The Art of Soul-Winning.

by J.W. Mahood.

PREFACE.

Never was there such great need for a mighty, Pentecostal revival in all our Churches; and the key to such a revival is earnest personal work.

But the membership of the Churches are not prepared to enter upon this work. Mult.i.tudes know nothing of a personal Pentecost. Many are utterly indifferent. They do not realize their opportunity and responsibility before G.o.d. If they did, the revival would come at once.

With the hope that many professing Christians may be awakened to duty, and hear G.o.d's call to personal work in soul-winning, this little volume is written.

Let the pastor see that a copy is put into every home one month previous to the time set for special revival-meetings. Let him secure a pledge from the people to read the study for each day, commit the memory verses, and meditate upon the Scripture suggested.

Once each week, either at a special meeting appointed for this purpose, at the week-night prayer-meeting, or at the young people's devotional meeting Sunday evening, let the studies for the week be reviewed and the memory verses recited. Short talks may also be given on each topic by persons previously selected.

When the entire Church membership shall begin to think and speak upon these vital themes; when the spirit of grace and supplication shall take the place of formality and worldly desire; when the Holy Ghost of Pentecost shall come upon the waiting, praying Church, then the times of refreshing will be sure to come from the presence of the Lord, and the perishing mult.i.tudes will be saved.

Sioux City, Iowa.

THE SOUL-WINNER'S MOTIVE.

"FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST."

STUDY I.

FOREWORD AND APPEAL.

Memory Verse: "And they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."--(Dan. xii, 3.)

Scripture for Meditation: Matt. vi, 19-23; Rev. iii, 14-22.

Fred B---- was a medical student. He was stricken, with that dreaded scourge, consumption. The physicians advised a trip to the mountains.

During the first few months among the Rockies he improved rapidly, and hope and ambition flamed anew; but it was only a brief respite from suffering before the final collapse. Lying in a Denver hospital, he was visited by some consecrated young people, who sang and prayed with him.

He yielded himself to Christ, and the peace of G.o.d filled his heart.

They brought him home to a little Iowa city to die. The day after his arrival the pastor was summoned to his bedside, when the young man related the circ.u.mstances of his conversion. The pastor said, "Then you are not afraid to die?" "No," said he, "_not afraid, but not ready_."

When asked why he was not ready, he replied: "I have done nothing for my Master. I have won no souls for him. Could I have six months more to live that I might bring some souls to Jesus, and thus not go into his presence empty-handed, I would be satisfied to die. _I am not afraid to die, but not ready._" Just then the door of the room opened, and the dying boy's father, an old, white-haired man who had been absent from home and had not seen his son since his return, came in. The old man was not a Christian. Then occurred a pathetic scene. The young man threw his arms about his father's neck, and drew him down upon his knees at the bedside, urged him to give himself to G.o.d, and then, with shortening breath, uttered such a prayer of intercession as is seldom heard. The old man sobbed aloud, yielded to Christ, declared his faith, and the dying boy had won one soul for his Master. In a few hours he had gone into the presence of the King; _but not empty-handed_.

O ye to whom G.o.d has given the strength and vigor of manhood and womanhood, and who have pledged your allegiance to the Christ of Calvary, are you winning any souls for your Master? Or are you going into his presence _empty-handed_? What if in the judgment-day it shall be seen that some souls who might have been saved have been lost through your neglect? What if it shall then be seen that the crown of many stars which you might have won is given to another? And what, if in the great day of his appearing you shall be found, having gathered no sheaves and _empty-handed_?

STUDY II.

THE LORD'S COMMAND.

Memory Verse: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."--(Mark xvi, 15.)

Scripture for Meditation: Ezek. x.x.xiii, 1-11.

By the Master's final words to his disciples the obligation is laid upon every Christian to be a soul-winner. "Ye shall be my witnesses," is the risen Lord's message to all his followers. No one is excused. "Follow me," said Christ, "and I will make you fishers of men." And when his face was set toward Calvary, he said to the Father, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." By the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, G.o.d distinctly says that, if we neglect "to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand." We are all _sent_, and if we shrink or excuse ourselves from our great mission we shall come into condemnation.

The unsaved mult.i.tudes know that every Christian should be an amba.s.sador for Christ, and when we fail to do our duty we are condemned in their eyes as well as before G.o.d. A writer in the _Epworth Era_ says:

"A college professor who was noted among his fellow-teachers for his habit of addressing young men upon their personal relations to Christ, was asked by one of his fellow-professors, 'Do they not resent your appeals as an impertinence?' He replied: 'No! Nothing is of such interest to any man as his own soul and its condition. He will never resent words of warning or comfort if they are prompted by genuine feeling. When I was a young man, I felt as you do. My wife's cousin, a young fellow not yet of age, lived in our house for six months. My dread of meddling was such that I never asked him to be present at family worship, or spoke to him on the subject of religion. He fell into the company of a wild set, and was rapidly going to the bad. When I reasoned with him I spoke of Christ. "Do you call yourself a Christian?" he asked, a.s.suming an astonished look. "I hope so," I replied. "But you are not. If you were, he must be your Best Friend. Yet I have lived in your house for six months, and you have never once named his name to me; no, he is nothing to you!" I have never forgotten the rebuke.'"

STUDY III.

BY PERSONAL EFFORT.

Memory Verse: "And he brought him to Jesus."--(John i, 42.)

Scripture for Meditation: John i, 35-45.

Have you ever noticed that much of the work which the Master and his disciples did was "personal work?" Some of our Lord's greatest sermons were preached to one person. The apostles were all won individually.

Turn to your Bible now, and read the account of the visit of Nicodemus to Christ, and of the meeting with the woman of Samaria at the well. If you take the time to follow this theme through the Gospels and through the Acts of the Apostles, you will be sure to see that the work of winning souls for Christ by personal effort is the work of every Christian.

And a conviction of this is the greatest need of the Church to-day. It is the key to the twentieth-century revival. The world would be evangelized in this generation did each professing Christian win only one soul each year for Christ; and the great social and labor problems of the day would be speedily solved were the great Christian Church actively engaged in leading men and women to Jesus of Nazareth. Mightier than the influence of great sermons and fine music and splendid ritual is the influence of a life consecrated to personal effort in seeking the lost.

That remarkable soul-winner, Dr. J.O. Peck, now translated, said: "So great is my conviction of the value of personal effort, as the result of a lifework of winning souls, that I can not emphasize the method too strongly. If it were revealed to me from heaven by the archangel Gabriel that G.o.d had given me the certainty of ten years of life, and that as a condition of my eternal salvation I must win a thousand souls to Christ in that time; and if it were further conditioned to this, that I might preach every day for the ten years, but might not personally appeal to the unconverted outside the pulpit; or that I might not enter the pulpit during these ten years, but might exclusively appeal to individuals, I would not hesitate one moment to make the choice of personal effort as the sole means to be used in securing the conversion of one thousand souls necessary to my own salvation."

Dr. Theodore Cuyler once said concerning the three thousand souls he had received into Church fellowship during his ministry, "I have handled every stone."

STUDY IV.

TROPHIES OF PERSONAL EFFORT.

Memory Verse: "And he that is wise winneth souls."--(Prov. xi, 30, R.V.)

Scripture for Meditation: 2 Cor. v, 14-21.

Is it not a suggestive fact that nearly all those men who have shone brightly in the galaxy of martyrs, preachers, and reformers in the Christian Church through the centuries have been won to Christ by the personal effort of some consecrated life? Think of some in our own age.