The Regular Church Services and the Perennial Revival
Unquestionably the forms of church life are undergoing radical and far-reaching changes. The former custom of two services on Sunday, a midweek prayer-meeting, and the Sunday Bible school will not suffice for twentieth-century methods. This is true, not because the twentieth-century churches are so much in advance of those of the first century, but rather because the nineteenth-century methods were a retrogression from the methods of Christ, Peter, and Paul. The members of the earliest church, “Day by day, continuing stedf astly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home,.. took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.”
The ideal expressed in that Scripture has doubtless given rise to the institutional church, which, at present, is very popular. If one studies this latest evolution of church life, he will find it expressing itself under two very distinct and altogether different phases. There is an institutional church that dotes upon ice-cream suppers, full-dress receptions, popular lectures, chess-boards, bowling-alleys, the social settlement, not to speak of the occasional dance and amateur theatricals; and there is the institutional church that expresses itself in the organization of prayer-meetings, mission circles, Bible study classes, evangelistic corps, and multiplied mission- stations.
It is not difficult for one to see that this latter institution repeats the essential features of apostolic times, and enjoys the essential spirit of the apostolic power. A writer describing the work of that great church — the Philadelphia Baptist Temple — says: “On an average twenty-five religious meetings of various kinds were held in the Temple weekly. This did not include meetings of trustees, or the business meetings of various societies. There is something going on in the Temple all the time. It is a church that is never closed.” All of this suggests not only the possibility of the perennial revival, but the relation which the regular meetings of any baptized body of believers should sustain to the promotion of the same.
It is the purpose of this chapter to make prominent this relation by three remarks: Multiply the number of such services; make them the mediums of salvation; and yield them to the administration of the Spirit.
Multiply the Number of Such Services
It is a strange circumstance that men have been so slow in recognizing the value of multiplied religious services. When the Holy Ghost administered the church her members “continued stedfastly in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and the prayers.” The Scriptures which recite this fact make it clear that meetings in the name of the Lord were almost continuous.
Think of the advantages which would naturally result from the oft-repeated assembly of the saints.
This would provide for Christian fellowship. The new convert would be saved from that loneliness which often follows the turning from evil associates, and which Satan has converted into a very wilderness temptation for the newly baptized. The cordial handshake, the smiles of new friends and the response of purified hearts are all adapted to the comfort and encouragement of the convert, and are almost equally appreciated by those who are older in the brotherhood. It was after David, the lad, had mxt and conquered Goliath, the enemy of Israel, that Abner brought him before Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand; and, as he stood that day in the presence of the king, Jonathan, the king’s son, looked upon him, and it is recorded: “When he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father’s house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.” What a beautiful ensample this of the experience into which every man should come the moment the great Enemy has been put beneath his feet. To him the children of the King’s house should extend a welcome to heart and home. Men little dream of the full value of friendship. Who will ever imagine the whole benediction of Christian fellowship? One of the poets expressed the thought that the song he had breathed into the air had come back to him, long afterward, in the heart of a friend. Let every child of God know that the friendship which he shows to the babes, or older brethren in Christ Jesus, will come back to him in characters as kingly, and natures as strong, as was David’s in the sight of Jonathan.
Again, the multiplication of such services tends to the establishment of faith. There is more than fellowship in the assembly of the saints. The saints continued also “stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching.” Every Christian man needs line upon line, precept upon precept. A man may give too little of his time to service; he is in no great danger of attending too often upon scriptural instruction. Harry Monroe’s method of establishing in righteousness the men snatched from the social sewers of Chicago was a meeting every night in the week, in which song and testimony and prayer were coupled with instruction in the sacred Scriptures. He knows that in addition to the necessity for fellowship they must be established in the truth. Since they wrestle not “against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places,” nothing short of the “whole armor of God” will enable them to stand in that day, “and, having done all, to stand.” And if they are to stand, their loins must be girded with truth; “the breastplate of righteousness” must be put on; their feet must be shod with “the preparation of the gospel of peace “; the “shield of faith” must be taken of them, the “helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Their success is in “all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance.” Every church, every pastor, every evangelist should be as solicitous for new converts, that they should not be “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ,” as was Paul solicitous for the stability and the spiritual success of the new-born at Ephesus.
The multiplication of meetings also opens fields of service. All about the country we find churches that have planned for only a minimum of meetings. They regard it too expensive to keep their sanctuaries open every night, and needless as well, since only a small company congregates at the stated seasons of assembly. They seem to forget that there is such a thing as creating a center that calls its own congregation. Why is it that in village places every Saturday afternoon sees a fair congregation at the corner grocery, or grouped before the post-office, or crowded into the saloon? Undoubtedly in part, because men know these are congregating-places. Theater managers are more shrewd than the majority of God’s saints. They know that to keep open seven nights in the week insures a better attendance upon each performance than if they presented entertainments spasmodically, or on fixed dates, considerably removed one from another. There is such a thing as creating in the hearts of churchmen a desire to see one another daily, just as the members of an affectionate family delight to meet morning, noon, and night. Such assemblies create their own opportunities for service.
