From the looks of this audience the men are taking men's places in the conquest of the world for the Man of Galilee. Our hearts have been greatly cheered by this demonstration, and I would cheer you further by saying that this is but one demonstration of many, many others. I want to speak to-night about bringing this tremendous power into contact with the world, that the men of America may be won for the Man of Galilee. I call attention hurriedly to five great requirements, as I view them, that need to be incorporated into our work if our work is to be permanent and really powerful.

      My first word is "Organization"--class organization. I was once in a conference when a man said, "It is not organization we need, it is the Spirit of God." It rather chilled our enthusiasm for a moment, and I was asked to answer the good brother. I think the Father gave me an answer, for the man was partly right. The answer I gave was like this: "I came here on a train. Which did the train need the most, steam or the locomotive?" The good brother himself said, "Both." A philosopher once sat in his kitchen. On the fire was a kettle full of water, and the steam was escaping. The philosopher could have said, "Oh, stop that noise; take that teakettle away; put out the fire; I want to think." But that philosopher was a true philosopher, and this, I think, was the fashion of his thinking: "Steam, noise, power unrelated;" and as he sat there he invented the locomotive, that harnessed the steam and hitched it to the world's load. A locomotive without steam is a helpless lot of metal; a locomotive with steam pulls the loads of Christian civilization. I am dreaming of the day when, through class organization, we shall harness the unbounded enthusiasm of young manhood and womanhood, and hitch it to the problem of bringing the world to Jesus Christ. May God hasten the day!

      My second word is "Conquest." Our Sunday-schools, like armies, live by conquest. When conquest stops, retreat begins. There is only one way to success; that is to march forward, winning man after man, until all are won. In this work of winning men there are many things I might mention, but I only mention two. First of all, hold on to the people you have. I was in my office one day, and a man came in and said, "We do not take people off our roll until they have been absent eighteen months."

W. C. PEARCE.

I said, "Why do you take them off then?" and he looked surprised. Some schools cut off the absentees in three weeks. When I was with Mr. Stem at Lake Geneva, some one said, "Do you count a man a member if he comes only once a year?" Mr. Stern replied, as though he had never thought of it before, "Certainly." "Does not that cut down your average attendance?" "I suppose it does, but our class is not after average attendance first; it is after men." If a man comes once, maybe he will come twice; if he comes twice, maybe he will be converted, or in some way helped to be a better man. You can have a 100 per cent. average attendance if, when a man is absent once, you do not let him return. Average attendance has done us much harm. Get it if you can, but do not get it by dropping off names; get it by bringing them in.

      But it is not enough to hold our own, we must get after new people. Get after somebody. rather than everybody. This fine philosophy about "the masses," that overlooks the individual, has done [573] much harm. Go after somebody! somebody!! somebody!!! There are old bachelors in this country that are old bachelors because they are after everybody instead of somebody. If you who are here to-night will remember this, your coming has been worth while.

      My next suggestion about going after people is, go after them until you get them. A man said, "We have been to see that man twenty-six times. Why should we go again?" There are two reasons: First, your twenty-six visits are wasted if you do not go again; second, the Scripture does not say to go once, twice, or a thousand times, but "go until you bring him back." That is the commission. Go until you win them. Where is the young man who would give his time, two evenings a week for a whole year, including bouquets, excursions, buggy rides, ice-cream soda, and all the rest, going to see a young lady, and then stop? That is not the time to stop; that is the time to begin. It is the last visit that counts. Go after them until you win them! Send seven men after one man, send seven more after that, send seven more after that; send them all after him, again, and again, and again! I declare to you, most men everywhere can be won by twenty-four patient, loving, sympathetic visits, and invitations to your class.

      My third word is "Fellowship." If you want to win the men of America for the Man of Galilee, you must be friendly. "He that would have friends must show himself friendly." Write over the door of your classroom, "Only once a stranger here." I was once in a Bible class in Washington, D. C., and to avoid missing any one they did this--I am going to ask the men of the two center sections to help me. Please rise. [The men arose.]

      Now, each one of you shake hands with two men, and then sit down. [The men shook hands.]

      Did any man miss getting shaken hands with? [Cries of "No."]

      Did all of you shake hands? All who did say "Aye." [A volley of "Ayes."]

