And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
—Matthew 24:14
5856 The 95% Estimate
It has been estimated that probably 95% of all church members have never led anyone to Christ.
5857 Various Channels God Used
In a late publication, Dr. Basil Miller says that Dr. Reuben A. Torrey was won to Christ through the witnessing of a godly mother; Sam Jones, by his own father; George Mueller, by a friend; John R. Mott, by a teacher; George Whitefield, by a book; and Count Zinzendorf, through a certain picture. There is no prescribed type of testimony except that it be Christ-centered and Spirit-directed. Are we in the place where God can use our testimony? Are we making the most of our opportunities of witnessing for Him?
—King’s Business
5858 One Could Become Many
Andrew brought Simon—just one. But that one was many, for under God, Simon brought three thousand in one day. Joel Stratton, a waiter in a restaurant, brought John Gough to Christ. Just one. And Gough brought many to Christ. Ezra Kimball, a Sunday school teacher, brought Moody to Christ—just one. But that one was many, for Moody rocked two continents for God. But why say more? Just as one digit is valuable in the multiplication table, and one letter in the alphabet, far more valuable is just one soul in God’s sight.
—Robert G. Lee
5859 Brainerd’s One Desire
While David Brainerd, one of the most celebrated of our missionaries, was laboring among the poor, benighted Indians on the banks of the Delaware, he once said, “I care not where I live, or what hardships I go through, so that I can but gain souls to Christ. While I am asleep, I dream of these things; as soon as I awake, the first thing I think of is this great work. All my desire is the conversion of sinners, and all my hope is in God.”
—Selected
5860 Claiming The Seats
The Rev. George Grubb tells in his book, What God Hath Wrought, the following incident. During one of his campaigns he entered the tent a little earlier than usual one evening, and found the colored tent attendant walking up and down the rows of seats. “What are you doing?” Mr. Grubb asked.
“Well,” he said, “I am claiming all the people who sit in these seats tonight for Jesus, for God says that “every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you,” so I am walking up and down these seats and claiming them for God” (Josh. 1:3).
—King’s Business
5861 Booth’s One Ambition
For over thirty years the Salvation Army and William Booth in particular were subject to some of the most vile persecutions Christians suffered in modern times. But the General lived to see the day his army would be honored around the world. His own King Edward VII invited him to Buckingham Palace in 1904. All the persecution and trials of the previous decades must have seemed insignificant to Booth as he heard King Edward say, “You are doing a good work—a great work, General Booth.”
When the king asked Booth to write in his autograph album, the old man—now seventy-five—bent forward, took the pen, and summed up his life’s work:
Your Majesty,
Some men’s ambition is art,
Some men’s ambition is fame,
Some men’s ambition is gold,
My ambition is the souls of men.
5862 Various Prayers For Souls
George Whitefield, the famous English evangelist, said, “O Lord, give me souls, or take my soul!”
Henry Martyn, missionary, kneeling on India’s coral strands, cried out, “Here let me burn out for God.”
David Brainerd, missionary to the North American Indians 1718–1747: “Lord, to Thee I dedicate myself. O accept me and let me be Thine forever. Lord, I desire nothing else. I desire nothing more.” The last words in his diary, seven days before he died, “O Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.”
Thomas a’Kempis, 1379–1471: “Give what Thou wilt, and how much Thou wilt, and when Thou wilt. Set me where Thou will and deal with me in all things, just as Thou wilt.”
Dwight L. Moody: “Use me then, my Saviour, for whatever purpose and in whatever way Thou mayest require. Here is my poor heart an empty vessel; fill it with Thy grace.”
Martin Luther: (some words from his great agony of prayer on the night preceding his appearance before the Diet of Worms) “Do Thou, my God, do Thou, God, stand by me against all the world’s wisdom and reason. O do it! Thou must do it. Stand by me. Thou True, Eternal God!”
John McKenzie prayed a prayer of a young missionary candidate as he knelt on the banks of the Lossie: “O Lord, send me to the darkest spot on earth!”
“Praying Hyde,” a missionary in India: “Father, give me these souls, or I die.”
Mrs. Comstock, a missionary in India, a prayer of parting when she sent her children home: “Lord Jesus, I do this for thee.”
John Hunt, a missionary to the Fiji Islands, a prayer upon his dying bed: “Lord, save Fiji, save Fiji, save these people, O Lord; have mercy upon Fiji; save Fiji!”
