The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1908-04-10
A SOUL WINNING CHURCH
BY Rev. Israel Putnam.

IN FOUR PARTS.

From Acts, 8, 4-6 we see that the
Church went out preaching the word.
Every Christian can preach the gospel
if he will, In some way, some where,
to some one and to some extent, and
there is no Bible. nor reasonable ex.
cuse for their not doing SO. And with
out a consecrated Church, responsive
to the Word of God, there will be no
great revival, with loving. active
inquiring. faithful and sincere service
there can be no doubt as to results.
The secret of the wonderful ingather-
ing of Penteoost lay in the fact that
the Spirit-filled Church stood by the
Spirit-filled preacher, and the secret
of theii all being Spirit filed was that
they were, all with one accord in one
place. So then. wherever oneness of
heart, plan and purpose exists, all for
Gods gloly, with self where it belongs,
the down icomipp, >. ipn4li~S anu ouS-
sbowinep1n labors of love, of the Spirit,
will ue as natural as for any effect to
bo the result of cause.
1t is next to impossible for minister
to win souls to Christ over cold, di-
vided, formal, selfish criticising doubt
ing Church. Lyman Beecher, on be-
ing asked why his Church was so pros
porous, replied: because when I
preach there are four hundred people
who hear the sermon and 60 out to
speak favorably during the succeeding
six days to all whom they meet.
They spoke kindly of him to others,
inviting them to church and so tried
to help him win souls to the Master
and regard him as being we'll quail
fled to manage the affairs of the
Church. o that spirit of Intelligent,
unselflsh and aggressive winning
might speedily prevail in all the
branches of the great Church of Christ
Worldliness, just simply worldli-
ness, which seems to so many just
only harmlessness, is, without doubt.
the greatest, stumbling block in the
way of evangelistlc work on the part
of those who profess to follow Christ.
Dear friends, in so short time and
space l cannot possibly write them out
but will you please read especially if
you are troubled with this question,
the following references on our knees,
alone Rom. IL, 2: Matt. 13, 20: 16,
26: John 10. 10: II, IA, Is, %;
l Cor. 3, 6, 10: 3, 10: 2 Cor. 4. 4,
z, 10: Gal. /, 4: A, 3-6: Eph. 2, 9
6: Col. 2. s, 20: Jas. 1 81: 4, 4:
, Pet. /, 4: John 2, 15-17: 8, 4, 10:
Tit. "a
About the only difference discover
able between multitude of Church
members and those of no religious pro-
fession is that the former have their
names on the records of some denomi-
nation. And this is true of our own
rs we'll as others. Many never attend
prayer nor class meetings and some
not even the public preaching services
where nothing is expected of them but
to listen, thus not only deceiving
themselves, but by their indifference
aud usually worldly lives greatly him
der the cause as we'll. Sometimes in
times of revival, even, leading men,
bers absent themselves from the ser
vices to attend theaters, card parties.
SO. while special effort is being made
to win the lost to Christ and build
up the cause they profess to love and
desire so much to see prosper. And
not only these things. but the silly
and Goddess excuses for remaining at
home, spch as, too tired, did not get
chores done in time, did not feel like
going, some one called, Sc. Sc. are
enough to make tears of rity fall from
the eyes of those who are trying to do
the real work of the Master, but
especially so, when it is known, in
many, and most cases of this kind,
that the trouble is a lack of experience
aud Gods love in the heart for lost
souls.
Many faithful pastor longs for a
revival, but because of these. aud other
worldly conditions existing. in the
membership, the way is blocked until