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Title: The Personal Touch
Author: J. Wilbur Chapman
Posting Date: November 5, 2011 [EBook #9957]
Release Date: February, 2006
First Posted: November 4, 2003
Language: English
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THE PERSONAL TOUCH
BY
J. WILBUR CHAPMAN, D.D.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
I. A TESTIMONY
II. A GENERAL PRINCIPLE
III. A POLISHED SHAFT
IV. STARTING RIGHT
V. NO MAN CARED FOR MY SOUL
VI. WINNING THE YOUNG
VII. WINNING AND HOLDING
VIII. A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION
IX. WHOSOEVER WILL
X. CONVERSION IS A MIRACLE
XI. A FINAL WORD
_FOREWORD_
IF
If to be a Christian is worth while, then the most ordinary interest in
those with whom we come in contact should prompt us to speak to them of
Christ.
* * * * *
If the New Testament be true--and we know that it is--who has given us
the right to place the responsibility for soul-winning on other
shoulders than our own?
* * * * *
If they who reject Christ are in danger, is it not strange that we, who
are so sympathetic when the difficulties are physical or temporal,
should apparently be so devoid of interest as to allow our friends and
neighbours and kindred to come into our lives and pass out again
without a word of invitation to accept Christ, to say nothing of
sounding a note of warning because of their peril?
* * * * *
If to-day is the day of salvation, if to-morrow may never come, and if
life is equally uncertain, how can we eat, drink, and be merry when
those who live with us, work with us, walk with us, and love us are
unprepared for eternity because they are unprepared for time?
* * * * *
If Jesus called His disciples to be fishers of men, who gave us the
right to be satisfied with making fishing tackle or pointing the way to
the fishing banks instead of going ourselves to cast out the net until
it be filled?
* * * * *
If Jesus Himself went seeking the lost, if Paul the Apostle was in
agony because his kinsmen, according to the flesh, knew not Christ, why
should we not consider it worth while to go out after the lost until
they are found?
* * * * *
If I am to stand at the judgment seat of Christ to render an account
for the deeds done in the body, what shall I say to Him if my children
are missing, my friends not saved, or if my employer or employee should
miss the way because I have been faithless?
* * * * *
If I wish to be approved at the last, then let me remember that no
intellectual superiority, no eloquence in preaching, no absorption in
business, no shrinking temperament, no spirit of timidity can take the
place of or be an excuse for my not making an honest, sincere, prayerful
effort to win others to Christ by means of the _Personal Touch_.
CHAPTER I
_A Testimony_
I have the very best of reasons for believing in the power of the
personal touch in Christian work, especially as it may be used in the
winning of others to Christ.
My boyhood's home was in the city of Richmond, in the State of Indiana,
my mother was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in
the first years of my life in company with my father and the other
children of the household, I attended the church of my mother. When she
was just a little more than thirty-five years of age she was called
home. My father in his youth had been trained as a Presbyterian; many
of his ancestors having belonged to that denomination; therefore it was
quite natural that he should return to the Church of his fathers when
my mother had gone home.
It was thus I became a member of the Presbyterian Church, and my Church
training as a boy after fifteen years of age was in that denomination.
Because of this special interest in both the Church of my father and my
mother, I attended two Sunday Schools. In the morning I was in a class
in the Presbyterian school and in the afternoon was a member of a class
in the Grace Methodist Sunday School, my teacher in the afternoon school
being Mrs C.C. Binckley, a godly woman, the wife of Senator Binckley of
Indiana, through all her life from girlhood, a devout follower of Christ
and a faithful teacher in the Sunday School. Not so very long ago I
heard that she was still teaching in the same school, and I am sure, as
in the olden days, winning boys to Christ.
I fear that I was a thoughtless boy, and yet the impressions made upon
my life in those days by the death of my mother, the teaching of my
father, and the influence of my Sunday School teacher, were such that I
have never been able to get away from them.
One Sunday afternoon a stranger came to address our school--his name I
have never learned; I would give much to find it out. At the close of
his address he made an appeal to the scholars to stand and confess
Christ. I think every boy in my class rose to his feet with the
exception of myself. I found myself reasoning thus: Why should I rise,
my mother was a saint; my father is one of the truest men I know; my
home teaching has been all that a boy could have; I know about Christ
and think I realise His power to save.
While I was thus reasoning, my Sunday School teacher, with tears in her
eyes, leaned around back of the other boys and looking straight at me,
as I turned towards her she said, "Would it not be best for you to
rise?" And when she saw that I still hesitated, she put her hand under
my elbow and lifted me just a little bit, and I stood upon my feet. I
can never describe my emotions. I do not know that that was the time of
my conversion, but I do know that it was the day when one of the most
profound impressions of my life was made upon me. Through all these
years I have never forgotten it, and it was my Sunday School teacher
who influenced me thus to take the stand--it was her personal touch
that gave me courage to rise before the school and confess my Saviour.
In the good providence of God, during my student days, as well as
during the first years of my ministry, I was thrown in contact with men
who knew God, who were being marvellously used by Him, and who seemed
ready and willing to give assistance to one who was just beginning the
journey of life with all its struggles and conflicts ahead of him.
When I was a student attending Lake Forest University, not far from
Chicago, I was very greatly troubled about the matter of assurance. I
heard that Mr Moody was to be in Chicago, and in company with a friend
I went in from Lake Forest to hear him. Five times in a single day I
sat at his feet and drank in the words which fell from his lips. He
thrilled me through and through. I heard him preach his great sermon on
"Sowing and Reaping," when old Farwell Hall was crowded with young men
many of whom were students like myself.
The impression that Mr Moody made upon me as a Christian young man, was
that I myself was not absolutely sure I was saved. I analysed my
experience and found that sometimes I was more than sure and at other
times dwelt in Doubting Castle. When the great evangelist called for an
after-meeting, I was one of the first to enter the room where he had
indicated he would meet those who were interested, and to my great joy
he came and sat down beside me. He asked me my difficulty and I told
him I was not quite sure that I was saved. He asked me to read John v.
24, and trembling with emotion I read: "Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life."
He said to me, "Do you believe this?" I said, "Certainly." He said,
"Are you a Christian?" and I replied, "Sometimes I think I am, and
again I am fearful." Then he said, "Read it again." And I read it once
more. His question was again repeated, and I answered it in the same
manner as before. Then he seemed to lose his patience, and the only
time I can remember Mr Moody being sharp with me was when he turned
upon me and said, "Whom are you doubting?" And suddenly it dawned upon
me that I was doubting Him who said I was possessed of everlasting life
because I believed on the Son and on the Father who had sent Him, and
in spite of this possession and His sure Word of promise concerning it,
I was sceptical. But as I sat there beside him I saw it all. Then he
said, "Read it again." And I read it the third time, and talking to me
as gently as a mother would to her child he said, "Do you believe this?"
I said, "Yes, indeed I do." Then he said, "Are you a Christian?" And I
answered, "Yes, Mr Moody, I am." From that day to this I have never
questioned my acceptance with God.
For some reason Mr Moody always seemed to keep me in mind. He came into
my church in the early days of my ministry, told me where he thought I
was wrong and suggested how I might be more greatly used of God. He
advised me to give my time wholly to evangelistic work, and when I said
to him one day that I was going to take up the pastorate after three
years of experience in general evangelism, he seemed disturbed. To him
more than to any other man, I owe the greatest blessing that ever came
into my life.
Through Mr Moody I met the Rev F.B. Meyer, and one sentence which he
used at Northfield changed my ministry. He said, "If you are not
willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made
willing?" That seemed like a new star in the sky of my life, and one day
acting upon his suggestion, after having carefully studied the passages
in the New Testament which relate to surrender and to consecration, I
gave myself anew to Christ and I shall never be able to express in words
my appreciation of what this man of God to whom I have referred, did for
me by personal influence.
All along the way I have been brought in contact with men whom God has
signally blessed, and I am persuaded that there are many to-day whose
hearts are hungering for a blessing, who are waiting as I was myself,
for someone to speak to them personally, and help them out of darkness
into light; out of a certain kind of bondage into a glorious freedom.
The personal touch in Christian work, to me, means everything.
CHAPTER II
_A General Principle_
I have been amazed in my study of the biographies of men and women who
have been specially used of God, to see how almost universal is the
rule that they have come to Christ, or to an experience of power,
through the personal influence of a friend or acquaintance. Preaching
is not enough, it is sometimes too general; the impressions of a song
may soon be effaced, but the personal touch, the tear in the eye, the
pathos in the voice, the concern which is manifested in the very
expression of one's countenance; these are used with great effect, and
thousands of people are to-day in the Kingdom of God, or in special
service, because of such influences being brought to bear upon their
lives.
John Wesley is a notable illustration of the influence of the personal
touch. Peter Bohler of the Moravian Church, came into his life when he
was in sore need of just such assistance as he seemed able to give. Dr
W. H. Fitchett of Australia, writes:--
"The Moravians of Savannah taught him exactly what Peter Bohler taught
him afterwards in London, but the teaching at the moment left his life
unaffected. Wesley's own explanation is, 'I understood it not; I was
too learned and too wise, so that it seemed foolishness unto me; and I
continued preaching, and following after, and trusting in that
righteousness whereby no flesh can be justified.'
"The truth is that Peter Bohler himself, had he met Wesley in Savannah,
would have taught him in vain. The stubborn Sacramentarian and High
Churchman had to be scourged, by the sharp discipline of failure, out
of that subtlest and deadliest form of pride, the pride that imagines
that the secret of salvation lies, or can lie, within the circle of
purely human effort. Wesley later describes Peter Bohler as 'One whom
God prepared for me.' But God in the toilsome and humiliating
experiences of Georgia, was preparing Wesley for Peter Bohler."
Bohler described Wesley as "a man of good principles, who did not
properly believe on the Saviour, and was willing to be taught." Later
on, in the city of London, where Wesley had been intimately associated
with Peter Bohler and had come directly under his influence, he one
night attended a religious service in Aldersgate Street, where the one
conducting the service was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to
the Romans. The effect of that service upon Wesley is best told in his
own words.
"About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which
God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart
strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my
salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my
sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. I began to
pray with all my might for those who had in a more special manner
despitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all
there what I now first felt in my heart. But it was not long before the
enemy suggested, 'This cannot be faith; for where is thy joy?' Then was
I taught that peace and victory over sin are essential to faith in the
Captain of our salvation; but that, as to the transports of joy that
usually attend the beginning of it, especially in those who have
mourned deeply, God sometimes giveth, sometimes withholdeth, them
according to the counsels of His own will."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in speaking of his own early experiences,
writes thus: "When I was a young child staying with my grandfather,
there came to preach in the village Mr Knill, who had been a
missionary at St Petersburgh, and a mighty preacher of the gospel. He
came to preach for the London Missionary Society, and arrived on the
Saturday at the manse. He was a great soul winner, and he soon spied
out the boy. He said to me, 'where do you sleep? for I want to call you
up in the morning.' I showed him my little room. At six o'clock he
called me up, and we went into the arbour. There, in the sweetest way,
he told me of the love of Jesus and of the blessedness of trusting in
Him and loving Him in our childhood. With many a story he preached
Christ to me, and told me how good God had been to him, and then he
prayed that I might know the Lord and serve Him.
"He knelt down in the arbour and prayed for me with his arms about my
neck. He did not seem content unless I kept with him in the interval
between the services, and he heard my childish talk with patient love.
On Monday morning he did as on the Sabbath, and again on Tuesday. Three
times he taught me and prayed with me, and before he had to leave, my
grandfather had come back from the place where he had gone to preach,
and all the family were gathered to morning prayer. Then, in the
presence of them all, Mr Knill took me on his knee and said, 'This
child will one day preach the gospel, and he will preach it to great
multitudes. I am persuaded that he will preach in the chapel of Rowland
Hill, where (I think he said) I am now the minister.' He spoke very
solemnly, and called upon all present to witness what he said."
D.L. Moody was thus won to Christ. His Sunday School teacher in Boston
was Mr E.D. Kimball. He was not one of the ordinary type of Sunday
School teachers. Mere literal instruction on Sunday did not satisfy his
ideal of the teacher's duty. He knew his boys, and if he knew them, it
was because he studied them, because he became acquainted with their
occupations and aims, visiting them during the week. It was his custom,
moreover, to find opportunity to give to his boys an opportunity to use
his experience in seeking the better things of the Spirit. The day came
when he resolved to speak to young Moody about Christ, and about his
soul.
"I started down to Holton's shoe store," says Mr Kimball. "When I was
nearly there, I began to wonder whether I ought to go just then, during
business hours. And I thought maybe my mission might embarrass the boy,
that when I went away the other clerks might ask who I was, and when
they learned might taunt Moody and ask if I was trying to make a good
boy out of him. While I was pondering over it all, I passed the store
without noticing it. Then when I found I had gone by the door, I
determined to make a dash for it and have it over at once. I found
Moody in the back part of the store wrapping up shoes in paper and
putting them on shelves. I went up to him and put my hand on his
shoulder, and as I leaned over I placed my foot upon a shoe box. Then I
made my plea, and I feel that it was really a very weak one. I don't
know just what words I used, nor could Mr Moody tell. I simply told him
of Christ's love for him and the love Christ wanted in return. That was
all there was of it. I think Mr Moody said afterwards that there were
tears in my eyes. It seemed that the young man was just ready for the
light that then broke upon him, for there at once in the back of that
shoe store in Boston the future great evangelist gave himself and his
life to Christ."
