Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1915-11-11

the time to tell all about those meet
ings that winter, but the night came
finally when Phil got religion, and
such hopping and shouting l never
saw before. That winter nearly one
hundred were converted in the old
Albright church only one mile from
our old st. Johns Lutheran Church
where we were glad to see class Of
fifteen to twenty confirmed in the
spring on Palm Sunday. AS l grew
older l noticed that the Albright
church did not seem to grow any
larger and nearly every winter the
old backsliders had to warmed over
by the same old process of shouting,
and some of the boys with whom
went to school never could find re.
ligion at the. anxious bench.
Nearly half century has passed
and the old Lutheran Church claims
nearly all the members of that neigh
borhood and the Albright church,
now called the Evangelical, has only
a few members and has entirely
changed it's methods of getting con-
verts. Time passed on and became
a pastor of a church in Columbus,
Ohio, and while there l saw two great
revivals. One was conducted by a.
certain Rev. Van Dixie in the social
ed Christian Church, better known
then as the Cambellite Church, and
the other by B. Fay Mills. The first
converted about three hundred peo-
pie in a few weeks under a tent near
the corner of Fifth Avenue and High
and the other was a real professional
evangelist preaching for all denom-
nations. Van bikes converts were
added TO a little mission church on
East Fifth Avenue and in a chort
time they were not to be found, and
when B. Fay Mills preached in Col
umbus his followers 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 crowd so large
that the coming of a great king could
not have stirred the people any more.
What was the result? b. Fay Mills
has left the Christian faith and his
followers lost all the religion they
ever had, and that was not much. He
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 am pastor of the First
Lutheran church, | have been tested
by union revival meetings. In the
first one several churches united to
convert this city and a great preacher
was called here, from Chicago, but
the final results showed that the First
church by the catechetical method adj
ded more members than all the 9th
er churches combined. The last at
tempt was the Billy Sunday move
ment few years ago. There was
self-appointed Billy Sunday commit
tee which took the liberty of appoint
ing other members of other churches
to 60 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 all the protestant
churches except the Lutheran and the
Episcopalians would unite and close
all their week day and Sunday eve
ming services for six weeks. This
committee also appoint
ed one member of my congregation to
go along to Erie, Pa, to see and hear
Billy. While at Erie, Billy discov-
cred that Mansfield had five Luther
an churches and that over fifteen
hundred members were in the First
Church. Just as soon as Billy dis
covered this fact he was Immediately
converted He now insisted that the
First Lutheran church must fall into
line with all the other Protestant
denominations and cooperate with
them, or he would not come to Mans
field. You can imagine the pressure
that was brought now on the mem
bers of this one church and finally on
the pastor to yield to the Emperor of
Modern Evangelism. The matter was
first brought to the attention of the
Council and the Council asked the
congregation to decide the matter
The time had now come for the pas
tor of the First Lutheran Church to
take a stand, or let an outsider come
in and dictate what he could do, or
not do, in the congregation where
God had called him to preach and
take care of the flock over which
He had placed him. 1t was a trying
hour, but / had seen SO much of the
evil result of the high pressure meth
GUS tIdt L HOl lHtcllu W Dc lucHI-
flied with such unscriptural meth
DDS, no difference what the result
would be. So politely informed my
congregation that | would not hold a
club over them, but that they were
trying to hold one over me, and that
wanted it understood that If they
voted to close my services here Sun
day morning or evening, that they
were voting on my resignation at the
same time. The result was that the
congregation unanimously deciced to
do nothing to hinder the Billy Sunday
movement, but we would continue
our own services as we had before.
The result was that Billy Sunday
never came to Mansfield. Here is the
place for very good question:: IT
Billy Sunday was in his campaign
solely to save souls, would he have
refused to come just because one
Lutheran church, as he desired, did
not yield to his demand? Honestly,
does it not look as if he wanted the
fifteen hundred members at his tab
ernacle meeting the last night to
swell the pocket book? The Liter
airy Digest of April third, 1915, has
a photograph of the following check:
1.-The Land Title and Trust Com
pany, Philadelphia. No. 4317. March
20, 1915. 51,136.S5. Pay to the
order of William A. Sunday Fifty one
Thousand, One Hundred and Thirty
six Dollars and Eighty-fve Cents.
The Seaboard National Bank, New
York. l.. A. Davis, Secretary"
The same magazine shows that he
took from twenty-one cities $346,
66591. Does this look like the fol-
lower of the humble Nazarene? At
the nreSant time ARRANGEMENTS are