Instruction in Soul-Winning
Charles Spurgeon · The Soul-Winner; or, How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour
"And he saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make
you fishers of men."— Matthew iv. 19.
INSTRUCTION IN SOUL-WINNING.
When Christ calls us by His grace, we ought not
only to remember what we are, but we ought also to
think of what He can make us. It is, "Follow Me,
and I will make you." We should repent of what we
liave been, but rejoice in what we may be. It is not,
"Follow ]\Ie, because of what you are already." It is
not, "Follow Me, because you may make something
of yourselves;" but ''Follow Me, because of what I
will make you." Verily, I might say of each one of us*
as soon as we are converted, "It doth not yet appear
v.diat we shall be." It did not seem a likely thing that
lowly fishermen would develop into apostles, that men
so handy with the net would be quite as much at home
in preaching sermons and in instructing converts. One
would have said, "How can these things be? You can-
not make founders of churches out of peasants of Gal-
ilee." That is exactly what Christ did; and when we
are brought low in the sight of God by a sense of our
own unworthiness, we may feel encouraged to follow
Jesus because of what He can make us. What said the
woman of a sorrowful spirit when she lifted up her
song? "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and
lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them
among princes." We cannot tell what God may make
of us in the new creation, since it would have been
quite impossible to have foretold what He made of
chaos in the old creation. Who could have imagined
274 THE SOUL-WINNER.
all the beautiful things that came forth from darkness
and disorder by that one fiat, "Let there be light"?
And who can tell what lovely displays of everything
that is divinely fair may yet appear in a man's formerly
dark life, when God's grace has said to him, *'Let there
be light"? O, you who see in yourselves at present
nothing that is desirable, come you and follow Christ
for the sake of what He can make out of you ! Do you
not hear His sweet voice calling to you, and saying,
"Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men?"
Note, next, that ive are not made all that we shall
be, nor all that we ought to desire to be, when we are
ourselves fished for and caught. This is what the grace
of God does for us at first; but it is not all. We are
like the fishes, making sin to be our element, as they
live in the sea ; and the good Lord comes, and with the
gospel net He takes us, and He delivers us from the
life and love of sin. But He has not wrought for us
all that He can do, nor all that we should wish Him
to do, when He has done this; for it is another and a
higher miracle to make us who were fish to become
fishers — to make the saved ones saviours — to make the
convert into a converter — the receiver of the gospel
into an imparter of that same gospel to other people.
I think I may say to every person whom I am address-
ing— If you are yourself saved, the work is but half
done until you are employed to bring others to Christ.
You are as yet but half formed in the image of your
Lord. You have not attained to the full development
of the Christ-life in you unless you'have commenced in
some feeble way to tell others of the grace of God; and
I trust that you will find no rest to the sole of your
foot till you have been the means of leading many
to that blessed Saviour who is your confidence and
your hope. His word is, "Follow Ale, not merely that
INSTRUCTION IN SOUL-WINNING. 275
you may l^e saved, iior even that you may be sancti-
fied; but 'Follow Me, and 1 will make you fishers of
men.' " Be following Christ with that intent and aim ;
and fear that you are not perfectly following Him un-
less in some degree lie is making use of you to be
fishers of men. The fact is, that every one of us must
take to the business of a man-catcher. If Christ has
caught us, we must catch others. If we have been ap-
prehended of Him, we must be His constables, to
apprehend rebels for Him. Let us ask Him to give
us grace to go a-fishing, and so to cast our nets that
we may take a great multitude of fishes. Oh, that the
Holy Ghost may raise up from among us some mas-
ter-fishers, who shall sail their boats in many a sea,
and surround great shoals of fish!
