Personal soul-winning

Front matter

iiiPllliilli

Class Book

. F

Foreword

No higher honor could be conferred upon the Christian, and no greater privilege be given the believer in Jesus Christ than to be associated with Him in the great and blessed work of bringing a lost world to the knowledge of the truth. ^'Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us," to put us into so great a ministry.

It is not possible for every Christian to be a preacher or a teacher in spiritual things, for these are special gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit upon certain believers, even as it hath pleased Him. But there is no Christian, however humble or insignificant he may feel himself, or others esteem him to be, who is not appointed by the Spirit to be a winner of souls. One often wonders whether the honor conferred upon the believer of being a soul-winner is not greater than the conferred gift of teaching or preaching; and whether or not at the last day, when the rewards are distributed, the personal soul-winner will receive as great, if not a greater reward than many a teacher or preacher. Daniel 12 :3 (R. V.) is filled with glorious comfort for the man who ^' seeks to turn sinners to God : ^^\nd they that be teachers shall shine as the brightness of the firmam^ent ; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever."

That the individual Christian may be prompted, encouraged, and equipped to do this kind of Personal Soul- Winning work, is the purpose of this book. Its popular or conversational style of address will, it is hoped, enable the book to more thoroughly accomplish its purpose. The leading Scripture references have been made to stand out distinctly from the main body of type in order that they may be easily located.

The writer, who is the instructor on the subject of which this book treats, in the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, has prepared this work not more for the general public than for the young men and women who regularly take the work in his classes. Many of the students have expressed a wish to have these lectures in a printed and a completed form, so that when out in the field they may have opportunity to refer to and make use of them in the work of soul-winning, to which they have dedicated their lives.

Being a graduate of the Institute, the writer had the privilege of listening to similar instruction from Rev. R. A. Torrey, D.D., whom he highly honored as a teacher, and who has read the proof sheets of this book with commendation. The nature of the theme, to say nothing of the impression made by such a teacher on his pupil, may show in this book a certain general similarity in manner of presentation. The great indebtedness of the writer to Dr. Torrey is hereby gratefully expressed.

William Evans.

Chapter I. — The Value of Peesonal Effort in Soul- Winning 13

Individual and church, at work — Personal dealing counts most — Examples — Secret of growth.

Chapter II.-t-Elements of Success in Personal Soul- Winning 21

Tact — Contact — Ability — Value of opportunities — Fundar mental convictions — Faith — Patience.

Chapter III. — The Personal Worker Himself — His Qualifications - - - - - - - - 33

Must be a Christian — Spirit-filled — Prayerful — ^A lover of Souls — Confidence in God and His Word.

Chapter IV. — Instructions to the Soul-Winner - - 43 Who can do it — ^When, where — How it may be done — Opening the case — Bringing about decisions — How to memorize Scripture.

Chapter V. — The Uninterested and Unconcerned - -^'^ 53 Arousing interest in divine things — ^Various lines of appeal: Sin, love, hope, fear.

Chapter VI. — Those Who Are Interested and Concerned, But Ignorant of the Way of Life - - 65 How to become a Christian — Repentance — Faith — Confessing Christ — Christ's Kingship.

Chapter VII. — Those Who Are Interested and Anxious,

BUT Perplexed 73

Too great a sinner — No feeling — Cannot find Christ — Cannot give up evil — Hurt my business — Cannot forgive enemies — Self-improvement.

Chapter VIII. — The Self-Righteous - - - - 87 Who they are — How to meet them— What God requires — Examples of moral men.

Chapter IX. — The Backslider 93

The penitent — God's willingness — How to come back. The impenitent — Sad condition — Fatal results.

Chapter X. — The Feaeful aisd Despahiing - - - 99 The case stated — Fear of ridicule — Loss of friends — Fear of persecution — How to hold out — Encouraging promises — Afraid will not be received — Tried before and failed — How to succeed — Sinned away the day of grace — Unpardonable sin — Too late to become a Christian.

Chapter XL — The Peocrastinatoe - - - - 115

Danger of postponing salvation — Business first — ^Wait till I get older — Expect to become a Christian before I die — Sudden death.

Chaptee XII. — The Fault-Finding 123

With God — Unjust to condemn man — Has not clearly revealed himself to man — The Bible foolish, contradictory and impure — A mere human book — Hypocrites in the church — Christians inconsistent — The Christian life too hard and exacting — Finding fault with the plan of salvation.

