1 THE KING’S BUSINESS
218 church, not the pastor alone, must be doing this work of personal evangelism. The gospel we need to preach is not that of social reform, but of spiritual redemp tion.' True,There are certain social prob lems that must be faced: problems of charity, socialism, and social economy. But there are other regularly organized forces that can attend to these problems. Let the Church attend to the business of soul winning. RETARDED GROWTH The Church has not grown. Certainly it has not grown as it ought to have done. Do you know why it has not grown? Some denominations and many individual churches have lost in membership, and yet we boast of the forward movement of the Church. What is this forward movement? It seems to be a treadmill movement— motion, but no progress. It is a marking time, a standing still. We are not advanc ing as much as men with such a gospel ought to advance. Why is it? If every member of the Church would, go to work and win one soul a year, and that one soul would win another, and those two, two more, and those four, four more, and so on, in thirty-three years the whole world would be brought to Jesus Christ. What do you think of that? John R. Mott said to the. writer one day when talking on this subject in Mr. Moody’s room at the Moody Bible Institute, “This is the room in which the motto ‘The world for Christ in this generation’ was horn.” I said, “Do you think that such a thing is possible?” Mr. .Mott replied, “I know' it is possible if the Church of Jesus Christ will do her work.” Thirty-three years of such personal evan gelism will bring the world to Christ. It is not likely that the whole world will be saved, but it can be evangelized in a gen eration. What, then, is the matter with the Church that she is not doing this work? The trouble with the Church today is that she is being killed with decorum and is dying with dignity. We are very demo cratic, and yet we are very aristocratic, too.
Everything must be done decently and in order in the Sunday service. “Wasn’t that a splendid service? Everything moved along so harmoniously. There wasn’t a hitch in the whole program. I never saw such a beautiful service in my life. Things seemed to go so smoothly and so nicely.” This is the opinion we covet for our ser vices, and our decorum and dignity have robbed us of the blessing and fulfilment of Joel’s vision. We are afraid of being called crazy; we are afraid of being called drunk, as were the apostles and Jesus. The trouble with the Church is that she can be explained. Everything we do in our services can be explained and duplicated by the men of the world. The marvelous effect on the day of Pentecost consisted largely in the fact that something was done there that could neither be explained nor done by any natural means. LIFE-SAVING CREW But it is true, brethren, that not only must the pastor do it, but every individual member of the church must do personal evangelism. The preaching is like the fog horn ; it has its place and its use. Its purpose is to warn ships away from the rocks. But a fog horn can never take the place of the life-saving crew. The preacher may be like the fog horn and the church like a life boat, and both may be splen didly equipped. But of what use is the fog horn to save the' sailor perishing on the wreck?. Or of what use is the life boat if it is not manned by individual effort and taken out to the wreck? The Mormon Church requires that every male Mormon must give two years of his life to the work of personal evangelism. Has not the Mor mon evangelist already come to your house and to mine? Every village, every school, every university, every home, affords the Mormon a field for personal effort. These missionaries are doing their work silently, but nevertheless effectively. Every Mormon a missionary. Why should not the Christian Church adopt as its slogan, “Every church member a personal evangelist for Jesus Christ ?” . : • ■: " ..
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