My teaching at this time will be very simple, but I
hope it will be eminently practical; for my longing is
that not one of you that love the Lord may be back-
ward in His service. What says the Song of Solomon
concerning certain sheep that come up from the wash-
ing? It says, "Every one bareth twins, and there is
not one barren among them." May that be so with
all the members of this church, and all the Christian
people wdio hear or read this sermon! The fact is,
the day is very dark. The heavens are lowering with
heavy thunder clouds. Men little dream of what tem-
pests may soon shake this city, and the whole social
fabric of this land, even to a general breaking up of
society. So dark may the night become that the stars
may seem to fall like blighted fruit from the tree. The
times are evil. Now, if never before, every glow-worm
must show its spark. You with the tiniest farthing
candle must take it from under the bushel, and set it
on a candlestick. There is need of you all. Lot was
a poor creature. He w\as a very, very wretched kind
276 THE SOUL-WINNER.
of believer; but still he might have been a great bless-
ing to Sodom had he but pleaded for it as he should
have done. And poor, poor Christians, as I fear many
are, one begins to value very truly every converted
soul in these evil days, and to pray that each one may
glorify the Lord. I pray that every righteous man,
vexed as he is with the conversation of the wicked,
may be more importunate in prayer than he has ever
been, and return unto his God, and get more spiritual
life, that he may be a blessing to the perishing people
around him. I address you, therefore, at this time,
first of all upon this thought. Oh, that the Spirit of
God may make each one of you feel his personal re-
sponsibility!
Here is for believers in Christ, in order to their use-
fulness, something for them to do: ''Follow Me."
But, secondly, here is something to be done by their
great Lord and Master: "Follow Me, and I will make
you fishers of men." You will not of yourselves grow
into fishers, but that is what Jesus will do for you if
you will but follow Him. And then, lastly, here is a
good illustration, used according to our great blaster's
wont; for scarcely without a parable did He speak
unto the people. He presents us with an illustration
of what Christian men should be — fishers of men. We
may get some useful hints out of it, and I pray the
Holy Spirit to bless them to us.
L First, then, I will take it for granted that every
believer here wants to be useful. If he does not, I
take leave to question whether he can be a true be-
liever in Christ. Well, then, if vou want to be really
useful, here is SOMETHING FOR YOU TO DO TO
THAT END: "Follow Me, and I will make you fish-
ers of men."
What is the way to become an efificient preacher?
INSTRUCTION IN SOUL-WINNING. 277
"Young man," says one, "go to college." "Young
man," says Christ, "follow Me, and I will make you
a fisher of men." How is a person to be useful? "At-
tend a training class," says one. Quite right; but there
is a surer answer than that — Follow Jesus, and He
will make you fishers of men. The great training
school for Christian workers has Christ at its head;
and He is at its head, not only as a Tutor, but as a
Leader: we are not only to learn of Him in study, but
to follow Him in action. "Follow Me, and I will make
you fishers of men." The direction is very distinct and
plain, and I believe that it is exclusive, so that no man
can become a fisherman by any other process. This
process may appear to be very simple; but assuredly
it is most efficient. The Lord Jesus Christ, who knew
all about fishing for men, was Himself the Dictator of
the rule, "Follow Me, if you want to be fishers of men.
If you would be useful, keep in My track."
I understand this, first, in this sense: d^ separate
unto Christ. These men were lo leave their pursuits;
they were to leave their companions; they were, in
fact, to c^uit the world, that their one business might
be, in their Master's name, to be fishers of men. We
are not called to leave our daily business, or to quit
our families. That might be rather running away from
the fishery than working at it in God's name; but we
are called most distinctly to come out from among the
ungodly, and to be separate, and not to toucli^the un-
clean thing. We cannot be fishers of men if we re-
main among men in the same element with them. Fish
will not be fishers. The sinner will not convert the
sinner. The ungodly man will not convert the un-
godly man; and, what is more to the point, the world-
ly Christian will not convert the world. If you are of
the world, no doubt the world will love its own: but
278 THE SOUL-WliNNER.
you cannot save the world. If you are dark, and be-
long to the kingdom of darkness, you cannot remove
the darkness. If you march with the armies of the
wicked one, you cannot defeat them. I believe that
one reason wliy the Church of God at this present mo-
ment has^ so little influence over the world is because
the world has so much influence over the Church.
Nowadays, we hear Nonconformists pleading that they
may do this, and they may do that — things which their
Puritan forefathers would rather have died at the stake
than have tolerated. They plead that they may live
like worldlings, and my sad answer to them, when
they crave for this liberty, is, ''Do it if you dare. It
may not do you much hurt, ioryou are so bad already.
