IIBRARY OF PRINCETON 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEN: 'NARy 
 
 BV3790 .B746 
 Brengle. Samuel Logan, I860- 
 1936. 
 The soul-winner's secret 
 
THE 
 
 SOUL-AA^INNER'S 
 SECRET. 
 
 BY 
 
 LIEUT.-COL. S. L. BRENGLE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "HELPS TO HOLINESS," "HEART-TALKS ON HOLINBSS,** 
 
 AND " THE WAY OF HOLINESS.'* 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 THE SALVATION ARMY PRINTING AND PUBLISHING HOUS^ 
 
 122 WEST 14th street. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 
 PREFACE V 
 
 I. 
 
 THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE 
 
 
 SOUL-WINNER . . 1 
 
 II. 
 
 OREDIENCE 10 
 
 III. 
 
 PRAYER 18 
 
 IV. 
 
 ZEAL 27 
 
 V. 
 
 SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP . . 35 
 
 VL 
 
 REDEEMING THE TIME ... 46 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE STUDIES OF THE SOUL- 
 
 
 WINNER ... 56 
 
 VIII. 
 
 HEALTH 67 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE RENEWING OF POWER . . 82 
 
 X. 
 
 AN UNDIVIDED HEART ... 91 
 
 XI. 
 
 FINANCE 99 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 XII. SAVING TRUTH .... 107 
 
 Xni. KEEPING THE FLOCK . . . 117 
 XIV. THE SOUL - WHINNER AND THE 
 
 CHILDREN . . . 132 
 XV. THE SOUL- winner's COMMISSION 
 
 TO THE CHILDREN . , 142 
 
 XVI. DEAL GENTLY .... 148 
 
 xviL "so spake'' 155 
 
 XVIII. IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS OF 
 
 BIBLE STUDY . . . 164 
 
 XIX. KING David's use of his bible . 177 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Like Lieut-Colonel Brengle's other 
 books, this new volume from his facile 
 pen is intensely practical. It is a 
 natural sequel to his previous parlor 
 talks on holiness. It v^ill be especially 
 welcome to Salvation Army officers and 
 soldiers, who have been taught to regard 
 soul-winning as the main business of 
 their lives. 
 
 To them the standard here raised will 
 rot seem too high, while they will 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 gratefully welcome the faithful warnings 
 that point out the dangers that beset a 
 soul-winner's pathway. 
 
 The volume is, as usual, rich in Bible 
 lore. Chapter and verse in grand pro- 
 fusion are brought forward in support 
 of every proposition. 
 
 The testimonies of fore-front warriors 
 of the Cross are also welded in with 
 the main line of argument in a way 
 which cannot help but fasten the truth 
 upon the mind. 
 
 Many who have hitherto neglected 
 this branch of duty, and have suffered 
 in their own souls as a consequence, 
 will surely be inspired by these pages 
 to rise up and make a new start. There 
 is not a piece of advice in the whole 
 
PREFACE. VII 
 
 book, from cover to cover, that v^ill even 
 tempt the weakest saint to despair, no 
 fancied heights which will appear to be 
 beyond his reach. 
 
 Certainly none can read the book 
 without getting a fresh impetus to do 
 and dare for God and souls, and none 
 who carry out these instructions can 
 fail to become in the highest, noblest and 
 most lasting sense, successful soul- 
 winners. 
 
 */ ^tcyt^AJiXeuur' fiQ<nr€^^J,^^c.ji^ 
 
THE 
 
 SOUL-WINNEK'S 
 SECKET. 
 
 THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE SOUL- 
 WINNER. 
 
 Every soul-winner is in the secret of the 
 Lord, and has had a definite personal ex- 
 perience of salvation and the baptism of the 
 Holy Ghost, which brings him into close 
 fellowship and tender friendship and sym- 
 pathy with the Saviour. The Psalmist 
 prayed, "Hide Thy face from my sins, and 
 blot out all my iniquities. Create within me 
 a clean heart, O God, and renew a right 
 spirit within me. Restore unto me the joy 
 of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy 
 
 B 
 
2 THE SOUL-WINNER S SECRET. 
 
 free Spirit. Then," said he, "will I teach 
 transgressors Thy ways and sinners shall 
 be converted unto Thee." (Psalm 51: 10-12.) 
 He saw that before he could be a soul- 
 winner, before he could teach transgressors 
 the way of the Lord and convert sinners, 
 he must have his own sins blotted out; he 
 must have a clean heart and a right spirit; 
 he must be a partaker of the Holy Ghost 
 and of God's joy. In short, he must have a 
 definite, constant, joyful experience of God's 
 salvation in his own soul in order to save 
 others. It was no "hope-I-am-saved" expe- 
 rience he wanted; nor was it a conclusion 
 carefully reasoned out and arrived at by 
 logical processes; nor an experience based 
 upon a strict performance of a set round of 
 duties and attendance upon sacraments, but 
 a mighty transformation and cleansing of his 
 whole spiritual nature and a glorious new 
 creation wrought within him by the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 I. It must he a definite experience that 
 tallies with the Word of God. Only this 
 can give that power and assurance to a man 
 that will enable him to lead and win other 
 men. You must have knowledge before im- 
 parting knowledge. You must have fire to 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 3 
 
 kindle fire. You must have life to repro- 
 duce life. You must know Jesus and be on 
 friendly terms with Him to be able to intro- 
 duce others to Him. You must be one with 
 Jesus, and be "bound up in the bundle of 
 life" with Him if you would bring others 
 into that life. 
 
 Peter had repented under the preaching 
 of John the Baptist, had forsaken all to fol- 
 low Jesus, and had waited with prayer and 
 unquenchable desire until he had received 
 the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire, 
 and had been anointed with power from on 
 high, before he became the fearless, mighty 
 preacher who won 3,000 converts in a day. 
 
 Paul was mightily converted on the road 
 to Damascus, and heard the voice of Jesus 
 tell him what to do, and was baptized with 
 the Holy Ghost under the teaching of Ana- 
 nias, before he became the apostle of quench- 
 less zeal who turned the world upside down. 
 
 Luther was definitely converted and jus- 
 tified by faith on the stairway of St. Peter's 
 at Rome before he became the invincible re- 
 former who could stand before popes and 
 emperors and set captive nations free. 
 
 George Fox, Wesley, Finney, Whitefield, 
 Jonathan Edwards, William Taylor, James 
 
4 THE SOUL-WINNER S SECRET. 
 
 Caughey, Moody and General Booth, each 
 and all had a definite personal experience 
 that made them apostles of fire, prophets of 
 God and saviours of men. They did not 
 guess that they were saved, nor "hope" so, 
 but they knew "whom they believed," and 
 that they had passed from darkness to 
 light and from the power of Satan unto 
 God." 
 
 This experience was not evolution, but a 
 revolution. No evolutionist ever has been 
 or ever will be a great soul-winner. It is 
 not by growth that men become such, but 
 by revelation. It is not until God bursts 
 through the veil and reveals Himself in 
 their hearts through faith in His dear Son, 
 and gives a consciousness of personal ac- 
 ceptance with Him, and sheds abroad His 
 love in the heart, destroying unbelief, burn- 
 ing away sin, consuming selfishness, and 
 filling the soul with the passion that filled 
 the heart of Jesus, that men become soul- 
 winners. 
 
 The experience that makes a man a soul- 
 winner is two-fold. First, he must know 
 his sins forgiven; he must have recognized 
 himself a sinner, out of friendly relation 
 with God, and careless of God's claim, heed- 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 5 
 
 less of God's feelings, selfishly seeking his 
 own way in spite of divine love and com- 
 passion, and heedless of the awful conse- 
 quences of separating himself from God, and 
 this must have led to repentance toward 
 God, by which I mean a sorrow for and an 
 utter turning away from sin, followed by a 
 confiding trust in Jesus Christ as his Saviour. 
 He must have so believed as to bring a rest- 
 ful consciousness that for Christ's sake his 
 sins have been forgiven and that he has been 
 adopted into God's family and made one of 
 His dear children. This consciousness re- 
 sults from what Paul calls "the witness of 
 the Spirit," and enables the soul to cry out 
 in deep filial confidence and affection, "Abba 
 Father." Second : He must be sanctified ; 
 he must know that his heart is cleansed, 
 that pride and self-will and carnal ambition 
 and strife and sensitiveness and suspicion and 
 unbelief and every unholy temper are de- 
 stroyed by the baptism of the Holy Ghost — a 
 personal Pentecost — and the incoming of a 
 great love for, and loyalty to, Jesus Christ, 
 before he can be largely used to win souls. 
 
 n. It must he a constant experience. 
 People who frequently meet defeat and fail 
 of victory in their own souls will not be 
 
6 THE SOUL-WINNER S SECRET. 
 
 largely successful in winning men to Jesus. 
 The very consciousness of defeat makes them 
 uncertain in their exhortation, doubtful and 
 wavering in their testimony and weak in 
 their faith, and this will not be likely to 
 produce conviction and beget faith in their 
 hearers. 
 
 Dr. Asa Mahan lived in the enjoyment of 
 full salvation for over fifty years, and only 
 once felt a slight uprising of temper. Finney, 
 Wesley, Fletcher and Bramwell, like Enoch, 
 walked with God, and so walked "in the 
 power of the Spirit" constantly, and were 
 soul-winners all their lives, even to old 
 age. 
 
 Ill, It must he a joyful experience. "The 
 joy of the Lord is your strength," said Ne- 
 hemiah. "Restore unto me the joy of Thy 
 salvation," prayed David. "I feel it my 
 duty to be as happy as the Lord wants me 
 to be," wrote McCheyne, the gifted and 
 deeply spiritual young Scotch preacher, who 
 was wonderfully successful in winning 
 souls. 
 
 "Oh, my soul is very happy! Bless God, 
 I feel He is with me," cried Caughey, while 
 preaching his sermon on "The Striving of 
 the Spirit." No wonder he won souls. 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 7 
 
 Whitefield and Bramwell, two of the 
 greatest soul-winners the world ever saw, 
 were at times in almost an ecstasy of joy, 
 especially when preaching. And this was 
 as it should be. 
 
 John Bunyan tells us how he wrote the 
 "Pilgrim's Progress" in his filthy Bedford 
 dungeon. He says, "So I was led home to 
 prison, and I sat me down and wrote and 
 wrote because joy did make me write." 
 Hallelujah! 
 
 God wants His people to be full of joy. 
 "These things have I spoken unto you, that 
 my joy might remain in you and that your 
 joy might be full," said Jesus. (John 15: 
 II.) And again He said, "Ask and ye shall 
 receive, that your joy may be full." (John 
 16: 24.) "And these things write we unto 
 you that your joy might be full," wrote 
 John, (i John 1:4.) "The fruit of the 
 Spirit is love, joy," wrote Paul, and again 
 he writes, "The Kingdom of God is right- 
 eousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost," "Joy in the Holy Ghost" is an 
 oceanic current that flows unbroken through 
 the holy, believing soul, though surrounded 
 by seas of trouble and compassed about by 
 infirmities and afflictions and sorrows. 
 
8 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 We have thought of Jesus as "the Man 
 of Sorrows" until we overlook His fulness 
 of exultant joy. (Luke lo : 21 ; John 15 : 11.) 
 
 Joy can be cultivated and should be, as 
 is faith or any other fruit of the Spirit. 
 
 (i) By appropriating by faith the words 
 that were spoken and written for the ex- 
 press purpose that we might have fulness of 
 joy. "Now the God of hope fill you with 
 all joy and peace in believing," wrote Paul 
 to the Romans, It is by believing. 
 
 (2) By meditating on these words and 
 holding them in our minds and hearts until 
 we have gotten all the sweetness out of 
 them as we would hold honey in our mouths. 
 
 (3) By exercise, even as faith or love or 
 patience is exercised. This we do by rejoic- 
 ing in the Lord, and praising God for His 
 goodness and mercy, and by shouting when 
 the joy wells up in our souls under the pres- 
 sure of the Holy Spirit. Many people 
 quench the Spirit of joy and praise, and so 
 gradually lose it. But let them repent, con- 
 fess, pray and believe and then begin to 
 praise God again and He will see to it that 
 they have something to praise Him for, and 
 their joy will convict sinners and prove a 
 mighty means of winning them to Jesus. 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 9 
 
 Who can estimate the power there must 
 have been in the joy that filled the heart of 
 Peter and surged through the souls and 
 beamed on the faces and flashed from the 
 eyes of the one hundred and twenty fire- 
 baptized disciples, while he preached that 
 Pentecostal sermon that won three thou- 
 sand bigoted enemies to the Cross of a 
 crucified Christ? 
 
