214
THE KING’S BUSINESS
ality and spirit, and sent them out to save individual men. It was thus that the Church of Jesus Christ grew until it cov ered the earth.- Go through the four Gospels and con sider well if the gospel of individual evan gelism is not the prominent keynote of all of the four. Take the Acts o f the Apostles: Pentecost is passed 'over with comparatively small mention, but the Church doing individual work for Jesus Christ—John here, Peter there. Philip here and another disciple there,- going from house to house and from city to city-—is given in detail. The church at Ephesus did not begin with a great revival, but with the" personal work of one individual. The church at Galatia was not founded, by Pauline oratory; it was founded when the apostle lay there sick for six months, and the only place from which he could preach was his sick bed. Take the church at Colosse as another illustration: Epaphras, the layman, founded the church there. How was the church at Rome founded? By the individual apostle being chained there and speaking individually to men as they came to visit hk-n in prison. Personal'work all through, you see. AN AGREED FACT Pastors acknowledge that the best addi tions to their churches are the result of personal evangelism, or individual work. Bishop Hughes gives his opinion' of per sonal evangelism as follows: He said that when a pastor, a revival in his church cover ing two years resulted in forty-eight con verts—eleven men and thirty-seven women. As the result of personal work during the same period there were seventy-five con verts—forty men and thirty-five women. Here is the solution of the pastor’s prob lem as to how to reach the men. The women will come to church, but every wife knows how indifferent her husband is to ward the house of God. If you want to get the men into the church, how are you going to get them J, By Personal Evangel ism. The writer overheard a conversation between two pastors some time ago. One
reach a desired goal is by running, for you can get there by walking also. So you can gather in souls by the great revival net, or you can gather them in with the single hook of personal evangelism. You may be left-handed or right-handed, you may run or walk, and yet be successful. Whatever our faith in revivals, their de sired end is to make more effective and efficient the individual Christian in the work of soul-winning. Any revival that does not result in a movement on the part of the Church towards individual soul saving is a failure. Do we not too often make the mistake of trying to sweep people into the kingdom of God in crowds? Much has been said about men being like sheep, but you cannot deal with men as you deal with sheep. What is a man better than a sheep? In what does his superiority consist? Is it not that he is a personality, in that he must be dealt with individually, personally and alone? You Cannot sweep men into the kingdpm as you chase a flock of sheep into a fold. You have got to deal with men personally and individually; hence the altar service after the invitation has been given; hence the need "of personal workers. This talk of “social salvation” is not to the point. You may care for sheep in flocks, but men must be cared for individually and alone. THE GREATEST ONE Jesus Christ was a great personal evan gelist. Did you ever notice how He got His disciples? He did not get them by great sermons. There was not in the whole of His public ministry anything like a general religious movement. It is quite safe to say that there was no great revival. It was by individual work that Christ’s cause grew. He was walking by the sea shore, and seeing two men casting in a net, He said to them, “Come, follow me.” He passed by the roadside, and seeing a man in a publican’s booth, He said, “Come, fol low me.” One by one, man by man, that is the way Jesus got His disciples. Then He enthused into them His own person
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs