USA > North Carolina > A history of the development of the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina, and of the Synodical home missions, together with evangelistic addresses by James I. Vance and others > Part 10
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One of the most interesting and important missions in Africa is the Congo Mission of the Southern Presbyterian Church, with a church organization at Luebo, 1,000 miles from the coast, numbering over 2,000 members. It has also been the costliest mission of the church both in money and workers. For two years the Southern Church had been praying for a business manager for this mis- sion. Henry Slaymaker, with a bright business career
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before him at home, offered himself and was accepted. .. .. It was deemed best that he should be sent out as an or- dained minister. He was examined and ordained an "ex- traordinary case." He had never, attended a theological seminary, but his examination was so satisfactory that a member of the Presbytery declared "his examination showed his mother to be a better teacher than a theologi- cal seminary."
A few weeks after young Slaymaker sailed for the mission field the newspapers published a cablegram say- ing that the mission steamer Lapsley, in ascending the Congo, had captized, and that the Rev. Henry Slaymaker and twenty-three natives had been drowned.
Just as he was reaching the field where he was so sorely needed and for which he was so peculiarly fitted, he was taken. We cannot understand such a loss. Is it a loss? No, it is a glorious investment. Since Christ laid down his life for the world's redemption no life simi- larly consecrated is lost, whether death come soon or late.
At the memorial service of Henry Slaymaker in his home church in Alexandria, they actually gathered a me- morial offering to raise the Lapsley and prosecute the work. It is such splendid faith as this that will conquer the world.
In a letter one of the secretaries said to the church : "There must be no turning back now. On to Luebo must be our cry !"
Splendid heroism! The devotion of this young martyr has already fired the faith of others. Christ gave his life. What am I giving? It is the cause to which I can never give too much, and, in which what I do, never can be lost.
I am debtor! God help me to pay my debts!
THE EVANGELISTIC PASTOR.
BY REV. J. WILBUR CHAPMAN, D. D.
JUST what is an evangelistic pastor? Perhaps we shall better reach an understanding concerning his position if we answer the question negatively.
First: He is not of necessity one who preaches con- stantly along what is known as evangelistic lines. There are very many people to-day who seem to think that the pastor is not doing evangelistic work unless he is regularly giving an invitation in so many words and all the time calling men to repent. This is not necessarily true, as we shall show later, for frequently the best invi- tation is not spoken by the lips-but by the very presence of the man of God.
Second: He is not always one who is conspicuous because of great additions to his membership. There are men to-day whose additions have been exceedingly small who are as thoroughly evangelistic as those whose suc- cess has been far more remarkable. With the minister as with the church, it is the spirit that counts. If he has a real concern for the lost, if he lives a life of fellowship with Christ,' he could choose any theme for his people and it would be apparent to all his hearers that he was longing for the lost to know Christ.
Hle need not of necessity close every sermon with an appeal, although that is frequently the best thing to do, for in so doing we impress our hearers with our confi- dence in our message and our expectation of results.
The minister of the seminary church where I was a
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student one evening preached a sermon and then returned to his home utterly discouraged because he felt that he was a failure in the ministry, and he practically deter- mined that he would never preach again, yet at the same time he was conscious that he had been greatly burdened for the lost. Some time past midnight his door-bell rang, and the leader of his choir, who had been counted a skep- tic, came to him to say, "Doctor, I am in an agony con- cerning my soul. Your sermon to-night has convicted me of my sin and I must have help or I shall die." In a very short time he was rejoicing in Christ. Then said the minister to him, "What was it in my sermon that moved you, I should like to have you tell me." The man replied : "It was not so much, sir, what you said but the way you said it. I could see by the look in your eye and by the very pathos in your voice that you were longing for men to be saved and I could not resist your message." But there is a positive answer to the question to-day. Let us consider that side of it.
