Soul-Winning Explained
Charles Spurgeon · The Soul-Winner; or, How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour
'He that winneth souls is wise."— Proverbs xi. 30.
SOUL-WINNING EXPLAINED.
The text does not say, "He that winneth sovereigns
is wise," though no doubt he thinks himself wise, and
perhaps, in a certain grovelHng- sense, in these days
of competition, he must be so; but such wisdom is of
the earth, and ends with the earth; and there is an-
other world where the currencies of Europe will not
be accepted, nor their past possession be any sign of
wealth or wisdom. Solomon, in the text before us,
awards no crown for wisdom to crafty statesmen, or
even to the ablest of rulers; he issues no diplomas even
to philosophers, poets or men of wit; he crowns with
laurel only those who win souls. He does not declare
that he who preaches is necessarily wise; and alas!
there are multitudes who preach, and gain much ap-
plause and eminence, who win no souls, and who shall
find it go hard with them at the last, because in all
probability they have nm and the Master has never
sent them. Solomon does not say that he who talks
about winning souls is wise, since to lay down rules
for others is a very simple thing, but to carry them out
one's self is far more difificult. He w^ho actually, really
and truly turns men from the error of their ways to
God, and so is made the means of saving them from
going down to hell, is a wise man ; and that is true of
him whatever his style of soul-winning may be: He
may be a Paul, deeply logical, profound in doctrine,
able to conmiand all candid judgments; and if he thus
228 THE SOUL-WINNER.
wins souls, he is wise. He may be an Apollos, grand-
ly rhetorical, whose lofty genius soars into the very
heaven of eloquence ; and if he wins souls in that way
he is wise, but not otherwise. Or he may be a Cephas,
rough and rugged, using uncouth metaphor and stern
declamation; but, if he wins souls, he is no less wise
than his polished brother or his argumentative friend,
but not else. The great wisdom of soul-winners, ac-
cording to the text, is proven only by their actual suc-
cess in really winning souls. To their own Master they
are accountable for the ways in which they go to work,
not to us. Do not let us be comparing and contrasting
this minister and that. Who art thou that judges an-
other man's servants? Wisdom is justified in all her
children. Only children wrangle about incidental
methods: men look at sublime results. Do these work-
ers of many sorts and divers manners win souls? Then
they are wise ; and you who criticise them, being your-
selves unfruitful, cannot be wise, even though you
afifect to be their judges. God proclaims soul-winners
to be wise, dispute it who dare. This degree from the
College of Heaven may surely stand them in good
stead, let their fellow-mortals say what they will of
them.
*'He that winneth souls is wise," and this can be
seen very clearly. He must be a wise man in even
ordinary respects who can by grace achieve so divine
a marvel. Great soul-winners never have been fools.
A man whom God qualifies to win souls could prob-
ably do anything else which providence might allot
him. Take Martin Luther, for instance. Why, sirs,
the man was not only fit to work a Reformation, but
he could have ruled a nation or have commanded an
army! Think of Whiteiield, and remember that the
thundering eloquence which stirred all England was
SOUL-WINNING EXPLAINED. 229
not associated with a weak judgment, or an absence
of brain-power; the man was a master-orator, and if
he had addicted himself to commerce, would have
taken a chief place amongst the merchants, or had he
been a politician, amid admiring- senates would have
commanded the listening ear. He that winneth souls
is usually a man who could have done anything else if
God had called him to it. I know the Lord uses wdiat
means He wills, but He always uses means suitable
to the end; and if you tell me that David slew Goliath
with a sling, I answer — it was the best w^eapon in the
world to reach so tall a giant, and the very fittest
weapon that David could have used, for he had been
skilled in it from his youth up. There is always an
adaptation in the instruments which God uses to pro-
duce the ordained result; and though the glory is not
to them, nor the excellence in them, but all is to be
ascribed to God, yet is there a fitness and preparedness
which God seeth, even if we do not. It is assuredly
true that soul-winners are by no means idiots or sim-
pletons, but such as God maketh wise for Himself,
though vain-glorious wise-acres may dub them fools.
"He that winneth souls is wise," because he has select-
ed a wise object. I think it was Michael Angelo who
once carved certain magnificent statues in snow. They
are gone; the material readily compacted by the frost
as readily melted in the heat. Far wiser was he when
he fashioned the enduring marble, and produced works
which will last all down the ages. But even marble it-
self is consumed and fretted by the tooth of time ; and
he is wise who selects for his raw material immortal
souls, w^hose existence shall outlast the stars. If God
shall bless us to the winning of souls, our w^ork shall re-
main when the wood, and hay, and stubble of earth's
art and science shall have gone to the dust from which
230 THE SOUL- WINNER.
they sprang. In heaven itself, the soul-winner, blessed
of God, shall have memorials of his work preserved
for ever in the galleries of the skies. He has selected a
w'ise object, for w^hat can be wiser than to glorify God,
and what, next to that, can be wiser than in the highest
sense to bless our fellowmen; to snatch a soul from
the gulf that yawns, to lift it up to the heaven that
glorifies ; to deliver an immortal from the thraldom of
Satan, and to bring him into the liberty of Christ?
What more excellent than this? I say, that such an aim
would commend itself to all right minds, and that
angels themselves may envy us poor sons of men that
we are permitted to make this our life-object, to win
souls for Jesus Christ. Wisdom herself assents to the
excellence of the design.
To accomplish such a work, a man must be wise,
for to win a soul requires infinite wdsdoni. God Him-
self wins not souls without wisdom, for the eternal
plan of salvation was dictated by an infallible judg-
ment, and in every line of it infinite skill is apparent.
Christ, God's great Soul-Winner, is "the wisdom of
God" as well as "the power of God." There is as
much wasdom to be seen in the new creation as in the
old. In a sinner saved, there is as much of God to be
beheld as in a universe rising out of nothing; and we,
then, w-ho are to be workers together with God, pro-
ceeding side by side with Him to the great work of
soul-winning, must be wise, too. It is a work which
filled the Saviour's heart, a work which moved the mind
of the Eternal Jehovah or ever the earth was. It is
no child's play, nor a thing to be achieved while we are
half asleep, nor to be attempted without deep consid-
eration, nor to be carried on without gracious help from
the only-wise God, our Saviour. The pursuit is wise.
Mark ye well, my brethren, that he who is success-
SOUL-WlNNlNG EXPLAINED. 231
fill ill soul-winning, will prove to have been a wise man
in the judgment of those who see the end as well as
the beginning. Even if 1 were utterly selfish, and had
no care for anything l)ut my own happiness, I would
choose, if I might, under God, to be a soul-winner,
for never did 1 know perfect, overflow^ing, unutter-
able happiness of the purest and most ennobling order
till I first heard of one who had sought and found a
Saviour through my means. I recollect the thrill of
joy whicii went through me! No young mother ever
rejoiced so much over her first-born child, no warrior
was so exultant over a hard-won victory. Oh! the joy
of knowing that a sinner once at enmity has been recon-
ciled to God by the Holy Spirit, through the words
spoken by our feeble lips. Since then, by grace given
to me, the thought of which prostrates me in self-
abasement, I have seen and heard of, not hundreds
only, but even thousands of sinners turned from the
error of their ways by the testimony of God in me. Let
alTflictions come, let trials be multiplied as God willeth,
still this joy preponderates above all others, the joy
that we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in every
place, and that as often as we preach the Word, hearts
are unlocked, bosoms heave with a new life, eyes weep
for sin, and their tears are wiped aw^ay as they see the
great Substitute for sin, and live.