 O Lord, still "make Thy ministers a flame 
 of fire," and flood the world with Thy 
 mighty joy! 
 
10 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 II. 
 
 OBEDIENCE. 
 
 "I WAS not disobedient to the heavenly- 
 vision," said Paul, and in that saying he 
 reveals the secret of his wonderful success 
 as a soul-winner. The soul-winner is a man 
 sent to God, and will have visions and reve- 
 lations and secret orders that, if affection- 
 ately heeded and heartily and courageously 
 obeyed, will surely lead to success. He is 
 pre-eminently "a worker together with God," 
 and a soldier of Jesus Christ, and as such 
 must obey. It is his business to take orders 
 and carry them out. 
 
 "Before I formed thee I knew thee, and 
 before thou camest forth I sanctified thee, 
 and I ordained thee a prophet unto the 
 nation," said the Lord to Jeremiah, and 
 when Jeremiah interrupted and said, "Ah, 
 
OBEDIENCE, 11 
 
 Lord God, behold I cannot speak, for I am 
 a child," the Lord said to him, "Say not I 
 am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I 
 shall send thee, and whatsoever I command 
 thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their 
 faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee," 
 saith the Lord ; "thou therefore gird up thy 
 loins and arise and speak unto them all that 
 I shall command thee. Be not dismayed at 
 their faces lest I confound thee before them." 
 
 "If they had stood i;i My counsel and 
 had caused My people to hear My words 
 then they should have turned them from 
 their evil way and from the evil of their 
 doings," said the Lord of the false prophets. 
 Jeremiah 23 : 22. 
 
 "Not what is proper but what is right, 
 must be my fearless and constant inquiry. 
 Jesus, still lead on !" was the motto of Jo- 
 seph Parker, one of London's mightiest 
 preachers. 
 
 The soul-winner must get his message 
 from God and speak what and when He com- 
 mands. He is a servant of God, a friend 
 of Jesus, a prophet of the Most High, an am- 
 bassador of Heaven to the sons of men, and 
 he must needs speak Heaven's words and 
 represent Heaven's court and King and not 
 
12 THE SOUL- winner's SECRET. 
 
 seek his own will, but seek the will of Him 
 that sent him. "Behold, to obey is better 
 than sacrifice." He must not trim his course 
 to suit men, nor stop to ask what this man 
 or that shall do, but he must attend strictly 
 to his Lord and steadfastly follow Jesus. 
 Paul tells us that Jesus was "obedient unto 
 death" (Phil. 2: 8), and again and again 
 he calls himself "a servant of Jesus Christ." 
 First: This obedience must be prompt. 
 In spite of the appeals and encouragements 
 of Joshua and Caleb, the children of Israel 
 refused to go over into Canaan, but after- 
 wards, seeing their sin in refusing to obey 
 promptly, they essayed to go over in spite 
 of the warnings of Moses not now to attempt 
 it, and met with bitter defeat. Promptness 
 would have saved them forty years of 
 wandering in the wilderness. Once the soul- 
 winner knows the Master's will, he must 
 not delay to fulfill it. If he is in doubt he 
 can take time to assure himself as to what 
 that will is. God would not have him run 
 before he is sure he is sent, nor go before 
 he has his message, nor falter and possibly 
 fall because of uncertainty. But once he has 
 received his orders and got his message, let 
 him remember that "the King's business re- 
 
OBEDIENCE. 13 
 
 quires haste;" let him "strike while the iron 
 is hot;" act and speak when the Spirit 
 moves, and not like covetous Balaam dilly- 
 dally to see if God will not change His mind 
 and His orders. 
 
 Dewey's matchless victory at Manilla was 
 won, and the geographical boundaries of the 
 nations changed by the promptness with 
 which he carried out his orders to destroy 
 the Spanish fleet. 
 
 I have noticed that if I speak when the 
 Spirit moves me, I can usually introduce 
 the subject of religion and God's claims to 
 any individual or company of men with 
 happy results, but if I delay, the opportunity 
 slips by, not to return again, or if it does re- 
 turn, it does so with increased difficulties. 
 
 Second: This obedience must be exact. 
 Saul lost his kingdom and his life because 
 his obedience was only partial. (See i Sam. 
 15.) So also did the prophet who warned the 
 wicked King Jeroboam. (See i Kings, 13.) 
 
 "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it," 
 said Mary to the servants at the marriage of 
 Cana, and when they obeyed Him Jesus 
 wrought His first miracle. And so He will 
 work miracles to-day through His chosen 
 people, if they will do whatever He saith. 
 
14 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 The soul-winner must beware of quenching 
 the blessed Spirit, and then he will find that 
 it is not himself but the Spirit that speaks 
 in him, so that he can say with Jesus, 'The 
 words that I speak, I speak not of Myself, 
 but the Father that dwelleth in Me He doeth 
 the works," for does not Jesus say, "Whatso- 
 ever ye shall ask the Father in My name, 
 that will I do?" 
 
 Third: This obedience must be courage- 
 ous. "Be not afraid of their faces," said the 
 Lord to Jeremiah. And again He said to 
 Ezekiel, "And thou, son of man, be not 
 afraid of them, neither be afraid of their 
 words, though briers and thorns be with 
 thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions. 
 Be not afraid of their words, nor be dis- 
 mayed at their looks, though they be a re- 
 bellious house. And thou shalt speak My 
 words unto them, whether they will hear or 
 whether they will forbear." He was not to 
 say that which would please the people, but 
 that which God gave him to say, and that 
 without fear of consequences. 
 
 "And Saul said unto Samuel, I have 
 sinned, for I have transgressed the com- 
 mandments of the Lord, because I feared 
 the people and obeyed their voice." No 
 
OBEDIENCE. 15 
 
 wonder God cast him off and gave his crown 
 and kingdom to another! God says, "Fear 
 thou not, for I am with thee; be not dis- 
 mayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen 
 thee ; yea, I will help thee ; yea, I will 
 uphold thee with the right hand of My 
 righteousness." Let the soul-winner recog- 
 nize that he is on picket duty for Heaven, and 
 let him throw himself on Heaven's protec- 
 tion and rest in the assurance of his Heavenly 
 Father's care, and the utmost sympathy and 
 support of Jesus, and do his duty courage- 
 ously, .saying with Paul, "I can do all things 
 through Christ which strengtheneth me." 
 
 Again and again I have comforted myself 
 with the assurance of good King Jehosa- 
 phat, "Deal courageously and the Lord shall 
 be with the good," and encouraged myself 
 with the bold declaration of Peter to the 
 enraged and outwitted Sanhedrim, "We 
 ought to obey God rather than men," and 
 measured myself by the self-forgetful words 
 of Nehemiah, "Should such a man as I flee, 
 and who is there that being as I am would 
 go into the temple to save his life? I will not 
 go in." (Neh. 6: ii.) And of Paul, 
 "Neither count I my life dear unto myself, 
 so that I might finish my course with joy 
 
16 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 and the ministry which I have received of 
 the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the 
 grace of God." And of the three Hebrew 
 children: "O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not 
 careful to answer thee in this matter. If it 
 be so, our God whom we serve is able to de- 
 liver us from the burning fiery furnace, and 
 He will deliver us out of thine hand, O 
 king; but if not, O. king, be it known unto 
 thee that we will not serve thy gods nor 
 worship the golden image which thou hast 
 set up." 
 
 That is the kind of stuff out of which God 
 makes soul-winners. 
 
 Do you ask, how can a man get such a 
 spirit of courageous obedience? I answer, 
 by dying — dying to your selfish interests, 
 dying to the love of praise, the fear of cen- 
 sure, the hope of reward in this world, and 
 by a dare-devil faith in the reward that God 
 will give in the world to come ; by a steadfast 
 looking unto and following of Jesus, and a 
 constant comparison of time with eternity. 
 I read the other day that it was only dead 
 men who were living preachers. 
 
 Fourth: The obedience must be glad. 
 The command is, "Serve the Lord with glad- 
 ness." "I delight to do Thy will, O God," 
 
OBEDIENCE. 17 
 
 wrote the Psalmist. There was no grudging 
 about his obedience; it was his joy. It is 
 a love service God wants, and that is always 
 a joy service. "My meat and My drink is 
 to do the will of Him that sent Me," said 
 Jesus, and Paul declares, "If I do this thing 
 willingly, I have a reward." It is a glad love 
 service God calls us to, and once we are 
 wholly His and the Comforter abides in us, 
 we shall not find it irksome to obey, and by 
 obedience we shall both save ourselves and 
 others to whom the Lord may send us. 
 
18 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 III. 
 
 Prayer is the way of approach to God, and 
 the soul-winner keeps it open by constant 
 use. It is the channel by which all spiritual 
 blessings and power are received, and there- 
 fore the life of the soul-winner must be one 
 of ceaseless prayer. "Pray without ceasing," 
 wrote Paul. It is the breath of the soul, and 
 other things being equal, it is the secret of 
 power. 
 
 It is written of Jesus, "And it came to 
 pass in those days that He went out into 
 a mountain to pray, and' continued all night 
 in prayer to God." And this was followed 
 by mighty works. 
 
 What an amazing statement is this: 
 "Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, 
 believe that ye receive them, and ye shall 
 
PRAYER. 19 
 
 have them;" and this: "Verily, verily, I 
 say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the 
 Father in My name, He will give it you ;" 
 and this : "If ye abide in Me and My words 
 abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it 
 shall be done unto you !" And yet, amazing 
 as they are, there they stand in "the Scrip- 
 ture of truth," a challenge to every child 
 of God who is jealous for God's glory, who 
 longs for the triumph of righteousness and 
 who seeks the salvation of souls. 
 
 The soul-winner must pray in secret; he 
 must get alone with God and pour his heart 
 into his Heavenly Father's ear with inter- 
 cessions and pleadings and arguments, if he 
 would have good success. There is no sub- 
 stitute for much wide-awake, expectant, 
 secret waiting upon God for the outpouring 
 of the Holy Spirit, the gift of wisdom, 
 strength, courage, hope, faith, discernment 
 of times and spirits, and a glowing, burning, 
 comprehensive message from Him to the 
 people. H men fail at this point, they will 
 in due time fail at every point. Jesus said: 
 "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, 
 and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to 
 thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father 
 which seeth in secret, shall reward thee 
 
20 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 openly." Here, then, is the secret of success 
 — »closet communion and counse(lings and 
 conversations with God, who is our Father, 
 and who can and will no more turn away 
 from us when we come in the spirit of an 
 obedient and affectionate child, than can the 
 sunlight when we throw open the windows 
 and doors and stand in its beams. I say it 
 reverently. He cannot turn away from us, but 
 will surely reward us, and that openly, be- 
 cause He said He would, and He cannot 
 lie. 
 
 Prayer must be definite. Once, when 
 Jesus was leaving Jericho with His disciples 
 and a great number of people, blind Bar- 
 timeus sat by the wayside begging, and 
 when he heard Jesus was passing by, he 
 began to cry out and say : "Jesus, Thou 
 Son of David, have mercy on me," but 
 that prayer was not definite — it was alto- 
 gether too general. Jesus knew what Bar- 
 timeus wanted, but He desired Bartimeus 
 to state exactly what he desired, and said to 
 him: 
 
 "What wilt thou that I should do unto 
 thee?" Then the blind man prayed a definite 
 prayer. 
 
 "Lord, that I might receive my sight," and 
 
PRAYER. 21 
 
 the definite prayer then received a definite 
 answer, for Jesus said unto him : 
 
 "Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee 
 whole," and immediately he received his 
 sight. 
 
 We should be as definite when we go to 
 God, in asking Him for what we want, as 
 we are when we go to the store. The sales- 
 man is prepared to sell us anything and 
 everything in the store, but he in reality 
 sells us nothing until we tell him what we 
 want, and so it is with our Heavenly Father. 
 