Johnston Meyers proved himself in touch with the New Testament ideal when he deliberately planned the six outstations in Chicago, in some one of which members of his church held a meeting every night in the week. A while ago we clipped from a religious newspaper a story of how a preacher, meeting on the hotel piazza a lady friend who was hastening to a late breakfast, was saluted by the remark: “I am late because I am tired. I danced last night until I blistered my feet.” The preacher immediately put to her the question, “Did you ever blister your feet in the service of your Redeemer?” Without meaning in any way to condone the offense of dancing on the part of a so-called Christian woman, it may be in order to ask whether the life of the church of which she was a part presented any appeal, or even opportunity, to blister her feet in the service of her Redeemer.
After all that has been said, and justly said, about one’s creating his own opportunities of service to Jesus Christ, it remains a solemn fact that the organized body has some obligation to aid in multiplying these opportunities; and the church that numbers but two or three assemblies in a week, and conducts no missions, has little ground of complaint when its young people turn from the dead institution to a live dance, an energetic game of cards, or the ever-open theater. Youth is a hungry thing, and a restless thing. If it is not fed by the church, and set to work in the same, it for ages elsewhere, and remains to serve where it has been satisfied. O. P. Gifford, of Boston, tells how General Lee, seeing a soldier off duty after green persimmons, called out sternly to him, “What are you doing there? Is that your diet? “” No,” answered the private; “ I am shrinking my stomach to fit my diet.” It is a sad day for any church when its slack service gives too great an opportunity to go after the green persimmons of worldliness, since the members who feed on them are shortly robbed of all spiritual capacity.
The man whO’ does too little for God is in danger of doing less. It is very easy for the one-service-a-week Christian to become a no-service Christian. Some years ago, in Minneapolis, a man testified in an after-meeting in these words: “If anybody wants a recipe for half-hearted Christianity let him come to me. I have a perfect one. It served me for seven years, and I am done with it, and want to part with it. It is this: Shortly after I joined the church I decided that I didn’t care for the Sundayevening service; the morning sermon was enough. In the afternoon I visited or drove.. At eventime I chatted, lounged, and read the newspaper. Soon I became dissatisfied with my conduct, and excused it by criticizing the * uninteresting ’ pastor. A little later I came to question whether the morning service repaid my pains, and gradually dropped out of that. For a time I drifted, and came near concluding that Christianity was a failure, and the church a farce. But God at last opened my eyes to see my mistake, and now I am in every service, morning, noon., and night.” And yet, though the man had adopted them all, he was putting in a poor proportion of his time at the house of God, and in work for God. There are one hundred and sixty-eight hours in a week. Who can imagine, therefore, that he has discharged his whole duty when he has spent four, or even six, of these in the service of the King? Paul appreciated the logic of things, and hence wrote: “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is.” If the saints at Jerusalem “day by day continued stedfastly with one accord in the temple,” should we not inquire whether this sustains a certain definite relation to the further statement, “The Lord added to them day by day those that were saved “? This leads us to the second remark:
Make These Services a Medium of Salvation
From the sacred record it would appear that with that early church there was no other thought than that of employing their gatherings to bring men to God. How far we have drifted from that divine ensample! How few of the ordinary services of the church are to-day supposed to be set for the salvation of men! The Sunday-morning service is almost wholly dedicated to the culture of the saints; the Sunday-school, in a majority of our churches, is intended as an opportunity for children to get a smattering of Scripture knowledge; and in a great many churches the Sunday-night service represents the one opportunity of evangelistic endeavor; while the midweek prayer-meeting furnishes occasion of talk and prayer; mission circles look to instruction regarding home and foreign fields and the raising of money for the support of representatives; the Ladies’ Aid provides opportunity for conversation, repairing cushions,, purchasing carpets, and providing social occasions. We enumerate these not to speak a word against what is being done, but to impress freshly the scriptural ideal.
