Proverbs 11

Proverbs 11:30

SIX IN SOUL-WINNING (This sermon is found in the authors vol. “Revival Sermons,” and is here republished with the consent of Revell Pub. Co.) “The New Evangelism” is a much-needed emphasis of the power of the personal touch. It is clear, however, that one of the most efficient ways of impressing any duty is to lend assistance to its sane discharge. Such is the purpose of this chapter. Henry W. Longfellow, when yet in his youth, writing his father regarding the choice of a profession, remarked, “I am not sure as yet for what my talents fit me, but I am determined to be eminent in something.” To what extent that determination affected Longfellow’s success in life, who can tell? Perhaps none will deny that such an ambition was wholesome for the boy, and both stimulated and directed his energies. Worldly people may have ambitions’ in many directions; the true Christian’s ambition should find expression in a single course, “He that winneth souls is wise”.The grand old Dr. Sharp, of Charles Street Church, Boston, once said, “I would rather have one young man come to my grave and affirm, ‘The man who sleeps there arrested me in the course of sin and led me to Christ,’ than to have the most magnificent obelisk that ever marked the place of mortal remains.” It was an ambition worthy a Christian! Many consecrated Christians enjoy it, and ask often, “How can we succeed in soul-winning?”The answers to this question would not necessarily be the same.

No man has given an answer to this question that was full and final. Our largest hope looks only to helpful suggestions. But if experience, observation, and Scripture can league themselves in teaching certain lessons, we believe that those to be mentioned in this chapter are established as worthy of the name of fundamentals.GET GOD’S OF THE SOUL’S WORTH The Scripture voices it, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul”? The perishable world is not, in the mind of God, comparable in value to the immortal soul. Christ would never have died to redeem the silver and gold, the cattle upon a thousand hills, the precious stones of land and sea. But no evangelical doubts that Christ would have been willing to die to redeem a single man; such is God’s estimate of a soul.J. Wilbur Chapman related how some Abyssinians took a British subject by the name of Campbell, prisoner. They carried him to the fortress of Magdala and consigned him to a dungeon without showing cause for the deed.

It took six months for Great Britain to discover this. Then she demanded an instantaneous release, but King Theodore haughtily refused. In less than ten days, ten thousand British soldiers were on shipboard, sailing down the coast to a point where they disembarked. They then marched miles under a burning sun up the mountain heights and unto the very dungeon where the prisoner was hid. There they gave battle. The gates were torn down, the prisoner was lifted upon their shoulders and borne down the mountainside, and thence to the ship.

It cost the British Government twenty-five millions of dollars to release that man. Such was the value they put upon the life and liberty of one English subject!But God puts a greater price upon the life and liberty of a single soul. That is why He summoned all Heaven to its redemption, and appointed His Son chief Captain and Leader to effect its liberty. When we get God’s conception of the soul’s worth no sacrifice will seem too great to make in the effort to save it; when we get God’s conception of a soul’s worth, no obstacle will seem insurmountable; when we get God’s conception of a soul’s worth we will sacrifice, as did Christ, to reclaim it from sin, believing with Solomon, “He that winneth souls is wise”.LET US TO SOUL-WINNING Every one knows the meaning of consecration— “Set apart as sacred; dedicated to sacredness, and hence separated from common use.”Lyman Abbott illustrates by the two cups made at the command of the king by a jeweller. They came of a common piece of silver, and were of exact size and weight. One was put into the hand of the cupbearer to do service to man; and one was sent to the temple to do service to God. The latter was consecrated.Consecration is one of the secrets of successful soul-winning. Dr. A. C. Dixon once remarked, “As one walks down the corridor of the Astor House, New York, on his way to the restaurant, he sees a man standing at the door who never looks at your face.

His business is to black shoes. He is consecrated to it.”Consecration is more needed in soul-winning than intelligence or extensive education. The world’s greatest religious lights, and its most highly educated men are not always its most effective Christians. We have splendid genius in the Church. We have more than our share of intellectuality. We think that statistics will prove without question that, as a class, Christian men are the world’s best educated.

But all of these things, if their possessors be without consecration, count for naught in soul-winning. We have known a boy, of medium ability, at work with his schoolmates, to win more souls between the day of his conversion at seven years of age and the time we parted company from him at twelve, than the average president of a Christian college has to his credit.