Beyond all controversy, it is a joy worth worlds to
win souls, and, thank God, it is a joy that does not
cease with this mortal life. It must be no small bliss
to hear, as one wings his flight up to the eternal throne,
the wings of others fluttering at one's side towards the
same glory, and turning round and questioning them,
to hear them say, "We are entering with you through
the gates of pearl, you brought us to the Saviour,"
and to be w^elcomed to the skies bv those who call us
232 THE SOUL-WINNER.
father in God — father in better bonds than those of
earth, father through grace and sire for immortaUty.
it will be bliss beyond compare, to meet in yon eternal
seats with those begotton of us in Christ Jesus, for
whom we travailed in birth, till Christ was formed in
them the hope of glory. This is to have many heavens
— a heaven in every one won for Christ, according to
the Master's promise, "they that turn many to right-
eousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever."
I have said enough, brethren, I trust, to make some
of you desire to occupy the position of soul-winners;
but before I further address myself to my text, I should
like to remind you that the honour does not belong
to ministers only; they may take their full share of it,
but it belongs to every one of you who have devoted
yourselves to Christ: such honour have all the saints.
Every man here, every women here, every child here,
whose heart is right with God, may be a soul-winner.
There is no man placed by God's providence where he
cannot do some good. There is not a glow-worm
under a hedge but gives a needed light; and there is
not a labouring man, a suffering woman, a servant-
girl, a chimney-sweeper, or a crossing-sweeper, but
has some opportunities for serving God; and what I
have said of soul-winners, belongs not to the learned
doctor of divinity, or to the eloquent preacher alone,
but to you all who are in Christ Jesus. You can each
of you, if grace enables you, be thus wise, and win the
happiness of turning souls to Christ through the Holy
Spirit.
I am about to dwell upon my text in this way —
*'He that winneth souls is wise;" I shall, first, make
that fact stand out a little clearer by explaini?ig the
metaphor used ift the text — winning souls; and then,
secondly; by giving you some lessons in the matter of
SOUL-WINNING EXPLAINED. 233
sou/-7ainning, through which I trust the conviction
will be forced upon each believing mind that the work
needs the highest wisdom.
I. First, LET US CONSIDER THE META-
PHOR USED IX THE TEXT: "He that winneth
souls is wise."
We use the word "win" in many ways. It is some-
times found in very bad company, in those games of
chance, juggling tricks and sleight-of-hand, or thimble-
rigging (to use a plain word), by which sharpers are
so fond of winning. I am sorry to say that much of
legerdemain and trickery are to be met with in the
religious world. Why, there are those who pretend to
save souls by curious tricks, intricate manoeuvres, and
dexterous posture-making! A basin of water, half-a-
dozen drops, certain syllables — heigh, presto! — the in-
fant is made a child of God, a member of Christ, and
an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven ! This aqueous
regeneration surpasses my belief; it is a trick which I
do not understand: the initiated only can perform the
beautiful piece of magic, which excels anything ever
attempted by the Wizard of the North. There is a
way, too, of winning souls by laying hands upon heads,
only the elbows of the aforesaid hands must be en-
cased in lawn, and then the machinery acts, and there
is grace conferred by blessed fingers! I must confess
I do not understand the occult science, but at this
I need not wonder, for the profession of saving souls
by such juggling can only be carried out by certain
favoured persons who have received apostolical suc-
cession direct from Judas Iscariot. This episcopal
confirmation, when men pretend that it confers grace,
is an infamous piece of juggling. The whole thing is
234 THE SOUL-WINNER.
an abomination. Only to think that, in this nineteenth
century, there should be men who preach up salva-
tion by sacraments, and salvation by themselves, for-
sooth! Why, sirs, it is surely too late in the day to
come to us with this drivel! Priestcraft, let us hope,
is an anachronism, and the sacramental theory out of
date. These things might have done for those who
could not read, and in the days when books were
scarce ; but ever since the day when the glorious Luther
was helped by God to proclaim with thunder-claps the
emancipating truth, *'By grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God," there has been too much light for these Popish
owls. Let them go back to their ivy-mantled towers,
and complain to the moon of those who spoiled of old
their kingdom of darkness. Let shaven crowns go to
Bedlam and scarlet hats to the scarlet harlot, but let
not Englishmen yield them respect, ^lodern Tractar-
ianism is a bastard Poper};, too mean, too shifty, too
double-dealing to delude men of honest minds. If
we win souls, it shall be by other arts than Jesuits and
shavelings can teach us. Trust not in any man who
pretends to priesthood. Priests are liars by trade, and
deceivers by profession. \\'e cannot save souls in their
theatrical way. and do not want to do so, for we know
that with such juggler}^ as that Satan will hold the best
hand, and laugh at priests as he turns the cards against
them at the last.
