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GREAT DOINGS OF THE LORD.
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len. G. Broughton.
Ps. 92: “O, Lord, how great are Thy works!”
hi
GST of you know that last week I
was in attendance upon the Evangelistic
Conference in Chicago, and I make no
apology for taking this opportunity of
speaking to you about this matter.
Chicago, the city in which the Con
ference was held, is a very interesting
city. It is not the largest city in the
world, but it does not lack much of it.
It is just reaching right up for the top round of the
ladder, as sure as you live.
It is a great city commercially. That is about
all I can say for it. It has great business indus
tries, and they are people who move fast, talk
fast, think fast, live fast, and die fast.
Chicago impressed me more with lack of civic
pride than any city I ever saw. It is the dirtiest
city I know in America. The streets are poorly
kept. They take no pride whatever in the streets
of the city. It seems that the whole thought of
Chicago is to get money, regardless of how they
get it, or from whom.
Chicago, as a religious center, is a study to me,
too. I was only there for a few days, but I studied
hard and fast while I was there.
There are two distinct elements of Christian peo
ple and Christian thought in Chicago. One may be
said to center in the University of Chicago. There
is the hot-bed of all the higher critics in the world,
right there in Chicago University. *1 talked to a
young divinity student, a bright young fellow in
that school. I said to him: 1 ‘ What do they teach
up here in that divinity school?” He said: “Al
most everything under the sun that is calculated
to give a man lack of faith in the Bible.”
The other line of thought may be said to center
in the Moody Bible Institute and the work that
it does. Os course, the Moody Bible Institute is
the one hot-bed for orthodox Christianity and evan
gelistic endeavor along the lines of the old-fashion
ed theology. Now, it was in the Moody Bible
Institute, or under its auspices, this Conference was
held. It met in the Moody church.
The Moody Church.
The Moody church itself, as a building and an
enterprise for God, is worthy to be studied. It is
located, it seems to me, very fortunately for such
a work, in the poor section of the city, just as all
the great evangelistic world-famous churches, with
out exception, are. But while it is located in the
poor section of the city, it is in easy reach of the
business and better social element of the city. It
seems to be on the border of the better social
element and the very poor element, and in easy
touch of the very busy business center of the city.
The building itself is exceedingly plain. I was
very much disappointed in the building. It is built
of brick, and is on the corner of Chicago and
LaSalle Avenues. It is three stories high. The
first floor contains lecture rooms, Sunday school
rooms, with various class rooms and parlors and
offices and departmental places of work. Up
stairs is the auditorium proper, with a gallery that
extends practically all the way around, a very wide
gallery and very deep, so that one sitting on the
back seat is in easy reach of the rostrum. It holds
about twenty-five hundred people. When you enter
the church proper, you are impressed with this one
thing: everything at Chicago Avenue church is
keyed to business as well as to religion. I never
saw a busier set of workers—typewriters, book
keepers and other lines of business enterprises—
for God.
The Bible Institute.
Then, just to the rear of it, and to one side,
are the Bible Institute buildings and dormitories.
Along down La Salle Avenue, by the side of the
church, is a five-story building. That is one of
the dormitories, the young ladies’ dormitory, for
the Bible Institute people. Then they have rented
two other buildings down that same street, of simi-
The Golden Age for January 17, 1907.
lar size, because the number of students has so in
creased they could not take care of them. Back
of this is the Institute building proper, with lec
ture 'halls for Bible classes and the clerical force
necessary to work. Then there is the young men’s
dormitory, another five-story building. Across the
street is the publishing department and printing
offices, plant, and all that.
The Bible School has in it an attendance this
year something like six hundred people from all
parts of the world. They have a three-year course
of Bible study. It is thoroughly equipped and
thoroughly systematic. The graduates of this
school are seen all over the civilized world, and the
uncivilized too. I have never felt such an atmos
phere as is in that Bible Institute.
Moody’s Conception.
Now, this is all the conception of one mind.
Away back yonder, Mr. Moody started the church
before he ever thought of being a world-famous
preacher, but he had in his mind at the time of
the conception of the church to build up around
it a great Bible teaching center, to teach men and
women how to be useful and love their Bibles,
and how to learn them. So he began to inspire
his band of workers. After the church was built,
the Bible school was originated in it, and as it
grew too big for that, he bought property and built
on it, then bought more property and built on that,
and so on.
Until Mr. Moody’s death, he was largely the
spirit that dominated it all. The church and the
Institute were one. But after Mr. Moody’s death,
they found it was impossible somehow to get a man
to do the work of the pulpit and at the same time
the institute work, and so they have divided them.
They have two Boards of Trustees, and the church
simply looks after the religious side of its own
work and training, and the Institute has another
line of officers who look after that. Mr. Fitt is
the superintendent of the Institute, and Dr. A. C.
