Danskeren. [volume] (Neenah, Wis.) 1892-1920, 1915-09-15

takes me back about tlftY years, and l nave
no better way Of explaining professional
evangelism than to give the impression Of the
things / have seen and the results during
the past half century. The first big meeting
/ ever attended made a wonderful impression
on my mind. It was winter and the sleighing
was good and the older boys and girls hitched
up the horses to a big sled and tied IA cow
bell to the harness and | went along for
the first time to see the Albrights shout. They
said before we started that it was about time
FOR Phi Houser and Henry Rush to get re
lieion Up to that time l was used to reYe-
renee IN the house If God, but that night /
saw boys and girls have fun in the rear Of
the church and in the front the boys aud the
girls were kneeling at the mourners' bench
weeping and crying and Orange Lake was
praying louder and louder and soon Henry
Allgier began to jump and shout and Henry
Rush jumped over the backs Of the pews and
how he did Jump | never saw anything like
it. Phil Hauser did not get through that
night. and it was understood that all must
60 every night til he gets religion for, said
they, he beats them all. / shall not take the
time to tell all about those meetings that
winter, but the night came finally when Phil
got religion, and such hopping and shouting
| never saw before. That winter nearly one
hundred were converted in the old Albright
church only one mile from our old st. john
Lutheran church where we were glad to see
a class Of fifteen to twenty confirmed in the
spring on Palm Sunday. As | grew older
noticed that the Albright church did not
seem to grow any larger and nearly every
winter the old backsliders had TO be warmed
over by the some old process Of shouting, and
some Of the boys with whom | went to school
never could find religion at the anxious
bench.
Nearly half a century has passed and the
old Lutheran Church claims nearly all the
members of that neighborhood and the Al
bright church, now called the Evangelical,
has only a few members and has entirely
changed its methods Of getting converts.
Time passed on and | became a pastor Of
a church in Columbus, Ohio, and while there
| saw two great r~eviyals. One was conducted
by a certain Rev. Van Dixie in the so-called
Christian Church, better known then as the
Gampbellite church, and the other by B.. Fay
Mills. The first converted about three hun
dred people in a few weeks under a tent
near the corner Of Fift Avenue and High and
the other was a real professional evangelist
preaching for ale denominations. Van Dlke's
converts were added to a little mission church
on East Fifth Avenue and in a short time
they were not to be found and when b.
Fav Mills preached in Columbus his follow
ers by the thousands were so full Of love
that they hated everybody who did not agree
with his methods and they followed him to
the depot when he went away like hero
worshippers in a crowd SO large that the
coming of a great king could not have stir
red the people any more. What Was the re
suit B. Fay Mills has left the Christian
faith and his followers lost all the religion
they ever had, and that was not much. de
appealed to their emotions and they mistook
their feelings for the new birth and as soon
as they lost their emotional feelings they
lost as they supposed their religion.
Twice since I am pastor of the First
Lutheran church. I have been tested by
union revival meetings. la the first one Sc
geral churches united TO convert this city and
a great preacher was called here, from Chica-
90. but the final results showed that the First
church by the cateehetical method added
more members than all the other churches
combined. The last attempt was the Billy
Sunday movement a few years ago. There
was a ~self-appointed Billy Sunday commit
tee which took the liberty of appointing 9th
er members Of other churches to go to Erie,
Pa, to see and hear the celebrated modern
evangelist and to arrange for his coming to
this city. He had written before that he
would come providing allie the prostetant
churches except the Lutheran and the Epis-
copalians would unite and close all their
week day and Sunday evening services for
six weeks. This s%elf-appointed committee al
so appointed one member Of my congrega-
ton to go along to Erie, Pa, to see and hear
Billy. While at Erie, Billy discovered that
Mansfield had five Lutheran churches and
that over fifteen hundred members were IN
ne all dFG