Microfilm Reel 195, File 64, "Russia"

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turies in Egypt, under the Pharohs), the Russian people for four long centuries were enslaved. For four centuries they had no civic government of their own. The Russian princes had to go to the capital and the dwelling places of the ruling Tartar "Khans" and bring in their gifts; they had to bend down and render obesiance to the Tartar princes.

In those dark hours, to whom should the Russian people turn but to that God whom they knew so dimly? Although in their hearts they were heathen, and very little troubled by the experience of trouble, and somehow in those four dark centuries, those light streaks were warm within the tissues of the "religious feeling," the feeling after God. The people turned towards God and prayed as they understood.

I have visited some of the large monesteries in Russia, and there have been shown, with lighted candle in my hand, the subterranean passages where the monks used to worship, and strive, through a great deal of self-sacrifice and all kinds of ascetic experiences for holiness. Some of the monks made little holes in the rocks down below the earth, and there they would lie and spend many years of their lives. Others sometimes would ask to be buried in the earth, half of their bodies covered, until they died of thirst, and hunger, and exposure to all kinds of deprivations. There has been one great, long, awful striving on the part of the people of Russia for something better. Why was this so? I guess you who have truly come to the Lord understand this. It was the great burden of sin upon ther conscience.

The Russian people know what sin is. I have never seen such repentance as among the Russian people. In our school, the Russian Bible Institute, in the city of Philadelphia, where the Lord has given me about one hundred bright Russian men and women students, preparing the Lord's work in Russia, when they gathered together, and we were lying upon our faces before the Lord, I wish you had heard their repentance for their past life. The Russian man sins deeply, but he also repents deeply, and he understands what "repentance" means.

Do you know, one of the greatest dangers in your Protestant churches in this country is that many of them have forgotten what it is to have conviction for sin. In many places I have found they wanted to receive members into their churches as easily as possible, with little conviction of sin, and they imagine that there should be some kind of a made-up joy in the mind of the Christian, without first of all experiencing the bitterness of Calvary. Among the Russian people, this very feeling of sin, this very degradation, made them dwarfted and undeveloped in those things which had been putting more than the yoke of the Tartar upon the heads of the nation. It was their awful abysmal sin, and that very sin made them turn to God. They wanted, they waited, they longed for something better.

Now this is practically the first time a man has stood in your presence after the Russian revolution, with a definite call for missionary effort among that people. The Russian people are not better than they used to be before they were made free. They were under the burden of sin before, but we were not allowed to bring them relief. If we did we were imprisoned and sent to Siberia, flogged, or beaten almost to death.

One of our dear brothers was standing up before his congregation in the southern part of Russia about four years ago. His wife and several children were nearby in the congregation. A lot of Greek church people were there. An assassin, incited by the Greek Church priest, with a big dagger, rushed toward the preacher and plunged the dagger deep into his breast, and he fell dead in the sight of his wife and children. It cost something to be a Christian.

"The Morning Cometh"

For the first time in ten centuries we can go to Russia, open the Bible, sing or preach the Gospel message, or pray it out, in any way we like, with no one watching us. For the first time, one hundred and eighty-two millions of human beings, burdened with the burden of sin, can be reached by the Gospel;

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Church in Chicago, and that is why I have come here with great anticipation and great hope; and because the Spirit of God constrains me to do so, my desire is to present to you the great need of my people.

In regard to this revolution, some people might say, "What about this revolution? What about the deposition of the Czar? What part did you Christian people in Russia have in the matter of starting this revolution?"

I would answer in a two-fold manner: first, nothing; secondly, everything. We, as Christians in Russia, always have believed in honoring and respecting our government, whatsoever it be. The only weapon we had against a bad ruler was to pray for him, to bring him before God; so that when the revolution broke out, so far as I know, our Christian people were just as quiet as they could be. Many times, when visiting a ruler, the Russian Prime Minister, or other officials, I told them, "We evangelical people in Russia are the most loyal subjects of his Majesty, the Czar." I spoke the truth.

I remember before the war broke out I was in the office of the Minister of War. I had a petition to offer. They were trying to forbid us to go from place to place. I was ordered not to preach in any place but my own pulpit, and no one else was to come to preach in my pulpit. They were very much upset because many people were getting saved wherever the evangalist traveled throughout the Russian Empire. I went to plead on this and other matters. I arrived early in the morning. The audience room of the Minister of War was crowded full of generals and all kinds of high personages and petitioners, many of them in uniform, with swords by their side.

One after another was called in. I awaited my turn. Finally the room was almost empty. I had been five hours waiting for the gracious reception, and could not understand it. Many times before that it had been enough for me to call up the office on the telephone, or even sometimes the home of the Prime Minister, for his wife attended my meetings, and I was able to get the audience in a short time, while other people had to wait for two months; and now I could not understand what was the trouble.

By and by the War Minister came out. Few petitioners were left, and they were all lined up, I among them. He went to the third, the fourth, and I was waiting for my turn. At last I stood before him, not trembling, because I have never been accustomed to tremble since I trembled before the Lord. If you tremble before the Lord you will not tremble before men or devils, but if you do not tremble before the Lord, you will tremble when a cat or a rabbit runs across your path. I stood there, very humbly, and said, "Your High Excellency, I have a petition to make," and presented my paper. "Nothing doing! Nothing doing!" he said, "I will not do it."

He became very angry with me, as if he had seen some terrible enemy of his. I understood then that he had been incited, of course, by the priests or some other reactionary agency. I had waited five or six hours, was exhausted, and had been praying the whole time, and expected some leniency on the part of his Excellency. He practically took me by the collar and said, "You go through that door and don't come back," and I went.

