What is it to Win a Soul
Charles Spurgeon · The Soul-Winner; or, How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour
to make a profession by undue pressure, well-meant but
ill-judged. Do not, therefore, eonsider that soul-win-
ning is or can be secured by the multiplication of bap-
tisms, and the swelling of the size of your church.
What mean these despatches from the battle-field?
"Last night fourteen souls were under conviction, fif-
teen were justified, and eight received full sanctifica-
tion." I am weary of this public bragging, this count-
ing of unhatched chickens, this exhibition of doubtful
spoils. Lay aside such numberings of the people, such
idle pretence of certifying in half a minute that which
will need the testing of a lifetime. Hope for the best,
but in your highest excitements be reasonable. En-
quiry-rooms are all very well; but if they lead to idle
boastings, they will grieve the Holy Spirit, and work
abounding evil.
Nor is it soul-winning, dear friends, merely to create
excitement. Excitement will accompany every great
movement. We might justly question whether the
movement w^as earnest and powerful if it was quite as
serene as a drawing-room Bible-reading. You cannot
very well blast great rocks without the sound of ex-
plosions, nor fight a battle and keep everybody as quiet
as a mouse. On a dry day, a carriage is not moving
much along the roads unless there is some noise and
dust; friction and stir are the natural result of force
in motion. So, when the Spirit of God is abroad, and
men's minds are stirred, there must and will be certain
visible signs of movement, although these must never
be confounded with the movement itself. If people
imagine that to make a dust is the object aimed at by
the rolling of a carriage, they can take a broom, and
very soon raise as much dust as fifty coaches; but they
will be committing a nuisance rather than conferring a
benefit. Excitement is as incidental as the dust, but
14 THE SOUL-WINNER,
it is not for one moment to be aimed at. When the
woman swept her house, she did it to find her money,
and not for the sake of raising a cloud.
Do not aim at sensation and "effect." Flowing
tears and streaming eyes, sobs and outcries, crowded
after-meetings and all kinds of confusion may occur,
and may be borne with as concomitants of genuine
feeling; but pray do not plan their production.
It very often happens that the converts that are born
in excitement die when the excitement is over. They
are like certain insects which are the product of an
exceedingly warm day, and die when the sun goes
down. Certain converts live like salamanders, in the
fire; but they expire at a reasonable temperature. I
delight not in the religion which needs or creates a
hot head. Give me the Godliness which flourishes
upon Calvary rather than upon Vesuvius. The utmost
zeal for Christ is consistent with common-sense and
reason: raving, ranting, and fanaticism are products
of another zeal which is not according to knowledge.
We would prepare men for the chamber of communion,
and not for the padded room at Bedlam. No one is
more sorry than I that such a caution as this should
be needful; but remembering the vagaries of certain
wild revivalists, I cannot say less, and I might say a
great deal more.
What is the real winning of a soul for God? So far
as this is done by instrumentality, what are the proc-
esses by which a soul is led to God and to salvation?
I take it that one of its main operations consists in
mstructing a man that he may know the truth of God.
Instruction by the gospel is the commencement of all
real work upon men's minds. "Go ye, therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teach-
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 15
ing them to observe all things whatsoever I have com-
manded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world." Teaching begins the work, and
crowns it, too.
The gospel, according to Isaiah, is, "Incline your
ear, and come unto Me : hear, and your soul shall live."
It is ours, then, to give men something worth their
hearing; in fact, to instruct them. We are sent to
evangelize, or to preach the gospel to every creature;
and that is not done unless we teach them the great
truths of revelation. The gospel is good news. To
listen to some preachers, you would imagine that the
gospel was a pinch of sacred snufif to make them wako
up, or a bottle of ardent spirits to excite their brains.
It is nothing of the kind; it is news, there is informa-
tion in it, there is instruction in it concerning matters
which men need to know, and statements in it calcu-
lated to bless those who hear it. It is not a magical
incantation, or a charm, whose force consists in a col-
lection of sounds; it is a revelation of facts and truths
which require knowledge and belief. The gospel is a
reasonable system, and it appeals to men's understand-
ing; it is a matter for thought and consideration, and
it appeals to the conscience and the reflecting powers.
Hence, if we do not teach men something, we may
shout, ''Believe! Believe! Believe!" but what are they to
believe? Each exhortation requires a corresponding
instruction, or it will mean nothing. "Escape!"