How do we win souls, then? Why, the word '*win"
has a better meaning far. It is used in warfare. War-
riors win cities and provinces. Now, to win a soul
is a much more difficult thing than to win a city. Ob-
ser\^e the earnest soul-winner at his work; how cau-
tiously he seeks his great Captain's directions to know
when to hang^ out the white flag to invite the heart to
SOUL-WlNNlNG EXPLAINED. 235
surrender to the sweet love of a dying Saviour; when,
at the proper time, to hang out the black flag of threat-
ening, showing that, if grace be not received, judg-
ment will surely follow; and when to unfurl, with dread
reluctance, the red flag of the terrors of God against
stubborn, impenitent souls. The soul-winner has to sit
down before a soul as a great captain before a walled
town; to draw his lines of circumvallation, to cast up
his entrenchments, and fix his batteries. He must not
advance too fast, or he may overdo the fighting; he
must not move too slowly, or he may seem not to be in
earnest, and may do mischief. Then he must know
which gate to attack — how to plant his guns at Ear-
gate, and how to discharge them; how, sometimes, to
keep the batteries going day and night with red-hot
shot, if perhaps he may make a breach in the walls; at
other times, to lie by and cease firing, and then, on a
sudden, to open all the batteries with terrific violence,
if peradventure he may take the soul by surprise, or cast
in a truth when it was not expected, to burst like a
shell in the soul, and do damage to the dominions of
sin. The Christian soldier must know how to advance
by little and little — to sap that prejudice, to undermine
that old enmity, to blow into the air that lust, and at
the last, to storm the citadel. It is his to throw the scal-
ing ladder up,, and to have his ears gladdened as he
hears a clicking on the wall of the heart, telling that the
scaling ladder has grasped and has gained firm hold:
and then, with his sabre between his teeth, to climb
up, spring on the man. slay his unbelief in the name
of God, capture the city, run up the blood-red flag of
the cross of Christ, and say, "The heart is won, won
for Christ at last." This needs a warrior well-trained,
a master in his art. After many days' attack, man\
weeks of waiting, many an hour of storming by pray-
236 THE SOUL-WINNER.
er and battering by entreaty, to carry the Malakoff of
depravity, this is the work, this is the difficulty. It
takes no fool to do this. God's grace must make a man
wise thus to capture Mansoul, to lead its captivity,
captive, and open wide the heart's gates that the Prince
Immanuel may come in. This is winning a soul.
The word "win" was commonly used among the
ancients, to signify winning in the wrestling ?naich.
When the Greek sought to win the laurel, or the ivy
crown, he was compelled a long time before to put
himself through a course of training; and when he
came forth at last stripped for the encounter, he had
no sooner exercised himself in the first few efforts
than you saw how every muscle and every nerve had
been developed in him. He had a stern opponent, and
he knew it, and therefore left none of his energy un-
used. While the wrestling was going on, you could see
the man's eye, how he watched every motion, every
feint of his antagonist, and how his hand, his foot, and
his whole body were thrown into the encounter. He
feared to meet with a fall: he hoped to give one to his
foe. Now, a true soul-winner has often to come to
close quarters with the devil within men. He has to
struggle with their prejudice, with their love of sin,
with their unbelief, with their pride, and then again,
all of a sudden, to grapple with their despair; at one
moment he strives with their self-righteousness, at the
next moment with their unbelief in God. Ten thou-
sand arts are used to prevent the soul-winner from be-
ing conqueror in the encounter; but if God has sent
him, he will never renounce his hold of the soul he
seeks till he has given a throw to the power of sin, and
won another soul for Christ.
