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THE KING’S BUSINESS
naries ? I have three boys, and I have given them every one to God. I expect some day to give them to the seminary. 0 seminaries, theological professors, we ask you to take our sons and make men of God out of them. If they come to you crude, polish them; if they are conceited, take it out of them; if they are ignorant, educate them. Put them on the operating table if necessary, do anything with them, only send them out with a passion for men and women such as was never put into our breasts ! That is where we must begin our work of personal evangelism. BE SOUL WINNERS Brethren in the ministry,'let us preach for souls. Never mind art and literature and music. We have specialists who can deliver lectures on those themes much bet ter than we Can. Let us do something they cannot do : feed the sheep ; go after the lost and straying. It may mean, my brother, that you will have to change your sermons. 1 think it was Dr. Wilton Merle Smith I heard at Northfield some time ago who said that when he came face to face with thè fact of preaching to save the lost, the question came to him, “Am I willing to die to my sermonic reputation ?” “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.” I remember Mr. Frost telling me the last time he was here that a relative of his was a very popular, pastor in St. Louis. His church was crowded all the time with people, and \one day while in his study he thought he saw a vision and Christ said to him in the vision, “Whom are you preaching?” “Why,” he said, “Lord, I am preaching the Bible.” “No,” the voice said, “Whom are you preaching?” “Why, Lord, I am preaching the gospel.” “No, whom are you preaching?” and I had to fall on my face and confess that I had been preaching myself, and I took every sermon that I had and burned it, and I went into my pulpit on Sunday morning and I told my people what had happened, and one by one they left me until I had but a cor poral’s guard instead of a full house, but one by one new ones came in and I got a
new church and a new people.” “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die,” what then? It bringeth forth much fruit, and before some of us can do anything for the Master in our preaching, we have got to die to our sermonic reputation and preach Christ and Him crucified. There is danger of the Church becoming a mutual admiration society; the pastor tells the people how much he thinks of them, and the people tell the pastor how much they think of him. Our members come to us and say, “That was a fine sermon you gave us,” and we turn around and say, “Thank you, I am so glad you appreciate it; I am glad you liked it.” SEEK THE LOST Let us remind ourselves of the Master’s words, “What man of you, having a hun dred sheep, if he lose one, doth not leave the ninety and nine and go into the wilder ness' after that which -is gone astray until he find it?” Would it not be more pleasing to God if we left the ninety and nine well- fed sheep in the church Sunday morning— those people who are in their seats at the punctual morning hour, those people—the old guard, they have been called, dear souls, you don’t know what you would do without them, you are so used to seeing them in their accustomed places; and for the life of you, you don’t know what to do with them—would it not be more pleasing to God, we repeat, if we left those well-fed sheep in the fold and went after the lost sheep and tried to bring the wandering ones back into the fold? The life of the sheep is in the hands of the shepherd. A shiftless shepherd means starved sheep. Put new life into the shep herd and you will get new life into the sheep. The Church of today is in need of a ministry that will take the lead in this matter of personal evangelism in behalf of the lost. A pastor was holding evangelistic services in one of our large cities. He was not having results'; the unconverted were not being drawn into the Church, v He was burdened about it, and prayed in his’room
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