Pastoral and Personal Evangelism 25 gressed and accomplished results. How largely the Gospels, the Acts and the Epistles verify this fact! Even the marvel ous work of Philip in Samaria was not the immediate plan of God, but the Spirit sent him past Jerusalem, down into the desert at Gaza, that he might win the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ, and through him no doubt countless hosts of Africa. The missionary journeys and efforts of Paul were filled with personal service. His letters are filled with personal mes sages. Some of his most important letters, such as Philemon, the Timothys and Titus, are addressed and written to indi viduals. His winning of Onesimus in Rome, and the letter to Philemon which resulted, is one of the most effective and beautiful experiences recorded in all the Word of God. God has used men mightily in reaching vast multitudes of people, even from the days of His own ministry and the days of Peter and his associates at Pentecost. Even at this time, two hundred years after his unparalleled ministry, we are reminded of George Whitefield, who preached at times to fully thirty thousand people in the open air, and won his thousands and tens of thousands. We recall the vast multitudes who were reached by our own Moody and Sankey; we note the vast audiences who flocked to hear Mr. Spurgeon, week after week, year after year. The strong evangelists of our own gen eration verify before our very eyes God’s honor placed on fhose to whom He gives such signal power. But our thought goes back to the great universal method our Lord Himself instituted, of reaching the individual by his fellow man. The Almighty could have so arranged His Divine plan that He Himself, without human help, might arrest and enlist fol lowers as He did with Saul of Tarsus, but this was not His plan. By man He would reach men. Human mediums of power must do His wondrous work. Man must go, in the power of His Spirit “into all the world, to preach the Gospel to every creature.” And His promise was sure and perma nent: “Lo, I am with you alway.”
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