The Sunday-night service should he evangelistic. Somehow or other it has come about that the unsaved go to the Sunday-evening services in larger numbers than to the services on Sunday morning, and the man who does not adapt his sermon to that fact misses a God-given opportunity, and is very likely to fail in his work in consequence of ignoring the fitness of things. To us it matters little that J. G. Holland once contended that, with his pastoral work, his funerals, marriages, civic concerns, social obligations, his work on committees, secular and religious, etc., etc., it was a sort of outrage on the preacher’s patience and endurance to expect him to prepare a second sermon for Sunday. He had better drop his interest in civics, cancel his social obligations, turn over committee work to unemployed laymen, and thereby find time for the preparation of the Sunday-night sermon, lest he be guilty of practising that part of the Episcopalian liturgy which refers to a man’s doing the things he ought not to have done and leaving undone the things he ought to have accomplished. It is some years since Frederick Chapman, of the “Ram’s Horn,” published an annual report for ten leading churches, in each of four leading denominations in Chicago, showing that in this time the ten Congregational churches had received 306, the ten Methodist 342, the ten Presbyterian 409, and the ten Baptist 489, respectively. Into their membership on profession of faith. This showing was not complimentary to any one of these denominations; but the increase of some over others illustrated perfectly the emphasis the denomination in Chicago was then putting upon the Sundaynight service as a medium for soul-winning.
Every service, held in a church of Christ, should present salvation. Read the sermons of Charles Spurgeon; you will see that the morning discourses were as well adapted to the accomplishment of redemption as were those delivered at night. The man who never preaches a sermon to the unsaved in the Sunday-morning service neglects the only opportunity he ever has to reach many unregenerate men. The husbands of Christian wives commonly attend this service with them, but seldom see the sanctuary either Sunday evening or in seasons of special meetings. The idea, particularly prevalent in the North of our country, that a man is not to invite men to rise for prayer, or come forward to confess Christ in a forenoon service, was evidently an invention of the Adversary, and is now defended by cheap aristocracy. It is impossible to speak with sufficient enthusiasm of evidences of the Holy Ghost’s work which the writer has witnessed in connection with an evangelistic sermon for Sunday morning. Why should not the midweek prayer-meeting be made the occasion also for soul-winning? There is no better atmosphere for the work of the Spirit than that created by the testimonies of experience and the petitions of an earnest people. In fact, why should not Christian Endeavor prayer-meetings, meetings in the interest of missions, and even social meetings be employed to the same high end? Russell Conwell affirms that his annual church fair has been so conducted as to be the best soulwinning meeting of the year. If church fairs must be conducted, let them be of this sort!
What it might mean to key the whole church, in its various forms of activity, to the note of salvation, Doctor Robbins, of Cincinnati, once illustrated. He and his people, of the Lincoln Park Temple, began January I, 1903, to pray and labor for an addition of two hundred members before January i, 1904. Every meeting was made to conserve this purpose, to aid in answering this prayer. At the end of six months and six days there were an even hundred who had been received; and at the end of twelve months, two hundred and seven. The pastor significantly added, “The seven being the Lord’s good measure.” Now, to understand the real secret of this successful work one needs to follow him a little farther in his remarks: “Our church is always open from seven in the morning till ten at night, or even twelve, every day in the year. At every service the Bible is read, or quoted, and prayer is offered. At each of the prayer-meetings invitations are given to Christians, backsliders, sinners, to manifest, by rising, a desire to be remembered in special prayers. At the close of the morning sermon I always give an invitation for any whose hearts have been pricked to manifest the same by rising. Every Sabbath night in the year we have an after-meeting. I always ask God to use the sermon in the salvation of souls. In calling I make religion the subject of conversation, and almost always ask if I may kneel and pray.” Again we say, every service should present the subject of salvation!
Every organization should have the same object. From the highest office to the humblest, from the most important organization tO’ the one of least concern, all should be made to contribute to evangelistic endeavor. When, in the second chapter of Acts, the believers were” added together,” or organized, it was not for the purposes of self-defense, but to propagate the truth and make converts. So, in the sixth chapter of Acts, when deacons were elected, the reason assigned was the excellent one of giving the apostles more time for prayer and the ministry of the word.
When Paul and Barnabas were commissioned as evangelists, this new office was created by the Spirit for this same purpose of soul-winning; and as from time to time offices and organizations multiply, Christian men should not forget the solitary occasion of their existence. The supreme purpose of the Ladies’ Aid Society is not the covering of nakedness, and the satiating of hunger, but a robe of righteousness and the bread of life instead. The supreme purpose of a Christian college is not the education of an intellect, the turning out of an IngersoU, but the salvation of a soul and the evolution of a saint.
Doctor Hillis, speaking of mechanical discoveries, says: “Each tool is ordained of God for the reenforcement of manhood. Every time a river is enslaved a thousand men are set free. Every time an iron wheel is mastered a thousand human muscles are emancipated.” Beloved, machinery in the church of God ought to mean the same thing. If it does not set men free from the enslavement of sin, if it does not emancipate their minds from the bonds of unbelief, it comes short of the divine will concerning it, and has little right to wear the name of Christ. When we say all church machinery, involving every officer and every organization, should be made to serve the interests of evangelism, we say exactly what we mean — all!
