Why Is Personal Work So Neglected?

If words for Christ to an individual are most effective in the winning of souls, why are they not more commonly spoken by those who love Christ and love souls? Is it because persons do not know this truth, or that they are incompetent to speak the needed words; or do they simply neglect the duty which they recognize as a duty, and which they are amply competent to perform? Probably no one answer would meet every case. Different answers would be given in different cases.

We do know that evil opposes good in the universe. Over against Ormuzd is Ahriman in the Zoroastrian religioa Over against God is Satan in the Bible teachings. It would seem that Satan desires to prevent any believer from speaking 167

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a word to an individual for Christ even while he does not expect to prevent all preaching to a whole congregation. His favorite argument with a believer is that just now is not a good time to speak on the subject The lover of Christ and of souls is told that he will harm the cause he loves by introducing the theme of themes just now. Will not every disciple who has had experience in this line of effort admit that he has frequently found this to be the case?

Out of my own experience I can bear testimony to this. From nearly half a century of such practice, as I have had opportunity day by day, I can say that I have spoken with thousands upon thousands on the subject of their spiritual welfere. Yet, so far from my becoming accustomed to this matter, so that I can take hold of it as a matter of course, I find it as difficult to speak about it at the end of these years as at the beginning. Never to the present day can I speak to a single soul for Christ win to pet0Otuil VAotli 00 neglecteD

without being reminded by Satan that I ani in danger of harming the cause by introducing it just now. If there is one thing that Satan is sensitive about, it is the danger of a Christian’s harming the cause he loves by speaking of Christ to a needy soul. He has more than once, or twice, or thrice, kept me from speaking on the subject by his sensitive pious caution, and he has tried a thousand times to do so. Therefore my experience leads me to suppose that he Is urging other persons to try any method for souls except the best one.

This I do know, that men who hiave a national and an international fame as preachers to a multitude actually say — not only think, but say — that they cannot speak to an Individual soul for Christ In some instances these preachers speak of it as If they counted a sinner’s personality too sacred to speak a word to, even to save his soul or to honor Christ In other cases, they speak of their inability as an amiable weakness, Instead of as a pitiable moral 169 liUMvUmal VHocli

and ritual defect, which proves them incompetent for their podtion and prices* sion. Yet these claims or confessions have to be recognized in the attempt to answer the startling question, in view all that is knoum of what has been, and of what might be ‘why is personal work so generally nlected?”

Another reason why personal as over against collective work for souls is not so prominent or so attractive a line of religious effort on behalf of Christ or of those whom he loves, is that this seems insignificant in contrast with the other. Apart from any eWdence or argument on the subject, is it to be supposed that a few personal words to an individual in a comer of a seat, or as one walks with another to or from a church service, is as likely to be impressive or convincing while only the one preacher and the one hearer know what is saidp as are the words of an eloquent orator which echo and re-echo in a vast auditorium filled with a sympathetic audience? Is not the sititdxkg win to personal VAovIt 00 neglected

of that question its own prompt answering? Whether on account of God or of Satan, the crowd has an obvious advantage in attractiveness over the individual as an audience for a Christian who is in search of souls.

Even if we are told not to despise “the day of small things in comparison with the day of great things, we are inclined to prefer the latter for our own reputation, and to hope that it may have a gain in eflectiveness. This is so in other warfare than that of Christ with his foes. My experience in active service in the Civil War taught me, as I am sure it taught others on both sides in that conflict, that the thunder of artillery was likely to be most impressive, but that the rifles of the sharpshooters brought down more men. This was peculiarly the case in the siege life before Charleston and before Petersburg, The shriek and the crash of the bursting shell told in their impressiveness, especially upon those who were least experienced; but the quiet“hum”orthe“whiz”of the rifle of the 171

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sharpshooter did execution as ten to one, or as a hundred to one, in comparison. Yet the artillery officer who could tdl of how many rounds he had fired in action could boast more of his service, even if he did not know that he had ever hit anybocty, than could the best sharpshooter <mi the whole line. So it is with those who address individuals for Christ Sharpshooters may bring down more individuals with their telling single bullets, but they cannot make the impression in the surrounding atmosphere that is made by the big guns that are heard to thunder out fi’om the pulpit casements eveiy time they open fire.

One more reason why pulpit casements and their thundering artillery have an ad« vantage over sharpshooters with their bullets aimed at single individuals, is in the training that the men in the casements have had in preparation for active service. In most of the theological seminaries and divinity schools little special instruction is gven in 172

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individual work for individual souls, and, in consequence, young ministers go out from those training schools without knowing how to do the most important work of the ministry. In some of these training schools there is no professor competent to give instruction on the subject, even if it were desired as the most important thing to be sought after* Of course, an old min* ister, who never did anything in that line while he was a preacher, could not hope to teach a learner about it, when he himself was approaching the “dead-line.” The magnitude of this difficulty can hardly be over-estimated as an obstacle to effective, work for single souls among ministers and in the church.

So intent is the average young minister or divinity student on his great work of preparation for preaching the gospel to all the world, or at least to a great congregation, that he should hardly be expected to turn aside for the insignificant mission of speaking to an individual for Christ. A 173

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sinie incident related to me by an active worker for individuals for Christ illustrates this truth startlingly. He was visiting a well-known divinity school in order to have an interview with a student While waiting for that student he was improving his time, as usual, by seeking individual souls near him. Encountering a janitor, or other helper, in the hall, he had a pleasant, direct talk with him. He found a soul waiting to be helped. He led that soul to the Saviour. In conversation he found that although that soul had been long in the vicinity of embryo preachers, not a word had been spoken to him by one of them. They were waiting to be eloquent to a full congration. Why should they waste their strength on a single soul? That is an illustrative incident, even if it is not an instructive one.

Pulpit preaching has had undue prominence among Protestants in comparison with other agencies for winning souls, since the days of the Reformation. And modern pul- 174

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pit preaching is more prominent as a mono* logue than that of the earlier Christian centuries. In the days of Chrysostom and of Augustine the preacher was readier to converse from the pulpit with the individual than is the modern preacher. In other words, modern preaching has neither the approval of high antiquity nor of practical reasonableness. More persons can be won singly than collectively. That was recognized in the ancient times. It would be recognized nowadays by all who would examine into the subject, and who were ready to be convinced by good sense, sound judgment, and experience.

After all, it is the man-to-man work that tells. And because it is this work that is most eflective, this is the work that it is best to do. Even though it Is a less attractive work, as we look at it, and seems to others less important to be done, we must admit that the results are worth considering. As John B. Gough said of the one loving word of Joel Stratton that won him: “My friend, 175 it may be a small matter for you to speak the one word for Christ that wins a needy soul — a small matter to you, but it is every” thing to Mm** It is forgetting this truth that causes personal work to be neglected.