Besides that, there is another meaning to the word
"win" upon which I cannot expatiate here. We use
SOUL-WINNING EXPLAINED. 237
the word, you know, in a softer sense than these which
have been mentioned, when we come to deal with
hearts. There are secret and mysterious ways by which
those who love win the object of their affection, whicli
are wise in their fitness to the purpose. I cannot tell
you how the lover wins his fond one, but experience
has probably taught you. The weapon of this warfare
is not always the same, yet where that victory is won
the wisdom of the means becomes clear to every eye.
The weapon of love is sometimes a look, or a soft
word whispered and eagerly listened to; sometimes it
is a tear; but this I know, that we have, most of us
in our turn, cast around another heart a chain which
that other would not care to break, and which has
linked us twain in a blessed captivity which has cheered
our life. Yes, and that is very nearly the way in which
we have to save souls. That illustration is nearer the
mark than any of the others. Love is the true way
of soul-winning, for when I spoke of storming the
walls, and when I spoke of wrestling, those were but
metaphors, but this is near the tact. We win by love.
We win hearts for Jesus by love, by sympathy with their
sorrow, by anxiety lest they should perish, by plead-
ing with God for them with all our hearts that they
should not be left to die unsaved, by pleading with
them for God that, for tlieir own sake, they would seek
mercy and find grace. Yes, sirs, there is a spiritual
wooing and wining of hearts for the Lord Jesus; and
if you would learn the way, you must ask God to give
you a tender heart and sympathising soul. I believe
that much of the secret of soul-winning lies in having
bowels of compassion, in having spirits that can be
touched with the feeling of human infirmities. Carve
a preacher out of granite, and even if you give him
an angel's tongue, he will convert nobody. Put him
238 THE SOUL-WINNER.
into the most fashionable pulpit, make his elocution
faultless, and his matter profoundly orthodox, but so
long as he bears within his bosom a hard heart he can
never win a soul. Soul-saving requires a heart that
beats hard against the ribs. It requires a soul full of the
miik of human kindness; this is the sine ijua 71071 of
success. This is the chief natural qualification for a
soul-winner, which, under God, and blessed of Him,
will accomplish wonders.
I have not looked at the Hebrew of the text, but I
find — and you who have marginal references to your
Bibles will find — that it is, "He that /^^^M souls is
wise," which word refers to fishing, or to bird-catching.
Every Sunday, when I leave my house, as I come
along, I cannot help seeing men, with their cages and
their captive birds, tr^-ing all around the common, and
in the fields, to catch poor little warblers. They under-
stand the method of alluring and entrapping their vic-
tims. Soul-winners might learn much from them. We
must have our lures for souls, adapted to attract, to fas-
cinate, to grasp. We must go forth with our bird-lime,
our decoys, our nets, our baits, so that we may but
catch the souls of men. Their enemy is a fowler pos-
sessed of the basest and most astounding cunning;
we must outwit him with the guile of honesty, the craft
of grace. But the art is to be learned only by divine
teaching, and herein we must be wise and willing to
learn.
The man who takes fish must also have some art
in him. Washington Irving, I think it is, tells us of
some three gentlemen who had read in Izaak Walton
all about the delights of fishing. So they must needs
enter upon the same amusement, and accordingly they
became disciples of the gentle art. They went into New
York and bought the best rods and lines that could be
SOUL-WINNING EXPLAINED. 239
purchased, and they found out the exact fly for the par-
ticular day or month, so that the fish might bite at
once, and, as it were, fly into the basket with alacrity.
They fished, and fished, and fished the live-long day;
but the basket was empty. They were getting disgusted
with a sport that had no sport in it, when a ragged boy
came down from tlie hills, without shoes or stockings,
and humiliated them to the last degree. He had a bit
of a bough pulled of? a tree, and a piece of string, and
a bent pin ; he put a worm on it, threw it in, and out
came a fish directly, as if it were a needle drawn to a
magnet. In again went the line, and out came an-
other fish, and so on, till his 'basket was quite full.
