purchased, and they found out the exact fly for the par- ticular day or month, so that the fish might bite at once, and, as it were, fly into the basket with alacrity. They fished, and fished, and fished the live-long day; but the basket was empty. They were getting disgusted with a sport that had no sport in it, when a ragged boy came down from tlie hills, without shoes or stockings, and humiliated them to the last degree. He had a bit of a bough pulled of? a tree, and a piece of string, and a bent pin ; he put a worm on it, threw it in, and out came a fish directly, as if it were a needle drawn to a magnet. In again went the line, and out came an- other fish, and so on, till his 'basket was quite full. They asked him how he did it. Ah! he said, he could not tell them that, but it w-as easy enough when you had the way of it.
Much the same is it in fishing for men. Some preachers who have silk lines and fine rods, preach very eloquently and exceedingly gracefully, but they never win souls. I know not how it is, but another man comes, with ver>' simple language, but with a warm heart, and, straightway, men are converted to God. Surely there must be a sympathy between the minister and the souls he would win. God gives to those whom He makes soul-winners a natural love to their work and a spiritual fitness for it. There is a sym- pathy between those who are to be blessed and those who are to be the means of blessing, and very much by this sympathy, under God, souls are taken; but it is as clear as noonday that, to be a fisher of men a man must be wise, "He that winneth souls is wise."
n. And now, brethren and sisters, you who are engaged in the Lord's work from week to week, and who seek to win men's souls to Christ. I am. in the second place, to illustrate this by telling you of
240 THE SOUL-WINNER.
SOME OF THE WAYS BY WHICH SOULS ARE TO BE WON.
The preacher himself wins souls best, I believe, when he believes in the reality of his work — when he believes in instantaneous conversions. How can he expect God to do what he does not believe God will do? He suc- ceeds best who expects conversion every time he preaches. According to his faith so shall it be done unto him. To be content without conversions, is the surest way never to have them ; to drive with a single aim entirely at the saving of souls, is the surest method of usefulness. If we sigh and cry till men are saved, saved they will be.
He will succeed best who keeps closest to soul- saving truth. Now, all truth is not soul-saving, though all truth may be edifying. He that keeps to the simple story of the cross, tells men over and over again that whosoever believeth in Christ is not condemned, that to be saved, nothing is wanted but a simple trust in the crucified Redeemer; he whose ministry is much made up of the glorious story of the cross, the suffer- ings of the dying Lamb, the mercy of God, the will- ingness of the great Father to receive returning prodi- gals; he who cries, in fact, from day to day, ''Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," he is likely to be a soul-winner, especially if he adds to this much prayer for souls, much anxious desire that men may be brought to Jesus, and then in his private life seeks as much as in his public minis- try to be telling out to others of the love of the dear Saviour of men.
But I am not talking to ministers, but to you who sit in the pew, and therefore to you let me turn myself more directly. Brothers and sisters, you have different
SOUL-WINNING EXPLAINED. 241
gifts. 1 hope you use them ah. Perhaps some of you. though members of the church, think you have none; but every believer has his gift, and his portion of work. What can you do to win souls?
Let me recommend to those who think they can do nothing, the brhiging of others to hear the lVor(f. That is a duty much neglected. I can hardly ask you to bring anybody here, but many of you attend other places which are not perhaps half filled. Fill them. Do not grumble at the small congregation, but make it larger. Take somebody with you to the very next sermon, and at once the congregation will be increased. Go up with the prayer that your minister's sermon may be blessed, and if you cannot yourselves preach, yet, by bringing others under the sound of the Word, you may be doing what is next best. This is a very common-place and simple remark, but let me press it upon you, for it is of great practical value. Many churches and chapels, which are almost empty, might soon have large audiences if those who profit by the Word would tell others about the blessing they have received, and induce them to attend the same ministry. Especially in this London of ours, where so many will not go up to the house of God, persuade your neighbours to come forth to the place of worship; look after them, make them feel that it is a wrong thing to stop at home on the Sunday from morning till night. I do not say upbraid them, that does little good ; but I do say entice them, persuade them. Let them have your tickets for the Tabernacle, for instance, sometimes, or stand in the aisles yourself, and let them have your seat. Get them under the Word, and who knoweth what may be the result? Oh, what a bless- ing it would be to you if you heard that what you could not do — for you could scarcely speak for Christ
242 THE SOUL-WINNER.
— was done by your pastor, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through your inducing one to come within gun- shot of the gospel !
Next to that, soul-winners, try after sermon to talk to strangers. The preacher may. have missed the mark, but you need not miss it; or the preacher may have struck the mark, and you can help to make the im- pression deeper by a kind word. I recollect several persons joining the church who traced their conver- sion to the ministry in the Surrey Music Hall, but who said it was not that alone, but another agency co-oper- ating therewith. They were fresh from the country, and some good man — I knew him well, I think he is irl heaven now — met them at the gate, spoke to them, said he hoped they had enjoyed what they had heard, heard their answer, asked them if they were coming in the evening, said he would be glad if they would drop into his house to tea; they did, and he had a word with them about the Master. The next Sunday it was the same, and at last, those whom the sermons had not much impressed, were brought to hear with other ears, till by-and-by, through the good old man's persuasive words, and the good Lord's gracious work, they were converted to God. There is a fine hunting ground here, and indeed in every large congregation, for you who really want to do good. How many come into this house every morning and evening with no thought about receiving Christ! Oh, if you would all help me, you who love the Master, if you would all help me by speaking to your neighbours who sit near to you, how much might be accomplished! Never let any- body say, "I came to the Tabernacle three months, and nobody spoke to me;" but do, by a sweet famil- iarity, which ought always to be allowable in the house of God, seek with your whole heart to impress upon
SOUL-WINNING EXPLAINED. 243
your friends the truth which I can only put into the ear, but which God may help you to put into the heart. Further, let me commend to you, dear friends; the art of button-holing acquaintances and relatives. If you cannot preach to a hundred, preach to one. Get a hold of the man alone, and in love, quietly and pray- erfully, talk to him. "One!" say you. Well, is not one enough? I know your ambition, young man; you want to preach here, to these thousands; be content, and begin with the ones. Your Master was not ashamed to sit on the well and preach to one; and when He had finished His sermon. He had really done good work to the whole city of Sychar, for that one woman became a missionary to her friends. Timidity often prevents our being useful in this direction, but we must not give way to it; it must not be tolerated that Christ should be unknown through our silence, and sinners unwarned through our negligence. We must school and train ourselves to deal personally with the unconverted. We must not excuse ourselves, but force ourselves to the irksome task till it becomes easy. This is one of the most honourable modes of soul-winning; and if it requires more than ordinary zeal and courage, so much the more reason for our resolving to master it. Beloved, we must win souls, we cannot live and see men damned; we must have them brought to Jesus. Oh ! then, be up and doing, and let none around you die unwarned, unwept, uncared-for. A tract is a useful thing, but a living word is better. Your eye, and face, and voice will all help. Do not be so cowardly as to give a piece of paper where your own speech would be so much better. I charge you, attend to this, for Jesus' sake.
Some of you could write letters for your Lord and Master. To far-ofif friends, a few loving lines may be
244 THE SOUL- WINNER.
iiKJst influential for good. Be like the men of Issa- char, who handled the pen. Paper and ink are never better used than in soul-winning. Much has been done by this method. Could not you do it? Will you not try? Some of you, at any rate, if you could not speak or write much, .could live much. That is a fine way of preaching, that of preaching with your feet — I mean preaching by your life, and conduct, and conversation. That loving wife, who weeps in secret over an infidel husband, but is always so kind to him ; that dear child, whose heart is broken by his father's blasphemy, but is so much more obedient than he used to be before conversion; that servant, at whom the master swears, but whom he could trust with his purse, and the gold uncounted in it; that man in trade, who is sneered at as a Presbyterian, but who, nevertheless, is straight as a line, and would not be compelled to do a dirty action, no, not for all the mint; these are the men and women who preach the best sermons; these are your practi- cal preachers. Give us your holy living, and with your holy living as the leverage, we will move the world. Under God's blessing, we will find tongues if we can, but we greatly need the lives of our people to illus- trate what our tongues have to say. The gospel is something like an illustrated paper. The preacher's words are the letterpress, but the pictures are the liv- ing men and women who form our churches; and as when people take up such a newspaper, they very often do not read the letterpress, but they always look at the pictures, so in a church, outsiders may not come to hear the preacher, but they always consider, observe and criticise the lives of the members. If you would be soul-winners, then, dear brethren and sisters, see that you live the gospel. I have no greater joy than this, that mv children walk in the truth.