Your cravings show how rotten your hearts are. If
you have a hungering after such dog's meat, go, dogs,
and eat the garbage ! Worldly amusements are fit food
for mere pretenders and hypocrites. If you were God's
children, you would loathe the very thought of the
world's evil joys, and your question would not be,
'How far may we be like the world?' but your one
cry would be, 'How far can we get away from the
world? How much can we come out from it?' Your
temptation would be rather to become sternly severe,
and ultra-Puritanical in your separation from sin, in
such a time as this, than to ask, 'How can I make
myself like other men, and act as they do?' "
Brethren, the use of the Church in the world is that
it should be like salt in the midst of putrefaction ; but if
the salt has lost its savour, what is the good of it? If
it were possible for salt itself to putrefy, it could but
be an increase and a heightening of the general putrid-
ity. The worst day the world ever saw was when the
sons of God were joined with the daughters of men.
Then came the flood; for the only barrier against a
liNirillU'C'ilON IN iSOlL-WlNNING. 279
flood of vengeance on this world is the separation
of the saint from the sinner. Your duty as a Christian
is to stand fast in your own place, and to stand out for
God, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh, re-
solving like one of old that, let others do as they will,
as for you and your house, you will serve the Lord.
Come, ye children of God, you must stand with your
Lord outside the camp. Jesus calls you to-day, and
says, "Follow ]\le." Was Jesus found at the theatre?
Did He frequent the sports of the race-course? Was
Jesus seen, think you, in any of the amusements of the
Herodian court? Not He. He was "holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners.'' In one sense,
no one mixed with sinners so completely as He did
when, like a physician. He -went among them healing
His patients; but, in another sense, there was a gulf
fixed between the men of the world and the Saviour,
W'hich He never essayed to cross, and which they could
not cross to defile Him.
The first lesson which the Church has to learn is
this: Follow Jesus into the separated state, and He
will make you fishers of men. Unless you take up
your cross, and protest against an ungodly w^orld, you
cannot hope that the holy Jesus will make you fishers
of men.
A second meaning of our text is very obviously
this: abide with Christy and then you will be made
fishers of men. These disciples whom Christ called
were to come and live with him. They were every
day to be associated with him. They were to hear
Flim teach publicly the everlasting gospel, and in ad-
dition they were to receive choice explanations in pri-
vate of the Word which He had spoken. They were
to be His body-servants and His familiar friends. They
w-ere to see His miracles and hear His prayers; and.
280 THE SOUL-WINNER.
better still, they were to be with Himself, and become
one with Him in His holy labour. It was given to
them to sit at the table with Him, and even to have
their feet washed by Him. Many of them fulfilled that
word, "Where thou dwellest, I will dwell": they were
with Him in His afHictions and persecutions. They
witnessed His secret agonies, they saw His many tears,
they marked the passion and the compassion of His
soul, and thus, after their measure, they caught His
spirit, and so they learned to be fishers of men
At Jesus' feet we must learn the art and mystery
of soul-winning: to live with Christ is the best educa-
tion for usefulness. It is a great boon to any man
to be associated with a Christian minister whose heart
is on fire. The best training for a young man is that
which the Vaudois pastors were wont to give, when
each old man had a young man with him who walked
with him whenever he went up the mountain-side to
preach, and lived in the house with him, and marked
his prayers, and saw his daily piety. This was a fine
course of instruction, was it not? But it will not com-
pare with that of the apostles who lived with Jesus
Himself, and were His daily companions. Matchless
was the training of the twelve. No wonder that they
became what they were with such a heavenly Tutor to
saturate them with His own spirit. His bodily pres-
ence is not now among us; but His spiritual power is
perhaps more fully known to us than it was to the
apostles in those two or three years of the Lord's cor-
poreal presence. There be some of us to whom He is
intimately near. We know more about Him than
we do about our dearest earthly friend. We have
never been able (julte to read our friend's heart in all
its twistings and windings, but we know the heart of
the Well-beloved. We have leaned our head upon His
INSTRUCTION IN 80UL-WINNIN0. 281
bosom, and have enjoyed fellowship with liini sueh
as we could not have with any of our own kith and kin.
This is the surest method of learning how to do good.
Live with Jesus, follow Jesus, and He will make you
fishers of men. See how He does the work, and so
learn how to do it yourself. A Christian man should
be bound apprentice to Jesus to learn the trade of a
Saviour. We can never save men by offering a re-
demption, for we have none to present; but we can
learn how to save men by warning them to flee from
the wrath to come, and setting before them the one
great eiTectual remedy. See how^ Jesus saves, and you
will learn how the thing is done: there is no learning
it anyhow else. Live in fellowship with Christ, and
there shall be about you an air and a manner as of one
who has been made in heart and mind apt to teach, and
wnse to win souls.
