508 THE KING’S BUSINESS The Third Line is that of Special Evangelistic Services Of late years most of us have got to depending upon a few great evangelists and union evangelistic services. It is time that we got back to the evangelistic service in the individual church. This does not mean for a moment that we should have no union evangelistic services, but it does mean that we should not depend upon them. We have had one “movement” after another, most of them along lines that were bound from the first to be ineffective in definite and lasting results, until the individual churches have so exhausted themselves in these “movements” that there is no strength nor time left for definite campaigns in the individual congregation. Is it not time that we rested at least from some of these “movements” and attended to our business as churches of Christ, the business of winning souls to Christ and building men and women up in Christ? If the pastor is absolutely sure that he has not the evangelistic gift himself, then let him call in some other pastor or some one else who has the gift. It would, of course, not be wise to plunge at once into special evangelistic services, because there needs to .be preparation if they are to be successful, preparation by prayer and by training the members of the church for effective service. But why not get back to the old-fashioned method of following the WEEK OF PRAYER with one or more weeks (preferably more) of special evangelistic effort. If we are to do this, we should begin to prepare for it at once. , DO NOT FORGET THE CHILDREN! C AN young children be converted? Does not conversion imply an apprehension of Divine truth of which they are incapable? Our faith is, indeed, based on knowledge; it is rational; it has depths too deep for angels to fathom. But its essentials are very simple, appealing to conscience and the affections. A sense of sin and sorrow for it, with a sincere turning from it, is a common experience of the child. To weep out its contrition on the breast of a loving and forgiving parent, and to taste the sweets of reconciliation ahd restored communion is familiar. To their trustful and imaginative hearts the fact that the great Father is unseen is no hindrance. Above all God’s part in the transaction must not be left out of the question. It is to “limit the power of the Almighty,” and to question the sincerity of Him who bade us bring the babes’to Him for blessing, as children of theh covenant and Kingdom, to doubt His ability to receive and regenerate them. Many an infant pillow has been wet with tears of penitence. Dr. Hammond tells us that while holding meetings in a Scotch city, Dr. Alexander, the pastor of the church in which he was laboring, was so suspicious of "the work among the children that he, unwilling to endorse it, got his hat intending to withdraw; but passing through a company of young inquirers he was so moved by their evident intelligence and sincerity that he at once admitted it to be from no other cause than the workings of the Holy Spirit. He saw, however, a little fellow “just out of petticoats,” in a corner crying inconsolably, and said to a girl standing by, “That poor child is tired, someone should take him home.” But she replied, “No, sir, he’s greetin’ aboot his sins.” He had walked four miles to the meeting because of anxiety for his soul. The present writer was never more truly convicted and concerned for his soul than at nine years of age. David Gregg was but ten when he wrote, “Ashamed of Jesus, that dear Friend.”
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