borne forward in the swirling tide of its emotions : in his chivalric self-devotion to Lady Poverty dedicating its romanticism to the service of the faith. He stood for reality and simplicity in life and religion. He cared nothing for forms and rituals. He sought to lift the hearts of men above the frivolities of life, its passion for pos- session, its pursuit of pleasure, its easy satisfaction with the 10 THE REGISTER ritual of worship. He had caught a vision of Jesus, having "not where to lay His head," friend of the sick and out-cast. The passion of his soul was to follow his Master and to help others find the same path. Who can wonder that the age re- sponded to his evangel? Above the noises of the world we hear the tramp of thousands of eager feet marching over the world, carrying the simple gospel of a re-discovered Christ. He failed, you say ! Yes ! But he left the world a different world. He had brought a breath of life into the stagnant at- mosphere of his age. On the wings of his spirit arose. a new art, a new sculpture, a new literature, yes, and a new religion, a more human religion, nearer the heart of man, and so nearer the thought of God. The passionate longing of a generation had found its answer, and that answer was St. Francis of Assisi. It is the fifteenth century, and again that which most im- presses us is its need. In a sense that is untrue : for it was an age of surfeit. The Florence of the Medicis was the wonder of Italy, and to our own day the remains of its art are among the treasures of the world. There was lavish wealth and display. Art and Architecture and Literature flourished under the lavish munificence of princes. Yet there was the death^s head peering out from the back-ground of the picture ! For power had been purchased at the price of freedom, and the culture of the age was but a delicately quilted fabric, covering its deformities, its hypocrisies, its immoralities. It is an age of social decay and spiritual corruption. Never in her history has the Church fallen lower than in the fifteenth century. She has doffed even the pre- tense of piety. Her popes are not only privately corrupt, but publicly vicious, scandalizing Europe with their luxury, avarice and crime. Again the voice of the Prophet is heard, Savonarola, gathering into himself the mutterings of an outraged Christian consciousness, hurling defiance into the teeth of prince and pope, awakening the conscience, galvanizing religion into action, sounding the clarion call to reality in faith. He too was num- bered among the Martj^rs. But not until he had set the world to thinking, and had awakened smouldering fires destined soon to burst into flame in the consuming, purifying fires of the Reformation. The evangelical awakening of the 18th century had a like genesis. It was "a century of exhaustion, of a listless faith, of low ideals, — a miniature Dark Age in the history of modern civilization." Whatever else Deism did, or contributed to in- tellectual progress, the rationalistic movement had left the Church in a condition of spiritual decay and death. Faith had THE REGISTER 11 been robbed of her pinions. What Wesley sought to do for the eighteenth century was not to do battle with the Church, nor de- throne her doctrines and ritual, but rather to pour new streams of life and energy into her veins, by renewing connection with the divine reservoirs of life. What Wesley sought to do, that he accomplished, not as he had planned, to be sure, but none the less effectively, in the inspiration of movements which still throb with spiritual energy. I said there were two books. The other was Beardslev's "History of American Revivals." In it the author follows the drift of those mighty spiritual currents which have coursed through our American life, the ebb and flow of faith in the endless conflict with the spirit of the world. Here too the same facts meet us. The religious decay of the second half of the seventeenth century is followed by the "Great Awakening" of the eighteenth, inscribing the name of Jonathan Edwards among the Immortals of the "Evangelical Succession," quickening the Church with revived interest in Missions, and Education, and fanning into a flame the fires of civil and religious liberty. Nor did the evangelical awakenings of the nineteenth century differ in this respect from those which preceded them. Finney, win- ning more men to the discipleship of his Master than any other man in the century, and Moody, recalling the Church to a lost emphasis by his message of the Love of God, these and lesser lights in the evangelical firmament were called into being to meet the deeper needs of an age hungering for God. Nor may the evangelical succession be bounded thus by the thirteenth and the nineteenth centuries. The Church has never been wholly robbed of her evangel. An Ignatius, an Athanasius, an Augustine, a Columba, a Boniface, an Anselm, a Wyclif, these and many others remind us how few the times have been in which the profound religious need has not found abundant satisfaction in the power of a living gospel. The religious sea has many a trough. But for every trough there is a crest. The waves of religious interest appear to chase one another aim- lessly across the sands of history. Yet all the time the tides of truth and moral apprehension and spiritual purpose rise higher, impelled by timeless forces resident in the great deep of God's heart. "God takes His workers, but carries on His work." 12 THE EEGISTER ' PSYCHOLOGY AND EVANGELISM. C. A. Beckwith. Psychology is not a new thing as applied to evangelism. All successful evangelists have been past