Is door-to-door evangelism an effective method?

It is not for us to say when and how our brethren should carry this message to the thirsty whosoevers, but we know no better time than from 6:00 to 8:00 on a Sunday evening. At this time will be found in the crowded residential parts of the towns and villages thousands who never enter a building to hear the Word, and who would not even go to the market-place to hear it. Tired and disappointed women whose lives are a drudgery, and who have no hope for the future. We have seen them at this hour sit at their open doors or windows listening eagerly to the rest-giving message of the Saviour's care for them. And we feel sure that more can be reached in an hour in this way, than in a year by the ordinary method of indoor preaching.

A servant of the Lord much used in conversions was about to preach the Gospel. A band of young Christians, brothers and sisters, spent two or three hours from door to door, earnestly inviting the people to attend. What a link such might prove to be between a soul, blessed at the service, and the Lord.

Such a state of things in the Established Church left the way open for the heretics, so-called. They embraced the opportunity, stepped in, and laboured diligently to spread their doctrines among the people. Preaching in public and in private was the secret, under God, of the great success of the Waldenses and Albigenses. This was from the earliest times, and still is, the divine way of spreading the truth, and gathering souls to Jesus. The more public the preaching, the better. In all ages it has pleased God, by what the world calls "the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe." Open-air preaching, visiting and teaching from house to house, public testimony within-doors and out-of-doors, are ways and means which God will always bless. And such means seem to have been diligently used by those accused of heresy in Languedoc.

Is it not striking that when the Lord would give us here the share which His people can have in the joy of heaven, that He gives us, not a crier in the market-place, but this quiet and unseen toiler in the house. "It is only an illustration," some will say. Well, it is an illustration out of which the thoughtful and the humble will get help and courage, and thank Him for it. Let the crier cry too in the market-place, and thank God for that! But if it were a choice between the two (which it is not), better would it be to have the necessary testimony of faith — "I believed, and therefore I have spoken," — in every private Christian than the more public testimony even. Could we have this aright, how would the Old Testament scripture be fulfilled, "The Lord gave the Word: great was the company of those that published it" as the words imply, the "women that published it." (Ps. 68:11.) This woman-preaching would indeed be effectual work.

Further, he could say that they knew how he kept back nothing of what is profitable. This needs faith without which fidelity will fail; for the apostle was altogether above the fear of man, and withheld in nothing what was for their good, but announced to them and taught them publicly, and at their houses, testifying both to Jews and Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

We must not pass over in silence this energy which embraced whole houses, and subdued them to the christian faith. We only see it, however, when it is a question of bringing in the Gentiles. But Cornelius, Lydia, the gaoler of Philippi, are all witnesses to this power.

When unable to preach to large companies in towns, the Lord has given me great joy and blessing in village work. I will here give a sample. A poor widow invited me over to her house at W.-on-D. I went, and she asked a few professors to meet me. They were quite sure there was no need of any preaching at W…, but there was a very neglected, and, as they said, wicked colliery and pottery village a mile away. Immediately I felt assured this was the place where I should preach. I went and preached in a house there that night or afternoon. In twelve months, to a day, I felt led to go again. I may say, when going to preach at a fresh place, I have often felt the exceeding importance of being guided to just the right place in the village. In this case, I was guided to take a stand exactly opposite the little homestead of W. M. His wife’s name was Lydia. Of course, all were strangers to me. These people were, at that time, greatly averse to what they would have called dissenters, and, I suppose, would not have come twenty yards to hear me. I was speaking on the cleansing of the leper (Lev. 14.) Lydia was crossing the yard as I happened to say, “The little bird is let fly.” This rather aroused her curiosity, and she came to her gate to look what little bird it was. She listened with deep attention as she heard how one bird pointed to the death of Jesus for her sins; and the other bird dipped in the blood of the bird that was killed, and sprinkled on the poor leper, and then let fly, to show that the leper was cleansed. That this showed how God declared, by the resurrection of Jesus, our justification; that if the little bird was let loose, the leper was cleansed. If Jesus, our substitute, who died for our sins, be risen, we, believing God, are justified from all things. Lydia had never known before what the resurrection of Jesus had to do with our justification; and she was greatly arrested. She could not help listening again at night. She was converted, or perhaps, as a quickened soul, found peace. She and her whole household, from her aged mother, over eighty, to her grandchild, aged about four, all were saved. We had preaching there seven Lord’s days, when the table of the Lord was spread in the house of Lydia, and was continued there for many years, and afterward removed to W. Thirteen first met to obey the Lord in the breaking of bread. This brings to my mind one of the most remarkable displays of the Lord’s grace I have ever witnessed. It took place in this same village some years after.

Visiting one of the villages in the Lake district over in England, and after having a Gospel meeting in the open air, we went around the doors giving out little gospel booklets. I knocked at a door and the lady's voice inside shouted, "Come in," and in I went. She said, "What is it?" "Oh," I said, "I've brought you a little gospel booklet to tell you the way to heaven." "Oh," she said, "you know, I've had a good upbringing," and she began to tell me of the good upbringing she had had. She said that from a girl, as far back as she could remember, she was taken to church three times each Sunday. She said that she had good parents who were church members, and she had been brought up to attend church regularly.

Visiting one of the villages in the Lake district over in England, and after having a Gospel meeting in the open air, we went around the doors giving out little gospel booklets. I knocked at a door and the lady's voice inside shouted, “Come in,” and in I went. She said, “What is it?” “Oh,” I said, “I've brought you a little gospel booklet to tell you the way to heaven.” “Oh,” she said, “you know, I've had a good upbringing,” and she began to tell me of the good upbringing she had had. She said that from a girl, as far back as she could remember, she was taken to church three times each Sunday. She said that she had good parents who were church members, and she had been brought up to attend church regularly.

The gifts of evangelists, pastors, and teachers are of course permanent, and require little explanation. An evangelist is one who brings glad tidings. It may be well to observe that there is nothing to identify evangelization with public preaching. No doubt many evangelists are public preachers; but it would be a great mistake to confine the term to those who thus labour. Perhaps some of the most largely‑blessed evangelists are those who, by their writings, or even by their private visits and conversation, have set forth Christ, with little or no qualification for addressing large audiences. No one would for a moment speak slightingly of preaching; but it is more easy to be led by a desire for display in this work than in work of a quieter and less public character. Moreover, the effect produced on the conscience and on the heart by the presentation of the truth in private is often far deeper and more durable than that wrought amidst the excitement of preaching. The same may be said of the teacher, who is really the same gift as the pastor, only as teacher he is looked upon rather in respect of the truth he sets forth, and as pastor rather in respect of the flock which this truth nourishes. But there is nothing in either case which necessarily identifies the gift with public ministry. Indeed, while the labours of a teacher may be, those of a pastor almost inevitably must be, of a private rather than of a public character.