They asked him how he did it. Ah! he said, he could
not tell them that, but it w-as easy enough when you
had the way of it.
Much the same is it in fishing for men. Some
preachers who have silk lines and fine rods, preach
very eloquently and exceedingly gracefully, but they
never win souls. I know not how it is, but another
man comes, with ver>' simple language, but with a
warm heart, and, straightway, men are converted to
God. Surely there must be a sympathy between the
minister and the souls he would win. God gives to
those whom He makes soul-winners a natural love to
their work and a spiritual fitness for it. There is a sym-
pathy between those who are to be blessed and those
who are to be the means of blessing, and very much
by this sympathy, under God, souls are taken; but
it is as clear as noonday that, to be a fisher of men a
man must be wise, "He that winneth souls is wise."
n. And now, brethren and sisters, you who are
engaged in the Lord's work from week to week, and
who seek to win men's souls to Christ. I am. in the
second place, to illustrate this by telling you of
240 THE SOUL-WINNER.
SOME OF THE WAYS BY WHICH SOULS
ARE TO BE WON.
The preacher himself wins souls best, I believe, when
he believes in the reality of his work — when he believes
in instantaneous conversions. How can he expect God
to do what he does not believe God will do? He suc-
ceeds best who expects conversion every time he
preaches. According to his faith so shall it be done
unto him. To be content without conversions, is the
surest way never to have them ; to drive with a single
aim entirely at the saving of souls, is the surest method
of usefulness. If we sigh and cry till men are saved,
saved they will be.
He will succeed best who keeps closest to soul- saving
truth. Now, all truth is not soul-saving, though all
truth may be edifying. He that keeps to the simple
story of the cross, tells men over and over again that
whosoever believeth in Christ is not condemned, that
to be saved, nothing is wanted but a simple trust in
the crucified Redeemer; he whose ministry is much
made up of the glorious story of the cross, the suffer-
ings of the dying Lamb, the mercy of God, the will-
ingness of the great Father to receive returning prodi-
gals; he who cries, in fact, from day to day, ''Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world," he is likely to be a soul-winner, especially if
he adds to this much prayer for souls, much anxious
desire that men may be brought to Jesus, and then in
his private life seeks as much as in his public minis-
try to be telling out to others of the love of the dear
Saviour of men.
But I am not talking to ministers, but to you who
sit in the pew, and therefore to you let me turn myself
more directly. Brothers and sisters, you have different
SOUL-WINNING EXPLAINED. 241
gifts. 1 hope you use them ah. Perhaps some of you.
though members of the church, think you have none;
but every believer has his gift, and his portion of work.
What can you do to win souls?
Let me recommend to those who think they can do
nothing, the brhiging of others to hear the lVor(f.
That is a duty much neglected. I can hardly ask you
to bring anybody here, but many of you attend other
places which are not perhaps half filled. Fill them.
Do not grumble at the small congregation, but make
it larger. Take somebody with you to the very next
sermon, and at once the congregation will be increased.
Go up with the prayer that your minister's sermon
may be blessed, and if you cannot yourselves preach,
yet, by bringing others under the sound of the Word,
you may be doing what is next best. This is a very
common-place and simple remark, but let me press it
upon you, for it is of great practical value. Many
churches and chapels, which are almost empty, might
soon have large audiences if those who profit by the
Word would tell others about the blessing they have
received, and induce them to attend the same ministry.
Especially in this London of ours, where so many
will not go up to the house of God, persuade your
neighbours to come forth to the place of worship;
look after them, make them feel that it is a wrong
thing to stop at home on the Sunday from morning
till night. I do not say upbraid them, that does little
good ; but I do say entice them, persuade them. Let
them have your tickets for the Tabernacle, for instance,
sometimes, or stand in the aisles yourself, and let them
have your seat. Get them under the Word, and who
knoweth what may be the result? Oh, what a bless-
ing it would be to you if you heard that what you
could not do — for you could scarcely speak for Christ
242 THE SOUL-WINNER.
— was done by your pastor, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, through your inducing one to come within gun-
shot of the gospel !