Some of you may have had some unpleasant experiences and know how I felt. I went out stirred up, out into the street, and kind of a human resentment came into my heart for a moment and I thought, "That is unjust, that is wrong," and I was almost tempted to say, "Oh, God, punish him," before I went into the street. I said instead, "Lord, what wouldest Thou have done?" and I remembered my Savior upon the cross, and how He hung on the cross before a railing crowd, and when he looked down upon those who had just put the terrible nails through His hands and feet, and upon those who were railing and calling Him all kinds of names, and the priests and politicians who had cried, "Crucify him, Crucify him," looking at Him under their brows with an awful feeling of satisfaction that their "arch-enemy" was now brought to naught, I remembered that instead of cursing or asking for their punishment,

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I did not know at that time that this prayer would be answered so quickly. I did not know that after the darkest of nights the morning would come, such a bright one, but, praise God, it has come. I was sent out of my country, and instead of going to Siberia was allowed to come to this land, and said goodbye to my church, a party of my friends, my family and others, my secretaries and associate pastors standing at the station as my train was about to pull out one midnight, with gendarmes walking on each side, suspecting something dangerous was out there. When the last bell (a bell on the station rings three times before the train pulls out), rang, they stood waving their white handkerchiefs. I heard the goodbye once more from the lips of my dear wife and friends and I was left practically to myself, leaning against a window in the darkness of the night, hastening toward the borders of Sweden—to what I did not know.

Then I felt the presence of one that sticketh closer than a brother, a sister, wife or children, there by my side, and knew that He was carrying the heavier end of the cross. He seemed to put His hand on my shoulder and to say, "Be of good cheer, I am with thee, and when thou passeth through the waters they shall not overflow thee, and through the fires they will not consume thee; but go ahead, I will hold thy hand," and I went.

Never once could I suspecct that things would be changed so remarkably. Never once could I expect that in three years such a change would come for my beloved country. Never once could I guess that the very priests who incited my banishment were committing one of the greatest boons and blessings for Russia that even angels could not devise, for I could never, in Russia in perfrect freedom, all these three years since the war has been going on, have accomplished by God's grace and under the guidance of the Spirit of God one thousanth part of the blessing I have seen through this banishment.

Let me give you a piece of advice. Don't be troubled about circumstances. Be troubled about yourself. You get right with God, and by the Spirit of God, and by the Blood of the Lamb right with God, and never mind if you have to make your bed in hell, you will awake in Paradise. You cannot keep in hell when you are right with God. You cannot keep in Siberia if you are right with God, and so the Lord is working wonderfully.

Sometimes people come to me and say, "Pastor Fetler, what should we do? This is such a bad experience, and there is this trouble and that."

I just put a finger over their heart and say, "Isn't there some trouble there in your heart? If there is no trouble in your heart, go ahead. The lions may roar around you, and bears, and wolves, and gendarmes and secret police, but never mind if you are right with God. Go ahead. Go ahead."

I stand before you tonight as a witness of the wonderful grace of God. Through all these years of my humble ministry in Russia, and these three years of my alienation from my native land, I have learned simply that there is one head of the Church of Jesus Christ, He Himself, and that we simply have to be in His way, to be following Him, and caring for nothing. Let me just show you in one or two ways what the Lord has done.

Some of you know the story already. One of the blessings that I got was before I came to this country. I had the privilege of reaching a great number of Russian war prisoners in the German and Austrian camps. The German and Austrian armies have captured by themselves more than two millions of Russians. When the Russian government said to me, "Fetler, you cannot preach to the Russian people," I said "I am going to preach." They said, "We will send you out of the country and prevent you from preaching."

When they did not allow me to go to my congregation, God brought me congregations out in Germany and Austria, two millions of them. I was preaching to two thousand in my church. Now I have been preaching through printed pages to two millions during those two years.

After coming to this country the Lord put it on my heart that tracts, Bibles

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First of all, we translated some tracts and put them in type. We made brass plates so that they could be printed over there. One of the first sermons published was "Fact, Faith, Feeling," by F. B. Meyer, the second, "Safety, Satisfaction and Enjoyment," by Geo. Cutting, and the third, "Hell," by Dr. Torrey. Some of my friends in New York of the New Theology type said, " 'Hell?' Don't send that tract!" They thought there was no such thing in existence. I said, That is the very thing I want to send. We Russians believe in heaven and hell; we want to know how to get out of hell and get to heaven."

To our disappointment, I received letters that these brass plates never reached our friends on the other side. Some of the authorities evidently thought we were trying to camouflage way to smuggle bass into their country, and the plates were confiscated. "Necessity is the mother of invention," and instead of making copper plates, we made paper plates, which of course cannot be made into cannon balls, and sent these paper mache plates by first class mail to Sweden, and our Swedish committee got them safely into the hands of our printers. As a result, millions of copies of tracts have been printed, and spread among the Russian war prisoners, and great have been the results.

A Harvest Coming

I am glad that the Moody Church was back of this work almost from the beginning, not without a good deal of merit to my "little friend with the big heart," Woolley. When I was here about eighteen months ago, friends gave money to publish a sermon by D. L. Moody, and one by your present pastor. I published a sermon by Moody, on "Repentance and Restitution," and a tract by Paul Rader on "Naaman, the Great Syrian General." My wife translated them both into the Russian language, and many thousands of copies have been printed on those two subjects with the money which the Moody Church friends gave.

You might ask, "Well, what is the result?" Sometimes we are not allowed to see results immediately, and sometimes we see them fairly soon. The latter has been the case with this work. I do not believe D. L. Moody ever preached a sermon before any American or English congregation which has given more blessings than those two sermons which we sent to the two million war prisoners.

In one of the larger camps, where I think there are perhaps ten to fifteen thousand Russians together in Germany, fourteen Russian Christians got together. Some of the Russian Christians had been called to war. Sometimes I wondered why they were called, and then I found that the Lord wanted to have some evangelists among the troops. These fourteen were from many different places, but they got together and started a prayer meeting, and Bible reading. Then they got our tracts. Not many months went by, when, instead of fourteen believers, there were in that camp, as my reports tell me, 618 converted men. They organized a "Moody Church" in Germany, found there miniature "Paul Rader" and elected him pastor, and probably they also found a Russian "Woolley." Now they are going ahead, and I do not know how many more believers there are, for my report is five or six months old. I would not be surprised, however, if there were a thousand Russian converts already.