A third meaning, however, must be given to this
"Follow Me," and it is this: ^' Obey Me, and then you
shall know what to do to save men." We nmst not
talk about our fellowship with Christ, or our being
separated from the world unto Him, unless we make
Him our Master and Lord in everything. Some pub-
lic teachers are not true at all points to their convic-
tions; how can they look for a blessing? A Christian
man, anxious to be useful, ought to be very particular
as to every point of obedience to his Master. I have
no doubt whatever that God blesses our churches even
when they are very faulty, for His mercy endureth for
ever. When there is a measure of error in the teach-
ing, and a measure of mistake in the practice. He ma\-
still vouchsafe to use the ministry, for He is very gra-
cious; but a large measure of blessing nuist neces-
sarily be withheld from all teaching which is knowing-
ly or glaringly faulty. God can set His seal upon
282 THE SOUL-WINNER.
the truth that is in it, but He cannot set His seal upon
the error that is in it. Out of mistakes about Christian
ordinances and other things, especially errors in heart
and spirit, there may come evils which we never looked
for. Such evils may even now be telling upon the pres-
ent age, and may work worse mischief upon future gen-
erations.
If we desire, as fishers of men, to be largely used of
God, we must copy our Lord Jesus in everything and
obey Him in every point. Failure in obedience may
lead to failure in success. Each one of us, if he would
wish to see his child saved, or his Sunday-school class
blessed, or his congregation converted, must take care
that, bearing the vessels of the Lord, he is himself clean.
Anything we do that grieves the Spirit of God must
take away from us some part of our power for good.
The Lord is very gracious and pitiful; but yet He is a
jealous God. He is sometimes sternly jealous towards
His people who are living in neglect of known duty, or
in associations which are not clean in His sight. He
will wither their work, weaken their strength, and hum-
ble them until at last they each one say, *'My Lord, I
will take Thy way after all. I will do what Thou bid-
dest me to do, for else Thou wilt not accept me." The
Lord said to His disciples, "Go ye into all the world,
and preach the gospel to every creature: he that be-
lieveth and is baptized shall be saved" ; and He prom-
ised them that signs should follow, and so they did fol-
low, and so they will. But we must get back to apos-
tolic practice and to apostolic teaching; we must lay
aside the commandments of men and the whimseys of
our own brains, and we must do what Christ tells us,
as Christ tells us, and because Christ tells us. Definite-
ly and distinctly, we must take the place of servants;
and if we will not do that, we cannot expect our Lord
INSTRUCTION IN iSOUL-WlNNlNG. 2»3
to work with us and by us. Let us bo determined that,
as true as the needle is to the pole, so true will we be,
as far as our light goes, to the command of our Lord
and Master. Jesus says, 'ToUow ]\le, and 1 will make
you fishers of men." By this teaching He seems to
say, "Go beyond Me, or fall back away from Me,
and you may cast the net; but it shall be night with
you, and that night you shall take nothing. When you
shall do as I bid you, you shall cast your net on the
right side of the ship, and you shall find."
Again, I think that there is a great lesson in my
text to those who preach their own thoughts instead
of preaching the thoughts of Christ. These disciples
were to follow Christ that they might listen to Him,
hear what He had to say, drink in His teaching, and
then go and teach what He had taught them. Their
Lord said, "What I tell you in darkness, that speak
ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye
upon the housetops." If they will be faithful reporters
of Christ's message, He will make them "fishers of
men." But you know the boastful method, nowadays,
is this: "I am not going to preach this old, old gospel,
this musty Puritan doctrine. I will sit down in my
study, and burn the midnight oil, and invent a new
theory: then I will come out with my brand-new
thought, and blaze away with it." Many are not fol-
lowing Christ, but following themselves, and of them
the Lord may well say. "Thou shalt see whose word
shall stand, Mine or theirs." Others are wickedly pru-
dent, and judge that certain truths which are evident-
ly God's Word, had better be kept back. You must
not be rough, but must prophesy smooth things. To
talk about the punishment of sin, to speak of eternal
punishment, why, these are unfashionable doctrines.