Next to that, soul-winners, try after sermon to talk
to strangers. The preacher may. have missed the mark,
but you need not miss it; or the preacher may have
struck the mark, and you can help to make the im-
pression deeper by a kind word. I recollect several
persons joining the church who traced their conver-
sion to the ministry in the Surrey Music Hall, but who
said it was not that alone, but another agency co-oper-
ating therewith. They were fresh from the country,
and some good man — I knew him well, I think he is irl
heaven now — met them at the gate, spoke to them, said
he hoped they had enjoyed what they had heard, heard
their answer, asked them if they were coming in the
evening, said he would be glad if they would drop into
his house to tea; they did, and he had a word with
them about the Master. The next Sunday it was the
same, and at last, those whom the sermons had not
much impressed, were brought to hear with other ears,
till by-and-by, through the good old man's persuasive
words, and the good Lord's gracious work, they were
converted to God. There is a fine hunting ground here,
and indeed in every large congregation, for you who
really want to do good. How many come into this
house every morning and evening with no thought
about receiving Christ! Oh, if you would all help me,
you who love the Master, if you would all help me
by speaking to your neighbours who sit near to you,
how much might be accomplished! Never let any-
body say, "I came to the Tabernacle three months,
and nobody spoke to me;" but do, by a sweet famil-
iarity, which ought always to be allowable in the house
of God, seek with your whole heart to impress upon
SOUL-WINNING EXPLAINED. 243
your friends the truth which I can only put into the
ear, but which God may help you to put into the heart.
Further, let me commend to you, dear friends; the
art of button-holing acquaintances and relatives. If
you cannot preach to a hundred, preach to one. Get
a hold of the man alone, and in love, quietly and pray-
erfully, talk to him. "One!" say you. Well, is not
one enough? I know your ambition, young man; you
want to preach here, to these thousands; be content,
and begin with the ones. Your Master was not
ashamed to sit on the well and preach to one; and
when He had finished His sermon. He had really done
good work to the whole city of Sychar, for that one
woman became a missionary to her friends. Timidity
often prevents our being useful in this direction, but
we must not give way to it; it must not be tolerated
that Christ should be unknown through our silence, and
sinners unwarned through our negligence. We must
school and train ourselves to deal personally with the
unconverted. We must not excuse ourselves, but force
ourselves to the irksome task till it becomes easy. This
is one of the most honourable modes of soul-winning;
and if it requires more than ordinary zeal and courage,
so much the more reason for our resolving to master
it. Beloved, we must win souls, we cannot live and
see men damned; we must have them brought to Jesus.
Oh ! then, be up and doing, and let none around you die
unwarned, unwept, uncared-for. A tract is a useful
thing, but a living word is better. Your eye, and face,
and voice will all help. Do not be so cowardly as to
give a piece of paper where your own speech would
be so much better. I charge you, attend to this, for
Jesus' sake.
Some of you could write letters for your Lord and
Master. To far-ofif friends, a few loving lines may be
244 THE SOUL- WINNER.
iiKJst influential for good. Be like the men of Issa-
char, who handled the pen. Paper and ink are never
better used than in soul-winning. Much has been done
by this method. Could not you do it? Will you not
try? Some of you, at any rate, if you could not speak
or write much, .could live much. That is a fine way
of preaching, that of preaching with your feet — I mean
preaching by your life, and conduct, and conversation.