Chapter XIIL — Those Who Aee Misled by Ebroneous

Views of the Truth 137

Roman Catholic — Unitarian — Universalist — Seventh-Day Adventist — Spiritualist — Jew — Christian Scientist — Millennial Dawnism.

Chaptee XIV. — The Obstinate 179

Don't talk to me — Want to have my own way — Have a good time in this world — Don't care for world to come.

Chapter XV. — The Skeptic 185

Trifling — Cause of skepticism — Consequences. Serious-minded — The way out — Objections — Doubt existence of God — Future retribution — Inspiration of the Bible — Deity of Christ.

THE VALUE OF PERSONAL

EFFOET IN SOUL -WINNING

CHAPTER L

THE VALUE OF PERSONAL EFFORT IN SOUL- WINNING.

EVERY Christian should consider it the highest honor, and the greatest privilege to assist in the growth of the kingdom of God, by personal effort in individual soul-winning. He should realize, too, that it is not only his privilege to thus work for God, but that a most solemn responsibility rests upon him to do so. The true Christian, having found Christ to be precious to his own soul, desires, or at once seeks, as did Andrew and Philip of old, to get someone else to taste and see that the Lord is good.

And what is true of the individual Christian should be true of the whole Church. What is the true position of the Church according to the teachings of Christ? Is she not to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world? Should she not be as the woman seeking the lost coin, the shepherd seeking the straying sheep, and the father on the constant lookout for the wayward son? That church, the members of which are not interested in, and putting forth personal effort in behalf of, a lost world, has in truth forfeited its credentials and its right to exist. In seeking to save its own soul, it has really lost it

An anonymous clipping contains the following suggestive remarks along this particular line:

"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?' That is to say, the alpha and omega of

I

Christianity is soul-winning, and every letter between the first and last should be permeated by the spirit which seeks the lost.

"It is not enough to be evangelical. We must be evangelistic. The evangelical church is a reservoir of pure water without a pipe running anywhere. If you will take the trouble to go to it and climb the embankment, you will get a good drink. The evangelistic church is a reservoir of pure water with a pipe to every heart in the community, and every nation in the world. Evangelical may mean truth on ice; evangelistic means truth on fire. Evangelical may be bomb-proof for defense; evangelistic means an army on the march with every face towards the enemy. Evangelical sings, 'Hold the fort, for I am coming'; evangelistic sings, 'Storm the fort, for God is leading.' The need of the Church is not evangelicalism as a thing to fight for, but evangelism as a force to fight with. The evangelical creed merely held and defended becomes a fossil, only a thing of interest.

"Several miles above Milton, Pa., when the ice was breaking up, a farmer got into one of his boats, purposing to pull it out of the river. A floating mass of ice struck it, breaking it loose from the bank, and carrying it and him out into the current. A neighbor, seeing the danger, mounted a horse and with all speed rode down to Milton. The people of the town gathered all the ropes they could secure, went out on the bridge, and suspended a line of dangling ropes from the bridge across the river. They could not tell at just what point the boat with the farmer would pass under, so they put a rope down every tAvo or three feet clear across. By and by the farmer was seen, wet and cold, standing in the boat half full of water, drifting down the rapid current. When he saw the ropes dangling within reach, he seized the nearest one, was drawn up

TEE VALUE OF PERSONAL EFFORT 15

and saved. Now, one rope might not have answered the purpose. The pastor hangs the rope of salvation from the pulpit, and sinners present do not seem to get near it ; but if the business men will hang out ropes, and you young men and women, mothers and wives, hang out ropes, sinners will certainly be saved."

Greater stress is here laid upon winning men to Christ by individual effort rather than upon any other method of accomplishing the same purpose, revivals, for example. Not that we do not believe in revivals, for how can one be a believer in the Bible and not believe in revivals? But personal soul-winning is much greater than revivalism. Indeed, is not the purpose and end of a true revival to make the^ individual Christian worker more interested in souls? A revival that does not accomplish this end is not a success. Both evangelist and pastor agree on this.

Revivalism is fishing with a great net ; personal soul- / winning is fishing with a single hook. Both are right i(y^ but all Christians cannot handle the big net, while all can use the single hook. All Christians are to be fishers of men. That form of Christian activity, therefore, is most important, which excludes none from participation in it.

