“Three Churches in Manila – the Episcopal, the United Evangelical and the Christian Assembly Churches
– united in extending an invitation to Dr Sung to conduct meetings from
June 6th to 14th. he traveled to Manila after another great campaign in
Peking in April.
Crowds
gathered from all over Luzon and from other islands to attend the
meetings. About 800 people filled every seat and blocked the aisles and
stairways of the Chinese United Evangelical Church. Pastor Silas Wang of
the United Church who took a prominent role in the meetings said: ” Dr. Sung had one line of teaching: sin, repentance, the new birth, holiness.” As usual, his denunciations of sin were fearless – the sins of professing Christians especially so. Sometimes he would single out an individual, a pastor or an office-bearer in the church, and say, “There is sin in your heart !”and
he was always right.
Sung used some of the old illustrations and some
new ones. Once he appeared carrying a miniature coffin half full of
stones. These represented sin committed and the death which sin would
bring. For every fresh sin committed a stone would be added to the load
until the bearer was almost bowed down under the weight. To emphasize
the New Birth,
he came on to the platform one day wearing an old gown with the names
of different sins written all over it. Then, at the appropriate moment
in the address, he discarded the old gown “at the Cross” and put on a
new robe of righteousness produced from somewhere!
The sermons lasted
as usual two hours or more with the favorite choruses copiously
interspersed. Evangelism was followed by instruction to newly converted
and the other Christians, and towards the end there was healing meeting.
Crowds went to the platform to be prayed for, yet Dr. Sung, days later,
would met the individuals and recognizing them as among those who had
sought healing, ask “How are you?” He has a prodigious memory.
There were lasting results from these meetings.
The United Evangelical Church was greatly straightened and its
evangelistic zeal kindled. The Evangelistic Band organization which was
formed at that time was still active in 1953, eighteen years later
having survived the years of war and grown out of all recognition. It
was divided into ten sections, each with its own leader and its own
responsibility for prison, hospital and radio evangelism, for personal
visitation, cottage meetings, devotional gatherings and the like.
A
missionary, writing in 1954, reports: “So many of the true Christians
in the Philippines are the direct result of John Sung’s ministry”
A Biography of John Sung By Leslie T. Lyall Page 181-182
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