{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_9957/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_9957","id":"gutenberg_9957","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9957","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Evangelistic work","Salvation -- Christianity"],"text":"Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Anne Folland, Tom Allen,\nand the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading\nTeam\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE PERSONAL TOUCH\n\nBY\n\nJ. WILBUR CHAPMAN, D.D.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n      FOREWORD\n\n   I. A TESTIMONY\n\n  II. A GENERAL PRINCIPLE\n\n III. A POLISHED SHAFT\n\n  IV. STARTING RIGHT\n\n   V. NO MAN CARED FOR MY SOUL\n\n  VI. WINNING THE YOUNG\n\n VII. WINNING AND HOLDING\n\nVIII. A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION\n\n  IX. WHOSOEVER WILL\n\n   X. CONVERSION IS A MIRACLE\n\n  XI. A FINAL WORD\n\n\n\n\n_FOREWORD_\n\n\nIF\n\n\nIf to be a Christian is worth while, then the most ordinary interest in\nthose with whom we come in contact should prompt us to speak to them of\nChrist.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf the New Testament be true--and we know that it is--who has given us\nthe right to place the responsibility for soul-winning on other\nshoulders than our own?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf they who reject Christ are in danger, is it not strange that we, who\nare so sympathetic when the difficulties are physical or temporal,\nshould apparently be so devoid of interest as to allow our friends and\nneighbours and kindred to come into our lives and pass out again\nwithout a word of invitation to accept Christ, to say nothing of\nsounding a note of warning because of their peril?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf to-day is the day of salvation, if to-morrow may never come, and if\nlife is equally uncertain, how can we eat, drink, and be merry when\nthose who live with us, work with us, walk with us, and love us are\nunprepared for eternity because they are unprepared for time?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf Jesus called His disciples to be fishers of men, who gave us the\nright to be satisfied with making fishing tackle or pointing the way to\nthe fishing banks instead of going ourselves to cast out the net until\nit be filled?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf Jesus Himself went seeking the lost, if Paul the Apostle was in\nagony because his kinsmen, according to the flesh, knew not Christ, why\nshould we not consider it worth while to go out after the lost until\nthey are found?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf I am to stand at the judgment seat of Christ to render an account\nfor the deeds done in the body, what shall I say to Him if my children\nare missing, my friends not saved, or if my employer or employee should\nmiss the way because I have been faithless?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf I wish to be approved at the last, then let me remember that no\nintellectual superiority, no eloquence in preaching, no absorption in\nbusiness, no shrinking temperament, no spirit of timidity can take the\nplace of or be an excuse for my not making an honest, sincere, prayerful\neffort to win others to Christ by means of the _Personal Touch_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\n_A Testimony_\n\n\nI have the very best of reasons for believing in the power of the\npersonal touch in Christian work, especially as it may be used in the\nwinning of others to Christ.\n\nMy boyhood's home was in the city of Richmond, in the State of Indiana,\nmy mother was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in\nthe first years of my life in company with my father and the other\nchildren of the household, I attended the church of my mother. When she\nwas just a little more than thirty-five years of age she was called\nhome. My father in his youth had been trained as a Presbyterian; many\nof his ancestors having belonged to that denomination; therefore it was\nquite natural that he should return to the Church of his fathers when\nmy mother had gone home.\n\nIt was thus I became a member of the Presbyterian Church, and my Church\ntraining as a boy after fifteen years of age was in that denomination.\nBecause of this special interest in both the Church of my father and my\nmother, I attended two Sunday Schools. In the morning I was in a class\nin the Presbyterian school and in the afternoon was a member of a class\nin the Grace Methodist Sunday School, my teacher in the afternoon school\nbeing Mrs C.C. Binckley, a godly woman, the wife of Senator Binckley of\nIndiana, through all her life from girlhood, a devout follower of Christ\nand a faithful teacher in the Sunday School. Not so very long ago I\nheard that she was still teaching in the same school, and I am sure, as\nin the olden days, winning boys to Christ.\n\nI fear that I was a thoughtless boy, and yet the impressions made upon\nmy life in those days by the death of my mother, the teaching of my\nfather, and the influence of my Sunday School teacher, were such that I\nhave never been able to get away from them.\n\nOne Sunday afternoon a stranger came to address our school--his name I\nhave never learned; I would give much to find it out. At the close of\nhis address he made an appeal to the scholars to stand and confess\nChrist. I think every boy in my class rose to his feet with the\nexception of myself. I found myself reasoning thus: Why should I rise,\nmy mother was a saint; my father is one of the truest men I know; my\nhome teaching has been all that a boy could have; I know about Christ\nand think I realise His power to save.\n\nWhile I was thus reasoning, my Sunday School teacher, with tears in her\neyes, leaned around back of the other boys and looking straight at me,\nas I turned towards her she said, \"Would it not be best for you to\nrise?\" And when she saw that I still hesitated, she put her hand under\nmy elbow and lifted me just a little bit, and I stood upon my feet. I\ncan never describe my emotions. I do not know that that was the time of\nmy conversion, but I do know that it was the day when one of the most\nprofound impressions of my life was made upon me. Through all these\nyears I have never forgotten it, and it was my Sunday School teacher\nwho influenced me thus to take the stand--it was her personal touch\nthat gave me courage to rise before the school and confess my Saviour.\n\nIn the good providence of God, during my student days, as well as\nduring the first years of my ministry, I was thrown in contact with men\nwho knew God, who were being marvellously used by Him, and who seemed\nready and willing to give assistance to one who was just beginning the\njourney of life with all its struggles and conflicts ahead of him.\n\nWhen I was a student attending Lake Forest University, not far from\nChicago, I was very greatly troubled about the matter of assurance. I\nheard that Mr Moody was to be in Chicago, and in company with a friend\nI went in from Lake Forest to hear him. Five times in a single day I\nsat at his feet and drank in the words which fell from his lips. He\nthrilled me through and through. I heard him preach his great sermon on\n\"Sowing and Reaping,\" when old Farwell Hall was crowded with young men\nmany of whom were students like myself.\n\nThe impression that Mr Moody made upon me as a Christian young man, was\nthat I myself was not absolutely sure I was saved. I analysed my\nexperience and found that sometimes I was more than sure and at other\ntimes dwelt in Doubting Castle. When the great evangelist called for an\nafter-meeting, I was one of the first to enter the room where he had\nindicated he would meet those who were interested, and to my great joy\nhe came and sat down beside me. He asked me my difficulty and I told\nhim I was not quite sure that I was saved. He asked me to read John v.\n24, and trembling with emotion I read: \"Verily, verily, I say unto you,\nHe that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath\neverlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed\nfrom death unto life.\"\n\nHe said to me, \"Do you believe this?\" I said, \"Certainly.\" He said,\n\"Are you a Christian?\" and I replied, \"Sometimes I think I am, and\nagain I am fearful.\" Then he said, \"Read it again.\" And I read it once\nmore. His question was again repeated, and I answered it in the same\nmanner as before. Then he seemed to lose his patience, and the only\ntime I can remember Mr Moody being sharp with me was when he turned\nupon me and said, \"Whom are you doubting?\" And suddenly it dawned upon\nme that I was doubting Him who said I was possessed of everlasting life\nbecause I believed on the Son and on the Father who had sent Him, and\nin spite of this possession and His sure Word of promise concerning it,\nI was sceptical. But as I sat there beside him I saw it all. Then he\nsaid, \"Read it again.\" And I read it the third time, and talking to me\nas gently as a mother would to her child he said, \"Do you believe this?\"\nI said, \"Yes, indeed I do.\" Then he said, \"Are you a Christian?\" And I\nanswered, \"Yes, Mr Moody, I am.\" From that day to this I have never\nquestioned my acceptance with God.\n\nFor some reason Mr Moody always seemed to keep me in mind. He came into\nmy church in the early days of my ministry, told me where he thought I\nwas wrong and suggested how I might be more greatly used of God. He\nadvised me to give my time wholly to evangelistic work, and when I said\nto him one day that I was going to take up the pastorate after three\nyears of experience in general evangelism, he seemed disturbed. To him\nmore than to any other man, I owe the greatest blessing that ever came\ninto my life.\n\nThrough Mr Moody I met the Rev F.B. Meyer, and one sentence which he\nused at Northfield changed my ministry. He said, \"If you are not\nwilling to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made\nwilling?\" That seemed like a new star in the sky of my life, and one day\nacting upon his suggestion, after having carefully studied the passages\nin the New Testament which relate to surrender and to consecration, I\ngave myself anew to Christ and I shall never be able to express in words\nmy appreciation of what this man of God to whom I have referred, did for\nme by personal influence.\n\nAll along the way I have been brought in contact with men whom God has\nsignally blessed, and I am persuaded that there are many to-day whose\nhearts are hungering for a blessing, who are waiting as I was myself,\nfor someone to speak to them personally, and help them out of darkness\ninto light; out of a certain kind of bondage into a glorious freedom.\nThe personal touch in Christian work, to me, means everything.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\n_A General Principle_\n\n\nI have been amazed in my study of the biographies of men and women who\nhave been specially used of God, to see how almost universal is the\nrule that they have come to Christ, or to an experience of power,\nthrough the personal influence of a friend or acquaintance. Preaching\nis not enough, it is sometimes too general; the impressions of a song\nmay soon be effaced, but the personal touch, the tear in the eye, the\npathos in the voice, the concern which is manifested in the very\nexpression of one's countenance; these are used with great effect, and\nthousands of people are to-day in the Kingdom of God, or in special\nservice, because of such influences being brought to bear upon their\nlives.\n\nJohn Wesley is a notable illustration of the influence of the personal\ntouch. Peter Bohler of the Moravian Church, came into his life when he\nwas in sore need of just such assistance as he seemed able to give. Dr\nW. H. Fitchett of Australia, writes:--\n\n\"The Moravians of Savannah taught him exactly what Peter Bohler taught\nhim afterwards in London, but the teaching at the moment left his life\nunaffected. Wesley's own explanation is, 'I understood it not; I was\ntoo learned and too wise, so that it seemed foolishness unto me; and I\ncontinued preaching, and following after, and trusting in that\nrighteousness whereby no flesh can be justified.'\n\n\"The truth is that Peter Bohler himself, had he met Wesley in Savannah,\nwould have taught him in vain. The stubborn Sacramentarian and High\nChurchman had to be scourged, by the sharp discipline of failure, out\nof that subtlest and deadliest form of pride, the pride that imagines\nthat the secret of salvation lies, or can lie, within the circle of\npurely human effort. Wesley later describes Peter Bohler as 'One whom\nGod prepared for me.' But God in the toilsome and humiliating\nexperiences of Georgia, was preparing Wesley for Peter Bohler.\"\n\nBohler described Wesley as \"a man of good principles, who did not\nproperly believe on the Saviour, and was willing to be taught.\" Later\non, in the city of London, where Wesley had been intimately associated\nwith Peter Bohler and had come directly under his influence, he one\nnight attended a religious service in Aldersgate Street, where the one\nconducting the service was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to\nthe Romans. The effect of that service upon Wesley is best told in his\nown words.\n\n\"About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which\nGod works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart\nstrangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my\nsalvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my\nsins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. I began to\npray with all my might for those who had in a more special manner\ndespitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all\nthere what I now first felt in my heart. But it was not long before the\nenemy suggested, 'This cannot be faith; for where is thy joy?' Then was\nI taught that peace and victory over sin are essential to faith in the\nCaptain of our salvation; but that, as to the transports of joy that\nusually attend the beginning of it, especially in those who have\nmourned deeply, God sometimes giveth, sometimes withholdeth, them\naccording to the counsels of His own will.\"\n\nCharles Haddon Spurgeon, in speaking of his own early experiences,\nwrites thus: \"When I was a young child staying with my grandfather,\nthere came to preach in the village Mr Knill, who had been a\nmissionary at St Petersburgh, and a mighty preacher of the gospel. He\ncame to preach for the London Missionary Society, and arrived on the\nSaturday at the manse. He was a great soul winner, and he soon spied\nout the boy. He said to me, 'where do you sleep? for I want to call you\nup in the morning.' I showed him my little room. At six o'clock he\ncalled me up, and we went into the arbour. There, in the sweetest way,\nhe told me of the love of Jesus and of the blessedness of trusting in\nHim and loving Him in our childhood. With many a story he preached\nChrist to me, and told me how good God had been to him, and then he\nprayed that I might know the Lord and serve Him.\n\n\"He knelt down in the arbour and prayed for me with his arms about my\nneck. He did not seem content unless I kept with him in the interval\nbetween the services, and he heard my childish talk with patient love.\nOn Monday morning he did as on the Sabbath, and again on Tuesday. Three\ntimes he taught me and prayed with me, and before he had to leave, my\ngrandfather had come back from the place where he had gone to preach,\nand all the family were gathered to morning prayer. Then, in the\npresence of them all, Mr Knill took me on his knee and said, 'This\nchild will one day preach the gospel, and he will preach it to great\nmultitudes. I am persuaded that he will preach in the chapel of Rowland\nHill, where (I think he said) I am now the minister.' He spoke very\nsolemnly, and called upon all present to witness what he said.\"\n\nD.L. Moody was thus won to Christ. His Sunday School teacher in Boston\nwas Mr E.D. Kimball. He was not one of the ordinary type of Sunday\nSchool teachers. Mere literal instruction on Sunday did not satisfy his\nideal of the teacher's duty. He knew his boys, and if he knew them, it\nwas because he studied them, because he became acquainted with their\noccupations and aims, visiting them during the week. It was his custom,\nmoreover, to find opportunity to give to his boys an opportunity to use\nhis experience in seeking the better things of the Spirit. The day came\nwhen he resolved to speak to young Moody about Christ, and about his\nsoul.