Four Important Essentials In All Christian Work

I made a statement not a great while ago that wherever we journeyed in different parts of the world, we had fount it literally true that wherever men were holding to the authority of the Scriptures and the deity of Jesus, the approval of God and men seemed to be given to them, but wherever we found in our journey around the world men disposed to question the deity of Jesus or the authority of the Scriptures, we found the work suffering.

Let me speak of four things this morning that enter into all successful Christian work.

A Belief In The Living Christ

First, a belief in the living Christ. I don’t believe that a man can ever be a successful preacher if he has any questions regarding the deity of Jesus, regarding the fact that He is today a living Saviour; regarding the fact that as he stands to preach, this Saviour will stand at his side.

A lady said to me awhile ago, “Do you believe that Jesus is as real to you as I am?” I said, “If I did not believe it, I could not preach, and I would not preach.”

They tell me that if I say, “Jesus walks on this platform with me,” that is mysticism. I say it is not mysticism, it is faith Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). When I have faith in Jesus Christ and magnify Him, I may be absolutely sure of His presence.

A.J. Gordon, at the Northfield Conference, said there might be a time in a minister’s life or experience when it would be in place for him to discuss political economy, or the strike that was on in the community, but he must keep this in mind, that he could only expect the presence of the Spirit of God in his preaching and the power of the Spirit in his message when he rang true to Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour. That made a profound impression upon my early ministry. I believe it more firmly today than when I heard Dr. Gordon say it.

I know today that Jesus Christ is living. If I had the time, I could give you ten thousand reasons. Every soul that is saved, every man that is delivered in the time of temptation, every one who is comforted in the hour of trial, every one who is strengthened as he comes to the hour of death, are proofs that He is a living Saviour. In our preaching, we must know that He is living or we will be shorn of power.

Absolute Surrender To God

The second thing that I believe must enter into every Christian’s experience, if he would be used of God, is the absolute surrender of himself to Christ for service. A man said to me, when a particularly low, disgraceful man was converted, “It doesn’t take much of a man to be a Chrisitan, does it?” And I said, “It takes all of the man there is.” It is when God has all there is of you that there is power, and if there is anything in your life you are holding back, if there is anything in your experience you are not yielding to Him, if there is some chamber in your heart which you have locked and you are holding the key, it may be a very little chamber, but if God hasn’t got it, it stands in the way of power.

Mr. Alexander and I were in a city in Virginia, holding a morning consecration service, and there came down to the altar for surrender a beautifully dressed woman. I can see her now, and hear her sobbing still. When she arose from her knees she said, “You stand here for a minute. I want to bring my daughter and introduce her to you.” She was gone for a moment and returned with a young lady of eighteen or nineteen years of age. “This girl,” she said, “surrendered herself to God two or three years ago at Northfield, and she wanted to go as a missionary. We gave her to God in her early life, but we have lived a social life; her father has educated her beautifully, I have trained her for the highest social circle, which she has a right to enter because of her birth, and when she told us she was going as a missionary, our hearts were almost broken. We refused to allow her to go, and for the past two years, I have been living in the utmost spiritual darkness. This morning, I gave my daughter to God again, and from the moment of my surrender until this moment, I have had more joy than in all my life put together.”

One of the most remarkable missionaries I met in Korea was not a college graduate, or one who could boast of great birth; he was a man who was trained in this Institute, and who was refused an appointment by one of the mission boards, and yet he said, “I will go to Korea at my own expense, and will do my utmost to lead Korea to Christ.” He has spoken on the streets, and out in the mountains, he has gone everywhere preaching with the light of Christ shining in his face and ringing in his voice, and they told me in Korea that one of the most successful missionaries in that country was this man.

Crossing the seas, I read the life of John Wesley. I had never read it before, but I read it with my heart burning. I read the book over and over. In 1727, John Wesley’s name was a byword, a hissing in this country of ours. He made no impression upon our continent. The people would have been glad if they could have thrown him into the sea. His name was a disgrace in the thought of some people. In 1739, he shook three kingdoms. I said to myself, “What was the secret of this?” He tells us himself. He says, “In 1738 or ’39 he came to the place where he put his scholar’s brain, and his zealot’s fire all down before God, and God took them, and when He controlled my mind and my heart and my fire and myself, then He did the work,” and the man who failed to shake a single village in 1727 made the whole world rock in 1739.

When I was in London, I received the word that if I was at the Salvation Army headquarters at 10 o’clock sharp, I might meet General Booth. I hurriedly made my way there, for he was to leave for the continent in a very few minutes. When I looked into his face and saw him brush back his hair from his brow, heard him speak of the trials and conflicts and the victories, I said, “General Booth, you tell me what has been the secret of your success all the way through.” He hesitated a second, then I saw the tears come into his eyes and steal down his cheeks, and then he said, “I will tell you the secret. God has had all there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I, men with greater opportunities, but from the day I got the poor of London on my heart, and a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with the poor of London, I made up my mind that God would have all of Wm. Booth there was; and if there is anything of power in the Salvation Army today, it is because God has all the adoration of my heart, all the power of my will, and all the influence of my life.” And then he looked at me a minute, and I soon learned another secret of his power. He said, “When do you go?” I said, “In five minutes.” He said, “Pray,” and I dropped on my knees with Gen. Booth by my side, and prayed a stammering, stuttering prayer, and then he talked with God about the outcast of London, the poor of New York, the lost of China, the great world lying in wickedness, and then he opened his eyes as if he were looking into the very face of Jesus, and with sobs he prayed God’s blessing upon every mission worker, every evangelist, every minister, every Christian, and with his eyes still overflowing with tears, he bade me goodbye and started away, past eighty years of age, to preach on the continent. And I learned from Wm. Booth that the greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender. It is not a question of who you are or what you are, but whether God controls you.

