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Hundreds Become Eager Soul-Winners
How Business Man Led a Young Man to Christ at a Baseball Game —An Eleven-Year-Old Personal Worker
How a Butcher, a Barber and a Blacksmith Started a Revival.
UST one more week remains of the Phila
delphia campaign, and as the memora
ble three months’ movement draws to
a close, the most significant feature of
the work is the way in which hundreds
of Christians have been fired with a
holy passion for soul-winning. Their
white hot fervor is a guarantee that the
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revival will not end with the depart
ure of the evangelists, but will continue for months
and, maybe, years to come.
Scores of people are pledging themselves to try
to emulate the example of the late D. L. Moody,
and never let a day pass without speaking to some
one about their soul’s salvation and putting to them
the question, “Are you a Christian?” A large
number are carrying their Bibles in their pockets
wherever they go in order that they may have a
weapon—the Sword of the Spirit—with which to
fight in their warfare against Satan.
Business men are being fired with a passion for
winning souls such as I have never seen surpassed.
One member of a large firm is present almost every
evening, and rarely leaves the building until the
lights are turned out about 11 p. m. Since the
movement began he has led thirty-three persons—
mostly men—to Christ by actual count. He led
one young man to Christ in the grand stand at
the baseball park, while waiting for the first game
of the season to begin. He told me the story as
follows:
Conversion at a Ball Game.
“One day this week a friend sent me two tickets
to the opening of the baseball season. I did not
know what to do with them, and after going home
I decided that I would give them away. On coming
out of my house I met a young man friend whom
I was anxious to see saved. I asked him where he
was going, and he said to the baseball game. I
said, ‘lf you will go with me, I will be very glad
to take you in, as I have passes.’
“The young man consented, and we entered the
grounds. After we were seated, the first thing I
asked him was, ‘Are you a Christian?’ He said
that he was not. I asked him if he had ever con
sidered the matter, and he said that he thought he
was too great a sinner. I showed him, however,
that he was not, quoting to him several passages
of Scripture. He replied, ‘This is a very serious
matter with me, and I will now accept Jesus Christ
as my Savior, and be baptized at our next baptism.’
“I had only gone to the ball game to lead that
young man to Christ, though in former years I
would have gone for the game itself, as I used to
dearly love such sports. Oh, the joy that came
into my heart as I heard that young man say he
would take Christ as his Savior. He had been ill
for six weeks. He had been a cigarette fiend. The
transformation that came over him in a few min
utes was beyond description.”
In conclusion, the business man said, “Men do
not get away from me in business, and I am de
termined they shall not get away from me in com
ing out for Christ. I am determined to use every
bit of diplomacy I possess to win souls to Christ.
I believe I have led more people to a definite de
cision for Christ during the last two months than
during my entire previous life.”
Ch?Td Evangelists.
The way in which some of the children of Phila
delphia have caught the revival spirit is astonish
ing. I recently noticed among those wearing a
worker’s badge and doing active and personal
work at the Armory, a bright-faced girl of eleven
years of age. I asked her how she liked the work,
and she said, “I am just delighted with it.”
The Golden Age for May 3, 1906.
By GEORGE T. B. DAVIS
“Do you intend to keep it up after the meetings
have ended?”
“Yes, indeed,” exclaimed the little girl enthusi
astically. “Here is my list of children with their
names and addresses.”
And the ardent little personal worker showed me
a number of sheets of paper carefully cut and tied
with ribbon. On one page were the names and ad
dresses of the five she had led to Christ, written in
a beautiful round, childish hand.
“I talked to a girl all during recess,” she contin
ued, “the other day. I just talked and talked, but
she said she wouldn’t be a Christian. ‘Well,’ I
said, ‘is there any harm in being a Christian?’
‘No,’ she said, ‘but I just don’t want to be a
Christian. ’ And she wouldn’t decide for Christ,
but I’m going to. get another talk with her.”
The bright-eyed soul-winner then went on to tell
me about a little six year-old child with whom she
had talked on the street, and who had clearly and
definitely taken Christ as her Savior. The young
soul-winner in sneaking of what happened after the
six year-old child accepted Christ, said:
“I sold, ‘What are you going to do now?’ Sim
said, ‘I am going to tell mother I am saved. And
I am going to confess mv Lord.’ She told me just
what ‘repent’ and ‘believe’ meant, and said she
was going to try and get her brother to take
Christ. I was astonished at the little six year-old
girl understanding everything so clearly.”