That loving wife, who weeps in secret over an infidel
husband, but is always so kind to him ; that dear child,
whose heart is broken by his father's blasphemy, but
is so much more obedient than he used to be before
conversion; that servant, at whom the master swears,
but whom he could trust with his purse, and the gold
uncounted in it; that man in trade, who is sneered at
as a Presbyterian, but who, nevertheless, is straight as
a line, and would not be compelled to do a dirty action,
no, not for all the mint; these are the men and women
who preach the best sermons; these are your practi-
cal preachers. Give us your holy living, and with your
holy living as the leverage, we will move the world.
Under God's blessing, we will find tongues if we can,
but we greatly need the lives of our people to illus-
trate what our tongues have to say. The gospel is
something like an illustrated paper. The preacher's
words are the letterpress, but the pictures are the liv-
ing men and women who form our churches; and
as when people take up such a newspaper, they very
often do not read the letterpress, but they always look
at the pictures, so in a church, outsiders may not come
to hear the preacher, but they always consider, observe
and criticise the lives of the members. If you would be
soul-winners, then, dear brethren and sisters, see that
you live the gospel. I have no greater joy than this,
that mv children walk in the truth.
SOL'L-WINNING EXPLAINED. 245
One thing more, the soul-winner must be a master of
the art of prayer. You cannot bring souls to God if
you go not to God yourself. You must get your bat-
tle-axe, and your weapons of war, from the armoury
of sacred communication with Christ. If you are mucli
alone with Jesus, you will catch His Spirit; you will
be fired with the flame that burned in His breast, and
consumed His life. You will weep with the tears that
fell upon Jerusalem when He saw it perishing; and
if you cannot speak so eloquently as He did, yet shall
there be about what you say somewhat of the same
power which in Him thrilled the hearts and awoke the
consciences of men. My dear hearers, especially you
members of the church, I am always so anxious lest
any of you should begin to lie upon your oars, and
take things easy in the matters of God's kingdom.
There are some of you — I bless you, and I bless God
at the remembrance of you — who are in season, and
out of season, in earnest for winning souls, and you
are the truly wise; but I fear there are others whose
hands are slack, who are satisfied to let me preach, but
do not themselves preach; who take these seats, and
occupy these pews, and hope the cause goes well, but
that is all they do. Oh, do let me see you all in earn-
est! A great host of nearly five thousand members,
what ought we not to do if we are all alive, and all
in earnest? But such a host, without the spirit of en-
thusiasm, becomes a mere mob, an unwieldy mass, out
of which mischief grows, and no good results arise.
If you were all firebrands for Chnst, you might set the
nation on a blaze. If you were all wells of living water,
how many thirsty souls might drink and be refreshed!
Beloved, there is one question I will ask, and I have
done, and that is, Are your own souls won? You can-
not win others else. Are you yourselves saved? My
246 THE SOUL-WINNER.
hearers, every one of you, under that gallery there, and
you behind here, are you yourselves saved? What if
this night you should have to answer that question
to another and greater than I am? What if the bony
finger of the last great orator should be uplifted in-
stead of mine? What if his unconquerable eloquence
should turn those bones to stone, and glaze those eyes,
and make the blood chill in your veins? Could you
hope, in your last extremity, that you were saved? If
not saved, how will you ever be? When will you be
saved if not now? Will any time be better than now?
The way to be saved is simply to trust in what the Son
of man did when He became man, and suffered pun-
ishment for all those who trust Him. For all His peo-
ple, Christ was a Substitute. His people are those who
trust Him. If you trust Him, He was punished for
your sins; and you cannot be punished for them, for
God cannot punish sin twice, first in Christ, and then
in you. If you trust Jesus, who now liveth at the right
hand of God, you are this moment pardoned, and you
shall for ever be saved. Oh, that you would trust Him
now! Perhaps it may be now or never with you. May
it be now, even now, and then, trusting in Jesus, dear
friends, you will have no need to hesitate when the
question is asked, "Are you saved?'' for you can an-
swer, "Ay, that I am, for it is written, 'He that be-
lieveth in Him is not condemned.' " Trust Him, then,
trust Him now; and then God help you to be a soul-
winner, and you shall be wise, and God shall be glori-
fied!