^JA!J^3 1526^ 
 %OGICALSt^ 
 
 1949. 
 The book of personal work 
 
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THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
By JOHN T. FARIS, D.D. 
 
 THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 THE BOOK OF FAITH IN GOD 
 
 THE BOOK OF ANSWERED 
 PRAYER 
 
 THE BOOK OF GOD'S PROVI- 
 DENCE 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. J. R. MILLER 
 
 NEW YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
^^^ 
 
 THE BOOK 
 PERSONAL WO 
 
 OAK 23 1 
 lALSt 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN T.^ PARIS, D.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF *'THK LIFE OF DR. J. R. MILLER," *' THE BOOK OF FAITH IN 
 GOD," **THE BOOK OF ANSWERED PRAYER," ETC. 
 
 HODDER & STOUGHTON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
Copyright, 1916 
 BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITBD STATES OF AMERICA 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Those who expect to find in *' The Book of Per- 
 sonal Work " a discussion of the principles of success- 
 ful soul winning or a list of texts of Scripture to be 
 used in the work will be disappointed. It is a book of 
 concrete instances of soul winning. The reader is left 
 to deduce principles from the narratives, if he desires 
 to do so. 
 
 Many of the incidents related herein were told to 
 the author by friends who have given permission for 
 their inclusion in the volume. For the privilege of 
 using others he is indebted to the publishers of vol- 
 umes to which reference is made on page 321. Special 
 acknowledgment is made of the kindness of the editors 
 of The Christian Endeavor World and The Sunday 
 School Times for leave to tell stirring stories of soul 
 winners which appeared first in these papers. 
 
 It has been the author's purpose not to include in 
 the volume incidents which have found place in any 
 similar volume. 
 
 John T. Paris. 
 
 Philadelphia, 19 16. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 ONE : IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 I. Five Hints for Soul Winners 19 
 
 11. The Right to Serve 22 
 
 III. Magnetized for Christ 24 
 
 IV. At Boiling Point 28 
 
 V. A Glorious Partnership 32 
 
 VI. When Hardship Becomes Joy 37 
 
 VII. The Result of Confident Testimony 41 
 
 TWO : UNWILLING. 
 
 VIII. Learning His Lesson 45 
 
 IX. At Both Ends of the Line 48 
 
 X. God Showed the Way 51 
 
 XI. The Word Was not Spoken 53 
 
 XII. The Man Another Won 55 
 
 THREE: MAKING A BEGINNING. 
 
 XIIL Her Hunger Satisfied 61 
 
 XIV. After Twenty Years 67 
 
 XV. When His Eyes Were Opened 69 
 
 XVI. An Introduction 71 
 
 FOUR: UNASSUMING WORKERS. 
 
 XVn. He Won His Friend 'jy 
 
 XVIII. Finding Time for Service 80 
 
 XIX. Home Opportunities 85 
 
 XX. Overcoming Difficulties 89 
 
 7 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGB 
 
 FIVE: IN STRANGE PLACES. 
 
 XXI. On a Railroad Train 95 
 
 XXII. On the Base Ball Diamond 98 
 
 XXIII. On a Sailing Ship 100 
 
 XXIV. A Fellow Traveler's Word 102 
 
 XXV. What the Conductor Did 104 
 
 XXVI. Under the Palm Tree 107 
 
 XXVII. At the Top of the Steeple no 
 
 SIX : WINNING UNLIKELY PEOPLE. 
 
 XXVIII. He Won the Watchman 115 
 
 XXIX. Out Into the Sunlight 117 
 
 XXX. Getting Close to Others 123 
 
 XXXI. Ten Minutes with a Corrupt Mayor 126 
 
 XXXII. The Saloon Keeper Who Sneered 128 
 
 XXXIII. An Exchange of Tickets 131 
 
 XXXIV. The Cowboy's Response 133 
 
 SEVEN : THE WORD IN SEASON. 
 
 XXXV. Making a Fool of Himself 139 
 
 XXXVI. A Teacher's Effective Service 143 
 
 XXXVII. Why Was He Silent so Long? 145 
 
 XXXVIII. At Christ's Bidding 148 
 
 XXXIX. Among Business Associates 153 
 
 XL. Why He Laughed 156 
 
 XLI. Winning a Father 159 
 
 XLII. On the Stage Coach 161 
 
 XLIII. Getting a Starting Point 163 
 
 FIGHT: SOWING BESIDE ALL WATERS. 
 
 XLIV. What if She Had not Spoken? 169 
 
 XLV. Not Looking for Excuses 170 
 
 XLVI. Saved by a Word 174 
 
 XLVII. Leading a Patient to Christ - 177 
 
 XLVin. His Best Chance 180 
 
 XLIX. Serving by the Way 184 
 
 8 
 
CONTENTS . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 NINE: BY MEANS OF LETTERS. 
 
 L. By the Roadside 191 
 
 LI. Won by a Letter 194 
 
 LII. Won by Proxy 200 
 
 LIII. Out of the Depths 202 
 
 LIV. He Found Christ in the Trenches 206 
 
 TEN : HOW CHRIST'S KINGDOM GROWS. 
 
 LV. Among College Men 211 
 
 LVI. Team Work 216 
 
 LVII. A Church at Work 220 
 
 LVIII. The Making of a Christian Worker 224 
 
 ELEVEN : VARIOUS METHODS. 
 
 LJX. Five Soul Winners 233 
 
 LX. On the Lookout 235 
 
 LXI. The Road to Happiness 237 
 
 LXII. Finding the Way to His Heart 240 
 
 LXIII. One Gideon's Work for Young Men 242 
 
 TWELVE: HINTS FROM THE MISSION FIELD. 
 
 LXIV. Winning Men in China 249 
 
 LXV. Winning Fellow Workmen 252 
 
 LXVI. The Most Important Task 256 
 
 LXVII. Fishers of Men 258 
 
 LXVIII. A Jew's Work for Jews 260 
 
 THIRTEEN : SIX WITNESSES AT WORK. 
 
 LXIX. A Life of Personal Work 269 
 
 LXX. Winning Men by Holy Boldness 275 
 
 LXXL The Making of a Personal Worker 289 
 
 LXXII. Recruiting on the Prairies 297 
 
 LXXin. Passing on the Blessing 302 
 
 LXXIV. His Chief Business 307 
 
 CONCLUSION: 
 
 Counting Ourselves In 319 
 
 List of Books Cited 321 
 
 9 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 While making one of his earlier missionary tours 
 in China, J. Hudson Taylor was traveling on a river 
 boat in company with a Chinese friend whom he was 
 trying to lead to Christ. One evening he thought he 
 was to have the joy of success, but decision was post- 
 poned. Next morning, while in his cabin, Mr. Taylor 
 was startled by a cry and a splash from without. He 
 rushed on deck and found that his Chinese friend had 
 fallen overboard. 
 
 " The other men were all there looking helplessly 
 at the spot where he had disappeared, but making no 
 effort to save him," the missionary afterward wrote.^ 
 " A strong wind was carrying the junk rapidly 
 forward in spite of a steady current in the opposite 
 direction and the low-lying, shrubless shore afforded 
 no landmark to indicate how far we had left the 
 drowning man behind. 
 
 " I instantly let down the sail and leaped overboard 
 in the hope of finding him. Unsuccessful, I looked 
 around in agonizing suspense and saw close to me a 
 fishing-boat with a peculiar drag-net furnished with 
 hooks, which I knew would bring him up. 
 
 *'*Come!' I cried, as hope revived in my heart. 
 * Come and drag over this spot directly; a man is 
 drowning just here ! * 
 * In •• A Retrospect." 
 
 13 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 *' * Veh bin ' (It is not convenient), was the unfeel- 
 ing answer. 
 
 *' * Don't talk of convenience ! ' cried I, in an agony; 
 * a man is drowning, I tell you ! ' 
 
 *' ' We are busy fishing,' they responded, ' and can- 
 not come.' 
 
 '* * Never mind your fishing,' I said, ' I will give you 
 more money than many a day's fishing will bring; only 
 come — come at once ! ' 
 
 *' * How much money will you give us ? ' 
 
 " ' We cannot stay to discuss that now ! Come, or 
 it will be too late. I will give you five dollars' (then 
 worth about thirty shillings in English money). 
 
 " ' We won't do it for that,' replied the men. ' Give 
 us twenty dollars, and we will drag.' 
 
 " * I do not possess so much ; do come quickly, and 
 I will give you all I have ! ' 
 
 '' * How much may that be? * 
 
 " * I don't know exactly; about fourteen dollars.* 
 
 " At last, but even then slowly enough, the boat was 
 paddled over and the net let down. Less than a min- 
 ute sufficed to bring up the body of the missing man. 
 The fishermen were clamorous and indignant because 
 response to their exorbitant demand was delayed while 
 efforts at resuscitation were being made. But all was 
 in vain — Hfe was extinct." 
 
 The earnest missionary did not intend that his 
 readers should stop with thinking of the cold-blooded 
 indifference of the natives, for, after asking, *' Were 
 not those fishermen actually guilty of this poor China- 
 man's death, in that they had the means of saving him 
 at hand, if they would but have used them ? " he added : 
 
 14 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ** Let us pause ere we pronounce judgment against 
 them lest a greater than Nathan answer, ' Thou art the 
 man.' Is it so hard-hearted, so wicked a thing to neg- 
 lect to save the body? Of how much sorer punish- 
 ment, then, is he worthy who leaves the soul to perish, 
 and, Cain-like, says, ' Am I my brother's keeper? ' " 
 
 The answer to that question was given many cen- 
 turies ago by God himself. Speaking through Ezekiel 
 the prophet, he said : 
 
 " When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely 
 die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to 
 warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his 
 life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity : but 
 his blood will I require at thine hand." 
 
 15 
 
ONE 
 IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 17 
 
FIVE HINTS FOR SOUL WINNERS 
 
 T7 REQUENTLY a Christian hesitates to speak to 
 •*- a man a needed word of kindly rebuke and tes- 
 timony for Christ because he fears he will be misun- 
 derstood and will do more harm than good. Yet how 
 often the man who has delivered his message in spite 
 of his fears finds that it is received with courtesy, per- 
 haps even with gratitude. 
 
 A traveler in an unfrequented spot received great 
 kindness from a roadside acquaintance. The kind 
 man was most profane in his conversation. But pro- 
 fanity was ignored for a time, as the traveler was 
 loath to take exception to anything said by the way- 
 side Samaritan. At last he gathered courage, and 
 said : ** I hope you won't mind my saying it, for I'd 
 hate to give offense to a man who has been so good 
 to strangers as you have, but I wish you'd cut out that 
 cursing; it hurts my ears." For a moment the 
 stranger was silent. Then he said, humbly : " Maybe 
 you been kinder to me saying that, than I been to you. 
 That's the first time I ever been called down for curs- 
 ing. I'm going to try to cut it out." 
 
 It is always possible to deliver to others the message 
 God gives his followers for them. But there is a 
 courteous way and an ungracious way to deliver it. 
 What wonder if the ungracious delivery is resented? 
 
 19 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 One reason for the failure of so much of the testi- 
 mony for Christ given by his followers is the fact that 
 they seem to feel the necessity of using stilted lan- 
 guage when Christianity is the subject of conversation. 
 But the language that reaches the heart is not poly- 
 syllabic. 
 
 A mechanic complained to a friend that the Chris- 
 tians he knew would not use market language with 
 him. They did not make the gospel plain, so that 
 common men could pick it up; they fired over his 
 head. 
 
 A teacher has told of his failure to get close to peo- 
 ple till he trained himself to speak plainly. At last 
 came the day of success when he gathered the children 
 about him and asked, " What kin is God to you, and 
 what kin are you to God ? " The sequel is told by the 
 author of " In the Service of the King " : " More 
 than one mother told him afterwards that her child 
 came home all aglow to tell her the fact, now for the 
 first time really made his own, ' I am God's child.' 
 That word ' kin ' had unlocked the doors of heaven 
 for him." 
 
 How many doors have been unlocked by simplicity 
 in the presentation of truth! Jesus was a master in 
 the use of simple language that finds the way straight 
 to the heart. He put the gospel in the simplest possible 
 terms, using language that the most ignorant couldn't 
 misunderstand, and illustrations so familiar that they 
 seemed commonplace. Those who would have power 
 to mold lives for him must study his method, for men 
 are eager for a plain, straightforward presentation of 
 the essential things in Christian life and truth. 
 
FIVE HINTS FOR SOUL WINNERS 
 
 Proverbs are helpful forms of expression, but the 
 difficulty with so many of them is that they are only 
 half-truths, and a half-truth is as unsatisfactory in 
 an argument as half an umbrella in a driving rain. The 
 man who seeks refuge behind a half-truth exposes 
 himself to attack on every side. 
 
 A traveler, after arguing with a missionary as to 
 the folly of his work among the natives of India, 
 had recourse to the comfortable statement " We must 
 take people as we find them." Like a flash came the 
 reply : "I wish you would tell me how I could take 
 them any other way than as I find them; as I under- 
 stand it, we have got to take them as we find them, 
 but God help you and God help me if we leave them 
 as we find them ! It is our business to take them and 
 change them." 
 
 That reply is just as good in the mouth of a Chris- 
 tian at home as when spoken by a missionary. He is 
 surrounded by people who are difficult problems. Al- 
 ways he has to take them as he finds them. But he 
 does not have to leave them so. God's grace will 
 transform them. It is the Christian's privilege to put 
 himself in God's hands that God may use him in the 
 transformation. 
 
 21 
 
II 
 
 THE RIGHT TO SERVE 
 
 T T has been declared that one of the inalienable 
 -■■ rights of man is the pursuit of happiness, and 
 people are fond of quoting the expressive phrase. But 
 how many of those from whose lips the words fall so 
 easily stop to think that the surest road to happiness 
 is found by those who think of others more easily than 
 they think of themselves? 
 
 The story is told of a woman in a country town 
 who chose to attend a church twelve miles from her 
 home instead of the village church, where her mem- 
 bership was, because she felt that the spiritual atmos- 
 phere in the more distant church was superior. Yet — 
 so the story goes — when she left her own church she 
 left a class of boys without a teacher! To her the 
 right to the pursuit of happiness did not include the 
 right to serve. 
 
 The true view was expressed by the United States 
 Minister to China who, when asked by a native by 
 what right Christians go to China to teach their re- 
 ligion, replied : " The right to give others something 
 that is too good to keep." 
 
 This is the very lesson taught thousands of years 
 ago by the man who was not moved by the promise 
 that, if he would accompany the Israelites on their 
 journey to Canaan they would do him good, but was 
 
 22 
 
THE RIGHT TO SERVE 
 
 attracted by the assurance that he would be of great 
 assistance to the people if he would go with them. 
 He wanted to be of use. To him the right to happi- 
 ness meant, among other things, the right to serve. 
 
 Those who do not sympathize with Hobab have not 
 begun to understand the spirit of Him who was in the 
 world as one who serveth. The life that leaves out 
 service of others in the name of Christ is doomed to 
 failure. 
 
 23 
 
Ill 
 
 MAGNETIZED FOR CHRIST 
 
 TXT'HAT is the difference between a magnet and 
 ^^ an ordinary piece of steel? There is no 
 apparent difference — till they are tested. The steel is 
 powerless to attract other bits of metal, while the mag- 
 net has a power that seems almost uncanny to one who 
 is ignorant of what makes it different from other 
 steel. What accounts for the difference ? This is the 
 explanation given in Tyndall's " Electricity and Its 
 Similitudes " : 
 
 " Let ten boys pair off into five pairs and each one 
 clasp his mate in his arms; each one, say, is exerting 
 a force of ten pounds, and it will require a force of 
 twenty pounds to pull any one of the pairs apart. The 
 five pairs are exerting a force of a hundred pounds, 
 but this force is not felt outside of themselves. Now, 
 let them unclasp themselves and take hold of a rope 
 that is tied to a post and all pull with the same force 
 that they were using, ten pounds each, arid all pull in 
 the same direction, and they would pull a strain of one 
 hundred pounds upon the post, the same power they 
 were exerting in themselves before they combined 
 their efforts on something outside themselves." 
 
 Thus the secret of the powerlessness of the unmag- 
 netized steel and of the power of the magnet is exactly 
 illustrated. Before magnetization the molecules which 
 
 24 
 
MAGNETIZED FOR CHRIST 
 
 go to make up the steel are exerting force against 
 themselves, but when the steel is magnetized the mole- 
 cules unite their force and this is exerted on outside 
 objects. 
 
 Nearly nineteen hundred years ago a strange state- 
 ment was made by the people of Thessalonica, about 
 two visitors named Paul and Silas. These visitors 
 did not look so different from other men, but they 
 had not been in the city long before there was a cry 
 raised against them ; the city was threatened by " these 
 that have turned the world upside down." Who were 
 Paul and Silas, that this should be true of them? 
 What had they been doing? When Paul was called 
 Saul, he was not of sufficient importance to be known 
 very widely, and Silas was not at first a man of any 
 consequence. How did it come that these plain men 
 could cause such a commotion as their enemies de- 
 clared they were causing? Wherever they went they 
 were attracting men and women by telling them of 
 Jesus, and bringing them into close touch with God. 
 Then, inspired by the example of those who had at- 
 tracted them, these men and women were going out 
 and telling others what they had heard from the apos- 
 tles. The result of all this was such a powerful over- 
 turning as the world had never known. Now how ac- 
 count for this? The explanation is simple: The 
 Holy Spirit had taken possession of them. " Until 
 the Holy Spirit dwells within and is manifest through 
 one, he is quite likely to be so absorbed with himself 
 and his own interests that he is powerless. It is only 
 when we forget ourselves and suffer the Spirit so to 
 possess us that he shall turn out all our latent abilities 
 
 25 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 to ends outside ourselves, that we become spiritual 
 magnets, attracting and uplifting others by this power 
 that worketh in us." 
 
 Now it was the business of Paul and Silas to do all 
 they could to make powerful spiritual magnets of 
 other people, so that these might attract still others, 
 and thus help in the work of turning the world upside 
 down for Christ. Their method was to give messages 
 from the Bible and, if possible, to lead men to study 
 the Bible for themselves. In Thessalonica they had a 
 measure of success, but they were driven away. Then 
 they began work in Beroea, where they met with a 
 more favorable reception, for the people were more 
 open-minded, more ready to investigate what the apos- 
 tles had to say. They listened to the words of testi- 
 mony spoken by the apostles, then began to study the 
 Scriptures for themselves, searching out the messages 
 about Christ and his work, with the result that num- 
 bers gave themselves to him. These, having been 
 magnetized in turn, went out to tell others of Jesus 
 and urge them to study the Word that they might be- 
 lieve. 
 
 It was the power of the Spirit that made these early 
 Christians bold as they testified for Christ, and it is 
 the absence of spirituality in some modern Christians 
 that is responsible for their silence about Christ as they 
 go among their acquaintances. Once, when Mr. L. 
 D. Wishard was in Turkey, he asked an Armenian 
 priest, " Why has your church lost the enthusiasm for 
 souls that characterized it in the early centuries, when 
 its members were everywhere active in telling men of 
 Christ? " " We are not an educated people," was the 
 
 26 
 
MAGNETIZED FOR CHRIST 
 
 answer. '' What evidence have we that the early wit- 
 nesses who were so successful were educated men?" 
 again asked Mr. Wishard. The priest shifted his 
 ground. '' We have no railroad facilities as you have 
 in America, and so are handicapped in our work," he 
 said. '' What railroads did they have in the first cen- 
 tury?" Mr. Wishard persisted. Then the priest 
 owned up. " Ah, brother, those men had a relation 
 with God and the Holy Spirit which we do not have." 
 To-day God needs men and women who will help 
 to " turn the world upside down." There is just one 
 sure way, and it is such a simple way. We must let 
 the Holy Spirit make magnets of us as he did of Paul 
 and Silas and some of those in Thessalonica; we must 
 study the Scriptures with open minds, as the Beroeans 
 did. Then we must use our God-given magnetism 
 and our knowledge of the Scriptures for Him who 
 commissions us for his service. 
 
 27 
 
IV 
 AT BOILING POINT 
 
 A T what temperature does water boil ? But is two 
 ■^ ^ hundred and twelve degrees really necessary? 
 Surely water would boil if subjected long ei;iough to 
 a temperature of one hundred and fifty degrees, would 
 it not? No? Then one-hundred-and-fifty-degree 
 water cannot be of much use in doing the world's 
 work. O. S. Harden says : " Lukewarmness in his 
 work stands in the same relation to man's achieve- 
 ment as lukewarm water does to a locomotive boiler. 
 No one can hope to accomplish anything great in the 
 world until he throws his whole soul into it." Busi- 
 ness men have no use for lukewarm employees; they 
 want those whose energy and enthusiasm are always 
 at boiling point — the point where things are done. 
 
 Then isn't it reasonable to think that God wants 
 boiling-point Christians for his work? In fact, he 
 tells us that he cannot abide a lukewarm Christian 
 (Rev. 3: 15, 16). 
 
 That Paul and Barnabas were boiling-point men 
 would be certain if we could know of their life-story 
 only what is told in the fourteenth chapter of The 
 Acts. 
 
 For instance, take the manner of their speaking to 
 the people at Iconium. Two words tell the story: 
 *'so" (v. I) and "boldly" (v. 3). What a lot of 
 
 28 
 
AT BOILING POINT 
 
 fire there must have been back of their words to the 
 people to make these so convincing! 
 
 But how did they manage to keep always at boiling 
 point ? One would think that rough treatment by the 
 mob (v. 5), would dampen their ardor. One might 
 think so until he learns the secret told to Bunyan's 
 Pilgrim, in the House of the Interpreter. There he 
 saw " a fire burning against a wall, and one standing 
 by it, always casting much water upon it, to quench 
 it; yet did the fire burn higher and hotter." For, out 
 of sight, on the other side of the wall, One was always 
 pouring oil on the flames. That fire represents God's 
 work in the heart; the Devil, trying to put it out, is 
 outwitted by Christ as he pours in the oil of his grace. 
 
 So Paul and Barnabas did not have to keep them- 
 selves at boiling point; Christ was doing it for them. 
 They only let him have his way with them. That is 
 all Christ asks of any of us. 
 
 Later verses in the chapter show that the tempera- 
 ture of the apostles had not gone down a single 
 degree. From their persecutors they hurried away to 
 preach the gospel elsewhere. When they came to 
 Lystra, Paul spoke with such intense earnestness that 
 the impotent man believed his words and was ready 
 for the working of the miracle that changed his life. 
 
 Then came an unexpected difficulty that called for 
 all the boiling-point energy of both preachers. When 
 the people saw the miracle, they jumped to the conclu- 
 sion that Paul and Barnabas were gods, and they made 
 all their preparations to pay them divine honors. It 
 was no easy task to restrain them. Fortunately the 
 people were quieted. 
 
 29 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 But would it not have been better to let the excited 
 mob have its way ? What an opening would thus have 
 been presented for testifying for Christ! 
 
 So Paul and Barnabas might have argued. But 
 they did not do so. They knew that if they permitted 
 themselves, Christ's witnesses, to take the promi- 
 nent place offered them, their influence for good would 
 be destroyed. And they were there to tell of their 
 Saviour, not to be honored themselves, 
 
 Guido Verbeck, a modern missionary in Japan, once 
 had a similar problem. He had been decorated by the 
 Emperor of Japan for his great services to the people. 
 When he was about to speak in one city, he saw that 
 the fact of his decoration was advertised on the bill- 
 boards which announced the service. Instantly he 
 ordered the removal of the bills, and asked that noth- 
 ing be said of the honor he had received, for he was 
 there to speak of Christ, not to be gazed at as a man 
 of distinction. 
 
 Not long after the attempt of the people to worship 
 Paul and Barnabas, Jews came from Iconium, where 
 the apostles had been mistreated, and so stirred up 
 against them the people who had wished to worship 
 them as gods that they stoned Paul and left him for 
 dead. Yet he was soon able to rise and travel as if 
 nothing had happened. 
 
 It we had been among those standing about the 
 still form of Paul, and had seen him come to life again, 
 is it not likely that we would have felt like advising 
 him to hide from his enemies for a while, and to keep 
 still about Christ, for safety's sake? 
 
 Possibly there were those who gave some such ad- 
 
 30 
 
AT BOILING POINT 
 
 vice. But Paul was a boiling-point Christian, and he 
 went back into danger, going to the very towns where 
 he had been mobbed and continuing his work of tell- 
 ing men and women their need of Christ. The Devil's 
 water-pouring was not having the desired effect. Fire 
 fighters say that sometimes in a burning building the 
 heat is so intense that the water thrown on the flames 
 by the engines makes the fire burn more fiercely than 
 ever. So persecution was making the fire of Paul's 
 enthusiasm more intense. 
 
 When the first missionary journey came to an end, 
 and the apostles went to Antioch, what a thrilling 
 story they could tell of effective preaching, hair- 
 breadth escapes and terrible hardships ! No ; they for- 
 got all these things, and told of what God had done 
 with them, and of how God had used their words of 
 testimony for the truth to bring about the beginning 
 of the coming of the Gentiles into the Church. 
 
 Those who would do effective personal work must 
 be boiling-point Christians. Otherwise they will be 
 apt to give up when danger threatens, or will be so 
 conscious of themselves that their presentation of 
 Christ will be half-hearted. There is nothing the 
 Devil likes better than to bid one who is busied about 
 Christian work think, '' How well I am doing this ! 
 What a good impression I must be making I " The 
 motto of the Christian whom God delights to use must 
 be that of John the Baptist : " He must increase, but 
 I must decrease." 
 
 31 
 
A GLORIOUS PARTNERSHIP 
 
 'T^ HERE came a day in the course of the personal 
 -■- testimony of Paul and Silas for their Master 
 when the people of Philippi, enraged at their activity 
 for souls, thrust them into prison. Now if some of us 
 were in prison, put there because of some unjust accu- 
 sation, what would we be apt to be thinking about do- 
 ing when free? If one of us had been in the place of 
 Silas, Paul's companion in the Philippian jail, what 
 would have been said to Paul? ' In all probability, 
 something like this : " I say, Paul, what's the use 
 trying to help people? We haven't done a thing but 
 tell these people of Jesus, urge them to become his fol- 
 lowers and do his work; and now see what has hap- 
 pened to us! This morning when we saw that poor, 
 half-witted girl, what could we do but, in the name of 
 Christ, command the demon to come out of her ? And 
 who would have thought that her cure would stir up 
 such a rumpus? I suppose we might have expected 
 the sort of gratitude her employers showed; we might 
 have known that there are many people who will put 
 up with anything rather than have their pocketbooks 
 interfered with. Then, Paul, think how they dragged 
 us into the market place ! I can feel their rough hands 
 on me now! And how they lied about us to the 
 judges so that the order was given that we should be 
 
 32 
 
A GLORIOUS PARTNERSHIP 
 
 beaten with rods ! But that wasn't the worst. They 
 threw us into this prison, and told the jailer to guard 
 us well. 
 
 " Paul, wouldn't you like to get even with the 
 judges, the men who lied about us, and this jailer? 
 Not much chance of that, though ! The best thing we 
 can do when we get out of here is to slip off quietly 
 to a place where there isn't quite so much feeling 
 against Christians. Maybe we'd better say as little 
 as possible about Christ. We can go on believing, 
 without putting ourselves out by telling of Jesus to 
 people who don't want to hear. What do you say, 
 Paul?'* 
 
 Yes, if Silas had been like many modern Christians, 
 that is about what would have been said. And if Paul 
 had been a little less like Christ, he would have been 
 apt to tell Silas that his words were quite sensible. 
 
 But this is not what happened. Paul and Silas were 
 probably suffering torture from their wounds. Un- 
 able to sleep, they were making such good use of the 
 hours that they had no time to think of pain. They 
 were praying and singing. 
 
 We are not told the subject of their prayer. But 
 it is not likely that they spent much time praying for 
 themselves; there were too many others of whom they 
 were thinking. There were the people to whom they 
 had spoken about Christ. There was the young girl. 
 There were her masters, who had lied about them, 
 the judges who had sentenced them, the men who had 
 beaten them, the jailer who was keeping them safe, 
 and the prisoners who were round about. If they 
 stopped to pray for themselves, their petition was 
 
 33 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 probably that they might be strong to do more work 
 for God as soon as they were released. 
 
 And they sang praises to God who had given them 
 the privilege of suffering for him. What strange pris- 
 oners the others in the jail must have thought them! 
 Perhaps some of them were saying, *' If believing in 
 Jesus makes fellows act like that when they have been 
 so badly treated, it might be a good thing for us to 
 look into the Jesus doctrine ! " 
 
 Then came a still greater surprise — the earthquake, 
 the opened prison, and the failure of Paul and Silas 
 to escape. But these followers of Jesus had no time 
 to think of escaping; the jailer, for whom they had 
 none but the kindest thoughts, was about to take his 
 own life. Here was the chance for which they wished 
 — to speak for Christ to a man in need. 
 
 What a strange message theirs must have seemed 
 to the jailer ! He had never known the like in all his 
 experience — prisoners whom he had mistreated, anx- 
 ious about his safety! It was enough. If the salva- 
 tion these apostles had been telling about made such 
 men of them, he must have it for himself. He had 
 never felt his sins as at this moment, and he cried out, 
 " Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? " And there in 
 the broken prison, the light of the stars shining 
 through the crevices in the roof, the penitent jailer 
 was led to Christ. 
 
 Again the apostles had won a soul for the Master. 
 Prison bars could not keep them from his service, 
 any more than they were able to keep Peter and his 
 companion when they were thrown into the dungeon, 
 simply because they persisted in testifying for Jesus. 
 
 34 
 
A GLORIOUS PARTNERSHIP 
 
 Delivered from the prison by God's angel, they re- 
 newed their testimony. 
 
 When the priests learned of their boldness, they 
 sent for them and said to them words which brought 
 from the apostles a statement of the wonderful honor 
 that belongs to everyone who bears witness for Christ : 
 " We strictly charged you not to teach in this name," 
 was the message of the priests. The accused men did 
 not quail before the angry words, but answered 
 bravely, " We must obey God rather than men." 
 
 Then they explained what they meant by obeying 
 God. They had been commissioned by him as his 
 witnesses to tell of Christ's death and resurrection. 
 They were proud of this office, but prouder still of 
 their partnership in this work with the Holy Spirit. 
 " We are witnesses, and so is the Holy Spirit," they 
 said. 
 
 The opportunity for an honorable partnership 
 pleases those who are ambitious. All over the land 
 are young men working as clerks and assistants who 
 are looking forward eagerly to the day when they may 
 be invited to become partners in the houses by which 
 they are employed. Many of these ambitious young 
 men will never, perhaps, realize their dream. But 
 there is a far more honorable partnership open to 
 everyone. It is the partnership of which the apostles 
 proudly spoke. If we will, we may become partners 
 with the Holy Spirit in his work of witnessing for 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 What new attraction Christian work would have 
 if we should always remember that we are to do it 
 in partnership ! How hard things would become easy 
 
 35 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 and rough places smooth ! " James Jamieson and Part- 
 ner " — how does that look when each of us writes his 
 own name where that of James Jamieson stands, re- 
 membering that the partner is the Holy Spirit? We 
 want to be one in that partnership ! 
 
 36 
 
VI 
 WHEN HARDSHIP BECOMES JOY 
 
 UNTIL a Christian is filled so full of the desire to 
 bear witness for Christ that he is ready to go 
 anywhere or endure anything that his testimony may 
 prove effective, he is not living up to his privileges as 
 a partner of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Too many are like the young Christian Indian, edu- 
 cated, eloquent, ambitious, who looked about for 
 chances to do good. One day he said to a friend, " I'll 
 go anywhere except to the dirty blanket Indians." The 
 wise friend said, " Take care ! God may send you to 
 the very blanket Indians you despise." He was right. 
 The call came. It was resisted, until sorrow and suf- 
 fering led the Indian to see that God's way was best. 
 Then he went to the dirtiest of the blanket Indians, 
 and his life was filled with joy and contentment. 
 
 A young man who had learned a like lesson of readi- 
 ness to speak to anyone under any circumstances saw 
 a cripple seated at a Philadelphia street corner, ask- 
 ing alms. To the astonishment of the passers-by, he 
 knelt on the pavement, spoke a few words of sym- 
 pathy, told the cripple of Christ, and gave him a Tes- 
 ment. Within two weeks the man had read the Testa- 
 ment, had found the Saviour, had given up drink, and 
 was seeking work. One who had passed him by a 
 hundred times did not recognize him, until he was 
 
 37 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 t . Id of the man's identity and what was the cause of 
 the change. Then he wondered at the readiness of the 
 Christian whom God had used in this instance to help 
 the cripple in such a public manner. Sorrowfully he 
 owned to himself that he would never have been able 
 to do a thing like that; he was too much afraid of 
 what people might say. 
 
 When a man is really in earnest about his work 
 he is not apt to be turned from it by sneers. A peddler 
 took his stand near the door of a telegraph office where 
 a score of messenger boys were employed. It was 
 just at the noon hour and some boys, rushing out to 
 luncheon, caught sight of the street merchant. With 
 a shout they gathered about him and commenced to 
 make fun of him. But he, paying no heed to their 
 slighting remarks, began to talk his wares. It was 
 his opportunity. 
 
 In a meeting in Edinburgh, addressed by Henry 
 Drummond, a large congregation of university stu- 
 dents was present. A young man felt that he must 
 speak to them. What if there were those who would 
 scoff? He had a message that could not be delayed. 
 Pushing his way to the leader, he told his desire. 
 " This young man has something to say to you," the 
 announcement was made. He didn't find it easy to 
 speak, but, very haltingly, he began : *' You fellows 
 know me. I fancy I am well known in this univer- 
 sity, and I am known as a waster. I am leaving col- 
 lege this year. I have decided to take Christ as my 
 friend. I thought it would be a mean thing to go 
 away without telling you." 
 
 Pastor Hsi in China was just as courageous. He 
 
 38 
 
WHEN HARDSHIP BECOMES JOY 
 
 braved the sneers of his countrymen by bearing on 
 his coat wherever he went the words, " Holy Rehgion 
 of Jesus," and thus he opened the way for many con- 
 versations about his Master with those who inquired 
 concerning his curious decoration. 
 
 The sure way for the Christian to escape sneers is 
 not by silence about Christ, but by a life that is in 
 harmony with the words spoken for him. The incon- 
 sistent Christian invites sneers by his inconsistency, 
 and finds it all but impossible to win others for Christ. 
 The consistent Christian not only silences sneers, but 
 he sometimes wins critics without knowing it. *' I 
 heard you bump your head against the deck last 
 night," said the captain of a river steamer to a young 
 man who had slept in the upper berth of the captain's 
 stateroom, '* and I said to myself, ' now listen while 
 the Christian swears.' But there wasn't a sound." 
 From that day the captain had a new notion of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 The life of a boy employed as timekeeper in a large 
 factory had like power. He was a Christian, and he 
 tried to live as he thought a Christian should, speaking 
 a word for Christ whenever the opportunity offered. 
 Many of the other boys in the factory, not wanting 
 a Christian among them, were as unpleasant to him 
 as they could be; but he was just the same quiet, faith- 
 ful follower of Christ. Then they resolved that he 
 must leave the factory. They stole some money, and 
 tried to throw suspicion on him. For a time his pros- 
 pects were dark. But there was a thorough investiga- 
 tion, and the culprit was discovered. The timekeeper 
 was given back the place that had been taken from him 
 
 39 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 while he was under charges. His employer ever after 
 reposed full confidence in him, and his influence for 
 Christ by words and by life began to bear fruit. 
 
 It is a mistake to lay so much emphasis on the diffi- 
 culty of living and speaking for Christ. We should 
 not talk about our Master's service as if it involved 
 hardship. To use the words written by James con- 
 cerning the Christian's trials, we are to " count it all 
 joy." And it is joy to speak for Christ! ''Woe is 
 unto me, if I preach not the gospel," was Paul's way 
 of putting it. '' We cannot but speak the things which 
 we saw and heard," was the message of Peter and 
 John. 
 
 A happy, rollicking, healthy schoolboy of sixteen 
 had the right idea of the joy of witnessing for Christ, 
 when he wrote to a cousin just before a summer re- 
 union : '' What a responsible position we two hold 
 among our cousins ! Just think, we are the only ones 
 who are Christians among them. If they could only 
 be made really hearty Christians, what splendid times 
 we'd have this summer! For, after all, I don't know 
 of any subject I am so much interested in as Christ." 
 
 40 
 
VII 
 
 THE RESULT OF CONFIDENT 
 TESTIMONY 
 
 'nr^ HERE are many Christians who have never made 
 -■- an effort to bring others to Christ. They give 
 all sorts of reasons for their inactivity. They say 
 they do not know how. But, while they continue in- 
 active and ignorant, others, just as weak, just as tim- 
 orous, just as young in the Christian life, have been 
 bringing friends to such a condition of heart that they 
 are eager to surrender to the Master. How does it 
 come? By God's blessing on their efforts. They 
 know he has promised to be with them; so they speak 
 with boldness. 
 
 Christians know something that will cause men to 
 marvel. Let them tell it. People misunderstand God, 
 so many of them. They do not think of him when 
 they see the flower unfolding its petals, or the rain 
 falling on the thirsty earth. Let Christians talk of 
 God, that those they meet may know they connect 
 these phenomena with God. So many think God is 
 not loving; let Christians tell them that he is loving, 
 and how they know it. God has commanded his fol- 
 lowers to speak of his glory and talk of his power; 
 let them be faithful to their Commander. 
 
 What about results? Leave these with God. He 
 knows the efforts made by his people. He knows if 
 
 41 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 a follower of his has been obliged to retire discour- 
 aged after a talk with someone whom he has been 
 trying to point to Christ. But Christians have learned 
 that sometimes when they are most discouraged, their 
 efforts are being most richly blessed. The results of 
 faithful work will appear in God's good time. That 
 may not be till the judgment day. Then it will be 
 known how God has used feeble attempts to serve him. 
 And many unexpected stars will be placed in the 
 crowns of those who have been his instruments in 
 saving souls from death. 
 
 But of one result there is certainty. A man's own 
 faith is strengthened by every attempt at conversation 
 for Christ. It is impossible for a Christian earnestly 
 to urge another to accept Christ without having his 
 own spiritual life quickened. So, when a Christian 
 becomes discouraged, when the Saviour seems far 
 away, and he wonders if he is losing his faith, let 
 him go out to prayerful, consecrated effort for those 
 who know not God. For every halting word spoken 
 for Christ, there will be an upward lift in his own life. 
 For every effort made to help neighbor or friend, help 
 will be received. He will be nearer God. 
 
 42 
 
TWO 
 UNWILLING 
 
 43 
 
VIII 
 
 LEARNING HIS LESSON 
 
 A CHRISTIAN business man who was in demand 
 -^^ as a speaker on personal work was on his way 
 from Boston to Hartford, where he was to deHver an 
 address. He was weary, for he had already spoken 
 twice that day at a convention in Boston. With a 
 sigh he sank into an empty seat, hoping he would be 
 able to retain the entire space to the end of his journey. 
 In a moment he was lost in a restful book. 
 
 The car filled rapidly. At last he began to fear that 
 someone would ask him for a seat. In order that he 
 might discourage approach, he spread himself over 
 the seat as much as possible, and went on reading. 
 
 But it was not long till a man stood at his elbow, 
 and asked: 
 
 "Seat taken?" 
 
 " No, sir ! " was the rather ungracious answer. 
 
 The stranger took his seat, and the reader went on 
 with his book. As he read he eyed his companion fur- 
 tively. He could not help wondering if God wished 
 him to speak to the man. 
 
 " No," he thought. '' I do not need to speak to him. 
 He looks like an Irishman. He is probably a Catholic, 
 settled in his belief." 
 
 But he could not satisfy his conscience. He lost 
 interest in the volume. Finally, in desperation, he 
 
 45 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 turned to his companion and made a tentative remark. 
 Soon, feeling that he must do more than this, he asked 
 him if he was a Christian. 
 
 The question was all that was needed to break down 
 the stranger's reserve. His eyes filled with tears, as 
 he owned that he had been a Christian, but had wan- 
 dered far from God. 
 
 Before the conversation was brought to a close, the 
 man made known his purpose once more to be an ear- 
 nest Christian. 
 
 " I thought, since you looked like an Irishman, you 
 might perhaps be a Catholic," said the reader, in apol- 
 ogy for his long silence. 
 
 " Well, I didn't think you looked much like a Chris- 
 tian when I sat down," was the frank reply. 
 
 With equal frankness the man told the incident at 
 the Northfield Conference in August, 1900. 
 
 But one who knew him was able to tell another in- 
 cident which showed that the man had learned his 
 lesson. 
 
 One morning the speaker arrived at the auditorium 
 thirty minutes early. He used the time in thinking 
 of his address. While he thought what God would 
 have him say about personal work, it occurred to him 
 that God might have something for him to do. 
 
 ** Looking around, he saw a lad passing down the 
 aisle near him. He called the lad, and soon discovered 
 that he was from a town ten miles away. Then the 
 boy owned that, although he was fourteen years old, 
 he had not yet crowned Jesus King, though he had 
 * thought about it.* Only the Sunday before, he said, 
 his Sunday-school teacher had talked to the class in 
 
 46 
 
LEARNING HIS LESSON 
 
 a general way, not individually, asking them to accept 
 Christ. 
 
 " Skillfully the fisher of men led him on. * Do you 
 know that Jesus wants you now ? ' he asked. * Will 
 you not obey the call of the King? Surely nothing is 
 to be gained by waiting; Christ ought to have your 
 best years.' " 
 
 Then they knelt together, and the boy dedicated his 
 life to God's service. 
 
 '* That teacher might have had the boy last Sun- 
 day, just as well as not," the speaker said, in telling the 
 incident, " but he was afraid to appeal to the boys one 
 by one." 
 
 47 
 
IX 
 AT BOTH ENDS OF THE LINE 
 
 /^NE day the secretary of the Young Men's Chris- 
 ^^ tian Association in a city in Canada was sitting 
 in his office, in the midst of his tasks, when, for some 
 reason he could not explain at the moment, he thought 
 of a man living in a distant section of the city. 
 
