There is a crying need all over the field for revival efforts in our churches. There are many divided homes. Sometimes only the mother is an Adventist, her prayers ascending daily to the throne of grace for her husband and children. There are also many relatives and friends who know the truth in theory.
Every church, wherever located, should be a lighthouse, and if its light is shining, it is exerting an influence. The papers and tracts left in the homes of the people, the books lent, and the life lived in the neighborhood, all tend to prepare the way for a church revival effort. My experience in this line of work has led me to pursue the following methods:
1. Announce the meetings a month ahead.
2. Have the church secure a good supply of Present Truth and small books.
3. Begin the meeting on Sabbath with an old-fashioned revival, each member consecrating himself for service.
4. District the territory around the church and begin a systematic distribution of Present Truth. On Sabbath afternoon and Sunday morning visit every home, leaving Present Truth, and extending an invitation to attend the meeting Sunday night. Thus there should be a good attendance from the beginning.
5. The Sunday night service, the first in the series, should be of such a nature as to awaken a deep interest, bringing conviction and a desire to hear more.
6. Follow the sermon each night with a brief, earnest, stirring appeal to forsake sin. Locate the plague spot, diagnose the case, and then apply. the remedy.
7. Have a covenant on the table in front of the pulpit, this covenant to read:
"We, the undersigned, do covenant together to accept Christ as our only hope of salvation, the Bible as our guide, and the ten commandments as our standard of conduct."
8. At the close of the meeting each evening invite the people to come forward and place their names on the covenant. There will always be those in the audience who know the truth, but have never taken their stand. These will come first.
God says, "My word .. . shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it." This word and the Holy Spirit will be hard to resist. After two weeks of such meetings you will usually be ready on the third Sabbath for another revival, a baptism, and a large mission offering.
In one church of but sixty-eight members a two weeks' effort of this kind resulted in 2,500 Present Truth being given out; book sales of $75 cash; evening collections of $50; and on the last Sabbath, after the revival, an offering of $53 was brought to the rostrum for missions. This was followed by a baptism, where four of the sixteen who had signed the covenant during the two weeks were baptized, the others being baptized later.
In a three weeks' effort in a larger church, the evening offerings amounted to $400; the offerings to missions on the last Sabbath, $307; and twenty-nine were baptized.*
With the prayer on our lips, "Oh, to be nothing, nothing, only to lie at His feet a broken and emptied vessel for the Master's use made meet ; " with the Holy Spirit to help us, the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, to cut its way through prejudice, indifference, and the strongholds of sin, God can do a great work in a short time. It did not take Him a thousand years to make this world. He spake and it was so. It does not take Him a period of years to save a sinner. If we limit God's power in creation, we limit His power in salvation. The word that healed the centurion's son was the same that brought the world into existence. That same word speaks deliverance from sin. May this work of revival go on in all our churches until a people are prepared to meet the Lord.
Brookfield
* From an accompanying letter from Elder Harter, which of course was not written for publication. we share the following interesting paragraphs regarding his personal efforts in church revivals:
"During the five years in the Lake Union I conducted 46 church efforts of from two to three weeks in length, held five tent efforts during the summer months, and conducted ten-day revivals in Bethel, Adeiphian, Cicero, Battle Creek, and Cedar Lake Academies, as well as at Emmanuel Missionary College and at Broadview.
'Since becoming president of the Illinois Conference, I have stressed this work here. At one time we had ten such efforts in progress at the same time. At the conclusion of the two weeks we had a workers' meeting, in which we related our experiences, and all joined in saying it was the best workers' meeting they ever attended. I have held two efforts of ten days each in the Hinsdale Sanitarium during the past two years. Twenty-eight were baptized from one, and sixteen from the other.
"There are many things which enter into a meeting of this kind to make it a success. Men must be in earnest and have a positive message ; sermons must be brief and to the point ; we must begin on time and close on time : and the meetings must not drag."--Editors.