masters in the psy- chological method of appealing to men and winning converts. Some, as Whitefield and Moody, have a natural insight into the workings of the human heart. Others, as Jonathan Edwards, are reflective students and bring their knowledge to bear on the most specific, difficult, and unusual conditions. Whether or not Mr. Moody ever had a formal acquaintance with psy- chology, no one knew better than he how to find and describe the stages of sin and consciousness of conversion. He knew the heart, its motives, its weaknesses, its longings, its defeats, and he knew how to touch its secret springs all the way from laughter to tears and from sin to the consciousness of forgive- ness. No more satisfying material is available for one who wishes to study the relation of psychology to evangelism than is provided in Mr. Moody's sermons, as for example, those on Lot and Zacchaeus. In Jonathan Edwards' "Treatise concern- ing Religious Affections," one finds an almost perfect touch- stone for the tests of true conversion. No one else has ever written so thoroughly or with such subtle insight as he in his investigation and description of the various types of Chris- tian experience. By "Evangelism" in this paper I mean that form of Chris- tian activity which seeks to make the gospel effective in human life, especially in the initial stages of renewal. It may then assume three forms : ( 1 ) Endeavor after social renovation, aiming at a gradual change of existing social conditions or an immediate application of Christian agencies to human need; (2) Steady, prolonged, and continuous effort to persuade men to become Christians; (3) Definite, organized, and peri- odic attempts for the immediate conversion of men. In what follows I refer particularly to (2) and (3). If psychology is not wholly new in respect to evangelism, it is new so far as it is now self-conscious and scientific. In looking around for opportunities to apply its interpretative sug- gestions, it has found in evangelism a promising field. On the other hand, evangelism, in inquiring how it may most effectually reach the individual and the community, has turned to psy- chology 'for its aid. In this paper only three aspects of our subject are pre- THE REGISTEE 13 sented — its bearing on sin^ on the conditions of evangelism in the crowd and the individual^ and on conversion. Psychology is of help in evangelism in the light which it throws on the nature of sin. " It enables one to trace the genesis of sin in the individual and in the race, and thus to ascertain the present moral condition of the sinner. Psychology has dis- cerned the truth in "original righteousness," "original sin," "depravity," and "moral inability." It helps to an under- standing of the "flesh" and its relation to the "spirit" ; it interprets the conflict which arises between these, and the nature of the responsibility which is connected with the surrender of the "spirit" to the "flesh." It reveals the part played by social heredity in the formation of individual character. It shows how impulse, instinct, and desire are related to choice. It takes sin out of the field of theology and plants it in the field of expe- rience. In the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, in the terms which are translated by "sin," it rediscovers the deep and per- manent meaning which experience has stamped upon it — missing the mark, error, folly, emptiness, wickedness, violence, rebellion, wrong, transgression, lawlessness. Psychology shows further that sin is — si7}s, concrete deeds as well as a spirit of life, acts as well as habits. It makes it clear also that sinful actions are not always perfeetlv bad, that many actions are done from mixed motives, ond that there is at times a heart of good in things evil. Moreover, it helps us to see that the conscious- ness of sin is sometimes a feelins^ of unrest, due to the sense of defeat or imperfection, of social disharmony, of divine disap- proval; at other times sin gathers up into itself the piercing cry, "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned." II Psych ologv is of value in its description of the conditions which lead up to effective conversion. These center in the crowd and in the individual. Eecently the "crowd" has been sub- jected to a thorough-going analysis ; its fundamental notion has been defined, its mental characteristics described, and the laws upon which its suggestibility is conditioned have been for- mulated. It is evident, for example, that a revival is a form of impulsive social action and as such conforms to the law (1) of the origin of emotional states socially initiated, (2) of spread thruugh imitation and geometrical progression, and (3) of restraint or diminution aiid final subsidence. In such a 14 THE EEGISTEE crowd, the reflective or critical faculty gives place to the re- ceptive, there is a tendency to suggestibility and contagion, and to do things which if the individuals were alone and apart from the crowd no one of them would do. Psychology shows why the evangelistic appeal is through familiar beliefs and convictions, why its formulas are also familiar with little use of reasoned exposition, how it gives rise to unconscious illusions, what part fear plays in the emotional awakening, why the leader- ship is important, and what the forces are which determine social evangelism^ as imagination, customary beliefs, emotion, mental contagion and suggestibility, and the personal influence of the evangelist. Through psychology also we are aware of the value of the concomitants of evangelism, such as the preparations for the meetings, the place of