Chapter 4

THE SEEDS OF FUNDAMENTALISM

            In answer to the question left the reader in the preceding chapter,  credit (or blame) must  be given to Satan for originating this most subtle heresy. No man knows how many times in past ages this opposition to the true workings of the Holy Spirit has surfaced in the doctrines of men. It is certain, however, that each time a proud religious teacher who under the light of the revealed mystery of God realized a question upon his own conversion and inward holiness, that man set about to justify himself by formulating a repentance and faith scheme which left out the mystery of God's supernatural operations upon the soul. Being unconverted himself, he knew nothing of the mortal wounding of his sinful soul by the gospel sword and subsequent Divine healing and comfort of the soul, and so he passed over it as a myth or at the least an unnecessary accompaniment to true conversion and taught others the same. It is unfortunate that such men could not all have possessed the "honest and good heart" as did John Wesley, who perceived himself lost and undone in the thirteenth year of his ministry, and after painfully and diligently seeking God for some time received the genuine regeneration of his own spirit.  Notwithstanding Mr. John Wesley's shortcomings, this reversal and the humbling of his pride not only allowed him a place in the Heavens but also enabled him to beget through his gospel many blessed generations of spiritual sons and daughters unto God.  However, it will be discovered while reading religious history that there are indeed few who will surrender to God as Mr. Wesley did. Most such religious teachers have chosen rather to wrest the Scriptures to fit their own cases and thus to their own destruction. These were "sons of perdition" who when faced with sound doctrine regarding the nature of true religion found themselves void of it and chose rather to set up a smoke screen than to allow themselves to be shown naked in the light of truth.

            We do not know for certain where this fundamental error, as it is now formulated and practiced among so many who proudly wear the description "fundamentalist," originated among men, but we do know what characters were most influential in establishing it in America, drawing away disciples from among the Baptists who would later subvert the bulk of that denomination. When the Baptist  denomination was no longer able to present a unified stand as the foremost champions of experimental knowledge of Jesus Christ, all other evangelical Christian forces rapidly fell prey to this deception also.

            Having already given an outline with documentation of some of the history of Baptist doctrines and practices in chapter 3, it remains that we should now document the progress of the other doctrine which contains this subtle heresy by quoting the men who sowed it. It will be left to the readers to perceive many of the similarities and differences between the teachers quoted in this work.

            This thinking, which tends to elevate the position of the New Testament Scriptures above that of God the Holy Spirit (Himself a Divine Person) as the only Sure Witness confirming the sufficiency of a penitent seeker's faith to their own conscience,  may be found in various places in past history. We only attempt here to uncover as much as we are able of the channel that this leaven took to leaven such a great lump as it has today. Again, we must allow the reader to draw some conclusions of his own in the matter.

            The Campbellite historian, J. W. Shepherd, in describing some of the forerunners of their "restoration movement" told of "reformers" in Presbyterian Scotland in the early to middle eighteenth century. (page 140-141, CHURCH FALLING AWAY AND RESTORATION, by J. W. Shepherd)  One Mr. Glass was one of these early  "independent" leaders.

            "Mr. Glass was largely eclipsed by Robert Sandeman, whose activity wielded a wide influence. Those who adhered to his teachings were called 'Sandemanians.' Sandeman prominently repudiated that mischievous mysticism which views 'saving faith' as an inspiration directly from the Holy Spirit." That "mischievous mysticism" Mr. Shepherd commended Mr. Sandeman for repudiating is the heart of historical Baptist doctrine regarding conversion to Christ. He continued, summarizing Sandeman's teachings, "'one thing is needful'  which he called the sole requisite to justification or acceptance with God.  By the sole requisite of justification, he understood the work finished by Christ in his death,  proved by his resurrection to be all sufficient to justify the guilty; that the whole benefit of this is conveyed to men only by the apostolic report concerning it; that everyone who understands this report to be true, or is persuaded that the events actually happened, as testified by the apostles, is justified, and finds relief to his guilty conscience; that he is relieved not by finding any favorable symptom about his heart, but by finding their report to be true;  that the event itself which is reported, becomes his relief so soon as it stands true in his mind, and accordingly becomes his faith; that all the divine power which operates in the minds of men, either to give the first relief to their consciences,  or to influence them in every part of their obedience to the Gospel, is persuasive power, or the forcible conviction of truth.  From this we see that he saw with some degree of clearness the nature of faith, but not that faith shall be perfected by surrender to an ordinance of the Lord's own appointment." Mr. Shepherd argued here that Sandeman understood the "nature of faith" to NOT be in some special operation of God The Spirit, but in belief of the New Testament Scriptures. Walter Scott was yet unknown and had not attached "baptism" to such "faith" as a completion or perfection of it. Immersion in water would later be considered necessary to soul-salvation by all descendants of Alexander Campbell's restoration movement, but only after Walter Scott had persuaded an already very Sandemanian Alexander Campbell of its necessity. Sandeman's teachings would have fit well with the doctrines of modern fundamentalists regarding his views on saving faith, which he supposed came through the Holy Scriptures, without distinct conscious supernatural operations by the Holy Spirit.    Long before the Campbells came from Scotland to begin their  initial efforts to "restore" the primitive church to America and the world, genuine revival had invaded the ranks of the Presbyterians in America. The "new side," who embraced the revival activity, drew no small opposition from the "old side"  Presbyterians. The new side was alive with the reality of the Holy Spirit's workings which much of the old side denied as valid or necessary regarding the eternal salvation of men's souls. Of the revival wing of American Presbyterianism it was written, "Their old side opponents, many of whom had recently arrived from Scotland,  where doctrinal formalism was much more the order of the day,  saw things differently. They cast a suspicious eye on itinerant evangelism, feared that emotionalism was overwhelming Christian stability,  and thought that the structures of Presbyterianism should not be set aside in the revivalistic passion of the era." (page 189, THE GOSPEL IN AMERICA, by Woodbridge, Noll, and Hatch) This "new side" of Presbyterianism in colonial America consisted of those Presbyterians who engaged in the revival activity of the first "great awakening." A great division resulted because of the tenets of the "new side" which were described by John Thompson, an "old side" opponent, as "(1) deep and definite convictions which must fill the heart with terror; (2) definite experience of conversion without which one remains 'in a damnable unconverted state;' (3) the ability of a truly converted person to determine whether or not another is converted; (4) that an unconverted minister has not been called by God and cannot be the means of conversion.  Thompson examined each one of these 'errors' and in a very able manner attacked them  'as tending to corrupt the great Fundamental Doctrine of Conversion and Regeneration ...'  He maintained that the work of grace did not come in successive stages but was a process complete in itself.  Therefore conviction,  if it came from God was in itself evidence that a person was in a converted state.  Not all the other spiritual graces as faith, love, repentance may be apparent, but nevertheless they exist just as breathing may be the only evident sign of life in a body ... inward exercises are not the true criteria of one's spiritual state, as the revivalists maintained, so much as one's future conduct and desires. Thompson pointed to many instances in the Bible to prove that the preparatory convictions so emphasized by the New Lights were entirely unnecessary, and also to the fact that Christ and his Apostles emphasized primarily the 'still Gospel grace'. ... As to the definite assurance of conversion,  Thompson believed it to be attainable but also presented reasons why it might not be evidenced by many." (pages 63-64, THE GREAT AWAKENING IN VIRGINIA, 1740-1790, by Wesley M. Gewehr)

            Here we can see many arguments, used by Old Side Presbyterians in 1741 to oppose a true spiritual revival, in close harmony with, if not identical to, many arguments now used by modern fundamentalists in opposing the historical doctrine of Baptists. Many of these were perpetuated in similar form during the interim of more than a century by "Disciples" of Alexander Campbell.    While Thompson was "'almost fully persuaded' that Whitefield was 'a downright deceiver, or else under a dreadful delusion,'" (page 65, Gewehr) the New Side Presbyterians admired Whitefield, and the Baptists of colonial America recognized the famous Calvinistic Methodist as a  man of God.

            Simultaneously, the New Side's feelings toward an Old Side preacher, were revealed by John Craig's testimony that the "revivalists" "'freely loaded me with these and such like (appellations), poor, blind, carnal, hypocritical, damned wretch ...'" (page 66, Gewehr)

            Although the eighteenth century Regular Baptists were somewhat disturbed by the first of the New Lights who came to them under the name "Separate Baptists," because of some excessive outward emotionalism, there was never any opposition from them toward their doctrines of "inward exercises" associated with  the spiritual state and "the definite assurance of conversion" which were condemned by the Old Side Presbyterians. The Baptists had always held to these elements of experimental knowledge of God. Such emphasis was ancient Baptist teaching, but was much strengthened among them by the "great awakening" revival through the influence of the Separate Baptists. They were very soon in close fellowship and cooperation with one another, and toward the end of this first great revival period they were formally united under the name "United Baptists." During this period the Baptists possessed "a heightened commitment to personal conversion." (page 189, Woodbridge, Noll & Hatch) All true Baptists still stress the great importance of this individual conversion experience and contend that any person who lacks such an experience also lacks true saving faith and eternal salvation.

            It is evident that there existed among the Presbyterians a tendency to justify the many religious and educated men among them who were void of the evidences of conversion emphasized by the New Side Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists. That they soon reverted to this again in spite of the extensive revival influence among them during the great awakening is shown in the following words of Archibald Alexander. Although the Presbyterian denomination had been greatly spiritualized by the Holy Spirit during this great awakening revival, a persistent tendency of that people to resist the actual workings of the Holy Spirit continued to be seen in subsequent history. 

            Archibald Alexander was "twenty years a pastor and preacher in a revival era, then forty years a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary (commenced in 1812 when he was the sole instructor) ..." (Inside front cover of THOUGHTS ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE  by Archibald Alexander) 

            In this book he wrote, "John Wesley was for several years in the ministry and a missionary to America, before he had this joyful sense of the forgiveness of sins,  and he seems to intimate that until this time he was an unconverted man;  and most of his followers make this joyful sense of pardoned sin the principal evidence of conversion, and one which all must experience. Most serious, intelligent readers, however, will be of the opinion that Wesley was as humble and sincere a penitent before this joyful experience, as afterwards; and that it is a dangerous principle to make a man's opinion of his own state the criterion by which to judge of its safety. Certainly, we should greatly prefer to stand in the place  of some broken-hearted contrite ones, who can scarcely be induced to entertain a hope respecting their acceptance,  to that of many who boast that they never feel a doubt of their own safety." (page 98, Alexander)

            No doubt Mr. Alexander accepted the virtue of deep feelings and emotions in religion, as can be seen from his book, but he obviously sought to justify the many in his denomination who were void of any such evidences as the Baptists (before shown) and John Wesley and his Methodists demanded. As the modern "fundamentalists" labor to console many of their own who have mistaken conviction for conversion,  so it was in the former day.

            Again he hedged,  "But when the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, as described in the last part of this narrative, the distressed soul is made sensible at once of its happy state and is made to rejoice in the smiles of divine favour.  Then he can no more doubt that God is reconciled and has lifted upon him the light of his countenance, than that the sun is shining at mid-day. All Christians, however, are not favored with these bright discoveries.  Some always walk in a degree of darkness or at best in a mere crepuscular light;  yet they fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servants.  I have known instances of some persons changing their opinion of the time of their conversion several times and fixing it at different periods of their experience, as their sentiments became more correct and mature; and those converts who shine forth more brightly at first are not always they who appear best after a lapse of years." (page 117, Alexander )

            Again Mr. Alexander attempted to justify before God the convicted along with the converted. Certainly here appears to be seeds of modern "fundamentalism."

            On pages 309-310 in Chapter nine of this work a detailed account is given of Archibald Alexander's true conversion while he was a school teacher among the Baptists of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. In this account the CONTRAST between typical Presbyterian doctrine and typical Baptist doctrine regarding salvation and its assurances is very obvious.

            A look at the doctrine of a Presbyterian preacher from the Northeast who was in prison in Tupelo, Mississippi during the Civil War will reveal more seeds of "fundamentalist" heresy. This autobiography recalls advice the preacher, John H. Aughey, gave to a lost man who was awaiting execution. Jerome B. Poole and Calvin Harbaugh were to be put to death. Harbaugh asked, "What is faith in Jesus Christ?" Aughey answered, "Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered to us in the gospel."  "But Poole says I must be born again - that I must have a change of heart,"  Harbaugh replied. "The Bible tells us that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.  Therefore  if a man be in Christ he is a new creature. He is born again.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.  Whosoever believeth then has eternal life, and whosoever has eternal life surely sees and enters the kingdom of God, so that whosoever believeth is born again. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God loved and gave, we believe and have, and this is all of it to attain life and experience the new birth," Aughey assured him. Harbaugh responded  with  "I do believe on Jesus Christ and accept him as my Savior. I have never been baptized. Will you baptize me?" "Yes, I will, gladly," said the preacher. (page 112-113, THE FIGHTING PREACHER, by John H. Aughey)

            The "fundamentalists" of today would have been proud of the "soul-winning" tactics of that Civil War era Presbyterian preacher who deceived the soul of a doomed man,  as is here narrated.

            As proven in an earlier chapter, the whole Baptist denomination held strongly to the fact that true conversion was an inner experience accompanied by emotional feeling and a conscious awareness of the saving operations of the Holy Spirit, until the latter part of the nineteenth century. Often the old writers would use such words as "sense" or "sensible," or "impressions," instead of "feelings" when describing these evidences in the heart. Being much more than mere emotional feeling, this sensibility to eternal realities contains a high degree of intelligence, communicated to the spirit of man by being "impressed" thereon by God's Holy Spirit. In the late nineteenth century, some who were named "Baptist," especially in the northeast United States, began to embrace what is proudly heralded today as "fundamentalism," at least with regard to eternal salvation and soul winning. Since that time, these modern principles, in one form or another, have overturned the faith of most of the churches wearing the Baptist name.

            It was from the ranks of the Presbyterians that Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott both came in the early nineteenth century, teaching that same unconscious, emotionless, simple and easy faith of the intellect which "fundamentalists" are promoting today. Both say that there is no scriptural necessity for the deep guilt, shame, sorrow, and fear which produces a broken heart and contrite spirit in man, enabling him to experience a deep and astonishing conversion of heart, followed by the sensation of the abiding Holy Spirit within, who stirs the emotions with unfathomable and inexpressible love, joy, and peace. Some points of early Campbellism similar to the practices of modern "fundamentalists" were listed (among others not similar) by Beaver Association in Pennsylvania in 1829, the first Baptist association to withdraw fellowship from Mahoning Association after it was subverted by Campbell and Scott. Two of those were written as follows: (page 610, Volume 1, HISTORY OF KENTUCKY BAPTISTS  by J. H. Spencer) 

            "2) That Baptism should be  administered to all who say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, without examination on any other point. ...

            5) That the Scriptures are the only evidence of interest in Christ."

            Modern "fundamentalists" usually modify these two some- what,  but not so much as to change the deceptive effect of this heresy upon lost souls. They may ask the seeker of salvation if he believes he is saved, along with his belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and perhaps request of him a brief form of prayer. They may also admit that some men obtain more evidence of personal salvation than the witness of the Bible while still denying that such evidence is important or necessary. When the deceptive nature of the human heart, with its inclination to take the easiest route, is considered, it can be easily seen that any degree of such teaching will usually result in lost people taking the easy way, and therefore the false way, out of their perceived danger.

            One of the early Baptist opponents of the Campbell's movement identified it with that Scotch Presbyterian renegade of the previous century, Robert Sandeman, whom J. W. Shepherd admitted was a forerunner of Campbell's restoration movement. Silas M. Noel wrote of the Campbellites in Kentucky in 1829,  "... in  this war with  Pelagians and Sandemanians, called Campbellites, many of them may in like manner desert us." (page 612, Volume 1, Spencer)    

            There is no doubt that the influences of Sandeman and others inhabited Campbell and Scott before they ever added their own notion that faith was made complete by baptism. Certainly such a faith as Sandeman taught (and likewise Campbell and Scott) needed something more to complete it, but rather a broken heart and crushed spirit, producing "repentance unto remission of sins" and saving faith, than the waters of baptism. It is of interest, however, to note the similarity of views on faith among Sandeman, Campbell, Thompson, Alexander, Aughey, (and no doubt many other protestant teachers unknown to us) and the modern day "fundamentalists," especially in contrast to the spiritual depth of faith always insisted upon by historical Baptists. Although there are likely some unknown connections between the two groups, they are not available to us at present. We will rest content to show some common heritage among the two which occurred by way of the ongoing Protestant reform movement.

            Regarding the Baptist denomination's drift toward acceptance of this erring evangelism, we have the following information from  another of Campbell's sympathetic biographers. 