First : That man is evangelistic who is truly a man of prayer and Bible study, and yet at the same time one of intense earnest action. The greatest fanatics I know are those who study the Bible and pray almost without ceas- ing and then stop with these devotions. They do not fit into practice in their daily lives the message God gave them in, his Word and the vision he vouchsafed unto them in their prayers, so on the one side there must be prayer and Bible study; we cannot have too much of it, while on the other side there is the translation into life of those things which God has given us. It was thus that Finney prayed, read God's Word and worked, and it was thus that Mr. Moody lived and preached.
Second: That man is evangelistic in his preaching who realizes that men are lost without Christ, and that
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the Gospel is the only way of salvation. He believes that it is not so much a question either of character or conduct primarily as of the new birth. He realizes that "the wages of sin is death, and the soul that sinneth it shall die." With such a conviction as this, if he is true to his ordination vows and also true to the Word of God, he can preach in no halting, hesitating way.
An old Scotch woman went to hear Robert Murray Mc- Cheyenne preach for the first time. Some one asked her what she thought of him. She hesitated for a moment and then said, what I am sure any true minister had rather have said about him than that he was the most brilliant preacher among men. She said: "The man preaches as if he was a-dyin' to have you converted." Oh, for such a spirit as this in the ministry to-day. Thank God for the men who have great intellectual power, for those who bear well their scolastic honors to which they are certainly entitled, but is it not true that what we need to-day more than anything else is a gracious out- pouring of the Holy Ghost, an energizing of that power which comes only from on high, that we may preach for souls ?
The pastor is pre-eminently the soul winner in his own parish. No one can take his place. If he is not faithful to those over whom God has made him the overseer, he shall be called to account at the judgment seat of Christ. Whatever we may believe concerning the office of the evangelist, and we must believe thoroughly in this, how- ever necessary it may be that we should give him his rightful place in the church, and many agree that this is almost an absolute necessity, yet no evangelist can sup- plant the pastor in the matter of soul-winning. But if the pastor is to be successful, there are certain points which must be emphasized concerning his life, and this to a
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greater degree even than in the experience of the ordi- nary pastor of a church who may hold a congregation together because of eloquent or intellectual achievements, because of winning social qualities or by a striking per- sonality. No pastor can ever be a soul winner without attention is given to,
First : His private life. One might preach an ordinary sermon and by force of intellect or power of magnetism interest an assembly. I have in mind a man who for years led an impure life, yet, while he interested his congre- gation with his masterful gifts, he never won a soul to the Master, and if any one should say in answer to this, "But are there not evangelists whose lives are tinclean and yet who have a measure of success?" my answer would be, "The evangelist may be reaping a harvest the seed of which has been sown by some godly pastor," and so the illustration still holds. But to be a soul winner is entirely different. The private life must be taken into account. There are trees, the spread of whose roots under ground equals the spread of their branches above ground, and this leads me to say that no man can be a soul winner in the ministry without he is right in his home, right in his study, right in his devotion, right in his heart, or in other words,. lives in private what he preaches in public. Our people forget our texts, they frequently forget our particular forms of expression, but the spirit of the message we have delivered is about them not infrequently for a lifetime.
A prominent American preacher told me that he once preached in Robert Murray McCheyenne's pulpit, and he asked if any one there had heard McCheyenne preach. One old man was brought to the front. "Can you tell me," said the minister, "some of the texts of MeChey- enne?" and the old man made reply, "I don't remember
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them." "Then can you tell me some sentences he used ?" and again the reply was, "I have entirely forgotten them." With a feeling of disappointment, the great preacher said, "Well, don't you remember anything about .
him at all?" "Ah," said the man, "that is a different question. I do remember something about him. When I was a lad by the roadside playing, one day Robert Murray McCheyenne came along, and laying his hand upon my head, he said, 'Jamie, lad, I am away to see your poor sick sister,' and then looking into my eyes, he said, 'And Jamie, I am very concerned about your own soul.' I have forgotten his texts and his sermons, sir, but I can feel the tremble of his hand and I can still see the tear in his eye."
