If I were to choose a text tonight
in connection with the message of the evening,
I would turn to Jeremiah, the thirty-third
chapter and the third verse.
Call unto me, and I will answer thee,
and show thee great and mighty things that
thou knowest not.
That has been characteristic of the work of
the people's church all down through the fifty
years of its history.
Call unto me, and I will answer thee,
and show thee great and mighty things that
thou knowest not.
When I left McCormick Theological Seminary in 1915,
I was called to Dale Presbyterian Church here
in the city of Toronto, where Reverend J
.D. Morrow was the pastor.
And I became an associate pastor in Dale
Church in 1915, when I was twenty-five
years of age, a church seating eighteen hundred
people, and a church that God greatly and
richly blessed.
Then when I left Dale, I prayed very,
very much about my future work, and I
felt led to build the Alliance Tabernacle on
Christie Street.
And that was done in 1921, an auditorium
that accommodated eighteen hundred people, and that was
filled to capacity again and again and again.
Then there came the year 1928, and as
I prayed about my life's work, I felt
strangely led of God to establish, by his
grace, a work here in the city of
Toronto that was to last for at least
fifty years, the people's church.
That, as I've stated, was in 1928, when
I was thirty-eight years of age.
And from that day to this, God has
been with us, and God has blessed in
an unusual way.
As I stand before you here tonight, my
mind goes back fifty years from last night,
for as Dr. Paul has already stated, it
was on a Sunday, it was on the
ninth of September, it was in the year
1928, and there I held the very first
service that was ever held of the people's
church.
I had invited Paul Rader, who was pastor
of the Moody Church, Chicago, and president of
the Christian Missionary Alliance, I'd invited him to
come and preach for me that night to
get the work started.
And he came, I was on the platform
of Massey Hall, and I took charge of
the service, and Paul Rader brought the message
of the evening.
Then I started holding services in Massey Hall
every Sunday night, and for four and one
-half months, I preached in Massey Hall every
night, as I've already stated, for four and
a half months.
The rent for Massey Hall at that time
was one hundred dollars per night.
There were no difficulties, there were no problems
of any kind whatever.
The Lord sent the money in, He sent
the people to the services, they gave freely,
even though times were hard, and we paid
one hundred dollars a night rent for Massey
Hall for four and one-half months, and
I preached each night during that period.
I am not absolutely sure, but I have
an idea that today, for a weeknight gathering
of any kind, the rent in Massey Hall
is perhaps four thousand dollars for the night.
I'm not sure about that, but I know
there has been a tremendous increase, and if
I were to want Massey Hall now, if
I had to pay anything like that, I
would have to turn elsewhere.
Massey Hall became very, very dear to me,
because many a time I transferred my services
from wherever I was to Massey Hall, and
there held my meetings on Sunday nights.
In 1929, Paul Reuter asked me to go
to Europe.
I visited Latvia, where God enabled me to
establish a Bible school that continued its work
for ten years until the war broke out,
and to France, and to Belgium, and to
Spain, where I cooperated in another Bible school
which also continued for ten years until it
was closed because of the war.
When I came back from Europe, where I
had been sent by Paul Reuter under the
Worldwide Christian Couriers, when I came back, I
held the first missionary convention, the first effort
that was put forth so far as that
work was concerned for foreign missions.
The offering that night in Massey Hall was
$10,000 for missions.
I thought it was a large amount.
In those days, $10,000 seemed a very,
very large amount, but that was the first
missionary offering in connection with the work of
the People's Church, an offering of $10,000
for foreign missions.
Then I went through the United States traveling
all over the country, raising money for the
support of missions in Latvia, and France, and
Belgium, and Spain, and God enabled me to
raise $60,000 for those works.
And so we carried on our work in
the foreign fields in Europe for some considerable
time, and God supplied the means as only
He could.
Presently, I left Massey Hall, where I had
been preaching every night.
I left Massey Hall, and I went to
St. James Square Presbyterian Church, and we opened
the work there with a missionary convention.
I invited my great friend Paul Reuter to
be the speaker at that convention on the
last Sunday night, and he was there.
And the offering that night was $25,000,
an increase of $15,000 from the offering
taken up in Massey Hall, $25,000 for
missions.
The church seated about 1,200 people.
Then there came a great tour that I
took in 1932, and when I returned from
that tour, for the first time I saw
the auditorium of St. James Square Presbyterian Church
filled to capacity.
It's something that I'll never forget, for I
was surprised beyond measure.
But do you know that from that night
on through the following years, for 30 years,
I faced an audience night after night on
Sunday nights.
I faced a full house with the exception
of a very brief period in the hot
summer months, and God wonderfully blessed and marvelously
saved souls.
