Fully 6,000 heard the “smile pilot,” John E. Brown on Sunday, notwithstanding the downpour of rain at both the afternoon and night service.
At the close of the service last night, following Brown’s sermon on “Isaiah’s Vision,” about 200 people gave their hands to the evangelist in answer to his call for church officials, Sunday School teachers, young people’s leaders and others of the church to rededicate their religious lives to one of service.
From his text last night Brother Brown took the passage from Isaiah. “Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the Lord of Hosts.”
“I wouldn’t give much for a repentance that didn’t include confession and restitution,” said the evangelist. “Some folks think they can just join the church, make profession and go along with the same old gang. The more unsaved material you unload into the church, the deeper the church will sink into the mire. It’s time for a clean-up; not only a cleaning up outside the church, but within the church.
“Brother, the man who stands up beside Jesus Christ will fall in his own estimation and in falling will really begin to become great. The nearer we get to God the more we take of His glory and the farther we drift; the more we talk of ourselves.
“Two steps are necessary to get right with God. First, repentance, then confession. You can tell the genuine repentance by the nature of the confession. I have heard women confess arson, and worse, and men confess murder, but no one ever yet came to me and said, ‘Brother Brown, pray for me. I’ve got a long tongue and I talk too much.’”
“Before you can get right with the sinner who saw you do the wrong, you must repent and confess,” said the evangelist.
“We can take Reidsville for Christ if you men will lead the way. Are you ready?” he asked in closing.
Sunday morning Brother Brown preach on “Influence.” He read the lesson from the second chapter of Revelations, beginning with the 12th verse. “The sin of this day and age as far as the church is concerned,” said the evangelist, “is not the great outbreaking of sins. The thing that hurts the church most, destroys her power most for good, is the sin, the awful sin, of sacrifice of influence, which leaves the unsaved questioning the loyalty and piety of professing Christians. Everyone possesses that intangible priceless something called influence.”
“There is not a person in this audience,” said Brother Brown, who can’t save at least one person, maybe two, five, ten or a thousand. “You may daresay that it is nobody’s business how you live. It is a lie,” he said, “sometimes our unconscious influence is more important to dam the souls of our friends that our conscious un-“ (something missing in the story) influence is to save them.
He gave as an example, a man who was writing on a window with his diamond. “Don’t do that,” said a friend. “Why?” he asked.
“Because you can rub it out,” was the reply.
Every day, said Brown, you are writing on deathless souls and all the ages cannot wipe it out.
Brother Brown painted a dark picture of the loss of influence of church members who allowed their lodges, and worldly living to sidetrack their church, and closed with the following:
When will the wind cease blowing,
Never!
When will the stream cease flowing,
Never!
When through the ages, will your influence cease going,
Never!
Upwards of 3,500 heard a great discourse Friday night on the subject of “Killing Lions,” the evangelist selected his text from Judges, 14:5. Brother Brown emphatically declared that murder must be committed if one is successful in religious endeavors—lions were in the path and they must be slain. These were divided into four classes:
Fault-finding;
Indifference;
Man-fear, and
Selfishness.
“I do not know,” said Brother Brown,” the hearts or the purposes of all the people here tonight, or the goal toward which you are traveling. I hope soon to know some of you, but it is certain that you all, by one road or another, are journeying down to Timnoth. Success, which is getting to Timnoth. Success, which is getting to Timnoth, is not an accident, not a turn of luck. To succeed you must meet the conditions, you must pay the price. You must slay the lions that you meet.
“If we are to make this revival the greatest spiritual awakening this city has ever known we must slay the lions. There are lions in this audience to be killed. Whether when you go to your reward you will hear ‘well done, good and faithful servant,’ or are turned away with a handful of faded leaves, depends upon how you face these lions. If this work is to be a success, individual service, individual cooperation and individual prayer will make it so.”
At the Friday night service school children comprised the honor delegation. Led by Mrs. Francis Womack, the students have a couple of enjoyable vocal selections.
From the front page of the Reidsville Review, May 14, 1923
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