—Wesleyan Methodist
5863 Spurgeon’s 50 Lectures
A few years before the death of Charles Spurgeon, an American lecture bureau tried to hire him to come to America to deliver 50 lectures, speaking in all the large cities of America. As compensation, the bureau offered to pay all expenses of Spurgeon, his wife, and private secretary, and to pay $1,000 per night for each of 50 lectures. But Spurgeon promptly declined to make $50,000 in 50 days, saying, “I can do better. I will stay in London and try to save 50 souls.”
5864 Moody’s Total Audiences
Moody—for whom Lincoln gave his only recorded Sunday school address—is credited with speaking publicly to 100,000,000 persons about spiritual matters. Not a high school graduate himself, he founded a vast educational system that among many accomplishments has turned out one of ten American Protestant missionaries.
5865 Billy Graham’s Total Attendance
Evangelist Billy Graham and his associates preached to 53,561, 970 people at crusades and rallies from 1947 to 1977, according to records available from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association staff.
There were 1,626, 886 inquirers who recorded decisions at the crusades and rallies during the same period.
The total does not reflect the thousands of decisions made by persons hearing and seeing Graham on radio and television. They also do not include single meetings Mr. Graham addressed during the two years of his crusades in 1947–1949.
—Information supplied through Mr. Roque Tan
5866 So Little Time
So little time! The harvest will be over,
Our reaping done, we reapers taken home.
Report our work to Jesus, Lord of Harvest,
And hope He’ll smile and say, “Well done!”
How many times I should have strongly pleaded;
How often did I feel to strictly warn,
The Spirit moved, oh, had I pled for Jesus!
The grain is fallen, lost ones not reborn.
Despite the heat, the ceaseless toil, the hardship,
The broken heart o’er those we cannot win;
Misunderstood because we’re oft peculiar,
Still no regrets we’ll have but for our sin.
A day of pleasure, or a feast of friendship;
A house or car or garments, lair or fame,
Will all be trash, when souls are brought to Heaven.
And then how sad to face the slackers’ blame!
The harvest white, with reapers few is wasting
And many souls will die and never know
The love of Christ, the joy of sins forgiven.
Oh let us weep and love and pray and go!
Today we reap, or miss our golden harvest!
Today is given us lost souls to win.
Oh then to save some dear ones from the burning.
Today we’ll go to bring some sinner in.
—John R. Rice
5867 Epigram On Soul Winning
• Go for souls, and go for the worse.
SOUL-WINNING STORIES
5868 He Tapped Stranger By Mistake
One day, as Felix Neff, the Swiss reformer, was walking in a street in the city of Lausanne, he saw at a distance a man whom he took for one of his friends. He ran behind him, tapped him on the shoulder before looking him in the face, and asked him, “What is the state of your soul, my friend?” The stranger turned: Neff perceived his error, apologized, and went his way.
Some three or four years after, a man came indebted to him for a great kindness. Neff did not recognize him, and begged him to explain. The stranger replied: “Have you forgotten an unknown person, whose shoulder you touched in the street in Lausanne, asking him, “What is the state of your soul?” It was I. Your question led me to serious reflection. Now I find it is well with my soul.”
5869 Spurgeon Tests The Acoustics
Charles Spurgeon, once while testing acoustics in Agricultural Hall in London, rang out over the empty building, “Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world!” A workman up in the ceiling heard the message, was convicted, went home, knelt before the Lord and found salvation.
5870 Young Moody And His Crowd
One Sunday morning, in 1856, a congregation of well-dressed people had been ushered to their rented pews in Chicago’s Plymouth Congregation Church. Suddenly there was commotion near the door. Many turned and looked. Something occurred which had never before been seen by that elite congregation.
In walked a young man—a nineteen-year-old salesman. Following him was a motley group of tramps, slum people and alcoholics. The young man led them into four pews he had personally rented for the visitors. He continued to do this important work each Sunday until God called him into a worldwide ministry. You ask the name of that young man?—Dwight L. Moody.
—Selected
5871 Comparing Two Pictures
Mr. Moody tells of one day seeing a steel-engraving which pleased him very much. He says: “I thought it was the finest thing I had ever seen, at the time, and I bought it.” It was the picture of a man floundering in the water and clinging with both hands to the Cross of Refuge. “But afterward,” he goes on to say, “I saw another picture which spoiled this one for me entirely—it was so much more lovely. It was a picture of a person coming out of the dark waters with one arm clinging to the Cross, but with the other she was lifting someone else out of the waves.”
—Sunday
5872 Moody’s Sunday School Teacher
When Dwight L. Moody, as a teenage boy, went to work for his uncle in his shoestore he was, according to agreement, enrolled in the Young Men’s Bible Class at Mount Vernon Church, which was taught by Edward Kimball. There was one Sunday-school teacher who felt the importance of his work.