Many years afterward Mr Moody himself told the story of that day. "When
I was in Boston," he said, "I used to attend a Sunday School class, and
one day, I recollect, my teacher came around behind the counter of the
shop I was at work in, and put his hand upon my shoulder, and talked to
me about Christ and my soul. I had not felt that I had a soul till
then. I said to myself. This is a very strange thing. Here is a man who
never saw me till lately, and he is weeping over my sins, and I never
shed a tear about them. But, I understand it now, and know what it is
to have a passion for men's souls and weep over their sins. I don't
remember what he said, but I can feel the power of that man's hand on
my shoulder to-night. It was not long after that I was brought into the
Kingdom of God."
The personal touch is necessary. It is not so much what we say, as the
way we say it, and indeed, it is not so much what we say and the way we
say it, as what we are, that counts in personal work. We cannot delegate
this work to others. God has called the evangelist to a certain mission
in soul winning. He has given ministers the privilege of winning many to
Christ. Mission workers, generally, are charged with the responsibility
for this special work. But this fact cannot relieve the parents, the
children, the husband, the wife, the friends, the business man, the
toiler in the shop, from personal responsibility in the matter of
attempting to win others to the Saviour.
CHAPTER III
_A Polished Shaft_
"He hath made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me,"
Isaiah xlix. 2.[1] Personal preparation is essential to the best success
in personal work. No familiarity with the methods of other workers; no
distinction among men because of past favours of either God or men; no
past success in the line of special effort; no amount of intellectual
equipment and no reputation for cleverness in the estimation of your
fellowmen will take the place of individual soul culture, if you are to
be used of God.
[Footnote 1: Suggested by Dr Charles Cuthbert Hall.]
Thou must be true thyself,
If thou the truth would teach;
It takes the overflow of heart
To give the lips full speech.
The words of Isaiah the Prophet literally refer to Him who was the
servant of Jehovah. He was God's prepared blessing to a waiting and
needy people. He came from the bosom of the Father that He might lift a
lost and ruined race to God. And swifter than an arrow speeds from the
hand of the archer when the string of the bow is drawn back, He came to
do the will of God. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we find Him saying,
"Lo I come, in the volume of the Book it is written of me I delight to
do thy will." This was the spirit of all His earthly life. When He was
hungry and sent His disciples to buy meat, He found it unnecessary to
partake of the food they brought to Him, saying, "My meat is to do the
will of him that sent me." And when He came to the garden of Gethsemane,
well on to the climax of His sacrificial life, we hear Him saying again,
"Not my will, but Thine be done." In such a completely surrendered life
we have a perfect representation of the prepared Christian worker.
In the expression of Isaiah we have also the thought of His anguish.
"He was made a polished shaft." In these days when there is a disposition
to place Jesus upon the level with others who have wrought for the good
of humanity, it is well to remember that He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. There is also the thought of the beauty of His
character, for He is a "polished shaft," "chiefest among ten thousand,"
and "the One altogether lovely." He is "the lily of the valley" for
fragrance, and "the rose of Sharon" for beauty, and thus prepared He
stands before us beckoning us on to a work which is indescribable in its
fascination. Calling His disciples He said, "I will make you fishers of
men." The same promise is made to us. Working His miracles He said to
those about Him, "Greater works than these shall ye do." We have only
to follow in His footsteps and walk sufficiently near to hear His
faintest whisper when He directs us to be, in the truest sense of the
word, successful personal workers.
It is a great encouragement to hear Him say, "As the Father hath sent
me, even so send I you." The shaft mentioned by Isaiah is an arrow
prepared with all care. The quiver in which this arrow is placed is
carried on the left side of the archer, placed upon the string of the
bow, the archer drawing back the string adds to the elasticity of bow
and string his own strength, and the shaft is off to do the archer's
will. There is in this story an illustration for all Christian workers.
Fitness for service lies first of all in divine endowment. God has
given to each one of us special and peculiar qualifications. If we live
as we ought to live, exercising the gift that is in us; the painter may
paint for His glory; the poet may sing and speak of Him; the preacher
may preach and declare His righteousness, and should we live in less
conspicuous spheres than these, we have only to do our best with that
with which He has endowed us and our lives will be pleasing to Him.
It lies also in the divine call. The shaft was made for a special
purpose. We have been created to do His will. The possession of power
is not enough; talents unused will rise at the Judgment Seat to rebuke
us. God gives us ability and then calls us forth into the field that we
may exercise it. Fitness for service also lies in the response to God's
will. The possession of power and the call of God may both be realised
and we may still fail. It is when we say "I will," to God that human
weakness is linked to divine strength and then a great service is
possible.
Life is not drudgery, it is an inspiration.
"Let me but do my work from day to day,
In field or forest, at desk or loom;
When vagrant wishes beckon me away,
Let me but find it in my heart to say,
This is my work, my blessing not my doom;
Of all who live I am the only one by whom
This work can best be done."
The word of the Prophet Isaiah is a picture of the child of God, as
well as of Him who is our inspiration for service. There is the thought
of definiteness of use in the shaft. Other articles may be created for
a variety of purposes. This shaft is made to go at the owner's will.
There is only one way to live in this world and that is according to
the will of God and for His glory.
It matters little where I was born,
Or if my parents were rich or poor;
Whether they shrank from the cold world's scorn,
Or walked in the pride of wealth secure;
But whether I live a surrendered man,
And hold my integrity firm in my clutch,
I tell you, my brother, as plain as I can,
It matters much!
It matters little where be my grave,
Or on the land or on the sea.
By purling brook, or 'neath stormy wave,
It matters little or nought to me;
But whether the angel of death comes down
And marks my brow with his loving touch,
And one that shall wear the victor's crown,
It matters much!
There is also in this picture of the shaft the thought of directed
motion. The aim is everything. The arrow cannot aim itself. There is no
such thing as an aimless life. Our energies are either being directed
for Christ or against Him; in the interests of humanity or contrary to
them. Every child of God must reach the place where he will say, Not my
will, but Thine, O God, be done; not my path but Thine, O Christ, be
travelled; not my ambitions realized but Thine own purposes in me
fulfilled, my Heavenly Father. The progress of such a life is peace,
the consummation of it the most perfect victory.
When I am dying how glad I shall be
That the lamp of my life has been blazed out for Thee.
I shall be glad in whatever I gave,
Labour, or money, one sinner to save;
I shall not mind that the path has been rough,
That Thy dear feet led the way is enough.
When I am dying how glad I shall be,
That the lamp of my life has been blazed out for Thee.
In the picture of the archer and his arrow, there is an illustration of
derived energy. The arrow placed upon the string and drawn back by the
archer speeds away to do the master's will. It has no power in itself;
it flies forward in the master's strength. God is always seeking an
outlet for His power along the line of service. It is when our lives
are surrendered to Him that victory is possible. A friend of mine took
for his year text the expression "I believe, and I belong." We might
well add, "I live and I love," and because I do both I will obey. Ole
Bull once played his violin in the presence of a company of University
students. He charmed them, they knew at once that they were in the
presence of a master. When he was finished playing, one who was present
said to him, "What is the secret of your power, have you a special bow,
or is it in the instrument you use?" Ole Bull responded, "I think it is
in neither, but it has always seemed to me that I had power in playing
because I waited to play until I had an inspiration, when my soul was
overflowing with music and I could not stay the torrent that was back
of me; it is then that I take my violin and the music flows forth." If
we were always passive in the hands of the Master He would show forth
in and through us His marvellous grace and power.
The polishing of the shaft is always necessary. God uses all our
experiences to equip us for life. Parental influence; the power of
prayer as offered in our behalf by others; the education given us in
the schools; the disappointments of life which seem almost to crush us;
the sorrows which are indescribable; all these are like the touch of a
master's hand, and forth from such a school and such a training we
ought to come prepared to do the will of God.
The arrow was carried in the quiver and the quiver was near to the
master's side. Nearness to God is essential if we are to be used of
God. He chooses the vessel nearest His hand. This has always been true.
The apostles, martyrs, missionaries, and saints who have finished their
work and have gone on before, as well as those who live to-day, prove
the statement that we must be in closest relationship with Christ if we
are to be entrusted with the gift of power. It is when we are in the
secret place of the Most High that we learn God's will concerning us.
Many people do not know God's will because they live too much in the
bustle and confusion of life. God speaks His best messages to us in
whispers, not in thunder tones, and we must be still to know that He is
God and study to be quiet that we may go forth from quietness to conquer.
The practice of the quiet hour is the secret of many a soul's victorious
service.
Shut in with God alone,
I spend the quiet hour;
His mercy and His love I own,
And seek His saving power
Shut in with God alone;
In meditation sweet,
My spirit waits before the throne,
Bowed low at Jesus' feet.
Shut in with God alone;
I praise His holy name,
Who gave the Saviour to atone
For all my sin and shame.
Shut in with God alone;
And yet I have no fear,
I rest beneath the cleansing blood,
And perfect love is here.
CHAPTER IV
_Starting Right_
"Every one over against his house," Nehemiah iii. 28. The first part of
the Book of Nehemiah gives us a striking picture of destruction, and as
we look about us we see a city in ruins: the walls are down; the homes
have been destroyed; the people are in despair, so great is the
desolation that even the temple has been defaced. When the tidings
concerning the havoc which has been wrought in the city of Jerusalem
reached Nehemiah he was well nigh heart-broken. Speaking about the
story that had been brought to him he said, "And they said unto me, The
remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in
great affliction and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem also is broken
down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire," Nehemiah i. 3. When
he reaches the city of Jerusalem he goes about to view the ruins, and
he thus describes his journey: "So I came to Jerusalem and was there
three days. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon
me; as also the king's words that He had spoken unto me. And they said,
Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this
good work," Nehemiah ii. 11 and 18.
This picture of despair as seen in the olden days in Jerusalem is almost
if not altogether being repeated to-day. The case is really desperate.
The need of Divine help in the re-construction of human lives has never
been greater. Hosts of men find the following testimony a description
of their own experience. It is a young university man who is speaking,
and before a great crowd of people he says:--
"Probably nine out of every ten of you men standing in front of me know
who I am and know my family well. You will no doubt be surprised to
hear of the awful experiences through which I have gone during the past
six months. Just six months ago, as most of you know, I was an active
Christian worker, and there are many of you in front of me who as
recently as last July sat and heard me preach. During the last six
months trouble came upon me, and in a weak moment, losing faith in God,
I took to drink, and sank as low as it is possible for any man to sink.
Not even the prodigal in the parable could have fallen lower than I
did. Disowned by my mother; cast aside by my brother and sisters;
despised by the members and officers of the church to which I belonged
and in which I preached, I was in every respect an outcast. Just before
Christmas, whilst tramping on the road, I actually took the shirt off
my back to sell it for drink, so miserable was I. My nights I spent in
the open fields, waking in the morning covered with frost. Something
seemed to compel me to attend the meetings in this city. I attended
night after night, and although the singing and the address had a
wonderful effect upon me, I kept struggling against the working of the
Spirit, until the singing of the chorus "I am Included," brought home
to me as never before, the fact that even I, wretched outcast that I
was, had not gone too far. I then and there made up my mind to accept
the promise of John iii. 16. From that time I have realized, as never
before, that Christ went to Calvary not so much for the world, as He
did for me. And I intend to devote the rest of my life to winning souls
for Him."
There is surely cause for great alarm because of the present condition
of affairs, and for the following reasons: Home life is not what it
used to be. In the olden times the home was a harbour into which
tempest-tossed souls came day after day, and thus protected, had time
to regain lost strength and go forth again to battle with the storm. It
was once true that fathers were priests in their own households and
mothers were saints. The best memory that some of us have is that which
centres in a home where love ruled and reigned; where Christ was
honoured; where the Bible was read, explained and loved, and where the
very atmosphere was like heaven. In many instances to-day this is
missing and he is to be pitied who has not such a memory as this, and
such an influence for good in his life. The family altar in too many
households has been broken down or given up. "What led you to Christ?"
was the question asked of a distinguished Christian worker. And the
answer quickly given was, "My father's prayers at the family altar.
They followed me through my manhood and compelled me eventually to
accept Christ." When the family altar is gone from a home, it is like
the taking away of a strong foundation from a building or depriving the
arch of its keystone. Better sacrifice everything than this spirit and
practice of prayer in the home.
It is barely possible that because of conditions family prayers may not
be conducted to-day as in other days, but there is at least time for a
verse of scripture and a prayer out of a full heart, and the influence
of even so brief a service will keep the members of the household from
many a failure.