Henry Ward Beecher, the Shakespeare of the American pulpit, was led to Christ by a man as black as midnight, whose genius consisted of one thing, and one thing only—he knew God and sought the salvation of his fellows.Many have read “The Last Pages of an Officer’s Diary”, and recall how that army officer who had but thirty days to live, set about finding some one to show him the way of salvation. In four or five pulpits, representing as many denominations, he heard men who were eloquent enough, but who gave his soul no assistance in its search after life. When all but a few days of the thirty had passed and he was growing desperate in his darkness, he rose after a restless night, dressed himself, and started for the street, and stumbled over the old sexton who, in the early morning, sat upon the door-step, in Bible study. Seeing that the sexton’s Bible was marked and thumb worn, he clutched for it, but the old man held it with a covetousness such as some men show only for silver and gold. When, however, he learned the purpose of the officer, he invited him to a seat at his side, and in ten minutes had shown him the way of salvation and brought him to the point where he could say with Paul, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”.Better be a sexton of any church at a small salary, knowing how to point men to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, than the most eloquent preacher that ever graced any pulpit without that same knowledge. TO THE SPIRIT’S COUNSEL “Yield ye yourselves unto him”. He leads the yielded one, and His leadership insures success. It may take one by strange ways, and other men may question one’s sanity at times; but, after all, the Spirit-led man is the only sane man. It was a strange thing for Philip to leave the work in Samaria and go toward the south into a desert way. But it was Spirit-directed, and hence sane. No man plays the fool who follows the leadings of the Holy Spirit, even though that take him against what he would commonly regard his better judgment.Dr. Wayland Hoyt related an experience in illustration of this point. When he was pastor in Brooklyn, he was engaged in special meetings, and among those who evinced some interest was a gentleman ‘for whom he had often prayed.

He noticed his attendance one week night, and thought he ought to speak to him about his soul, but through fear refrained. Another night when he had returned to his home late, finding himself too nervous to sleep, he was reading in his study. As he read, something seemed to whisper in his ear, “Go and see that man to-night.” But the preacher mentally replied, “It is after twelve o’clock and he is asleep and everyone in bed,” and he read on. But the impression remained and grew. He argued, “It is snowing, and I am tired!” and finally, “I have been working hard all day, and I don’t want to go!” But all excuses to the contrary, the Spirit persisted and at last he yielded and went.As he touched the man’s doorbell, he thought, “What a fool I am to be ringing a man’s bell at one o’clock in the morning. He will think I am insane.” But instantly the door opened, and the man stood there fully clothed and said, “Come in; and God bless you.

You are the man I have been waiting for all night. Wife and children and the servants are all asleep, but I could not sleep!

I felt that I must find Jesus to-night.” And the great preacher testified, “It was no trouble to show that man the way, for the Spirit who had guided me had also gone before me.”Is it not a mistake to suppose that only sample saints can enjoy the guidance of the Spirit of God; that only a few of the world’s great souls have been selected as the subjects of His special favor? Many of us are fathers, and know the joy of giving good gifts to our children. Let us never forget that God has more pleasure in giving the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Let us not go after men until He sends us. Let us never refuse when He says, “Go;” for His guidance means good success!EMPLOY THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT It is the divinely appointed instrument of salvation. The man who uses it works under the promise.“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to. the sower, and bread to the eater; “So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11). It might be well for us to remember that the promise is to the preached Word rather than to the person preaching. Paul declared, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth”.“The power of God unto salvation”! Truly it is at once a divinely appointed and potent instrument. “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. Let us use it! In preaching the Word, claim the promise, “It shall not return unto Me void”.A friend who was somewhat in sympathy with higher criticism once asked this question of the writer, “You know E_____ , his manner of life, his mental capacity, and you also know Pastor M_____, one of the most beautiful characters in this country, possessed also of one of the most brilliant intellects. To my knowledge when Pastor M_____ was yet a young man, he prayed God to make him a winner of souls, and on Saturday he would go into his pulpit with his face in the dust, and beg that next day he might see men turn to God in great numbers.

But nothing came of it. He never was a soul-winner; he is not a soul-winner now.But E_____ both in his work in his own church while he was yet a pastor, and afterward in various cities about the country as an evangelist, saw thousands of people profess a faith in Christ as the result of his preaching.

