198
THE KING’S BUSINESS anee of a definite Saviour, Jesus Christ. A great deal of our Lord’s life was spent in personal work with different classes of men. For example, we see Him doing definite soul-winning work with Nicodemus in the third chapter of John, and definite soul-winning work with the woman of Samaria in the fourth chapter of John, ana definite soul-winning work with the impotent man in the fifth chapter of John; and so we might go on right through the Gospel. It is true, as Mr. Strayer says in another part of his article, that Jesus “ put His standard so’ high as to discourage many who would follow Him,” but that was not in order that He might not win souls, but that He might truly win them and not only seemingly do so by the superficial work that is done by so many pas tors as well as evangelists today.' Jesus spent His whole time in soul winning. It was to win souls He came into this world at all. It was to win souls that He left heaven with all its glory and came down to earth with all its shame. It was to win souls that He gave up the praise of the angelic world and came down to this world to be despised and rejected of men, to be blindfolded, buf feted, spit upon, scourged, and crucified. It was to win souls that He came : it was to win souls that He labored: it was to win souls that He prayed: it was to win souls that He suffered: it was to win souls that He died. Soul winning was the whole business of His life, and it should be the whole business o f life for every follower of Jesus. Soul winning was the one all-absorbing ambition, the one consuming passion of His life, and if soul winning is not the all-absorb ing ambition and consuming passion of our lives we are not followers of Jesus. broad- enough programme or supplied a magnetism sufficiently strong. Those who would keep to the narrower evangelistic appeal'must account for the church’s gradual loss of prestige in places where it has had no other programme but to preach the Gospel.” This statement regarding the rural church is unfor tunately untrue. The rural churches that have failed have not maintained exclusively the evangelistic note; indeed, in those that have made the most utter failure the evangelistic note has very seldom been heard, and therefore it is not incumbent upon “ those who would keep to the narrower evangelistic appeal” - to account for the church’s lost prestige. The church’s loss of prestige in such rural places as it may have suffered such loss is largely due to the fact that something else besides the Gospel has been preached; that another Gospel has been substituted for that proclaimed by the Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples. Doubtless divisions among believers and a consequent multiplying of weak churches in rural communities has had something to do, as the writer indicates, with the church’s loss of prestige, but it has not had nearly so much to do with it as the failure to preach the Word of God in the power of the Holy Ghost. The country churches have not kept at the work of winning souls and kept ever lastingly at it, neither have they kept at the work of building up those who were “ converted.” Country churches which have had a faithful ministry, where the Word of God has been persistently preached in the power of the Holy Ghost and where the whole community has been worked by faithful visi tation, personal work, neighborhood meetings, etc., and where the prayer meet ing has beerr maintained in power, have not lost their prestige, but increased in numbers and in power. What is needed today in country churches and in city In the article already referred to on “ Evangelism—A Bigger Word Than Suspected,” the writer says: “ The Churches Have Failed, rural church has known nothing else than the evange listic note and obviously that alone has not furnished a Why Some Rural
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker