Daring to Be a Pastor

IT was a midsummer day in 1882, and fear- fully hot, when C. I. Scofield reached a little Southwestern town on the bank of a muddy river. It was Dallas, Texas, now the largest city in the State, to which he had gone in obedience to what he believed to be God’s call, given him in St. Louis by the Congregational Home Missions Superintendent.

He reached Dallas on a Saturday; and Sunday morning he went to the church building where he was to preach. The people had been notified that he was coming, and a Deacon Page was on hand to meet him at the door. It is not strange that you will see a photograph of Deacon, later Elder, Page framed and on the wall of Dr. Scofield’s study to-day.

Counting Deacon Page, there were at the time just twelve members of the First Congregational Church of Dallas; the other eleven were women. Some of the husbands of the women

came to some church services, but they were not communicant members. It was not long before practically all of those who came were converted.

The new pastor’s first sermon, preached that Sunday morning, was from the text: “The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon” (Psalm 92:12). He had made a special study of endogenous trees, as a boy, and he took occasion to tell something about the habits and facts of palm-tree life as illuminating the text. (Endogenous plants, like the palm, are the “inside growers,’’ so called: those that grow from within rather than by the addition of layers from without. The believer, with Christ within as his life, grows and flourishes like the palm-tree.)

At the evening service, the same Sunday, he preached from John 3:16: ‘For Ged so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ He had specially asked the Lord to save some one that night; and the answer to his prayer was two conversions.

Mr. Scofield’s Christian service in Y. M. C. A. and other meetings had given him some experience in winning souls to Christ in public meet-Daring to be a Pastor A3

ings. It was his custom to ask, at the close of an evangelistic message, that any present who wished to signify their personal acceptance of Jesus as Saviour would either arise or hold up a hand. Then, at the close of the meeting, he would state that he would be glad to meet all such; he wanted to know them personally; he was sure he had not made everything clear; it was important that they should talk things over together — and the instant the meeting was Closed he would be down among the people seeking out those who had given any public expression of their faith, would have them by the hand, and thus, as the other people passed out, he would be in the midst of what proved to be a little after-meeting with the new seekers or converts. This plan was one that God blessed, and it was used in the church at Dallas.

The young preacher was ordained to the Gospel ministry in the Dallas church by a large and representative Council of Congregational ministers and churches. The Council, by a committee of its foremost members, took up, at the insistence of the candidate, the whole question of his past life. He had given but eighteen months to special study for his ordination. Yet those eighteen months of study were so tireless, thorough, and searching, based as they were upon his lifelong habits of study in literature and the law, that very few ministers come up for ordination after studies so unsparing. During this intensive preparation he had studied with profound earnestness and care three standard treatises on systematic theology; had read church history, pastoral theology, and homiletics. Together with all this he had had the extraordinary opportunity of Bible study of an unusual sort under the personal teaching of Dr. James H. Brookes. When he was examined for his ordination, he asked not to be favored in the examination, — and he was not. But he was ordained with enthusiastic approval.

Yet in spite of the encouraging beginning in the new church that first Sunday, things went very slowly. There was a bitter prejudice in the South against Congregational ‘churches and ministers. Most Southern people knew the Congregational denomination only as the church of Henry Ward Beecher, the great ‘“Abolitionist,” and therefore as a “Yankee church.” Little by little the people of Dallas, however, came to learn that the new pastor of the Yankee church was a Confederate soldier. That gave him some social standing, but the people

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Daring to be a Pastor A5

who received him socially would not come near his church, even though they gladly entertained him in their own homes. ‘‘Why should he be a Yankee preacher instead of a Presbyterian?” they kept asking.

Well, if the people wouldn’t come to hear him, he would go after the people. He capitalized his experience with the St. Louis railroad men, and began persistent visiting in the homes of the folks in Dallas whom he wanted to win. One day, in his church service, he asked if any present would like to have a cottage prayer-meeting in their own home. A twelveyear-old boy raised his hand.

“Well, what is it?’ asked the pastor.

“I think mammy’d like to have yu come,” said the boy.

“Tl be there,” said the pastor.

At the close of the service he spoke to the boy, and — then or later — he discovered that the boy’s father kept one of the lowest barrooms in Dallas. Nothing daunted, Pastor Scofield went to the three-room house on the appointed night. The boy had hustled around and gathered neighbors together in force, probably largely from curiosity. The front room of the little house was packed with people when this unusual “cottage prayer-meeting” began. And the mother and sister of that saloon-keeper’s home came to Christ that night. Later the father was saved. That mother is still living; she led probably seventy-five souls to ou after her conversion.

“Yankee” pastor Scofield made it his custom to hold two such cottage prayer-meetings every week. And people were converted all the time. Such conversions, made in the presence of their neighbors, were genuine. There was no mere “joining the church” formality, as so many people join the church to-day — like a social club. These people took Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour; they knew their neighbors would be watching them to see whether it was going to mean anything in changed lives; they trusted Christ to bring even that miracle to pass; and He was faithful to their trust, as always.

Of course the new converts wanted to connect themselves with Mr. Scofield’s church; and they did so. When a new Home Missions Superintendent came to Dallas after six weeks, there were nine to be received into the church, and he was delighted. But he cautioned the new pastor to be careful not to let his church

Daring to be a Pastor Al

become too much of a hoz pollo: affair, a “beggars’ club.” That would never do, he said. As a matter of fact, these humble people who were coming to Christ and joining the First Congregational Church were by no means beggars; they were honest working people. And Mr. Scofield, as he watched the Lord working and trusted the matter wholly to Him, could not help hoping, down in his heart, that the Lord himself, if on earth, would have loved to “join” that church. He would have felt at home there, for so many people there loved Him and had already welcomed Him., So the pastor kept right on taking in as members all who wanted to come, on the basis of personal faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour. Their lives were being revolutionized; and some of them were becoming really prosperous in business and strong citizens.

Two years of this sort of pastoral evangelism had brought the church from a membership of about fourteen to two hundred, and the building was being filled. A young woman of a Michigan family that had moved to Dallas was attending the church, a Miss Hetty Hall van Wart; and about six months after the pastor first met Miss van Wart she became Mrs.

Scofield. This was in 1884; and as he and she look back to-day over the thirty-six years since those early beginnings in the Dallas church they praise God together for his goodness in having brought them into each other’s lives.

The work of the First Congregational Church went on growing, under God, until a new brick building had to be erected, holding some twelve hundred people; and then two mission churches were planted by the mother church. A large lot adjoining the home church, on a corner, was secured, a big tent was pitched on this for hot summer days, and large evangelistic tent meetings were held, as the blessing of God continued unabated.

Under the preaching of Dr. James H. Brookes, of St. Louis, a boy named W. Irving Carroll had been converted, and had united with Dr. Brookes’ church. Not long after that, as he puts it to-day, he “became sadly backslidden and lived a very worldly life for a number of years.” Then through the grace of God he was restored to the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and about this time moved to Dallas. Here he came under the training and Bible teaching of Dr. Scofield, went the whole way sexo] ‘sey[eq jo (Uspuadapuy) YomnyD jeuoesaiZu0d IsI 941 JO SI9p[Y pue suoovad oy], ye Sy ae Me Che

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Rise eee with the Lord, and entered the Christian ministry. Then he was made pastor of one of the branches of the home church, the Grand Avenue Congregational Church of Dallas. When Pastor Scofield finally left Dallas, Mr. Carroll was made pastor of the home church itself. And now he is serving as pastor of the famous Washington and Compton Avenues Presbyterian Church of St. Louis, of which Dr. James H. Brookes for years was pastor, and later Dr. Harris H. Gregg.

An illuminating comment on the ministry of the new pastor at Dallas was made in a letter written in 1916 by Mr. W. A. Nason, of Dallas, a member of the church at that time, to Dr. James M. Gray, of the Moody Bible Institute. Mr. Nason wrote:

“When Dr. Scofield came to the church, it was a congregation of confessors and professors; unconverted persons were teaching in the Sunday-school; persons not Christians were employed to sing in the choir. Money was raised in various ways, even to running a dining-hall at the State fair, as other churches of the city were doing. After a while all of this was changed, without direct reference to the inconsistency of the course pursued. In the matter of getting money, some talks were given on the method of raising money among God’s children, taking nothing of the Gentiles. Soon it dawned upon us that as God’s children we ought to raise the necessary money from Christians to carry on God’s work. It was not long before we became self-supporting, and no longer looked to ’ the Home Missionary Society for aid.

“Our members increasing to such an extent that we had to build a new church building, the first act of the finance committee was to pass a resolution to the effect that, as this was to be God’s house, we would solicit no funds from an unbeliever, but build with money furnished by God’s children. We bought the land and erected the building on this basis, and, so far as I know, no money came from an unconverted person.

“The music question was simply settled, not by telling us that it was not right to have unconverted persons singing praises for us to the glory of God, whom they rejected, but by arousing within our hearts the desire to worship God in a way pleasing to Him.