Dixon is pastor of the church. I say until Mr.
Moody’s death it was all one, but nobody would
think of trying to dot what Mr. Moody did, and
hence they have adopted plans according to the
necessity.
The Evangelistic Conference.
My brethren and sisters, I want to say a word to
you this morning about our own opportunity, as
it impresses itself upon me after this trip. Be
fore I do that, however, may I not call your at
tention to just a few features of that Conference,
which will serve to impress what I want to say?
The Conference we have just held is the second
Evangelistic Conference held under the auspices of
the Institute. It was for three days, the first three
days of the year. It is a permanent institution,
a part of this great work. There were evangelists
there from all parts of the world. Dr. R. A.
Torrey was the presiding officer. He is the perma
nent presiding officer. He makes all the programs
himself.
When I got there, I found the building packed
at seven o’clock. They were singing, and bearing
testimony. I hadn’t had any supper, but I rushed
in to make a little change, to make myself more
presentable before I went to the platform. I said
to Dr. Torrey: “What is the order of the exer
cises tonight?” He said: “We haven’t any. I
made a program, but when I came over here, the
thing smashed all to pieces.” That was all he
said. After awhile he said: “I want Brother
Trotter to speak.” He got up and gave
his rousing testimonies. He then called on Harry
Munrow, superintendent of the great Pacific Gor
den Mission, and he gave his testimony-—a wonder
ful one to me. He had that house going. Dr.
Torrey then arose and presented your humble ser
vant. I had gone with three addresses, cut and
dried. I suppose the Holy Spirit knew they were
too cut and dried. I never touched in forty miles
of any of them. I spoke several times. There
was absolutely no program at all. Every single
thing that was made in the way of a program
was smashed to pieces.
The meetings lasted from 9.30 in the morning
till two or three o’clock. All of us would not
stay for all of that time, but others would. Such
meetings of prayer I have never been in in my
life—such waiting on God, such testimonies of the
work of God in various parts of the world. There
wasn’t a single line of 'Scripture exposition. I
don’t believe there was a single chapter read in
the whole Conference. The thing seemed to take
the nature of a testimony meeting, people testi
fying of what God is doing in the different lines
of work in which they are engaged.
The Revival in India.
One woman, a missionary to India, a Presbyte
rian, got up. • She had come to attend this Con
ference. She told about a great revival of religion
now sweeping through India, similar to the one
in Wales. She told of how five thousand people
in the little province where she is at work joined
the church, giving as fine a testimony of conver
sion as ever was heard. She told how it came about
and how it is kept up. One thing I want to give
you. My heart is full of it, and I want to fill
yours. A band of missionaries had been praying
for a revival for over a year. They got together
once a week, and prayed for nothing else but a
revival, and finally in a little school the revival
broke out in the conversion of one woman, one of
the most intelligent in the class of great rank.
Those Hindoos, some of them, are the most in
telligent people in the world. She was saved in
a very marvelous way and began to testify about
it, and the testimony she gave was so startling
that she arrested the attention of the world, that
part of it, and as she continued to testify others
would be saved. Finally the workers, the mission
aries themselves, were led to go to that woman
and say: “You are growing a bit fanatical. You
had better stop now. You are bordering on fanat
icism.” Right that minute the revival fire died
out in that province. Then over in another sec
tion the fire broke out in a similar revival that
partook of a. very wild nature. The revival was
so intense that the people assembled in the room
actually had the experience of literal fire lighting
on them. The missionaries ran over to put the
blanket on that crowd. They said: “You folks
are going crazy.” The fire died out that very
minute. Finally another revival broke out in a
very strange way. There was no preacher, no mis
sionary. This time the missionaries said: “We
have been running around trying to keep down
what we think is false enthusiasm and fanaticism.
We are going to take our hands off,” and the
minute they got their hands off, the fire began to
sweep through India, and now she says nobody
dares put their hands on anything there.
That was in India, and so testimonials were
brought from all parts of the world. One night,
after we had finished, and it was all over, I was
so broken down, so made to feel the consciousness
of God’s presence, so made to see the vision of a
great and good day ahead of us that I was utterly
overcome. I just felt as if I could not work,
could not talk, could not do a thing but get to my
room and lie down on the couch and rest. My
brethren, there is no hope for this world along
the line of any other religious teaching than this,
and if the churches of this country will get out
of the way and let God, the Holy Ghost, do His
work unhampered, we will bring the world to
Christ. Every time one gets a real good case of
religion the church goes to work at once to stamp
it out, and let his little brain lead him. If any
man in the world needs a lot of religion, it is a
fool, and the bigger an idiot he is, the more reli
gion he needs to have. If you don’t let him become
a religious fanatic he will become a fanatic for the
devil. Thank God, I haven’t been going around
trying to put out the fire of other folks, and I
am not going to do it.