Much is said today about winning "the crowds" for Jesus Christ. Every such effort is to be encouraged; but we must not forget that men can enter into the kingdom of God only as individuals. Religion emphasizes personality. In what is a man better than a sheep? In this: that he is a personality, and must be dealt with as such, personally, individually. It is for this reason that the intelligent evangelist lays such emphasis upon a good corps of personal workers who shall deal with the crowds who come forward under the impulse of the invitation, individually and personally. Indeed, we do not consider that converts-

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16 PEBSOXAL souL-wiyyixa

have been dealt with, properly until they have been dealt with personally.

Keligion emphasizes personality. Recently a photograph was left in my office. It was that of a converted convict. It had no name on it. only a number. Personality is lost in jail ; it is a number that is there recognized. It is a number that paces up and down the cell, a number that walks out to work in the yards, a number that sits down to eat. a number that takes sick and dies, and a number that is buried in the potter's field. Personality, not numbers, counts in the kingdom of God; the Church is made up of that innumerable host which no man can number, but who carry upon their foreheads the name of Him whose they are and whom they serve. All talk about a social salvation, and a sweeping of men into the kingdom by crowds, is to be received with some apprehension, to say the least

Jesus Cheist OrB. Example.

^ Jestis Christ won most, if not all. of His followers

.^ 5 by personal effort. Do you recall a single instance of

what we. in this day. would call a great revival taking place during Christ's ministry? He enlisted Matthew at the toll-booth, and Peter. James and John at their nets, by personal invitation ; ''Come, follow me !" One by one, man by man ; that is how Christ's cause grew.

What is the great lesson taught in the first chapter of John, the chapter commonly called the ^'Eureka" or ^'I have found" chapter? Is it not that the Church of Christ grew and is to grow by personal effort? Does not the Holy Spirit set forth at the beginning of the Christian dispensation the divine method of extending Christianity, the law of the kingdom's growth, namely, the finding of one disciple by another?

The supreme business of the Christian is to individualize the Gospel. >'o distinction, such as clergy

TEE VALUE OF PERSONAL EFFORT 17

and laity, is here recognized. As followers of Christ we are all to be personal soul-winners. Every Christian layman is "ordained" to go and bring forth fruit, and is a ^'minister" in so far as every man who has received a gift — and every Christian has received one — is called upon to minister therewith (John 15:16; 1 Peter 4:10, 11).

The Apostles^ Example.

How personal soul-winning is emphasized in the Acts of the Apostles! Pentecost is passed over with comparatively small mention ; but the Church of Jesus Christ going out as individual personal workers — John here, Peter there, Philip yonder, the ordinary Christian layman going from house to house, seeking to extend the kingdom of the Christ — this is given in detail, and to its narration is devoted much space.

The Testimony of Two Pastors.

The church at Colosse began not with a great revival under Paul, but as the result of the faithful personal work of one man, Epaphras. The church at Rome was undoubtedly founded in the same way. Pastors acknowledge that the best additions to their churches are those won to Christ by personal effort. Dr. Hughes, recently chosen bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, says, that in a revival in his church covering two years, there were 48 converts, 11 men and 37 women; but that, as a result of personal work during the same period, there were 75 converts, 40 men and 35 women. Is there not a lesson for us to learn from this experience, not only as to numbers, but as to sex? Here is the solution of the pastor's problem, "How to reach the men." Dr. J. O. Peck is reported to have said, that if he had the certainty that he was to live only ten years, and as a condition of gaining heaven at the end thereof, he had to win a thousand

18 PERSONAL SOUL-WINXING

or ten thousand souls for Christ, and he was given his choice of winning them either by preaching sermons or by individual effort, he would choose the latter method every time.

A Great Way to Grow.

Have you ever thought what would happen in the Church of Christ if each of its preachers would win one soul a month for a year? The Methodist denomination would count 502,710 additions to its membership in that one year. The net gains of this denomination for 1907 were 102,000. If every Baptist preacher did the same, 459,348 additions would be made to their churches, whereas in 1907 the total additions were 103,358. If every church member would win just one soul in a year, the kingdom of Christ would be increased by 1,600,000 members.* The grand total of additions to the entire church of all denominations and sects in the United States in 1907 was 627,546. It took five preachers and 33 members during 1907 to bring one new member into the church, including all the infants that are counted members by baptism. And who knows how many of the adults admitted had really accepted Christ as their personal Saviour?

*The above figures are based upon recent statistics gathered by Dr. H. K. Carroll.

ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS IN

PEESONAL SOUL -WINNING

CHAPTER n.

ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS IN PERSONAL SOUL-

WINNING.