SOL'L-WINNING EXPLAINED. 245
One thing more, the soul-winner must be a master of the art of prayer. You cannot bring souls to God if you go not to God yourself. You must get your bat- tle-axe, and your weapons of war, from the armoury of sacred communication with Christ. If you are mucli alone with Jesus, you will catch His Spirit; you will be fired with the flame that burned in His breast, and consumed His life. You will weep with the tears that fell upon Jerusalem when He saw it perishing; and if you cannot speak so eloquently as He did, yet shall there be about what you say somewhat of the same power which in Him thrilled the hearts and awoke the consciences of men. My dear hearers, especially you members of the church, I am always so anxious lest any of you should begin to lie upon your oars, and take things easy in the matters of God's kingdom. There are some of you — I bless you, and I bless God at the remembrance of you — who are in season, and out of season, in earnest for winning souls, and you are the truly wise; but I fear there are others whose hands are slack, who are satisfied to let me preach, but do not themselves preach; who take these seats, and occupy these pews, and hope the cause goes well, but that is all they do. Oh, do let me see you all in earn- est! A great host of nearly five thousand members, what ought we not to do if we are all alive, and all in earnest? But such a host, without the spirit of en- thusiasm, becomes a mere mob, an unwieldy mass, out of which mischief grows, and no good results arise. If you were all firebrands for Chnst, you might set the nation on a blaze. If you were all wells of living water, how many thirsty souls might drink and be refreshed!
Beloved, there is one question I will ask, and I have done, and that is, Are your own souls won? You can- not win others else. Are you yourselves saved? My
246 THE SOUL-WINNER.
hearers, every one of you, under that gallery there, and you behind here, are you yourselves saved? What if this night you should have to answer that question to another and greater than I am? What if the bony finger of the last great orator should be uplifted in- stead of mine? What if his unconquerable eloquence should turn those bones to stone, and glaze those eyes, and make the blood chill in your veins? Could you hope, in your last extremity, that you were saved? If not saved, how will you ever be? When will you be saved if not now? Will any time be better than now? The way to be saved is simply to trust in what the Son of man did when He became man, and suffered pun- ishment for all those who trust Him. For all His peo- ple, Christ was a Substitute. His people are those who trust Him. If you trust Him, He was punished for your sins; and you cannot be punished for them, for God cannot punish sin twice, first in Christ, and then in you. If you trust Jesus, who now liveth at the right hand of God, you are this moment pardoned, and you shall for ever be saved. Oh, that you would trust Him now! Perhaps it may be now or never with you. May it be now, even now, and then, trusting in Jesus, dear friends, you will have no need to hesitate when the question is asked, "Are you saved?'' for you can an- swer, "Ay, that I am, for it is written, 'He that be- lieveth in Him is not condemned.' " Trust Him, then, trust Him now; and then God help you to be a soul- winner, and you shall be wise, and God shall be glori- fied!
SOUL-SAVING OUR ONE BUSINESS.
'I am made all things to all men,, that I might by all means save some." — I Corinthians ix. 22.
SOUL-SAVING OUR ONE BUS- INESS.
It is a grand thing to sec a man thoroughly pos- sessed with one master-passion. Such a man is sure to be strong, and if the master-principle be excellent, he is sure to be excellent, too. The man of one object is a man indeed. Lives with many aims are like watei' trickling through innumerable streams, none of which are wide enough or deep enough to float the merest cockleshell of a boat; but a life with one object is like a mighty river flowing between its banks, bearing to the ocean a multitude of ships, and spreading fertility on either side. Give me a man not only with a great object in his soul, but thoroughly possessed by it, his powers all concentrated, and himself on fire with vehe- ment zeal for his supreme object, and you have put before me one of the greatest sources of power wliich the world can produce. Give me a man engrossed with holy love as to his heart, and filled with some master- ly celestial thought as to his brain, and such a man will be known wherever his lot may be cast, and I venture to prophesy that his name will be remembered long after the place of his sepulchre shall be forgotten.
Such a man was Paul. I am not about to set him upon a pedestal, that you may look at him and wonder, much less that you may kneel down and worship him as a saint. I mention Paul, because what he was we ought every one of us to be; and though we cannot
250 THE SOUL- WINNER.
share in his office, not being apostles ; though we can- not share in his talents or in his inspiration, yet we ought to be possessed by the same spirit which actu- ated him, and let me also add we ought to be pos- sessed by it in the same degree. Do you demur to that? I ask you what there was in Paul, by the grace of God, which may not be in you, and what had Jesus done for Paul more than for you? He was divinely changed; and so have you been if you have passed from darkness into marvellous light. He had much forgiven; and so have you also been freely pardoned. He was redeemed by the blood of the Son of God; and so have you been — at least, so you profess to have been. He was filled with the Spirit of God ; and so are you, if you are truly such as your Christian profession makes you out to be. Owing, then, your salvation to Christ, being debtors to the precious blood of Jesus, and being quickened by the Holy Spirit, I ask you why there should not be the same fruit from the same sow- ing? Why not the same efifect from the same cause? Do not tell me that the apostle was an exception, and cannot be set up as a rule or model for commoner folk, for I shall have to tell you that we must be such as Paul was if we hope to be where Paul is. Paul did not think that he had attained, neither that he was already perfect. Shall we think him to be so — so think him to be so as to regard him as inimitable, and so be content to fall short of what he was? Nay, verily, but let it be our incessant prayer, as believers in Christ, that we may be followers of him so far as he followed Christ, and wherein he failed to set his feet in his Lord's footprints may we even outstrip him, and be more zeal- ous, more devoted to Christ than even the apostle of the Gentiles was. Oh, that the Holy Spirit would bring us to be like our Lord Jesus Himself!
SOUL-SAVING OUR ONE BUSINESS. 251
At this time, I shall have to speak to you upon VdiuVs great odjcif in life; he tells us it was to *'save some"; we will then look into Paul's heart and show you a few of the great reasons which made him think it so important that some at least should be saved; then, thirdly, we will indicate certain of the means 7uhich the apostle used to that end; and all with this view, that you, my dear hearers, may seek to "save some;" that you may seek this because of potent reasons which you cannot withstand, and that you may seek it with wise methods such as shall in the end succeed.
I. First, then, brethren, WHAT WAS PAUL'S GREAT OBJECT IN HIS DAILY LIFE AXD MINISTRY? He says it was, to save some.
There are ministers of Christ present at this hour, together with City missionaries, Bible-women, Sunday- school teachers, and other workers in my Master's vineyard, and I make bold to enquire of each one of them — Is this your object in all your Christian service? Do you above all things aim at saving souls? I am afraid that some have forgotten this grand object; but, dear friends, anything short of this is unworthy to be the great end of a Christian's life. I fear there are some who preach with the view of amusing men; and as long as people can be gathered in crowds, and their ears can be tickled, and they can retire pleased with what they have heard, the orator is content, and folds his hands and goes back self-satisfied. But Paul did not lay himself out to please the public, and col- lect the crowd. If he did not save them, he felt that it was of no avail to interest them. Unless the truth had pierced their hearts, affected their lives, and made new men of them, Paul would have gone home crying, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
V
252 THE SOUL-WINNER.
It seems to be the opinion of a large party in the present day that the object of Christian efifort should be to educate men. I grant you that education is in itself an exceedingly valuable thing, so valuable that I am sure the whole Christian Church rejoices greatly that at last we have a national system of education, which only needs to be carefully carried out and every child in this land will have the keys of knowledge in his hand. Whatever other price others may set upon ignorance, we are promoters of knowledge, and the more it can be spread the better shall we be pleased. But if the Church of God thinks that it is sent into the world merely to train the mental faculties, it has made a very serious mistake, for the object of Christianity is not to educate men for their secular callings, or even to train them in the politer arts, or the more elegant professions, or to enable them to enjoy the beauties of nature or the charms of poetry. Jesus Christ came not into the world for any of these things, but He came to seek and to save that which was lost; and on the same errand has He sent His Church, and she is a traitor to the Master who sent her if she is beguiled by the beauties of taste and art to forget that to preach Christ and Him crucified is the only object for which she exists among the sons of men. The business of the church is salvation. The minister is to use all means to save some ; he is no minister of Christ if this be not the one desire of his heart. Missionaries sink far be- low their level when they are content to civilize ; their first object is to save. The same is true of the Sunday- school teacher, and of all other workers among chil- dren ; if they have merely taught the child to read, to repeat hymns, and so forth, they have not yet touched their true vocation. We must have the children saved. At this nail we must drive, and the hammer must come
SOUL-SAVING OUR ONE BUSINESS. 253
down upon this head always — that we might by all means save some, for we have done nothing unless some are saved.
Paul does not even say that he tried to moralize men. The best promoter of morality is the gospel. When a man is saved, he becomes moral; he becomes more, he becomes holy. But to aim first at morality is altogether to miss the mark ; and if we did attain it — as we shall not — yet we should not have attained that for which we were sent into the world. Dr. Chalmers' experience is a very valuable one to those who think that the Christian ministry ought to preach up mere morality, for he says that in his first parish he preached morality, and saw no good whatever arising out of his exhortations. But, as soon as he began to preach Christ crucified, then there was a buzz, and a stir, and much opposition, but grace prevailed. He who wishes for perfumes must grow the flowers; he who desires to promote morality must have men saved. He who wants motion in a corpse should first seek life for it, and he who desires to see a rightly-ordered life should first desire an inward renewal by the Holy Spirit. We are not to be satisfied when we have taught men their duties towards their neighbours, or even their duties towards God ; this would suffice for Moses, but not for Christ. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We teach men what they ought to be, but we do far more; by the power of the gospel, applied by the Holy Ghost, we make them what they ought to be by the power of God's Spirit. We put not before the blind the things that they ought to see, but w^e open their eyes in the name of Jesus. We tell not the captive how free he ought to be, but we open the door and take away his fetters. We are not content to tell men what they
254 THE SOUL- WINNER.
must be, but we show them how this character can be obtained, and how Jesus Christ freely presents all that is essential to eternal life to all those who come and put their trust in Him.