\n\n\"I started down to Holton's shoe store,\" says Mr Kimball. \"When I was\nnearly there, I began to wonder whether I ought to go just then, during\nbusiness hours. And I thought maybe my mission might embarrass the boy,\nthat when I went away the other clerks might ask who I was, and when\nthey learned might taunt Moody and ask if I was trying to make a good\nboy out of him. While I was pondering over it all, I passed the store\nwithout noticing it. Then when I found I had gone by the door, I\ndetermined to make a dash for it and have it over at once. I found\nMoody in the back part of the store wrapping up shoes in paper and\nputting them on shelves. I went up to him and put my hand on his\nshoulder, and as I leaned over I placed my foot upon a shoe box. Then I\nmade my plea, and I feel that it was really a very weak one. I don't\nknow just what words I used, nor could Mr Moody tell. I simply told him\nof Christ's love for him and the love Christ wanted in return. That was\nall there was of it. I think Mr Moody said afterwards that there were\ntears in my eyes. It seemed that the young man was just ready for the\nlight that then broke upon him, for there at once in the back of that\nshoe store in Boston the future great evangelist gave himself and his\nlife to Christ.\"\n\nMany years afterward Mr Moody himself told the story of that day. \"When\nI was in Boston,\" he said, \"I used to attend a Sunday School class, and\none day, I recollect, my teacher came around behind the counter of the\nshop I was at work in, and put his hand upon my shoulder, and talked to\nme about Christ and my soul. I had not felt that I had a soul till\nthen. I said to myself. This is a very strange thing. Here is a man who\nnever saw me till lately, and he is weeping over my sins, and I never\nshed a tear about them. But, I understand it now, and know what it is\nto have a passion for men's souls and weep over their sins. I don't\nremember what he said, but I can feel the power of that man's hand on\nmy shoulder to-night. It was not long after that I was brought into the\nKingdom of God.\"\n\nThe personal touch is necessary. It is not so much what we say, as the\nway we say it, and indeed, it is not so much what we say and the way we\nsay it, as what we are, that counts in personal work. We cannot delegate\nthis work to others. God has called the evangelist to a certain mission\nin soul winning. He has given ministers the privilege of winning many to\nChrist. Mission workers, generally, are charged with the responsibility\nfor this special work. But this fact cannot relieve the parents, the\nchildren, the husband, the wife, the friends, the business man, the\ntoiler in the shop, from personal responsibility in the matter of\nattempting to win others to the Saviour.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\n_A Polished Shaft_\n\n\n\"He hath made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me,\"\nIsaiah xlix. 2.[1] Personal preparation is essential to the best success\nin personal work. No familiarity with the methods of other workers; no\ndistinction among men because of past favours of either God or men; no\npast success in the line of special effort; no amount of intellectual\nequipment and no reputation for cleverness in the estimation of your\nfellowmen will take the place of individual soul culture, if you are to\nbe used of God.\n\n[Footnote 1: Suggested by Dr Charles Cuthbert Hall.]\n\n  Thou must be true thyself,\n  If thou the truth would teach;\n  It takes the overflow of heart\n  To give the lips full speech.\n\nThe words of Isaiah the Prophet literally refer to Him who was the\nservant of Jehovah. He was God's prepared blessing to a waiting and\nneedy people. He came from the bosom of the Father that He might lift a\nlost and ruined race to God. And swifter than an arrow speeds from the\nhand of the archer when the string of the bow is drawn back, He came to\ndo the will of God. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we find Him saying,\n\"Lo I come, in the volume of the Book it is written of me I delight to\ndo thy will.\" This was the spirit of all His earthly life. When He was\nhungry and sent His disciples to buy meat, He found it unnecessary to\npartake of the food they brought to Him, saying, \"My meat is to do the\nwill of him that sent me.\" And when He came to the garden of Gethsemane,\nwell on to the climax of His sacrificial life, we hear Him saying again,\n\"Not my will, but Thine be done.\" In such a completely surrendered life\nwe have a perfect representation of the prepared Christian worker.\n\nIn the expression of Isaiah we have also the thought of His anguish.\n\"He was made a polished shaft.\" In these days when there is a disposition\nto place Jesus upon the level with others who have wrought for the good\nof humanity, it is well to remember that He is the Lamb slain from the\nfoundation of the world. There is also the thought of the beauty of His\ncharacter, for He is a \"polished shaft,\" \"chiefest among ten thousand,\"\nand \"the One altogether lovely.\" He is \"the lily of the valley\" for\nfragrance, and \"the rose of Sharon\" for beauty, and thus prepared He\nstands before us beckoning us on to a work which is indescribable in its\nfascination. Calling His disciples He said, \"I will make you fishers of\nmen.\" The same promise is made to us. Working His miracles He said to\nthose about Him, \"Greater works than these shall ye do.\" We have only\nto follow in His footsteps and walk sufficiently near to hear His\nfaintest whisper when He directs us to be, in the truest sense of the\nword, successful personal workers.\n\nIt is a great encouragement to hear Him say, \"As the Father hath sent\nme, even so send I you.\" The shaft mentioned by Isaiah is an arrow\nprepared with all care. The quiver in which this arrow is placed is\ncarried on the left side of the archer, placed upon the string of the\nbow, the archer drawing back the string adds to the elasticity of bow\nand string his own strength, and the shaft is off to do the archer's\nwill. There is in this story an illustration for all Christian workers.\nFitness for service lies first of all in divine endowment. God has\ngiven to each one of us special and peculiar qualifications. If we live\nas we ought to live, exercising the gift that is in us; the painter may\npaint for His glory; the poet may sing and speak of Him; the preacher\nmay preach and declare His righteousness, and should we live in less\nconspicuous spheres than these, we have only to do our best with that\nwith which He has endowed us and our lives will be pleasing to Him.\n\nIt lies also in the divine call. The shaft was made for a special\npurpose. We have been created to do His will. The possession of power\nis not enough; talents unused will rise at the Judgment Seat to rebuke\nus. God gives us ability and then calls us forth into the field that we\nmay exercise it. Fitness for service also lies in the response to God's\nwill. The possession of power and the call of God may both be realised\nand we may still fail. It is when we say \"I will,\" to God that human\nweakness is linked to divine strength and then a great service is\npossible.\n\nLife is not drudgery, it is an inspiration.\n\n  \"Let me but do my work from day to day,\n  In field or forest, at desk or loom;\n  When vagrant wishes beckon me away,\n  Let me but find it in my heart to say,\n  This is my work, my blessing not my doom;\n  Of all who live I am the only one by whom\n  This work can best be done.\"\n\nThe word of the Prophet Isaiah is a picture of the child of God, as\nwell as of Him who is our inspiration for service. There is the thought\nof definiteness of use in the shaft. Other articles may be created for\na variety of purposes. This shaft is made to go at the owner's will.\nThere is only one way to live in this world and that is according to\nthe will of God and for His glory.\n\n  It matters little where I was born,\n    Or if my parents were rich or poor;\n  Whether they shrank from the cold world's scorn,\n    Or walked in the pride of wealth secure;\n  But whether I live a surrendered man,\n    And hold my integrity firm in my clutch,\n  I tell you, my brother, as plain as I can,\n         It matters much!\n\n\n  It matters little where be my grave,\n    Or on the land or on the sea.\n  By purling brook, or 'neath stormy wave,\n    It matters little or nought to me;\n  But whether the angel of death comes down\n    And marks my brow with his loving touch,\n  And one that shall wear the victor's crown,\n         It matters much!\n\nThere is also in this picture of the shaft the thought of directed\nmotion. The aim is everything. The arrow cannot aim itself. There is no\nsuch thing as an aimless life. Our energies are either being directed\nfor Christ or against Him; in the interests of humanity or contrary to\nthem. Every child of God must reach the place where he will say, Not my\nwill, but Thine, O God, be done; not my path but Thine, O Christ, be\ntravelled; not my ambitions realized but Thine own purposes in me\nfulfilled, my Heavenly Father. The progress of such a life is peace,\nthe consummation of it the most perfect victory.\n\n  When I am dying how glad I shall be\n  That the lamp of my life has been blazed out for Thee.\n  I shall be glad in whatever I gave,\n  Labour, or money, one sinner to save;\n\n  I shall not mind that the path has been rough,\n  That Thy dear feet led the way is enough.\n  When I am dying how glad I shall be,\n  That the lamp of my life has been blazed out for Thee.\n\nIn the picture of the archer and his arrow, there is an illustration of\nderived energy. The arrow placed upon the string and drawn back by the\narcher speeds away to do the master's will. It has no power in itself;\nit flies forward in the master's strength. God is always seeking an\noutlet for His power along the line of service. It is when our lives\nare surrendered to Him that victory is possible. A friend of mine took\nfor his year text the expression \"I believe, and I belong.\" We might\nwell add, \"I live and I love,\" and because I do both I will obey. Ole\nBull once played his violin in the presence of a company of University\nstudents. He charmed them, they knew at once that they were in the\npresence of a master. When he was finished playing, one who was present\nsaid to him, \"What is the secret of your power, have you a special bow,\nor is it in the instrument you use?\" Ole Bull responded, \"I think it is\nin neither, but it has always seemed to me that I had power in playing\nbecause I waited to play until I had an inspiration, when my soul was\noverflowing with music and I could not stay the torrent that was back\nof me; it is then that I take my violin and the music flows forth.\" If\nwe were always passive in the hands of the Master He would show forth\nin and through us His marvellous grace and power.\n\nThe polishing of the shaft is always necessary. God uses all our\nexperiences to equip us for life. Parental influence; the power of\nprayer as offered in our behalf by others; the education given us in\nthe schools; the disappointments of life which seem almost to crush us;\nthe sorrows which are indescribable; all these are like the touch of a\nmaster's hand, and forth from such a school and such a training we\nought to come prepared to do the will of God.\n\nThe arrow was carried in the quiver and the quiver was near to the\nmaster's side. Nearness to God is essential if we are to be used of\nGod. He chooses the vessel nearest His hand. This has always been true.\nThe apostles, martyrs, missionaries, and saints who have finished their\nwork and have gone on before, as well as those who live to-day, prove\nthe statement that we must be in closest relationship with Christ if we\nare to be entrusted with the gift of power. It is when we are in the\nsecret place of the Most High that we learn God's will concerning us.\nMany people do not know God's will because they live too much in the\nbustle and confusion of life. God speaks His best messages to us in\nwhispers, not in thunder tones, and we must be still to know that He is\nGod and study to be quiet that we may go forth from quietness to conquer.\nThe practice of the quiet hour is the secret of many a soul's victorious\nservice.\n\n  Shut in with God alone,\n  I spend the quiet hour;\n  His mercy and His love I own,\n  And seek His saving power\n\n  Shut in with God alone;\n  In meditation sweet,\n  My spirit waits before the throne,\n  Bowed low at Jesus' feet.\n\n  Shut in with God alone;\n  I praise His holy name,\n  Who gave the Saviour to atone\n  For all my sin and shame.\n\n  Shut in with God alone;\n  And yet I have no fear,\n  I rest beneath the cleansing blood,\n  And perfect love is here.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\n_Starting Right_\n\n\n\"Every one over against his house,\" Nehemiah iii. 28. The first part of\nthe Book of Nehemiah gives us a striking picture of destruction, and as\nwe look about us we see a city in ruins: the walls are down; the homes\nhave been destroyed; the people are in despair, so great is the\ndesolation that even the temple has been defaced. When the tidings\nconcerning the havoc which has been wrought in the city of Jerusalem\nreached Nehemiah he was well nigh heart-broken. Speaking about the\nstory that had been brought to him he said, \"And they said unto me, The\nremnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in\ngreat affliction and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem also is broken\ndown, and the gates thereof are burned with fire,\" Nehemiah i. 3. When\nhe reaches the city of Jerusalem he goes about to view the ruins, and\nhe thus describes his journey: \"So I came to Jerusalem and was there\nthree days. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon\nme; as also the king's words that He had spoken unto me. And they said,\nLet us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this\ngood work,\" Nehemiah ii. 11 and 18.\n\nThis picture of despair as seen in the olden days in Jerusalem is almost\nif not altogether being repeated to-day. The case is really desperate.\nThe need of Divine help in the re-construction of human lives has never\nbeen greater. Hosts of men find the following testimony a description\nof their own experience. It is a young university man who is speaking,\nand before a great crowd of people he says:--\n\n\"Probably nine out of every ten of you men standing in front of me know\nwho I am and know my family well. You will no doubt be surprised to\nhear of the awful experiences through which I have gone during the past\nsix months. Just six months ago, as most of you know, I was an active\nChristian worker, and there are many of you in front of me who as\nrecently as last July sat and heard me preach. During the last six\nmonths trouble came upon me, and in a weak moment, losing faith in God,\nI took to drink, and sank as low as it is possible for any man to sink.\nNot even the prodigal in the parable could have fallen lower than I\ndid. Disowned by my mother; cast aside by my brother and sisters;\ndespised by the members and officers of the church to which I belonged\nand in which I preached, I was in every respect an outcast. Just before\nChristmas, whilst tramping on the road, I actually took the shirt off\nmy back to sell it for drink, so miserable was I. My nights I spent in\nthe open fields, waking in the morning covered with frost. Something\nseemed to compel me to attend the meetings in this city. I attended\nnight after night, and although the singing and the address had a\nwonderful effect upon me, I kept struggling against the working of the\nSpirit, until the singing of the chorus \"I am Included,\" brought home\nto me as never before, the fact that even I, wretched outcast that I\nwas, had not gone too far. I then and there made up my mind to accept\nthe promise of John iii. 16. From that time I have realized, as never\nbefore, that Christ went to Calvary not so much for the world, as He\ndid for me. And I intend to devote the rest of my life to winning souls\nfor Him.\"\n\nThere is surely cause for great alarm because of the present condition\nof affairs, and for the following reasons: Home life is not what it\nused to be. In the olden times the home was a harbour into which\ntempest-tossed souls came day after day, and thus protected, had time\nto regain lost strength and go forth again to battle with the storm. It\nwas once true that fathers were priests in their own households and\nmothers were saints. The best memory that some of us have is that which\ncentres in a home where love ruled and reigned; where Christ was\nhonoured; where the Bible was read, explained and loved, and where the\nvery atmosphere was like heaven. In many instances to-day this is\nmissing and he is to be pitied who has not such a memory as this, and\nsuch an influence for good in his life. The family altar in too many\nhouseholds has been broken down or given up. \"What led you to Christ?\"\nwas the question asked of a distinguished Christian worker. And the\nanswer quickly given was, \"My father's prayers at the family altar.\nThey followed me through my manhood and compelled me eventually to\naccept Christ.\" When the family altar is gone from a home, it is like\nthe taking away of a strong foundation from a building or depriving the\narch of its keystone. Better sacrifice everything than this spirit and\npractice of prayer in the home.\n\nIt is barely possible that because of conditions family prayers may not\nbe conducted to-day as in other days, but there is at least time for a\nverse of scripture and a prayer out of a full heart, and the influence\nof even so brief a service will keep the members of the household from\nmany a failure.\n\nChurch attendance is not what it once was. The old-fashioned family pew\nis a thing of the past in too many cases. In other days the father, the\nmother, and the children attended divine worship in the house of God.\nThey sang the hymns of the church together; they worshipped God with\nthe same spirit of devotion; they listened to the minister's preaching\nand they came forth from such a service clothed with a power that made\nthem able to stand against the mightiest influences for evil. Because\nthe family pew is out of date many boys are wandering, and many girls\nhave gone astray.\n\nWith the beginning of the fourth chapter of Nehemiah there is a change\nin the story as told by the Prophet. There is a ring of triumph when he\nannounces: \"So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together\nunto the half thereof; for the people had a mind to work,\" Nehemiah\niv. 6. And the completeness of his work is described when he says: \"Now\nit came to pass when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors,\nand the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed ...\"\nNehemiah vii. 1. I am sure it is quite true that out from all the\ndespair which sometimes appals us, we shall come into the same complete\nvictory. But if we are to win others to Christ and if our work is to be\na work of prevention, so that our children shall not go astray and our\nfriends may not wander, then it will be essential that we should, like\nNehemiah of old, begin to build everyone over against his own house. It\nis a sad thing to find so many people in the world who are a public\nsuccess and a private failure. Great superintendents of Sunday Schools,\nand poor fathers; experienced Sunday School teachers, and inconsistent\nin their own homes; eloquent preachers and poor illustrations of the\nspirit of Jesus; famed for piety as revealed to the public eye and\nquite as famed for lack of piety, when living out of the lime light, in\nthe common round of daily duties with those who know us best and ought\nto speak of us most highly.\n\nIf our work is to be as God would have it where shall it begin? By all\nmeans let it begin with ourselves. There is a text of Scripture which\nevery Christian must say over and over. He might begin the day with it\nand it might not be amiss for him to say it over before he closes his\neyes in sleep. \"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my\nthoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me,\" Psalm cxxxix. 23,\n24. It is quite unnecessary to study the methods of men if we cannot\nbear the test of God's searching eye.\n\nWe must be right in our own homes. In a meeting conducted recently in\nWales a gentleman rose to say: \"I came to the meeting on Friday\nafternoon and made a covenant with God that I would speak to someone\nabout Christ. It laid so hold of my heart that I went home and spoke to\nmy little girl. I asked her if she loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and she\nsaid, 'Yes, I do.' I said, 'Will you accept Jesus as your personal\nSaviour?' 'Yes, I am willing to' she said. I went to the steel works,\nand had been praying that God would use me. I asked the young man with\nwhom I was working if he were a Christian. He looked black at me, but I\nasked him to be honest before God. In a moment his face changed as he\nsaid without hesitation, 'I will accept Jesus as my Saviour now.'\n\n\"I was working during the night, and it came to food time, so I asked\nseveral of the men if they would come into the smith shop and have a\nword of prayer. There was a young man there whose little boy I had\nspoken to. This young man came to me at three o'clock in the morning to\ntell me that he would accept Jesus as his personal Saviour. I asked\nsome of the men if they would come up to my house and have a little\nprayer meeting after work, at six o'clock in the morning. They came up\nand I spoke to them, quoting the texts John iii. 16 and John v. 24.\nSome of the men present were not saved. I asked them if they really\nunderstood the Scriptures, and they told me they did. 'Now,' I said,\n'will you not accept Jesus as your personal Saviour?' and one who was\nin the smith shop told me that he had definitely given himself to God\nat three o'clock that morning. Then I asked a boy of fifteen if he\nunderstood the words. 'Yes,' he said, so I asked him if he would not\naccept Christ. 'Yes' he replied, 'I will.' The following night I spoke\nto another in the works, concerning his soul, and asked him if he had\nfully surrendered, because I knew he was in trouble. About one o'clock\nI spoke to him and said, 'Will you give yourself to the Lord now?'\n'No,' he said, 'not now.' 'Well,' I said, 'come to the smith shop at\nfood time and have a word of prayer.' After food time he came out, and\nstarted again at his work. Presently he came across to me. 'Well,' I\nsaid, 'have you fully surrendered?' 'Yes, Tom,' he said, 'I have given\nmyself to Christ, now.'\"\n\nBeginning in the home it is quite easy to go out into a wider circle\nand serve. The tendency, however, is to begin in some public place, and\noftentimes because of this we fail to win those who work by our side,\nwho sit with us at our own table and who live with us day after day and\nfor whom we are specially responsible. It will also be necessary for us\nto enlarge the circle and reach the people in our own places of business.\nTwo business men journeyed into a New England city together for twenty\nyears. One of them was a Christian, the other was not. They were both\ndying the same day, and the man who was not a Christian when he heard\nthat his friend was dying, had a right to say to his wife, as he did,\n\"It is a strange thing that my friend and I have known each other so\nwell, and love each other so dearly, that he has allowed me to come to\nthis day without a warning.\"\n\nA business man rose in a meeting to say, \"I have been greatly concerned\nabout one young man who works in my office. I asked him if he would not\ncome to the office a little earlier this morning. When he came and we\nwere alone I asked him if he knew why I had got him to come a little\nearlier. When he told me that he did not, I said to him 'I am a\nChristian, I have never spoken to you about Christ and I have asked you\nto come this morning that I might explain the way to you and urge you\nto take your stand for Him.' That morning I had the great joy of\nleading my employee to Christ. I gave him a little pocket Testament in\nwhich I wrote his name, and under his name I wrote this Scripture,\n'Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee,' and after that I\nsigned my name. Three days later,\" said the business man, \"the young\nman of whom I speak, led three others to Christ, one of them was the\nhead book-keeper in my office.\"\n\nIf we are to be successful soul winners it is essential not only that\nwe should get right with God but that we should keep right with Him.\nThere must be a quick confession of sin and a quick turning away from\nall that would work against Christ. Our friends with whom we live and\nlabour are keen critics, and as a rule, just ones. They know when we\nare wrong and nothing so hinders a testimony as to allow a wrong to go\nunrighted. When before our own households and with those who know us\nbest, and by whose side we toil, in shop, or store, or office, or with\nthose whom we employ, we keep ourselves unspotted from the world, we\nhave an unanswerable argument for Christ and a testimony as regards the\nvalue of following Him which cannot be gainsayed.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\n_No Man cared for my Soul_\n\n\n\"No man cared for my soul,\" Psalm cxlii. 4. All about us people are\nsaying these words, and they really think we do not care. I believe\nthere has never been a story of a man in which was found more contrast\nthan in this account of the man who sobs out the words, \"No man cared\nfor my soul.\" He is a shepherd boy, then a king, a saint, writing the\ntwenty-third Psalm, then suddenly turned into a sinner blackening the\npages of the Old Testament with the story of his transgressions. The\nworld has not had better poetry than that which came from the heart and\nbrain of this marvellous man. In addition to all this, he is a musician,\nand all through the Psalms he is keeping time to heaven's music until,\nwhen he comes to the close of the Psalter, he stands like the leader of\na mighty chorus, and calls upon every living breathing being to praise\nthe Lord. He is a pursuer of men, and the hosts of the enemy run and\ncry and flee before him.\n\nSuddenly the scene is changed. He is himself pursued. He is in the cave\nof Engedi. The cave is dark, and it is in the gloom that we hear him\ncrying out, \"I looked upon my right hand and beheld, but there was no\nman that would know me: refuge failed me.\" And as he said this I think\nhe must have said, with a sob, \"No man cared for my soul.\" But it is\nnot my intention so much to tell the story of this man whose life was\nso filled with contrasts, but rather to speak of those who live to-day,\nand who think they have a right to use the same words as the Psalmist,\n\"No man cared for my soul.\"\n\nThey walk on the streets of our cities; they live in our homes; they\nmeet us in our places of business; they are members of our circle of\nfriends; they know that we are Christians, and they are often thinking\nor saying, \"No man cared for my soul.\" It is strange that we should\npermit this, because we read in the Bible, \"He that believeth not is\ncondemned already.\" \"He that hath not the Son of God hath not life, but\nthe wrath of God abideth on him.\" It seems strange that one could say\nhe believes the Bible to be true; that he accepts these statements\nconcerning the one who is not a Christian, and yet lives and works and\nassociates with him and never speaks to him about the salvation of his\nsoul.\n\nIt would seem as if they at least had a right to say, \"No man _seems_\nto care.\" But some may say, \"They have the Church, and the doors are\nwide open; they have the minister, and his message is faithful.\" Yet,\nthe average man who sits in church and listens to the most impassioned\nappeal of the preacher, rarely considers the sermon personal. He finds\nhimself saying, sometimes against his will, that the preacher is\nprofessional, that his plea is perfunctory, and so he goes out of\nchurch and says again, \"No man _seems_ to care for my soul.\"\n\nThere came into my church in an Eastern city a man who worshipped with\nus for a time. His family were in the mountains. I made it a rule never\nto allow one to attend the church that I did not speak to him personally.\nOne day I called on this business man. He took me into his private\noffice. When I took him by the hand I said, \"I have come to ask you to\nbe a Christian.\" He looked at me in amazement; and I said, \"I am not\nasking you to join my church, that may not be the church of your choice,\nbut I am asking you to be a Christian.\" He drew his hand out of mine,\nwalked away to the window, and stood looking down upon the busy street\nfor fully five minutes. I thought I had offended him. Then he came back,\nand, brushing the tears out of his eyes, he took my hand again and said,\n\"It is the first invitation to be a Christian I have ever had in all my\nlife. Nobody ever asked me before. My mother never asked me; my wife\nhas never asked me; no minister has ever asked me.\" Then, sinking back\ninto the chair by his table, he used the words which are almost identical\nwith the words of David, \"I thought no one cared.\"\n\nSuch men are all around us; men in deepest need; men with sore aching\nhearts. There was a man in an American city who occupied a high\nposition among men. He took his own life. Under the stress of political\nexcitement he misappropriated the funds of the bank, thinking he could\nrepay them, and in his beautiful home he put the revolver to his temple\nand shot himself. The saddest letter I have ever seen was written by\nthat man. He wrote to his wife asking her forgiveness. He told her to\npray for the children whom he had dishonoured. Then he concluded his\nfarewell letter with this statement: \"Through all the months I have\nbeen wishing somebody would speak to me about becoming a Christian.\" In\nthe light of such facts I believe that what we need in these days is\nnot so much, more men to preach--although that would be a great\nblessing--as people in the church who will be absolutely consistent. If\nthey say they believe God's Word to be true, they must speak to those\nover whom they have an influence, about the personal acceptance of\nChrist.\n\nI was waiting one day outside the office of the Governor of one the\nWestern States, and while I waited, the Lieutenant-Governor spoke to\nme. He said, \"I was in your service last night, and I want to take\nissue with you on what you said. You told your hearers to go up and\ndown the streets asking the people to become Christians. I think if\nanyone should come into my office and ask me to become a Christian I\nshould tell him to go about his business.\" \"You surely misunderstood\nme,\" I said; \"what I told them was this, that if a business man was not\na Christian, his friend who is a Christian ought to speak to him kindly\nabout his soul.\" I had been introduced to the Lieutenant-Governor by\none of the great politicians of the State, who was a sincere Christian,\nand I said, \"Suppose our mutual friend here should come to you and say,\n'I am a Christian. I think it is the best thing for a man to be a\nChristian. I am not always what I would like to be myself, but I should\nlike to invite you to become a Christian.' Then suppose he should tell\nyou what a strength and help it had been to him, what would you say to\nhim?\" He looked at me for a moment, and said, \"I think I should say\n'Thank you.'\" I am sure thousands could be won to Jesus Christ if the\nmembers of the Church were consistent in the matter of living in Christ\nand giving an invitation to people to become acquainted with Him.\n\nIt is not fair to charge the minister with being professional, nor to\nsay that in his appeal he is perfunctory. Nor is it always just to\ncriticize those who are in the church, for not speaking to the unsaved,\nfor there may be an explanation. Sometimes we feel a sense of our own\nunworthiness. There are business men who know that if they should speak\nto their employees, the first speech would have to be a confession of\nfailure. There are women who know that if they should go to their\nhusbands or children, and ask them to come to Christ, they would have\nfirst of all to say, \"You must forgive my inconsistency.\" There are\nfathers who know that they could not go to their homes and call their\nchildren around them, and bid them come to Christ without first saying,\n\"You must forgive your father.\" But if a confession is necessary, then\nmake it. It is sometimes a sense of unworthiness that seals one's lips,\nbut remember if you have a friend who is not a Christian, and to whom\nyou have never spoken of Christ, your friend counts you inconsistent\nbecause of your failure.\n\nI said to the officers in my church one evening, \"How many of you have\never led a soul to Christ?\" About half of them said they never had. One\nofficer said, \"That is a sharp question for me. If you will excuse me I\nwill go home and speak to my children, to-night.\" He did so, and I\nreceived two of his sons into the church shortly after.\n\nAgain, we seem to have failed to warn our friends because we have such\na slight conception of the meaning of the word \"Lost.\" A mother in\nChicago one day carried her little baby over to the doctor, and said,\n\"Doctor, look into this baby's eyes, something has gone wrong with\nthem.\" The doctor took the little child and held it in his arms so that\nthe light would strike its face, He gazed at it only for a moment,\nthen, putting it back into its mother's arms, he shook his head, and\nthe mother said quickly, \"Doctor, what is it?\" And he said, \"Madam,\nyour baby is going blind. There is no power in this world that can make\nhim see.\" She held the baby in her arms close up against her heart.\nThen with a cry she fell to the floor in a swoon, saying as she fell,\n\"My God--blind!\" I think any parent must know how she felt. But Jesus\nsaid, \"Better to be maimed, and halt, and blind than to be lost.\"\n\nIf you believe the Bible you cannot be indifferent. But you say, some\nwould not like to have you speak to them. I have been twenty-seven\nyears a minister, and have spoken to all classes and conditions of men\nand women, and only in one single instance have I ever been rebuked. I\nwas once asked to speak to the president of a bank. I went into his\noffice, and was introduced to him by the pastor with whom I was staying.\nI said, \"My friend is very interested in you, and I wish I could lead\nyou to Christ.\" He looked at me in perfect amazement. Then, rising from\nthe chair, he took me by the hand, and said, \"Thank you, sir.\" I saw\nhim that night, make his way down the crowded aisle of the church, give\nthe minister his hand, and say, \"I will.\"\n\nBut I had a sad experience at college. I roomed with a man when I was a\nstudent for the ministry, and never spoke to him about his soul. When\nthe day of my graduation came, and I was bidding him good-bye, he said,\n\"By the way, why have you never spoken to me about becoming a Christian?\"\nI would rather he had struck me. I said, \"Because I thought you did not\ncare.\" \"Care!\" he said. \"There has never been a day that I did not want\nyou to speak; there has never been a night that I did not hope you would\nspeak.\" I lost an opportunity. I fear some day, I must answer for it.\n\nYou had an idea that you had no influence, but you must remember that\nwhen you speak in the name of Jesus Christ, God stands back of you;\nthat when you plead for the salvation of a person, all the power of\nheaven is working through you. Some may ask, What is the best time to\nspeak to my friends about Christ? I should say, speak to them when they\nare in trouble, seek them out when others are being saved, but, best of\nall, go to them when the Spirit of God says go, that is the best time.\nWhenever God says \"Go,\" He is always making ready the heart for our\ncoming. I was one day walking down the streets of an American city with\na Methodist minister, when he said to me, \"What would you do if you\nwere impressed that you should speak to a man?\" I said, \"Speak to him.\"\nHe said, \"But this man has not been in church for thirteen years.\"\n\"Nevertheless,\" I said, \"speak to him.\" He turned and made his way to\nthe great house where this business man lived. He rang the bell, and\nthe door was opened by the gentleman himself, who said, \"Doctor, I am\nglad to see you. I have been in all day thinking you might come.\" And\nin a very few minutes he was kneeling in the library with this\ngentleman whom he quickly led to Christ.\n\nA year later I was passing through the city of Chicago, when, picking\nup a newspaper, I noticed that this man whom the minister had won to\nChrist, had died suddenly. I got a letter from the minister not long\nafterwards, and he said, \"I was with him when he died. He sent a\nmessenger for me to come and see him, and when I arrived he turned his\nface towards mine and said, \"Dr ----, thank you for coming that day,\nfor if you had missed that day, I might have missed this. Then he began\nto sing as best he could. He raised himself on his pillow, with his\narms outreaching, and said, \"Jesus Lover of My soul,\" and passed away.\nThe minister's letter was marked with tears, and down at the foot of it\nwas written this sentence; \"God helping me, I will never hesitate\nagain.\" They are all about us, men with aching hearts, men caught by\nthe power of sin, young people and older people as well. They are\nwaiting. Preaching may not win them; singing may not touch them. But\npersonal effort will.\n\nI might change the text and make it read: \"The world does not care for\nyour soul,\" You may win it, and it will mock you. Satan does not care\nfor your soul. He will fascinate you and snare you, and when you say,\n\"Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this\ndeath?\" there will be no deliverance. But God cares. Christ cares. The\nminister cares, and thousands of others care. Some are saying, \"What\nmust I do to be a Christian?\" A gentleman once said to me, \"I do not\nlove God.\" Another person once said, \"You talk about love for Christ;\nis it like love for my mother, because if it is I have not got it.\" No,\nit is not like that. That is not the first step in the way. Tell them\nGod does not say, \"Love me, and I will save you.\" God says, \"Trust me.\nAccept my conditions, believe on my Son and follow Him.\"\n\nThere was a great man in a Western city who had a little girl who was\ndeaf and dumb. He loved his child so much that he would not allow\nanybody to teach her. She had a kind of sign language which they both\nunderstood, but nobody else was allowed to teach her. This gentleman at\none time had occasion to leave home and go abroad. He could not take\nhis daughter with him, so his minister persuaded him to send her over\nto an institution where she could be taught to use the sign language of\nthe deaf and dumb. He took her over himself, never for a moment\nimagining that she would learn to speak with her lips, as she did. The\nmonths passed by, and when the father returned, the minister went with\nhim to see his child in the institution. The little girl had been told\nthat he was coming, and looking out of the window she saw her father\ncoming through the gate. She sprang to the door, and ran down the\nsteps, and along the walk until she reached her father. Then she climbed\nup into his arms, and, putting her lips up against his ear, she said,\n\"Father, I love you, I love you.\" The great man held her out at arm's\nlength, looked into her face, then pressed her more closely to his\nheart and fell in a faint--when he recovered consciousness he was\nsobbing. All the day he kept saying, \"I have heard her speak, and she\nloves me, she loves me.\" So tell the people very plainly that God does\nnot say, \"Love me.\" He says, \"Believe on me; trust me; follow me.\" Then\nask them, Will you do it? And if they will follow Him, having accepted\nHis Son as their Saviour, and with his help having turned from sin,\nthen if they will obey Him, they will come to love Him with all their\nhearts.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\n_Winning the Young_\n\n\n\"There is a lad here,\" John vi. 9. Jesus had just crossed over the sea\nof Galilee and, attracted by the miracles which he had wrought, great\nmultitudes had followed after Him. In order that He might escape the\nthrong, He went up into a mountain and there He sat with His disciples.\nWhen the Master saw the great company stretching out on every side of\nHim He said unto Philip, \"Whence shall we buy bread that these may\neat.\" Philip was so amazed at the crowd that he answered Him, \"Two\nhundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one\nof them may take a little.\" Then one of His disciples, Andrew, Simon\nPeter's brother, said unto Him, \"_There is a lad here_ which hath\nfive barley loaves and two small fishes.\" Then Jesus made the multitude\nsit down, and took the loaves and gave to the disciples, and the\ndisciples to them that were seated, and likewise of the fishes as much\nas they would, and when they were filled, the fragments that remained\nfilled twelve baskets.\n\nThe presence of this lad and the service which he rendered to Jesus, as\nwell as the use which the Master made of him, all help us to teach our\nlesson. Youth is the time to turn to Christ. The wise man knew this\nwhen he said, \"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth; while\nthe evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh; when thou shalt say, I\nhave no pleasure in them.\" Sin has not so strong a hold upon a life in\nthe time of youth, therefore it is the easiest time to turn to Christ.\n\nI once heard a man tell the story of his special work among outcast men\nand women, and when I asked him he told me how he himself was converted.\nHe said that as a boy in London, he was left one day in charge of the\nprivate office. He said \"I wanted to write a letter and I took the\nfirm's note-paper; I used one of their envelopes, and when I wanted\npostage I opened the private drawer of the safe, the door of which was\nswinging open, and took out one postage stamp, and when I put this stamp\nupon my letter and dropped it into the post-box I felt as if I had\ndropped my character with it. That was the beginning, and the end was a\nprison cell, for I went from one form of thieving to another until I was\nobliged to pay the penalty. I found Christ while I was in prison, but I\nfeel as if the mark of my early sin would never leave me. I would urge\nevery boy to accept Christ,\" he said, \"before the cords of sin bind him\ntoo securely.\"\n\nWhen one reaches the age of eighteen he finds it extremely difficult to\nturn away from the sins that are mastering him, and when he passes\nbeyond twenty years of age, the tide against him is extremely heavy.\nThe critical time in the life of boys and girls is from twelve to\ntwenty. If they do not accept Christ during these years, it is wellnigh\nimpossible to win them. If this is true then we must make the most of\nthe opportunities of influencing the youth whom God is ever bringing\nbefore us.\n\nThe Scripture used in connection with this feeding of the multitude is\na good illustration. It is a lad who confronts us, and this is, as has\nbeen said, the favourable time for bringing Christian influence to bear\nupon him. There is a time in the life of every boy when it is\ncomparatively easy to win him to Christ. Parents surely know this, and\nSunday school teachers may easily discover it. \"How did you come to\nChrist?\" said a New York minister to a little boy. His reply was, \"My\nSunday school teacher took me last Sunday out into the park. She drew\nme away from the crowd and took her seat beside me. She asked me if I\nwould become a Christian. I felt that I ought to do so, and because her\ninvitation was so definite, and she seemed so interested, I told her I\nwould do so, and because I am a Christian I went to join the Church.\"\n\nToo much cannot be said in favour of reaching the young while they are\nin the days of their youth. Recently in an audience of 4500 people I\nfound that at least 400 of the audience came to Christ under 10 years\nof age; between 10 and 12, 600; between 12 and 14, 600; between 14 and\n16, about 1000; between 16 and 20, fully one half, and in the entire\naudience not more than 25 people came to Christ after they were 30\nyears of age. Five hundred ministers were in the same audience. The\nmajority of them were converted before they were 16 years of age; 40 of\nthem between 16 and 20; and only 15 out of the 500 ministers were\nconverted after they were 20. This in itself is an unanswerable\nargument in favour of personal work for the young.\n\nThe lad is here now before us, but he will soon be gone. Boys quickly\ngrow into manhood. As a rule religious influence weakens as they pass\non, while the power of sin increases. Many young men would turn to\nChrist if they thought they could, but it seems to them that the\nattraction towards evil is almost, if not quite irresistible. I\nrecently heard a Christian gentleman speaking before a great audience\nin London. He was telling of his going over the Alps in the care of a\ntrusted guide. As they came to one of the most dangerous places in the\njourney his guide stopped him, and said, \"Do you see those footprints\noff here to the right?\" The gentleman said he did, plainly. \"Do you\nnotice,\" said the guide, \"how they get farther and farther apart?\" And\nwhen asked to give an explanation he said that a week before a young\ntelegraph operator had attempted to cross the mountains without a\nguide, that just at the place where they were standing his hat blew\noff, and, without thinking, he reached out after it, lost his balance\nand started to fall. In trying to recover himself he started down the\nmountain to the right. The way was all covered with snow; when once he\nstarted he could not stop; farther and farther apart were his footprints\nuntil at last they were lost on the edge of a great abyss. He had gone\nover to his death. It is thus that young men go to destruction. Because\nthey do, we ought to be instant in season and out of season in seeking\nto arrest their downward progress.\n\nWhen Jesus took the loaves and fishes in the possession of the lad and\nbrought to bear upon them his own marvellous power, the results were\ngreat. No one realises what is being accomplished when he assists or\ninfluences a boy. I am wondering what that minister, who led Spurgeon\nto Christ, thinks of his work now that he sees it from the heavenly\nstandpoint, and I have many times thought I should like to ask the\nbusiness man who spoke to D.L. Moody about his soul, what estimate he\nputs upon the importance of the work he did that day. To win a boy to\nChrist may be to turn towards the Master one who may one day move the\nworld for Christ.\n\nA great number of Chinese young men have come from their native land\nto study in the educational institutions of the United States. Some\nof them have found Christ in these institutions, others have passed\nthrough their course of study and returned to their native land without\na hope in the Saviour. What a marvellous work might have been accomplished\nif the Christian students in these educational institutions had set\nthemselves to win these Chinese boys. The students in China are to have\nan increasing influence in the Government, and if the majority of them\nhad been led to Christ, the whole Chinese Government might have been\npowerfully affected. Some years ago there came to the United States a\nlittle Chinese boy. He was sent to a New England educational institution,\nand made his home in the house of a very humble woman. She knew Christ\nand loved Him, and she recognised the presence of this little boy as\npresenting an opportunity for service. She treated him as if he were\nher own child. She mothered him and grew to love him. She taught him\nhow to read the Bible and she told him the story of Jesus and His love.\nThat little boy came to Christ. He passed through the educational\ninstitution, went back to China to exercise his strongest influence for\nrighteousness, and has recently been entrusted with the commission of\nbringing to the United States a number of other Chinese boys, all of\nwhom, it is said, he will place in institutions that are Christian. The\npoor woman in New England did not realise that when she led one boy to\nChrist that she was touching forty others. This is the fascination of\nChristian work.\n\nSome of the noblest men and women the Church has ever known came to\nChrist in youth. Polycarp, Matthew Henry, Jonathan Edwards, the\nimmortal Watts, John Hall, and a countless host of others who have\nserved conspicuously in the advancement of the Kingdom of God, came to\nChrist before they were fifteen years of age, some of them coming as\nearly as seven. The lad is here, it will be a pity if we allow him to\ngrow to manhood without a hope in Christ all because we do not seek to\nwin him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\n_Winning and Holding_\n\n\n\"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to\nmake thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus,\"\n2 Timothy iii. 15. Timothy's inheritance was invaluable. His equipment\nwas superb, and his experience from the day of his birth until the end\nof his life upon earth, ideal. He had a good grandmother. Evidently she\ninfluenced him profoundly. I am quite sure that his parents too must\nhave fulfilled their obligations to their child, and in addition to his\nown immediate ancestry, he had Paul, the Apostle, who looked upon him\nas a son in the Gospel, and honoured him by sending him his last\nmessage when he said, \"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my\ncourse, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a\ncrown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give\nme at that day, and not to me only, but to all them also that love His\nappearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me\" 2 Timothy iv. 7-9.