Every progressive evangelist, desirous of enlarging his usefulness and increasing his efficiency, is constantly seeking new ways and means to draw people to his meetings.
There is danger, against which we must definitely guard, that this search will result in the adoption of methods which will be a reproach to the cause of Christ, bring weakness into our meetings, make our evangelists targets for justifiable criticism, drive serious-minded, thinking people away from us, and subject our evangelists to ridicule.
Blatancy, sensationalism, oddity, freakishness, may help a circus, or a side show which deals in freaks. But this movement is not a circus, and its public representatives misrepresent it when they conduct themselves in such a fashion as to create an impression that they are freaks.
We are not engaged in a worldly enterprise. If we were, it might be all right for us to use worldly methods. As it is, we should discard worldliness of every kind, in preaching, in advertising, in making announcements, in taking up the collection, in wording our subjects, in answering questions, in everything connected with our work.
We have only one reason for preaching. We have a message from God to deliver to men. It is a message designed for this hour. It is a Bible message. It should be stated in Bible terms. It should be brought to men by Bible methods. It should be preached by Bible men. It should be accompanied by Bible power. it will then accomplish Bible results.
The one thing which will bring more people to our meetings than any up-to-the-minute advertising stunt, any verbal gymnastics, any startling, sensational, theatrical method, is for our men to become known as preachers mighty in the Scriptures. Nothing will breed such confidence in this message, or create such conviction of the truth, as to have it preached by men who, by every word, by every action, by every manner, show a close familiarity with, a deep understanding of, an unswerving loyalty to, and a profound love for, God's blessed word.
What serious-minded, thinking, earnest people are interested in today is a solution of the great problems of the human heart, personal salvation, assurance of forgiveness, human destiny, the origin of man, the mystery of death, the coming judgment, the future life, the great problem of sin, and God's remedy for it. They will listen closely and earnestly, with profound interest and absorption, to any man who they believe is qualified to speak on these subjects.
And they will listen the more attentively the more seriously the man discusses such serious subjects, the less he rants and struts, and the fewer extreme, sensational mannerisms he displays. His sure confidence, his quietness and calmness of speech, his intense earnestness, and his profound assurance that God's word is the final word on these matters will create an abiding conviction, whereas a sniart, sensational handling of these subjects, obviously intended to be a striking demonstration of the preacher's personal brilliancy, only sends the people away, some in sorrow, some in disappointment, some in disgust, and all unfed with the bread of life.
The Bible contains the answer to the eager questionings of the human heart. It contains the solution of all human problems. It contains the message of God for this hour. It contains the subject matter for all our preaching. Let us stay close to it, brethren. There is nothing that has so much power to draw men to this message, to our meetings, and to hold them in the truth, as the Bible.
Let us, then, become men of the Bible.
Washington, D. C.