Now observe, brethren, if I, or you, or any of us, or all of us, shall have spent our lives merely in amus- ing men, or educating men, or moralizing men, when we shall come to give in our account at the last great day, we shall be in a very sorry condition, and we shall have but a very sorry record to render; for of what avail will it be to a man to be educated when he comes to be damned? Of what service will it be to him to have been amused when the trumpet sounds, and heaven and earth are shaking, and the pit opens wide her jaws of fire, and swallows up the soul unsaved? Of what avail even to have moralized a man if still he is on the left hand of the Judge, and if still, ''Depart, ye cursed," shall be his portion? Blood-red with the murder of men's souls will be the skirts of professing Christians, unless the drift, and end, and aim of all their work has been to "save some." Oh! I beseech you, especially you, dear friends, who are working in Sunday and Ragged Schools, and elsewhere, do not think that you have done anything unless the chil- dren's souls are saved. Settle it that this is the top and bottom of the business, and throw your whole strength in the name of Christ, and by the power of the Eternal Spirit, into this object — if by any means you may save some and bring some to Jesus that they may be deliv- ered from the wrath to come.
What did Paul mean by saying that he desired to save some? What is it to be saved? Paul meant by that nothing less than that some should be born again; for no man is saved until he is made a new creature in Christ Jesus. The old nature cannot be saved; it is
SOUL-SAVING OUR ONE BUSINESS. 255
(lead and corrupt; the best thing that can be done with it is to let it be crucified, and buried in the sepulchre of Christ. There must be a new nature implanted in us by the power of the Holy Ghost, or we cannot be saved. We must be as much new creations as if wt had never been; we must come a second time as fresh from the hand of the Eternal God as if we had been to-day moulded by divine wisdom as Adam was in Paradise. The great Teacher's words are, 'The wind bloweth where it listeth. and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it gcjeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." "Except a man be born again (from above), he cannot see the kingdom of God." This, then, Paul meant, that men must be new creatures in Christ Jesus, that we may never rest till we see such a change wrought upon them. This must be the object of our teaching, and of our praying, indeed, the object of our lives, that "some" may be regenerated.
He meant, beside that, tluit soiiw //lix/it be cleansed from their past ifiiquity t/irt'itj^/i inc merit of the ato?i- ing sacrifice of the Son of God. No man can be saved from his sin except by the atonement. Under the Jew- ish law it was written, "Cursed is every one that con- tinueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." That curse has never been reversed, and the only way to escape from it is this: Jesus Christ was made a curse for us, as it is written. "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Xow, he who believes in Jesus, who puts his hand upon the head of Jesus of Nazareth, the Scapegoat of His peo- ple, has lost his sins. His faith is sure evidence that his iniquities were of old laid upon the head of the great Substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ was punished in our room, and we are no longer obnoxious to the wrath
256 THE SOUL-WINNER.
of God. Behold, the sin-atoning sacrifice is slain, and ofifered on tlie altar, and the Lord has accepted it, and is so well pleased that he has declared that whosoever believeth in Jesus is fully and eternally forgiven. Now, we long to see men thus forgiven. We pine to bring the prodigal's head into the Father's bosom, the wan- dering sheep to the good Shepherd's shoulder, the lost piece of money into the Owner's hands ; and until this is done, nothing is done, I mean, brethren, nothing spiritually, nothing eternally, nothing that is worthy of the agony of a Christian's life, nothing that can be looked upon as deserving of an immortal spirit's spend- ing all its fires upon it. O Lord, our soul yearns to see Jesus rewarded by the salvation of the blood-bought! Aid us by Thine efifectual grace to lead souls to Him.
Once more, when the apostle wished that he might save some, he meant that, being regenerated, and be- ing pardoned, they might also be purified a?id made holy, for a man is not saved while he lives in sin. Let a man say what he will, he cannot be saved from sin whilst he is the slave of it. How is a drunkard saved from drunkenness whilst he still riots as before? How can you say that the swearer is saved from blasphemy while he is still profane? Words must be used in their true meaning. Now, the great object of the Christian's work should be that some might be saved from their sins, purified, and made white, and made examples of integrity, chastity, honesty and righteousness, as the fruit of the Spirit of God; and where this is not the case, we have laboured in vain, and spent our strength for nought.
Now, I do protest before you all that I have in this house of prayer never sought anything but the con- version of souls, and I call heaven and earth to witness, and your consciences, too, that I have never laboured
SOUL-SAVING OUR ONE BUSINESS. 2r.7
for anything except this, the bringing of you to Christ, that I might present you at last unto God "accepted in the Beloved." I have not sought to gratify depraved appetites either by novelty of doctrine or ceremonial, but I have kept up the simplicity of the gospel. I have kept back no part of the price of God's Word from you, but I have endeavoured to give you the whole counsel of God. I have sought out no fineries of speech, but have spoken plainly, and right straight at your hearts and consciences; and if you be not saved, I mourn and lament before God that up to this day, though I have preached hundreds of times to you, yet I have preached in vain. If you have not closed in with Christ, if you have not been washed in the fountain filled with blood, you are waste pieces of soil from which no harvest has yet come.
You tell me, perhaps, that you have been kept from a great many sins, that you have learned a great many truths by coming here. So far, so good; but could I af¥ord to live for this, merely to teach you certain truths, or keep you back from open sins? How could this cont'ent me if I knew all the while that you were still unsaved, and must, therefore, after death, be cast into the flames of hell? Nay, beloved, before the Lord, I count nothing to be worthy of your pastor's life, and soul, and energy, but the winning of you to Christ. Nothing but your salvation can ever make me feel that my heart's desire is granted. I ask every worker here to see to this, that he never turns aside from shooting at this target, and at the centre of this target, too, namely, that he may win souls for Christ, and see them born to God, and washed in the fountain filled with blood. Let the workers' hearts ache and yearn, and their voices cry till their throats are hoarse; but let them judge that they have accomplished nothing whatever until, at
258 THE SOUL-WINNER.
least, in some cases, men are really saved. As the fish- erman longs to take the fish in his net, as the hunter pants to bear home his spoil, as the mother pines to clasp her lost child to her bosom, so do we faint for the salvation of souls; and we must have them, or we are ready to die. Save them, O Lord, save them for Christ's sake!
But now we must leave that point for another.
II. THE APOSTLE HAD GREAT REASONS FOR ELECTING SUCH AN OBJECT IN LIFE.
Were he here, I think he would tell you that his reasons were something of this kind. To save souls! If they be not saved, hjw is God dishonoured! Did you ever think over the amount of dishonour that is done to the Lord our God in London in any one hour of the day? Take, if you will, this prayer-hour, when we are gathered here ostensibly to pray. If the thoughts of this great assembly could all be read, how many of them would be dishonouring to the Most High! But outside of every house of prayer, outside of every place of worship of every kind, think of the thousands, and tens of thousands, the hundreds of thou- sands, who have all this day neglected the very sem- blance of the worship of the God who has made them, and who keeps them in being! Think of how many times the door of the gin-palace has swung on its hinges during this holy hour, how many times God's name has been blasphemed at the drinking-bar ! There are worse things than these, if worse can "be, but I shall not lift the veil. Transfer your thoughts to an hour or so later, when the veil of darkness has descended. Shame will not permit us even to think of how God's name is dishonoured in the persons of those whose first father was made after the image of God, but who pol* lute themselves to be the slaves of Satan and the prey
SOUT.-SAVINCi OTTR ONE BUSINESS. 2r>9
of bestial lusts! Alas! alas! for this city, it is full of abominations, of which the apostle said, "It is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of Urmu in secret."
Christian men and women, nothing but the gospel can sweep away the social evil. Vices are like vipers, and only the voice of Jesus can drive them out of the land. The gospel is the great besom with which to cleanse the filthiness of this city, and nothing else will avail. Will you not, for God's sake, whose name is every day profaned, seek to save some? If you will enlarge your thoughts, and take in all the great cities of the Continent ; ay, further still, take all the idolaters of China and Hindostan, the worshippers of the false prophet and antichrist, what a mass of provocation have we here! What a smoke in Jehovah's nose must this false worship be! How He must often put His hand to the hilt of His sword as though He would say, "Ah! I will ease Me of Mine adversaries." But He bears it patiently. Let us not become indifferent to His long suffering, but day and night let us cry unto Him, and daily let us labour for Him, if by any means we may save some for His glory's sake.