            "He (Alexander Campbell) was, therefore, never a Baptist in a partisan sense but from the time of his baptism a Christian of the apostolic order.  But for convenience he became connected with the Redstone Baptist Association and remained so until the agitation following his famous sermon on the law led him to seek a more congenial companionship in the Mahoning Association of Ohio. This memorable discourse was delivered in a grove on the banks of Cross Creek in the picturesque scenery of West Virginia. This 'Sermon on the Law' created such subsequent excitement in the Baptist community that it is commonly regarded as the parting of the roads between Baptists and Disciples. The former have, however, advanced to a point as far as this sermon.  The late Dr. Jeffrey of Brooklyn, a leading Baptist, preached the same sermon once before a Baptist association in Philadelphia and at another time to one in Warren, Rhode Island, and at both times it was received with profound attention and admiration. This was a sufficient test that, if the Baptists made that discourse a signal for breaking communion with Disciples in that day, they would not in this." (written in 1892, page 20, REVIEW OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL'S TOUR OF SCOT-LAND by Thomas Chalmers) Campbell's recollection of that sermon, later printed, shows it to be largely a criticism of the Baptist habit of dividing the Law of God into categories and maintaining that some parts of it are still in effect and working in harmony with the gospel in the condemnation of sin. Mr. Campbell seemed to suppose God's law as given by Moses was defective, such that it was all abolished in favor of a new law as contained in the summary of the teachings of Jesus and his apostles in the New Testament Bible. This new law, when kept, earns the keeper of it eternal life. Thus grace only served to eliminate God's first failed effort in giving out too difficult a law for men to keep. In Jesus, God revised the plan for man's salvation. Thus all Old Testament Scriptures are without purpose in modern teaching except as historical background. Mere acceptance of Christ's teachings is all there is to life and salvation. (pages 191-236, HOME LIFE AND REMINISCENCES OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL by Selina Huntington Campbell) Campbell's aversion to emotional religion was no doubt an ulterior motive in his desire to eliminate the "terrors of the law" upon the hearts of sinners. While it may be admitted that some of the emphasis of the strongly Calvinistic Baptist preachers of his day was excessive, the gospel message itself carries enough notice of the awful condemnation sinners are already under for having transgressed the righteous law of God as is sufficient to break the heart and crush the spirit in preparation for penitent saving faith and the salvation and peace with God which follows. A contrite condition of the human spirit is necessary to enable gospel repentance, unto saving faith, and the remission of sin. The gospel message alone in the hands of the Holy Spirit can produce these graces when received in the "honest and good heart." What greater indictment of sin and its awfulness could be given than the message that it necessitated the agonizing death of the sinless only-begotten Son of God as our only possible substitute and Savior? "The terror of the Lord" is thus no less to the convicted sinner living during the gospel dispensation than it should have been to one who properly comprehended God's law as dispensed by Moses. Nearing the close of the nineteenth century, many Baptists of the Northeast had already greatly slipped away from a staunch defense of those spiritual and emotional elements of true conversion which Alexander Campbell ridiculed nearly a century earlier. This drift can easily be seen to explain their appreciation for a sermon which had been a signal for war to their Baptist forefathers.

            Much has been said in this chapter of the seeds of modern "fundamentalism" which appeared among Presbyterians and some of their offspring in previous centuries. They appear to have edified this movement after it began also, but the chief apostle of "fundamentalism" with respect to their characteristic evangelism appears to have originated outside this group. That apostle was Dwight L. Moody.

            Dwight L. Moody was reared a Unitarian, but came under Congregationalist influence in Boston, Massachusetts when he was a young man. A super-salesman in a Boston shoe store, he was at his work place when his Bible teacher spoke a few words to him and there he was converted according to his own account. The Congregational Church subsequently denied him admittance into its membership based upon its  judgment  that he "did not give sufficient evidence of conversion, and  he was advised to get additional spiritual guidance. It was nearly a year before he was actually allowed to join the church. (pages 108-109, THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD; REVIVALISM IN AMERICA by Daniel Cohen)  Apparently, Mr. Moody always held to that conversion, initially doubted by the Boston Congregational Church, as his hope for eternity until his death. Mr. Cohen, who seemed  critical of Mr. Moody, also wrote  on  the  same pages, "Other religious leaders from St. Augustine to Charles G. Finney have left lengthy and often tortured accounts of their spiritual transformations. If Moody ever had such a mystic experience, he never spoke of it. His conversion seems to have been a fairly simple and unemotional  matter. Christianity just made sense to him." One might wonder how that Mr. Cohen could seem to be so critical of Mr. Moody, who is biographed as such a remarkable saint by so many other writers, had Mr. Moody not left plenty of evidence to convict himself of a fundamental error in doctrine in some of his sermons. Sufficient for this purpose is one of his famous sermons entitled "Instant Salvation." His doctrine, and the methods they produced, have had a degrading and destructive effect upon that part of American evangelical religion which has since embraced them. It is from this confession from the "horse's mouth," which seems to contradict some of the doctrine others credit him with having taught, and from the long-term bitterness of the fruits of his life, that Mr. Cohen's critical assessment of D. L. Moody is appreciated as largely correct.  Most other biographers write very favorably of the man. The following is a reprint of Mr. Moody's Sermon, "Instant Salvation."

            "'He that  believeth on the Son hath everlasting life;  and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life;  but the wrath of God abideth on him.' - John 3:36

            'Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.' - John 5:24

            You will find my text most anywhere in the Bible. If you look carefully you can find it written on every page.  Now what I want to say is this:  every man that wants to be saved can be saved before he leaves this building if he will. No matter how great a sinner you have been, you can trust God. It's His work to save you;  you can't do it if you would, but He is able.  Some people once tried to trouble an old Scotch woman about this matter of salvation,  and asked her how she knew God had saved her. 'Ah!' she said, 'God can't afford to break His word about a poor old Scotch woman like me.'  That was it.  She was sure.

            I know a good many earnest Christian people who can't tell the day or the hour, nor the week or the year, when they became Christians.  But, nevertheless, there was a point in their lives when they did accept Jesus, a moment when their names were written in the Lamb's book of life. Now, if there is one or one hundred or five hundred that have come into this assembly determined not to go out until they are saved, they can be saved. I believe that as surely as that I am standing here before you today. I have preached to you a number of times in the past twelve weeks upon sudden conversion. I believe that this truth of sudden conversion has met with more opposition than any other truth that we have preached. I don't think we have been in any city where there has been so much down-right opposition to this doctrine as there has been in Boston.

            Now let us look, and if the Word does not teach this, let us give it up; but if it does, then let us cling to it. I want to give you a number of illustrations.

            The  first illustration is the ark. It was the ark that saved Noah and his family. There was a moment when he and his family were outside the ark;  and there was another when he was inside. That is sudden conversion. When God called him into the ark, all he had to do was to come into the ark. It was all ready when God called him. It was finished and the door was wide open. I have not much sympathy for this notion that man is weeping and praying and entreating and knocking for God to let him come in. That is not the doctrine. The Son of God standeth and knocketh, knocketh, knocketh at the door of your heart for you to open it and let Him come in to you. The Son of God wants to save you. He is anxious that you should let him save you, and you are not willing to be saved.

            Some of you say that you have tried to understand this, but that you cannot. It is not that. You can understand it. It is your perverse, black, corrupt hearts that will not let you understand this. The striving is with your pride, with your own heart, not with God. The idea that we should have to stand weeping, struggling, knocking for God, the blessed, ever-living, merciful God!  He is ready to give you salvation when you are ready to receive it. In Manchester, after one of our meetings, we had a meeting in the gallery, an inquiry meeting, and I had a little company of anxious inquirers around me,  and I noticed one gentleman who took his seat upon the outskirts of the group, in the rear. I thought at first that he was a skeptic, and then I saw him weeping earnest tears, and that he was interested and evidently troubled with something. I went up to him and I said, 'Why cannot you receive salvation now?'  He said, 'I don't feel as if I could have it here now.' And I went on to tell him that there was no need to wait for feeling; that feeling had nothing to do with it; that if he would just let his feelings alone they would take care of themselves. And I went on to tell him that the word FEELING was not mentioned in the Bible; that there was no command to anyone to feel, from Genesis to Revelation; that feeling is not attached to salvation; that it is something beyond mere feeling. Feeling may change, but the Word of God doesn't. I used one illustration after another, but he said that he 'didn't see how it was.' And finally I thought of this illustration about the ark,  and I said, 'Was it Noah's feelings that made him safe, or was it the ark?' Then he cried, 'Why, yes, I see it.' Why, it  astonished me, he got it so quick. He said, 'I have to go off now upon the train; I thank you very much, Mr. Moody.' I could hardly believe that he understood it, it was so quick, so sudden.

            A few days afterward, as I was coming out of the Free Trade Hall, a man stepped up to me and said, 'Mr. Moody, do you remember me?' And I said, 'Well, no, I don't particularly; I see a good many faces and I cannot remember them all, but yours seems very familiar to me.' And then he said, 'Do you remember the illustration about the ark?' And I said, 'Oh, yes, I shall not forget that very soon.'  And then he said, `I am the man.' And I said, 'Well, how is it with you?'  And then he said, 'I went right into the ark then; I let the feelings take care of themselves.' And when I left Manchester he was about the last man to say goodbye to me. The Word of God saved him, and if you will just take the Word of God today it will save you and you will find peace and joy.

            In the twelfth chapter of Exodus, verses 22 through 24, we are told: 'And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever.' 

            What was it made these people safe? It was the blood upon the doorposts. It was not their prayers, their tears, their weeping that saved them and made them feel secure; it was the blood. 'When I see the blood, that shall be the token for you.' If we are sheltered behind the blood we shall be safe. Now there must have been a moment when the blood was not there. When it was not there, there was a moment when they were exposed to death; but the moment the blood was put there, that moment they were sheltered. They had then security and safety.

            There was a legend told about a firstborn child, and it ran, that if the blood was not there she would die that night, and she wanted to know that it was there. She asked her father if the blood was there. He said, 'Oh, yes, it is there. I told the servants to put it there.' But she said, 'Father, are you sure it is there?' And he answered her again, 'I told the servants to put it there and they have, of course, done so.' But she said, 'I wish you would take me to the door and show me if it is there.'  And he took her out and lo, and behold, it was not there. But the servants had time enough to kill the lamb and put the blood there, and she saw it and rested quietly in that word of the living God. It is only a legend, but it is an illustration that we can afford to take God at His Word. The blood of Christ is given us in mercy, and if I believe upon God I am safe. It is not my prayers, it is not my tears, it is not my feelings, but the Word of God that saves me. I find a good many people that are substituting feeling in the place of belief. They are substituting before Christ ordinances and forms, instead of taking the Word of God as the word that sets us free, that gives us liberty in Christ.