He went to the store, hunted up the newcomer, put his hand on Dwight’s shoulder and said, “I’m concerned for you.” His lips trembled and he could say no more, but when he was gone the boy said to himself, “Now this is strange! Here is a man who has known me only two weeks, and he is concerned about my soul! I guess it’s time I was concerned about myself.”
Straightway young Moody went down into the basement, knelt behind some empty boxes, and gave himself to Christ. So easy was it to win this princely soul-winner to Jesus!
—Preacher’s Magazine
5873 To Mind The Other’s Horse
D. L. Moody tells of a wealthy young London banker who was not fitted to be a soul-winner, yet wanted to do something for his Master. He hired an aged cabby, and offered to pay his usual fare and tend his horse while he went to hear Moody preach.
For two hours the Christian gave a silent testimony outside, while the old man heard the glad tidings inside. If you cannot do great things, you can at least mind a horse!
—The Bible Friend
5874 Harper Was Still Pleading
John Harper, the newly-called pastor of Moody Church in the early 1900s, manifested his Christian character in the sinking of the Titanic. Dr. W. B. Riley related the death of Harper.
“We have the history of John Harper’s end, for survivors, brought to harbor in safety, told the same. When the Titanic was struck by the iceberg that drove in her sides, and sent the ship to the bottom, John Harper was leaning against the rail pleading with a young man to come to Christ. … ”
—Ministers’ Research Service
5875 Harper’s Last Convert
Four years after the Titanic went down, a young Scotchman rose in a meeting in Hamilton, Can., and said, “I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. John Harper, of Glasgow, on a piece of wreck near me. “Man,” he said, “are you saved?” “No,” I said, “I am not.” He replied, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
“The waves bore him away; but, strange to say brought him back a little later, and he said, “Are you saved now?” “No,” I said, “I cannot honestly say that I am.” He said again, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” and shortly after he went down; and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert.”
—quilla Webb
5876 Gladstone’s More Important Work
At No. 10 Downing Street, London, early one morning, a timid knock called William Gladstone from the writing of an important speech he was to deliver that day in Parliament. Standing at the door was a boy. Mr. Gladstone had won the friendship and confidence of the boy by little deeds of kindness. Said the boy, “Mr. Gladstone, my brother is dying. Won’t you please come and show him the way to heaven?”
Leaving his own important work for the most important work any Christian can do, Gladstone soon arrived at the bedside of the dying boy. In a matter of moments, the little fellow was rejoicing in his newly-found Savior! Returning to his office, Gladstone wrote at the bottom of the speech he was preparing, “I am the happiest man in London, England, today!”
—Walter B. Knight
5877 “Thank You, John Broadus”
A beautiful story is told of Dr. John A. Broadus, the scholar and homiletical professor. In his younger days he was converted to Christ in the town in which he lived. Next day he went to one of his schoolmates, Sandy Jones, a red-haired, awkward chap, and said to him, “I wish you would be a Christian; won’t you?” And Sandy said: “Well, I don’t know. Perhaps I will.” And sure enough after a while, one night in the little church, Sandy Jones accepted Christ. Straightway he stalked across the little meeting house, held out his hand, and said, “I thank you, John; I thank you, John.”
Dr. Broadus went forth from that little town and became a great scholar, a great exegete and theological president. Every summer when he went home (and he hardly missed a year) this awkward, red-haired old farmer, in his plain clothes, with red sand on his boots, would come up, stick out his great, bony hand, and say, “Howdy, John, I never forgot you, John.”
And they say that when Broadus lay dying with his family about him, he said: “I rather think the sound sweetest to my ears in Heaven, next to the welcome of Him whom not having seen, I have tried to love and serve, will be the welcome of Sandy Jones, as he will thrust out his great hand and say, “Howdy, John! Thank you, John.””
—Watchman-Examiner
5878 Gypsy’s Trousers’ Worn Knees
The late Gypsy Smith used to tell the story of the conversion of his Uncle Rodney. Among gypsies, it was not considered proper for a child to address his elders unless spoken to. This would be doubly true if a child spoke to an elder on spiritual matters. So young Gypsy prayed and waited for his opportunity. One day, the lad’s uncle took note of Gypsy’s worn trousers. “Laddie,” said Uncle Rodney, “How do you account for the fact that the knees of your trousers have worn nearly through, while the rest of the suit is almost like new?”