Think, dear friends, also, of the extreme misery of this our hwnati raee. It would be a very dreadful thing if you could get any idea of the aggregate of the misery of London at the present moment in the hospitals and workhouses. Now, I would not say half a word against poverty, wherever it comes it is a bitter ill; but you will mark as you notice carefully that, while a few are poor because of unavoidable circumstances, a very large mass of the poverty of London is the sheer and clear result of wastefulness, want of forethought, idle- ness, and, worst of all, of drunkenness. Ah. that drunkenness! That is the master-evil. If drink could
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but be got rid of, we might be sure of conquering the very devil himself. The drunkenness created by the infernal liquor-dens which plague-spot the whole of this huge city is appalling. No, I did not speak in haste, or let slip a hasty word: many of the drink-houses are nothing less than infernal: in some respects they are worse, for hell has its uses as the divine protest against sin, but as for the gin-palace, there is nothing to be said in its favour. The vices of the age cause three- fourths of all the poverty. If you could look at the homes — the wretched homes where women will tremble at the sound of their husband's foot as he comes home, where little children will crouch down with fear upon their little heap of straw because the human brute who calls himself "a man" will come reeling home from the place where he has been indulging his appetites — if you could look at such a sight, and remember that it will be seen ten thousand times over to-night, I think you would say, "God help us by all means to save some!'' Since the great axe to lay at the root of the deadly upas tree is the gospel of Christ, may God help us to hold that axe there, and to work constantly with it till the huge trunk of the poison tree begins to rock to and fro, and we get it down, and London is saved, k and the world is saved from the wretchedness and the misery which now drip from every bough!
Again, dear friends, the Christian has other reasons for seeking to save some; and chiefly because of the terrible future of impenitent souls. That veil which hangs before me is not penetrated by every glance; but he who has his eye touched with heavenly eye-salve sees through it, and what does he see? Myriads upon myriads of spirits in dread procession passing from their bodies, and passing — whither? Unsaved, unre- generate, unwashed in precious blood, we see them
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go up to the solemn bar whence in silence the sentence* comes forth, and they are banished from the presence of God, banished to horrors which are not to be de- scribed nor even to be imagined. This alone is enough to cause us distress day and night. This decision of dest'ny has about it a terribly solemnity. But the resur- rection trumpet sounds. Those spirits come forth from their prison-house. I see them returning to earth, rising from the pit to the bodies in which they lived : and now I see them stand — multitudes, multitudes, multitudes, multitudes — in the Valley of Decision. And He comes, sitting on a great white throne, with the crown upon His head, and the books before Him; and there they stand as prisoners at the bar. My vision now perceives them — how they tremble! How^ they quiver, like aspen leaves in the gale! Whither can they flee? Rocks can- not hide them, mountains will not open their bowels to conceal them! What shall become of them? The dread angel takes the sickle, reaps them as the reaper cuts up the tares for the oven; and as he gathers them, he casts them down where despair shall be their everlasting torment. Woe is me, my heart sinks as I see their doom, and hear the terrible cries of their too-late awaking. Save some, O Christians! By all means, save some. By yonder flames, and outer dark- ness, and the weeping, and the wailing, and the gnash- ing of teeth, seek to save some! Let this, as in the case of the apostle, be your great, your ruling object in life, that by all means you may save some.
For, oh: if they be saved, observe the eonirast. Their spirits mount to heaven, and after the resurrection their bodies ascend also, and there they praise redeeming love. No fingers more nimble on the harp-strings than theirs! No notes more sweet than theirs, as they sing, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins
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in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and do- minion for ever and ever." What bliss to see the once rebellious brought home to God, and heirs of wrath made possessors of heaven! All this is involved in sal- vation. Oh, that myriads may come to this blessed state! "Save some" — oh! save some, at least. Seek that some may be there in glory. Behold your Master. He is your pattern. He left heaven to save some. He went to the cross, to the grave, to "save some;" this was the great object of His life, to lay down His life for His sheep. He loved His Church, and gave Him- self for her, that He might redeem her unto Himself. Imitate your Master. Learn His self-denial and His blessed consecration, if by any means you may save some.
Aly soul yearneth that I personally may ''save some," but broader is my desire than that. I would have e'z-^/^ one of you, my beloved friends, associated here in church fellowship, to become spiritual parents of chil- dren for God. Oh, that every one of you might "save some!" Yes, my venerable Brethren, you are not too old for service. Yes, my young friends, ye young men and maidens, ye are not too young to be recruits in the King's service. If the kingdom is ever to come to our Lord — and come it will — it never will come through a few ministers, missionaries, or evangelists preaching the gospel. It must come through every one of you preaching it — in the shop and by the fireside, when walking abroad and when sitting in the chamber. You must all of you be always endeavouring to "save some." I would enlist you all afresh to-night, and bind anew the Kings' colours upon you. I would that you would fall in love with my Master over anew, and enter a sec-
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Olid time upon the love of your espousals. There is a hymn of Cowper's which we sometimes sing:
"Oh, for a closer walk with God!"
May we get to have a closer walk with Him; and if we do so, we shall also feel a more vehement desire to magnify Christ in the salvation of sinners.
I would like to press the enquiry upon you who are saved — How many others have you brought to Christ? You cannot do it by yourself, I know; but I mean, how many has the Spirit of God brought by you? How many, did I say? Is it quite certain that you have led any to Jesus? Can you not recollect one? I pity you, then! The Lord said to Jeremiah, con- cerning Coniah, "Write ye this man childless." That was considered to be a fearful curse. Shall I write you childless, my beloved friends? Your children are not saved, your wife is not saved, and you are spirit- ually childless. Can you bear this thought? I pray you, wake from your slumbering, and ask the Master to make you useful. "I wish the saints cared for us sinners," said a young man. "They do care for you," answered one, "they care very much for you." "Why don't they show it, then?" said he, "I have often wished to have a talk about good things, but my friend, who is a member of the church, never broaches the subject, and seems to study how to keep clear of it when I am with him." Do not let them say so. Do tell them about Christ and things divine and make this your resolve, every one of you, that if men perish they shall not perish for want of your prayers, nor for want of your earnest and loving instructions. God give you grace, each one of you, to resolve by all means to save some, and then to carrv out vour resolution!
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III. But my time is almost gone, and therefore I have to mention, in the last place, THE GREAT METHODS WHICH THE APOSTLE USED.
How did he who so longed to "save some" set about it? Why, first of all, by simply preaching the gospel of Christ. He did not attempt to create a sen- sation by startling statements, neither did he preach erroneous doctrine in order to obtain the assent of the multitude. I fear that some evangelists preach what in their own minds they must know to be un- true. They keep back certain doctrines, not because they are untrue, but because they do not give scope enough for their ravings, and they make loose state- ments because they hope to reach more minds. How- ever earnest a man may be for the salvation of sin- ners, I do not believe that he has the right to make any statement which his sober judgment will not justify. I think I have heard of things said and done at revival meetings which were not according to sound doctrine, but which were always excused by "the excitement of the occasion." I hold that I have no right to state false doctrine, even if I knew it would save a soul. The supposition is, of course, absurd; but it makes you see what I mean. My business is to bring to bear upon men, not falsehood, but truth; and I shall not be excused if, under any pretence, I palm a lie upon the people. Rest assured that, to keep back any part of the gospel, is not the right, nor the true method for paving men. Tell the sinner all the doctrines. If you liold Calvinistic doctrine, as I hope you do, do not stutter about it, nor stammer over it, but speak it out. "Depend upon it, many revivals have been evanescent because a full-orbed gospel was not proclaimed. Give the people every truth, every truth baptized in holy
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tire, and each truth will have its own useful effect upon the mind.
But the great truth is the cross, the truth that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not per- ish, but have everlasting life." Brother, keep to that. That is the bell for you to ring. Ring it, man! Ring it! Keep on ringing it. Sound forth that note upon your silver trumpet, or if you are only a ram's horn, sound it forth, and the walls of Jericho will come down. Alas, for the fineries of our "cultured" modern divines ! I hear them crying out, and denouncing my old- fashioned advice. This talking about Christ crucified is said to be archaic, conventional, and antique, and not at all suitable to the refinement of this wonderful age. It is astonishing how learned we have all grown lately. We are getting so very wise, I am afraid we shall ripen into fools before long, even if we have not arrived at it already. People want ^HJiinking'^ nowa- days, so it is said ; and the working-men will go where science is deified, and profound "thought" is enshrined. I have noticed that, as a general rule, wdierever the new "thinking" drives out the old gospel, there are more spiders than people, but where there is the simple preaching of Jesus Christ, the place is crow^ded to the doors. Nothing else will crowd a meeting-house, after all, for any length of time, but the preaching of Christ crucified. But as to this matter, whether it be popular or unpopular, our mind is made up, and our foot is put down. Question we have none as to our own course. If it be foolish to preach up atonement by blood, we will be fools; and if it be madness to stick to the old truth, just as Paul delivered it, in all its simplicity, without any refinement, or improvement, we mean to stick to it, even if we be pilloried as being
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incapable of progressing with the age, for we are per- suaded that this "fooHshness of preaching" is a divine ordinance, and that the cross of Christ, which stum- bles so many, and is ridiculed by so many more, is still the power of God and the wisdom of God. Yes, just the old-fashioned truth — if thou believest, thou shalt be saved, — that will we stick to, and may God send His blessing upon it according to His own eternal purpose! We do not expect this preaching to be pop- ular, but we know that God will justify it ere long. Meanwhile, we are not staggered because —
As childish dotage, and delirious dreams; The truths we love a sightless world blasphemes The danger they discern not they deny; Laugh at their only remedy, and die."
