Evangelism Old and New

God's Search For Man in All Ages

Amzi Clarence Dixon

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780429575143
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Published in 1905: This book discusses Evangelism and Christianity.

CHAPTER I.

THE VISION OF GOD AND MAN.

In the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel is a vision of Israel as a valley of dry bones, and the vision may be extended to the whole human race. Man is but a bone of his former self. And the question of all questions is, “Can these bones live?” The naturalist, finding a bone, can tell to what species it belongs and can restore the whole form. Man in his wrecked condition is still suggestive of deity, and only God can restore him to the divine image.

In the first chapter of Ezekiel is a vision of God which is a preparation for this vision of man. No one is ready for the work of raising and restoring bones till he has learned that divine forces respond to the call of human need; that heaven has opened earthward, and God Himself is now at work in His world. As we study this vision of God, we learn how God in His search for man works through us for the transforming of a valley of scattered bones into an organized army of living beings.

WING AND HAND

First of all, there is a union of the human and the divine. These peculiar living creatures have wings with a man’s hand under each. The wing all through the Scriptures is a symbol of deity. “The shadow of His wings” is a familiar phrase. The hand is a symbol of the human, and in the vision the hand is moved by the wing. The human should be controlled by the divine. God should rule in the affairs of man. The tendency of the times is to exalt man and forget God. This unfits the church in pulpit or pew for entering the valley of bones with any hope of success. You cannot make bones live by manipulation. Only the touch of God through human agency can do that. In Christianity God has linked Himself with man, and would use him for the regeneration of his fellows. Let God have the preëminence. I like the religion of the old colored woman who went to school at sixty years of age and, going to her teacher, said, “Missis, I wish you would tell me how to spell Jesus first, for then all the rest would come easy.” If you know how to spell God, with those three little letters you can spell all that is good.

INTELLIGENCE WITH WINGS.

In the next place, we see in this vision a winged intelligence. There is the face of a man, and the human face is the symbol of intelligence. Reason is here linked with God. Rationalism is reason divorced from God, creeping, crawling, grovelling. It is down with the bones in dust and death. It is therefore powerless. You cannot argue a bone into life and action. It was reasonable for Ezekiel to do just what God told him; and obedience to God is always reasonable. There was no conflict with reason when the prophet was told to call upon an unseen power. Prayer is reasonable. It is unreasonable to suppose that a God of love will refuse to hear the cry of His children. And a revelation from God is reasonable. God told Ezekiel exactly what to say, and the breath of life went with the words. “All Scripture,” says Paul, “is God-breathed,” and when we speak revealed truth the breath of God is in it.

It is unreasonable to exalt reason above revelation. Reason may itself be a slave in shackles. It may be controlled by prejudice, passion and ignorance. The leaders of the French Revolution said, “Down with the Bible, the Church and the Sabbath!” “Up with Reason!” But in selecting the personification of reason they did not go to the University of Paris for a broad-browed philosopher, but rather to a low variety theatre, and, crowning a dissolute actress goddess of Reason, called upon the people to worship at her shrine. It is universally true that men who claim to be controlled by reason apart from God are the slaves of pride, selfishness or lust.

At the best they are guided by a fallible faculty, a light within themselves which is dim and controlled by many other things. A ship going out of Boston harbor on a dark night collided with another vessel, and it was found that the drunken pilot was guiding it by a light on its prow rather than by the light of the stars. “A drunken fool!” you say; and a rationalist is the fool who guides the vessel of his soul by the light on its prow and will make shipwreck sooner or later. Reason is a splendid courtier to wait upon the King of kings, but a cold-blooded, prejudiced, ignorant, and sometimes cruel master. A man who is influenced only by cold reasoning and never by gratitude, friendship or love, is as near the Devil incarnate as ever lived. Rationalism really demonizes men after it has clipped the wings of their imagination, faith and hope. But when reason, enlightened by God, is linked with Him in loyal service, the whole man is ennobled and rises daily in the scale of being. The Scripture is then fulfilled: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles.” The gravitation of such a soul is always upward.

COURAGE WITH WINGS.

The next thing we see in the vision is a winged courage. There is the face of a lion, and a lion is the symbol of courage. Courage with wings means courage supported by the consciousness of God’s presence and power; a courage quick to respond to the impulses of the Spirit. Such courage is needed in the presence of danger and difficulty. Men who are brave before danger are sometimes cowards before difficulties. God said to Joshua, as He sent him to battle, “Be of good courage,” and to Solomon, as he faced the difficulties of building the temple, “Be of good courage.” Solomon needed courage for temple-building as much as Joshua needed it for the battle.

There is no danger in facing a valley of bones, but great difficulty, if we are commissioned with the work of transforming them into men. Destruction is easier than construction. I would rather undertake the task of turning an army into bones than bones into an army. A vandal with a hammer can go into an art gallery and destroy more in an hour than a master artist can replace in a year. But with God, construction, though it be an act of creation, is as easy as destruction. With Him there are no difficulties, and when we are linked with Him by a living union we may be as bold as a lion in facing the humanly impossible. The pioneers of this country were men and women brave before danger and difficulty. The Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock and the Cavaliers who landed at Jamestown needed courage for great danger and greater difficulties. When Chauncey Depew made the witty remark that the Pilgrims landed first upon their knees and then upon the aborigines, he gave the philosophy of their success. They were men who lived much upon their knees, and were thus ready for the dangers from the aborigines and the greater difficulties which came in the form of an inhospitable climate, failure of crops, physical disease, and internal dissensions. The heroes in industry may be braver than the heroes of battle.

