“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30)
These are some of my favourite excerpts from “
The Soul Winner” by
Charles Spurgeon:
Suppose it were well known that, if men were only clever, God would use them, no matter what their character and conduct might be. Suppose it were understood that you could get on as well in the word of God by chicanery and untruthfulness as by honest and uprightness. What person in the world, with any right feeling, would not be ashamed of such a state of affairs? But, beloved, it is not so.
He delights especially in humility among His followers. It is an awful sight to see a proud Christian. There are few things that can give the devil more joy than this sight, whenever he takes his walks abroad. He delights in a proud Christian, and he says to himself, “Here are all the preparations for a great fall before long.” Some pastors show their pride by their style in the pulpit. You can never forget the way in which they announced their text, “It is I: be not afraid” (John 6:20). Others manifest it in their attire, in the vanity of their dress, or in their talk, in which they continually magnify others’ deficiencies and amplify their own excellencies.
The third thing in a message that is likely to win souls to Christ is that it must be instructive. If people are to be saved by a message, it must contain at least some measure of knowledge. There must be light as well as fire. Some preachers are all light and no fire, and others are all fire and no light. What we need is both light and fire. I do not judge those men who are all fire and fury, but I wish they had a little more knowledge of what they talk about, and I think it would be well if they did not begin to preach quite so soon that they hardly understand themselves. It is a fine thing to stand up in the street and cry out, “Believe! Believe! Believe!” Yes, my dear soul, but what are we to believe? What is all this noise about?
First, we must work at our preaching. You are not distrustful of the use of preaching, are you? I hope you do not weary of it, though you certainly sometimes must weary in it. Cobbler, stick to your trade; preacher stick to your preaching.
You who have a delicacy and refinement may have to be shocked into the power to benefit the coarse and ignorant. You who are wise and educated may have to be made fools of, so that you may win fools to Jesus. Fools need saving, and many of them will not be saved except by means that men of culture cannot admire.
We ought not to regard the Christian church as a luxurious hotel where each Christian may dwell at his own ease in his own inn, but as barracks in which soldiers are drilled and trained for war. We should not regard the Christian church as an association for mutual admiration and comfort, but as an army with banners, marching to the fray to achieve victories for Christ, to storm the strongholds of the foe, and to add province after province to the Redeemer’s kingdom.
I have known several like a young man whom I will call Charley Clever, who were uncommonly clever young fellows at anything and everything, very clever at counterfeiting religion when they took up with it. They prayed very fluently. They tried to preach and did it very well. Whatever they did, they did it with ease. It was as easy to them as kissing their hand … Do not be in a hurry to take such people into the church. They have no humiliation on account of sin, no brokenness of heart, no sense of divine grace. They cry, “All serene!” and away they go; but you will find that they will never repay you for your labour and trouble. They will be able to use the language of God’s people as well as the best of His saints. They will even talk of their doubts and fears and will work up a deep experience in five minutes. They are a little too clever and are likely to do much harm when they get into the church, so keep them out, if you possibly can … I remember one who was very saintly in his talk. I will call him John Fairspeech. Oh, how cunningly he could act the hypocrite, getting among our young men and leading them into all manner of sin and iniquity; yet he would call to see me and have a half hour of spiritual conversation! An abominable wretch, he was living in open sin at the very time that he was seeking to come to the Lord’s table, joining our societies, and anxious to be a leading man in every good work. Keep your watchful eye open, friends! … They will come to you with money in their hands, like Peter’s fish with the silver in its mouth, and they will be so helpful in the work. They speak so softly and are such perfect gentlemen! Yes, I believe Judas was a man exactly of that kind, very clever at deceiving those around him. We must guard that we do not get any of these into the church; we must try to keep them out by any means.
Great soul-winners never have been fools. A person whom God qualifies to win souls could probably do anything else that Providence might allot him. Take Martin Luther, for instance. The man was not only fit to work a Reformation, but he could have ruled a nation or commanded an army! Think of Whitfield. His thundering eloquence, which stirred all England, was not associated with weak judgement or an absence of brain power; the man was a master orator. If he had applied himself to commerce, he would have become a leading merchant. If he had been a politician, he would have commanded the listeners amid admiring senates. He who wins souls is usually a man who could have done anything else if God had called him to it.
There is a way, too, of winning souls by laying hands upon heads, only the elbows of the aforesaid hands must be encased in sheer linen. Then the machinery acts, and grace is conferred by blessed fingers! I do not understand the mysterious science. But at this I need not wonder, for the profession of saving souls by such juggling can be carried out only by certain favoured persons who have received apostolic succession directly from Judas Iscariot. This confirmation, when men pretend that it confers grace, is an infamous piece of juggling. The whole thing is an abomination. Just to think that, in this century; there are men who preach salvation by sacraments, and salvation by themselves – indeed! Why, it is surely too late in the day to come to us with this drivel! Let us hope that these practices are anachronistic and out-of-date.
Now, a true soul-winner often has to come into close quarters with the devil within men. He has to struggle with their prejudices, their love of sin, their unbelief, their pride, and then, all of a sudden, grapple with their despair. At one moment he strives with their self-righteousness, at the next moment with their unbelief in God. Ten thousand arts are used to prevent the soul-winner from being conqueror in the encounter. But if God has sent him, he will never renounce his hold on the soul he seeks until he has given a throw to the power of sin and won another soul for Christ.
Further, let me commend you, dear friends, the art of buttonholing acquaintances and relatives. If you cannot preach to a hundred, preach to one. Get with the person alone and, in love, quietly and prayerfully talk to him. “One!” you exclaim. Well, is one not enough? I know your ambition, young man. You want to preach to thousands. Be content, and begin with one. Your Master was not ashamed to sit at the well and preach to one. When He had finished His message, He had really done good work to the whole city of Sychar, for that one woman became a missionary to her friends.
Jesus Christ did not come into the world for any of these things. He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He has sent His church on the same errand. She is a traitor to the Master who sent her if she is so beguiled by the beauties of taste and art as to forget that to “preach Christ, and Him crucified” (see 1 Corinthians 1:23, 2:2) is the only object for which she exists among the sons of men. The business of the church is the salvation of souls.