From what? This requires for its answer the doctrine
of the punishment of sin. "Fly!" But whither?
Then must you preach Christ, and His wounds; yea,
and the clear doctrine of atonement by sacrifice. "Re-
pent!" Of what? Here you must answer such ques-
tions as, What is sin? What is the evil of sin? What
are the consequences of sin? "Be converted!" But
16 THE SOUL-WINNER.
what is it to be converted? By what power can we be
converted? What from? What to? The field of in-
struction is wide if men are to be made to know the
truth which saves. "That the soul be without knowl-
edge, it is not good," and it is ours as the Lord's instru-
ments to make men so to know the truth that they may
believe it, and feel its power. We are not to try and
save men in the dark, but in the power of the Holy
Ghost we are to seek to turn them from darkness to
light.
And, do not believe, dear friends, that when you go
into revival meetings, or special evangelistic services,
you are to leave out the doctrines of the gospel ; for you
ought then to proclaim the doctrines of grace rather
more than less. Teach gospel doctrines clearly, affec-
tionately, simply, and plainly, and especially those
truths which have a present and practical bearing upon
man's condition and God's grace. Some enthusiasts
would seem to have imbibed the notion that, as soon
as a minister addresses the unconverted, he should
deliberately contradict his usual doctrinal discourses,
because it is supposed that there will be no conversions
if he preaches the whole counsel of God. It just
comes to this, brethren, it is supposed that we are to
conceal truth, and utter a half-falsehood, in order to
save souls. We are to speak the truth to God's people
because they will not hear anything else; but we are
to wheedle sinners into faith by exaggerating one part
of truth, and hiding the rest until a more convenient
season. This is a strange theory, and yet many en-
dorse it. According to them, we may preach the re-
demption of a chosen number of God's people, but
universal redemption must be our doctrine when we
speak with the outside world; we are to tell believers
that salvation is all of grace, but sinners are to be
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 17
spoken with as if they were to save themselves; we are
to inform Christians that God the Holy Spirit alone
can convert, but when we talk with the unsaved, the
Holy Ghost is scarcely to be named. We have not so
learned Christ. Thus others have done; let them be
our beacons, and not our examples. He who sent us
to win souls neither permits us to invent falsehoods,
nor to suppress truth. His work can be done without
such suspicious methods.
Perhaps some of you will reply, ''But, still, God has
blessed half-statements and wild assertions." Be not
quite so sure, I venture to assert that God does not
bless falsehood; He may bless the truth which is mixed
up with error ; but much more of blessing would have
come if the preaching had been more in accordance
with His own Word. I cannot admit that the Lord
blesses evangelistic Jesuitism, and the suppression of
tmth is not too harshly named when I so describe
it. The withholding of the doctrine of the total de-
pravity of man has wrought serious mischief to many
who have listened to a certain kind of preaching.
These people do not get a true healing because they do
not know the disease under which they are suffering ;
they are never truly clothed because nothing is done
towards stripping them. In many ministries, there is
not enough of probing the heart and arousing the con-
science by the revelation of man's alienation from God,
and by the declaration of the selfishness and the wicked-
ness of such a state. Men need to be told that, except
divine grace shall bring them out of their enmity to
God, they must eternally perish; and they must be
reminded of the sovereignty of God, that He is not
obliged to bring them out of this state, that He would
be right and just if He left them in such a condition,
that they have no merit to plead before Him, and no
18 Ttm SOUL-WINNER.
claims upon him, but that if they are to be saved, it
must be by grace, and by grace alone. The preacher's
work is to throw sinners down in utter helplessness,
that they may be compelled to look up to Him who
alone can help them.
To try to win a soul for Christ by keeping that soul
in ignorance of any truth, is contrary to the mind of
the Spirit; and to endeavour to save men by mere
claptrap, or excitement, or oratorical display, is as
foolish as to hope to hold an angel with bird-lime, or
lure a star with music. The best attraction is the
gospel in its purity. The weapon with which the Lord
conquers men ia the truth as it is in Jesus. The gospel
will be found equal to every emergency; an arrow
which can pierce the hardest heart, a balm which will
heal the deadliest wound. Preach it, and preach noth-
ing else. Rely implicitly upon the old, old gospel.
You need no other nets when you fish for men; those
your Master has given you are strong enough for the
great fishes, and have meshes fine enough to hold the
little ones. Spread these nets and no others, and you
need not fear the fulfilment of His Word, "I will make
you fishers of men."