And that work went on, as I've already
stated, for a period of 30 years.
During the time that I was holding these
services, Don Billings was our pianist, and I'll
never forget how he helped me in the
work that I was doing then as he
played the piano night after night in Massey
Hall, and then in St. James Square Presbyterian
Church.
I thank God that he's still with us
in the congregation and still attends the church
along with his wife.
Then I felt that the time had come
to move to another church.
St. James Square Presbyterian Church was getting too
small.
It was not able to take care of
the crowds that were attending.
I heard that Central Methodist Church on Bloor
Street, 100 Bloor East, was vacant.
And immediately, I felt led to rent Central
Methodist Church on Bloor Street and make it
my church.
And I did so.
And for some six years, we carried on
the work and paid rent.
And every Sunday night, that church was packed
to capacity year after year.
And I had the privilege of standing before
a full house in Central Methodist Church, which
I called, of course, the People's Church, for
that was the name I gave it at
that time.
And souls were saved.
The crowds came.
God blessed.
And we had a wonderful time during those
years we were in the church on Bloor
Street.
Bloor Street ran east and west, as you
know.
Therefore, the people were able to come in
streetcars.
There were not very many automobiles in the
church in those days.
Most people came to church by streetcar.
And they would come from the east.
And they would come from the west along
Bloor Street.
And the streetcar would stop right in front
of the church and unload.
And then there was Yonge Street running north
and south.
And there was Church Street running north and
south.
And we were so close to the streetcars
that brought the people to the services that
we had a full house year after year,
Sunday after Sunday.
And I had the privilege of preaching to
that congregation and laboring there for the Lord
Jesus Christ.
I think the buying of the church was
the most interesting experience.
For at the end of six years, we
felt led to buy the church and make
it our own church.
Suddenly one day, William Jaffray, the owner of
the Globe, called me on the telephone and
asked me if I would come with my
wife to his home in Oakville and have
dinner with him and with his wife.
His brother, Robert Jaffray, was working very closely
with me in missionary work on the foreign
field.
And of course, as soon as I got
that wonderful invitation, my wife and I went,
as requested, to the home of William Jaffray
and had dinner with them.
And that was a night that I'll never,
never forget.
That godly couple sat there at the dinner
table and asked me all about my plans
for the future.
What was I going to do?
Was I going to continue paying rent?
Or was I going to buy a church?
What had God led us as a board
and as a congregation to do in connection
with his work?
I told Mr. Jaffray that I most definitely
wanted to buy the church, if at all
possible.
I knew it was for sale.
It was owned by the United Church of
Canada and it was up for sale.
And I felt that if we could buy
the church, we could accomplish the work that
God wanted us to accomplish down through the
future years.
Mr. Jaffray asked me a great many questions.
He wanted to know how much we would
have to pay for it.
I told him $65,000.
He asked me why I did not go
ahead and buy it.
We had a full house Sunday night after
Sunday night, packed to capacity, except as I've
stated for a few Sundays in the hot
summer months.
God was blessing and saving souls.
And I said to him, Mr. Jaffray, I
have announced to my people again and again
that I would not buy a church until
I had one gift of $10,000.
And every time I made that announcement, the
people laughed.
The idea, they said, of getting a gift
of $10,000 from one person, it seemed
out of the question.
However, I went on and told Mr. Jaffray
my plans and what I felt I wanted
to do.
Next morning, Mr. Jaffray telephoned my wife.
I was busy in my office.
And he said, I want you to tell
your husband that after much earnest prayer, I
have felt led to give him a gift
of $20,000 with which to buy the
church.
Well, of course, I was flabbergasted.
I had asked for $10,000.
If I had asked for $5,000, that
might have been the amount that I would
have received.
My wife was so astonished when I asked
for one-third of the total amount, something
like $20,000.
She was so astonished that she wondered if
anything could happen.
And when Mr. Jaffray called her on the
phone the next morning and told her that
he had decided to give $20,000, she
was speechless.
She hardly knew what to say.
She immediately called me at the office and
gave me the good news.
And I was so elated that I hurried
back home to talk it over with her.
And sure enough, Mr. Jaffray sent me a
check for $20,000, the largest amount I
had ever received.
He had just sold the globe.
And he was giving away the money that
he got from the sale of the globe
to various religious enterprises of one kind and
another.
And the amount he felt led to give
to me so that we might buy the
People's Church on Bloor Street was, as I've
stated, $20,000.
You can imagine that I was walking on
air.
I hardly knew what to say.
I didn't know how to thank God for
it.
I was stirred beyond expression.
Immediately, we bought the church.
And in a very short time, the balance
of the money needed came in, little by
little, until at last it had all come
in and the church was paid for and
became the People's Church on Bloor Street.