It may be that they are taught in the Word of God,
284 THE SOUL-WINNER.
but they do not suit the genius of the age; we must
pare them down! Brothers in Christ, I will have no
share in this. Will you? O my soul, come not thou
into their secret! Certain things not taught in the
Bible our enlightened age has discovered. Evolution
may be clean contrary to the teaching of Genesis, but
that does not matter. We are not going to be believers
of Scripture, but original thinkers. This is the vain-
glorious ambition of the period.
Mark you, in proportion as the modern theology is
preached, the vice of this generation increases. To a
great degree, I attribute the looseness of the age to
the laxity of the doctrine preached by its teachers. From
the pulpit they have taught the people that sin is a
trifle. From the pulpit these traitors to God and to
His Christ have taught the people that there is no hell
to be feared. A little, little hell, perhaps, there may
be; but just punishment for sin is made nothing of.
The precious atoning sacrifice of Christ has been de-
rided and misrepresented by those who were pledged
to preach it. They have given the people the name of
the gospel, but the gospel itself has evaporated in their
hands. From hundreds of pulpits the gospel is as clean
gone as the dodo from its old haunts; and still the
preachers take the position and name of Christ's min-
isters. Well, and what comes of it? Why, their congre-
gations grow thinner and thinner; and so it must be.
Jesus says, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of
men ;" but if you go in your own way, with your own
net, you will make nothing of it, and the Lord promises
you no help in it. The Lord's directions make Himself
our Leader and Example. It is "Follow Me; follow Me.
Preach My gospel. Preach what I preached. Teach
what I taught, and keep to that." With that blessed
servility which becomes one whose ambition it is to be
INSTRUCTION IN SOUL-WINNING. 285
a copyist, and never to be an original, copy Christ even
in jots and tittles. Do this, and He will make you
fishers of men; but if you do not do this, you shall fish
in vain.
I close this head of my discourse by saying that we
shall not be fishers of men unless we follow Christ in
one other respect; and that is, by endeavouring, in
all points to imitate His holiiiess. Holiness is the
most real power that can be possessed by men or
women. We may preach orthodoxy, but we must
also live orthodoxy. God forbid that we should preach
anything else; but it will be all in vain, unless there
is a life at the back of the testimony. An unholy
preacher may even render truth contemptible. In pro-
portion as any of us draw back from a living and zeal-
ous sanctification, we shall draw back from the place
of pow-er. Our power lies in this word, "Follow Me."
Be Jesus-like. In all things endeavour to think, and
speak, and act as Jesus did, and He will make you fish-
ers of men. This will require self-denial. We must
daily take up the cross. This may require willingness
to give up our reputation — readiness to be thought
fools, idiots, and the like, as men are apt to call those
wdio are keeping close to their Alaster. There must be
the cheerful resigning of everything that looks like
honour and personal glory, in order that we may be
wholly Christ's, and glorify His name. We must live
His life, and be ready to die His death, if need be. O
brothers, sisters, if we do this, and follow Jesus, putting
our feet into the footprints of His pierced feet. He will
make us fishers of men ! If it should so please Him that
we should even die without having gathered many
souls to the cross, we shall speak from our graves. In
some way or other, the Lord will make a holy life to be
an influential life. It is not possible that a life which
286 THE SOUL-WINNER.
can be described as a following of Christ should be an
unsuccessful one in the sight of the Most High. "Fol-
low Me," and there is an "I will" such as God can
never draw back from: "Follow Me, and I will make
you fishers of men."
Thus much on the first point. There is something
for us to do: we are graciously called to follow Jesus.
Holy Spirit, lead us to do it!
H. But, secondly, and brieflv, there is SOME-
THING FOR THE LORD TO DO. When His dear
servants are following Him, He says, *T will make you
fishers of men;" and be it never forgotten that it is He
that makes us follow Him; so that, if the following of
Him be the step to being made a fisher of men, yet this
He gives us. 'Tis all of His Spirit. I have talked
about catching His spirit, and abiding in Him, and
obeying Him, and hearkening to Him, and copying
Him; but none of these things are we capable of apart
from His working them all in us. "From Me is thy fruit
found," is a text which we must not for a moment for-
get. So, then, if we do follow Him; it is He that
makes us follow Him; and so He makes us fishers of
men.