 Our prayers must be bold. Paul said: 
 "We have a great High Priest who has 
 passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of 
 God^ who is touched with the feelings of 
 our infirmities^ and was tempted in all points 
 like as we are, yet without sin," and adds: 
 "Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, 
 that we may obtain mercy and find grace in 
 time of need." Of course this boldness must 
 be coupled with humility, but the greater 
 the humility, the greater the boldness, if 
 mixed with faith. I have often been amused 
 and amazed at the boldness with which chil- 
 dren come to their parents for the things 
 they need and the things they want, and how 
 gladly does the true parent respond to the 
 
22 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 child's request, especially if it expresses a 
 genuine need ! And Jesus said : "If ye then 
 being evil, know how to give good gifts 
 unto your children, how much more will 
 your Heavenly Father give good things to 
 them that ask Him." 
 
 The devil stands mocking and teasing the 
 praying soul, to drive him from his knees 
 and from his Father's face, but let him 
 rather come boldly in the name of Jesus 
 and wait patiently for the things he desires, 
 and he shall have an abundant reward. It 
 is not our Heavenly Father's will to dis- 
 appoint His trusting children but rather to 
 give them their utmost desire, yea, "ex- 
 ceeding abundantly above all they ask or 
 think," for His heart is all love toward 
 them; therefore let them not be timid and 
 wavering, but steadfast and bold as His dear 
 children. 
 
 Prayer must be importunate, persevering. 
 Jesus teaches this very clearly in His par- 
 able of the importunate friend. "Which 
 of you," said Jesus, "shall have a friend and 
 shall go unto him at midnight and shall say 
 unto him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, 
 for a friend of mine in his journey has come 
 to me, and I have nothing to set before him/ 
 
PRAYER. 23 
 
 and he from within shall say, 'Trouble me 
 not, the door is now shut, and my children 
 are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give 
 thee,' I say unto you, though he will not rise 
 and give him because he is his friend, yet be- 
 cause of his importunity, he will rise and give 
 him as many as he needeth;" and then Jesus 
 adds: "Ask and it shall be given you, seek 
 and ye shall find, knock and it shall be 
 opened unto you. For every one that 
 asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh find- 
 eth, and to him that knocketh it shall be 
 opened unto him;" by which Jesus means 
 to teach that we are to hold on in prayer 
 till we get an answer. If the answer is 
 delayed, our own hearts will be searched, 
 the purity of our motives will be proved, 
 and our faith will be purified, tried, devel- 
 oped and strengthened for future and 
 greater triumph. 
 
 Jesus prayed three times that the cup of 
 death in the garden of Gethsemane might 
 pass from Him. It was not death on the 
 Cross, but death in the garden He feared, 
 and the apostle tells us, in Hebrews 5: 7, 
 that he was heard. Daniel abstained from 
 all pleasant food for three weeks at one 
 time, and prayed until God appeared unto 
 
24 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 him and said: "O man, greatly beloved, 
 fear not; peace be unto thee; be strong; 
 yea, be strong;" and added, "I will show 
 thee that which is noted in the Scriptures 
 of truth," and then told him all that he 
 desired to know. And Elijah, after his 
 victory over the priests of Baal, sent his 
 servant seven times to look for the cloud 
 that should bring rain, while he bowed his 
 face between his knees, and poured out his 
 heart to God in prayer until the cloud ap- 
 peared that should bring the floods of rain. 
 Miiller sometimes prayed every day, and 
 often several times a day, and that for 
 months and years, for some things he wanted, 
 before the answer came, but come it 
 did, in due time. Though the answer be 
 delayed, it is not God's purpose to deny 
 us without letting us know the reason 
 why. 
 
 Prayer must be for the glory of God 
 and according to His will. If we ask things 
 simply to gratify our own desires, God 
 cannot grant them. James said of certain 
 ones, "Ye ask .... but ye ask amiss, that ye 
 may consume it upon your lusts," but John 
 said, "This is the confidence that we have in 
 Him, that, if we ask anything according 
 
PRAYER. 25 
 
 to His will, He heareth us ; and if we know 
 that He heareth us .... we know that we 
 have the petitions that we desired of Him." 
 Jesus said, "If ye abide in Me and My words 
 abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and 
 it shall be done unto you." 
 
 We are to ask according to the things 
 revealed as His will in His Word, and ac- 
 cording to the principles laid down therein; 
 therefore we should study His Word con- 
 stantly and hide it in our own hearts, and 
 see to it that we hide ourselves in His heart 
 and thus be filled with the truth; we shall 
 then not ask amiss, and being filled with 
 the Spirit, we shall not be denied. 
 
 Prayer must be mixed with faith — must 
 be believing prayer. "Whatsoever ye de- 
 sire when ye pray, believe that ye receive 
 and ye shall have." Oh, what a victory I 
 got one morning over the devil, when hf 
 tried to shake my faith and confidence ! I 
 laid hold of that promise and wrestled 
 through to the solid rock of believing 
 prayer, and had one of the most glorious 
 soul-saving days in my life! The man 
 whose faith is constantly wavering shali 
 receive nothing from the Lord. (James i: 
 6-7.) 
 
26 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 Finally, prayer must be in the name of 
 Jesus. "Whatsoever ye will ask in My 
 name that will I do, that the Father may 
 be glorified in the Son," said Jesus. 
 
 "The Blood, the Blood is all my plea," 
 and with that plea the vilest sinner may 
 come, while the child of God may ap- 
 proach with unabashed boldness into the 
 presence of his Heavenly Father and claim 
 all the resources of Heaven in his warfare 
 against sins in his effort to save sinners and 
 build up the kingdom of God. 
 
ZEAL. 27 
 
 IV. 
 
 ZEAL. 
 
 It is said that Sheridan went to battle 
 with all the fury of a madman, and reck- 
 lessly exposed himself to the shot and shell 
 of the enemy. He told General Horace 
 Porter that he never went into a battle 
 from which he cared to come back alive 
 unless he came as a victor. This desperation 
 made him an irresistible inspiration to his 
 own troops and enabled him to hurl them like 
 thunderbolts against his foes. If he became 
 so desperate in killing men, how much more 
 desperate, if possible, should we become in 
 our desire and effort to save them! 
 
 It was written of Jesus, "The zeal of 
 Thine house hath eaten me up," and so it 
 can be of every great soul-winner. 
 
 Not until a man can say with Paul, 
 
28 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 "Neither count I my life dear unto myself;" 
 and "I am ready to die for the name of 
 the Lord Jesus," can he hope to be largely 
 used in winning souls. He that is anxious 
 about his dinner and eager to get to bed at 
 a reasonable hour and concerned about his 
 salary, and oversolicitous about his health, 
 and querulous about his reputation, and the 
 respectability and financial condition of his 
 appointment, and afraid of weariness and 
 painfulness and headache and heartache, 
 and a sore throat, may make a very respect- 
 able field of^cer or parson, but not a great 
 soul-winner. 
 
 There are various kinds of zeal which 
 should be avoided as deadly evils. 
 
 First: Partial zeal like that of Jehu. 
 (2 Kings 10: 15-31.) God set him to destroy 
 the wicked house of Ahab and the worship 
 of Baal, and he did so with fury, "but Jehu 
 took no heed to walk in the law of the God 
 of Israel with all his heart, for he departed 
 not from the sins of Jeroboam which made 
 Israel to sin," and in due time God had to 
 cut oflf his house as well. 
 
 This kind of zeal is frequently seen in 
 those who violently attack one sort of sin, 
 while probably they themselves are secretly 
 
ZEAL. 29 
 
 indulging in some other sin. Such people 
 are usually not only intolerant of the sin, 
 but also of the sinner, while true zeal makes 
 one infinitely tender and patient towards 
 the sinner, while absolutely uncompromis- 
 ing with his sin. 
 
 Second: Party zeal like that of the 
 Pharisees and Sadducees. In these days it 
 takes the form of excessive sectarian and 
 denominational zeal and makes bigots of 
 men. Zeal for the particular church or 
 organization to which one belongs is right 
 within certain limits. We are converted 
 through the instrumentality of a certain 
 religious organization, and we become chil- 
 dren of its household, or we are led into it 
 by the Holy Spirit through a blessed, divine 
 affinity with its members, methods, spirit 
 and doctrine, and we should in that case 
 be loyal and true to its leaders who are 
 over us in the Lord and who watch for our 
 souls, and follow them as they follow Christ. 
 We should also be loyal to the principles 
 of the organization so far as they harmon- 
 ize with the word of God, and we should 
 seek in all true ways, by prayer and suppli- 
 cation and ceaselessly zealous work to build 
 up this organization in holiness and right- 
 
30 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 eousness, and this we can do with all our 
 might, if we do it in the Holy Spirit, and can 
 be assured that God is well pleased with 
 us. But we must at the same time beware 
 of a party spirit that would despise other 
 work and workers or tear them down that 
 we may rise on their ruins. Such zeal is from 
 beneath and not from above. It is contrary 
 to that "love that seeketh not her own," and 
 that "looketh not upon her own things, but 
 also upon the things of others," and will 
 come back, boomerang-like, upon our own 
 pates, and bring ruin upon ourselves. 
 
 "For the love of God is broader 
 Than the measure of man's mind, 
 
 And the heart of the Eternal 
 Is most wonderfully kind." 
 
 And true zeal makes men like that. 
 
 Third: The zeal of ignorance. Paul said 
 of his kinsmen, the Jews, "My heart's 
 desire and prayer to God for Israel is that 
 they might be saved, for I bear them record 
 that they have a zeal for God but not ac- 
 cording to knowledge, for they, being ignor- 
 ant of God's righteousness and going about 
 to establish their own righteousness, have 
 
ZEAL. 31 
 
 not submitted themselves unto the righteous- 
 ness of God." (Romans lo: 1-3.) 
 
 True zeal is from above. Its source is in 
 the mountains of the Lord's holiness, and 
 its springing fountains in the deep cool val- 
 leys of humility. It is born of the Holy 
 Spirit, and springs from a knowledge of 
 "the truth as it is in Jesus." This knowl- 
 edge is two-fold: 
 
 First: It is the knowledge of the dread 
 condition of the sinner without Christ — his 
 slavery to Satan; the inherited depravity 
 of his nature; his bondage to sin, his love 
 of it; his enmity toward God, of which he 
 is probably not aware; his guilt; his help- 
 lessness and his ignorance of the way back 
 to his Heavenly Father's house and happi- 
 ness, and his awful danger, if he neglects 
 the offer of salvation and life in Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Second: It is the knowledge of the un- 
 speakable gift of God, of the possibilities 
 of grace for the vilest sinner, of the Father's 
 pitying, yearning love, of sins forgiven, 
 guilt removed, adoption into the Father's 
 family, illumination, consolation, guidance, 
 keeping, depravity destroyed, cleansing 
 through the Blood, sanctification by the 
 
32 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 baptism of the Holy Spirit, of salvation 
 from the uttermost to the uttermost; of un- 
 broken fellowship with the Father and His 
 Son Jesus Christ through the eternal Spirit; 
 of a life of blessed service and fruit-bearing, 
 and of a faith and hope that bear the 
 spirit up over sorrows and trials and losses 
 and pain and sickness, enabling it at last to 
 cry out in supreme victory and holy tri- 
 umph: "O Death, where is thy sting, O 
 Grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be 
 to God which giveth us the victory through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 True zeal makes one faithful to Jesus 
 and the souls for whom He died. It led 
 Paul during his three years' appointment 
 at Ephesus "to warn everyone night and 
 day with tears/' to "serve the Lord with 
 all humility," to keep back no truth that was 
 profitable for the people, but to show them 
 and teach them "publicly and from house to 
 house, testifying both to the Jews and also 
 to the Greeks, repentance toward God and 
 faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 
 20.) He was not content simply to get 
 sinners to accept Jesus as their Saviour, 
 but taught them that "Christ in you is 
 the hope of glory, whom we preach, warn- 
 
ZEAL. 33 
 
 ing every man and teaching every man in 
 all wisdom that we may present every man 
 perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I labor, 
 striving according to his working which 
 worketh in me mightily." (Col. 27: 29.) 
 Paul was jealous for the perfection in love 
 and loyalty of all his converts, and his 
 zeal led him to seek with all his might to 
 lead them all into this blessed experience. 
 And as was Paul, so also was Baxter, who 
 labored indefatigably in spite of life-long 
 sickness, and at times almost in intolerable 
 pain, for the perfection of his people. And 
 so also was Wesley and Fox and General 
 and Mrs. Booth, and so will be every soul- 
 winner who is full of the zeal of God. 
 
