Qualifications for Soul-Winning—Manward
Charles Spurgeon · The Soul-Winner; or, How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour
keeping myself to one set of those qualifications, name-
ly, the Godward ones, and I shall try to treat the sub-
ject in somewhat of a common-sense style, asking you
to judge for yourselves what those qualifications would
be wliich God would naturally look for in His servants,
w^hat qualifications He would be likely to approve, and
most likely to use. You must know that every work-
man, if he be wise, uses a tool that is likely to accom-
plish the purpose he has in view. There are some
artists who have never been able to play except upon
their own violin, nor to paint except with their own
favourite brush and palette; and certainly, the great
God, the mightiest of all the workers, in His great ar-
tistic work of soul-winning, loves to have His own
special tools. In the old creation, He used none but
40 THE SOUL-WINNER.
His own instruments, "He spake, and it was done;"
and in the new creation, the efficient agent is still His
powerful Word. He speaks through the ministry of
His servants, and therefore they must be fit trumpets
for Him to speak through, fit instruments for Him to
use for conveying His Word to the ears and hearts
of men. Judge ye, then, my brethren, whether God
will use you; imagine yourselves in His place, and
think what kind of men those would be whom you
would be most likely to use if you were in the posi-
tion of the Most High God. .
\ I am sure ^ou would say, first of all, that« man whol
is to be a soiil-wijiner must have holiness of characterA
Ah! how few who attempt to preach think sufficiently!
of this! If they did, it would strike them at once that
the Eternal would never use dirty tools, that the thrice-
holy Jehovah would only select holy instruments for
the accomplishment of His work. No wise man would
pour his wine into foul bottles; no kind and good
parent would allow his children to go to see an im-
moral play; and God will not go to work with instru-
ments which would compromise His own character.
Suppose it were well known that, if men were only
clever, God would use them, whatever their charac-
ter and conduct might be; suppose it were under-
stood that you could get on as well in the work of
God by chicanery and untruthfulness as by honesty
and uprightness, what man in the world, with any right
feeling, would not be ashamed of such a state of af-
fairs? But, brethren, it is not so. There are many
in the present day who tell us that the theatre is a
great school for morals. That must be a strange school
where the teachers never learn their own lessons. In
God's school, the teachers must be masters of the art
of holiness.. If we teach one thing by our lips and
QUALIFICATIONS B^OR SOUL-WINNING. 41
another by our lives, those who Usten to us will say,
"Physician, heal thyself." "Thou sayest, 'Repent.'
Where is thine own repentance? Thou sayest, 'Serve
God, and be obedient to His will' Do you serve
Him? Are you obedient to His will?" An unholy
ministry would be the derision of the world, and a
dishonour to God. "Be ye clean, that bear the ves-
sels of the Lord." He will speak through a fool if he be
but a holy man. I do not, of course, mean that God
chooses fools to be His ministers; but let a man
once become really holy, even though he has but the
slenderest possible ability, he will be a more fit in-
strument in God's hand than the man of gigantic
acquirements, who is not obedient to the divine will,
nor clean and pure in the sight of the Lord God
Almighty.
Dear brethren, I do beg you to attach the highest
importance to your own personal holiness. Do live
unto God. If you do not, your Lord will not be with
you; He will say of you as He said of the false
prophets of old, 'T sent them not, nor commanded
them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all,
saith the Lord." You may preach very fine sermons,
but if you are not yourselves holy, there will be no
souls saved. The probability is that you will not come
to the conclusion that your want of holiness is the
reason for your non-success; you will blame the peo-
ple, you will blame the age in which you live, you
will blame anything except yourself; but there will
be the root of the whole mischief. Do I not myself
know men of considerable ability and industry, who
go on year after year without any increase in their
churches? The reason is that they are not living
before God as they ought to live. Sometimes the evil
is in the family of the minister; his sons and daugh-
42 T|iE SOUL-WINNER.
ters are rebels against God, bad language is allowed
even amongst his own children, and his reproofs are
simply like Eli's mild question to his wicked sons,
"Why do ye such things?" Sometimes, the minister is
worldly, greedy after gain, neglectful of his work.
That is not according to God's mind, and He will
not bless such a man. When I listened to Mr. George
Miiller, as he was preaching at Mentone, it was just
such an address as might be given to a Sunday-school
by an ordinary teacher, yet I never heard a sermon
that did me more good, and more richly profited my
soul. It was George Miiller in it that made it so use-
ful. There was no George Miiller in it in one sense;
for he preached not himself, but Christ Jesus the Lord;
he was only there in his personality as a witness to
the truth, but he bore that witness in such a manner
that you could not help saying, "That man not only
preaches what he believes, but also what he lives." In
every word he uttered his glorious life of faith seemed
to fall upon both ear and heart. I was delighted to
sit and listen to him; yet, as for novelty or strength
of thought, there was not a trace of it in the whole
discourse. Holiness was the preacher's force; and
you may depend upon it that, if God is to bless us, our
strength must lie in the same direction.
This holiness ought to show itself in communion
with God. If a man delivers his own message, it
will have such power as his own character gives to it;
but if he delivers his Master's message, having heard
it from his Master's lips, that will be quite another
thing; and if he can acquire something of the Mas-
ter's spirit as He looked upon him, and gave him the
message, if he can reproduce the expression of his
Master's face, and the tone of his Master's voice, that
also will be quite another thing. Read McCheyne's
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 43
Memoir, read the whole of it, I cannot do you a better
service than by recommending you to read it; there
is no great freshness of thought, there is nothing very
novel or striking in it, but as you read it, you must get
good out of it, for you are conscious that it is the story
of the life of a man who walked with God. Moody
would never have spoken with the force he did if he
had not lived a life of fellowship with the Father, and
with His Son, Jesus Christ. The greatest force of the
sermon lies in what has gone before the sermon. You
must get ready for the whole service by private fellow-
ship with God, and real holiness of character.
You will all confess that, if a man is to be used;
as a winner of souls, he must have spiritual life to «|.
high degree. You see, brethren, our work is, under j '
God, to communicate life to others. It would be well
to imitate Elisha when he stretched himself upon the
dead child, and brought him back to life. The
prophet's staff was not sufficient, because it had no
life in it: the life must be communicated by a living
instrument, and the man who is to communicate the
life must have a great deal of it himself. You re-
member the words of Christ, "He that believeth on
Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water," that is, the Holy Spirit,
when He dwells within a living child of God, after-
wards rises out of the very midst of him as a foun-
tain or a river, so that others may come and partici-
pate in the Spirit's gracious influences. I do not think
there is one of you who would wish to be a dead min-
ister. God will not use dead tools for working living
miracles; He must have living men, and men that are
all alive. There are many who are alive, but they are not
altogether alive. I remember once seeing a painting of
the resurrection, which was one of the queerest pictures
44 THE SOUL-WINNER.
I ever saw. The artist had attempted to depict the
moment when the work was only half done; there
were some who were alive down as far as their waists,
some had one arm alive, some had part of their heads
alive. The thing is quite possible in our day. There
are some men who are only about half alive ; they have
a living jaw, but not a living heart; others have a
living heart, but not a living brain; others have a
living eye, they can see things pretty plainly, but their
hearts are not alive, they can give good descriptions
of what they see, but there is no warmth of love in
them. There are some ministers who are one-half
angel, and the other half — well, let us say, maggots.
