A Concern For Souls
NOTE: The following is a chapter from the book The Divine Art of Soul Winning by J. Oswald Sanders. Sanders did not merely know the theory of soul winning, but also the practice of it. He had a deep passion and concern for those who did not have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
"I believe that if an angel were to wing his way from earth
up to Heaven,
and were to say that there was one poor, ragged boy,without father
or mother,
with no one to care for him and teach him the way of life; and if
God were to
ask who among them were willing to come down to this earth and live
here
for fifty years and lead that one to Jesus Christ, every angel in
Heaven would
volunteer to go. Even Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the
Almighty,
would say, "Let me leave my high and lofty position, and let me
have the luxury
of leading one soul to Jesus Christ." There is no greater honor
than to be the
instrument in God's hands of leading one person out of the kingdom
of Satan
into the glorious light of Heaven."
--D. L. Moody
Oh, for a passionate passion for souls;
Oh, for a pity that yearns.
Oh, for a love that loves unto death,
Oh, for a fire that burns.
Oh, for a pure prayer-power that prevails,
That pours itself out for the lost--
Victorious prayer, in the Conqueror's Name,
Oh, for a Pentecost.
A CONCERN FOR SOULS
"Even if I were utterly selfish, and had no care for anything but my
own happiness, I would choose, if I might, under God, to be a
soul-winner; for never did I know perfect, overflowing, unutterable
happiness of the purest and most ennobling order till I first
heard of one who had sought and found the Saviour through my means.
No young mother ever so rejoiced over her first-born
child, no warrior was so exultant over a hard-won victory." So spoke
that matchless winner of souls, Charles H. Spurgeon. Only
those who have never given themselves to the exercise of this divine
art would be disposed to quarrel with him for the seeming
extravagance of his statement.
And yet, despite the fact that this "perfect, overflowing, unutterable
happiness" is within the reach of the humblest and least
capable believer, comparatively few seem sufficiently in earnest to
strive after its attainment. A passion for souls is rare among
church members today. The great mass of Christian people feel not the
slightest responsibility for the souls of their fellow men. It
never so much as dawns on them that they are their brother's keeper.
If they can manage to save their own souls, that is the end
of their concern.
The reasons for this apathy are not far to seek.
There may be a willingness to subscribe to the orthodox creed concerning
future punishment, but there is a world of difference
between a creedal belief and a working faith.
Judge Mingins had been an infidel in his youth, and had lived with his
infidel companions in Philadelphia. Some time after his
conversion he was visiting one of them, who said: "George, I hear you
are a Christian now. Is that so?"
"Yes," said Mr. Mingins.
"George, do you believe in God?"
"Yes."
"And do you believe in Hell, and that all who do not believe in God and in Jesus Christ will ultimately go to Hell?"
"I do, most certainly."
"Well, George," said he, "does Christianity dry up all the milk of humanity in one's body as it has in yours?"
"Why," said Mr. Mingins, "what do you mean?"
"I mean this," he replied, "that here you have been living under my
roof for three days and three nights, knowing and believing all
this, and yet you never put your hand on my shoulder, or said one word
to save me." How many of my readers are in the boat with
Judge Mingins?
The case was put even more strongly by a gifted and noted infidel, who
said: "Were I a religionist, did I truly, firmly, consistently
believe, as millions SAY they do, that the knowledge and the practice
of religion in this life influences destiny in another, religion
should be to me EVERYTHING. I would cast aside earthly enjoyments as
dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and
feelings as less than vanity. Religion would be my first waking thought
and my last image when sleep sank me in unconsciousness.
I would labor in her cause alone. I would not labor for the meat that
perisheth, nor for treasures on earth, but only for a crown of
glory in heavenly regions where treasures and happiness are alike beyond
the reach of time and chance. I would take thought for
the morrow of eternity alone. I WOULD ESTEEM ONE SOUL GAINED FOR HEAVEN
WORTH A LIFE OF SUFFERING.
There should be neither worldly prudence nor calculating circumspection
in my engrossing zeal. Earthly consequences should
never stay my hand nor seal my lips. I would speak to the imagination,
awaken the feelings, stir up the passions, arouse the fancy.
Earth, its joys and its grief, should occupy no moment of my thoughts;
for these are but the affairs of a portion of eternity--so small
that no language can express its comparatively infinite littleness.
"I would strive to look but on eternity and on the immortal souls around
me, soon to be everlastingly miserable or everlastingly
happy. I would deem all who thought only of this world, merely seeking
to increase temporal happiness and laboring to obtain
temporal goods--I would deem all such pure madmen. I would go forth
to the world and preach to it, in season and out of season;
and my text should be: 'What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole
world and lose his own soul.'"
THE MASTER SOUL-WINNER
Why have I troubled to quote this in full? Because all unwittingly,
the infidel has here written the philosophy of life of that Master
Soul-winner, the Lord Jesus. Now read it again and see how accurately
it presents His attitude to this world and to eternity. His
life was absolutely consistent with His belief in the everlasting punishment
of the lost. Have we the mind of Christ in this? Is our
attitude to this life and eternity that described in the infidel's
statement?
