An Easy Work
Strange as it may seem, it is the universal testimony of those who have given special attention to viork in the interests of men, that the easiest person in all the world to reach with the Gospel is not a a woman, nor a boy, nor a girl, but a man, a full grown man; one even that is steeped in sin. I am quite well aware that very many will take exception to this statement, but I make it not only as expressing the views of others, but as my own clear and honest conviction. But if we would have our efforts crowned with success, it is essential that we should keep in mind several great principles, the first of which is that in order to lead a man to Christ, you must first of all make him think. Men are so held by the power of the world, their attention is so occupied with the battle of life, and sometimes, alas, their eyes are so blinded and their minds so deceived by the fascination of sin, that a sharp message is often needed to provoke attention, but when once the interest is aroused and the Gospel presented, it is comparatively easy to lead the impressed one to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Not long ago, in the meetings in Chicago, a young man with a very white face came up to me saying, “What do you mean, sir, by telling my story?” And I said to him, “I do not understand you.” “Well,”
he said, “I came into the meeting a little late, and you were using an illustration concerning a young man who had defaulted, and was trying in every way to escape arrest, and elude the officers. What you said was exactly my story and I was confident that some one had discovered me and given you the account of my wrong doing.” “My dear sir,” I said, “I have never seen you before, I did not even know that you were in existence,” but his intense conviction was an illustration of what I have already been saying. When the truth is presented with emphasis and plainness, it always grips, for while I had been giving the account of this particular sin of which the young man was guilty, without having him in mind, I had closed by saying, “He that covereth his sin shall not prosper,” and “Be sure your sin will find you out.” I also said: “You cannot hide away from God, and it is well nigh impossible in these days for you to hide away from men.” When a few days had passed, I received from him the following brief note: “Dear sir, I have resolved to take your advice and I am now going back to Cleveland to make a clean breast of everything. Good-bye .and God bless you.” One of my friends was preaching in a southern city when the sherifif of the county was almost persuaded to be a Christian. The meetings closed and he had not reached a decision. A year afterward my friend went into that city again and found the old sheriff” was dying and unsaved. He stood by his bedside holding his hand saying, “Mr. Sheriflf, they tell me you are going to die,” and before he could say more, the old man drew away his hand.
His face flushed and his eyes fairly flashed as he said, “Yes, sir, I am going to die, and I want you to know that I am not afraid to die. I have stood face to face with death too many times to flinch now.” They say he had been one of the bravest soldiers in the Confederate army. My friend then said to him, “I am sure you are speaking the truth, and that you are not afraid to meet the great enemy we call death, but I have one question to put to you. How about the Judgment, your meeting with God and your standing face to face with your sins?” The old man was startled for a moment, then covering his eyes with his hands, his thin lips were seen to tremble, and the tears started to roll down his cheeks, as he said, “God pity me, sir, I am not ready for the judgment.” The one thing that moved him was the sharp question of the minister, and what is true in conversation will be equally true in preaching.
It is likewise necessary for us to remember that Christ is the only Savior of men, and that if men have rejected Christ, then according to the scriptures they are lost. This is not an easy thing to say, but it must be said if we accept the Bible as the word of God. Clearly must it be shown that the chiefest of all sins is the rejection of the Son of God. When Jesus spoke concerning the coming of the Holy Ghost, he said, “When He is come. He will reprove the world of sin,” and the word “reprove” is a judicial expression, which means to set before or make plain, as a lawyer sets before the jury the evidence against the one who is accused ;but in this instance, Jesus clearly states, that the sin of which the Spirit of God will reprove men, is that they have not believed on the Son of God. When the day of judgment comes, therefore, the question that will be asked is not, were you drunken or profane, dishonest or impure, but, what did you do with Jesus Christ? Upon the answer to that question depends our standing or falling in the presence of the judge on the Great White Throne.
It must also be remembered that there is no work so delicate as the work of winning souls, and this is especially true when attention is given to the winning of men. I once heard Dr. Talmage say in his characteristic fashion, “There is no art quite so fine as that of the fisherman.” Jesus knew exactly what He was talking about and what He had in mind for His disciples when he said, “I will make you fishers of men.” When a true fisherman fishes in these days, he selects the most delicate rod, equips it with the finest line, and puts upon it the most tempting fly. He then wades carefully and so far as possible, noiselessly into the stream. With a dexterous throw, he casts his line and almost instantly has in his basket a ‘beautiful trout, which is the sure reward of his fisher’s skill. “But,” says Dr. Talmage, “when we attejnpt to fish for men, we do exactly the opposite. We use a beam for a rod, a cable for a line, and an anchor for a hook, and then with great commotion, we cast out into the great sea of life and say to men, bite or be damned.” “Is it any wonder,” said the great preacher, “that we are so unsuccessful when “vve have so far missed the thought of the greatest of all fishers for men, even Jesus Christ Himself?”