\n\nIt is a great loss to any child to be deprived of what Timothy had. We\nmay not all be rich, and we certainly cannot all be great, but we may\nall be true and faithful as parents, and when a child has such an\ninheritance he is well started in life. It is because children do not\nhave this that many of them drift. Given a good ancestry it is\ncomparatively easy to draw children to Christ, and even to draw them\nback when once they have wandered. It is the testimony of rescue\nmission workers that when they have the privilege of appealing to lost\nand ruined men in the name of a mother who was saintly and a father who\nwas true to Christ, they have a hold upon an almost irresistible force,\nto bring the wanderer back to the faith of his father and the teaching\nof his mother.\n\nThere is the sorest need to-day of a special and continued interest in\nbehalf of our young people. David Starr Jordan is authority for the\nstatement that \"one-third of the young men of America are wasting\nthemselves through intemperate habits and accompanying vices,\" the\nconditions in other lands are also very serious. The secretary of the\nCollege Association of North America has been quoted as saying that\nthere are twelve thousand college men in New York City alone who are\ndown and out through vice. \"Talk of the ravages of war. The ravages of\nwar, pestilence and disease combined are as nothing compared with the\nawful moral ravages wrought in the teen period. The shores are strewn\nthick with the wasted lives of those who have been wrecked in youth.\"\n\n\"We have been seeking results too far afield and overlooking great\nopportunities near at hand. If you take a census of a Christian\ncongregation and ask those who were converted before their eighteenth\nbirthday to rise, five-sixths of your congregation will stand. This\nmeans that five-sixths of all the people who give themselves to Christ\ndo it on the under side of the eighteenth year. Put beside this the\nfact that we have more than 12,000,000 children and youth in the\nProtestant Sunday Schools of America under eighteen years of age and\nyou will see that our great evangelistic opportunity does not lie\noutside of the Church, but inside, in the Sunday School department.\nHere we have a vast army, ready and waiting for the Christian call.\"[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Rev Edgar Blake.]\n\nIt is one thing to lead souls to Christ, it is quite another thing to\nhold them when once they have been won. The serious time for drifting\nis between the ages of twelve and twenty. If we could but safeguard\nthese years we would hold for the Church many who drift out upon the\nsea of life, make shipwreck of their hopes and break the hearts of\nthose who are interested in them.\n\n\"An investigation in the Wesleyan Church of England showed that only\nten per cent of the Sunday School were held in active membership in the\nChurch. Ten per cent. were held in a merely nominal relationship.\nEighty per cent. were lost entirely. This is a fair statement of the\nsituation in many churches. We have lost multitudes of our youth who\nmight have been saved if they had been properly cared for.\n\n\"At the very time the Church loses its grip upon the boys and girls the\npublic school loses its grip also. The exodus begins about the fifth\ngrade, and at the eighth grade fifty per cent. of the scholars have\ndeparted. At the twelfth grade, near the middle teens, ninety per cent.\nof the scholars have gone out from the public schools. Thus these two\nmost powerful forces in the creation of character, the Church and the\nSchool, lose their hold upon youth at the same time.\n\n\"The home also loses its hold at this period. Up to his middle teens\nyour youth accepts everything on the authority of others, but midway of\nthe critical teen period there comes an awakening. The consciousness of\nhis own personality, his right to make decisions for himself comes to\nhim for the first time. Sometimes spontaneously, sometimes gradually,\nbut always he breaks with authority. He insists upon deciding matters\nfor himself. Parents may counsel, but they cannot determine[1].\"\n\n[Footnote 1: Rev Edgar Blake.]\n\n\"A gentleman came to a friend of mine at the close of an address which\nhe had delivered and said to him, 'I was much interested in what you\nsaid about the boys we lose. I teach a class of the finished product.'\n'Where do you teach?' said I. 'In the State prison' he said. A few\nyears ago seventy-five per cent. of the inmates of the Minnesota State\nprison were boys who had once been in Sunday School and had been\npermitted to drift away. The later teen age, sixteen to twenty, is the\ncriminal period. It is an appalling thing that 12,000 children were\nbrought before the courts of New York in 1909, and in the same year\nmore than 15,000 boys and girls suffered arrest in Chicago. Our\ncriminal ranks are added to, at the rate of 300,000 a year, and in the\nvast majority of cases the criminal course is begun in the teen age. Is\nit necessary? Is this awful waste--this moral havoc--unavoidable? I\nbelieve not. Recently a young man in his teens was convicted of theft\nin the court of Milwaukee. When the judge asked him if he had anything\nto say before sentence was pronounced upon him, the young man arose,\npale with excitement and said, 'Your honour, my father and mother died\nwhen I was three years old. I never had anyone who loved or cared for\nme. I have been kicked about all my life. Judge, I never would have\nbeen a thief if I had had a chance.' This is the pitiful plea of\nthousands who have been wrecked around us. They were not shepherded and\nthey went astray.\"\n\nThere is a way to hold the majority of those whom we may win to the\nSaviour. A friend of mine led to Christ a young man who had gone to the\nvery depths of sin and shame. He was a drunkard; he had disgraced his\nfather's name; had broken his wife's heart, and when his little boy\ndied he did not have enough money to bury the child decently; when the\nmother put the child in the grave the father was wild with drink, and\nhe was buried without his father being present. But my friend won this\nman to Christ. After he was saved, every day for three weeks he went to\nsit by his side and talk with him; he guarded him at the critical time;\nhe kept him from growing discouraged; he hindered him from drinking.\nTo-day this man is himself one of the most noted rescue mission workers\nin the world, and is being used of God to save multitudes of men who\nlike himself had gone down through drink.\n\nIt is what we are ourselves that largely counts in the holding of our\nfriends for Christ. Paul wrote to Titus saying, \"In all things showing\nthyself a pattern of good works ... that he that is of the contrary\npart may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you,\" which is only\nanother way of saying that a Christian life is an unanswerable argument\nin favour of Christ. When our lives are right with God; when we keep\nourselves unspotted from the world; when we quickly confess our own\nfailure or wrongdoing; when we have a concern not only that others\nshould be saved, but that they might do something for Christ after\ntheir salvation, it is comparatively easy to hold them, and to keep\nfrom drifting those who have just started along the way.\n\nWhen my friend S.H. Hadley, the great rescue missionary, was lying in\nhis coffin, a timid knock was heard at the door of the room where the\nbody was resting. When the one who had knocked entered the room it was\nfound that he was a drunkard, he had fallen from a high position to the\nvery depths of despair, and as he stood timidly in the presence of the\nsorrowing friends of the great man, he said, \"I thought I would like to\ncome and look into his face and if I might be permitted to do so I\nwould like to touch his hand. He did his best to win me while he was\nliving and now that he is dead I cannot let his body be placed in the\ngrave without coming here by the side of his casket to yield myself to\nChrist. All that he has said has followed me and I cannot get away from\nit.\"\n\nTimothy knew the Scriptures, and a familiarity with God's Word is one\nof the best preventives in the case of drifting. One verse of Scripture\ncommitted to memory each day would help us to overcome the tempter;\nwould keep us in loving touch with Jesus Christ; would inspire us to\nhigher and holier living; and these suggestions made to those whom we\nwin to Christ would keep them from wandering. It is the man who does\nnot know his Bible who finds himself an easy prey to the wicked one.\nThe ability to pray is also a God-given force which keeps us from\ndrifting. When we read the Bible God talks to us; when we pray we talk\nto Him. We cannot always speak plainly of our condition to those about\nus, but we may tell Him what we are and what we wish we might have\nbeen. And while it is true that He knows before we speak, it is also\ntrue that in the telling we draw nearer to Him, and drawing nearer we\nabsorb a little bit more of His spirit, and in that spirit we stand.\n\nService is also one of the surest preventives from wandering. It is\nwhen the brain is idle that evil thoughts master it; when the heart is\ngiven up to impure imaginations that we find it easy to fall. And it is\nwhen we are busy lifting others' burdens; making the way easier for\nothers to travel; comforting those who are in distress; speaking a word\nof cheer to the cheerless, and above all, when we are seeking to lead\nothers to Christ, that we ourselves grow in grace and in the knowledge\nof our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If these things are true, and we\nknow they are, then it is the duty of every Christian not only to seek\nto win another to Christ, but by all means to seek to hold him when\nonce he is won, and that which we know holds us will keep others from\nstumbling.\n\nThe suggestions made above are for the young as well as the more\nmature. Young people will be interested in spiritual things if we have\nsufficient interest in them ourselves to make them attractive.\n\nIf we would show as great interest in helping to keep those whom we may\nhave won for Christ, as we revealed when we were seeking them, fewer of\nthem would drift.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\n_A Practical Illustration_\n\n\nIt will be a great day when the Church is aroused to the responsibility\nand privilege of personal work.\n\nIn Swansea, Wales, with Mr Charles M. Alexander, I had the satisfaction\nof conducting a mission in which I preached for an entire week on Soul\nWinning. I then urged the people to go forth and labour, and asked them\nto come back with their reports. These reports were thrilling. Often\nten or twelve people would be standing at the one time waiting to\nspeak. The following are only a few testimonies taken from the many:--\n\nA minister said: \"I spoke to a bright young fellow, under the influence\nof drink, as I was going home in the car last night. He got off the car\nwhen I did, so I stood at the street corner and talked with him for a\nfew minutes. He told me that he had been a follower of the Lord Jesus\nmany years ago, but had fallen away through bad company. I asked him to\npray for himself. He said he could not, but asked me to pray for him.\nAnd there on that street corner I put my arm around his shoulder and we\nprayed together, and he has promised to come to the meeting to-night.\"\n\n\"About three years ago,\" said another, \"I came in touch with a man who\nhas been the biggest and most hardened scoffer I have had to contend\nwith. He had such a sarcastic way of ridiculing the Lord Jesus Christ.\nBut this last fortnight I have seen a distinct change in that young\nman's life. Last week, as we were working near to one another, I spoke\nto him and his eyes filled with tears. He said, 'I have decided to come\nout and accept Christ.' I could hardly credit it, but it has proved to\nbe real, and when I see God moving in such a hard case as this, I have\nhope for every sinner in this city.\"\n\nAnother said, \"I came to the Lord three years ago, one of the worst\ndrunkards in Swansea. Since the Saviour found me, I have spoken to men\non their death-beds. I have spoken to drunkards all over Swansea, but I\nneglected my own charge that God had given to me. Dr Chapman woke me up\nto approach my own household and children. It was the greatest struggle\nin all my life. I went to my two boys and put my hands on their shoulders\nsaying, 'I want you to do something for Jesus and for your father.' They\nsaid, 'Father, we will do it.' Two of my boys came to the Albert Hall\nyesterday and gave their hearts to Jesus. This has been one of the most\nblessed weeks I have had since I was saved three years ago.\"\n\n\"On Thursday night I had been asking the Lord to lead me to the right\none to speak to. He led me to a young man of sixteen years of age who\nwas under tremendous conviction. He said, 'I think I will make a clean\nbreast of it. I have done something,' and he told me his story. This\nyoung lad, in his employer's service for four years, last week, for the\nfirst time, began to steal. He turned out his pocket and showed me what\nhe had. He said, 'What shall I do? I go to bed at night and I cannot\nsleep, it is haunting me.' I said, 'Look here, laddie, do this. Go to\nyour master to-morrow morning, and make a clean breast of it and get\nthe victory.' 'What about my situation?' said the boy. 'I will pray for\nyou,' I said. 'If your master is so unkind as to dismiss you, come to\nme and I will see what I can do.' It was a long time before he gave in,\nbut eventually he said, 'I will.' I prayed for him, and last night I\ngot this letter: 'Victorious! Devil conquered; overjoyed. I cannot very\nwell explain what I experienced so will be pleased to meet you on\nThursday next in the mission at Albert Hall.'\"\n\nA week later this gentleman said: \"I have a lot to thank God for these\nlast ten days. I have had a glorious blessing. I can say with all\nhumility, I have been on fire for Jesus. I had a letter yesterday from\nthe young man whom I was talking about last Sunday. He says, 'Dear\nFriend, My only regret now is that I did not accept Jesus as my Saviour\nyears ago. It would have saved me so much trouble. I explained\neverything to my master and handed him the article back. Then he gave\nme two-thirds of this particular article and burned the letter. So that\nis what I got for owning up.'\"\n\nAnother said: \"I do thank and praise God this morning for the great\nthings He has done in my home. He has brought my children to trust in\nthe Saviour. I have great pleasure in reporting that a brother at the\nworks, to whom I spoke a week ago, has decided for Christ. One of the\nworkers presented me with a Testament to give to that brother, who was\nin very poor circumstances, and he received it with joy. The following\nday he came to tell me that he had read a chapter to his wife. His wife\nis travelling the wrong way. They have five little children, and on\nThursday I took them to the meeting. On Friday morning he came to thank\nme for taking them there, and told me that during his absence from the\nhouse, his eldest boy, of about ten years of age, had got into a Bible\nReading Circle, led by a Christian boy, and he asked his father if he\ncould spare sixpence for him to buy a Testament. What joy filled my\nheart and soul from the fact that I could present that little lad with\na Testament, and I sent my own lad back a mile, yesterday, with it.\n\n\"I spoke to a dear Christian brother last night at the works. I asked\nhim if his household were saved. 'I have one boy of sixteen not saved,'\nhe said 'Brother, will you promise me to speak to him when you go\nhome?' He went home and put his hand on the shoulder of the lad and\ngave him the invitation. The boy gladly promised to accept Jesus.\"\n\nContinuing with the reports, one said: \"Last night, in one of our\npublic houses I spoke to a woman about Jesus. Years ago she had lost\nher husband and instead of going to God for comfort she had turned to\ndrink. She became a drunkard and had separated from her children. When\nI spoke to her she said, 'I know I am a sinner. I am the worst woman in\nSwansea, but I want to be good.' 'Will you decide now?' we asked her.\n'Yes,' she said. She came out into the cold biting wind and knelt in\nthe open air, and there she sent up this simple prayer: 'Oh, God,\nalthough I am a bad woman, please make me good, for Jesus' sake.' Later\nshe arose in a crowded meeting and told her story, concluding with this\nremark, 'By God's help I am going to be a child of God.'