Let us remember it is not so much what we say as the way we say it that constitutes the minister the soul winner.
Second: The very greatest attention must be paid to the prayer life if the pastor is to be a winner of souls, and I doubt not but that the most of us fail just here, largely because of the fact that we are so busy, for very few people understand the responsibility and obligations resting upon a pastor; from morning until night and often night till morning he is at the call of his people and of the citizens of the city or town where he may live, and it is such an easy thing to pray in a perfunctory sort of way or not to pray at all. A very few may be un- mindful of prayer because of selfishness, a few others because of indifference, but perhaps many of us because we do not appreciate what the power of prayer is.
In the revival of 1857, when Canon Ryle sent out his celebrated appeal to the Church of England, he made this statement, that he had looked the Bible through and found that wherever there was a man of prayer there was
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a man of power; that he had studied the history of the Church and had learned that wherever there was a man or woman of power, there was one who knew how to pray. He said some were Armenians, some Calvinists, some rich, some poor, some were wise and some ignorant, some loved the liturgy and some cared little for it, but all knew how to pray.
Jesus was an illustration of this. In Mark we read, "A great while before day he went away to pray." He was the Son of God, yet he would not begin a day with- out prayer. It is to be noticed, however, that the day begun thus with prayer ended with the healing of the leper. If the Son of God could not start the day without communing with God, how dangerous it is for any of us to try it.
In Matthew we learn that after he had fed the multi- tudes, he went away in a quiet place to pray. He had just worked the miracle, and yet he prays. I have a friend in heaven who used to say that it is more difficult to use a victory than to gain one, by which she meant that the most dangerous day for us was the day following a mountain-top experience, for we are so liable to try to live upon the past rather than upon the present prom- ises of God. Jesus prayed before the miracle and after the miracle, by day and by night. What a rebuke he is to some of us.
In Luke we read that as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was changed. To my mind this is one of the best illustrations. It will be a glad day in the church when those of us who know Christ show by our faces that we have been in fellowship with him. There is some- thing about the look of the eye, the ring of the voice and the atmosphere of a man who knows how to pray that carries conviction always.
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In John we read that he stooped down at the grave of Lazarus after he had prayed, and said, "Lazarus, come forth."
I had a letter one day from some one who wanted me to write on a postal card the rules for soul winning. This seemed a strange request, when I remembered that I had a book in my library larger than my Bible on "How to Win Souls," and yet you can write the rules upon a postal card. Indeed, there is but one rule, "Lord, teach us to pray." The man who knows how to pray in the right way is a soul winner always. Whatever may be one's intellectual ability therefore, without prayer he is weak in this direction. This is true whether he is in the pulpit or in the pew, whether he is a Sunday-school teacher, or the superintendent, or just a member of the Church.
Third: If the pastor is to be a soul winner, close at- tention must be paid to his public life. It must in every sense accord with his message. He cannot preach about prayer and himself be prayerless, nor can he talk of power and be powerless, nor can he speak of consecra- tion and live a selfish life, nor can he talk of the concern of Jesus and himself be unconcerned. Unless the private life and the public preaching strike in unison, the preacher is not a soul winner, nor is the Sunday-school. teacher, nor the superintendent, nor is any Christian.