Church attendance is not what it once was. The old-fashioned family pew
is a thing of the past in too many cases. In other days the father, the
mother, and the children attended divine worship in the house of God.
They sang the hymns of the church together; they worshipped God with
the same spirit of devotion; they listened to the minister's preaching
and they came forth from such a service clothed with a power that made
them able to stand against the mightiest influences for evil. Because
the family pew is out of date many boys are wandering, and many girls
have gone astray.
With the beginning of the fourth chapter of Nehemiah there is a change
in the story as told by the Prophet. There is a ring of triumph when he
announces: "So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together
unto the half thereof; for the people had a mind to work," Nehemiah
iv. 6. And the completeness of his work is described when he says: "Now
it came to pass when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors,
and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed ..."
Nehemiah vii. 1. I am sure it is quite true that out from all the
despair which sometimes appals us, we shall come into the same complete
victory. But if we are to win others to Christ and if our work is to be
a work of prevention, so that our children shall not go astray and our
friends may not wander, then it will be essential that we should, like
Nehemiah of old, begin to build everyone over against his own house. It
is a sad thing to find so many people in the world who are a public
success and a private failure. Great superintendents of Sunday Schools,
and poor fathers; experienced Sunday School teachers, and inconsistent
in their own homes; eloquent preachers and poor illustrations of the
spirit of Jesus; famed for piety as revealed to the public eye and
quite as famed for lack of piety, when living out of the lime light, in
the common round of daily duties with those who know us best and ought
to speak of us most highly.
If our work is to be as God would have it where shall it begin? By all
means let it begin with ourselves. There is a text of Scripture which
every Christian must say over and over. He might begin the day with it
and it might not be amiss for him to say it over before he closes his
eyes in sleep. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my
thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me," Psalm cxxxix. 23,
24. It is quite unnecessary to study the methods of men if we cannot
bear the test of God's searching eye.
We must be right in our own homes. In a meeting conducted recently in
Wales a gentleman rose to say: "I came to the meeting on Friday
afternoon and made a covenant with God that I would speak to someone
about Christ. It laid so hold of my heart that I went home and spoke to
my little girl. I asked her if she loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and she
said, 'Yes, I do.' I said, 'Will you accept Jesus as your personal
Saviour?' 'Yes, I am willing to' she said. I went to the steel works,
and had been praying that God would use me. I asked the young man with
whom I was working if he were a Christian. He looked black at me, but I
asked him to be honest before God. In a moment his face changed as he
said without hesitation, 'I will accept Jesus as my Saviour now.'
"I was working during the night, and it came to food time, so I asked
several of the men if they would come into the smith shop and have a
word of prayer. There was a young man there whose little boy I had
spoken to. This young man came to me at three o'clock in the morning to
tell me that he would accept Jesus as his personal Saviour. I asked
some of the men if they would come up to my house and have a little
prayer meeting after work, at six o'clock in the morning. They came up
and I spoke to them, quoting the texts John iii. 16 and John v. 24.
Some of the men present were not saved. I asked them if they really
understood the Scriptures, and they told me they did. 'Now,' I said,
'will you not accept Jesus as your personal Saviour?' and one who was
in the smith shop told me that he had definitely given himself to God
at three o'clock that morning. Then I asked a boy of fifteen if he
understood the words. 'Yes,' he said, so I asked him if he would not
accept Christ. 'Yes' he replied, 'I will.' The following night I spoke
to another in the works, concerning his soul, and asked him if he had
fully surrendered, because I knew he was in trouble. About one o'clock
I spoke to him and said, 'Will you give yourself to the Lord now?'
'No,' he said, 'not now.' 'Well,' I said, 'come to the smith shop at
food time and have a word of prayer.' After food time he came out, and
started again at his work. Presently he came across to me. 'Well,' I
said, 'have you fully surrendered?' 'Yes, Tom,' he said, 'I have given
myself to Christ, now.'"
Beginning in the home it is quite easy to go out into a wider circle
and serve. The tendency, however, is to begin in some public place, and
oftentimes because of this we fail to win those who work by our side,
who sit with us at our own table and who live with us day after day and
for whom we are specially responsible. It will also be necessary for us
to enlarge the circle and reach the people in our own places of business.
Two business men journeyed into a New England city together for twenty
years. One of them was a Christian, the other was not. They were both
dying the same day, and the man who was not a Christian when he heard
that his friend was dying, had a right to say to his wife, as he did,
"It is a strange thing that my friend and I have known each other so
well, and love each other so dearly, that he has allowed me to come to
this day without a warning."
A business man rose in a meeting to say, "I have been greatly concerned
about one young man who works in my office. I asked him if he would not
come to the office a little earlier this morning. When he came and we
were alone I asked him if he knew why I had got him to come a little
earlier. When he told me that he did not, I said to him 'I am a
Christian, I have never spoken to you about Christ and I have asked you
to come this morning that I might explain the way to you and urge you
to take your stand for Him.' That morning I had the great joy of
leading my employee to Christ. I gave him a little pocket Testament in
which I wrote his name, and under his name I wrote this Scripture,
'Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee,' and after that I
signed my name. Three days later," said the business man, "the young
man of whom I speak, led three others to Christ, one of them was the
head book-keeper in my office."
If we are to be successful soul winners it is essential not only that
we should get right with God but that we should keep right with Him.
There must be a quick confession of sin and a quick turning away from
all that would work against Christ. Our friends with whom we live and
labour are keen critics, and as a rule, just ones. They know when we
are wrong and nothing so hinders a testimony as to allow a wrong to go
unrighted. When before our own households and with those who know us
best, and by whose side we toil, in shop, or store, or office, or with
those whom we employ, we keep ourselves unspotted from the world, we
have an unanswerable argument for Christ and a testimony as regards the
value of following Him which cannot be gainsayed.
CHAPTER V
_No Man cared for my Soul_
"No man cared for my soul," Psalm cxlii. 4. All about us people are
saying these words, and they really think we do not care. I believe
there has never been a story of a man in which was found more contrast
than in this account of the man who sobs out the words, "No man cared
for my soul." He is a shepherd boy, then a king, a saint, writing the
twenty-third Psalm, then suddenly turned into a sinner blackening the
pages of the Old Testament with the story of his transgressions. The
world has not had better poetry than that which came from the heart and
brain of this marvellous man. In addition to all this, he is a musician,
and all through the Psalms he is keeping time to heaven's music until,
when he comes to the close of the Psalter, he stands like the leader of
a mighty chorus, and calls upon every living breathing being to praise
the Lord. He is a pursuer of men, and the hosts of the enemy run and
cry and flee before him.
Suddenly the scene is changed. He is himself pursued. He is in the cave
of Engedi. The cave is dark, and it is in the gloom that we hear him
crying out, "I looked upon my right hand and beheld, but there was no
man that would know me: refuge failed me." And as he said this I think
he must have said, with a sob, "No man cared for my soul." But it is
not my intention so much to tell the story of this man whose life was
so filled with contrasts, but rather to speak of those who live to-day,
and who think they have a right to use the same words as the Psalmist,
"No man cared for my soul."
They walk on the streets of our cities; they live in our homes; they
meet us in our places of business; they are members of our circle of
friends; they know that we are Christians, and they are often thinking
or saying, "No man cared for my soul." It is strange that we should
permit this, because we read in the Bible, "He that believeth not is
condemned already." "He that hath not the Son of God hath not life, but
the wrath of God abideth on him." It seems strange that one could say
he believes the Bible to be true; that he accepts these statements
concerning the one who is not a Christian, and yet lives and works and
associates with him and never speaks to him about the salvation of his
soul.
It would seem as if they at least had a right to say, "No man _seems_
to care." But some may say, "They have the Church, and the doors are
wide open; they have the minister, and his message is faithful." Yet,
the average man who sits in church and listens to the most impassioned
appeal of the preacher, rarely considers the sermon personal. He finds
himself saying, sometimes against his will, that the preacher is
professional, that his plea is perfunctory, and so he goes out of
church and says again, "No man _seems_ to care for my soul."
There came into my church in an Eastern city a man who worshipped with
us for a time. His family were in the mountains. I made it a rule never
to allow one to attend the church that I did not speak to him personally.
One day I called on this business man. He took me into his private
office. When I took him by the hand I said, "I have come to ask you to
be a Christian." He looked at me in amazement; and I said, "I am not
asking you to join my church, that may not be the church of your choice,
but I am asking you to be a Christian." He drew his hand out of mine,
walked away to the window, and stood looking down upon the busy street
for fully five minutes. I thought I had offended him. Then he came back,
and, brushing the tears out of his eyes, he took my hand again and said,
"It is the first invitation to be a Christian I have ever had in all my
life. Nobody ever asked me before. My mother never asked me; my wife
has never asked me; no minister has ever asked me." Then, sinking back
into the chair by his table, he used the words which are almost identical
with the words of David, "I thought no one cared."
Such men are all around us; men in deepest need; men with sore aching
hearts. There was a man in an American city who occupied a high
position among men. He took his own life. Under the stress of political
excitement he misappropriated the funds of the bank, thinking he could
repay them, and in his beautiful home he put the revolver to his temple
and shot himself. The saddest letter I have ever seen was written by
that man. He wrote to his wife asking her forgiveness. He told her to
pray for the children whom he had dishonoured. Then he concluded his
farewell letter with this statement: "Through all the months I have
been wishing somebody would speak to me about becoming a Christian." In
the light of such facts I believe that what we need in these days is
not so much, more men to preach--although that would be a great
blessing--as people in the church who will be absolutely consistent. If
they say they believe God's Word to be true, they must speak to those
over whom they have an influence, about the personal acceptance of
Christ.
I was waiting one day outside the office of the Governor of one the
Western States, and while I waited, the Lieutenant-Governor spoke to
me. He said, "I was in your service last night, and I want to take
issue with you on what you said. You told your hearers to go up and
down the streets asking the people to become Christians. I think if
anyone should come into my office and ask me to become a Christian I
should tell him to go about his business." "You surely misunderstood
me," I said; "what I told them was this, that if a business man was not
a Christian, his friend who is a Christian ought to speak to him kindly
about his soul." I had been introduced to the Lieutenant-Governor by
one of the great politicians of the State, who was a sincere Christian,
and I said, "Suppose our mutual friend here should come to you and say,
'I am a Christian. I think it is the best thing for a man to be a
Christian. I am not always what I would like to be myself, but I should
like to invite you to become a Christian.' Then suppose he should tell
you what a strength and help it had been to him, what would you say to
him?" He looked at me for a moment, and said, "I think I should say
'Thank you.'" I am sure thousands could be won to Jesus Christ if the
members of the Church were consistent in the matter of living in Christ
and giving an invitation to people to become acquainted with Him.
It is not fair to charge the minister with being professional, nor to
say that in his appeal he is perfunctory. Nor is it always just to
criticize those who are in the church, for not speaking to the unsaved,
for there may be an explanation. Sometimes we feel a sense of our own
unworthiness. There are business men who know that if they should speak
to their employees, the first speech would have to be a confession of
failure. There are women who know that if they should go to their
husbands or children, and ask them to come to Christ, they would have
first of all to say, "You must forgive my inconsistency." There are
fathers who know that they could not go to their homes and call their
children around them, and bid them come to Christ without first saying,
"You must forgive your father." But if a confession is necessary, then
make it. It is sometimes a sense of unworthiness that seals one's lips,
but remember if you have a friend who is not a Christian, and to whom
you have never spoken of Christ, your friend counts you inconsistent
because of your failure.
I said to the officers in my church one evening, "How many of you have
ever led a soul to Christ?" About half of them said they never had. One
officer said, "That is a sharp question for me. If you will excuse me I
will go home and speak to my children, to-night." He did so, and I
received two of his sons into the church shortly after.
Again, we seem to have failed to warn our friends because we have such
a slight conception of the meaning of the word "Lost." A mother in
Chicago one day carried her little baby over to the doctor, and said,
"Doctor, look into this baby's eyes, something has gone wrong with
them." The doctor took the little child and held it in his arms so that
the light would strike its face, He gazed at it only for a moment,
then, putting it back into its mother's arms, he shook his head, and
the mother said quickly, "Doctor, what is it?" And he said, "Madam,
your baby is going blind. There is no power in this world that can make
him see." She held the baby in her arms close up against her heart.
Then with a cry she fell to the floor in a swoon, saying as she fell,
"My God--blind!" I think any parent must know how she felt. But Jesus
said, "Better to be maimed, and halt, and blind than to be lost."
If you believe the Bible you cannot be indifferent. But you say, some
would not like to have you speak to them. I have been twenty-seven
years a minister, and have spoken to all classes and conditions of men
and women, and only in one single instance have I ever been rebuked. I
was once asked to speak to the president of a bank. I went into his
office, and was introduced to him by the pastor with whom I was staying.
I said, "My friend is very interested in you, and I wish I could lead
you to Christ." He looked at me in perfect amazement. Then, rising from
the chair, he took me by the hand, and said, "Thank you, sir." I saw
him that night, make his way down the crowded aisle of the church, give
the minister his hand, and say, "I will."