Secondly, to win a soul, it is necessary, not only to
instruct our hearer, and make him know the truth, but
U imfress him so that he may feel it. A purely didactic
ministry, which should always appeal to the under-
standing, and should leave the emotions untouched,
would certainly be a limping ministry. "The legs of
the lame are not equal," says Solomon ; and the unequal
legs of some ministries cripple them. We have seen
such an one limping about with a long doctrinal leg,
but a very short emotional leg. It is a horrible thing
for a man to be so doctrinal that he can speak coolly
of the doom of the wicked, so that, if he does not
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 19
actually praise God for it, it costs him no anguish of
heart to think of the ruin of millions of our race. This
is horrible! I hate to hear the terrors of the Lord
proclaimed by men whose hard visages, harsh tones,
and unfeeling spirit betray a sort of doctrinal desicca-
tion: all the milk of human kindness is dried out of
them. Having no feeling himself, such a preacher
creates none, and the people sit and listen while he
keeps to dry, lifeless statements, until they come to
value him for being "sound," and they themselves come
to be sound, too; and I need not add, sound asleep
also, or what life they have is spent in sniffing out
heresy, and making earnest men offenders for a word.
Into this spirit may we never be baptized! Whatever
I believe, or do not believe, the command to love my
neighbour as myself still retains its claim upon me, and
God forbid that any views or opinions should so con-
tract my soul, and harden my heart as to make me
forget this law of love! The love of God is first, but
this by no means lessens the obligation of love to man ;
in fact, the first command includes the second. We
are to seek our neighbour's conversion because we love
him, and we are to speak to him in loving terms God's
loving gospel, because our heart desires his eternal
good.
A sinner has a heart as well as a head ; a sinner has
emotions as well as thoughts; and we must appeal to
both. A sinner will never be converted until his
emotions are stirred. Unless he feels sorrow for sin.
and unless he has some measure of joy in the reception
of the Word, you cannot have much hope of him. The
Truth must soak into the soul, and dye it with its own
colour. The Word must be like a strong wind sweep-
ing through the whole heart, and swaying the whole
man, even as a field of ripening corn waves in tlie
20 THE SOUL-WINNER.
summer breeze. Religion without emotion is religion
without life.
But, still, we must mind how these emotions are
caused. Do not play upon the mind by exciting feel-
ings which are not spiritual. Some preachers are very
fond of introducing funerals and dying children into
their discourses, and they make the people weep
through sheer natural affection. This may lead up to
something better, but in itself what is its value? What
is the good of opening up a mother's griefs or a widow's
sorrows? I do not believe that our merciful Lord has
sent us to make men weep over their departed relatives
by digging anew their graves, and rehearsing past
scenes of bereavement and woe. Why should He?
It is granted that you may profitably employ the death-
bed of a departed Christian, or of a dying sinner, for
proof of the rest of faith in the one case, and the terror
of conscience in the other; but it is out of the fact
proved, and not out of the illustration itself, that the
good must arise. Natural grief is of no service in itself;
indeed, we look upon it as a distraction from higher
thoughts, and as a price too great to exact from tender
hearts, unless we can repay them by engrafting lasting
spiritual impressions upon the stock of natural affec-
tion. "It W2is a very splendid oration, full of pathos,"
says one who heard it. Yes, but what is the practical
outcome of this pathos? A young preacher once re-
marked, "Were you not greatly struck to see so large
a congregation weeping?" "Yes," said his judicious
friend, "but I was more struck with the reflection that
they would probably have wept more at a play." Ex-
actly so; and the weeping in both cases may be equally
valueless. I saw a girl on board of a steamboat read-
ing a book, and crying as if her heart would break ; but
when I glanced at the volume, I saw that it was only
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 21
one of those silly yellow-covered novels which load our
railway bookstalls. Her tears were a sheer waste of
moisture, and so are those which are produced by mere
pulpit tale-telling and death-bed painting.