Again, we must be wedded to no particular method if we would be successful in our work. There are some men who seem to be constitutionally opposed to anything that savors of variety or change. And yet Jesus was rarely twice the same. He talks quietly in one place and lifts up His voice to cry aloud in another. He pleads upon the mountain side and stretches forth His hands in an entreaty from Peter’s boat. He speaks tenderly to little children and the mothers that bear them into His presence, and cries aloud in another instance, saying to men who would mock Him, “Ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” He used all kinds of illustrations, to-day a crystal of salt, and to-morrow a grain of mustard seed. In this sermon the flowers were His illustration and in the next the flying birds carried home His message of truth. The Apostle Paul also gloried in the fact that he could be all things to all men, if by all means he might save some. We, therefore, in these modern times, need not be afraid of change and variety, for we have illustrious examples before us.
While summering one time on the shores of Lake George, I was told by an old fisherman that if I would rise early in the morning, row across the lake and anchor my boat at a certain point I could catch any number of fish, and almost any kind that I desired. I eagerly waited the coming of the day, rowed across the bay, anchored my boat as I had been told and cast my line repeatedly, never once’ having a strike. At last, in sheer disgust, I was lifting my anchor, when this same old fisherman rowed up by my side and dropped his anchor, making rapid preparations to fish. I saw him cast his line and draw it in very soon without a fish and very naturally I was pleased. Then I saw him bend down for a moment in the bottom of his boat, work very quickly with his hands, cast his line the second time, and instantly draw in as fine a fish as one could hope to catch in inland waters. “How in the world did you do it?” I said to him, and without stopping a moment in his work, in characteristic fisher fashion he said, “I just changed my bait.”
This is sometimes very necessary in our fishing for men. If one thing will not win, then let us try another. If one method fails, without in the least being discouraged, let us adopt another and keep on changing, if that be necessary, until at last we have that of which God can approve and which through us He may be able to use. It is hardly possible for one man to duplicate another’s work. The same spirit may possess them both, and yet while the method is different, the results may be practically the same, and that is the important thing.
Again, if we are expecting to be used of God to / win men to Christ, let us begin with those nearest our own hands. If a minister, then evangelize your own people first. If a business man, lead your own children, your own employes, or your own friends first, remembering this, that when we fill the narrow circle in which we live and work, God will lead us out into the broader sphere and not until.
A gentleman came up to one of my friends recently and said, “I have about decided to enter upon evangelistic work, and I want you to make a few suggestions to me. I have decided upon my field. I shall go into Colorado or California, and I am very sure that with such a class of people as I will find there, I shall be successful.” My friend said to him, “Do you live here?” and he said, “Yes, sir, with my brothers and sisters.” “Then may I ask you this question, is your brother a Christian?” “Well, no,” he said, “he is not. The fact is, I have never asked him.” “May I ask if your sisters are Christians?” “No,” said he, “they are not, for as a matter of fact, we are not on very good terms with each other and I know little about their spiritual condition.” Then my friend turned on him sharply and said, “God will never use you, sir, in the broader work until you are successful in your home field.” Build over against your own house first, and then you may expect God to want you elsewhere.
And finally if one is to be used of God in winning men, he must give the strictest attention to his own personal life, his habits and his character.
“Thou must be true thyself,
If thou another soul wouldst reach,
It needs the overflow of heart
To give the lips full speech.”
The least touch with the world robs us of power. The unconfessed sin will take the ring out of our testimony. A miserable disposition will undo all that we could say to others even though Jesus Christ Himself may be the theme of our conversation.
There is one prayer which every Christian worker ought to offer at the beginning and through his life of service. “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me.” God does not require either golden vessels or silver vessels for His use, but He must have vessels that are clean. If we are covering any sin in our lives, this will be a barrier to the manifestation of divine grace, and this thought is placed last in order that it may come with special emphasis. When all the above suggestions have been clearly gotten in mind, then it would be well for us to wait before God and say, “and now, my Father, I am willing to do or to be anything, only use me.” I doubt not the experience of the poet is ours:
“The strong man’s strength to toil for Christ,
The fervent preacher’s skill,
I sometimes wish, but better far,
To be just what God wills;
No service in itself is small.
None great though earth it fill.
But that is small which seeks its own,
That great which seeks God’s will.”