Now this is not the end of the story, because when the war is over, and the Russian soldiers return to their native land, other results will come. You see one of the treat blessings of the revolution has been the abolishing of censorship. If the Czar were upon the throne those Russian captives on their way back from Germany and Austria would be eliminated, and they would make a bonfire on the border between Germany and Russia of those tracts; but now the censorship has been abolished, and the Russian soldiers, very much democratized, will be able to take their bags containing any kind of contraband, and among those things will be the sermons and tracts and Gospel portions. Then what will happen? I calculate, being rather conservative, as I prophesied eighteen months ago in this place, that at least 20,000 Russians have been led to

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MES H ESME MIOET UE TMMMS) Chirth H CMESS, W ar o y

the Russian people for four long cen- have come here with great anticipation

I did not know at that time that this

Fit of at, We Wna Wnd Wey

and put them in type. We made brass turies were enslaved. For four cen and great hope; and because the Spirt Drayer would be answered so quickly. plates so they could be printed ove turies they had no civic government o of God constrains me to do so, my de- did not know that after the darkest of

their own. The Russian princes had t

go to the capital and the dwelling place of the ruling Tartar Khans and bring

in their gifts; they had to bend dow

and render obeisance to the Tarta princes

In those dark hours, to whom shoul

the Russian people turn but to that God

whom they knew so dimly? Although

in their hearts they were heathen, an very little touched by the experience o

sire is to present to you the great need of my people

in regard to this revolation, some peo-

ple might say, What about this revolu tion? What about the deposition of the

instead of going to Siberia was allowed

Crar? What part did you Christian peo-

to my church, a party of my friends, in

ple in Russia have in the matter of starting this revolution!

first, nothing; secondly, everything. We as Christians in Russia, always have be

feeling." the feeling after God. The out, so far as I Know, our Christiar people turned towards God and prayed eople were just as quiet as they could

be., Many times, when visiting a ruler,

I have visited some of the large mon. the Russian Prime Minister, or othe

asteries in Russia, and there I have bee

shown, with a lighted candle in my hand the subterrancan passages where the

monks used to worship, and strive

through a great deal of self-sacrifice

and all kinds of ascetic experiences, for

holiness. Some of the monks made lif tle holes in the rocks down below the

officials, I told them, We evangelice people in Russia are the most loyal sub jects of his Majesty, the Crar. I spok

the trutl

I remember before the war broke on

was in the office of the Minister of

War. I had a petition to offer. The

were trying to forbid us to go from

spend many years of their lives. Other,

place to place. I was ordered not to preach in any place but my own pulpit

earth, half of their bodies covered, unti

in my pulpit. They were very much up

earth, and there they would he an

sometimes would ask to be buried in the and no one else was to come to preach they died of thirst, and hunger, and ex

posure to all Kinds of deprivations There has been one great, long, awfu

striving on the part of the people of

Russia for something better. Why was it so? I guess you who have truly come to the Lord understand this. It was the

great burden of sin upon their con science

The Russian people know what sin is

have never seen such repentance as among the Russian people. In our

set because many people were getting

saved wherever the evangelist traveled

through the Russian Empire. I went t

plead on this and other matters. I ar

rived early in the morning. The audi-

ence room of the Minister of War was

crowded full of generals and all Kind

of high personages and petitioners, many of them in uniform, with swords by their side

One after another was called in

awaited my turn. Finally the room was

school, the Russian Bible Institute, in almost empty. I had been five hour

the city of Philadelphia, where the waiting for the gracious reception, and Lord has given me about a hundred could not understand it. Many time bright Russian men and women stu

dents, preparing for the Lords work i Russia, when they gathered together

and we were lying upon our faces be

fore the Lord, I wish you had beard

to come to this land, and said goodby

before that it had been enough for m

to call up the office on the telephone, o even sometimes the home of the Prim

Minister, for his wife had attended m

there One of the first sermons pub-

lished was Fact, Faith, Feeling, by F

B. Meyer, the second, Safety, Satistac

tion and Enjoyment, by Geo. Cutting,

and the third, Hell, by Dr. Torrey

Some of my friends in New Vork of the

family and others, my secretaries and Nety Theolosy twpe said, Hellr Dons

Associate pastors standing at the station

I would answer in a two-fold manner; as my train was about to pull out one

the Holy Ghost, yet God saw their lieved in honoring and respecting on rouble, and somehow in those four dark government, whatsoever it be. The onl centuries, those light streaks were weapon we had against a bad ruler wa warm within the tissues of the Russian to pray for him, to bring him before people, which I would call the religions God; so that when the revolution broke

as they understood.

nights the morning would come, such a

bright one, but, praise God, it has come was sent out of my country an

midnight, with gendarmes walking on

each side, suspecting something danger

send that tractfr They thought there

was no such thing in existence. I said That is the very thing I want to send

We Russians believe in heaven and hell

ous was there. When the last bell (a bell we want to know how to get out of hel on the station rings three times before and to set to heaven. the train pulls out), rang, they stoo waving their white handkerchiefs

heard the goodbye once more from the

lips of my dear wife and friends and

was left practically to myself, teaning against the window in the darkness o

the night, hastening toward the border

of Sweden-to what I did not know

Then I felt the presence of one tha

sticketh closer than a brother, a sister,

wife or children, there by my side, and knew that He was carrying the heavies

end of the cross. He seemed to put His hand upon my shoulder and to say

Be of good cheer, I am with thee, and when thou passest through the waters

they shall not overflow thee, and through the fires they will not consume thee; bu

go ahead, I will hold thy hand," and

went

Never once could I suspect that things

would be changing so remarkably. Never

once could I expect that in three years

such a change would come for my be-

loved country. Never once could

guess that the very priests who incite my banishment were committing one of the greatest boons and blessings for Rus sia that even angels could not devise, for

I could never, in Russia in perfect free dom, all these three years snce the wa

as been going on, have accomplished by od's grace and under he guidance

of the Spirit of God one thousandil part of the blessing I have seen through this banishment

Let me give you a bit of advice. Dont

be troubled about circunstances. B

meetings, and I was able to get the andi

To our disappointment, I received let

ters that these brass plates never

reached our friends on the other side

Some of the authorities evidently thought we were trying in a camouflase way to smusgle brass into their coun

try, and the plates were confiscated

Necessity is the mother of invention, and instead of making copper plates, we

made paper plates, which of course cannot be made into cannon balls, and sent

these paper mache plates by first das mail to Sweden, and our Swedish com

mittee got them safely into the hands o our printers As a result, miltions of copies of tracts have been printed, and pread among the Russian war prison-

ers, and great have been the results.