\"\n\nAnother said: \"On the second night of the mission I was led to speak to\na dear brother who was a back-slider. I plead with him that evening to\nturn to Christ, but he did not come to a decision. The next night I\nwent in and talked with him. I asked him again at the close of the\nmeeting would he come back to the Lord Jesus Christ. He told me he\ncould not come back that night. On the following night I went up and\nspoke to him again. When we got outside the building I said, 'I may not\never have the privilege of speaking to you again. Will you kindly give\nme your name? I will give you a guarantee that no one but God shall\nknow about it. I want your name that I may pray for you.' On Tuesday\nnight in the minor hall at the after meeting I searched for him. I had\nbeen praying continually every night and morning, and sometimes during\nthe day. When I found him that night I said, 'You have withstood the\nSpirit of God long enough. Make a definite decision to-night to return\nto the Lord. If you do not care about coming to the front, fill out\nthis card, but make up your mind to give yourself to Christ.' He took\nthe card and filled it out. Then I said, 'You know the way of salvation\nbecause you have been that way before. When you get home tonight, will\nyou kindly make a definite decision at your bedside?' And he told me he\nwould.\"\n\nAnother gentleman rose to give his testimony and said: \"I belong, as\nyou know, to another city, but I want to speak a word to the glory of\nGod, and for the encouragement of those who have taken up personal work\nfor Him. Some two years ago in our city I spoke to one who was an\ninspector in the Police Force, but who is to-day the Chief Inspector of\nour Police, about the claims of Christ. He told me that I was the first\none who had ever spoken to him as to how he stood in relation to these\nmatters for a period of fifteen years. Having once broken the ice and\nspoken to him, I never gave him up.\n\n\"About two months ago I had occasion to go to the Police Court to ask\nhis assistance on behalf of a woman who wanted an ejectment notice\nagainst another woman who was living in the same house. When he heard\nthe name of the woman who wished to obtain the notice he refused to\nhave anything to do with the matter. She had been a bad character. He\nsaid, 'I tell you candidly, she ought to be drowned for her cruelty to\nher children.' I said, 'You knew her once, but you do not know her now.\nHow long is it since you saw her?' 'About nine weeks' he replied.\n'Well,' I said, 'nine weeks ago she and her husband both came to Christ\nin our mission hall. For the first time in thirteen years they entered\na place of worship. She had a black eye that covered over half her\nface, but both her husband and she are now Christians, and are\nfaithfully following Christ to-day. And yet you call her a lost soul.'\nHe said, 'Certainly I do. If there is a lost soul she is one.' 'Then\nSir,' I said, striking him on the shoulder, 'Jesus came to seek and to\nsave that which was lost. Jesus has saved that woman. When she comes on\nMonday night, Inspector, just look at her and see what Christ has\nwrought. I ask you to grant her request.' He shook himself free. 'Wait\na moment, Inspector,' I said, 'I have never given up praying for you.\nYou have risen to the position of Chief Inspector, but I want you not\nto forget Christ.'\n\n\"On the Thursday of the following week he came to my home. When I saw\nhim there I was glad, for he had kept away from me for a long time. I\nsaid, 'I am glad to see you in my home.' He said, 'You will be more glad\nwhen you know why I have come. In my room the other night I knelt down\nand gave myself to Jesus Christ, and asked the Lord to save me.' I would\nask those of you who are working for souls not to get disheartened and\ndiscouraged. When the mission ceases do not give up taking a personal\ninterest in those for whom you are concerned.\n\n\"Some months ago I was sitting in the Assize Court in your city. I sat\nnext to our Chief Inspector. The case that was being tried was one of\nattempted murder. As I sat there following the case this Chief\nInspector turned to me and said, 'Why didn't they know Him on the road\nto Emmaus?' I said, 'I suppose because their eyes were holden.' He\nsaid, 'How did they know Him when they got to the home?' I said,\n'Probably in the breaking of the bread.' 'Don't you think,' said he,\n'that in the breaking of the bread they saw for the first time the\nmarks of the wounds in His hands and knew Him by them?' What a\ndifference Christ had made in the life of that Chief Inspector.\"\n\nA man employed in the steel works rose in one of our meetings to say:\n\"I made my covenant with God last Saturday. The burden was laid heavy\non my heart on behalf of two souls. One of them was my own little girl.\nI spoke to her about Jesus, and she told me she would accept Him as her\nSaviour. I have been working this week on a shift that ran from ten\no'clock at night to six o'clock in the morning. On Tuesday night I\nasked the Lord to pour out His blessing on our workmen. About one\no'clock in the morning I had an opportunity of speaking to a young man.\nI asked him if he had accepted Jesus as his Saviour, and he said he had\nnot. Then I asked him to be honest before God, and I said, 'Will you\naccept Him now?' With a smile he looked up at me and said, 'Tom, I will\naccept Jesus as my Saviour now.' I have brought some of my mates with\nme here to-day and I thank God for what He has done.\n\n\"Down at the works the other day there was a young man who came on duty\nat three o'clock in the morning. I knew he was troubled about his soul,\nand I spoke to him. I said, 'Are you in trouble about your soul?' He\nsaid, 'Yes, I am.' 'Well,' I said, 'Jesus has died to save you. Will\nyou accept Him now?' He said to me, 'But, Tom, I have done this and\nthat,' 'Well,' I said, 'Jesus has died for you, will you accept Him?'\nAs he looked me straight in the face he said, 'Yes, I will.'\n\n\"I asked these men who had accepted Jesus and one or two others, to\ncome up to my home at six o'clock when we finished work. As we went\nthrough the yard there was a boy about fifteen years of age standing\nthere and we got him to come along with us. In my home we had a small\nmeeting. I asked God to pour down His blessing upon us. I asked one\nfriend who was drifting, if he had ever accepted Christ, and he said at\none time during a revival. I said, 'Praise God for that. He is willing\nto receive you back. Will you come?' and he said, 'At three o'clock\nthis very morning, I came back to the Lord Jesus.' And then I turned to\nthe boy of fifteen and said, 'Are you willing to accept the Saviour?'\nAnd he said he didn't think he was ready. I said, 'Well, my boy, if you\ndon't, what will become of you?' He said, 'I will go to hell, I\nsuppose.' Not long afterwards he accepted the Saviour.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: This man worked at night and slept during the day.]\n\n\"Yesterday I could not sleep. I went home from my work. I was up in the\nmorning with a burden on my heart because of the poor souls who were\ngoing to eternity without a Saviour. A young woman came to our house\nand started to sing 'Lord save Swansea,' and the words kept ringing in\nmy ears. I went back to bed but could not sleep. I had no peace. I\nsaid, 'Well, Lord, I believe Thou hast surely started the work.' I went\nto the works last night. I did not feel very well as I had been up all\nday. I asked some of the men if they would come to a prayer meeting for\nthe mission. We did not have much time before work commenced, but we\nwent in and I asked one of the young fellows if he would accept Jesus.\nHe replied, 'I must have time to think of it.' The next night I said to\nhim, 'Johnnie, have you thought of what we spoke on last night?' and he\nsaid, 'I have been in trouble about my soul.' Before we had tea I asked\nhim if he would accept Christ now. He said, 'I cannot do it now.' I\nsaid, 'God will give you strength.' We went into a little shop and I\nprayed for him. At three o'clock this morning I spoke to him again.\n'Johnnie,' I said, 'can you see the way clear?' 'Yes,' he said, 'I can\nsee the way clear now. I will accept Jesus as my personal Saviour.'\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\n_Whosoever Will_\n\n\nAll classes of persons may do personal work if they will. A prominent\nbusiness man in a Welsh city began to do this work and one morning\nspoke to eighteen people before breakfast. Several, to whom he spoke,\naccepted Christ. Making a further report of his work, he said. \"An old\nman, about seventy years of age, whose face was white and who appeared\nto be very ill, was leaning against the wall of a building near where I\nhave my office. I said to him, 'Have you been to the mission?' 'No,' he\nsaid, 'I have not.' I then asked him if he had accepted Christ. 'Well,'\nhe said, 'I have been a believer all my life.' I said, 'Are you saved?'\n'I cannot say that,' he replied. 'Why?' I asked; 'God says, \"He that\nbelieveth on the Son hath everlasting life. Do you believe that?' He\nstood staring me in the face for a few minutes, when he said, 'I never\nsaw it in that light before.' I said, 'Will you take him at His word\nnow?' And he replied, 'Yes, I will.'\n\n\"An old woman, an office cleaner, was making her way up the steps of a\nbuilding. As I came up I recognised her, and said, 'Mrs Bell, I have\nbeen constrained to ask you if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your\npersonal Saviour.' She looked at me, then setting down her broom she\nsaid, 'I want to, but no one has ever asked me,' 'Well,' I said, 'I ask\nyou now. Will you accept Him just here? Will you say, Lord Jesus I\naccept Thee as my personal Saviour?' But she could not see the way.\nAfter some conversation I asked her if she would come to the hall and\nhear Dr Chapman and Mr Alexander, and she said she would go that\nevening. I was unable to go to the service myself that night and did\nnot see her until the following Saturday morning. She came to my office\nand said, 'Since you spoke to me a few days ago I have had no peace. I\nam in an awful state, and unless I take Jesus I shall die. I am sure I\nshall because I cannot live like this.' And right there in the office\nshe knelt down and accepted Christ as her Saviour and had the joy that\nalways comes with this acceptance.\n\n\"This morning, the very first man I met, I was constrained to speak to\nabout Jesus. I introduced myself by asking him if he had been to the\nmission. He said, 'Yes, I was at the Grand Theatre last Sunday\nafternoon.' 'Well,' I said, 'did you give your heart to the Lord?'\n'No,' he replied, 'I did not.' I said 'Why?' 'Because I missed my\nopportunity,' was his answer. I said to Him, 'Will you do it now?' 'Do\nit now!' he exclaimed. 'Listen,' I said, 'God says in His Word. As many\nas received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God. Will\nyou receive Him? It is either one thing or the other--receive or\nreject. Your sins have been atoned for by His precious blood. Will you\ntake Jesus now?' And suddenly, taking me by the hand, he said, 'I\nwill.'\n\n\"From time to time I have been speaking to a young man belonging to a\nrespectable family. At one time he was being brought up for the\nministry, but he got into sin and sank very low. I persuaded him to\nattend one of the mission meetings. When Dr Chapman requested all those\nwho wished prayer offered for themselves or for their loved ones, this\npoor fellow got up in the balcony and said, 'Pray for me.' Prayer was\noffered for him, and there, that night, he experienced the joy of\nsalvation. He came to me the other day and said that he had definitely\ntaken Jesus Christ as his Saviour.\"\n\nOne would not expect a police officer to be a personal worker, but many\nof them are, and notably so in Great Britain. Ex-Sergeant Wheeler of\nOldham came to attend one of our meetings, and being asked to speak, he\nsaid: \"Though an Ex-Sergeant, I am not an Ex-Christian. There are a\nlarge number of people who look upon a policeman from many standpoints,\nbut it is very seldom that they see him in the position in which I am\nplaced to-night. They have an idea that a policeman does not exist to\npreach the Gospel or to tell them about Jesus Christ, and it is\nChristian people who get that idea sometimes.\"\n\n\"I know a police sergeant in London who is a particular friend of mine\nand a great Christian worker. A lady went to one of our Provincial\nPolice Conferences in connection with the Police Association and saw\nthis big man who was so enthusiastic in connection with the work that\nthe lady doubted his genuineness, and to satisfy her curiosity she\nascertained his private address, travelled by rail from London, visited\nhis home during his absence, and asked his wife what sort of a man he\nwas. That is the way to find a man out. But she found that he was even\na better man in the home than he was out of it. If you want to find\nwhat a man's character is, you do not ask about it on special occasions\nwhen he is on his guard, you ask what it is when he is at home, it is\nthere that he unconsciously reveals it, and this revelation just\nbecause of its unconsciousness, proves invariably correct.\n\n\"When the Lord Jesus brought me out of darkness into the light, when He\nbroke the fetters and snapped the chains eleven years ago, I went home\nand said to my wife, 'I am going to live for Jesus, and we will start\nhere, at home. We will have family prayers--we were not a large family,\nonly nine of us, and for the first time in their lives, my children\nheard their father pray; and there on my knees in all humility I\npledged myself before God that I would do anything, make any sacrifice,\nif by so doing I could help a weaker brother and lift him out of the\ngutter. That is the way I started. I am not what I ought to be, I am\nnot what I hope to be, but, thank God, by His grace and love, I am what\nI am and not what I once was. The Lord changed my desires when he put a\nnew heart within me. When I see a drunken man in the streets I do not\npass him like I used to. My heart goes out to him and I look beyond the\nman in the streets to the life in the home he comes from, and see the\nmisery there; but I thank God that He put the desire in my heart to try\nto help that brother. And how often opportunities present themselves.\n\n\"On one occasion at five o'clock on a Sunday morning in the month of\nAugust, a policeman and I were going along the street. There was a man\nstanding at a gate near the corner. As we approached he said to me,\n'Sergeant, can you get me a drink of whisky?' I said, 'That is rather a\nstrange thing to ask a Sergeant of Police,' 'Well,' he said, 'I have\nplenty of bottled ale in my home, but it sticks in my throat.' I said,\n'Do you take whisky when you are thirsty?' 'Yes,' he replied. I got into\nconversation with him and after a while I said to him, 'Do you ever go\nto a place of worship?' 'No,' he said, 'I don't, I pay a sovereign for a\nsitting.' 'That won't get you to heaven,' I said, and after a little\nfurther talk with him he remarked, 'Sergeant, I am all right financially,\nbut wrong here, in my heart.' And then he said, 'Will you come to my\nhome and pray for me?' 'Yes,' I replied, und we went. It was not far\naway, a fine home, a palace to mine, I thought, as I walked across the\nvelvet carpet into the drawing-room. He brought a Bible and said, 'Read\nme something out of that.' And he sat down like a little child, to\nlisten. I turned to Isaiah liii. 6, and read, 'All we like sheep have\ngone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath\nlaid on Him the iniquity of us all.' 'Now,' I said, 'it starts with All\nand finishes with All, so we are both included.' Then I took him to\nJohn iii. 16, and then to the last chapter in the Book of Revelation,\nverse 17: 'And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that\nheareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst--I stopped at that--and\nwhosoever ...' 'Now,' I said, 'we will read it again. And after we had\nread it again we knelt down, and there in that large home I poured out\nmy soul to God over that man. I plead for him, and while I prayed he\nsaid, 'Lord, if I am not too bad, save me.' I said, 'Amen.' And the Lord\nheard his prayer, and before I left the house he was a changed man. When\nI was leaving he came to the door and said, 'I never bargained for this,\nthis morning, Sergeant.' The man who wanted whisky got Christ. He drank\nof something different, he drank of the living water which Christ spoke\nabout at the well of Samaria when He said, 'Whosoever drinketh of the\nwater that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I\nshall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into\neverlasting life.'\"\n\n\"I left him and went back the following day. I rang the bell and he\nanswered the door himself. I asked him how he was, and he said, 'Grand,\nI have had no whisky.' I went back a month later and he told me he was\nnever so happy in all his life. He said, 'Do you remember me telling\nyou I paid a sovereign for my sitting in church? Well, I occupy that\npew myself now.' And that day he gave me a donation for the Christian\nPolice Association and told me to call again at any time. That is what\nthe Lord does when he changes a man's heart. There are many men to-day\nwho may be all right financially; they may have a seat in God's House;\nthey may be members of a Church and yet not be right at heart. I urge\nupon you, get right with God and you will have, not the peace of this\nworld, but the peace that passeth all understanding.