“I have worn the knees through praying for you, Uncle Rodney,” the boy answered. Then he added, tearfully, “I want so much to have God make you a Christian!” Uncle Rodney put his arm around Gypsy in fatherly embrace, and a few moments later fell on his knees, confessing Christ as his Saviour!
—Al Bryant
5879 Information Plus
One of the striking sayings of the late Dr. A. J. Gordon was that the Christian is not to stand in the world and witness to Christ, but to stand in Christ and witness to the world.
One such witness, a few evenings ago, had just alighted from his car to open his garage when he was accosted by a stranger who asked him for direction to a certain locality. The information was quickly given, but ere the stranger could get away the Lord’s messenger added: “Brother, before you go we may never meet again, and I should like to ask you, “Have you a personal interest in the Lord Jesus Christ?”” “No,” replied the stranger, “but I would like to have!”
Here in the semi-darkness of the street of one of our great cities a brief conversation took place, two heads were uncovered, and a soul was introduced to Jesus Christ and definitely accepted Him as his own personal Saviour. Had the brief question not been asked, the individual would have gone on his way, perhaps never to meet the Lord except at judgment.
—Alliance Weekly
5880 Drummond Winning His Friend
Henry Drummond used to tell of a student in Edinburgh University whose nights were spent in drunken orgies. Yet he was a man worth saving. He was a noted athlete in the varsity sports, but his manhood was running to waste through dissipation. One of Drummond’s converts, a young refined student, went to him and asked permission to share his room.
For six months the two men lived together, an incongruous couple. The young man put up with the uncleanness and coarseness of his comrade, sat up for him nights, and gave him the ministry of Christian friendship. In the end, by the grace of God, he was won. That drunken medical student became one of Drummond’s strongest workers in the university. Later he went to South Africa, a consecrated Christian man, redeemed. But how? That is the ministry possible for the humblest Christian.
—Donald S. Mackay
5881 “I Hate The Devil”
Oswald Chambers visited America in 1907. In one of his letters written at that time he tells the following story:
“The other day Brother Arthur Green was walking down a street in Cincinnati, a street like our Strand, and he shouted out at the top of his voice, “I hate the devil,” and I yelled out after him, “So do I.” A man came up to us with tears in his eyes and asked us the way of salvation; we pointed him to the Lord. Oh, these delightful unconventional ways suit me down to the ground.”
5882 Over The Stamp Album
Dr. John Timothy Stone tells of how in his boyhood he won his chum to Jesus Christ: “We were trading postage stamps together in the little hall bedroom which I occupied in my father’s home. In the Albany, Y.M.C.A. rooms, at 20 North Pearl Street, a few of us boys had listened to older ones talk of the blessing of personal work, and had resolved we would try to win some of our boy friends to Christ. How well I remember that night. My sisters and some of their friends were having a good time downstairs and once or twice called for us to come down. We kept on trading stamps until, at last, I plucked up enough courage to say to my friend, “Jim, why don’t you become a Christian?” If I had hurled the stamp album out of the window he would not have been more surprised.
“I know my voice trembled and that what I said did not amount to anything. The verses which I quoted were not exactly right in my embarrassment, but he saw my heart, and God honored the effort, and there in that little room two of us boys in knee trousers asked the Lord Jesus Christ to help us live aright, and he gave his heart to Christ.
“Later he became an honored worker in one of the Baptist churches and now, in a distant city, he still works in his home, loving the same Lord and ever growing nearer into His likeness.”
—The Epworth Herald
5883 From Mother To Grandfather
Gypsy Smith pointed a boy to the Lord Jesus who died on the Cross in his place and in his stead. After a while the lad said: “I think I see it—first you bring yourself to Jesus; then you leave yourself with Jesus, and keep going on.”
“Yes, that’s it,” said Gypsy Smith, and the lad went away rejoicing in his new-found Saviour. The next night the evangelist found him in the inquiry-room again, his eyes shining like stars.
“Why Sonny, Gypsy Smith said: “I thought you received Jesus as your Saviour last night!”
“So I did,” was the bright reply. “Then why are you here again tonight?”
“I came to bring my mother,” was the simple answer. The next night the same boy was in the inquiry-room once more.
“What brings you here tonight, Sonny?” inquired Gypsy.
“Oh, I came tonight to bring my Grandfather,” was the reply.
So three generations were won because a little boy, who found the Saviour, became a personal worker in his own home.
—Gospel Herald
5884 Refired Leaders
Dr. Len G. Broughton tells of a minister, who called his leaders together and said that he was about to resign his ministry at that church, because he had seen no more converted for a considerable period. They begged him to stay, and pointed out how edified they were by his preaching. “Edified for what?” he asked. Turning to one leader he asked him if he had ever led a soul to Christ. “No,” was the answer, so the question was put to the next with the same result, and the next again.
Finally the minister got all the members at the meeting to promise that they also would resign with him, if within a short period they personally led no one to Christ. On Monday morning one leader began with his confidential clerk, and by the next Sunday he had eleven saved men with him in church for company. The rest of the meeting brought the tally up to thirty.
—The United Methodist
5885 The Steeple Call
“Yes, I want to come into the church; I have been wanting to come for fifteen years,” a woman said to the minister when he urged her to confess Christ at the next Communion. “But I’m waiting for Jim. You know he’s a good man, yet he doesn’t have much use for the church, or—for preachers. He tells me to go ahead, and not wait for him.”
As the minister left, he said, “Please remember me to Mr. B—when he comes home. Tell him I hope to have a good talk with him soon.” A few weeks later he met Mrs. B—once more. “Jim made me promise to tell you something for him,” she said much embarrassed. “He says if you want to see him so much you will just have to go where he is.” “And where is that?” was the inquiry. “Hadn’t you better wait a few days before going to him? You see, today he’s working on the steeple of the new church.” The minister was challenged to go where Jim was. So he climbed ladder after ladder until he found a much-surprised man. A few minutes were spent in very satisfactory conversation.
The next Sunday, Jim became a member of the church his wife had already joined. His friends wondered at the change in his life, but the only explanation he would give was this, “The preacher who’ll climb two hundred feet of ladder to call on me can have me every time!”
—Charles Trumbull
5886 How Scofield Got Saved
You can never tell what God may do with a Gospel witness. Many years ago in St. Louis a Christian man was completing some business with a lawyer. Before leaving the office, the Christian turned to the lawyer and said:
“I have often wanted to ask you a question, but I have been a coward.” The lawyer was surprised. “I didn’t think you were afraid of anything!” he said. “What is the question?”
The client replied: “Why aren’t you a Christian?”
The lawyer hung his head. “You know my weakness,” he said. “Isn’t there something in the Bible about drunkards having no part in the kingdom of God?”
Not to be detoured, the Christian said, “That’s not what I’m asking you. I want to know why you aren’t a Christian.”
“Well,” said the lawyer, “I can’t recall that anybody asked me, and I’m sure nobody ever told me how to become a Christian!”
Before long, the two were praying together, and God moved into that lawyer’s life. He saved him and immediately broke the power of drink that had bound him.
That lawyer was Cyrus. L. Scofield, who later edited the famous Scofield Reference Bible, the most widely-used study Bible in the World.
—The Bible Friend
5887 The Ex-President Stayed
A few years ago a young man in Indianapolis was heard to say that he had intellectual difficulties about the faith of Christians. A prominent layman of the city heard of this and got his address. That evening he went to the young man’s boarding house and in his hall bedroom sat down to talk about the gospel with him. One difficulty after another faded away.
At last he got on his knees by the young man and prayed for him. Then he turned to him and asked: “Won’t you surrender to Christ, now and here?” And the young man said: “I will.” That layman went to his pastor and told the story, and said: “I have had many thrilling experiences, but that one outranks them all.”
The man who stayed in that hall bedroom with a strange, young man till 1 o’clock in the morning was Benjamin Harrison, ex-President of the United States.
5888 Rader Just in Time
Paul Rader had urged a banker in New York many times to receive Christ, but he did not respond. One day the preacher sensed that God wanted him to go immediately and speak to this man again. Obediently he took a train and went with all speed to the town where the man lived. He hurried to the bank and found his friend standing in the doorway. “Rader,” he said, “I’m glad to see you! I wrote a telegram begging you to come, but later changed my mind and didn’t send it.”
“That’s all right,” said the evangelist, “your message came through anyhow by way of Heaven.” Under deep conviction of sin, the banker was impressed by Rader’s earnestness and his special effort to reach him with the Gospel, and that same hour he accepted the Lord. Suddenly the banker gave a strange gasp and fell into the evangelist’s arms—DEAD! He had been saved on the very brink of eternity.
What if Paul Rader had delayed or failed to stress the urgent need of turning to the Lord immediately? Do you have a soul-winner’s heart?
—H. G. Bosch
5889 Contractor Stops His Project
I was in revival services in Amarillo, Texas, years ago in a little Baptist church. A contractor got converted. He was building two houses, and had two big crews of men. We were having morning services at ten o’clock. Do you know what he did?