If our hearers will weep over their sins, and after
Jesus, let their tears flow in rivers; but if the object of
their sorrow is merely natural, and not at all spiritual,
what good is done by setting them weeping? There
might be some virtue in making people joyful, for
there is sorrow enough in the world, and the more we
can promote cheerfulness, the better; but what is tlie
use of creating needless misery? What right have you
to go through the world pricking everybody with your
lancet just to show your skill in surgery? A true
physician only makes incisions in order to effect cures,
and a wise minister only excites painful emotions in
men's minds with the distinct object of blessing their
souls. You and I must continue to drive at men's
hearts till they are broken; and then we must keep on
preaching Christ crucified till their hearts are bound up ;
and when this is accomplished, we must continue to
proclaim the gospel till their whole nature is brought
into subjection to the gospel of Christ. Even in these
preliminaries you will be made to feel the need of the
Holy Ghost to work with you, and by you; but this
need will be still more evident when we advance a step
further, and speak of the new birth itself in which the
Holy Spirit works in a style and manner most divine.
I have already insisted upon instruction and impres-
sion as most needful to soul-winning; but these are not
all — they are, indeed, only means to the desired end.
A far greater work must be done before a man is
saved. A wonder of divine grace must be wrough"^
upon the soul, fcr transcending anything which can be
accomplished by the power of man. Of all whom we
22 THE SOUL-WINNER.
would fain win for Jesus it is true, ''Except a man be
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The
Holy Ghost must work regeneration in the objects of
our love, or they never can become possessors of eternal
happiness. They must be quickened into a new life,
and they must become new creatures in Christ Jesus.
The same energy which accomplishes resurrection and
creation must put forth all its power upon them ; noth-
ing short of this can meet the case. They must be
born again from above. This might seem at first sight
to put human instrumentality altogether out of the
'field ; but on turning to the Scriptures we find nothing
to justify such an inference, and much of quite an op-
posite tendency. There we certainly find the Lord to
be all in all, but we find no hint that the use of means
must therefore be dispensed with. The Lord's supreme
majesty and power are seen all the more gloriously
because He works by means. He is so great that He
is not afraid to put honour upon the instruments He
employs, by speaking of them in high terms, and
imputing to them great influence. It is sadly possible
to say too little of the Holy Spirit; indeed, I fear this
is one of the crying sins of the age; but yet that infal-
lible Word, which always rightly balances truth, while
it magnifies the Holy Ghost, does not speak lightly of
the men by whom He works. God does not think his
own honour to be so questionable that it can only be
maintained by decr\'ing the human agent. There are
two passages in the Epistles which, when put together,
have often amazed me. Paul compares himself both to
a father and to a mother in the matter of the new birth :
lie says of one convert, "Whom I have begotten in my
bonds," and of a whole church he says, "My little chil-
dren, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be
formed in you." This is going very far; indeed, much
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 23
further than modern orthodoxy would permit the most
useful minister to venture, and yet it is language sanc-
tioned, yea, dictated, by the Spirit of God Himself, and
therefore it is not to be criticised. Such mysterious
power doth God infuse into the instrumentality which
He ordains that we are called "labourers together with
God"; and this is at once the source of our responsi-
bility and the ground of our hope.
Regeneration, or the new birth, works a change in the
whole nature of man, and, so far as we can judge,
its essence lies in the implantation and creation of a
new principle within the man. The Holy Ghost creates
in us a new, heavenly, and immortal nature, which is
known in Scripture as "the spirit," by way of distinc-
tion from the soul. Our theory of regeneration is that,
man in his fallen nature consists only of body and soul,
and that when he is regenerated there is created in
him a new and higher nature — "the spirit" — which is
a spark from the everlasting fire of God's life and love;
this falls into the heart, and abides there, and makes its
receiver "a partaker of the divine nature." Thence-
forward, the man consists of three parts, body, soul,
and spirit, and the spirit is the reigning power of the
three. You will all remember that memorable chapter
upon the resurrection, i Corinthians xv., where the dis-
tinction is well brought out in the original, and may
even be perceived in our version. The passage ren-
dered, "It is sown a natural body," etc., might be read,
"It is sown a soulish body; it is raised a spiritual
body. There is a soulish body, and there is a spiritual
body. And so it is written. The first man Adam was
made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quicken-
ing spirit. Howbeit, that was not first which is
spiritual, but that which is soulish; and afterward that
which is spiritual." We are first in the natural or soul-
24 THE SOUL-WINMER.
ish stage of being, like the first Adam, and then in
regeneration we enter into a new condition, and we
become possessors of the life-giving "spirit." Without
this spirit, no man can see or enter the kingdom of
heaven. It must therefore be our intense desire that
the Holy Spirit should visit our hearers, and create
them anew, — that he Vvould come down on these dry
bones, and breathe eternal life into the dead in sin.
