Caring for Results

The failure of many an evangelistic campaign is to be found just here; it is comparatively easy at the time of a special service to impress men with their need of Christ and to bring them to the position where they may express at least some slight interest in their souFs salvation, but if no supplementary work is done, then the last condition of the man is liable to be worse than the first. The Gospel is a savor of life unto life or death unto death; the same sun which strikes upon the clay and hardens it touches the ice and melts it. The hardening or the softening process is going on in every evangelistic campaign and in every preaching service.

In an Eastern city not long ago eighty-six people expressed a desire to know Christ. Twelve of these only joined the Church; beyond all question the responsibility for the failure to win at least fifty per cent, of the inquirers was to be laid at the door of the minister and those associated with him.

In a Western city more than twelve hundred people publicly professed their faith in Christ They did this not by signing cards nor by standing upon their feet, but by walking to the front of the church, facing the congregation and by word of mouth declared that from this time on they would serve Christ faithfully. Not twenty per cent, of these were received into the Church. The responsibility for allowing many of them to slip away must lie at some one’s door; as a matter of fact is it not at the door of the officers of the Church and those who are already Christians? It ought always to be remembered that in the time of an awakening, or in the regular life of the Church, the new members will always strike the level of the older members of the Church. If the Church is worldly they will become worldly, if it is given to questionable amusements they will follow in the same path, but if it is spiritual they will just as truly become spiritual. The criticism that people coming into the Church in a time of revival are not as substantial converts as those who come in the ordinary services of the Church will not hold. If they are not, the fault is to be found in the Church and not in the new member. The principle of present-day evangelism will offset much of the criticism which has in the past been offered against revivals. These principles again stated are as follows:

The special meeting is not an end but a means to an end. The winning of souls does not simply rest upon the evangelist as an obligation but upon the pastor, the Church officer, the Church member. Generally it is impossible for one to become interested in the winning of his friends to Christ and then drift back again into an indifferent worldly manner of living. There are several ways of caring for the results of an evangelistic effort.

First: Let every seeking one be immediately visited by the pastor or his helpers upon whom he may be able to depend.

Second: At the very first opportunity in the regular services of the Church bring the one who may have taken a slight stand for Christ to the place of full surrender. Let him rise in the presence of the people and proclaim his allegiance to his Saviour.

Third: Form the new converts into special classes and teach them not only methods of work but how to study the Bible, for not only is the word of God the ground of our assurance but the knowledge of the word of God is the secret of a successful Christian experience. None of us would be able to stand were it not for the strength imparted to us by this old book which God has sent to us as his special message.

Fourth: Give the one who has recently come to Christ some special work to do. It maybe simply the passing out of a card of invitation or the carrying of a message to some one in whom the pastor may be interested. Let it alwa)^ be remembered that the moment one begins to work for Christ he begins to have added interest not only in Christ but in all those for whom Christ died. The fact is that the Church is not careful enough in caring for her own. At the first sign of indifference, at the first indication of wandering, at the first evidence of breaking away from Christ and the Church, we should go after them remembering God’s message to us, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken with a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted.” It does not say that those who are critical should go after them, nor those who are censorious, but those who are spiritual. Many a wandering one would be reclaimed if sought in this way. “I once heard a minister say that many of the lost sheep of our own households were to be found in the slums of the city, or in other words that many of those who were in the slums of the city to-day once belonged either to a Christian Church, a Sunday-school or were members of a Christian household, and I heard this statement vigorously denied. I determined myself to investigate, and I went through the slums of Philadelphia. The vilest woman I have ever seen told me with an oath that she was once a member of my own Sunday-school years ago when she was but a child. One of the most degraded men I have ever looked upon told me that he lived within a block of the Church of which I was then the pastor, an inmate of a Christian household, and I say it with considerable shame that I did not see a lost man or a fallen woman that night that I did not find, that at one time or another they had been in touch with the Church, the Sunday-school, the Young Peoples’ Societies or a Christian home, and yet had been allowed to drift away until now their case seemed to be hopeless and they were of all persons most miserable. If the Church simply had her own to-day almost every individual Church in the land would have to tear down her buildings and build larger.”