 True zeal is sacrificial. Jesus, consumed 
 with zeal for the glory of God in the sav- 
 ing and sanctifying of men, "was led as a 
 lamb to the slaughter." Isaiah, who fore- 
 saw the humiliation and sacrificial life and 
 death of Jesus, said by inspiration, "I gave 
 my back to the smiters and my cheek to 
 them that plucked off the hair; I hid not 
 my face from shame and spitting." And 
 again Isaiah said, "He is despised and 
 rejected of men; a man of sorrows and 
 acquainted with grief; He was despised and 
 
34 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath 
 borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: 
 yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten 
 of God and afflicted. But He was wounded 
 for our transgressions, He was bruised for 
 our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace 
 was upon Him, and with His stripes we are 
 healed. The Lord hath laid on Him the 
 iniquity of us all." (Isa. 53.) He poured 
 out His soul unto death for us, He gave 
 His life a ransom for men. Bless His name! 
 And the gift of His Spirit kindles and sus- 
 tains this same sacrificial zeal in the hearts 
 of all true soul-winners. 
 
 "Enlarge, inflame and fill my heart 
 With boundless charity divine, 
 
 So shall I all my strength exert, 
 
 And love them with a zeal like Thine; 
 
 And lead them to Thy open side, 
 
 The sheep for whom their Shepherd died." 
 
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP. 35 
 
 V. 
 
 SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP. 
 
 The soul-winner must have the power 
 of spiritual leadership, and spiritual leader- 
 ship is a thing of the Spirit, and not of 
 birth, or rank, or title, or education, or cir- 
 cumstances. Here is the secret of the power 
 of humble Salvation Army officers from the 
 lowly walks of life. 
 
 Joseph was a youthful prisoner in an 
 Egyptian dungeon, but he walked with 
 God, and was "a prosperous man/' for 
 God was with him, and one day he reached 
 his rightful place next to Pharaoh's throne. 
 (Gen. 39 and 40.) 
 
 Paul was a prisoner under Roman guards 
 on board ship, hastening to Caesar's judg- 
 ment bar; but one day, God's winds made 
 the sea to boil, and winds and waves smote 
 
36 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 the ship, and when men's hearts failed them 
 for fear, Paul, by right of spiritual kingship, 
 became the master of all on board. (Acts 
 27.) 
 
 I knew a Lieutenant, a quiet, modest, 
 thoughtful, prayerful, faithful, humble, holy 
 lad, of moderate ability, stationed with an 
 Ensign, at whose feet the Ensign and his 
 wife sat for spiritual counsel, though the 
 Lieutenant knew it not. They hung on his 
 God-wise words, and remembered his ex- 
 ample, and treasured his spirit, and talked 
 to me about his saintHness and Christlike- 
 ness long after he, as Captain, had left 
 them for a corps by himself. 
 
 They commanded the corps, but he held 
 spiritual supremacy because he walked with 
 God, and God was with him and in him. 
 
 Spiritual leadership is not won nor es- 
 tablished by promotion, but by many 
 prayers, tears and confessions of sin and 
 heart-searchings and humblings before God, 
 and self-surrender and a courageous sacri- 
 fice of every idol and a bold and deathless, 
 and uncompromising and uncomplaining em- 
 brace of the Cross and an eternal, unfalter- 
 ing looking unto Jesus crucified. It is not 
 gained by seeking great things for our- 
 
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP. 37 
 
 selves (Jer. 45: 5), but rather, like Paul, 
 by counting those things that were gain, 
 loss for Christ. Hear him: "What things 
 were gain to me those I counted loss for 
 Christ. Yea^ doubtless, and I count all 
 things but loss for the excellency of the 
 knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for 
 whom I have suffered the loss of all things, 
 and do count them but dung that I may win 
 Christ. (Phil. 3: 7, 8.) 
 
 That is a great price, but it must be un- 
 flinchingly paid by him who would be not 
 merely a nominal, but a real spiritual 
 leader of men — a leader whose power is 
 recognized by three worlds and felt in 
 heaven, earth and hell. Moses gained 
 this spiritual leadership among Pharaoh's 
 palace halls and Sinai's solitudes and fast- 
 nesses, when he "refused to be called the 
 son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather 
 to suffer affliction with the people of God 
 than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a 
 season; esteeming the reproach of Christ 
 greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." 
 
 Spiritual leaders are not made by man, 
 *»or any combination of men. Neither con- 
 ferences, nor synods, nor councils can 
 make them, but only God. 
 
•38 THE SOUL- winner's SECRET. 
 
 Spiritual power is the outcome of spiritual 
 life, and all life, from that of the moss 
 and lichen on the wall to that of the arch- 
 angel before the Throne, is from God, 
 Therefore let those who aspire to this leader- 
 ship pay the price, and seek it from God. 
 
 Who made Elijah and John the Baptist 
 — hairy, uncouth men of the wilderness 
 and desert — prophets who awed kings and 
 swayed nations? God. 
 
 Who took Moses from the universities 
 of Egypt and the palaces of Pharaoh and 
 after drilling him among flocks of sheep 
 on the back side of the desert for forty 
 years, made him the meek, but unconquer- 
 able leader of two millions of slaves, and the 
 law-giver and fountain-head of jurispru- 
 dence for all time? God. 
 
 Who took the baby Samuel and put into 
 his mouth prophetic words to the aged 
 priest Eli, and made him spiritual leader 
 of Israel? God. 
 
 Who took the boy David, trained to feed 
 harmless, patient sheep, and put courage 
 into his heart, and nerved his arm to 
 fight the lion and the bear and the giant, 
 and gave him skill to lead Israel's armies, 
 so that the women sang: "Saul hath slain 
 
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP. 39 
 
 his thousands and David his ten thou- 
 sands," while the elders, after the death 
 of Saul, came to him, saying, "In time 
 past, when Saul was king over us, thou 
 was he that leddest out and broughtest in 
 Israel, and the Lord said to thee, thou 
 shalt be a captain over Israel?" God. 
 
 And why did God single them out and 
 distinguish them, and give them this power 
 above other men? Because God was to 
 them the supreme Fact. 
 
 They believed God, sought God, feared 
 and trusted and obeyed God. Read the 
 Psalms and see how God fills the whole 
 heaven of David's thought, desire and 
 affection, and you will cease to wonder 
 at his leadership. It was based on 
 spiritual life, power and fellowship with 
 God. 
 
 This spiritual leadership once attained, 
 can be maintained. Witness Moses, Elijah, 
 Paul, Fox, Wesley, Finney and General 
 Booth, and ten thousand leaders in hum- 
 bler spheres who still bear "fruit in old 
 age," and continue "fat and flourishing;" 
 like a white-haired old saint of eighty 
 years, on whom I called who, after I had 
 prayed, burst into prayer, and said: "O 
 
40 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 Father, I testify to Thee, and the angels, 
 and these young brothers, that old age is 
 not a time of dotage and second childhood, 
 but the springtime of eternal youth." 
 
 I hear comparatively young men com- 
 plaining and expressing fear that when they 
 get old they will be set aside and su- 
 perseded by younger and more virile men 
 without a tithe of their experience, for- 
 getting that it is not long service and ex- 
 perience that makes spiritual leaders, but 
 vigorous spiritual life, and that if set 
 aside, it will be because they have not 
 kept step with God;, but have neglected 
 the divine life, the Holy Ghost in them. 
 Neither conferences, nor synods, nor coun- 
 cils, nor commanders, can make a man 
 acceptable to the people, however long his 
 service and varied his experience, if he has 
 lost the spirit of prayer and faith and fiery- 
 hearted love, and the sweet simplicity and 
 trustfulness and self-sacrifice of his youth, 
 and is now living on past victories and 
 revelations and blessings. But fresh 
 anointings of the Spirit and present-day 
 experiences will make him acceptable, 
 though his eye be dim and his back bent, 
 and his voice husky with age. It was so 
 
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP. 41 
 
 with Finney, and Whitefield and Wesley, 
 and so it may be with you, O my 
 brother ! 
 
 There have been ministers who in their 
 prime fought holiness and refused the 
 baptism of the Holy Ghost, or who, hav- 
 ing received the baptism, neglected and 
 lost it, who filled big pulpits and drew fat 
 salaries, but whose influence gradually 
 waned and whose old age was full of 
 complainings and disappointments and 
 bitterness and jealousies, and whose sun 
 went down behind clouds, if not into a 
 starless night, because they neglected 
 God. 
 
 And I know men — old men — full of God, 
 who were persecuted in their prime for 
 Jesus' sake, but who had salt in them- 
 selves and kept sweet and delighted 
 themselves in the Lord, whose bow abides 
 in strength, whose sun is shining in full- 
 ness of splendor, and who are filling the 
 world with divine messages that men are 
 eager to hear. Know this: that not long 
 service and experience will save you from 
 becoming a back number, but God in you 
 will. God is always up to date. It is God 
 men want. 
 
42 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 What service had they performed, and 
 what experience had Moses, and David, 
 and Daniel, and Paul, when God set them 
 up as leaders? None. But they were in 
 touch with God; they were pliable to His 
 will, teachable, trustful, obedient, cour- 
 ageous and uncomplaining. 
 
 They were full of God. And know this, 
 you who fear the time is coming when 
 your services will no longer be appreci- 
 ated or wanted, and you will be thrust 
 into a corner, that a man full of God can- 
 not be thrust aside. If he is put into a 
 desert place, then all the country side and 
 Jerusalem will flock to the desert ^lace, 
 as they did to Jesus and John the Baptist; 
 and if he is thrust into a corner, then the 
 world will stop and bend its ear to his 
 corner to hear his latest message from 
 God. They thrust Paul into prison, but 
 he spoke and wrote words of life and power 
 that burn with unquenchable fire of the 
 Holy Ghost, and are doing more to direct 
 the thought, inspire the faith and inflame 
 the affections of men to-day than ever be- 
 fore. The Jews and Romans thought they 
 had done with him when they cut off his 
 head as that of a dog, but, after two mil- 
 
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP. 43 
 
 lenniums his influence still increases, and 
 forever will. 
 
 And so they thought to silence Madam 
 Guyon in the Bastille, and John Bunyon in 
 the filthy Bedford jail. But who can silence 
 the thunder of God's power, or hush His 
 "still small voice," when He chooses a man 
 to speak through him? Their silent prisons 
 but become public telephone stations, con- 
 nected with the skies. 
 
 The other day, in one of our great 
 cities, died an old man, long since past 
 three score years and ten, a minister, who 
 at the age of forty-seven, broke down so 
 utterly in health from over work, that for 
 five years he never read a chapter from a 
 book, not even from the Bible, but he held 
 fast his faith in both God and man, kept 
 his love all aglow, and at last died full of 
 years and was mourned by hundreds in all 
 parts of the globe who had been saved, sanc- 
 tified, inspired and qualified for service by 
 his words and life, and the agencies he set 
 in motion for the sanctification of the 
 church and the salvation of the world. And, 
 by odds, his greatest work was accom- 
 plished after he had passed three score 
 years. God was with him. 
 
44 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 But while this spiritual power and leader- 
 ship may be maintained, yet it is a subtle 
 thing that may be lost for evermore. 
 
 When Saul was little in his own sight, 
 he was made king, but, when lifted up he 
 became disobedient, his kingdom was rent 
 from him and given to another. And is it 
 not this we are warned against in the 
 words: "Hold fast that which thou hast, 
 that no man take thy crown?" The bish- 
 opric of Judas was given to another. The 
 one talent was taken from the "wicked 
 and slothful servant," and given to him 
 that had ten. 
 