Many years ago, Charles Peace, one of the greatest of criminals, was
brought to justice. A burglar, forger, and double murderer,
he was condemned to death. As he was being led to the scaffold, the
chaplain walked by his side, offering what we call "the
consolations of religion." As the chaplain spoke of Christ's power
to save, the wretched man turned to him and said: "Do you
believe it? Do you believe it? If I believed THAT, I would willingly
crawl across England on broken glass to tell men it was true."
Thank God it is true; but if the measure of our belief in its truth
were the efforts we are making for the salvation of souls, I am
afraid our belief could not be described as vital. General Booth once
said that he would like to send all his candidates for
officership to Hell for twenty-four hours as the chief part of their
training. Why? Because it is not until we have a vital conviction
of the irrevocable doom of the impenitent, that our belief will crystallize
into action.
Oh, for tear-filled eyes! Oh, for sleepless eyes, because of the imminent
danger and doom of the unsaved! Do the tears ever start
unbidden from OUR eyes as we behold our city filled with sin and suffering
and shame? Does sleep ever flee OUR eyes because
of our concern for the souls around? How cold, and callous and benumbed
are our souls!
Oh, for a passionate passion for souls,
Oh, for a pity that yearns!
When William C. Burns, so greatly used in revival work in Murray McCheyne's
parish, and later in China, was commencing his
ministry, his mother met him one day in a Glasgow close. Seeing him
weeping, she said: "Why those tears?" He answered "I am
weeping at the sight of the multitudes in the streets, so many of whom
are passing through life unsaved."
General Booth received a message from one of his captains that the work
was so hard he could make no progress. The General
sent back a reply of two words: "Try tears." Success visited that corps.
Never was a day like the present for fine scholarship in the pulpit
and high standard of intelligence in the pew. But culture of the
heart has lagged far behind the culture of the mind. Pulpit power has
decreased rather than increased. And the reason? Dr.
Goodell rightly diagnoses the case when he says: "No man can be a herald
of his Lord's passion if he does not himself share it."
Less scholarship, if indeed one must be sacrificed on the altar of
the other, and more "concern" would soon see a turn of the tide.
Many an ignorant man or woman, because of an evidently sincere concern
for the souls of others, has been wonderfully fruitful in
soulwinning. Entirely innocent of theology, they have manifested the
love of the Master in so convincing a way that their appeal
has been irresistible. Dr. Wilbur Chapman tells of such a case:
WHAT "CONCERN" ACHIEVED
"I went to hear D. L. Moody preach when I was a country minister, and
he so fired my heart, that I went back to my country
church and tried to preach as he preached, and we had really a great
work of grace. It did not start immediately; and I was so
discouraged, because things did not go as I thought they ought, that
I called my church officers together and said: 'You will have to
help me.' They promised to do so, and finally an old farmer rose and
said: 'I have not done much work in the church, but I will help
you.' One of the officers said to me afterwards: 'Do not ask him to
pray, for he cannot pray in public,' and another said: 'Do not
ask him to speak, for he cannot speak to the edification of the people.'
Next morning we had one of those sudden snowstorms for
which that part of the country is famous, and this old farmer rose
and put his horse to his sleigh and started across the country four
miles to a blacksmith's shop. He hitched his horse on the outside,
and went into the shop all covered with snow, and found the
blacksmith alone. The blacksmith said: 'Mr. Cranmer, whatever brings
you out today?' The old farmer walked to the blacksmith's
bench, and putting his hand upon the man's shoulders, said: 'Tom!'
and the tears started to roll down his cheeks. Then with sobs
choking his utterance, he said: 'Tom, when your old father died, he
gave you and your brother into my guardianship, and I have let
you both grow into manhood and never asked you to become a Christian.'
That was all. He did not ask him then; he could not. He
got into his sleigh and drove back home. And he did not go out again
for months; he almost died from pneumonia.
"But that night in the meeting, the blacksmith stood up before my church
officers and said: 'Friends, I have never been moved by a
sermon in my life, but when my old friend stood before me this morning,
with tears and sobs, having come all through the storm, I
thought it was time I considered the matter.' We received him into
the church, and he is a respected church officer today.
PREACHING FAILS, SINGING FAILS, BUT INDIVIDUAL CONCERN DOES NOT FAIL."
Upon our conception of the value of the object to be won will depend
the strenuousness of our labors for their salvation. "Is it
really worth inconveniencing ourselves and interfering with our own
enjoyment to save souls?" we ask. Let us endeavor to arrive
at some true estimate of the value of a soul. A man will work harder
to recover diamonds than gravel. Why? Because they are of
so much greater value. And so with the souls of men. Christ conceived
the human soul to be of such transcendent value that He
gladly exchanged the shining courts of glory for a life of poverty,
suffering, shame and death, rather than that it should perish. He
placed the world and all it could offer in the one scale and a human
soul in the other, and declared that the scale went down on the
side of the soul.