A MONG the elements of success in personal work -Z^JL may be mentioned :

1. Tact.

1^ "Tact/' according to the dictionary, "is a quick or intuitive appreciation of what is proper, fitting or right ; the mental ability of doing and saying the right thing at the right time so as not to unjustly offend

, or anger."

\y In other words, tact is nothing more or less than Jj\ skill and facility in dealing with men. Tact has been called the life of the five senses : it is the open eye, the quick ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, the lively touch. Tact knows what to do and when and how to do it.

Christ manifested great tact in His reply to the unreasonable question of the Pharisees, when He called for a coin, and in reply to the captious question of His enemies, said : "Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and to God the things which are God's." Paul showed tact when, brought before the tribunal, perceiving that his audience was divided on the question of the resurrection of the dead — the Pharisees believing it, and the Sadducees disbelieving it — he cried out: "For the hope of the resurrection of the dead am I called in question." His tact won the day; for we read, that, immediately following this appeal, there "arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided." In writing y

•n

22 PERSOXAL SOUL-WIXXIXG

to the Corinthians, Paul says: ''Being crafty, I caught YOU with guile/'

A Salvation Army lass was once accosted by a young dude whom she asked to buy a War Cry for five cents. ''Give me ten cents* worth of prayer," said the foolish youth. Instantly the lassie knelt down before the young man and the young ladies who were accompany 4^ ing him, and prayed for the fellow. And so earnestly did the lassie pray that that young man sought her a few days later and asked her to point him to a Saviour who could save him from his waywardness and sin. That young lassie had tact.

Philip the evangelist had tact, and manifested it in dealing with the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts S). Instead of blurting out, as many Christian workers do today: "Are you a Christian? if not, you are going to hell; repent, or you will be damned," he approached him with the question, quite natural to a man who was engaged in reading, *'Understandest thou what thou readest?" The result of such tactful dealing was that the eunuch invited the evangelist to ride with him and explain to him the way of salvation. Ultimately the man found Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and went on his way rejoicing. Many an untactful man would have spoiled that magnificent opportunity. '" Fishermen teach us the value of tact in their choice and use of various kinds of bait, and in the different methods pursued in catching different kinds of fish.

Tact supplies the lack of many talents; indeed, the lack of it is oftentimes fatal. A little tact and wise management very often gain a point which could be gained in no other way.

It is fortunate for the Christian worker that this element of success in personal work is at his command. It comes from God in answer to prayer. If a man does not have it by nature, he may have it by grace.

ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS 23

God will give it in answer to prayer. ^^If any of you lack wisdom [tact], let him ask of God, that giveth to all men [and women alike] liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" (Jas. 1:5). Compare 1 John 2 :29 ; Acts 13 :9, 10.

2. Contact.

K Contact is defined as the coming together of two bodies in space. It means, in personal work, the coming into touch with your man. Contact is button-holing, "tackling" your man. A man may have all the tact in the world, but it will be useless unless he gets into contact with men. Contact is tact put into practice.

Samson had strength sufficient to pull down the great temple of the Philistines; but it was of no avail until he was put into contact with, and his arms enclosed, the mighty pillars which supported the massive temple. Of what use is all our knowledge of methods, if we do not go after men and deal with them individually?

I- Of what use is the sword if there is no battle to be fought, no cause to be defended, no victory to be won? You may have the finest fishing tackle that money can buy in the cupboard in your home, but it will not catch fish for you until you bring it into contact with the fish in the water. So a Christian worker may have fine tackle for spiritual fishing — a knowledge of the habits of men and a good knowledge of the various Scripture passages to use in catching them — and yet be utterly futile and useless as a personal worker unless he comes into contact with men. i. There are two things to remember about contact: grgt. we must have contact with God ; second, we must have contact with men. We must be^ heart-foremost with God if we would be head-foremost with men. Jacob is a good illustration of this. First, he wrestled with God, and then, as a result, he had power with men. Witness his victory over his brother Esau.

3, Ability.

^ Ability is defined as the power of bringing things to pass. Ability was characteristic of the life of Jesus. Again and again do we find the words, "And it came to pass."

y (a) We need ability to read a/nd understand men,

Jesus knew men. We are told in John 2 :24, 25, that "Jesus knew all men ... he knew what was in man.'^ Just as the successful fisherman must understand the habits of fish, so must the successful personal worker understand the ways, reasonings, disputings, and methods of men. Different temperaments need to be dealt with in different ways.