 " I wonder if he is a Christian," he mused. 
 
 He had no reason to think the man was not a Chris- 
 tian, so he tried to put him from his mind and resume 
 his work. But he did not succeed. His mind per- 
 sisted in dwelling on the man. 
 
 " I don't believe he is a Christian," he finally de- 
 cided. " But what has that to do with me ? " his 
 thoughts ran on. '* I am not in touch with him. I can 
 do nothing for him." 
 
 Yet he could not rid himself of the thought that 
 the man ought to be a Christian and that he ought to 
 do something to bring to his attention the claims of 
 Christ. 
 
 He went home that evening without taking any 
 steps to get in touch with the man. All evening he 
 had the uncomfortable feeling of a duty not per- 
 formed. At length he went to bed, thinking that 
 sleep would drive the persistent thought from his 
 mind. But he could not rest until he had deter- 
 
 48 
 
AT BOTH ENDS OF THE LINE 
 
 mined to go and see the man on the way to his office 
 next morning. 
 
 Next day the feeHng that he should see the man, 
 and without further delay, was so strong that he 
 could hardly wait until breakfast was out of the way 
 to turn his steps toward the home of the man who had 
 robbed him of sleep. Yet when he reached the house 
 his courage failed him. Turning, he went back to the 
 corner. There he paused, saying to himself : 
 
 *' I must go to him, and I will." 
 
 A second and a third time he passed the steps. It 
 was not until the fourth attempt that he succeeded in 
 overcoming his strange diffidence and climbed the 
 steps. 
 
 When his ring was answered, he was ushered at 
 once into the parlor where he was asked to wait for 
 his quarry. 
 
 During the few minutes which elapsed before the 
 entry of the man he sought, he had another attack of 
 fright. Why had he come to this house? What ex- 
 cuse could he offer for disturbing the business man at 
 such an early hour? 
 
 His anxious questioning was interrupted by the 
 entry of the man of the house, who greeted him 
 pleasantly but looked at him with surprise and curi- 
 osity. 
 
 " Now for it ! " the visitor thought, and moved him- 
 self to speak the words which he feared might prove 
 the signal for ordering him from the house. 
 
 *' I have come this morning to ask you to become a 
 Christian," he said, quickly. As he spoke he felt that 
 he had blundered. How much better it would have 
 
 49 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 been if he had led up to the statement of his errand 
 with great care ! 
 
 There was no time, however, for regrets. The 
 man was speaking. 
 
 " I can't tell you how glad I am you have come," 
 he was saying. " Yesterday and to-day my heart has 
 been full of the subject. I have been longing for 
 someone to help me out of darkness into the light." 
 
 That day marked the beginning of the Christian life 
 for this man. Soon he was known as one of the most 
 active Christians in the city. 
 
 " The point is this," said the minister who told the 
 story to the author of this volume. *' The Spirit of 
 God was working at both ends of the line that day. 
 When God speaks to Peter he speaks to Cornelius at 
 the same time. And woe to Peter if he does not heed 
 the message and go to the Cornelius whom God has 
 been preparing to receive his message." 
 
 50 
 
GOD SHOWED THE WAY 
 
 A BUSINESS man in Montreal was sitting in his 
 office when he heard a voice say to him, as 
 plainly as if the words had been spoken aloud: 
 
 " Go and see S . He needs you. Talk to him 
 
 about his need of Christ. Go now." 
 
 The business man made excuses. He did not know 
 
 S . S did not know him. S was 
 
 wealthy. He would think the call an impertinence. 
 
 Yet he could not silence the voice that spoke to him. 
 The message persisted. At last he determined to obey, 
 though he insisted to himself that he would have his 
 labor for nothing; that S would sneer at him. 
 
 Yet surely there was no need for haste. He could 
 find S any day. He would wait a more conven- 
 ient season. 
 
 That night he could not sleep. Nearly all night he 
 thought of the millionaire and of his neglect to go and 
 see him. He was not able to rest until he determined 
 
 to go and see S at his home, before business 
 
 hours. 
 
 As soon as he decently could, he approached the 
 house. As he reached the door his courage failed him 
 and he walked on. He came back, but again courage 
 fled. A third approach was necessary before he was 
 able to ring the bell. He was shown into the parlor, 
 
 51 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 where he trembling awaited the rich man. At once 
 when S came into the room, the visitor said : 
 
 '* I was thinking of you yesterday and last night. 
 I felt I must speak to you about your personal rela- 
 tion to Jesus Christ." 
 
 The millionaire put out his hand, and replied : 
 
 " I am glad you have come. Yesterday afternoon 
 and last night I spent the blackest hours of my life. 
 Everything seemed dark. My anxiety was very great. 
 I did not know what was wrong at first. Then I un- 
 derstood that I must settle matters about my soul. 
 From that time I longed to have someone come and 
 talk to me of spiritual things. Now you have come. 
 I need you." 
 
 And before the business man left the house, the 
 millionaire had given his heart to Christ. 
 
 52 
 
XI 
 THE WORD WAS NOT SPOKEN 
 
 " TN 1905 a business trip took me twenty miles away 
 
 -■' from the railroad," a business man in an interior 
 New York city says. " The driver of the livery rig 
 was a youth apparently of humble parentage, and a 
 lad who had evidently enjoyed few privileges. In one 
 way and another I had drawn him out in conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 *^ He was not a Christian young man; this I got, 
 not by putting the question directly but by patching 
 together pieces of our chat as we journeyed. We 
 found much in common to talk about, and our ride 
 was not without its pleasurable side to me. 
 
 " During the journey a voice seemed unmistakably 
 to prompt me to speak to the young man about being 
 a Christian. I hesitated, although the conversation 
 might easily have been turned that way. Then the 
 voice came again more clearly than before, and yet 
 I did not obey it. 
 
 " My thought was, ' This conversation will easily 
 lead to that.' But while I hesitated we rounded an 
 abrupt turn in the road and close at hand a village 
 came to view. In a few minutes my driver was an- 
 nouncing the end of our journey. 
 
 " I never saw the young fellow again ; and over 
 and over I have mourned the fact that I missed speak- 
 
 53 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 ing the personal word that I might have spoken to 
 good effect. I have the long settled fear that the trip 
 over the hills that day will rise up in the judgment 
 to condemn me for not having been obedient to the 
 voice of God in its prompting to soul-winning service." 
 
 54 
 
XII 
 THE MAN ANOTHER WON 
 
 "'^T'OU have been telling of the joy of winning men 
 
 -■- to Christ," a secretary of a Young Men's 
 Christian Association said to a company of his asso- 
 ciates. '* Now listen while I tell you of the sorrow 
 of failing to win a man who might have been mine. 
 
 '' One Sunday afternoon at our three o'clock young 
 men's meeting I noted a man in the back row who 
 seemed to be much interested. Something told me I 
 must speak to that man at the close of the meeting. I 
 resolved to do so. 
 
 ** But at the close of the meeting there were a num- 
 ber of things that seemed to demand instant attention. 
 The man was forgotten. 
 
 " At four o'clock we used to have an hour of Bible 
 study. That afternoon many men gathered. As I 
 looked over the faces I came to that of the man who 
 had attracted my attention. As before, he was in the 
 back row. Again something said to me I must speak 
 to that man at the close of the hour. I berated myself 
 for past neglect, thanked God I had a second chance, 
 and went on with the study. 
 
 " Just as the men were being dismissed, I thought 
 of something that must be done in connection with 
 the preparations for the tea which had been announced 
 for the hour from five to six. So, as soon as prayer 
 
 55 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 was offered, I hurried from the room in entire for- 
 getfulness of the man to whom I had resolved to 
 speak. 
 
 " But a third chance was given to me. The man 
 was among those present in the tea room. This time 
 he was in the front row of those who stood about. 
 
 " * Now I must see him,' I thought. * I will speak 
 to him. Nothing must be allowed to hinder me.' But 
 something did hinder. I reached the man, held his 
 hand for a moment — and was called away. I was 
 doing something — I do not know what — at the mo- 
 ment he left the room. 
 
 ** Two hours later I was on my way to evening 
 service. As I went I thought of my lost opportunity 
 of the afternoon. Who was the man who had at- 
 tracted me ? Where had he gone ? Would I ever see 
 him again ? 
 
 " As I passed the Salvation Army Hall I heard 
 singing. I had a few minutes to spare, and went in. 
 The first thing I saw was my man, standing in the 
 front of the room, among the penitents. He was just 
 beginning to speak. And this was what he said : 
 
 " * All day long I have been looking for peace. I 
 went to the Y.M.C.A., hoping that someone would 
 speak to me. I was at the young men's meeting. No 
 one came near me. Then I went to the Bible class. 
 Still no one spoke to me. In despair, I decided to try 
 one more meeting, and I went in to tea. Once I 
 thought the secretary was going to tell me what I 
 needed to know. He took me by the hand — then hur- 
 ried away. 
 
 ** ' So I came away, still looking for peace. I heard 
 
 56 I 
 
THE MAN ANOTHER WON 
 
 music here, and climbed the stairs. And here I heard 
 the word I have been listening for all day/ 
 
 *' I shall never forget those accusing words," the 
 secretary concluded. " They were ringing in my ears 
 as I hurried from the hall. And with them I heard 
 the words of the prophet, ' While thy servant was 
 busy here and there, he was gone.' " 
 
 57 
 
THREE 
 MAKING A BEGINNING 
 
 59 
 
XIII 
 HER HUNGER SATISFIED 
 
 'rpOR weeks a city pastor had trained the young 
 -■■ people of his church to do personal work during 
 a series of evangelistic meetings, urging them to use 
 every possible opportunity to speak to those who might 
 be won to Christ, pointing out to them the passages of 
 Scripture which might be useful, reminding them that 
 God was waiting to use their efforts in behalf of their 
 friends and neighbors. They were to go into the 
 homes of the people before the meetings and during 
 their progress; they were to take others with them to 
 the services; during the meetings they were to speak 
 to those whom they had brought, and to others, urging 
 them to decide for Christ without further delay. 
 
 "And what about you?" the uncomfortable ques- 
 tion persisted in making itself heard in his own heart. 
 
 " Oh, I am to be so busy directing others that I 
 shall have no time for the work I am asking them 
 to do," he made answer to the uncomfortable ques- 
 tion — uncomfortable because during the first years of 
 his ministry he had made similar efforts to excuse 
 himself from doing personal work. 
 
 The meetings began, and the pastor rejoiced in the 
 faithfulness of the young people. Every evening 
 many of them would come to the meeting in company 
 with one or more strangers, and later they would be 
 
 6i 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 active — wisely active, usually — in speaking the word 
 that encouraged others to respond to the minister's 
 invitation to accept Christ or in talking to them after 
 they had made known their desire to accept him. 
 
 For a few nights the pastor succeeded in persuading 
 himself that he was doing his part by directing others. 
 His helper preached the sermons, he marshaled his 
 young people, the young people did what he asked 
 them to do. What more could be required of him ? 
 
 But he was not satisfied with himself. He knew 
 he ought to be doing his part by the side of the per- 
 sonal workers; they needed the inspiration that would 
 come from seeing him do what they were doing. 
 
 From day to day the struggle continued. He was 
 startled to discover that there was such a struggle. 
 Several times he made up his mind, " This evening 
 I will do my part." But on three evenings he did 
 nothing more than he had done before. 
 
 At length he decided to falter no longer. He would 
 act that evening! Yet when the opportunity came, 
 and others were busy, the old hesitation took posses- 
 sion of him and he tried to be busy about other things. 
 
 He paused a moment in his bustling activity and 
 watched the young people. He was proud of them. 
 They were responding so well to his training; they 
 did him credit. How many they had persuaded to 
 come forward! 
 
 Then his feeling of self-satisfaction was dissipated 
 by the thought : " Yes, they are doing well, but how 
 about you? You have done nothing but persuade 
 others to do personal work. Why don't you do some- 
 thing yourself ? " 
 
 62 
 
HER HUNGER SATISFIED 
 
 Most of the time available had slipped away from 
 him before he decided to speak to one person before 
 the meeting closed. But who was it to be ? He looked 
 out over the thousand or more faces before him. At 
 first they seemed a mass with no individuality. Then 
 he noted one face that seemed to call him. It was 
 the face of a stranger, but he thought, *' I must speak 
 to her." He hesitated no longer, stepped down from 
 the platform, and walked down the aisle, straight to 
 the woman. He reached her — and passed her ! Then 
 he took a fresh grip of himself, turned back to her, 
 spoke a few words of invitation, and then walked 
 with her to the front of the church. 
 
 The woman asked to unite with the Church before 
 she left the meeting that evening. Her request was 
 granted, for there was no mistaking the look of joy 
 and peace on her face. 
 
 She became one of the most earnest members of 
 the church. She was unobtrusive, almost shrinking 
 in her manner, so her pastor did not learn her story 
 until after the day, years later, when he asked the 
 congregation to consent to his removal to a distant 
 city. 
 
 The morning after the announcement, when he 
 came to his study in the church, she was waiting for 
 him. 
 
 " I am glad I was not present yesterday," she be- 
 gan. '' I do not think I could have borne it to hear 
 that you were going away." 
 
 The pastor expressed his appreciation of her desire 
 to have him remain. But she saw that he was sur- 
 prised as well. 
 
 63 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 " You have won the hearts of all in the church/* 
 she explained, " but I have a special reason for thank- 
 ing God that you came here. May I tell of it? 
 
 " Two years ago I was unhappy, and I did not 
 know why. I was always wanting something. One 
 day I went for a steamboat ride ; I thought this might 
 satisfy me. I tried a picnic, but it did me no good. 
 I tried so many things, but felt the same longing for 
 something else. 
 
 " I decided what I needed was to see my sister in 
 Denver. The fare was a great obstacle, but I man- 
 aged to save it and went to her. For a few hours 
 after I got there I felt better, but next day I was as 
 unsatisfied as ever. I had to come back home long 
 before I had intended to come. 
 
 " One evening I was out walking when I saw the 
 people going into the church. I followed them. I 
 was interested in everything. How I wished I could 
 be as happy as the folks I saw all around me 1 
 
 " After a while I began to wonder if I couldn't be 
 as happy. I heard what was said about taking Christ 
 for our Friend. 
 
 '' Then it all came over me like a flash. I wanted 
 the Christ of whom the speaker was telling. I wanted 
 him to take my life and make it worth while. If he 
 only would, how glad I should be! 
 
 " I heard the speaker give the invitation to those 
 who wanted the Saviour of whom he had been telling, 
 to come to the platform and kneel in prayer. I wanted 
 to go. But something held me back. It could not be 
 that this was intended for me — this invitation that 
 meant so much. It was intended for those who were 
 
 64 
 
HER HUNGER SATISFIED 
 
 going to the front. It was intended for those others 
 to whom some of the young people were speaking. 
 But it was not for me. If only someone would come 
 to me and ask me — me alone — to come to the plat- 
 form! Then I would know that there could be no 
 mistake. 
 
 " One and another came close to me, and my heart 
 beat high with hope. But I was passed by for some- 
 one else. 
 
 *' Then it seemed to me as if the thing I wanted 
 most in the world was a touch on the shoulder and a 
 message, ' Come ! ' 
 
 ** Then I saw you step from the platform. You 
 were going to speak to someone. How I wished you 
 would come to me ! But, no ! I had no right to think 
 of it. You were going to someone else. . . Down the 
 next aisle. . . No, you were coming down my 
 aisle. . . You were coming nearer. . . Now you 
 were going to stop. . . No, you were going to some- 
 one back of me. 
 
 *' I thought my chance was gone, but suddenly I 
 felt a hand on my shoulder, and someone whispered : 
 
 " * Won't you come with me, my friend ? Your 
 Saviour wants you.' 
 
 ** I thought there must be some mistake. But when 
 I looked up I saw that no mistake had been made. I 
 was wanted! I was to go with the minister. I was 
 to be satisfied ! 
 
 " I went with you to th^ front. I found Christ that 
 night. And I have been so happy ever since." 
 
 Long after the departure of his visitor the pastor 
 
 65 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 was still thinking of his struggle to join his young 
 people in doing definite personal work. What if he 
 had not spoken to the woman ? Would she ever have 
 become a Christian? 
 
 "Thank God I did speak!" he said, profoundly 
 moved. 
 
 And during the years of his later ministry, he 
 looked back on that evening's struggle and victory as 
 a crisis in his life. 
 
 66 
 
XIV 
 
 AFTER TWENTY YEARS 
 
 T?OR the encouragement of those assembled at a 
 -■" great national conference of Methodist men, 
 George Innes related this story of his beginning as a 
 personal worker: 
 
 *^ I had been a member of the Church for nearly 
 twenty years. Often I had said, ' Lord, give me the 
 grace and courage to go out and win someone for you.' 
 All my life since at the age of twelve I had joined the 
 Church, I had desired to do this. But the years 
 slipped by and I did not do it. One day I was travel- 
 ing from Devil's Lake, Dakota, to a town in Mon- 
 tana. As I lay in my berth it seemed to me that the 
 Lord spoke to me and said, ' To-morrow you are go- 
 ing to die.' It startled me and frightened me, and then 
 I remembered as I looked my Visitor in the face 
 and prayed, that the Lord has said, ' I will take care 
 of you.' So I said, ' It is all right, I can go with you.' 
 But he looked at me and said, ' But you are going 
 alone.' That is a terrifying thing: to go into eternity 
 alone. The Lord said to me : ' You know every stick 
 of lumber, every bushel of grain, every acre of land. 
 Why don't you deal with me in that way? Do you 
 know any lost ones in this town? Why don't you 
 make a list of them ? ' So I wrote down their names. 
 I thought of a competitor in the grain business who 
 
 67 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 was a good friend of mine and who would believe me. 
 And I thought I would go to him. Then I thought, 
 ' He will ask me about the man who has been working 
 for me for twenty years.' I said, ' I cannot go to him.' 
 I could not win my friend until I did go to this man. 
 I saw that, but I said, ' I will call the preacher in to- 
 morrow and ask him to go to that fellow and get him 
 out of the way, and then I will go to this friend of 
 mine.' I actually did that thing. I called the preacher 
 in and said, * Have you ever spoken to Charlie about 
 his soul? ' ' No.' ' Don't you think you ought to? ' 
 And he said, ' Yes, I ought to. I know it.' Then 
 something came to me and the voice said, ' You know 
 that all the king's horses could not pull that man 
 into the kingdom over the top of you; why don't you 
 go to him and confess ? ' I said, ' I will go ; you need 
 not go.' I went. I met him at the door. He sus- 
 pected that I wanted to talk to him about some busi- 
 ness done that day. When I said, ' Charlie, don't you 
 want to take Christ as your Saviour ? ' he broke into 
 tears and was saved. 
 
 '* Not long after that I moved to a large city. I 
 canvassed the churches of that city, one hundred evan- 
 gelical churches, and found only two with men who 
 made it their business to go into the streets and alleys 
 to try to win other men to Jesus Christ. I joined one 
 of them. During the years I was in that city scarcely 
 a Sunday afternoon passed that I and others were not 
 in the streets trying to win men, and I can remember 
 only two Sundays when men were not brought into 
 the kingdom." 
 
 68 
 
XV 
 WHEN HIS EYES WERE OPENED 
 
 AS a student, George Sherwood Eddy was blind 
 to duty and the possibiHties of personal work 
 until one day when he was crossing a lake. " I had 
 crossed on that ferry-boat many times that summer," 
 he said in 19 14, in an address to men, *' and had seen 
 it filled with unattractive people whom I had looked 
 at with cold criticism. But that day I saw them with 
 eyes that were opened ; I saw that ferry-boat freighted 
 with human souls. I spoke to the man next to me, 
 and he left that ferry-boat after giving his heart to 
 Christ. 
 
 *' But, oh! the journeys that were gone, which I had 
 made with no message for men. It is a terrible thing 
 to know the truth and to refuse to pass it on." 
 
 Years later, while Mr. Eddy was on the way to a 
 convention, something happened that was one result 
 of the vision the student gained as a passenger on the 
 ferry-boat when he won his first soul. 
 
 " On the train I went back into the barber shop," 
 he related the incident. " While the barber was cut- 
 ting my hair, he said, ' I was in a wreck.' * So was 
 I,' I answered. ' I nearly lost my life,' he went on. 
 I said, ' so did I.' And then I asked him, ' Were you 
 ready? ' ' Why, no,' he said, ' I was not.' ' Are you 
 ready now ? Sometime you will have to go. Are you 
 
 69 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 ready? You are not fit for the kingdom. Say just 
 two words ; say " I will " to God, and you may enter 
 the kingdom of heaven. Say it, man. You have been 
 waiting thirty years; say it to-day.' But he would 
 not. 
 
 " An hour later, after I had gone back to my berth, 
 he followed me through the train and said to me : 'I 
 can't get away from it. I am going to say ** I will," 
 and I say it now with all my heart.' 
 
 " Since then letters have been coming from him. 
 He has been witnessing in missions in Chicago and in 
 New York, at either end of his run; wherever he has 
 been he has given testimony for Christ." 
 
 70 
 
XVI 
 AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 A MAN who traveled for a large Chicago house 
 decided that if he was to talk satisfactorily to 
 customers he must know the firm's catalogue from 
 cover to cover. He was not deterred by the fact thai 
 the catalogue contained more than one thousand pages, 
 but he set to work to learn the descriptions of all 
 goods noted. It was his custom, when leaving for a 
 trip, to cut out a few pages of the catalogue. These 
 he would study carefully during the long hours of 
 travel or during the evenings in his hotel room. The 
 work was never done, for periodical revision of the 
 catalogue gave him fresh work. 
 
 When that young man became a Christian he de- 
 cided that, since he was to travel through life in the 
 interest of the Lord Jesus Christ, he must know the 
 Bible as thoroughly as the catalogue of his firm. But 
 somehow it was not so easy to learn the Scriptures as 
 it had proved to learn the catalogue. He began with 
 John 3:16, for he had been told that Moody called 
 this text '* The Little Gospel." It was a month before 
 he could repeat the simple words in public without 
 stumbling. But he persisted in his efforts until he was 
 able to repeat either entire chapters or to quote pas- 
 sage after passage, selecting and arranging them ac- 
 cording to the needs of the man to whom he was talk- 
 
 71 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 ing. When he made a public address, his use of the 
 Bible was a marvel to his hearers. 
 
 Opportunities to use the Bible with which he was 
 so familiar were as numerous as his opportunities to 
 use his firm's catalogue. On the train, in the hotel, 
 and on the street as well as in the church, he ap- 
 proached men, and many of those to whom he spoke 
 were led to Christ. 
 
 Once he was seated in the lobby of a hotel when a 
 bell boy handed a telegram to a man at his side. The 
 recipient read it, then rose from his seat and began 
 walking rapidly back and forth, swearing as he 
 walked. 
 
 The Christian traveler thought he must speak. Ap- 
 proaching the profane man, he said: 
 
 *' You seem to be in trouble. I wonder if I can 
 help you?" 
 
 The angry man paused, and replied: 
 
 '* Trouble? Talk about trouble! You don't know 
 what trouble is. I go home once in three months. I 
 have a wife and two children waiting for me there. 
 I expected to make them my regular visit in two 
 weeks. But just now orders came from the house to 
 go out for three months more. There is not even a 
 day for a visit to my home." 
 
 " That is trouble," was the sympathetic response. 
 
 Having heard this word of sympathy, which he 
 could feel was spoken by one who appreciated the sit- 
 uation, the troubled man was ready to hear the mes- 
 sage of the traveler who knew the Word. 
 
 " Evidently you are traveling alone," was the next 
 observation. 
 
 72 
 
AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 " Sure I am ! Who would I be traveling with ? '* 
 came the surprised answer. 
 
 *' I traveled alone a long time," the Christian con- 
 tinued. " I had my troubles, too. I did not know 
 what to do, until I was introduced to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. He has been my Companion ever since." 
 
 The man looked as if the Christian did not know 
 what he was talking about, but he proved that he did 
 know what he was saying. 
 
 " Jesus promised to be with me. He said, ' Lo, I 
 am with you alway.' Here are his words." And he 
 took his Bible from his pocket and turned to the chap- 
 ter and verse. 
 
 Many other passages of Scripture were quoted as 
 the men continued in conference for some time. 
 
 And when the moment came when the disappointed 
 man must start on his three months' trip, he took his 
 new friend by the hand and said: 
 
 " Thank you for introducing me to him who will 
 be my Companion, too." 
 
 Is Jesus our Companion ? Are we introducing him 
 to our friends and acquaintances? 
 
 73 
 
FOUR 
 UNASSUMING WORKERS 
 
 75 
 
XVII 
 
 HE WON HIS FRIEND 
 
 T N " The Knightly Soldier," Henry Clay Trumbull's 
 -■■ biography of his friend, Major Henry Camp, a 
 college chum tells of the power of the Christian ex- 
 ample of the young soldier : 
 
 " On entering college, I was wholly without hope 
 and without God. I was beyond the reach of any 
 power except the power of Jesus. I do not know 
 whether I believed the Bible or not. I did not hesi- 
 tate to ridicule such parts of it as rny inclination, urged 
 on by such a state, prompted. I could sit in a prayer- 
 meeting, in the revival of '58, when nearly all my 
 classmates were giving testimony to the power of God 
 to send hope and peace to despairing souls, wholly un- 
 moved. I could even smile at the emotion these ex- 
 pressed. Camp was my companion through college 
 more than any other member of the class. He was 
 by my side at recitation and in the chapel during the 
 entire four years. I saw in him a character and a life 
 I had never seen before. By his life I was forced to 
 admit that his profession was per se no libel on the 
 Master in whose service he was. 
 
 " I do not recollect what part of our college life it 
 was when he first spoke to me on the subject of my 
 soul's salvation. It was not, however, till after his 
 upright and Godly life had forced from me the most 
 
 77 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 profound respect for him and for the Saviour to 
 whom he prayed. He said very Httle, but he said 
 enough to lead me to think over my past Hfe, and to 
 cast a glance at the future. I shall never forget the 
 impression that first conversation made on my mind. 
 It was not so much what he said, as the way he said 
 it. He believed he was setting forth God's truth, and 
 spoke as if he knew it was so. I believed that he knew 
 it was true, though unable to explain how he became 
 conscious of it. Thus I pondered, and felt that he 
 had evidence that had been withheld from me. He 
 spoke with me only a few times on this wise, but every 
 time with telling effect. I could not help thinking of 
 it; and after we were parted, and I had lost his com- 
 panionship, I made his thoughts the companions of 
 my lonely hours. I began to love him more than ever, 
 and with love for him grew the love of the same Lord 
 whom he loved and served. The conflict to me was a 
 severe one; and how I longed to meet him and con- 
 verse with him ! 
 
 " Passing through New Haven, when first on his 
 way to his regiment, he left on my table a line to this 
 effect : 
 
 * Dear B. : 
 
 * Sorry to have missed seeing you. Good-bye. 
 God bless you. Henry W. Camp.^ 
 
 " I would have given a fortune to have seen him for 
 an hour. I had not at that time revealed my feelings 
 to anyone, and felt that he alone was fit to receive 
 them. I wrote to him, and his letters supplied in part 
 
 78 
 
HE WON HIS FRIEND 
 
 the loss I felt. Not a day since we parted, I venture 
 to say, has he not been in my mind. I cannot but feel 
 that he was the instrument chosen of God to unveil 
 the darkness that shut out the light from my soul. I 
 fear that, had I never known him, I had never known 
 the love of God nor welcomed the glad enjoyment of a 
 Christian experience." 
 
 79 
 
XVIII 
 FINDING TIME FOR SERVICE 
 
 "TXrELL, what do you think of it? " 
 
 ^ ^ A young man pointed with pride to the 
 
 carefully made table over which he had been working 
 for months. Then he told of the fabulous number of 
 pieces of woods of different colors which had been 
 deftly fitted together so as to represent a landscape. 
 
 "I'm glad it's done; it has taken all my evenings 
 since last October," he complacently remarked. 
 
 But the friend to whom he was displaying his work 
 did not see the table top very clearly because of the 
 mental picture that would come before him of the 
 nine or ten boys who, since the previous October, had 
 been without a teacher who would work with them in 
 Sunday school and would win their confidence by care- 
 ful living and earnest testimony during the week, 
 for the amateur table manufacturer had said he 
 could teach them no longer because he had no time. 
 He had time to waste on a table of intricate work- 
 manship but little value, yet he had no time to give 
 to God's service. 
 
 That excuse, '* I have no time ! " is constantly heard 
 when pastors and other leaders call for volunteers to 
 do needed work. And the strange thing about it is 
 that most of those who give the excuse, have the most 
 time at their disposal. The bulk of church work is 
 
 80 
 
FINDING TIME FOR SERVICE 
 
 done by men and women whose business or home cares 
 press upon them from morning to night. 
 
 The superintendent of one of the largest Sunday 
 schools in the United States is a merchant whose im- 
 mense establishments demand close attention. One 
 of the largest Bible classes in Pennsylvania was long 
 taught by a capitalist whose many interests crowded 
 upon him constantly. But he always had time to do 
 Christian work during the week, a definite part of 
 which was the personal word about the deep things 
 of Hfe spoken to his employees and others with whom 
 he came in touch. On Sunday, no matter how many 
 hundreds of miles away he might be, he would rush 
 home to stand as usual before his class. A New Jer- 
 sey carpenter and house builder, whose men were at 
 work in several counties, made it a rule never to be 
 absent from the Wednesday evening prayer meeting 
 of his church. Some years ago he felt he could not 
 well spare the time consumed by going from work to 
 prayer meeting, a distance of thirty or forty miles, 
 sometimes over several different railway lines. So he 
 bought a motor-cycle. After that an hour's ride 
 would bring him to his home and to his church. It 
 was a hard trip after a busy day. But what of that? 
 He was his pastor's right-hand man in the struggling 
 rural church. He felt that his appeals to the men 
 whom he met from day to day would be more effective 
 if he lived in accordance with his teachings. 
 
 Eight years before General Benjamin Harrison be- 
 came President of the United States, he showed his 
 eagerness for service by his readiness to spend im- 
 portant hours in conference about spiritual matters 
 
 8i 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 with a man who was employed as a clerk in an In- 
 dianapolis store. 
 
 " This was in 1881, during the session of the Legis- 
 lature in which General Harrison was a candidate for 
 the United States Senate," wrote one who had learned 
 the details from the clerk himself. *' On account of 
 the uncertain complexion of the Senate at that time, 
 the Indiana contest was one of national interest; the 
 days and nights were occupied with planning and cam- 
 paigning, and every moment of General Harrison's 
 time was demanded by his supporters. Inquiries for 
 him were constant. He left one conference only to be 
 drawn into another. 
 
 " One Sunday, at the conclusion of the regular serv- 
 ice, a member of Mr. Harrison's church approached 
 the young clerk and invited him to join the church 
 membership. The young man replied that he could 
 not formally affiliate himself with any church because, 
 though he believed the Scriptures in a general way, he 
 was still perplexed on a number of points. In that 
 condition of mind he could not conscientiously join a 
 church. This conversation was overheard by General 
 Harrison. 
 
 " The General quietly ascertained where the young 
 man lived, and on the next evening called at his board- 
 ing house. The landlady, who recognized him, 
 was surprised and awed, and replied, to an inquiry 
 if the young man were at home, that he was. She 
 invited the general into the parlor; but he said 
 that he would rather meet the young man in his own 
 room. 
 
 " He was conducted to a small rear room on the 
 82 
 
FINDING TIME FOR SERVICE 
 
 upper floor, and when the young man opened the door 
 in answer to the landlady's knock and saw General 
 Harrison, he said, as he was wont afterward to ex- 
 press it, that he might have been knocked down by a 
 feather. 
 
 " Though he had long admired Mr. Harrison at a 
 distance and had become accustomed to seeing him 
 at church, he had never spoken to him, and had not 
 imagined that the General was even aware of his ex- 
 istence. 
 
 *' Mr. Harrison sat down, and with an unwontedly 
 cordial manner at once set the young man at his ease. 
 He told him that he had overheard, on the previous 
 day, his expression of doubts regarding the Scrip- 
 tures, and said : 
 
 " * Now, I am a much older man than you. I have 
 for years been a student of the Bible, and perhaps I 
 may be able to throw some light upon the points which 
 you do not understand. I hope, too, that you will not 
 look upon my visit as an intrusion.' 
 
 " Having inquired as to what points were doubtful. 
 General Harrison proceeded to invest them with a 
 clear and definite meaning, and then entered upon an 
 elaborate and masterful exposition of the basic truths 
 of the Scriptures. 
 
 " At length the talk drew to a close, and Mr. Har- 
 rison looked at his watch. 
 
 " * Why, how late it is ! ' he said. 
 
 " It was two o'clock in the morning and he had 
 talked with the young man for seven hours. 
 
 " Thus, at a time when his political future was in 
 the balance and when political workers were con- 
 
 83 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 stantly looking for him, he spent hours in sowing the 
 spiritual seed in a field accidentally pointed out." 
 
 The example of this man of national prominence 
 was followed by a young man of whom a Chicago 
 janitor told at the Convention of the Men's Brother- 
 hood held at Pittsburgh in 1908. He always made 
 good use of his evenings, but one week he swept 
 aside all evening engagements and came to his pastor 
 with the request, " Give me the names of young men 
 whom you want me to see for the church this week. 
 Every evening is free for this work." 
 
 Some of the young man's friends found fault with 
 him for neglecting other matters of importance in or- 
 der to assist his pastor. No more effective answer 
 could have been made to them than was made by 
 William Carey to an acquaintance who complained 
 that by preaching from village to village as he was 
 doing, he was neglecting his business of cobbling 
 shoes. 
 
 " My business is to extend the kingdom of God," 
 was the answer. " I only cobble to pay expenses.'* 
 
 What is our business? Can we be in doubt when 
 we read the command, " Go work to-day in my vine- 
 yard." 
 
 84 
 
XIX 
 
 HOME OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 A MISSIONARY in Korea told with great delight 
 -^^ of a woman who seemed much interested in 
 learning about Christianity. She listened eagerly to 
 everything she could hear about the gospel. She 
 learned to read so that she might study for herself 
 the life of Christ. It was soon evident that she had 
 given her heart to him. Those who knew her thought 
 that soon she would unite with the Church. But 
 weeks, months, years passed, and she did not offer 
 herself for membership. Always she put off with 
 some excuse those who invited her to make a public 
 confession of her faith in Christ. At length the mis- 
 sionary pressed for the real reason for her delay. Her 
 reply was a revelation to him. Bursting into tears, 
 she said : 
 
 " Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach 
 the gospel to every creature, and he said that if we 
 love him, we will keep his commandments. But I — 
 how can I go ? " And she pointed to her crippled feet. 
 
 Of course the missionary reassured her, explaining 
 that it was possible for her to obey the command by 
 influencing others for Jesus just where she was, in 
 the home from which she could not go without great 
 difficulty. Her joy can be imagined. She united 
 with the Church at once and soon was one of its most 
 
 85 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 active members, influencing many by her earnest life 
 and her words of invitation to ** taste and see that 
 the Lord is good." 
 
 While many Christians can obey the commission by 
 going far from home to the heathen, there is need for 
 those who, called to be active in business and profes- 
 sional life and in the home, give such daily testimony 
 for the Master that they become winners of the souls 
 of those about them. 
 
 A young mother, who was unable even to attend 
 many church services, or to take part in the activities 
 of the women's societies, because of the claims of lit- 
 tle children on her time, was criticised for her inac- 
 tivity. But she was active in the one way open to 
 her. She lived between the homes of a brother and 
 a sister, each of whom had a family to care for, and 
 she noted that the families were not on visiting terms. 
 Tactfully she drew from the sister, when opportunity 
 offered, the story of the quarrel that had been the 
 cause of estrangement in a once happy family. Then, 
 just as tactfully, she set about healing the breach. 
 'Months were required, but before the year was done 
 the families were visiting back and forth as of old. 
 And this result was all due to the quiet, winning ways 
 and words of the busy little mother. She didn't know 
 just how the change had been brought about. She 
 did not claim the credit. But her pastor knew the 
 truth, and when, a little later, the sister united with 
 the Church, he understood that she had been won, not 
 by his sermons or his visits, but by God's blessing on 
 the unconscious efforts of the home-keeping mother 
 to obey the Master's command. 
 
 86 
 
HOME OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 In the same city, some years ago, a young husband 
 and wife went to housekeeping. They were in com- 
 fortable circumstances, and so found it possible to 
 take two servants into their home. The servants were 
 sisters, who came from a country where they had been 
 trained to look with suspicion on the religion of their 
 new master and mistress. 
 
 The first day they were in the home, the husband, 
 when about to conduct family prayers, turned to his 
 wife, and asked : 
 
 " Of course we must ask the maids to come in and 
 join us, if they so desire?" 
 
 The wife agreed, and the servants were invited. 
 At first they hesitated. They did not know whether 
 they should put themselves where they would hear 
 the religious teachings of their employers. But al- 
 ready they were learning that there was an atmos- 
 phere in the home that lulled suspicion. So they de- 
 cided to worship with the rest. 
 
 Months passed. Twice each day master and mis- 
 tress and the two maids knelt at the family altar. The 
 maids were impressed by the Scripture reading and 
 by the prayers, but, more than aught else, by the lives 
 of the husband and the wife, which were so in ac- 
 cord with both the Bible reading and prayers, and by 
 the tactful words of the wife by which she followed 
 up the impression made by the Scripture reading. 
 
 One morning, after prayers, they asked if they 
 might stop for a few words, " We want to become 
 Christians like you," one of them said. 
 
 In a few moments it became clear that they were 
 both ready to unite with the Church. " And what 
 
 87 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 church would you Hke to become members of?" the 
 question was asked kindly. 
 
 •' Oh, if we might make so bold, sir! " was the an- 
 swer, ** the church that you belong to, yourselves! " 
 
 And so it came to pass that, at the next communion, 
 the sisters took their places in the church and were 
 welcomed there by the husband and wife whose con- 
 sistent lives had won them for the Master. 
 
 This was only a beginning. During many years 
 this Christian home was a center from which radiated 
 influences that made men and women desire to be 
 Christians. The wife in her home and social duties 
 and the husband in his business cares ever kept before 
 them as the one great purpose of life, to make known 
 the love of God and to persuade others to receive that 
 love. 
 
 88 
 
XX 
 OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES 
 
 A NEW YORK CITY pastor says that one of the 
 -^^ most successful personal workers he has ever 
 known was a man of many handicaps. His personality 
 was not impressive, nor was he gifted in speech. Be- 
 sides, his business was of a very burdensome and ex- 
 acting nature. He had little time to give to anything 
 outside the daily routine of labor. His education was 
 quite limited, except that he was well acquainted with 
 his Bible. He was certainly not a man of influence 
 in the ordinary meaning of the term. 
 
 '' Yet this man of many limitations did a large work 
 for Christ," his friend says. " He was busy all day 
 long, but he made good use of his evenings and of his 
 Sundays. Not a week went by during which he did 
 not speak to some soul. He had a deep earnestness 
 about him that left its impression upon others. He 
 was friendly and sunshiny, and nobody could doubt 
 the reality of his interest. The secret of his power — 
 for he had real power — seemed to lie in the fact that 
 he got close to others. He was direct and personal 
 in his address; he knew how to speak to the heart. 
 I have heard him speak in public when a critic would 
 have said that he had made a failure. Yet invariably 
 it was found that what he had said left its impression 
 upon hearts. This man's faith was very intense. His 
 
 89 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 religion was very real. When he died a few years 
 ago there were literally scores and hundreds of men 
 who called him the father of their faith." 
 
 The same pastor knew a successful personal worker 
 who had wonderful power with men, yet he had great 
 difficulties of speech. He was not an easy conversa- 
 tionalist, and his public addresses were sometimes al- 
 most absurdly bare and unattractive. If the success 
 of his work had depended upon good talk, he would 
 have been a complete failure. Sometimes in conver- 
 sation he would lapse into sudden silence. What he 
 had to say was easily exhausted. But his silence was 
 as sincere as his talk. 
 
 " There was one thing which was always present 
 in his dealing with men," his pastor testifies. " He 
 might be talking very imperfectly, but he never failed 
 to leave the impression of absolute certainty as to his 
 own experience. There was a pressure of fact about 
 all that he said, that seemed to push open the door of 
 hearts. He seemed to be saying all the time, ' I have 
 tried this gospel and have found it true.' " 
 
 " This element of personal earnestness and genu- 
 ineness is one of the great elements of success in 
 personal work," the pastor says. *' It does more 
 than an eloquent tongue. If one has had a true 
 experience of the love of God in Christ, he has 
 already some preparation for personal work. If he 
 knows the riches of Christ's salvation in his heart, he 
 ought not to lack for something to say that is worth 
 saying. Let him speak simply and directly, and out 
 of the heart. He should not try to tell what he does 
 not know." 
 
 90 
 
OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES 
 
 A third personal worker of whom this pastor tells 
 is a blacksmith. He has native intelligence, and a 
 heart in love with his Master. He has never been 
 trained in the schools, but he has profited much in the 
 school of Christ. He has read few books, but one 
 Book he has read to good purpose ; he has hid it in his 
 heart. He knows little of science, and nothing of art, 
 but he has a passion for souls. There are few men 
 in the community who are as useful as he. He is ever 
 watching for souls. He has skill of a certain kind — 
 the skill of love. He goes after men and brings them 
 to the church. He prays much for souls and does not 
 grow weary. When he reads the Book he finds a 
 message for the other man, even as he finds one for 
 himself. He has won many souls to Christ. Yet 
 men do not think of him as a man of ability. 
 
 91 
 
FIVE 
 IN STRANGE PLACES 
 
 93 
 
XXI 
 ON A RAILROAD TRAIN 
 
 AT a great men's convention, volunteer speakers 
 were asked to tell briefly of their experiences in 
 trying to win men for Christ. 
 
