The Evangelist in Song
The power of music cannot be over-estimated in the study of present-day evangelism. The name of Sankey is inseparably connected with that of Mr. Moody and thousands of men to-day rise up to call the singer blessed as well as to thank God for the mighty man who preached the Gospel of love and tenderness as very few preached it in his generation.
To sing the Gospel is oftentimes more effective than to preach it, and a multitude of people may be influenced by the sweet singing of the truths of the Bible, who would be indifferent to the most eloquent preacher.
Men are called to sing the Gospel as well as to preach it, and God has given to many of these consecrated workers messages which have wonderfully stirred the hearts and consciences of their hearers.
Most interesting stories have been written concerning the circumstances under which hymns in 192 the olden times were written. “Jesus Lover of my Soul “; “Rock of Ages,” and “My Jesus as Thou Wilt,” all have their histories which if known always increase the effectiveness of the song and the power of the singer. The same is true of many of the modern hymns.
Years ago when P. P. Bliss was in the midst of his greatest work he came one day into the presence of his co-laborers and said,” The subject which has been announced for to-day needs a special hymn and on my knees God has given me the following:
Man of sorrows, what a name,
For the Son of Grod who came.
Ruined sinners to reclaim!
Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned he stood;
Sealed my pardon with his blood;
Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
“Guilty, vile and helpless, we;
Spotless Lamb of God was he;
Full atonement! can it be?
Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
“Lifted up was he to die,
It is finished, was his cry,
Now in heaven exalted high;
Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
“When he comes, our glorious king.
All his ransomed home to bring.
Then anew this song well sing;
Hallelujah, what a Saviour!”
He laid the piece of paper down before his friends and behold in the verses was a complete statement of the work of Christ from his incarnation to his coming in glory. The effect of the hymn upon the audience was something truly remarkable. It is said that they took up the refrain again and again until it almost seemed as it they were a part of an angel choir praising the risen Son of God.
In more recent years Mr. W. S. Weeden has given to the collection of Grospel Hymns a song entitled, My Mother’s Prayer.”
I never can forget the day,
I heard my mother kindly say.
You’re leaving now my tender care;
Remember child your mother’s prayer.
Whene’er I think of her so dear,
I feel her angel spirit near;
A voice comes floating on the air.
Reminding me of mother’s prayer.
“I never can forget the voice.
That always made my heart rejoice;
Tho’ I have wandered God knows where.
Still I remember mother’s prayer.
Tho* years have gone, I can’t forget, Those words of love — I hear them yet; I see her by the old armchair. My mother dear in humble prayer.
I never can forget the hour,
I felt the Saviour’s cleansing power.
My sin and guilt he cancelled there,
‘Twas there he answered mother’s prayer.
Oh praise the Lord for saving grace,
We’ll meet up yonder fece to fece,
The home above together share.
In answer to my mother’s prayer.”
This hymn was practically the story of his own life. He was a wayward boy and had almost broken his mother’s heart, but she, like the true mother that she was, never gave him up and when he went away to the war, with her arms about his neck she told him that she had prayed for him since he was born and would continue to pray for him until he came to Christ. Her tender message never for a moment left him. He came to Christ, became an evangelist in song, has been the instrument in God’s hands of leading a multitude to Christ, and had the joy of sitting beside his old mother when she passed into the presence of the King, her face glowing and her heart overflowing with joy because her prayers had been answered and her son had come home.
P. P. Bflhom is the audior of a hymn entided, The Best Friend to have is Jesus.”
O die bat finoid to hsie is Jcnm
When the cares of life vpon jcm roll;
He win heal die wounded heart.
He win stzengdi and grace inqMrt;
the bert finead to ha is Jesv.
What a friend I haie feud in Jesus! Peace and oomfert to my aool he brings; T<raning on his mity arm,
1 win fear no in or harm;
O the best friend to hae is Jesus.
«Tho’ I pass thio’ the nig of sorrow.
And the chilly waves of Jordan roll.
Never need I shrink or fear.
For my Saviour is so near;
O the best friend to have is Jesns.
“When at last to our home we gather,
With the loved ones who have gone before.
We win sing upon the shore.
Praising him forevermore,
The best friend to have is Jesus.”
