The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 114

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114

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

““Workers Together with Him.’’

As long as there is a sin-sick soul in this world,
some one is responsible for his salvation. Is the
minister alone responsible? Of course, the minister
should be a “master workman” in the blessed art of
winning souls, both by the sermons which he
preaches and by personal contact with the godless;
but the responsibility of “winning souls for Jesus”
rests upon every Christian, not as a matter of com-
pulsion, but through his desire to see others “taste
and see that the Lord is good.”

“In the early Christian Church it was so,” says
J.W.Mahood in the Sunday-school Times. “Indeed,
if there had been found in the Church of the first
century a man who was not a constant witness for
Christ, the genuineness of that man’s experience

would have been seriously doubted. And those were ,

days, too, when witnessing for Christ often meant
the bitterest persecution, sometimes death; yet
these early disciples did not falter. And we must
not if we would be'true to our Lord.” Mr. Mahood
continues : —

“Tt does not seem to occur to some people that
every Christian who has a will to help another to
gain Christ may do so, and that in every honorable
vocation opportunity will be found for personal
evangelism if it is sought. Indeed, sometimes those
who have least opportunity for special training in
practical Christian work become the most success-
ful soul-winners; and we are often reminded of
the apostle’s words: ‘God chose the foolish things
of this world that He might put to shame them
that are wise; and God chose the weak things of
the world that He might put to shame the things
that are strong; and the base things of the world
and the things that are despised did God choose,
yea, and the things that are not, that He might
bring to naught the things that are; that no flesh
should glory before God.’

“When a Christian man, therefore, is heard to
say, ‘I cannot do anything to win a soul,’ it is
almost a sure indication that he has not made an
honest effort, or else that he has very little love for
Christ. That which God commands can be done.
In Camden, N.J., there is a man who was a
drunkard and gambler. Having been converted,
he at once set about to win to Christ other men
~ who were living as he had lived. In fifteen months
he had won sixteen men — more than one a month.

“Sometimes we excuse ourselves by reason of
some infirmity. But that excuse will scarcely stand
in the Judgment. For even in age and infirmity

we shall have opportunity to speak a word for the
Master.

“An old lady in a South Dakota city heard the
appeal to Christian people to become soul-winners..
She was crippled and poor. What could she do?
She tried to think of some one to whom she might.
speak. She thought of a drunken painter who had
worked on her house some months before and who.
boarded at a certain hotel. She resolved to go to
the hotel, see him, and urge him to come to the
meetings. She went several times before she saw
him. Then she told him kindly about her interest
in him and about the meetings, and that she was
praying for him; and finally secured his promise
to come to the afternoon service. He came, and in
that service he was converted.

“Five years afterward, in another city, that
same man made himself known to us at the close of
a Sunday morning service and told us how God was
wonderfully keeping and prospering him. Then he
turned about and introduced a friend whom he had
brought to Christ a day_or two before.

“Yet that man, now a soul-winner, was the
trophy of a crippled woman who thought at first
that she could not do anything to help a soul to:
come to Christ.”

Also we pastors should earnestly search our-
selves whether we are doing all we can to win souls.
Do we make special efforts to reach the sinner by’
personal effort? Do we not act as though we -
thought our whole duty consisted in preaching our
sermons and visiting our members occasionally?
Here is what a business man has to say on this.
point : — :

“T have often wondered why it is that Christian
people, if they really believe what they profess, show
so little interest in winning others to Christ. I have:
a brother-in-law who is a minister and who spends
his summer vacations with me. Yet in all these:
years that he has been coming to our home he has
never once talked seriously with me about giving
myself to Christ.

“To a Christian railway engineer had come the-
conviction that he must help others to come to faith
in Jesus Christ. He first bought a number of New
Testaments. Then he wrote personal letters to the
section foremen on his division, begging them to
accept the little book as a gift and read it at the:
noon hour. As he passed each gang of workmen,
he dropped out a New Testament, with a letter

wrapped about it. Many of his foremen responded se

with a letter of thanks. One wrote: —
“Your gift is a thousand times appreciated