Council of City Evangelists by Arthur G. Daniells; Thaddeus Legg

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 20, 1912

Council of City Evangelists

By Arthur G. Daniells; Thaddeus Legg

Personal Efforts, or House-to-House Work by Gospel Laborers

THE great value and importance of personal, house-to-house work by gospel workers was one of the topics that received thorough discussion in the council of city evangelists. In introducing the subject, the chairman said:—

“A subject of vital importance and of great value in our ministerial work is the personal effort, the house-to-house work. Its importance is emphasized by every writer on the question of reaching souls. H. Clay Trumbull makes an astonishing statement in speaking of the comparative results of his public and his personal work. For ten years he addressed gatherings of persons numbering from ten or fifteen to five or six thousand each. Twenty-five years he was editor of a religious periodical that had a circulation reaching more than a hundred thousand a week. Meanwhile he published more than thirty volumes. In his little volume “Individual Work for the Individual,” he says:—

“‘Yet, looking back upon my work in all these years, I can see more direct results of good through my individual efforts with individuals than I can know of through all my spoken words to thousands upon thousands of persons in religious assemblies, or all my written words on the pages of periodicals or of books. And in this I do not think that my experience has been wholly unlike that of many others who have had large experience in both spheres of influence.’

“This is surely an impressive statement. That this able public speaker and great writer, having addressed many thousands, and spoken to millions of people by his pen, had directly won more people to take their stand for Christ by working with the individual alone than he had in all his public efforts, seems almost incredible. This certainly emphasizes the value and influence of personal effort.”

“The Lord has blessed us with very great advantages for carrying on house-to-house work. In addition to our ministers, we have city Bible workers, visiting nurses, colporteurs, and magazine sellers. Nearly all these gospel workers carry on their work by house-to-house visitation. In this way they come in direct personal contact with the people. In view of the great number of house-to-house workers who are engaged in the giving of our message, it is very important that we emphasize the value of personal labor with individuals, and study with great care how to do this work most effectively. Especially should our ministers understand this. As a rule, people are pleased to receive visits from ministers and gospel workers. A great many in their trials, disappointments, and sorrows are glad to be prayed with, and directed to the true Source of consolation and help. Those who do this work faithfully and sympathetically, readily work their way to the hearts of those for whom they labor. This gives gospel workers the confidence of people, which is very necessary in order to lead them to take a firm stand for the Lord and his truth. This subject is now before you. It is hoped that it will receive a very free discussion in all its phases.”

A. V. Cotton: “To my mind, there is nothing that will approach the value of the personal touch of the minister with the people. I have found that visiting the people is our greatest resource. Praying with them in their homes brings a personal blessing to both the people and the worker. It meets with response, taking hold of hearts as nothing else can. It is an effectual chord that binds people to the truth.”

B. E. Miller: “Last winter we gained a new experience in this matter. We decided not to hold so many meetings during the week, but to put in more evenings visiting, when the men would be at home. We held meetings on Sunday and Wednesday evenings, and all other evenings we devoted to visiting. We had most encouraging results. Five heads of families requested baptism.”

B. G. Wilkinson: “We can draw lessons on this question from the advancement of our work in the foreign mission fields. The work done there is carried on not so much by public efforts as by personal, house-to-house labor. In Austria, our ministers are not allowed to hold regular religious services. They may give addresses and lectures, and in this way explain many features of our message, but their strongest work is done by personal interviews and studies. In this way, scores and hundreds of people in that intensely Catholic country are being led to accept our message. I believe that one of our weaknesses here in America is our neglect of personal effort. No preacher who does not draw the theme of his discourse from his personal contact with the people can be as good a preacher in the public desk as he ought to be. Some of the best material for sermons is gathered by visiting the people in their homes, praying with them, and learning their personal conditions. I believe that our work in America will become stronger and progress more rapidly if we will learn the secret of getting hold of one soul at a time.”

M. D. Wood: “My heart is stirred through and through by the remarks upon this subject. For years I was sick and tired of the system of religion I knew, and longed for something else. I did not know where to go, but felt that God would help me step out, and that he would lead me in the future. I resigned from the pastorate of two churches, and from my denomination altogether. I had seen Seventh-day Adventist literature, but was much prejudiced and would not read it. I feared I should imbibe poison, so always avoided the literature. Therefore, I never could have been converted to the truth as I find it in the third angel’s message through Seventh-day Adventist literature. I had never been where any of our workers were conducting a tent effort or a camp-meeting, and, with my false opinion of Seventh-day Adventists, would have felt myself too proud to join such a denomination. When I came in contact with a young man who was doing this personal work, and who knew his Bible from cover to cover, having been in training in one of our schools only three years, I was impressed as never before in my life, but still was so prejudiced I would not at first allow him to talk to me about Seventh-day Adventists. But the time came when my curiosity got the better of me, and I really wanted to know why he kept the old Jewish Sabbath. With this spirit of inquisitiveness, I really stepped out, while he unraveled to me this blessed story, and I have been reconverted. I believe there are a great many who will not read our literature nor attend meetings, but who may be won through this personal effort.