He went around to these houses and said to all those carpenters, plumbers, and painters, “Boys, we are having a meeting down at the church.” Then he said some good things about the preacher, and said: “I want you to hear him. I will tell you what we will do. Nobody will work on my job here from ten to eleven o’clock. We are all going down to the church on my time.” One man said: “I do not care to go to church. I’ll stay here and work.” “No,” the converted man said, “nobody is going to work on my job while the preacher is down in my church trying to have a revival. We are all going down there.”
So they came in their overalls, and some of them got converted. You know if you really break up a business or break up a roof—if you really go to breaking up things for Jesus—you can have a revival.
—Sword of the Lord
5890 How Col. Clarke Conquers
One of the mightiest soul-winners I ever knew was Colonel Clarke of Chicago. He would work at his business six days a week that he might keep his mission open seven nights every week. Every night in the week around five or six hundred men would gather together in that mission hall. It was a motley crowd: drunkards, thieves, pickpockets, gamblers and everything that was hopeless. I used to go and hear Colonel Clarke talk, and he seemed to me one of the dullest talkers I ever heard in my life. He would ramble along, and yet these men would lean over and listen spellbound while Colonel Clarke talked in his prosy way.
Some of the greatest preachers in Chicago used to go down to help Colonel Clarke, but the men would not listen to them as they did to Colonel Clarke. When he was speaking, they would lean over and listen and be converted by the score. I could not understand it. I studied it and wondered what the secret was. Why did these men listen with such interest, and why were they so greatly moved by such prosy talking? I found the secret. It was because they knew that Colonel Clarke loved them, and nothing conquers like love. The tears were very near the surface with Colonel Clarke.
Once in the early days of the mission when he had been weeping a great deal over these men, he got ashamed of his tears. He steeled his heart and tried to stop his crying, and succeeded, but he lost his power. He saw that his power was gone and he went to God: “Oh, God, give me back my tears,” God gave him back his tears, and wonderful power over these men.
5891 Unusual Service in Cemetery
When Orvil Reid, a Southern Baptist missionary to Mexico, was a youthful minister, one of his relatives died. The cemetery was far away from the place of the funeral service.
As they proceeded to the cemetery, they found to their surprise that the grave-diggers had struck rock in digging and the opening was not half completed. Some of the mourners therefore helped the weary workmen while others rested or lingered under some shade trees to wait.
Mr. Reid did an unusual thing. He recognized the God-given opportunity, and timidly suggested if he could conduct a brief religious service under the trees. Of course nobody refused. In simple language, he told of Christ’s death and resurrection. And then gave an invitation. Eleven grown men, including his grandfather, came forward.
Think of it; 11 men saved because a grave was not fully dug and a young preacher was so unorthodox as to seize the opportunity.
5892 They Called Him “Nick”
Nick Nicopolis was his name. But it wasn’t the name that set this man apart—that made such an impression on me. Then as for his business—selling hats—it was located close by a busy corner in San Bernardino, California. But the business wasn’t the striking feature.
I remember going to Nick’s store about nine o’clock one morning. The front door was open as usual. A rather subdued “hellow, Nick” brought no response and investigation of the store, including the rear room, produced no one. I half-expected someone to come in and cart off the cash register—hats certainly would be a poor thing to steal.
Later, walked in Nick with another man. Not wanting to interrupt their conversation I remained in my spot. For the next fifteen minutes or so I watched as two more men dropped into the store, and heard more “Praise the Lord” expressions than I had in all my previous Christian experience. These three men, each a friend of Nick, but not knowing the other, were on their way from one place of Christian service to another and each had stopped by to say “Hello, Nick! Praise the Lord.” As I sat there listening and observing, it began to become very plain to me that here was a businessman whose store was a church and whose counter was an altar. A business run for but one purpose, that Jesus Christ truly might be glorified.
And because he did just that, he became one of the most outstanding men I had ever met, and became more outstanding to the many who entered his shop to do hat business, but went away with a heart transaction. For few were the days that Nick did not take someone to the room in the back of the store and there kneel with him before God as another human being experienced what the Bible terms, the “new birth.”
—Rev. Dale
5893 Zeoli The Prison Convert
Anthony Zeoli, though a Roman Catholic, faithful in attendance at Mass, was also a dope fiend and all-around crook who would pick the pockets of his kneeling fellow-worshipers. He says, “I used to pray morning and night. I would not pull off a job with any other criminal except I first prayed about it. I would tell my pals to pray before we robbed a house. When they said they knew no prayer I told them the prayer to pray.”