Next to this, Paul used much prayer. The gospel alone will not be blessed; we must pray over ouc preaching. A great painter was asked what he mixed his colours with, and he replied that he mixed them with brains. Twas well for a painter, but if anyone should ask a preacher what he mixes truth with, he ought to be able to answer — v/ith prayer, much prayer. When a poor man was breaking granite by the road- side, he was down on his knees while he gave his blows, and a minister passing by said, ''Ah, my friend, here you are at your hard work; your work is just like mine; you have to break stones, and so do I." "Yes," said the man, "and if you manage to break stony hearts, you will have to do it as I do, down on your knees." The man was right, no one can use the gospel hammer well except he is much on his knees, but the gospel hammer soon splits flinty hearts when a man knows how to pray. Prevail with God, and you will prevail with men. Straight from the closet to the pulpit let us come, with
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the anointing oil of God's Spirit fresh upon us. What we receive in secrecy we are cheerfully to dispense in public. Let us never venture to speak for God to men, until we have spoken for men to God. Yes, dear hear- ers, if you want a blessing- on your Sunday-school teaching, or any other form of Christian labour, mix it up with fervent intercession.
And then observe one other thing. Paul went to his work aliuays with an intense sympatJiy for those he dealt with, a sympatiiy zcJiich made hi/n atiapt tiiiiisrlf to each case. If he talked to a Jew, he did not begin at once blurting out that he was the apostle of the Gentiles, but he said he was a Jew, as Jew he was. He raised no questions about nationalities or ceremonies. He wanted to tell the Jew of Him of whom Isaiah said, **He is despised and rejected of men, a i\Ian of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," in order that he might believe in Jesus and so be saved. If he met a Gentile, the apostle of the Gentiles never showed any of the squeamishness which might have been expected to cling to him on account of his Jewish education. He ate as the Gentile ate, and drank as he did, sat with him, and talked with him; was, as it were, a Gen- tile with him; never raising any question about cir- cumcision or uncircumcision, but solely wishing to tell him of Christ, who came into the world to save both Jew and Gentile, and to make them one. If Paul met with a Scythian, he spoke to him in the Barbarian tongue, and not in classic Greek. If he met a Greek, he spoke to him as he did at the Areopagus, with language that was fitted for the polished Athenian. He was all things to all men, that he might by all means save some.
So let it be with you. Christian people: your one business in life is to lead men to believe in Jesus Christ
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by the power of the Holy Spirit, and every other thing should be made subservient to this one object; if you can but get them saved, everything else will come right in due time. jMr. Hudson Taylor, a dear man of God, who has laboured much in Inland China, finds it help- ful to dress as a Chinaman, and wear a pigtail. He always mingles with the people, and as far as possible lives as they do. This seems to me to be a truly wise policy. I can understand that we shall win upon a congregation of Chinese by becoming as Chinese as possible; and if this be the case, we are bound to be Chinese to the Chinese to save the Chinese. It would not be amiss to become a Zulu to save the Zulus, though we must mind that we do it in another sense than Colenso did. If we can put ourselves on a level with those whose good we seek, we shall be more likely to effect our purpose than if we remain aliens and for- eigners, and then talk of love and unity. To sink my- self to save others is the idea of the apostle. To throw overboard all peculiarities, and yield a thousand in- different points, in order to bring men to Jesus, is our wisdom if we would extend our Master's kingdom. Never may any whim or conventionality of ours keep a soul from considering the gospel — that were horrible indeed. Better far to be personally inconvenienced by compliance with things indifferen^t, than to retard a sinner's coming by quarrelling about trifles.
If Jesus Christ were here to-day, 'I am sure he would not put on any of those gaudy rags in which the Puseyite delights himself. I cannot imagine our Lord Jesus Christ dressed out In that style. Why, the apos- tle tells our women that they are to dress themselves modestly, and I do not think Christ would have His ministers set an example of tomfoolery: but yet even in dress something may be done on the principle of
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our text. When Jesus Christ was here, what did He wear? To put it in plain Enghsh, He wore a smock frock. He wore the common dress of the country- men, a garment woven from the top throughout, with- out seam; and I think he would have His ministers wear that costume which is most like the dress which their hearers wear in common, and so even in dress associate with their hearers, and be one among them. He would have you teachers, if you want to save your children, talk to them like children, and make your- selves children if you can. You who want to get at young peoples' hearts must try to be young. You who wish to visit the sick must sympathise w'ith them in their sickness. Get to speak as you would like to be spoken to if you were sick. Come down to those who can- not come up to you. You cannot pull people out of the water without stooping down and getting hold of them. If you have to deal with l^ad characters, you must come down to them, not in their sin, but in their rough- ness and in their style of language, so as to get a hold of them. I pray God that we may learn the sacred art of soul-winning by adaptation. They called Mr. White- field's chapel at Moorfields 'The Soul-Trap." White- field was delighted, and said he hoped it would always he a soul-trap. Oh, that all our places of worship were soul-traps, and every Christian a fisher of men. each one doing his best, as the fisherman does, by every art and artifice, to catch those he fishes for! Well may we use all means to win so great a prize as a spirit destined for eternal weal or woe. The diver plunges deep to find pearls, and we may accept any labour or hazard to win a soul. Rouse yourselves, my brethren, for this God-like work, and mav the Lord bless you in it!
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"And he saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."— Matthew iv. 19.
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When Christ calls us by His grace, we ought not only to remember what we are, but we ought also to think of what He can make us. It is, "Follow Me, and I will make you." We should repent of what we liave been, but rejoice in what we may be. It is not, "Follow ]\Ie, because of what you are already." It is not, "Follow Me, because you may make something of yourselves;" but ''Follow Me, because of what I will make you." Verily, I might say of each one of us* as soon as we are converted, "It doth not yet appear v.diat we shall be." It did not seem a likely thing that lowly fishermen would develop into apostles, that men so handy with the net would be quite as much at home in preaching sermons and in instructing converts. One would have said, "How can these things be? You can- not make founders of churches out of peasants of Gal- ilee." That is exactly what Christ did; and when we are brought low in the sight of God by a sense of our own unworthiness, we may feel encouraged to follow Jesus because of what He can make us. What said the woman of a sorrowful spirit when she lifted up her song? "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes." We cannot tell what God may make of us in the new creation, since it would have been quite impossible to have foretold what He made of chaos in the old creation. Who could have imagined
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all the beautiful things that came forth from darkness and disorder by that one fiat, "Let there be light"? And who can tell what lovely displays of everything that is divinely fair may yet appear in a man's formerly dark life, when God's grace has said to him, *'Let there be light"? O, you who see in yourselves at present nothing that is desirable, come you and follow Christ for the sake of what He can make out of you ! Do you not hear His sweet voice calling to you, and saying, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men?"
Note, next, that ive are not made all that we shall be, nor all that we ought to desire to be, when we are ourselves fished for and caught. This is what the grace of God does for us at first; but it is not all. We are like the fishes, making sin to be our element, as they live in the sea ; and the good Lord comes, and with the gospel net He takes us, and He delivers us from the life and love of sin. But He has not wrought for us all that He can do, nor all that we should wish Him to do, when He has done this; for it is another and a higher miracle to make us who were fish to become fishers — to make the saved ones saviours — to make the convert into a converter — the receiver of the gospel into an imparter of that same gospel to other people. I think I may say to every person whom I am address- ing— If you are yourself saved, the work is but half done until you are employed to bring others to Christ. You are as yet but half formed in the image of your Lord. You have not attained to the full development of the Christ-life in you unless you'have commenced in some feeble way to tell others of the grace of God; and I trust that you will find no rest to the sole of your foot till you have been the means of leading many to that blessed Saviour who is your confidence and your hope. His word is, "Follow Ale, not merely that
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you may l^e saved, iior even that you may be sancti- fied; but 'Follow Me, and 1 will make you fishers of men.' " Be following Christ with that intent and aim ; and fear that you are not perfectly following Him un- less in some degree lie is making use of you to be fishers of men. The fact is, that every one of us must take to the business of a man-catcher. If Christ has caught us, we must catch others. If we have been ap- prehended of Him, we must be His constables, to apprehend rebels for Him. Let us ask Him to give us grace to go a-fishing, and so to cast our nets that we may take a great multitude of fishes. Oh, that the Holy Ghost may raise up from among us some mas- ter-fishers, who shall sail their boats in many a sea, and surround great shoals of fish!
My teaching at this time will be very simple, but I hope it will be eminently practical; for my longing is that not one of you that love the Lord may be back- ward in His service. What says the Song of Solomon concerning certain sheep that come up from the wash- ing? It says, "Every one bareth twins, and there is not one barren among them." May that be so with all the members of this church, and all the Christian people wdio hear or read this sermon! The fact is, the day is very dark. The heavens are lowering with heavy thunder clouds. Men little dream of what tem- pests may soon shake this city, and the whole social fabric of this land, even to a general breaking up of society. So dark may the night become that the stars may seem to fall like blighted fruit from the tree. The times are evil. Now, if never before, every glow-worm must show its spark. You with the tiniest farthing candle must take it from under the bushel, and set it on a candlestick. There is need of you all. Lot was a poor creature. He w\as a very, very wretched kind
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of believer; but still he might have been a great bless- ing to Sodom had he but pleaded for it as he should have done. And poor, poor Christians, as I fear many are, one begins to value very truly every converted soul in these evil days, and to pray that each one may glorify the Lord. I pray that every righteous man, vexed as he is with the conversation of the wicked, may be more importunate in prayer than he has ever been, and return unto his God, and get more spiritual life, that he may be a blessing to the perishing people around him. I address you, therefore, at this time, first of all upon this thought. Oh, that the Spirit of God may make each one of you feel his personal re- sponsibility!