Now, he is not a man of any such mental ability, nor of any such high moral character as my friend, Dr. M_____ the pastor mentioned. How explain why God made one a winner of souls, and refused that privilege to the other?”The answer was instant, and, as we believe, correct. “We admit all you say concerning these men, but there is one thing you forget. The pastor you mention is also my friend, and I ardently admire him for his moral character and his great brain; but never have I heard him so much as make mention of the Blood of Jesus Christ. The heart of the Gospel has been left out of his preaching, and his sermons have been brilliant philosophical discussions, destitute often of even a quotation from the Word after he had parted company with his text. Our friend E_____ makes much of the Blood, and adds Scripture to Scripture in his discussion.

Let us remember that God’s promise is to the preaching of the Word and not to eloquent utterance!”Whenever a man reaches the point where he feels it is as profitable to take a text from Shakespeare as from Paul, he must expect a fruitless ministry. Whenever a personal worker has nothing better than human arguments, or even an exceptional experience to rehearse before a man under conviction, he need not look to see the man come to Christ.

It is the Word of God that wins from sin to the Saviour, and, without it, success in soul winning is unknown. By way of illustration, a personal experience: It was on a Christmas evening at the Union Mission in Minneapolis. Many of the men present in that downtown mission were drunk; some of them so boisterous that they had to be ejected to save the service from confusion. When the sermon was finished an opportunity was given for prayer. About a dozen men came forward, among them one who looked far worse than any of his unfortunate fellows. Drink had clothed him in rags, bloated his face, and dulled his mind.Once at his side, we called his attention to the promise in John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out”.

We emphasized it by reading it three or four times. Then we urged him to read it, which he did.

We requested a second reading, a third, a fourth, a fifth, until evidently the meaning of the promise was clearly apprehended. Then, after prayer, we parted company. Eight days went by, and in a Sunday afternoon meeting, for men only, where several came out for Christ, this man of the mission meeting was among them. He was sober, clean, clear-eyed; so marvelously improved in appearance that we failed to recognize him at first. When he had made himself known, we involuntarily remarked, “Mr. Carroll, you look like another man,” to which he replied, “By the grace of God, I am another man. I trusted that promise of Joh 6:37, and He has kept it. I have been sober ever since that night, with no desire even to use tobacco.

I have been able daily to make an honest living, and now I have a new lease on life, or rather, a lease on a new life!” Up to the day when he sickened and died, he was a most faithful Christian.Employ the sword, of the Spirit! Mr. Spurgeon’s maxim had occasion. It was often addressed to his students, “Have your own Bible, and turn to the passages showing the way of salvation. The most successful soul-winner I know takes men captive by the sword of the Spirit.”Is not that what Paul meant when he wrote to Timothy, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth”?IN THIS, THE WORK, BE DIRECT Here Christ is our example. No indirectness with Him! To the fisherman He said, “Follow Me”; to the publican, “Come after Me”; to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again”; to the woman at Sychar, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee Living Water”.There are teachers who advise that we adroitly introduce our Jesus; that we engage with men upon all the subjects in which they are interested and watch for an opportunity to work around to the great theme of the soul and its salvation. Seminary professors, whose memories we revere, great and good men of God, taught us after this manner! But there is no warrant in the Word.Christ’s example was also the apostolic method. Let us read the first chapter of John and see how the early disciples won their associates; or the second chapter of Acts, or the fourth, or the eighth, or the ministry of Paul as recorded in that same Book.

Whatever else these Apostles did, directness in appeal to men characterized every one of them who became a soul-winner. Andrew “findeth his own brother Simon, md saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.

And he brought him to Jesus”. There is our sample for personal work. There is no indirectness suggested by that process, nor by any other Scripture. We believe the indisposition to speak to men frankly and at once about their souls is suggested by the Adversary.Dr. Wharton once addressed the students of the Southern Baptist Seminary. In the course of his remarks from the text, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in”, he said, “During the war I attended Roanoke College at Salem, Virginia.

For several days it was reported that General Averill, in command of a heavy force, was on a raid through Virginia and aiming at Salem to tap the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad at that point, and thus cut off the supplies coming to Lynchburg. One morning the cry was heard, ‘The Yankees are coming!’ Looking up the street, we saw them riding pell-mell into town, horses’ hoofs clattering, sabers rattling, men shouting, women and children flying to their homes, and fear and confusion falling upon all.