assembly, the opening services, pre- disposing personal conditions, the prestige of the evangelist, and the general assumptions on which the meetings are conducted. The meanings of every one of the foregoing facts and conditions have been more or less understood through all the history of the Church, and evangelists have observed many of the require- ments referred to, but not until a comparatively recent period have we been in a position to appreciate the specific mental bear- ing of all this, and adapt ourselves to it in evangelism. Ill Psychology has helped us to a truer interpretation of the nature of conversion. An experience which often appeared ut- terly mysterious or was referred exclusively to the will or power of Grod, is now seen to be to a great extent at least, if not en- tirely, explicable by known psychological processes. In this way several troublesome matters have been more or less cleared 1. Conversion has been studied inductively, with a view to ascertain what could be known about it as a human expe- rience. For the time being the divine causal action was ignored and attention fixed on the human conditions and processes in which it takes place. Professors Starbuck and Coe were pioneers in this field, while to Professor William James is due our chief debt. 2. Discoveries made in the field of the sub-consciousness are found of the highest significance in elucidating the expe- rience of conversion. Facts of the sub-conscious life derived from hypnotic and hysteric patients have provided material for ?iCCOunting for many hitherto mysterious phenomena of re- . THE REGISTER 15 ligious conversion. We now know what kind of persons are the most likely subjects of an explosive form of this experience. 3. Sudden and violent conversions have been brought within the law of the human consciousness. Similar phenomena in the religious experience of the devotees of other religions have been studied and their results used to light up Christian conversion. Experiences also outside of the religious field ex- plain the sudden emergence of emotional excitement in which in an instant the interest shifts and sets up a new and dominant direction of personal forces. 4. Psychology has shown that there are two main types of conversion — the volitional and the self-surrender — and we un- derstand now what it is in the consciousness of each individual which predisposes him to one or other of these forms of expe- rience. We now know why some conversions are the culmination of long striving for a better self, for higher ideals, for self- control in unity of will, for union with Grod, and we know why others are inwardly changed the very moment they leave off effort and relax, so that what they could not attain by the most strenuous endeavor becomes their sudden possession. We know too why it is that bitter opposition subsides and one finds himself at peace in accepting, just as a moment before he was at war in resisting, the gospel. 5. Psychology has made it possible for us to understand the conditions which often accompany such conversions, some of which are more distinctly psychical, as the instantaneous re- inforcement of the will, the peace after storm, the new light in which even the natural world appears, others of which are more definitely physical and are concerned with bodily disturbances, such as visions, auditions, shakings, and loss of muscular con- trol. Professor Davenport in "Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals'^ has introduced us to a very large number of such experiences at different periods and at widely separated regions of the world. Such instances are susceptible of indefinite ex- tension not only in Christian but also in non-Christian lands. 6. Psychology enables us to distinguish more accurately the essential from the non-essential elements in conversion. All that Jonathan Edwards has so subtly and exhaustively described in his "Narrative of Surprising Conversions," and his "Re- ligious Affections" is still further sharpened and made con- vincing by the aid of a more thorough psychological analysis. The fact of a sudden or a gradually realized conversion is en- tirely indifferent. Emotion or the lack of it, the physical con- dition at the time, and even unusual accompaniments of the 16 THE REGISTER new attitude are also indifferent. Persons may experience a doctrine or a suggested experience of a given type, and still not have begun the new life. One and one thing only is neces- sary — the beginning of that type of life which Jesus Christ lived, His attitude toward God, His attitude toward men. Not all who enter upon this life believe the same things or are con- scious of the same ideals, or give expression to the life in the same terms of conduct. If this new spirit now becomes "the hot place in a man's consciousness, . . the habitual center of his personal energy," psychology pronounces him a Christian, THE EEGISTER 17 EDUCATIONAL EVANGELISM. Frank G. Ward. Evangelism is concerned with the acceptance of the gospel of Jesus as the ruling principle of life. It calls for knowing and for willing. These two factors must be well balanced to get good results. Quite a number of combinations may exist in the relation of these two phases. For example, one may know about the gospel and yet may will not to accept it. Such an one makes us think quickly of James' statement, "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.'' A good deal of modern evangelism has been aimed at these conditions. Of course there must be a setting forth of the gospel-content, but the main consideration is the will. This is an important kind of