(h) We need ability in the handling of the Bible. ^ We should be able to handle our Bibles and turn to the desired location as expertly as the book agent turns to his prospectus and the life insurance man to his book of tables.

v^ Philip the evangelist would have lost a magnificent opportunity if he had not been able to find the place in the Scriptures where it is written. We must be experts in the handling of the Word of God. Sometimes to hesitate means to lose the case you are dealing with. See how quickly Jesus turned to just the place he wanted when he was called upon to read in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4 :17) : "And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written." Ability to find the place where it is written inspires confidence in the inquirer, whereas hesitancy is a barrier to effective dealing. We need ability in handling the Bible, for three reasons :

First: To show men from the Word of God that they are sinners.

ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS 25

It need hardly be said that all men do not concede that they are sinners. In order to convince them of this fact, we need words that are divine. No words of ours can produce conviction of sin : God's Word alone can do that. It is the "sword of the Spirit" alone that can prevail in such a conflict as this, and the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God (Eph. 6:17).

Secondly: To point men who are convicted of sin to Jesus Christ, who is the Sin-bearer.

This can only be done by directing the thought of the inquirer to those passages of Scripture which set forth the death of Christ as the propitiation for the sins of men. No words of ours can give peace and assurance to souls that are burdened with the knowledge and guilt of sin. God must speak if men are to hear the words, "Go in peace; thy sins are forgiven thee."

Thirdly: We must use the Bible in order to establish men in the faith, and to direct them to the means of growth in the Christian life.

It is not enough that we get men saved. We must show them how to make a success of the Christian life ; we must show them how to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

(c) AgairVy we need ability to 'bring about decisions.

Many Christian workers find themselves unable to bring the inquirer beyond a certain point. They can bring the inquirer to acknowledge his sinfulness and express his desire to accept Christ as his Saviour, but cannot get him to really DO IT; and so the earnest, anxious inquirer goes away unsaved, simply because the personal worker did not have the ability to bring things to a final issue. Anyone who has had any experience whatever in fishing knows that there is a

'world of difference in having a fisli nibble at your hook and in catching it, and landing it right in the ' boat. To have a fish nibble at your hook is a good thing; to be able to lift it out of the water is a better thing; to land it right in the boat is the best thing of it all. So it is in spiritual fishing — in the catching of men. It is good to find an inquirer; it is better to be able to show him the way of life; it is best to be able to get him to definitely accept Christ as his personal Saviour.

/? Ability, as all the other essential factors of successful soul-winning, is something within the reach of the humblest child of God. It, too, is a gift from God, and comes in answer to prayer; We are told in 1 Peter 4:11 that there is such a thing as ''the ability which God giveth." Then let us ask God in prayer to grant us this power so that we shall be able to bring things to pass for Him.

y^. The appreciation of opportunities. (Epli* 5:16.)

An opportunity is denned as a time with favoring or propitious circumstances ; a favorable chance.

The personal worker must be an opportunist; he must believe in opportunism. The buying up of opportunities for Christ is not to be understood as an effort to save hours which we might be tempted to waste from idleness, but the effort to so control our time that we shall not allow any selfish motive, any cowardly timidity, to stand in the way of our doing good. The Christian worker must emulate the merchant who is quick to seize every bargain that is passing before him. As he buys up goods, so we must buy up opportunities for doing good, and especially those opportunities which are afforded us of speaking to men about their souls.

Paul tells us to redeem the time. By that he seems to indicate that every moment has its opportunity as-

ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS 27

signed to it in the way of doing good. By doing duty at the moment of opportunity we make a purchase of it, and thus not only make gain for good and for Christ's kingdom^ but also take away that time from the evil one, and thus reduce the power of his dominion. When we let an opportunity to speak to a soul go by we let Satan take the time from us, and thus we contract a debt. Much is said in market circles of "getting a corner on the market." Let us get a corner on time and buy up every opportunity for Christ. Two or three things may be said in this connection :

(a) Do not force opportunities.

Force is the opposite of opportunity. If you are in constant and continual communion with God, He will direct you in this matter. The question may be asked, ''Must we not then speak to people unless we are moved to do so?" Possibly the best answer to this question is, that if you are in continual fellowship with God, you will be moved whenever the opportunity is presented to you.

fb) Then again, We should see to it tlmt we miss no opportunities.

As men in the gold fields are constantly on the lookout for gold veins, so should the personal worker be on the lookout for souls. Wherever we are, whatever we may be doing, wherever we may be going, we should be on the lookout for opportunities for personal dealing. Much, oh, how much depends upon the wise use of the opportune moment ! ''There is a season when it is good to take occasion by the hand."