\n\n\"Something like seven years ago I went to some services in Manchester\nthat were being conducted by Dr Torrey and Mr Alexander. At the close\nof these services I went to the front and took some Gospel literature\nthat was there for distribution. When I got home and commenced my\nduties I began to give this literature to the policemen. I thought the\npolicemen stood as much in need of it as anybody else. If he is a\npeacemaker, sometimes he is a peacebreaker, and with all due respect to\nhim he is not always a law-abiding man.\n\n\"There were two booklets in which I was specially interested. One which\nwas called 'God's Sure Promise,' asked several questions at the close,\nand then requested the reader to sign his name. The other was, 'Get\nRight with God.' I gave the latter to policemen on their beats, and\nasked them to read them carefully. I went on with my praying. One man\nreceived the book with great scorn. About a week after I visited this\nparticular man, and with a smile upon his face he said, 'You remember\nthose two booklets you gave me?' 'Yes,' I said. 'Well,' he said, 'the\none called \"God's Sure Promise\" I tore up and put into the fire, the\nother I tore up and threw over the wall, but not before I read them\nboth. Now, I have never got away from that, and about half an hour ago\nI came to the climax. I got down on my knees in the street, and now I\ncan honestly say that God for Christ's sake has pardoned all my sins.'\nI felt overjoyed with his testimony, for he was the most scornful and\nbitter man in the division. I was so overjoyed that I walked round his\nbeat with him, talking with him, and giving him words of encouragement.\nI can never forget that night. From ten o'clock until six in the\nmorning it was one continual downpour of rain. We were soaked through.\nAs we walked round I said, 'We will have a word of prayer.' We took off\nour helmets, knelt down on the pavement and there we had a little\nprayer meeting just about two o'clock in the morning. The showers of\nrain were nothing compared to the showers of blessing we had. I was so\ndelighted when we went off duty that morning that I could not sleep.\n\n\"I came to Manchester when Dr Torrey was holding a meeting, and during\nthe meeting I sent a note up to Dr Torrey saying that a policeman\nwanted to say something. However, the opportunity did not present\nitself that night. A week after that another policeman came to me and\nsaid, 'Sergeant, do you remember that booklet you gave me, \"God's Sure\nPromise?\"' I said, 'Yes.' 'Well,' he said, 'here it is signed.' Seven\nyears have passed away since that time, and those two policeman and I\nhave stood together on the platform many and many a time telling the\nstory of Jesus and His love. We have had some meetings together and I\nhave seen them speaking to hundreds of men and the Lord has blessed\nthem both. If the Lord Jesus Christ can save a policeman, He can save\nanybody.\n\n\"I found that we existed for something more than locking up\npeople. I wanted to arrest people in their sin, and going along the\nstreet one night in company with another constable we were called into\na little house. The kind people there had taken in a woman off the\nstreet. She was lying on the floor in a very drunken condition,\nunconscious of everything around her. I knew this woman, she was about\ntwenty-seven years of age. I made her acquaintance when I used to be on\nnight duty. Every Saturday night or in the early hours of Sunday\nmorning I used to find her door open--her home was in a little side\nstreet, that kind of people generally live in a side street. It was\nabout three o'clock on Sunday morning when I walked in and saw the man\nlying on the floor and the wife who was also drunk, lying on a sofa.\nThe next time I was on night duty I found the same door open, and this\ntime the wife was lying on the floor and the man on the sofa, and both\nwere drunk.\n\n\"These kind people that I spoke of, consented to keep the woman there\nwhile I went to see the husband. I got to the house but found that he\nhad removed to a little room in a little back street. There he was\nlying on a bit of a shake-down. I roused him up and told him where he\nwould find his wife. He said, 'What time is it?' I said, 'Three o'clock\nin the afternoon.' He had one shilling left and he took a cab and went\nand brought his wife home.\n\n\"A few days afterwards I got them both to sign the pledge. The man was\nabout the same age as his wife. He told me he did not know the taste of\ntea and coffee, he drank nothing but beer. He only had the clothes he\nstood up in. Four months passed after he signed the pledge. I met him\none night and he had on a black suit of clothes and a watch and guard\nin his pocket. I was delighted to see him. Some time after that I went\nto address a very large temperance meeting. The hall was packed, and\nwhen I went on to the platform who should be there but this young\nfellow occupying the chair. What a sight it was to me! He pointed out\nto me his wife in the audience. There she sat, all smiling and well\ndressed. Time went on and I was the means not only of keeping them to\nthe pledge but of bringing them to Christ; the Christ of the Gospel;\nthe Christ that has bridged the gulf between God and the gutter;\nbetween the saint and the sot; between the pew and the slum.\n\n\"Oh, what a pleasure it has been to see how that man works for Jesus. I\nwent to his house some time after that. It was not in the back streets,\nalthough he worked there and got some people to sign the pledge. But he\ncame out into the front street, and there was a knocker on his door.\nWhen I knocked, his wife admitted me into the sitting room. She told me\nthat Sunday morning that her husband was out visiting the sick. I know\nthat he brought many men to the Sunday morning Bible Class. He told me\nthis story. 'Do you know,' he said, 'When I used to spend all my money\nin the public house, oftentimes on the holidays I would take the\nlandlord's luggage to the station for the price of a pint of beer. Not\nlong ago we had our holiday, and instead of taking the landlord's\nluggage to the station I had a man to carry mine, and as we were going\nup the street with this man walking in front of us we passed one of the\npublic houses where I had often spent my wages. The landlord was\nstanding at the door. When he saw me passing he said, 'What does this\nmean?' I said, 'It means that I am going to Ireland instead of thee.'\nThat man is being used to-day in God's service. The blood of Jesus\nChrist cannot only save but it can keep.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\n_Conversion Is a Miracle_\n\n\nWhen one turns from sin to Christ and thus becomes a new creature, it\nis entirely the work of God. He must feel a sense of his need and\nappreciate the power of the Saviour, but it is the power of the Holy\nSpirit of God that transforms him. The stories of men and women who\nhave been brought to Christ are always thrilling.\n\nEvery Christian ought to be a soul winner, and however many other\nobligations may rest upon him, the obligation of introducing others to\nJesus Christ is of the first importance. If our lives are right; if we\nare wholly submitted to Him; if we are quick to do His bidding; if we\nhave a familiarity with the Scriptures; if we have a confidence in the\nwillingness of God to save; then we are emboldened to seek the lost and\nturn to those who are furthest away from Christ.\n\nTo know that others have been won to Him is always an inspiration.\nRecently in one of our meetings in New York, the Salvation Army forces\ncame to assist us, and they brought with them some men and women whose\nstories of conversion were truly remarkable. In quick succession they\nappeared before an audience of several thousand.\n\nThe first speaker modestly began by saying: \"What I am this afternoon,\nI am by the grace of God. For years and years I had been nothing but an\nevery-day drunkard. Not far from where the Salvation Army held their\nopen air meetings was an old lamp post. One Sunday afternoon I heard\ntheir music and their singing, and I made my way to this lamp post. If\nit had not been there I believe I would never have been saved, for I\nwas so intoxicated I could not stand.\n\n\"After the meeting was over one of the sisters came to me and said, 'My\nbrother, wont you come along to the meeting? You need salvation.' 'Yes,'\nI said, 'I need something better than what I have got.' At the same time\nI did not go--I finished up the day in the saloon. I came out into the\nopen air again and the devil said, 'You cannot mix with these people\nthey are too far above you.' By and by there came a man who said he had\nbeen every bit as bad as I was, and he told me how his life had been\nchanged. And my eyes were opened then and there, and I kept going to the\nmeetings and I got some decent clothes, and a home of my own--though I\nhad been working every day I had not a home to go to--but when I was\nconverted all became changed. And now I am perfectly happy. My life is\ncompletely made over. I never think of drink and have no desire for it.\nI have a happy home and a \"little lump of glory\" for a wife.\n\n\"When I first became a Christian the devil said to me, 'You cannot stay\nthere with those people, there is a whisky bill you have not yet paid.\nSuppose you are out in one of those open air meetings and the saloon\nkeeper should see you and say, 'Why, he owes me six dollars,' what\ncould you say then?' I went to that saloon keeper and said to him, 'How\nmuch do I owe you?' And he said, 'Six dollars.' 'Well,' I said, 'I want\nto pay it.' I did pay it then and there, and glory to God He has kept\nme from then to this day.\"\n\nThe next testimony was that of a former anarchist. Before he was\nconverted he did not have a shirt to his back. He is now a business man\nin New York City, and prosperous.\n\n\"It was about eighteen years ago that I was with a group of men in a\nback street attending a meeting of anarchists, when the police came\nalong and broke up the meeting. I made off as fast as I could, but I\ndid not get away fast enough, for the police officer caught me by the\narm and took me away to prison. While I was there the Salvation Army\ncame to preach to us. Thank God for that night! It was the first time I\nhad heard salvation preached, for I come from the stock of Abraham,\nIsaac, and Jacob. When I got out of goal I went to the Salvation Army.\nThere stood on the platform that night two girls. They told me about\nJesus. They spoke of salvation for the drunkard, but that did not\nappeal to me; they spoke of salvation for the unbeliever, but that did\nnot appeal to me; and when they spoke of salvation for the thief,\nneither did that appeal to me. Then one night they said salvation is\nfor the Jew. I said to myself, 'That means me.' I came forward that\nnight and got rid of my wretchedness and my misery; I came for\nsalvation, and the Jew got salvation.'\n\n\"I moved away from the Bowery, for that was where I spent most of my\ntime. I have walked down the Bowery many a night with not a place to\nlie down in, with not fifteen cents to pay for a bed, and not a shirt\nto my back. Thank God, I moved away from the Bowery. I started in\nbusiness myself. To-day I have a splendid business connected with\ntwenty houses on Broadway. Hallelujah! Godlessness, sin, vice, takes a\nman off Broadway and puts him on the Bowery; salvation takes a man from\nthe Bowery and puts him on Broadway.\"\n\nIn the year 1880, the second convert in the Salvation Army in the\nUnited States was made, and after years of testing he came before us to\nspeak as follows: \"I started to drink when about thirteen years of age,\nand I kept drinking till the Salvation Army came to New York in 1880. I\nread in the papers about seven sisters coming over to open up the\nforces in the United States. There used to be an old lady who came to\nour house to see my mother. She was a Methodist, and my mother was also\na Methodist. She used to come there like an old grandmother and darn\nstockings. One day she said she would like to go to the Salvation Army,\nand asked me to take her. I was leading such a dissipated and drunken\nlife, that I had no money to pay the car fare, but she slipped ten\ncents into my hand and we went to the Salvation Army that night. She\nwas very deaf and got me away up to the front. The Spirit of God took\nhold of me, and the Salvation Army people, in the way they have, got\nafter me. One of the officers came up and said, 'Are you saved?' I\nsaid, 'No, I could not be saved.' I managed to get out of the meeting\nthat night without giving my heart to God. But all the time there was\nsomething taking hold of me. I tried to drown it in drink. On Sunday\nnight with the old lady I was back at the Army again. On Monday night I\nwas drunk again. On Tuesday night I knelt down and gave my heart to\nJesus, and a Salvationist said, 'Now brother, if you want the Lord to\ndo anything, you just tell Him.'\n\n\"Before that time I had served two terms in the penitentiary. Sometimes\ntwice a week I would be brought into the Police Court for drunkenness.\nEvery time I went out and got drunk I would get arrested. I tried to\nget away from this life and went out West. I thought if I got out there\nand got into new surroundings things would be different. I got as far\nas Hornsville, New York, and got arrested there. I got a little further\nWest and was arrested again. But I never got rid of the kind of life I\nused to live until I came to the Lord Jesus Christ. That was thirty\nyears ago. The Lord is not only able to save a man but, thank God, He\nis able to keep him.\"\n\nThis is the story of an English baronet. He went wrong in England, came\nto America as a cow boy, was wild and reckless, but was soundly\nconverted. He said: \"I will not say much about myself. Perhaps you\nalready know something about me. You may have seen my picture in the\npapers, telling of my past life, but I want to try to tell you, to the\nglory of God, how I was born again.\n\n\"When I succeeded my father to one of the oldest titles in England, in\nthe year 1907, I was wild and reckless. I came over to America. To\nescape from a wild scrape I beat the sheriff in Colorado into Utah.\nThen I went home to England in 1908 and took over the title of the\nestate, and I made the occasion simply one drunken spree. I was out for\nall the devilment I could get into. I hated the Church. I hated\nreligion. I hated anything good. When I went down to the old church\nwhich is in the grounds of the estate, they said to me, 'What will you\ndo about the minister?' I said, 'I would kick the fool out, but the law\nwould make me put in another.' If anybody mentioned the Salvation Army\nto me, I would refer to them as thieves and liars.\n\n\"I came back to America and immediately got involved in some more\nsprees, such as driving horses into saloons, and other devilment. Then\nI crossed again to London and started a wild-west show of my own in the\nLondon Hippodrome. I came back to America deeper in sin than ever. One\nday I was sitting in a saloon planning a fresh escapade when a\nSalvation Army sister came in with her tambourine and some 'War Cries.'\nShe looked at me and said, 'Are you a Christian?' I said, 'No.' She\ngave me the address of the Headquarters and asked me to come up. The\nbar-tender turned round and said, 'Go up and rope somebody.' I said, 'I\nwill go up.' There was something different about me. I did not know\nwhat was wrong with myself I went up to the open-air meeting and was as\nquiet as a mouse. For five or six days I could not keep away from the\nHeadquarters. I did not know what was wrong. I went out to see some\nmoving pictures to see if I could see myself amongst them; then I went\nand had another drink; but back to the Salvation Army Headquarters I\nhad to go. I was getting almost crazy. I reached the point when I had\neither to give in or kill myself.\n\n\"I locked the door of my room and then got down on my knees and asked\nGod to forgive me. Do you know, it seemed as if hell was turned loose\naround me. Everything said, 'You have gone too far; you are too big a\nsinner,' I said, 'But Jesus died for me.' I prayed and prayed, and I\nheard that voice come and say, 'Go and sin no more,' It was just as if\na finger had touched my soul. My prayer turned from one of supplication\nto one of thankfulness for what God had done for me. I was born again.