Yield to the Administration of the Spirit
In reading the marvelous record of the second chapter of Acts one is always likely to forget the administration of the Spirit, likely to forget that all of this came to pass only because he came upon the disciples. Doctor Cummings remarks: “The Holy Ghost from the day of Pentecost has occupied an entirely new position. The whole administration of the affairs of the church of Christ since that day has devolved upon him... That day was the installation of the Holy Spirit as the administrator of all things.” The apostle Paul confirms Cummings’ opinion, when, in the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, he gives the Holy Ghost the administration over all; “diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit “; “diversities of workings, but the same God.” Different works, manifestations of “the same Spirit “: gifts of “faith, in the same Spirit “; “gifts of healing, in the one Spirit.” Then, after naming “miracles,” “prophecy,” “tongues,” “interpretations,” he adds, “But all these worketh the one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will.”
It is the right of the Spirit then to administer the services of Sunday. There is no portion of the Sabbath service which can be rendered apart from the Holy Ghost. Peter was compelled to say, “We have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” And Paul expresses it, “Praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” Jude adds, “Praying in the Holy Ghost.” What is the value of prayer except it be “in the Spirit “? Paul insists that if we sing, we must sing “in the Spirit.” And Paul again says, “My preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” When one remembers that no man can say “Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit,” he realizes then that except He administer the services of the sanctuary they are administered In vain.
The difference between a man-administered service and the service administered by the Holy Ghost is illustrated in the first and second chapters of Acts. In the first chapter, before the Spirit had descended upon them, they held a business meeting and made choice of Matthias, and the whole procedure was a mistake. After the Spirit had come upon them they held a street meeting; thousands were saved, and the sample church of the centuries brought almost instantly into existence. The words of Jesus to his immediate disciples should have no less meaning to twentieth-century Christians: “Tarry ye, until ye be endued with power from on high.” When Mr. Moody heard a man say, “It remains for the world to see what God could do with a man fully surrendered to the Spirit,” he is reputed to have answered, “Then it shall see, for I will be that man.” But it still remains for the world to see what God can do with a church which is absolutely Spirit-administered. Truly, as one has said: “It would not enjoy a perennial revival, but rather a continuous ’ vival,’ for its abundant life would destroy any necessity of being revived.”
All meetings in the name of Christ should he Spiritadministered. Surely the mission circle should be Spiritadministered. It was the Holy Ghost who said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” He alone can use the workers! It was the Holy Ghost who sent them into Seleucia. He alone can appoint the place of their labors. It was when Saul was filled with the Holy Ghost that he rebuked Elymas, the sorcerer, and brought even the wicked deputy to believe, “being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.” He only can conquer opposition and make conquest of the most rebellious hearts.
The average prayer-meeting has a poor existence because the pastor, or some other human leader, insists upon presiding over it, and deciding who shall pray, and advising who shall testify. Pestiferous as are the men who testify at great length, and injurious to the meeting as are those who “pray always,” these are not responsible for the paralysis of most prayer-meetings. The trouble lies in another direction; the Holy Ghost has not been permitted to administer; a man-made program has been foisted upon the meeting, and people wonder why the Holy Ghost does not carry it out. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,” and testimonies will not be wanting; for all the prayers indited our impatient times will not be willing to wait.
Finally, whatever the plans or the purposes of church lifCj the Spirit should administer them. There is one feature of that Council at Jerusalem which approved its conclusions, and that was expressed in these words, “It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us.” His will once learned, ours should always be conformed to it. The sainted Gordon has wisely remarked, “Whether the authority of this one ruling sovereign Holy Ghost be recognized or ignored determines whether the church shall be a unity or an anarchy.” “The unity of the Spirit “is a phrase born of inspiration, and betokens power. Who can tell what it would mean to have the Holy Ghost so govern in all plans, purposes, and appointments of the church that the entire membership should work as under one man? Who can tell what might be accomplished if only men gave themselves absolutely to the government of the Holy Ghost? In a conversation B. F. Jacobs remarked upon the moving of the Immanuel Baptist Church, Chicago, something after this manner: “ When the church decided to remove their building about fifty feet south in order to escape the overshadowing hotel, several contractors said it could not be done. Finally, however, one brave contractor said, ‘Show me the money, and it shall come to pass.’ The bargain was made. Fifty jackscrews were brought, the house was undergirded, and two hundred men put to work, four to every screw. One man turned the screw a quarter of the way around, and in courses of fifty they acted in concert. When, however, the four courses had finished their tuggings at the screws one could see no motion in the building. But,” said Jacobs, “if you put your hand on the wall you could feel it tremble.” A few days later that great stone edifice was lifted into the air, and shortly made its journey to its new location.
If the administration of the Holy Ghost was properly admitted the members of the church would find themselves acting in concert, and the rise of such a church would be so evident, and its progress to the place of divine appointment so rapid, that all men would be astonished by it.
The words of Jesus are as applicable to-day as they were nineteen centuries ago, and as truly addressed to the organized bodies of believers as to individuals: “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”