It is an awful contrast; but there are many instances
of it. Are there any such here? They preach well,
and you say, as you listen to one of them, 'That is a
good man." You feel that he is a good man; you
hear that he is going to such-and-such a person's house
to supper, and you think that you will go in to supper
there, too, that you may hear what gracious words
will fall from his lips; and as you watch, out they
come — maggots! It was an angel in the pulpit; now
come the worms ! It is so, often, but it ought never to
be so; if we want to be true witnesses for God, we
must be all angel and no worms. God deliver us
from this state of semi-death! May we be all alive
from the crown of our head to the sole of our foot!
I know some such ministers; you cannot come into
contact with them without feeling the power of the
spiritual life which is in them. It is not merely while
they are talking upon religious topics, but even in
the commonplace things of the world, you are con-
scious that there is something about the men which
tells you that they are all alive unto God. Such men
will be used by God for the quickening of others.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL- WINNING. 45
Suppose it were possible for you to be exalted into
the place of God, do you not think, next, that you
would employ a man who thought little of himself, a
man of humble spirit? If you saw a very proud man,
would you be likely to use him as your servant? Cer-
tainly, the great God has a predilection for those who
are humble. "For thus saith the high and lofty One
that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell
in the high and holy place, with him also that is of
a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the
humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."
He loatheth the proud; and whenever He sees the
high and mighty, He passes them by; but whenever
He finds the lowly in heart, He takes pleasure in ex-
alting them. He delights especially in humility
amongst His ministers. It is an awful sight to see a
proud minister. There are few things that can give
the devil more joy than this, whenever he takes his
walks abroad. Here is something that delights him,
and he says to himself, "Here are all the preparations
for a great fall before long." Some ministers show
their pride by their style in the pulpit; you can never
forget the way in which they announced their text;
'*It is /.• be not afraid.*' Others manifest it in their
attire, in the silly vanity of their dress ; or else in their
common talk, in which they continually magnify the
deficiencies of others, and dilate on their own extra-
ordinary excellences. There are two sorts of proud
people, and it is difficult sometimes to say which of the
two is the worse. There is, first of all, the kind that is
full of that vanity which talks about itself, and invites
other people to talk about it, too, and to pat it on the
back, and stroke its feathers the right way. It is all
full of its little morsel of a self, and goes strutting
about, and saying, "Praise me, please, praise me, I
46 THE SOUL-WINNER.
want it," like a little child who goes to each one in the
room, and says, ''See my new dress; isn't it a beauty?"
You may have seen some of these pretty dears ; I have
met many of them. The other kind of pride is too
big for tiiat sort of thing. It does not care for it; it
despises people so much that it does not condescend
to wdsh for their praises. It is so supremely satisfied
with itself that it does not stoop to consider what
others think of it. I have sometimes thought it is the
more dangerous kind of pride spiritually, but it is
much the more respectable of the two. There is, after
all, something very noble in being too proud to be
proud. Suppose those great donkeys did bray at you,
do not be such a donkey as to notice them. But this
other poor little soul says, "Well, everybody's praise
is worth something," and so he baits his mousetraps,
and tries to catch little mice of praise, that he may
cook them for his breakfast. He has a mighty appetite
for such things. Brethren, get rid of both kinds of
pride if you have anything of either of them about
you. The dw^arf pride and the ogre pride are both of
them abominations in the sight of the Lord. Never
forget that you are disciples o£' Him who said, "Learn
of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart."
Humility is not having a mean opinion of yourself.
If a man has a low opinion of himself, it is very possible
that he is correct in his estimate. I have known some
people, whose opinion of themselves, according to what
they have said, was very low indeed. They thought
so little of their own powers that they never ventured
to try to do any good; they said they had no self-
reliance. I have known some so wonderfully humble
that they have always liked to pick an easy place for
themselves; they were too humble to do anything
that would bring any blame upon them; they called
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 47
it humility, but I thought "sinful love of ease" would
have been a better name for their conduct. True
humility will lead you to think rightly about your-
selves, to think the truth about yourselves.
In the matter of soul-winning, humility makes you
feel that you are nothing and nobody, and that, if
God gives you success in the work, you will be driven
to ascribe to Him all the glory, for none of the credit
of it could properly belong to you. If you do not
have success, humility will lead you to blame your
own, folly and weakness, not God's sovereignty. Why
should God give blessing, and then let you run away
with the glory of it? The glory of the salvation of
souls belongs to Him, and to Him alone. Then why
should you try to steal it? You know how many
attempt this theft. "When I was preaching at such-
and-such a place, fifteen persons came into the vestry
at the close of the service, and thanked me for the
sermon I had preached." You and your blessed sermon
be hanged, — I might have used a stronger word if I
had liked, for really you are worthy of condemnation
whenever you take to yourself the honour wdiich
belongeth unto God only. You remember the story
of the young prince, who came into the room where
he thought his dying father was sleeping, and put the
king's crown on his head to see how it would fit him.
The king, who was watching him, said, "Wait a little
while, my son, wait till I am dead." So, when you
feel any inclination to put the cro^wn of glor\^ on your
head, just fancy that you hear God saying to you,
"Wait till I am dead, before you try on My crown."
As that will never be, you had better leave the crown
alone, and let Him wear it to whom it rightfully
belongs. Our song must ever be, *'Not unto us, O
48 THE SOUL-WINNER.
Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for
Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake."
Some men who have not had humihty, have been
sent adrift from the ministry, for the Lord will not use
those who will not ascribe the honour entirely to
Himself. Humility is one of the chief qualifications
for usefulness; many have passed away from the roll
of useful men because they have been lifted up with
pride, and so have fallen into the snare of the devil.
Perhaps you feel that, as you are only poor students,
there is no fear of your falling into this sin; but it is
quite possible that with some of you there is all the
more danger, for this very reason, if God should bless
you, and put you in a prominent position. A man who
is brought up in a good circle of society all his life,
does not feel the change so much when he reaches a
position which to others would be a great elevation. I
always feel that, in the case of certain men whom I
could name, a great mistake was made. As soon as
they were converted, they were taken right out of
their former associations, and put before the public as
popular preachers. It was a great pity that many made
little kings of them, and so prepared the way for their
fall, for they could not bear the sudden change. It
would have been a good thing for them, if ever}^body
had pitched into them, and abused them, for ten or
twenty years; for it would have probably saved them
from much after-misery. I am always very grateful
for the rough treatment I received in my earlier days
from all sorts of people. The moment I ever did any
good thing at all, they were at me like a pack of
hounds. I had not time to sit down and boast what I
had done, for they w^ere raving and roaring at me
continually. If I had been picked up all of a sudden.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 49
and placed where 1 am now, the probabihty is that
I should have gone down again just as quickly. When
you go out of the College, it will be well for you if
you are treated as I was. If you have great success,
it will turn your head if God does not permit you to
be afflicted in some way or other. If you are ever
tempted to say, "Is not this great Babylon, that I
have built?" just remember Nebuchadnezzar, when
he was "driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen,
and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till
his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his
nails like birds' claws." God has many ways of
fetching proud Nebuchadnezzars down, and He can
very easily humble you too, if you are ever lifted
up with conceit. This point of the need of deep
humility in a soul-winner does not need any proof;
everyone can see, with half an eye, that God is not
Hkely to bless any man much unless he is truly
humble.