A goodly number of us young fellows took to our heels for the woods about half a mile away. When nearly across the field, I heard several shrill, hissing sounds in my vicinity, followed by sharp reports of firearms. Looking back, I saw there was a man after me on horseback, and he seemed to be shooting at every jump. I reached the fence and fell over it, and lay as flat on the ground as a lizard on a log. Presently I heard him say, ‘Come out of there, sir!’ I looked up, and he had a great big sharpshooter levelled at me, and the hammer of it was saying, ‘Be quick, or you are gone.’“ ‘Come out,’ the fellow said. The end of that pistol was as big as a stovepipe. There was only one thing to do. ‘Yes, sir,’ I said, ‘I am going to. Don’t shoot!’ and out I came.

Now I call that personal work. He was after me and he got me!” Why cannot we, as Christian soldiers, be as courageous and as direct in our methods that we may capture men for Him?How much we lose by indirectness, who can measure? A pastor in New York City walked home with a druggist, watching for an opportunity to speak to him about his soul, but did not find it. Once at the door, the druggist urged the pastor to come in. He accepted, spent an hour in conversation, but saw no chance to speak of Christ. After he had put on his overcoat and was ready to leave, the druggist laid a hand on his shoulder and said, “Can’t you stay a little longer and pray with us?

I have been greatly interested for my soul, and shall never be satisfied until I am a saved man.”There are those who have been in rebellion against Christ, who have grown tired of it and long for surrender, and, like the Confederates at Richmond, will be exceedingly glad when the day comes that they are conquered and peace has been declared between them and Him whose right it is to reign.Let Philip teach us, “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?

Philip saith unto him, Come and see”. Directness in soul-winning is after the Divine example and is under the Divine benediction.WITH SUCCESS BE The man who is satisfied in soul-winning is stultified in spiritual interest. We remember how it is related of the great Danish sculptor, Thorwaldsen, that, having finished, to his own satisfaction, a piece of work, he sat in gloom with a sob in his soul and declared that, having once realized his ideal, he feared that henceforth he should accomplish nothing. The man that is satisfied in soul-winning has better occasion for such fear. Paul had seen scores turn to God in consequence of his preaching before he ever penned the words, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh”.One may rejoice in the success given, but to be satisfied with it would be to grow indifferent to the dying about us. At college we had a roommate who seemed sad and dispirited.

One day we turned upon him and asked, “Why are you not more happy? Your father provides you all the money you need.

You have enjoyed good school advantages all your life. In person you are attractive, and you are popular, and yet there is a gloom over your spirit.” He answered by reciting an experience, the particulars of which were well known to me. It involved the rescue of three persons from drowning. But while he was about the work, three others went down to be seen no more until the grappling hooks reclaimed the dead. And, concluding the story, he remarked, “Never since that day have I been entirely happy, because the cries of those drowning ones are still in my ears.”Ah, beloved, is not one difficulty with the present-day evangelism the fact that our ears are dead? The cries of the drowning are not in them.

The men about us are going down, and we know it, but we are not deeply disturbed over it. If we were, our very distress would convert us into soul-winners every one.

We have not forgotten Moody’s report of his first impulse in soul-winning. A young man, teaching a class of girls in Moody’s Sunday School in Chicago, sickened with consumption and was about to die. He seemed in such distress that Moody sought to comfort him by saying that he had done better with that class of girls than any one else. Under the hands of others they had seemed incorrigible. But he was so weighed down with sorrow because he had failed to bring even one of them to Christ that Moody hired a carriage and drove the young man to the distant homes of every one of those girls.According to Moody’s report, he entered each home, and said, “I have just come to ask you to come to the Saviour.” And then he prayed as Moody had never heard a man pray. For ten days he labored, and at the end of the ten days every one of that large class had yielded to Christ.

When the train was moving to take him to the South, they stood in the Michigan Southern depot, tearful at parting from this noble teacher, yet joyful in their newly-found hope. And as he left for that Southland, to die there, as it afterward proved, he went, having illustrated what ten days’ work for God can do when one converts his dissatisfaction into soul-winning; yes, into inspiration in service I