Here is for believers in Christ, in order to their use- fulness, something for them to do: ''Follow Me." But, secondly, here is something to be done by their great Lord and Master: "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." You will not of yourselves grow into fishers, but that is what Jesus will do for you if you will but follow Him. And then, lastly, here is a good illustration, used according to our great blaster's wont; for scarcely without a parable did He speak unto the people. He presents us with an illustration of what Christian men should be — fishers of men. We may get some useful hints out of it, and I pray the Holy Spirit to bless them to us.
L First, then, I will take it for granted that every believer here wants to be useful. If he does not, I take leave to question whether he can be a true be- liever in Christ. Well, then, if vou want to be really useful, here is SOMETHING FOR YOU TO DO TO THAT END: "Follow Me, and I will make you fish- ers of men."
What is the way to become an efificient preacher?
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"Young man," says one, "go to college." "Young man," says Christ, "follow Me, and I will make you a fisher of men." How is a person to be useful? "At- tend a training class," says one. Quite right; but there is a surer answer than that — Follow Jesus, and He will make you fishers of men. The great training school for Christian workers has Christ at its head; and He is at its head, not only as a Tutor, but as a Leader: we are not only to learn of Him in study, but to follow Him in action. "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." The direction is very distinct and plain, and I believe that it is exclusive, so that no man can become a fisherman by any other process. This process may appear to be very simple; but assuredly it is most efficient. The Lord Jesus Christ, who knew all about fishing for men, was Himself the Dictator of the rule, "Follow Me, if you want to be fishers of men. If you would be useful, keep in My track."
I understand this, first, in this sense: d^ separate unto Christ. These men were lo leave their pursuits; they were to leave their companions; they were, in fact, to c^uit the world, that their one business might be, in their Master's name, to be fishers of men. We are not called to leave our daily business, or to quit our families. That might be rather running away from the fishery than working at it in God's name; but we are called most distinctly to come out from among the ungodly, and to be separate, and not to toucli^the un- clean thing. We cannot be fishers of men if we re- main among men in the same element with them. Fish will not be fishers. The sinner will not convert the sinner. The ungodly man will not convert the un- godly man; and, what is more to the point, the world- ly Christian will not convert the world. If you are of the world, no doubt the world will love its own: but
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you cannot save the world. If you are dark, and be- long to the kingdom of darkness, you cannot remove the darkness. If you march with the armies of the wicked one, you cannot defeat them. I believe that one reason wliy the Church of God at this present mo- ment has^ so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the Church. Nowadays, we hear Nonconformists pleading that they may do this, and they may do that — things which their Puritan forefathers would rather have died at the stake than have tolerated. They plead that they may live like worldlings, and my sad answer to them, when they crave for this liberty, is, ''Do it if you dare. It may not do you much hurt, ioryou are so bad already. Your cravings show how rotten your hearts are. If you have a hungering after such dog's meat, go, dogs, and eat the garbage ! Worldly amusements are fit food for mere pretenders and hypocrites. If you were God's children, you would loathe the very thought of the world's evil joys, and your question would not be, 'How far may we be like the world?' but your one cry would be, 'How far can we get away from the world? How much can we come out from it?' Your temptation would be rather to become sternly severe, and ultra-Puritanical in your separation from sin, in such a time as this, than to ask, 'How can I make myself like other men, and act as they do?' "
Brethren, the use of the Church in the world is that it should be like salt in the midst of putrefaction ; but if the salt has lost its savour, what is the good of it? If it were possible for salt itself to putrefy, it could but be an increase and a heightening of the general putrid- ity. The worst day the world ever saw was when the sons of God were joined with the daughters of men. Then came the flood; for the only barrier against a
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flood of vengeance on this world is the separation of the saint from the sinner. Your duty as a Christian is to stand fast in your own place, and to stand out for God, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh, re- solving like one of old that, let others do as they will, as for you and your house, you will serve the Lord.
Come, ye children of God, you must stand with your Lord outside the camp. Jesus calls you to-day, and says, "Follow ]\le." Was Jesus found at the theatre? Did He frequent the sports of the race-course? Was Jesus seen, think you, in any of the amusements of the Herodian court? Not He. He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.'' In one sense, no one mixed with sinners so completely as He did when, like a physician. He -went among them healing His patients; but, in another sense, there was a gulf fixed between the men of the world and the Saviour, W'hich He never essayed to cross, and which they could not cross to defile Him.
The first lesson which the Church has to learn is this: Follow Jesus into the separated state, and He will make you fishers of men. Unless you take up your cross, and protest against an ungodly w^orld, you cannot hope that the holy Jesus will make you fishers of men.
A second meaning of our text is very obviously this: abide with Christy and then you will be made fishers of men. These disciples whom Christ called were to come and live with him. They were every day to be associated with him. They were to hear Flim teach publicly the everlasting gospel, and in ad- dition they were to receive choice explanations in pri- vate of the Word which He had spoken. They were to be His body-servants and His familiar friends. They w-ere to see His miracles and hear His prayers; and.
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better still, they were to be with Himself, and become one with Him in His holy labour. It was given to them to sit at the table with Him, and even to have their feet washed by Him. Many of them fulfilled that word, "Where thou dwellest, I will dwell": they were with Him in His afHictions and persecutions. They witnessed His secret agonies, they saw His many tears, they marked the passion and the compassion of His soul, and thus, after their measure, they caught His spirit, and so they learned to be fishers of men
At Jesus' feet we must learn the art and mystery of soul-winning: to live with Christ is the best educa- tion for usefulness. It is a great boon to any man to be associated with a Christian minister whose heart is on fire. The best training for a young man is that which the Vaudois pastors were wont to give, when each old man had a young man with him who walked with him whenever he went up the mountain-side to preach, and lived in the house with him, and marked his prayers, and saw his daily piety. This was a fine course of instruction, was it not? But it will not com- pare with that of the apostles who lived with Jesus Himself, and were His daily companions. Matchless was the training of the twelve. No wonder that they became what they were with such a heavenly Tutor to saturate them with His own spirit. His bodily pres- ence is not now among us; but His spiritual power is perhaps more fully known to us than it was to the apostles in those two or three years of the Lord's cor- poreal presence. There be some of us to whom He is intimately near. We know more about Him than we do about our dearest earthly friend. We have never been able (julte to read our friend's heart in all its twistings and windings, but we know the heart of the Well-beloved. We have leaned our head upon His
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bosom, and have enjoyed fellowship with liini sueh as we could not have with any of our own kith and kin. This is the surest method of learning how to do good. Live with Jesus, follow Jesus, and He will make you fishers of men. See how He does the work, and so learn how to do it yourself. A Christian man should be bound apprentice to Jesus to learn the trade of a Saviour. We can never save men by offering a re- demption, for we have none to present; but we can learn how to save men by warning them to flee from the wrath to come, and setting before them the one great eiTectual remedy. See how^ Jesus saves, and you will learn how the thing is done: there is no learning it anyhow else. Live in fellowship with Christ, and there shall be about you an air and a manner as of one who has been made in heart and mind apt to teach, and wnse to win souls.
A third meaning, however, must be given to this "Follow Me," and it is this: ^' Obey Me, and then you shall know what to do to save men." We nmst not talk about our fellowship with Christ, or our being separated from the world unto Him, unless we make Him our Master and Lord in everything. Some pub- lic teachers are not true at all points to their convic- tions; how can they look for a blessing? A Christian man, anxious to be useful, ought to be very particular as to every point of obedience to his Master. I have no doubt whatever that God blesses our churches even when they are very faulty, for His mercy endureth for ever. When there is a measure of error in the teach- ing, and a measure of mistake in the practice. He ma\- still vouchsafe to use the ministry, for He is very gra- cious; but a large measure of blessing nuist neces- sarily be withheld from all teaching which is knowing- ly or glaringly faulty. God can set His seal upon
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the truth that is in it, but He cannot set His seal upon the error that is in it. Out of mistakes about Christian ordinances and other things, especially errors in heart and spirit, there may come evils which we never looked for. Such evils may even now be telling upon the pres- ent age, and may work worse mischief upon future gen- erations.
If we desire, as fishers of men, to be largely used of God, we must copy our Lord Jesus in everything and obey Him in every point. Failure in obedience may lead to failure in success. Each one of us, if he would wish to see his child saved, or his Sunday-school class blessed, or his congregation converted, must take care that, bearing the vessels of the Lord, he is himself clean. Anything we do that grieves the Spirit of God must take away from us some part of our power for good. The Lord is very gracious and pitiful; but yet He is a jealous God. He is sometimes sternly jealous towards His people who are living in neglect of known duty, or in associations which are not clean in His sight. He will wither their work, weaken their strength, and hum- ble them until at last they each one say, *'My Lord, I will take Thy way after all. I will do what Thou bid- dest me to do, for else Thou wilt not accept me." The Lord said to His disciples, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature: he that be- lieveth and is baptized shall be saved" ; and He prom- ised them that signs should follow, and so they did fol- low, and so they will. But we must get back to apos- tolic practice and to apostolic teaching; we must lay aside the commandments of men and the whimseys of our own brains, and we must do what Christ tells us, as Christ tells us, and because Christ tells us. Definite- ly and distinctly, we must take the place of servants; and if we will not do that, we cannot expect our Lord
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to work with us and by us. Let us bo determined that, as true as the needle is to the pole, so true will we be, as far as our light goes, to the command of our Lord and Master. Jesus says, 'ToUow ]\le, and 1 will make you fishers of men." By this teaching He seems to say, "Go beyond Me, or fall back away from Me, and you may cast the net; but it shall be night with you, and that night you shall take nothing. When you shall do as I bid you, you shall cast your net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find."
