Organizations for Men

There are two organizations greatly used of God to-day in the winning of men to Christ, which for special reasons I must mention.

First, The Young Men’s Christian Association, and second, the Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip. To the first I owe more than I can ever express. To the second I shall as a pastor always be indebted, for the Brotherhood in the Bethany Church of Philadelphia was my strong right arm for service and I am persuaded that for whatever of success was given me in connection with that pastorate, much of the credit in the day of awards will be given to the loyal members of that great brotherhood of men.

It was in a Young Men’s Association in the City of Richmond, Indiana, years ago, that I decided to preach the Gospel if God would only open the way. I had been asked to lead an Association meeting, something I had never done before. Tremblingly I undertook the task and when the service was over, an old gentleman by the name of Oliver Coggshall, a long time friend of my father’s, came to speak a word of encouragement to me. He said that I had helped him. This seemed strange to me inasmuch as he was an aged Christian at that time, and yet somehow as he spoke there came to me a vision of some slight service which I might render to God and to humanity if I could only become a preacher of the Gospel. It is natural, therefore, that I should be hearty in my commendation of the Association work.

In these days, however, it has come to pass that the Association is so mighty in its influence, reaches and helps so many different classes of people, that for a minister not to be interested in its work, is to cut himself off from one of the most inspiring features of Christian service in modern church life and practically to stand against that work for men which God is highly honoring.

The city work, the work among students, railroad men, soldiers and sailors, is to my mind simply wonderful and I praise God that He has called into this branch of His service men of such consecrated spirit and such excellent tact as the members of the International Committee, the secretaries and others. And I yet believe that, great as has been the work in the past, it is really just at the beginning of its best history. In many of our cities and towns to-day great audiences of men are being gathered Sundax’ after Sunday to hear the preaching of the Gospel, and thousands are being won to Christ.

Mr. Fred B. Smith, one of whose addresses appears in another part of this book, has been raised up to God to preach the Gospel to young men. I have never seen greater manifestations of power than in his meetings, and literally it is true that when he preaches hundreds press forward to take his hand, signifying their desire and determination to lay hold upon Jesus Christ. Cod bless the Young

Men’s Christian Association, one of the mightiest agencies in the world’s history for the training of “fishers of men.”

The Brotherhood of Andrew and PhiHp is a body of men held together by two rules, the Rule of Prayer, in which the members bind themselves to pray every day for the spread of Christ’s Kingdom among men; and the Rule of Service, in which an agreement is made that each week the Brotherhood man will give an invitation to some one to attend the services of the church. Its founder, the Rev. Rufus VV. Miller, D. D., of Philadelphia, is still its active president, and is doing everything in his power to extend the influence of this great brotherhood. It has now found a place in many different denominations, and I have no hesitation in saying that no pastor can find a better organization for his men than this, and if a Brotherhood is established and the members of it are thoroughly trained, there is available at once a great force, which may be used for the winning of men to Jesus Christ.

The Brotherhood of the Bethany Church of Philadelphia came about in this way: I had just accepted the pastorate of this important church* and was standing at the foot of the pulpit steps one morning after I had preached my sermon, when an aged man passed along and, taking me by the hand, said: “Well, sir, I am very much afraid that you will make this pastorate a failure. I certainly know that you will without help. We have had distinguished men here as pastors of this church and you are young and I tremble for you.” And looking around the great church building, with pity really shining in his eyes, he said: “But I have stopped to say to you that I am going to help you.” It seemed almost ridiculous and I wondered -what this old man could do for me. Then he said: “I have covenanted with two other men to pray for you so long as you are the pastor of this church and we have determined to ask that God will make you a winner of souls.” Then I looked about the great church with eyes filled with tears and knew in my heart that God was going to give us a manifestation of His presence and power in that work. The three men became ten, the ten grew to twenty, the twenty numbered one hundred and the Brotherhood grew until at last it came to be true that every Sunday morning from 9:45 to IO.-45, from four to six hundred men met me for prayer and conference. The meetings were thrilling in their interest. Not a service was held without conversions. The men prayed for God’s blessing upon me as their pastor. They frequently accompanied me into the church. They sometimes formed a great choir in the gallery and sang with great effect. Again they occupied seats in different parts of the church and watched for souls. They stood by me when I preached on the streets, they went with me as a great army when I conducted meetings in another part of the city. They still stand close to me in their affections. When I was called away from the church, so important was the service deemed to be, that the Hon, John W’anamaker, the senior elder of the church and the honored superintendent of the Bethany Sunday

School, decided to give a portion of bis valuable time to the Brotherhood work. He now meets with the men every Sunday morning. He has aided them in erecting a club house to which they have free access and he himself has publicly said that there is no greater work to be accomplished to-day by the minister and the church officers than the work in the interests of men. To one seeking the best organization for such a work, I would say, study the principles of this Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip.

There is also now in existence an organization of Christian traveling men known as the Gideons. The society is just a few years old, but already it has exerted a powerful influence over the lives of the men who are deprived of the uplifting home surroundings and regular church life. The general secretary of the Gideons has told me that until he was thirty-five years of age no one had ever spoken to him about his soul. To make up for this failure on the part of others, the Gideons, from their secretary to the last man in their order, seem to be determined that no one shall come within the reach of their influence that they do not attempt to bring him to Jesus Christ. They hold services in the hotels where any considerable number of them stop together. They are always welcome guests in the churches of the diiTerent cities. They wear a little badge with a blue background on which there is a small white pitcher, emblematic of the pitchers that were broken by the faithful three hundred when they cried out as they ran: “The sword of the Lord and of Gid-COD.” The text of scripture which is really the battle cry of the Gideons is found in Judges the 7th chapter and the 21st verse, “And they stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.”

Then there is the special work carried on in the interests of men by the rescue missions of the country. These missions find men at their worst, and as they preach Christ to them, they have the joy of seeing them restored to manhood and led to the Savior. If there is one key note which sounds out above another in the work of the rescue missionaries in behalf of fallen men, it is love for the lost. The mission with which I am most familiar is the old Jerry McAuley Mission, 316 Water street, New York. Nothing pleases the superintendent of this mission, S. H. Hadley, my personal friend, so much as to be given an opportunity to love a lost man back to his Savior. In Isaiah, the 38th chapter and the 17th verse, we read, “Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption.” The marginal reading of this verse is, “Thou hast loved my soul from the pit.” This is the secret of successful soul winning in rescue missions. I have seen Mr. Hadley’s face fairly beam when he realized that some poor lost soul had thought for a moment that he had beaten him out of a night’s lodging or a square meal. When I called his attention to the fact his only response was, “My, but this is fine! This only gives me another opportunity to show the spirit of Jesus and to love a little harder.” Somehow, in the end, this always seems to win out. When in New York City men are kicked out of every sort of respectable place, and are not even welcomed in the police station, they gravitate to Water street, and the more depraved they are, the more sure they seem to be of the hearty welcome from this Christlike man who has succeeded Jerry McAulcy in his great work, and who is known throughout the world as “S. H. Hadley, the drunkard’s friend.” To spend an evening in such a mission is to feel almost as if you were reading a new chapter in the Acts of the Apostles. The men testifying there are sure of their conversion. They know the day, the hour, and almost the minute when they were saved. I am persuaded, however, that if we had something of this same spirit of love in our work for men who have not fallen quite so low we might win more of the lost to the Savior. Miere argument fails, and preaching has no power, where singing is useless, love generally prevails. Truer words concerning the subject of fishing for men have never been written than these recorded by the Apostle Paul in the 13th chapter of i Corinthians:

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail, whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”