 An Alabama railway engineer declared that ever 
 since he became a Christian he had made it a rule to 
 speak for Christ at every opportunity. On the way 
 to the convention he had the chance to talk religion 
 to a dozen passengers on a sleeping car. One of the 
 men became a Christian in consequence of this per- 
 sonal work. 
 
 Another man said that his had been the joy of lead- 
 ing scores to Christ. *' Two are in the seminary study- 
 ing to be ministers, and they will preach the gospel 
 after I have gone to heaven," he added. 
 
 A man from Iowa said : '* Going into Chicago Sat- 
 urday evening, a man with blue overalls sat in my seat 
 on his way to West Chicago. He was from Nova 
 Scotia. His father and mother, I found, were pray- 
 ing Christians; they had family worship. He had 
 been away from home for years, and is the boss of 
 forty men in the service of the Northwe:tern road. 
 In talking with him about his soul and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, he told me, after an hour's conversation, that 
 he would accept Christ. He was so anxious to get 
 home and tell the glad news to his daughter, who is a 
 
 95 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 Christian, that he got off and walked five miles rather 
 than go on into Chicago and wait there for a train 
 home." 
 
 A fourth delegate told this incident : " In Los 
 Angeles one evening I was writing letters late and I 
 wanted something to eat. As I passed down the street, 
 a man said to me, ' I have not had anything to eat for 
 about three days. Can't you give me a nickel ? ' I 
 said, ' You must be pretty hungry. I will buy your 
 supper to-night.' We walked into a restaurant and I 
 ordered this young man a supper. After we had got 
 through eating I began to talk to him. The theaters 
 were closing and people were beginning to come in. 
 He had been reared in a Christian home, and had at- 
 tended Sunday school, but he had drifted down until 
 he had no hope at all in this world. After I had talked 
 with him for three-quarters of an hour I was success- 
 ful in leading him to Christ. The next day I was 
 again in the restaurant and the proprietor said to me, 
 ' Were you here last evening, and were you not the 
 one talking to the young man over there ? ' I said I 
 was. He said, ' Just wait a moment.' He invited me 
 into his private office and for two hours and a half 
 I had the privilege of talking with him. He reminded 
 me that on the night before, when his restaurant was 
 crowded with people, I was not ashamed to tell of my 
 Master, and he added, ' I want to know the One in 
 whom you trust.' " 
 
 Some Christians wonder why men like these are 
 so successful in their attempts to persuade others to 
 become Christians. They would not wonder so much 
 at their success if they had been present at an adult 
 
 96 
 
ON A RAILROAD TRAIN 
 
 class conference held in connection with the World's 
 Sunday School Convention in Washington in May, 
 1910, and had heard a visitor tell this incident: 
 
 '' One day I saw an old soldier on the train. I tried 
 to converse with him, but he did not seem to care to 
 talk. After a few efforts I gave it up, concluding that 
 he was not a very sociable individual. The train 
 stopped, and another old soldier came on board. He 
 took a seat by his comrade. It was simply wonderful 
 how the old warrior woke up and a lively conversa- 
 tion began at once. They had fought together and 
 marched together over many a weary trail, and now 
 they fought their old battles over again." 
 
 The way to the heart of the most taciturn and un- 
 communicative man may be found by sympathetic 
 study of the man in order to learn what he is inter- 
 ested in. When this is learned, use it as a point of 
 contact. Is it objected that there are some men who 
 are interested in nothing that can be used as a basis 
 for conversation? If one had asked Frank Higgins, 
 the " lumber jack's sky pilot," if this is true, he would 
 have been apt to answer by telling of a woodsman of 
 whom everybody despaired until Mr. Higgins, not- 
 ing his fondness for his dog, began to talk dog to 
 him. Soon the dog owner was the sky pilot's most 
 devoted follower. The successful Christian worker 
 becomes skilled in searching gut the things that will 
 bring him close to the men he wants to reach. Jesus 
 did this. We need to study his methods. 
 
 97 
 
XXII 
 ON THE BASE BALL DIAMOND 
 
 /^NE of the best-known ministers of the country 
 ^^ has told of the priceless legacy received by him 
 in memory of his father, who died after a trying ill- 
 ness, leaving his family almost penniless. When all 
 debts were paid the mother had just five dollars re- 
 maining. With this sum she bought a Bible for each 
 of her two children. On the fly-leaf of each she wrote 
 this message: 
 
 A FATHER'S LEGACY 
 
 Keep the charge of Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep 
 his statutes, and his commandments . . . and his testimonies . . . 
 that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever 
 thou turnest thyself. I Kings 2 : 3. 
 
 The gift was not appreciated at the time by at least 
 one of the recipients. He forgot the loving entreaty, 
 and dishonored his father's memory and his God by 
 reckless profanity. But one day there was a sudden 
 change. In a match game of ball, at school, he was 
 struck by a player who wished to disable him. " I 
 turned upon him with an oath and with the spirit of 
 destruction in my heart," the injured man wrote many 
 years later. " A fellow student. . . was shocked. . . 
 Had he rebuked or scolded me before the players, 
 probably I would not be writing these words, but he 
 looked at me sorrowfully, and softly and slowly said, 
 
 98 
 
ON THE BASE BALL DIAMOND 
 
 * Has it come to this ? ' For two or three days. . . 
 I saw before me the loss of both character and repu- 
 tation, and of all the promises of the Christian re- 
 ligion." He asked himself, " If it has come to this, 
 what will it come to later? " That question led him 
 to Christ. Before long he was a student for the min- 
 istry. He felt that his only safety was in devoting 
 himself without reserve to the service of the God 
 whom he had been neglecting, whose name he had 
 dishonored, the God of his father in whose memory 
 his mother had given the disregarded Bible. Thus 
 the investment of the widow's last mite had paid 
 abundantly. 
 
 Through all the fifty years of brilliant and de- 
 voted service, his appreciation of his father's legacy 
 has become even greater, until now he says that he 
 "would not exchange that Bible or even the fly-leaf 
 with the inscription written by a mother's pen and 
 heart, for any of the rare books or pictures to possess 
 which J. Pierpont Morgan expended his millions." 
 
 God does not forget his promise to show mercy 
 unto the children of those that love him and keep his 
 commandments. These children may wander far from 
 him for years, but his Spirit brings to them the knowl- 
 edge that he is yearning for them. Frequently God 
 uses an associate to speak the word that brings the 
 wanderer back to him, as on the New Jersey base ball 
 field nearly sixty years ago. 
 
 What if the Christian student had failed to speak to 
 the profane player? And what if we fail to speak the 
 word in season to those whom God puts in our way? 
 
 99 
 
XXIII 
 ON A SAILING SHIP 
 
 TJ EV. F. J. HORSFIELD, an English clergyman, 
 -■-^ has told a story of personal work in which a 
 number of people figure. 
 
 A company of Christian Endeavor workers in Eng- 
 land decided to prepare a little Christmas present for 
 each sailor on a ship bound for China, and to accom- 
 pany the present with a message of Christmas greet- 
 ing. The presents and letters were to be given to one 
 of the sailors, kept by him until Christmas, and then 
 delivered. 
 
 The sailor charged with this duty was the only 
 Christian on the ship. His comrades jeered at him, 
 but he was not disturbed. The one who sneered most 
 declared that he was an infidel, and that he had no use 
 for Christmas- or any other Christian festival. 
 
 But when, on Christmas morning, the infidel was 
 given the packet bearing his name and a Christmas 
 greeting, he was amazed. 
 
 Wondering, he tore open the packet and read the 
 note two or three times. Then he exclaimed : 
 
 " There must be something in it ! " 
 
 The Christian sailor realized that the opportunity 
 for which he had long sought was about come to him. 
 The infidel was ready for the message he could give. 
 
 That afternoon, when shore leave was given to 
 
 100 
 
ON A SAILING SHIP 
 
 some of the men, including the infidel and the Chris- 
 tian, the infidel asked if he might take a walk with 
 the Christian. 
 
 Now the Christian sailor had looked forward to a 
 quiet time that day ; at first he was not willing to have 
 his plans interfered with. But he realized that, in all 
 probability, his longed-for opportunity was at hand, 
 so he welcomed the man as a companion. 
 
 Together they went to a hillside on the outskirts of 
 the town. There the infidel told his companion that 
 the letter had brought before him his own little girl. 
 
 " There are two or three things just like what she 
 used to tell me, and some lines of one of her favorite 
 hymns; and it has brought it all back, and — well, 
 mate, I guess I'd like you to pray for me if you will, 
 if you think God can forgive such a black sinner as I 
 have been." 
 
 When the men rose from their knees, the defiant 
 man had become a Christian. 
 
 The religion of the convert was speedily put to a 
 severe test. His mates adopted all sorts of objection- 
 able means to make him disgrace his profession, but 
 to no purpose. At last they made up their mind that 
 he was a real Christian. 
 
 Then began earnest work on the part of the two 
 Christians in the crew, among their companions. ''Ul- 
 timately," Mr. Horsfield says, " the captain and no 
 less than ten of the crew were led to yield their hearts 
 to Christ." 
 
 lOI 
 
XXIV 
 
 A FELLOW TRAVELER'S WORD 
 
 T N '' The Great Acceptance," Guy Thorne has told 
 •*- the story of the conversion of Frederick N. Cher- 
 rington, an Englishman, son of a wealthy brewer, 
 who gave up the prospect of inheriting his father's 
 wealth because he saw before him the far greater op- 
 portunity of ministering to the poor and the distressed 
 in the name of Christ. 
 
 Mr. Thorne quotes Mr. Cherrington's own account 
 of his conversion : 
 
 " I was traveling on the Continent along the 
 Riviera, or the South of France, and just before I 
 returned from Cannes I met with my friend William 
 Rains ford, the celebrated Episcopal clergyman from 
 New York. We traveled home together to England, 
 and when we got to London I invited him to come and 
 stop at my father's house at Wimbledon. At the time 
 I was living a very moral life, and not without some 
 interest in eternal things, but my only belief was in 
 the Book of Common Prayer, and especially in the 
 statement, ' Wherein I was made a member of Christ, 
 the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of 
 heaven.' When we got to my father's home, to my 
 great astonishment Rainsford suddenly said : * I feel 
 very guilty. We have traveled together all the way 
 over the Continent, and enjoyed ourselves very much, 
 but I have never spoken to you about your soul. The 
 
 1 02 
 
A FELLOW TRAVELER'S WORD 
 
 fact is, I am a Christian, but I have spent the winter 
 in the South of France for my health, and I have been 
 in very worldly society; but now that I have got back 
 to old England these things seem to rise in my mind, 
 and I feel that I must ask you if you are saved/ I 
 said, ' Really, Rainsford, we have had a very good 
 time on the Continent, and I think it is a very great 
 pity that you bring up such a debatable subject just 
 now.' He said, ' I will ask you to do only one thing, 
 and that is, that when I am gone you will promise to 
 read through the third chapter of John's Gospel.' I 
 promised him I would, and accordingly the next night, 
 while smoking a pipe before going to bed, I read the 
 third chapter of John, and as I read it I thought to 
 myself : * This is a very curious thing. Here are two 
 men, my new friend Rainsford, and my old friend 
 Lord Garvagh, who both say the same thing, that 
 they are " saved." ' As I read the chapter, light came 
 into my soul, and when I came to the words, * He 
 that believeth on the Son hath eternal life ' I realized 
 that I, too, possessed ' eternal life.' " 
 
 In 1873 the young convert learned how much 
 money was being earned by the products of the brew- 
 ery from which he expected his inheritance. So he 
 went to his father and told him he would have to 
 renounce his inheritance. His father argued with 
 him, but to no purpose. 
 
 Many years later, when the father was dying, he 
 could not be comforted except by the son who had 
 disappointed him by giving up his inheritance. He 
 owned that Frederick was right, asked him to pray 
 for him, and died a Christian. 
 
 103 
 
XXV 
 WHAT THE CONDUCTOR DID 
 
 HIS story has been told by James H. McConkey, 
 thus: 
 
 " I have a Christian railroad friend, a passenger 
 conductor on a train running into a Southern city. 
 One morning on his usual run he was sitting beside 
 a wealthy turpentine merchant. Presently the train 
 stopped at a wayside station. A young man, visibly 
 intoxicated, stepped aboard the train. He dropped 
 down beside a companion, with the words, * I drank 
 a quart of whiskey since five o'clock this morning.* 
 And then he went on with a perfect stream of pro- 
 fanity and blasphemy. 
 
 '* My friend stood it as long as he could. Then 
 he said to his companion, * I cannot endure this any 
 longer. Please excuse me.' He arose and crossed 
 the aisle. The companion of the young man vacated 
 his seat. The Christian railroad conductor sat down 
 beside the blasphemer. 
 
 *' ' I have listened to your profanity, young man,' 
 said he, ' until I cannot bear it any longer. My dear 
 boy, have you a mother and father ? * 
 
 " ' Yes,* replied the young fellow. 
 
 " * Are they Christians ? ' asked the conductor. 
 
 " * They are,' said the boy. ' My father is an officer 
 In a church.' 
 
 104 
 
WHAT THE CONDUCTOR DID 
 
 " * Well, young man, can you imagine how your 
 mother's heart would bleed if she stood here and heard 
 you blaspheme the name of Christ as I have heard you 
 this morning? Why, she would not take all the silver 
 and gold in the world, and hear that.' 
 
 " And then as he went on with increasing earnest- 
 ness my friend put his arm over the profaning boy's 
 shoulder, and pleaded with him to cease from his man- 
 ner of life. 
 
 " Presently the boy broke down utterly. He put 
 his head on the conductor's shoulder, and sobbed out 
 his penitence like a child. As they dismounted at the 
 end of the run the young fellow made an appoint- 
 ment to meet the conductor at his room at the hotel 
 to talk it over with him. And talk it over they did 
 to a finish. It ended in the young man giving his 
 heart to Christ. The next year the conductor learned 
 that he was superintendent of a prosperous little Sun- 
 day school, and giving noble testimony for Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 " But the stream of power from this Christian rail- 
 road man's life did not end there. The wealthy tur- 
 pentine merchant had witnessed the whole scene, and 
 heard the conversation. As the conductor started 
 toward his hotel he heard his name called. Looking 
 around, he saw the merchant standing beside his team, 
 which had come to meet him. 
 
 " ' Hold on, conductor, I want to say something to 
 you. I was listening to your conversation with that 
 young man. You did not mean it for me. But I want 
 to say this : I am a wealthy man. I have a good wife 
 and children, and a comfortable home. Yet I never 
 
 105 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 in my life read a chapter from the Book nor had a 
 prayer with them. Conductor, your talk has reached 
 my heart. I am going home this very night to set up 
 my family altar, and from this time on I will be a 
 different man.* 
 
 '' Out from that conductor's life had flowed a 
 stream of power from God. Not the power of great 
 scholarship, or eloquence, but the power of the Spirit 
 of God pouring its stream through the life of the man 
 who walked in this highway of God, the highway of 
 a consecrated life. It is a highway in which all of us 
 may walk. Shall we not enter therein ? " 
 
 lo6 
 
XXVI 
 UNDER THE PALM TREE 
 
 A N epoch-making experience in the life of a Phila- 
 -^ ^ delphia layman was related thus in the columns 
 of The Sunday School Times: 
 
 " The beginning of it was when several of us who 
 belonged to a local church became impressed with the 
 idea that we had been put under orders of the King 
 to do some personal evangelism. About ten of us had 
 met together and talked and prayed over our new pur- 
 pose. Then we adjourned for the week, and during 
 the interval each was pledged to carry the Message to 
 somebody. 
 
 *' I was an instructor in the large university of that 
 city, and my thoughts turned at once to a young man, 
 an undergraduate with whom I was acquainted and 
 who occasionally attended our church. He was a care- 
 less enough young fellow, but good-hearted, I be- 
 lieved, and withal evidently well bred. He came from 
 a distant state, and was far from home and friends. 
 I determined to see him at once and thus have my 
 task done early in the week. 
 
 " Then I stumbled at the very threshold of my 
 quest. My denomination had always insisted strongly 
 on the definite leading of the Spirit in all religious 
 work. Was I being led of God to speak to this young 
 man, or had I hit upon him of my own choice just to 
 
 107 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 fulfill the pledge to my comrades? Was I really un- 
 der orders of the King? 
 
 " It was a big question to me, and it became bigger 
 as the days passed. For when I did decide to see him, 
 every obstacle seemed to be thrown in my path. Three 
 times my appointments with him miscarried. Once 
 he failed, once I failed, and once we both failed. Then 
 I believed he suspected my purpose and avoided me. 
 Surely, I thought, if it was God's purpose for me to 
 see this young man he would open the way. But the 
 way did not open. 
 
 " So the battle went on in my mind, but ever my 
 final thought was that certainly God's hand would 
 not restrain a bearer of his great message. Perhaps 
 it was for me, like Arnold von Winkelried, to make a 
 way where there was no way. 
 
 " Saturday afternoon came, and the next day our 
 circle was to meet again for reports. I was getting 
 desperate. I had finally come to the conclusion that 
 I must act, come what might. There was no more 
 time for appointments. So, donning my raincoat and 
 taking an umbrella, I tramped out through the pour- 
 ing rain to his boarding place. I was hardly surprised 
 when I found the house full of people and no appa- 
 rent opportunity for me to talk privately with my 
 friend. But I dared brook no more delay, and I asked 
 him as a personal favor to put on his coat and walk 
 down the street with me. 
 
 " Then came our interview in the storm. Under 
 the partial shelter of one umbrella I told him I dared 
 wait no longer to ask him if he was a follower of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 lo8 
 
UNDER THE PALM TREE 
 
 "Quick as a flash he shot back an answer that I 
 shall never forget : * No, I am not, but I can't tell 
 you how glad I am that you spoke to me about it.' 
 What a reply to a messenger who had feared he was 
 not sent ! Then we both forgot about wind and rain as 
 he told me freely, eagerly, of his condition. He was 
 far from home and loved ones, lonely for the circle 
 of old friends, and in despair because he had just 
 failed in his quarterly examination at the university. 
 He had not felt free to confide in any of his new 
 friends, and he had been wondering whether the God 
 of heaven would really help him. 
 
 " The rest of my story tells itself. Every reader 
 of these lines knows what the Father does when such 
 a tired, wayworn prodigal turns about and faces home- 
 ward. The young man and I had a great revival meet- 
 ing right in that spot. There was no altar and no min- 
 ister, no organ and no gospel singers. The young man 
 had never found the way to God before, and I knew 
 little of how to lead him. But there in the storm, 
 another tempest-tossed soul found the Pilot and en- 
 tered into the peace that passeth knowledge. 
 
 " It was a double victory, too. For when the bearer 
 of the message made his way homeward from his 
 quest he knew beyond peradventure that he had been 
 under orders of the King." 
 
 109 
 
XXVII 
 AT THE TOP OF THE STEEPLE 
 
 "XT'ES, I want to come into the Church; 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 — begging your par- 
 don — for preachers. He tells me to go ahead, and 
 stop waiting for him. Many a time I've made up my 
 mind to do just that. Then, at the last minute, I think 
 if I wait just a little while longer surely he'll come 
 with me. What would you do? " 
 
 The visitor told her the best thing she could do 
 would be to become a church member without fur- 
 ther delay, for she would have a better chance to in- 
 fluence her husband as a professed Christian than as 
 an outsider. Before the call was concluded, she 
 agreed that this was her best course. 
 
 As the minister left, he said, '' Please remember 
 me to Mr. B. when he comes home. Tell him I am 
 sorry to have missed him, and that I hope to have a 
 good talk with him soon." 
 
 Many times the minister tried to get in touch with 
 the husband; but always he missed him. Daily he 
 prayed for him. A part of his petition was that he 
 might get to him, and that he might say and do the 
 
 no 
 
AT THE TOP OF THE STEEPLE 
 
 right thing, so that husband and wife would be to- 
 gether in the Church. 
 
 Finally 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 ? Then he'll be where the likes of you can get 
 to him better. You see, to-day he's working on the 
 last section of the steeple of the new church." 
 
 It was enough. The minister made up his mind 
 he would find Jim that very afternoon. At the 
 church — a magnificent building, with a lofty spire — 
 he learned that his quarry was indeed at the top. 
 " You can't get to him, though; nothing but ladders 
 to climb on. Better let us call him down," the fore- 
 man suggested. 
 
 But the minister had been challenged to go where 
 Jim was. So he climbed ladder after ladder until, 
 nearly two hundred feet above the street, he found 
 a much surprised man. 
 
 " What are you here for? " he asked. 
 
 " They told me you were up here, and I wanted to 
 ask you if you don't think it is time you became a 
 Christian?" 
 
 Five minutes were spent in conversation. Then 
 the minister climbed down the ladders, and went on 
 his way seeking others for Christ. 
 
 The next Sunday Jim became a member of the 
 Church, and was thereafter known as an earnest 
 Christian man. His friends wondered a little at the 
 
 III 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 change in his Hfe, but the only explanation he would 
 give was this: 
 
 " The preacher who'll climb two hundred feet of 
 ladders to call on me, can have me every time ! " 
 
 112 
 
SIX 
 WINNING UNLIKELY PEOPLE 
 
 113 
 
XXVIII 
 HE WON THE WATCHMAN 
 
 A N experience that strengthened the purpose of a 
 •^^ man to tell others of Christ was thus related 
 by him, in the columns of The Sunday School Times: 
 
 " At a convention in Maryland, in the hotel late at 
 night, I rang for a pitcher of ice water. The night 
 watchman brought it to my room. He was an almost 
 defective looking type of humanity, scarcely up to the 
 average grade of intelligence. 
 
 ** As he stepped into the room I thought it might be 
 a good opportunity, and I said just a few words to 
 him, asking him if he were a follower of Christ, and 
 if not, whether he would not become so. The man 
 said he could not do this, because in that hotel one of 
 his duties was serving the bar, and he could not come 
 to Christ while he was selling liquor. 
 
 " The next day I left the place. I could not get him 
 out of my mind, however, and as I happened to know 
 a minister in the town I asked him to look the man 
 up. He wrote me later that he had had a talk with 
 him, but apparently with no result. 
 
 " It was some months later that I saw a copy of a 
 Sunday-school paper, published in that town, and, 
 thinking the editor might be able to do something to 
 help I wrote to him. 
 
 " A few weeks later I heard from the man I had 
 
 ' 115 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 written to, that he had looked the hotel man up and 
 found that he had left his position and was in another 
 business. He had had a talk with him and learned 
 that he was then a member of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, seemingly very happy and doing good 
 work. 
 
 " I was reproached by the incident for ever having 
 thought that I had done my full duty in the first effort, 
 or for having felt that this was perhaps a case where 
 a man could not be won." 
 
 ii6 
 
XXIX 
 OUT INTO THE SUNLIGHT 
 
 TWO college students sought a visitor who is 
 noted for his success in dealing with young 
 men, and told of their attempts to help one of their 
 classmates and asked him if he could suggest any- 
 thing. 
 
 " Bring him to me," the visitor said. 
 
 So, in a few minutes, three men entered the visitor's 
 room. The two who had spoken to him were bright 
 and earnest looking, but the man who followed them 
 entered with hanging head and shuffling step. In re- 
 sponse to the visitor's greeting, he raised his eyes just 
 long enough to allow the keen judge of men to see 
 the story of hatred written there. 
 
 " There's something on your mind," the visitor said, 
 when the sullen man was seated near him. The words 
 were spoken in the soft yet strong tone that was a 
 factor in his successful approach to those with whom 
 he worked. '' Tell me about it." 
 
 " There's nothing on my mind," was the surly re- 
 ply. *' Who told you there was ? " 
 
 " No one told me. But I'd be glad to have you tell 
 me all about it." 
 
 *' There's nothing wrong with me. There's some- 
 thing wrong with the fellows that brought me here. 
 Better talk to them." 
 
 117 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 " Yes, there is something wrong," came the firm, 
 even, compelHng reply. 
 
 " How do you know? " The student looked up in 
 surprise at the insistence of the stranger. 
 
 " Because your eyes tell me so." 
 
 ** Maybe you will let me know what they tell you, 
 seeing you know so much." 
 
 " Very well. They tell me plainly that you want to 
 send someone straight to hell, and that you are ready 
 to go there after him." 
 
 The change in the student was startling. He 
 gripped the arms of the chair. He leaned forward in 
 great excitement. 
 
 " Some sneak has been telling you about me." He 
 looked accusingly at the men who had brought him 
 into the room. 
 
 " No one has told me but yourself. Don't you 
 think you had better tell me all about it? " 
 
 There was a moment's hesitation, followed by a 
 look of determination. 
 
 " Might as well," he said. Then, turning to his 
 companions: "Fellows, you disappear." 
 
 When he was alone with the visiting friend of 
 young men, he told his story. 
 
 " I live in the mountains. A year ago I was stabbed 
 in the breast by a man I had thought my friend. They 
 thought I couldn't live. I had two months of awful 
 suffering before I began to get well. During those 
 two months I forgot the pain while I thought of what 
 I would do to the coward that put me on my back. 
 
 " When I got up I was weak. I knew I could not 
 hope to kill him as I must do. It would have been 
 
 ii8 
 
OUT INTO THE SUNLIGHT 
 
 easy to shoot him behind his back; but I wanted some- 
 thing better than that. He must taste the knife as he 
 had made me taste it. Only there won't be any fail- 
 ure when I put the knife in him. It will go right to 
 the hilt, and there won't be enough left of him to put 
 to bed. 
 
 " But a fellow has to be strong to do a thing like 
 that. I thought how I could get ready. The best 
 chance seemed to come here. I haven't come to study 
 — I'm here to get all I can from the gymnasium and 
 the athletic team. In a few months I'm going back 
 to the mountains. Then he can look out ! " 
 
 As he finished his eyes were glittering with deadly 
 hate. 
 
 The man to whom he told the story looked at him 
 a moment without a word. Then he said : 
 
 ** So you are planning to send a man to hell. Well, 
 all I have to say is, you must love him a lot." 
 
 "Love him? I hate him!" 
 
 " Then why do you plan to spend such a long time 
 in his company ? " 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 *' Well, if you send him to hell, you will go there 
 after him. And you'll stay there with him for a long 
 eternity. Yes, you must love him a lot, or you would 
 not be so eager to be with him.'* 
 
 "I hadn't thought of that!" the student said, in 
 surprise. 
 
 " Well, I have this much to say," the man went on, 
 " There is a far better way to get your man than you 
 have outlined." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 119 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 The visitor took his Testament from his pocket, and 
 turned to Matthew 5 : 43. Pointing to the place, he 
 said: 
 
 " Read this." 
 
 Curious, the student looked and read: 
 
 " Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say 
 unto you. Love your enemies; bless them that curse 
 you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for 
 them which despitefully use you and persecute you." 
 
 Amazed, the reader looked up. " That's no way 
 for a man to do," he said, with a sneer. 
 
 " Read on," the man said, his finger indicating 
 verse 45. 
 
 Obediently the student read: 
 
 " That you may be the children of your Father 
 which is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise on 
 the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just 
 and on the unjust." 
 
 At last the student showed interest. " What does 
 that mean ? " he asked, wonderingly. 
 
 " It means that God loves you who hate him just 
 as much as he loves the president of this college. He 
 wants to let his sun shine on you just as much as on 
 the president; but you won't let him. You persist in 
 staying down in your miserable, dark cellar, among 
 the slimy creatures you choose for company, when 
 you might come out into God's glorious sunshine and 
 be glad." 
 
 The student looked at him in wonder. " I never 
 thought of it that way," he said. 
 
 " Don't you think we'd better kneel here and ask 
 
 120 
 
OUT INTO THE SUNLIGHT 
 
 God to show you how to get the better of your enemy 
 in His way? " 
 
 All the fight had gone out of the student. He 
 knelt at once with the man whose words he had re- 
 sented only a few moments before. 
 
 The visitor pleaded for the opening of the student's 
 eyes. He asked that God would teach him how to 
 live in the sunlight, in company with the man he had 
 sought to injure. He prayed for several minutes, and 
 was about to ask the student if he would not pray, 
 when there was an interruption. 
 
 " O Lord, I'll let him live ! " were the unexpected 
 words that closed the prayer. As he spoke, the stu- 
 dent rose to his feet. His companion rose with him. 
 
 The student looked startled. There was a wonder- 
 ing look in his eyes. 
 
 " Something has happened," he said. 
 
 " Of course it has. Tell me about it." 
 
 " For the first time, I can't hate him. I find myself 
 making excuses for him. He was drunk when he did 
 it. I don't feel toward him as I did. What is the 
 meaning of this? " 
 
 " It means that God has kept his promise, as he 
 always does. He has taken away your stony heart 
 and has given you a heart of flesh. The change was 
 made when you said, ' I'll let him live.' " 
 
 "Then I'm a Christian?" 
 
 " Of course you are." 
 
 "What shall I do?" 
 
 " I'll leave the answer to that question to you." 
 
 The student's answer was plain before the day was 
 done. He went among his companions and told them 
 
 121 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 of the change in his hfe. He pleaded with others to 
 come out into God's sunshine. During the remainder 
 of the stay in that college of the friend of young men 
 whose searching words had been used to bring him 
 to a true view of life, no one did as much as he to per- 
 suade his fellows to begin the Christian Hfe or to go 
 for conference to the room where he had seen his 
 real self in the looking glass of the Word and had 
 gone out a transformed man. 
 
 122 
 
XXX 
 GETTING CLOSE TO OTHERS 
 
 THERE is always a way to the heart of a man one 
 is determined to win for Jesus Christ, and 
 it is worth while to take any necessary trouble to find 
 that way. This was the lesson taught by Paul, who 
 became " all things to all men " that he might '' by 
 all means save some." To the weak he became weak, 
 that he might gain the weak; to the Jew he became 
 as a Jew, that he might gain Jews. Frank Higgins 
 made his quarters in the lumber camps because he 
 wanted to win the lumberjacks. Doctor Grenfell lives 
 among the Labrador fishermen, enduring the hard- 
 ships such as they know, for he wishes to understand 
 their life and reach them for Christ. 
 
 When Henry B. Whipple, later Bishop Whipple, 
 was beginning his work in Chicago, he asked the chief 
 engineer of the Galena Railroad as to the best way to 
 reach the railroad men in his parish. *' How much 
 do you know about a steam engine?" he was asked. 
 " Nothing? Then read Lardner's Railway Economy 
 until you are able to ask an engineer a question about 
 a locomotive and he not think you a fool." 
 
 The sequel is told in the words of the eager fisher 
 of men : 
 
 *' I followed his advice, and in due season went to 
 the roundhouse, where I found a number of men 
 
 123 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 studying a locomotive. Observing that it was a Taun- 
 ton engine with inside connections, I asked at a ven- 
 ture, * Which do you like the better, inside or outside 
 connections ? ' This was followed by questions about 
 steam heaters and variable exhausts, and in less than 
 half an hour I was taught far more than I had learned 
 from my book. On leaving, I said: * Boys, where do 
 you go to church? I have a free church in Metre ;poli- 
 tan Hall, where I shall be glad to see you. And if 
 at any time you have an accident, and need me, I will 
 gladly go to you.' The following Sunday every man 
 was in church. This was before the day of air brakes, 
 and accidents were frequent. Whenever I heard of 
 one, I immediately went to the sufferer and very soon 
 I found that superintendents and station-masters were 
 expressing their approval of * that sort of religion,' 
 and many of the officials became members of my con- 
 gregation." 
 
 One of the reasons for the striking success of some 
 adult Bible classes in reaching men outside the Church 
 is readiness like this on the part of the members to 
 get on even terms with those whom they P/Cek. And 
 one thing many workers are learning by experience 
 is the folly of pretending to have a knowledge which 
 is not one's own, when trying to come in touch with 
 men. " I haven't any use for that person," an engi- 
 neer called to his fireman when a well-meaning but 
 blundering minister had left his side. '' The man 
 said he saw I was ' oiling up my steed,' so he came 
 over to speak to me. ' Oiling up,' indeed ! He'd bet- 
 ter learn that the proper lingo is ' oil 'round.' " 
 
 Possibly that railroad man was unfair in judging 
 124 
 
GETTING CLOSE TO OTHERS 
 
 his visitor by this very natural mistake. At any rate 
 the incident was a warning to another Christian 
 worker who learned of it, not to spare any pains 
 necessary to get on proper terms of intimacy with his 
 quarry. 
 
 I2S 
 
XXXI 
 
 TEN MINUTES WITH A CORRUPT 
 MAYOR 
 
 A YOUNG pastor had just taken charge of a 
 -^^ church in a city of twenty-five thousand pop- 
 ulation. He was eager for the work, but he was 
 amazed when some of the leaders in the church told 
 him they felt it was his duty to attack the city gov- 
 ernment in his sermons or otherwise. 
 
 ** The Mayor is a disgrace to the city, his depart- 
 ment chiefs are like himself, and the members of the 
 council are followers in evil. The city is famous for 
 the corruption in high places. You must do some- 
 thing." 
 
 However, the young pastor declined to move until 
 he had become better acquainted with the situation. 
 He wished to make no mistake. 
 
 The time came when he felt he must act. But he 
 did not preach a sermon directed at the Mayor and 
 his associates, nor did he rush into print. After 
 prayer for guidance, he called the Mayor on the tele- 
 phone and asked for an appointment. 
 
 ** I want ten minutes of your time," he said. 
 
 Next morning the minister was shown into the 
 office of the Mayor, who looked him over with some 
 curiosity. Evidently he wondered what could be the 
 errand of his visitor. 
 
 " Pardon me if I look at my watch," the minister 
 126 
 
TEN MINUTES WITH A CORRUPT MAYOR 
 
 said. " I must keep to my promise to leave the office 
 in ten minutes." 
 
 Then, after a few moments of general conversa- 
 tion, he stated his errand : " I want to congratulate 
 you on the honor and responsibility that were laid on 
 you when you were chosen Mayor of this city. But 
 I want to tell you that there is a greater honor waiting 
 for you — something far bigger than the office of 
 Mayor of a city like this." 
 
 The heart of the Mayor bounded. He thought of 
 possible political preferment; he had dreamed of this. 
 Could this stranger be the emissary of some powerful 
 politician ? 
 
 Curiously he listened to the next words of the visi- 
 tor : " You ought to be a servant of Jesus Christ." 
 
 In astonishment the official replied : " No one ever 
 spoke to me like this before." 
 
 The pastor rose, looked at his watch, and held out 
 his hand. " I must go," he said; " time is up." 
 
 Next day there was a call at the minister's tele- 
 phone; the Mayor asked for him. " Won't you come 
 and talk to me ? " he asked, his voice giving evidence 
 of his agitation. " I have thought of what you said 
 to me ever since you left. I must see you ! " 
 
 Two weeks later the Mayor united with the church 
 of which the minister was pastor. But the work did 
 not stop there. The chief of police, the head of the 
 fire department, and five aldermen confessed Christ 
 and became church members. 
 
 Then the government of the city was cleaned up. 
 The work the officers of his new charge had de- 
 manded of the young minister had been done. 
 
 127 
 
XXXII 
 
 THE SALOON KEEPER WHO 
 SNEERED 
 
 A YOUNG minister who was looking for an op- 
 -^^ portunity to speak for Christ where he was 
 especially needed was walking on one of the streets 
 of an Illinois city when he saw a closed church build- 
 ing. The neglected appearance of the property made 
 it evident that the building had been closed for some 
 time. 
 
 On inquiry, he learned that services had been held 
 there for some years. His informant explained: 
 " There is no need of the church. The town has one 
 strong organization of the denomination, and we have 
 decided that the doors might just as well remain 
 closed." 
 
 But the young minister thought differently. A 
 careful study of the town convinced him that the 
 closed church should be opened for the benefit of resi- 
 dents in the neighborhood who had few church privi- 
 leges because they could not always take the long walk 
 to the nearest open church. 
 
 '* May I hold services in the building? " the young 
 man anxious for service asked of one who seemed 
 to have the best right to say what should be done with 
 the property. 
 
 128 
 
' THE SALOON KEEPER WHO SNEERED 
 
 " I don't care," was the reply. " If you want to 
 be so foolish, it isn't my affair, I'm sure." 
 
 So the young minister set to work to make the ex- 
 terior of the church less unattractive. His activity 
 attracted the attention of many in the neighborhood 
 who made up their minds to attend when the doors 
 were opened. 
 
 One morning the minister, who had appointed 
 himself sexton, was sweeping the sidewalk in front 
 of the church, when a burly man paused to ask : 
 
 "What are you doing? Surely you're not going 
 to o.pen that church ? " 
 
 " Just what I am going to do." 
 
 " Well, we have enough churches in this town. 
 Better keep the doors closed." 
 
 " I believe this church is needed," the minister re- 
 plied. 
 
 " Who needs it? " This time the question was ac- 
 companied by an oath. 
 
 The minister looked directly into the eyes of the man, 
 who he knew was the keeper of a saloon. He might 
 have told himself it was useless to say anything fur- 
 ther to the profane man. Probably many Christians 
 would have been silent under similar circumstances. 
 But the minister was made of different stuff; he was 
 looking for just such an opening as now presented 
 itself to him. So he said : 
 
 "You need it!" 
 
 The sneering questioner was walking on. But at 
 this unexpected word he turned sharply, prepared to 
 resent what he thought might be intended as a slur. 
 One look at the earnest, kindly face of the speaker 
 
 129 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 showed him that the message was prompted by a kind 
 heart. So the feeHng of resentment died at once. 
 
 Without a word he walked on. 
 
 He was surprised to find that he could not dismiss 
 from his mind the minister and his remark. Day 
 after day the message, " You need it," persisted. 
 
 So when he saw the minister on the street car he 
 welcomed his approach, and showed that he was ready 
 to talk about the little church in which a small con- 
 gregation had been gathered. This was the first of 
 many conversations. 
 
 Finally the saloon keeper closed his place of busi- 
 ness and asked if he might confess Jesus Christ as his 
 Master in the building, once so dilapidated, then the 
 center of earnest work. 
 
 From the day of his public confession, the man who 
 had been won in consequence of those first searching 
 words of the young minister was the mainstay of what 
 became a church that abundantly justified its right 
 to life. And when, after some years, God called 
 him from earth, his death was triumphant. 
 
 130 
 
XXXIII 
 AN EXCHANGE OF TICKETS 
 
 'nr^HERE passed away in a large Western city not 
 ^ long ago a plain woman, a semi-invalid, who 
 was known only to a small circle of friends few of 
 whom have heard of this incident in a life which was 
 filled with quiet service for others. 
 
 Once, when she was a member of the Board of 
 Directors of the Florence Crittenden Home for Girls, 
 it was necessary to send one of the girls back to rela- 
 tives in a large Eastern city. The girl, Clara, was 
 seventeen and was far from being a promising sub- 
 ject: she was sullen, defiant, and apparently hardened 
 against any softening influence. 
 
 Just at this time the member of the board was 
 going to the same city, and she volunteered to look 
 after the young girl on the journey. 
 
 A railway ticket for Clara was secured through the 
 United Charities Association, and the long trip was 
 begun. The older traveler secured for her companion 
 a Pullman berth adjoining her own. Then, before 
 the conductor appeared, she asked to see Clara's ticket. 
 The girl reddened and sullenly produced her trans- 
 portation, which was stamped in large letters, 
 '' CHARITY." Her companion placed it in her hand- 
 bag and drew out her own ticket, which she gave to 
 the girl. 
 
 131 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 " Give the conductor this ticket, Clara; I'll use your 
 ticket," she said, simply. 
 
 So the older woman rode through to her destina- 
 tion on the ticket stamped *' Charity." 
 
 But something wonderful happened at the instant 
 the tickets were exchanged. The icy barrier in Clara's 
 heart gave way and a warm flood of repentance swept 
 over her, for she realized that there, next to her, was 
 one who loved her. For a moment the girl looked 
 unbelievingly into the face of her friend; then she 
 turned and looked from the car window. But she 
 saw nothing; her eyes were filled with tears. 
 
 In later years Clara, who was then serving as head 
 matron in a large Eastern hospital, told a friend of 
 that day on the train. She said : *' I knew Mrs. M. 
 in the home for many months. She treated all of us 
 girls as if she expected us to do the right thing. But 
 I never felt repentant or that I could hold up my head 
 again, until she took my ticket stamped ' Charity ' 
 and gave me her own in its place. I don't know what 
 happened then, but when I looked into her face I knew 
 that she must love even me and that she believed in 
 the girl I could be. I thought for a few moments my 
 heart would burst right then and there, and I made 
 up my mind that I could and would live right." 
 
 132 
 
XXXIV 
 
 \ THE COWBOY'S RESPONSE 
 
 "/^NE of my most remarkable experiences was in 
 ^^ a new frontier village to which a railroad had 
 just come.'' Thus an Idaho Sunday-school mission- 
 ary began a tale of the results of individual work. 
 
 " Thousands of cattle roamed over the plains about 
 the village. On my first visit I found three saloons, 
 two general stores, a blacksmith shop, a drug store, 
 and a few stores in tents. There were a few houses, 
 but many families lived in tents. Then there was a 
 small school building, for school purposes; but no 
 Sunday school, and no church services had been held 
 in the town. 
 
 " On my arrival, I invited the people to a series of 
 meetings at the schoolhouse. There were not many 
 Christian families, but they all promised to attend. 
 
 " One of the few Christian men spoke to me dis- 
 couragingly of the prospects ; he assured me that there 
 was little hope of persuading the irreligious people to 
 come with us. 
 
 *' Early one morning, while I was in the town, this 
 business man went to the depot to inquire about some 
 freight. He saw two young men, both cowboys, sit- 
 ting on the depot steps. At first he was tempted to 
 pass them by; it was evident that both had spent the 
 night in the saloon. Then he remembered the meet- 
 
 133 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 ings, and decided that he could not lose the oppor- 
 tunity to say a word that might be helpful to the men. 
 
 " ' Do you expect to be in town to-night ? ' he asked. 
 
 " ' We came in yesterday from the ranch ; we may 
 go back to-day, and we may stay longer,' one of the 
 men replied. 
 