Again, I think that there is a great lesson in my text to those who preach their own thoughts instead of preaching the thoughts of Christ. These disciples were to follow Christ that they might listen to Him, hear what He had to say, drink in His teaching, and then go and teach what He had taught them. Their Lord said, "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops." If they will be faithful reporters of Christ's message, He will make them "fishers of men." But you know the boastful method, nowadays, is this: "I am not going to preach this old, old gospel, this musty Puritan doctrine. I will sit down in my study, and burn the midnight oil, and invent a new theory: then I will come out with my brand-new thought, and blaze away with it." Many are not fol- lowing Christ, but following themselves, and of them the Lord may well say. "Thou shalt see whose word shall stand, Mine or theirs." Others are wickedly pru- dent, and judge that certain truths which are evident- ly God's Word, had better be kept back. You must not be rough, but must prophesy smooth things. To talk about the punishment of sin, to speak of eternal punishment, why, these are unfashionable doctrines. It may be that they are taught in the Word of God,
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but they do not suit the genius of the age; we must pare them down! Brothers in Christ, I will have no share in this. Will you? O my soul, come not thou into their secret! Certain things not taught in the Bible our enlightened age has discovered. Evolution may be clean contrary to the teaching of Genesis, but that does not matter. We are not going to be believers of Scripture, but original thinkers. This is the vain- glorious ambition of the period.
Mark you, in proportion as the modern theology is preached, the vice of this generation increases. To a great degree, I attribute the looseness of the age to the laxity of the doctrine preached by its teachers. From the pulpit they have taught the people that sin is a trifle. From the pulpit these traitors to God and to His Christ have taught the people that there is no hell to be feared. A little, little hell, perhaps, there may be; but just punishment for sin is made nothing of. The precious atoning sacrifice of Christ has been de- rided and misrepresented by those who were pledged to preach it. They have given the people the name of the gospel, but the gospel itself has evaporated in their hands. From hundreds of pulpits the gospel is as clean gone as the dodo from its old haunts; and still the preachers take the position and name of Christ's min- isters. Well, and what comes of it? Why, their congre- gations grow thinner and thinner; and so it must be. Jesus says, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men ;" but if you go in your own way, with your own net, you will make nothing of it, and the Lord promises you no help in it. The Lord's directions make Himself our Leader and Example. It is "Follow Me; follow Me. Preach My gospel. Preach what I preached. Teach what I taught, and keep to that." With that blessed servility which becomes one whose ambition it is to be
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a copyist, and never to be an original, copy Christ even in jots and tittles. Do this, and He will make you fishers of men; but if you do not do this, you shall fish in vain.
I close this head of my discourse by saying that we shall not be fishers of men unless we follow Christ in one other respect; and that is, by endeavouring, in all points to imitate His holiiiess. Holiness is the most real power that can be possessed by men or women. We may preach orthodoxy, but we must also live orthodoxy. God forbid that we should preach anything else; but it will be all in vain, unless there is a life at the back of the testimony. An unholy preacher may even render truth contemptible. In pro- portion as any of us draw back from a living and zeal- ous sanctification, we shall draw back from the place of pow-er. Our power lies in this word, "Follow Me." Be Jesus-like. In all things endeavour to think, and speak, and act as Jesus did, and He will make you fish- ers of men. This will require self-denial. We must daily take up the cross. This may require willingness to give up our reputation — readiness to be thought fools, idiots, and the like, as men are apt to call those wdio are keeping close to their Alaster. There must be the cheerful resigning of everything that looks like honour and personal glory, in order that we may be wholly Christ's, and glorify His name. We must live His life, and be ready to die His death, if need be. O brothers, sisters, if we do this, and follow Jesus, putting our feet into the footprints of His pierced feet. He will make us fishers of men ! If it should so please Him that we should even die without having gathered many souls to the cross, we shall speak from our graves. In some way or other, the Lord will make a holy life to be an influential life. It is not possible that a life which
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can be described as a following of Christ should be an unsuccessful one in the sight of the Most High. "Fol- low Me," and there is an "I will" such as God can never draw back from: "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Thus much on the first point. There is something for us to do: we are graciously called to follow Jesus. Holy Spirit, lead us to do it!
H. But, secondly, and brieflv, there is SOME- THING FOR THE LORD TO DO. When His dear servants are following Him, He says, *T will make you fishers of men;" and be it never forgotten that it is He that makes us follow Him; so that, if the following of Him be the step to being made a fisher of men, yet this He gives us. 'Tis all of His Spirit. I have talked about catching His spirit, and abiding in Him, and obeying Him, and hearkening to Him, and copying Him; but none of these things are we capable of apart from His working them all in us. "From Me is thy fruit found," is a text which we must not for a moment for- get. So, then, if we do follow Him; it is He that makes us follow Him; and so He makes us fishers of men.
But, further, if we follow Christ, He will make us fishers of men by all our experiefice. I am sure that the man who is really consecrated to bless others will be helped in this by all that he feels, especially by his afiflictions. I often feel very grateful to God that I have undergone fearful depression of spirits. I know the borders of despair, and the horrible brink of that gulf of darkness into which my feet have almost gone ; but hundreds of times I have been able to give a helpful grip to brethren and sisters who have come into that same condition, which grip I could never have given if I had not known their deep despondency. So I be-
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li.jVL- that the darkest and most dreadful experience of a child (^f Ciod will helj) him to be a fisher of men if he will but follow Christ. Keep close to your Lord, and He will make every step a blessing to you. If God in providence should make you rich, He will fit you to speak to those ignorant and wicked rich who so much abound in this city, and so often are the cause of its worst sin. And if the Lord is pleased to let you be poor, you can go down and talk to those wicked and ignorant poor people w^ho so often are the cause of sin in this city, and so greatly need the gospel. The winds of providence will waft you where you can fish for men. The wdieels of providence are full of eyes, and all those eyes wall look this way to help us to be winners of souls. You wall often be surprised to find how^ God has been in a house that you visit: before you get there. His hand has been at work in its chambers. When you wish to speak to some particular individual, God's providence has been dealing with that individual to make him ready for just that word which you could say, but which nobody else but you could say. Oh, be you following Christ, and you will find that He will, by every experience througli which you are passing, make you fishers of men!
Further than that, if you will follow Him, He will make you fishers of men by distiuit motiitions in your heart. There are many monitions from God's Spirit which are not noticed by Christians when they are in a callous condition; but when the heart is right with God, and living in communion with God, we feel a sacred sensitiveness, so that we do not need the Lord to shout, but His faintest whisper is heard. Nay, he need not even whisper. He will guide us with His eye. Oh, how many mulish Christians there are, who must be held in with bit and bridle, and receive a cut
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c)f the wliip every now and then! But the Christian who follows his Lord shall be tenderly guided. I do not say that the Spirit of God will say to you, "Go near, and join thyself to this chariot," or that you will hear a word in your ear; but yet in your soul, as dis- tinctly as the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near, and join thyself to this chariot," you shall hear the Lord's will. As soon as you see an individual, the thought shall cross your mind, "Go and speak to that person." Every opportunity of usefulness shall be. a call to you. If you are ready, the door shall open before you, and you shall hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way; walk ye in it." If you have the grace to run in the right way, you shall never be long without an intima- tion as to what the right way is. That right way shall lead you to river or sea, where you can cast your net, and be a fisher of men.
Then, too, I believe that the Lord meant by this that He would give His followers the Holy Ghost. They were to follow Him, and then, when they had seen Him ascend into the holy place of the Most High, they were to tarry at Jerusalem for a little while, and the Spirit would come upon them, and clothe them with a mysterious power. This Word was spoken to Peter and Andrew; and you know how it was fulfilled to Peter. What a host of fish he brought to land the first time he cast the net in the power of the Holy Ghost! "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Brethren, we have no conception of what God could do by this company of believers gathered in the Taber- nacle to-night. If now we were to be filled with the Holy Ghost, there are enough of us to evangelize Lon- don. There are enough here to be the means of the salvation of the world. God saveth not by many nor
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by few. Let us seek to be made a benediction to our fellow-creatures; and if we seek it, let us hear this directing voice, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." You men and women that sit before me, you are by the shore of a great sea of human life swarming with the souls of men. You live in the midst of millions; but if you will follow Jesus, and be faith- ful to Him, and true to Him, and do what He bids you, He will make you fishers of men. Do not say, "Who shall save this city?" The weakest shall Se strong enough. Gideon's barley cake shall smite the tent, and make it lie along the ground. Samson, with the jawbone, taken up from the earth where it was lying bleaching in the sun, shall smite the Philistines. Fear not, neither be dismayed. Let your responsibilities drive you closer to your Master. Let horror of pre- vailing sin make you look into His dear face who long ago wept over Jerusalem, and now weeps over Lon- don. Clasp Him, and never let go your hold. By the strong and mighty impulses of the divine life within you, quickened and brought to maturity by the Spirit of God, learn this lesson from your Lord's owii mouth : ''Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." You are not fit for it, but He will make you fit. You cannot do it of yourselves, but He will make you do it. You do not know how to spread nets and draw shoals of fish to shore, but He will teach you. Only follow Him, and He will make you fishers of men.
