Soul Travail—Our Greatest Need
— By Rev. Oswald J. Smith, Toronto, Can.
gE read in Isa. 66:8, th a t “ as soon as Zion travailed she brought fo rth her children,” and th is is the most funda
souls, hours upon hours, days and nights of prayer will ever avail. There fore, “gird yourselves, and lament, ye p riests; howl, ye m inisters of my God. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn as sembly, g ather the elders and all th e in h ab itan ts of the land unto the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord” (Joel 1:13-14). Oh, yes! Joel knew the secret. Let us then lay aside everything else, and “ cry unto the Lord.” “We read in th e biographies of our forefathers, who were most successful in winning souls, th a t they prayed for hours in private. The question th ere fore arises, Can we get the same results w ithout following th e ir example? If we can, then let us prove to th e world th a t we have found a b etter way; but if not, then in God’s name let us begin to follow those who through faith and patience obtained the promise. Our forefathers wept and prayed and agon ized before the Lord for sinners to be saved, and would not rest un til they were slain by th e Sword of the Word of God. T h at was the secret of th eir m ighty success; when things were slack and would not move they w restled in prayer till God poured out His Spirit upon th e people and sinners were con verted.” (For Those Who Seek.) All men of God have been men m ighty in prayer. The sun never rose on China, we are told, w ithout finding Hudson Taylor on his knees. No won der th e China Inland Mission has been so wonderfully owned of God!
mental element in th e work of God. Can children he horn w ithout pain? Can th ere be b irth w ithout trav ail? Yet how many expect in th e sp iritu al realm th a t which is not possible in th e n a t ural! Oh, my b rethren, nothing, ab solutely nothing short of soul-travail will bring forth sp iritu al children! Finney tells us th a t he had no words to u tter, he could only groan and weep when pleading w ith God for a lost soul. T hat Was tru e travail. Can we trav ail for a drowning child, but not for a perishing soul? It is not hard to weep when we realize th a t our little one is sinking below th e surface for th e last time. Anguish is spon taneous then. But oh, to realize and know th a t souls, precious, never dying souls, are perishing all around us, go ing out into the blackness of darkness and despair, eternally lost, and yet to feel no anguish, shed no tears, know no travail! How cold our h earts are! - How little we know of th e compassion of Jesus! And yet God can give us this, and the fau lt is ours if we do not have it. Jacob, you remember, travailed un til he prevailed. But oh, who is doing it today? Who is really travailing in prayer? How many, even of our most sp iritual Christian leaders, are content to spend half an hour a day on th e ir knees,, and then pride themselves on th e time they have given to God! We expect extraordinary results, and ex tra ordinary results are quite possible; signs and wonders will follow, but only through extraordinary efforts in the spiritual realm . Hence, nothing short of continuous, agonizing pleading for
Conversion is th e operation of the Holy Spirit, and prayer is th e power th a t secures th a t operation. Souls are not saved by man bu t by God, and since He works in answer to prayer we have no choice but to follow the divine plan. WHERE YOUR MONEY IS INVESTED, YOUR
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