 " ' Well, boys,' said the business man, ' if you are 
 in town to-night, come up to the schoolhouse. We are 
 having gospel services there every night, the first 
 we ever had in this part of the country. We want 
 you.' 
 
 "The cowboys said they could not come; they 
 had no fit clothing. Anyhow, if they were in town, 
 they would be in the saloon. 
 
 ** The Christian business man, thus rebuffed, left 
 them. But he could not forget the cowboys. All day 
 they were in his thoughts. 
 
 '" li only I could get them to church ! ' he thought. 
 
 '* Just before service that evening he decided to 
 make one more effort. Going the round of the sa- 
 loons, he succeeded in finding his acquaintances of the 
 morning. 
 
 " ' Well, boys, I have come after you, and I want 
 you to come with me to the service,' he said. 
 
 " Their renewed excuses were soon silenced. Paus- 
 ing only to leave their cartridge belts and their guns 
 behind the bar, they left the saloon with the stranger. 
 
 *' I shall never forget the sight when the cowboys 
 came into church, guided by the business man," the 
 missionary said. '* Every eye was on them as they 
 took a seat on one of the wooden benches in the rear 
 of the room. 
 
 134 
 
THE COWBOY'S RESPONSE 
 
 " As I preached that night I prayed. One of the 
 cowboys was restless at first, but soon after I began 
 to speak he turned his eyes on me and never looked 
 away till I was through. At the close of my address 
 I saw that he was greatly agitated. When I gave the 
 invitation to stand to all who desired to take Christ as 
 their Saviour, he rose among the first. 
 
 ** But he did not stand in his place, as others did. 
 He walked up the aisle to the platform and asked if 
 he might speak to the people. 
 
 " At once it was evident that he was an educated 
 man. He told of his boyhood home; he was the child 
 of well-to-do parents in New England. He had grad- 
 uated with high honors from a large Eastern college. 
 His parents had hoped he would enter the ministry. 
 
 " ' But,' he said, ' my heart turned away from the 
 life they set before me, and soon after my graduation 
 I ran away from home and came out to this Western 
 country. For years I have ridden the range. I have 
 gone to the depths of sin. For five years I have not 
 written to my mother; she doesn't know that I am 
 alive.' 
 
 *' Then he fell on his knees and asked God to for- 
 give him. When he rose, he grasped the hand of the 
 business man, who had knelt with him, and said : 
 
 " ' God bless you for bringing me here.' 
 
 " * Come home with me to-night,' the man said. 
 * We want you for our guest.' 
 
 " ' No, thank you,' the young man replied. ' No 
 sleep for me until I know if mother is alive.' 
 
 " So he went to the little station, and this message 
 flashed over the wires to the old home : 
 
 135 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 " * Your lost boy is found and saved. Answer 
 quickly. Charley.' 
 
 " All night he walked the floor of the station, wait- 
 ing for the answer. It did not come till five o'clock 
 next morning. Then with joy he read the words: 
 
 ** ' Thank God our boy still lives. Come home at 
 once. Father. Mother/ 
 
 •* But he felt he could not go until he had done a 
 little to show his joy. He wanted to bring some of 
 his associates to the Master who had come into his 
 life. 
 
 " That evening he was at the service. With him 
 were two young men, companions whom he had helped 
 drag down into sin. 
 
 *' Before the close of the service he told what God 
 had done for him. Then he prayed with his two com- 
 panions, who were on their knees at the altar. That 
 night three Christian cowboys walked out of the 
 church service — and the conversion of all three was 
 due to personal work. 
 
 " Next day the call of the New England parents 
 was answered. The boy started for home. 
 
 " Not long after his arrival he began to study for 
 the ministry. Already he has been God's instrument 
 in leading many to Christ." 
 
 136 
 
SEVEN 
 THE WORD IN SEASON 
 
 137 
 
^ 
 
XXXV 
 
 MAKING A FOOL OF HIMSELF 
 
 ry EV. C. W. STEPHENSON has told this story 
 -■'^ of something that occurred in Detroit a few 
 years ago, as related to him by one of the men who 
 had a part in it : 
 
 " There were two gentlemen engaged in the shoe 
 business. Their stores were not far apart; their busi- 
 ness and social relations were cordial and intimate. 
 Mr. B. was an earnest, modest, exemplary Christian 
 man, widely read and highly respected. His friend, 
 Mr. C, was a man who stood well in the business 
 world, moral, honest, courteous, but an avowed in- 
 fidel. 
 
 *' One evening Mr. B. and his wife had visited at 
 C.'s, and the conversation had turned upon business, 
 politics, municipal aCairs, books, travel, pictures, and 
 current topics. It had been a pleasant and enjoyable 
 evening, apparently, for all. But on the way home 
 Mr. B. had a train of serious meditation. He said to 
 himself : ' What is it that makes me afraid of 
 C. ? He is honest, kind, broad minded; and yet I'm 
 afraid of him. I dare not speak to him of things 
 that concern me most, that concern him most. I do 
 not understand myself. It seems as if I had been un- 
 true to him, my friend, untrue to myself, and untrue 
 to the Best Friend. I am ashamed, and will make 
 
 139 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 amends at the first opportunity.' Then the sugges- 
 tion came : * Why not look for the opportunity ? ' 
 
 " He slept little that night. The following day was 
 dark and rainy, and there was little to do in the store. 
 He decided to call on Mr. C. and have a serious talk 
 with him if the way opened. He found C. in his office 
 alone. At first there was an uneasy hesitating, and 
 an uncertain drift in finding an opening. But courage 
 came, and he finally began: * C, I have known you 
 twenty years; you have known me that long. We 
 have been fast friends. I think you will permit me 
 to speak to you upon a most important subject; one 
 that concerns us both. Will you?' 
 
 *' ' Certainly, certainly, B., go ahead. Why should 
 you ask such a question ? ' 
 
 " * Well, it is this. I am a Christian; that is, I try 
 to follow One who is very real in my life, filling me 
 with hope and comfort. I am sure you do not know 
 my Best Friend, C. You are not a Christian, and I 
 want to ask you why you are not. You have so many 
 admirable qualities; you just lack this one thing.' 
 
 " B. had grown very serious, spoke scarcely above 
 a whisper, and looked straight into C.'s face. That 
 face had grown hard and displeased. And then came 
 the answer : ' So you are worried about me ? Do you 
 think Fm a child? Have I not thought of these things? 
 B., you may talk to me about anything else on this 
 earth, and I will listen to you, but I will not hear you 
 on this question of religion; and, I will say plainly, 
 Fd thank you to mind your own business ! ' 
 
 " B. was hurt, very much hurt. But he made no 
 reply, except to say, ' I'm sorry to offend you, C, and 
 
 140 
 
MAKING A FOOL OF HIMSELF 
 
 I will not do so again.' As he walked slowly back 
 to his place of business he kept repeating to himself, 
 ' Fve made a fool of myself, I've made a fool of my- 
 self. But I tried to do right; I cannot understand it.' 
 He realized that he had offended an old friend, and 
 he was discouraged and heavy-hearted. 
 
 " Weeks passed, and the men did not meet. Later, 
 when they were thrown together, they did not feel as 
 they formerly had. But when almost a year had 
 passed, B. one day received the following note : ' Dear 
 B., I am not feeling well. Will you call at my home ? 
 I wish to talk with you. C 
 
 ** B. went, and found his friend far from well. 
 They sat and talked over old times and other days. 
 Finally C. said, * B., I owe you an apology. I must 
 acknowledge it. You are the only man in this world 
 who ever had the moral courage to speak to me upon 
 my highest interests. I was mad at you for it, and 
 insulted you. We have not been the same since then; 
 but I have thought much, very much, since then. I 
 am sorry, very sorry, for what I said, and I want 
 you to forgive me. Will you ? ' 
 
 " B. could but silently take the hand that was ex- 
 tended, and for a moment there was silence, sacred 
 and full of meaning. Then C. whispered, ' Won't you 
 pray for me, B. ? I can't pray, I never learned how. 
 You must be my ministci' to lead me to your Best 
 Friend, and I trust, too, my Best Friend.' 
 
 " There was a short, broken, tender prayer. The 
 men were made friends again. Some time after that 
 C. passed to his rest; at the last he said to B., who 
 stood by his side, * B., it's all right. You have led me 
 
 141 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 to see the light that otherwise I might not have known. 
 It's all right, it's all right.' 
 
 " And his friend, in t..lling the story to the writer, 
 said, * I guess sometimes it is necessary that we be- 
 come fools for His sake. I have learned that bread 
 cast on the waters returns after many days.' " 
 
 142 
 
XXXVI 
 
 A TEACHER^S EFFECTIVE SERVICE 
 
 T N the story of the Hfe of Ella Gilbert Ives, pub- 
 '*' lished after her death, this earnest teacher, who 
 was remarkable for her hand-to-hand work with girls, 
 told briefly two incidents that show why parents liked 
 to have their daughters come under her rare influence. 
 
 " Among my girls," she wrote once, *' was one who 
 interested me by her ignorance of the Bible, although, 
 as I soon found out, her spiritual part was by far the 
 largest part of her area. It was like cultivating rich 
 but fallow soil, to sow the seeds of divine truth in 
 that nature; and it quickly responded. At my request 
 Lucile read the Gospel of John and prayed for an un- 
 derstanding heart. We had long talks together, and 
 I had the great joy of acquainting her with Christ.'' 
 
 Again Miss Ives told of a girl whose reticent na- 
 ture might never have opened to her gaze even for a 
 passing glimpse, but for a providence. " The churches 
 in our neighborhood were holding revival services at 
 eight o'clock in the morning," she wrote. " One bit- 
 ter day I dropped into the union meeting and, to my 
 surprise, saw my aristocratic pupil there. Her sleigh 
 was at the door and she invited me to drive with her 
 to school. On the way I said, ' You must be a Chris- 
 tian to be here this cold morning.' ' No,' she said, 
 * I am not.' * Ah, then, you must desire to be one,' I 
 
 143 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 ventured, * let me help you find the way.' ' No one has 
 ever offered to before/ she said, ' perhaps because it 
 has been taken for granted that I know.' The outcome, 
 is summed up in the letter written several years later : 
 * The little spark of faith that you fanned into a flame 
 has spread, and now illumines a much broader world 
 than the one I knew before you came to my assistance 
 on that winter morning. I owe the greatest happi- 
 ness of my life to you as God's agent. As long as I 
 live I shall pray for your health and happiness.' " 
 
 Miss Ives herself traced the beginning of her Chris- 
 tian life to a teacher who cared for her soul. " Yet 
 I have but one proof of this," she wrote, '* a card 
 with a Scripture verse, a poem, and the question, ' Are 
 you a Christian ? ' It had never been put to me before, 
 and an impenetrable shyness now veiled my heart 
 and made it impossible for me to answer. But I 
 never forgot it or the sweet woman who reached out 
 her hand for Christ's little ones. That dear hand has 
 long since returned to dust, but its alluring touch lin- 
 gered and was one of the magnetic forces that im- 
 pelled my heart Godward." 
 
 144 
 
XXXVII 
 WHY WAS HE SILENT SO LONG? 
 
 'T^^G a friend a business man told this story of how 
 "*■ he was led to Christ: 
 
 " For a good many years I was kept from confess- 
 ing Christ and taking my place in the Church, by 
 what seemed to me the wholly unpardonable indiffer- 
 ence of my Christian friends and acquaintances about 
 my spiritual welfare. To some that may seem like a 
 mere pretext; but it certainly was not to me, for I 
 was an orphan lad, with no relatives living near me, 
 and I often felt greatly grieved at the apparent neg- 
 lect. That feeling was relieved somewhat, however, 
 by the fact that I was sought after for other things, 
 frequently invited to neighborhood gatherings, so- 
 licited to join literary and debating societies, and 
 asked to become a member of a secret order which had 
 a chapter in the town. 
 
 " The inference I drew was that Christians — the 
 Christians I knew, at all events — did not sincerely be- 
 lieve what they professed, as to the vital importance 
 of religion. My employer was an elder in the Church, 
 and often conversed with me about myself, about my 
 success in life, and the things to be done and avoided 
 in the making of a sound business man; but he never 
 introduced the subject of personal religion, as I 
 thought he would have done had he been thoroughly 
 
 145 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 convinced that it was more important than honesty 
 and punctuaHty and accuracy in figures and caution 
 in handling money. I fear this might have gone on 
 to the length of practical skepticism, but for a fortu- 
 nate occurrence. 
 
 " My employer had a serious attack of typhoid fever 
 one autumn, and I sat up with him two nights when 
 the disease was at its worst. He was delirious but, 
 somehow, he seemed to know who I was and talked 
 to me very earnestly and tenderly about Christ and 
 his love, and about the help and inspiration and com- 
 fort the Saviour had brought into his life. 
 
 " ' You'll never make a wiser choice, John, than to 
 take him for the Man of your counsel and the Guide 
 of your way,' he said, persuasively. * I don't think a 
 day has ever passed, my boy, since you came to the 
 store, but I've prayed God to let your eyes see the light 
 and to lead your feet toward it. And it will come in 
 God's good time, too, John. I feel sure of that.' 
 
 " He said a great deal more than that, showing me 
 plainly that all those years he had been watching my 
 career, and was really concerned for me in that 
 wherein I had counted him indifferent. Once, when 
 I stepped out into the hall for a breath of fresh air, 
 I overheard him praying fervently, and, though I 
 could not follow the words, I caught my own name 
 two or three times and knew by that that he was bring- 
 ing my case to the Throne of Grace, as he said he had 
 done so many times in the past. 
 
 *' When he was himself again, he was as reticent 
 as ever in those matters of which he had spoken so 
 freely in the delirium of fever; but that unconscious 
 
 146 
 
WHY WAS HE SILENT SO LONG? 
 
 disclosure of his heart was not lost upon me. I could 
 not explain his silence — or justify it either — but I 
 knew it was not due to lack of interest. I reasoned 
 that it might be the same with others of my friends, 
 and I decided that, in any case, my own duty was 
 plain. I resolved, too, from the day I became a Chris- 
 tian, to speak a word for Christ to the people with 
 whom I felt free to converse on other personal topics, 
 and, though I have sometimes spoken unwisely, or at 
 the wrong time, I believe that I have not failed alto- 
 gether. If a man has a sincere desire to see his friends 
 come under the helpful, bettering influence of Christ 
 it is simple honesty to let them know that he cares." 
 
 147 
 
XXXVIII 
 
 AT CHRIST'S BIDDING 
 
 T NTO a Turkish bath estabhshment one dreary, 
 -*■ rainy night came a forlorn woman, who felt that 
 she might as well end her life. She was the daughter 
 of refined, wealthy parents, and had been carefully 
 brought up; but she had fallen into bad habits, had 
 left home in spite of the efforts of her mother to re- 
 claim her and had finally sunk to the lowest depths of 
 degradation. 
 
 The attendant who took her in hand, reading the de- 
 spair plainly written in the face of her charge, made 
 a sympathetic remark which led the sinning woman to 
 open her heart. The attendant listened to the end, 
 then said simply, " Do you know what you need ? You 
 need God ! " The woman stared, then broke down. 
 A long conversation followed, then other conversa- 
 tions at later meetings, until before long the daughter 
 returned to her mother once more, rejoicing the 
 mother's heart by telling her that she had found him 
 who alone can give strength to conquer sin. 
 
 But what if the bath attendant had yielded to the 
 thought, " I had better keep still. What right have I 
 to say anything about God to any of my customers? " 
 
 Many are restrained from speaking a word for the 
 Master by just such flimsy excuses. They need to re- 
 mind themselves that God has promised to honor the 
 
 148 
 
AT CHRISrS BIDDING 
 
 efforts of those who work at his bidding, as he hon- 
 ored the message of the father of a United States 
 Senator, who died several years ago in Washington. 
 This is the story of the message, and its fruit, as told 
 by one who knew the circumstances, in *'Heroes and 
 Hero Worship " : 
 
 " One evening, a few weeks before he died, he came 
 home from a church dedication. Just as he entered the 
 house, venerable in his eighty years, and very deeply 
 moved by the religious service in which he had taken 
 part, whom should he meet in the hall, coming out, but 
 the Italian ambassador, who had come on business to 
 see the senator. 
 
 " The senator introduced his aged father, and the 
 Italian gentleman greeted him with all the charming 
 politeness of the Latin race. Like a flash coming out 
 of the sky, and in stentorian tones, the old man said, 
 * Are you a Christian ? * The ambassador, though 
 taken back, did not forget his politeness, and quickly 
 said, ' I am a Catholic' 
 
 " The old man put his hand on his shoulder and, 
 looking into his eyes, said, * That is all right, my 
 brother; I do not care whether you are Catholic or 
 Protestant. I want to know if you are a Christian. 
 How is it with your soul ? ' 
 
 *' The next day the old minister was taken with his 
 last illness. Every day the Italian ambassador called 
 at the house with flowers, and to make personal in- 
 quiries for the sick man. When he was dead, the am- 
 bassador came to the house and asked permission with 
 ^ome members of the family to enter the death cham- 
 ber. Kneeling there by the cold form he kissed the 
 
 149 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 icy hand, and laying a wreath upon his brow went 
 sobbing away like a child, and said, * That was the 
 first time in my life that any man ever asked me a 
 question about my soul.' " 
 
 An incident that should lead the Christian who 
 has not been in the habit of speaking to others of their 
 salvation to determine to be vigilant in watching for 
 opportunities and careful in using them, is told in 
 Henry Drummond's autobiography. There was a 
 medical student in Edinburgh whom Drummond had 
 sought to influence. He was a scoffer and an agnostic, 
 and Drummond could do nothing with him. On see- 
 ing the man later, in company with another student, 
 and desiring to learn more about him, Drummond 
 asked the other student, "Are you his friend?" 
 '' No," was the answer, " I came from America for a 
 year of post graduate work. In the laboratory I was 
 put by the side of this man. I liked him, and tried 
 to win him for Christ. It was of no use. The end 
 of the year came; I had my trunk packed ready to 
 return home. Then came the question, ' Which would 
 be better, a year getting started in my profession in 
 America, or another year spent here to win this man ? ' 
 I decided to stay." " Then you'll win him," said 
 Drummond. Some months later he saw the two to- 
 gether in church, and they were drinking from the 
 same communion cup. The American had won his 
 man. 
 
 This is the conclusion of the story, in Drummond's 
 own words : " A week after, the student was back in 
 his own country. I do not know his name; he made 
 no impression in our country; nobody knew him. He 
 
 150 
 
AT CHRIST'S BIDDING 
 
 was a subject of Christ's kingdom, doing his work in 
 silence and humility. . . A few weeks passed, and 
 the man for whom he spent a year in Edinburgh came 
 to see me. He said, ' I want to tell you I am going 
 to be a medical missionary/ This was the reward of 
 one earnest man who was full of faith; he had his 
 desire." 
 
 Christ sends forth his people — as the servant in the 
 parable was sent — to bid men to come to the King's 
 great supper. It is at their peril that they disobey 
 this command. S. D. Gordon says in " Quiet Talks 
 on Power " : " Hugh Beaver felt impelled at North- 
 field, in 1897, to tell this bit of his inner experience, 
 though naturally reluctant to do so. While at college, 
 arrangements were made for a series of meetings. 
 ' One day, going down the hallway of the college build- 
 ing,' he said, ' I met a boy we all call Dutchy; one of 
 the toughest fellows in the school. I said to him, 
 " Dutch, come to the meeting to-night." ' Instead of 
 laughing or swearing, to Beaver's surprise, he paused 
 a moment as though such a thing was possible, and 
 said, ' Well, I guess I will' And that night, to every- 
 one's surprise, Dutch came to the meeting. When 
 Beaver rose to speak, this fellow was not simply in- 
 tensely interested, but his eyes were filled with tears. 
 And Beaver said, ' A voice as distinct as an audible 
 voice said to me, *' Speak to Dutchy," but I did not.' 
 Again, the next night, Dutchy came of his own ac- 
 cord, and one of the boys, putting his arm on Beaver's 
 shoulder, said ' Speak to Dutchy.' And he said he 
 would, but he did not. And some time after he had a 
 dream, and thought he would not walk this earth any 
 
 151 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 more. It did not trouble him, except that his brother 
 was crying. But he thought that he met his Master, 
 who looked into his face, and said, ' Hugh, do you 
 remember I asked you to speak to Dutchy ? ' ' Yes.* 
 * And you did not ? ' * No.' ' Would you like to go 
 back to earth to win him ? * And he finished the story 
 by saying, * It's hard work, but he's coming now.' " 
 
 Can we say of anyone, ** He's coming to Christ 
 now? " If not, is it not high time to begin the work 
 of inviting him to come to the Lord ? 
 
 152 
 
XXXIX 
 AMONG BUSINESS ASSOCIATES 
 
 IT was said of Robert Carter, long a publisher in 
 York City, that wherever he went '' he preached, 
 sometimes audibly, but always by his life." 
 
 In the story of his life, now out of print, a friend 
 is quoted thus: 
 
 " A Western publisher said to me one day, * I don't 
 profess to be a Christian myself, and I don't believe 
 much in many of those who do ; but I know one thing, 
 if there is a consistent man in the publishing trade, 
 Robert Carter is that man.' * He has been talking to 
 you about religion ? ' * No, he never said a word to 
 me directly about religion in all my intercourse with 
 him; but the atmosphere in which he moved was so 
 pure and holy, I could not help looking to see if there 
 was not a halo around his face. His business inter- 
 course with his customers impressed them with his 
 integrity and conscientiousness, and they implicitly 
 trusted his every word. Robert Carter is a true, hon- 
 est, good man ; there is no cant, no deception nor trick- 
 ery about him.' " 
 
 Of one of his many experiences in winning others 
 to Christ, Mr. Carter told this story : 
 
 *' Among the booksellers with whom I had dealings 
 in my early years, there was one from whom I pur- 
 chased much of the material which I wanted. When 
 
 153 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 I entered his store, he usually came to me, and we had 
 a pleasant chat. He was kind and friendly, but his 
 views were in some regards so different from mine 
 that I often wondered why he was so ready to talk 
 with me. One day when I called, his son said to me, 
 ' My father is very sick; I wish you could see him.' 
 He had been taken ill in the country at the house of 
 his daughter, and I thought I could not go to him. 
 A little later, I was informed that he had returned 
 home rather better, and would like to see me. I im- 
 mediately went to his house, and found him much 
 better than I feared. He received me very cordially, 
 told me he had retired from business, had made 
 his will, and was now free from earthly cares. I ex- 
 pressed my satisfaction at this, and hoped he might 
 have a peaceful old age after a very active life. ' But,' 
 said I, ^ will you allow me to ask you a question ? ' 
 
 * Yes, sir, a thousand if you like.' ' Then,' said I, 
 
 * ever since I knew you, you were laying plans for 
 future work. I would like to know what arrange- 
 ments you have made for that eternal world to which 
 we are all hastening.' ' None at all,' said he. ' Is this 
 wise? Can you leave the vast concerns of eternity 
 unsettled? ' * No, sir,' said he, ' it is madness.' ' Then,' 
 said I, ' there is yet time. He is able to save to the 
 uttermost. The voice is still heard, *' Come unto me, 
 all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
 you rest.' " We had a very tender interview. 
 
 " When I left him, his wife accompanied me to the 
 door, and said, ' I never saw my husband so melted 
 before.' The next day his daughter came to my store 
 in his carriage, and asked me to ride with her to see 
 
 154 
 
AMONG BUSINESS ASSOCIATES 
 
 her father. ' He has been ill at ease since you left 
 him.' 
 
 " I found him in great distress. * What can I do? ' 
 he asked, ' I have received blessing after blessing, and 
 I never thanked God for them. Is there yet hope for 
 me ? ' I could only point him to the Lamb of God, that 
 taketh away the sin of the world. ' Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' I dwelt 
 especially on the word now. ' Yes,' said he, 'if that 
 applies to any, it does to me. I cannot be long here.' 
 * This moment let us ask and he will hear,' I said. 
 With many tears, we asked — Oh, how earnestly ! — for 
 pardon, for a broken heart, for a right spirit, for peace 
 with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 " Day after day I visited him for several months, 
 and what a marvelous change came over him. His 
 loathing of sin, his distrust of himself, and his new 
 born faith in the atonement, were most marked. He 
 had attended church during a long life, but he said 
 his mind was elsewhere. 
 
 " My language to him was almost entirely in the 
 words of Scripture. The Holy Spirit makes the Word 
 quick and powerful for the conviction and conversion 
 of sinners." 
 
 155 
 
XL 
 
 WHY HE LAUGHED 
 
 "QOME years ago I was engaged in a Bible meet- 
 *^ ing in Guelph, Canada," a minister said to one 
 who asked him to tell of the most remarkable instance 
 of personal work in his experience. 
 
 " In the house in which I was boarding all were 
 Christians but one, a young Scotchman, one of the 
 brightest fellows in the city, who was amiable and 
 much sought after. Everyone thought of him as a 
 good young man. 
 
 ** ' But he is not a Christian,' said one of the young 
 women who lived at the boarding house. ' I am 
 greatly concerned about him. I wish you could per- 
 suade him to attend the meetings.' 
 
 " I promised to do what I could. So that morning 
 I went to the store where he was employed. 
 
 *' ' Won't you come to the meeting at the church 
 to-night ? ' I asked him. 
 
 " ' Can't do it,' he answered. ' I have an engage- 
 ment to go to a dance.' ^ 
 
 '' That was the end of our talk for that time. But 
 as I went out of the store I had a conviction that I 
 was going to get him, and that very day. 
 
 " In the afternoon I went to the store again. He 
 was busy, however, and I had to go away without 
 seeing him. 
 
 iS6 
 
WHY HE LAUGHED 
 
 " * I'll see him at supper time/ I thought, and began 
 to plan what I would say to him then. 
 
 " I was disappointed when I entered the dining 
 room to learn that he had eaten at an unusually early 
 hour, and had gone. 
 
 ** Still I had the conviction that the Scotchman 
 would become a Christian before the day was over. 
 
 " That evening the meeting at the church continued 
 until a late hour. It was nearly midnight when I was 
 able to start home. While on the way I met the young 
 Scotchman, who was going home from the dance ! 
 
 " * Shall we walk together ? ' I asked. 
 
 " * Surely,' he responded. 
 
 " On the street I said nothing of the subject upper- 
 most in my mind. For some reason it seemed best to 
 wait. When we entered the house it looked as if my 
 chance was gone; yet I still had the conviction that 
 before I said good-night to him he would be a Chris- 
 tian. 
 
 " He followed me to my room. I wasted no more 
 time, but talked to him of his duty and privilege tp 
 yield to Christ. As I talked I quoted to him a num- 
 ber of verses. Some of these seemed to make no im- 
 pression on him. One, however, impressed him pro- 
 foundly—John 6 : 47, ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 he that believeth hath eternal life.* 
 
 " * That is not in the Bible,' he said, surprised. 
 
 " When I insisted that it was there, he asked to see 
 the words. 
 
 " He took the Book from my hands, read the words, 
 then threw himself back on the bed on which he was 
 sitting and laughed heartily. 
 
 157 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 **Offended, I rebuked him. I told him he was mak- 
 ing light of sacred things, and I urged that if he did 
 not care about sacred things he should at least remem- 
 ber that others were asleep. 
 
 *' At once his laughter ceased; but the explanation 
 of his mirth was a surprise to me. 
 
 " * Why, I am a Christian/ he said, * and I didn't 
 know it. I believe in Christ. Yes, I am a Christian.' 
 
 " Then he rose and went to his own room. 
 
 " I own I was exceedingly doubtful about that con- 
 version. I had never known one like it. 
 
 " But I was rebuked for my doubt. Next morning 
 when he came to breakfast he would not sit down till 
 the entire household was in the room. Then he spoke, 
 clearly and firmly. 
 
 '' * Friends, I want to tell you that I have become 
 a Christian, and I want to acknowledge it.' 
 
 *' From that day he lived a, consistent, faithful, use- 
 ful Christian life. 
 
 " But I have never forgotten what a shock his 
 laughter was to me. He was not given to levity. He 
 afterward explained to me that he laughed for pure 
 joy; like a flash it had come over him that he was a 
 Christian, because he believed in Christ." 
 
 158 
 
XLI 
 WINNING A FATHER 
 
 IN his " Recollections of a Long Life," Theodore L. 
 Cuyler gave this testimony to the value of in- 
 dividual work for souls : 
 
 " In my pastoral rounds I sometimes had an oppor- 
 tunity to do more execution in a single talk than in 
 a score of sermons. I once spent an evening in a vain 
 endeavor to bring a man to a decision for Christ. Be- 
 fore I left, he took me upstairs to the nursery and 
 showed me his beautiful children in their cribs. I said 
 to him tenderly, ' Do you mean that these sweet chil- 
 dren shall never have any help from their father to 
 get to heaven.' He was deeply moved, and in a month 
 that man became an active member of my church. He 
 was glued to me in affection for all the remainder of 
 his useful life. On a cold winter evening I made a 
 call on a wealthy merchant in New York. As I left 
 his door, and the piercing gale swept in, I said, * What 
 an awful night for the poor ! ' He went back, and 
 bringing to me a roll of bank bills, he said, ' Please 
 hand these, for me, to the poorest people you know of.' 
 After a few days I wrote to him, sending him the 
 grateful thanks of the poor whom his bounty had re- 
 lieved, and added : ' How is it that a man who is so 
 kind to, his fellow creatures has always been so unkind 
 to his Saviour as to refuse him his heart ? ' That sen- 
 
 159 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 tence touched him to the core. He sent for me im- 
 mediately to come and converse with him. He speed- 
 ily gave his heart to Christ, united with and became a 
 most useful member of our church. But he told me 
 I was the first person who had ever spoken to him 
 about his spiritual welfare in nearly twenty years. In 
 the case of this eminently effective and influential 
 Christian, one hour of pastoral work did more than 
 the pulpit efforts of almost a lifetime/' 
 
 1 60 
 
XLII 
 ON THE STAGE COACH 
 
 T N " The Lights and Shadows of a Long Episco- 
 -■■ pate,'* Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, who 
 died in 1901, after more than forty years' service as 
 Bishop of the Diocese of Minnesota, wrote that he 
 once received a letter from a clergyman in North Caro- 
 lina, saying: 
 
 " I suppose that Bishops, like other people, do not 
 always see the fruit of seed dropped by the wayside. 
 I have in my parish one of the best laymen I have 
 ever known. The other day I asked him where he had 
 received his training, and he replied : 
 
 " * It is a simple story. I was an officer in the United 
 States Army. Upon one occasion I was going from 
 Fort Ripley to St. Paul and just at evening a stranger 
 got into the coach at Anoka. We were the only pas- 
 sengers. Suddenly the driver ran over a stone with 
 such force that we were thrown against the top of the 
 coach, at which I was so angry that I cursed him. No 
 remark was made by my fellow passenger for some 
 time, but suddenly he turned to me and said earnestly, 
 "If you knew how much your Father in heaven loves 
 you, you could not use his name in curses.'' I made 
 no answer and nothing more was said. We reached 
 St. Paul, where I put up at the American Hotel. Sev- 
 eral times that night I asked myself, ** Have I a Father 
 
 161 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 in heaven ? " In spite of myself the question kept com- 
 ing to me. The next morning was Sunday, and I 
 asked the landlord the way to the nearest church and 
 was told that there was a small Episcopal church hard 
 by on Cedar Street. I went there and found my fel- 
 low traveler in the chancel. He was the Bishop of 
 Minnesota. He preached upon the love of Christ, and 
 before the sermon was ended I settled the question 
 that, God being my helper, I would live as a Christian 
 man. After the war ended I settled in North Caro- 
 lina. I called upon the bishop of the diocese and told 
 him that it was a bishop who had led me to the 
 Saviour, and that I wanted him to instruct me that I 
 might become a communicant ! '" 
 
 162 
 
XLIII 
 GETTING A STARTING POINT* 
 
 ONE day there came to the parson's study a man 
 whom he had known in the hunting field and in 
 the home. He took his seat, and plunged right into 
 his story : 
 
 " Parson, I want your help. The ties that bind me 
 to home must soon be severed. Only one is left, and 
 she is near the end of life. I have been wondering 
 what will then become of me. I have tried it all — 
 dissipation until it palled; adventure until I became 
 almost as wild as the things I hunted. The things 
 with which men try to kill the restlessness are stale. 
 I have fought with beasts and men, and learned to 
 master both. Desire seems dead in me, save the mad- 
 dening itch to be forever on the move. The Wander- 
 lust is all that is left. I have no goal and seek noth- 
 ing." 
 
 " No chart, no haven, and no pilot ? '* said the par- 
 son. " The end seems pretty well assured. It's either 
 a wreck or a derelict." 
 
 " That's just the way I figured it out," he replied. 
 
 " You have used the very word — ' a derelict.' There 
 
 is enough of manhood left in me to hate the thought. 
 
 That is why I came to you. I have been watching you 
 
 » Told in " In the Service of the King," by Joseph B. Dunn. 
 
 163 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 for years, and you seem to know what you are headed 
 for; so I came for a chart." 
 
 *' Well," replied the parson, '' you know what I 
 am — a minister of Christ." 
 
 " Oh, cut out that sort of talk," he broke in. 
 " Don't ask me if I believe in Christ. The question has 
 no meaning to me. If you produce the evidence and 
 prove your case, I will assent. It's to me only a his- 
 torical question, and I believe in Julius Csesar on the 
 same grounds. Please do not try any conjure words 
 on me. Except for a funeral service I haven't been 
 in a church for twenty years, and the whole business 
 is absolutely meaningless to me." 
 
 " I hardly know where to begin," said the parson, 
 " If you don't believe in anything, there doesn't seem 
 to be a starting point." 
 
 " But I do believe in something," answered the man. 
 " I believe in you — that's why I'm here." 
 
 These unexpected words haunted the parson for 
 many a day. That night he awoke trembling, with 
 the words still ringing in his ears : *' I do believe in 
 something — I believe in you." " But you don't un- 
 derstand," answered the parson, " what it means when 
 you say you believe in me, and ask for a chart. I 
 don't know the way any better than you do. I am 
 like a man in the engine room. The pilot runs the 
 ship. My one duty is to obey the signals. When he 
 says, * Full speed ahead,' I pull the throttle; and when 
 he signals, * Stop,' I choke the steam." 
 
 The parson laid his hand on his friend's shoulder, 
 and asked, " Will you kneel here by me and let me 
 pray God to guide us ? " 
 
 164 
 
GETTING A STARTING POINT 
 
 *' No," said the man, " this is too serious a business 
 for me to tolerate any mummery. Of all the nonsense 
 you preachers talk, prayer seems to me to be the great- 
 est. I can think of nothing more foolish than a man 
 crouching by his bed and mumbling a few words, and 
 then getting up with the thought that something is 
 going to come to pass because he has said those few 
 words. The whole thing is a superstition, too foolish 
 to discuss seriously." 
 
 '* See here," said the parson, " answer me. You 
 have been a soldier, and you have had men under you 
 at other times. Tell me, did you ever face the situa- 
 tion where the lives of helpless men and women de- 
 pended on you and those under you facing danger, 
 and when the crisis came they failed you ? '* 
 
 " More than once," he answered. 
 
 " What did you do ? " asked the parson. 
 
 " There was but one thing to do," he replied. " I 
 asked them if they were men or Hly-livered cowards, 
 and told them they might save their skins if they 
 wanted to, but one thing was sure, I was going to do 
 my duty." 
 
 " What happened then ? " asked the parson. 
 
 " Oh, they followed me. A man with a drop of 
 red blood in him couldn't swallow that talk." 
 
 " Could you have driven them in at the point of a 
 pistol?" 
 
 " Not a foot," he answered. 
 
 "Well, then, what made them go in?" persisted 
 the parson. " Surely there was something that worked 
 the change. One minute they were the lowest order 
 of human life — cowards; the next, they were ready 
 
 165 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 to die with you. Something changed them. What 
 was it?'' 
 
 *' If you put it that way, I suppose I did it," he 
 answered. 
 
 '' I have no doubt of it," said the parson. " Now 
 if you can work a change like that, don't you think it 
 a little impertinent to ridicule the idea of the great 
 God of the universe doing for you something of the 
 same sort of thing that you did for those men ? " 
 
 For a moment the man looked dazed; then his eyes 
 flashed. " I see it ! I see it ! You are talking about 
 prayer. Why, the thing isn't nonsense at all. Of 
 course he can do it. Man, why didn't you come and 
 tell me about it long ago? Why, the thing proves 
 itself. Yes, you can pray for me. I'll pray for my- 
 self. We've got a starting point now. Go on, and 
 tell me something about your Pilot." 
 
 For hours they sat and talked, and when he held 
 out his hand in parting, he said : " Don't bother about 
 me, Parson, I'll get the Book and learn the Pilot's 
 signals. I know what it is to obey, and I promise to 
 follow instructions. I don't know yet the port I'm 
 making for, but I'm beginning to trust the Pilot, and 
 I shall not be a derelict. Be sure of that." 
 
 i66 
 
EIGHT 
 SOWING BESIDE ALL WATERS 
 
 167 
 
XLIV 
 WHAT IF SHE HAD NOT SPOKEN? 
 
 Q O often it is easier to be silent when an opportunity 
 *^ is presented to us to give a message for Christ, 
 but God has promised to bless the words of those who 
 conquer this timidity and invite another to " taste 
 and see that the Lord is good." 
 
 Sixty years ago a young woman, an academy stu- 
 dent in Jamestown, New York, felt that she ought to 
 invite one of her companions, a young man, to accept 
 Christ. To do this duty was not easy, but she did it. 
 Straight from her closet she went to him, and said: 
 " Be a Christian." '' He tried to laugh at me," she 
 wrote, years later, " but I ' screwed up my courage * 
 and resisted his ridicule." The young man soon after 
 this gave his heart to Christ, and he always delighted 
 to tell of his debt to his young companion who had 
 faced ridicule to do her duty. A few years later he 
 determined to study for the ministry. 
 
 In 1913 he died, after more than fifty years of 
 such splendid service as few men are able to render 
 — as pastor, professor in two theological seminaries, 
 author. Moderator of the Presbyterian General As- 
 sembly, and founder and first President of the Board 
 of Aid for Colleges and Academies. For the young 
 man's name was Herrick Johnson. 
 
 But what if the young woman had not *' screwed up 
 her courage " ? 
 
 169 
 
XLV 
 NOT LOOKING FOR EXCUSES 
 
 "T AGREE with you that it is a Christian duty to 
 -*■ invite our friends and acquaintances to come to 
 Christ, under certain circumstances," a young man 
 said, while talking with a friend about opportunities 
 he might have used but had allowed to escape him. 
 " But don't you feel that there are times when it is 
 better to keep still, for fear of driving a man farther 
 away from Christ?" 
 
 The friend replied by asking another question. 
 *' Isn't there danger that we will spend more time in 
 finding excuses for not speaking a word for the 
 Saviour, than in seeking opportunities of which we 
 may wisely take advantage ? " 
 
 The truth of the matter is that the earnest Chris- 
 tian's testimony for Christ is seldom out of place. God 
 honors every honest effort to obey his instructions to 
 tell others of him. Sometimes the way may seem 
 closed, but so often the closed doors will open to those 
 who are dead in earnest in their service of Christ. 
 
 In the " Life of H. Roswell Bates," S. Ralph Har- 
 low tells of a day in the life of this consecrated young 
 man when it would have been easy for him to find an 
 excuse for keeping silent. But he was not looking for 
 excuses of this kind. This is the story: 
 
 " It was on the Princess Irene, bound for New 
 170 
 
NOT LOOKING FOR EXCUSES 
 
 York. When the ship sailed, Mr. Bates noticed a 
 group of particularly lively college boys among the 
 passengers. To his amusement, one of the group came 
 up behind him and slapping him familiarly on the 
 shoulder, said : * Say, old chap, we've got seven in 
 our crowd and there are eight seats at our table. We 
 don't want some old duffer stuck in with us ; we're out 
 for a good time and you look as if you were our kind 
 all right. Won't you take the extra seat ? ' Mr. Bates 
 eagerly accepted the informal invitation, and found 
 himself at dinner with a rollicking lot of fellows in- 
 tent on getting all the fun possible out of the trip. 
 During the meal they poked fun at many of the other 
 passengers, and at last someone spoke up and said: 
 ' And say, fellows, who do you suppose this man Batts 
 is, the Reverend Batts ? ' The crowd looked at the 
 passenger list and then proceeded to pick out which 
 of the passengers was the ' Reverend Batts.' The 
 search was highly interesting, but unsuccessful as to 
 conclusions, much to Mr. Bates' delight, though he 
 had eagerly joined in the search for the ' Reverend 
 Batts.' At the close of the dinner, just as the men were 
 rising to leave, Mr. Bates remarked : ' Well, this is 
 too bad, all you fellows look so bright and yet you 
 couldn't find the Reverend Batts. Now I discovered 
 him.' And then he introduced himself, saying, ' But 
 I spell my name with an "e" and pronounce it Bates.' 
 " He won the hearts of the fellows at once, and 
 throughout the trip led them in games and sports till 
 they felt that they had been friends for years. And 
 with some of them he had found time and fitting op- 
 portunity for personal talks." 
 
 I7X 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 Now note well the first chapter of the sequel : 
 " On one of the last days of the happy trip one of 
 the men came up to him and asked him to come to his 
 cabin alone. There in the cabin he told his new friend 
 of the blow which had just come to him. A cable had 
 summoned him home to take his father's place in a 
 large business concern and to be his mother's stay, 
 for the father had died very suddenly. Shrinking 
 from the new responsibility, the boyish heart had 
 sought relief in the merriment of the crowd. But in 
 Mr. Bates' friendship he had found a new challenge 
 to lay hold upon life and to get a new grip on himself. 
 And Mr. Bates was able to help him enter into his 
 business career with the love of God to inspire him as 
 he took up the new responsibility from which he had 
 shrunk." 
 