Zeoli’s career as gangster and gunman in the Philadelphia underworld brought him finally to prison. There a New Testament fell into his hands, which two colored youths, also converts, expounded to him. As a result, he fell on his knees, crying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” It was a fresh illustration of divine mercy, for in a moment the old life and its appetites passed away forever, and Convict 9924 was a new creature in Christ Jesus.
The next day he went into the prison yard to preach the Gospel, and the first person he met was the prison chaplain. “I asked him why he didn’t tell the prisoners about Jesus and how to get rid of sin. I started immediately to witness to all the convicts, 1,600 of them, and most of all to my companion in crime.” The latter was obstinate and refused. Both he and Zeoli left prison at the same time, one to die of an overdose of dope, and the other to become a flaming evangelist.
—Sunday School Times
5894 Chaplain Over The Lions
Big Gus Braun, president of the world’s largest hinge manufacturing company, picked up his Bible and spoke directly to the committee from the Lions’ Club in Cicero, Illinois. “Gentlemen, if you’ll show me how I can serve God by joining your club, then I’ll join.”
The spokesman for the committee replied, “That’s a strange condition, Gus. We’ll think about it and come back.”
Three weeks later they were back. “Gus, we’ve created a new post for you. We’d like for you to become chaplain.”
Gus Braun leaned forward in his thick leather chair. He spoke resolutely. “I’ll accept but only if I can be chaplain to all the fellows—Protestant, Catholic and Jew.”
August Braun became chaplain of the Cicero, Illinois, Lions’ Club over ten years ago. He leads in prayer before every meeting and often brings a short devotional talk. Visiting speakers are advised by other members to tell “clean jokes, for the chaplain is here.”
His fellow Lions most appreciate his personal ministry when he visits them at home and in the hospital. One night he was called to visit a member of the club who had suffered a stroke. Gus talked to the sick man for a few moments about Christ’s invitation to trust Him. Then the man prayed, “Dear Jesus, Gus here tells me I can talk to You direct. You know how bad I am. I’m not happy. Please come in and give me what Gus has got.”
—Selected
5895 Astronauts’ Guiding Principles
When Apollo 8 was returning from the moon to the earth, NASA asked which one of the astronauts was guiding the capsule. The reply was immediate: “Sir Isaac Newton!” It was true, for the laws discovered by this committed Christian nearly three hundred years ago have made space flights possible.
But even more strangely, we have—on the whole—neglected the Biblical laws of evangelism and personal living.
—Charles Ludwig
NEGLECT OF SOUL-WINNING
5896 Keeping The Aquarium
Dr. Kermit Long says, “With all our education, our fine buildings, our image of the church, we are doing less to win people to Christ than our unschooled forefathers did. We’re no longer fishers of men, but keepers of the aquarium, and we spend most of our time swiping fish from each other’s bowl.”
—Christian Victory
5897 Deceit In Isle Of Man
In the Isle of Man, as I was one day walking on the seashore, I remember contemplating, with thrilling interest, an old gray ruined tower covered with ivy. There is a remarkable history connected with that spot. In that tower was hanged one of the best governors the island ever possessed. He had been accused of treachery to the king during the time of the Civil Wars, and received sentence of death. Intercession was made on his behalf, and a pardon was sent; but that pardon fell into the hands of his bitter enemy, who kept it locked up, and the governor was hanged.
—Selected
5898 Too Late For Restaurant Waiter
I had heard this and read it before, but I ran across the other day this brief but tragic story as told by Dr. R. A. Torrey:
One evening when Mr. Alexander and I were in Brighton, England, one of the workers went from the afternoon meeting to a restaurant for his evening meal. His attention was drawn toward the man who waited upon him, and there came to his heart a strong impression that he should speak to that waiter about his soul, but that seemed to him such an unusual thing to do that he kept putting it off.
When the meal was ended and the bill paid, he stepped out of the restaurant, but had such a feeling that he should speak to that waiter that he decided to wait outside until the waiter came out. In a little while the proprietor came out and asked him why he was waiting. He replied that he was waiting to speak with the man who had waited upon him at the table. The proprietor replied, “You will never speak to that man again. After waiting upon you he went to his room and shot himself.” Oh, men and women, there are opportunities open to every one of us tonight that will be gone, and gone forever, before another day dawns. The time is short!
—Selected
5899 The Earl’s Undelivered Message
Robert Devereux, the second earl of Essex, was greatly admired by Queen Elizabeth I. If the queen loved any man, it was he. She gave him a ring and said, “If ever you are in trouble, send this ring to me, and your request will be granted.” In time they quarreled, and, in anger, she struck him.