But I had a sad experience at college. I roomed with a man when I was a
student for the ministry, and never spoke to him about his soul. When
the day of my graduation came, and I was bidding him good-bye, he said,
"By the way, why have you never spoken to me about becoming a Christian?"
I would rather he had struck me. I said, "Because I thought you did not
care." "Care!" he said. "There has never been a day that I did not want
you to speak; there has never been a night that I did not hope you would
speak." I lost an opportunity. I fear some day, I must answer for it.
You had an idea that you had no influence, but you must remember that
when you speak in the name of Jesus Christ, God stands back of you;
that when you plead for the salvation of a person, all the power of
heaven is working through you. Some may ask, What is the best time to
speak to my friends about Christ? I should say, speak to them when they
are in trouble, seek them out when others are being saved, but, best of
all, go to them when the Spirit of God says go, that is the best time.
Whenever God says "Go," He is always making ready the heart for our
coming. I was one day walking down the streets of an American city with
a Methodist minister, when he said to me, "What would you do if you
were impressed that you should speak to a man?" I said, "Speak to him."
He said, "But this man has not been in church for thirteen years."
"Nevertheless," I said, "speak to him." He turned and made his way to
the great house where this business man lived. He rang the bell, and
the door was opened by the gentleman himself, who said, "Doctor, I am
glad to see you. I have been in all day thinking you might come." And
in a very few minutes he was kneeling in the library with this
gentleman whom he quickly led to Christ.
A year later I was passing through the city of Chicago, when, picking
up a newspaper, I noticed that this man whom the minister had won to
Christ, had died suddenly. I got a letter from the minister not long
afterwards, and he said, "I was with him when he died. He sent a
messenger for me to come and see him, and when I arrived he turned his
face towards mine and said, "Dr ----, thank you for coming that day,
for if you had missed that day, I might have missed this. Then he began
to sing as best he could. He raised himself on his pillow, with his
arms outreaching, and said, "Jesus Lover of My soul," and passed away.
The minister's letter was marked with tears, and down at the foot of it
was written this sentence; "God helping me, I will never hesitate
again." They are all about us, men with aching hearts, men caught by
the power of sin, young people and older people as well. They are
waiting. Preaching may not win them; singing may not touch them. But
personal effort will.
I might change the text and make it read: "The world does not care for
your soul," You may win it, and it will mock you. Satan does not care
for your soul. He will fascinate you and snare you, and when you say,
"Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?" there will be no deliverance. But God cares. Christ cares. The
minister cares, and thousands of others care. Some are saying, "What
must I do to be a Christian?" A gentleman once said to me, "I do not
love God." Another person once said, "You talk about love for Christ;
is it like love for my mother, because if it is I have not got it." No,
it is not like that. That is not the first step in the way. Tell them
God does not say, "Love me, and I will save you." God says, "Trust me.
Accept my conditions, believe on my Son and follow Him."
There was a great man in a Western city who had a little girl who was
deaf and dumb. He loved his child so much that he would not allow
anybody to teach her. She had a kind of sign language which they both
understood, but nobody else was allowed to teach her. This gentleman at
one time had occasion to leave home and go abroad. He could not take
his daughter with him, so his minister persuaded him to send her over
to an institution where she could be taught to use the sign language of
the deaf and dumb. He took her over himself, never for a moment
imagining that she would learn to speak with her lips, as she did. The
months passed by, and when the father returned, the minister went with
him to see his child in the institution. The little girl had been told
that he was coming, and looking out of the window she saw her father
coming through the gate. She sprang to the door, and ran down the
steps, and along the walk until she reached her father. Then she climbed
up into his arms, and, putting her lips up against his ear, she said,
"Father, I love you, I love you." The great man held her out at arm's
length, looked into her face, then pressed her more closely to his
heart and fell in a faint--when he recovered consciousness he was
sobbing. All the day he kept saying, "I have heard her speak, and she
loves me, she loves me." So tell the people very plainly that God does
not say, "Love me." He says, "Believe on me; trust me; follow me." Then
ask them, Will you do it? And if they will follow Him, having accepted
His Son as their Saviour, and with his help having turned from sin,
then if they will obey Him, they will come to love Him with all their
hearts.
CHAPTER VI
_Winning the Young_
"There is a lad here," John vi. 9. Jesus had just crossed over the sea
of Galilee and, attracted by the miracles which he had wrought, great
multitudes had followed after Him. In order that He might escape the
throng, He went up into a mountain and there He sat with His disciples.
When the Master saw the great company stretching out on every side of
Him He said unto Philip, "Whence shall we buy bread that these may
eat." Philip was so amazed at the crowd that he answered Him, "Two
hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one
of them may take a little." Then one of His disciples, Andrew, Simon
Peter's brother, said unto Him, "_There is a lad here_ which hath
five barley loaves and two small fishes." Then Jesus made the multitude
sit down, and took the loaves and gave to the disciples, and the
disciples to them that were seated, and likewise of the fishes as much
as they would, and when they were filled, the fragments that remained
filled twelve baskets.
The presence of this lad and the service which he rendered to Jesus, as
well as the use which the Master made of him, all help us to teach our
lesson. Youth is the time to turn to Christ. The wise man knew this
when he said, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth; while
the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh; when thou shalt say, I
have no pleasure in them." Sin has not so strong a hold upon a life in
the time of youth, therefore it is the easiest time to turn to Christ.
I once heard a man tell the story of his special work among outcast men
and women, and when I asked him he told me how he himself was converted.
He said that as a boy in London, he was left one day in charge of the
private office. He said "I wanted to write a letter and I took the
firm's note-paper; I used one of their envelopes, and when I wanted
postage I opened the private drawer of the safe, the door of which was
swinging open, and took out one postage stamp, and when I put this stamp
upon my letter and dropped it into the post-box I felt as if I had
dropped my character with it. That was the beginning, and the end was a
prison cell, for I went from one form of thieving to another until I was
obliged to pay the penalty. I found Christ while I was in prison, but I
feel as if the mark of my early sin would never leave me. I would urge
every boy to accept Christ," he said, "before the cords of sin bind him
too securely."
When one reaches the age of eighteen he finds it extremely difficult to
turn away from the sins that are mastering him, and when he passes
beyond twenty years of age, the tide against him is extremely heavy.
The critical time in the life of boys and girls is from twelve to
twenty. If they do not accept Christ during these years, it is wellnigh
impossible to win them. If this is true then we must make the most of
the opportunities of influencing the youth whom God is ever bringing
before us.
The Scripture used in connection with this feeding of the multitude is
a good illustration. It is a lad who confronts us, and this is, as has
been said, the favourable time for bringing Christian influence to bear
upon him. There is a time in the life of every boy when it is
comparatively easy to win him to Christ. Parents surely know this, and
Sunday school teachers may easily discover it. "How did you come to
Christ?" said a New York minister to a little boy. His reply was, "My
Sunday school teacher took me last Sunday out into the park. She drew
me away from the crowd and took her seat beside me. She asked me if I
would become a Christian. I felt that I ought to do so, and because her
invitation was so definite, and she seemed so interested, I told her I
would do so, and because I am a Christian I went to join the Church."
Too much cannot be said in favour of reaching the young while they are
in the days of their youth. Recently in an audience of 4500 people I
found that at least 400 of the audience came to Christ under 10 years
of age; between 10 and 12, 600; between 12 and 14, 600; between 14 and
16, about 1000; between 16 and 20, fully one half, and in the entire
audience not more than 25 people came to Christ after they were 30
years of age. Five hundred ministers were in the same audience. The
majority of them were converted before they were 16 years of age; 40 of
them between 16 and 20; and only 15 out of the 500 ministers were
converted after they were 20. This in itself is an unanswerable
argument in favour of personal work for the young.
The lad is here now before us, but he will soon be gone. Boys quickly
grow into manhood. As a rule religious influence weakens as they pass
on, while the power of sin increases. Many young men would turn to
Christ if they thought they could, but it seems to them that the
attraction towards evil is almost, if not quite irresistible. I
recently heard a Christian gentleman speaking before a great audience
in London. He was telling of his going over the Alps in the care of a
trusted guide. As they came to one of the most dangerous places in the
journey his guide stopped him, and said, "Do you see those footprints
off here to the right?" The gentleman said he did, plainly. "Do you
notice," said the guide, "how they get farther and farther apart?" And
when asked to give an explanation he said that a week before a young
telegraph operator had attempted to cross the mountains without a
guide, that just at the place where they were standing his hat blew
off, and, without thinking, he reached out after it, lost his balance
and started to fall. In trying to recover himself he started down the
mountain to the right. The way was all covered with snow; when once he
started he could not stop; farther and farther apart were his footprints
until at last they were lost on the edge of a great abyss. He had gone
over to his death. It is thus that young men go to destruction. Because
they do, we ought to be instant in season and out of season in seeking
to arrest their downward progress.
When Jesus took the loaves and fishes in the possession of the lad and
brought to bear upon them his own marvellous power, the results were
great. No one realises what is being accomplished when he assists or
influences a boy. I am wondering what that minister, who led Spurgeon
to Christ, thinks of his work now that he sees it from the heavenly
standpoint, and I have many times thought I should like to ask the
business man who spoke to D.L. Moody about his soul, what estimate he
puts upon the importance of the work he did that day. To win a boy to
Christ may be to turn towards the Master one who may one day move the
world for Christ.
A great number of Chinese young men have come from their native land
to study in the educational institutions of the United States. Some
of them have found Christ in these institutions, others have passed
through their course of study and returned to their native land without
a hope in the Saviour. What a marvellous work might have been accomplished
if the Christian students in these educational institutions had set
themselves to win these Chinese boys. The students in China are to have
an increasing influence in the Government, and if the majority of them
had been led to Christ, the whole Chinese Government might have been
powerfully affected. Some years ago there came to the United States a
little Chinese boy. He was sent to a New England educational institution,
and made his home in the house of a very humble woman. She knew Christ
and loved Him, and she recognised the presence of this little boy as
presenting an opportunity for service. She treated him as if he were
her own child. She mothered him and grew to love him. She taught him
how to read the Bible and she told him the story of Jesus and His love.
That little boy came to Christ. He passed through the educational
institution, went back to China to exercise his strongest influence for
righteousness, and has recently been entrusted with the commission of
bringing to the United States a number of other Chinese boys, all of
whom, it is said, he will place in institutions that are Christian. The
poor woman in New England did not realise that when she led one boy to
Christ that she was touching forty others. This is the fascination of
Christian work.
Some of the noblest men and women the Church has ever known came to
Christ in youth. Polycarp, Matthew Henry, Jonathan Edwards, the
immortal Watts, John Hall, and a countless host of others who have
served conspicuously in the advancement of the Kingdom of God, came to
Christ before they were fifteen years of age, some of them coming as
early as seven. The lad is here, it will be a pity if we allow him to
grow to manhood without a hope in Christ all because we do not seek to
win him.
CHAPTER VII
_Winning and Holding_
"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus,"
2 Timothy iii. 15. Timothy's inheritance was invaluable. His equipment
was superb, and his experience from the day of his birth until the end
of his life upon earth, ideal. He had a good grandmother. Evidently she
influenced him profoundly. I am quite sure that his parents too must
have fulfilled their obligations to their child, and in addition to his
own immediate ancestry, he had Paul, the Apostle, who looked upon him
as a son in the Gospel, and honoured him by sending him his last
message when he said, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give
me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them also that love His
appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me" 2 Timothy iv. 7-9.
It is a great loss to any child to be deprived of what Timothy had. We
may not all be rich, and we certainly cannot all be great, but we may
all be true and faithful as parents, and when a child has such an
inheritance he is well started in life. It is because children do not
have this that many of them drift. Given a good ancestry it is
comparatively easy to draw children to Christ, and even to draw them
back when once they have wandered. It is the testimony of rescue
mission workers that when they have the privilege of appealing to lost
and ruined men in the name of a mother who was saintly and a father who
was true to Christ, they have a hold upon an almost irresistible force,
to bring the wanderer back to the faith of his father and the teaching
of his mother.
There is the sorest need to-day of a special and continued interest in
behalf of our young people. David Starr Jordan is authority for the
statement that "one-third of the young men of America are wasting
themselves through intemperate habits and accompanying vices," the
conditions in other lands are also very serious. The secretary of the
College Association of North America has been quoted as saying that
there are twelve thousand college men in New York City alone who are
down and out through vice. "Talk of the ravages of war. The ravages of
war, pestilence and disease combined are as nothing compared with the
awful moral ravages wrought in the teen period. The shores are strewn
thick with the wasted lives of those who have been wrecked in youth."
"We have been seeking results too far afield and overlooking great
opportunities near at hand. If you take a census of a Christian
congregation and ask those who were converted before their eighteenth
birthday to rise, five-sixths of your congregation will stand. This
means that five-sixths of all the people who give themselves to Christ
do it on the under side of the eighteenth year. Put beside this the
fact that we have more than 12,000,000 children and youth in the
Protestant Sunday Schools of America under eighteen years of age and
you will see that our great evangelistic opportunity does not lie
outside of the Church, but inside, in the Sunday School department.