            The next illustration that I want to give you is these six cities of refuge. And the Lord told Moses that there would be six cities of refuge, three upon this side of the Jordan, and three in the land of Canaan, and that their gates should be open day and night; and these cities should be in a conspicuous place; and their leading men, like our selectmen or our officers connected with the government, should keep all the roads in good repair, and the bridges in good order; and signposts in red were set up, pointing the way to these cities.

            Now, suppose I have unwittingly killed a man. In those days it was the law that the next relation of the man who had been killed could draw his sword and slay that murderer when he met him. The moment that his nearest relative heard of it he could come upon the murderer and slay him, and the law would not touch him; it would justify the act. So the nearest relative of this man could slay me. But if I once get behind the walls of one of these cities I am  safe. If I am innocent, I am tried and am acquitted; but if I am guilty, then I am condemned and put to death.

            Look at that in regard to salvation. I am ten miles away. There are ten miles between me and that city. I do not stop to discuss the question. I have only one thing to do, and that is to get there. I have no other hope. I leap into the highway, and I go towards that city just as fast as I can. It isn't long before I hear someone upon my track. He comes closer and closer. I redouble my speed and fly as fast as I can. He comes nearer and nearer. I can hear him breathe. If I do not escape into that city I must perish if he overtakes me.  He hounds me down. I am exposed to death - to judgement. I am now within a hundred yards of that city. Notice is given to the citizens. The men rush to the walls to see me. They cry, 'Escape, escape for thy life, he is hard upon thee.' I leap over the highway; I bound along the road. I have not time to discuss; I must escape into that city. I am exposed to that man's sword. Now I am leaping through the walls; one moment I am in danger, in the  next I am safe. That is sudden, isn't it? That is a Bible illustration, isn't it?

            But a great many people think that they are not condemned yet. But how many should cry out, 'I have broken the law; death is upon my track; I do not know how far off he may be; it may be years; it may be months; it may be days; it may be hours, and he is fast bearing down upon me.'  God has provided a city of refuge for you. If you flee there you shall not die. You will not perish. That ought to be the first occupation. 'I cannot tell what will happen to me.'  'Boast not of tomorrow.'  'I must pass to that city.'  That is what we should say. Thank God, we have not to go ten miles. We have not  to wait ten minutes. All you have to do is to believe, and salvation is yours. Will you have it now? It is yours if you will just take it.

            But let me give you another illustration that you will understand better. We will go back to the days before the war. There is a slave in Kentucky. He has heard a good deal about liberty, and he says, 'If I could only get across the Ohio River - if I could only get into the land of liberty, would I not rejoice? Oh, if I were only a free man.' He cannot read, perhaps, but someone has told him about liberty. He knows that all those people upon the other side of the river are free. But he knows that he is not safe there. He knows that there is a fugitive slave law there. 'If I could get there and stay there, my master would come over and take me back again. But if I could swim that river and get through Michigan into Canada I would be safe. I would be a free man, for not a slave can breathe under the English flag. There is not a slave in Queen Victoria's dominions.'

            This man wants to be free. This man swims that river, but he knows that he is not safe. He has not been gone but a little time when his master is upon his track. The poor man runs as fast as he can. He hides in the woods in the daytime, and at night all the time he pushes along, avoiding the highways, toward that Canada line. If he crosses that he will be forever a free man. He crosses into Michigan. He says, 'Oh, if I can only get across the Canada line I will be a free man.' Now he is within a few feet of that line. His master is fifty yards behind him. 'If I can make the line now, I am safe;  I am a free man.'  He is still nearer to it - his master is within a few feet of him. He goes bounding over the line and he is a free man. That is sudden, isn't it?

            If you do not see how you can be converted, cross the line. You can stay where you are and be lost, or you can turn your face to him and come to His loving bosom and He will adopt you. You will become the bride of the Lamb, a child of God for all time and eternity. Oh, may God help you to cross that line. But you say, 'I still do not see how it can be done all at once.'

            Some of you have looked at Naaman. He was a leper, and he went down into the Jordan as he was told to do. He goes in six times a leper and he washes and comes out a leper, but the seventh time he washed in Jordan and he was made clean. He obeyed and he was made clean. That is what God wants. He wants obedience. He was to be saved by obeying. He goes in six times. There is one moment when Naaman was a leper. But he goes in the seventh time and he comes out in a moment clean.

            These are all Bible illustrations. But you still say, 'I don't see how a person can be saved all at once.'  You may not be just what you ought to be, but when you trust Christ you will be a child of God. When my little boy was a day old he was just as much my boy as he is now, when he is seven years old. Just as Naaman got rid of his leprosy, so you can get rid of your leprosy of sin today. If you will just obey God, if you will just receive Him today, you can go home from this house justified.

            Look at that poor man who was to have been executed a few days ago. The last day had come, the scaffold had been made. I don't know whether it was the same as in another case, for I did not read the papers to see, but I suppose his cell was where he could hear the hammers upon the scaffold driving the nails or bolts. There is that poor condemned man. In a few hours he is to be executed. Then comes a telegram from the governor, and he is reprieved. One moment he was condemned and the next has a reprieve.

            I was in a town in England, and there was a man in jail there that was to be hanged upon a Monday. Sunday all the ministers were preaching about him. The flag was over the prison. It was like a funeral in that town. There never was such a day seen there. The next morning he was to be executed. He can hear them at work upon the scaffold at midnight. He could not sleep. His friends had come and taken their last farewell of him, and the next morning he was to be launched into eternity. He hears the footsteps upon the corridor, and he thought it was the officer come to tell him that his time had come. But he came to the poor condemned man, and he told him that he had a pardon for him from the queen. One moment he might be hanged;  one moment condemned, another pardoned!

            So, my friends, you can be saved, all at once. If God is going to forgive you He isn't going to be six months or six years about it. If your child does wrong, mothers, and is sorry for it, is it six months or six years that you take in which to forgive it? When you forgive it, it is instantaneous, isn't it? If this man who had the pardon from the queen had said he did not want it, he would not take it, he would not have the benefit of what the queen had done.

            'Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' - Isaiah 1:18  Scarlet  and red - two fast colors. You could not get the scarlet out of that lady's shawl without spoiling the shawl. 'Yes, but what is the philosophy of it?'  Don't you mind the philosophy of it. Pardon is offered you, and you want to inquire into it? You want to know all about it? You want to understand the philosophy of it? Just take the pardon that is  offered and  thank Him for it. I firmly believe that Christ stands here with a pardon for every soul that wants it. All you have to do is just take it.

            I want to call your attention to a verse here in Numbers, chapter 21, verses five through nine:

            'And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, For we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.'

            'When he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.' Not six weeks after he beheld it. Not because they had been looking at it six months were they saved. AT ONCE they were saved. That was God's remedy. You want to know the philosophy of it? I don't know. I don't know what there was in an old brass serpent to give them life. But I know what he said. Hear his word.

            'Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.' (verse 8)

            That is enough for me. And now we find men that are looking to Christ, and they get light. It is being fulfilled in Boston at the present day. But some men dislike to believe in it. They say, 'There is no common sense in it. What an idea to tell Moses to make an old brass serpent and set it up upon a pole for people to look at. Now, if He had told him to take the brass and rub it in, there might have been some sense in it. I could understand how that might do, but such foolishness as sticking up a brass serpent upon a pole just for people to look at - why, I couldn't believe that if I wanted to. You don't think that we enlightened Bostonians are going to believe that, do you?'  Thank God, a good many people here are believing it, and you don't have to go through a college or a seminary to learn how to look. You can look without being cultured. All you have to do is to look and you can be saved by looking.

            'Look unto me ... all ye ends of the earth.'  Jesus is the Author of all life, and if you are going to get it, you have to look to Him. It is not looking at the pole;  it is looking at the serpent. It is not looking at the minister holding the pole up or at the pole itself. Some people do not like the looks of brass, and they are gilding up the cross of Christ to suit themselves. But it is the brass serpent that we are to look at. Christ says, 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.' All we have to do now is to look. There were some friends of mine that were talking to a poor Scottish lassie, and they gave her some advice that I never would have given to anyone. They told her to go home and read her Bible. They did not know what might happen upon the way. She looked at them and said, 'I canna read, I can only pray Jesus to tak' me as I am.'

            My friends, you just say that today and see how quickly He will take you. I don't care if you cannot read or write. I don't care if you never heard of Him before today. 'Whosoever believeth in him should not perish.'  The question is, will you take him? Will you take God's gift today?

            A lady said to me, 'You tell me just to receive Him; well, I do and I am the same woman. I try to believe and it isn't any different.'  Ah! It isn't trying, it is doing. I took her pocketbook, which she carried in her hand, and I said, 'Suppose there are fifty thousand dollars in that pocketbook. If I give it to you, you are the same woman,  yet a moment ago you were a beggar and now you are rich. You have a gift. If you get the new birth you get a gift; you get Christ. That makes a difference. You may not realize what you have.'