\nI rose up with the old life gone, and my two greatest blessings are\nthat all that old life is blotted out for ever, and that I have the\nknowledge that the Spirit of Jesus my Saviour is in me, and I dwell in\nHim. The union between us is perfect. I thank God for that.\"\n\nThe following story was told by a man who had been a successful lawyer.\nHe had gone down into the depths of sin and by the power of God's grace\nhad been redeemed. He began by saying:--\n\n  Must Jesus bear the Cross alone,\n  And all the world go free?\n  No, there's a cross for you to bear,\n  And there's a cross for me.\n\n\"It is a cross for me to come here and relate my experience, but I am\nglad to be here inasmuch as something I say may gladden someone who is\ndiscouraged. I was brought up in a Christian home. My mother was a good\nwoman and my father was a clergyman. I went through college and the\nlower school before I took a single drop of strong drink. But when I\ntook my first drink--I remember it well--it seemed to be something I\nhad been looking for all my life and had never found before. From that\ntime on I drank periodically. I had a lovely family and an honoured\nname, but I dragged it and my family into the dust. I struggled through\nmy own strength to redeem myself, but I could not, nor can any man. I\ntook cures, but they availed me not. I was in the hospital fourteen\ntimes, struggling up all the time, but falling down again. I seemed too\nhopeless. The light seemed to be fading for ever from the horizon, and\ndarkness was coming over me. I was without hope. I would rather have\nfallen asleep in death, away from my companions, away from my loved\nones, and never have been seen again, than to have lived the way I was.\nBut through the providence of God, and through a kind wife and sister,\nI am able to stand here to-day. God bless the wives of the drunkards\nand drinking men, for if any will have a crown in heaven, it will be\nthe wife of the drunkard who stands by him through thick and thin and\nwho never gives him up.\n\n\"I went away to a certain town and while there I noticed the title of a\nbook called 'Twice Born Men.' It aroused my curiosity, and I picked it\nup and commenced to read it. I came to the story of the puncher, a man\nwho was formerly a prize fighter, and who had descended to the lowest\nscale of humanity. He had become a drunkard of the worst type and had\ngone one night into a saloon with murder in his heart. He was going\nhome to kill his wife, when there flashed in upon him some strange\ninfluence, some mighty influence, some compelling influence--the power\nof the Almighty--and drove him into the Salvation Army barracks, and\nthere he knelt at the Penitent form and God took the load from his\nback. When he rose up there was a new light in his eyes, a new heart in\nhis breast, and he arose a new born man. He began to work for Christ.\n\n\"As I read that story I said, 'If there is hope for the puncher, there\nis hope for me.' I had been brought up a Christian, and during my\ndrinking days I had attended church, and I had fought as every poor\ndrunkard fights to redeem himself. But through my own strength I\nfailed, and I want to say to you here, there is no man who suffers\npangs of bitter conscience or from a broken heart more than a poor\ndrunkard who cannot tear the chains from himself. Have pity on him. And\nI read about this man going out to save those who were lost, and then I\nread on further about Danny, a drunkard, who while in prison was\nvisited by the puncher, who sought him out, and said, 'There is a\nbetter life for you.' He took him to his home, and it was a new and\nhappy home he took him to, with a happy wife and children, and he\nlaboured with them. Danny the thief; Danny the drunkard; Danny the\nmurderer. When the day had passed Danny went back to prison. But the\npower of God came over Danny in prison, and he said to himself, 'If God\ncan save the puncher, God can save me.' And then there came into his\nheart a light; and I said, 'If God can save the puncher; if God can\nsave Danny--He can save me.' And He did save me, and He has kept me,\nand from that day to this I have never desired a drop of alcohol.\n\n\"I have gone through physical sufferings that are attendant upon it,\nbut thanks be unto God through the Lord Jesus Christ, He gave me the\nvictory, and I stand here to-day an example of the keeping power of\nGod. Oh, my friends, what a new life it opened up for me. I thought I\nwas a Christian once; but until I was thrown down, until I was\ncrucified twice over, not until then could I be convinced that God\ncould save me from this terrible curse. And I want to say that no\nChristian man ever came to me and told me that God could save me from\nwrong. Oh, what a duty rests upon Christians to speak to the drinking\nmen! When God took me by the hand I had a new life and I wanted to go\nout and save drunkards, and I have been trying to save them since. I\nwent to the Salvation Army Barracks in Jersey City, and if it was not\nfor the Salvation Army, I do not know whether I could have held out or\nnot, but when I felt distressed those brothers prayed and stood round\nme, and if there is anyone here who is discouraged, and who is away\nfrom God, and who goes round the corner to see his little children\ngoing to school because he cannot go home, if there is anyone who has\nleft a broken-hearted mother or wife at home; get up and go home to\nthem and give your heart to the Lord.\"\n\nThe last story told at the meeting has to do with the complete\ntransformation of a woman's life. It is a modern miracle. The one who\ntells the story is growing old and feeble, but all are thrilled as they\nlisten to her.\n\nThis woman was educated in a young ladies' seminary, and had a fairly\ngood start in life among some of the leading people in Western New\nYork. She married a man who became an habitual drunkard. She was sorely\ndisappointed in him, and, little by little, she started to drink, till\nthere came the time when she and her husband were possibly two of the\nworst drunkards the State had ever known. She had been in prison two\nhundred or more times. But now, up in the little town of Canandaigua\nwhere she lives, she is treasurer of the Salvation Army, and has been\nfor fifteen years. She is respected by all who know her. Not only the\npeople in the army, but the well-to-do people of the town all love and\nrespect Mary Law.\n\nHer husband was not converted until recently. She had been praying\nfifteen years for him, and one night she prayed specially for him, the\nlast half hour of the meeting passed, the last twenty minutes, and then\nCharlie came.\n\n\"I thank God for what He did for me,\" she said. \"Before the Salvation\nArmy got hold of me, I was one of the worst drunkards in the state of\nNew York. The first night they came I wanted to know what the Salvation\nArmy was like. Just like any other old drunken sot, I wanted to know\nwhat the Salvation Army was going to be. So I walked out as far as the\nPolice Station, and I said, 'Where is the Salvation Army going to be\nto-night?' 'Well,' said the police officer, 'it is going to be up at\nthe Presbyterian Church, but I want to tell you one thing. If you go up\nthere you will get run in,' I thought to myself for a moment, if I stay\nout I will get run in, so I might just as well go up there and get run\nin. I went up, and I suppose I was a terrible-looking object. I got\ninto a corner near the door, so that if anything turned up I could get\nout. I had just one quarter in my purse when they came to take up the\ncollection, and I put that quarter in. I believe if I had been outside\nI would have been run in. When I got outside I wanted that quarter for\na bottle of whisky. I then went up to the Police Station. When the\nPolice Justice saw me coming in he said, 'Where have you been\nto-night?' I said, 'Up to the Salvation Army meeting.' 'Well,' he said,\n'let me give you a little bit of advice. Keep right on going.'\n\n\"The first night they had their meeting in the hall I went to the\npenitent form, and the next night I got saved. That was over fifteen\nyears ago. I have neither tasted nor handled one drop of intoxicating\nliquor from that day to this. I did not have a home fit for a dog to\nlive in. I hardly ever knew what it was to be without a black eye. I\nhave been pounded until I did not know where I was; until I was dazed.\nAnd when I came to, and saw where I was, I was lying on the floor and\nCharlie was lying on the bed with his dirty old clothes on, and if\nanybody has gone through hell, it is I. But I thank God to-day I have\ngot just as good a husband as there is in the state of New York. I have\njust as comfortable a home as anybody could wish, and every dollar of\nit is paid for. Before that the saloons got the money, but I thank God\nto-day the saloons don't get any of my money.\n\n\"Charlie would get arrested, and when I saw him locked up, I would do\nsomething that would get me locked up too. We went in together and we\ncame out together, We would not be out for long when back we would go\nagain. If one went to the lock-up, the other went, and that is the way\nwe carried on through life.\n\n\"An election campaign was being held many years ago, and Charlie went\nup the street to vote. He came home drunk. I suppose it was election\nwhisky, but he brought some home, and we had a drink together. We went\nto bed on Tuesday night, and woke up intending to go to work the next\nday. I asked one of the neighbours what time it was, and she said it is\nalmost night now, but where have you been for the last two or three\ndays? We had gone to sleep on Tuesday night and did not wake up till\nThursday night. I went back, and we took another drink that night, and\ndid not wake up till Saturday night. If my life, sixteen years ago, was\nnot hell upon earth, I do not know what you call hell.\n\n\"Just about the time when I first started out to serve God in\nCanandaigua, I was an outcast. Nobody cared for me. Nobody would notice\nme. When they saw me they would go out of their way to avoid me. Nobody\nwanted to come near me. But when I was drunk I thought I was about as\ngood as they were, and sometimes I gave them a little of my mind, and\nthat was the way I often got arrested. But to-day those very folks, who\nwere my very worst enemies, who tried to hurt me and who did everything\nthey could to injure me, are my very best friends. I have friends among\nthe rich, and friends among the poor. They do not shun my home, they\ncome and see me, and if I am sick some of the wealthy people come to\nsee how I am getting along, and if I have everything I want. For all\nthis I have to thank God and the Salvation Army.\n\n\"I have been kicked and knocked and pounded until I have been almost\ndead. Charlie did the kicking and the pounding, but I was as much to\nblame as he was. I was drunk and so was he, but I was never the one to\ngo to the police officer and get a warrant out for my husband. If he\npounded me until I could hardly breathe, and he happened to get\narrested for it, I managed to get arrested too. I cannot tell you how\nmany times we have been in jail in the little village of Elgin, and in\nthe penitentiary too. But I would rather go back to the penitentiary\nto-day and spend my days there than to live again the life that I lived\nbefore I was converted. I thank God and the Salvation Army to-night\nthat I do not have to carry black eyes, and that I can go home in\npeace.\n\n\"I have a nice comfortable home, and it is all paid for, and if it had\nnot been for the Salvation Army coming to Canandaigua, I would have\nbeen in a drunkard's hell to-day. When the Army first came there, I was\nlike a great many others. I wanted to see what the Salvation Army was\nlike, and out of curiosity I went to a meeting. But I was too drunk to\nunderstand anything about it. The next night I went there quite sober,\nand I gave my heart to the Lord. That was seventeen years ago, and I\nthank God that since then I have tried to do my utmost to serve Him to\nthe best of my ability. And it is my determination, as long as He gives\nme breath, to do for Him all I can, to spread His Kingdom on earth.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\n_A Final Word_\n\n\nAs has been suggested, it is necessary, if one is to be a successful\npersonal worker, to know well the Scriptures. The incorruptible seed,\nwhich is the Word of God, when it is received into the human heart as\ngood and honest ground, will, without question, produce a satisfactory\nharvest. If you should attempt to win one to Christ, who insists that\nhe is out of the Kingdom because of his doubts, tell him to come with\nhis doubts, and Christ will set him free. \"My doubts are round about me\nlike a chain,\" said one in the audience, with whom one of our personal\nworkers was labouring, and the worker said quickly, \"Come, chains and\nall.\" The doubter hesitated a second, then said, \"I will,\" and as he\nrose to move forward, he testified that the chains were snapped, and he\nwas free.\n\nIf the one you are seeking to introduce to Christ says that he is such\na great sinner, and because of this he cannot come, then tell him to\ncome with his sins. He wants him just as he is, and stands ready to set\nhim free from the sins that have enslaved him and blinded his eyes so\nthat he could not see Christ as he stood waiting to save him.\n\nIt is a good thing to start by giving the assurance to the unsaved that\nGod is Love, and that His love is boundless. This may be easily proved\nby the Scriptures. Tell him also that Christ is not only able, but\nready and willing to save. There are abundant evidences of this in the\nNew Testament. Tell him that no one is too sinful; none too far from\nGod; none too depraved by sin to be saved. There are evidences on every\nside of us of many such seeking and finding pardon.\n\nIt is well to start with such a declaration as is found in John i. 12,\n\"But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons\nof God, even to them that believe on His name.\" Insist upon it that\nChrist has laid down the conditions, and that if we are to be saved, we\nmust honestly and sincerely, with all our doubts and sins, receive Him\nas a personal Saviour.\n\nMake it very plain to the one with whom you are dealing that when one\ncomes into the Kingdom he is born into it. There is no other way than\nthis, for Jesus said, John iii. 3, \"Except a man be born again he cannot\nsee the Kingdom of God.\" If the joy of regeneration is to be experienced,\nit is necessary that the acceptance of Jesus as a Saviour should be\ndefinite, and that there should be sufficient confidence in God's Word\nto lead us to believe that when we have fulfilled our part\nof the contract the Saviour will keep His.\n\nIf we are born into the Kingdom then we start as babes in Christ. We\nare expected to grow. If we are to grow, we must have proper food; this\nis found in the Word of God. We must be faithful in prayer. We must\nhave proper light and air; this is found by walking in fellowship with\nChrist, and learning His will as we study the Scripture, we seek with\njoy to do it. We may stumble as little children do, but He will help\nus, and if at times we seem to fail, He will hold us fast.\n\nAs little babes in Christ it will not be strange that at times we grow\ndiscouraged and faint-hearted, but if we press on to know the Lord we\nshall find our strength increasing and our temptations decreasing until\nat last we may enter into a continuous and joyous Christian experience.\n\nTell the one with whom you are dealing that the assurance of salvation\nis possible. Jesus said, \"He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him\nthat sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation,\nbut is passed from death unto life\" (John v. 24). And the Apostle John\nwrote, \"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name\nof the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that\nye may believe on the name of the Son of God\" (1 John v. 13).\n\nState very plainly the fact that we are saved by faith and not by\nfeeling, and being thus saved we are kept by Divine Power.\n\nWhen we have passed through the darkness of doubt into the light of our\nconscious acceptance of Christ, and when on the authority of God's Word\nwe have the assurance of salvation, then let it ever be remembered that\nwe must seek to bring others to Him. And as we labour day by day our own\nfaith will grow stronger, our hope will be brighter, and our consciousness\nof the presence of Christ will be more marked. Day by day we may walk\nwith Him and talk with Him until at last we shall see Him as He is and\nthen we may hear Him say, \"Well done, good and faithful servant ... enter\nthou into the joy of thy Lord.\"","title":"The Personal Touch","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":25630}