Here we have a vast army, ready and waiting for the Christian call."[1]
[Footnote 1: Rev Edgar Blake.]
It is one thing to lead souls to Christ, it is quite another thing to
hold them when once they have been won. The serious time for drifting
is between the ages of twelve and twenty. If we could but safeguard
these years we would hold for the Church many who drift out upon the
sea of life, make shipwreck of their hopes and break the hearts of
those who are interested in them.
"An investigation in the Wesleyan Church of England showed that only
ten per cent of the Sunday School were held in active membership in the
Church. Ten per cent. were held in a merely nominal relationship.
Eighty per cent. were lost entirely. This is a fair statement of the
situation in many churches. We have lost multitudes of our youth who
might have been saved if they had been properly cared for.
"At the very time the Church loses its grip upon the boys and girls the
public school loses its grip also. The exodus begins about the fifth
grade, and at the eighth grade fifty per cent. of the scholars have
departed. At the twelfth grade, near the middle teens, ninety per cent.
of the scholars have gone out from the public schools. Thus these two
most powerful forces in the creation of character, the Church and the
School, lose their hold upon youth at the same time.
"The home also loses its hold at this period. Up to his middle teens
your youth accepts everything on the authority of others, but midway of
the critical teen period there comes an awakening. The consciousness of
his own personality, his right to make decisions for himself comes to
him for the first time. Sometimes spontaneously, sometimes gradually,
but always he breaks with authority. He insists upon deciding matters
for himself. Parents may counsel, but they cannot determine[1]."
[Footnote 1: Rev Edgar Blake.]
"A gentleman came to a friend of mine at the close of an address which
he had delivered and said to him, 'I was much interested in what you
said about the boys we lose. I teach a class of the finished product.'
'Where do you teach?' said I. 'In the State prison' he said. A few
years ago seventy-five per cent. of the inmates of the Minnesota State
prison were boys who had once been in Sunday School and had been
permitted to drift away. The later teen age, sixteen to twenty, is the
criminal period. It is an appalling thing that 12,000 children were
brought before the courts of New York in 1909, and in the same year
more than 15,000 boys and girls suffered arrest in Chicago. Our
criminal ranks are added to, at the rate of 300,000 a year, and in the
vast majority of cases the criminal course is begun in the teen age. Is
it necessary? Is this awful waste--this moral havoc--unavoidable? I
believe not. Recently a young man in his teens was convicted of theft
in the court of Milwaukee. When the judge asked him if he had anything
to say before sentence was pronounced upon him, the young man arose,
pale with excitement and said, 'Your honour, my father and mother died
when I was three years old. I never had anyone who loved or cared for
me. I have been kicked about all my life. Judge, I never would have
been a thief if I had had a chance.' This is the pitiful plea of
thousands who have been wrecked around us. They were not shepherded and
they went astray."
There is a way to hold the majority of those whom we may win to the
Saviour. A friend of mine led to Christ a young man who had gone to the
very depths of sin and shame. He was a drunkard; he had disgraced his
father's name; had broken his wife's heart, and when his little boy
died he did not have enough money to bury the child decently; when the
mother put the child in the grave the father was wild with drink, and
he was buried without his father being present. But my friend won this
man to Christ. After he was saved, every day for three weeks he went to
sit by his side and talk with him; he guarded him at the critical time;
he kept him from growing discouraged; he hindered him from drinking.
To-day this man is himself one of the most noted rescue mission workers
in the world, and is being used of God to save multitudes of men who
like himself had gone down through drink.
It is what we are ourselves that largely counts in the holding of our
friends for Christ. Paul wrote to Titus saying, "In all things showing
thyself a pattern of good works ... that he that is of the contrary
part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you," which is only
another way of saying that a Christian life is an unanswerable argument
in favour of Christ. When our lives are right with God; when we keep
ourselves unspotted from the world; when we quickly confess our own
failure or wrongdoing; when we have a concern not only that others
should be saved, but that they might do something for Christ after
their salvation, it is comparatively easy to hold them, and to keep
from drifting those who have just started along the way.
When my friend S.H. Hadley, the great rescue missionary, was lying in
his coffin, a timid knock was heard at the door of the room where the
body was resting. When the one who had knocked entered the room it was
found that he was a drunkard, he had fallen from a high position to the
very depths of despair, and as he stood timidly in the presence of the
sorrowing friends of the great man, he said, "I thought I would like to
come and look into his face and if I might be permitted to do so I
would like to touch his hand. He did his best to win me while he was
living and now that he is dead I cannot let his body be placed in the
grave without coming here by the side of his casket to yield myself to
Christ. All that he has said has followed me and I cannot get away from
it."
Timothy knew the Scriptures, and a familiarity with God's Word is one
of the best preventives in the case of drifting. One verse of Scripture
committed to memory each day would help us to overcome the tempter;
would keep us in loving touch with Jesus Christ; would inspire us to
higher and holier living; and these suggestions made to those whom we
win to Christ would keep them from wandering. It is the man who does
not know his Bible who finds himself an easy prey to the wicked one.
The ability to pray is also a God-given force which keeps us from
drifting. When we read the Bible God talks to us; when we pray we talk
to Him. We cannot always speak plainly of our condition to those about
us, but we may tell Him what we are and what we wish we might have
been. And while it is true that He knows before we speak, it is also
true that in the telling we draw nearer to Him, and drawing nearer we
absorb a little bit more of His spirit, and in that spirit we stand.
Service is also one of the surest preventives from wandering. It is
when the brain is idle that evil thoughts master it; when the heart is
given up to impure imaginations that we find it easy to fall. And it is
when we are busy lifting others' burdens; making the way easier for
others to travel; comforting those who are in distress; speaking a word
of cheer to the cheerless, and above all, when we are seeking to lead
others to Christ, that we ourselves grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If these things are true, and we
know they are, then it is the duty of every Christian not only to seek
to win another to Christ, but by all means to seek to hold him when
once he is won, and that which we know holds us will keep others from
stumbling.
The suggestions made above are for the young as well as the more
mature. Young people will be interested in spiritual things if we have
sufficient interest in them ourselves to make them attractive.
If we would show as great interest in helping to keep those whom we may
have won for Christ, as we revealed when we were seeking them, fewer of
them would drift.
CHAPTER VIII
_A Practical Illustration_
It will be a great day when the Church is aroused to the responsibility
and privilege of personal work.
In Swansea, Wales, with Mr Charles M. Alexander, I had the satisfaction
of conducting a mission in which I preached for an entire week on Soul
Winning. I then urged the people to go forth and labour, and asked them
to come back with their reports. These reports were thrilling. Often
ten or twelve people would be standing at the one time waiting to
speak. The following are only a few testimonies taken from the many:--
A minister said: "I spoke to a bright young fellow, under the influence
of drink, as I was going home in the car last night. He got off the car
when I did, so I stood at the street corner and talked with him for a
few minutes. He told me that he had been a follower of the Lord Jesus
many years ago, but had fallen away through bad company. I asked him to
pray for himself. He said he could not, but asked me to pray for him.
And there on that street corner I put my arm around his shoulder and we
prayed together, and he has promised to come to the meeting to-night."
"About three years ago," said another, "I came in touch with a man who
has been the biggest and most hardened scoffer I have had to contend
with. He had such a sarcastic way of ridiculing the Lord Jesus Christ.
But this last fortnight I have seen a distinct change in that young
man's life. Last week, as we were working near to one another, I spoke
to him and his eyes filled with tears. He said, 'I have decided to come
out and accept Christ.' I could hardly credit it, but it has proved to
be real, and when I see God moving in such a hard case as this, I have
hope for every sinner in this city."
Another said, "I came to the Lord three years ago, one of the worst
drunkards in Swansea. Since the Saviour found me, I have spoken to men
on their death-beds. I have spoken to drunkards all over Swansea, but I
neglected my own charge that God had given to me. Dr Chapman woke me up
to approach my own household and children. It was the greatest struggle
in all my life. I went to my two boys and put my hands on their shoulders
saying, 'I want you to do something for Jesus and for your father.' They
said, 'Father, we will do it.' Two of my boys came to the Albert Hall
yesterday and gave their hearts to Jesus. This has been one of the most
blessed weeks I have had since I was saved three years ago."
"On Thursday night I had been asking the Lord to lead me to the right
one to speak to. He led me to a young man of sixteen years of age who
was under tremendous conviction. He said, 'I think I will make a clean
breast of it. I have done something,' and he told me his story. This
young lad, in his employer's service for four years, last week, for the
first time, began to steal. He turned out his pocket and showed me what
he had. He said, 'What shall I do? I go to bed at night and I cannot
sleep, it is haunting me.' I said, 'Look here, laddie, do this. Go to
your master to-morrow morning, and make a clean breast of it and get
the victory.' 'What about my situation?' said the boy. 'I will pray for
you,' I said. 'If your master is so unkind as to dismiss you, come to
me and I will see what I can do.' It was a long time before he gave in,
but eventually he said, 'I will.' I prayed for him, and last night I
got this letter: 'Victorious! Devil conquered; overjoyed. I cannot very
well explain what I experienced so will be pleased to meet you on
Thursday next in the mission at Albert Hall.'"
A week later this gentleman said: "I have a lot to thank God for these
last ten days. I have had a glorious blessing. I can say with all
humility, I have been on fire for Jesus. I had a letter yesterday from
the young man whom I was talking about last Sunday. He says, 'Dear
Friend, My only regret now is that I did not accept Jesus as my Saviour
years ago. It would have saved me so much trouble. I explained
everything to my master and handed him the article back. Then he gave
me two-thirds of this particular article and burned the letter. So that
is what I got for owning up.'"
Another said: "I do thank and praise God this morning for the great
things He has done in my home. He has brought my children to trust in
the Saviour. I have great pleasure in reporting that a brother at the
works, to whom I spoke a week ago, has decided for Christ. One of the
workers presented me with a Testament to give to that brother, who was
in very poor circumstances, and he received it with joy. The following
day he came to tell me that he had read a chapter to his wife. His wife
is travelling the wrong way. They have five little children, and on
Thursday I took them to the meeting. On Friday morning he came to thank
me for taking them there, and told me that during his absence from the
house, his eldest boy, of about ten years of age, had got into a Bible
Reading Circle, led by a Christian boy, and he asked his father if he
could spare sixpence for him to buy a Testament. What joy filled my
heart and soul from the fact that I could present that little lad with
a Testament, and I sent my own lad back a mile, yesterday, with it.
"I spoke to a dear Christian brother last night at the works. I asked
him if his household were saved. 'I have one boy of sixteen not saved,'
he said 'Brother, will you promise me to speak to him when you go
home?' He went home and put his hand on the shoulder of the lad and
gave him the invitation. The boy gladly promised to accept Jesus."
Continuing with the reports, one said: "Last night, in one of our
public houses I spoke to a woman about Jesus. Years ago she had lost
her husband and instead of going to God for comfort she had turned to
drink. She became a drunkard and had separated from her children. When
I spoke to her she said, 'I know I am a sinner. I am the worst woman in
Swansea, but I want to be good.' 'Will you decide now?' we asked her.
'Yes,' she said. She came out into the cold biting wind and knelt in
the open air, and there she sent up this simple prayer: 'Oh, God,
although I am a bad woman, please make me good, for Jesus' sake.' Later
she arose in a crowded meeting and told her story, concluding with this
remark, 'By God's help I am going to be a child of God.'"
Another said: "On the second night of the mission I was led to speak to
a dear brother who was a back-slider. I plead with him that evening to
turn to Christ, but he did not come to a decision. The next night I
went in and talked with him. I asked him again at the close of the
meeting would he come back to the Lord Jesus Christ. He told me he
could not come back that night. On the following night I went up and
spoke to him again. When we got outside the building I said, 'I may not
ever have the privilege of speaking to you again. Will you kindly give
me your name? I will give you a guarantee that no one but God shall
know about it. I want your name that I may pray for you.' On Tuesday
night in the minor hall at the after meeting I searched for him. I had
been praying continually every night and morning, and sometimes during
the day. When I found him that night I said, 'You have withstood the
Spirit of God long enough. Make a definite decision to-night to return
to the Lord. If you do not care about coming to the front, fill out
this card, but make up your mind to give yourself to Christ.' He took
the card and filled it out. Then I said, 'You know the way of salvation
because you have been that way before. When you get home tonight, will
you kindly make a definite decision at your bedside?' And he told me he
would."
Another gentleman rose to give his testimony and said: "I belong, as
you know, to another city, but I want to speak a word to the glory of
God, and for the encouragement of those who have taken up personal work
for Him. Some two years ago in our city I spoke to one who was an
inspector in the Police Force, but who is to-day the Chief Inspector of
our Police, about the claims of Christ. He told me that I was the first
one who had ever spoken to him as to how he stood in relation to these
matters for a period of fifteen years. Having once broken the ice and
spoken to him, I never gave him up.