The next essential qualification for success in the
work of the Lord, and it is a vital one, is a living faitJi.
You know, brethren, how the Lord Jesus Christ could
not do many mighty works in his own country because
of the unbelief of the people; and it is equally true that
with some men, God can not do many mighty works be-
cause of their unbelief. If ye will not believe, neither
shall ye be used of God. "According to your faith be
it unto you," is one of the unalterable laws of His
kingdom. *Tf ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to
yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall
be impossible unto you ;" but if the question has to be
put, "Where is your faith?" the mountains will not move
for you, nor will even a poor sycamore tree be stirred
from its place.
50 tHE SOUL- WINNER.
You must have faith, brethren, about your call to
the ministry; you must believe without question that
you are really chosen of God to be ministers of the
gospel of Christ. If you firmly believe that God has
called you to preach the gospel, you will preach it
with courage and confidence; and you will feel that
you are going to your work because you have a right
to do it. If you have an idea that possibly you are
nothing but an interloper, you will do nothing of any
account; you will be only a poor, limping, diffident,
half-apologetic preacher, for whose message no one
will care. You had better not begin to preach until
you are quite sure that God has called you to the
work. A man once wrote to ask me whether he should
preach or not. When I do not know what reply to
send to anyone, I always try to give as wise an answer
as I possibly can. Accordingly, I wrote to this man,
"Dear Friend — If the Lord has opened your mouth,
the devil cannot shut it; but if the devil has opened
it, may the Lord shut it up!" Six months afterwards,
I met the man, and he thanked me for my letter,
which, he said, greatly encouraged him to go on
preaching. I said, "How was that?'' He replied,
"You said, If the Lord has opened your mouth, the
devil cannot shut it' " I said, "Yes, I did so ; but I
also put the other side of the question." "Oh!" said
he, at once, "that part did not relate to me." We can
always have oracles to suit our own ideas if we know
how to interpret them. If you have genuine faith in
your call to the ministry, you wdll be ready, with
Luther, to preach the gospel even while standing
within the jaws of the leviathan, between his great
teeth.
You must also believe that the message you have
to deliver is God's Word. I had sooner that you
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 51
believed half-a-dozen truths intensely than a hundred
only feebly. If your hand is not large enough to hold
a great deal, hold firmly what you can; because, if it
came to a regular push and shove, and we all of us
were allowed to carry away as much gold as we could
take from a heap, it might not be much use to have a
very big purse, but he would come ofif best in the
scuffle who should close his hand tightly on as much
as he could conveniently hold, and not let it go. Wc
may sometimes do well to imitate the boy mentioned
in the ancient fable. When he put his hand into a
narrow-necked jar, and grasped as many nuts as lie
could hold, he could not get even one of them out;
but when he let half of them go, the rest came out
with ease. So must we do; we cannot hold every-
thing, it is impossible, our hand is not big enough;
but when we do get anything in it, let us hold it fast,
and grip it tightly. Believe what you do believe, or
else you will never persuade anybody else to believe
it. If you adopt this style, **I think this is a truth,
and as a young man I beg to ask your kind attention
to what I am about to say; I am merely suggesting,"
and so on, if that is your mode of preaching, you will
go to work the easiest way to breed doubters. I would
rather hear you say, "Young as I am, what I have to
say comes from God, and God's Word says so-and-so
and so-and-so; there it is, and you must believe what
God says, or you will be lost." The people who hear
you will say, "That young fellow certainly believes
something;" and very likely some of them will be led
to believe, too. God uses the faith of His ministers
to breed faith in other people. You may depend
upon it that souls are not saved by a minister who
doubts; and the preaching of your doubts and your
questions can never possibly decide a soul for Christ.
52 THE SOUT.-WINNER.
You must have great faith in the Word of God if you
are to be winners of souls to those who hear it.
You must also believe in the power of that message
to save people. You may have heard the story of one
of our first students, who came to me, and said, "I
have been preaching now for some months, and I do
not think I have had a single conversion." I said to
him, "And do you expect that the Lord is going to
bless vou and save souls every time you open your
mouth ?" "No, sir," he replied. "Well, then," I said,
"that is why you do not get souls saved. If you had
believed, the Lord would have given the blessing." I
had caught him very nicely; but many others would
have answered me in just the same way as he did.
They tremblingly believe that it is possible, by some
strange mysterious method, that once in a hundred
sermons God might win a quarter of a soul. They
have hardly enough faith to keep them standing-
upright in their boots; how can they expect God to
bless them? I like to go to the pulpit feeling, "This
is God's Word that I am going to deliver in His name ;
it cannot return to Him void; I have asked His bless-
ing upon it, and He is bound to give it, and His pur-
poses will be answered, whether my message is a
savour of life unto life, or of death unto death to those
who hear it."
Now, if this is how you feel, what will be the result
if souls are not saved? Why, you will call special
prayer-meetings, to seek to know why the people do
not come to Christ; you will have enquirers' meetings
for the anxious; you will meet the people with a joy-
ful countenance, so that they may see that you are
expecting a blessing, but, at the same time, you will
let them know that you will be grievously disappointed
tinless the Lord gives you conversions. Yet, how is
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 53
it in many places? Nobody prays much about the
matter, there are no meetings for crying to God for
a blessing, the minister never encourages the people
to come and tell him about the work of grace in their
souls; verily, verily, I say unto you, he has his reward;
he gets what he asked for, he receives what he expected,
his Master gives him his penny, but nothing else. The
command is, ''Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill
it;" and here we sit, with closed lips, waiting for the
blessing. Open your mouth, brother, with a full expec-
tation, a firm belief, and according to your faith so
shall it be unto you.
That is the essential point, you must believe in God
and in His gospel if you are to be a winner of souls;
some other things may be omitted, but this matter of
faith must never be. It is true that God does not
always measure His mercy by our unbelief, for He has
to think of other people as well as of us; but, looking
at the matter in a common-sense way, it does seem
that the most likely instrument to do the Lord's work
is the man who expects that God will use him, and
who goes forth to labour in the strength of that con-
viction. When success comes, he is not surprised, for
he was looking for it. He sowed living seed, and he
expected to reap a harvest from it; he cast his bread
upon the waters, and he means to search and watch
till he finds it again.