“Our pastor never assumed to be any man’s conscience, and, if asked regarding any course of conduct, he would refer to some passage of Scripture and tell the person inquiring to pray for guidance.”

The membership of the Dallas church, when finally Pastor Scofield felt led to leave it in order to accept the call to become pastor of Moody’s church at Northfield, had risen from its original fourteen members to 551, and 814 members in all had been received. A significant statement occurs in the letter of dismission given to their pastor by the Dallas church: “We commend him to you as one who delights to hide behind the uplifted cross of Jesus; one who will preach a full and free salvation through the shed blood of God’s Lamb; one who will lead you into the deep things of the Word, and one who teaches and who preaches the whole truth

of God.”

Back in St. Louis, immediately after his conversion, Mr. Scofield had first heard and met D. L. Moody. Mr. Moody was at that time holding one of his great evangelistic campaigns in St. Louis; it lasted for five months, and Mr. Scofield had gladly entered into it and had become an active worker in its soul-winning opportunities. The acquaintance thus begun with the great evangelist continued until the latter’s death. After becoming pastor of the church in Dallas, Mr. Scofield coveted for his people the blessing of Mr. Moody’s testimony and preaching, and twice, at his invitation, Mr. Moody held series of special meetings in Dallas. The latter’s characteristic discernment showed him that Dr. Scofield was a man whom the North and East needed, and, while he was yet an unknown man in the Christian ministry, Mr. Moody invited him to the great Northfield Conference as a speaker. That was his first introduction to the wider fields of acquaintance and service in the Lord’s vineyard.

“Moody,” says Dr. Scofield to-day, “was one of the greatest men of his generation. I have sometimes thought that Dwight L. Moody and General Grant were, in any true definition of greatness, the greatest men I have ever met. Moody had the strength of his Yankee birth and ancestry; he was a man also of great kindness of heart, with a zeal for souls, and absolutely loyal to the Word of God.”

Among the mighty formative influences of Pastor Scofield’s life during these years was the far-famed Niagara Bible Conference, held annually at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Under Drs. W. J. Erdman, James H. Brookes, Nathaniel West, H. M. Parsons, and others the Bible was taught with the highest scholarly and

Dwicut L. Moopy Foremost Evangelist of his day — Founder of three great schools

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Invitations to do Bible teaching and preaching at conferences and conventions were coming increasingly to Mr. Scofield while he was at Dallas; and finally, in 1895, it became clear to him that God wanted him to accept the urgent call from Mr. Moody to become pastor of the Congregational Church at East Northfield, Massachusetts, Mr. Moody’s own church, and the church home of the students at the great Northfield and Mount Hermon Schools, as well as of the farmers’ families permanently living there. When he accepted this pastorate he was also made president of the Northfield Bible Training School. The work gave him an opportunity of preaching to a thousand students every Sunday in addition to his other pastoral opportunities.

For seven years Dr. Scofield ministered at Northfield, during which time Mr. Moody’s death occurred. Mr. Carroll, in Dallas, now felt led to give up the pastorate of the First Church there in order to become pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Texarkana, Texas; and Dr. Scofield was urged to return to his old charge. He consented to do this, returning to Dallas in 1902.

It is interesting to read the following in the action of the ecclesiastical council at Northfield, accepting his resignation:

“The council discern issues of unusual weight in this case. This church gathers and disperses religious forces felt throughout the Union. Each year from all over the country Christian strangers and many from other lands make it a shrine: in part from hallowed associations and more for the pursuit of the higher religious life. The pastor here is, in a measure, a host to Christian pilgrims from half the world. Hence a change of the pastorate touches wide circles in the Gospel kingdom. ‘The pastorate now closing has in its seven years gathered into the church 196 by confession and 112 by letter, a total of 308; and has spent large activities in the yearly convocations held here. It has been marked by strong, skilful, and productive preaching to the dwellers here, to the members of the favored schools here, and to the strangers visiting the town. These have found memorable profit from this pure, fervid, and enriching ministry.

“And while the council can but sympathize with the church for the frequent absences of the pastor to meet the calls which his eminent evangelistic power created, they also rejoice in the blessed gifts which have so profited other churches. We trust the Head of the Church will recompense this Zion by future pastoral faithfulness for the sacrifices thus made for other peoples.

“It is the happiness of the council to record their enjoyment of the personal relations between themselves and Rev. Dr. Scofield. His urbanity, fraternal fulness of heart, and enkindling spiritual fervors have made him a brother beloved by us; and while deploring our loss of these gifts, they give emphasis to our commendation of him to the churches and ministers of Christ to whom he goes.”