"About two months ago I had occasion to go to the Police Court to ask
his assistance on behalf of a woman who wanted an ejectment notice
against another woman who was living in the same house. When he heard
the name of the woman who wished to obtain the notice he refused to
have anything to do with the matter. She had been a bad character. He
said, 'I tell you candidly, she ought to be drowned for her cruelty to
her children.' I said, 'You knew her once, but you do not know her now.
How long is it since you saw her?' 'About nine weeks' he replied.
'Well,' I said, 'nine weeks ago she and her husband both came to Christ
in our mission hall. For the first time in thirteen years they entered
a place of worship. She had a black eye that covered over half her
face, but both her husband and she are now Christians, and are
faithfully following Christ to-day. And yet you call her a lost soul.'
He said, 'Certainly I do. If there is a lost soul she is one.' 'Then
Sir,' I said, striking him on the shoulder, 'Jesus came to seek and to
save that which was lost. Jesus has saved that woman. When she comes on
Monday night, Inspector, just look at her and see what Christ has
wrought. I ask you to grant her request.' He shook himself free. 'Wait
a moment, Inspector,' I said, 'I have never given up praying for you.
You have risen to the position of Chief Inspector, but I want you not
to forget Christ.'
"On the Thursday of the following week he came to my home. When I saw
him there I was glad, for he had kept away from me for a long time. I
said, 'I am glad to see you in my home.' He said, 'You will be more glad
when you know why I have come. In my room the other night I knelt down
and gave myself to Jesus Christ, and asked the Lord to save me.' I would
ask those of you who are working for souls not to get disheartened and
discouraged. When the mission ceases do not give up taking a personal
interest in those for whom you are concerned.
"Some months ago I was sitting in the Assize Court in your city. I sat
next to our Chief Inspector. The case that was being tried was one of
attempted murder. As I sat there following the case this Chief
Inspector turned to me and said, 'Why didn't they know Him on the road
to Emmaus?' I said, 'I suppose because their eyes were holden.' He
said, 'How did they know Him when they got to the home?' I said,
'Probably in the breaking of the bread.' 'Don't you think,' said he,
'that in the breaking of the bread they saw for the first time the
marks of the wounds in His hands and knew Him by them?' What a
difference Christ had made in the life of that Chief Inspector."
A man employed in the steel works rose in one of our meetings to say:
"I made my covenant with God last Saturday. The burden was laid heavy
on my heart on behalf of two souls. One of them was my own little girl.
I spoke to her about Jesus, and she told me she would accept Him as her
Saviour. I have been working this week on a shift that ran from ten
o'clock at night to six o'clock in the morning. On Tuesday night I
asked the Lord to pour out His blessing on our workmen. About one
o'clock in the morning I had an opportunity of speaking to a young man.
I asked him if he had accepted Jesus as his Saviour, and he said he had
not. Then I asked him to be honest before God, and I said, 'Will you
accept Him now?' With a smile he looked up at me and said, 'Tom, I will
accept Jesus as my Saviour now.' I have brought some of my mates with
me here to-day and I thank God for what He has done.
"Down at the works the other day there was a young man who came on duty
at three o'clock in the morning. I knew he was troubled about his soul,
and I spoke to him. I said, 'Are you in trouble about your soul?' He
said, 'Yes, I am.' 'Well,' I said, 'Jesus has died to save you. Will
you accept Him now?' He said to me, 'But, Tom, I have done this and
that,' 'Well,' I said, 'Jesus has died for you, will you accept Him?'
As he looked me straight in the face he said, 'Yes, I will.'
"I asked these men who had accepted Jesus and one or two others, to
come up to my home at six o'clock when we finished work. As we went
through the yard there was a boy about fifteen years of age standing
there and we got him to come along with us. In my home we had a small
meeting. I asked God to pour down His blessing upon us. I asked one
friend who was drifting, if he had ever accepted Christ, and he said at
one time during a revival. I said, 'Praise God for that. He is willing
to receive you back. Will you come?' and he said, 'At three o'clock
this very morning, I came back to the Lord Jesus.' And then I turned to
the boy of fifteen and said, 'Are you willing to accept the Saviour?'
And he said he didn't think he was ready. I said, 'Well, my boy, if you
don't, what will become of you?' He said, 'I will go to hell, I
suppose.' Not long afterwards he accepted the Saviour.[1]
[Footnote 1: This man worked at night and slept during the day.]
"Yesterday I could not sleep. I went home from my work. I was up in the
morning with a burden on my heart because of the poor souls who were
going to eternity without a Saviour. A young woman came to our house
and started to sing 'Lord save Swansea,' and the words kept ringing in
my ears. I went back to bed but could not sleep. I had no peace. I
said, 'Well, Lord, I believe Thou hast surely started the work.' I went
to the works last night. I did not feel very well as I had been up all
day. I asked some of the men if they would come to a prayer meeting for
the mission. We did not have much time before work commenced, but we
went in and I asked one of the young fellows if he would accept Jesus.
He replied, 'I must have time to think of it.' The next night I said to
him, 'Johnnie, have you thought of what we spoke on last night?' and he
said, 'I have been in trouble about my soul.' Before we had tea I asked
him if he would accept Christ now. He said, 'I cannot do it now.' I
said, 'God will give you strength.' We went into a little shop and I
prayed for him. At three o'clock this morning I spoke to him again.
'Johnnie,' I said, 'can you see the way clear?' 'Yes,' he said, 'I can
see the way clear now. I will accept Jesus as my personal Saviour.'"
CHAPTER IX
_Whosoever Will_
All classes of persons may do personal work if they will. A prominent
business man in a Welsh city began to do this work and one morning
spoke to eighteen people before breakfast. Several, to whom he spoke,
accepted Christ. Making a further report of his work, he said. "An old
man, about seventy years of age, whose face was white and who appeared
to be very ill, was leaning against the wall of a building near where I
have my office. I said to him, 'Have you been to the mission?' 'No,' he
said, 'I have not.' I then asked him if he had accepted Christ. 'Well,'
he said, 'I have been a believer all my life.' I said, 'Are you saved?'
'I cannot say that,' he replied. 'Why?' I asked; 'God says, "He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Do you believe that?' He
stood staring me in the face for a few minutes, when he said, 'I never
saw it in that light before.' I said, 'Will you take him at His word
now?' And he replied, 'Yes, I will.'
"An old woman, an office cleaner, was making her way up the steps of a
building. As I came up I recognised her, and said, 'Mrs Bell, I have
been constrained to ask you if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your
personal Saviour.' She looked at me, then setting down her broom she
said, 'I want to, but no one has ever asked me,' 'Well,' I said, 'I ask
you now. Will you accept Him just here? Will you say, Lord Jesus I
accept Thee as my personal Saviour?' But she could not see the way.
After some conversation I asked her if she would come to the hall and
hear Dr Chapman and Mr Alexander, and she said she would go that
evening. I was unable to go to the service myself that night and did
not see her until the following Saturday morning. She came to my office
and said, 'Since you spoke to me a few days ago I have had no peace. I
am in an awful state, and unless I take Jesus I shall die. I am sure I
shall because I cannot live like this.' And right there in the office
she knelt down and accepted Christ as her Saviour and had the joy that
always comes with this acceptance.
"This morning, the very first man I met, I was constrained to speak to
about Jesus. I introduced myself by asking him if he had been to the
mission. He said, 'Yes, I was at the Grand Theatre last Sunday
afternoon.' 'Well,' I said, 'did you give your heart to the Lord?'
'No,' he replied, 'I did not.' I said 'Why?' 'Because I missed my
opportunity,' was his answer. I said to Him, 'Will you do it now?' 'Do
it now!' he exclaimed. 'Listen,' I said, 'God says in His Word. As many
as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God. Will
you receive Him? It is either one thing or the other--receive or
reject. Your sins have been atoned for by His precious blood. Will you
take Jesus now?' And suddenly, taking me by the hand, he said, 'I
will.'
"From time to time I have been speaking to a young man belonging to a
respectable family. At one time he was being brought up for the
ministry, but he got into sin and sank very low. I persuaded him to
attend one of the mission meetings. When Dr Chapman requested all those
who wished prayer offered for themselves or for their loved ones, this
poor fellow got up in the balcony and said, 'Pray for me.' Prayer was
offered for him, and there, that night, he experienced the joy of
salvation. He came to me the other day and said that he had definitely
taken Jesus Christ as his Saviour."
One would not expect a police officer to be a personal worker, but many
of them are, and notably so in Great Britain. Ex-Sergeant Wheeler of
Oldham came to attend one of our meetings, and being asked to speak, he
said: "Though an Ex-Sergeant, I am not an Ex-Christian. There are a
large number of people who look upon a policeman from many standpoints,
but it is very seldom that they see him in the position in which I am
placed to-night. They have an idea that a policeman does not exist to
preach the Gospel or to tell them about Jesus Christ, and it is
Christian people who get that idea sometimes."
"I know a police sergeant in London who is a particular friend of mine
and a great Christian worker. A lady went to one of our Provincial
Police Conferences in connection with the Police Association and saw
this big man who was so enthusiastic in connection with the work that
the lady doubted his genuineness, and to satisfy her curiosity she
ascertained his private address, travelled by rail from London, visited
his home during his absence, and asked his wife what sort of a man he
was. That is the way to find a man out. But she found that he was even
a better man in the home than he was out of it. If you want to find
what a man's character is, you do not ask about it on special occasions
when he is on his guard, you ask what it is when he is at home, it is
there that he unconsciously reveals it, and this revelation just
because of its unconsciousness, proves invariably correct.
"When the Lord Jesus brought me out of darkness into the light, when He
broke the fetters and snapped the chains eleven years ago, I went home
and said to my wife, 'I am going to live for Jesus, and we will start
here, at home. We will have family prayers--we were not a large family,
only nine of us, and for the first time in their lives, my children
heard their father pray; and there on my knees in all humility I
pledged myself before God that I would do anything, make any sacrifice,
if by so doing I could help a weaker brother and lift him out of the
gutter. That is the way I started. I am not what I ought to be, I am
not what I hope to be, but, thank God, by His grace and love, I am what
I am and not what I once was. The Lord changed my desires when he put a
new heart within me. When I see a drunken man in the streets I do not
pass him like I used to. My heart goes out to him and I look beyond the
man in the streets to the life in the home he comes from, and see the
misery there; but I thank God that He put the desire in my heart to try
to help that brother. And how often opportunities present themselves.
"On one occasion at five o'clock on a Sunday morning in the month of
August, a policeman and I were going along the street. There was a man
standing at a gate near the corner. As we approached he said to me,
'Sergeant, can you get me a drink of whisky?' I said, 'That is rather a
strange thing to ask a Sergeant of Police,' 'Well,' he said, 'I have
plenty of bottled ale in my home, but it sticks in my throat.' I said,
'Do you take whisky when you are thirsty?' 'Yes,' he replied. I got into
conversation with him and after a while I said to him, 'Do you ever go
to a place of worship?' 'No,' he said, 'I don't, I pay a sovereign for a
sitting.' 'That won't get you to heaven,' I said, and after a little
further talk with him he remarked, 'Sergeant, I am all right financially,
but wrong here, in my heart.' And then he said, 'Will you come to my
home and pray for me?' 'Yes,' I replied, und we went. It was not far
away, a fine home, a palace to mine, I thought, as I walked across the
velvet carpet into the drawing-room. He brought a Bible and said, 'Read
me something out of that.' And he sat down like a little child, to
listen. I turned to Isaiah liii. 6, and read, 'All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath
laid on Him the iniquity of us all.' 'Now,' I said, 'it starts with All
and finishes with All, so we are both included.' Then I took him to
John iii. 16, and then to the last chapter in the Book of Revelation,
verse 17: 'And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that
heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst--I stopped at that--and
whosoever ...' 'Now,' I said, 'we will read it again. And after we had
read it again we knelt down, and there in that large home I poured out
my soul to God over that man. I plead for him, and while I prayed he
said, 'Lord, if I am not too bad, save me.' I said, 'Amen.' And the Lord
heard his prayer, and before I left the house he was a changed man. When
I was leaving he came to the door and said, 'I never bargained for this,
this morning, Sergeant.' The man who wanted whisky got Christ. He drank
of something different, he drank of the living water which Christ spoke
about at the well of Samaria when He said, 'Whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life.'"
"I left him and went back the following day. I rang the bell and he
answered the door himself. I asked him how he was, and he said, 'Grand,
I have had no whisky.' I went back a month later and he told me he was
never so happy in all his life. He said, 'Do you remember me telling
you I paid a sovereign for my sitting in church? Well, I occupy that
pew myself now.' And that day he gave me a donation for the Christian
Police Association and told me to call again at any time. That is what
the Lord does when he changes a man's heart. There are many men to-day
who may be all right financially; they may have a seat in God's House;
they may be members of a Church and yet not be right at heart. I urge
upon you, get right with God and you will have, not the peace of this
world, but the peace that passeth all understanding.