But, further, if we follow Christ, He will make us
fishers of men by all our experiefice. I am sure that
the man who is really consecrated to bless others will
be helped in this by all that he feels, especially by his
afiflictions. I often feel very grateful to God that I have
undergone fearful depression of spirits. I know the
borders of despair, and the horrible brink of that gulf
of darkness into which my feet have almost gone ; but
hundreds of times I have been able to give a helpful
grip to brethren and sisters who have come into that
same condition, which grip I could never have given if
I had not known their deep despondency. So I be-
rNFITRUCTION IN SOUL-WINNING. 287
li.jVL- that the darkest and most dreadful experience of
a child (^f Ciod will helj) him to be a fisher of men if he
will but follow Christ. Keep close to your Lord,
and He will make every step a blessing to you. If
God in providence should make you rich, He will fit
you to speak to those ignorant and wicked rich who
so much abound in this city, and so often are the cause
of its worst sin. And if the Lord is pleased to let you
be poor, you can go down and talk to those wicked
and ignorant poor people w^ho so often are the cause
of sin in this city, and so greatly need the gospel. The
winds of providence will waft you where you can fish
for men. The wdieels of providence are full of eyes,
and all those eyes wall look this way to help us to be
winners of souls. You wall often be surprised to find
how^ God has been in a house that you visit: before you
get there. His hand has been at work in its chambers.
When you wish to speak to some particular individual,
God's providence has been dealing with that individual
to make him ready for just that word which you could
say, but which nobody else but you could say. Oh,
be you following Christ, and you will find that He will,
by every experience througli which you are passing,
make you fishers of men!
Further than that, if you will follow Him, He will
make you fishers of men by distiuit motiitions in your
heart. There are many monitions from God's Spirit
which are not noticed by Christians when they are in
a callous condition; but when the heart is right with
God, and living in communion with God, we feel a
sacred sensitiveness, so that we do not need the Lord
to shout, but His faintest whisper is heard. Nay, he
need not even whisper. He will guide us with His
eye. Oh, how many mulish Christians there are, who
must be held in with bit and bridle, and receive a cut
288 THE SOITT. -WINNER.
c)f the wliip every now and then! But the Christian
who follows his Lord shall be tenderly guided. I do
not say that the Spirit of God will say to you, "Go
near, and join thyself to this chariot," or that you will
hear a word in your ear; but yet in your soul, as dis-
tinctly as the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near, and join
thyself to this chariot," you shall hear the Lord's will.
As soon as you see an individual, the thought shall
cross your mind, "Go and speak to that person." Every
opportunity of usefulness shall be. a call to you. If
you are ready, the door shall open before you, and you
shall hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way;
walk ye in it." If you have the grace to run in the
right way, you shall never be long without an intima-
tion as to what the right way is. That right way shall
lead you to river or sea, where you can cast your net,
and be a fisher of men.
Then, too, I believe that the Lord meant by this
that He would give His followers the Holy Ghost.
They were to follow Him, and then, when they had
seen Him ascend into the holy place of the Most High,
they were to tarry at Jerusalem for a little while, and
the Spirit would come upon them, and clothe them with
a mysterious power. This Word was spoken to Peter
and Andrew; and you know how it was fulfilled to
Peter. What a host of fish he brought to land the
first time he cast the net in the power of the Holy
Ghost! "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of
men."
Brethren, we have no conception of what God could
do by this company of believers gathered in the Taber-
nacle to-night. If now we were to be filled with the
Holy Ghost, there are enough of us to evangelize Lon-
don. There are enough here to be the means of the
salvation of the world. God saveth not by many nor
INSTRUCTION IN SOUL-WINNING. 289
by few. Let us seek to be made a benediction to our
fellow-creatures; and if we seek it, let us hear this
directing voice, "Follow Me, and I will make you
fishers of men." You men and women that sit before
me, you are by the shore of a great sea of human life
swarming with the souls of men. You live in the midst
of millions; but if you will follow Jesus, and be faith-
ful to Him, and true to Him, and do what He bids
you, He will make you fishers of men. Do not say,
"Who shall save this city?" The weakest shall Se
strong enough. Gideon's barley cake shall smite the
tent, and make it lie along the ground. Samson, with
the jawbone, taken up from the earth where it was lying
bleaching in the sun, shall smite the Philistines. Fear
not, neither be dismayed. Let your responsibilities
drive you closer to your Master. Let horror of pre-
vailing sin make you look into His dear face who long
ago wept over Jerusalem, and now weeps over Lon-
don. Clasp Him, and never let go your hold. By the
strong and mighty impulses of the divine life within
you, quickened and brought to maturity by the Spirit
of God, learn this lesson from your Lord's owii mouth :
''Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
You are not fit for it, but He will make you fit. You
cannot do it of yourselves, but He will make you do
it. You do not know how to spread nets and draw
shoals of fish to shore, but He will teach you. Only
follow Him, and He will make you fishers of men.