 In the same volume this incident also is related : 
 " At a conference at Northfield he was especially 
 praying for a young Harvard man. The conference 
 drew to a close, and still the man had taken no definite 
 stand. On the morning of the last day Mr. Bates 
 awoke early, and could not sleep for the thought of. 
 that man who was still undecided. Rising an hour or 
 two before breakfast he went to the man's room, 
 wakened him, and pressed upon him the appeal of 
 Christ. Far from being offended by this intrusion, 
 the man's heart was touched that Mr. Bates should 
 care so much, and at breakfast Mr. Bates was over- 
 flowing with joy because the man had promised that 
 very day to declare openly his allegiance to Jesus 
 Christ. It was one of the most inspiring things of that 
 conference to hear this young man stand up before a 
 
 172 
 
NOT LOOKING FOR EXCUSES 
 
 crowd of his fellow students, gathered for a final Bible 
 study conference later that morning, and make his 
 confession of loyalty to Christ." 
 
 What wonderful wages God pays to those who work 
 for him ! 
 
 173 
 
XLVI 
 
 SAVED BY A WORD 
 
 T N an address, Sherwood Eddy related this telHng 
 -^ incident of personal work that God used to save 
 souls : 
 
 " Three men were selling tickets at the New York 
 Central Station, New York City. One was an ag- 
 nostic, one was a slave to liquor, and the third was a 
 converted Jew. 
 
 *' An acquaintance, who made frequent visits to the 
 station, began speaking to the agnostic through the 
 bars of the ticket window, urging him to become a 
 Christian. At last the man fought his way through 
 his doubts and gave his heart to Christ. His whole 
 life was transformed by his new relation to Christ. 
 
 '* The man who was a slave to drink saw the change 
 in his life, and longed to learn the secret. One morn- 
 ing, when he had been out on an all-night spree, he 
 talked to the converted agnostic as the two men were 
 selling tickets. Finally the man who had been on the 
 spree asked the converted agnostic if he would stay 
 down that night and show him how to become a Chris- 
 tian. * I have to attend a prayer meeting,* was the 
 reply, * but I do not need to spend a night with you for 
 the purpose you have in mind. Just say " Yes " to 
 Jesus Christ. Do not wait till to-night; do it now, 
 right while you are selling the tickets, even in the 
 
 174 
 
SAVED BY A WORD 
 
 midst of this rush.' ' All right, Will,' the man decided; 
 * I'll do it now.' Then and there he became a Christian. 
 Within a month his life was so changed that all were 
 marveling at the power of his life. 
 
 " Both of these men longed to resign their positions 
 with the railroad and to enter Christian work. But 
 the railway officials refused to let them go, saying 
 that they were their most successful ticket sellers. The 
 secret of their success was not generally known. In- 
 side the ticket window, invisible to the passengers, 
 the converted Jew had placed this verse : * Who 
 being reviled, reviled not again.' Here was the secret 
 of their success. The men never returned an angry 
 answer to irate passengers. This was why the rail- 
 way long refused to spare them. 
 
 " But at last for the higher cause they were re- 
 leased. The converted Jew is still witnessing for 
 Christ. The agnostic became Religious Work Director 
 of the New York State Y.M.C.A., and won hundreds 
 of men to Christ. The former slave to drink has won 
 his thousands and became the well-known State Sec- 
 retary of the Young Men's Christian Associations of 
 New York. 
 
 " It only took one word from his friend to bring the 
 Secretary to a decision, and one for him to enter the 
 kingdom. Many a man to-day is not far from the 
 kingdom; but who will speak the word that will lead 
 him to enter ? Have we a salvation that is worth pass- 
 ing on? Have I spoke to a man this month? Have 
 I won a man this year for Christ ? Am I a living wit- 
 ness for him? 
 
 " Recently I met another man who is a witness to 
 
 175 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 this wonderful Saviour. He is the president of the 
 great Quaker Oats Company, which does a business 
 of milhons annually. But busy as he is, he has time 
 to witness for Christ. A young business man entered 
 his office and sought from the company three million 
 dollars of capital for his business. During the con- 
 versation the president said to him : 
 
 '* * Mr. R., are you asking us to trust you with three 
 million dollars, yet you are not even a Christian ? * 
 
 " ' I did not come here to talk about religion,' was 
 the reply. 
 
 ** * Mr. R.,' the president continued, * you have 
 brought us many letters of introduction; will you let 
 me introduce you to my great unseen friend, Jesus 
 Christ ? Will you come to my room and talk the mat- 
 ter over?' Before an hour had passed Mr. R. had 
 given his heart to Christ. He is to-day a successful 
 business man and has the capital which he sought for 
 his business. Since his conversion, he has brought 
 more than one hundred men to Christ." 
 
 " How long would it take us to bring in the king- 
 dom if all were witnessing for Christ?" Mr. Eddy 
 asked. *' Let us remember his words, * Ye are my wit- 
 nesses.' It is sometimes easier to send the message 
 by proxy to another man than to tell the message to 
 our friend and neighbor at our own door. But let us 
 begin to-day to tell someone of this great good news." 
 
 176 
 
XLVII 
 LEADING A PATIENT TO CHRIST 
 
 A LONDON surgeon's assistant who was a Chris- 
 tian was always on the lookout for opportuni- 
 ties for service. Frequently he was able to say some- 
 thing to a patient that gave them a vision of a better 
 life. 
 
 Perhaps his most striking experience, related in 
 " The Growth of a Soul," is as follows : 
 
 " It was my daily duty to dress the foot of a patient 
 suffering from secret gangrene. The disease com- 
 menced as usual insidiously and the patient had little 
 idea that he was a doomed man and probably had not 
 long to live. I was not the first to attend him, but 
 when the case was transferred to me I naturally be- 
 came very anxious about his soul. The family with 
 whom he lived were Christians, and from them I 
 learned that he was an avowed atheist and very antag- 
 onistic to everything religious. They had without 
 asking him invited a Scripture reader to visit him, but 
 in great passion he had ordered him from the room. 
 The Vicar of his district had also called, hoping to 
 help him, but he had spit in his face and refused to 
 allow him to speak. His temper was described to 
 me as very violent, and altogether the case seemed as 
 hopeless as could well be imagined. 
 
 " Upon first commencing to attend him I prayed 
 177 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 much about it, but for two or three days said nothing 
 of a reHgious nature. By special care in dressing his 
 diseased Hmb I was able to considerably lessen his 
 suffering, and he soon began to manifest appreciation 
 of my services. One day with a trembling heart I 
 took advantage of his grateful acknowledgments to 
 tell him what was the spring of my action, and to 
 speak of his solemn position and need of God's mercy 
 through Christ. It was evidently only a powerful 
 effort of self-restraint that kept his lips closed. He 
 turned over in bed with his back to me, and uttered 
 no word. 
 
 " I could not get the poor man out of my mind, and 
 very often through each day I pleaded with God by 
 his Spirit to save him ere he took him hence. After 
 dressing the wound and relieving the pain, I never 
 failed to say a few words to him which I hoped the 
 Lord would bless. He always turned his back, looking 
 annoyed, but never made any reply. 
 
 " After continuing this for some time my heart 
 sank. It seemed to me that I was not only doing no 
 good, but perhaps really hardening him and increasing 
 his guilt. One day, after dressing his limb and wash- 
 ing my hands, instead of returning to the bedside I 
 went to the door and stood hesitating a moment, with 
 the thought in my mind, * Ephraim is joined to his 
 idols, let him alone.' Looking at my patient, I saw 
 his surprise, as it was the first time since opening up 
 the subject that I had attempted to leave without say- 
 ing a few words for my Master. 
 
 " I could bear it no longer. Bursting into tears, I 
 crossed the room and said : ' My friend, whether you 
 
 178 
 
LEADING A PATIENT TO CHRIST 
 
 will hear or whether you will forbear, I must deliver 
 my soul,' and went on to speak very earnestly, telHng 
 him how much I wished that he would let me pray 
 with him. To my unspeakable joy he did not turn 
 away, but replied : 
 
 " ' If it will be a rehef to you, do/ 
 
 " I need scarcely say that, falling upon my knees, I 
 poured out my soul to God in his behalf. Then and 
 there, I believe, the Lord wrought a change in his 
 soul. He was never afterwards unwilling to be spoken 
 to and prayed with, and within a few days he definitely 
 accepted Christ as his Saviour. 
 
 " The now happy sufferer lived for some time after 
 this change and was never tired of bearing testimony 
 to the grace of God. Though his condition was most 
 distressing, the alteration in his character and behavior 
 made the previously painful duty of attending him one 
 of real pleasure." 
 
 The young man added this word to his story : 
 
 " Sometimes it may be that while we are complain- 
 ing of the hardness of the heart of those we are seek- 
 ing to benefit, the hardness of our own heart and our 
 own feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eter- 
 nal things may be the true cause of our want of suc- 
 
 179 
 
XLVIII 
 HIS BEST CHANCE 
 
 DURING the later years of his life Rev. Richard 
 S. Holmes, D.D., delighted to tell this story of 
 a man he called " My Brakeman " : 
 
 *' Duty had called me to a town on the old Rome 
 and Western Railway, some fifteen miles north from 
 the city of Rome, New York. And duty made it nec- 
 essary for me to be in a town in the western part of 
 the state by nine o'clock next morning. 
 
 ** ' No night trains, sir, except a freight at midnight, 
 and that never stops.' 
 
 '' * Any provisions for passengers?' I asked. 
 
 " * Yes, a caboose for the train crew.' 
 
 *' The station master saw my discomfiture, and sug- 
 gested that perhaps the division superintendent would 
 stop the train for me, if he knew the circumstances. 
 An interchange of telegrams with the superintendent 
 brought the message, ' Train will stop for you.' 
 
 " The night was intensely dark, not a star being 
 visible anywhere, and to stand alone at midnight at 
 a station a mile from town sent an uncanny feeling 
 through me. From far away came the rumble of the 
 train, and ere long the headlight of the locomotive 
 appeared and the heavy up-grade became visible. Pres- 
 ently it seemed that the speed of the train was increas- 
 ing, for the puffing of the engine became more fre- 
 
 i8o 
 
HIS BEST CHANCE 
 
 quent, and the thought crossed my mind, * Perhaps 
 the superintendent has forgotten.' As the train be- 
 gan to pass, it was clear that it would not stop that 
 night. What to do was the question. To be left there 
 meant loss, and failure to keep an important engage- 
 ment. Something within me said, ' Run, run with the 
 train. It is not going so very fast. You can easily 
 catch the guards of the caboose and swing up.' 
 
 " So I ran, but the caboose did not come. An 
 open box car was in its place. What now ? * Jump 
 for it/ said the inner voice. I laid my hands upon the 
 floor of the car, and, still running, made the vault for 
 the open door. The feat was not difficult. One 
 should have succeeded nine times out of ten, but for 
 me this was the tenth time. One foot slipped, and 
 I fell with my breast and arms only on the floor of the 
 car, my body outside and my legs swinging under the 
 train. Was this the last of earth? It seemed so. I 
 felt myself slipping, knew that holding on was im- 
 possible and that death would surely follow the fall. 
 A vision of myself found dead by the roadside, and 
 of the message that would go to the home where loved 
 ones would be waiting, who would wait in vain, came 
 like a flash. And then, just as all hope was vanishing, 
 a hand came down upon me, grasped me, and drew me 
 with one tremendous pull into the car. I was saved. 
 
 " Bruised, clothes torn, frightened beyond all possi- 
 bility of description, no impulse came to rise until the 
 same strong hand raised me. It was the hand of ' my 
 brakeman.' That hand will not be forgotten while 
 my memory holds her throne. 
 
 " * Lucky for you that I was in this car/ he said. 
 i8i 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 " * Yes,' I answered. 
 
 *' * I had not been here more than three or four min- 
 utes,' he said. 
 
 " I made no answer, but went over to the comer of 
 the car, where there was a pail turned bottom side up, 
 and sat down with my elbows on my knees and my 
 head in my hands. Mortification, fear, and gratitude 
 were strongly blended in me. Above me, in the angle 
 of the car, was a dingy kerosene lamp. It made light 
 enough for me to see the figure of my brakeman. He 
 stood over me, his arms folded, looking down with a 
 singular expression. 
 
 " ' Stranger,' he said, ' that was a close call.' 
 
 '' ' Yes,' I answered. 
 
 " * Say, stranger, look-a-here. I-ah-er-that was a 
 mighty tight squeeze.' 
 
 '' * Yes,' I answered. 
 
 " He began once more. ' Stranger, you-ah-say, I 
 want to say to you that-ah-ah-that was a close shave/ 
 
 " ' Yes,' I answered. 'What are you driving at? ' 
 
 " ' Wal,' said he, ' look-a-here ! what I want to know 
 is this. Now, you must excuse me, but-ah-but what 
 I want to know is whether your chance of gettin' into 
 the kingdom of God is any better than it was of gettin' 
 into this car.' 
 
 '' ' Yes,' I said. 
 
 " ' You're a Christian, be you? ' 
 
 " ' Yes,' I answered. 
 
 *' ' Wal, I'm glad of it,' he said. ' I'm awful glad 
 of it.' He stood there, silent for a moment, then he 
 said, ' Stranger, you don't expect such kind o' talk 
 of a railroad brakeman, do you ? ' 
 
 182 
 
HIS BEST CHANCE 
 
 " ' No/ said I, ' I don't/ 
 " * Ever hear it before ? * 
 " ' Never/ 
 
 tt ( 
 
 Never will again, like enough/ 
 Probably not/ said I. 
 
 " * Wal, I'll tell you how 'twas. Two years ago 
 I got into a Methodist revival meetin' down in Rome, 
 and I was converted, and I joined the Church, and 
 when I joined the Church the minister said to me, 
 " Now, my boy, don't you ever let the chance to speak 
 to a man about his soul get away from you," and I 
 told him I wouldn't, and I\haven't. But you're the 
 best chance I ever had.' 
 
 " Just then the train whistle blew. * That's my call,' 
 said he. Out of the door, up the ladder, away over 
 the tops of the cars he went. I had not asked his name, 
 and never have seen him since. Whether he is living 
 or dead is all unknown; but I am living, who would 
 have been dead but for my brakeman. And my soul's 
 salvation, if it had not already been made sure, would 
 probably have been made so by the fidelity of that un- 
 known railroad boy. And so I say sometimes, * I 
 know what salvation is, for he saved my life, and even 
 so has my Saviour interposed to save my soul.' 
 
 " This was my brakeman. I would not now be tell- 
 ing this story but for him. The story is true. It is 
 worth passing on. Let us all make the brakeman's 
 resolution our own : ' I will never let a chance to speak 
 to a man about his soul get away from me/ " 
 
 183 
 
XLIX 
 SERVING BY THE WAY 
 
 'T^HE Christian who pleads vacation as an excuse 
 -"- for failure to take part in any helpful work is 
 making a serious mistake. No Christian can enjoy 
 his vacation as he should unless he is as eager to serve 
 his Master during those weeks as when he is at home. 
 The plea that a period of freedom from all service is 
 ever needed is a confession by the one who makes the 
 plea that to him the service of Christ is a hardship, 
 not a pleasure ; a duty, not a privilege. To those who 
 at all times rejoice in ministry for others, vacation is 
 filled with opportunities for service in new and unex- 
 pected ways; to them one of the measures of a profit- 
 able vacation is the number of these opportunities and 
 the use made of them. 
 
 Vacation days have their peculiar temptations. 
 Sometimes a Christian who works hard fifty weeks in 
 the year and takes the remainder for a vacation jaunt 
 thinks it no harm to leave behind with office coat or 
 kitchen apron the sense of responsibility to use every 
 reasonable opening to do some sort of work for the 
 Master. One such traveler was rebuked when, while 
 talking to a casual acquaintance in the railway car 
 he noted that his companion carried a Bible with him. 
 Commenting on the fact, he learned that the man was 
 an agent for a Bible society, and that he had with him 
 
 184 
 
SERVING BY THE WAY 
 
 a number of copies of the Bible. The traveler remem- 
 bered then that he had forgotten his own Bible, and 
 he at once provided himself with a copy. The sight 
 of the book in his hands attracted the attention of 
 others, and more than one person was led to begin a 
 conversation that enabled the forgetful Christian to 
 do a bit of personal work that counted. 
 
 A few years ago, when a Brooklyn pastor was in the 
 West, he took advantage of an opportunity for service 
 that many men in the hurry of the moment might have 
 passed by. At the close of a service in a large city, 
 a lad of eighteen came to him. The pastor has told 
 of what followed : 
 
 " In a brief conversation I learned that the boy, 
 hearing the call of the West-land, had run away from 
 a beautiful Brooklyn home and for months had not 
 written to his father or mother. I took him to the mis- 
 sionary pastor, who said he would look after him. He 
 promised to write his mother. That night I wrote the 
 father that I had found his boy and had placed him in 
 good care. Six weeks afterwards I preached in my 
 own pulpit. At the close of the service a splendid man 
 and woman came forward, each took my hand, but 
 neither spoke for tears were in their throats. I led 
 them into the session room and it seemed for fully 
 five minutes they wept and sobbed. When he was 
 able to control himself, the father said : * Thank you 
 for finding our boy. He has written to us regularly, 
 and we expect him home this week.* *' 
 
 " But even if I had such an opportunity, I could not 
 use it; I do not know how to say the right words in 
 an emergency like that," the excuse is made. 
 
 185 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 Then live your Christian Hfe wherever you go! 
 The best testimony for Christ, the most unanswerable 
 argument for the truth of the gospel, is the witness 
 of a life devoted to the Master's service, transformed 
 by the indwelling of his Spirit. 
 
 A missionary in Japan has told of a young man 
 who presented himself for church membership, to the 
 surprise of all who knew him. The most surprised 
 man of all was the missionary to whom he applied for 
 baptism. He was asked how he had been led to become 
 a Christian. He replied that he had read the life of 
 Chinese Gordon which deeply impressed him; he won- 
 dered if the gospel could really transform a man, as 
 the biography said the Christian soldier was trans- 
 formed. Some time later he met a Christian family 
 during their vacation stay at the seashore. *' He 
 coupled what he had read of Christ's life, reproduced 
 in the life of General Gordon, with what he saw of 
 Christ's influence in the life of the missionary and his 
 family, and he concluded that Jesus, to have exerted 
 such a power, must have been more than a man and 
 that the gospels were at least worthy of imitation." 
 
 What impression do we make on strangers when we 
 are away from home? Does the feeling that we are 
 not on dress parade ever get possession of us and make 
 us careless? What if someone should meet us at such 
 a time and judge of our religion by us ? 
 
 Unless the life continually is in keeping with our 
 profession, we are not living up to our privileges of 
 being lights in the world; and many may continue to 
 walk in darkness because of our failure to bear wit- 
 ness to Christ by our daily actions. 
 
 i86 
 
SERVING BY THE WAY 
 
 If Christian profession is good, it is proper that 
 Christians should be found among Christians wher- 
 ever they are. If attendance at church is helpful at 
 home, why not when they are taking vacation? If 
 secret prayer is necessary at any time, it is surely 
 necessary during the distracting days away from home. 
 Those who are trying to follow the example of Him 
 who went about doing good, surely should look for 
 opportunities of service in the mountains or at the 
 seashore, as well as among their own friends. 
 
 187 
 
NINE 
 BY MEANS OF LETTERS 
 
 189 
 
BY THE ROADSIDE 
 
 A T a conference of young Christian workers at 
 -^^ Northfield, Massachusetts, J. G. K. McClure, 
 D.D., President of McCormick Theological Seminary, 
 Chicago, referred to a method adopted by him years 
 before in reaching men who were not Christians. 
 When asked by the author of this volume to tell of this 
 with more detail, he wrote this message : 
 
 " Every man who speaks to another on the subject 
 of Personal Religion needs to be thoughtful, but he 
 never needs to be afraid. The most delicate and ten- 
 der subject that can be mentioned is that of a man's 
 heart relation to God. By reason of its very nature, 
 we should be careful to approach a man on the sub- 
 ject of Personal Religion in the wisest possible way, 
 not causing him to bristle with opposition, but rather 
 leading him to open his heart to persuasion. 
 
 " Once I was at a dinner party of twelve guests, 
 when suddenly an earnest man turned to a young, vi- 
 vacious lady at his side and in a tone audible through- 
 out the room asked : ' Are you a Christian ? * The 
 purpose of the inquiry was to lead the young lady, if 
 she were not a Christian, to Christ; but the time, the 
 place, and the method of address had been so unwisely 
 chosen that her face colored red instantly as all eyes 
 were fixed upon her, and the spirit of resistance 
 
 191 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 against the earnest man and all his purposes destroyed 
 every possibility of usefulness. 
 
 *' In business men study out the best methods of ap- 
 proaching one to whom they desire to sell merchandise 
 or insurance. Similarly we act wisely when we study 
 out how best we can reach a man's heart to whom 
 we would bring salvation; and our failure to secure 
 our end should never make us feel that our responsi- 
 bility is over. It is the repeated appearance of a win- 
 some salesman who has good goods that is often nec- 
 essary to a sale; and it is our repeated presentation of 
 Christ in a persuasive way that is often necessary if 
 we are to secure a man's acceptance of our Master. 
 Sometimes the men who turn us down harshly at the 
 first are the very men who are most open to our words 
 later on. 
 
 '' I am asked to tell of the method of personal ap- 
 proach used by me in my first pastorate, which was 
 among a farming community. The young men were 
 accustomed to take wagon loads of produce to the 
 city for sale in the general market; the produce might 
 be a dozen barrels of apples or of potatoes, a load of 
 hay, either loose or baled, or it might be scores of bags 
 of oats or rye. We were eight miles from the city. 
 Having talked with these young men in their homes 
 or at church about their relation to God, and knowing 
 the day that they individually would pass the parson- 
 age on the way to the city, I would wait for them at 
 my door as they drew near with their loads. And 
 then I would give (usually only to one person a day) 
 a letter to the young man, in which I reminded him 
 of my affection for him and said he would find inclosed 
 
 192 
 
BY THE ROADSIDE 
 
 a paper which I wished he would think about as he 
 drove the eight miles into the city, and then would sign 
 and give to me upon his return, when I would be wait- 
 ing for him. The paper read as follows : ' Knowing 
 that I am a sinner needing the forgiveness of God, and 
 believing in God's love and forgiveness, I herewith 
 give myself to him to live as Christ would have me 
 live, and ask him for strength to confess his name and 
 enter upon his service/ 
 
 " As the day drew near to its close I was on the 
 watch for the young man's return. Again and again, 
 one and another having had this definite pledge before 
 them, and knowing that I was waiting for them, had 
 the papers with their signatures affixed ready for me 
 upon their return. Taking the papers from their 
 hands, and saying I would keep them as their cove- 
 nant, I gave appropriate and tender counsel, and added 
 that with the first opportunity I desired them to make 
 public the covenant they had lodged with me. Thus 
 they went to their homes after a whole day's thought 
 upon the pledge-committed men, and in every instance 
 afterward came into church membership. 
 
 '' Each one of us must find his own way of leading 
 souls to Christ, and his way will differ according to 
 the individuals approached and the community in 
 which he lives. In my own case, almost every one 
 who was led by me to the confession of Christ came 
 through my dealing with him individually and alone. 
 Friendship between human hearts is essential to the 
 development of a friendship between the human heart 
 and God.'* 
 
 193 
 
LI 
 
 WON BY A LETTER 
 
 T7VERY letter we write, whether to a friend or to 
 ^^ a member of our own family, should have in it 
 something that will give to the one who receives it a 
 glimpse of brightness and glory. Yet so often there 
 is nothing pleasing in the missive but the closing mes- 
 sage. Sometimes even this seems to be a mere form. 
 The writer should not be content to say, " My best re- 
 gards to you " ; he should see to it that he has put his 
 best into the letter. 
 
 How many letters could be named with the mes- 
 sages from a New England school-teacher to a friend 
 who said, " Your words always draw me heavenward, 
 so that my first impulse is to pray " ? Again she as- 
 sured the correspondent that her letters turned her 
 heart to a constantly recurring joy. 
 
 It was a letter like this of which a friend of the 
 author of this volume told him in these words : 
 
 " He was one of my dearest friends. During a 
 very unusual period of revival, though our paths were 
 a hundred miles apart, my thoughts were constantly of 
 him, and so I wrote him a warm-hearted personal in- 
 vitation to come out boldly and unite with the Church. 
 He had been brought up in a Christian atmosphere. 
 His father was a Methodist class leader of the strictest 
 type. The son had known some wild days, but was 
 
 194 
 
WON BY A LETTER 
 
 living a clean life, though an unchurchly one. He 
 never answered my letter, and never in any way re- 
 ferred to it. Through another member of the house- 
 hold I knew that he received it. The letter had gone 
 forth in prayer; I never doubted that I was obediently 
 following a divine leading. Six years went by with 
 never a day that I did not definitely and by name pray 
 for my friend, and for his conversion. 
 
 " Unexpectedly one evening I found myself in his 
 home. By a strange chance I opened the door of the 
 room in which he was preparing to retire. He was 
 on his knees beside a chair, his head in his hands, pour- 
 ing out his soul to God, and talking in familiar terms 
 that made me know he had long practiced communing 
 with God alone. I stole quietly out of the doorway 
 and John never knew of my presence. My faith was 
 unconsciously quickened by that sight, for, without 
 telling me, God had answered my prayer for my friend 
 long before I knew it." 
 
 The story of another letter that worked wonders is 
 told by the biographer of James Hannington. 
 
 When James Hannington was twenty years old he 
 decided that he would be a minister. But he was not 
 a Christian; the secret of his decision was his loathing 
 for the business career for which he had been destined. 
 He united with the Church of England, but he was not 
 content. He entered St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, but 
 still he was not a Christian. He concluded his course 
 and began his ministry as Curate of Martinhoe and 
 Trentishoe. 
 
 There the life was entirely after his own heart, but 
 he was not happy. To quote his biographer, E. C 
 
 195 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 Dawson : " The people were content with him, but 
 he was not content with his own ministrations to them. 
 He was parson, doctor, family friend, all in one. He 
 felt that he could be of some use to the poor and needy. 
 He sat up long nights with the sick and dying. His 
 purse was always at the command of those in want. 
 He could and did sometimes preach vehement sermons 
 against prevalent vices, such as immorality, and ex- 
 cessive drinking at ' wakes ' and feasts but he could 
 not preach the Word of Life. As he visited the sick 
 and dying, or read prayers in bald looking, uncared- 
 for country churches, and held up his manuscript ser- 
 mon to his eyes in presence of sleeping audiences of 
 tired laboring folk, he realized this ever more keenly : 
 he was not giving them the Word of Life. How could 
 he, when he did not himself possess the Word of Life? 
 He began to understand, as he had never understood 
 before, that he was not right with God. God's or- 
 dained messenger with no message to deliver — that 
 was his position. A position, to his transparently hon- 
 est soul altogether insupportable. He began to be in 
 great distress." 
 
 Thirteen months before " a certain friend of his 
 who had recently received holy orders, and who was 
 serving as curate in a country parish in Surrey, began 
 to think of him. In the solitude of his lodging, when 
 the day's work was done, and he was alone with his 
 thoughts, his mind would rest longingly on his old col- 
 lege friendships. He thought of James Hannington, 
 gay, impetuous, friendly, fun-loving Jim, and grad- 
 ually it was laid upon his heart to pray for him. Why, 
 he could not tell, but the burden of that other soul 
 
 196 
 
WON BY A LETTER 
 
 seemed to press upon him more heavily day by day. 
 He had not had much experience in deaHng with souls; 
 he had but a short time before learned the meaning of 
 * effectual, fervent prayer ' ; he would have been called 
 a ' babe ' by St. Paul. 
 
 " He thought of many friends. To some he spoke, 
 and tried to make them partakers with him of his new 
 found benefit. For some he sought to pray, but for 
 none can he ever remember to have prayed with such 
 a distinct sense that he must pray as for James Han- 
 nington." 
 
 After a time he sought an excuse to write to his 
 friend. He found the excuse : an old pair of his col- 
 lege chum's skates, borrowed when he was at college. 
 He wrote asking what he should do with them — and 
 asked also for news of the owner. The reply told him 
 what he longed to know — that Hannington was under- 
 taking ordination, but that he was not sure he was as 
 fit as he ought to be. 
 
 The curate '' resolved to avail himself of the opening 
 thus given, though not without a certain dread. He 
 was naturally loath to lose the friendship of one for 
 whom he entertained a warm affection. He remem- 
 bered Hannington's openly expressed dislike of re- 
 ligious enthusiasm, and his contempt for all canting 
 protestation of superior piety. It was not without a 
 mental struggle that he determined to lay bare his own 
 heart to an eye only too probably unsympathetic. It 
 seemed likely that this letter of his might open a wide 
 gulf between them. Still, if friendship was to be lost, 
 it should at least be well lost. So he reasoned, and, 
 with prayer for guidance, just wrote a simple, unvar- 
 
 197 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 nished account of his own spiritual experience; tried to 
 explain how it had come to pass that he was not as for- 
 merly; spoke of the power of the love of Christ to 
 transform the life of a man and draw out all his latent 
 possibilities; and finally urged him, as he loved his 
 own soul, to make a definite surrender of himself to 
 the Saviour of the world and join himself to his disci- 
 ples." 
 
 For thirteen months there was no response. He 
 feared the letter had gone to the waste-paper basket. 
 But every day he prayed for his friend. 
 
 At length, Hannington, who had known no peace 
 during this period, wrote to the curate and implored 
 him to pay him a visit. The curate could not come, 
 but sent a book which he urged Hannington to read. 
 After several fruitless attempts to become interested 
 in the volume, Hannington succeeded in reading it 
 through. The reading led to his thorough conversion. 
 " I know now that Jesus Christ died for me and that he 
 is mine and I am his," he wrote to his friend. " And all 
 this you are the human means of teaching me. Dear 
 Colonel, what thanks I owe to you, and incomparably 
 little with what I owe to God. I ought daily to be 
 more thankful to you as the instrument by which I 
 was brought to Christ." 
 
 At Oxford, a little later, he talked with another old 
 friend, who told him that there had not seemed any 
 hope of his conversion, " he seemed so utterly given 
 over to the world." 
 
 The letter of a third college friend, who had not 
 learned of his conversion, shows how far those who 
 knew him felt that he was from being a Christian. He 
 
 198 
 
WON BY A LETTER 
 
 told of the visit to him of a college chum, once a very 
 worldly man, who astonished him by the change in 
 his conversation and by his final confession that he 
 had heard the call of Christ, and was resolved to fol- 
 low him. The astonished man asked Hannington for 
 
 advice. *' I don't know what has come over ," he 
 
 said. " He is dreadfully changed in his views. You 
 must come over and spend a few days with us when 
 next he is here, and we will soon settle him between 
 us." 
 
 The change in Hannington was real. He began to 
 preach, without notes, the Word of Life. His people 
 were fed. In country and city he continued his min- 
 istry until he was thirty-five years old. 
 
 Then he heard the call for men to go out to do mis- 
 sion work on the shores of Victoria Nyanza in Africa. 
 He hesitated to offer himself, fearing that the Church 
 Missionary Society would not accept him, " I am not 
 worthy of the honor," he wrote in his diary. 
 
 Within a few months he began the four years of 
 missionary labor that was crowned by his martyrdom. 
 His dying message was : '' I am about to die for the 
 Baganda, and have purchased the road to them with 
 my life." 
 
 And God used a letter to win the man who became 
 Bishop Hannington of Africa ! 
 
 199 
 
LII 
 
 WON BY PROXY 
 
 A CHRISTIAN worker of note, a layman, told the 
 -^^ author of the winning of a business friend for 
 his Master. 
 
 " We had traded together through many years," he 
 said. " His unusually close application to business 
 had aided a rapid development of consumption. He 
 was going to the North woods in search of health. 
 Many of us felt he had waited too long; but he had a 
 will of his own and some of his conclusions, in conse- 
 quence, were developed slowly. I was in his home 
 town on business the afternoon before he was to start. 
 We visited together, and then, after the evening shades 
 had fallen, I met him again on my way to the railway 
 station, and we chatted till nearly time for my train. 
 The conversation, to my regret, did not turn on re- 
 ligious things except once in a very general way. We 
 rather abruptly said good-by, and on the train home- 
 ward that evening I feared lest I had not been as so- 
 licitously the Christian gentleman as I should have 
 been with my friend. 
 
 " The weeks passed. I heard only unsatisfactory 
 reports of his condition. My heart was heavy with 
 the conviction that I might be withholding a helpful 
 or comforting word. 
 
 *' A friend was the Field Secretary of the New York 
 200 
 
WON BY PROXY 
 
 State Christian Endeavor Union, and his itinerary 
 of field work for some weeks ahead came to me in my 
 mail one morning. I noted that he was headed for the 
 North woods and that one of his engagements was in 
 the very town where my sick business friend was stay- 
 ing. There came a sudden prompting and I obeyed it 
 immediately. A special delivery letter to the field sec- 
 retary told him of my friend and his condition, and 
 asked him to call and announce himself as having 
 been sent by me and engage my friend, if his condi- 
 tion permitted, in a cordially solicitous bit of personal 
 conversation. In the meantime I sent a message of 
 greeting to my friend and waited to observe God's 
 way of bringing things to pass. 
 
 *' A few days later the field secretary and I lunched 
 together, and he told me the story of a call at the 
 North woods cottage. We both cried over our lunch- 
 eon that day. They were tears of joy in either case; 
 joy over a rich experience in personal work on the 
 part of the field secretary; joy in my case because the 
 last message my business friend sent me was, ' tell 
 John I am trusting in Jesus.' " 
 
 201 
 
LIII 
 OUT OF THE DEPTHS 
 
 IN a little town in the South, lived two young men 
 who were the despair of the friends of law and 
 order. Th y had been given the best opportunity to 
 advance, but they had despised it. Both had been sent 
 to college, but one was dropped almost at once, while 
 the other was sent home after a profligate career of 
 four months. He was sent later to three other schools, 
 but was expelled from all of them. 
 
 In the summer of 1914 both men were drunkards 
 and gamblers, and were guilty of so many other im- 
 moralities that their names were not mentioned by 
 many of those who thought themselves above these 
 outcasts. 
 
 But there were three people in the town who felt 
 that the two young men were not beyond hope — a 
 young student for the ministry, who was about to en- 
 ter the theological seminary, and his two sisters. 
 
 The sisters were members of a Girls' Intercessory 
 Circle, which had been organized by the student for 
 the ministry. At one of their meetings lists of in- 
 dividuals in the town for whom daily prayer was to 
 be offered were made by the girls. The names of the 
 two young men were placed on these lists. Both young 
 women made them subjects of prayer, while their 
 brother united with them in the service of intercession. 
 
 202 
 
OUT OF THE DEPTHS 
 
 Answer to the prayer was delayed, and personal 
 appeals were fruitless. 
 
 One day in July, 19 14, the sttdent for the ministry 
 found one of the young men lying, drunk, on the base 
 ball field. He took the man to his own home and kept 
 him there till he was himself; then he let him go, but 
 not until he had said to him as much as he thought 
 was wise. The young man would not encourage the 
 friend who pleaded with him, but from that time it 
 was apparent that he was glad someone was interested 
 in him. 
 
 In September, 19 14, both the student for the min- 
 istry and the other young man had typhoid fever. 
 Knowledge of their common affliction brought them 
 near together. 
 
 When the student for the ministry was recovering 
 he sent for the young man whom he had taken home 
 from the ball field and asked him to read aloud in the 
 sick room. This the man was glad to do, for he had 
 no work at the time ; in fact, no one would have given 
 him work, even if he had wanted to work. 
 
 The appeals made in the sick room to the reckless 
 reader seemed to be without result, and the message 
 sent to the second fever patient seemed as usless. In 
 December both young men were, apparently, as reck- 
 less as ever. 
 
 Of course there were many in the town who felt 
 that the student was wasting his time on the young 
 men. But he did not give up. 
 
 Two weeks before Christmas he went to see the 
 man who had been sick in September, and appealed to 
 him to give up his bad habits and yield his heart to 
 
 203 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 Christ. After listening to him for some time, the 
 young man said : 
 
 *' I guess I might as well; you won't let me alone 
 until I do." 
 
 Yet a week later the convert was among his former 
 companions, planning with them for a great Christmas 
 spree. These plans were given up in response to the 
 entreaty of the student. 
 
 Realizing that something more must be done, he 
 talked with his sisters about the young men. They 
 made a plan. Knowing that both men could sing, they 
 arranged a quartet which should practice at the home 
 of the three personal workers. 
 
 As they practiced there was opportunity for fervent 
 appeals to live an earnest Christian life. These seemed 
 to be effective, and the young men resolved to be 
 Christians. 
 
 Then the brother went away and the two converts 
 yielded to the pleas and the sneers of their former 
 companions and began to frequent the low poolroom 
 which was opened in the town just at that time. 
 
 The sisters prayed for the young men, and sent 
 word to their brother of their new anxiety. The 
 brother telegraphed one of the young men that he had 
 the utmost faith in him, and wrote to the other a 
 strong letter in which he reminded him that, having 
 had a taste of the new life, he could not go back into 
 the old careless ways. 
 
 Then the sisters sought the young men and talked 
 with them. Again they announced their purpose to be 
 Christians. 
 
 This time there was no going back. When the 
 
 204 
 
OUT OF THE DEPTHS 
 
 brother returned they were led by him to take part in 
 a series of meetings conducted by the Young Men's 
 Christian Association at a neighboring town. Both 
 young men did earnest and effective personal work 
 among the mill boys. This developed and strength- 
 ened them. 
 
 Later some of the men of the town went to differ- 
 ent parts of the county to hold meetings for testimony. 
 One of the young converts talked at each meeting on 
 Bible study and prayer, which had become, already, a 
 large part of his life. The other young man told of 
 his former life and of his conversion, and spoke of 
 the four great purposes in his life, one of which was 
 to bring men to Christ. 
 
 In the fall of 191 5 the latter young man, who has 
 a brilliant mind in spite of his abuse of it, went to a 
 state educational institution as teacher of history and 
 mathematics. There he is proving a power for right- 
 eousness among the students, doing personal work 
 among them wherever he can find an opening. He 
 conducts chapel exercises in the school, and when the 
 man at whose house he boards is absent, he asks the 
 blessing at the table and conducts family worship. 
 
 The second young man left at about the same time 
 for a large city five hundred miles from his home, 
 where he found work, made himself known at a down- 
 town mission and a nearby Sunday school, and began 
 to do such work with individuals as had been blessed 
 by God to his own salvation. 
 
 205 
 
LIV 
 
 HE FOUND CHRIST IN THE 
 TRENCHES 
 
 A SOUTH LONDON Sunday-school teacher had 
 in his class a young man for whom he was 
 anxious. He did not think of the man as bad, but he 
 knew that he was not a Christian. 
 
 He was especially anxious when the young man 
 dropped out of Sunday school. He wondered if he 
 had used every opportunity to lead to Christ this mem- 
 ber of the class; he wondered, too, if he was soon to 
 have another opportunity. 
 
 Seven months later word came to him that the young 
 man had enhsted, and, within two weeks, would be 
 in the trenches in France. The longed for chance had 
 come! It was not possible to talk to the soldier per- 
 sonally, but the teacher could write to him. 
 
 And he did write intensely earnest letters. He 
 pleaded with the soldier to be a soldier of the Great 
 Captain. 
 
 The teacher's letters to the soldier have not been 
 preserved. But the soldier's letters to the teacher are 
 treasured. Portions of them follow : 
 
 " May 1 8. — I have been fighting hard in the 
 trenches for nearly a month, so I have had no time to 
 write. Don't think for one moment that I have for- 
 
 206 
 
HE FOUND CHRIST IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 gotten you, for you are constantly in my thoughts, 
 and I often sit and think, and wish I were among you 
 all at the old Sunday school. I have had some nar- 
 row escapes on several occasions, but up till now I 
 have not received a scratch. . . If God spares me to 
 come home again, I think you will understand the les- 
 son I have learnt.'* 
 
 " May 30. — You tell me that J. H. has written to 
 you and told you how he is trying to lead a better life, 
 and I must tell you that at one time I was as bad as 
 he, although you did not know it; but I have altered 
 now and intend to try, with God's help, to repair the 
 past. It is rather a difficult thing to do in the army, 
 but I am very confident I shall succeed." 
 
 " June 13. — I am trying my best to lead a Christian 
 life. Sometimes I find it a bit difficult; but I shall 
 succeed in the long run, and I hope God will spare me 
 to come back home so that I can show you the great 
 change there is in me." 
 
 *' June 26. — I have some good news to tell you. I 
 have found some more Christian comrades in my bat- 
 talion, and it only goes to show that God is answering 
 my prayers. I wrote and told you I was not strong 
 enough, and you told me to pray for more strength 
 from him. Well, I did this, and eventually I saw one 
 of our chaps sitting under a tree reading a New Testa- 
 ment. I got into conversation with him, and he asked 
 me if I believed in the Saviour. I told him that I did 
 believe, and had already accepted him, but wanted help. 
 I have received what I have been praying for, and 
 was introduced to two more comrades and we are now 
 all happy in the strength of God, and trying to recruit 
 
 207 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 more. I feel happier now than I have ever done be- 
 fore." 
 
 ''July 17. — Since I wrote to you last, I and my 
 friend have gained two more of our mates who intend 
 to serve the Lord in future, and we have still plenty 
 more who are half inclined to serve God, only they 
 want a lot of persuading." 
 
 *' August 28. — It is jolly hard to get a fellow to go 
 the right way out here. But I find that patience wins, 
 and if you chum in with a fellow whom you have got at 
 as a likely candidate for our Lord you can soon make 
 him learn your ways by praying for help and strength ; 
 and in the end you generally win him over. I have 
 not had much success lately in this direction, as I have 
 become a bomber and have been busy and separated 
 from my companions; but I keep on trying and hope 
 to get some more out of my new chums." 
 
 " September 6. — You need not worry about me ever 
 shirking my duty to the old school again, and if God 
 wills that I shall be spared to come back to you again, 
 it shall be my earnest endeavor to help at the Sunday 
 school and do my very best to bring others to the 
 Master." 
 