Once more, if a man is to succeed in his ministry,
and win many souls, he must be characterized by
thorough ea?'7tcstness. Do we not know some men, who
preach in such a lifeless manner that it is highly im-
probable that anybody will ever be alTected by what
they say? I was present when a good man asked the
Lord to bless to the conversion of sinners the sermon
that he was about to deliver. I do not wish to limit
54 THE SOUL-WINNER.
omnipotence, but I do not believe that God could
bless to any sinner the sermon that was then preached
unless He had made the hearer misunderstand what
the minister said. It was one of those ''bright poker
sermons," as I call them. You know that there are
pokers that are kept in drawing-rooms to be looked
at, but never used. If you ever tried to poke the fire
with them, would not you catch it from the lady of the
house? These sermons are just like those pokers,
polished up, bright, and cold; they seem as if they
might have some relation to the people in the fixed
stars, they certainly have no connection with anyone in
this world. What good could come of such discourses,
no one can tell; but I feel sure there is not power
enough in them to kill a cockroach, or a spider; cer-
tainly, there is no power in them to bring a dead soul
to life. There are some sermons of which it is quite
true that, the more you think of them, the less you
think of them; and if any poor sinner goes to hear
them with the hope of getting saved, you can only say
that the minister is more likely to stand in the way of
his going to heaven than to point him to the right road.
You may depend upon it that you may make men
understand the truth if you really want to do so; but
if you are not in earnest, it is not likely that they will
be. If a man were to knock at my door in the middle
of the night, and when I put my head out of the
window to see what was the matter, he should say, in
a very quiet, unconcerned way, "There is a fire at the
back part of your house," I should have very little
thought of any fire, and should feel inclined to empty
a jug of water over him. If I am walking along, and
a man comes up to me, and says, in a cheerful tone of
voice, "Good afternoon, sir, do you know that I am
starving? I have not tasted food for ever so long,
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 55
indeed, I have not;" I should reply, "My good fellow,
you seem to take it very easy; I do not believe you
want for much, or you would not be so unconcerned
about it." Some men seem to preach in this fashion: —
"My dear friends, this is Sunday, so here I am; I
have been spending my time in my study all the week,
and now I hope you will listen to what I have to say
to you. I do not know that there is anything in it
that particularly concerns you, it might have some
connection with the man in the moon; but I under-
stand that some of you are in danger of going to a
certain place which I do not wish to mention, only I
hear that it is not a nice place for even a temporary
residence. I have especially to preach to you that
Jesus Christ did something or other, which, in some
way or other, has something to do with salvation, and
if you mind what you do" — and so on — *'it is possible
that you will" — and so on, and so on. That is, in a
nutshell, the full report of many a discourse. There
is nothing in that kind of talk that can do anybody
any good; and after the man has kept on in that style
for three-quarters of an hour, he closes by saying,
"Now it is time to go home," and he hopes that the
deacons will give him a couple of guineas for his
services. Now, brethren, that sort of thing will not
do. We did not come into the world to waste our
own time, and other people's, in that fashion.
I hope we were born for something better than to
be mere chips in the porridge, like the man I have
described. Only fancy God sending a man into the
world to try to win souls, and that is the style of his
mind, and the whole spirit of his life. There are some
ministers who are constantly being knocked up with
doing nothing: they preach two sermons, of a sort, on
Sunday, and they say the effort almost wears their
56 THE SOUL-WINNER.
life out; and they go and give little pastoral visitations,
which consist in drinking a cup of tea and talking
small gossip; but there is no vehement agony for
souls, no "Woe! woe!" on their hearts and lips, no
perfect consecration, no zeal in God's service. Well,
if the Lord sweeps them away, if He cuts them down
as cumberers of the ground, it will not be a matter for
surprise. The Lord Jesus Christ wept over Jerusalem,
and you will have to weep over sinners if they are to
be saved through you. Dear brethren, do be earnest,
put your whole soul into the work, or else give it up.
Another qualification that is essential to soul-win- W
ning is great simplicity of heart, I do not know
whether I can thoroughly explain what I mean by
that, but I will try to make it clear by contrasting it
with something else. You know some men who are
too wise to be just simple believers; they know such
a lot that they do not believe anything that is plain
and simple. Their souls have been fed so daintily
that they cannot live on anything but Chinese birds'-
nest, and such luxuries. There is no milk that ever
came fresh from a cow that is good enough for them,
they are far too superfine to drink such a beverage as
that. Everything they have must be incomparable.
Now God does not bless these exquisite celestial
dandies, these spiritual aristocrats. No, no; as soon
as you see them, you feel ready to say, "They may
do well enough as Lord So-and-So's servants, but
they are not the men to do God's work. He is not
likely to employ such grand gentlemen as they are."
When they select a text, they never explain its true
meaning; but they go round about to find out some-
thing that the Holy Ghost never intended to convey
by it, and when they get hold of one of their precious
'*new thoughts" — oh, dear! what a fuss they make
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SO UL-Vv INNING. 57
over it! Here is a man who has found a stale herring!
What a treat! It is so odoriferous! Now we shall
hear of this stale herring for the next six months, when
somebody else will find another one. What a shout
they set up! ''Glory! Glory! Glory! Here is a new
thought!" A new book comes out about it, and all
these great men go sniiftng round it to prove what
deep thinkers and what wonderful men they are. God
does not bless that kind of wisdom.
By simplicity of heart, I mean, that a man evidently
goes into the ministry for the glory of God and the
winning of souls, and nothing else. There are some
men who would like to win souls and glorify God if it
could be done with due regard to their own interests.
They would be delighted, oh, yes! certainly, very
pleased indeed, to extend the kingdom of Christ, if
the kingdom of Christ would give full play to their
amazing powders. They would go in for soul-winning
if it would induce people to take the horses out of
their carriage, and drag them in triumph through the
street; they must be somebody, they must be known,
they must be talked about, they must hear people say,
''What a splendid man that is!" Of course, they give
God the glory after they have sucked the juice out
of it, but they must have the orange themselves
first. Well, you know, there is that sort of spirit even
among ministers, and God cannot endure it. He is
not going to have a man's leavings; He will have all
the glory, or none at all. If a man seeks to serve
himself, to get honour to himself, instead of seeking
to serve God and honour Him alone, the Lord Jehovah
will not use that man. A man who is to be used by
God must just believe that what he is going to do is
for the glory of God, and he must work from no other
motive. W1ien outsiders go to hear some preachers,
58 THE SOUL-WINNER.
all that they remember is that they were capital actors ;
but here is a very different kind of man. After they
have heard him preach, they do not think about how
he looked, or how he spoke, but about the solemn
truths he uttered. Another man keeps rolling out
what he has to tell in such a fashion that those .who
listen to him say to one another, "Do you not see
that he lives by his preaching? He preaches for his
living." I would rather hear it said, "That man said
something in his sermon that made many of the
people think less of him, he uttered most distasteful
sentiments, he did nothing but drive at us with the
Word of the Lord all the while that he was preaching,
his one aim was to bring us to repentance and faith
in Christ." That is the kind of a man whom the Lord
delights to bless.