Till this is done, they can never receive the truth, "for
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God : for they are foolishness unto him : neither can
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
''The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not
subject to the law of God, .neither indeed can be." A
new and heavenly mind must be created by omnipo-
tence, or the man must abide in death. You see, then,
that we have before us a mighty work, for which w^e are
of ourselves totally incapable. No minister living can
save a soul; nor can all of us together, nor all the
saints on earth or in heaven, w-ork regeneration in a
single person. The whole business on our part is the
height of absurdity unless w^e regard ourselves as used
by the Holy Ghost, and filled with His power. On the
other hand, the marvels of regeneration which attend
our ministry are the best seals and witnesses of our
commission. Whereas the apostles could appeal to
the miracles of Christ, and to those w^hich they wrought
in His name, we appeal to the miracles of the Holy
Ghost, which are as divine and as real as those of our
Lord Himself. These miracles are the creation of a
new life in the human bosom, and the total change of
the whole being of those upon whom the Spirit
descends.
As this God-begotten spiritual life in men is a mys-
tery, we shall speak to more practical effect if we dwell
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 25
upon the signs following and accompanying it, for these
are the things we must aim at. First, regeneration will
be shown in conviction of sin. This we believe to be
an indispensable mark of the Spirit's work; the new
life as it enters the heart causes intense inward pain as
one of its first effects. Though nowadays w^e hear of
persons being healed before they have been wounded,
and brought into a certainty of justification without
ever having lamented their condemnation, we are very
dubious as to the value of such healings and justify-
ings. This style of things is not according to the truth.
God never clothes men until He has first stripped them,
nor does He quicken them by the gospel till first they
are slain by the law. When you meet with persons in
whom there is no trace of conviction of sin, you may be
quite sure that they have not been wrought upon by
the Holy Spirit ; for "when He is come. He will reprove
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judg-
ment." When the Spirit of the Lord breathes on
us, He withers all the glory of man, which is but as the
flower of grass, and then He reveals a higher and
abiding glory. Do not be astonished if you find this
conviction of sin to be very acute and alarming; but, on
the other hand, do not condemn those in whom it is
less intense, for so long as sin is mourned over, con-
fessed, forsaken, and abhorred, you have an evident
fruit of the Spirit. Much of the horror and unbelief
which goes with conviction is not of the Spirit of God,
but comes of Satan or corrupt nature; yet there must
be true and deep conviction of sin, and this the preacher
must labour to produce, for where this is not felt the
new birth has not taken place.
Equally certain is it that true conversion may be
kno\vn by the exhibition of a simple faith in Jesus
Christ. You need not that I speak unto you of that, for
26 THE SOUL-WINNER.
you yourselves are fully persuaded of it. The pro-
duction of faith is the very centre of the target at which
you aim. The proof to you that you have won the
man's soul for Jesus is never before you till he has done
with himself and his own merits, and has closed in with
Christ. Great care must be taken that this faith is
exercised upon Christ for a complete salvation, and not
for a part of it. Numbers of persons think that the
Lord Jesus is available for the pardon of past sin, but
they cannot trust Him for their preservation in the
future. They trust for years past, but not for years to
come ; whereas no such sub-division of salvation is ever
spoken of in Scripture as the work of Christ. Either
He bore all our sins, or none; and He either saves us
once for all, or not at all. His death can never be re-
peated, and it must have made expiation for the future
sin of believers, or they are lost, since no further atone-
ment can be supposed, and future sin is certain to be
committed. Blessed be His name, "by Him all that
believe are justified from all things." Salvation by
grace is eternal salvation. Sinners must commit their
souls to the keeping of Christ to all eternity; how else
are they saved men? Alas! according to the teaching
of some, believers are only saved in part, and for the
rest must depend upon their future endeavours. Is
this the gospel? I trow not. Genuine faith trusts a
whole Christ for the whole of salvation. Is it any won-
der that many converts fall away, when, in fact, they
were never taught to exercise faith in Jesus for eternal
salvation, but only for temporar\^ conversion? A faulty
exhibition of Christ begets a faulty faith; and when
this pines away in its own imbecility, who is to blame for
it? According to their faith so it is unto them: the
preacher and professor of a partial faith must unitedly