A Harvest Comins

I am glad that the Moody Church wa back of this work almost from the be

ginning, not without a good deal of

merit to my little friend with the big

heart," Woolley. When I was here

about eighteen months ago, friends gavi money to publish a sermon by D. 1 Moody, and one by your present pastor

Ipublished a sermon by Moody, on Re

pentance and Restitution," and a trace

by Paul Rader on Naaman, the Great

Syrian General My wife translated them both into the Russian language

and many thousands of copies have been printed on these two subjects with the

noney which the Moody Church friends gave

Vou might ask, Well, what is the re

sulrr Sometimes we are not allowed

troubled about yourself. Vou get righ see results immediately, and sometimes with God, and by the Spirit of God, an we see them fairly soon. The latter has by the Blood of the Lamb right with been the case with this work. I do not had to wait for two months; and now repents deeply, and he understands what could not understand what was the bod, and never mind if you have 1 elieve D. I. Moody ever preached trouble. make vour bed in hell, you will awake in "repentance means. ermon before any American or English

their repentance for their past life The Russian man sins deeply, but he als

Do you Know, one of the greatest dan

gers in your Protestant churches in this country is that many of them have for gotten what it is to have conviction for in. In many places I have found they

wanted to receive members into thei

ence in a short time, while other peoph

By and by the War Minister came out.

Few petitioners were left, and they

were all lined up, I among them. H

went to the third, the fourth, and I was vaiting for my turn. At last I stood be fore him, not trembling, because I have

churches as easily as possible, with lit-

never been accustomed to tremble since

He conviction of sin, and they imagine

trembled before the Lord. If you

that there should be some kind of

tremble before the Lord you will no

made-up joy in the mind of the Chris-

tremble before men or devils, but if yor

tian, without first of all experiencing the

bitterness of Calvary. Among the Russian people, this very feeling of sin, thie

do not tremble before the Lord, you wil tremble when a cat or a rabbit run

cross your path. I stood there, ver

very degradation, made them dwarfed humbly, and said, Your High Excel

and undeveloped in those things which had been putting more than the yoke of

the Tartar upon the heads of the nation

It was their awful abysmal sin, and that

very sin made them turn to God. The

lency, I have a petition to make, and presented my paper. Nothing doing

Vothing doing 1 he said,I

will not do

He became very angry at me, as i

wanted, they waited, they longed for he had seen some terrible enemy of his something better.

Now this is practically the first time

I understood then that he had been in

cited, of course, by the priests or some a man has stood in your presence after other reactionary agency. I had waite the Russian revolution, with a definite

five or six hours, was exhausted, an all for missionary effort among that had been praying the whole time, and people. The Russian people are not bet expected some teniency on the part o ter than they used to be before they were made free. They were under the

burden of sin before, but we were no

allowed to bring them relief. If we dic

we were imprisoned and sent to Siberis

flogged, or beaten almost to death.

One of our dear brothers was stand.

ing up before his congregation in th

southern part of Russia about four years

Paradise. Vou cannot keep in hell whe

God. and so the Lord is working worr terfully.

Sometimes people come to me and say

Pastor Fetler, what should we do

This is such a bad experience, and there this trouble and that

went.

Some of you may have had some un

leasant experiences and Know how elt. I went out stirred up, out into the

street, and Kind of a human resentment

and say, Ient there some trouble there

in your heart] If there is no troubl in your heart, go ahead. The lions ma) roar around you, and bears, and wolves

and gendarmes and secret police, bu

never mind if you are right with God.

Go ahead. Go ahead

stand before you tonight as a wi

ness of the wonderful grace of Co

Through all these years of my humbl ministry in Russia, and these three year

of my alienation from my native land, have learned simply that there is on great guiding hand of God, one grea

head of the Church of Jesus Christ, H

Himself, and that we simply have to b

ou in one or two ways what the Lord

has done Some of you know the story already One of the blessings that I got was My

fore I came to this country. I had the

rivilege of reaching a great number of

ago. His wife and several childrer

came into my heart for a moment, and Russian war prisoners in the Germas I thought, That is unjust, that i and Austrian camps. The German and

of Greek church people were there. An

say, Oh, God, punish him," before

were nearby in the congregation. A lot wrong," and I was almost tempted to

assassin, incited by the Greek Church

went into the street. I said instead,

ward the preacher and plunged the day

and I remembered my Savior upon the

priest, with a big dagger, rushed to ger deep into his breast, and he fe

dead in the sight of his wife and chil

dren. It cost something to be a Chris

tian.

The Morning Cometh

Lord, what wouldest Thou have done

cross, and how He hung on the cros efore the railing crowd, and when He

looked down upon those who had jus put the terrible nails through His hand: and feet, and upon those who were rail

For the first time in ten centuries we ing and calling Him all Kinds of name can go to Russis, open the Bible, sing and the priests and politicians who ha or preach the Cospel message, or pray

it out, in any way we like, with no on

watching us. For the first time, one hundred and eighty-two millions of

human beings, burdened with the burden

of sin, can be reached by the Cospel

ried, Crucify him, Crucify him," look

we sent to the two miltion war prison ers

in one of the larger camps, where

think there are perhaps ten to fifteer thousand Russians together in Germany,

fourteen Russian Christians got togethe

of the Russian Christians ha I just put my finger over their hear Some been called to the war. Sometimes

is Excellency. He practically took me in His way, to be following Him, and by the collar and said, Vou go through caring for nothing. Let me just show

that door and don't come back," and

congregation which has given more

on are right with God. Von canno blessings than those two sermons which keep in Siberia if you are right with

