The Symposial Response

I believe that if we will rise up and go as far as the means that we have will permit us to go in advancing God's work, the Lord will provide means to go on. I believe the means will be forthcoming if we will but respond with heart and soul to take the message for this time to the men and women who are anxious to receive the light from God. There are millions who are reaching out for it, and who do not know what it is to have that urge that is within them satisfied. We know that God has commissioned us to go to them with our message. And if ever there was a time when a band of minis­ters, coming together as we have come together, needs to respond with heart and life to the call that has been given us, it is this company of ministers at this time in this meeting. We are to encourage the whole church of God to go forward. We are not bound by earthly things. God has given us power that is independent of those earthly things. Let us use it to the limit.

I respond with all my heart and my life to this call to evangelism. If we do not respond, we shall shrivel up and die. Let us do what we can, like the widow with the two mites. If it is all we have, let us give God what we have. We are to make better use of what we have than ever before, and march on with faith in the work that God has given us to do, using the means that God has put into our hands. We are each to do that, and then say, "Here am I, Lord; send me."

S. A. Ruskjer. (President Southern Union): My heart responds to this call to greater evan­gelism. In the Southland we have had the privilege of conducting seventy-five different efforts this last year. But what is that among a population of twenty million in our field? During the last thirty months we have baptized 4,100 new converts. But what is that among twenty million within our union territory? I believe that Elder Watson in his study this morning pointed out the way that we must go in order to be more successful and to see greater results from the efforts put forth; and I believe that, when the leaders start out along that line and set that kind of example, our lay members will join in soul-winning work.

Out of our seventy-five efforts, nearly half have been conducted without cost to our con­ference organization—conducted by our lay preachers. They have had good success, and I recently had the privilege of assisting in dedi­cating a new church building,---a very beautiful house of worship,—the congregation of which was brought in by a lay preacher, with some of the laymen assisting him. The church is prac­tically paid for. We raised the money right there, and it was done by lay evangelism.

I believe that is an illustration of what can be done when the Spirit of God lays hold of our church members. They will join their efforts with those of the ministry, and will finish the work. But so far as our union is concerned, we are not satisfied with bringing in 4,100 in thirty months. We want to baptize twice that many. We want to see the work of God go forward in the Southland. The Spirit of proph­ecy has pointed out over and over again that there are large territories still unentered. There are scores of counties where, so far as we know, a Seventh-day Adventist sermon has never been preached. We have heard the chal­lenge, and must push forward. We purpose to answer this call with evangelists and lay preachers, launching out by faith into a greater evangelism in our territory.

R. L. Benton (President Southwestern Un­ion) : My heart responds to this stirring ap­peal. Something like two years ago Elder Watson made some statements with reference to spending so much of our energy looking after what we had gained, and not launching out into the unworked territory. We began to study our field. We concluded that it was not well for us to continue to spend our time and effort merely in building up the work of those who had la­bored before us; that we should not only care for what those brethren had raised up, but should launch out and bring in new people and raise up new churches. We initiated a program in our conference endeavoring to shake every man loose from everything else to launch out into evangelistic work. The very year that we did that was the year that the Southwestern Union had the privilege of leading North Amer­ica in evangelism.

We are undertaking that program again this year. We are really puzzled over the amount of time and effort required to look after our churches. We are earnestly studying to care for them with less time and effort, that we may turn these to evangelism, for in our territory there are thousands of counties that have no churches. We do not have so many large cities, but we have many counties that are without Seventh-day Adventist churches. I believe that our entire working force will respond to this call to make added effort to reach out and gather those that are on the verge of the kingdom.

C. B. Haynes (President Michigan Confer­ence) : My heart has been profoundly moved today by the appeal that has come to us, and the objectives that have been set before us. I join in believing that our greatest need is that of spiritual, personal preparation. I do not believe that what we need is  so much an in­crease of natural gifts, or an increase of men who are naturally gifted, as to place the gifts we have at the command of God, and let Him work miracles with human beings.

I do believe, however, that another need is the careful analysis, selection, and improve­ment of the methods which we are to employ in this larger evangelism. I am not afraid of methods. As Brother Watson pointed out in his study, God works through different meth­ods, and there are methods that our brethren use that we could never ourselves employ, but which God uses and blesses in a very remark­able way. I want to know more about the methods of others. I am here to study them with you.

I wonder if the reason we have not answered this call to evangelism before is because we are wasting our time and gifts. I wonder if we have been lazy men. I wonder if we are put­ting our time into things outside this move­ment and outside the operation of our churches that we now realize we should devote to evan­gelism.

I have gone back, in the months of the past, in a search of the Scriptures to find whether God has given us a pattern or model for the building and maintaining of His church that perhaps we have not studied as we should. He gave the Israelites a pattern, taking particular pains to describe every detail of their worship. When He finally had His temple built in Jeru­salem, He provided a design. Not one thing was left to be fashioned by man. There was a pattern designed for the erection of that tem­ple, and the carrying forward of all the activi­ties connected with that temple.