 I know a Christian worker surrounded 
 by a number of other bright, earnest, teach- 
 able, spiritually ambitious young workers, 
 who looked to him for direction and guid- 
 ance. He invited them to his home for 
 an evening, and when they waited for soul- 
 food, cofifee and cake were brought out; 
 and when they expected prayer and counsel 
 the chess board was produced, and the 
 opportunity of the evening slipped away, 
 and the strong bonds that united them in 
 God were relaxed and weakened^ if not 
 in one or two cases broken, and while his 
 official and titular leadership was recognized 
 
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP. 45 
 
 his commanding spiritual leadership was 
 gone, alas! I fear forever. 
 
 As electric wires in order to carry the 
 subtle current, must be insulated, so must 
 men who hold spiritual leadership and who 
 would transmit to their fellows spiritual 
 power and life. 
 
 "But ye beloved, building up yourselves 
 on your most holy faith, praying in the 
 Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of 
 God, looking for the mercy of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ unto eternal life . . . Now 
 unto Him that is able to keep you from 
 falling, and to present you faultless before 
 the presence of His glory with exceeding 
 joy, to the only wise God, our Saviour, be 
 glory and majesty, dominion and power 
 both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 20: 25.) 
 
46 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 VI. 
 
 REDEEMING THE TIME. 
 
 "/See that ye walk circumspect, not as fools, 
 hut as wise, redeeming the time, because the 
 days are evil." (Eph. 5 : 15-16.) 
 
 The soul-winner must value time. Dia- 
 monds and gold nuggets are not so prec- 
 ious as minutes. One morning, about 5 
 o'clock, John Wesley lost ten minutes 
 through the tardiness of his coachman, and 
 mourned for them more than over lost 
 treasure. 
 
 Dr. Johnson tells us that "Whenever 
 Melanchthon made an appointment, he 
 expected not only the hour, but the min- 
 ute to be fixed, that the day might not 
 run out in the idleness of suspense." A 
 lady told me that she was sure she got a 
 
REDEEMING THE TIME. 47 
 
 position as a teacher once by being sharp 
 on time. Another young lady, better fitted 
 for the position, arrived a bit late, and 
 remarked, "I thought it wouldn't make 
 any difference if I were a few minutes 
 late." She was politely informed that her 
 services were not wanted, as a teacher had 
 been secured. Eternity is made up of mo- 
 ments, and "lost time is lost eternity." 
 
 "Believe me," said Gladstone, "when I 
 tell you that thrift of time will repay you 
 in after life with a usury of profit beyond 
 your most sanguine dreams, and that the 
 waste of it will make you dwindle alike 
 in intellectual and moral stature, beyond 
 your darkest reckonings." 
 
 And yet thoughtless idlers try to "kill 
 time," and thus destroy their most valuable 
 possession. 
 
 What is life but a glad, present conscious- 
 ness of God and self and duty, and a hearty 
 obedience thereto? But he that kills time 
 seeks to forget, and would be far better 
 dead. 
 
 "The future is nothing but a coming 
 present," wrote Jean Paul Richter, "and 
 the present which thou despisest was once 
 a future which thou desiredst." Said a 
 
48 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 heathen philosopher, "Every man's life lies 
 within the present, for the past is spent 
 and done with, and the future is uncertain," 
 If you would redeem the time, begin the 
 moment your eyes open in the morning. 
 Let no idle, foolish, hurtful thoughts be 
 harbored for an instant, but begin at once 
 to pray and praise God and to meditate 
 on His glories. His goodness and faithful- 
 ness and truth, and your heart will soon 
 burn within you and bubble over with joy. 
 Bounce out of your bed at once and get the 
 start of your work and push it, else it will 
 get the start and push you. For 
 
 "If you in the morning 
 
 Tlirow minutes away, 
 You can't pick them up 
 
 In the course of the day. 
 You may hurry a,nd scurry, 
 
 And flurry and worry, 
 You've lost them forever, 
 
 Forever and aye." 
 
 Said a chief divisional officer to me the 
 other day, "There is much in the habit of 
 work. H a man forms the habit, he natur- 
 ally turns to it. I find it so with myself. I 
 squander less time now than I used to do." 
 
 The difference between wise men and 
 
REDEEMING THE TIME. 49 
 
 fools, rich men and poor men, saints and 
 sinners, saved men and damned men, does 
 not usually result so much from difference 
 of circumstances, and the start they had 
 in life as in the difference in their use of 
 time. One redeemed it for the purpose he 
 had in view; the other squandered it. One 
 was a miser of the minutes; the other was 
 a spendthrift of the days and months and 
 years. 
 
 The one was ever up and doing, packing 
 into every hour some search for truth, 
 some prayer to God, some communion with 
 Jesus, some service to man, some counsel 
 to a saint, some warning or entreaty to a 
 sinner; the other was ever neglecting the 
 opportunity of the present, but full of vague 
 purposes and dreams for an ever-receding, 
 will-o'-the-wisp-like future. 
 
 The one plods his way patiently and 
 surely to ''glory and honor, and peace, and 
 immortality, and eternal life;" the other 
 drifts dreamily, but certainly into the re- 
 gions of "indignation and wrath, tribulation 
 and anguish," and finally lands in Hell. (See 
 Rom, 2: 6-10.) 
 
 To redeem time one does not want fever- 
 ish hurry, but a prompt, steady, quiet use 
 
60 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 of the minutes. It was said of John Wesley 
 that he was always in haste, but never in 
 a hurry. "Make haste slowly," is a wise 
 old adage. 
 
 To save time the soul-winner will find it 
 profitable to go to bed promptly after his 
 meeting at night and to get up promptly 
 on waking in the morning. Men who have 
 accomplished anything in the world have 
 usually gone to work early in the day. 
 
 The Rev. Albert Barnes wrote sixteen 
 volumes in less than an equal number of 
 years, devoting to them only the hours 
 before breakfast. 
 
 If you would save time, have a Bible, a 
 note book and a pencil always at hand. 
 Never go on to the street or take a journey 
 without at least a Testament with you, 
 and some other useful book if possible. 
 And don't forget to use them. The Gospel 
 of St. Matthew can be read through in two 
 hours. This may not be the most profit- 
 able way to read it, and yet it will pay to 
 read it right through at one sitting, that 
 we may see the life of Jesus as a whole 
 as we would the life of any man. 
 
 Paul's first letter to Timothy can be read 
 in twenty minutes, while Jude can be read 
 
REDEEMING THE TIME, 51 
 
 in three minutes easily. Then don't throw 
 away these minutes. 
 
 Mrs. General Booth had to snatch time 
 from household duties and the care of small 
 children to prepare her marvelous ad- 
 dresses that stirred England, and helped so 
 much in making and moulding The 
 Army. 
 
 The minister who sits about smoking and 
 reading novels, and The Salvation Army 
 officer who whiles away the minutes idly 
 thrumming on his guitar and reading the 
 daily papers will not succeed at soul-saving 
 work. 
 
 Again, the soul-winner can redeem time 
 by being "instant in season, out of season," 
 in dealing with men about the things of 
 God. Uncle John Vassar, an eccentric, but 
 marvelously successful soul-winner, once 
 saw two ladies in the parlor of a Boston 
 hotel, and immediately inquired if they were 
 at peace with God, and kindly and earnestly 
 preached Jesus to them, and urged them 
 to make ready for death and judgment by 
 accepting Him as Saviour and Lord. A 
 few moments later the husband of one of 
 them came in and found them in tears. He 
 inquired for the reason, when his wife 
 
52 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 said, "A strange little man has just been 
 talking to us about religion and urging us 
 to get right with God." 
 
 "Well," said the man, "if I had been 
 here I should have told him to go about 
 his business." 
 
 "My dear," replied the wife, "if you had 
 been here, you would have thought he was 
 about his business." 
 
 That blessed young saint of God, James 
 Brainerd Taylor, met a traveler at a water- 
 ing trough one day, and during the five 
 minutes their horses were drinking he 
 so preached Jesus to the stranger that he 
 was saved and afterwards became a mission- 
 ary to Africa. They met no more, and the 
 stranger was ever wondering who the angel 
 of mercy was that pointed him to Jesus. 
 One day in Africa he received a box of 
 books, and on opening a small volume of 
 memoirs, he saw the picture of the saintly 
 and sainted young man who was about his 
 Father's business and redeemed the time 
 at that watering trough by preaching Jesus 
 and saving a soul, instead of idly gossiping 
 about the weather. 
 
 It takes no more time to ask a man 
 about his soul than about his health, but 
 
REDEEMING THE TIME. 53 
 
 it will require more love and prayer and 
 holy tact and soul-wakefulness to do it 
 with profit, and these the soul-winner must 
 have. 
 
 With many much time is lost for want of sys- 
 tem. Things are done at haphazard, duties are 
 performed at random, and after one thing 
 is done time is wasted in deciding what to 
 do next. It is well, then, to have a pro- 
 gram for every day, or, better still, for every 
 hour and minute, as our General does when 
 he goes on a tour. For months ahead the 
 General will have a program for every hour 
 of the day, and whether he succeeds or 
 not in perfectly carrying it out in all its de- 
 tails, he at least works to it, saves anxious 
 worry, loses no time and accomplishes a 
 well-nigh incredible amount of business. 
 Of course in this busy world, full of sur- 
 prises and unexpected calls, any program 
 must be flexible and not like cast iron, 
 and in times of emergency the soul-winner 
 must be prepared to cast it to the winds 
 and follow according to his best judgment 
 where the Spirit leads, singing with all his 
 heart: 
 
54 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 "I would the precious time redeem, 
 And longer live for this alone — 
 
 To spend and to be spent for them, 
 
 Who have not yet the Saviour known, 
 
 And turn them to a pardoning God 
 
 And quench the brands in Jesus' Blood. 
 
 My talents, gifts and graces, Lord, 
 Into Thy blessed hands receive. 
 
 And let me live to preach Thy Word, 
 And let me to Thy glory live ; 
 
 My every sacred moment spend 
 In publishing the sinner's Friend.' 
 
 Finally, if you would redeem the time, 
 keep a conscience void of offence, keep 
 your soul at white-heat with love for Jesus 
 and the dying world, "Have faith in God." 
 Expect victory. Nothing saps a man's 
 energies, dulls his faculties and takes from 
 him all incentive to holy and high effort 
 like doubt and discouragement. It is 
 your duty to expect victory. Hallelujah! 
 After the defeat at Ai, Joshua in a fit of 
 discouragement stopped all efforts and fell 
 flat on his face and stayed there till God 
 came by and said, "Get thee up; where- 
 fore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel 
 hath sinned and they have also transgressed 
 
REDEEMING THE TIME. 55 
 
 My covenant which I commanded them; for 
 they have even taken of the accursed 
 thing, and have also stolen, and dis- 
 sembled also. Therefore the children of 
 Israel could not stand before their enemies 
 .... neither will I be with you any more, 
 except ye destroy the accursed thing among 
 you. Up, sanctify the people and say, 'Sanc- 
 tify yourselves.'" (Joshua 7: 10-13.) 
 
 God wanted Joshua to be up and doing, 
 and if he could not whip the enemy, then 
 he was to clean out his own camp and not 
 be discouraged. Trust God, and trust man, 
 and where men cannot be trusted, then love 
 them and pray for them, and you will surely 
 redeem the time and win souls to God. 
 
56 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 VIL 
 
 THE STUDIES OF THE SOUL-WINNER. 
 
 "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a 
 workman that needeth not to he ashamed, right- 
 ly dividing the word of truth. — Paul to Timo- 
 thy." (2 Tim. 2: 15.) 
 
 "Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, 
 to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee. 
 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly 
 to them; that thy profiting may appear to all." 
 (1 Tim. 4: 13-15.) 
 
 No man or woman need hope to be a per- 
 manently successful soul-winner who is not 
 a diligent student of the truth, of the will 
 and ways of God, of men, and of methods. 
 A man cannot successfully build a house, 
 or write a poem, or govern a city, or manage 
 a store, or even shoe a horse or make a 
 mouse-trap without thoughtful study. 
 
STUDIES OF THE SOUL- WINNER. 57 
 
 A doctor must think and study, and that 
 diligently and continuously, if he would 
 understand the delicate human organism and 
 the subtle diseases to which it is subject, 
 and the various remedies by which these 
 diseases are to be antagonized. 
 
 A lawyer must be a diligent student if 
 he would win cases before judges and juries 
 in the face of self-interest and skillful oppo- 
 nents. 
 
