Assisted always by the skill and strength
of the Ally, the effectiveness of his work from the standpoint of Elder
Strong and the inner circle at least, was assured.
That was a great meeting; a mighty revival, far reaching in its influence
and results! So the denominational papers had it from Judge Strong's
report, written while the services were still in progress, and edited by
the evangelist. And the papers published a greater truth than they knew.
There were influences of which they were ignorant, and the results
reached ends they dreamed not of.
Night after night--Dan heard the evangelist with harsh words and
startling roughness of expression, declare the awful, eternal disaster
that would befall every soul that did not accept the peculiar brand of
salvation which he and his church alone offered. He listened to the long
arguments planned to prove the rightness, and therefore righteousness,
of the evangelist himself and his denominational way, and the equal
wrongness, and therefore unrighteousness, of every other minister and
church not of his way. Then as he heard these utterances most
emphatically and enthusiastically indorsed by his Elders and people as
the old Jerusalem gospel, the conviction grew upon him that his preaching
would never be acceptable to Memorial Church.
And what place is there in the scheme of things as they are for the
unacceptable preaching of any gospel? What gospel can a preacher deliver
in order to be acceptable to his peculiar church save that church's
peculiar gospel? Dan was not one to ask the oft repeated question of
the ministry, "What must I preach in order that I may be saved?"
In the semi-secret workers meetings; in the still more private planning
of the committees; in the jubilant reports of the uneasiness of the other
churches; and in the satisfying accounts of the awakened opposition and
answering sermons of the other preachers; in the evidence of the general
stirring up of the community; and in the schemes for further advertising
and boosting the evangelist and the cause, Dan felt himself growing ever
more and more out of harmony--felt himself more and more alone.
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