PATIENCE WITH WINGS.

As we look again at the vision, we see a winged patience. There is the face of an ox, and the ox is the symbol of patient toil. He bears the yoke, and his mission is the unpoetic one of doing the dusty, humdrum drudgery of life. God links Himself with man, not for the great crises only, but for the work that wears by its friction and tires by its drudgery. Henry Stanley declared that he did not fear elephants in Africa, but “jiggers,” the little microscopic insects that got under the nails of his men and killed them. He could meet elephants in the open and protect himself against them, but the contemptible little jigger did its work of poisoning so insidiously that it could hardly be detected. For my part I would rather meet a Bengal tiger, if I had a Remington rifle, than to fight Jersey mosquitoes an hour. Meeting the tiger appeals to the heroic in one, but the attack of the mosquito only irritates and worries. If the truth were written on many a tombstone, the epitaph would read, “Died of jiggers and mosquito bites.” More people are killed by bother and worry and the humdrum of drudgery than by great calamities. The comfort I bring you is that God is with us in the ox-like drudgery and irritating commonplaces of life. His presence gives wings to the tired toiler. It is the ox without wings that is apt to suffer from nervous collapse.

One of Murillo’s pictures represents a kitchen scene with a woman cooking dinner, and as you look more closely you note that angels are in the kitchen helping her. A still closer inspection reveals the fact that the woman is herself an angel. The artist meant to teach that it is as angelic to cook a good dinner as to shine in the social circle or sit on a throne; that doing well the drudgery of life marks the angelic nature. As you read through the book of Ezekiel, you will find that, when this vision occurs again, the face of the ox has dropped out and in its place is the face of an angel, as if God Himself would teach us that the ox-like nature, which does well the drudgery of life, is after all truly angelic.

Our God notes the sparrow’s fall, and He is concerned with the minutiae of our little lives. Such a God is needed by the man who has been led by the hand of Providence and set down “in the midst of the valley which is full of bones.” The missionary on the foreign field, with pagan death all around him; the Christian worker on the frontier, standing among the bones of character dumped from great cities; the business man on a board of managers, the majority of whom are dead to righteousness; the loyal Christian woman, surrounded by the gilded death of worldly society; the honest politician working with those whose one thought is the spoils of office; the college student in the atmosphere of academic indifference and scepticism; indeed, every man who, having been quickened by the life of God, seeks to express that life in the midst of death, and so express it as to carry life to others, needs the patience of the ox with the wisdom, power and sympathy of God. And our God in Christ furnishes all these every moment to those who trust and abide in Him.

ASPIRATION WITH WINGS.

Another glance at the vision reveals a winged aspiration. There is the face of the eagle, and the eagle is a symbol of aspiration. It is the eagle’s nature to soar, and in its loftiest flight it rises above dust and cloud, that it may bask in the clear, pure light of the sun. There is an aspiration, not uncommon in these modern days, which would simply advance on swift wings. Its ambition is to keep up with the times. Like some birds, it flies low and parallel with the earth, till it drops again into the dust. It never soars. The upward flight of the soul towards God in holy contemplation, adoration and praise, may not yield financial returns, but it pays if one wishes to cultivate high thinking and high character. Only the life of God can make a bone, whose nature is to lie in the dust, aspire for anything higher. Through Christ there comes to dead humanity this eagle nature.

FELLOWSHIP WITH WINGS.

Next in the vision we see a winged fellowship. The wings are joined together. In our practical age we should doubtless have joined the hands. We are apt to think that if we can get together for work, it is all that is necessary. Federation and syndication are the order of the day. But there is need of an unseen spiritual union. If we are joined in a living union with God we can easily work together, for then the same spirit of love inspires us all. When the wings move, the hands joined to them cannot remain idle. The bonds which bind together lovers of God are not made of external organizations, important as they are, but of inward spirit. There may be unity of spirit with diversity of gifts, and this unity of spirit is brought about not by external cooperation but by inward experience. It is very needful that all spiritual people should in some way be united in heart and move together, if the valley of bones about us is to be transformed into living beings.

Years ago in the old country meetinghouse, while my father preached the gospel of salvation through Christ, I accepted Him as my Saviour from all sin and the dry bones of my dead spiritual nature were quickened into life. Since then I have been separated many miles from the plain country people who wept over sin with me that day, and then rejoiced with me in salvation, but I find, when I meet them now, that we still have this hope and joy in common. Many of them have remained on their farms, and I have drifted over the world, but we have not gone apart in the faith that meets the deep needs of the soul, so deep that the learning of a little Greek, Latin, science and history does not affect them at all. And when a short time ago the friends of my childhood wept with me again as they strewed flowers upon the grave of my mother, I felt as never before that we had experiences in common which neither life nor death will ever change.