 How much more then should the soul-win- 
 ner study in order that he may understand 
 the diseases of the soul, the ramifications 
 of evil, the deceitfulness of the human 
 heart, and the application of the great 
 remedy God has provided to meet all the 
 needs of the soul; or, to change the figure, 
 how must he study to win his case at the 
 bar of man's conscience, when the man's 
 own deceitful heart is the opposing counsel, 
 assisted by that old adversary, the devil, 
 who for six thousand years has been deceiv- 
 ing the children of men and leading them 
 down to Hell ! 
 
 Oh, that every man who sets himself to be 
 a soul-winner might fully recognize the tre- 
 mendous odds against which he fights and 
 set himself by much believing prayer and 
 
58 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 joyous, diligent study to show himself a man 
 "approved unto God, a workman that 
 needeth not to be ashamed !" Thank God, 
 no one called of Him need be discouraged 
 or dismayed. Only let him not bury his 
 talent in a napkin, nor spend his time in idle 
 dreaming, but let him stir up the gift that 
 is in him and faithfully give a little time 
 each day to those studies that will enlighten 
 the mind and fit him for the work God has 
 called him to, and he shall surely be blessed 
 of God and find himself "furnished unto 
 every good work." 
 
 I. — The first thing and the last to be 
 studied is the Bible. The doctor may know 
 all about law and art, history and theology, 
 but if he is unacquainted with his medical 
 books he is a failure as a doctor. The law- 
 yer may have devoured libraries, traveled 
 the wide world over, and become a walk- 
 ing encyclopedia and dictionary, but if he 
 is unacquainted with his law books, as a 
 lawyer he is a failure. 
 
 So the worker for souls may read ten thou- 
 sand books, may be able to quote poetry by 
 the mile, may be acquainted with all the facts 
 of science and history, and may even be a 
 profound theologian, but unless he is a 
 
STUDIES OF THE SOUL-WINNER. 59 
 
 diligent student of the Bible, he will not 
 permanently succeed as a soul-winner. He 
 must become full of the thoughts of God. 
 He must eat the Word and digest it and 
 turn it into spiritual blood and bone and 
 muscle and nerve and sinew, until he be- 
 comes, as someone has said, "A living Bible, 
 eighteen inches wide by six feet long, bound 
 in human skin." 
 
 Finney used to get up at 4 o'clock in the 
 morning and read his Bible until 8. During 
 one of his revival services in Boston he said, 
 "I gave myself to a great deal of prayer. 
 After my evening services I would retire 
 as early as I could, but rose at 4 o'clock 
 in the morning because I could sleep no 
 longer, and immediately went to the study 
 and engaged in prayer. And so deeply was 
 my mind exercised, and so absorbed in 
 prayer, that I frequently continued from 
 the time I arose at 4 o'clock, till called to 
 breakfast at 8 o'clock. My days were 
 spent as far as I could get time, in search- 
 ing the Scriptures. I read nothing else all 
 that Winter but my Bible, and a great deal 
 of it seemed new to me. Again the Lord 
 took me, as it were, from Genesis to Revela- 
 tion. He let me see the connection of things, 
 
60 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 the promises, the threatenings, the prophecies 
 and their fulfillment; and indeed, the whole 
 Scripture seemed to me all ablaze with light, 
 and not only light, but it seemed as if God's 
 Word was instinct with the very life of 
 God." 
 
 This diligent attention to the Word of 
 God is a command. He said to Joshua, 
 "This book of the law shall not depart out 
 of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate there- 
 in day and night." The object of this 
 earnest study was, "That thou mayest ob- 
 serve to do according to all that is written 
 therein," and the result, "for then thou shalt 
 make thy way prosperous and then thou 
 shalt have good success." David's "blessed 
 man" is not one who simply refuses to keep 
 company with the ungodly and abstains 
 from their ways, "but his delight is in the 
 law of the Lord and in His law doth he 
 meditate day and night." (Ps. i: 2.) And 
 the difference between him and the ungodly 
 is the difference between a fruitful tree 
 planted by the river and "the chaff which the 
 wind driveth away." 
 
 Jesus declared the importance of the 
 Word when He told the devil that "Man 
 shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
 
STUDIES OF THE SOUL-WINNER. 61 
 
 word which proceedeth out of the mouth 
 of God," 
 
 Mrs. General Booth read her Bible 
 through a number of times before she was 
 twelve years old. No wonder God made her 
 a "mother of nations." She was full of 
 truth, and she could never open her mouth 
 without saying something that was calcu- 
 lated to expose shams and falsehoods, over- 
 throw the devil's kingdom of lies and build 
 up God's kingdom of righteousness and 
 truth in the hearts of men. 
 
 Whitefield read the Bible through many 
 times on his knees with Henry's notes. 
 Again and again the writer has read his Bible 
 through on his knees, and it is ever new, 
 and as David said, "sweeter also than honey 
 or the honeycomb." And like Job he can say, 
 *'I have esteemed the words of His mouth 
 more than my necessary food." 
 
 Wesley in his old age called himself "A 
 man of one book." It is from this armory 
 that the soul-winner is to draw his weapons 
 with which he fights all Hell. It is here 
 that he is to study the mind and heart of 
 God, the truth about Jesus Christ, sin and 
 the way of escape from it, and the facts 
 about Heaven and Hell, a Judgment Day 
 
62 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 and eternity. Here he is to find a law for 
 the lawless, warnings for the careless, prom- 
 ises for the penitent, encouragement for 
 the distressed, balm for the wounded, 
 healing for the sick, life for the dead. 
 He is to "preach the Word," for it is "prof- 
 itable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc- 
 tion, for instruction in righteousness ; that 
 the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
 furnished unto every good work." And in 
 preaching it, if he preaches as they did of 
 old, "with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
 Heaven," he will find it living and active 
 and "sharper than any two-edged sword, and 
 piercing even to the dividing of soul and 
 spirit, of the joints and marrow, and quick 
 to discern the thoughts and intents of the 
 heart." I have sometimes read or quoted 
 the Word of God to people, and it fitted 
 their case so pat that it smote them like a 
 lightning bolt. 
 
 "Is not My Word like a fire? saith the 
 Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the 
 rock in pieces?" 
 
 But the soul-winner must not study it 
 simply that he may preach it, but that he 
 may himself live by it, be furnished, strength- 
 ened, enlightened, corrected and made wise 
 
STUDIES OF THE SOUL-WINNER. 63 
 
 by it. It must pass through his own soul 
 and become a part of his own spiritual life 
 before he can preach it with power and apply 
 it effectually to the saving of men. And in 
 order to do this he must be filled with the 
 Holy Ghost. In fact, it is only as he is 
 filled with the Spirit that he will be able to 
 get much benefit from the Word of God or 
 have much love for it. 
 
 The Bible is a sealed book to unspiritual 
 people, but when the Comforter comes it is 
 unsealed and its wondrous meaning made 
 clear. I read recently of a lad, who could 
 not read, receiving the baptism of the Holy 
 Ghost. Then he got his unsaved sister to 
 read the Bible to him and he explained it to 
 her. Hallelujah ! The Holy Ghost in him 
 enabled him to understand what the Holy 
 Ghost in holy m.en of old enabled them to 
 write. Only the Holy Ghost can help men 
 to understand His Book. 
 
 An old colored lady loved her Bible very 
 much. A friend who found her reading it 
 frequently, gave her a commentary to assist 
 her in getting at its meaning. A few days 
 later seeing her, he asked, "Well, Auntie, 
 how do you like that book I gave you?" 
 She replied, "Oh, dat be a very good book, 
 
64 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 but de Bible do throw a lot o' light on dat 
 'er book." 
 
 The Bereans show us the way to read the 
 Bible (Acts 17: ii). i. They received the 
 Word with all readiness. 2. They searched 
 the Scriptures. It was not with them just a 
 hasty, careless, thoughtless reading; they 
 searched as men would search for hid 
 treasure. 3. They did this daily. 
 
 Personally, for years I have given the best 
 hour of the day to the Bible, until I want 
 it more than I want my food. 
 
 It should be read early in the day, before 
 other things crowd in. What is read should 
 be remembered. In eating it is not the 
 amount we eat, but the amount we digest 
 that does us good, and just so is it in reading 
 and studying. It is not the amount we read, 
 but what we remember and make our own 
 that does us good. 
 
 2. — Besides the Bible, the soul-winner 
 ought to lay out a course of reading for 
 himself and stick to it, reading a few pages 
 each day. Ten pages a day will mean from 
 ten to fifteen books a year. 
 
 Every Salvation Army officer ought to 
 read the General's "Letters/' "Holiness 
 Readings," the "F. O.," and Mrs. Booth's 
 
STUDIES OF THE SOUL-WINNER. 65 
 
 works. "Books that Bless," by the Chief, 
 will prove invaluable. 
 
 "Holy Living and Dying," by Taylor; 
 "Law's Call," "Saint's Rest," by Baxter; 
 Edwards' "Life of Brainerd," Wesley's 
 works, "Life of Fletcher," "Life of Bram- 
 well," "Pilgrim's Progress," "Half Hours 
 with St. Paul," by Daniel Steele; "Holi- 
 ness and Power," by Rev. A. M. Hills, 
 and Finney's and Caughey's works will 
 make a library that can be read again and 
 again with untold profit by soul-winners. 
 
 Not too much time should be spent over 
 newspapers. It would probably not be wise 
 to discard them altogether, but better do 
 that than let them rob you of the time that 
 should be spent in deep study and earnest 
 prayer. I once heard the General say, "I 
 have not read a newspaper for ten days." 
 All useful knowledge may prove valuable 
 to the soul-winner, and he should seek in- 
 formation everywhere. It is well to carry a 
 note-book and constantly make notes. Glad- 
 stone made notes on the margins of books 
 he read. 
 
 The soul- winner should study not only 
 books, but men and methods. John Wesley 
 became a supreme master in practical and 
 
66 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 experimental theology and a matchless soul- 
 winner largely through his study of men. 
 He examined thousands of people — men, 
 women and children, with reference to their 
 religious experience, and especially their 
 experiences of sanctification, until he became 
 acquainted with the human heart and the 
 workings of the Holy Spirit as few men 
 have ever done. I know of no better and 
 surer method of acquainting one's self with 
 the human heart and the way the Holy 
 Spirit works with men to save than by this 
 close, personal, private conversation and in- 
 quiry about the religious experiences of the 
 Christians around us. This is the scientific 
 method applied to the study of the human 
 heart, the Christian life and religious 
 experience, and it can be carried on wher- 
 ever you can find a human soul to talk with 
 you. "He that winneth souls is wise." 
 
HEALTH. 67 
 
 VIII. 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou 
 mayest prosper, and 6e in health, even as thy 
 soul prospereth. — 3 John 2. 
 
 The soul-winner must take the best care he 
 knows how of his body, yet without everlast- 
 ingly cuddling and petting and pitying him- 
 self. This is his sacred duty. The body is 
 the instrument through which the mind and 
 the soul work in this world. A good body 
 is as essential to the soul-winner as is a good 
 instrument to the musician, or a staunch 
 boat to the strong rower, and should be no 
 more despised and neglected than is his gun 
 by the huntsman or his axe by the woods- 
 man. "Know ye not," said St. Paul, "that 
 your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" 
 and "if any man defile" (margin "destroy") 
 
68 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 "the temple of God, him will God destroy." 
 As the most skilful musician is dependent 
 upon his instrument for the richness and 
 sweetness of the music he makes, so men, 
 in every walk in life, are in a large measure 
 limited by and dependent upon the quality 
 of the body through which their mental and 
 spiritual powers must work. 
 
 Most men who have made a mark in the 
 world, though there are some striking ex- 
 ceptions, have had a splendid basis of physi- 
 cal force and power. When Moses died on 
 Mount Nebo at 120 years of age, "his eyes 
 were not dimmed nor his natural force 
 abated," and that notwithstanding the fact 
 that for forty years he had had the tremen- 
 dous task of organizing, legislating for, 
 judging, and ruling a great nation of slaves 
 just delivered from 400 years of bondage 
 and wandering like sheep in a mountainous 
 wilderness. Paul must have had a robust 
 constitution and fairly good health to have 
 endured the stonings and whippings, impris- 
 onments and shipwrecks, hungerings and 
 thirstings, fighting with fierce beasts and 
 contentions with yet fiercer men, besides the 
 care of all the churches which fell to his lot 
 daily. 
 
