Milford chronicle., 1905-03-03

and answered them. The earnest ap-
peals Of DR.. Chapman and Mr.. Bieder-
wolf would have found no response in
the hearts of those men whom we saw
arise in the mems meeting in Hazard s
Dayilion if it had not been that
mightier power than mans had been
at work in them. If we want revival
TO move a city we must get that re-
vival by the golden tongue" Of earnest
prayer. We shall never get 1t simply
by the silver tongue" of brilliant
speech. Prayer, prayer, agonZing pray
er. prayer which came from hundreds
and thousands Of anxious fathers and
mothers and brothers and sisters and
husbands and wives, was the cause the
chief cause, of the Los Angeles revival.
The Secret of His Success.
The same lessor. was taught us by the
movement led by Campbell Morgan
wear ago. After the great English
preacher had left the Pacific coast the
ministerial union of this city met TO
discuss the results Of those meetings.
One clergyman after another discussed
the causes of that awakening, but no
solution was found. l confessed my
own inability to understand it, for l
had heard Campbell Morgan in the
east. when he did not seem to have
any such influence over men. Yet the
sermons which were pOwerless there
were practically the same sermons that
were fruitful here. With that the
Nestor of the congregational ministers
arose, good old loving DR.. Warren f.
Dav. He said: Brethren, you have
omitted to state the chief reason OF
Campbell Morgan's success in Los An
geles. It was due to the fact that hun
dreds and thousands Of Christians
paved the way for his success by weeks
of earnest prayer. The Christians pray
ed in their churches; they prayed in
their cottage prayer meetings; they
prayed everywherer' amen" said l.
'Dr. Day is right" Campbell Nor
gan's revival was due chiefly to the
fact that those meetings were lifted up
to heaven by thousands Of pleading
praying Christians. J. Wilbur Chap-
man when he reaches heaven will see
there many saved during this Los An
geles revival. But the old mother in
Israel. the old Christian elder and dea-
con. the old Christian church member,
will rejoice with him in this harvest.
Christ from his throne will recognize
their services. you wondered" he
will say to the evangelsts. why it
was that your words so moved the sin
ner to seek salvation. 1t was in answer
to the prayers of these humble Chris
tians that the Holy Spirit touched the
hearts of your hearers so that the good
seed fell into good ground Let us
thank God for such prayers.
The Los Angeles revival teaches an
other great lesson. The vast number
of people do not have to be taught who
Christ is They know enough about the
gospel of salvation to be saved if they
will. They must be led by the power
of the Holy Spirit simply to make
stand to come to a decision, to do what
they know they ought to do. They do
not need to hear sermons on the au-
thenticity of the Scriptures, the divini-
tv of Christ or the doctrine of original
sin They are for the greater part be-
levers in Christianity. 1t is the person
al appropriation of these truths that
they lack. They love sin so much that
they will not come to the desired de-
cision. In other words, they believe, but
they do not wish to give up sin. 1t IS
not information about Christ nor eXpla-
nation Of the truths of Christianity that
men need They understand these
things already. 1t is the will that must
be captured They do not realize their
danger nor that they must themselves
seek salvation through Christ. The SER
mons preached by the eyangelists prov
ed that fact.
Methods of the EvRngelists.
The city was mapped out into sec
tions. Then the different Protestant
churches, irrespective of creed, united
in one central church of their respec-
tive districts. Thus the rich and the
Door, the educated and uneducated, pas
tors as well as people, had the bread of
life broken unto them. And how did
these evangelists- break the bread Of
life? They gave their gospel message
in the simplest language, first taking it
for granted that all men believed in the
divine personality of Jesus. And when
the invitation was given to come to
Christ men and women arose by the
scores and often by the hundreds and
came. Ministerial friends, Christian
1 friends, we as a class spend too much
time in proving that Christ is rather
than that Christ should be accepted. 1t
is to bring them to public decision for
Christ which men already know they
ought to make that is the chief work of
the Christian messengers. Hear it, ye
Christian laborers.
Men believe in and know enough
about Christ for salvation if they wisl
to be saved. learn this fact from
all the evangeIists, but especially from
one, Rev. c. 4. Shaeffer, commonly
called 'the children's evangelist" "oh,'
said l, ''if am going to get any bene
fit from these gospel meetings l mus