How to Save the City

“So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.” — , Acts 19: 20.

THE problem of the cities has interested the church in all ages. Christ sent forth His disciples, two by two, into every city. He went and preached in their cities. He began the world’s evangelization in a great city. The cities redeemed means the world redeemed.

There are to-day many organizations for the betterment of our cities. Some believe that education is all that is needed, and they spend their time and money in establishing schools. Others think that the curse of our cities is poverty, and they organize anti-poverty societies. And others believe that the only hope of saving the cities is to begin with the children; hence all kinds of efforts for reaching

39 the little ones. Many others magnify environment, and believe that the thing to be done is to improve our tenement-houses, and put better surroundings about the poor. With the spirit of all these institutions we are in hearty sympathy, and we would not hinder one of them in their work. They are doing good, and are needful. Every philanthropic effort that at all ameliorates the condition of the poor we should support.

But in this discourse it is our purpose to point out the apostolic method of evangelizing the cities. We find it in the 19th chapter of “The Acts,” and the secret of the method is given in verse 20: 4t So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.” Paul’s dependence was the word of God, and it prevailed by a process of growth. Growth implies life. There was a living power which accompanied the word.

Let us consider:

I. The Method by which it Grew; II. The Forces against which it Prevailed.

I. The Method.

Apollos had preached at Ephesus the baptism of John. The church there had not so much as heard of the Holy Spirit. Apollos was cultured and eloquent, a very magnetic man, and drew these people about his personality. We have a great many churches built up in our cities upon the magnetic personalities of men. People flock to hear them because of their rare eloquence. Such churches are influential, but powerless. They gather crowds, and reach the masses without building up a spiritual church. So the first thing Paul set about was to get this little church at Ephesus endued with power. He laid his hands upon them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Just what relation the imposition of hands had to the gift of the Holy Spirit I hardly know. But Jesus gives us the method in another place: “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” We may have the Spirit of power for the asking. This was the method pursued before

Pentecost. The disciples met in an upper room to ask for the fulfillment of the promise of the Spirit’s coming. And no great revival has ever come upon a city which was not preceded by hours and days, perhaps weeks, of prayer. Common - sense suggests this course. If we wish to kindle a fire, we first put on the paper, then the wood, and, after these combustibles have caught, we put on the coal. The church within the church who believe in prayer are the tinder ready to receive the fire of the Holy Spirit. Revival work is not an explosion, but a combustion, a conflagration.

As a result of this, the tongues of the little church were untied; they all became prophets; every one was a preacher of the glad tidings. Christians need to forget the distinction between clergy and laity, while all seek to win men to trust and love Jesus Christ.

The next step was to preach continuously for three months in a building devoted to religious uses. Paul went into the synagogue and spoke boldly, “reasoning and persuading as to the things concerning the kingdom of God.” The synagogue held the most religious

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body that could be found. Next to the little church that Apollos had gathered, those who attended the synagogue were the best material upon which to work. They were formal, cold, lifeless; but when the little church, full of power, was brought among them, their formality vanished, their coldness was melted, and they were quickened into spiritual activity. Let but a handful of earnest Christians in a large church become full of the Holy Spirit, and they will soon impart their fervor to the rest of the membership.

The third step was to hold a protracted meeting every day for over two years in a purely secular building. After the dissension in the synagogue, Paul took those who were in sympathy with him to the lecture-room of Tyrannus. Who Tyrannus was I do not know; doubtless a popular teacher of rhetoric, with a large hall in the centre of Ephesus. In this hall for two years Paul preached daily, until all Asia heard the word of God. It may be that the reputation of Tyrannus extended over all Asia, and the fact that Paul was in this popular public place gave him an opportunity of preaching the gospel to the whole country. Ephesus was the commercial Now York of Asia. Arteries of commerce ran from this great city into every surrounding province.

If we will examine the methods of revivals, we will see that they were begun and carried on in this apostolic fashion. Begin with Pentecost: first, a little handful gather around Christ, who teaches them for twro or three years; then a larger company in the upper room praying and waiting; and then the great crowd, of whom three thousand were converted in one day.

The great revival under Whitefield and Wesley began and was carried on after the same fashion. First, a little handful of students, the “Holy Club” at Oxford, then a larger number in a foundry of London, and then great throngs at Srnithfield. So McAll’s work was begun and carried on in Paris. At first only he and his wife on fire with the Holy Spirit, then a larger number gathered about them, and now one hundred secular halls in which the gospel is preached every day.

So began and grew the work of the Salvation Army, At first only Booth and his wife and a small company of sympathizers, then a larger number, and now girdling the world with their stations. It is beginning with the combustible material and letting the fire spread. It is the church getting ready by waiting upon God, and then going out where the people are and preaching to them the gospel with power. If I wanted to burn up this city, I should not try to set fire first to a safe-deposit vault, but I would look for a more combustible building. If we are to have a conflagration of revival zeal, the fire must begin in the hearts of a few.

