It reminded me that the old adage, “The important is seldom urgent, and the urgent seldom important,” is simply not true of the gospel. It reminded me that any opportunity to preach Jesus, no matter how unpromising, must be rapidly seized for the sinner’s sake. It reminded me that Christians are supposed to be industrious persons, particularly with respect to preaching the gospel. And, it reminded me of our shortcomings with regard to these things.

It seems that, though we have intellectualized, we may have failed to internalize the knowledge that those who courageously declare the message of the cross have the capacity to “[turn] the world upside down” (Acts. 17:6). Instead of boldly declaring Christ, many of us have sat idly by and watched our co-workers, our communities, and our country happily trundle down “the way that leads to destruction” (Matthew 7:13). Additionally, we have watched our numbers plummet, false doctrines proliferate, and sin prevail, and made little to no equable earnest effort to pull the pendulum back. And, worse, we have, at times, justified our inaction with suppositions such as the notion that things are so different now from what they were in the days when the church flourished, that church growth is an impossibility, that apathy and ignorance have increased to the point that we cannot help but decrease. I wonder.

In his book, Bible in Pocket, Gun in Hand, Ross Phares relates the story of a circuit rider named Garretson, who in 1779 encountered a man during his travels in the Delaware woods. After asking the man, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” Garrettson was amazed to hear the man respond, “I do not know him; he must not live in these parts.” A similar experience was had by another circuit rider about that same time: “Who killed Abel?” he asked a boy he was quizzing. The boy replied innocently and ignorantly, “I didn’t know he was dead. We just moved here last week” (Phares, p. 1). “Such was the religious ignorance on the American frontier following the colonies’ break with England” (p. 2).

Such ignorance and spiritual apathy were not confined to the frontier, however. “In 1760 only one New Englander out of eight was a church member. The ratio in the Middle colonies was one to fifteen, and in the South about one in twenty.” The church historian William Warren Sweet said of the early days of this country that “there came to be more unchurched people in America, in proportion to population, than any country in Christendom.” In 1800, only an estimated 7% of the population were church members” (Phares, p. 2).

Ungodliness abounded in this nation two hundred years ago just as it does now, but not so much that God could not overcome it. From this darkness a Light burst forth! From the ashes of spiritual depravity arose a “phoenix,” if you will—a movement to move the hearts of men, a movement through which a nation just born would learn how to be “born again.” The names of those involved in this movement we know well: Thomas and Alexander Campbell; Barton W. Stone; Walter Scott; Benjamin Franklin; “Raccoon” John Smith. These men, fallible humans like you and me, took God’s message to a perishing people in faith, and saw God give the increase! In 1828, the gospel was so readily accepted by those in Kentucky, that John Smith immersed about 30 persons a week for several consecutive months (Williams, p. 170). Benjamin Franklin, who preached during the mid-1800’s with such unrelenting fervor that his body was finally forced to relent in 1878, is recorded to have converted over ten thousand souls (Brumback, pp. 345-351). Walter Scott may have converted as many as thirty thousand. They did it with the same gospel that you and I “received and in which [we] stand, by which also [we] are saved” (1 Corinthians 15:1). Why then, do we not see similar fruit in this generation?

There may be several answers to this question. However, one may be that many of us lack the fervent faith and love to bear such fruit; we fall short of the conviction and concern of our predecessors. We don’t appreciate what’s happened in us; consequently, nothing has happened through us. A lack of passion for Jesus has yielded a lack of passion for telling others about Him, and we have come to care more for people’s feelings than we do for their souls. The desire of the fervent servant, that desire deeply rooted in the Divine desire that none “should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9), does not burn in us, but has burnt out. As Jeremiah, we have said to ourselves, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name” (Jeremiah 20:9).

It is time to remember the One who has done so much for us, and remember that there is much to do for Him. The clarion call of Christ must go forth, and it is the elect who must sound it. God has not left his kingdom to other people (Daniel 2:44), but to us! Let us, then, be His preaching people. Let us in full assurance of faith speak in His name, and know that “there isn’t enough darkness in all the world to put out a single candle.” And, if in the past we have followed Jeremiah’s example in not speaking, let us now follow his example in renewal. Let us submerge our fears in faith, and let each of us speak with renewed strength, “...His word is in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary of holding it back, and I cannot” (Jeremiah 20:9)—I will not!

_{Bibliography:
Brumback, R.H. (1957). History of the Church through the Ages.
St. Louis: Mission Messenger.
Phares, R. (1964). Bible in Pocket, Gun in Hand. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Williams, J.A. (1870). Life of Elder John Smith. Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Company.}

(Author’s note: The use of certain terms" circuit rider,” “church” (as used in its popular sense), “unchurched,” “Christendom”—was made not out of preference, but out of felt necessity. The words are not those of this author, but of the author of the work quoted. Additionally, the naming of Nashville Bible School is not intended as an endorsement of that institution, but simply as a means of identifying him to which it is applied.)