I like to see men, like some before me here, to
whom I have said, "Here you are, earning a good
salary, and likely to rise to a position of influence in
the world; if you give up your business, and come
into the College, you will very likely be a poor Baptist
minister all your life;" and they have looked up, and
said, "I had sooner starve and win souls than spend
my life in any other calling." Most of you are that
kind of men, I believe you all are. There must never
be an eye to the glory of God and the fat sheep;
it must never be God's glory and your own honour
and esteem among men. It will not do; no, not
even if you preach to please God aiid Jemima; it
must be God's glory alone, nothing less and nothing
else, not even Jemima. As the limpet to the rock,
so is she to the minister; but it will not do for him
even to think of pleasing her. With true simplicity
of heart, he must seek to please God, whether men
and women are pleased or not.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 59
Lastly, there must be a complete surrender of your-
self to God, in this sense, that from this time you wish
to think, not your own thoughts, but God's thoughts;
and that you determine to preach, not anything of
your own invention, but God's Word; and further,
that you resolve not even to give out that truth in
your own way, but in God's way. Suppose you read
your sermons, which is not very likely, you desire not
to write anything but what shall be entirely according
to the Lord's mind. When you get hold of a fine big
word, you ask yourself whether it is likely to be a
spiritual blessing to your people; and if you think it
woukl not, you leave it out. Then there is that grand
bit of poetry that you could not understand, you felt
that you could not omit that; but when you asked
whether it was likely to be instructive to the rank and
file of your people, you were obliged to reject it. You
must stick those gems, that you found on a literary
dust-heap, into the coronet of your discourse, if you
want to show the people how industrious you have
been; but if you desire to leave yourself entirely in
God's hands, it is probable that you will be led to make
some very simple statement, some trite remark, some-
thing with which everyone in the congregation is famil-
iar. If you feel moved to put that into the sermon, put
it in by all means, even if you have to leave out the big
words, and the poetry, and the gems, for it may be
that the Lord will bless that simple statement of the
gospel to some poor sinner who is seeking the Saviour.
If you yield yourself thus unreservedly to the mind
and will of God, by-and-by, when you get out into the
ministry, you will sometimes be impelled to use a
strange expression or to offer an odd prayer, which at
the time may have a queer look even to yourself; but
it will be all explained to you afterwards, when some-
60 TliE SOUL-WINNER.
one comes to tell you that he never understood the
truth until you put it that day in such an unusual way.
You will be more Hkely to feel this influence if you
are thoroughl}^ prepared by study and prayer for your
work in the pulpit, and I urge you always to make all
due preparation, and even to write out in full what
you think you ought to say ; but not to go and deliver
it 7nej?ioriter, like a poll parrot repeating what it has
been taught, for if you do that, you will certainly not
be leaving yourself to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
I have no doubt you will sometimes feel that there
is a passage that you must put in, a fine piece by one
of the British poets, or a choice extract from some
classic author. I do not suppose you would like it to
be known; but you did read it to a College friend.
Of course, you did not ask him to praise it, because
you felt sure that he could not help doing so. There
was one particular piece in it that you have very sel-
dom heard equalled; you are sure that Mr. Punshon
or Dr. Parker could not have done better than that.
You are quite certain that, when the people hear that
sermon, they will be obliged to feel that there is
something in it. It may be, however, that the Lord
will consider that it is too good to be blessed, there is
too much in it; it is like the host of men that were
with Gideon, they were too many for the Lord, He
could not give the Midianites into their hands, lest
they should vaunt themselves against Him, saying,
"Our own might hath gotten us the victory." When
twenty-two thousand of them had been sent away, the
Lord said to Gideon, "The people are yet too many,"
and all of them had to be sent home except the three
hundred men that lapped, and then the Lord said to
Gideon, "Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I
have delivered it into thine hand." So the Lord says
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 61
about some of your sermons, "I cannot do any good
with them, they are too big." There is that one with
the fourteen subdivisions; leave seven of them out,
and then perhaps the Lord will bless it. Some day
it may happen, just when you are in the middle of
your discourse, that a thought will come across your
mind, and you will say to yourself, "Now, if I utter
this, that old deacon will make it hot for me; and
there is a gentleman just come in who keeps a school,
lie is a critic, and will be sure not to be pleased if
I say this; and besides, there is here a remnant
according to the election of grace, and the 'hyper'
up in the gallery will give me one of those heavenly
looks that are so full of meaning." Now, brother,
feel ready to say just anything that God gives you to
say, irrespective of all the consequences, and utterly
regardless of what the "hypers" or the lowpers or any-
body else will think or do.
One of the principal qualifications of a great artist's
brush must be its yielding itself up to him so that he
can do what he likes with it. A harpist will love to
play on one particular harp because he knows the
instrument, and the instrument almost appears to
know him. So, when God puts His hand upon the
very strings of your being, and every power within
you seems to respond to the movements of His hand,
you are an instrument that He can use. It is not easy
to keep in that condition, to be in such a sensitive
state that you receive the impression that the Holy
Spirit desires to convey, and are influenced by Him at
once. If there is a great ship out at sea, and there
comes a tiny ripple on the waters, it is not moved by
it in the least. Here comes a moderate wave, the ves-
sel does not feel it, the Great Eastern sits still upon
the bosom of the deep. But just look over the bul-
C2 THE SOUL-WINNER.
warks; see those corks down there, if only a fly drops
into the water, they feel the motion, and dance upon
the tiny wave. May you be as mobile beneath the
power of God as the cork is on the surface of the
sea! I am sure this self-surrender is one of the essen-
tial qualifications for a preacher who is to be a win-
ner of souls. There is something that must be said
if you are to be the means of saving that man in
the corner; woe unto you if you are not ready to
say it, woe unto you if you are afraid to say it, woe
unto you if you are ashamed to say it, woe unto you
if you do not dare to say it lest somebody up in the
gallery should say that you were too earnest, too
enthusiastic, too zealous!
These seven things, I think, are the qualifications,
Godward, which would strike the mind of any of you
if you tried to put yourself into the position of the
Most High, and considered what you would wish to
have in those whom you employed in the winning of
souls. May God give us all of these qualifications,
for Christ's sake! Amen.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING
MANWARD.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WIN-
N1NG--MANWARD.
You remember, brethren, that on the last occa-
sion when I gave you a lecture on soul-winning, I
spoke of the qualifications, Godward, that would fit a
man to be a soul-winner; and I tried to describe to
you the kind of a man that the Lord was most likely to
use in the winning of souls. This afternoon, I pro-
pose to take as my subject —
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SOUL-WINNER,
MANWARD.
I might almost mention the very same points that I
enumerated before as being those which will best tell
manward, for I do think that those qualities that com-
mend themselves to the notice of God, as being most
adapted to the end He desires, are also likely to be
approved by the object acted upon, that is, the soul
of man.
There have been many men in the world who have
not been at all adapted for this work; and, first, let ,
me say that anigjio-amus is not likely to he much of a J
soul-winner. A man who only knows that he is a
sinner, and that Christ is a Saviour, may be very use-
ful to others in the same condition as himself, and it
is his duty to do the best he can with what little
knowledge he possesses; but, on the whole, T should
\^
66 THE SOUL-WINNER.
not expect such a man to be very largely used in the
service of God. If he had enjoyed a wider and deeper
experience of the things of God, if he had been in the
highest sense a learned man because taught of God,
he could have used his knowledge for the good of
others; but being to a great extent ignorant of the
things of God himself, I do not see how he can make
them known to other people. Truly, there must be
some light in that candle which is to lighten men's
darkness, and there must be some information in that
man who is to be a teacher of his fellows. The man
who is almost or altogether ignorant, whatever will
he has to do good, must be left out of the race of great
soul-winners; he is disqualified from e-ven entering the
lists, and therefore, let us all ask, brethren, that we
may be well instructed in the truth of God, that we
may be able to teach others also.