 But the soldier did not live to return home. He 
 was killed in action only a few weeks after the letter 
 of September sixth was written. 
 
 208 
 
TEN 
 HOW CHRIST'S KINGDOM GROWS 
 
 209 
 
LV 
 
 AMONG COLLEGE MEN 
 
 T N a small college in an interior city of an Eastern 
 -■- state a student was disturbed because Christian 
 life among his fellows was at such a low ebb. 
 
 He decided that the thing for him to do was to go 
 among his friends and ask them to become Christians. 
 So he prepared a decision card the signers of which 
 would pledge themselves to an unusually high pro- 
 gramme. 
 
 He thought of presenting this to a fraternity 
 brother, a young man of means, a Southerner, who 
 was a general favorite wherever he went, but who was 
 far from being a Christian. 
 
 Of course he was tempted not to approach the man, 
 lest his efforts come to nothing and there result an in- 
 terruption in the pleasant relations existing between 
 the two men. But he put aside his fears as unworthy, 
 sought the fraternity brother and told him of his de- 
 sire that he give his heart to Christ, signing the card 
 as an indication of his purpose. 
 
 Carefully the man read the card through. Then, 
 thoughtfully, he said: 
 
 ** That is a pretty stiff programme. I don't see how 
 I can sign for you." 
 
 To further entreaty the young man finally said : 
 
 " Well, I'll try your programme for a week." 
 
 211 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 At the end of the week he announced his purpose 
 to be a Christian. Soon after he made known his in- 
 tention to become a minister. And a little later he 
 took a further step by taking his place with the men 
 who had made known their purpose to go to the foreign 
 mission field. 
 
 It was at a college in a Middle Western state that a 
 
 Christian young man was distressed when he thought 
 
 how the fraternities were ruling the college. He re- 
 
 .gretted that he had become a fraternity man, for his 
 
 companions were rowdies. 
 
 The friend whom he consulted about his difficulty 
 suggested that the thing for him to do was not to leave 
 the fraternity but to do his part to transform it. 
 
 So he decided to adopt heroic measures. In spite of 
 his feeling that he might be misunderstood and even 
 mocked, he would act at once and in a way to most 
 attract the attention of all the men. 
 
 It was long past a reasonable bedtime when he 
 reached his decision, and he was at a distance from 
 the fraternity house. But he hurried thither as fast 
 as he could. As he feared, most of the men were in 
 bed. He went to their rooms, rapped on their doors, 
 and asked them to come down at once to a prayer 
 meeting in the lounging room. Astonished, they did 
 as he suggested. The Christian told them why he had 
 called them together, and urged them to become Chris- 
 tians. Then he led in prayer. Most of the others 
 prayed also. 
 
 That meeting resulted in the conversion of all of 
 the men but two. There was an important change in 
 the life of the fraternity. Instead of one general meet- 
 
 212 
 
AMONG COLLEGE MEN 
 
 ing each week there were two from that time, one of 
 which was a prayer meeting. 
 
 A Christian worker by whom these incidents were 
 told said they were illustrative of the fact that the 
 Christian who presents his message in a manly way 
 will be received courteously by ninety-nine men out of 
 a hundred. 
 
 " I recall an instance in my own experience that 
 shows the attitude of the average man. I had been 
 seeking opportunities to give a brief invitation to at- 
 tend church service and to present Jesus Christ at the 
 close of the first act at several of the better class thea- 
 ters. Always I was well received. Usually the man- 
 ager introduced me. 
 
 " But one Saturday evening what I thought was a 
 hard proposition was put up to me. Word was sent 
 to me that the manager of one of the largest vaudeville 
 houses in the city had heard of my visits to the other 
 theaters, and that he would give me an opportunity 
 to speak that evening at his house at the end of the first 
 act. 
 
 " Now I knew that the theater would be crowded 
 that night from floor to top gallery with young men 
 from the college and professional schools of the city; 
 there would not be a woman in the audience. What 
 a wonderful opportunity was afforded me ! But what 
 if I was not well received? College men know how 
 to roast a speaker if they are not pleased. How would 
 they receive my words in the midst of the vaudeville 
 performance ? 
 
 " I decided to make the effort, at any rate. The in- 
 vitation had come to me late, and I had twelve miles 
 
 213 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 to travel. I managed to reach the theater near the 
 close of the first act. The performers were still on 
 the stage when the manager told me to go ahead and 
 speak; he would see that the performance was inter- 
 rupted. But he said he could not introduce me as he 
 had intended to do. I could see that he feared the re- 
 sult of the invitation. 
 
 " Now I had to be introduced, and I had to act 
 quickly. I looked about and saw a clown who was 
 just then talking to the young man before him. * Let 
 him introduce me/ I said. 
 
 " The manager whispered to the clown, who stepped 
 to the front of the stage. For a moment he busied 
 himself with a simple antic which was new to the 
 boys. When every eye was focused on him, he said, 
 quietly : 
 
 " * Boys, I have a friend here whom you will like to 
 hear for a moment. You are all good Americans, and 
 a good American likes to listen to what a minister has 
 to say/ 
 
 " I was at his side. I saw that the young men did 
 not know what to make of my coming before them 
 in that way, and I realized that I must capture them at 
 once. 
 
 " In the same conversational tone the clown had 
 used, and as if it was a matter of course that I should 
 be speaking to them under the circumstances, I re- 
 minded them that the next day was the Sabbath, that 
 they would be wondering what to do with themselves, 
 that all over the city churches, Jewish, Catholic, and 
 Protestant would be open to receive them, and that for 
 those who did not wish to go to church service there 
 
 214 
 
AMONG COLLEGE MEN 
 
 would be a special meeting for men in one of the large 
 theaters. I told them we would sing songs they had 
 learned at home — ' Nearer, My God to Thee/ * Jesus, 
 Lover of My Soul,' * Rock of Ages,* and others like 
 them. There would be reading from the old Bible 
 which they had heard read in their homes, and there 
 would be a short talk about Jesus who came to earth 
 nearly two thousand years ago because he loved men, 
 and who died for them that they might have life. 
 
 " That was all my message. They listened intently. 
 When I had finished I turned to leave the stage, and 
 the manager gave the signal to the performers to go 
 on and sing the song which was to precede the drop- 
 ping of the curtain at the end of the first act. 
 
 " But the performers could not be heard for a min- 
 ute. For the young men were applauding me heartily. 
 It was apparent, too, that their applause was not in 
 mockery; it was sincere and earnest. 
 
 " Men respect the bearer of a manly message. They 
 may be surprised by it, but they are not apt to re- 
 sent it." 
 
 215 
 
LVI 
 
 TEAM WORK 
 
 "C^ ROM several centers in the Mississippi Valley- 
 young converts have shown their zeal for the 
 Master by going out, in companies of five or six, to 
 surrounding towns and villages to preach the gospel. 
 
 The first of these gospel teams was born when the 
 Secretary of the Wichita, Kansas, Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association asked a number of leading business 
 men, who had been converted in a recent revival, to 
 give their testimony for Christ at the regular gospel 
 meeting. Among those present was a layman who had 
 promised to lead a meeting in one of the churches that 
 evening. He persuaded five of the men who spoke that 
 afternoon to sit with him on the platform and assist 
 in the service. After the address he urged them to 
 go down in the congregation and do personal work. 
 As a result of God's blessing on their efforts, nine- 
 teen men confessed Christ. 
 
 This company of Christian men, rejoicing in the 
 way they had been used, duplicated the meeting in 
 other places, and God more than duplicated the results. 
 
 Before long there were in Wichita twenty-eight 
 teams made up of three hundred and fifty professional 
 and business men. In a little more than a year these 
 teams visited fifty-five places in the city and one hun- 
 dred and fifty-five places outside the city. One of the 
 
 216 
 
TEAM WORK 
 
 results was that thirty-eight hundred and seventeen 
 men and women became Christians. 
 
 The efforts of active teams in Iowa were blessed in 
 like manner. Hundreds of men gave themselves to 
 the work, speaking on Sunday in the churches, and 
 between times giving invitations personally to men to 
 accept Christ. 
 
 One of these men, who had been a nominal Chris- 
 tian for years, has told what participation in the work 
 in public and in private has done for him. He says : 
 
 " This thing has waked me from the dead. I never 
 took any interest in the conversion of anybody else. I 
 never really felt that it was expected of me. More 
 than that, I didn't dream that such greenhorns in the 
 business as the laymen are could see such wonderful 
 things happen in the way of leading men to God. Why, 
 I supposed that a chap had to know a lot of theology 
 and church history and be up on methods of personal 
 work, and all that sort of thing before he had any 
 chance of being useful in winning other men for the 
 Lord, and the thing which amazes me yet is that men 
 who know no more about the Bible than I, and lots 
 of them who know even less, can get up before a bunch 
 of men, tell their experience, show the fellows what's 
 helped us, and actually see them yield and give their 
 hearts to God. We had a meeting down here ten miles 
 in the country last Friday evening. We felt that 
 there was real power in the meeting from the very 
 start. When the invitation was given six men, all of 
 them thirty years of age or younger, came out and 
 knelt down and all of them professed to be converted. 
 One of them went right back to a group of his com- 
 
 217 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 rades and brought two of them. The little village 
 church was crowded and we felt that there were many 
 there who were convicted of sin, but had made no 
 move. And, what do you think, yesterday afternoon 
 when I was posting up my books, there were three 
 young fellows came into the office from that town and 
 said they wanted to talk with me. I supposed they 
 wanted to sell me some poultry or eggs, but they 
 wanted to find the Saviour and they were in down- 
 right earnest about it. So I called up two or three of 
 the fellows on the team and we went over to the 
 church, and in an hour's time all three of those fellows 
 were converted and went back home happy. We are 
 going out again next Sunday and we hope to be able 
 to hold meetings two or three evenings of the follow- 
 ing week. The young fello'.vs who came in yesterday 
 said that there were at least a dozen young men who 
 they were satisfied would yield if we'd have a few 
 more services." 
 
 Bishop Homer C. Stuntz of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, to whom these words were spoken, says 
 in comment: 
 
 '* I have said for some years that the next great 
 spiritual awakening in North America would come 
 when the membership of our churches threw them- 
 selves heartily into the work which had been too long 
 left to the preachers and the Sunday-school workers. 
 Why cannot this gospel team work spread over the 
 whole nation? There are tens of thousands of our 
 members who could be greatly used of God if they 
 would only open their lips and begin to tell what Christ 
 had done for them. Dead churches would be roused 
 
 218 
 
TEAM WORK 
 
 to action. Lost souls would be saved by the thousand. 
 Every good cause would receive a new impetus, for 
 this is God's plan for his Church. He intends that all 
 the membership should be saying of the saving grace 
 of Jesus Christ, ' And we are his witnesses of these 
 things; and so is also the Holy Spirit whom God hath 
 given to those that obey him.* '* 
 
 219 
 
LVII 
 A CHURCH AT WORK 
 
 A PASTOR who had the joy of ministering to a 
 church that was growing rapidly was asked how 
 he managed to win so many people. 
 
 His reply is illuminating : 
 
 " One forgets discouragement in noting the enthu- 
 siasm and consecration of men who have — perhaps 
 only a few weeks or months before — come from the 
 saloon; of women who for years refused to own them- 
 selves sinners ; of boys and girls who while still young 
 in the Christian life, are leading their parents to church, 
 and then to the communion table. A few days ago a 
 man confessed Christ and united with the church, 
 brought to a decision by his sixteen-year-old son. The 
 lad had been a Christian but six months. The pastor 
 had been unable to reach the man. Only a few weeks 
 before the son's conversion the wife had been led to 
 Christ by a young woman in the church. 
 
 " On the day that the father told me of his desire 
 to ufiite with the Church, I had an unusual experience. 
 The list of calls for the afternoon contained several 
 addresses to which I had been asked by various mem- 
 bers to go. In five of these homes three women and 
 four men v^ere found ready to make a public con- 
 fession of Christ. The work had all been done by those 
 
 220 
 
A CHURCH AT WORK 
 
 who had asked me to call, part of it by a woman who 
 can neither read nor write. 
 
 " Many of the members are thus seeking contintially 
 to win others for Christ. It is no imcommon occur- 
 rence to be called aside to hear the whisper, ' I think 
 you will find that So-and-So is ready to come into 
 the Church.' 
 
 " The best illustration of the glorious readiness to 
 do personal work is the story of twenty-four members 
 received at a recent communion, all but one of whom 
 came on confession. 
 
 " Most of the number were people of mature years. 
 A grandfather, his wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, 
 two brothers-in-law, with the wife and sister-in-law 
 of one of them, v/ere eight of the number. The com- 
 ing of these eight was due, by God's blessing, to one 
 of our young men. He not only gave the first intima- 
 tion that some of them were beginning to think of com- 
 ing with us, in response to his pleas, but he con- 
 tinued his work to the very last afternoon, going to see 
 four of them a few hours before evening service, when 
 they were received. The eight were from four different 
 homes. 
 
 " Three weeks before communion a deacon told me 
 he had persuaded two friends to come. I did not even 
 make a call on them. 
 
 " A young woman came to the session meeting, un- 
 announced. She had been for twenty years a member 
 of the Sunday school of which the church is an out- 
 growth. The explanation of her coming vv^as given 
 when a lady who had once been a teacher of the convert, 
 but now lives far from the church, came to me after 
 
 221 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 service and said, with tears in her eyes : * I have prayed 
 and worked for her for years, and now she has come.' 
 
 " Just before service there was a knock at the door 
 of the study, and a woman, a member, ushered in two 
 women with whom I had been working but whom I 
 had given up for the time. She was their neighbor, 
 and was anxious to see them take their stand for Christ. 
 Her words had been owned of God, and so she brought 
 her second and third converts since her own conver- 
 sion. This great event in her own life had happened 
 only a few months before, at an evening service to 
 which she was brought by a woman who had previously 
 influenced six to accept Christ. 
 
 " Thus thirteen have been accounted for. Three 
 children from the Sunday school made sixteen. 
 
 "Number seventeen was brought to me by a Sunday- 
 school teacher, who joyfully told me her pupil had 
 accepted Christ as her Saviour. 
 
 " Number eighteen was an * accident ' — if such a 
 word can be used in this connection. I had met re- 
 buff when I called on her. One of the young women 
 visitors employed by the church had likewise reported 
 failure. Two weeks before communion she attended 
 service. She was mistaken for another person, a 
 friend. The one who made the mistake, greeted her 
 after service, and addressing her by the name of her 
 friend, said: 'Are you not ready to unite with the 
 Church ? ' She hesitated a moment, then said : * Yes, 
 I am. But you have made a mistake. I am Mrs. X, 
 not Mrs. A.' 
 
 " But the next in the list was the real Mrs. A. For 
 ten months she had been delaying decision. The Sun- 
 
 222 
 
A CHURCH AT WORK 
 
 day evening after the * accident * she responded to the 
 invitation. Probably the coming of her friend, in 
 consequence of the mistake, was all that was needed to 
 bring her to the point of surrender. 
 
 " Number twenty's story is not known. Number 
 twenty-one was brought by a young convert, her first 
 fruits. Number twenty-two was brought by a Christian 
 who had made her own confession six weeks before. 
 Number twenty-three came by letter. Number twenty- 
 four was persuaded to take her stand by several faith- 
 ful friends in her Sunday-school class. 
 
 " In short, the explanation asked by those who know 
 the church can be given in the words of Nehemiah: 
 ' For the people had a mind to work/ " 
 
 223 
 
LVIII 
 
 THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 
 WORKER 
 
 /^ NE of the foremost Christian workers in America, 
 ^^ who has always been noted as a winner of men 
 and women through personal conversation, was him- 
 self the fruit of the personal effort of faithful Chris- 
 tians. ' 
 
 This is the story of his life as he told it to the writer 
 of this volume : 
 
 " At sixteen I was a reckless boy. I was training 
 with a bad crowd. I had left school and was work- 
 ing in a small factory. Among the one hundred and 
 forty-eight men employed there, there was only one 
 Christian. It was this Christian who gave me my 
 first impulse for good. One day we were standing 
 near each other as we worked, when he said, ' I notice 
 you are pretty intimate with some of the men whom a 
 boy of your age ought not to have anything to do with. 
 What do your father and mother think of your asso- 
 ciation with them? Are they Christians? Have they 
 ever spoken to you about being a Christian ? ' 
 
 " I replied that mother had spoken to me often 
 on the subject, that she had said she knew I would be a 
 Christian some day, for she was praying for me. 
 
 " After the first Christian conversation anyone out- 
 side of my home ever had with me, I was more cau- 
 
 224 
 
THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN WORKER 
 
 tious in my dealings with the men, for I wanted the 
 good opinion of the old man who had spoken to me. 
 But there was no change in my life. 
 
 " A year later an evangelist came to town. Father 
 stood up at one of the meetings and asked the people to 
 pray for his two sons, who were not Christians. Next 
 day one of my chums told me of this request and I 
 became very indignant. Storming with rage, I went 
 home and reminded my father and mother that I was 
 earning my own living and was paying my board, so I 
 was my own man. I told them I would have nothing 
 to do with the meetings or with any old bunch of 
 hypocrites, and I didn't want their prayers. 
 
 " That night, in order to assert my independence, I 
 deliberately went to the lowest, most debasing theatrical 
 performance in the city. Some of us had planned to 
 do certain things after the theater which would be 
 infinitely more corrupting then the performance itself. 
 In my sullen spirit of rebellion I had determined to go 
 just as deeply into sin as possible. 
 
 '* Accordingly, at eleven o'clock, I stood with my 
 hand on the knob of the door on the other side of 
 which was black hell. Up to that moment I had been 
 determined to follow my own will no matter where it 
 should lead me. But as I touched the knob a tremen- 
 dous feeling of restraint took possession of me, and 
 with it a sense of fear of some danger which I did 
 not understand. So I turned away from that place and 
 walked home very thoughtfully. 
 
 " It was just before midnight when I reached home. 
 But mother was waiting up for me. As I entered the 
 living room she rose and with a cry of mighty relief 
 
 225 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 and joy, she said, * Boy, I am so glad that you have 
 come home safe. All the time we were at the meeting 
 to-night and after we came home I felt that some ter- 
 rible danger was threatening you. Your father prayed 
 for you before he went to bed, and I have been pray- 
 ing for you ever since.' 
 
 " I laughed at her for her foolish fears and told her 
 it would have been much wiser to have gone to bed 
 and got her rest; I was old enough to take care of 
 myself. With that I went to bed. 
 
 ** That night I dreamed that I was walking across a 
 level field when I saw an opening in the ground. There 
 was a stairway in the opening, so I descended the flight. 
 Before me was a great iron gate which opened of itself, 
 and closed again behind me. Other stairs and other 
 gates were passed in like manner. Curious, I pressed 
 on till I heard shrieks and cries of anguish. The 
 sounds made me wish to turn back. I tried to do so, 
 but found that the gate nearest me was fast locked. 
 I could not move it. My terror increased as I waited, 
 for the terrible sounds increased. In anguish I cried 
 for help. Next thing I knew I was sitting up in bed, 
 and mother was by my side, eager to learn what was 
 wrong. I would not tell her. 
 
 " After she had gone I lay quiet and for the first 
 time in my life I began to think about my soul and its 
 peril. What if the door to life should really close on 
 me ! I thought of the good old man who had pleaded 
 with me to become a Christian, and I compared him 
 with the brutal companions of my choice. I thought 
 of my gentle mother and of her assurance that her 
 prayers for me would be answered. And then I 
 
 226 
 
THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN WORKER 
 
 prayed. ' O God,' I said, ' if you will take me, a poor, 
 foolish, wicked boy, forgive my sins and accept my 
 life, even here and now, I will give myself to thee.' 
 
 "Of course the answer came at once. I knew that a 
 great question had been settled once for all. 
 
 " Next day I rose with great peace in my heart and 
 went to the factory without telling father and mother 
 of the change in me. That night, as they were start- 
 ing for service, I offered to go along. I shall never 
 forget the look of joy on their faces. And I shall 
 never forget that service. I went into the inquiry 
 meeting and confessed Christ there. 
 
 " The next step was to seek my mother's pastor 
 and ask him for guidance. Unfortunately I came to 
 him when he was deep in a book. * Mother thinks I 
 ought to tell you that I want to be a good boy,' I began. 
 * Well, I am sure I am very glad to hear that you want 
 to be a good boy,' he said. * That is what you ought 
 to be. But you'll have to excuse me now, I am busy.* 
 Of course I excused myself at once, resolved never to 
 enter his house again. 
 
 " Fortunately the pastor of the church where the 
 meetings had been held (not my mother's own church) 
 came to the house next day when I was present. He 
 loved boys, and he showed his love by the way he talked 
 to me. You would have thought I was his chum. 
 
 " As he left the room, he told me that a company 
 of young people would meet the next Sunday to or- 
 ganize a Christian Endeavor Society, and he invited me 
 to attend. I accepted the invitation, and so began the 
 experience in the society which transformed my life. 
 
 " Lessons learned in the Christian Endeavor Society 
 22y 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 made me eager for Christian service. One evening I 
 was sitting on the back fence with a boy friend, to 
 whom I said, ' Charlie, there are eighteen boys in our 
 bunch. I don't believe I have ever seen one of them at 
 prayer meeting. I think we ought to go.' He had a 
 number of objections, but these were all put aside. 
 Finally he said, * Let's get the bunch out to-night.' 
 
 " Names were divided, and we set out to get them 
 together. It was arranged that we should meet at 
 the church, half an hour before prayer meeting time, 
 and that we should have a little prayer meeting of our 
 own. 
 
 *' After this meeting we went into the large room. 
 I shall never forget the look of pleased surprise on the 
 face of the pastor when we marched in and took our 
 places in a body on one side of the church. As there 
 were only twenty others present, our coming was note- 
 worthy. 
 
 '' Our coming appealed to the girls of the Christian 
 Endeavor Society, and they arranged to bring their 
 company to prayer meeting. The following Wednes- 
 day evening they came in just after us, and there were 
 about as many of them. They sat opposite us. How 
 we young people sang ! 
 
 *' Within six weeks the prayer meeting had increased 
 to such an extent that the chapel had to be abandoned 
 for the main auditorium. The whole congregation 
 was stirred. More special meetings were held, and 
 there was a harvest of souls. 
 
 " The next step was taken when we decided that 
 boys from other churches should be asked to our 
 prayer meeting. We made a list of the boy members 
 
 228 
 
THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN WORKER 
 
 of six churches near us, appointed a place for the 
 first meeting, arranged for a leader and planned to 
 ask the boys. The first leader was to appoint the place 
 for the next meeting and the leader. 
 
 '* At the first union prayer meeting more than fifty 
 boys were present. Soon there were three hundred in 
 attendance. Interest was great. There was scarcely a 
 meeting when one or more boys did not accept Christ. 
 
 " I can see those boys now. A number of them be- 
 came ministers who are known all over the land. More 
 became earnest Christian educators. Others became 
 Christian business men and professional men. It 
 would surprise people if they could know how many 
 leaders in Christian work date to that boys' meeting 
 their first inspiration to Christian service." 
 
 229 
 
ELEVEN 
 VARIOUS METHODS 
 
 231 
 
LIX 
 FIVE SOUL WINNERS 
 
 'T^ HERE are many ways of winning to Clirist those 
 -■- who are not his followers. Probably no two 
 Christians can or should work in exactly the same way. 
 A study of the Bible instances of personal work for 
 souls shows this variety of methods. Philip ap- 
 proached a traveler on a lonely road (Acts 8: 30). 
 Andrew went after his own brother Simon (John 
 1 : 40). Four men carried to Jesus one who was so 
 feeble he was unable to go himself ( Mark 2:3). Every 
 Christian who honestly seeks God's guidance will be 
 guided to what is the proper way for him to adopt in 
 dealing with each individual. 
 
 A college student made up his mind that it was his 
 duty to ask a certain classmate to become a Chris- 
 tian. He hesitated long, afraid of his reception. He 
 knew the man was careless and profane. Would it be 
 better to use some indirect method of approach to 
 him ? God told him that this was not the proper way 
 in this case, so he determined to go to the man and 
 deliver his message in a straightforward manner. His 
 knees shook as he put his hand on the knob of the 
 classmate's door. With a prayer for help he entered, 
 went up to his friend, and said, '' James, I wish you'd 
 take my Saviour for yours." To his astonishment 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 James answered at once, with a sob in his voice, " I've 
 just been waiting to have you say that to me." 
 
 A young Christian sought his pastor. '' I know I 
 ought to go and bring men to Christ," he said. " But 
 I can't. My words stick in my throat. What shall I 
 do? " The wise pastor said : " Go back to your work 
 determined that by God's grace you will do better work 
 than you ever did before. Live your Christianity. 
 Then something will happen." He was right. Fellow 
 workmen began to take notice. They realized that 
 there was a change in the young man. Somehow they 
 were influenced by the change. In a few months 
 several of them had been led to Christ by the silent 
 testimony of the workman whose words would stick 
 in his throat. 
 
 One writer has told of the conversion of two infidels 
 through the godly, patient, silent lives of two educated 
 Christian women. The wife of one dared not speak 
 to him had she chosen. Both women thought it best 
 not to speak. They suffered; they prayed; and they 
 waited. After many a weary year their waiting was 
 crowned with success. The men became Christians. 
 
 A humble Mexican Christian was tongue-tied when 
 he tried to speak before a religious gathering. *' But 
 out in the mountains, on the road or in the humble 
 homes of the poor, he could tell the gospel story better 
 than the most eloquent preacher " ; and many, hearing 
 him, became Christians. 
 
 The secret of that Christian's success in leading 
 others to Christ was his readiness to follow God's 
 guidance and his use of the Word of God. The secret 
 of success for us is not different. 
 
 234 
 
LX 
 
 ON THE LOOKOUT 
 
 A CHRISTIAN worker who has been signally suc- 
 -^^ cessful m winning men to Christ has told, in 
 " The Triumphant Ministry," of the plan he has 
 followed : 
 
 " I have found it convenient, when introduced to a 
 man, to find out in some way or other where he stands 
 in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Church; 
 and if the way is open I do business for Jesus Christ 
 there and then. 
 
 " I make it my business to book engagements with 
 men to talk about their personal relation to Christ and 
 the Church. Day before yesterday business led me to 
 the bank. In the cue before the cashier's window 
 was a man I have been * working on ' for three years. 
 I asked him to give me a few moments aside when he 
 was through with his business. When he came aside 
 and took my hand, I said : ' Friend, the communion 
 season is one week from Sunday. Won't you decide 
 for Jesus Christ without further delay ? ' Taking my 
 hand in both of his, he said : * See me again ; I prom- 
 ise to think seriously between now and then.' 
 
 " I left him to visit a store where five young women 
 who attend our church are at work. One of these had 
 two mates in the Sunday school and she took me to 
 talk with two of them. Both of these decided for 
 
 235 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 Christ and will come into the Church. Then I has- 
 tened to the ofiFice of a young lawyer who, three weeks 
 ago, accepted Christ, to see how it was going with him. 
 He had had a ' blue night ' the evening before. In 
 his private office I counseled and encouraged him. Then 
 to my barber shop. As I went out one of the pro- 
 prietors was alone, and I sat on the bench beside him. 
 It was an opportune time, and for fifty minutes I talked 
 to this new prospect about Christ — what he had done 
 for me, and what he could do for him. 
 
 " Yesterday I had a funeral. After it was over, I 
 had to visit another home into which death had stalked. 
 When I left there I went to a factory to talk about 
 Christ to the proprietor. He was occupied, but his 
 daughter at the desk, a member of the Sunday school, 
 though not a Christian, seemed ready for my approach. 
 So I talked to her and she decided to come next Sun- 
 day morning into the Church. From there I went to 
 a large manufactory for a close conference with one 
 of the proprietors. I waited ten minutes for him ; then 
 we pulled our chairs together and, like men, talked 
 about Christ and what we owed him. When we shook 
 hands, I did not have his surrender to Christ, but he 
 thanked me for the visit and for my interest in him." 
 
 236 
 
LXI 
 THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS 
 
 A YOUNG woman in New York was in dire dis- 
 tress. At the funeral of her father she learned 
 from her brother that he was a hopeless drunkard, 
 and he said that neither she nor his mother would ever 
 see him again. When the estate of her father was 
 settled, it was learned that he had lost his fortune. 
 Then the young man to whom she was engaged asked 
 to be released from the engagement. 
 
 She felt that life was no longer worth living, and 
 she thought of committing suicide. 
 
 But just at this time, H. Roswell Bates, pastor of 
 the Spring Street Presbyterian Church, learned of her 
 need. 
 
 " He won her at once by his understanding sym- 
 pathy and his sincere desire to help," Mr. Bates' 
 biographer writes. " He told her, as he always tried 
 to tell to those in trouble, that there was One, and only 
 one, to whom she might turn, and that was Christ. He 
 asked her to read her New Testament. She replied 
 that during her college course she had studied the New 
 Testament in Greek in order to prove the fallacy of all 
 Christian claims, but she was willing to do anything 
 Mr. Bates asked of her. He told her to read each day 
 a few verses from the Gospel of John, and to try to 
 believe the reality and the truth of what she read. He 
 
 237 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 then gave her a list of the names of about twenty fami- 
 lies in the poorest quarter of lower New York, and 
 asked her to visit one of these families each day until 
 she had called on them all. This would take her about 
 a month. She promised to do all of this as best she 
 could, and went away. Throughout the month Mr. 
 Bates prayed earnestly to God that what he had told 
 her might be used as the means of bringing her to 
 herself." 
 
 Faithfully she kept her promise, but without ap- 
 parent result till she visited the last home on her list. 
 There she found a pleasing company. But they had 
 not always been pleasing. Once their home was as 
 bad or even worse than most of the homes in the 
 neighborhood, the mother explained. Both she and 
 her husband drank and quarreled, the children had few 
 clothes and little to eat. And then a change had taken 
 place. One night her husband came home sober. He 
 said that he was never going to drink again. Down 
 at the church some one had talked to him, and asked 
 him to join the Men's League. He promised to live 
 a different kind of life. His wife laughed at him. She 
 gave him two weeks to keep straight. He kept straight 
 for a year. He was a changed man. There were better 
 food and more clothes for the children. A year from 
 the time that he had taken the step towards a new life, 
 she went with him to the church. Now they were 
 both active members. ** We found Christ," the mother 
 said. " He changed our lives and led us to God our 
 heavenly Father. And then she asked the young 
 woman to pray with her. The girl could not. How 
 could she? For she had never been taught even a 
 
 238 
 
THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS 
 
 child's prayer; but she opened the Testament which 
 Mr. Bates had given her and read from it. 
 
 That night was the turning point in the visitor's 
 life. Soon afterward, when she applied for member- 
 ship in the Spring Street Church, she declared she had 
 become the happiest woman in the world because she 
 had found Christ. 
 
 239 
 
LXII 
 FINDING THE WAY TO HIS HEART 
 
 T TE spent his days in the factory near the church 
 -■- -■■ and, when evening came, he was ready for a lark. 
 Seldom was he to be found at home. So the calls of 
 some of those who were interested in him were useless. 
 He would not come to church, and he would avoid 
 the church people in the street, as if he were afraid of 
 being trapped into conversation on religious themes. 
 
 " Why should I go to church? " he said. *' There's 
 nothing there for me. I must work for a living, and 
 I must have a good time when work is done. No, 
 thank you, I think I'll cut out the church." 
 
 After a while, for his sake and for the sake of others 
 like him who wanted a good time in the evenings, a 
 gymnasium was Installed in the church basement. 
 Many of the young men became interested. They had 
 regular gymnasium instruction and they organized a 
 basket ball team. 
 
 Three or four of them made it a rule to talk gymna- 
 sium and basket ball in the presence of the young man 
 who would have nothing to do with the church. Noth- 
 ing was said to him about Sunday school, or attendance 
 at church. It was not long before he began to ask 
 questions about the sports of the young men of the 
 church. Then he liinted that he would like to visit the 
 gymnasium. An invitation was given, and he was 
 
 240 
 
FINDING THE WAY TO HIS HEART 
 
 on hand. Still nothing was said to him on any subject 
 but sport. 
 
 " Let's go slow," one of the wise fishers of men said 
 to his pastor. " He's wary ; so please don't say a word 
 to him. We'll land him yet." 
 
 Soon the wary factory worker was found on the 
 floor on the nights given to young men. When the 
 basket ball season opened, he was chosen a member of 
 the team. Night after night he was in the company 
 of the choice young men of the church. The pastor 
 was sometimes seen in the gymnasium, and the young 
 workingman lost his dread of him when he found he 
 was saying nothing about religion. 
 
 Of course it was not long before he was found at the 
 church services; then he appeared at the Bible class. 
 Why not? His associates were there. He would go, 
 too. 
 
 Soon the way was open for his friends in the church 
 to urge him to accept Christ. Then came an evening 
 service when the invitation to accept Christ was given 
 at the close of a gospel talk; it was customary in that 
 church to call those not Christians to definite and im- 
 mediate decision. The first to respond was the young 
 factory worker, for whom so many associates had been 
 fishing so long. He became an earnest Christian, and 
 was proud to be so known among his fellows at the 
 factory. 
 
 241 
 
LXIII 
 
 ONE GIDEON'S WORK FOR YOUNG 
 
 MEN 
 
 T N the past few years a Chicago commercial traveler, 
 -*■ a Gideon, has led over eight hundred boys and 
 young men to Christ. " I simply use good salesman- 
 ship in paving the way for my introduction, and God 
 does the rest," he says, in speaking of his success. 
 
 His work is not done in a Sunday-school class, in 
 a church, or in a school, but everywhere he goes — -on 
 the streets, on the train, and in the hotels — he finds 
 work to do and a fruitful field. He makes it a rule 
 never to go on a train without asking God to point 
 out the young man with whom God would have him 
 talk. His plan is to find a seat with some young man 
 or boy. In a quiet, tactful way he engages the boy in 
 conversation, learns where his home is, where he is 
 going, if his parents are dear to him, and of his faith. 
 Then God does the rest. 
 
 He has eight hundred and forty-one names and ad- 
 dresses of young men whom he has pointed to the 
 Master, and a large correspondence is maintained with 
 them and their parents, and with pastors to whom he 
 has committed many for oversight. 
 
 A large proportion of the bell boys in city hotels 
 have left their homes because of rebellion against their 
 parents' authority. Possibly this Gideon's greatest suc- 
 
 242 
 
ONE GIDEON'S WORK FOR YOUNG MEN 
 
 cess is among these bell boys. He lays his plans care- 
 fully and, while many cases may seem to fail to bring 
 the desired result, no case is a failure when God speaks 
 through the lips of such a witness. 
 
 His method with bell boys is simple. During the 
 day, or when he is about to retire for the night, he 
 calls for stationery, ice water, or some other article. 
 The call is answered by a bell boy, who quickly re- 
 sponds to inquiries when he finds that the Gideon is 
 interested in him and in his troubles. The name of his 
 mother is soon introduced, and his life's story obtained. 
 The story of the One who bears our trials and saves us 
 from them, and who is the boy's friend, is then told. 
 A scripture text, a gospel, and some interesting tract 
 containing boys' experiences are given. Then the 
 question is asked, " Shall we not ask God to lead us 
 and to keep us, and make us his during the days to 
 come ? " 
 
 Marvelous results frequently follow. The stubborn 
 will is broken. God is represented to this young man 
 as a great power house; a wire from the mighty 
 dynamo is at hand, and the young man is persuaded to 
 keep his " trolley " on the wire. A local pastor is put 
 in charge of him, or he decides to return home to his 
 parents at once. Letters go home to ** mother " from 
 both the Gideon and the boy. These are followed by 
 many other letters. This new-found friend who has 
 led the lad to a greater Friend has had the privilege of 
 reading many of the replies from some of the boy 
 converts. 
 
 One writes : " I am glad I ever found Christ and 
 you. Though we have met but once, I shall never f or- 
 
 243 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 get you. I became a member of the Presbyterian 
 church at Forty-first Street and Grand Boulevard, yes- 
 terday." 
 
 Another says : " That day I met you on the train, I 
 hardly believed you. I thought you were a sharker. 
 I am certainly keeping my * trolley ' where it belongs, 
 and if it does leave the wire once in a while, I lose no 
 time in getting it back on." This young man has since 
 married a Christian girl and has started a Christian 
 home. 
 
 A third writes : " You have been remembered in 
 prayer each morning and evening, and my thoughts 
 often dwell on our chance (?) acquaintance. The 
 Lord certainly sent you to me. Your little talk has 
 brought more joy into the world than you may have 
 thought." 
 
 A cabin boy on a lake boat, found to be a high school 
 graduate, was interviewed. The boy had left home 
 because his father had threatened his arrest if he con- 
 tinued to be on the street, after he was discharged for 
 tardiness by an employer. His school friends told him 
 his father and mother said they never wanted to see him 
 again. After an hour's talk, he fell on his knees and 
 gave his heart to God. Then the Gideon wrote to the 
 father that he was repentant, and the boy returned to 
 his mother, a Christian boy. His father promised to 
 love him and receive him with open arms. 
 
 This Gideon spent two weeks in a hospital, because 
 of a case of fever. While there he looked about him 
 for a chance to serve. Among the boys there was one 
 who had been badly burned by a live trolley wire. He 
 found Christ in the hospital ward, went home, joined 
 
 244 
 
ONE GIDEON'S WORK FOR YOUNG MEN 
 
 the church, married a Christian girl, and now has 
 a happy home where Christ reigns. He writes, " I 
 have thought so many times that God must have put 
 us both in the hospital for a purpose. What a glorious 
 thing it is to be a Christian ! It seems like a new world 
 to me. I am going to live for him who died for me, 
 the rest of my life, if I do nothing else. I don't know 
 how I am ever going to thank you for what you have 
 done for me." 
 
 This Gideon is doing " a man's job," a job that pays 
 the largest possible dividends for time and for eternity. 
 
 24S 
 
TWELVE 
 HINTS FROM THE MISSION FIELD 
 
 247 
 
LXIV 
 
 WINNING MEN IN CHINA 
 
 T N " The New Era in Asia," Sherwood Eddy has 
 -■- told of the experience of Chang Po-ling, who has 
 been called the Arnold of North China by reason of 
 his work for the education of young men. When he 
 was president of a model educational institution in 
 Tientsin he became acquainted with an Englishman 
 who was greatly concerned because the eminent 
 Chinese teacher was an atheist and a pessimist. 
 
 Together the men studied the Bible, especially the 
 life of Christ. But the Chinese sage felt unable to 
 come to a decision. 
 
 The night before Mr. Chang was to leave for 
 America, as a member of an imperial commission, his 
 friend spoke to him again of Christ and asked him if 
 he would join him in prayer. 
 
 In telling of that conference, " Chang said that, as 
 he knelt to pray, it seemed as if a great light filled his 
 soul and flooded his whole being. His conversion 
 seemed almost as clear and instantaneous and revolu- 
 tionary as the blinding vision of the apostle Paul him- 
 self. He knelt an agnostic, he rose a Christian; he 
 knelt a pessimist, he rose an optimist. The face of 
 all the world seemed changed; he looked out upon a 
 new heaven and a new earth. The whole night he 
 could not sleep for joy. In the morning he said, * I 
 
 249 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 have been drifting for ten years like a ship at sea with- 
 out chart or compass ; now I know where I am going.* 
 He hastened to Tientsin, and spent the first day with 
 his family telling them of his decision. The next day 
 he went to his college and called together the teachers 
 and students, and finally the Board of Directors. The 
 young man with glowing face told them why he had 
 become a Christian, and, opening the Scriptures, rea- 
 soned with them with that loving sympathy and joyous 
 enthusiasm that to this day mark his every utterance. 
 He resigned his college position that his presence as a 
 Christian might not embarrass the administration, for 
 he could not bow to the tablet of Confucius. The next 
 day he journeyed to Peking, and spent the day with the 
 officials, boldly telling them the reasons for his deci- 
 sion. A whole week was spent with these men, espe- 
 cially with the Commissioner of Education, who was 
 his best friend. Opening his heart, and opening up 
 the Scripture as well, he told them of his wonderful 
 experience. Finally, they said : ' Well, be a Christian 
 if you must, but be a Christian in secret. Do not resign 
 your college position; we cannot spare you. Simply 
 bow to the tablet of Confucius ; it is only an empty, out- 
 ward form, and you can believe what you like in your 
 heart.' But Chang stood firm and, with his winsome 
 smile, said : * A few days ago One came to dwell within 
 my heart. He has changed all life for me forever. I 
 dare not bow to any other, lest he depart.' When urged 
 by some of his Christian friends to be more cautious, 
 he said, * I want everybody to know that Chang Po- 
 ling has become a Christian.' " 
 
 On his return from America Mr. Chang was asked 
 250 
 
WINNING MEN IN CHINA 
 
 to become President of his old college as a recognized 
 Christian. There, ever since, his influence has been 
 pronounced, not only in the college but throughout the 
 city. During Mr. Eddy's visit to the city, when evan- 
 gelistic meetings were held, he was an effective per- 
 sonal worker. 
 
 ** After one of the meetings," Mr. Eddy says, 
 " the writer saw him step up to a non-Christian Chinese 
 gentleman of wealth and position. He said : ' My 
 friend, I have been praying for you daily by name for 
 many months. Will you not now decide to accept 
 Christ as your Saviour ? ' * I will,' replied the man. 
 * You have long studied the matter ; will you not be 
 baptized and join our church to-morrow morning?' 
 Chang asked. Again came the reply, * I will,' and the 
 writer saw this man with some of the government 
 students admitted to the Church the next morning." 
 
 251 
 
XLV 
 WINNING FELLOW WORKMEN 
 
 IN 1858, in Ning-po, China, Hudson Taylor was at- 
 tracted by a basket maker named Neng-Kuei, who 
 sought the company of the native Christians because 
 he feh they had something which he wanted. Soon he 
 became a Christian. Then he began to bring his 
 friends, until a number of these also were Christians, 
 persuaded by him to decide for Christ. 
 