"Something like seven years ago I went to some services in Manchester
that were being conducted by Dr Torrey and Mr Alexander. At the close
of these services I went to the front and took some Gospel literature
that was there for distribution. When I got home and commenced my
duties I began to give this literature to the policemen. I thought the
policemen stood as much in need of it as anybody else. If he is a
peacemaker, sometimes he is a peacebreaker, and with all due respect to
him he is not always a law-abiding man.
"There were two booklets in which I was specially interested. One which
was called 'God's Sure Promise,' asked several questions at the close,
and then requested the reader to sign his name. The other was, 'Get
Right with God.' I gave the latter to policemen on their beats, and
asked them to read them carefully. I went on with my praying. One man
received the book with great scorn. About a week after I visited this
particular man, and with a smile upon his face he said, 'You remember
those two booklets you gave me?' 'Yes,' I said. 'Well,' he said, 'the
one called "God's Sure Promise" I tore up and put into the fire, the
other I tore up and threw over the wall, but not before I read them
both. Now, I have never got away from that, and about half an hour ago
I came to the climax. I got down on my knees in the street, and now I
can honestly say that God for Christ's sake has pardoned all my sins.'
I felt overjoyed with his testimony, for he was the most scornful and
bitter man in the division. I was so overjoyed that I walked round his
beat with him, talking with him, and giving him words of encouragement.
I can never forget that night. From ten o'clock until six in the
morning it was one continual downpour of rain. We were soaked through.
As we walked round I said, 'We will have a word of prayer.' We took off
our helmets, knelt down on the pavement and there we had a little
prayer meeting just about two o'clock in the morning. The showers of
rain were nothing compared to the showers of blessing we had. I was so
delighted when we went off duty that morning that I could not sleep.
"I came to Manchester when Dr Torrey was holding a meeting, and during
the meeting I sent a note up to Dr Torrey saying that a policeman
wanted to say something. However, the opportunity did not present
itself that night. A week after that another policeman came to me and
said, 'Sergeant, do you remember that booklet you gave me, "God's Sure
Promise?"' I said, 'Yes.' 'Well,' he said, 'here it is signed.' Seven
years have passed away since that time, and those two policeman and I
have stood together on the platform many and many a time telling the
story of Jesus and His love. We have had some meetings together and I
have seen them speaking to hundreds of men and the Lord has blessed
them both. If the Lord Jesus Christ can save a policeman, He can save
anybody.
"I found that we existed for something more than locking up
people. I wanted to arrest people in their sin, and going along the
street one night in company with another constable we were called into
a little house. The kind people there had taken in a woman off the
street. She was lying on the floor in a very drunken condition,
unconscious of everything around her. I knew this woman, she was about
twenty-seven years of age. I made her acquaintance when I used to be on
night duty. Every Saturday night or in the early hours of Sunday
morning I used to find her door open--her home was in a little side
street, that kind of people generally live in a side street. It was
about three o'clock on Sunday morning when I walked in and saw the man
lying on the floor and the wife who was also drunk, lying on a sofa.
The next time I was on night duty I found the same door open, and this
time the wife was lying on the floor and the man on the sofa, and both
were drunk.
"These kind people that I spoke of, consented to keep the woman there
while I went to see the husband. I got to the house but found that he
had removed to a little room in a little back street. There he was
lying on a bit of a shake-down. I roused him up and told him where he
would find his wife. He said, 'What time is it?' I said, 'Three o'clock
in the afternoon.' He had one shilling left and he took a cab and went
and brought his wife home.
"A few days afterwards I got them both to sign the pledge. The man was
about the same age as his wife. He told me he did not know the taste of
tea and coffee, he drank nothing but beer. He only had the clothes he
stood up in. Four months passed after he signed the pledge. I met him
one night and he had on a black suit of clothes and a watch and guard
in his pocket. I was delighted to see him. Some time after that I went
to address a very large temperance meeting. The hall was packed, and
when I went on to the platform who should be there but this young
fellow occupying the chair. What a sight it was to me! He pointed out
to me his wife in the audience. There she sat, all smiling and well
dressed. Time went on and I was the means not only of keeping them to
the pledge but of bringing them to Christ; the Christ of the Gospel;
the Christ that has bridged the gulf between God and the gutter;
between the saint and the sot; between the pew and the slum.
"Oh, what a pleasure it has been to see how that man works for Jesus. I
went to his house some time after that. It was not in the back streets,
although he worked there and got some people to sign the pledge. But he
came out into the front street, and there was a knocker on his door.
When I knocked, his wife admitted me into the sitting room. She told me
that Sunday morning that her husband was out visiting the sick. I know
that he brought many men to the Sunday morning Bible Class. He told me
this story. 'Do you know,' he said, 'When I used to spend all my money
in the public house, oftentimes on the holidays I would take the
landlord's luggage to the station for the price of a pint of beer. Not
long ago we had our holiday, and instead of taking the landlord's
luggage to the station I had a man to carry mine, and as we were going
up the street with this man walking in front of us we passed one of the
public houses where I had often spent my wages. The landlord was
standing at the door. When he saw me passing he said, 'What does this
mean?' I said, 'It means that I am going to Ireland instead of thee.'
That man is being used to-day in God's service. The blood of Jesus
Christ cannot only save but it can keep."
CHAPTER X
_Conversion Is a Miracle_
When one turns from sin to Christ and thus becomes a new creature, it
is entirely the work of God. He must feel a sense of his need and
appreciate the power of the Saviour, but it is the power of the Holy
Spirit of God that transforms him. The stories of men and women who
have been brought to Christ are always thrilling.
Every Christian ought to be a soul winner, and however many other
obligations may rest upon him, the obligation of introducing others to
Jesus Christ is of the first importance. If our lives are right; if we
are wholly submitted to Him; if we are quick to do His bidding; if we
have a familiarity with the Scriptures; if we have a confidence in the
willingness of God to save; then we are emboldened to seek the lost and
turn to those who are furthest away from Christ.
To know that others have been won to Him is always an inspiration.
Recently in one of our meetings in New York, the Salvation Army forces
came to assist us, and they brought with them some men and women whose
stories of conversion were truly remarkable. In quick succession they
appeared before an audience of several thousand.
The first speaker modestly began by saying: "What I am this afternoon,
I am by the grace of God. For years and years I had been nothing but an
every-day drunkard. Not far from where the Salvation Army held their
open air meetings was an old lamp post. One Sunday afternoon I heard
their music and their singing, and I made my way to this lamp post. If
it had not been there I believe I would never have been saved, for I
was so intoxicated I could not stand.
"After the meeting was over one of the sisters came to me and said, 'My
brother, wont you come along to the meeting? You need salvation.' 'Yes,'
I said, 'I need something better than what I have got.' At the same time
I did not go--I finished up the day in the saloon. I came out into the
open air again and the devil said, 'You cannot mix with these people
they are too far above you.' By and by there came a man who said he had
been every bit as bad as I was, and he told me how his life had been
changed. And my eyes were opened then and there, and I kept going to the
meetings and I got some decent clothes, and a home of my own--though I
had been working every day I had not a home to go to--but when I was
converted all became changed. And now I am perfectly happy. My life is
completely made over. I never think of drink and have no desire for it.
I have a happy home and a "little lump of glory" for a wife.
"When I first became a Christian the devil said to me, 'You cannot stay
there with those people, there is a whisky bill you have not yet paid.
Suppose you are out in one of those open air meetings and the saloon
keeper should see you and say, 'Why, he owes me six dollars,' what
could you say then?' I went to that saloon keeper and said to him, 'How
much do I owe you?' And he said, 'Six dollars.' 'Well,' I said, 'I want
to pay it.' I did pay it then and there, and glory to God He has kept
me from then to this day."
The next testimony was that of a former anarchist. Before he was
converted he did not have a shirt to his back. He is now a business man
in New York City, and prosperous.
"It was about eighteen years ago that I was with a group of men in a
back street attending a meeting of anarchists, when the police came
along and broke up the meeting. I made off as fast as I could, but I
did not get away fast enough, for the police officer caught me by the
arm and took me away to prison. While I was there the Salvation Army
came to preach to us. Thank God for that night! It was the first time I
had heard salvation preached, for I come from the stock of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. When I got out of goal I went to the Salvation Army.
There stood on the platform that night two girls. They told me about
Jesus. They spoke of salvation for the drunkard, but that did not
appeal to me; they spoke of salvation for the unbeliever, but that did
not appeal to me; and when they spoke of salvation for the thief,
neither did that appeal to me. Then one night they said salvation is
for the Jew. I said to myself, 'That means me.' I came forward that
night and got rid of my wretchedness and my misery; I came for
salvation, and the Jew got salvation.'
"I moved away from the Bowery, for that was where I spent most of my
time. I have walked down the Bowery many a night with not a place to
lie down in, with not fifteen cents to pay for a bed, and not a shirt
to my back. Thank God, I moved away from the Bowery. I started in
business myself. To-day I have a splendid business connected with
twenty houses on Broadway. Hallelujah! Godlessness, sin, vice, takes a
man off Broadway and puts him on the Bowery; salvation takes a man from
the Bowery and puts him on Broadway."
In the year 1880, the second convert in the Salvation Army in the
United States was made, and after years of testing he came before us to
speak as follows: "I started to drink when about thirteen years of age,
and I kept drinking till the Salvation Army came to New York in 1880. I
read in the papers about seven sisters coming over to open up the
forces in the United States. There used to be an old lady who came to
our house to see my mother. She was a Methodist, and my mother was also
a Methodist. She used to come there like an old grandmother and darn
stockings. One day she said she would like to go to the Salvation Army,
and asked me to take her. I was leading such a dissipated and drunken
life, that I had no money to pay the car fare, but she slipped ten
cents into my hand and we went to the Salvation Army that night. She
was very deaf and got me away up to the front. The Spirit of God took
hold of me, and the Salvation Army people, in the way they have, got
after me. One of the officers came up and said, 'Are you saved?' I
said, 'No, I could not be saved.' I managed to get out of the meeting
that night without giving my heart to God. But all the time there was
something taking hold of me. I tried to drown it in drink. On Sunday
night with the old lady I was back at the Army again. On Monday night I
was drunk again. On Tuesday night I knelt down and gave my heart to
Jesus, and a Salvationist said, 'Now brother, if you want the Lord to
do anything, you just tell Him.'
"Before that time I had served two terms in the penitentiary. Sometimes
twice a week I would be brought into the Police Court for drunkenness.
Every time I went out and got drunk I would get arrested. I tried to
get away from this life and went out West. I thought if I got out there
and got into new surroundings things would be different. I got as far
as Hornsville, New York, and got arrested there. I got a little further
West and was arrested again. But I never got rid of the kind of life I
used to live until I came to the Lord Jesus Christ. That was thirty
years ago. The Lord is not only able to save a man but, thank God, He
is able to keep him."
This is the story of an English baronet. He went wrong in England, came
to America as a cow boy, was wild and reckless, but was soundly
converted. He said: "I will not say much about myself. Perhaps you
already know something about me. You may have seen my picture in the
papers, telling of my past life, but I want to try to tell you, to the
glory of God, how I was born again.
"When I succeeded my father to one of the oldest titles in England, in
the year 1907, I was wild and reckless. I came over to America. To
escape from a wild scrape I beat the sheriff in Colorado into Utah.
Then I went home to England in 1908 and took over the title of the
estate, and I made the occasion simply one drunken spree. I was out for
all the devilment I could get into. I hated the Church. I hated
religion. I hated anything good. When I went down to the old church
which is in the grounds of the estate, they said to me, 'What will you
do about the minister?' I said, 'I would kick the fool out, but the law
would make me put in another.' If anybody mentioned the Salvation Army
to me, I would refer to them as thieves and liars.
"I came back to America and immediately got involved in some more
sprees, such as driving horses into saloons, and other devilment. Then
I crossed again to London and started a wild-west show of my own in the
London Hippodrome. I came back to America deeper in sin than ever. One
day I was sitting in a saloon planning a fresh escapade when a
Salvation Army sister came in with her tambourine and some 'War Cries.'
She looked at me and said, 'Are you a Christian?' I said, 'No.' She
gave me the address of the Headquarters and asked me to come up. The
bar-tender turned round and said, 'Go up and rope somebody.' I said, 'I
will go up.' There was something different about me. I did not know
what was wrong with myself I went up to the open-air meeting and was as
quiet as a mouse. For five or six days I could not keep away from the
Headquarters. I did not know what was wrong. I went out to see some
moving pictures to see if I could see myself amongst them; then I went
and had another drink; but back to the Salvation Army Headquarters I
had to go. I was getting almost crazy. I reached the point when I had
either to give in or kill myself.
"I locked the door of my room and then got down on my knees and asked
God to forgive me. Do you know, it seemed as if hell was turned loose
around me. Everything said, 'You have gone too far; you are too big a
sinner,' I said, 'But Jesus died for me.' I prayed and prayed, and I
heard that voice come and say, 'Go and sin no more,' It was just as if
a finger had touched my soul. My prayer turned from one of supplication
to one of thankfulness for what God had done for me. I was born again.