The question in my mind is, Have we been left without a pattern, or model? I do not believe God has neglected us in this way. We have been given a pattern for the planting and maintenance of the Christian church. And I think it would be profitable for us to give study to it. Our attention is called to it constantly in the very things read to us. We have been appealed to, not only by the recommendation and call to greater evangelism in the 1930 Fall Council in Omaha, but constantly in the "Testi­monies," to break loose from some of the things that hold us in connection with our churches.

There has been a shift in our denominational work until more and more of the burden of the care of our churches and the supervision of their activities, the inspiring of our people in certain directions, the carrying of the load of the finances of our churches, the organizing of the campaigns in our churches, the shepherding and nursing of the people in our churches, and the carrying of their trials and troubles—I say there has been a gradual shifting through the years until almost the entire load has fallen on the shoulders of the men who are qualified to be successful evangelists, and it has absorbed their energies and taken their time so that they have been unable to answer the call. I believe we need more than the baptism of the Spirit of God., We need that first. I believe we need more than a study of new methods. I know methods of successful evangelism now that I am kept from using, kept from putting into effect. Administrative problems are more and more taking our time from evangelism, and our energy is being absorbed in caring for the saints, instead of seeking sinners. You know it and I know it. I am talking plainly because it is on my heart.

Brethren, I do believe with all my soul, from a study of the "Testimonies" and of the Bible, that there is a way of rearranging affairs so that those things which are barriers to our evangelism can be turned into aids. I believe our churches can be turned into the greatest auxiliary to evangelism that we can have in this denomination. I appeal to you to study these things in a careful way, that by discus­sion we may know how, under God, to shift things so that the churches will be turned into channels for soul winning. If we can do that we shall be following and carrying out the pro­gram God has given us. We need not give up anything we are doing. We need to put the spirit of evangelism into our churches, and together go forward to finish the work of God on earth.

L. K. Dickson (President Florida Confer­ence): Unquestionably we are facing a new situation in connection with the finishing of our work. If we fail to recognize this fact, we shall fail to reach our place. I am not at all satisfied with my evangelism, particularly when I think of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,—and He is our Example. We read in Luke 14 and other passages, that great multitudes followed Jesus. But are they following us? We are spending multiplied thousands in trying to get the ears of the multitudes, while they just fol­lowed Jesus wherever He went. But one day He reduced that multitude by suddenly turning to them and telling them that if any wanted to follow Him, they must cut off all else.

"If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:26.

Why do not the multitudes follow us? Is it not because we need the power of another Pentecost? Dare we conclude that the minis­try of Christ is to be finished with less power than marked its beginning? Read Acts 2. We find there that when the Spirit of God fell on the disciples and believers, the fact was known abroad and multitudes followed them. The people fairly swarmed about them. The giving of their message was no difficult problem then. I believe there is something yet to be learned about the gathering of the multitude for the finishing of this work.

"And we are to work with as much more fervor, to be accompanied by the Holy Spirit in as much greater measure, as the increase of wickedness demands a more decided call to re­pentance."

God has promised that He will send the Holy Spirit in a great measure. We read in "The Great Controversy," page 601:

"We are living in the most solemn period of this world's history. The destiny of earth's teeming multitudes is about to be decided. Our own future well-being, and also the salvation of other souls, depend upon the course which we now pursue."

R. S. Fries (President Iowa Conference): Let us look at God's clock and see the hour: "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep." Rom. 13:11.

It is time we woke up. I believe there is something that we as ministers can do to have more life, more zeal, more success in winning souls, than we have ever had in the past.

Last night you will recall that Elder Branson gave us the figures of the number of souls bap­tized in 1933, and it was 14,480. And he made the statement that it was accomplished with seventy-one fewer workers than we had in 1930. The workers in 1930 numbered 2,721. Last year, then, in the United States, 2,642 workers brought in 14,480 souls,—or an average of five souls per worker. We have nothing to boast about, have we? When you count out the souls won by the laity, and the children and youth of the church that are so easily gathered, the aver­age goes far below that. And you know, and every conference president knows, that you have on your list workers that would have an average of less than that. It is time that some of us woke out of sleep. May God help us to be stirred. Five souls in a year is a very small average for a worker—altogether too small! Can we increase it? Yes, a thousand times, yes! It can be done with God's help; but it is time that we woke up.

Even as a conference president I would feel that my work was a failure if I didn't hold some meetings and bring in some souls each year. If I didn't baptize twenty souls as a result of my own personal labor, I should think that my work was in vain.