II. The Foes.

I. The Religious People who did not believe in u the Way.” — The way which Paul preached was “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,” His message was the simple gospel of the grace of God. He endeavored first to bring men into right relation with God, believing that such was the best way to bring them into right relation with each other. And we are told that some in the synagogue spake evil of the way. They did not believe in this simple gospel method. They thought there were other ways better, or just as good. They might have suggested a course of lectures by Tyrannus in his own

lecture-room, in which the gospel was not to be prominent. Taking the people by guile was, to them, the shortest way. Paul, however, insisted on the way, and persisted along that line. The people to-day who are the greatest obstacles to a revival are the religious people in our churches who really do not believe in the power of the gospel. They would substitute other good things for it. Some of them talk about beginning to save a man a hundred years before he is born. To them the gospel which revolutionizes is effete. They have lost sight of the arm that wields the “sword of the Spirit.” Preaching the simple gospel of reconciliation to them is folly. They are in advance of that; they look upon it as old-fogyish, and, of all the forces in the church, these religious people of good character who oppose the apostolic way of salvation are the greatest obstacles.

2. Imitators of the Good. — There was a band of Jews under Sceva, a renegade high-priest, who had come to Ephesus to make money by pretending to cast out evil spirits. As soon as they saw that the name of Jesus on the lips of Paul had a magic power, they decided at once to appropriate and use it, and their formula was: “I adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preached.” The bad mei. possessed with devils, however, had no sympathy with these imitators. “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?” was the reply. Imitators are to-day in the way of the gospel’s success. Almost every religious society takes to itself the name of Jesus, or something that suggests Him. To them it is simply a talismanic word. They do not worship Him nor believe in Him as Saviour and Master, but they would put their pernicious doctrine and often their practices under the cloak of His popularity. They are shams, and wicked men who see through shams despise them; nevertheless they are great obstacles in the way of saving the lost. In this great city, societies which call themselves churches, borrowing the word “church” from Christ, and some of them “churches of Christ,” deny His divinity, his power to save from sin, His atoning merit, and everything which makes Him the real Christ that He is. They are simple imitators of those who in heart honor the Lord.

3. Bad Literature. — These imitators were very zealous in making and circulating bad books, — books which described their occult arts and gave them standing with the people. But the power of Paul’s gospel was so great that the owners of these books wTere converted, and in a street of Ephesus there was a bonfire such as the small boys had not seen in a long time. Twenty thousand dollars’ worth of these books were put in a pile and burned to ashes. Such a cleansing of the literary atmosphere in our great cities is greatly needed. Paul’s method of doing it is the best. Not to issue a law against free speech, but to be so full of the Spirit and preach the gospel with such power that editors and authors shall be reached and converted, and made to burn up their own vile publications. What a great blessing it would be if more than one half of the daily papers could be burned up. Their tone is immoral. Some of them have the ethics of the brothel. Paul was so full of the Spirit that everything about him was saturated with His power. The

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very handkerchiefs that touched his person carried with them virtue, and, if the preachers and churches of these great cities were thus charged with Almighty power, the men who flood our streets with vile publications would feel the influence of it. Oh for such an infilling of power! It wrould settle nearly all the questions which agitate our city life.

4. The Opposition of those whose Business was in Danger by the Success of the Gospel. — In Ephesus was the great temple of Diana, and there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of men who made their living by manufacturing and selling little images of this popular goddess. The success of Paul’s preaching turned many away from purchasing these wares. The result was a commotion among the craftsmen. Demetrius, doubtless president of the association of idol-makers, called a mass meeting, and protested that this crusade against their business should stop, and he made an appeal for the honor of Diana. Not only their trade was in danger, but the very glory of the goddess of Ephesus was beginning to fade.

In our cities to-day there is a trade which would be overthrown by the success of the gospel. It is a trade in human homes and hearts and happiness. The temple of Diana in New York and Brooklyn is the liquor traffic. The goddess of this country is Liberty, and those who make their money out of this traffic plead for the honor of their goddess. They claim that they have the liberty to destroy their neighbors. The greatest obstacle in the way of the success of the gospel is this very traffic, and yet, sad to say, many Christian men join them in the cry: “Great is the goddess of Liberty, which allows men to slay their fellows by wholesale.” Ye men of God, take your stand on the side of humanity, of purity, of home and heaven, against the mob whose financial interest leads them to oppose the gospel.

I close just where I began. In spite of the religious people in the church who opposed the way, in spite of the imitators, in spite of bad literature, in spite of the opposition of those whose business was in danger, Paul succeeded in reaching and saving many of the Ephesians. And in spite of all the forces arrayed against us in great cities, the churches, if they will, can reach and save multitudes. But in order to do it in any large measure, the few must first be filled with the Holy Spirit. The church must be filled with power from on high. Her confidence in the gospel as the power of God unto salvation must be unshaken. Men and women must be laid on the altar in the spirit of a truly Christly sacrifice, and then shall begin the fire that will spread to a conflagration.