bear the blame of the failure when their poor mutilated
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 27
trust comes to a break-down. I would the more earn-
estly insist upon this because a semi-legal way of believ-
ing is so common. We must urge the trembling sinner
to trust wholly and alone upon the Lord Jesus for ever,
or we shall have him inferring that he is to begin in the
Spirit and be made perfect by the flesh : he will surely
walk by faith as to the past, and then by works as to the
future, and this will be fatal. True faith in Jesus
receives eternal life, and sees perfect salvation in Him,
whose one sacrifice hath sanctified the people of God
once for all. The sense of being saved, completely
saved in Christ Jesus, is not, as some suppose, the
source of carnal security and the enemy of holy zeal,
but the very reverse. Delivered from the fear which
makes the salvation of self a more immediate object
than salvation /;'(W/ self, and inspired by holy gratitude
to his Redeemer, the regenerated man becomes capable
of virtue, and is filled with an enthusiasm for God's
glory. While trembling under a sense of insecurity,
a man gives his chief thought to his owu interests; but
planted firmly on the Rock of ages, he has time and
heart to utter the new song which the Lord has put
into his mouth, and then is his moral salvation com-
plete, for self is no longer the lord of his being. Rest
not content till you see clear evidence in your converts
of a simple, sincere, and decided faith in the Lord Jesus.
Together with undivided faith in Jesus Christ there
must also be uiifcigned rcpcfitance of sin. Repentance
is an old-fashioned word, not much used by modern
revivalists. "Oh!"' said a minister to me, one day,
"it only means a change of mind." This was thought
to be a profound observation. "Only a change of
mind"; but what a change! A change of mind with
regard to everything! Instead of saying, *Tt is only a
change of mind," it seems to me more truthful to say
28 THtrSOUL-WINNER.
it is a great and deep change — even a change of the
mind itself. But whatever the literal Greek word may
mean, repentance is no trifle. You will not find a
better definition of it than the one given in the children's
hymn : —
'Repentance is to leave
The sins we loved before;
And show that we in earnest grieve,
By doing so no more."
True conversion is in all men attended by a sense of
sin, which we have spoken of under the head of convic-
tion ; by a sorrow for sin, or holy grief at having com-
mitted it; by a hatred of sin, which proves that its
dominion is ended; and by a practical turning from
sin, which shows that the life within the soul is operating
upon the life without. True belief and true repentance
arc twins: it would be fdle to attempt to say which is
born first. All the spokes of a wheel move at once
when the wheel moves, and so all the graces commence
action when regeneration is wrought by the Holy
Ghost. Repentance, however, there must be. No sin-
ner looks to the Saviour with a dry eye or a hard heart.
Aim, therefore, at heart-breaking, at bringing home
condemnation to the conscience, and weaning the mind
from sin, and be not content till the whole mind is
deeply and vitally changed in reference to sin.
Another proof of the conquest of a soul for Christ
will be found in a real change of life. If the man does
not live differently from what he did before, both at
home and abroad, his repentance needs to be repented
of, and his conversion is a fiction. Not only action
and language, but spirit and temper must be changed.
"But," says someone, "grace is often grafted on a
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 29
crab-Stock." I know it is; but what is the fruit of the
grafting? The fruit will be like the graft, and not after
the nature of the original stem. "But," says another,
"I have an awful temper, and all of a sudden it over-
comes me. My anger is soon over, and I feel very
penitent. Though I cannot control myself, I am quite
sure I am a Christian." Not so fast, my friend, or I
may answer that I am quite as sure the other way.
What is the use of your soon cooling if in two or three
moments you scald all around you? If a man stabs
me in a fury, it will not heal my wound to see him
grieving over his madness. Hasty temper must be
conquered, and the whole man must be renewed, or con-
version will be questionable. We are not to hold up
a modified holiness before our people, and say. You
will be all right if you reach that standard. The
Scripture says, "He that committeth sin is of the devil."
Abiding under the power of any known sin is a mark of
our being the servants of sin, for "his servants ye are to
whom ye obey." Idle are the boasts of a man who
harbours within himself the love of any transgression.
He may feel what he likes, and believe what he likes,
he is still in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of
iniquity wliile a single sin rules his heart and life. True
regeneration implants a hatred of all evil; and where
one sin is delighted in, the evidence is fatal to a sound
hope. A man need not take a dozen poisons to destroy
his life, one is quite sufificient.