THE VALUE OF A SOUL
But how can we compute the value of a soul?
1. BY ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN. Man was made in the image of God,
and into him was breathed the breath of God. Man is
an immortal being.
2. BY ITS POWERS AND CAPACITIES. The capacities of a human being,
even in this life, seem almost limitless--but, alas,
they have been prostituted to base uses in the service of the usurper.
But man is still capable of fellowship with God--the highest
privilege conceivable to the mind of a human being.
3. BY THE DURATION OF ITS EXISTENCE. The human soul exists eternally,
and either in bliss or in woe. (See 2 Cor. 4:18; 1
Cor 15:53; Rom. 8:11; Jude 7; 2 Peter 3:6,7; Matt. 25:46.)
4. BY THE COST OF ITS REDEMPTION. It required not shining silver
or yellow gold to pay the price of man's redemption, but
crimson drops of precious blood from the broken body of the Son of
God. This makes even the meanest soul worth saving.
5. BY THE STRUGGLE REQUIRED FOR ITS POSSESSION. Why is the unregenerate
human soul the battleground of both
God and the Devil, the one actuated by love, the other by hate? Because
both know and rightly appraise the possibilities for good
and evil of only one human soul. No wonder souls are not lightly won
with such an adversary. If then, a soul is of such surpassing
value, to save it, no expense is too large, no pain too agonizing,
no trouble too great, no labor too hard.
Impelled by a great passion for souls, Raymond Lull, first missionary
to the Moslems, cried, "To Thee, O Lord, I offer myself, my
wife, my children, and all that I possess." After many years of suffering
and service, he became a martyr for his Lord. David
Branierd, who died when little more than thirty, said: "I wanted to
wear myself out in His service, for His glory. I cared not how or
where I lived, or what hardships I went through so that I could but
gain souls for Christ."
Such love has burned in the breasts of all great soul-winners. Their love for souls has been reckless and prodigal.
HOW MAY THIS "CONCERN" BE OBTAINED?
It is not a natural and inevitable product of the heart. It is not produced
by a fresh resolution to be concerned about souls. It will be
produced in the heart only by using the means adapted to stir up our
minds on the subject. Paul's concern for souls, as one has
said, sprang from a threefold conviction. First, one great verity which
all must face, the Great White Throne; second, one
experience through which all men must pass, the resurrection either
to life or to condemnation. Third, one destiny toward which all
things are moving--the great eternity.
We must cherish the slightest impression of the Spirit; take the Bible
and go over the passages that show the condition of lost
sinners. Dr. Wilbur Chapman suggests: "Take your New Testament and
go quietly alone and read a sentence like this: 'He that
believeth not is condemned already.' Then sit and think about it for
ten minutes. Put your boy over against it--your girl, your wife,
your husband, yourself. Then take this: 'He that hath not the Son of
God, hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.' I
know that a soul thus burdened generally gains its desire."
Charles G. Finney urges the seeker after this "concern" to "look as
it were, through a telescope into Hell, and hear their groans;
then turn the glass upward and look into Heaven and see the saints
there in their white robes, and hear them sing the song of
redeeming love; and ask yourself: 'Is it possible that I should prevail
with God to elevate the sinner there?' Do this, and if you are
not a wicked man, you will soon have as much of the spirit of prayer
as your body can sustain."
Lord Crucified, give me a love like Thine,
Help me to win the dying souls of men.
Lord, keep my heart in closest touch with Thine
And give me love, pure Calvary love,
To bring the lost to Thee.
A STRIKING EXAMPLE
A most striking example of the urge to win souls triumphing over even
imminent death, is that of John Harper, a Baptist minister of
London, who was lost with the TITANIC. At a conference held in the
city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, a man rose and gave the
following testimony: "Four years ago, when I left England on board
the TITANIC, I was a careless, godless sinner. I was in this
condition on the night when the terrible catastrophe took place. Very
soon, with hundreds more, I found myself struggling in the
cold, dark waters of the Atlantic. I caught hold of something and clung
to it for dear life. The wail of awful distress from the
perishing all around was ringing in my ears, when there floated near
by me a man who, too, seemed to be clinging to something.
He called to me: 'Is your soul saved?' I replied: 'No, it is not.'
'Then,' said he, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved.' We drifted apart for a few minutes, then we seemed to be driven
together once more. 'Is your soul saved?' again he cried
out. 'I fear it is not,' I replied. 'Then if you will but believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ your soul shall be saved,' was his further
message of intense appeal to me. But again we were separated by the
rolling currents. I heard him call out this message to others
as they sank beneath the waters into eternity. There and then, with
two miles of water beneath me, in my desperation I cried unto
Christ to save me. I believed upon Him and I was saved. In a few minutes
I heard this man of God say: 'I'm going down, I'm going
down' then: 'No, no, I'm going UP.' That man was John Harper."