HEALTH. 69 
 
 John Wesley was a little man, weighing 
 only about 120 pounds, but his health was 
 superb, and seems to have been due not so 
 much to natural vigor of constitution, 
 though, doubtless he had that, as to the 
 regular habits and healthful plan of living 
 which he adopted. He was one of nineteen 
 children, and his father was a poor clergy- 
 man. For several years he had nothing to 
 eat but bread, which may have accounted for 
 his small size, but which he himself said 
 probably laid the foundations of good health 
 which he afterward enjoyed. It must have 
 been whole wheat bread, however, and not 
 the white, starchy stuff of modern bakers. 
 In after years he always ate sparingly, and 
 only ate a few articles of food at any one 
 meal. He lived much out of doors, preached 
 almost daily and sometimes several times a 
 day in the open air. At the age of yz he 
 makes this remarkable entry in his journal : 
 "I am 73 years old and far abler to preach 
 than I was at three and twenty. What nat- 
 ural means has God used to produce so 
 wonderful an effect? 
 
 "i. Continual exercise and change of air 
 by traveling about 4,000 miles a year." (It 
 is well to remember that he did his traveling 
 
70 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 on horseback and in a buggy through Win- 
 ter's storms and Summer's heat.) "2. Constant 
 rising at 4 o'clock. 3. The ability, if ever I 
 want, of sleeping immediately. 4. The never 
 losing a night's sleep in my life." (He 
 mentions several all nights of prayer in his 
 journal, however.) "5. Two violent fevers 
 and two deep consumptions. These, it is 
 true, were rough medicines, but they were 
 of admirable service, causing my flesh to 
 come again as the flesh of a little child. 
 May I add, lastly, evenness of temper? I 
 feel, I grieve, but by the grace of God I 
 fret at nothing, but still the help that is done 
 upon the earth God doeth it Himself; 
 and this He doeth in answer to many 
 prayers." 
 
 A similar entry was made in his journal in 
 1782. He says: *T have entered into my 
 eightieth year, but, blessed be God ! my time 
 is not 'labor and sorrow.' I find no more 
 pain or bodily infirmity than at five and 
 twenty." 
 
 And beside the reason given above he 
 adds: "This I will impute, first, to the power 
 of God, fitting me for what He calls me to 
 do, and, second, to my constant preaching, 
 particularly in the morning." The morning 
 
HEALTH. 71 
 
 sermon was preached at 5 o'clock in the Sum- 
 mer and 6 o'clock in the Winter. 
 
 Young people are usually prodigal of their 
 health and strength, and nature will allow 
 them to make large drafts upon these 
 treasures, but keeps strict account, and will 
 surely require interest and principal in due 
 time. It is a rather remarkable fact that 
 often those who have had poor health in 
 youth so learn to take care of themselves 
 and obey the laws of health and not impose 
 upon their bodies, that they outlast and out- 
 work many who started out with a greater 
 physical capital. 
 
 Those who desire good health, long life 
 and a cheerful old age should live simply 
 and regularly; they should seek enough sleep 
 and at the same time be careful not to take 
 too much sleep. Mr. Wesley could get along 
 with six hours' sleep at night, though he had 
 the happy faculty of taking naps through 
 the day, even sleeping on horseback. Na- 
 poleon frequently got along with three 
 hours' sleep, but General Grant said that 
 when in the midst of his heaviest campaigns 
 he required nine hours. I have heard Gen- 
 eral Booth say that he needed eight hours 
 at least. Women usually need at least an 
 
72 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 hour more of sleep than men. No rule can 
 be laid down to fit every case, however, so 
 that the soul-winner who is a conscientious 
 man must find out for himself what is best 
 for himself, make his own rule and keep 
 it religiously as unto the Lord. 
 
 There is a danger of lying in bed too long 
 as well as too short a time. The Duke of 
 Wellington said: "When you find that you 
 want to turn over, you ought to turn out." Ly- 
 ing in bed relaxes the whole system, and if 
 indulged into excess tends to a general weak- 
 ening of the system. George Miiller, the 
 great philanthropist of Bristol Orphanage 
 fame, found the nerves of his head weak 
 and painful, and thought to strengthen them 
 by taking a nap after dinner each day, but in- 
 stead of getting stronger they got weaker, 
 and he suffered increasing pain. He finally 
 decided that the relaxation of sleep produced 
 the weakness, and substituted a cold bath 
 for his head, and found immediate and in- 
 creasing benefit from it. 
 
 Sleep should be taken in a room that is 
 well ventilated in Winter as well as in Sum- 
 mer. All good physicians and hygienists 
 insist upon this, and also that one should not 
 sleep in any garment worn during the day. 
 
HEALTH. 73 
 
 Benjamin Franklin declared that he had 
 made a great discovery. He discovered that 
 the sun came up in the morning. He 
 thought that it would be a great financial 
 saving to the world if people could only be 
 brought to recognize this fact, and instead 
 of turning night into day by artificial light, 
 should go to bed early and get up with the 
 sun. No doubt there would be many dol- 
 lars saved and also much nervous energy. 
 We have fallen on evil days, however, and 
 it is not likely we shall ever get back to 
 the habits of our forefathers and go to bed 
 with the birds. The soul-winner, though, 
 ought conscientiously to go to bed as quick- 
 ly as possible after meeting. This can be 
 done, unless he foolishly prefers to sit up 
 and indulge in small talk and late suppers, 
 in which case, if he does not destroy his 
 health, he will at least greatly injure it and 
 cripple his soul-saving power. 
 
 Exercise is also very necessary for health. 
 A Salvation Army officer who does the regu- 
 lation amount of visiting, War Cry selling 
 and open-air meetings will get a great deal 
 of exercise in the walking done, and if he 
 throws back his shoulders and breathes 
 deeply, will require very little additional 
 
74 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 exercise. But as the human body, like a 
 chain, is not stronger than at its weakest 
 point, a little general systematic exercise is 
 useful to keep every organ of the body in 
 good health and vigor. 
 
 Caughey went to England, and in six 
 years saw 20^000 sinners saved and 10,000 
 Christians seeking holiness, then broke 
 down, and for thirty years or more was 
 an invalid. This may have been God's 
 will for him, but I can hardly believe it is 
 His will, generally speaking, for soul- 
 winners, and am persuaded that if 
 Caughey had obeyed the injunction, "Six 
 days shalt thou labor and do all thy 
 work," and had religiously taken one day 
 in seven for relaxation, refreshment and 
 rest, he need not have spent those thirty 
 years in retirement. Work is absolutely 
 necessary for health, but so also is 
 rest. 
 
 The heart of man works for ninety years 
 and in some instances even longer, but 
 it rests one half the time. Experience has 
 proved that to rest more than one-seventh 
 of the time is not well, as in that case the* 
 man rusts out, and to rest less than one- 
 seventh results in wearing out. 
 
HEALTH. 75 
 
 The man who never relaxes^ however 
 religious he may be, is likely to become 
 morose, irritable, impatient and a source 
 of anxiety and perplexity to his dearest 
 friends; or become melancholy and full of 
 gloom, get into the dumps, and doubt his 
 call to preach. 
 
 There is a legend that when the Apostle 
 John was nearly loo years of age, he was 
 visited by a man who was anxious to see 
 the beloved disciple of the Lord. The 
 man found the old apostle playing with 
 some little children, rebuked the aged 
 saint and told him it illy fitted an apostle 
 of the Lord, at his age, to be indulging in 
 childish games. The old man replied in 
 substance: "A bow that is never unstrung 
 will lose its power; unloose the string and 
 it retains its vigor ; so I relieve, the ten- 
 sion of my soul by indulging in innocent 
 games with the little ones." 
 
 The emotions, the sympathies, and every 
 power of mind and soul, and all the nerv- 
 ous energies of the body have heavy drafts 
 made upon them in soul-saving work, and 
 the mighty tension of the soul and body at 
 their highest point of efficiency, must be 
 entirely relaxed periodically in order to 
 
76 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 maintain this effici<||,cy. In other words, 
 there must be rest. 
 
 I have found that when I get very tired 
 and am least fit to do anything, that I 
 then feel an imperative necessity for doing 
 something, and then it is that I must put 
 on the brakes and rest by sheer force of 
 will, if need be. A friend of mine who is 
 an unusually successful soul-winner, has 
 a very sensible wife, who, when she finds 
 him nervous and worn^ insists upon his 
 going to bed for a whole day and vegetat- 
 ing. The next day he finds his nervous 
 force restored and is ready for any amount 
 of hard work. 
 
 Sir Isaac Holden, the noted English 
 Methodist, was a very delicate little man, 
 but by careful attention to the laws of diet, 
 ventilation of room, etc., lived to be ninety 
 years of age. Mr. Stead says of him: "It was 
 his way when ill to nurse his strength by 
 keeping silent." Few people realize the 
 waste of physical force there is in constant 
 small talk. 
 
 "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatso- 
 ever ye do, do all to the glory of God," said 
 Paul. Eating and drinking do not seem 
 to have anything to do with soul-saving, 
 
HEALTH. 77 
 
 but nevertheless they have. "Three-fourths 
 of the diseases that Americans are afflicted 
 with," said a recent writer, "can be traced to 
 improper eating and drinking." "The fewer 
 the sweetmeatSj the sweeter the temper. 
 If you doubt it and have a bad temper, my 
 friend, let me implore you to try it," wrote 
 a wise hygienist. 
 
 Several years ago a friend took me to 
 visit Neal Dow, "the Father of Prohibi- 
 tion," who was then over ninety years of 
 age, and in good health. My friend 
 asked him the secret of his long life and 
 splendid health. The old man replied: 
 "First, I didn't sow any wild oats in my 
 youth; I never used tobacco nor whisky, 
 nor stimulants of any kind. Second, I 
 have always gone to bed early, slept well 
 and gotten up early. Third, I have always 
 taken an active interest in public morals 
 and in the welfare of my fellow men. 
 Fourth, I never eat anything that I have 
 found out by experience hurts me. I 
 am very fond of baked beans, but they do 
 me harm, therefore, I do not eat them." 
 Baked beans may not hurt everybody, but a 
 soul-winner who puts God's interests and 
 that of other souls before his own pleasure, 
 
78 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 ought to show the good sense of Neal Dow, 
 and not eat anything that hurts him, how- 
 ever much he may like it. 
 
 I knew a minister who was afiflicted 
 with gastritis. He wanted some meat for 
 supper; it was on the table in the form of 
 mince pie. He ought to have known, and 
 probably did, that with the kind of stomach 
 he had, mince pie was no diet for him, but 
 he liked it. He ate it, and he nearly died 
 that night. 
 
 Rich, fatty suppers should not be eaten. 
 Cold bread is preferable to hot bread. It 
 is wise to follow a rule of Gladstone's: 
 "Give thirty-two bites to every mouthful," 
 that is, give every tooth a taste. 
 
 Rev. Daniel Waldo once said: "I am an 
 old man now; I have seen nearly a cen- 
 tury. Do you want to know how to grow 
 old slowly and happily? Let me tell you. 
 Always eat slowly, masticate well, go to 
 your occupation smiling, keep a good 
 nature and temper everywhere." 
 
 Dr. Hanaford, in writing to a public 
 singer who was afflicted with catarrh and 
 sore throat, said: "I attribute a part of 
 the trouble to using rich pastry, often a 
 prominent cause of catarrh. I suspect in 
 
HEALTH. /9 
 
 you the too free use of sugar, confection- 
 ery, salt and spices. I am fully convinced 
 that a large per cent, of the sore throats, 
 inflamed eyes and nasal passages, and the 
 like, so often attributed to colds, are due 
 to stomach derangement resulting from 
 large quantities of common food, and the 
 too free use of such heating things as 
 sweets, fats and oils and starches, fine flour 
 being prominent." 
 
 Here are some short rules for one who 
 wants good health: 
 
 Don't worry. Paul says: "Be anxious 
 for nothing, but in everything by prayer 
 and supphcation, with thanksgiving, let 
 your requests be made known unto God, 
 and the peace of God which passeth all 
 understanding shall keep your heart and 
 mind through Christ Jesus." 
 
