April, 1936
THE K I NG S BU S I NE S S
122
King’s Tables l W. R o o d
o Around the B y P ad
Can it be that even some orthodox preachers have been so occupied with machinery and denominational programs and honors, that they have lost their power and zeal? Every evangelical and evangelistic preacher will thank God for the laymen’s revival, and will enthusiastically work with the revived laymen. Praise God for an awakened and renewed laity, and may the fire spread all over the land! stirred these days as never before. The Christian Fires are Business Men’s Committee o f Seattle is sponsor- Burning ing downtown noonday meetings held in a thea ter and broadcast to the whole Pacific North west. Marvelous conversions are taking place. Twelve In dians recently accepted Christ after hearing the broadcast of the noonday service. One hundred or more young people were parading the streets to announce a noon meeting, and a man who was on his way to a high bridge to commit suicide saw them and was deeply impressed by the fact that they all seemed to be rejoicing. As he had never seen anything like it before, he decided to follow the crowd, and this led him to the gospel service in the theater. All he heard was the open ing line of the first hymn: “ Just when I need Him, Jesus is near.” As soon as the invitation was given, he made a bee line for the altar and was gloriously saved. Today he is an usher at these meetings. In one of the evening services a woman was converted. Her husband attended several services and he was under deep, pungent conviction. He was a radio star, and his prob lem was his work. He felt he had to give it up in order to be come a Christian. The writer spoke to him one night and said, “ I am praying for you. You are coming to Christ. Let me know when you accept Him.” The promise was made. A few nights later, the radio singer came up to the writer and said, “ I want to be saved.” He knelt and turned to the Lord, with the tears o f repent ance flowing down his cheeks. It was not long before the assurance came and the joy bells began to ring in his heart. “ Will you sing your testimony tomorrow noon at the theater?” he was asked. “ Yes.” The next day, this popular vocalist was at the theater, and after the story o f his conversion had been told, he be gan to sing: Seattle and the Pacific Northwest are being Revival People were wiping away tears, and sobs intermingled with hallelujahs all over the theater. From radioland we later received reports o f similar reactions in all parts of the Northwest. When the invitation was given at the close o f this service, twenty-five souls came forward for salva tion, and among others were the son and daughter o f the singer. Praise the Lord! W e can never forget the glorious days in Seattle. Space does xlot permit us to relate in detail the story of the more than a hundred young people who dedicated their lives to the Lord in a great mass meeting in Mark A . In loving kindness Jesus came My soul in mercy to reclaim, And from the depths of sin and shame Through grace He lifted me.
The Pew Speaks to The San Francisco Bay Region Christian Business Men’s Committee has been organ- The Pulpit ized recently. This group o f men is looking forward to the World’s.Fair to be held during 1939 on a man-made island in the San Francisco Bay to celebrate the completion of the two great bridges now in process o f construction. These men are expecting to carry on an aggressive evangelistic program during the time o f the Fair. They do not intend, however, to jest idly until the Fair opens, but are launching their prograaj now. Noonday gospel services were held in the FilmarteiTheater from March 9 to 13 under the Committee’s auspices. A t these meetings the writer was privileged to bring the messages. The services were broadcast over Radio Station KYA . The blessing of God was upon these meetings^ believers were revived, backsliders restored, and sinners saved. On the concluding day, the chairman of the Committee, Arnold C. Grunigen, one of the leading Christian laymen o f San Francisco, made a significant pronouncement that reveals \what is in the minds o f Christian laymen. The statement follows: v Our Committee has asked me as their chairman to give the clergy and laity in the theater and on the air today an idea of the planks to be found in our platform. W e say that our fellow Christian laymen—sitting demurely in a church pew Sunday morning, if the weather is bad, so that they can’t play golf, and hearing the minister deliver his regular message—are not following Jesus Christ. It leads direct to the appellation, true o f so many Christian churches and groups today, “Many are cold, and a few are frozen.” To the minister we say: You are to blame for much of the excess program machinery and ineffectual whirring of wheels in your own church group or denomination. The business world that we are more closely in touch with than you are, passes on unmindful o f shallow religionists who make a noise like sounding brass and tinkling cymbals and seldom indicate a spirit o f “love of souls.” For power with God and with men in 1936: Leave movies out of the church and to the movie theaters. Leave book reviews out of the evening services and return them to the Book Gallery. Forget the Sunday evening Question Box on “Is Haupt- man Guilty?” and answer the question, “What Must I Do to be Saved?” Instead of majoring in politics, reform, civic better ment, pacifism, prohibition, and cleaning up a sin-sick world, put first things first. Preach the Word, convict o f sin, present the Saviour; and red-blooded men who read the papers and know the world is bruised, battered, and bewildered will accept Christ, one by one. If you don’t, the laymen will run the life boats and you can run the hulk. This is a challenge that should be heeded by ministers. Church history teaches that when the ministers have lost their message or their power, then God has raised up lay men to “ run the life boats,” and clergymen have “ run the hulk.” What is the significance o f the laymen’s revival that has begun and is spreading over the nation? Is it not a rebuke to the modernistic preachers who have lost their message and are giving the people stones instead o f bread ?
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