Austrian armies have captured by them selves more than two millions of Rus sians. When the Russian government said to me, Fetter, you cannot pread

to the Russian people," I said. 7 an

going to preach" They said, We wil

send vou out of the country and prevent ou from preaching

When they did not allow me to go to

my congregation, God brought me congregations out in Germany and Austria two miltions of them. I was preaching

wondered why they were called, and

then I found that the Lord wanted to have some evangelists among the troops These fourteen were from many differ

ent places, but they got together and started a prayer meeting, and Bible read-

ing. Then they got our tracts. Not many months went by, when, instead of

fourteen believers, there were in tha camp, as my reports tell me, 618 con

verted men. They organired a Moody Churchr in Germany, found their minis ture Paul Rader and elected him pas

tor, and probably they also found a Rus sian Woolley, Now they are going ahead, and I do not know how man

more believers there are, for my repor is five or six months ofd. I would not be surprised, however, if there were a

thousand Russian converts already

Now this is not the end of the story,

because when the war is over, and the

Russian soldiers return to their native

land, other results will come. Vou see one of the great blessings of the revolution has been the abolishing of censor ship. If the Crar were upon the throne those Russian captives on their way bacd

from Germany and Austria would be searched and everything Protestantic, and everything Moody-like would be eliminated, and they would make a bon

fire on the border between Germany and Russia of those tracts; but now the cen

orship has been abolished, and the Rus

sian soldiers, very much democratired,

will be able to take their bags containing any kind of contraband, and among

to two thousand in my church. Now those things will be the sermons and ing at Him from under their brows witl have been preaching through printed tracts and Gospel portions. Then what an awful feeling of satisfaction tha

their arch-enemy was now brought to naught, I remembered that instead of cursing or asking for their punishment

pages to two miltions during those two years.

After coming to this country the Lord

put it on my heart that tracts, Bibles

will happent I calculate, being rather

conservative, as I prophesied eightcer months ago in this place, that at least

20.000 Russians will have been led to

Vol. 3 GOOD NEWS (3) 19

[column 1]

Christ out of the two millions of war prisoners, I say that very conservatively.

But the other, the 1,980,000 in the balance? Suppose they are not saved? Suppose they are not perfectly changed? They have the religious books with them. The Russian esteems a religious book or tract, and the will take those things back to Russia, and scatter them all over the republic. They will go to Moscow, to Crimea, to Vladivostock, to Siberia, and with them they will take a sermon by Spurgeon, or a tract by Rader, or a treatise by Moody, or a Bible by God. They will come to their village, their town, and now that all meeting restrictions are abolished, a meeting will be arranged and they will tell of their experiences, and give away portions of those tracts as of little importance, to their wives and to their relatives; and I prophesy, as truly as I stand here, that I expect Gospel fires will be burning from one end of Russia to another as a result of this war. I belive there are wonderful things in store.

Christian church history has never yet been able to record such wonderful revival pages, blazing with the power of the Holy Ghost, as will be written within the coming five or ten years, about the revival in Russia. Why, the German Reformation will be like a little movement in comparison with the Russian Reformation among 182 millions of people.

The Best Missionary Board

Now, dear friends, we seem to have noticed the footsteps of God in this matter. We seem to have received (as Peter on the housetop caught the vision of a blanket let down from heaven) a blue print from the office of the Almighty Architect, as to what He wants to do. If you want to do any efficious work don't make your own plans, go to the Mountain for them, and then put up your Tabernacle acording to the pattern on the mount. Develop your missionary efforts on the mountain of prayer, through the revelation of God.

Now what is happening? I believe there are some mighty movements in the right direction. There is one very important factor which I should like to mention, as to why I desire to call for missionaries for Russia. We shall need about 500 missionaries in a very short time, to send to Russia, and then we shall need another 500, and then another 500, until we have enough men to go there to preach the Gospel.

Now just this one provision. When you decide to go to Russia for missionary work, do not wait upon missionary boards to send you out. Do not wait for the appointment of a certain fixed salary, more than you get in this country. You go. Are you a carpenter? Go as a carpenter and build your houses, and preach the Gospel. Are you a shoemaker? Make American shoes and preach the Gospel. Are you a baker? Go and bake bread while learning the langugage, and preach the Gospel. Go and work your way through.

Just last week in Philadelphia, after six months of school work in the Russian Bible Institute, we had a day of fasting and prayer, and I was led to call upon my students to give themselves altogether to the Lord's work. Seventy of them that day came forward and said, "Yes, we now will go, and we are willing to go any time."

Then I gave them my advice and said, "Now, understand this. You must go on the same basis as the early Christian Church worked." Sometimes people are waiting for a "call," or as a man came to see me yesterday after the Hebrew convention, said, "I am waiting for an open door." Very often by that "open door" a young missionary candidate un- derstands the appointment by a missionary board of a certain sum of money each month and each year, and when that is fixed, he says, "Now I can go."

That is one of the greatest troubles. I asked my students, "Can you tell me, please, under which missionary board Peter, Paul, and John went out? Can you tell me about the Treasurer's report in the hands of the apostles? How much salary was voted for Tim-

[/column 1]

[column 2]

gether, I am going to tell you something. I am a missionary, and I am sent by such and such big board. Listen to me now' Don't do anything of the sort. Hide away your Bible. Go to the village and speak kindly to some of the villagers and say, 'Can't I find some work?' "What can you do?' they may ask. 'Anything.' 'Well cut down the hay,' 'Gather the corn,' Help us to paint the building andn put on the roof,' Milk the cows,' and go do it."

Don't say a word about your being a missionary. Then when the night comes and the people get together after their day's work, and sit down at their evening meal, you also sit down, because you are worthy of a piece of bread after having worked so hard through the day. Then after they have eaten their supperl, and when they pull out their pipes to smoke a bit of tomacco, you pull out your pipe, the Bible, and let its fragrance go up.

"These Bibles are the 'pipes' of the students of the Russian Bible Institute. Not a single Russian believer smokes. Not a single Russian believer goes to theaters. Not a single Russian believer, as as is known, goes to moving pictire shows or they are put out of the church. The only picture show we believe in in Russia is to see sinners moving up to the front to confess their sins. The church that does unknown word believe in moving pictures out of the church sees no moving pictures in the church.

"Wait until curiosity is awakened in the villagers' hearts, and when they ask you, 'What are you doing?' say, ;I am reading, would you like to have me read aloud? They are interested and probably the Lord will belss you and souls will be saved, and you will be in such demand to preach the Gospel that you will have to give up making tents, and then go to preach the Gospel alone, and the Lord will take care of you.

