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(Continued from page 1) have secured enough to meet these expenses we shall stop collecting. “In one day a circus will take$20, 000 out of the city and it won't leave one incentive for anyone to lead a better life. We surely ought to be able to get one-third as much in three weeks as the circus does in one day. God‘s hardest job is to convert a stingy man.” A collection, in tin plates, was taken at this point, followed by a duet by Mr. Fischer and Miss Annie MacLaren. Tella What Evangelism In. “O, Lord, Revive Thy Work in the Midst of the ‘1ears,” was the text adopted by Mr. Sunday for a brief dis cussion of the meaning of evangelism. “There are many of us,” he said, “who are close to the coffin, so close that we could see the casket if the devil would pull the curtain aside. For many of us the sands of time have almost passed. When individual theor ies are pitted against Gods Babylon judgment must ensue. We shall get the judgment of Babylon if we have the sins of Babylon. We need more people fight with God. In almost every church there are two classes, the rats and the anti rats. A revival comes naturally in its proper place. A revival of religious interest is a necessity. It is a predom inance of the material over the spirit ual that is facing us. This is the busy age; it is the day of isms and cisms; there is more today to turn people away from than ever before. When I see the street loafer standing on the corner discussing the greatest questions of the day and propounding a solution for everything, when I see him arguing and chewing, spitting and cursing, I know it won't be long be fore the sheriff gets him, and there are too many of his class. His type is seen in other forms. When the con census of the latest scholarship say one thing and the Bible another, I say to perdition with the scholarship. The responsibility never rests with God. God's promises are kept. When things go wrong the people, not God, are to blame. iCtizens of Joplin, you are to blame. Citizens of Joplin, you are to church works to blame sometimes; the people are to blame, and sometimes the preachers are to blame. “Factions and feuds do more toward destroying the influence of God than anything else. If there is anything I despise it is the long, lean, lantern- jawed old gossip, who stirs up strife and dissention in her neighborhood. But worse even than she is the ‘he’ gossip. The old codger with his whiskers and his ever wagging tongue has the women backed off the boards when it comes to petty cussedness. A Striking Comparison, “You ask the meaning and need of a revival. Well, let me say this: if my baby were sick and through the efforts of a physician the child could be re vived and caused to live six months longer than she otherwise would have done I would be willing to part with every dollar I had to pay that doctor, even though the baby died at the end of another six months. “If my home were on fire and some big, burley man should rush into the flames and save my wife I wouldn't care how he saved her. I wouldn't care whether he brought her down the stairs feet first, or nead first, or whether she had a stitch of clothing on or not, all I would ask would be that he save her. It would be worth every dollar I possessed if my wife were saved to me for even only a short time. “It is worth all a person owns to have peace and contentment brought to the home for six months. It is worth much to a woman to have her home made bright and to have her husband come home sober instead of having him brought in drunk to curse and damn her. Even if it lasts only six months it is worth much; if the old lobster backelides at the end of that time at least a part of the home life has been made better. It will be appreciated, you can't tell me it won't. You've got to show me the woman who wouldn't relish such a change. I'm a Missourian myself; I have great re spect for the state; my father sleeps at old Camp Patterson at Pilot Knob. “God has his own reasons. All days cannot be bright and cheery, neither would we ask all days to be rainy. There are reasons for all things; there is a reason for evangelism to stir into life the latent embers that smoulder in the religious undertakings of the country. “Joplin has an enviable reputation throughout the country. It is recog nized as a hustling, bustling city. It is looked upon as a place of money. But there are knockers here as else where. They are always busy with their hammers, and they don't observe union hours. “When our lives are pure and there are those who are interested in the moral betterment of the municipality, a takes to a revival just as water seeks its own level. There are ex perts in all lines; in medicine, In law. This is the day of specialists, and the evangelist is one of them; his work is different from that of a minister. A revival is the conviction of sin. In side the church there must be a spirit ual revival before it gets outside. The average church worker's faith is almost ready to snap; the average citizen spends too much of his time in his commercial interests. In Joplin there are many people devoting all their time to zinc mines and zinc mining stocks and letting their kids go to hell. “You can walk down the street with a basket of nickels and lead four-fifths of the people to hell. “It is faith in Jesus Christ that saves the people, not religion. You can go to hell just as fast from the church door as from the grog shop or bawdy house. Baptizing and immersion and knowledge of the Bible and the West minster and the Ten Commandments are not all that is required to save. Some of the biggest devils I have ever known have been baptised. The trou ble with some ministers is that they have pink tea and ice water in their veins instead of ginger and pepper and tobascos sauce. Too many ministers are unforgiving; they spend too much time in factional fights. If they can not forgive neither can God forgive them, and if they would die they would go straight to hell. God can't work where there are factions and feuds. God is bigger than any one denomina tion or any one church he ever looked at. “The religion of some people is re markable. What they give toward the support of their church is amazing. They probably give about one ten thou sandth of what they are worth and one man will spend more for an automobile than he would give to his cush in fifty years. The two greatest callings, those of the ministry and of public in struction are the poorest paid. The minister and the school teacher do God's noblest work, and get the least for it. “The church is all right when she is in the world, but all wrong when the world is in her, and too frequently the church springs a leak and the inlet of worldliness is through a five inch hole...while the outlet is through a three-inch hole. When a church reaches the stage of raffles and chance selling the time has come for a gen eral awakening. The church is not keeping pace with the world. The boy in knee pants and the girl in short dresses of today know more about sin than do their grandparents. I don't be lieve over half of the church members have ever been converted. If this half would die the church would lose in numbers, but would lose nothing of its spiritual force. In every town is found the army of prostitutes that the politicians can put their hands on and use them in their work. The trouble with too many places is that they are controlled by a gang of politicians, nefarious and slinking. “Against this revival we will find every blackleg gambler, every bar tender, saloon proprietor and every prostitute. But I'll give the devil and his gang the best run for their money they have ever had. And let me em phasize the fact that the day of the revival is not over, “Let no man go beyond me in paying tribute to culture and to social distinc tion and to the church. The church is the best institution on earth; all others on the face of the earth could be blotted out and they wouldn't be missed by sundown. I am not against the church, but against the sham that is in the church, and out of it. “I propose to keep firing away at the holes where the sinners are until they come crawling out, saying they were not in there, but they will be peppered so full of bird shot that they can't get away from it. Ridicules Ethical Revival, “In one of the cities where I preached recently a lily fingered minister ex pressed the belief that what was need ed was an ethical revival, not a revival of the old type. “Why, an ethical revival would put us #80 close to hell that we could smell the sulphur fumes. We need a revi val that will put men in the ministry, that will make better homes, that w,.l reform drunkards, that will lead har lots back to virtue. If I don't live up to what I preach I'll pack up and go. I am here with the cat and bells every evening to de liver the goods. I defy anybody to come forward and prove any of the lies they have been telling about me. The work of the evangelist is his mis sion and it is one that is needed more today than ever before. It is a work in which everyone could become en gaged; it is everybody's duty to exert himself in this line. No less a person than former President Benjamin Harri son talked with a young lawyer for many hours one night, years ago, and it was not until early morning that the erring barrister was converted. Mr. Harrison said nothing had ever thrilled him so much as his success in convert ing this young man.” Mr. Sunday's sermon was concluded at 9:20 o'clock.
Newspaper Details
Joplin News Herald
Joplin, Missouri, US
Thu, Nov 25, 1909
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Bethany M.
USA 13 Jun 2026
Other Publications Near Joplin, Missouri
Joplin Globe
Joplin Morning Tribune
Joplin Sunday Globe
Joplin News Herald
Joplin Daily Globe