 The basket maker was persecuted and ridiculed by 
 associates who were not in sympathy with his new 
 life; but he was unmoved. He became still more 
 active. Everywhere he went he talked to men, and 
 in his steps there were many mission stations the 
 beginning of which was due to his work. 
 
 The way was opened by misfortune for one of his 
 most efficient bits of service for others. In order to 
 attend service on Sunday, he asked for one day in 
 seven for himself. His employer consented, but in- 
 sisted that he do seven days' work in six, and for six 
 days' pay. However, when the busy season for basket 
 makers came, the agreement was forgotten; Neng- 
 Kuei was informed that he must work on Sunday. 
 
 " Come to-morrow or not at all," was the only 
 response to the Christian's plea for a day for worship. 
 
 Neng-Kuei chose dismissal. On Sunday he attended 
 service. On Monday he sought employment with other 
 
 252 
 
WINNING FELLOW WORKMEN 
 
 basket makers, only to find every door closed to him. 
 No one seemed to want a skilled basket weaver, 
 although it was the season when such workers were 
 in demand. Of course the truth was evident; the 
 Christian had been blacklisted because he insisted on 
 keeping Sunday. 
 
 " The Devil is having hard at me," he thought. 
 "If he will not let me have other employment, I will 
 give my time to working for Christ." 
 
 So he spent the remainder of that day distributing 
 tracts and talking religion to those he met in the 
 streets and the tea houses. 
 
 There were many interested listeners, but the most 
 interested proved to be Wang, a farmer who had come 
 from a distant section because he felt that somehow 
 in Ning-po he would find satisfaction for the discon- 
 tent that made his life a weariness. 
 
 Here is the remainder of the story as told by Doctor 
 Taylor in " The Growth of a Soul." 
 
 " What was that he heard? A simple working man 
 like himself was leaning across one of the tables, talk- 
 ing with those nearest to him. Something about the 
 * Jesus-doctor ' he said, and about sins being forgiven. 
 Greatly interested Wang drew nearer, and he listened 
 for the first time to the tidings of salvation. 
 
 " Neng-Kuei's heart was full that day, and he talked 
 long and earnestly. Some went out and some came in, 
 but the farmer never lost a word. When Neng-Kuei 
 had finished he introduced himself, and asked many 
 questions. Seeing his interest Neng-Kuei said : 
 
 " * You must draw water yourself from the fountain. 
 There is a Book God has given us in which everything 
 
 253 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 is made plain. You shall have a copy and study the 
 matter fully/ 
 
 " * Alas,' replied the farmer, * I do not know how 
 to read, and I am too old to learn.' 
 
 " ' Far from it ! ' exclaimed Neng-Kuei. * For with 
 the Glad Tidings an easy method of reading has been 
 brought to us. I did not know a single character 
 when I became a Christian, but now I can read the 
 New Testament quite easily. If you like, I will be 
 your teacher. Let us begin at once.' 
 
 " Wang needed no second invitation. It did not take 
 long to move his few belongings to the house in which 
 the basket maker lodged, and before the sun went 
 down he had mastered the first six letters of the 
 alphabet, besides acquiring a much fuller knowledge 
 of spiritual things." 
 
 The farmer was introduced later at the mission, 
 where it was found by Doctor Taylor that he was an 
 earnest Christian. He remained at Ning-po for some 
 months, supporting himself as a grass cutter; and when 
 he returned home he '' set apart the best room in his 
 house as a little chapel in which for fifty years he 
 lovingly and faithfully made known the Gospel." 
 
 Another instance of Neng-Kuei's faithfulness in 
 Christian service has been told by Doctor Taylor. 
 A house decorator was one day at work in a beautiful 
 home, decorating one of the guest halls. Presently 
 a stir began; servants came hurrying from the inner 
 apartments, a man with a load of baskets was ushered 
 in and several ladies, richly dressed, came in to give 
 their orders. Of all this the painter on his scaffolding 
 took little notice. But when the ladies began to speak 
 
 254 
 
WINNING FELLOW WORKMEN 
 
 in tones of annoyance he pricked up his ears to listen 
 to their words. 
 
 " * What! Not make baskets for holding incense? ' 
 they said. 
 
 " ' Do not be angry, ladies/ replied the basket maker. 
 ' I am sorry not to do as you wish, but I cannot make 
 or sell anything for the worship of idols.' 
 
 " * And why not? * was the astonished question. 
 
 '' * I am a believer in the Lord Jesus,' Neng-Kuei 
 answered, respectfully, * a worshiper of the true and 
 living God.' 
 
 " Then he went on to put before these ladies the way 
 of pardon and peace through a dying Saviour." 
 
 The ladies grew uneasy and left the room ; but the 
 iecorator left his scaffold and asked eagerly to be 
 .old what the basket maker had said. 
 
 " You did not see me," he said. " I am painting 
 up there," indicating his ladder. " Tell me again what 
 you were saying." 
 
 The conversation was repeated, and the decorator 
 decided to become a Christian. He proved his earnest- 
 ness by a long life of devoted service. 
 
 255 
 
LXVI 
 THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK 
 
 "pERHAPS the most remarkable thing about the 
 -*• American tour of Dan Crawford the African 
 missionary, made in 19 14, was his intense earnestness. 
 Always he seemed to have the feeling that the time 
 at his disposal for Christian work was brief at best 
 and that he must work every possible minute, even 
 if he robbed himself of sleep and recreation in the 
 process. W. R. Moody wrote to The British Weekly 
 of one phase of this unceasing activity : 
 
 " In railway trains, in private houses, in hotels and 
 everywhere Mr. Crawford has been indefatigable in 
 his labors in seeking to bring men and women to a 
 personal knowledge of Christ as their Saviour. There 
 are scores, if not hundreds, of those whose lives he has 
 touched who have become conscious of a man who 
 lives his life according to standards with which they 
 have been heretofore unfamiliar, to whom the unseen 
 world and spiritual verities are a constant reality." 
 
 From Japan comes the story of a missionary who 
 was just as thoroughgoing in his personal presentation 
 of Christ to those he met. Once, while on a railway 
 journey, he was talking with an educated native about 
 a great scandal that had recently disgraced the country. 
 Quickly and skillfully the missionary turned the con- 
 versation until he was presenting Christ as the cure 
 
 256 
 
THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK 
 
 for all such evils in national and personal life. The 
 conversation led the native to study Christianity. 
 Soon he became a Christian. 
 
 This missionary's biographer says : ** In and out of 
 the home he preached the gospel. His case of minerals 
 and fossils would be used to tell the story of the great 
 onward march of the unknown under divine control; 
 and the books that lined his study walls would come 
 down from their shelves to speak some new message 
 of truth and light to an eager caller." Others were 
 inspired by him to similar faithfulness. For instance, 
 the owner of a marble quarry felt that his one great 
 ambition was *' to Christianize his marble works and 
 make them a part of the kingdom of God; then to 
 Christianize the whole neighborhood." 
 
 Must Christians at home be taught by workers in 
 mission lands that their first duty is to bring others to 
 Christ? 
 
 257 
 
LXVII 
 
 FISHERS OF MEN 
 
 A N American living in Shanghai was crossing one 
 of the city bridges when his attention was at- 
 tracted by an unusual sight. Shanghai is a flat city, 
 all on a level except the bridges, which are high and 
 present rather a steep incline on each side. The four 
 or five coolies who pull the carts along the street get 
 along well enough on the level; but when they come 
 to a bridge, with their overloaded carts, they frequently 
 cannot get over. They rest a few minutes, then tug 
 away manfully and finally manage, straining and 
 panting, to pull to the top. But at this bridge the 
 American saw a well dressed Chinese gentlemen, an 
 acquaintance of his, far above the coolie class, go 
 to the assistance of a cart that was stuck, lay hold 
 of the rope and give just the extra help needed to 
 take the load up the incline. 
 
 This was such a surprising incident — for why should 
 a gentleman help the despised coolies? — that the 
 American joined his Chinese friend when he let go of 
 the rope (after speaking a few moments to the coolies) 
 and said to him : 
 
 " I see you take a very practical interest in the labor- 
 ing classes.'* 
 
 " That is my work," said the Chinese, gravely. 
 " Whenever I see them unable to pull their loads, I 
 
 258 
 
FISHERS OF MEN 
 
 help them to the top; and then I have a chance for a 
 few moments to preach the gospel to them. I tell 
 them I help them because I am a Christian, and love 
 Jesus. And if I see a wheelbarrow upset in the street 
 (a very common occurrence) I help the man replace 
 his load, and I preach the gospel to him/* 
 
 The two men separated at the door of the gentle- 
 man*s office. But the American was deeply impressed. 
 And no wonder. Here was Christian love and 
 humanity that reached across the gulf of caste and 
 made brotherhood a real and daily thing. 
 
 «59 
 
LXVIII 
 
 A JEW'S WORK FOR JEWS 
 
 "TV yr OSES GITLIN, a clean-cut young man of nine- 
 -'-^^ teen whose appearance was a delight, told the 
 author this story of his conversion and Christian 
 work: 
 
 " When I was a boy of sixteen in the village of 
 Krivoi Rog, Russia, I was always looking for fellow- 
 ship with people. I read Russian books about brother- 
 hood. I was attracted especially by the revolutionists 
 because they called one another brother and told of a 
 day when all would be brothers. 
 
 *' I had a good opportunity to learn about the revo- 
 lutionists, for my older sister was one of them. I saw 
 that they did not love each other a bit now, and I 
 wondered how there could be love in the future through 
 their teachings. 
 
 " One day I passed by a Russian Protestant church. 
 Curious, I went in. The first thing that surprised me 
 was that this, a Christian church, was a simple build- 
 ing; there were no pictures, no images, no forms of 
 service. 
 
 " I don't remember the subject of the preaching. 
 No part of the service made any special impression on 
 me. But when the meeting was over and the Christians 
 saluted each other and shook hands, showing their 
 love for one another, calling each other brother and 
 
 260 
 
A JEW'S WORK FOR JEWS 
 
 sister, I was attracted. Here was what I had been 
 looking for. I had never seen such a love. That was 
 the kind of life I wanted to see among rny people. 
 
 " I wanted to see more of this life, so I went to the 
 meetings many times. Every time I was glad to hear 
 the preaching and the songs; but always I was most 
 impressed by the salutations. 
 
 *' I began to think of the way of the people in that 
 church, of the way in the Greek church, of the way 
 in the Jewish synagogue. There is no love between 
 the members in the synagogue ; religion does not bring 
 together as brethren the synagogue people. In the 
 Greek church this was even more true. 
 
 " * If there could be the same love between nations, 
 how good it would be,' I thought. Then I asked my- 
 self, ' Why shouldn't we all feel like brethren? ' 
 
 " As I attended more of those meetings, I saw 
 reason why the Christians have love one to another. 
 I realized that the people are not good just because 
 they make up their mind to be good. Some of those 
 very people had been enemies of the Jews. One of 
 the young men of the Young People's Meeting I re- 
 membered from my boyhood days because he used to 
 ask me for a penny, and when I would not give it 
 to him he would punch me. Now he called me brother. 
 I saw that it was their faith made such a difference in 
 their life. I came to the conclusion that the reason 
 they loved so was because they followed the teachings 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " I was glad to be in the home of a family that went 
 to the meetings; they asked me to go to their home 
 when they stopped to speak to me at the church. They 
 
 261 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 tried to show me that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. 
 They told me that I am a sinner, that there is no for- 
 giveness of sin except by the shedding of blood, that 
 the Jews can no more make a sacrifice for sin, but 
 that God prepared once for all a sacrifice, his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him should 
 not perish but have everlasting life. 
 
 " I did not believe. ' If I join them,' I thought, ' it 
 means I betray my nationality.' Right away I pictured 
 how I would be persecuted. Parents would not let me 
 live at home. ' It is good for them, not for me,' I 
 decided. But I decided to keep on going to the meet- 
 ings for a good time. 
 
 " As I realized more that I was a sinner and that 
 I would perish unless I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, 
 I saw that eternity was more precious than parents and 
 the other good things of life. 
 
 " Once a converted Jewish woman said to me, * If 
 you are really afraid of your parents or of the Jews, 
 God will help you by prayer.' I was in a Christian 
 home at the time. We all knelt down. I was asked 
 to pray. I told them I could not. They asked if they 
 might pray for me. They kneeled down. I stood. 
 They prayed. My heart was touched. I fell down — 
 not kneeled down — on my knee«. My lips were opened 
 the first time in a heart prayer. Of course I had 
 prayed before — ^but these were book prayers. 
 
 " Later, in the church, I wzz ashamed to kneel down, 
 because there were many Jews there. Right away came 
 a desire that Jews who did not know truth should 
 know and believe. I realized there could be no peace 
 between Jew and Gentile till all were converted to 
 
 262 
 
A JEW'S WORK FOR JEWS 
 
 Christ. I wanted the salvation of my people. I muit 
 show them an example. I asked God to give me 
 strength to kneel down. He did. 
 
 "Jews became interested. They asked me why I 
 took up Christian work. I became the talk of the 
 town. The Jews went to the meetings just to see and 
 hear a converted Jew. 
 
 " I wanted the salvation of my nation, but I did 
 not know the Scripture well enough to seek it. I 
 took the Bible and searched the Scripture, for I did 
 not know enough to show that Christ is the Messiah. 
 
 " I went to my personal friends and started to tell 
 them my experience in finding brotherhood and that 
 this was the only way to find love. Then I told them 
 we sinners must seek eternal life and take Christ, our 
 Sacrifice. I tried to show them how many Scriptures 
 were fulfilled in Christ, because I wanted to bring them 
 to Christ. 
 
 " Then I showed them that before I had always been 
 trying to live a moral life, but I was always a sinner. 
 I did not have power in myself to resist evil. When I 
 prayed for power it came, and I could resist evil. So 
 I showed them how God gives us power to be good. 
 
 " A fourth way I tried to convert people was to 
 show that if we look to the personal life of individual 
 followers of other religions, their beliefs never bring 
 them to a pure life, but that the thirty or forty Chris- 
 tians in the town were living a life that socialists and 
 others longed to live and could not. 
 
 " A girl friend was the first converted. My sister 
 came next, who was once a revolutionist leader and 
 later had been a Zionist in Palestine. 
 
 263 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 " I tried to deny myself that I might win others to 
 Christ. When people turn from me, I have tried to 
 pray the Lord to forgive them. My mother is not a 
 Christian. I try to show her what a son's life should 
 be ; I want to be such a son as Jesus would be. I take 
 her all I earn, and ask her for what I need. I kiss her 
 morning and night. She says she comes home from 
 market where she hears mothers talking of their sons, 
 and she knows she has the happiest home. She will be 
 a Christian. 
 
 " In April, 19 13, I came to America. Mother 
 wanted me to come because she thought I would get 
 with my brother, a wealthy real estate man, away from 
 my Christian friends, and I would forget all for gold. 
 She thought I would be like my sister, changing from 
 one thing to another. I wanted to come because it 
 was hard to be baptized in Russia. If I had my 
 name changed from Jew to Gentile, people would say 
 I had done this for an easier life; you know the Jews 
 in Russia are not allowed to live anywhere they like 
 or do as they like. So I left Russia a Jew on my pass- 
 port, but everybody knew I was a Christian. 
 
 " The first week in New York I was on the streets, 
 looking for a sign I could read something to remind 
 me of Christians. (I had learned a little English in 
 Russia). 
 
 " The first church I saw was a Sunday school. I 
 went, but could not understand. 
 
 " Next day I passed a building which had the sign, 
 *Beth Sar Shalom,' in Hebrew, or 'The House of 
 the Prince of Peace.* I learned afterward that this 
 was the Williamsburg Mission to the Jews. The build- 
 
 264 
 
A JEW'S WORK FOR JEWS 
 
 ing was closed. Next day I came back. I found half 
 a Jewish tract on the pavement ; it had been torn by 
 someone to whom it had been given. Reading this I 
 was sure I had found a Christian church. 
 
 " That evening I returned and found a woman at 
 the door. We talked in German. She asked me in. 
 It was something like the first Christian meeting in 
 Russia. I introduced myself after the close of the 
 meeting as a Russian Christian. Three weeks later I 
 was baptized. 
 
 " At first I supported myself at my trade, making 
 caps. But all cap makers are Jews, and they work 
 seven days a week. So I had to give up work at my 
 trade and find other work. 
 
 " I would speak to people outside the church after 
 the meeting was over. The Jews were in crowds on the 
 street. I would come among them and give them my 
 opinions after hearing theirs, at first speaking as a 
 stranger. I knew they would not listen to me if they 
 knew I was a Christian. They would make fun and 
 say that the missionary gave me money for doing this 
 work, that missionaries don't work, they have an easy 
 time; they get money for preaching. 
 
 " When my chance came I would say, * I am a 
 Christian, a workingman, working just as hard as 
 you; but I am preaching because I know how much 
 you need salvation.' " 
 
 The convert was unwilling to tell in detail of his 
 efforts to win the Jews. Those who know him have 
 told of his persistence in the work in the face of opposi- 
 tion and persecution, and of his success in many 
 
 265 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 instances. But of these he would say nothing. He 
 feels that his life belongs to God, and that he must 
 work for God in spite of persecution ; and God is bless- 
 ing his efforts. 
 
 m 
 
THIRTEEN 
 SIX WITNESSES AT WORK 
 
 567 
 
LXIX 
 A LIFE OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 TT 7HEN Frances Ridley Havergal, the daughter of 
 ^^ an English clergyman, was fourteen years old 
 she was sent from home to a private school. The 
 night before she left home her sister Ellen introduced 
 a subject that she felt could not be neglected at this 
 most important time in the young girl's life. In her 
 autobiography Miss Havergal has told of the sister's 
 appeal : 
 
 " Ellen stood by me, brushing my hair, and taking 
 the last opportunity of loving counsel. She told me 
 that I was going to begin a new chapter in my life. I 
 was captiously disposed, and rather wanted to avoid 
 a serious conversation, so I answered carelessly, for I 
 knew by the tone of her voice what she wanted to 
 lead on to. But it would not do. She went on till 
 I was softened — a most unusual thing under the proc- 
 ess of being talked to, which generally had the most 
 opposite effect. She spoke of God's love, and of how 
 pleasant and sweet a thing it was to love him who 
 first loved us. I could not stand it, and for the first 
 time for five years I spoke out. * I can't love God yet, 
 Nellie,' was all I said, but I felt a great deal more.'* 
 
 The first few months of the school term passed, 
 and there was a time of special spiritual interest in 
 the school. Frances had not yet become a Christian 
 
 269 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 when a young schoolmate came to her, threw her arm 
 about her, and said, "Oh, Fanny, the blessing has 
 come to me at last. Jesus has forgiven me, I know. 
 He is my Saviour, and I am so happy. He is such a 
 Saviour as I never imagined. He has not cast me out ; 
 he said so, and he says so to you. Only come to him 
 and he will receive you. Even now he loves you 
 though you do not know it." She explained that her 
 first impulse in her new found joy was to desire that 
 her friends should possess what it had been given to 
 her to find. 
 
 A little later a teacher asked her why she could not 
 trust herself to Jesus. This time the young girl re- 
 sponded to the appeal. From that day she dated her 
 conversion. 
 
 And almost from that day she was a tireless worker 
 for the souls of others. At first she was timid and 
 constrained, but in later years she gained confidence. 
 One who has written of her life says that " her skill 
 in difficult spheres of action became signally great. 
 She was an adept in the art of speaking for Christ. 
 She could do it in social meetings, in parlor readings, 
 and in conversation with individuals, in such a manner 
 that, though it might sometimes fail in making a con- 
 quest, yet it did not alienate the individual either from 
 herself or from religion. She did it, too, where need 
 required, under circumstances ordinarily considered 
 unfavorable. At a large party, for example, when 
 asked to sing, she selected a spiritual song and rendered 
 it with such feeling that it subdued the giddy throng 
 into dead silence. Writing of this incident, she said : 
 * Afterward I had two really important conversations 
 
 270 
 
A LIFE OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 with strangers. One seemed extremely surprised at 
 finding himself quite easily drifted from the bandinage 
 with which he started, into a right down personal talk 
 about his danger and his only hope for safety; he took 
 it very well, and thanked me.' " 
 
 Once she said : '' Somehow it is wonderful how the 
 Master manages for me in such cases. I don't think 
 anyone can say that I force the subject; it just de- 
 velops, one thing out of another, quite naturally, till 
 very soon they find themselves face to face with eter- 
 nal things, and the Lord Jesus can be freely lifted up 
 before them. I could not contrive a conversation 
 thus." 
 
 In her autobiography she told the story of the writ- 
 ing of the hymn, 
 
 "Take my life and let it be 
 Consecrated, Lord, to thee." 
 
 " I went for a little visit of five days," she says. 
 " There were ten persons in the home, some uncon- 
 verted and long prayed for, some converted but not re- 
 joicing Christians. He gave me the prayer, ' Lord, 
 Jesus, give me all in this home.' And he just did. Be- 
 fore I left the house everyone had got a blessing. 
 The last night of my visit I was too happy to sleep, 
 and passed most of the night in personal renewal 
 of my own consecration; and these little coupkts 
 formed themselves and chimed in my heart, one after 
 another, till they finished with, 
 
 ' Ever, only, all for thee ! ' " 
 Another extract from the autobiography shows 
 how the Christian who is faithful in speaking to others 
 
 271 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 about Christ may be used to reach some of whom there 
 has been no thought : 
 
 " Yesterday I somehow came to a good full stop 
 in my writing much earlier than I expected, and 
 asked what he would have me do next, go on, or 
 go out at once. Just then a young lady came in, and 
 asked me if I had a few minutes to spare. So I 
 went out with her at once. She had overheard a short 
 chat I had had some days ago with another, and it had 
 set her longing for something more than she had got. 
 She had started out for a walk alone, thinking and 
 praying, and the thought came to her to come straight 
 to me, which she seemed to think an unaccountably 
 bold step. Well, God seemed to give me exactly the 
 
 right message for her, just as with Miss M last 
 
 week, the two cases starting from a very different level 
 but the results the same, a real turning point. Don't 
 conclude from this, however, that I am always see- 
 ing results, because I am not; but that I am entirely 
 content about these, because everything is just as he 
 chooses it to be." 
 
 When she was taking holiday she was just as earnest 
 in her appeals as when she was at home. From 
 Switzerland she wrote about an acquaintance thus: 
 
 ** I knew she was not happy. When alone, I asked 
 why she should let days and weeks go by, drifting 
 away in the cold. I told her I should leave her room 
 after praying, and begged her to remain praying alone 
 and surrender her whole life to the Lord Jesus. By 
 and by, the time came for her music practicing. There 
 was a ringingness in her touch, playing with such joy- 
 ance. Presently, I went in and just put my arm round 
 
 2^2 
 
A LIFE OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 her : * Is it for Jesus ? ' * Yes, I've made up my mind, 
 it is all for Jesus/ " 
 
 It must not be thought, however, that Miss Havergal 
 did her Christian work without a struggle. Once when 
 she was absent on a visit, she wrote : 
 
 " I came to Newport with the idea of not being 
 responsible for anyone's soul at all. I enjoyed the first 
 three days in a general sort of way, but no real gain 
 to myself. I declined addressing the Y.W.C.A. 
 meeting, but was present and was asked to sing. It 
 was all very nice, but not real work. I felt dis- 
 satisfied. . . . Saturday I went to the Infirmary. 
 In the women's ward I read and prayed and sang, 
 and then spoke to each alone. I saw there was sowing 
 and reaping work wanted, and many wanted me to 
 come again. When I went again God sent much bless- 
 ing. One had found peace after I left her. Before 
 I left the ward I think another was enabled by God's 
 Spirit to trust in the Lord Jesus." 
 
 When she could not speak to a friend in person she 
 did not excuse herself, but used the mails. Thus she 
 wrote to one young woman : 
 
 " I never told you, but you can't think how I have 
 longed for you ever since I first saw you. I have 
 prayed for you again and again. I want you for Jesus. 
 It is not only that I want you to be safe in him, I do 
 want that, but I want you to be altogether his own, 
 knowing all the sweet peace of being his very own and 
 using all your bright days for him." 
 
 Again she wrote to a young girl who was about to 
 return to school : 
 
 "Are you to go back doubtful, uneasy, fearful, 
 
 273 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 dissatisfied, alone? or is it to be going back with Jesus? 
 ... I desire and pray that the great question of 
 your life, of your whole eternity, may be decided be- 
 fore you go back/' 
 
 To a young man she wrote : 
 
 " To-morrow 3^our manhood begins. Whose shall 
 it be? How much of it shall be for him? ... I want 
 you for my Master's sake, far more than for your 
 own. I must not stay up writing, but I don't think 
 I shall soon sleep. God helping me, I will not let him 
 go except he bless you." 
 
 From Switzerland a traveler wrote to Miss Haver- 
 gal's sister : 
 
 " I feel sure that God led us to Champiery that we 
 might meet your dear sister Frances. Oh, I cannot 
 tell what a blessing she was to me there. I always 
 looked for those fair curls; and the saloon seemed 
 desolate if I could not hear her voice and often merry 
 laugh. She was so happy and whole-hearted, and she 
 spoke to me of the Lord Jesus, and the joy of being 
 altogether and only his. Yes, it was on the balcony 
 at Champiery that a new life and love seemed lighted 
 up in my soul. Even as she was speaking to me I felt 
 that, with God's grace, I must take the same steps 
 she had." 
 
 »74 
 
LXX 
 
 WINNING MEN BY HOLY BOLDNESS 
 
 T N a Pennsylvania village a boy of seventeen, while 
 -■' attending a revival service in the local church, de- 
 cided to become a Christian. After the service the 
 evangelist walked with him to the home of his uncle, 
 where he was boarding. His father lived on a farm, 
 three miles from the village. All his ancestors for 
 generations had been farmers. 
 
 "Is your father a Christian?" the minister asked 
 the lad, before leaving him at the gate. '' No? Then 
 that will be your first work; get him to become a 
 Christian and unite with the Church when you do. 
 Will you do it?" 
 
 " I shall be delighted," was the ready response. 
 ** But do you think I know how? " 
 
 " You do not have to know how. Just tell him 
 you want him to be a Christian. Let the rest take 
 care of itself." 
 
 It did not occur to the young convert to question 
 the authority of the minister to outline his work for 
 him, or to fear lest he make a fool of himself. Evi- 
 dently he was on intimate terms with his father, for 
 he looked forward eagerly to Friday evening, when 
 he was to go home. It was his purpose to do the ap- 
 pointed work without delay, as soon as opportunity 
 offered. 
 
 275 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 " Father, I want you to be a Christian," he said, 
 simply, when he was in tlie room with his father. 
 
 For a moment there was no reply. The father only 
 stared. 
 
 " I suppose he never had been so startled in his life," 
 the son said later, in telling the story. " I spoke those 
 words as if I was speaking on an ordinary, everyday 
 matter. Perhaps he was all the more startled for this 
 reason." 
 
 Finally the surprised father found his tongue. 
 
 " What do you mean? " he asked. 
 
 The boy repeated the words, and explained that he 
 expected to unite with the Church. 
 
 '' And you want me to be a Christian? " the father 
 asked, looking hard at his son. 
 
 " Certainly, I am going to be a Christian and I 
 want you to come along." 
 
 By that time the boy was sitting on his father's 
 knee. Looking up earnestly into the face so close to 
 his own, the boy said : 
 
 "Will you do it. Daddy?" 
 
 The mother had listened intently to the conversa- 
 tion. She had been silent as long as she could, but 
 now she broke in : 
 
 " Theodore, we had better go with our boy." 
 
 So, when the son became a member of the Church, 
 he had the joy of standing with his parents, the first 
 fruits of his service of Christ. 
 
 " From the day when I spoke to father about be- 
 coming a Christian, it never entered my head that I 
 was to be anything but a minister," that boy said, when 
 he was a man. " And always it has seemed to me a 
 
 276 
 
WINNING MEN BY HOLY BOLDNESS 
 
 matter of course to work with individuals, just as I 
 worked with my father. 
 
 " I have had some wonderful experiences, and yet 
 they all seem perfectly natural. Somehow I expect 
 results. I never go after a man feeling that maybe I 
 am to be defeated in the effort to win him. 
 
 " More, personal work is a habit with me. Yet 
 I should add that the work is never done perfunctorily. 
 I never start out with the thought, ' Well, I must speak 
 to five men to-day.* My work cannot be done that 
 way. Impulse is an important part of my equipment 
 for this all-important task. I dare not resist the im- 
 pulse to speak to a man for God any more than I dare 
 to do the work mechanically. Unless we act on the 
 impulse of the Holy Spirit when we are seeking souls, 
 we go in our own strength." 
 
 This incident shows what he means when he says 
 that he does personal work on impulse : 
 
 " As I sat down to my desk one clear, bright morn- 
 ing in May, a great desire seized me to win someone 
 to Christ that very morning. The desire mastered 
 every other feeling. With a prayer for the Master's 
 company on the errand, I left the books which begged 
 for a reading, the writing in which my heart delights, 
 and made straight for a business office. 
 
 *' I knew whom I was after. I had met him often. 
 I had prayed for him. We were good friends, and yet 
 I had never set out before to win him to Christ. I 
 believed he had a secret love for Christ, for he was a 
 man of irreproachable life, the sort of man who is, 
 perhaps, the hardest to win, for he could say with 
 all truth and candor, ' I am living the best life I know 
 
 277 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 how/ or, ' I am living a better life than many of your 
 church members ' ; sayings with which we are all 
 familiar, and the truth of which often robs us of fur- 
 ther words in our effort to win the man for Christ. I 
 knew this man could say this, and probably would if 
 I gave him a chance. But my soul was fired with a 
 passion to win him that morning. 
 
 " I had reached the office by this time and, without 
 further thought, I stepped in. He had evidently just 
 reached his desk for the morning's work. He turned 
 to greet me, and when our hands came together I held 
 on. His eyes met mine, and, in answer to his * good 
 morning,' I said: 
 
 ** ' I have come in this morning to ask you to give 
 your heart to Christ and confess him before men.' 
 
 " The pause was not awkward, but intense. His 
 eyes moistened, and he replied : * You must certainly 
 mean business to come at me like this.* 
 
 "*I do; will you do it?' 
 
 " Our eyes met again, and he said with a delibera- 
 tion that must have thrilled the angels of heaven : 
 
 "'I will do it!' 
 
 " Some days afterward when we met, he said : ' You 
 came at me as though you were selling me a house and 
 lot, and wanted me to clinch a bargain while I could 
 get it.' 
 
 " I replied that it was the greatest bargain he ever 
 made, and worth clinching in a business fashion. 
 
 "His answer I shall never forget. I tcU it that 
 others who may wish to do personal work may have it 
 and never forget it. He said : 
 
 " * If men would go out to win men for Christ as 
 
 278 
 
WINNING MEN BY HOLY BOLDNESS 
 
 they go out to sell real estate, with the same sense of 
 value in mind and the value of the bargain to be 
 clinched, they would find men ready to close with the 
 offer of Christ on the spot/ '* 
 
 Another secret of this man's success as a soul win- 
 ner is his holy boldness in speaking to men. He does 
 not mince his words. He feels that he has a tremen- 
 dous message to deliver, and that he must drive it 
 home at all costs. 
 
 One night a drunken man came into the church. 
 As he staggered into a seat the pastor beckoned to an 
 usher and asked him to see that a burly guardian sat 
 by the side of the drunken man, to guard against dis- 
 turbance. 
 
 " I preached at that man all the evening," the pastor 
 has said. " Some people might have said, * What's 
 the use? he cannot understand.' Yet I felt that my 
 message was for him. At the close of the service I 
 announced an after meeting. In the after meeting I 
 asked those who wished us to pray for them to stand. 
 The drunken man stood. He seemed to throw a chill 
 on those present. No one would pray. The meeting 
 was dismissed. Then I spoke to the man who, my 
 people thought, had killed the meeting. 
 
 " * You have come into the after service. Do you 
 know why you came? You have come to seek Christ, 
 have you? I see you are an old soldier. You have 
 been an Indian fighter, you say? Well, did you ever 
 see a coward ? ' 
 
 " The word made his eyes blaze. I could see that 
 he had nothing but scorn for a coward. 
 
 " * Very well, then,' I went on, * you want to enlist 
 279 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 in the army of Christ. Are you going to be a good 
 soldier, or are you going to be a coward ? ' 
 
 " It was evident that the question sobered him in- 
 stantly. For a moment he did not speak. Then he 
 said: 
 
 "*MyGod! Fmlost!' 
 
 " * Not if you will be saved,' was the reply. 
 
 "After prayer, he went out. One of the deacons 
 who had heard our talk, said : 
 
 " * He is too drunk to know what he is doing.' 
 
 " Yet within two weeks that man came to us with his 
 wife, two brothers-in-law, two sisters-in-law, and his 
 son, and all became members of the Church, though 
 none had been Christians before the evening when the 
 word coward was flung in his face. 
 
 " And what a change there was in his appearance ! 
 When we first saw him he was unshaven, his clothing 
 was soiled, his linen was dirty. When he united with 
 the Church he was altogether clean and tidy. ' The 
 Lord has cleaned up my body as well as my soul,' he 
 said. 
 
 " At once he gave up a position which paid good 
 wages, in order that he might escape the profanity of 
 his fellow-workers, and the temptation to drink that 
 would come to him in their presence. 
 
 " To-day he is battalion chief in the fire department 
 of an interior city in New York State." 
 
 Here is another instance when boldness won, to 
 the amazement of onlookers : 
 
 One day this pastor was conducting a meeting in 
 a Brooklyn machine shop. A big Swede, a regular 
 bruiser, whose face told of his licentious life, annoyed 
 
 280 
 
WINNING MEN BY HOLY BOLDNESS 
 
 him, as he had often done before. To this man had 
 been traced several anonymous letters in which the 
 minister had been threatened with violence. The 
 Swede could not write, but he had used as a tool a 
 weak man who wrote for him. 
 
 It was the last day of the meetings, and the minister 
 felt the impulse to speak to the big Swede. His oppor- 
 tunity came when he jumped down from the bench 
 on which he had been speaking. The Swede was at 
 his elbow. Reaching up, the minister grasped his 
 jacket, and said : 
 
 " Billy, you are a bad man. I can see into your 
 heart. You are at enmity with God. Why don't 
 you get right with him?" 
 
 " I braced myself for the result of my words," the 
 personal worker tells the story. " I knew that Billy 
 would have struck a man for less than I had said. 
 
 " But he only hung his head. Then he said, in 
 broken English: 
 
 " * Yes, I ought to be better.' " 
 
 A year later the pastor was back at the shop for 
 another meeting. The first man to take his hand 
 was the Swede. 
 
 " Do you know me ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes," was the reply. " But you don't look as you 
 did a year ago. What is the matter? " 
 
 " I've joined the Church. My wife and my son 
 joined with me." 
 
 " How did it happen? " he was asked. 
 
 " Do you know the day you told me I was a bad 
 man? You were the first man who ever told me 
 that. Fd have smashed anyone else who told me that. 
 
 281 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 I couldn't get away from it. I had to become a 
 Christian." 
 
 In a similar meeting in the Brooklyn Navy Yard 
 the minister spoke on the subject, " Ye must be born 
 again." In the course of his talk he used Christ's 
 illustration, ** The wind bloweth where it listeth." 
 
 " Yes, and the Holy Spirit leaves a man like the 
 wind," was a workman's greeting, after the meeting. 
 " I know the Scriptures." Then he proved it by 
 quoting half a dozen passages. 
 
 " How do you come to know the Scriptures?" he 
 was asked. " You are a tough." 
 
 " Yes, but I used to be a minister. Now I am a 
 boiler riveter. I know all you can tell me." 
 
 " Do you know what I think of you? " the minister 
 asked. " You are the biggest coward I ever faced." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 "If you know what I say is true, and refuse to 
 face it and do the right thing, you are a coward." 
 
 The man turned away without another word. The 
 minister feared he had spoken too severely. Three 
 months passed. Then the man turned up at a noon 
 meeting. He was clean. All signs of dissipation were 
 gone. 
 
 " Do you know how you drove the truth home to 
 me? " the riveter asked. " I haven't been able to get 
 away from your words. We had prayer in the home 
 last night for the first time in twelve years. I'm gomg 
 back to where I was before. I'll be preaching again." 
 
 During the meetings conducted by " Billy " Sunday 
 in Philadelphia in the early months of 191 5, the sub- 
 ject of this chapter had many wonderful experiences 
 
 2^2 
 
WINNING MEN BY HOLY BOLDNESS 
 
 in dealing with individuals. He was told thus of one 
 of these: 
 
 " One night, after the crowd had gone, I saw a man 
 walking aimlessly among the deserted choir seats. 
 He was fingering a hymnbook and muttering to him- 
 self. He looked so strange that I addressed him. 
 
 "'What is wrong to-night?' I asked. * You are 
 full of booze. What are you doing with that book ? ' 
 
 " ' I am a member of the choir.' 
 
 " * And drunk ? Why are you here ? ' 
 
 " * I wanted to hear him all I could. I need help/ 
 
 " * Well, you can't get help unless you will give up 
 the drink.' 
 
 " Then he told me his story. His first wife died, 
 leaving two children. These he put in an orphan 
 asylum. Soon he married again, to make a home for 
 the children. For some reason the wife sold the 
 household goods and disappeared with the children. 
 Then he took to drink. 
 
 " He gave me his last address. I turned this over 
 at once to one of my church workers and asked her 
 to look up the woman for the old man. 
 
 " * Old man, listen,' I said to him. * You say you 
 were once a member of the Church. You have been 
 bad. Your wife had provocation. There must have 
 been right on her side. Now I want you to set yourself 
 right. We have a board meeting at our church Mon- 
 day night. I want you to come out. Tell your story 
 to the deacons and ask to unite with the Church. You 
 see, I'm going all the way with you. I have faith in 
 you. I put you on your honor.* 
 
 " * ril be there,' he said'. 
 283 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 " On Monday evening, before the hour for the meet- 
 ing to begin, he was there, and with him was his wife. 
 He told his story, as he had promised to do. There 
 was no concealment, no evasion. As he concluded, he 
 said: 
 
 " * You're the first man who has put me on my 
 honor in twenty years. When a man believes in me, 
 I am bound to show up.' 
 
 ** Two weeks later the husband and wife came to 
 church, leading the two daughters. ' I want them to 
 be members of the Church,' the father said. ' They 
 are both Christians.' 
 
 " * How long have you been Christians ? ' I asked 
 them. 
 
 '* ' Ever since that night two weeks ago when 
 daddy came home from church and prayed with us,' 
 they said." 
 
 " It pays to put a hard man to a hard test," the 
 worker insists. 
 
 A problem of a different sort was put to this per- 
 sonal worker one evening after a theater meeting, 
 when a burly man approached him, grinning, and 
 said: 
 
 " You didn't get me to-day! " 
 
 " Why didn't you come? " he was asked. 
 
 " I wanted you to get me, but you didn't," was the 
 strange reply. 
 
 "What kind of state of mind is that?" he was 
 questioned further. " You want to, and won't ! That's 
 a peculiar attitude, I must say. Well, I am to be here 
 Stmday night. I'll get you then for Christ. He is 
 working for me. You can't fight both of us." 
 
 284 
 
WINNING MEN BY HOLY BOLDNESS 
 
 On the next Sunday evening the personal worker 
 told the people at th« theater of his experience with 
 this man. 
 
 " I don't know whether he is here, or not," he 
 said. " If he is here, he is going to come down and 
 give me his hand in token of his desire to be a Chris- 
 tian. He can't resist. The man who wants to be 
 reached by Christ, is going to be reached." 
 
 The man came at once. 
 
 " You got me," he said, simply. 
 
 "How did I get you?" 
 
 " You were honest. You told everything right out. 
 I didn't expect you to do that." 
 
 In a Baltimore shop a workman of another stamp 
 altogether came to this same minister. He was an 
 infidel, who declared he did not need Christ, even if 
 there was a Christ. He was not a bad man, but he 
 was a moralist. 
 
 " I am willing to take my chances," he said. 
 
 "With whom?" he was asked. "It is nonsense 
 to say you will take your chances unless you name 
 someone with whom you will take your chances." 
 
 " That's easy," the man replied. " I'll take my 
 chances with a lot of Christians I know. I stand as 
 good a chance as they do." 
 
 " Then you will land in hell ! " 
 
 "How is that?" was the surprised question. 
 
 " Because you will pick out hypocrites, not real 
 Christians. And they will lead you straight to hell." 
 
 The next week he came to the minister again. 
 
 " I have been thinking all week of what you said 
 to me," he began. " You are right. The Christians 
 
 285 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 I would choose to take my chances with would land 
 me in hell." 
 
 " Will you stand up and tell the men that ? You 
 have been standing in my way here. I can't get past 
 you." 
 
 But the man said he was no speaker; he could not 
 be expected to do as he was asked. 
 
 " Yet, at the end of the meeting, I told the men of 
 our conversation," the narrator went on. " ' He is 
 going to tell you he thinks he had better get on 
 the other side,' " I explained. 
 
 " I knew I was taking a chance," the personal 
 worker says. " What if he wouldn't speak? " 
 
 There was a minute's silence. Then the man came 
 to the front. 
 
 " The minister is right," he said. " I'm going to 
 stop fighting Christianity. I'm going to be a Christian 
 if I can learn how." 
 
 " That man is an earnest Christian to-day, a member 
 of the Methodist Church," was said in concluding this 
 story. Then the speaker added : " You must shock 
 many a man to get him into the Kingdom. There 
 must be a jogging somewhere, or nothing will happen." 
 
 The worker once startled a student of the University 
 of Pennsylvania whom he had seen several times at 
 the Sunday evening service. He was a fine-looking 
 young man, mature for a student, for he was nearly 
 thirty years old. 
 
 " You are a Christian ? " he was asked at the close 
 of one of these services. 
 
