Mountain advocate., 1922-09-29
ABSTRACT OF ADDRESS
by REV. VIM. NJ. GILBERT


ItTIu dN BAVR1btaNsN
leading to a definite religious ex-
perience in which.Jesus Christ is a
personal Saviour Lord and Leader.
But we are also modern Methodists
and therefore insist that an evangel
tho It is personal and saves from sin
must also be social and save for SER
vice.
We are also Protestants, and join
hands with every denomination that
names our Christ. Nevertheless. we
believe that Methodism has a dis
tinct contribution to make to the
sum total of Christianity in its
warm, personal experience of the
presence Of a living Lord and Christ.
This being true, we must evange-
lie in our own way, should train
our own leaders in our own schools.
and reach that part Of the worlds
population that responds to our pc
culiar type of religious experience.
But we also pray Gods blessing on
the other denominations that they
may reach the people that they are
peculiarly adapted to reach.
Recognizing and Charting Difficulties
Our New Americans come from
different races and countries.
They were more different in tenn
perment and traditions than they
are in geography For that reason,
a separate and distant program of
evangelization must be worked out
for the Oriental, another for the
Northern Europeans, another for
the Southern Europeans, and still
another for the Hebrew peoples.
Then. there are different groups
within any given race that call for
different approach. The foreign
born calls for, type of evangelistic
message, their American born child
ren call for another. The program
that will reach the father and son
will not reach the mother and dau-
ghter.
They differ entirely in education
al standards aud religious back
grounds. A great percentage of them
are radical in their theory of politi-
cal economy, all of which differen-
ces caH1foF a different approach. n
l. America Must Be Christ-Like
Hence we arrive at conclusion
number one. The New American
will never be evangelical in any
considerable numbers until Christ
ian America is sufficiently Christ
like in industry, in school, in neigh
borhood in real estate and in church
life, to practice the first phrase of
the Lords ideal prayer, "Our Fa-
ther," with all that 1t implies.
Sermon, Altar-Can and Prayer
insufficient
The direct mission method of the
sermon, altar-call and prayer will
of itseIGsneyeF adequately meet the
situatione for the simple reason
that where a mission may secure the
attendance and witness the cohver-
sions of ten, q twenty or even tone
New Americans, it's message never
touches hundreds Of thousands more
who never darken its door. In the
Harlem district of New York are
100000 Jews. By their own author
ity they admit that the synagogue6s
are only in touch with about 10000.
There are then in that neighbor-
hood 10000 non-religious and
many of them anti-religious, He
brews How can they hear where no
voice comes to them?
Christian Church Must Establish
Contacts
Our third conclusion then is that
no adequate Evangel message can
come to the New America until the
Christian Church has established
points of contact with him. We do
not know him, therefore he does not
love us. So the first step in our
Evengelization is for every member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church
to become acquainted with some
New American and be his friend.
Spiritualize Our Institutional Pro-
gram of Human Kindness
My next conclusion is that we
must spiritualize ou institutional
program Of human kindness. Here,
if we are not careful, we will be mis-
understood. There is one group of
workers who are so sure that "the