            I got Christ twenty-one years ago, and He was more to me after ten years than He was at first, and He is more to me now than He was ten years ago. I keep growing in Him, and I do not know what I shall be in time. When I was in England this doctrine was talked about a good deal there. One day I was going down a street and I saw a soldier coming toward me. You know they all wear red coats there and you can tell them a good way off. I had heard something about how they enlisted there, but I wanted to be sure and get the whole story from one who knew. So when he came up I said, 'I wish you could answer me a few questions. I am an American, and you know that we Americans - especially when we come from Yankee- dom - are very inquisitive.'  He said, 'certainly.'  I said, 'I would like to have you tell me how long it took you to become a soldier.'  He laughed at me. 'Why, just no time at all,'  he told me. I had heard  it before. This is the custom when a man enlists. When he says he will enlist, the recruiting officer puts an English shilling into the palm of his hand, and that moment he is a soldier. Before he comes up to the officer, and says, 'I want to enlist,' he is a citizen. He can go wherever he pleases. He can go to Australia, America, Africa, anywhere. Once that shilling is put in his hand he ceases to be a citizen. He is a soldier. He is under the government of Queen Victoria. He is commanded by officers, and he has to go where they order him. He has lost his liberty.

            Now do you want to know how you can be a soldier of God? It isn't the English shilling. It is the Savior. You come in here a sinner, and you take Christ, and He is yours, and all you have to do is to trust him. The question is, will you receive Him? I was asking that question, and I thought I would wait for an answer. And a man said, 'I will take Him.' Who will receive him today? Who will enlist today? You can receive Him and live forever; you can reject Him and die. In John's first epistle, the fifth chapter, the ninth through eleventh verses:

            'If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater:  for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself:  he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.'

            He gives us eternal life, and if we get it we have got to get it 'in his Son.' A man ignores Christ and he cannot get it. If you won't receive him you will not get it. You cannot get it independent of Him. 'He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life.' Have you got Him? That's the question. Answer the question today. Have you got Him? If you will take Him, He is yours. Can you say today, 'I have received Him, and He has received me?' You that don't have Him, won't you just take Him today?  Won't you just have Him now?

            When I was in Glasgow, a lady said to me, 'You are all the time talking about TAKE, TAKE.  Do you find it in the Bible?'  I told her where I found it, and I wished I had time to speak about one-half the places where it was blessed to me. The word is near the end of Revelation:

            'And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.' - Revelation 22:17.

            Won't someone take him today? Won't you take this cup that is offered you? If you be Christians, pass it to your next neighbor and ask if she is saved. You ladies, just pass the cup around, and if they do not take it, the blood of their souls will not be required at your hands. Everybody who has taken it, pass the cup to someone else and ask them to take it as a gift."

            One needs only to examine this one sermon by Mr. Moody to easily perceive the fundamental error of the Apostle of "fundamental- ism" and his countless modern disciples. Such a doctrine deserves critical examination. That error is clearly revealed in his example of the old Scotch woman in the first paragraph, whose only assurance of salvation was, "God can't afford to break his word about a poor old Scotchwoman like me." Her judgment was that she had complied with the Bible requirements. Therefore, if God does not save her, HE would have to be a liar. No thought is here considered that God, not man, is the judge of man's faith, and where there is no answer by the Holy Spirit directly to the human heart there is no assurance worth having. Her assurance was purely presumption. Moody approved of this and used the example to define his doctrine of the assurance of faith.

            Next, Mr. Moody went to the defense of professing "Christians" who have no remembrance of the experience of regeneration, obviously as a counter-argument against the many of his day who demanded a conversion experience as evidence of true faith in Christ. It is doubtful that any group ever demanded a remembrance of the calendar date of anyone's conversion, but many have rightly held that remembrance of the event should be vivid.

            Mr. Moody's next point was that he had "not much sympathy for the notion that man is weeping and praying and entreating and knocking for God to let him come in." He continued with, "That is not the doctrine... The Son of God standeth and knocketh, knocketh, knocketh at the door of your heart for you to open it and let him come in." Later he continued, "The idea that we should have to stand weeping, struggling, knocking for God, the blessed, ever-living, merciful God! He is ready to give you salvation when you are ready to receive it." Mr. Moody preferred to take one misinterpreted scripture verse from Revelation 3:20 as the basis of his salvation doctrine in place of many opposing scripture verses. Jesus was knocking at the door of his church members in Revelation 3:20 who had become lukewarm, not at a lost man's heart. Jesus taught, "knock, and it shall be opened unto you," (Matthew 7:7) and "strive to enter in at the strait gate," (Luke 13:24) in the context of salvation. Moody would have us believe that the "strait gate" is the door of our hearts and that Jesus strives continuously to enter but cannot do so until we let him. This idea is the basis of his perverted doctrine.

            To any discerning mind the "illustrations" given by Mr. Moody as proof of his "instant salvation," or "sudden conversion" doctrine, tend to prove him wrong when thoroughly considered. He wrote, "there was a moment when he and his family were outside the ark; and there was another when he was inside. That is sudden conversion." This example is very much misapplied according to the New Testament writer who stated, "Noah ... prepared an ark to the saving of his house..."(Hebrews 11:7) The ark was an instrument Noah prepared according to God's instructions in order to save his family and many species of animal life, not something God prepared to save Noah. Noah was already saved, having "found grace in the eyes of the Lord" before this time. He could no more have perished in the flood than Lamech or Methuselah, his father and grandfather, even if God had not ordered an ark. Furthermore, it is folly to use that example as proof of "instant salvation" while altogether ignoring more than one-hundred years of burdensome preparations necessary for the saving of Noah's family from the flood waters.

            In his legend regarding the Passover blood, the girl was not satisfied to take her father's word that the blood was on the door. SHE HAD TO SEE IT FOR HERSELF! Yet the blindly obedient disciples of the contradictory Mr. Moody believe him when he continues with "It is only a legend, but it is an illustration that we can afford to take God at His Word." This illustration would serve much better to prove Mr. Moody's doctrine in error. He ignored both the EFFORT it took to get the blood APPLIED, and THE IMPORTANCE OF CERTAINTY THAT IT HAS BEEN APPLIED in the knowledge of the one seeking salvation.

            In his example regarding cities of refuge he ignored the importance of the strenuous effort involved in fleeing to the city, and concluded, "Now I am leaping through the walls, one moment I am in danger, in the next I am safe. That is sudden, isn't it? That is a Bible illustration, isn't it." He concluded by contradicting the  message of his example with, "Thank God we have not to go ten miles. We have not to wait ten minutes. All you have to do is believe, and salvation is yours. Will you take it now? It is yours if you will just take it."  Why the example?

            In like manner, he ignored the thousand mile flight of the slave from Kentucky into Canada's freedom to consider only the momentary border crossing as "sudden."

            Likewise, he ignored Naaman's long journey, his struggle with his own pride and impatience, and his first six dips in Jordan to consider only the momentary action of the seventh dip. In the cases of his condemned criminal and the snake bitten Israelites, he ignored all the fear and torment felt and the DESPERATE CONDITION of the people involved.

            His illustration regarding the Scotch lassie who said, "I canna' read, I can only pray Jesus to tak' me as I am, "conflicts incredibly with his following questions, "Will you take him? Will you take God's gift today?" Who is doing the taking? Again, Mr. Moody's error is brilliantly exposed by his ignorance. He has man always TAKING God at will in order to be saved, whereas the truth of his own examples has salvation contingent upon God accepting man.

            The woman who was worried that she was "the same woman,"  before and after she heard Moody's advice to "receive" Christ, may have been consoled, but also deceived, by his demonstration using  her pocketbook in which he pretended to place $50,000.00. He would have her to believe that salvation is only a person's  possession  of some gift, which is at variance with the truth, that in being saved a person becomes the possession of God. In becoming God's possession he becomes a "new creature" or "new creation"  in Christ. He would have her to believe that her will to TAKE Christ and a subsequent resolution in her mind were sufficient assurance that Christ had indeed saved her soul. Her assurance was to rely solely upon her resolution to TAKE him to be her Savior based upon His supposed promise in John 3:16 and other similar verses of scripture. Mr. Moody concluded with this advice to her, "If you get the new birth, you get a gift; you get Christ. You may not realize what you have." 

            This one confession of Moody in public is enough to convict him of deceiving a poor lost soul before any jury of honest people who know the truth of the Bible about eternal salvation. He advised that poor dissatisfied woman to rest her eternal destiny on a supposed gift she unconsciously received by "TAKING" Christ as her Savior,  which possession was as fictitious as the money he had pretended to place in her pocketbook.

            The British soldier became a  possession of the British crown by the placing of the shilling in his hand by an authorized officer of the crown. He did not take anything as a free gift, but rather had to surrender himself to become a possession of another. This great surrender was required of him in order for him to receive that shilling as a token of his acceptance by his new master. Both the total surrender to God of a contrite penitent, and definite spiritual tokens of his acceptance by God, are consistently denied by Mr. Moody, and all of his modern disciples. They hold them to be no essential part of a true experience of the new birth.

            Mr. Moody concluded his famous sermon with 1st John 5:9-11, from which he would have man believe that GOD'S "WITNESS"  to  man  is  the written or preached word. As usual, he contradicted his text with his interpretation. The text reads, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness IN HIMSELF." This inward witness is something Moody and his successors have ever held to be unnecessary as an assurance of salvation.

