We have had a continuous series of writing and preaching about properly
qualified Evangelists, and numerous schemes have been set on foot and
advocated, for raising up and qualifying men for this great work.
Still, the Evangelical field is not at all supplied. No scheme set on
foot is supplying, or likely to supply, the field. Some few preachers
are being manufactured, but where do they go? and what do they do?
How many of them go out into the field and preach the gospel, convert
sinners, plant and build up churches? Where is one doing anything of
this kind? In many parts of the country, they have made people believe
that the old preachers who have planted the churches and made the
principal part of all the converts that have been made, are behind the
times, and incapable of preaching, discouraged and driven many of
them from the field, and the work is not progressing. We need, and
_must have_, if we ever progress, evangelists, or missionaries, who
will travel throughout the length and breadth of the country, visit
the churches, “see how they do,” “set in order the things that are
wanting,” recruit their numbers, and maintain the faith once delivered
to the saints. We need, and must have, men who will visit weak
churches, enter new communities, where there are no churches,—bold
adventurers, pioneers to open the immense forests, and make the rude
desert blossom like the rose. This work must be done, and we _must
have_ the men that _can_ and _will_ do it.
Where are we to obtain this class of men? Can we never learn anything
from the history of the past, from all experience? Where did the men
come from, who have done pretty much of all this kind of work that has
ever been done? Is a miracle to be expected? Will men for this work,
come from a source whence such men never came? No! never while man is
man, and human nature is human nature. Men brought up in school houses,
fed and clothed from their father’s pockets, without ever knowing what
it was to earn a dollar, or a coat for their backs, without knowing
anything about the hardships and buffetings of the world, no matter if
they become scholars, and learn how to say a few fine things, _never
will_ and _never can_ do the work we are speaking of. They have not
the constitution, the physical energies to do it. They have not the
knowledge of the world, the ways and manners of the people to do it.
They know nothing of the toils, hardships, and burdens, of the masses
of mankind; are incompetent to sympathize with them, mingle with them,
become a fellow creature with them, and preach the Gospel of Salvation
to them, in an acceptable and successful manner and save them. They not
only are wholly incompetent, incapable, and could not, if they would;
but it is not their atmosphere, not their congenial sphere, and they
_never will_ do the work in the Lord’s great Evangelical field. They
never have done the work, and never will.
We must turn our eye in another direction. We must look to men who
have come up in our midst, among the people, who are of the people, in
active life, habits of industry, who have known what it was to earn a
living—men who have found out what a dollar is worth by earning it;
learned the people by mingling with them; developed their physical man
by active and industrious life; know the ways of the world by being
in it. We must look to men of this description whose hearts have been
overcome by the love of Christ, whose energies have been enlisted in
the churches, and who are brought forth by the churches, and should be
reared up and encouraged by the churches. Here is where we must look
for Evangelists. The church must open the way for her young men, set
them forth, and bring out all the talent she has within; and every
man that has the natural endowment, the energy, the love for man, the
anxiety for man’s salvation, necessary for one who would go out into
the world to save men, will make his way into the Evangelical field,
and make his mark in the world. If he lacks learning or information,
and has the proper zeal, desire for his work, and natural endowment, he
will acquire the learning and knowledge. We must open the way for
such, in all the churches; show our young men that we are looking for
them to come forth and enter upon this great work. We must give them
opportunities and encourage them to speak, to read the Scriptures and
pray in public, and we shall soon find that the Lord has plenty of
material of the first quality, for this great work.
Here is the source whence our laboring men have come—our active
effective men who are doing, and have always done the work. It is
useless for us to be deluded by the vain hope that the men we need,
will ever come from any other source. We must turn our attention to the
Evangelical work, concentrate our energies upon it, and do all in our
power to promote it. Every man that can preach at all; every man that
can turn a sinner to the Lord, should be engaged in the work, with all
zeal and power. We must preach the word both publicly and privately,
with the tongue, and pen through newspaper, pamphlet, magazine, tract
and book; in every possible way, and by all means, we must preach the
word of God from the rivers to the ends of the earth, and make all men
see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which, from the beginning
of the world, hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus
Christ. “Go,” brethren, the Lord says, “Go into all the world, and
preach the Gospel to every creature;” “Go,” says he, “therefore,
and teach all nations.” Let every man go, who can call a few people
together, and preach the word of the Lord to them. Yes, go if you can
preach at all, turn sinners to God and save them;—go and preach. Go
under a sense of the mighty work, remembering the language of that
great preacher and apostle to the Gentiles, “Wo is me if I preach not
the Gospel.” God requires those who have the gospel and the ability, to
preach it now, and this same _wo_ will rest upon them if they do not do
it.
What a crying sin against the Lord, who gave us the gospel, and man
to whom he commands it to be preached, for those with the ability, to
refuse to preach the gospel of the grace of God? Who but these shall
answer to God, if the people perish for the word of God? The first
disciples, when dispersed from their homes, deprived of all their
earthly good, “went everywhere preaching the word.”