And soon it was famous throughout the entire
world, especially because of its tremendous missionary work.
The crowds were so great year after year
that I stopped all advertising in the newspaper.
And for seven years, I never put an
ad of any kind on the church page.
And I used to speak over the air,
and we were on the air for 2
1⁄2 hours every Sunday night for years and
years.
We had a back-home hour broadcast after
the regular service, and
the work went on without having to do
any advertising for a period of seven years,
as I've stated.
And then we started again to advertise a
little bit, but very little, because God was
greatly and wonderfully blessing the work.
I'll never forget those days.
They were days that will stay with me
as long as I live.
But you know, when the people saw the
crowds coming and they saw the people being
turned away, even though I would get up
in the pulpit and announce over the air
that the church was full and beg the
people to stay home and not to come
because there wasn't any room.
There were no seats vacant.
But you know, the more I made that
announcement, the more they came.
And they came, and they stood, and they
sat on the steps, and they sat in
the aisles, and they stood at the back.
And that went on for 30 years from
the time it started.
I'll never, never forget it.
We had a great pipe organ in that
church.
It was there when we started renting the
church.
It filled the whole of the back gallery.
Every bit of the back gallery was filled
with the pipes of the pipe organ.
And the people used to look at that
organ, and they used to say, if we
could just somehow get rid of the organ,
if we could sell it, if we could
give it away, if we could do something
with it, then we could accommodate that many
more people.
And the day came when a Roman Catholic
priest took a fancy to the organ and
decided to buy it, and he did so.
And that organ was placed in a Roman
Catholic church here in the city of Toronto,
and we built a second gallery, which we
called an elevation.
We built it up above the first gallery
at the back of the church where the
organ pipes used to stand.
From the very first night that that elevation
was opened, it was filled to capacity and
filled ever after.
And many a one came from the elevation
to go to the inquiry room to accept
Jesus Christ as a personal savior.
That's another thing that I'll never, never forget.
We emphasized evangelism.
Every Sunday night was an evangelistic message.
And from 300 to 500 decisions for Jesus
Christ were registered every year as a result
of our emphasis on Sunday nights on evangelism
with a full house, tremendous interest, a message
on evangelism, evangelistic hymns.
God worked in a wonderful way as only
he could, and souls were saved.
The auditorium was filled continually to capacity, and
God continued to bless and work as only
he could.
Many a time, many a time when I
would bring special speakers to the people's church,
I would close the church and rent Massey
Hall and hold my Sunday evening service in
Massey Hall.
I remember when Gypsy Smith came to hold
his two campaigns in the people's church.
The crowds were so great from the very
first that we took over Massey Hall once
again, and night after night, Sunday after Sunday,
we held the service in Massey Hall with
Gypsy Smith bringing the message of the evening.
And when other speakers would come, we would
do the same thing.
I remember when Jackie Burrus came and held
his campaign.
I remember how the church was filled to
capacity as he preached the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
It's something I'll never forget.
And we left the church, and we went
first of all to Massey Hall, and we
held our Sunday evening services, Sunday after Sunday,
for several weeks in Massey Hall.
And then the crowds were so great that
we decided to go to Maple Leaf Gardens.
And we went to Maple Leaf Gardens and
held our Sunday evening service there.
And as far as we could count the
people, there were 11,000 people present each
Sunday night.
By a careful count, 11,000 people listening
to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So that I held my regular services in
the People's Church on Bloor Street.
And then we went to Massey Hall or
Maple Leaf Gardens for the Sunday night when
we had a special speaker and an unusual
service.
That's something that I'll never, never forget.
Now I did a great deal of traveling
while I was pastor in those days.
And one time I stayed away for six
and a half months when I went to
Australia and the Solomon Islands and New Zealand.
Generally I stayed away three months or four
months.
I made 21 world tours during those days.
21 world tours.
And every time I came back to Toronto,
I came back to a full house to
the work on Bloor Street.
And the crowds continued coming.
God continued to save souls.
And the work made tremendous progress.
Altogether, I visited 70 countries.
Holding campaigns.
Preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Facing immense audiences in these different countries.
Being used of God wherever I traveled.
Blessed of Him as the services continued.
And the work in Toronto never suffered it
went on growing, growing, growing all the time.
And souls continued to be saved.
And God worked in a wonderful way as
we carried on the services for the Lord
Jesus Christ.
We emphasize two things and only two things.
We emphasize missions and we emphasize evangelism.
Now, of course, there were messages on the
deeper life at the morning service.
But our emphasis was on evangelism at the
evening service.
That was when we saw men and women
walking down the aisles going to the inquiry
room and there accepting Jesus Christ as a
personal Savior.
