These people that Jesus saw were shepherdless. The responsibility for
their wandering therefore rested not so much upon themselves as upon
the fact that the one who should have cared for them was not doing so.
We are our brother's keeper, whether we are willing to acknowledge it
or not.
In meetings in California one of the ministers went forth during the
week to invite those who were away from Christ to come to him. He
found an old white-haired soldier who said, "When I was in the army
years ago I promised God that I would be a Christian. I have never
kept my word. Yes, I will come to him now." And when he came his wife
and children came with him. "All these years," he said, "I have waited
for some one to ask me." He called upon another man who had been
impressed in the meetings and this man acknowledged that he had long
felt his need of help, that he had prayed the night before, "O God, if
you want me to come to thee send some one to speak to me." When the
minister came the man trembled when he said, "You must be the messenger
of God for whom I have been waiting," and he came beautifully to
Christ. On every side of us people are waiting as sheep without a
shepherd for us simply to do our duty.
V
The result of this vision which Jesus had was that he did an unusual
thing. In the tenth chapter and the first verse we read, "And when he
had called unto him his twelve disciples he gave them power against
unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness
and all manner of disease." Which leads me to say that we must have
the same spirit. Our present day church methods reach not more than
one-fourth the unsaved and many of these come from the ranks of our
Sunday schools and from Christian homes where for one reason or another
they have not made a profession of their faith in Christ.
Three-fourths of the lost are left to wander farther and farther away
simply because they will not yield to our present day church methods.
This is not as Jesus would have it.
In the twenty-first chapter of John the fifth and sixth verses we read,
"Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered
him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the
ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not
able to draw it for the multitudes of fishes." Although these
disciples had toiled and taken nothing the results were all changed
when they cast their net on the right side of the boat. May it not be
that we have been fishing on the wrong side or fishing in our own
strength, or, as some one has said, fishing in too shallow water, when
we should have been casting our nets in the deep? The fact is, we need
him and without him we can do nothing.
I have been told that of the forty distinct cases of healing in the New
Testament only six came to Jesus by themselves. Twenty were brought to
Jesus and to the fourteen others Jesus was taken. I doubt not that the
proportion is the same to-day, and if it is true then our methods of
work must be changed and instead of praying for them to seek Jesus we
must either take them to Jesus or bring the Master into their company.
There can be no successful winning of the multitudes until the personal
element enters into it all.
1. There must be prayer. When Jacob went forth to meet Esau he walked
with fear and trembling, but in Genesis thirty-second chapter and
twenty-eighth verse we read, "And he said, Thy name shall be called no
more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power with God and
with men, and hast prevailed," so that long before Esau was met victory
was won. There must be no attempt to win the lost without first of all
we have gained an audience with God in prayer, and if we pray as we
ought to pray he will give us the assurance of victory before we start
upon our mission.
2. There must be personal contact. It is said that a man recently went
into a jewelry store to buy an opal and rejected all that were
presented to him. One of them he rejected instantly. The salesman
picked it up and closed it in his hand and finally in a casual way
opened his hand and placed the opal upon the counter. "Why," said the
customer, "that is the opal I want. I have never seen anything finer,"
and yet he had rejected it first. The salesman told him that it was a
sensitive opal and needed the touch of a human hand before it could
reveal its beauty. Oh, how many souls there are like this in the world!
I have read that when Robert Louis Stevenson visited the island of the
lepers where Father Damien did his illustrious work he played croquet
with the children, using the same mallets that they used; and when it
was suggested that he put gloves upon his hands he refused to do so
because, he said, "it will remind them the more of the difference
between us." This spirit must prevail in our work if we are to win
souls.
Two things we may do to reach the lost.
(1) Speak to them. The power of human speech is simply marvelous. A
Sunday school boy appeared in a Baptist Church to apply for membership
and when they asked him about his conversion he said, "My Sunday school
teacher took me for a walk one Sunday in Prospect Park and talked with
me about Jesus and I gave myself to him." One of the officers of my
church when an unsaved man was asked by his minister to attend special
services in the church and then was urged by his wife to go with her.
Both invitations were angrily declined. He at last agreed to escort
her to the church but not to enter in. The biting cold wind of the
night drove him into the church and he was just in time to hear the
minister's appeal to the unsaved. All were asked to lift their hands
who would know Christ and then he remembered that when he was a boy and
had been drowning in Lake George he lifted up his hand as high as he
could and his brother took hold of it and kept him from sinking.