 ** No ! I've no use for Christianity," he replied. 
 
 " You ought to be a Christian." 
 286 
 
WINNING MEN BY HOLY BOLDNESS 
 
 " I can't be, and remain in my business. I am a 
 politician. I come from a New England city. Some 
 of the ward politicians are clubbing together to pay 
 my expenses in the University. They want me to 
 learn economics and political science and jurispru- 
 dence, so that when I return home I can show them 
 how to obstruct legislation and make a good thing 
 for the crowd." 
 
 " Aren't you ashamed of yourself? " he was asked. 
 *' A clean fellow like you to be beholden to a gang 
 whose dream it is to defeat decent legislation. I 
 am ashamed of you ! " 
 
 " I never thought of it that way," he said, as he 
 turned away. 
 
 A little later he sought the minister who had shocked 
 him by his plain words. 
 
 " You hit me so hard I had to see you again," he 
 began. ** I need the money those three men are send- 
 ing me." 
 
 " Oh, if you want to train with the Devil's bunch, 
 you can," he was greeted. "Why don't you cut with 
 that bunch and be a Christian! You don't have to 
 train with those fellows." 
 
 Many times he came to see the minister. Always he 
 had his arguments ready. 
 
 But one Sunday night when the invitation was 
 given, he came forward. He asked to meet the Board. 
 To them he said: 
 
 " I can't tell you how I feel. I have no experience 
 to relate. I can only say that I want to do all I can 
 for Christ. I want to go out and fight for righteous- 
 
 287 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 At once he sent word to the gang that he could not 
 take more of their dirty money. Then he began to 
 work among the students. He gathers them in groups 
 and talks to them. He is a sort of undergraduate 
 lay preacher. 
 
 *' What are you going to do when you finish your 
 college course?" he was asked. 
 
 " Go home and fight the bunch. I can do it from the 
 inside," he said. 
 
 "It is the straight gospel all men want, business 
 men, professional men, factory men, students," the 
 worker urges. ** It is a mistake to think that men can 
 be reached by a diluted gospel, a gospel trimmed for 
 their benefit. They say that students are the hardest 
 men to deal with. I have not found it so. For three 
 years I have had a class of thirty fraternity men. We 
 don't have sociological topics; we have the straight 
 gospel. We close our service with prayer. And six 
 of the group have become out and out Christians 
 recently. 
 
 " Yes, it is the old gospel that goes home. But it 
 must be driven home with boldness." 
 
 288 
 
LXXI 
 
 THE MAKING OF A PERSONAL 
 WORKER 
 
 " T ENTERED Bridgewater a careless, thoughtless, 
 ■■' godless, swearing young fellow." 
 
 This was the way George Williams characterized 
 himself when he told of the days of his first service 
 as a clerk in a draper's shop in a provincial town in 
 England. 
 
 Fortunately for him, however, his associates were 
 not all like himself. Most of them lived carelessly 
 and even loosely, but there were two apprentices whose 
 lives showed the results of Christian training. " I 
 saw increasingly that they were going to heaven, but 
 that I was on the downward road to hell," Mr. Wil- 
 liams wrote. " I now began to pray, but, even on my 
 knees, oaths would come to my lips. I felt that there 
 was a difference between me and these other assist- 
 ants, and I tried to discover what it was." 
 
 At least one of the young men who attracted him 
 pleaded with him to change his manner of life, but at 
 first his pleadings seemed to have little effect. Yet 
 while the words made no impression, the consistent 
 life of the apprentice influenced him. 
 
 One night, after returning from Zion Chapel, he 
 knelt down at the back of the draper's shop and gave 
 his heart to God. At once he began to live in accord- 
 ance with what became his life motto : " It is not 
 
 289 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 how little but how much we can do for others." Fel- 
 low clerks felt the influence of his life and his words. 
 Within a few months the prayer meeting and the 
 Bible class started by him among his fellows "had 
 become almost a part of the business routine." Within 
 a few months the whole aspect of the Bridgewater 
 shop was changed. When the term of his apprentice- 
 ship expired, he was missed by many. 
 
 The most important event of the brief service as 
 clerk for his brother at a village near Bridgewater was 
 the response of his brother's wife to his urgent pres- 
 entation of Jesus Christ. 
 
 In 1 84 1 the young Christian entered a London dra- 
 pery establishment where scores of young men were 
 employed as apprentices and assistants. In accordance 
 with the custom of the day, these young men lived in 
 rooms provided by their employer. 
 
 At the time it was said that it was almost impossible 
 for one of these men to be a Christian. The hours 
 of work were long, and there was no restraint placed 
 on them when the brief hour for relaxation came at 
 the close of the day. The men easily fell into dissolute 
 habits. As a result the rooms in which the appren- 
 tices and clerks lived were the abode of wickedness 
 of all kinds. 
 
 The thought of these men — and of the one hundred 
 and fifty thousand like them in London — saddened 
 George Williams. It seemed to him that " no man 
 cared for their souls." 
 
 At once he began to devise ways to help them. 
 Tactfully he talked with fellow clerks, found a few 
 who were ready to join him in Christian service and 
 
 290 
 
THE MAKING OF A PERSONAL WORKER 
 
 persuaded others to begin the Christian life. With 
 their help he held prayer meetings in the rooms, 
 labored with the men one by one, and prayed for them 
 long and earnestly. The brief entries in diaries kept 
 at this time show that he enjoyed most the days on 
 which he was able to persuade someone to think of 
 life more seriously. 
 
 Promotion came to him, but his thoughts were still 
 fixed on his fellows and their needs rather than on 
 himself. For at this time he wrote : 
 
 " What is my aim ? Is it money, honor, dignity, 
 luxuries, ease? What is there in money that will 
 satisfy thee, O my soul? What honor can there be 
 compared to the honor I already possess of being a 
 child of God and having a title to an inheritance incor- 
 ruptible ? What dignity so ennobling as what I already 
 possess? What greatness equal to being a child of 
 God, a joint heir with Christ? Luxuries, what are 
 they? Pleasing to the flesh, but not half so pleasing 
 as the smile of His countenance. Ease, what is that? 
 Do I require it? No, not while lost souls are going 
 to hell." 
 
 His hunger for souls is evident from these state- 
 ments made by J. E. Hodder-Williams, in his bi- 
 ography of the draper's clerk : 
 
 " He singled out one after another from among 
 the assistants in the drapery establishment, and plead 
 for them individually at the throne of Grace. His 
 diaries contain many references to these early 
 wrestlings. * In room No. 14,* he writes at 
 one time, * the Lord having closed me, in, I 
 was enabled to plead, and I believe the Lord 
 
 291 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 has given me .' Here follow the names of three 
 
 assistants. 'Oh, Lord, now come down and let me 
 plead with them until I prevail.' On the next day 
 another name is added, and every week the list grows. 
 At the end of the year he enters the names of nine 
 friends for whom he has made special supplication, 
 all of whom have received Christ. In one case the 
 answer came within two days. His belief in the power 
 of prayer seldom faltered. His was the assurance 
 of faith that works miracles. * I believe,' he writes, 
 
 * that T will feel his sin this day and turn to Jesus. 
 
 Oh, Lord, hear and answer my prayer.' Two months 
 later there is an entry which proves that the prayer 
 is abundantly answered. On December 23, 1844, he 
 mentions a number of men for whom he is praying, 
 and in January of the following year six of these are 
 '* under conviction, and gave evidence of the work 
 of grace.' Surely, never young man had quicker 
 or more abundant harvest." 
 
 One reason for the abundance of the harvest was 
 the fact that he was unwearied in his efforts to help 
 bring the answer to his own prayers by talking to the 
 men whose names were on his list, asking them to 
 accept Christ. 
 
 " The meetings grew rapidly in number and in- 
 fluence," the story continues. " On June 30, 1843, ^ 
 prayer meeting from half -past six to half -past seven 
 is established in No. i bedroom. A month later there 
 are twenty present at the morning prayer meeting." 
 
 Soon " a kind of informal home missionary society 
 was founded, one of the aims of which was that in 
 due course everyone in the house should be spoken 
 
 292 
 
THE MAKING OF A PERSONAL WORKER 
 
 to about his soul. At each meeting certain names were 
 brought forward of those for whom special and united 
 prayer was suggested, and in this manner man after 
 man was marked out and no opportunity was lost of 
 speaking with him. In almost every case their faith 
 and their works were rewarded, and almost daily 
 there were added unto them such as should be saved." 
 
 One secret of George Williams' success in this work 
 for his associates was his tact. " He was wont to 
 say, when asked as to the means he suggested for 
 tackling a young man, 'Don't argue, take him to sup- 
 per,' " and in more than one instance he carried out his 
 suggestion literally. In reviewing these early days, 
 he used to tell the story of how they won over to their 
 side one of the young fellows in the house who was 
 most active in his opposition, and whose conduct was 
 a terrible ordeal for their faith. " He held a good 
 position in the shop, and the Christian young men 
 could not get near him in any way. When a young 
 fellow gave his heart to Christ, he would pounce on 
 him and say, ' We'll soon take all that nonsense out 
 of you ! ' He was the organizer and chairman of the 
 * free-and-easy ' held on Saturday evening at the ad- 
 joining public house, * The Goose and Gridiron,' to 
 which many of Williams' fellow clerks resorted. In 
 a short time he had promoted a very active and vigor- 
 ous campaign against these young men of the upper 
 room, and naturally he was at once marked out by 
 them for special and particular prayer. For many 
 weeks they waited in vain for sign of change. His 
 hostility increased in vehemence and bitterness." 
 
 One evening, when Williams and his comrades had 
 
 293 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 been trying to devise some means of getting in touch 
 with him, the leader of the band said : 
 
 " Can anyone tell me if there is anything he is 
 specially fond of which we could give him? Can we 
 do anything that will overcome his dislike for us? " 
 
 " He has a passion for oysters," was the laughing 
 suggestion made by a clerk. 
 
 " Then let's give him an oyster supper ! " 
 
 The story moves on rapidly to the inevitable con- 
 clusion : " In due course he was casually informed 
 that a number of the young fellows were going to 
 join in a big oyster supper, and would be glad if he 
 would accompany them. The idea of these Chris- 
 tian young men indulging in such frivolity amused 
 him immensely and in a spirit of bravado he accepted 
 their invitation. It was a lively evening for all con- 
 cerned, and all enjoyed it, for George Williams had 
 given strict instructions that no attempt at proselyting 
 was to be made on that occasion. Their avowed 
 enemy, finding himself in such pleasant company, 
 came to the conclusion that these young men were not 
 so black as he had painted them. As a return for 
 their hospitality, he consented later on to attend some 
 of their meetings." 
 
 Prayer ajid personal work had their effect on the 
 difficult young man, and before long he asked to be 
 admitted as a member of the praying band. 
 
 By this time George Williams was being avoided by 
 those who did not wish to hear his appeals as much 
 as he was sought by those who enjoyed his Christian 
 fellowship. '' Going to bed at night was an under- 
 taking calling for much careful scouting on the part 
 
 294 
 
THE MAKING OF A PERSONAL WORKER 
 
 of those who had attracted his attention, and they 
 would carefully examine the passages leading to their 
 bedrooms to make sure of the coast being clear, for 
 their zealous comrade was often lying in ambush, and, 
 given the opportunity, would not be denied." 
 
 Yet he was one of the most popular men in the 
 establishment. " His importunity never offended. 
 He had, as was often said, a way with him. It was 
 impossible to resent his cheery, unaffected sincerity, 
 his manly directness, his courageous simplicity, and 
 all in the house respected him, for he was admitted 
 to be one of the best salesmen in the city." 
 
 The employer was not forgotten. He was the sub- 
 ject of prayer, and personal interviews with him were 
 sought. In 1843 h^ became a Christian; in the fall 
 of that year he employed a chaplain to conduct 
 morning worship for the young men. A little later 
 he was chosen president of the Young Men's Mis- 
 sionary Society. 
 
 By this time it was said to be almost as impossible 
 for an employee of the house to keep from being a 
 Christian as, at the beginning of George Williams' 
 clerkship, it was for an employee to be a Christian. 
 The change in sentiment was reflected by a letter 
 written by the head of the firm to a new assistant : 
 
 '' I conclude from your letters that your earnest 
 desire is to live to God, and this moves me to engage 
 you. Be much in prayer, then, that God may make 
 you useful in my establishment. Come in a spirit of 
 prayer, and God will bless you.'* 
 
 Of course the work could not be confined to one 
 establishment. Soon Williams and his associates 
 
 295 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 were doing personal work among the employees of 
 other houses. 
 
 And on June 6, 1844, the young man whose prayer 
 meetings and services with individuals had been used 
 by God for the transformation of the clerks in a large 
 business united with associates in forming the first 
 Young Men's Christian Association. 
 
 296 
 
LXXII 
 RECRUITING ON THE PRAIRIES 
 
 /^ NE of the most unique of the men who are 
 ^^ notable for their passion for personal work is 
 Robert Frederick Sulzer, a bluff Sunday-school mis- 
 sionary on the prairies. He was once a railway man, 
 but his success in winning his associates as recruits for 
 Christ made him ready to listen to the invitation to 
 the work which he looked on as a distinct promotion. 
 
 David James Burrell, D.D., LL.D., who knew the 
 missionary intimately in the days of his railroad serv- 
 ice, has said of him : ** His methods are out of the 
 ordinary, but I have never known them to offend. 
 His sense of humor is contagious and always carries 
 him through. He makes people smile, but he makes 
 them cry, too. His handshake is an open sesame to 
 the hearts of those who do not like his religion. . . . 
 I never knew a more tactful man; and I have seen 
 him more than once at close quarters with the enemy. 
 He conquers by the strategy of love." 
 
 One Sunday morning in 1863 the future missionary 
 was in Corning, New York, where he had gone from 
 his home in New York City, in search of work. The 
 lonely lad wandered into a church. After the service 
 was over he was going out of the door when the old 
 janitor hurried after him, laid his hand on his shoulder, 
 spoke kindly to him, and urged him to remain to 
 
 297 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 Sunday school. His heart warmed at the unexpected 
 greeting from a stranger. He did remain, and at the 
 close of the study hour another man gave him. a per- 
 sonal message. 
 
 Next day the teacher of the class called on him at 
 the tin shop where he had secured employment. He 
 has never forgotten the words of his caller, words 
 which had their reward when the tinner's helper — 
 the trophy of two men who did not overlook the oppor- 
 tunity to speak to a homesick boy — confessed Christ 
 in the church which he had entered first as a shrinking 
 stranger. 
 
 Eighteen years later, as a railroad employee in Iowa, 
 he had an experience in personal work that justified 
 the words of Doctor Burrell concerning him. Of this 
 he has written in '* Planting the Outposts " : 
 
 " I was interested in all kinds of mission work and 
 often spoke to the railroad men about their salvation. 
 One evening I said to one of them, ' George, are you 
 ready to become a Christian ? ' ' No use trying, a 
 man can't be a Christian, and railroad.' ' Well,' said 
 I, ' you come in here.' I took him into the mission — 
 the old saloon building — and in the dark I said, 
 * George, if you ever expect to eat another meal, you 
 give your heart to the Lord right now, or you never 
 will.' He was converted, raised a Christian family, 
 and is now a prominent official of a trunk line rail- 
 road in the South." 
 
 Four years after this experience he began the work 
 as a Sunday-school missionary for which uncon- 
 sciously he had been preparing himself. The story 
 of the beginning of this service is an inspiring record 
 
 298 
 
RECRUITING ON THE PRAIRIES 
 
 of personal work. Of three incidents he has told 
 thus: 
 
 " One day I was at a railway junction with three 
 hours on my hands before my train was due. I 
 thought of an acquaintance several miles distant and 
 determined to call on him. 
 
 " I took a bee line across the prairie. On the way 
 I saw a man plowing in the field, and something said 
 to me, * Talk to that man about his soul.' I was in a 
 hurry, and I said, ' Not now.' The second time some- 
 thing said, ' Go and talk to that man about his soul.' 
 But I said, ' When I come back I will.' The third time 
 something said to me, ' Talk to that man about his 
 soul.' Whereupon, I ran over to where he was, halted 
 him, and asked, * Are you a Christian ? ' He stopped 
 his team, and said he didn't know. I told him he had 
 better find out. 
 
 " During the conversation that followed he told me 
 that he sometimes felt he ought to be a Christian, and 
 that he thought if it were not for his wife he might 
 be a Christian. Usually the difficulty is on the other 
 side. I asked him if his wife was at home. When he 
 said she was, I proposed that we go to the house. He 
 left his team in the field and we walked out together. 
 
 ** In the house I saw three children. ' Don't you 
 know that these children need a praying father and a 
 praying mother?' I asked. We talked a while, then 
 we all knelt. Before we rose they had given their 
 hearts to the Lord. They had both been afraid — as 
 is so often the case — to talk to each other about this 
 most important matter. 
 
 " When I was ready to go it was nearly train time, 
 299 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 so I rushed back to the depot without seeing my 
 friend." 
 
 " One day I was invited out to dinner by a woman 
 who was a professing Christian ; but her husband was 
 not. She gave us to understand that we had better 
 not say anything to him in regard to religion, as he 
 might not take it kindly. After a pleasant visit I 
 wished to go out for a walk. Before starting I 
 suggested that we have a short Scripture reading and 
 a word of prayer. Before kneeling I put my hand 
 on the husband's shoulder and said, ' Now, John, just 
 give your heart to the Lord while we pray.' 
 
 " He came to church that night without his wife. 
 On the way home he passed a little wood. Into this 
 he turned and knelt to pray. He arose feeling so 
 happy that he hardly knew what had come over him. 
 All at once it dawned on him that he had accepted 
 Christ and that his sins were forgiven. When he 
 reached home he wakened his wife and told her the 
 story. The next evening at our meeting, he related 
 the incident of the night before and gave a rousing 
 testimony of how the Lord had forgiven his sins. 
 He was afterward made an officer in the church." 
 
 " While riding in a caboose on one of my trips a 
 tall old man, rather surly-looking, entered. His shoes 
 were ragged and his face and hair looked as though 
 he had not seen a barber shop for a month or two. 
 He had a fiddle case in one hand and his wardrobe tied 
 up in an old bandanna in the other. As he sat op- 
 posite to me my heart went out to him. I wondered 
 
 300 
 
RECRUITING ON THE PRAIRIES 
 
 if he knew that the Lord loved him and I became very 
 anxious to speak to him about it. After a while I asked 
 him what he had in his box. When he said it was a fid- 
 dle, I asked him to get it out and play a tune. To my 
 surprise he played all gospel hymns. So I said, ' You 
 must play in church.* He shook his head. * You 
 certainly must play in Sunday school,' I suggested. 
 Again he shook his head. He told me they had no 
 use for tunes of that sort where he played." 
 
 This was Mr. Sultzer's chance, and he used it to 
 urge the man to become a Christian and start a Sun- 
 day school at his home. 
 
 Before the two men parted, a promise had been 
 given by the man to go round and ask his neighbors 
 to gather for Sunday school on a certain Sunday. 
 The missionary said he would be there and help. 
 
 " On the Saturday before the meeting, he met me 
 at the station, twelve miles from the schoolhouse,** 
 Mr. Sulzer concluded the story. " When we reached 
 the schoolhouse we found it had lots of grain stored 
 in it and that it had not been used, even for a day 
 school, for a long time. We cleaned it out and got it 
 ready for Sunday morning, when we had a full house 
 and organized a Sunday school. It flourished, and in 
 a year or two a church developed out of it. 
 
 " One day a couple of years later, when I was at 
 his home, I asked him to give me a tune. He said he 
 couldn't; he had sold his fiddle because the people 
 kept coming after him to play for dances. The family 
 moved later from the place, and I have heard that 
 both he and his daughter are to-day playing violins in 
 Sunday school." 
 
 301 
 
LXXIII 
 PASSING ON THE BLESSING 
 
 TT7HEN Edward Card, a Nova Scotia boy, was 
 ^ ^ ten years old he left school and went to work on 
 fishing and coasting schooners. While a sailor he 
 learned to drink. When he was nineteen, he left the 
 sea, and went to Chicago. There he worked as a 
 helper in a foundry ; and there he fell deeper into sin. 
 Finally he was discharged. Taking his savings he 
 went to Omaha. There he did odd jobs, and lived 
 in the saloons. Soon he had spent all he had. So 
 he left the city hoping to get away from his bad 
 habits. He counted the ties. He stole rides on freight 
 trains. He begged from door to door. Finally, at 
 a way station, he agreed to care for three carloads 
 of hogs about to be shipped to Chicago. The story 
 of the prodigal son was thus duplicated in his ex- 
 perience, so far as misery is concerned. 
 
 In Chicago he found work as porter with the United 
 States Express Company. He attended to duty and 
 was promoted to positions of trust. He had not given 
 up drinking, however. Many times he could not 
 understand how he was able to hold his place. Fre- 
 quently he would wake up after a debauch and find 
 himself in Minneapolis, or Omaha, or Kansas City. 
 More, he was a defaulter. Once, on the Harlem Race 
 Track, he stared the penitentiary in the face, for he 
 
 302 
 
PASSING ON THE BLESSING 
 
 had lost one hundred and fifty dollars of the Com- 
 pany's money. The crime was not discovered, and 
 he returned the amount in installments. 
 
 He knew he was on the brink of a drunkard's grave, 
 but he saw no way to escape until a friend urged him 
 to go to the noonday prayer meeting at Willard Hall, 
 Chicago. He accepted the invitation, and there, on 
 January 14, 1893, in response to the plea of a Gideon 
 who told him he needed the help of Christ, he gave 
 himself to the Master. 
 
 From that day he determined to pass on the blessing 
 he had received. Men had spoken to him in his time 
 of need, urging him to be a Christian; he would lose 
 no opportunity to speak to others. 
 
 In Chicago it was his joy to know that many wel- 
 comed his words of cheer and invitation. They were 
 all the more ready to listen to him because he was 
 doing his work well, and was receiving merited pro- 
 motion. 
 
 A few months later he was transferred to St. Louis, 
 where he became general agent of the express com- 
 pany. In his new home he continued the personal 
 ♦ work for souls begun in Chicago. Everywhere, in 
 the ofifice, on the street cars, in places of amusement, 
 his genial presence was made known as he spoke tact- 
 ful words which, in many instances, were used to 
 help men to a better life. Of course there were those 
 who discouraged him, as there were those who called 
 him a hypocrite. But he kept on serenely, and earned 
 his way to the approval of both employers and asso- 
 ciates. 
 
 He had been in his new position only a year when 
 
 303 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 a company of Christian business men decided to open 
 the City Mission for the help of the men who were 
 " down," in the " barrel house " district of the city. 
 At once their thoughts turned to the soul-seeking ex- 
 press agent. What a glorious thing it would be if 
 they could persuade him to be superintendent! 
 
 Two or three men who learned of their plan said 
 it was nonsense to think of persuading him to accept 
 the position. " He would be a fool to give up a 
 sure twenty- four hundred dollars a year for the pos- 
 sibility of bare support you have to offer him." 
 
 Those who said this proved to be bad prophets, for 
 when the proposition was made to Edward Card, he 
 accepted it at once. He was looking for just such a 
 chance to devote his life to the personal work that 
 had been more and more engrossing his attention since 
 his conversion. 
 
 During the first four months of his new service 
 he received a little more than the express company 
 had paid him for two weeks. " But what of that? " he 
 said, with a glad smile, to a friend who tried to sym- 
 pathize with him. " I had a small balance in the 
 bank to draw on. And every day I could speak to 
 ten, twenty, thirty men, one by one, as well as address 
 the company that gathered every evening. At last 
 I had found work in which my soul delighted." 
 
 Helpers were inspired with his vision of the im- 
 mense possibilities of the personal message to the 
 men on the street. One such man, a traveling sales- 
 man for a New York house, who had been on a long 
 debauch, was asked by an assistant to go and speak 
 to Mr. Card. " He will tell you what you need," he 
 
 304 
 
PASSING ON THE BLESSING 
 
 said. That day the man became a Christian. Not long 
 after he became an enthusiastic Gideon, and so helped 
 Mr. Card to pass on the blessing received in Chicago. 
 
 The personal plea of the superintendent reached 
 the heart of a tramp, who later enlisted in the marines. 
 When he was stationed at Mare Island, San Fran- 
 cisco, he was instrumental in leading many of his 
 comrades to Christ. 
 
 One of the earnest men who came to share Mr. 
 Card's passion for souls was an outcast until the 
 superintendent found him, and urged him to give 
 Christ the chance to make a man of him. Filled with 
 surprise that anyone could think there was hope for 
 him, he listened to Mr. Card's entreaties and began 
 the fight back to manhood. 
 
 For a year he remained in St. Louis, where he fol- 
 lowed in the footsteps of the man whom God used 
 to win him to Christ, seeking men on the street and in 
 the saloons and giving them hearty invitations to 
 " taste and see that the Lord is good." 
 
 At length he joined the navy, in order that he might 
 live in daily touch with the sailors, and satisfy his 
 longing to testify for his Master. With two carloads 
 of recruits he started for the Pacific Coast. Within 
 twenty-four hours he was hard at work. At first his 
 companions made all manner of sport of him, but his 
 earnestness finally won a number of them. Several 
 were converted on the journey. During the first month 
 at Mare Island nineteen were brought to Christ. 
 Later he was transferred to Sitka, Alaska, where he 
 was so persistent and so successful in talking for the 
 Master, that he was nicknamed " the sailor evangelist." 
 
 305 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 Thus the resolution made by Edward Card in 
 Chicago to pass on the blessing he had received 
 through the friendly touch of one who longed for his 
 salvation is being passed on through the men to whom 
 he delights to speak his word of testimony. 
 
 306 
 
LXXIV 
 
 HIS CHIEF BUSINESS 
 
 TTENRY CLAY TRUMBULL, that past master 
 -■■-'■ in personal work, once said : " Of the two men 
 I have known who seemed more than any other per- 
 sons I ever met to be always and absolutely devoted 
 to the Master's work, as shown in every word and 
 act of their lives while I was acquainted with them, 
 one was literally living from hand to mouth, never 
 perhaps possessing a hundred dollars at a time, while 
 the other's possessions could be counted by the millions. 
 This is incidentally an illustration of the truth that 
 it is not what a man has or what he lacks, but it is 
 what he is in his Master's sight and service that com- 
 mends him to God and to his fellows. One of these 
 two men was ' Uncle John ' Vassar. It can be imag- 
 ined which of the two he was." 
 
 In 1850 the American Tract Society asked John 
 Ellison Vassar to become one of their colporteurs to 
 carry books to the homes of people in the West. 
 Although he was receiving a better income where he 
 was than he could hope for in the new employment, 
 he accepted the offer because it would give him the 
 opportunity for which he longed to approach indi- 
 viduals on *' The King's Business." 
 
 His first attempt was made in Illinois at a time 
 when prospects were not favorable. A drought af- 
 
 307 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 fected his sales, but he was not discouraged. ** I am 
 not disappointed in the least," he wrote. " The Lord 
 is a present help. I pass along the highways con- 
 tented with any fare, and stop where the night over- 
 takes me, witnessing all the time to small and great 
 that Christ has power to save." 
 
 Everywhere he went men came to expect him to 
 talk to them of religion, and it was a common occur- 
 rence when a revival followed his visit to a com- 
 munity. Once, when he found himself in the home 
 of a Christian father and mother he had known in 
 the East, he asked them about their neighbors. They 
 were compelled to own that they had been among 
 them for five years and had never learned if they were 
 Christians. There was then no Sunday school in the 
 neighborhood; but within a few weeks the awakened 
 Christian parents secured the vicinity, organized a 
 Sunday school, and gathered the people for regular 
 church services. 
 
 This is but a sample instance of many, for he was 
 a tireless worker. In one of his reports, he said: 
 " I visit frequently forty families a day, have a meet- 
 ing somewhere every night, and speak to three Sunday 
 schools practically every Lord's Day. I have con- 
 versed with over three thousand people during the 
 last three months on the subject of personal religion." 
 
 Not always were his advances well received, but his 
 earnestness and sincerity soon won him a sympathetic 
 hearing. Once, when in Cleveland, he called at a 
 beautiful home on Euclid Avenue. " What do you 
 want, sir?" was the greeting of the mistress. *' I 
 am a colporteur of the Tract Society, and I am selling 
 
 308 
 
HIS CHIEF BUSINESS 
 
 these books." " We have a library," was the reply. 
 '* I don't doubt it," he answered, " but the truth is I 
 am legs for Bunyan, Baxter, Flavel, and others." 
 His quiet speech won the lady, who asked him into 
 the parlor. Then he began his real business. *' I 
 am not only a seller of books, but I am anxious to 
 know if you love Jesus," he said. '' I am a member of 
 the Church," was the answer. " So am I," said her 
 visitor, " but I fear that God will not take our church 
 records. He counts the names recorded in the Lamb's 
 Book of Life." The lady was soon in tears, and when 
 prayer was proposed she fell on her knees beside her 
 visitor. When he left, she begged him to forgive her 
 for the way in which she had at first received him. 
 
 A stranger in a New York village, seeking the home 
 of a friend, asked the way of a man whom he passed. 
 The direction was given by the man, who immediately 
 inquired, ''Are you a Christian, my young friend?" 
 After a satisfactory answer he went on his way, re- 
 marking that he was " in a hurry to look up some lost 
 sheep." When the stranger reached the home of the 
 friend he sought, he told of his encounter with " a 
 crazy man in search of some sheep." " Why, that 
 was John Vassar, our county missionary, and the 
 sheep that he was in search of are the Lord's," was 
 the laughing explanation. 
 
 Sometimes men sought to avoid him, and he always 
 seemed to know instantly whether to follow them up 
 or to let them alone for a time. An instance of per- 
 sistent following up is told by his biographer, Thomas 
 E. Vassar: 
 
 " One day Uncle John felt the impression very 
 
 309 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 strong that he ought to go and see a wavering young 
 man, evidently troubled about his salvation. It was 
 nearly noon, and the men on the farm were coming in 
 from the field. All gathered around the table for 
 dinner save the one that it was desired to reach. The 
 father said that his son would probably be in presently, 
 but he did not come. Uncle John feared that he was 
 keeping out of the way purposely, and determined to 
 go out and look him up. Through all the outbuildings 
 he searched and called, but without success. He was 
 about to give up the quest, when he chanced to spy 
 the open door of a corn crib, and, on entering, he 
 found in a large hogshead the young man crouched. 
 Climbing right over into it by the trembling, con- 
 founded, humiliated sinner's side, he began to talk and 
 pray, and there the penitent settled the question to be 
 forever the Lord's. Afterward he confessed to Uncle 
 John that when he saw him looking around he took 
 a sort of malicious satisfaction in thinking he had 
 evaded him. But when discovery came, then over the 
 fugitive crept such a sense of shame, and meanness, 
 and foolishness and wickedness, as made him loathe 
 himself." 
 
 Mr. Vassar always spoke of himself as a humble 
 " shepherd dog," whose work it was to gather the 
 people. '' Come, bishop," he was accustomed to say 
 to a pastor with whom he was laboring, " the Lord 
 wants you to feed the sheep that he shall use me to 
 bring together." 
 
 " One winter," related one minister who knew him, 
 " when coming to labor with our own church, a heavy 
 snow storm set in. It continued till the roads were 
 
 310 
 
HIS CHIEF BUSINESS 
 
 blocked. The people could not get out, and meetings 
 were not to be thought of. But he could not be snow 
 bound. He would flounder through the drifts some- 
 how, often kneeling in them to thank God for mercies 
 granted or to plead with God for mercies needed." 
 In such a time of storm he came to a home in New 
 York. A daughter saw him and sought to escape, 
 but her mother urged her to " stay and listen to a 
 man who has traveled through this snow knee deep 
 to do us good." Soon after he was admitted he 
 prayed with the family. " And such a prayer we 
 never heard before," the daughter afterward said. 
 " We were all melted down. His visit was short, but 
 it was wonderful." Three members of the family, 
 including the reluctant daughter, became Christians 
 that day. 
 
 Another story of one of Mr. Vassar's conquests is 
 thus told in the biography : 
 
 " About twenty years ago Mr. S was drawing a 
 
 load along the road when he met a stranger, who 
 stopped him and said, * What may I call your name, 
 
 sir? ' The one addressed replied, * My name is S .' 
 
 * Ah ! You are a deacon in the church here, are you 
 not? Well, deacon, my name is John Vassar; now, 
 is your wife a Christian ? ' ' I am sorry to say that she 
 is not.' ' Have you any objection to my calling and 
 conversing with your family?' Uncle John then 
 passed along, and the deacon went on and turned into 
 a field with his load. He had not gone more than 
 thirty yards when the thought came to him, ' How is 
 this? Here is a stranger more concerned for the sal- 
 vation of my family than I am. This is not right.' He 
 
 311 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 jumped off his load, unhitched the horses from the 
 sled, tied them, and started for the house. He arrived 
 just in time to hear the prayer. That load was not 
 moved again for six weeks. Mrs. S was con- 
 verted, and forty-two others." 
 
 Mr. Vassar was calling in a home where a young 
 man was visiting a young woman whom he was soon 
 to marry. Most men would have excused themselves, 
 but the " shepherd dog " saw an opening. Learning 
 that the young woman was a Christian, while the 
 young man was not, he urged him to accept Christ and 
 proposed that the young woman should kneel and pray 
 for him. She hesitated, then poured out her heart 
 with great earnestness. It is not strange that when, a 
 little later, the young people were married, they were 
 already one in Christian service. 
 
 Once Uncle John led to Christ a stranger driving 
 an ox-cart, whom he overtook. After conversation, 
 they knelt by the roadside. Within an hour he hur- 
 ried across a field to a man at the plow. With him he 
 knelt in the freshly turned furrows, and the result 
 was another soul won for Christ. With a man in the 
 field, husking corn, he pleaded until, after a season 
 of unwillingness, the man knelt with him among the 
 shocks. The farmer and three members of his family 
 soon united with the Church. 
 
 During the war he was in the army, not as a chap- 
 lain, for he was not ordained, but as a lay worker. 
 He might have been ordained; in fact, all arrange- 
 ments had been made for this ; but he heard that some- 
 one had said he sought the sacred office for gain. Then 
 he went back to the front, determined to continue his 
 
 312 
 
HIS CHIEF BUSINESS 
 
 work. His influence among both enlisted man and 
 officers vv^as very great. Everywhere he went there 
 was a prayer meeting. Revival after revival was 
 kindled by his enthusiasm. 
 
 Chaplain Trumbull, who knew him well during his 
 army service, once told two incidents of this period: 
 " While working as a lay missionary among the 
 soldiers during the Gettysburg campaign, in 1863, 
 Uncle John, with others, was swept in as a prisoner. 
 At once he was at work for Christ among his captors, 
 even while being taken before the commanding gen- 
 eral, * Jeb ' Stuart,' the dashing cavalry leader. An- 
 swering the general's questions as to his occupation, 
 Uncle John asked lovingly, ' Dear General, do you 
 love Jesus?' At this the officer who had arrested 
 him suggested to the surprised commander, * General, 
 you had better parole this man and send him back 
 through the lines ; if not, we shall have a prayer meet- 
 ing all the way to Richmond.' Uncle John was 
 paroled. 
 
 " Again he was summoned before General Ruger, 
 :Of the Federal Army, for being in camp in civilian's 
 dress, with the suggestion that he might be a spy. 
 Uncle John explained that he had a pass from Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, and one from General Patrick, Provost 
 Marshal General of the Army of the Potomac; and 
 then having cleared himself of suspicion, he added, 
 * And now, dear General, do you love the Lord Jesus 
 Christ? We can have a little season of prayer right 
 here.' The General was willing to have ' Uncle John ' 
 jreturn to his mission." 
 
 After the close of the war he renewed his servipe io 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 the homes of the North. If possible, his passion for 
 personal work was greater than ever. His earnestness 
 and enthusiasm were contagious. Of this period in 
 his life an incident has been told of his call at a 
 fashionable home where he inquired for a man to 
 whom he had been sent. " Not finding the man in, he 
 addressed the wife, who held very different views as to 
 religion from his. In vain she tried to shake him off. 
 He was lovingly persistent for Christ. When the 
 lady's husband returned, she said, ' There has been an 
 old man here talking to me about religion.' ' Why 
 didn't you shut him up ? ' asked the man. * He's a 
 person you can't shut up,' she answered. ' If I had 
 been here, I'd have told him to go about his business.' 
 ' If you had heard him, you'd have thought that he 
 was about his business.' " 
 
 A pastor who sought his assistance for several 
 weeks as a lay helper among his people told of talking 
 to him — when on the way from the station, immedi- 
 ately after his arrival — of an infidel blacksmith whom 
 it was hoped the layman would be able to influence. 
 To the astonishment of the pastor. Uncle John insisted 
 on going across the road to him at once. The unex- 
 pected visitor found the infidel bending over the hoof 
 of a horse which he was shoeing. Gently he spoke 
 to the surprised blacksmith. The pastor expected to 
 hear an angry retort from the master of the forge, 
 but to his astonishment the hoof was dropped, and 
 the two men knelt on the dirt floor while Uncle John 
 prayed with him. 
 
 Doctor Trumbull, w^ho told a number of these inci- 
 dents, said that his last sight of Uncle John was in a 
 
HIS CHIEF BUSINESS 
 
 New York street car. After talking with him for a 
 time, the man who made personal work his chief 
 business noted a man across the aisle. " I wonder if 
 he loves Jesus ? " he said. As he spoke he was on his 
 feet; and when Doctor Trumbull left the car he saw 
 his friend talking earnestly to the stranger. 
 
 315 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 317 
 
COUNTING OURSELVES IN 
 
 " The story is told in an old Tamil book of twelve 
 Brahmans, on a pilgrimage, who, while crossing a 
 stream, escaped with great difficulty. Uncertain if all 
 were alive, one of the pilgrims counted his com- 
 panions : * Ondtu, rendu, mundru, nalu, ainthu, aru, 
 eru, ettu, onpathu, pathu, pathinondru ! ' thus giving 
 the numerals from one to eleven. ' Alas, there are but 
 eleven of us, and one of us must be drowned ! ' 
 
 *' But who was missing? All responded to their 
 names. A second pilgrim ranged his comrades in 
 line, and counted. The result was the same. There 
 were only eleven men; and yet they were certain that 
 no one was missing. 
 
 *' ' Let me count ! ' said a third Brahman. When he 
 had finished he declared that somebody was dead. 
 Much puzzled, the men agreed to consult a hermit 
 who lived near. 
 
 " The hermit asked them to stand in a row while 
 she counted : ' Ondru, rendu, mundru, nalu, ainthu, 
 aru, eru, ettu, onpathu, pathu, pathinondru, pani- 
 rendu ! ' 
 
 " ' Why, there are twelve of you ! ' she said. * It 
 is all right.' 
 
 " It was not an easy matter to convince them, but 
 they finally admitted their error when they found that 
 each one of them had forgotten to count himself! ** 
 
 The late Jacob Chamberlain in telling the story, in 
 
 319 
 
THE BOOK OF PERSONAL WORK 
 
 " The Kingdom in India," asked : ** Do not we, fellow 
 Christians, too often fall into this very Brahman dull- 
 ness, and in God's work each fail to count himself or 
 herself? If there is real work to be done 'for Christ 
 and the Church ' are we not prone diligently and re- 
 peatedly to count all the others, and perhaps uncon- 
 sciously neglect to count ourselves?" 
 
 The commission of the Master is, " Ye shall be my 
 witnesses." We hear, but are so apt to interpret the 
 message as applying to anyone, everyone, but our- 
 selves. How many Christians, thus leaving them- 
 selves out of the count, take no part in the God-given 
 work of seeking the lost? What of our opportunities 
 to witness for Christ to those we meet in the home, 
 in business, or when we are seeking our pleasure? 
 Since God says, " Ye," let us be careful to count our- 
 selves in, that we, too, may have a part in bringing 
 the answer to our own prayer, ** Thy Kingdom come," 
 
 320 
 
LIST OF BOOKS CITED 
 
 Bates, H. Roswell, Life of. Ralph Harlow . . . Revell. 
 
 Carter, Robert By His Sons Randolph. 
 
 Drummond, Henry G, A. Smith Doran. 
 
 Electricity and Its Simili- 
 tudes Tyndall Revell. 
 
 Evolution of a Teacher, 
 The Ella Gilbert Ives . Pilgrim Press. 
 
 Great Acceptance, The Guy Thorne Revell. 
 
 Hannington, James E. C. Dawson. . . .Jacobs. 
 
 Havergal, Frances Ridley, 
 Life of (In Christian 
 
 Womanhood) Mary Pryor Hack. Hodder and 
 
 Stoughton. 
 
 Havergal Story L. B. E J. H. Earle. 
 
 Heroes and Hero Worship. H.McGee Waters. Crowell. 
 
 In the Service of the King. Joseph B. Dunn. .Putnams. 
 
 Johnson, Herrick, Life of. Charles E. Rob- 
 inson Revell. 
 
 Kingdom in India, The Jacob Chamber- 
 lain Revell. 
 
 Knightly Soldier, The H. Qay Trumbull. Scribners. 
 
 Lights and Shadows of a 
 
 Long Episcopate Henry Benjamin 
 
 Whipple Macmillan. 
 
 New Era in Asia, The Sherwood Eddy. .Missionary Educa- 
 tion Movement. 
 
 Planting the Outposts R. F. Sulzer Westminster 
 
 Press. 
 321 
 
LIST OF BOOKS CITED 
 
 Quiet Talks on Power S. D. Gordon. . . . RevelL 
 
 Recollections of a Long 
 
 Life Theodore L. 
 
 Cuyler Baker and Taylor. 
 
 Taylor, Hudson, in Early 
 Years ^Mrs. Hudson Taylor China Inland Mis- 
 sion. 
 
 Triumphant Ministry, The ." Timothy Kil- 
 
 bourn " Westminster 
 
 Press, 
 
 Vassar, John, Life of Thomas E.Vassar. American Sunday 
 
 School Union. 
 
 Williams, George, Life of.. J. E. Hodder- 
 
 Williams Doran. 
 
 3^2 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 
 
 1 1012 01232 2519 
 
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