I wish that I could somehow say this as with a
voice of thunder, that the whole Church of God might
hear it. I wish I could write it in stars athwart the
sky, "J^sus saith. Follow Me, and I will make you
fishers of men." If you forget the precept, the prom-
ise shall never be yours. If you follow some other
track, or imitate some other leader, vou shall fi^li in
290 THE SOUL-WINNER.
vain. God grant us to believe fully that Jesus can do
great things in us, and then do great things by us for
the good of our fellows !
III. The last point you might work out in full for
yourselves in vour private meditations with much profit.
We have here A FIGURE FULL OF INSTRUC-
TION. I will give you but two or three thoughts
which you can use. **I will make yon fo/iers of men.''*
You have been fishers of fish : if you follow Me, I will
make you fishers of men.
A fisher is a person who is very dependent and needs
to be trustful. He cannot see the fish. One who fishes
in the sea must go and cast in the net, as it were, at
a peradventure. Fishing is an act of faith. I have often
seen, in the Mediterranean, men go with their boats,
and enclose acres of sea with vast nets; and yet, when
they have drawn the net to shore, they have not had
as much result as I could put in my hand. A few
wretched silvery nothings have made up the whole
take. Yet they have gone again, and cast the great
net several times a day, hopefully expecting something
to come of it. Nobody is so dependent upon God as
the minister of God. Oh, this fishing from the Taber-
nacle pulpit! What a work of faith! I cannot tell that
a soul will be brought to God by it. I cannot judge
whether my sermon will be suitable to the persons who
are here, except that I do believe that God will guide
me in the casting of the net. I expect Him to work
salvation, and I depend upon Him for it. I love this
complete dependence, and if I could be offered a cer-
tain amount of preaching power, VN^hich should be en-
tirely at my own disposal, and by which I could save
sinners, I w^ould beg the Lord not to let me have it,
for it is far more delightful to be entirely dependent
upon Him at all times. It is good to be a fool when
INSTRUCTION IN SOUL-WINNING. 201
Christ is made unto you wisdom. It is a blessed tiling;
to be weak if Christ becomes more fully your strength.
Go to work, you who would be fishers of men, and yet
feel your insuflficiency. You that have no strenglli, at-
tempt this (Hvine work. Your Master's strength will be
seen when your own has all gone. A fisherman is a de-
pendent person, he must look up for success every
time he puts the net down; but still he is a trustful
person, and therefore he casts in the net joyfully,
A fisherman who gets his living by it is a dilii^ejit
and persevering man. The fishers are up at dawn.
At day-break our fishermen of¥ the Dogger-bank are
fishing, and they continue fishing till late in the after-
noon. As long as hands can w^ork, men will fish. May
the Lord Jesus make us hard-working, persevering,
unwearied fishers of men! "In the morning sow thy
seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for
thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or
that."
The fisherman in his o\vn craft is intcUigcnt and
watchful. It looks very easy, I dare say, to be a fisher-
man, but you would find that it was no child's play
if you were to take a real part in it. There is an
art in it, from the mending of the net right on to the
pulling it to shore. How diligent the fisherman is to
prevent the fish leaping out of the net! I heard a
great noise one night in the sea, as if some huge drum
were being beaten by a giant; and I looked out, and
I saw that the fishermen of Mentone were beating the
water to drive the fish into the net, or to keep them
from leaping out when they had once encompassed
them with it. Ah, yes! and you and I will often
have to be watching the corners of the gospel net lest
sinners who are almost caught should make their es-
cape. Thev are very crafty, these fish, and they use
292 THE SCUL-WINNER.
this craftiness in endeavouring to avoid salvation. We
shall have to be always at our business, and to exercise
all our wits, and more than our own wits, if we are to
be successful fishers of men.
