The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1912-10-02
Receive a Scoring at Ses-
sion of the
CONGRESS OF EVANGtLISTS
The Many and Doubtful Tao
tics Adopted at Rellg.
iOuS Gatherings.
A FEW FAMILIAR SPECIMENS

Tear Jerking" "chair smash
ing" 'death-bed tales" "hurrah
boy" enthusiasm and deliberately
faxed statistics as evangelistic in
struments, were condemned at a
session of the congress Of evangei-
lists and rescue mission workers at
the Moody Bible Institute. World IA
nous evangelists and revivalists sat
in rows before the rostrum and lis-
tened to speakers who In plain
words discussed their numerous
backslidings from the legitimate
field of Christian effort.
DR.. Francis F. Taylor. pastor OF
the First Baptist Church, of In
dianapolis, Ind, and formerly an
evangelist of the Chapman School,
summed up carefully all the criti-
cism that is now being hurled at
the heads of professional "boos-
ters" of things religious. Lack of
spiritual depth in workers, lack OF
reading and training of the mind
and an exaggeration OF temporary
results were declared to be respon-
sible for the bad odor into which
evangelism has fallen in the opin-
ion OF the churches.
Down in Cincinnati recently, ="
said DR.. Taylor, there was revi-
val meeting. Every evening before
closing the house of worship they
added up the souls saved during
the session and chalked them up on
blackboard outside on a corner
where the cars turned. Every time
| passed that board It made me feel
sick. Down in st. Louis there was
a meeting and 5000 men came.
"'All who wish to lead a better
life, stand up, said the speaker.
Every man in the hall stood on
his feet.
Three thousand men for
Christ yelled the evangelist, and
the next day 1t appeared in the pa
pers.
81 went to one meeting where the
audience was asked to join in pray
err. All who felt moved by the Holy
Spirit were requested to show
hands.
There's one. and another, and
another, and yet another cried the
preacher and he kept right on
counting. looked up and there
were only two hands up in the
whole room"
1--WE seen the same thing hun
dreds of times" said Dean ]. VI.
Gray. who presided at the meeting.
IT'S an outrage of the worst kind"
II have seen men make posi-
tive effort to work themselves into
a flood of tears" went on DR.. Tay-
Tor. II have seen a man screw up
his face as though in torture and
then turn and smash a chair on the
platform beside him into pieces. All
of 1t had been rehearsed before. It
was for effect. Considering the act
Ing quality OF these gentlemen and
their skill in securing publicity, one
wonders why they have chosen re-
ligion instead of the theater as
profession.
Zone of the worst indictments OF
evangelists Is on the financial end.
Too many evangelisis are riding
about in high powered automobiles.
You can't fool the people that way.
They are beginning to talk about II
and evangelism is losing its power.
Moody was never talked about in
that way. When entered the
evangelistic field spoke about II TO
one OF the greatest evangelists in
the country-one of the hest
known.
Come over to my cottage no
said, and I'll put you wise how 70
get an offering. I've got 'em all
skinned at that
Il felt like kicking him-a truly
un-Christian feelfng-but | manae-
ed to restrain myself."-[Chicapo