[THE DIVINE ARE OF SOUL-WINNING
by J. Oswald Sanders–eighth file of 8]
CHAPTER 10
MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS
“Suffer the little children to come unto me.” The
soul-winner must emulate his Exemplar in not ignoring
little children, “for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Such a subject is deserving of a volume to itself, but this
study must necessarily be confided to a few of the more
important issues. Dr. Torrey once said: “No other form of
Christian work brings such immediate, such large, and such
lasting results as work for the conversion of children.”
It was Spurgeon’s opinion that “capacity for believing lies
more in the child than in the man.” (See Matt. 18:6.)
Parents are, of course, God’s own appointed teachers
of the child, and the religious training cannot be done by
proxy. The parent who neglects this duty is unwittingly
robbing himself of the highest privilege this world
affords. Why should the winning of the child, whom the
parent has brought into the world, be left to a stranger?
The late Rev. Joseph W. Kemp made the seven following
suggestions for successful work among children:
1. THERE MUST BE A THOROUGH BELIEF in the child’s
need. The child, no less than the man or woman, is “dead
in trespasses and sins,” and unless there is a clear sense
of the utter ruin and spiritual death of children, there
will be no power to bring blessing to them. We believe, of
course, in the salvation of infants who have not reached
the years of moral accountability, but even these can
accept Christ as Savior.
2. THERE MUST BE A CONSCIOUSNESS OF ONE’S MISSION–not
to amuse or instruct only, but to secure the salvation of
the child.
3. THERE MUST BE RELIANCE ON THE SPIRIT’S POWER as
much with children as with adults.
4. THERE MUST BE ADAPTATION TO THE CHILD. We need our
best and most industrious studies and our ripest powers to
save the children.
5. WE MUST USE THE CHILD’S LANGUAGE–not baby talk,
but language the child can understand.
6. WE MUST NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH OF THE CHILD–an
ever-present danger with us grownups. Don’t expect the
child to abandon its childish ways and become a mature old
man!
7. WE MUST EXERCISE PATIENCE. It will be easier to do
this if we remember our own stumbling progress.
The worker among children must exercise wisdom in
making an appeal, as it is a very simple thing to get the
whole class or audience to respond to the appeal. It is a
mistake never to make an appeal, but an equally great
mistake to make appeals continually, for the child-heart
easily becomes accustomed and hardened to them. One of
our evangelists invites children present at his meetings,
if they desire to accept Christ as Savior, to go home,
write their name in John 3:16 instead of THE WORLD and
“WHOSOEVER,” and mail or hand it to him the next day. This
avoids the dangers of a mass movement.
Remember that Moody was converted at 14, Fanny Crosby
at 11, Jonathan Edwards at 7, Isaac Watts at 9, and that 90
per cent of Christians are saved before they reach eighteen
years of age.
II. TRACT DISTRIBUTION
The widespread use of tracts and literature by the
false cults should arouse the Christian worker to the great
possibilities for good of the distribution of suitable
tracts. Souls who would never darken a church door will
often read a tract. Here are some suggestions as to the
most effective methods of tract work.
1. Have well written and attractively printed tracts
which you have read yourself. Always carry some with you.
2. Know your tracts, and endeavor to suit the tract to
the recipient, e.g., do not give a sailor a tract dealing
with railways, or do not give a tract on holiness to a
sinner.
3. Be courteous, genial, and tactful in your approach.
If rebuffed, manifest the love of Christ. Even if those
you approach refuse to read your tract, they will certainly
read you.
4. Not every tract is suitable for indiscriminate
distribution.
5. Be prayerful and confident of God’s blessing.
6. Follow up the opening which the giving of the tract
has made, with a word on the way of salvation.
7. Distribute tracts in public places, from house to
house, in hospitals, in letter boxes, on sports grounds, in
vacant automobiles, confident that some of the seed thus
sown will bring forth fruit.
AS AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE TRACT DISTRIBUTER,
A story of remarkable blessing resulting from the
giving of a tract follows. A tract by Dr. Richard Gibbs
was handed by a peddler to Richard Baxter, whose CALL TO
THE UNCONVERTED fell into the hands of Philip Doddridge,
the great preacher and hynm-writer. He wrote THE RISE AND
PROGRESS OF RELIGION, by means of which William
Wilberforce, the emancipator of the slaves, was converted.
He in turn wrote PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY, which fired the
heart of Leigh Richmond, who wrote THE DAIRYMAN’S DAUGHTER,
of which, before 1848, 4,000,000 were circulated in fifty
languages. Wilberforce’s book also fell into the hands of
Thomas Chalmers, and was the means of bringing him out into
the light of the Gospel, and all Scotland rang with his
mighty eloquence.
Do not despise the ministry of the GOOD tract.
III. A CONSECRATED PEN
Who can measure the blessing which has flowed from a
consecrated pen? Have you ever prayed: “Lord, sanctify my
pen to Thy use?” Pray it now.
Some timid Christian who is not courageous enough to
talk to someone face to face about Christ, could at least
use his pen. Dr. H. Clay Trumbull, the greatest
soul-winner of his day, was converted through a letter
written him by a college mate who had not the courage to
speak to him personally.
The same fruitful avenue of service is open to the
invalid or to the mother whose children are away from home.
The letter will probably be read and reread, whereas a
spoken word might be forgotten.
1. Pray before and after writing each letter.
2. Write lovingly, sympathetically and simply, adding
your testimony to the Scriptures you quote.