Fourth: No minister can be a soul winner without he gives close attention to his pulpit life. This suggests the theme of the sermon which must always and ever be the gospel. It has not lost its power, whatever men may say to the contrary, and as a matter of fact, it is true that wherever men are really drawing crowds of people and holding them, their theme is the glorious gospel of the Son of God. Sensationalism may draw for a time,
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but the gospel steadily wins and always holds. We boast a great deal in these days of our great men and noble women in America, philanthropists, statesmen, mission- aries, our honored fathers and mothers, but in so far as they are Christians and the most of them are, they have drawn their inspiration for holy living from the story of Jesus the Son of God; cradled in the manger, living at Nazareth, preaching in Galilee, suffering in Gethsemane, scourged in Jerusalem, dying upon the cross, buried in the tomb, rising with power, ascending up into heaven, seated in glory and coming again with majesty and power. Could there be a grander message than this, and that minister who delivers it fearlessly and yet ten- derly in the very spirit of Jesus himself, will be a soul winner. It has always been true, but in addition to this the message must be,
First : Practical. I know that I speak for a great army of busy men and women in this world, when I say that these people have little time to listen to philosophical dis- cussions and mere intellectual discourses. Life is too short for this, and as a result of the experiences of the weak, they are too weary to give the time to listening to what will not help them in their living, and the ma- jority of them come to the church to hear the truth that will make them better and truer in every way; and more of the people of the world would join them in their wor- ship if they were sure that they would hear from the pul- pit the gospel which has ever transformed lives and strengthened character.
Second: It must be personal. A distinguished New York pastor tells of preaching a sermon one day in which he said to his people : "every one in this church is either a channel or a barrier for spiritual power in his relation towards God." One prominent man returned to his
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home, entered his library and determined to find out which he was, and learned that he was a barrier.
Before he left the room he determined that from that time on he would be a channel. The next day he began to speak to his employees. The first was a Catholic, and he urged him to be a true Catholic. Among them came his private secretary, and he asked him if he had kept his promises to him and if he had been a good employer. Thinking that perhaps he was about to be discharged, the private secretary asked him what fault he had to find with him, when he said, "It is not that, but I am a Christian, and I am bound for heaven, and I should not like to go without asking you to go with me." Out from that one store thirteen men have been won for Christ by the testimony of this consecrated business man. The time has come when ministers have had given to them an opportunity to speak plainly and personally to their peo- ple and if they speak in the spirit of Christ the message will be received gladly, and many lives will be com- pletely changed.
THE EVANGELISTIC SERMON.
In a conference of ministers gathered not long ago to discuss the general subject of evangelistic work the ser- mon was naturally discussed.
One minister said, "An evangelistic sermon is one that reaches out after a soul"; another said, "It is a sermon which has enough of the Gospel in it so that if one should hear the preacher but once he would know what he must do to be saved." Still another said, " It is a sermon which provokes a crisis in the hearer's life," which is rather the best definition, because it is at once apparent that men may be evangelistic and preach not only for the winning of souls, but for the upbuilding of character. An evange-
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listic sermon is one which has a definite aim, and that -- aim is the winning of the lost to Christ, and then the building up in Christ of those who are won. It is a ser- mon which may be practically applied in our every-day living, and is by all means a sermon which impresses one with his need for Christ and the absolute sincerity in the desire of the preacher that he may be saved.
There may be at least four distinct marks of an evange- listic sermon :
First. It is dictated by the Holy Ghost. Since he knows the hearts of men, inspired men to write the Word of God, and at the same time is fully acquainted with us as his instruments, it naturally follows that he can suggest the theme and its manner of treatment which would be most effective in reaching the lost if we did but give him the chance to do so.
The late George H. C. MacGregor told me that he came one night to his London pulpit with his sermon carefully prepared, for he was a thorough student, and suddenly became impressed with the fact that for some reason he ought to turn aside from his well-thought-out sermon and give an entirely different message, for which he was in his judgment not so well equipped. But he followed his leading, preaching his sermon not with great satisfaction to himself, and possibly with not such great delight to his people, but the next morning he found a letter on his table in which the writer said: "I was on my way to end my life last night and dropped into your church just to pass away the time. I do not remember your singing, nor the words you spoke, but the text you chose was my mother's favorite. It was her last message to me when I left home as a boy, and I could not get away from it last night. Instead of being a suicide to-day I have become a Christian." "From that day till this," said this sainted
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preacher, "I have tried to deliver no message that was not clearly dictated both in the choice of the text and the development of the theme by the Holy Spirit of God."