      That is fine. A prominent layman of this country said to me, "Mr. Pearce, help the people to understand that social life is not a means to an end, but part of the whole business." A man is hungry for fellowship. He goes to the church, hears a fine sermon, listens to the music, and his heart responds; he is greatly helped. He is hungry to shake hands, he is hungry for a chat with another man. He is living in a boarding-house, perhaps, and he is lonesome. Because there is no Bible class to welcome him he passes out of the church; he goes to his boarding-house, to a little room on the top floor. He is lonesome, he wants companionship; he does not find it in the church, and therefore he goes out to find it. By and by, if his feet are not anchored and his heart is not fixed, he drops into a poolroom, a saloon, or a beer-garden, and this is what he hears: "Hello, Billy, how are you, old fellow?" He says, "I declare, this is what I am looking for." Oh, may I say this without fear of being misunderstood? The saloon could not live one year if it were all bad. It has had sense enough to get the music and fellowship that belong to the church, and may God help the men's Bible classes to bring their fellows back where they ought to be! May I say, in all sincerity, and with a conviction prayerfully born, that I believe if the church of the living God had spent as much time, energy, money and influence in providing the right kind of social life, as has been spent in fighting the wrong kind, we would be farther on to-night than we are.

      My fourth word is "Bible Study." In the Presbytery of Chicago alone, in five years, forty men's organizations disbanded, and not one of the forty was a Bible class. Your hope of success lies in the fact that you make your classes Bible classes. Do not let the announcements, or the speakers, or the opening or closing exercises, or anything else, crowd out God's book. Only fifty-two Sundays in the year, only thirty minutes per Sunday, only twenty-six hours per year for Bible study in the church. May I ask you, in behalf of this conquest for the Man of Galilee, that you men stand like the rock of Gibraltar, against any proposition to cramp or crowd the study of God's blessed book. As to that study, let it be evangelistic. May the men in your classes hear that voice, see him who speaks, and come to [574] know him whom to know is life eternal! The Bible class that does not reveal Christ is a failure to-day, and a worse failure to-morrow.

      My last word is "Service." Men like to do things, but not just to be doing. When I was a boy I liked to ride on a merry-go-round, but I declare to you, when I see a man on a merry-go-round, seated on a wooden giraffe and going 'round and 'round and 'round, getting off where he got on, minus his money, I feel humiliated. Boys ride merry-go-rounds; men ride Twentieth-century Limiteds. Boys just like to do things. Men like to do things worth while. There is a cry that men are not entering the ministry, that they are not entering Christian work, that they are not responding to the church. I do not know that this is altogether true, but if it be true, I declare to you it is because the church has failed to issue "The Call to a High and Worthy Cause."

M. STEVENSON.

There never has been a time when there was lack of men to face death itself in response to the call to a worthy cause. Why did the men of the North respond, "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more"? Why did the men of the South, as truly loyal to their convictions as the men of the North, march forth to battle? Why did the women stare with pale faces, and eyes too stern to weep, as they bade their loved ones good-by? Because they heard the call to a worthy cause. Have a worthy cause, a call to service of the right type. Here is a class of fifteen members. One of them was called to Africa, and the fourteen that remained are paying his salary. Here is a class, one hundred strong in round numbers, and each man is a big brother to a wayward boy. Here is a class that is furnishing all the supply teachers needed. Here is a class that is working to get all its men to the prayer-meeting service. Here is a class that is working to get all its men to the preaching service. So I might go on and call the roll from ocean to ocean. Classes prosper when they have a vision of mighty service. May God help us to plan great things for our classes! The greatest thing you can ever plan, the greatest thing for which you can pray, is the winning of the last man in your town for Jesus Christ. May God help you to try to do it! Oh, for a faith to grip it! Oh, for a courage to undertake it! Oh, for the joy of realizing it! The men of America will not be won for the Man of Galilee until the last man is won. Be not content with a hundred or a thousand; be not content until the last man is won!

      Mr. Chapman: I will introduce Brother Stevenson with the flag.

      Mr. Stevenson: The award of the banner for the men's Bible class making the best record in this Parade goes to the State of Vermont. [Applause.] This flag will never be the property of any State. Every year a streamer will be put on showing which State won it.

[CCR 573-575]