[poem across columns 2 and 3]

HIS TWO COMMANDS Lois Johnson Erickson

I head a voice beside me low and sweet, The voice of One with thorn-crowned head and pierced feet, And from the turmoil of the raging years, And from the pressure of my binding tears, I heard His clear voice calling to me, "Come!" Then I heard voices calling from afar, Where sin and death and speechless anguish are I heard the wail of those who strive in pain. "My little ones they are," He murmured low, And took my hand and whispered, "We will go."

[column 2, continued]

will have to give up making tents, and then go to preach the Gospel alone, and the Lord will take care of you."

There are some folks who preach once or twice on Sunday, and walk with their hands folded from Monday to Saturday, with nothing to do but go to some outside moving picture place, or something like that, and call themselves "ministers of Jesus Christ."

Before I came here tonight I prayed with some of my friends that the Lord would give us at least fifty missionaries for Russia from this meeting. I tell you, if you are a real soldier of Jesus Christ don't be a coward. If you are a soldier of Jesus Christ, be willing to go to Russia and believe that He will keep you alive; and go and learn the language, and you will see what the Lord will be able to do. If you trust Him He will give you souls for your hire.

Now there is a very important reason why we should hurry with the evangelization. Through this revolution, a tremendous open door for missions has been made, and not only for missions, but for all kinds of propaganda, and among them materialism, and atheism. Thousands and thousands of pamphlets are being printed spreading infidelity. The Russian people are religious people, but if we allow the atheist to work ahead of us, I am sure that many millions of the best religiously inclined Russian people will be led to leave even the faint belief which they have, and

[/column 2]

[column 3]

on behalf of the evangelization of Russia's millions. After some discussion, and prayer, it was decided that such a conference should be called.

At that time I called up my friend, Brother Wooley, and told him about the prospects, and he said that if such a conference should be called, the Moody Church, most likely, would be glad to house the first Russian conference. I saw the committee, and received a very warm response, and the result of it all is in this Manifesto. This paper will be signed by a number of the most prominent leaders in Christian work in this country, and I want to read it to you, as a historic occasion, this call to the American people, signed only yesterday and read here for the fist time.

Our evangelistic plan must not only embrace the 182 millions of Russians, but also 7 million Jews, 20 million Poles, 20 million Eurchranians, millions of Mohammedans, besides thousands of Montengrans, Bulgarians, Serbians and other peoples.

Accordingly, the undersigned send out this invitation to all who are stirred up by the Spirit of God, to assemble for the first general conference in behalf of the evangelization of Russia, to be held at the Moody Tabernacle.

The conference will begin with a special prayer service on Monday evening. June 24th, at 7:30, and will be continued as the Lord may direct. Among the leading speakers, I trust, will be Rev. A. C. Dixon, pastor of the Spurgeon Tabernacle of London, and ex-pastor of the Moody Church; Lord Wrightstock, son of the English nobleman, who about forty years ago was the first to preach the Gospel in Petrograd, and through whose efforts some of the present leaders have come to my assistance in Philadelphia. I expect to bring twentyfour to sing during the convention, from the school at Philadelphia.

One evening during the conference we expect to devote to the Russian people. when we want to invite all the Russian speaking persons of Chicago, perhaps a thousand or two thousand strong, and you are invited to come and bid them welcome.

The Greek Church priest came last week into a prayer meeting after the service, and we prayed together. That is of the Lord. We also had a cup of tea later, and fellowship.

One night during that meeting we expect to have a Scandinavian meeting in the interest of Russia.

At that confernce we desire to launch a large evangelistic plan for Russia, and a three million dollar religious liberty fund, as a thanksgiving of the American Christians for an open Gospel door in Russia.

The Pattern on the Mount

Our plan for Russia is—first, in the city of Moscow we want to get a large tract of land, costing perhaps about $250,000, there to put up an auditorium for 5,000 people where we can preach the Gospel. Why do we want a large place in Moscow? Because there is not a single building for evangelistic work in the city of Moscow, which is not very much smaller in size, than Chicago. I believe it could be crowded full week

[/column 3]

[column 4]

and we want to take care of their children, at least two thousand of them, and bring them up in the nurture of the Lord.

All these united, would form a nucleus from which ramifications would go out to all parts of the great Russian population and land, to take the Gospel message everywhere.

I want you to pray about this, and if some of you have means to help, let me tell you that for a hundred years, so far as missions among white people are concerned, you could not show me a greater and more prospective opportunity than this.

To evangelize those people we are at present training a hundred students in Philadelphia, and I ask you to pray for them. The Lord led me to Philadelphia six months ago without a cent of money, and the Lord has given us four buildings and a hundred students, and three students we are sending to Wheaton college. Now we need a fifth and sixth building.

Will you listen to the cry of Russia? Will you hearken as her children weep? They are hungry, but the fields are barren, They are thirsty and the well is deep. Yea, and deep in sin their soul is sunken Miry clay foundation for their feet. Ages came and went, but no glad footsteps, No one came whose heart would warmer beat. And they suffered 'til their chains grew rusty, And they waited 'til their eyes grew dim, When for life, in very death despairing, Of a sudden they were told of Him. Him who suffered long before, and for them, Him who waited long for their return.

And as Russia's children heard their Shepherd's story, How they wept with joy, and hearts within did burn, And they clung to Him as loving child to mother, And again to suffer as they began. Now, however, smiling in their exile, And in chains they praised the Son of Man. Chains at last are broken, distant exile places By the cross are changed to Christian homes. And the Word is preached throughout the mighty empire, Both in peasant huts, and in princely domes. They are waiting, Russia's millions waiting, Only a few are freed by Christ as yet. Who will go, and who will help the going? Hasten then, before the sun is set!

N. B.—Gifts for the Russian Bible Institute, to be used in helping train missionaries for work among the Russians, may be sent to the President of the Institute, Pastor William Fetler, 1820 Spring Garden St., Philadelphia, Pa.

CALLED HIGHER

Mrs. Sarah D. Clarke, beloved by many who were saved in Pacific Garden Mission, was called Home January 29th, and the funeral was held on Friday, afternoon, February 1st, from the Morgan Park Congregational Church.

"This noble woman has left upon Pacific Garden Mission—yes, and upon the Christian world far and wide—the stamp of her individuality and of her self sacrificing life.