Second. The evangelistic sermon is one which is wrought out in prayer and preached in the power of prayer. There is a tendency on the part of the preacher when he is intellectually well versed in his message to depend upon his preparation, his power as an orator and his natural ability to move men, but in the evangelistic sermon, which is to lead men to Christ, not alone must these things move him, but also that strength which comes by prayer. It is only when the sermon has been wrought out on our knees and is preached in the consciousness, that the one of whom we speak is just at our side, that there is power in it to persuade the lost.
Third. An evangelistic sermon is one which is preached first of all to oneself. It is a good thing when the message is completed, not only to go over it on our knees, but to go over it for ourselves. The point that fails to move us we might as well cut out, for there is this sure test of the power of the sermon, it will as a rule move our hearers in the same proportion that it has moved ourselves. If it has helped us it will help others. Mr. Spurgeon used to say true preaching is artesian, it wells up from great depths. This is especially true of evangelistic preaching.
Fourth. An evangelistic sermon is one which is preached with the expectation of results. "I preached the Gospel," said a minister to me the other day in a western city. "I know it was the Gospel, and at the close of the sermon two women came to ask what they could do to be saved. I confess to my shame that I was sur- prised."
Evangelistic preachers have always found it true that in proportion as they have expected results and preached
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in the power of their expectation God has seemed to honor .. .. their effort and to inspire others with the same enthusiasm.
Fifth. An evangelistic sermon is one which is well illustrated. There are many in the pulpit to-day who are afraid of illustrations. They ridicule the simple story- telling preacher, and in some instances they have a right to do so, but let us not forget that Jesus constantly told stories of the flowers at his feet, of the birds that flew above his head, of the woman that baked bread, of the farmer that sowed the seed, of the old father that waited for his boy. He never preached a sermon without an illustration, indeed without many of them, but the illus- tration must illustrate.
One of our prominent ministers in this country in tell- ing of the visit of the celebrated Dr. Lorenz to this coun- try told of the little boy who was operated upon for the straightening of his foot. He said after he was out from under the power of the anaesthetic, " It will be a long time before my mother hears the last of this, doctor," and then he told the story also of a boy of his own acquaintance from a poor German family, whose foot was crooked and who was operated upon by a celebrated doctor. The operation was a success and then the minister under whose influence the work had been done went to the hospital to take the boy home. ' The plaster caste is taken away from the foot, and it is as perfect as the other. When his attention was called to the nurses in the hospital, to the equipment of the institution, to the fine windows in the building, to every suggestion the boy would reply, "But these things are nothing compared with the doctor. He is the greatest man I have ever known." And when they reached the Missouri town and they stept off the train the old German mother was waiting to receive her child. She did not look at his hands, neither at his face,
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but she fell on her knees and looked at his foot and then cried out with tears, " It is just like any other foot." As she took the boy in her arms sobbing over and over he kept saying to her, " Mother, you must know the doctor, you must know the doctor." Then the preacher turned upon his audience to say, "And yet there is no one of us but what Jesus Christ has done ten thousand times more than the doctor did for that boy and we have never spoken for him."
This illustration is a sermon in itself. It was something in the every-day life of the preacher. There are hun- dreds of instances like it occurring in the year. Ability to see these things and to apply them in our teaching and preaching would increase our effectiveness almost a hun- dredfold.
THIE EVANGELISTIC CIIURCII.
There is a general inquiry to-day in all parts of the church both on the part of ministers and laymen concern- ing the evangelistic church. It is possibly true also that there is in many quarters of the church a misconception as to what the spirit and the work of such a church should be. The commission given by the great head of the church is clearly set forth in the New Testament Scrip- tures-Matthew xxviii. 16-20; Mark xvi. 15-20; Luke xxiv. 46-49 ; Acts ii. I-4.
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