DIRECTNESS WITH WINGS.

We see here, also, a winged directness. The living creatures of the vision moved in straight lines. In nature the curve is the line of grace and beauty, but in the realm of morals it is always the straight line. God would have us upright, outright and downright. Diplomacy, which is the art of doing things by indirection, is not among the Christian graces. Bismarck advised a company of young diplomats always to tell the truth because nobody would believe them. A Russian officer said, “I would die for my Czar, and of course I would lie for him.”

This diplomatic spirit prevails to a large extent in politics and commerce, and we have seen tendencies towards it in religious circles. There is a temptation to whitewash or galvanize the bones by a process of culture, rather than speak God’s word and expect Him through it to give them life. Education is considered by some a prerequisite to regeneration, while, according to God’s plan, regeneration is the basis of all true education. The first thing every person on this earth, ignorant or cultured, needs to do is to take into his heart the life of God which builds character. Truthfulness, chastity, sobriety, honesty in paying debts, and loyalty to principle in politics and business are the straight lines along which the life of God propels His people.

STABILITY WITH WINGS.

There is also a winged stability. These peculiar creatures have feet like a calf’s foot. The Psalmist says, “He maketh my feet like hind’s feet.” The feet of the hind and the calf are alike, and both are made for climbing slippery and dangerous places. The hind’s foot gives stability in action. It enables the hind to be stable while moving. It can poise itself on the edge of the precipice or leap from boulder to boulder without falling. Man’s foot looks as if it were made for backsliding. He needs to be guided and supported every moment by divine grace. The Psalmist says again, “He set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.” Standing and going are here equally established. Activity does not imply instability. Work for God and humanity does not take the place of conviction for truth. The Christian stands for something while he does something.

There has grown up in some quarters the spirit of a creedless creed. The conviction of some is that you need have no conviction. Their belief is that one need not believe. “No matter what you believe,” they say, “provided you do good.” As well say, “No matter what you eat, provided you take exercise,” for man’s creed makes the man. “As a man thinketh, so is he.” If he believes nothing, he will become nothing. Some time ago I was invited by an infidel society of New York to address them on “Christ and Him Crucified.” In the discussion that followed, one of the speakers, a Christian Scientist, said, “We worship the everlasting IT.” I could but reply that there is a universal law that people become like the object of their worship, and if they keep on worshiping “the everlasting IT” they will sooner or later become a lot of “Its.”

PROGRESS WITH WINGS.

Finally, we have a vision of winged progress. The prophet sees wheels within wheels. The wheel is the symbol of progress. Civilization goes forward on wheels. These wheels rested upon the earth, evidently symbolizing the organizations of earth which are needful to carry out the purposes of heaven. They are large and complicated. Some of the wheels are so large that they are dreadful and full of eyes. All the wisdom and power of man are in them; and God will have us make large plans for His glory. Not a few Christians form vast commercial schemes, so large that they are dreadful, for their own enrichment, but when they are placed on committees for aggressive Christian work they meet and spend their time playing with pinwheels. They think for themselves in thousands and millions, while they think for God only in dimes and dollars. In some towns and cities everything has been greatly enlarged except the work of the churches. That is still on the village scale. These wheels of complicated organization, you will notice, are under the direction of the Spirit. When the Spirit moves, they move. When the Spirit rises, they rise. When the Spirit goes forward, they go forward. Everything on earth should be under the control of the Spirit of God.

THE BASIS OF OPTIMISM.

As Ezekiel gazed at this marvelous vision, he saw the enthroned Christ with a rainbow about the throne. The rainbow is the symbol of hope, and the man who sees Christ enthroned above all earthly activities and convulsions is the true optimist. He has the right to hope, for at some time, sooner or later, this enthroned King will come into view with power and great glory, when every sceptre will become His sceptre, every throne His throne, and every crown His crown. The festivities of Queen Victoria’s coronation week closed with a rendition of Handel’s “Messiah,” with the best musicians and the finest instruments that Great Britain could furnish. Royalty and nobility were present. As the music began, a lady in waiting went to the Queen in the royal box and told her that when the “Hallelujah Chorus,” beginning with the words, “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth,” should be rea...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER I. THE VISION OF GOD AND MAN.
• CHAPTER II. EVANGELISM TRUE AND FALSE.
• CHAPTER III. THE CALL OF THE FIRST DISCIPLES.
• CHAPTER IV. PENTECOST.
• CHAPTER V. AFTER PENTECOST.
• CHAPTER VI. PERSONAL CONVERSATION.
• CHAPTER VII. THE ENDUEMENT OF POWER.
• CHAPTER VIII. “GO GLUE THYSELF.”
• CHAPTER IX. PAUL’S CONVERSION.
• CHAPTER X. REVELATION AND GROWTH VERSUS EVOLUTION AND MAGIC.
• CHAPTER XI. SOUL-WINNING.
• CHAPTER XII. IN THE CITY.
• CHAPTER XIII. IN THE OPEN AIR.
• CHAPTER XIV. THE PRAYER CIRCLE.
• CHAPTER XV. THE WIDENING VISION.