I rose up with the old life gone, and my two greatest blessings are
that all that old life is blotted out for ever, and that I have the
knowledge that the Spirit of Jesus my Saviour is in me, and I dwell in
Him. The union between us is perfect. I thank God for that."
The following story was told by a man who had been a successful lawyer.
He had gone down into the depths of sin and by the power of God's grace
had been redeemed. He began by saying:--
Must Jesus bear the Cross alone,
And all the world go free?
No, there's a cross for you to bear,
And there's a cross for me.
"It is a cross for me to come here and relate my experience, but I am
glad to be here inasmuch as something I say may gladden someone who is
discouraged. I was brought up in a Christian home. My mother was a good
woman and my father was a clergyman. I went through college and the
lower school before I took a single drop of strong drink. But when I
took my first drink--I remember it well--it seemed to be something I
had been looking for all my life and had never found before. From that
time on I drank periodically. I had a lovely family and an honoured
name, but I dragged it and my family into the dust. I struggled through
my own strength to redeem myself, but I could not, nor can any man. I
took cures, but they availed me not. I was in the hospital fourteen
times, struggling up all the time, but falling down again. I seemed too
hopeless. The light seemed to be fading for ever from the horizon, and
darkness was coming over me. I was without hope. I would rather have
fallen asleep in death, away from my companions, away from my loved
ones, and never have been seen again, than to have lived the way I was.
But through the providence of God, and through a kind wife and sister,
I am able to stand here to-day. God bless the wives of the drunkards
and drinking men, for if any will have a crown in heaven, it will be
the wife of the drunkard who stands by him through thick and thin and
who never gives him up.
"I went away to a certain town and while there I noticed the title of a
book called 'Twice Born Men.' It aroused my curiosity, and I picked it
up and commenced to read it. I came to the story of the puncher, a man
who was formerly a prize fighter, and who had descended to the lowest
scale of humanity. He had become a drunkard of the worst type and had
gone one night into a saloon with murder in his heart. He was going
home to kill his wife, when there flashed in upon him some strange
influence, some mighty influence, some compelling influence--the power
of the Almighty--and drove him into the Salvation Army barracks, and
there he knelt at the Penitent form and God took the load from his
back. When he rose up there was a new light in his eyes, a new heart in
his breast, and he arose a new born man. He began to work for Christ.
"As I read that story I said, 'If there is hope for the puncher, there
is hope for me.' I had been brought up a Christian, and during my
drinking days I had attended church, and I had fought as every poor
drunkard fights to redeem himself. But through my own strength I
failed, and I want to say to you here, there is no man who suffers
pangs of bitter conscience or from a broken heart more than a poor
drunkard who cannot tear the chains from himself. Have pity on him. And
I read about this man going out to save those who were lost, and then I
read on further about Danny, a drunkard, who while in prison was
visited by the puncher, who sought him out, and said, 'There is a
better life for you.' He took him to his home, and it was a new and
happy home he took him to, with a happy wife and children, and he
laboured with them. Danny the thief; Danny the drunkard; Danny the
murderer. When the day had passed Danny went back to prison. But the
power of God came over Danny in prison, and he said to himself, 'If God
can save the puncher, God can save me.' And then there came into his
heart a light; and I said, 'If God can save the puncher; if God can
save Danny--He can save me.' And He did save me, and He has kept me,
and from that day to this I have never desired a drop of alcohol.
"I have gone through physical sufferings that are attendant upon it,
but thanks be unto God through the Lord Jesus Christ, He gave me the
victory, and I stand here to-day an example of the keeping power of
God. Oh, my friends, what a new life it opened up for me. I thought I
was a Christian once; but until I was thrown down, until I was
crucified twice over, not until then could I be convinced that God
could save me from this terrible curse. And I want to say that no
Christian man ever came to me and told me that God could save me from
wrong. Oh, what a duty rests upon Christians to speak to the drinking
men! When God took me by the hand I had a new life and I wanted to go
out and save drunkards, and I have been trying to save them since. I
went to the Salvation Army Barracks in Jersey City, and if it was not
for the Salvation Army, I do not know whether I could have held out or
not, but when I felt distressed those brothers prayed and stood round
me, and if there is anyone here who is discouraged, and who is away
from God, and who goes round the corner to see his little children
going to school because he cannot go home, if there is anyone who has
left a broken-hearted mother or wife at home; get up and go home to
them and give your heart to the Lord."
The last story told at the meeting has to do with the complete
transformation of a woman's life. It is a modern miracle. The one who
tells the story is growing old and feeble, but all are thrilled as they
listen to her.
This woman was educated in a young ladies' seminary, and had a fairly
good start in life among some of the leading people in Western New
York. She married a man who became an habitual drunkard. She was sorely
disappointed in him, and, little by little, she started to drink, till
there came the time when she and her husband were possibly two of the
worst drunkards the State had ever known. She had been in prison two
hundred or more times. But now, up in the little town of Canandaigua
where she lives, she is treasurer of the Salvation Army, and has been
for fifteen years. She is respected by all who know her. Not only the
people in the army, but the well-to-do people of the town all love and
respect Mary Law.
Her husband was not converted until recently. She had been praying
fifteen years for him, and one night she prayed specially for him, the
last half hour of the meeting passed, the last twenty minutes, and then
Charlie came.
"I thank God for what He did for me," she said. "Before the Salvation
Army got hold of me, I was one of the worst drunkards in the state of
New York. The first night they came I wanted to know what the Salvation
Army was like. Just like any other old drunken sot, I wanted to know
what the Salvation Army was going to be. So I walked out as far as the
Police Station, and I said, 'Where is the Salvation Army going to be
to-night?' 'Well,' said the police officer, 'it is going to be up at
the Presbyterian Church, but I want to tell you one thing. If you go up
there you will get run in,' I thought to myself for a moment, if I stay
out I will get run in, so I might just as well go up there and get run
in. I went up, and I suppose I was a terrible-looking object. I got
into a corner near the door, so that if anything turned up I could get
out. I had just one quarter in my purse when they came to take up the
collection, and I put that quarter in. I believe if I had been outside
I would have been run in. When I got outside I wanted that quarter for
a bottle of whisky. I then went up to the Police Station. When the
Police Justice saw me coming in he said, 'Where have you been
to-night?' I said, 'Up to the Salvation Army meeting.' 'Well,' he said,
'let me give you a little bit of advice. Keep right on going.'
"The first night they had their meeting in the hall I went to the
penitent form, and the next night I got saved. That was over fifteen
years ago. I have neither tasted nor handled one drop of intoxicating
liquor from that day to this. I did not have a home fit for a dog to
live in. I hardly ever knew what it was to be without a black eye. I
have been pounded until I did not know where I was; until I was dazed.
And when I came to, and saw where I was, I was lying on the floor and
Charlie was lying on the bed with his dirty old clothes on, and if
anybody has gone through hell, it is I. But I thank God to-day I have
got just as good a husband as there is in the state of New York. I have
just as comfortable a home as anybody could wish, and every dollar of
it is paid for. Before that the saloons got the money, but I thank God
to-day the saloons don't get any of my money.
"Charlie would get arrested, and when I saw him locked up, I would do
something that would get me locked up too. We went in together and we
came out together, We would not be out for long when back we would go
again. If one went to the lock-up, the other went, and that is the way
we carried on through life.
"An election campaign was being held many years ago, and Charlie went
up the street to vote. He came home drunk. I suppose it was election
whisky, but he brought some home, and we had a drink together. We went
to bed on Tuesday night, and woke up intending to go to work the next
day. I asked one of the neighbours what time it was, and she said it is
almost night now, but where have you been for the last two or three
days? We had gone to sleep on Tuesday night and did not wake up till
Thursday night. I went back, and we took another drink that night, and
did not wake up till Saturday night. If my life, sixteen years ago, was
not hell upon earth, I do not know what you call hell.
"Just about the time when I first started out to serve God in
Canandaigua, I was an outcast. Nobody cared for me. Nobody would notice
me. When they saw me they would go out of their way to avoid me. Nobody
wanted to come near me. But when I was drunk I thought I was about as
good as they were, and sometimes I gave them a little of my mind, and
that was the way I often got arrested. But to-day those very folks, who
were my very worst enemies, who tried to hurt me and who did everything
they could to injure me, are my very best friends. I have friends among
the rich, and friends among the poor. They do not shun my home, they
come and see me, and if I am sick some of the wealthy people come to
see how I am getting along, and if I have everything I want. For all
this I have to thank God and the Salvation Army.
"I have been kicked and knocked and pounded until I have been almost
dead. Charlie did the kicking and the pounding, but I was as much to
blame as he was. I was drunk and so was he, but I was never the one to
go to the police officer and get a warrant out for my husband. If he
pounded me until I could hardly breathe, and he happened to get
arrested for it, I managed to get arrested too. I cannot tell you how
many times we have been in jail in the little village of Elgin, and in
the penitentiary too. But I would rather go back to the penitentiary
to-day and spend my days there than to live again the life that I lived
before I was converted. I thank God and the Salvation Army to-night
that I do not have to carry black eyes, and that I can go home in
peace.
"I have a nice comfortable home, and it is all paid for, and if it had
not been for the Salvation Army coming to Canandaigua, I would have
been in a drunkard's hell to-day. When the Army first came there, I was
like a great many others. I wanted to see what the Salvation Army was
like, and out of curiosity I went to a meeting. But I was too drunk to
understand anything about it. The next night I went there quite sober,
and I gave my heart to the Lord. That was seventeen years ago, and I
thank God that since then I have tried to do my utmost to serve Him to
the best of my ability. And it is my determination, as long as He gives
me breath, to do for Him all I can, to spread His Kingdom on earth."
CHAPTER XI
_A Final Word_
As has been suggested, it is necessary, if one is to be a successful
personal worker, to know well the Scriptures. The incorruptible seed,
which is the Word of God, when it is received into the human heart as
good and honest ground, will, without question, produce a satisfactory
harvest. If you should attempt to win one to Christ, who insists that
he is out of the Kingdom because of his doubts, tell him to come with
his doubts, and Christ will set him free. "My doubts are round about me
like a chain," said one in the audience, with whom one of our personal
workers was labouring, and the worker said quickly, "Come, chains and
all." The doubter hesitated a second, then said, "I will," and as he
rose to move forward, he testified that the chains were snapped, and he
was free.
If the one you are seeking to introduce to Christ says that he is such
a great sinner, and because of this he cannot come, then tell him to
come with his sins. He wants him just as he is, and stands ready to set
him free from the sins that have enslaved him and blinded his eyes so
that he could not see Christ as he stood waiting to save him.
It is a good thing to start by giving the assurance to the unsaved that
God is Love, and that His love is boundless. This may be easily proved
by the Scriptures. Tell him also that Christ is not only able, but
ready and willing to save. There are abundant evidences of this in the
New Testament. Tell him that no one is too sinful; none too far from
God; none too depraved by sin to be saved. There are evidences on every
side of us of many such seeking and finding pardon.
It is well to start with such a declaration as is found in John i. 12,
"But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name." Insist upon it that
Christ has laid down the conditions, and that if we are to be saved, we
must honestly and sincerely, with all our doubts and sins, receive Him
as a personal Saviour.
Make it very plain to the one with whom you are dealing that when one
comes into the Kingdom he is born into it. There is no other way than
this, for Jesus said, John iii. 3, "Except a man be born again he cannot
see the Kingdom of God." If the joy of regeneration is to be experienced,
it is necessary that the acceptance of Jesus as a Saviour should be
definite, and that there should be sufficient confidence in God's Word
to lead us to believe that when we have fulfilled our part
of the contract the Saviour will keep His.
If we are born into the Kingdom then we start as babes in Christ. We
are expected to grow. If we are to grow, we must have proper food; this
is found in the Word of God. We must be faithful in prayer. We must
have proper light and air; this is found by walking in fellowship with
Christ, and learning His will as we study the Scripture, we seek with
joy to do it. We may stumble as little children do, but He will help
us, and if at times we seem to fail, He will hold us fast.
As little babes in Christ it will not be strange that at times we grow
discouraged and faint-hearted, but if we press on to know the Lord we
shall find our strength increasing and our temptations decreasing until
at last we may enter into a continuous and joyous Christian experience.
Tell the one with whom you are dealing that the assurance of salvation
is possible. Jesus said, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him
that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life" (John v. 24). And the Apostle John
wrote, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that
ye may believe on the name of the Son of God" (1 John v. 13).
State very plainly the fact that we are saved by faith and not by
feeling, and being thus saved we are kept by Divine Power.
When we have passed through the darkness of doubt into the light of our
conscious acceptance of Christ, and when on the authority of God's Word
we have the assurance of salvation, then let it ever be remembered that
we must seek to bring others to Him. And as we labour day by day our own
faith will grow stronger, our hope will be brighter, and our consciousness
of the presence of Christ will be more marked. Day by day we may walk
with Him and talk with Him until at last we shall see Him as He is and
then we may hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant ... enter
thou into the joy of thy Lord."
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