There must be a harmony between the life and the
profession. A Christian professes to renounce sin;
and if he does not do so, his very name is an imposture.
A drunken man came up to Rowland Hill, one day.
and said, "I am one of your converts, Mr. Hill." 'T
daresay you are," replied that shrewd and sensible
preacher; "but vou are none of the Lord's, or you
30 THE SOUL-WINNER.
would not be drunk." To this practical test we must
bring all our work.
In our converts we must also see iiue prayer, which
is the vital breath of godliness. If there is no prayer,
you may be quite sure the soul is dead. We are not
to urge men to pray as though it were the great gospel
duty, and the one prescribed way of salvation; for our
chief message is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."
It is easy to put prayer into its wrong place, and make
it out to be a kind of work by which men are to live ; but
this you will, I trust, most carefully avoid. Faith is
the great gospel grace ; but still we cannot forget that
true faith always prays, and when a man professes faith
in the Lord Jesus, and yet does not cry to the Lord
daily, we dare not believe in his faith or his conversion.
The Holy Ghost's evidence by which He convinced
Ananias of Paul's conversion was not, "Behold, he talks
loudly of his joys and feelings," but, "Behold, he pray-
eth," and that prayer was earnest, heart-broken con-
fession and supplication. Oh, to see this sure evidence
in all who profess to be our converts!
There must also be a willingness to obey the Lord
in all His commandments. It is a shameful thing for a
man to profess discipleship and yet refuse to learn his
Lord's will upon certain points, or even dare to decline
obedience when that will is known. How can a man be
a disciple of Christ when he openly lives in disobedi-
ence to Him?
If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately
declares that he knows his Lord's will but does not
mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his pre-
sumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is
not saved. Has not the Lord said, "He that taketh not
up his cross, and cometh after Me, cannot be My
disciple"? Mistakes as to what the Lord's will may
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 31
be are to be tenderly corrected, but anything like wilful
disobedience is fatal ; to tolerate it would be treason to
Him that sent us. Jesus must be received as King as
well as Priest; and where there is any hesitancy about
this, the foundation of godliness is not yet laid.
"Faith must obey her Maker's will
As well as trust His grace;
A pardoning God is jealous still
For His own holiness."
Thus, you see, my brethren, the signs which prove
that a soul is won are by no means trifling, and the work
to be done ere those signs can exist is not to be lightly
spoken of. A soul-winner can do nothing without
God. He must cast himself on the Invisible, or be a
laughing-stock to the devil, who regards with utter
disdain all who think to subdue human nature with
mere words and arguments. To all who hope to suc-
ceed in such a labour by their own strength, we would
address the words of the Lord to Job, "Canst thou
draw out leviathan with a hook? or his tongue with a
cord which thou lettest down? Wilt thou play with
him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy
maidens? Lay thine hand upon him, remember the
battle, do no m.ore. Behold, the hope of him is in
vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of
him?" Dependence upon God is our strength, and our
joy: in that dependence let us go forth, and seek to win
souls for Him.
Now, in the course of our ministry, we shall meet
with many failures in this matter of soul-winning.
There are many birds that I have thought I had caught;
I have even managed to put salt on their tails, but they
have gone flying off after all. I remember one man,
32 THE SOUL-WINNER.
whom I will call Tom Careless. He was the terror of
the village in which he lived. There were many in-
cendiary fires in the region, and most people attributed
them to him. Sometimes, he would be drunk for two
or three weeks at a spell, and then he raved and raged
like a madman. That man came to hear me; I recol-
lect the sensation that went through the little chapel
when he came in. He sat there, and fell in love with
me; I think that was the only conversion that he ex-
perienced, but he professed to be converted. He had,
apparently, been the subject of genuine repentance, and
he became outwardly quite a changed character, gave
up his drinking and swearing, and was in many respects
an exemplary individual. I remember seeing him tug-
ging a barge, with perhaps a hundred people on board,
whom he was drawing up to a place where I was going
to preach ; and he was glorying in the work, and sing-
ing as gladly and happily as any one of them. If
anybody spoke a word against the Lord or His servant,
he did not hesitate a moment, but knocked him over.