evangelism and it calls for skill. A second kind of evangelism is that which puts an equal emphasis upon the knowing side in order to win folks to a hearty acceptance of Jesus. This may be called educational evangelism in distinction from the more generally accepted definition just mentioned. One type of this kind is the person who wants to do the will of Jesus but who is in the dark about it. He does not know in any adequate way what the gospel means. In many instances the fog could be quickly lifted if the truth were pre- sented in such a fashion as to meet the honest and reasonable questionings. In others cases a thorough study of the Bible is needed to give one his bearings in matters of religion and morality. We must learn anew what it is to love God with the mind, as a very important part of any sound evangelism. There are a good many of the above people about today and they offer an inviting field to the minister who is able to meet them sympathetically. To go over the ground with an honest inquirer of this kind calls for an open mind on the part of the would-be guide, who may find in turn that some of his own positions need to be reviewed. It is a great thing to be evan- gelists one to another in the give and take which discovers to us the gospel of our Lord. Let not the humble minister despise such reciprocity. A second type which calls for educational evangelism is made up of those who at the outset know nothing about the gospel and so are not in a position to will anything about it. Adults of this order may be found on some mission fields and perhaps in isolated parts of what we call Christian civiliEation. 18 THE EEGISTER For our purpose, however, these are the children, whose re- ligious instincts are taken in the bud and whose acceptance of the gospel becomes a progressive affair. The process reaches on up into the later teens, perhaps, before it is confirmed in char- acter, but it is evangelical from the start. Jesus makes obe- dience the first step into the kingdom of God, — and that is where the child begins. The aim is to secure the response ot the will to each new truth as it comes to growth in the indi- viduaFs life. It is the taking of the kingdom of God by nur- ture and not by violence. But the point to be kept in mind is that the results are just as truly evangelical as are the re- turns of the more dramatic efforts in behalf of maturer life. This "progressive coming of God^s kingdom," to adapt a phrase of Phillips Brooks, is over hills and through valleys. The slope up to God is not an even one. If you will but know it, here is where the graded lessons in our Sunday-school program are designed to render invaluable service. They are more thoroughly evangelical in aim than the old form of lessons ever thought of being. It will take a little time for some of us who have been dealing with the latter for two score years and more to "catch on" to the idea. Let me point out in a few hundred words what the plan is driving at, and how evangelical it is. In the first place, it is well established that in this Pil- grim^s Progress of Everyman there are peaks of promise where the individual wants more than at other times to commit his way unto the Lord. The path from any one of these peaks to the next higher one drops down into a valley before it begins to rise again. It is exactly the same thing that is apt to happen after a revival meeting when all hands feel a sense of depression. It is not fair to blame the minister or the Church for this con- dition. The only way to do is to recognize the human nature in it and its part in the program of evangelism; and to get ready for both the Mounts of Transfiguration and also the Valleys of Despair, where are the lunatic boys, the distracted fathers, and the unequal disciples. Now, our evangelical Christian nurture keeps the geography of the unfolding life constantly in mind. When the youth ap- proaches one of these peaks where he is due to get his vision, the life of Jesus makes up the Sunday-school lessons in such a way as to invite him to take his stand by the side of the Master. When the shadows of the valley begin to fall across his path, then those parts of the Bible where "Duty whispers low. Thou must," are drawn upon to give courage to the faint heart. The whole procedure is on the basis that the Bible is made for man. THE EEGISTEE 19 — and not man for the Bible, as we sometimes used to think. But is there anything more evangelical in its spirit, more or- thodox in its attitude toward the Bible, more hopeful in its method, than to make the Scripture a veritable revolving search- light to illume the Christ on the Great Divide of everyone's life and to hold one to his way when he walks for a time in- the shadow ? This, I take it, is educational evangelism. The aim is to reach the will as fast as it is due to form, through Jesus Christ to set it in right relations to God, and to confirm it by such discipline of character as enables it ^'to suffer and be strong." 