A Man Sent From God

On May 24, 1922, The Moody Church, in business session, extended a hearty and unanimous call to Pastor P.W. Philpott, of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to become its pastor. This was a daring step. Mr. Philpott is not an unattached man looking for a church. He has given twenty-seven years of his life to his own church, and the city of Hamilton. He is known as the Pastor of Hamilton. His influence has extended over all the province of Ontario. For Mr. Philpott to leave his church, and to leave friends of a lifetime, who have grown up with him, and go to a strange country, is not a light matter. To take up a work of such large and varied responsibilities and activities as The Moody Church, called for careful consideration and much earnest prayer for the definite leading of God.

Pastor Philpott has been urged to go to other places—places of great importance and with great material advantages to offer.

He was reared under great privation in the conditions incidental to pioneering in Ontario. He was converted as a young man, and began his work of soul-winning in his own home. At the time he was working as a blacksmith.

He began his church in Hamilton with a membership of thirty-five in a hall. The membership is now fifteen hundred, worshipping in a large building, and on Sunday nights thirty-two hundred people gather in a theatre to hear him. From these meetings many are turned away.

A dozen churches, the offshoots of the work, are now affiliated in a fraternal bond, with the Church of Hamilton.

The Executive Committee and members of The Moody Church have been impressed with the fact that Mr. Philpott, in the plan of God, is the man for this work. We have just received a telegram which reads as follows:

“Hamilton, Ontario, June 10, 1922.
Pulpit Committee, Moody Church,
Chicago, Ill.

I accept call to be your pastor, beginning Sept. 1st. Relying on fullest cooperation of officers and members, will endeavor to carry out Moody’s vision, preaching same truths, observing same principles, seeking to save the lost. Romans 15:13-14.

(Signed) P.W. Philpott.”

It is impossible for us to state, in a few words, how delighted we are with this message. We feel it is of God, and this is “a man sent from God.”

As to the church, the difficulties which beset us are many. The barriers in our path are high, but God has given The Moody Church a great work to do. We are strategically located in the very center of the civilized world, and are reaching out to the very ends of the earth, through our missions and missionary members.

The task before us is great. We need a suitable structure in which to worship and in which to develop our Sunday school. Apart from these material things, by all means do we need the sound scriptural preaching and teaching, and the loving, pastoral care we are sure will be given by Pastor Philpott.

Let us all unite in fervent prayer for him, for the church, and for his ministry for our activities, that God will make the latter days the very best days ever known in this historic church of His own planting.

Pastor Philpott will be with us in the near future. On some Lord’s day soon he will preach to us, and we shall have a delightful fellowship meeting. Let us be much in prayer about it. His desire is to arrange to come to Chicago in the near future to begin his ministry.

The big question in the minds of Christian people is, What will Mr. Philpott do in Chicago at The Moody Church?

The policy laid upon the heart of Pastor Philpott, which he believes is dictated by the Spirit of God, is to in every possible way, carry out the original vision and plan of D.L. Moody. That the preaching of the Gospel and teach of the Word which has made The Moody Church the power for God it is in the Christian world, be put first. He accepts the work in a spirit of humility. In trembling, as far as his own resources are concerned, but boldly relying in confidence on the all-sufficiency of God. He recognizes his need of the prayers and sympathetic co-operation, not only of the members of The Moody Church, but of other Christians too.

It is stated that Pastor Philpott was urged to run for a seat in Parliament, and it is not improbably that a seat in the Ministerial Cabinet would have been his.

It may be that God would erect a monument in The Moody Church to the late D.L. Moody. In Chicago we have the Moody Bible Institute for the training of young lives for the gospel ministry at home and abroad, which is a monument to its founder. The Moody Church could become a church monumental in the greatness of its power, magnifying not so much the humble man of God in whose heart the church was conceived, as the great Lord who made D.L. Moody what he was for Christ.

Pastor Philpott is the father of a large family, but young and vigorous. A man’s age is not measured by days and months, but by energy and devotion in the service of the Lord. Mrs. Philpott is a worthy helpmeet, and has been engaged in the Lord’s work since she was a girl. She is a splendid Bible teacher.

We welcome this “man sent from God” to lead out the Church into greater blessing and usefulness.