He told me that he was once invited to go and see a woman who had been prostrated upon a bed of suffering for years. When he had talked with her about the Saviour and had sung one of his hymns to her he asked her for the story of her sickness and she told him that some time before, on a bitterly cold night she had been annoyed by the slamming of the gate and so she walked out of the door when the wind was blowing a hurricane and closed the gate for herself. She succeeded in doing this but as she started back, the pathway being icy, she slipped and fell. No one could hear her cries for help. Suddenly she realized that she was sinking and she began to call out to Jesus to assist her. Some one in the providence of God passing by heard her cry, helped her into the house and for all the weary months since she had been upon her bed of pain. As she told the story she said, “I have had many good friends to assist me during these days but the best friend to have is Jesus,” and then said the evangelist in song, God almost instantly gave me this message, and before I left her house I had written out the verses and set them to music, and a great choir scattered throughout many of the cities and towns of our country has been taking up the music ever since.
“He will hear you when you call,
He will help you when you fall,
The best friend to have is Jesus.”
There is a great field open to-day for men and women who can sing the Gospel; possibly the call has never been louder or the demand greater than at the present time. Those who may be prejudiced against the evangelist have only words of encouragement for the evangelist in song. There are five things however which are absolutely essential if one is to be blessed in his work in this direction.
First: He must feel a distinct and definite call to the work, just such a call as a minister would have if he is to preach the Gospel. If there is a desire to do the work, if some degree of success has been attained in the doing of it, if doors seem to open before the one who longs to sing the Gospel, then these things may in part at least be an evidence of a real call to soirice.
Second: There must be a consecrated life back of the song. Consecration is not giving to Christ for if we are Christians we are his already, his by redemption, his because God gave us to him and his because long years ago, possibly, when we became his followers we gave ourselves to him, but consecration is taking our hands off from that which is God’s property and allowing him to have his own way with us. What a power many singers would be if they were only thus set apart.
Third: There must be a clean heart. God does not ask for either golden vessels or silver vessels, but he must have clean ones, and that singer who covers sin in his life will not only not prosper but he cannot move others towards Christ. It is no more essential for the preacher to be right with God than that the singer should be.
Fourth: He must believe that men without Christ are lost and confidently believe that the song he sings may win them to Christ. This first conviction will give him pathos in his service, the second will give him real power.
Fifth: He must have ability to sing, not simply to read music nor even to sing with what may be called artistic effect, for one who may be successful in opera or even in concert singing might fail in the work of an evangelist, but if there is a real conviction that God has called him to sing, if he understands the principles of music, if he knows how to use properly the voice which God has given him, if he can sing with feeling and tenderness and above all if he can sing so as to be understood by those who listen to him, then he may really believe that his life is to be one of blessing and his ministry of song will constantly increase in its efficiency.
Such singers are of the very greatest value to the evangelist. They are not and they ought not to be the business agent of the evangelist; they are not to serve in the capacity of a private secretary, they are not to be his servant, for the position of the evangelist in song is side by side with the evangelist who preaches the Gospel. They should have charge of the choir in his services, they should prepare for and supplement his work. An indifferent audience is oftentimes prepared for the sermon by the service of song so that the preacher loses no time in coming at once to the very heart of his message, and he finds it easy with such work done before him to make an appeal to the unsaved to come to Christ. He is not only to be the leader of a choir but the singer of solos, and frequently his songs will stir the emotions where the spoken word has failed.
When Jesus sent out the seventy he sent them two by two. Perhaps he sent a singer and a speaker, but whether he did or not he sent laborers who could supplement each the service of; the other, whose weakness might be offset by the other’s strength.
The evangelist in song is naturally a most helpful assistant to the pastor in a series of meetings. He sustains the same relation to him as to the evangeUst who preaches, only he is able in addition if he has had any amount of experience to hold the after-meeting with most excellent results. Such singers and workers are to be had in this country to-day and no greater blessing could come to a church than that they should be invited to labor with the minister. Many a pastor has discovered that he was possessed of real evangelistic gifts after he had been associated with a singing evangelist, who never imagined before that time that his ability ran in this direction.
There is a wide open door for present day evangelism for the man who possesses the gifts above referred to, only he ought to remember that he cannot be a mere concert singer and he must as truly have a message for the audience as must the preacher whose sermon he is to follow. He must avoid such mannerisms as would draw the attention of the audience from his song to himself and he must above all things fight against mere professionalism. Such singing has a hollow ring and while it may hold the attention of the hearer does not spiritually move him.