Responsibility For Others

The third thing that must enter into every Christian man’s experience, if God is to use him, is this: some responsibility for others. I have learned as I have studied the history of evangelism and the great movements in the church that every special movement has had it distinguishing characteristic. We know that Whitefield’s movement was distinguishing in certain parts, we know that Edward’s movement was entirely unlike it, we know that Wesley’s movement was after its own kind, we know that Finney came emphasizing the one great doctrine, and Mr. Moody came emphasizing one great phase of truth. But if there is any particular feature characterizing the movement on through the world today, I would say it is this: the individual interest that men and women are taking in other individuals; and I believe we are to have an awakening in the next few years, not so much from us who preach, though preaching is not to be despised, nor even through singing, though singing is a mighty force, but we are going to have a mighty movement because men are being quickened for individuals. A man was pointed out to me in London who had led a thousand men to Christ by personal invitation.

Many of you here know George T.B. Davis. You know he did newspaper work and was sometimes criticized about it. He came into our party when Mr. Alexander and I started around the world, and I know that Mr. Geo. T.B. Davis by personal invitation has led to Jesus Christ in China and Japan and Korea and Australia, and the other continents that we visited, not less than 750 people, and most of them men. I have seen him at all hours of the day and night dealing personally with lost men. I have seen the light of heaven in his eyes and heard the ring of victory in his voice, and I place him today at almost the climax of Christian workers. I believe, if a man has yielded himself, the day has come when any man or woman may become conspicuous as a soul winner.

You would be amazed if I should tell you how much is known of the Christian work of Chicago around the world. I have heard the praises of the Institute sung all around the world. I have not been in a single city in the world that I haven’t seen the fruits of this institution, either in the personal workers themselves or the result of their personal work, and the one thing they are saying about Chicago is this: that more businessmen are interested in Christian work than anywhere else in the world. They say it in China, in Japan, in London that the one thing that marks Chicago today in Christian work is that more Christian men have become personal workers, leading others to the Saviour, than any other city in the known world, and that is a hopeful sign.

The Gospel The Only Hope

The fourth thing I say with a burning heart, with a prayer of thanksgiving to God. No one can be a successful minister today and no one can be a successful Christian worker without he realizes that the Gospel is the only hope for a lost and sinning world, and without he understands that the Gospel is all-powerful to save the lowest and the vilest.

I remember when we were starting the Philadelphia meetings, Ralph Connor came to assist us. He came with his splendidly written sermons, beautiful sermons, and some of them just as cold as they were beautiful, so they said—I didn’t hear them. He had one he had prepared especially for Philadelphia, and he said he was sure that that one sermon would make his reputation as an evangelistic preacher. He asked Mr. Alexander to come in and listen to it. He read it through from the first to the last, then said, “What do you think of it?” Mr. Alexander didn’t say a word, he had a piece of paper and was printing something on it for awhile, and then he took the piece of paper and stuck it up in the mirror, and the words he had printed on it were these: “Show them the way out.” And Ralph Connor said that that one sentence made him an evangelistic preacher. He said, “I hadn’t been showing them the way out.”

We found a preacher in Sydney, with an audience of 120 in an audience room that would seat 1,300 or 1,400. He told me what he was preaching about—Browning, Emerson, Tennyson, etc. His audience had gone down to 120. There is a time to discuss Browning, to preach about Emerson, to talk about these other men whose names are not found in the Scriptures, and I will tell you when that time is. It is when the Bible runs dry and when Jesus Christ has lost His power. And it is when human hearts have ceased to ache, and when men have ceased to be lost. If you can ever find such a condition then preach Browning, but until you can find it, there is but one Name that can interest, one Story that can thrill, one Message that can uplift—it is the Name of Jesus, the Story of Jesus, and the old-fashioned Gospel.

There are, of course, black spots in the world today. Any man who travels in this country or around the world must be a bit pessimistic. As you go into some parts of China and Japan your hearts will grow sick. But you need not feast your eyes on the black spots; there are bright spots as well. It was a dark day when a man stood up in Berlin and said there was no Christ, but it was a bright day when thousands of people thronged the streets singing Gospel songs and thousands listened to a mighty address on Jesus Christ and His power to save, and when the 15,000 people surged across the bridge and came to the Abbey and the preacher stood up to preach of Jesus and His power to save. God doesn’t leave Himself without a witness, and if the times are dark, it is always darkest before dawn, and the victory today is absolutely sure.

Remember these four things:

• A belief in the living Christ.
• An absolute surrender to Jesus.
• A personal interest in others.
• A confidence in the Gospel that can never be shaken.

And if you have these, with all that comes to you in this great institution, only God Himself can understand what will be your victory in the days that are ahead of you.

Message from The Third Annual Conference on Summer Evangelism and Open Air Work, The Moody Church, May 31–June 3, 1910.