Granted that you are not of the ignorant class to
which I have been referring, but supposing that you
are well instructed in the best of all wisdom, what are
the qualities that you must have towards men if you are
to win them for the Lord? I should say, there must
be about us afi evident sincerity ; not only sincerity, but
such sincerity that it shall be manifest at once to any-
one who honestly looks for it. It must be quite clear
to your hearers that you have a firm belief in the
truths that you are preaching; otherwise, you will never
make them believe them. Unless they are convinced,
beyond all question, that you do believe these truths
yourselves, there will be no ef^ficacy and no force in
your preaching. No one must suspect you of proclaim-
ing to others what you do not fully beheve in yourself;
if it should ever be so, your work will be of no efifect.
All who listen to you ought to be conscious that you
are exercising one of the noblest crafts, and perform-
\
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 67
ing one of the most sacred functions that ever fell to
the lot of man. If you have only a feeble appreciation
of the gospel you profess to deliver, it is impossible for
those who hear your proclamation of it to be greatlx
influenced by it. I heard it asked, the other day, of a
certain minister, '*Did he preach a good sermon?"
and the reply to the enquiry was, "What he said was
very good." "But did you not profit by the sermon?"
"No, not in the slightest degree." "Was it not a good
sermon?" Again came the first answer, "What he said
was very good." "What do you mean? Why did
you not profit by the sermon if what the preacher said
was very good?" This was the explanation that the
listener gave, "I did not profit by the discourse because
I did not believe in the man who delivered it; he was
simply an actor performing a part; I did not believe
that he felt what he preached, nor that he cared
w^hether we felt or believed it or not."
Where such a state of things as that exists, the
hearers cannot be expected to profit by the sermon,
no matter what the preacher may say; they may try
to fancy that the truths he utters are precious, they
may resolve that they will feed upon the provision
whoever may set the dish before them; but it is no
use, they cannot do it, they cannot separate the heart-
less speaker from the message he delivers so carelessly.
As soon as a man lets his work become a matter of
mere form or routine, it sinks into a performance in
which the preacher is simply an actor. He is only
acting a part, as he might in a play at the theatre; and
not speaking from his inmost soul, as a man sent from
God. I do beseech you, brethren, speak from your
hearts, or else do not speak at all. If you can be
silent, be silent; but if you must speak for God, be
thoroughly sincere about it. It would be better for
68 THE SOUL-WINNER.
you to go back to business, and weigh butter or sell
reels of cotton, or do anything rather than pretend to
be ministers of the gospel unless God has called you
to the work. I believe that the most damnable thing
a man can do is to preach the gospel merely as an
actor, and to turn the worship of God into a kind of
theatrical performance. Such a caricature is more
worthy of the devil than of God. Divine truth is far
too precious to be made the subject of such a mockery.
You may depend upon it that, when the people once
suspect that you are insincere, they will never listen
to you except with disgust, and they will not be at all
likely to believe your message if you give them cause
to think that you do not believe it yourselves.
I hope I am not wrong in supposing that all of us
are thoroughly sincere in our Master's service; so I
will go on to what seems to be to me the next
qualification, manward, for soul-winning, and that is,
evident earnestness. The command to the man who
would be a true servant of the Lord Jesus Christ is,
*'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and
with all thy mind." If a man is to be a soul-winner,
there must be in him intensity of emotion as well as
sincerity of heart. You may preach the most solemn
warnings, and the most dreadful threatenings, in such
an indifferent or careless way that no one will be in
the least affected by them; and you may repeat the
most affectionate exhortations in such a half-hearted
manner that no one will be moved either to love or
fear. I believe, brethren, that for soul-winning there
is more in this matter of earnestness than in almost any-
thing else. I have seen and heard some who were very
poor preachers, who yet brought many souls to the
Saviour through the earnestness with which they de-
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 69
livered their message. There was positively nothing
in their sermons (until the provision merchant used
them to wrap round his butter), yet those feeble ser-
mons brought many to Christ. It was not what the
preachers said, so much as how they said it, that carried
conviction to the hearts of their hearers. The simplest
truth was so driven home by the intensity of the utter-
ance and emotion of the man from whom it came
that it told with surprising effect. If any gentleman
here would present me with a cannon-ball, say one
weighing fifty or a hundred pounds, and let me roll it
across the room; and another would entrust me with
a rifle-ball, and a rifle out of which I could fire it, I
know which would be the more effective of the two.
Let no man despise the little bullet, for very often
that is the one that kills the sin, and kills the sinner,
too. So, brethren, it is not the bigness of the words
you utter: it is the force with which you deliver them
that decides what is to come of the utterance. I have
heard of a ship that was fired at by the cannon in a fort,
but no impression was made upon it until the general
in command gave the order for the balls to be made
red-hot, and then the vessel was sent to the bottom of
the sea in three minutes. That is what you must do with
your sermons, make them red-hot; never mind if men
do say you are too enthusiastic, or even too fanatical,
give them red-hot shot, there is nothing else half as
good for the purpose you have in view. We do not
go out snow-balling on Sundays, we go fire-balling;
we ought to hurl grenades into the enemy's ranks.
What earnestness our theme deserves! We have to
tell of an earnest Saviour, an earnest heaven, and an
earnest hell. How earnest we ought to be when we
remember that in our work we have to deal with souls
that are immortal, wdth sin that is eternal in its effects,
70 THE SOUL- WINNER.
with pardon that is infinite, and with terrors and joys
that are to last for ever and ever! A man who is not
in earnest when he has such a theme as this, — can he
possess a heart at all? Could one be discovered even
with a microscope? If he were dissected, probably
all that could be found would be a pebble, a heart of
stone, or some other substance equally incapable of
emotion. I trust that, when God gave us hearts of
flesh for ourselves, He gave us hearts that could feel
for other people also.
These things being taken for granted, I should say, ,
next, that it is necessary for a man who is to be a soul- I /
winner, that he should have an evident love to his \j
hearers. I cannot imagine a man being a winner of
souls when he spends most of his time in abusing his
congregation, and talking as if he hated the very sight
of them. Such men seem happy only when they are
emptying vials of wrath over those who have the unhap-
piness of listening to them. I heard of a brother
preaching from the text, "A certain man went down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves."
He began his discourse thus, '1 do not say that this
man came to the place where w^e are, but I do know
another man who did come to this place, and fell
among thieves." You can easily guess what would
be the result of such vitriol-throwing. I know of one
who preached from the passage, ''And Aaron held
his peace," and one who heard him said that the
difference between him and Aaron was, that Aaron
held his peace, and the preacher did not; but, on the
contrary, he raved at the people with all his might.
You must have a real desire for the good of the
people if you are to have much influence over them.
Why, even dogs and cats love the people who love
them, and human beings are much the same as these
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 71
dumb animals. Teople very soon get to know when
a cold man gets into the pulpit, one of those who seem
to have been carved out of a block of marble. There
have been one or two of our brethren of that kind,
and they have never succeeded anywhere. When 1
have asked the cause of their failure, in each case the
reply has been, "He is a good man, a very good man ;
he preaches w^ell, very well, but still we do not get on
wnth him." I have asked, *'Why do you not like him?"