“I was converted under D. L. Moody, and was in his school at Mount Hermon three years, and at once I was initiated into this personal work. Three hundred students in that school spent their spare time visiting the people from house to house. Many persons repented of their sins, and gave their hearts to Christ. I know from personal experience, not only in this country but in India, that hand-picked fruit is the best. I thank God for the emphasis that is being placed upon this method of gospel work.”

L. S. Wheeler: “I feel that in my ministry this personal work has been the most successful part. A few years ago, while working in Beverly, I visited the home of a girl who came to my tent-meetings, and found that she was much interested in what she was hearing, but conditions in her home were such that it was with great difficulty I could help her. I felt almost discouraged about repeating my visits, but something seemed to say to me, ‘Don’t give her up.’ So I talked with her personally, and prayed with her. To-day she is firm in the truth, and is a very capable young woman. She has just been graduated from one of our academies, and is now engaged in editorial work. So I have looked back upon that experience in helping that girl, and said, ‘I will not become discouraged.’ While in that same field, I learned of a woman who had come from Nova Scotia and settled near Boston. I took her name and address and visited her. I found her living in a very humble home, in Charlestown, near Boston. Circumstances were not the most pleasant nor inviting; but before I left her, I had prayer, and took her subscription for the REVIEW. She began immediately to come to our meetings. When my tent work opened in the summer, she came bringing her little girls night after night, and from that time to this she has been one of the pillars in the church and the Sabbath-school.”

K. C. Russell: “I think we are all agreed that personal work is the thing. There are one or two features that I want to touch, which I consider quite vital in connection with the city effort. In my experience I have met Bible workers who have told me that they have regretted very much the reticence on the part of ministers to help them in making their work effective. I believe that the work of many of our Bible workers in a tent effort would be much more effective if the minister would help them at the right time. I have found that a little time well spent with the people who come into the tent before the services, ties them to the meetings. We should shake hands with the people, and answer some of the questions they may have in mind.”

W. H. Heckman: “I believe that this personal work will solve the problem of

city work. I do not believe that we ever can secure the masses through great preaching. I believe that several smaller efforts, where the preacher can come into close contact with those who come to the meetings, would produce much better results than one large effort.”

M. H. Serns: “It is my opinion that the most substantial believers we have in our ranks are those who have been labored with and brought into the message by personal effort. In reviewing my own work, I find that those with whom I have labored personally, far into the night sometimes, praying with them and visiting them week after week, are the strongest among those who have embraced the truth under my labors.”

A. G. Daniells: “The spirit of prophecy speaks very plainly with reference to the importance of engaging in personal effort outside of the pulpit. In ‘Gospel Workers,’ pages 73, 74, we find the following statement:—

“‘The minister’s work is but just begun when he has presented the truth from the pulpit. He is then to become better acquainted with his hearers. Many a laborer greatly fails in not coming in close sympathy with those who most need his help. With the Bible in his hand, he should seek in a courteous manner to learn the objections which exist in the minds of those who are beginning to inquire, “What is truth?”’”

“‘On pages 76, 77 we have another important statement:—

“‘The duties of a pastor are often shamefully neglected because the minister lacks strength to sacrifice his personal inclinations for seclusion and study. The pastor should visit from house to house among his flock, teaching, conversing, and praying with each family, and looking out for the welfare of their souls.’”

“‘Charles L. Goodell, a very successful minister in New York City, has this to say of the value of personal effort: “We are now come to the very citadel of soul-winning. Here is the entrance into the full reward of evangelistic effort.”’”

“‘Mr. Pattison says: “There is no need that we lower the standard of the preacher, but there is need that we raise the standard of the pastor; and of the two, we believe that greater spiritual power will be exercised over the members of his church by the pastor than by the preacher.”’”

“‘President McCosh makes this statement: “The minister will not be able to reach the hearts of his people unless he visits among them. When I began to preach, I had about twenty carefully prepared sermons, but some fifteen of them I would not preach. They were not fitted to move men and women, and I burned them. I never learned to preach until I visited among my people.”’”

“‘Dr. Jefferson says: “A preacher of Christianity must live as close as possible to men. Isolation to him is fatal. If he has a disposition which shrinks from the society of others, his disposition must be born again. . . . Knowing men is the preacher’s first and most important business. To know them he must be with them.”’”

“‘Thus the united testimony of all experienced gospel workers emphasizes the importance of engaging in direct, personal, individual work for those whom we wish to win to Christ.’”

At the close of the discussion, Brethren B. F. Kneeland, B. E. Miller, L. S. Wheeler, and M. D. Wood were appointed a committee to bring in resolutions regarding the importance of personal effort in gospel work. The following report was adopted by the council:—

“Whereas, Our Master, the Great Teacher who went about doing good, has left us an example of personal ministry in the call of the first disciples, the instruction to Nicodemus, and the woman at the well, and—

“Whereas, The results of personal work are made prominent in the call of Nathanael, the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, and in the work of Paul, who labored publicly and from house to house with great success, and—

“Whereas, Those evangelists who have had the best results in modern times have ascribed their success largely to the personal touch, therefore—

“We recommend, That all our ministers make special efforts to reach as many as possible by personal contact, both at the meetings and in house-to-house visitation, and thus, by example as well as precept, encourage all believers to engage in personal soul-saving effort.”

A. G. DANIELLS, Chairman; THADDEUS LEGG, Secretary.