I wish that I could somehow say this as with a voice of thunder, that the whole Church of God might hear it. I wish I could write it in stars athwart the sky, "J^sus saith. Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." If you forget the precept, the prom- ise shall never be yours. If you follow some other track, or imitate some other leader, vou shall fi^li in
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vain. God grant us to believe fully that Jesus can do great things in us, and then do great things by us for the good of our fellows !
III. The last point you might work out in full for yourselves in vour private meditations with much profit. We have here A FIGURE FULL OF INSTRUC- TION. I will give you but two or three thoughts which you can use. **I will make yon fo/iers of men.''* You have been fishers of fish : if you follow Me, I will make you fishers of men.
A fisher is a person who is very dependent and needs to be trustful. He cannot see the fish. One who fishes in the sea must go and cast in the net, as it were, at a peradventure. Fishing is an act of faith. I have often seen, in the Mediterranean, men go with their boats, and enclose acres of sea with vast nets; and yet, when they have drawn the net to shore, they have not had as much result as I could put in my hand. A few wretched silvery nothings have made up the whole take. Yet they have gone again, and cast the great net several times a day, hopefully expecting something to come of it. Nobody is so dependent upon God as the minister of God. Oh, this fishing from the Taber- nacle pulpit! What a work of faith! I cannot tell that a soul will be brought to God by it. I cannot judge whether my sermon will be suitable to the persons who are here, except that I do believe that God will guide me in the casting of the net. I expect Him to work salvation, and I depend upon Him for it. I love this complete dependence, and if I could be offered a cer- tain amount of preaching power, VN^hich should be en- tirely at my own disposal, and by which I could save sinners, I w^ould beg the Lord not to let me have it, for it is far more delightful to be entirely dependent upon Him at all times. It is good to be a fool when
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Christ is made unto you wisdom. It is a blessed tiling; to be weak if Christ becomes more fully your strength. Go to work, you who would be fishers of men, and yet feel your insuflficiency. You that have no strenglli, at- tempt this (Hvine work. Your Master's strength will be seen when your own has all gone. A fisherman is a de- pendent person, he must look up for success every time he puts the net down; but still he is a trustful person, and therefore he casts in the net joyfully,
A fisherman who gets his living by it is a dilii^ejit and persevering man. The fishers are up at dawn. At day-break our fishermen of¥ the Dogger-bank are fishing, and they continue fishing till late in the after- noon. As long as hands can w^ork, men will fish. May the Lord Jesus make us hard-working, persevering, unwearied fishers of men! "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that."
The fisherman in his o\vn craft is intcUigcnt and watchful. It looks very easy, I dare say, to be a fisher- man, but you would find that it was no child's play if you were to take a real part in it. There is an art in it, from the mending of the net right on to the pulling it to shore. How diligent the fisherman is to prevent the fish leaping out of the net! I heard a great noise one night in the sea, as if some huge drum were being beaten by a giant; and I looked out, and I saw that the fishermen of Mentone were beating the water to drive the fish into the net, or to keep them from leaping out when they had once encompassed them with it. Ah, yes! and you and I will often have to be watching the corners of the gospel net lest sinners who are almost caught should make their es- cape. Thev are very crafty, these fish, and they use
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this craftiness in endeavouring to avoid salvation. We shall have to be always at our business, and to exercise all our wits, and more than our own wits, if we are to be successful fishers of men.
The fisherman is a very laborious person. It is not at all an easy calling. He does not sit in an armchair and catch fish. He has to go out in rough weathers. If he that regardeth the clouds will not sow, I am sure that he that regardeth the clouds will never fish. If we never do any work for Christ except when we feel up to the mark, we shall not do much. If we feel that we will not pray because we cannot pray, we shall never pray; and if we say, "I will not preach to-day because I do not feel that I could preach," we shall never preach any preaching that is worth the preaching. We must be always at it, until we wear ourselves out, throwing our whole soul into the work in all weathers, for Christ's sake.
The fisherman is a daringvian. He tempts the bois- terous sea. A little brine in his face does not hurt him; he has been wet through a thousand times, it is noth- ing to him. He never expected, when he became a deep-sea fisherman, that he was going to sleep in the lap of ease. So the true minister of Christ, who fishes for souls, will never mind a little risk. He will be bound to do or say many a thing that is very unpopu- lar; and some Christian people may even judge his utterances to be too severe. He must do and say that which is for the good of souls. It is not his to enter- tain a question as to what others will think of his doc- trine, or of him ; but in the name of the Almighty God he must feel, "If the sea roar and the fulness thereof, still at my Master's command I will let down the net."
Now, in the last place, the man whom Christ makes 2i^'&\iQtoivci^x\ is successful. ''But, "says one, *'Ihave
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always heard that Christ's ministers are to be faithful, but that they cannot be sure of being successful," Yes, I have heard that saying, and one way I know it is true, but another way I have my doubts about it. He that is faithful is, in God's way and in God's judgment, suc- cetesful, more or less. For instance, here is a brother who says that he is faithful. Of course, I must believe him, yet I never heard of a sinner being saved under him. Indeed, I should think that the safest place for a person to be in if he did not want to be saved would l)e under this gentleman's ministry, because he does not preach anything that is likely to arouse, impress, or convince anybody. This brother is "faithful;" so he says. Well, if any person in the world said to you, *T am a fisherman, but I have never caught anything," you would wonder how he could be called a fisherman. A farmer who never grew any wheat, or any other crop — is he a farmer? When Jesus Christ says, "Fol- low ^le, and I will make you fishers of men," He means that you shall really catch men, that you really shall save some; for he that never did get any fish is not a fisherman. He that never saved a sinner after years of work is not a minister of Christ. If the result of his life-work is ////, he made a mistake when he under- took it. Go thou with the fire of God in thy hand, and fling it among the stubble, and the stubble will burn. Be thou sure of that. Go thou and scatter the good seed; it may not all fall in fruitful places, but some of it will. Be thou sure of that. Do but shine, and some eye or other will be lightened thereby. Thou must, thou shalt succeed. But remember this is the Lord's word, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." Keep close to Jesus, and do as Jesus did, in His spirit, and He will make you fishers of men.
Perhaps I speak to an attentive hearer who is not
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converted at all. Friend, 1 have the same thing to say to you. You also may follow Christ, and then He can use you, even you. I do not know but that He has brought you to this place that you may be saved, and that in after years He may make you speak for His name and glory. Remember how He called S^ul of Tarsus, and made him the apostle of the Gentiles. Reclaimed poachers make the best game-keepers; and saved sinners make the ablest preachers. Oh, that you would run away from your old master to-night, with- out giving him a minute's notice; for if you give him any notice, he will hold you. Hasten to Jesus, and say, "Here is a poor runaway slave! My Lord, I bear the fetters still upon my wrists. Wilt Thou set me free, and make me Thine own?" Remember, it is written, "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out." Never runaway slave came to Christ in the middle of the night without His taking him in! and He never gave one up to his old master. If Jesus make you free, you shall be free indeed. Flee away to Jesus, then, on a sudden. May His good Spirit help you, and He will by-and-by make you a winner of others to His praise ! God bless you ! Amen.
ENCOURAGEMENT TO SOUL-WINNERS.
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." — James v. 19, 20.
ENCOURAGEMENT TO SOUL- WINNERS.
James is pre-eminently practical. If he were, in- deed, the James who was called "The Just," I can un- derstand how he earned the title, for that distinguish- ing trait in his character shows itself in his Epistle; and if he were *'the Lord's brother," he did well to show so close a resemblance to his great Relative and Master, who commenced His Ministry with the prac- tical Sermon on the i\lount. We ought to be very grateful that, in the Holy Scriptures, we have food for all classes of believers, and employment for all the faculties of the saints. It was meet that the contem- plative should be furnished with abundant sul)jects for thought — Paul has supplied them; he has given to us sound doctrine, arranged in the symmetry of exact order; he has given us deep thoughts and profound teachings; he has opened up the deep things of God. No man who is inclined to reflection and thoughtful- ness will be without food so long as the Epistles of Paul are extant, for he feeds the soul with sacred manna. For those whose predominating affections and imagina- tion incline them to more mystic themes, John has writ- ten sentences aglow with devotion, and blazing with love. We have his simple but sublime Epistles — Epis- tles which, when you glance at them, seem in their wording to be fit for children, but when examined, their
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sense is seen to be too sublime to be fully grasped by the most advanced of men. You have from that same eagle-eyed and eagle-winged apostle the wondrous visions of the Revelation, where awe, devotion and imagination may enlarge their flight, and find scope for the fullest exercise.