            Revelation 22:17 is the closest that Mr. Moody and his disciples will ever get to a verse seeming to support their doctrine of "accepting Christ as Savior" in the sacred text. Here again, he twisted the scriptures. Moody's doctrine of "taking the water of life freely" is no different than Adam "putting forth his hand and taking of the tree of life," which thing he and his sons were prevented from doing by a flaming sword which turned every way which God placed at the entrance of the garden of Eden. After the fall of man, ease in receiving eternal life was prevented by sin. The sword requires all who receive eternal life to come by "The Way," which is the way of the crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ. His way is total submission to His Lordship. Such humble surrender is the essence of repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Mr. Moody's followers have done us a favor by preserving this famous sermon. Many other sermons by this famous "evangelist"  which are much less incriminating have had widespread circulation. Many people have read them and praised his name above that which any mortal man ought to be praised. There is no need to discredit Mr. Moody where he did not err. The magnitude of his errors regarding the manner in which salvation must be received and God's witness of its reception, can hardly be exaggerated. Their destructive effect in the hands of his many followers have deceived millions of souls since his decease.

            The next greatest promoter of this fundamental error was a man named Billy Sunday. It is easier to find fault with Billy Sunday than with D. L. Moody, because his evangelism was less sprinkled with eternal truths from the Bible, and his behavior was often more radical. However, it is not an objective of this work to unnecessarily discredit the character of Mr. Sunday, or any other man. As was the case with Mr. Moody, those people who truly understand the way of salvation can readily see from the man's own sermon the errors of his doctrine and practice. The following sermon is recorded on pages 181 -189 of BILLY SUNDAY, THE MAN AND HIS MESSAGE, by William T. Ellis.

                   "THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SUNDAY

            WHAT DOES CONVERTED MEAN? In means completely changed.  Converted is not synonymous with reformed.  Reforms are from without - conversion from within. Conversion is a complete surrender to Jesus. It's a willingness to do what he wants you to do. Unless you have made a complete surrender and are doing His will it will avail you nothing if you've reformed a thousand times and have your name on fifty church records.

            Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart and confess Him with your mouth and you will be saved. God is good. The plan of salvation is presented to you in two parts. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. Many of you here probably do believe. Why don't you confess? Now own up. The truth is that you have a yellow streak. Own up, businessmen, and business women, and all of you others. Isn't it so? Haven't you got a little saffron? Brave old Elijah ran like a scared deer when he heard old Jezebel had said she would have his head. He ran to Beersheba and lay down under a juniper tree and cried to the Lord to let him die. The Lord answered his prayer, but not in the way he expected. If he had let him die he would have died with nothing but the wind moaning through the trees as his funeral dirge. But the Lord had something better for Elijah. He had a chariot of fire and it swooped down and carried him into glory without his ever seeing death.

            The Lord says He has something better for you - salvation - if he can get you to see it. You've kept your church membership locked up. You've smiled at a smutty story. When God and the church were scoffed at you never peeped, and when asked to stand up you've sneaked out the back way and beat it. You're afraid and God despises a coward. You cannot be converted by thinking so and sitting still.

            Maybe you're a drunkard, an adulterer, a prostitute, a liar; won't admit you are lost; are proud. Maybe you're even proud you're not proud, and Jesus has a time of it.

            Jesus said: 'Come to me,' not to the church; to Me, not to a creed; to Me, not to a preacher; to Me, not to an evangelist; to Me, not to a priest;  to Me, not to a pope; 'Come to me and I will give you rest.'  Faith in Jesus Christ saves you,  not faith in the church.

            You can join a church, pay your share of the preacher's salary,  attend the services, teach Sunday school, return thanks and do everything that would apparently stamp you as a Christian - even pray - but you won't ever be a Christian  until you do what God tells you to do.

            That's the road, and that's the only one mapped out for you and for me. God treats all alike. He doesn't furnish one plan for the banker and another for the janitor who sweeps out the bank.  He has the same plan for one that he has for another. It's the law - you may not approve of it, but that doesn't make any difference.

            The first thing to remember about being saved is that salvation is a personal matter. 'Seek ye the Lord' - that means every one must seek for himself. It won't do for the parent to seek for the children; it won't do for the children to seek for the parent. If you were sick, all the medicine I might take wouldn't do you any good. Salvation is a personal matter that no one else can do for you;  you must attend to it yourself.

            Some persons have lived manly or womanly lives, and they lack but one thing - open confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some men think that they must come to Him in a certain way - that they must be stirred by emotion or something. Some people have a deeper conviction of sin before they are converted than after they are converted. With some it is the other way.  Some know when they are converted and others do not.

            Some people are emotional. Some are demonstrative. Some will cry easily. Some are cold and can't be moved to emotion. A man jumped up in a meeting and asked whether he could be saved when he hadn't shed a tear in forty years. Even as he spoke he began to shed tears. It's all a matter of how you're constituted. I am vehement,  and I serve God with the same vehemence that I served the Devil when I went down the line.

            Some of you say that in order to accept Jesus you must have different surroundings. You think you could do it better in some other place. You can be saved where you are as well as any place on  earth.  I say, 'My watch doesn't run. It needs new surroundings. I'll put it in this other pocket, or I'll put it here, or here on these flowers.' It doesn't need new surroundings. It needs a new mainspring; and that's what the sinner needs. You need a new heart, not a new suit.

            What can I do to keep out of Hell? 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.'

            The Philippian jailer was converted. He had put the disciples into the stocks when they came to the prison, but after his conversion  he stooped down and washed the blood from their stripes.

            Now, leave God out of the proposition for a minute.  Never mind about the new birth - that's His business. Jesus Christ became a man, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. He died on the cross for us, so that we might escape the penalty pronounced on us. Now, never mind about anything but our part in salvation. Here it is: 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'

            You say, 'Mr. Sunday, the church is full of hypocrites.'  So's Hell.  I say to you if you don't want to go to Hell and live with that bunch forever, come into the church, where you won't have to associate with them very long. There are no hypocrites in Heaven.

            You say, 'Mr. Sunday, I can be a Christian and go to Heaven without joining a church.' Yes, and you can go to Europe without getting on board a steamer. The swimming's good - but the sharks are laying for fellows who take that route. I don't believe you. If a man is truly saved he will hunt for a church right away.

            You say, 'It's so mysterious. I don't understand.' You'll be surprised to find out how little you know. You plant a seed in the ground; that's your part. You don't understand how it grows. How God makes that seed grow is mysterious to you.

            Some people think that they can't be converted unless they go down on their knees in the straw at a camp meeting, unless they pray all hours of the night, and all nights of the week, while some old brother storms Heaven in prayer. Some think a man must lose sleep, must come down the aisle with a haggard look;  he must froth at the mouth and dance and shout. Some get it that way, and they don't think that the work I do is genuine unless conversions are made in the same way.  I want you to see what God put in black and white; that there can be a sound, thorough conversion in an instant; that man can be converted as quietly as the coming of day and never backslide. I do not find fault with the way other people get religion. What I want and preach is the fact that a man can be converted without any fuss.

            If a man wants to shout and clap his hands in joy over his wife's conversion, or if a wife wants to cry when her husband is converted, I am not going to turn the hose on them, or put them in a strait-jacket. When a man turns to God truly in conversion, I don't care what form his conversion takes. I wasn't converted that way,  but I do not rush around and say, with gall and bitterness, that you are not saved because you did not get religion the way I did. If we all got it in the same way, the Devil might go to sleep with a regular Rip Van Winkle snooze and still be on the job.

            You could never get a man with the temperament of Nicodemus near a camp meeting, to kneel down in the straw, or to shout and sing. He was a quiet, thoughtful, honest, sincere and cautious man. He wanted to know the truth and he was willing to walk in the light when he found it.

            Look at the man at the pool of Bethesda. He was a big sinner and was in a lot of trouble which his sins had made for him. He had been in that condition for a long time. It didn't take him three minutes to say 'Yes,' when the Lord spoke to him. See how quietly he was converted:  'And he arose and followed him.'

            Matthew stood in the presence of Christ; he realized what it would be to be without Christ, to be without hope,  and it brought him to a quick decision. 'And he arose and followed him.'

            How long did that conversion take? How long did it take him to accept Christ after he had made up his mind? And you tell me you can't make an instant decision to please God? The decision of Matthew proves that you can. While he was sitting at his desk he was not a disciple. The instant he arose he was. That move changed his attitude toward God. Then he ceased to do evil and commenced to do good. You can be converted just as quickly as Matthew was.

            God says: 'Let the wicked forsake his way.' The instant that is done, no matter if the man has been a lifelong sinner, he is safe. There is no need of struggling for hours - or for days - do it now. Who are you struggling with? Not God. God's mind was made up long before the foundations of the earth were laid. The plan of salvation was made long before there was in any sin in the world.  Electricity existed long before there was any car wheel for it to drive. 'Let the wicked forsake his way.' When? Within a month, within a week, within a day, within an hour? No!  Now!  The instant you yield, God's plan of salvation is thrown into gear. You will be saved before you know it,  like a child being born.