Soon he left England. When he returned, he was arrested, charged with treason, and sentenced to death. At first he was too proud to ask the queen for mercy. But when the time for his execution drew near, he sent the ring to her by a countess and asked for mercy.
For unknown reasons, the countess failed to deliver the ring and convey his request. The earl was executed!
We’ve a story to tell to the nations. Let us not be remiss in telling it.
5900 Letter Was Still In Coat Pocket
A young man had been appointed by the Foreign Mission Board to go to Africa. The thrill was dampened by just one thing. The girl who had been his sweetheart through the years would not marry him if he accepted the appointment. To all of his pleas and reasoning, her answer was a definite no. One month before the time he was to sail he decided to write her one more letter. He hoped something had happened to change her mind. After he wrote it, he added a postscript which read: “If this letter has made you miserable, just throw it in the wastebasket and don’t answer it.”
Something had happened, and with a joyous heart she wrote and told him in a dozen different ways she loved him enough to go to the end of the world with him. When she started to the post office to mail it, however, she found it was raining so hard she hesitated, then told her younger brother she would give him a quarter if he would run and mail it. Anxiously she watched for a wire or a letter.
None came. The months dragged by on leaden feet and she learned that he had gone without her. Years later, when the family was moving to another house, she found an old coat that belonged to her brother. In a pocket was her letter.
5901 Hayes’ Red-Light Exhibit
Evangelistic worker James Hayes didn’t stand on a box and preach hellfire-and-damnation at the fair in Carroll County, Maryland, but he got the point across anyway—through modern technology. Hayes, who managed an evangelistic booth at the fair, administered an electronic test to the curious who visited the booth. The test consisted of five questions on the New Testament. If all were answered correctly, sky-blue lights came on spelling “Heaven.” If there was one wrong answer, fiery, red lights flashed the word “Hell,” ending the test.
Only twenty out of 220 persons passed the test, Hayes told Washington Star reporter William F. Willoughby. That means a lot of people are going to hell, he commented. Willoughby suggested that maybe God isn’t using the same computer.
5902 Insurance Company’s Neglect
A great life insurance company in New York invited all its agents throughout the country to a conference in New York, and while in attendance one of the agents from the West insured the barber, the elevator man, and a waiter in the restaurant, all of whom had been employed for years by the insurance company in its great building. No one had thought to offer policies to these men in the home office building! Exactly so. That is the reason the professional evangelist sweeps in so many; he simply improves the chance that has been there all the time. But why must we wait for him?
—Sunday School Times
5903 Two Out Of 45 Salesmen
The average insurance agent makes forty-five weekly calls on prospects. Only fifteen listen to him. Of those fifteen, only two put their names on “the dotted line.”
“If an insurance agent calls on forty-five people and sells only two policies, should soul winners be discouraged if they make a thousand calls, and bring only one soul to Jesus? Never!”
—Stanley Tam
5904 The Persistent Salesmen
A survey made by the National Retail Dry Goods Association reveals the following results:
48% of the salesmen make one call and quit; 25% make two calls and quit; 15% make three calls and quit; that shows that 88% of the salesmen quit after making one, two or three new calls.
But 12% keep on calling. They do 80% of the business.
The 88% who quit after the first, second, or third calls do only 20% of the business.
5905 Mistakes Or Neglect
At the close of a meeting, a critic approached Mr. Moody, the great evangelist, and said: “Mr. Moody, during your address this evening I counted eighteen mistakes in your English.”
Looking at his critic, Mr. Moody said: “Young man, I am using to the glory of God all the grammar that I know. Are you doing the same?”
5906 Ashamed Of Jesus
Jesus, and shall it ever be,
A mortal man ashamed of Thee?
Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise,
Whose glories shine through endless days?
Ashamed of Jesus! sooner far
Let evening blush to own a star;
He sheds the beams of light divine
O’er this benighted soul of mine.
Ashamed of Jesus! that dear Friend
On whom my hopes of heaven depend!
No; when I blush, be this my shame,
That I no more revere His name.
Ashamed of Jesus! yes, I may,
When I’ve no guilt to wash away;
No tear to wipe, no good to crave,
No fears to quell, no soul to save.
Till then, nor is my boasting vain,
Till then I boast a Savior slain;
And O, may this my glory be,
That Christ is not ashamed of me!
—Joseph Grigg
5907 Trotzky’s Case
Leon Trotzky was in frequent contact with Christians in New York in his youth and young manhood—but no one ever tried to win him for Christ.
See also: Missions ; Preacher ; Witnessing.