3. Having put the way of salvation clearly, urge the
recipient to definitely decide to accept Christ at once.
4. Enclose a suitable tract, or perhaps a decision
card.
5. Write to one who has recently decided, one who has
backslidden, one who is passing through trial and testing,
to a lonely boy or girl.
6. Do not wait for a reply, necessarily, before you
write again. All are not good correspondents.
Most workers, Sunday school teachers, Bible club
leaders, and Christian workers do not exploit the power of
the pen nearly as much as they should.
Only a note, yes, only a note,
To a friend in a distant land.
The Spirit said “Write!” but then you had planned
Some different work, and you thought
It mattered little, you did not know
‘Twould have saved a soul from sin and woe,
You were out of touch with your Lord.
IV. INSTRUCTION OF CONVERTS
Many a promising convert has made no progress in the
new life, simply because he was not correctly instructed at
the time of his conversion. It is not wise to overload the
newly-born babe with sage advice, but several things should
be made crystal clear to him.
1. To be a happy Christian he must confess Christ to
men at the earliest possible moment, preferably to his own
people and then to his work-mates (Rom. 10:9-10). He must
be out and out for God to experience God’s best. The
would-be secret disciple never knows the real joy of the
Lord. Explain that if he trusts his newly-found Savior, He
will give him the power to testify (Phil.4:13).
2. Show that Christ is not only his Savior but his
Lord (Rom. 10:9, ASV), and that therefore his will must be
surrendered to his Master.
3. Urge him to read the Bible every day, and if
possible first thing in the morning, asking the Holy Spirit
to make the Book live. Explain that the Bible is to the
spiritual life what bread is to the physical life, and that
he cannot grow without food.
4. Having heard God’s voice in the Bible, instruct him
to let God hear his voice in prayer, to pour out his soul
and his desires before God (Matt. 6:6). Make clear his
privilege to talk with God and walk with God every hour of
the day, and to claim the fulfillment of His promises.
Encourage the habit of ejaculatory prayer throughout the
day as well as the time spent in the secret place.
5. Advise him to begin to work for Christ, and
endeavor to win others to Him.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
How to Bring Men to Christ, R. A. Torrey
Personal Soul-Winning, W. Evans
Method in Soul-Winning, H. C. Mabie
Studies in Soul-Winning, F. P. Wood
Taking Men Alive, C. G. Trumbull
God’s Plan for Soul-Winning, T. Hogben
The Personal Touch, J. W. Chapman
Personal Work for Christ, G. Soltau
The Passion for Souls, J. H. Jowett
The Craft of Soul-Winning, C. M. Turnbull
The Soul-Winner, C. H. Spurgeon
[end of chapter 10, and end of the text of THE DIVINE ART
OF SOUL WINNING]
This book was keyed into digital media by
Clyde C. Price, Jr., Bible teacher.
As long as this book is available in print-media, my
opinion is that the digital version is best left in ASCII
form without being printed out and is most useful as an
easily searched reference and a fast source of quotations
and illustrations for writers and speakers.
The present edition with “hard CRs” is easier to read
onscreen or “Copy to Printer”, and harder to change line-
length in a word-processor. I hope that my formatting
decision increases the usefulness of the work.
I have written ARROWS FOR YOUR QUIVER, SHORT SHOTS,
and SCRAPS, [filenames: ARROWS.XXX, SHOTS.XXX AND
SCRAPS.XXX], which are collections of short evangelistic
articles designed for re-publication by evangelical local
churches, along with suggestions for outreach projects and
other (I hope) interesting material. My stuff, I issue on
a “Shareware-text” basis, for free reading and evaluation,
with a request for an OPTIONAL honorarium only if several
are re-published. Please see the collections themselves
for further details.
My “home base” bulletin board systems in Atlanta are
the Step of Faith (404)424-0028 and my own Clyde’s TreeHut
BBS at 404/767-1632.
I have gone to the effort of personally re-keying (on
my Model 100 notebook computer) this excellent copyright-
expired material by J. Oswald Sanders
a) as a service to the Body of Christ, a worthwhile
and valuable ministry in itself, and
b) in the hopes of making contacts for preaching and
teaching ministry with people and groups I would not have
otherwise met.
Also, c) it is my prayer that if this work ever does
go out of print, that this digital version will preserve
and prolong the ministry of a great servant of God.
NOTE: I collect old books, especially GOOD
copyright-expired CHRISTIAN MATERIAL such as the books
mentioned in Mr. Sanders’ bibliography, good educational
material, nearly anything that a Christian
educator/librarian would want to preserve in digital media.
I am working with other Christians, mostly through the
Atlanta Christian Tech Society, to preserve uncopyrighted
Christian books by retyping (or doing scan/OCR) into
digital media.
I also collect (and solicit gifts of) old computers,
(“dinosaurs”) and other working or repairable computer
equipment that is either considered obsolete or is simply
unused. My purpose is to involve more Christian workers in
computer/modem communications and sharing of information,
and I think it is a God-like tactic to employ things that
are unused, unwanted, abandoned by other people to build
the Kingdom of God.
May God make you a fruitful winner of soul-winners.
ccp, April 1989, Red Oak, Georgia
[This note modified April 1992.]
Call or write me to find out what else is available:
Clyde C. Price, Jr. voice (404)761-2327, CIS# 76616,3452 Delphi:CLYDEPRICE
P.O.Box 667, Red Oak, GA 30272-0667 USA Clyde’s TreeHut BBS: 404/767-1632
[end of the eighth file of eight.]