Before I left the district, I was afraid that there was no
real work of grace in him; he was a wild Red Indian
sort of a man. I have heard of him taking a bird,
plucking it, and eating it raw in the field. This is not
the act of a Christian man, it is not one of the things
that are comely, and of good repute. After I left the
neighbourhood, I asked after him, and I could hear
nothing good of him; the spirit that kept him out-
wardly right was gone, and he became worse than he
was before, if that was possible; certainly, he was no
better, he was unreachable by any agency. That work
of mine did not stand the fire; it would not bear even
ordinary temptation, you see, after the person who had
influence over the man was gone away. When you
move from the village or town where you have been
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 33
preaching, it is very likely that some, who did run
well, will go back. They have an affection for yon,
and your words have a kind of mesmeric influence
over them ; and when you are gone, the dog will run
to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wal-
lowing in the mire. Do not be in a hurry to count
these supposed converts; do not take them into the
church too soon; do not be too proud of their enthu-
siasm if it is not accompanied with some degree of
softening and tenderness to show that the Holy Spirit
has really been at work within them.
I remember another case of quite a different sort.
I will call this person ]\Iiss ^lary Shallow, for she
was a young lady who was never blessed with many
brains; but living in the same house with several
Christian young ladies she also professed to be con-
verted. When I conversed with her, there was ap-
parently everything that one could wish for. I
thought of proposing her to the church; but it was
judged best to give her a little trial first. After a
while, she left the associations of the place where she
had lived, and went where she had nothing much to
help her; and I never heard anything more of her
except that her whole time was spent in dressing her-
self as smartly as she could, and in frequenting gay
society. She is a type of those who have not much
mental furniture; and if the grace of God does not
take possession of the empty space, they very soon go
back into the w^orld.
I have known several like a young man whom I
will call Charlie Clever, uncommonly clever young fel-
lows at anything and everything, very clever at coun-
terfeiting religion when they took up with it. They
prayed very fluently; they tried to preach, and did it
verv well; whatever thev did, thev did it off-hand, it
34 THE SOUL-WINNER.
was as easy to them as kissing their hand. Do not
be in a hurry to take such people into the church;
they have known no humihation on account of sin, no
brokenness of heart, no sense of divine grace. They
cry, "All serene!" and away they go; but you will
find that they will never repay you for your labour and
trouble. They will be able to use the language of
God's people as well as the best of His saints, they
will even talk of their doubts and fears, and they will
get up a deep experience in five minutes. They are a
little too clever, and they are calculated to do much
mischief when they get into the church; so keep them
out if you possibly can.
I remember one who was very saintly in his talk, I
will call him John Fairspeech. Oh! how cunningly
he could act the hypocrite, getting among our young
men, and leading them into all manner of sin and
iniquity, and yet he would call and see me, and have
half-an-hour's spiritual conversation! An abominable
wretch, who was living in open sin at the ver}^ time
that he was seeking to come to the Lord's table, and
joining our societies, and anxious to be a leading man
in every good work. Keep your weather eye open,
brethren! They will come to you with money in their
hands like Peter's fish with the silver in its mouth;
and they will be so helpful in the work. They speak
so softly, and they are such perfect gentlemen! Yes,
I beUeve Judas was a man exactly of that kind, very
clever at deceiving those around him. We must mind
that we do not get any of these into the church if we
can anyhow keep them out. You may say to your-
self, at the close of the service, "Here is a splendid
haul of fish!" Wait a bit. Remember our Saviour's
words, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net,
that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind ;
WHAT IS IT TO WIN A SOUL? 35
which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat
down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast
the bad away." Do not number your fishes before
they are broiled; nor count your converts before you
have tested and tried them. This process may make
your work somewhat slow; but then, brethren, it will
be sure. Do your work steadily and well, so that those
who come after you may not have to say that it was
far more trouble to them to clear the church of those
who ought never to have been admitted than it was
to you to admit them. If God enables you to build
three thousand ^bricks into His spiritual temple in one
day, you may do it; but Peter has been the only
bricklayer who has accomplished that feat up to the
present. Do not go and paint the wooden wall as if
it were solid stone; but let all your building be real,
substantial, and true, for only this kind of work is
worth the doing. Let all your building for God be
like that of the apostle Paul, "According to the grace
of God which is given unto me, as a wise master
builder, I have laid the foundation, and another build-
eth thereon. But let every man take heed how he
buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any
man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall
be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, be-
cause it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall
try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's
work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall
receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet
so as by fire."
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WlNNlNG
GODWAKD.