The Minneapolis journal., 1903-12-26
A HARD FIELD
FOR EXPORTERS
WORK IN MINNESOTA DIFFICrIT
ACCORDING TO EVANGELISTs.
Presiding Elder Stout Says the Evan
gelist and Exhorter Is at Present a
Failure Here-Rev. w. B. Riley
COncurs to Some Extent and An
aIyzes the Situation.

WIdC is eLAere. ABOUT MlnneSOtanS
that make them hard subjects for the
evangelist and exhorter?
DR.. j. +. Stout. the Methodist pre-
siding elder who has lately come to
Hamline, says the evangelist is
failure in Minnesota.
Rev. w. B. Riley, pastor of the
First Baptist church in Minneapolis,
out foundation. And Mr.. Riley
known here as pastor-has a great
reputation elsewhere as an evangelist.
What Dr.. Stout Said.
DR.. Stout's statement was:
The evangelist and exhorter is failure
in Minnesota. It requires something more
than mere exhortation to save the souls In
this community, and the evangelists who
have come here from the south and other
fields where their work has been crowned
with success have been failures.
What the church needs above all else, is
personal work among the laity looking to-
wards the salvation Of man. Without this
personal work the pastor cannot secure
nor hope for the best results.
DR.. Stout also said the situation in
Minnesota was different from that of
any other community. A higher aver
age. of intellectual ability was needed
here, he thought, and while the minis
ters In Minnesota, and especially those
within the st. Paul conference, were at
the top of their profession, the church
would never succeed as 1t should until
it. adopted more socialistic platforms.
NIr. Riley's Opinion.
s.The words of Presiding Elder
Stout concerning the failure of evan
gelism in Minnesota are of deep in
tereSt to me for several reasons said
Mr.. Riley. First Of all, they have
some occasion. AS a pastor who has
given from thirty days to three months
out of every year, for the last twenty
years, to the holding of evange1istic
meetings, I am frank to confess that
have found no more difficult field in
which to do this work than our state
of Minnesota.
81 am not convinced, however, with
Elder Stout that the church needs
on the contrary, think that the secret
of failure in Minnesota is that our
platforms have been too socialistic and
not sufficiently evangelistic. The gos-
pei does not need to be adapted to the
age, in it's simplicity and purity Of
original utterance it is as we'll adapt
ed to the twentieth century as to the
first; and if more ministers preached
it plainly and in the power of the
Spirit, more results in, the salvation of
men. and the strengthening of other
| phases of the church, would be at
hand.
A Continuous Revival.
THE pastor is largely responsible
for the evangelistic state of his
church. If his sermons are evangel-
| istic, and If he makes at least every
Sunday night a soul winning service,
and keeps at it thru series Of years,
the great body of his membership will
fall into line, and a genuine revival,
more often the old-fashioned sort, can
be maintained the year around.
IT agree, however, with Elder Stout,
among the laity. But we should also
see that if we are ever to have them
we must originate Bible training
schools in which to prepare them.
How can a man who has no thoro
Familiarity with the Bible become an
should not condemn men for not doing
the thing for which we have not Civ
en- them an education.
The 'sUninspired" Bible.
The reasons why evangelistic work
is SO much more successful in the
south than in the north are many.
But two of these are of primary i'm
portance: The south has far more
homogeneous population. The skep-
ticisms of the old world have not been
1 transplanted to that soil in any con-
! siderable measure. They have few
people who speak a broken tongue;
and just about as few who are athe-
lists. But more important still, the
theological seminaries of the south
stand in toto for a full inspiration OF
the Bible. The book. therefore, has
authority in the south, and men
believe that the preacher brings to
them the word of God, and they heed
Its mandates, and seek salvation for
body and soul along the lines of its
| teaching, believing that their fate for
time and eternity depends upon
whether they accept or reject it.
"A few more decades of such teach
i ing as is now going forth from many
of our theological seminaries of the
north, a few more men sent out from
i them to preach uninspired Bible,
and the doom Of the churches, receiv-
ing them, will be sealed. The socialis-
tic clubhouse will mark the spot
where sanctuaries were erected to
God We must either go back to the
book on which the faith of the
churches is founded, or prepare to
i part with the institutions born of that
faith.