It's something that lives in my memory that
I'll never forget.
And I discovered that it took evangelism to
fill the church in those days.
And God worked in a wonderful way.
Then we emphasize missions.
Evangelism at home.
Missions abroad.
And we labored in missionary work with the
various faith missions of the day and sought
to win souls to Jesus Christ on the
foreign fields of the world.
We started with only five missionaries.
Before I resigned from the People's Church, we
were supporting, partially supporting, 300 missionaries.
Then Dr. Paul took over the work, as
you know.
I think it was in 1969.
At least it was when I was 69
years of age.
It must have been in 1959 when I
was 60 years of age.
When I was 70 years of age.
And Dr. Paul continued to emphasize the missionary
work of the church.
And our missionaries increased from 300 to the
number we have today, including nationals, 560 missionaries
on the foreign fields of the world.
Now I believe the reason God has blessed
the work of the People's Church down through
the years that have passed and gone has
been because we emphasized evangelism for the homework
and we emphasized missions for the foreign work.
And placing the emphasis where we believed it
belonged, God blessed the work of the church
itself in a wonderful and glorious way and
worked for his glory and for his honor.
Massey Hall has always been very, very dear
to me.
Again and again I have gone there to
hold my Sunday evening service.
At least I went there in those early
years when we only had to pay $100
a night rent.
And time after time I used Massey Hall
as my church and God worked and worked
as only he could.
But most important of all, I was saved
in Massey Hall when I was 16 years
of age.
In the year 1906, I traveled all the
way from Embro where my father was station
agent on the CPR.
I traveled all the way from there a
distance of 94 miles to attend the services
of Dr. R.A. Torrey and Charles M.
Alexander.
And in 1906, after arriving in Toronto and
going to stay with my uncle and his
wife, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Finley, who was
the president of the Massey Harris Company and
continued as president for a number of years
until God took him home, I stayed with
them and I went to every service held
by Dr. R.A. Torrey and Charles M.
Alexander in Massey Hall.
When I came to the second to last
service, I was so under conviction that I
got up out of my seat.
I went down to the basement of Massey
Hall and there I bowed my head and
gave myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, inviting
him to come into my heart and to
save me.
And from the time I was 16, I
knew Christ as my Savior.
When I was 18 years of age, I
started preaching and I have been preaching now
for exactly 70 years.
This year marks the 70th year of my
ministry and God has blessed during the 70
years in the most wonderful and glorious way
and He is still working.
I'm so glad that I am seeing now
new developments in the church, new things being
done, new work being attempted, and that God
is blessing the ministry of Dr. Paul in
these days in the most marvelous way just
as I was blessed in my day when
I held my meetings years ago now and
I thank God for what He has done.
At this present time, I'm 88 years of
age.
On November the 8th of this year, which
is not very far off, I'll be 89
years of age.
For all these 88 years, every year I
have been preaching the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
I have been evangelizing and I have seen
men and women coming to the Savior all
down through the years and I want to
thank Him and praise Him for what He
has done and for the work that He
is doing today.
It has been a wonderful work.
It's been a glorious ministry.
It's been a time of unusual blessing and
I'll never cease to praise God for what
He has done here in Toronto, in Massey
Hall, in St. James Square Presbyterian Church, in
the People's Church on Bloor Street, formerly Central
Methodist Church, and now for what He is
doing here in this auditorium, the wonderful things
that are happening, the souls that are being
saved, the missionary work that is being carried
on, the blessing that is being showered upon
the congregations as the people attend, and I
want to thank Him that it has not
been in vain.
It was not a vain thing that I
did when I launched the first service of
the People's Church in 1928 when I was
38 years of age.
It has lasted now for all these 50
years.
The first service 50 years ago last night
and now we're starting on the 51st year
of our work and God is continuing to
bless, continuing to save souls, continuing to work
in the foreign field, and I believe He's
going to work on for years yet to
come.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if this church could
see another 50 years?
I'll never see that day.
I'll go to be with my Lord long
before that day.
No man can live to be 89 years
of age and expect to live very much
longer, but if this work could go on
and souls could still be saved for the
next 50 years, another great celebration could be
held 50 years from now.
Wouldn't it be wonderful?
I'm sure there are some here tonight who
will be living at that time and you
will be able to look back to this
day when we're celebrating the first 50 years
of the work of the People's Church.
We have called upon God.
God has heard.
God has answered, and now under Dr. Paul's
ministry and all those who are associated with
him as associate ministers and all who are
helping by prayer and in every other way,
I'm sure that the future is going to
be glorious and there's going to be wonderful
blessing in the days that lie ahead.
So I call upon God.
He has never failed me.
He never will fail, and I do not
believe that he will ever fail the work
of the People's Church.