            Rising and following Christ switched Matthew from the broad to the narrow way. He must have counted the cost as he would have balanced his cash book. He put one side against the other. The life he was living led to all chance of gain. On the other side there was Jesus,  and Jesus outweighs all else. He saw the balance turn as the tide of battle turns and then it ended with his decision. The sinner died and the disciple was born.

            I believe that the reason the story of Matthew was written was to show how a man could be converted quickly and quietly. It didn't take him five or ten years to begin to do something - he got busy right away.

            You don't believe in quick conversions? There have been a dozen men of modern times who have been powers for God whose conversions were as quiet as Matthew's. Charles G. Finney never went to a camp meeting. He was out in the woods alone, praying, when he was converted. Sam Jones, a mighty man of God, was converted at the bedside of his dying father. Moody accepted Christ while waiting on a customer at a boot and shoe store. Dr. Chapman was converted as a boy in a Sunday School. All the other boys in the class had accepted Christ, and only Wilbur remained. The teacher turned to him and said, 'And how about you, Wilbur?' He said, 'I will,' and he turned to Christ and has been a most powerful evangelist for many years. Gipsy Smith was converted in his Father's tent. Torrey was an agnostic, and in comparing agnosticism, infidelity and Christianity, he found the scale tipped toward Christ.

            Seemingly the  men who have moved the world for Christ have been converted in a quiet manner. The way to judge a tree is by its fruit.  Judge a tree of quiet conversion in this way.

            When conversion compels people to forsake their previous calling, God gives them a better job. Luke said, 'He left all.'  Little did he dream that his influence would be world-reaching and eternity- covering. His position as a tax collector seemed like a big job, but it was picking up pins compared to the job God gave him.  Some of you may be holding back for fear of being put out of your job. If you do right God will see that you do not suffer. He has given plenty of promises, and if you plant your feet on them you can defy the poorhouse. Trust in the Lord means that God will feed you. Following Christ you may discover a gold mine of ability that you never dreamed of possessing. There was a saloon keeper, converted in a meeting at New Castle, who won hundreds of people to Christ by his testimony and his preaching.

            You do not need to be in the church before the voice comes to you; you don't need to be reading the Bible; you don't need to be rich or poor or learned. Wherever Christ comes, follow. You may be converted while engaged in your business. Men cannot put up a wall and keep Jesus away.  The still small voice will find you.      

            Right where the two roads through life diverge God has put Calvary. There He put up a cross, the stumbling block over which the love of God said, 'I'll touch the heart of man with the thought of father and son.'  He thought that would win the world to him, but for nineteen hundred years men have climbed the Mount of Calvary and trampled into the earth the tenderest teachings of God.

            You are on the devil's side. How are you going to cross over?          So you cross the line and God won't issue any extradition papers.  Some of you want to cross. If you believe, then say so, and step across. There are hundreds that are on the edge of the line and many are standing straddling it. But that won't save you. You believe in your heart - confess Him with your mouth. With his heart man believes and with his mouth he confesses. Then confess and receive salvation full, free, perfect and eternal. God will not grant any extradition papers. A man isn't a soldier because he wears a uniform, or carries a gun, or carries a canteen. He is a soldier when he makes a definite enlistment. All of the others can be bought without enlisting. When a man becomes a soldier he goes out on muster day and takes an oath to defend his country. It's the oath that makes him a soldier. Going to church doesn't make you  Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile, but public definite enlistment for Christ makes you a Christian.

            'Oh,'  a woman said to me in Iowa, 'Mr. Sunday, I don't think I have to confess with my mouth.' I said: 'You're putting up your thoughts against God's.'

            M-o-u-t-h doesn't spell intellect. It spells mouth and you must confess with your mouth. The mouth is the biggest part about most people, anyhow.

            What must I do?

            Philosophy doesn't answer it. Infidelity doesn't answer it.  First, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.'  Believe on the Lord. Lord - that's his kingly name. That's the name He reigns under. 'Thou shalt call his name Jesus.' It takes that kind of confession. Give me a Savior with a sympathetic eye to watch me so I shall not slander. Give me a Savior with a strong arm to catch me if I stumble. Give me a Savior that will hear my slightest moan.

            Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Christ is His resurrection name. He is sitting at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.

            Because of his divinity He understands God's side of it and because of his humanity He understands our side of it. Who is better qualified to be the mediator? He's a Mediator. What is that? A lawyer is a mediator between the jury and the defendant. A retail merchant is a mediator between the wholesale dealer and the consumer. Therefore, Jesus Christ is the Mediator between God and man. Believe on the Lord. He's ruling today. Believe on the Lord Jesus. He died to save us. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Mediator.

            Her majesty, Queen Victoria, was traveling in Scotland when a storm came up and she took refuge in a little hut of a Highlander. She stayed there for an hour and when she went the good wife said to her husband, 'We'll tie a ribbon on that chair because her majesty has sat on it and no one else will ever sit on it.' A friend of mine was there later and was going to sit in the chair when the man cried: 'Nae, nae, mon. Dinna sit there. Her majesty spent an hour with us once and she sat on that chair and we tied a ribbon on it and no one else will ever sit on it.' They were honored that her majesty had spent an hour with them. It brought unspeakable joy to them.

            It's great that Jesus Christ will sit on the throne of my heart, not for an hour, but to sway His power forever and ever.

            In the war there was a band of guerillas, Quantrell's band, that had been ordered to be shot on sight. They had burned a town in Iowa and they had been caught. One long ditch was dug and they were lined up in front of it and blindfolded and tied. Just as the firing squad was ready to present arms a young man dashed through the bushes and cried, 'Stop!' He told the commander of the firing squad that he was as guilty as any of the others. He had escaped and had come of his own free will, and pointing to one man in the line he asked to take his place. 'I'm single,' he said, 'while he has a wife and babies.' The commander of the firing squad was an usher in one of the cities in which I held meetings, and he told me how the young fellow was blindfolded and bound and the guns rang out and he fell dead.

            Time went on and one day a man came upon another in a graveyard in Missouri weeping and shaping the grave into form. The first man asked who was buried there and the other said, 'The best friend I ever had.'  Then he told how he had not gone far away but had come back and taken the body of his friend after he had been shot. He buried it; so he knew he had the right body. And he had brought a withered bouquet all the way from his home to put on the grave.  He was poor then and could not afford anything costly, but he had placed a slab of wood on the pliable earth with these words on it:  'He died for me.'

            Major Whittle stood by the grave some time later and saw the monument. The man became rich and today there is a marble monument fifteen feet high and on it this inscription:

                           'SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF

                                        WILLIE LEE

                       HE TOOK MY PLACE IN THE LINE

                                   HE DIED FOR ME'

            Sacred to the memory of Jesus Christ. He took our place on the cross and gave His life that we might live, and go to Heaven and reign with Him.

            Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, confess Him with your mouth,  and you shall be saved and your house.

            It is a great salvation that can reach down into the quagmire of filth, pull a young man out and send him out to hunt his mother and fill her days with sunshine. It is a great salvation, for it saves from great sin.

            The way to salvation is not Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Vassar or Wellesley. Environment and culture can't put you into Heaven without you accepting Jesus Christ.

            It's great. I want to tell you that the way to Heaven is a bloodstained way. No man has and never will reach it without Jesus Christ."  

            Here are some excerpts from the foregoing sermon, drawn out for closer inspection which clearly show Mr. Sunday's dislike for heartfelt salvation and spiritual experience in conversion.

            "Some people think that  they  can't be  converted unless they go down on their knees in the straw at a camp meeting, unless they pray all hours of the night, and all nights of the week, while some old brother storms heaven in prayer. Some think a man must lose sleep, must come down the aisle with a haggard look; he must froth at the mouth and dance and shout. Some get it that way, and they don't think that the work I do is genuine unless conversions are made in the same way."

            It is highly doubtful that anyone ever preached the necessity of the above outward acts and experiences in the conversion of anyone. Mr. Sunday's bitter contempt showed through against those who told such accounts containing some similar but unexaggerated elements of their own experiences of salvation, and who probably often voiced doubts for obvious reasons about the superficial converts made in great numbers by Billy Sunday. All proclaimers of the necessity of genuine experimental knowledge have at times been slandered by this same type of false accusations coming from modern proponents of the false evangelism of Billy Sunday. What he ridicules are exaggerations of common outward responses to the convicting and converting influences of God's Holy Spirit.

            "I want you to see what God put in black and white; that there can be a sound, thorough conversion in an instant; that a man can be converted as quietly as the coming of day and never backslide. I do not find fault with the way other people get religion. What I want and preach is the fact that a man can be converted without any fuss."

            Can anyone who has read Moody's sermon on "Instant Salvation" wonder whence Sunday's doctrine came? He DID find fault with the way he perceived that other people said they got religion. Certainly in every conversion there is a "fuss," a war between good and evil forces, with the convicted soul as the battleground. Although there may be many cases in which little of that conflict showed outwardly, there certainly must be elements of such a struggle in the consciousness and memory of anyone truly converted to Christ by regeneration of their spirit. Regeneration requires death to sin. Death to sin of the human spirit may come quickly, but never easily, and if the struggle does not show in the outward man, such a conversion experience is a rare exception. Billy Sunday seemed to be void of any INTERNAL experience which would equate to the death to sin that is the culmination of repentance unto life. Thus he ridiculed such outward manifestations as normally and naturally accompany genuine conversions, with his exaggerations thereof.