Suddenly it came to him in the church that he was sinking in another
way, and instantly he raised his hand and Christ took hold of it. I do
not know of a more godly man among all my list of friends than he; and
he says to-day that the invitation given to him and refused with anger
led him to Christ.
(2) Write. The chief justice of the supreme court of a western state
was not a Christian until a few years ago. He was a genial, kindly
man, and naturally a great lawyer, but he had never confessed Christ as
his Savior, and apparently had little real interest in the church. One
day the pastor of the Presbyterian church determined that he would
write him a letter, and then decided that so great a man would not
receive his communication and destroyed it. But the pastor's wife had
more faith and urged him to write again. He did so, and sent the
second letter and forwarded with it Spurgeon's "All of Grace." He
received word almost instantly that the chief justice had been deeply
impressed, and that as a matter of fact he was waiting for years for
some one to speak to him. The letter moved him and the little book
gave him the instructions needed. To-day he is one of the brightest
Christians I know. His face is a benediction. He said to me one day
that it was a wonderful thing to be a Christian; that he never allowed
any one to meet him that he did not talk with him about his soul. Are
there not hundreds and thousands of other men waiting, as the chief
justice waited, for some one to speak or write?
3. There must be a personal consecration not only to Christ but to the
work if we would be successful. The biography of Helen Kellar
[Transcriber's note: Keller?], who was released from her imprisonment
by the devotion of her teacher, is an illustration along this line.
This teacher must go to this girl sitting in darkness and describe to
her the commonest objects of every-day life. She told her about water,
heat and cold and when something hurt her she told her with the
language of touch that she loved her and Helen Kellar [Transcriber's
note: Keller?] answered back, "I love you, too." The devotion of this
teacher brought this noble soul to light and power. A work like this
awaits many of us in bringing the lost to Christ.
When Elisha went down to raise the Shunammite's boy he put his eyes to
the eyes of the boy, his hands to the boy's hands and his mouth to his
mouth. Something like this we must do. We have friends who possess
eyes and see not, we must have eyes for them; they have lips and speak
not, we must speak to God for them; they have hands and reach them not
out after God, and we must have faith for them. In other words, we
must not let them go away from Christ. Such a spirit as this pleases
God and such a spirit saves our friends. A friend told me that with
the ship's surgeon of a vessel he once crossed the sea. He said the
doctor told him that one day a boy fell overboard and was rescued but
the case seemed hopeless. The ship's surgeon casually passing along
the deck said to those who labored with him, "I think you can do
nothing more; you have done all that is possible," and then curiosity
led him to look at the boy for himself. Instantly his whole spirit was
changed. He blew into his nostrils, breathed into his mouth, begged
God to spare him, labored for four hours with him before he could bring
him back to life, for the boy was his own boy. What if we should not
have this spirit with the lost!
"If grief in Heaven could find a place,
Or shame the worshiper bow down,
Who meets the Savior face to face,
'Twould be to wear a starless crown."
But on the other hand, what if we should simply be faithful? Then may
the following be true of us:
"Perhaps in Heaven, some day, to me
Some sainted one shall come and say,
All hail, beloved, but for thee
My soul to death had fallen a prey.
And, oh, the rapture of the thought,
One soul to glory to have brought."
General Booth of the Salvation Army describes a vessel making its way
home from the Australian gold fields. The miners had struggled to get
rich and at last every man had around about him his belt of gold. The
ship lost her way in the ocean and, set out of her course, suddenly
crashed upon the rocks of an island near by. Almost instantly she
sank. As one miner stood looking at the shore he knew that he was
strong enough as a swimmer to save his gold and save his own life; but
as he was about to throw himself into the sea a little girl whose
mother and father had been washed overboard came over to him to say,
"Oh, sir, can you not save me?" It was then a choice between the child
and the gold. The struggle was terrific but at last the gold was
thrown aside, the child fastened to his body and he struggled through
the waves until he fell exhausted and fainting upon the shore. The
great Salvation Army officer says that when this strong man came to
himself the little child was by his side. Throwing her arms about his
neck she exclaimed with sobs, "Oh, sir, I am so glad you saved me."
"That was worth more to him than the gold," said General Booth. And if
in heaven some day upon the streets of gold we shall meet just one
redeemed soul who was once lost and in the darkness, and we know that
that one soul is there because we were true, the streets of gold will
be better, the gates of pearl will be brighter, the many mansions more
beautiful, the music sweeter, and, if such a thing were possible, the
vision of Christ more entrancing. Certainly it would be thrilling to
hear him say to us, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto these little ones ye
did it unto me."