For thirty-five years she labored incessantly among the outcast and downcast of Chicgo with the love shed abroad in her heart which only the Holy Spirit can give. During the early years of the mission's history, her husband, Colonel George R. Clarke, was with her, and when he died she bravely took up the burden where he laid it down, and then, found in Brother Harry Monroe, a wise and zealous co-worker. God richly blessed their labors together until.

Moscow, to Crimea, to Vladivostock, to Siberia, and with them they will take a sermon by Spurgeon, or a tract by Rader, or a treatise by Moody, or a Bible by God. They will come to their village, their town, and now that all meeting restrictions are abolished, a meeting will be arranged and they will tell of their experiences, and give away portions of those tracts as of little importance, to their wives and to their relatives; and I prophesy, as truly as I stand here, that I expect Gospel fires will be burning from one end of Russia to another as a result of this war. I belive there are wonderful things in store.

Christian church history has never yet been able to record such wonderful revival pages, blazing with the power of the Holy Ghost, as will be written within the coming five or ten years, about the revival in Russia. Why, the German Reformation will be like a little movement in comparison with the Russian Reformation among 182 millions of people.

The Best Missionary Board

Now, dear friends, we seem to have noticed the footsteps of God in this matter. We seem to have received (as Peter on the housetop caught the vision of a blanket let down from heaven) a blue print from the office of the Almighty Architect, as to what He wants to do. If you want to do any efficious work don't make your own plans, go to the Mountain for them, and then put up your Tabernacle acording to the pattern on the mount. Develop your missionary efforts on the mountain of prayer, through the revelation of God.

Now what is happening? I believe there are some mighty movements in the right direction. There is one very important factor which I should like to mention, as to why I desire to call for missionaries for Russia. We shall need about 500 missionaries in a very short time, to send to Russia, and then we shall need another 500, and then another 500, until we have enough men to go there to preach the Gospel.

Now just this one provision. When you decide to go to Russia for missionary work, do not wait upon missionary boards to send you out. Do not wait for the appointment of a certain fixed salary, more than you get in this country. You go. Are you a carpenter? Go as a carpenter and build your houses, and preach the Gospel. Are you a shoemaker? Make American shoes and preach the Gospel. Are you a baker? Go and bake bread while learning the langugage, and preach the Gospel. Go and work your way through.

Just last week in Philadelphia, after six months of school work in the Russian Bible Institute, we had a day of fasting and prayer, and I was led to call upon my students to give themselves altogether to the Lord's work. Seventy of them that day came forward and said, "Yes, we now will go, and we are willing to go any time."

Then I gave them my advice and said, "Now, understand this. You must go on the same basis as the early Christian Church worked." Sometimes people are waiting for a "call," or as a man came to see me yesterday after the Hebrew convention, said, "I am waiting for an open door." Very often by that "open door" a young missionary candidate un- derstands the appointment by a missionary board of a certain sum of money each month and each year, and when that is fixed, he says, "Now I can go."

That is one of the greatest troubles. I asked my students, "Can you tell me, please, under which missionary board Peter, Paul, and John went out? Can you tell me about the Treasurer's report in the hands of the apostles? How much salary was voted for Timothy, or for Titus, for their missionary enterprise? Nothing doing. The Lord voted them out and they had the power of the Holy Ghost instead of full pockets."

So I told my men, "Go ahead, and when you arrive in Russia, do not go to a village like a man from a theological seminary or from a school, who is on the lookout for some 'call,' instead of doing what the apostles did. Paul went and made his tents and preached the Gospel nights. Sometimes it is good to do otherwise, of course, but I think a man must prove to the Lord in some way. Do not go with your Bible in front of you, and say, 'Now, everybody come to-

[/column 1] 41860

[column 2]

the building and put on the roof.' 'Milk the cows, and go do it."

Don't say a word about your being a missionary. Then when the night comes and the people get together after their day's work, and sit down at their evening meal, you also sit down, because you are worthy of a piece of bread after having worked so hard through the day. Then after they have eaten their supperl, and when they pull out their pipes to smoke a bit of tomacco, you pull out your pipe, the Bible, and let its fragrance go up.

"These Bibles are the 'pipes' of the students of the Russian Bible Institute. Not a single Russian believer smokes. Not a single Russian believer goes to theaters. Not a single Russian believer, as as is known, goes to moving pictire shows or they are put out of the church. The only picture show we believe in in Russia is to see sinners moving up to the front to confess their sins. The church that does unknown word believe in moving pictures out of the church sees no moving pictures in the church.

"Wait until curiosity is awakened in the villagers' hearts, and when they ask you, 'What are you doing?' say, ;I am reading, would you like to have me read aloud? They are interested and probably the Lord will belss you and souls will be saved, and you will be in such demand to preach the Gospel that you will have to give up making tents, and then go to preach the Gospel alone, and the Lord will take care of you.

[poem across columns 2 and 3]

HIS TWO COMMANDS Lois Johnson Erickson

I head a voice beside me low and sweet, The voice of One with thorn-crowned head and pierced feet, And from the turmoil of the raging years, And from the pressure of my binding tears, I heard His clear voice calling to me, "Come!" Then I heard voices calling from afar, Where sin and death and speechless anguish are I heard the wail of those who strive in pain. "My little ones they are," He murmured low, And took my hand and whispered, "We will go."

[column 2, continued]

will have to give up making tents, and then go to preach the Gospel alone, and the Lord will take care of you."

There are some folks who preach once or twice on Sunday, and walk with their hands folded from Monday to Saturday, with nothing to do but go to some outside moving picture place, or something like that, and call themselves "ministers of Jesus Christ."

Before I came here tonight I prayed with some of my friends that the Lord would give us at least fifty missionaries for Russia from this meeting. I tell you, if you are a real soldier of Jesus Christ don't be a coward. If you are a soldier of Jesus Christ, be willing to go to Russia and believe that He will keep you alive; and go and learn the language, and you will see what the Lord will be able to do. If you trust Him He will give you souls for your hire.

Now there is a very important reason why we should hurry with the evangelization. Through this revolution, a tremendous open door for missions has been made, and not only for missions, but for all kinds of propaganda, and among them materialism, and atheism. Thousands and thousands of pamphlets are being printed spreading infidelity. The Russian people are religious people, but if we allow the atheist to work ahead of us, I am sure that many millions of the best religiously inclined Russian people will be led to leave even the faint belief which they have, and become atheists, and that will be a tremendous loss.