Elder Conies once told this experience of the Civil War: a tall, lanky countryman had enlisted in the Union Army. The drill man de­spaired of ever making a soldier out of him. He couldn't learn the calls,—couldn't learn any­thing. He thought he was a failure as a sol­dier. One day they were to go into action, and they were told that everyone must bring back some prisoners. The tall, lanky countryman went out. The withering fire from the enemy caused many to fall in death. They felt they couldn't go ahead, and so the retreat call was given. But the tall fellow didn't know any­thing about a retreat call. He got over the trenches and did all kinds of havoc among the enemy, and finally they began to retreat. He collared about half a dozen of them. That accomplished, he called out to his fellow soldiers, "I've got mine. There are lots more over here."

W. H. Holden (President Lake Union): "After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory." Rev. 18:1. There is no scripture in the Bible that so stirs my soul as does this one. It is God's picture of the finishing of this work. I believe there is a power in this message, when carried by consecrated men, to finish our work, and to gather out the thousands that are waiting for the gospel.

We are to encourage the recruits to the min­istry. When a young man has given his time as an interne, the conference ought to be able to afford to take him on if he is a success, because after that he ought to bring in enough to the treasury to make his way. Yet there are men in our ministry who are not doing it. I am not basing my conviction on what some of the ministers have done in the past, but on what God says is to be done by this ministry. I am persuaded that a minister ought to bring into the treasury of the Lord more than he takes out. He ought, from some of these prac­tical aspects, to determine whether God has called him to the ministry or not.

If there is one gem in the "Testimonies" that stirs my soul more than any other it is the following from Volume V, p. 383:

"The third angel, flying in the midst of heaven, and heralding the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus, represents our work. The message loses none of its force in the angel's onward flight; for John sees it in­creasing in strength and power until the whole earth is lightened with its glory."

Man may backslide, but there will be no checking of the forward advance of this move­ment. There will be men who will dedicate their lives and consecrate themselves to be both used and spent in the service of God.

"The course of God's commandment-keeping people is onward, ever onward. The message of truth that we bear must go to nations, tongues, and peoples. Soon it will go with a loud voice, and the earth will be lightened with its glory. Are we preparing for this great outpouring of the Spirit of God?"—Ibid.

We need to be preparing for the great out­pouring of the Spirit. We need Calebs to press to the front. I would make a strong appeal in favor of immediate action. I wish to go on record this morning as saying that our com­mittees in the Lake Union desire to respond to a forward movement for evangelism.

H. M. S. Richards(Evangelist, Southern Cali­fornia): A little while ago I went to see Elder Everson, who has been very, very ill. He told me that the doctors told him he had to die, but he had confidence that he would live. When I drew near his home (he lives in Sister White's old house at Elmshaven), I thought I could hear him preaching as to an audience of five thousand people. And there he sat at his dicta-phone, preaching. His heart is still afire with evangelism. I felt solemn indeed as he con­ducted me down the halls where angels of God had walked with the servant of God.

On another occasion I visited Elder E. W. Farnsworth, ill with a broken hip. I went to his room, and the first thing he said was, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." I asked, "Do you still believe that old message that began in 1844?" He said, "I do with all my heart." It made me feel that I should give myself and my all anew to the work of God. I, too, respond to this call sounded here today by asking God to give me that experience fully.

Years ago at the great Westminster Assembly a man with talent and fluency got up and pro­posed a great reactionary movement. A young man, twenty-one years old, was there, and his heart was stirred. An older minister said to him, "Answer him, John." And his earnest appeal changed the whole trend of the hour. Friends crowded around afterward and wanted to see his notes. What do you suppose they found? This: "More light, Lord. More light, Lord." Friends, that is the cry of my heart. The problems Elder Haynes brought up are certainly real today, and I don't know where to go with them but to the Lord. These con­ference leaders are backing us up with a real program of evangelism. I close with just one experience:

Some time ago we began an effort in Holly­wood. It was very difficult to get a start. At first we baptized only a few people. Then a lady came and said, "What do you need here?" I told her we had no money with which to ad­vertise. She put a thousand dollars in the bank for us, to be used in advertising.

One day a young man came to the bookstand, and while there listened to the preaching. He was a student from a Roman Catholic semi­nary, about ready to take his vows. At the time he was at home in Hollywood visiting his father and mother. lie went along the street on his way to the theater for an evening's en­tertainment, and saw a sign about our meet­ings. He came, and the Lord got hold of him the first night. His mother asked him about the show, and he replied that it was a fine "show." When she learned where he had been, she did not want him to come to our meetings. He went back to his seminary loaded with our books, and began to read and study. He went to his teachers and told them that he no longer believed the things that he had learned there. They could do nothing with him.

Months passed, and finally the archbishop of San Francisco came and tried to talk him out of his Adventist views. He told the lad that he ought to finish his course and go out and teach for the Roman Catholic Church. The youth asked him what he would do if he were in his place, and didn't believe the things he had been taught there. The bishop replied: "Well, there are only two churches in the world,—the great Catholic Church, that is the true church, and the other is the Seventh-day Adventist Church." They wouldn't give him money with which to leave, so he walked out.