The young worker then told me how she intended
to keep the names of thos° she led to Christ until
she was an old woman, and write to them occasion
ally as the years went by. Her enthusiasm for per
sonal work, and her clear-cut understanding of the
way of salvation, and of how to win others, was
one of the most beautiful and tonchino- things T,
have witnessed in connection with the entire Phila
delphia revival.
Puhi'cation of the Revival Songs.
A few days ago, Mr. Alexander was taking din
ner with the editor of a loading Philadelphia naner,
the Evening Telegraph, when tlm sinking evangelist
was asked if he would like to take two columns in
the paper each day during the rest of his stay in
Philadelphia, and use them ns a means for reaching
thousands of people who could not attend the meet
ings at the Armory.
The editor, Mr. Warburton, said he would give
Mr. Alexander carte blanche to put anything he
wished in the columns. The offer was gladly ac
cepted, and now the singer has become an editor
for two weeks. The feature made its appearance
on Saturday on the front page of the paper under
the title of “Alexander’s Songs and Stories.”
Each day one of Mr. Alexander’s hymns, words
and music, is also given. Tn introducing the series
of articles in the Evening Telegraph, Mr. Alexan
der said:
“The editor of the Evening Telegraph has kindly
given me two columns each day while I am in Phil
adelphia to talk to the readers of his paper in any
way I desire. I do not want to miss this oppor
tunity of reaching the thousands of people who
cannot possibly attend our meetings, and so I have
gladly accepted his offer.
“I am going to give you the kind of news that
I wish had been given me when, as a boy, I used
to read of the evangilistic campaign. I found when
looking up the meetings of Moody and Sankey
that they gave but four or five lines to the music
and all the rest to a description of something else.
I loved the sermons, but I wanted to know what
songs were used, and what eff-et they had on the
people.
Using the Reports as Sermons.
“I received a letter from a friend this morning
in which was a statement of how a minister had
been reading the reports of our meetings here in
Philadelphia at each service in his church, and
that the interest had increased until there were
new conversions at every service.”
The first song that appeared was Mr. Alexan
der’s newest revival hymn, “Don’t Stop Praying,”
which was used for the first time at the recent con
vert’s testimony meeting at the Academy of Mu
sic.
The song was an instant success, and has now
become one of the favorites of the campaign.
A isitors continue to come from long distances,
to witness the great work. Among recent visitors
have been Mr. H. J. Heinz, the well known pickle
manufacturer and Christian leader of Pittsburg;
Dr. 11. AV. Pope, who has been associated with the
Northfield work for many years; and the two broth
ers of Mr. Alexander. One evening Dr. Torrey
called upon Dr. Pope to tell “How the Revival
Came to Berwick.” The narrative aroused much
interest. Dr. Pope said in part:
Answers to Prayer.
“It was in the winter of 1892-3, in the town of
Berwick, Me. There had been a special effort to
get young men into the lodges which was very suc
cessful. A converted barber had become greatly
concerned about the difficulty of getting men into
the churches and the ease with which they got them
into the lodges. He took into his counsel a very
earnest Christian man who was a butcher. They
talked and prayed it over, and took in a third man
—a blacksmith. These three men prayed on a lit
tle while, and finally decided to organize a band
ol men to work. They organized a body of seven
teen men, and decided for lack of a better name to
call it “The Berwick Band.” They met every
Monday night in the vestry of the church.
“The Berwick Band selected the wickedest man
they knew of, and prayed for him persistently, and
went after him persistently. They picked out a man
who had been a drunkard from his boyhood; his
father and his brother had committed suicide in
drunkenness. In less than a couple of weeks he
came down to one of the meetings, and said, ‘Boys,
I’d give my life if I could get what you fellows
•say you have.’ They assured him that he could
have it, that Christ could save him, and he accept
ed Christ that night.
“That encouraged them, and they selected the
next worst man they .knew and prayed definitely
for him. In two years there were no less
than 350 conversions as the result of the efforts
of the Berwick Band, 200 of whom were men, and
fully sixty of whom had been drunkards all their
lives before their conversion, and only three had
backslidden.
“The blacksmith became a traveling salesman,
and was so earnest in his Christian life, that they
made him a local preacher. The butcher and bar
ber remain in their trades, but are often at con
ventions, and find time to do a great deal of Chris
tian work.”
This remarkable story shows what three simple
men accomplished through united prayer. AA T hat they
did in Berwick can be done anywhere, if a little
group of people will get together, form a prayer
circle, and meet weekly, to pray definitely and be
lievingly for the unsaved persons. "Will not every
reader of th’s paper endeavor to form such a prayer
circle in your community. “Pray Through” and
“Don’t Stop Praying,” and victory will come,
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