The reply has been, "Xobody ever did like him." "Is
he quarrelsome?" "Oh! dear no, I wish he would
make a row." I try to fish out what the drawback
is, for I am very anxious to know, and at last some-
one says, "Well, sir, I do not think he has any heart;
at least, he does not preach and act as if he had any."
It is very sad when the failure of any ministry is
caused by want of heart. You ought to have a great
big heart, like the harbour at Portsmouth or Plymouth,
so that all the people in your congregation could come
and cast anchor in it, and feel that they were under
the lee of a great rock. Do you not notice that men
succeed in the ministry, and win souls for Christ, just in
proportion as they are men with large hearts? Think,
for instance, of Dr. Brock; there was a mass of a man,
one who had bow^els of compassion; and wh^t is the
good of a minister who has not? I do not hold up
the accumulation of flesh as an object worthy of your
attainment; but I do say that you must have big hearts,
if you are to win men to Jesus; you must be Great-
hearts if you are to lead many pilgrims to the Celestial
City. I have seen some very lean men who said that
they w^ere perfectly holy, and I could almost believe
that they could not sin, for they were like old bits of
leather, there did not appear to be anything in them
that was capable of sinning. I met one of these "per-
72 THE SOUL- WINNER.
feet" brethren once, and he was just Hke a piece of
sea-weed, there was no humanity in him. I like to
see a trace of humanity somewhere or other about a
man, and people in general like it, too; they get on
better with a man who has some human nature in
him. Human nature, in some aspects, is an awful
thing; but when the Lord Jesus Christ took it, and
joined his own divine nature to it, He made a grand
thing of it, and human nature is a noble thing when
it is united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those men
who keep themselves to themselves, like hermits, and
live a supposed sanctified life of self-absorption, are
not likely to have any influence in the world, or to do
good to their fellow-creatures. You must love the
people, and mix with them, if you are to be of service
to them. There are some ministers who really are
much better men than others, yet they do not accom-
plish so much good as those who are more human,
those who go and sit down with the people, and make
themselves as much as possible at home with them.
You know, brethren, that it is possible for you to
appear to be just a wee bit too good, so that people
will feel that you are altogether transcendental beings,
and fitter to preach to angels, and cherubim, and ser-
aphim, than to the fallen sons of Adam. Just be men
among men; keeping yourselves clear of all their
faults and vices, but mingling with them in perfect
love and sympathy, and feeling that you would do
anything in your power to bring them to Christ,
so that you might even say with the apostle
Paul, "Though I be free from all men, yet have I
made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the
more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I
might gain the Jews ; to them that are under the law,
as under the law, that I might gain them that are
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 73
under the law; to them that are without law, as with-
out law, (being not without law to God, but under
the law of Christ,) that I might gain them that are
without law. To the weak became I as weak, that
I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all
men, that I might by all means save some."
The next qualification, manward, for soul-winning
is evident unselfisJincss. A man ceases to bring men
to Christ as soon as he becomes known as a selfish
man. Selfishness seems to be ingrained in some peo-
ple; you see it at the table at home, in the house of
God, everywhere. When such individuals come to
deal with a church and congregation, their selfishness
soon manifests itself; they mean to get all they can,
although in the Baptist ministry they do not often
get much. I hope each of you, brethren, will be will-
ing to say, ''Well, let me have but food and raiment,
and I will be therewith content." If you try to put
the thought of money altogether away from you, the
money will often come back to you doubled; but if
you seek to grab and grasp all, you will very likely find
that it will not come to you at all. Those who are
selfish in the matter of salary, will be the same in
everything else; they will not want their people to
know anybody who can preach better than themselves;
and they cannot bear to hear of any good work going
on anywhere except in their ov/n chapel. If there is
a revival at another place, and souls are being saved,
they say, with a sneer, "Oh! yes, there are many con-
verts, but what are they? Where will they be in a few
months' time?" They think far more of their own gain
of one new member per year than of their neighbour's
hundred at one time. If your people see that kind of
selfishness in you, you will soon lose power over them ;
if you make up your mind that you will be a great man.
74 THE SOUL-WINNER.
whoever has to be thrust on one side, you will go to
the cats as sure as you are alive. What are you, my
dear brother, that people should all bow down and wor-
ship you, and think that in all the world there is none
beside you? I tell you what it is; the less you think
of yourself, the more people will think of you; and
the more you think of yourself, the less will people
think of you. If any of you have any trace of selfish-
ness about you, pray get rid of it at once, or you will
never be fit instruments for the winning of souls for
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then I am sure that another thing that is wanted \j
in a soul- winner is holiness of character. It is no use
talking about "the higheriife" on Sundays, and then
living the lower life on week days. A Christian min-
ister must be very careful, not only to be innocent
of actual wrong-doing, but not to be a cause of offence
to the weak ones of the flock. All things are lawful,
but all things are not expedient. We ought never
to do anything that we judge to be wrong, but we
ought also to be willing to abstain from things which
might not be wrong in themselves, but which might
be an occasion of stumbling to others. When people
see that we not only preach about holiness, but that
we are ourselves holy men, they will be drawn towards
holy things by our character as well as by our preach-
ing.
I think also that, if we are to be soul-winners, there v
must be about us a seriousness of manner. Some
brethren are serious by nature. There was a gentle-
man in a railway carriage, some time ago, who over-
heard a conversation between two of the passengers.
One of them said, "Well, now, I think the Church of
Rome has great power, and is likely to succeed with
the people, because of the evident holiness of her
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 75
ministers. There is, for instance, Cardinal , he
is just Hke a skeleton; through his long fasting and
prayers, he has reduced himself almost to skin and
bone. Whenever I hear him speak, I feel at once the
force of the holiness of the man. Now, look at Spur-
geon, he eats and drinks like an ordinary mortal; I
would not give a pin to hear him preach." His friend
heard him very patiently, and then said quite quietly,
"Did it ever strike you that the Cardinal's appear-
ance was to be accounted for by the fact of his liver
being out of order? I do not think it is grace that
makes him as lean as he is, I believe it is his liver."
So, there are some brethren who are naturally of a
melancholy disposition, they are always very serious;
but in them it is not a sign of grace, it is only an
indication that their livers are out of order. They
never laugh, they think it would be wicked to do so;
but they go about the world increasing the misery of
human kind, which is dreadful enough without the
addition of their unnecessary portion. Such people
evidently imagine that they were predestinated to pour
buckets of cold water upon all human mirth and joy.
So, dear brethren, if any of you are very serious, you
must not always attribute it to grace, for it may be
all owing to the state of your liver.