The fisherman is a very laborious person. It is not
at all an easy calling. He does not sit in an armchair
and catch fish. He has to go out in rough weathers.
If he that regardeth the clouds will not sow, I am sure
that he that regardeth the clouds will never fish. If
we never do any work for Christ except when we feel
up to the mark, we shall not do much. If we feel that
we will not pray because we cannot pray, we shall never
pray; and if we say, "I will not preach to-day because
I do not feel that I could preach," we shall never preach
any preaching that is worth the preaching. We must
be always at it, until we wear ourselves out, throwing
our whole soul into the work in all weathers, for
Christ's sake.
The fisherman is a daringvian. He tempts the bois-
terous sea. A little brine in his face does not hurt him;
he has been wet through a thousand times, it is noth-
ing to him. He never expected, when he became a
deep-sea fisherman, that he was going to sleep in the
lap of ease. So the true minister of Christ, who fishes
for souls, will never mind a little risk. He will be
bound to do or say many a thing that is very unpopu-
lar; and some Christian people may even judge his
utterances to be too severe. He must do and say that
which is for the good of souls. It is not his to enter-
tain a question as to what others will think of his doc-
trine, or of him ; but in the name of the Almighty God
he must feel, "If the sea roar and the fulness thereof,
still at my Master's command I will let down the net."
Now, in the last place, the man whom Christ makes
2i^'&\iQtoivci^x\ is successful. ''But, "says one, *'Ihave
INSTRUCTION IN SOUL-WINNING. 293
always heard that Christ's ministers are to be faithful,
but that they cannot be sure of being successful," Yes,
I have heard that saying, and one way I know it is true,
but another way I have my doubts about it. He that
is faithful is, in God's way and in God's judgment, suc-
cetesful, more or less. For instance, here is a brother
who says that he is faithful. Of course, I must believe
him, yet I never heard of a sinner being saved under
him. Indeed, I should think that the safest place for
a person to be in if he did not want to be saved would
l)e under this gentleman's ministry, because he does not
preach anything that is likely to arouse, impress, or
convince anybody. This brother is "faithful;" so he
says. Well, if any person in the world said to you,
*T am a fisherman, but I have never caught anything,"
you would wonder how he could be called a fisherman.
A farmer who never grew any wheat, or any other
crop — is he a farmer? When Jesus Christ says, "Fol-
low ^le, and I will make you fishers of men," He means
that you shall really catch men, that you really shall
save some; for he that never did get any fish is not a
fisherman. He that never saved a sinner after years
of work is not a minister of Christ. If the result of
his life-work is ////, he made a mistake when he under-
took it. Go thou with the fire of God in thy hand, and
fling it among the stubble, and the stubble will burn.
Be thou sure of that. Go thou and scatter the good
seed; it may not all fall in fruitful places, but some of
it will. Be thou sure of that. Do but shine, and some
eye or other will be lightened thereby. Thou must,
thou shalt succeed. But remember this is the Lord's
word, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Keep close to Jesus, and do as Jesus did, in His spirit,
and He will make you fishers of men.
Perhaps I speak to an attentive hearer who is not
294 THE SOUL-WINNER.
converted at all. Friend, 1 have the same thing to
say to you. You also may follow Christ, and then
He can use you, even you. I do not know but that He
has brought you to this place that you may be saved,
and that in after years He may make you speak for
His name and glory. Remember how He called S^ul
of Tarsus, and made him the apostle of the Gentiles.
Reclaimed poachers make the best game-keepers; and
saved sinners make the ablest preachers. Oh, that you
would run away from your old master to-night, with-
out giving him a minute's notice; for if you give him
any notice, he will hold you. Hasten to Jesus, and say,
"Here is a poor runaway slave! My Lord, I bear the
fetters still upon my wrists. Wilt Thou set me free,
and make me Thine own?" Remember, it is written,
"Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out."
Never runaway slave came to Christ in the middle of
the night without His taking him in! and He never
gave one up to his old master. If Jesus make you free,
you shall be free indeed. Flee away to Jesus, then,
on a sudden. May His good Spirit help you, and He
will by-and-by make you a winner of others to His
praise ! God bless you ! Amen.