20 THE REGISTER THE MESSAGE AND ITS DELIVERY. OzoEA B. Davis. "It was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who are believing/^ wrote Paul to the Corinthians. This is the peculiar activity of the Chris- tian people; they have believed that they have a message to deliver, they have bent all their energies to proclaim it, and their growth and prosperity have been in proportion to their faithfulness in preaching their gospel by their words and example. Preaching is the major part of the work of Christians in making their message known to the world. Hence all real preaching is evangelistic, that is, it is burdened with the sense of message. This message may be designed to reach those who never have heard it in any form, or it may be meant for those who, already making it their "way of life'' need fuller know- ledge of it, together with counsel and good cheer. In any case, it is evident that the heart of all preaching, and the warrant for it as well, lies in the fact that there is a message of life to be given to the world. Now this message conditions the spirit of all real preach- ing. I do not know a better word to describe this temper than the term "passion." Certain profound convictions and ex- periences lie under the preacher's mood as its sanction. These must be truths to which his mind gives assent, to be sure; but intellectual conviction is not enough. The preacher's emotions must be kindled until he burns with desire and love. The will must be involved, so that, casting prudent reserves aside, in the spirit of the crusader, with the flaming torch as his symbol, the preacher declares his message joyfully, con- fidently and in patience that is ready to wait for deferred victory. Analyzing this temper a little more closely, we find that it consists in a hot consciousness of the need, the sin, the utter loss of the world without the message. Just as the messenger, running with strength almost spent, with good news from the battle-field for the weary watchers in the beleaguered city, was impelled to almost reckless speed by the thought of the needy, waiting people longing for his evangel, so the preacher is fired by the knowledge of the world's sin and sorrow for whose par- don and comfort he has a message. The particular theological views which the preacher holds regarding the nature and origin THE EEGISTER 21 of evil are not supremely important. The profound practical reaction of his whole being to the sin of the world is what makes him a preacher. Almost every night I hear the half-drunken shouting of young men and women debauched in the saloons and dance-halls of the city and making still more ghastly the "darkness of the terrible streets'^; almost daily I experience some aspect of the wrecking of individuals and homes by al- cohol; there come beating in upon my mind and heart fearful issues of industrial and social injustice. Unless these burn my soul, unless they outrage me, unless they stir me to wrath, I shall not preach. 0, for the strengthening grace of a great passion ! Flaming hatred and great consuming love lie back of real preaching. We must react to the evil thing with the tierce fire of indignation; we must respond to holiness with the tempered heat of gratitude and great peace. This is an activity that involves the soul at its depths. The preacher knows the meaning of this sentence, "And my wrath it upheld me."' The second element in the preacher's passion, compliment- ing the first, is the conviction that he, and he alone, has the only message, the only energy, that can purge the evil and bring a new divine life in its place. An illustration of this I saw when Gipsy Smith had led the midnight parade into the vice district of Chicago and had been severely criticised for the action. In speaking of the matter privately he said, "Some of my brethren do not approve of what I have done, and I am sorry to have to endure their censure; but I have the only thing on earth that ever can make Chicago's black spot white, and I must take it there at any cost." This is what I mean by the clear, unyielding confidence that we, preachers of the Gospel of Christ, have the only power which can bring redemption from sin and a new life. Do you believe that as the Gipsy did? Nothing can take its place. There's a cancer case on hand; you have the cure. Are you urgent? How can you be anything else. You stand in the face of the surging sins of your generation, you front its moral indifference and dismay, with the absolute knowledge that, if only your message may be given a fair trial, it always will meet the test successfully and save men's souls with its primitive power. So far as the substance of evangelistic preaching is con- cerned, therefore, it will be filled with confident affirmation, it will be positive, and it will involve a large factor of testimony. Indeed, all preaching is witnessing. This was the outstanding fact in the delivery of the message during the first centuries of Christian history. "That which we have heard, that which we 22 THE EEGISTER have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, * * declare we unto you." The sermon cannot rise higher than the springs of conviction in the preacher. He must be dead-in-eamest. This will compensate for many a fault in the structure and finish of his sermon. He is a witness and a herald; he knows and he declares. As to the form of evangelistic preaching, it is enough to say that it must be simple, concrete, graphic and full of such counsel as will show how the message may be built upon for the new life. Let the preacher speak the language of his generation. It is not necessary to be vulgar in order to do this. The "lan- guage of Zion" is being displaced by other terms. Young people know more about what William James has to say as to putting the motive of Jesus "at the habitual center of energy" than they do concerning the doctrines of grace. When we speak their language and put our appeal in the form of a challenge to do possible and specific things, men understand the message. It must meet the test of life, that is all ; and the gospel without life is just nothing at all, for it is for a life that is weary and dis- traught, and it creates a life that is in the likeness of the living Christ. ^^-tj r S^j