Winning Souls

Some one asked Dr. Lyman Beecher, in his old age, “What is the greatest of all things!” The sturdy veteran replied, “It is not theology; it is not controversy; it is saving souls.” He had been the king of the American pulpit; but, as he looked back over his noble career, he felt that the greatest good that he had accomplished was in leading guilty and polluted souls to their only Saviour. David Brainerd, one of the most celebrated of our missionaries, while he was laboring among the poor, benighted Indians on the banks of the Delaware, once said, “I care not where I live, or what hardships I go through, so that I can but gain souls to Christ. While I am asleep, I dream of these things; as soon as I awake, the first thing I think of is this great work. All my desire is the conversion of sinners, and all my hope is in God.” Our blessed Master came into our sin-cursed world to seek and to save the lost. To convert men to Jesus Christ by the aid of the Holy Spirit was the masterpurpose of Paul and his fellow-apostles. The great Reformation, under the lead of Luther and Calvin and Knox, was far more than a protestation against Popish errors; it was a direct bringing of benighted souls to the cross for salvation. Whiten eld and the Wesley s made this their chief business. The most successful preacher of modern times was Spurgeon; and he once asked me the question, “How far do your ablest American ministers aim mainly at the conversion of souls?” The question that my beloved British brother asked me I would propound to every young preacher that reads these lines. No minister is likely to succeed in anything that he undertakes with only half a heart; he can never do what he does not even attempt to do. If your whole heart is not bent on the glorious work of converting sinners, by the help of God, you will never accomplish it. You may produce much valuable and elevating thought; you may argue ingeniously against current skepticism; you may unfold sound principles of morality; you may say many eloquent things about “developing humanity,” and in behalf of benevolent reform; but if you stop short of leading immortal souls to Jesus Christ, then your ministry will be, at the most vital point, a failure. Nor is it a vague idea about “reaching the masses,” or saving people in the general, that must inspire you. Men are saved or lost individually. The Bible declares that “he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.” A single soul was a sufficient audience for the Son of God at the well of Syehar and in the inquiryroom of Nicodemus.

1. Aim then, my brother, to make your preaching direct, pointed, individualizing. Let every unconverted person in the house be made to feel, “That means me.” Not every sermon is to be addressed to the impenitent, by any means; but when you are presenting Christ, present him as each man’s Saviour; and when you discuss the guilt and danger of sin, bring it home to each individual sinner. “Thou art the man,” sent Nathan’s parable into David’s heart like an arrow. Do not be afraid of any sinner in the house; and pray God to help you love every sinner before you so fervently that you will tell him plainly that if he does not repent and accept Christ, he will be lost forever. Do not be afraid of the word “hell” any

1VIXXIXG SOULS. 79

more than of the word “heaven.” Oh! it is sheer cruelty to conceal from your hearers that the wages of sin is death. If you are faithless and cowardly, the blood of souls will be found in your skirts. Preach, therefore, plainly, lovingly, and pungently the guilt of sin and the doom of sin, and pray that every impenitent soul before you may be convicted by the Holy Spirit. Aim to reveal to every sinner his or her own personal guilt before God, for nobody is likely to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ until he or she feels the need of him. Deep convictions of sin generally produce deep conversions; shallow convictions produce shallow Christians. Put in the plowshare of divine truth, and then bear down on the beam; if it reaches to the roots of sin, and tears them up, all the better. When you have made a sinner see himself, then try. to make him see his Saviour. Then point him to the all-sufficient Redeemer, whose atoning blood cleanseth from all sin. That is the way in which Peter preached at the time of Pentecost, when three thousand souls were convicted and converted in a single day. When you are preaching repentance to the sinner, you cannot deal too faithfully and pungently; when you are offering salvation to the sinner through Jesus, you cannot be too winsome and loving in your beseechings.

2. Only a part of your work in soul-winning is likely to be done in your pulpit. The most important part will be done when you are brought face to face with an awakened person. Be on the lookout for such persons constantly. During your pastoral visits you will encounter those that are inquirers, and you should rejoice to converse with them immediately. By the way, when I discovered several such cases during my calls in one afternoon (in 1856) I hailed this fact as a token of the Holy Spirit’s preswixxixa SOULS. 81

ence; and I* summoned my church-officers, and appointed special services every evening, which services resulted in a large number of conversions. Always be on the watch for the presence of the Holy Spirit. Listen for the first drops of heavenly blessings; then gird yourself for the happy work. In dealing with an awakened soul, your prime duty is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and therefore you must pray fervently for his guidance. Endeavor to ascertain just what it is that is in the way of the inquirer, and what it is that keeps him from surrendering to Christ. If it be some bad habit or evil practice, then that evil practice must be abandoned. If it be some sin, cherished in the heart, then he must yield, even if it be* like plucking out a right eye or cutting off a right hand. In most cases the chief hindrance lies in a wicked, stubborn heart. It has always been my aim to convince awakened persons that, unless they were willing to give their hearts to Jesus and to “do the will” of Jesus, there was no hope for them. We must shut the inquiring soul up to Christ. The experiences of inquirers may differ as much as their countenances; “but in two vital particulars all cases are to be treated alike. Every sinner must cut loose from his sins, and must cleave to the Lord Jesus. Saving faith is vastly more than an opinion or a feeling; it is an act of the soul. It is the act of joining our weakness to Christ’s strength, our ignorance to his knowledge, our guiltiness to his atoning love, our wills to his will, ourselves to him. No one is soundly converted, and no one should join the church, until he has joined himself to Jesus Christ. This is the one infallible test. It is not enough to” feel happy “; it is not enough to say,” I am trying to be a Christian “; no soul is safe until it has surrendered unconditionally to Christ, and has been “born anew “by the Holy Spirit. Do not” count noses” too hastily, and do not be so ambitious to swell the numbers of your church that you will rush the unconverted or the half-converted into it. It will be your folly, and may be their ruin. 3. In addition to your conversations with such awakened persons as you may encounter in their homes, or such as may call on you for conversation, it will often be wise to appoint inquiry-meetings. Do this when you discover a need for such meetings, and not as a mere empty form. Some zealous ministers insist that such a meeting should be appointed after every preaching-service; but suppose there are no inquirers to meet; then the very word becomes a solemn farce or failure. When there are inquiring souls, and they are gathered for instruction and guidance, then be exceedingly careful as to whom you allow to go in with you. Surely you would not call in the first person that happened to go by your door to treat one of your family that was dangerously sick. Be equally careful not to allow rash and inexperienced persons, or pious “cranks,” to meddle with” immortal souls that are settling the stupendous question of their own salvation. If you require help, invite only the men and women possessing both grace and good common sense. Converse with each inquirer as closely as possible, and as concisely. Bring each to the point at once. Have God’s Word in your hand as well as in your memory, and be ready to use the right passages for the right case. With the infallible Word to give ‘you light, call upon the Holy Spirit to apply his almighty power and loving work to the souls before you. Encourage the inquirers to pray themselves. Try to keep every eye fixed on Christ; urge immediate surrender to Christ. Do not begrudge the time or labor required to help a halting or perplexed soul. Hand-picked apples keep the longest. Individual labor with each inquirer is

indispensable. The happiest hours you will spend in this world, my young brother, will be those that you spend in leading sinners to the Saviour. “He that is wise winneth souls.” To you, if you are thus wise, will belong the crown that shineth as the stars.