The most of us, however, are far more inclined to
that laughter which doeth good like medicine, and we
shall need all our cheerfulness, if we are to comfort
and lift up those who are cast down; but we shall
never bring many souls to Christ, if we are full of
that levity which characterises some men. People will
say, "It is all a joke; just hear how those young fel-
lows jest about religion, it is one thing to listen to
them when they are in the pulpit, but it is quite another
matter to listen to them when thev are sitting round
76 THE SOUL-WINNER.
the supper table." I have heard of a man who was
dying, and he sent for the minister to come and see
him. When the minister came in, the dying man said
to him, "Do you remember a young man walking
with you one evening, some years ago, when you were
going out to preach?" He said, he did not. "I recol-
lect it very well," replied the other. "Do you not
remember preaching at such-and-such a village, from
such-and-such a text, and after the service a young
man walked home with you?" "Oh, yes, I remember
that very well!" "Well, I am the young man who
walked home with you that night; I remember your
sermon, I shall never forget it." "Thank God for that,"
said the preacher. "No," answered the dying man,
"you will not thank God when you have heard all I
have to say. I walked with you to the village, but
you did not say much to me on the way there, for you
were thinking over your sermon ; you deeply impressed
me while you were preaching, and I was led to think
about giving my heart to Christ. I wanted to speak
to you about my soul on the way home; but the
moment you got out you cracked a joke, and all the
way back you made such fun upon serious subjects,
that I could not say anything about what I felt, and
it thoroughly disgusted me with religion, and all who
professed it, and now I am going to be damned, and
my blood will lie at your door, as sure as you are
alive:" and so he passed out of the world. One would
not like anything of that sort to happen to himself;
therefore, take heed, brethren, that you give no occa-
sion for it. There must be a prevailing seriousness
about out whole lives, otherwise we cannot hope to
lead other men to Christ.
Finally if we are to be much used of God as soul-
winners, there must be in our hearts a great deal o^
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-WINNING. 77
tetidnyicss; I like a man to have a due amount of
holy boldness, but I do not care to see him brazen-
faced and impudent. A young man goes into a pulpit,
apologizes for attempting to preach, and hopes the
people will bear with him; he does not know that he
has anything particular to say, if the Lord had sent
him he might have had some message for them, but
he feels himself so young and inexperienced that he
cannot speak very positively about anything. Such
talk as that will never save a mouse, much less an
immortal soul. If the Lord has sent you to preach
the gospel, why should you make any apologies?
Ambassadors do not apologise when they go to a
foreign court; they know that their monarch has sent
them, and they deliver their message with all the
authority of king and country at their back. Nor is
it worth while for you to call attention to your youth.
You are only a trumpet of ram's horn; and it does
not matter whether you were pulled ofif the ram's head
yesterday, or five-and-twenty years ago. If God blows
through you, there will be noise enough, and something
more than noise; if He does not, nothing will come of
the blowing. When you preach speak out straight,
but be very tender about it; and if there is an unpleas-
ant thing to be said, take care that you put it in the
kindest possible form. Some of our brethren had a
message to deliver to a certain Christian brother, and
when they went to him they put it so awkwardly that
he was grievously offended. When I spoke to him
about the same matter, he said, "I would not have
minded your speaking to me; you have a way of put-
ting an unpleasant truth so that a man cannot be
offended with you however much he may dislike the
message you bring to him." "Well, but," I said, "I
put the matter just as strongly as the other brethren
78 THE SOUL-WINNER.
did." "Yes, you did," he replied, "but they said it
in such a nasty kind of a way that I would not stand
it. Why, sir, I had rather be blown up by you than
praised by those other people!" There is a way of
doing such things so that the person reproved feels
positively grateful to you. One may kick a man down-
stairs in such a fashion that he will rather like it; while
another may open a door in such an ofTensWe way
that you do not want to go througlj till he is out of
the way. Now, if I have to tell anyone'-certain unpal-
atable truths which it is necessary that he should know
if his soul is to be saved, it is a stern necessity for me
to be faithful to him; yet I will try so to dell\:fir my
message that he shall not be ofifended at it. Then, if
he does take ofifence, he must; the probability is that
he will not, but that what I say will take effect upon
his conscience.
I know some brethren who preach as if they were
prize-fighters. When they are in the pulpit they
remind me of the Irishman at Donnybrook Fair; all
the way through the sermon they appear to be calling
upon someone to come up and fight them, and they
are never happy except when they are pitching into
somebody or other. There is a man who often
preaches on Clapham Common, and he does it so
pugnaciously that the infidels whom he assails cannot
endure it, and there are frequent fights and row^s.
There is a way of preaching so as to set everybody
by the ears; if some men were allowed to preach in
heaven, I am afraid they would set the angels fighting.
I know a number of ministers of this stamp. There
is one who, to my certain knowledge, has been at over
a dozen places during his not very long ministerial
life. You can tell where he has been by the ruin he
leaves behind him. He always finds the churches in
QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOUL-V/INNING. 79
a sad state, and he straightway begins to purify them,
that is, to destroy them. As a general rule, the first
thing, out goes the principal deacon, and the next,
away go all the leading families, and before long, the
man has purified the place so effectually that the few
people who are left cannot keep him. Ofi he goes to
another place, and repeats the process of destruction.
He is a kind of spiritual ship-scuttler, and he is never
happy except when he is boring a hole through the
])lanks of some good vessel. He says he believes the
ship is unsound; so he bores, and bores, until just as
she is going down, he slips off, and gets aboard another
vessel, which very soon sinks in the same manner.
He feels that he is called to the work of separating
the precious from the vile, and a preciously vile mess
he makes of it. I have no reason to believe it is the
condition of the liver with this brother, it is more likely
that there is something wrong with his heart; certainly,
there is an evil disease upon him that always makes
me get into a bad temper with him. It is dangerous
to entertain him above three days, for he would quar-
rel in that time with the most peaceably disposed man
in the world. I never mean to recommend him to a
pastorate again; let him find a place for himself if he
can, for I believe that, wherever he goes, the place will
be like the spot where the foot of the Tartar's horse
is put down, the grass will never again grow there.
If any of you brethren have even a little bit of this
nasty, bitter spirit about you, go to sea that you may
get rid of it. I hope it may happen to you according
to the legend which is told concerning Mahomet. "In
every human being," so the story runs, "there are two
black drops of sin. The great prophet himself was not
free from the common lot of evil; but an angel was
sent to take his heart, and squeeze out of it the two
80 THE SOUL-WINNER.
black drops of sin." Get those black drops out some-
how while yon are in College; if you have any malice,
or ill-will, or bad temper in you, pray the Lord to take
it out of you while you are here; do not go into the
churches to fight as others have done.
''Still," says a brother, "I am not going to let the
people tread on me. I shall take the bull by the
horns." You will be a great fool if you do. I never
felt that I was called to do anything of the kind.
Why not let the bull alone, to go where he likes?
A bull is a very likely creature to project you into
space if you get meddling with his horns. "Still,"
says another, "we must set things right." Yes, but
the best way to set things right is not to make them
more wrong than they are. Nobody thinks of putting
a mad bull into a china shop in order to get the china
cleaned, and no one can by a display of evil temper
set right anything that is wrong in our churches.
Take care always to speak the truth in love, and
especially when you are rebuking sin.
I believe, brethren, that soul-winning is to be done
by men of the character I have been describing; and
most of all will this be the case when they are
surrounded by people of a similar character. You
want to get the very atmosphere in which you live
and labour permeated with this spirit before you can
rightly expect the fullest and richest blessings. There-
fore, may you and all your people be all that I have
pictured, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake ! Amen.