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September 1929
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“Outlines of History,” has missed the mark. He frankly admits that we owe to the Bible practically everything worth while in our modern civilization, but continues: “The Bible has lost its grip on us.” Then he suggests a rather ludicrous thing in the compilation of a new Bible. On Mr. Wells’s own argument I would suggest the strong possibility that we have lost our grip on the Bible, rather than that the Bible has lost its grip upon us. I repeat, we must have an unshaken confidence in the authority and message of the Bible. I have yet to hear of a spiritual life-producing ministry that is not based on the Bible. It is a significant fact that whenever our churches are seeking the services of an evangelist they select men who strongly believe in the authority and message of the Bible. This type of man is the only successful evangelist. If the authority of the Bible is discredited, what shall we do? What authority will you adduce t o 'vindicate a supreme authority ? Who will deny the strong tendency today towards a lost consciousness of the God of the Bible and the uni verse, in His retributive justice punishing the wicked, in His remunerative justice rewarding the righteous? As a consequence there is a declining sense of sin and a loss of moral fiber. The message of the Bible fits right into the needs of our age, if we have but wisdom to apply it. Let us preach the holiness of God, His righteousness and justice, as well as His love and mercy. One of our suc cessful business men, who travels this country up and down, who has attended hundreds of churches and listened to many hundreds of sermons, a man of balanced and fair judgments, in a recent Bible class discussion said: “I very rarely hear a sermon that would disturb a man living in sin.” The too common assertion that the tender, faith ful, and solemn presentation of the divinely revealed retri butions of sin is an attempt to “scare people into religion” is utterly preposterous. As ambassadors of the Lord Christ, it is our bounden duty to “declare the whole coun sel of God,” and we have no right to conceal or belittle any great revealed truth. We must have an unshaken con fidence in a book—the Bible, the central message of which is evangelism. A C onscious D ependence on a S upernatural P ower The work of evangelism is a supernatural task. The psychology of religious education cannot adequately ex plain the operations of the Holy Spirit of God on the hearts and minds of mankind. "He that is spiritual dis- cerneth all things, but he himself is discerned -of no man.” There is ap evangelistic activity which, I fear, is but human activity, and cannot possibly rise higher than the efficiency of natural causes—an over emphasis of organ ization. Do not misunderstand me. Organization is both necessary and essential, but organization is not power. The Holy Spirit of God is the generator of the divine life of the soul. When I was an apprentice to engineering { made a small steam engine. It took me months to con struct it. I also secured an electric dynamo, and fitted up a small workshop fully equipped with electric light fix tures and model machinery. I recall so well the day when, with the steam pressure on the boiler, I opened the throttle that allows the steam to flow from the boiler to the engine. To my disappointment the engine would not run. All I could hear was the hissing of the escaping steam. The slide valve on the engine was not set right. That polished and beautiful engine was organization, though faulty at heart and consequently powerless. I had the faulty valve set right and again opened the steam
throttle. That engine became the vehicle through which the power- was transmitted, converting it into mechanical use. We are but vehicles of God’s power. Our Lord be queathed to us the gentle, awful, Holy Ghost—“ Fg shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses of me.” The need of the Church today is not more machinery, nor better; not new organization; surely, not any more novel methods. What the Church needs is men whom the Holy Spirit can use. He does not come upon machinery and methods, but men. We need a conscious dependence on the power of God’s Holy Spirit as ministers, and Sunday-school teachers, and Christian workers. A nother B aptism — S oul P assion One may practice law with a measure of success, and not necessarily have a passion for it. The same might be true of medicine or other professions. But real evan gelism is born of soul passion. I recall the incident of our Lord when He looked upon the multitude. He had com passion, as the Word indicates. He suffered with them, had a fellow feeling with the multitude. In these days when much of our preaching and religious writing is a magnifying of subordinate truths, when the primary message of God is in danger of not having its rightful place, remember that He was a compassionate Lord. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” “I came,” said He, "to seek and to save that which was lost.” In these days when we are constantly reminded to follow the example of Jesus, re member that He wept over the spiritual and moral desti tution of mankind. He who would be most like Jesus must be like Him in spiritual passion for the lost. I am tempted to call the roll of those who through the centuries have been mighty and controlling forces in the world of religion and morals. I know this—they were men and women of soul passion. Moses cried: "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” Hear once more the weeping prophet Jeremiah: "Oh, that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain o f the daughter of my people!” Do we know of a travail for the lost equal to that of Paul, who could affirm: "I say the truth in Christ, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart; for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my■brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh”f See again the Saviour weeping over Jerusalem. I recently read with much profit the life of David Brainerd, whose work and name have gone into history. He was no ordinary man. He was the peer of the wise and gifted, eminently fitted to fill the most attractive pul pits. The refined and cultured of his day were anxious to secure him for their minister. President Jonathan Ed wards bears testimony that Brainerd was a young man of distinguished talents, had extraordinary knowledge of men and things, had rare conversational powers, excelled in his knowledge of theology, and was truly, for one so young, an extraordinary preacher, and especially gifted in all matters relating to experimental religion. His man ner in prayer was almost inimitable. His learning was very considerable, and he had extraordinary gifts for the pulpit. Alone in the savage wilds of America, an insidious disease in his bones, his only access to the Indians a bungling pagan interpreter—you know the story. The
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