Now therefore, the time is come to act, and in my closing remarks I desire to show you what is being planned, and what can be done.

Coming Conference

Last week was one of the most remarkable weeks in Chicago. In the office of Dr. Brooks, of the Chicago Tract Society, last Tuesday, straight after my arrival from Philadelphia, a number of missionaries of various nationalities gathered. The question was discussed as to whether the time has not arrived to call for the first general conference

[/column 2]

[column 3]

house the first Russian conference. I saw the committee, and received a very warm response, and the result of it all is in this Manifesto. This paper will be signed by a number of the most prominent leaders in Christian work in this country, and I want to read it to you, as a historic occasion, this call to the American people, signed only yesterday and read here for the fist time.

Our evangelistic plan must not only embrace the 182 millions of Russians, but also 7 million Jews, 20 million Poles, 20 million Eurchranians, millions of Mohammedans, besides thousands of Montengrans, Bulgarians, Serbians and other peoples.

Accordingly, the undersigned send out this invitation to all who are stirred up by the Spirit of God, to assemble for the first general conference in behalf of the evangelization of Russia, to be held at the Moody Tabernacle.

The conference will begin with a special prayer service on Monday evening. June 24th, at 7:30, and will be continued as the Lord may direct. Among the leading speakers, I trust, will be Rev. A. C. Dixon, pastor of the Spurgeon Tabernacle of London, and ex-pastor of the Moody Church; Lord Wrightstock, son of the English nobleman, who about forty years ago was the first to preach the Gospel in Petrograd, and through whose efforts some of the present leaders have come to my assistance in Philadelphia. I expect to bring twentyfour to sing during the convention, from the school at Philadelphia.

One evening during the conference we expect to devote to the Russian people. when we want to invite all the Russian speaking persons of Chicago, perhaps a thousand or two thousand strong, and you are invited to come and bid them welcome.

The Greek Church priest came last week into a prayer meeting after the service, and we prayed together. That is of the Lord. We also had a cup of tea later, and fellowship.

One night during that meeting we expect to have a Scandinavian meeting in the interest of Russia.

At that confernce we desire to launch a large evangelistic plan for Russia, and a three million dollar religious liberty fund, as a thanksgiving of the American Christians for an open Gospel door in Russia.

The Pattern on the Mount

Our plan for Russia is—first, in the city of Moscow we want to get a large tract of land, costing perhaps about $250,000, there to put up an auditorium for 5,000 people where we can preach the Gospel. Why do we want a large place in Moscow? Because there is not a single building for evangelistic work in the city of Moscow, which is not very much smaller in size, than Chicago. I believe it could be crowded full week after week.

On the same site, near the auditoriuum we want a grammar school for boys and girls, and a high school or college for older pupils, and a Bible Institute to train preachers, colporteurs and evangelists, large enough for a least two thousand students, which ill be none too large, considering that at the present time there is not one single Bible school in Russia from one end to the other.

Then I want to build an orphanage, one big building, for about a thousand orphan boys, and another building for a thousand orphan girls; because, so many hundreds of thousands of Russian fathers have been killed in the war,

[/column 3]

[column 4]

I want you to pray about this, and if some of you have means to help, let me tell you that for a hundred years, so far as missions among white people are concerned, you could not show me a greater and more prospective opportunity than this.

To evangelize those people we are at present training a hundred students in Philadelphia, and I ask you to pray for them. The Lord led me to Philadelphia six months ago without a cent of money, and the Lord has given us four buildings and a hundred students, and three students we are sending to Wheaton college. Now we need a fifth and sixth building.

Will you listen to the cry of Russia? Will you hearken as her children weep? They are hungry, but the fields are barren, They are thirsty and the well is deep. Yea, and deep in sin their soul is sunken Miry clay foundation for their feet. Ages came and went, but no glad footsteps, No one came whose heart would warmer beat. And they suffered 'til their chains grew rusty, And they waited 'til their eyes grew dim, When for life, in very death despairing, Of a sudden they were told of Him. Him who suffered long before, and for them, Him who waited long for their return.

And as Russia's children heard their Shepherd's story, How they wept with joy, and hearts within did burn, And they clung to Him as loving child to mother, And again to suffer as they began. Now, however, smiling in their exile, And in chains they praised the Son of Man. Chains at last are broken, distant exile places By the cross are changed to Christian homes. And the Word is preached throughout the mighty empire, Both in peasant huts, and in princely domes. They are waiting, Russia's millions waiting, Only a few are freed by Christ as yet. Who will go, and who will help the going? Hasten then, before the sun is set!

N. B.—Gifts for the Russian Bible Institute, to be used in helping train missionaries for work among the Russians, may be sent to the President of the Institute, Pastor William Fetler, 1820 Spring Garden St., Philadelphia, Pa.

CALLED HIGHER

Mrs. Sarah D. Clarke, beloved by many who were saved in Pacific Garden Mission, was called Home January 29th, and the funeral was held on Friday, afternoon, February 1st, from the Morgan Park Congregational Church.

"This noble woman has left upon Pacific Garden Mission—yes, and upon the Christian world far and wide—the stamp of her individuality and of her self sacrificing life.

For thirty-five years she labored incessantly among the outcast and downcast of Chicgo with the love shed abroad in her heart which only the Holy Spirit can give. During the early years of the mission's history, her husband, Colonel George R. Clarke, was with her, and when he died she bravely took up the burden where he laid it down, and then, found in Brother Harry Monroe, a wise and zealous co-worker. God richly blessed their labors together until about five years ago, when Mrs. Clarke was laid aside with a broken hip after a severe accident.

For over 6,000 successive nights she attended the services in Pacific Garden Mission without missing a night, and in this period visited the county jail two and three times a week, going from cell to cell talking to the prisoners.

Hundreds of men and women date their entrance into the new life from the time when Mrs. Clarke with a few wellchosen words induced them to take a stand for Christ. Many have gone home ahead of her. Truly "She hath done what she could," and thousands will rise up and call her blessed."