            "If a man want's to shout and  clap his hands in joy over his wife's conversion, or if a wife wants to cry when her husband is converted, I am not going to turn the hose on them, or put them in a strait jacket. ... I wasn't converted that way, but I do not rush around and say with gall and bitterness that you were not saved because you did not get religion the way I did. If we all got it the same way, the devil might go to sleep with a regular Rip Van Winkle snooze and still be on the job." 

            Mr. Sunday obviously did not understand that such emotional manifestations as he described in subtle ridicule were not what anyone "wanted" to do, but rather were spontaneous reactions to powerful movings of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of people, revealing to them great victories. His vindictive defense of his own evangelism comforts us with the knowledge that there were indeed in his time many who perceived his deceptive methods. Unfortunately, there were never any successful concerted efforts to expose that deception to the general public such as were mounted against the Campbellite movement nearly a century before.

            There is irony in his Rip Van Winkle illustration in the fact that all 300,000 conversions accredited to Billy Sunday were obtained the same way, by people walking the "sawdust trail" to shake his hand, but it is quite ordinary for a participant in spiritual iniquity to accuse his critics of the very error which he practices.     

            "Some persons have lived manly or womanly lives,  but  they lack  one  thing - open confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some men think that they must come to Him a  certain way - that  they must be stirred  by emotion or something."

            The first sentence of the preceding paragraph is typical of Billy Sunday's appeal to the pride and flesh of man. His effect was to get proud but unconverted men and women to move down the aisle to shake his hand in token of "open confession of the Lord Jesus Christ." In the preceding sermon he undeniably made his case for the NECESSITY of open confession to eternal salvation. He might as well have followed Alexander Campbell's example in adding water baptism as to have added the outward work of confession before men. His "belief" was no more than the "belief" Campbell taught, not a gift of a gracious God, but a fruit of the carnal mind, which required a physical act for its completion and for the consoling of the "believer." In such a superficial believer's own actions he is assured that he has done all the things necessary to get God to save him. Mr. Sunday's plea against people waiting to be "stirred" to action in this context confirms his intent.

            "Some people have a deeper conviction of sin before they are converted than after they are converted. With others it is the other way. Some know when they are converted and others do not."

            To those who have experienced relief from the burden of sin at the moment of God's forgiveness, the preceding statement appears ludicrous. It would seem that Mr. Sunday's Presbyterian background is somewhat reflected in this. The reader should remember Archibald Alexander's attempt to count the convicted as converted given earlier in this chapter. All people KNOW WHEN they are converted. They may not all understand at the moment it happens that they have just experienced true conversion, or that God's regeneration is eternal. They do, however, have the capacity to remember that event, and to come to that absolute assurance that it was salvation. When such a time and place cannot be ascertained, it is dangerous and deceptive to console people who have no such remembrance. If God has really saved such a person and Satan has somehow hidden it from them in their confused memory, which sometimes happens, God is powerful enough to remove Satan's confusion and refresh that memory.

            "Now leave God out of the proposition for a minute.  Never mind about the new birth - that's His business. ... Never mind about anything but our part in salvation. Here it is: 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'"      

            It would seem puzzling that Jesus exhorted a lost man about the NECESSITY of the new birth when he spoke to Nicodemus if we are to "never mind" this matter. God did NOT do ALL of his part 2000 years ago and leave it in our power NOW to do ours, but such graceless evangelism WAS the doctrine of Billy Sunday. Every salvation experience is a cooperative effort between God and man.  While men earnestly seek God for grace and strive to repent from sin and trust Christ with a true faith, God's Holy Spirit simultaneously encourages and enables men to do so. This is why that repentance and faith can be correctly described as both duties of man and graces of God. They are part of the process of the "new birth" which men had better mind, lest they come to judgement void of that which Jesus said we all MUST experience in order to "see" or "enter" the kingdom of God.     

            "The plan of salvation is presented to you in two parts. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. Many of you here probably do believe. Why don't you confess? Now own up."

            This following of the steps of A LAW in order to be saved has become known in modern times as 'the Romans Road.' It results not in salvation but deception, and there is no wonder that its followers receive no internal witness of the Holy Spirit to confirm their salvation and must rely for comfort on the presumed LAW and their own memory of their presumed compliance with it. This is often called "taking God at His word" by defenders of such doctrine and practice. Need we argue that Billy Sunday preached a "faith" which was the product of the carnal mind which required no repentance from such a mind?

            "You could never get a man with the temperament of Nicodemus near a camp meeting, to kneel down in the straw, or to shout and sing. He was a quiet, thoughtful, honest, sincere, and cautious man. He wanted to know the truth and was willing to walk in the light when he found it."

            What possible purpose could Sunday have had in painting this picture of Nicodemus if not to encourage those in his audience who proudly thought of themselves as such a personality to walk the aisle and receive a "conversion" which would allow them to maintain their composure and dignity? Advocates of old-time heartfelt religion have never REQUIRED camp meetings, kneeling on straw, shouting, or singing, or any such like, but rather, an inward experience with the Holy Spirit which relieves feelings of condemnation. This necessity  was demanded by Jesus of Nicodemus - the same necessity which Billy Sunday denied. Camp meeting methods and manifestations have often accompanied the "new birth" and that moving of God's Holy Spirit essential to produce it. This accounts for the origin of such outward manifestations, although many of them have been mimicked and misused by hypocrites and enthusiasts. According to Sunday's doctrine, elsewhere in this sermon, Nicodemus must have remained a lost man until the close of the gospel account. He never exercised "open confession," the second step of Sunday's "plan of salvation,"  before then, if even at that time. How can a man of such serious self-contradiction be taken seriously?

            "There is no need of struggling for hours - or for days - do it now. Who are you struggling with? Not God. God's mind was made up long before the foundations of the earth was laid .... No!  Now!  The instant you yield God's plan of salvation is thrown into gear. You will be saved before you know it, like a child being born."

            Jesus' instruction to men to "strive to enter in at the strait gate ..." (Luke 13:24) is flatly contradicted by Sunday's teaching. Who do we struggle with in seeking salvation? Ask Jacob! He wrestled with the Lord and would not cease until he received the blessing he needed. In reward for his victorious struggle he was given a new name, Israel, honoring him for having striven with God and prevailed. Jacob had been wrestling with his own doubts and fears regarding his return to Canaan to face Esau, but he knew that it was only God who could remove the danger and reassure him with the faith that all would be well. God gave him the faith, and the fulfillment of His promise. Jacob was not a lost sinner, but nevertheless a sinner, and as with all sinners,  he was a doubter.

            Jesus taught the lost sinner to fully "count the cost" of discipleship before commitment, and to "forsake all" in order to become his disciple. Such necessary requirements account for the struggles of many who would willingly accept Christ and be saved in a moment if that were possible without total repentance, which includes giving up one's own desires and trusts. A struggle with God indeed occurred, as many have found, at their arrival at the strait gate which leads to eternal life!

            Sunday likened God's plan of salvation to a machine, "thrown into gear," by the simple act of man's assent. Such is the gospel according to Sunday. "You will be saved before you know it ...,"  he said. You may also never KNOW it, according to Sunday. God does not KNOW of such salvation either.

            "Charles G. Finney never went to a camp meeting ... Moody (Dwight L.) accepted Christ while waiting on a customer in a shoe store. Mr. Chapman  (Wilbur  Chapman - Presbyterian evangelist in whose organization Billy Sunday began his career) was converted as a boy in Sunday School. All the other boys in the class had accepted Christ, and only Wilbur remained. The teacher turned to him and said, `and how  about  you, Wilbur?'  He said, 'I will'... Torrey (R. A. Torrey) was an agnostic, and in comparing agnosticism, infidelity, and Christianity, he found the scale tipped toward Christ. Seemingly the men who have moved the world for Christ have been converted in a quiet manner. The way to judge a tree is by its fruit. Judge a tree of quiet conversion in this way." 

            Indeed we have judged these "trees," all of the same species, by their bitter fruits. As the scope of this work clearly shows, they are the men and the movement which have done the most to wreck the great latter day revival. Before their time it had revitalized the world. The doctrines and methods of these men have precipitated the greatest falling away from the principles of true religion since the great apostasy which followed the apostles age. We observe the manner of their conversions and we see their fruits in our present society.

            We must not neglect Mr. Sunday's account of his own conversion before  taking  leave of him.

            "I am a Christian because God says so, and I did what he told me to do,  and I stand on God's word and if the Book goes down I'll go down with it. If God goes down, I'll go with Him, and if there were any other kind of God, except that God, I would have been ship-wrecked long ago. Twenty-seven years ago in Chicago I piled all I had, my reputation, my character, my wife, my children, home; I staked my soul, everything I had, on the God of the Bible, and the Christ of the Bible, and I won." (page 158, Ellis)  His experience of acceptance, commitment, and assurance were in accordance with his doctrine. His review of his own successes, and of the apparent blessings of providence twenty-seven years afterward, added to his confidence. If, at the final judgement, he "goes down" he may accuse  "the Book" and "God" of misinforming him,