The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1908-02-28

w without a pipe
running anywhere.
II you will take
the trouble to go
to II and climb the ~embankment you
will get a good drink, The eyangeiistic
church is a reservoir Of pure water
with a pipe to every heart in the COM
munity and every nation in the world.
Evangelical may mean truth on ice;
evangelistic means truth on fire.
Evangelical may mean a bomb.proot
for defense; eyangelistic means an
army on the march with every face
toward the foe.
Evangelical sings: Hold the fort.
for | am coming" evangelistic sings
storm the fort, for God Is leading.
The need of the church is not evan
%gelicalism as a thing to fight for, but
evangelism as a force to fight with.
The evangelical creed merely held
and defended becomes a fossil, only a
thing of interest; but the eyangelistic
life which feeds upon evangelical
truth is n force against which the
gates Of hell cannot prevail.
An evangelical may be a mere for
malist and there is no recognition OF
him in the New Testament, except as
he is rebuked; but a New Testament
evangelist is a man full Of the life Of
God and making alive those to whom
he ministers.
What Il Means.
1t is certainly more than inducing a
person to join the church, That is in.
portant. There are too many believers
who attend churches and refuse to be-.
come an organic part of any one,
They are spiritual pleasure seekers,
They are gospel tasters. They look
at the papers and go where the sub.
ject or the music seems most attrac-
tive. At best they are only bush
w~hackers" and ought somehow TO be
pressed into the regular army. 'One
shall chase a thousand, and two put
ten thousand to flight" that is, two
together are ten times stronger than
one alone. Organization multiplies
your influence by ten. You have no
right, therefore. to remain outside the
organized church of Christ. But you
can join the church. be baptized and
partake of the Lords Supper without
being a Christian. We may make our
churches so worldly in spirit that
worldly people will feel perfectly at
home as members of them. They be-
come adherents, and adherents, you
know, are barnacles that help to sink
the ship. The real convert has be
come a "partaker Of the divine ma
ture." q Peter 1:4.) He has beer
born from above" John 3:3.) There
will be conviction Of sin.
You Must Accept.
Conviction of sin, however, is not
enough. AS many as received him
to them gave he the power 10 become
the sons of God, even to them thai
believing on his name John 1:2.)
There must be acceptance Of Jesus
Christ. Even turning from sin is not
sufficient. God did not tell the bitter
Israelites merely to look away from
the bite of the serpent, but to look t
the serpent of brass uplifted In tht
camp. Reformation is simply TURNING
from sin; regeneration is turning from
sin unto Christ. Reformation is white
washing; regeneration is WASHING
white. To reform is to remain dc
formed; to be born again by faith II
the uplifted Jesus Is to take into oul
hearts the life that will make Christi,
character.
You Must Have New Birth.
Jesus said: Come ye after me ant
| will make you to became fishers o
men" Now, IT is not our mission Il
feed fish, that is, to cultivate the nat
ural mar until he has so greatly i'm
proved that he may be labeled
Christian. The fish that live in tn,
lower realm of darkness, grub AM
gravel must be transformed by tn
new birth into sheep fitted for thu
higher realm of landscape, sun AM
sky. The Babel process Of reachin,
heaven by building up from beneatl
Is not the New Testament method
"Ye must be born from above Georg'
Whitfield preached over 800 time
from this text, and. when asked VIII.
he had preached SO often from tn
same text, he replied: Because Y
must be born again" Christ can en-
ter the hearts of the vilest and max
them sons Of God. The need Of tn
day Is 2 re-emphasis Of sudden, In
Simultaneous conversion. a crisis with
view TO a process OF growth. Their
IL no growing into IT, but there Is In
mense growth In II.
The Secret Of Power.
: Back Of real evangelism is a prayln
church. Back Of the reformation Q
the sixteenth century were the ca
loused knees OF Philip Melancthon an
, the 'Bene orasse est bene studisse
ito have prayed well is to have stuc
led wel) of Martin Luther. II wa
not the thunderbolt Of Luther's ami
!. thema, but the power of persister
prayer that gave a new sunrise I
, the church Of Christ. The habit {
N Lobe Uaelpy Har tn rice fpr nra ye