 "Never despair. Lost hope is a fatal 
 disease. One of the fruits of the Spirit is 
 hope." 
 
 Work like a man, but don't worry your- 
 self to death. 
 
 Court the fresh air day and night. 
 
 Don't overeat. Don't starve. "Let your 
 moderation be known unto all men." 
 
80 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 "Feed a cold, and you will have to starve 
 a fever." 
 
 Don't forget that "Cleanliness is next to 
 godliness." 
 
 Finally. If you have poor health and a 
 broken constitution, don't despair. Baxter, 
 one of the mightiest men of God that ever 
 lived, the St. Paul and the General Booth 
 of his day, was a life-long invalid and suf- 
 fered almost intolerable things, but he 
 praised God for it, for he declared it kept 
 him alive to eternal things, weaned him 
 from the world and led him constantly to 
 "preach as a dying man to dying men." 
 David Brainerd, the fragrance of whose 
 holy life and apostolic labors and self- 
 denial have filled and inspired the church 
 for almost two centuries, died of consump- 
 tion before he was thirty years of age. But 
 few men in health and strength have been 
 so used of God as he was in his weak- 
 ness. 
 
 Personally I have suffered much from 
 broken health, exhausted nerves and sleep- 
 less nights, and at one time feared that my 
 work was done, but by prayer and care I 
 have been so far restored to health and 
 strength that I can work six days in the 
 
HEALTH. 81 
 
 week with all my might, sleep like a kitten, 
 digest my food fairly well, am full of the 
 joy of the Lord, am happy as a lark and 
 am altogether glad that I am alive. Halle- 
 lujah! 
 
82 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE RENEWING OF POWER. 
 
 Though our outward man perish, yet the in- 
 ward man is renewed day by day. — Paul. 
 
 To do God's work we must have God's 
 power. Therefore Jesus said: "Tarry ye 
 in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power 
 from on high." (Luke 24: 49.) And again 
 He said: "Ye shall receive power when the 
 Holy Ghost is come upon you." (Acts 
 i: 8.) 
 
 The soul-winner receives this power 
 when he is sanctified wholly and filled 
 with the Spirit, and he need never lose it. 
 But while the Holy Spirit abides with the 
 believer, there yet seems to be need for 
 frequent renewals of the power He bestows. 
 And, thank God, He has made ample pro- 
 
THE RENEWING OF POWER. 83 
 
 vision to meet this need. "They that wait 
 upon the Lord shall renew their strength," 
 said Isaiah. "Wait on the Lord; be of 
 good courage, and He shall strengthen 
 thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord," 
 cries David. 
 
 Years ago President Asa Mahan wrote as 
 follows of his old friend: "The extraordin- 
 ary power which attended the preaching of 
 President Finney during the early years of 
 his ministry was chiefly owing to a special 
 baptism of the Spirit which he received not 
 long after his conversion; hence it was 
 that when through him the 'violated law 
 spake out its thunders,' it did seem as if 
 we had in truth 'come unto the mount that 
 might be touched, and that burned with 
 fire, and unto blackness and darkness and 
 tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the 
 voice of words.' But when he spoke of 
 Christ, then indeed did his 'doctrine drop 
 as the rain, and his speech distil as the dew, 
 as the small rain upon the tender herb and 
 as the showers upon the mown grass.' The 
 reason also why he is bringing forth such 
 wondrous fruit in his old age is that while 
 his whole ministry has been under the 
 power of the Spirit, his former baptisms 
 
84 THE soul-winner's SEC31ET. 
 
 have been renewed with increasing power 
 and frequency during a few years past." 
 
 The need for these frequent renewings 
 and anointings does not necessarily arise 
 from backsliding. Sometimes the soul feels 
 the need of a renewal of its power when 
 confronted by great opposition, danger 
 and powerful foes. The apostles were filled 
 with the Holy Ghost, and had not only 
 won their great pentecostal victory, but 
 many others as well, when suddenly a stub- 
 born wall of opposition arose before them. 
 They were arrested by the rulers, thrust into 
 prison, brought before the high priest, sharply 
 questioned by what power and name they 
 were working their miracles, and then when 
 no ground for punishment could be found, 
 they were threatened and commanded to 
 preach no more in the name of Jesus. 
 
 When they were let go they went to their 
 own people, told them what had happened, 
 and began a sweet, childHke, Heaven- 
 storming prayer meeting, told the Lord the 
 story, too, and cried to Him to show forth 
 His power, and then a wonderful thing 
 happened; Pentecost was repeated; "the 
 place was shaken where they were assem- 
 bled together, and they were all filled with 
 
THE RENEWING OF POWER. 85 
 
 the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of 
 God with boldness, and with great power 
 gave the apostles witness of the resur- 
 rection of the Lord Jesus, and great peace 
 was upon them all." 
 
 They waited before the Lord and their 
 strength was renewed, their power rein- 
 forced from Heaven, their past victories 
 put into the shade and "a great com- 
 pany of the priests were obedient to the 
 faith." 
 
 Sometimes the need for this renewal of 
 strength arises after great victories. For 
 victory is usually secured as the result of 
 great spiritual and mental activity, and 
 often physical activity as well, and it is 
 but natural that there should be a reaction; 
 the pendulum, if left alone, swings to the 
 other extreme. Depression may follow, 
 the powers of soul and mind relax, joyful 
 emotions subside, and the inexperienced 
 soul-winner may at this point get into great 
 perplexity, and suffer from fierce tempta- 
 tion, and strain himself to keep up his 
 accustomed spiritual activity, crying out 
 with David, "Why art thou cast down, O 
 my soul, and why art thou disquieted with- 
 in me?" And again, "My flesh and my heart 
 
86 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 f aileth,"and imagine himself to be backsliding. 
 But what is needed now is not so much 
 anxious wrestling with God as quiet wait- 
 ing upon God for a renewal of power, say- 
 ing to his soul, "Hope thou in God, for I 
 shall yet praise Him, who is the health of 
 my countenance, and my God," and though 
 heart and flesh do fail, "yet God is the 
 strength of my heart, and my portion for- 
 ever." At such times the strength of the 
 soul is to sit still in quietness and confi- 
 dence. (Is. 30: 7, 15.) 
 
 I once heard a wise old evangelist, one 
 of the mightiest this country has produced, 
 say that while at home after a season of 
 rest, the Spirit of God would come upon him, 
 leading him to earnest prayer and travail 
 for the salvation of men. This was God's 
 way of preparing him for a campaign, and 
 for victory, and away he would go for battle 
 and siege, to rescue the souls of men, and 
 never did he fail to win. But after a while 
 there seemed to be an abatement of power, 
 when he would return home for another 
 season of rest and quiet, waiting upon God 
 for the renewal of his strength. And thus 
 he continued till he was past eighty, still 
 bringing forth fruit in old age. 
 
THE RENEWING OF POWER. 8/ 
 
 Again, there is sometimes need of a re- 
 newal of power owing to weakness and 
 infirmity of the flesh. Paul must have 
 received a great addition of power when, 
 instead of removing his "thorn," Jesus said 
 to him, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for 
 My strength is made perfect in weakness." 
 And such was the uplift that Paul got 
 at that time that ever afterward he took 
 "pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in 
 necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for 
 Christ's sake," glorying in them, since 
 through them the power of Christ rested 
 upon him, and in weakness he was made 
 strong. Spiritual power is not necessarily 
 dependent upon physical energy, and how- 
 ever much he may be afflicted with in- 
 firmities, there are mighty enduements 
 of power for the soul-winner if he intel- 
 ligently and with quiet and persistent faith 
 seeks them from on high. 
 
 There will be times of loneliness and 
 spiritual agony such as Jesus suffered 
 in the Garden, or Elijah when he felt that 
 all the prophets were slain, and there was 
 none true to God in Israel but himself. Or 
 again, when there is widespread barrenness 
 and desolation, when revivals have ceased, 
 
88 THE SOUL- winner's SECRET. 
 
 and worldliness sweeps in like a flood, and 
 there is apparently no vision^ and God 
 seems silent, and the devil mocks and 
 taunts, then the soul-winner will need to 
 have his spiritual strength renewed. And 
 he may fully expect such a renewal. The 
 angels are all round about him^ and the 
 heavens are bending over him, and Jesus 
 has lost none of His tender interest and 
 sympathy for him. An angel came and 
 strengthened Jesus in His agony (Luke 
 2,2'. 43), and an angel strengthened 
 Elijah for his long and lonely journey, 
 and an angel came to Daniel and 
 said, "O man, greatly beloved, fear not; 
 peace be unto thee; be strong, yea, be 
 strong." And not only an angel, but the 
 Lord Himself will surely empower His 
 trusting workers. It was Jesus that cheered 
 Paul in the chief captain's castle (Acts 23: 
 11), and John on the lonely Isle of Pat- 
 mos (Rev. i: 17), and so He still cheers 
 and strengthens His servants and warriors. 
 Bless His name! 
 
 These renewals of power are not always 
 necessarily of an extraordinary character. 
 There are sometimes great uplifts of physi- 
 cal strength without any apparent cause, 
 
THE RENEWING OF POWER. 89 
 
 but ordinarily a man's physical strength 
 is renewed by rest and the timely eating 
 of proper food. And so there may be times 
 when the Spirit of God falls upon the soul- 
 winner, giving him great uplifts and visions 
 and courage. But ordinarily power comes 
 by the use of the simple means of much 
 regular prayer and patient, diligent search- 
 ing of God's Word and a daily listening to 
 God's voice. It is renewed like fire, not 
 by the fall of lightning from Heaven, but 
 by the addition of new fuel; like physical 
 strength, not by some hypodermic injec- 
 tion of fresh blood, but by proper food. David 
 calls upon his soul to bless God "who satis- 
 fieth thy mouth with good things so that 
 thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." (Ps. 
 103: 5.) 
 
 This will require time and attention 
 on our part, but it will be time well 
 spent. It is by appropriate food, then, 
 that the soul is strengthened. Jesus 
 told us what that food was when He said, 
 "Man shall not live by bread alone, but 
 by every word that proceedeth out of the 
 mouth of God." (Matt. 4: 4.) And does 
 not this correspond to Paul's statement that 
 though the outward man was perishing, yet 
 
90 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 "the inward man is renewed day by day?" 
 And with that passage that says "The Lord 
 revealed Himself unto Samuel in Shiloh 
 by the word of the Lord?" It is the Lord 
 that renews our strength, but He does it 
 not in some mysterious way, but by means 
 of His Word, which we read and meditate 
 upon and appropriate by faith. Through it 
 we see Jesus and come to know our Lord. 
 Bless His name! 
 
 My own strength is usually renewed by 
 the opening up of some new truth, or the 
 powerful application of some promises, or 
 portion of the Word of God to my soul, 
 which I am enabled to make my own by a 
 definite and bold, affectionate and dare-devil 
 act of faith in secret prayer. 
 
AN UNDIVIDED HEART. 91 
 
 X. 
 
 AN UNDIVIDED HEART. 
 
 Unite my heart. — David. 
 
 He who thinks to succeed in this infinite 
 business of saving souls with a heart that 
 is divided as yet knows nothing as he ought 
 to know concerning the matter. 
 
 That a man may by personal magnetism, 
 grace of manners, power or persuasiveness 
 of speech, and a certain skill in playing 
 upon the emotions and self-interest of the 
 people, create an excitement that fairly 
 simulates a revival, and yet have a divided 
 heart, I admit; but that he can bring men to 
 a thorough repentance and renunciation of 
 sin, a hearty embrace of the Cross, an 
 affectionate surrender to Jesus as a personal 
 Saviour and Master who requires deep 
 humility and meekness and tender love 
 
92 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 as the marks of His disciples is hard to be 
 proved. 
 
 As certainly as like begets like, so cer- 
 tainly will the soul-winner put the mark 
 of his own spirit and consecration upon 
 the people he influences; if he is himself 
 not more than half won to the cause of 
 his lowly Master, he will not more than 
 half win others. His task is the mightiest 
 to which men were ever set. 
 
 The physical scientist manipulates and 
 changes dead matter, the newspaper man 
 seeks principally to amuse or interest people 
 for the passing hour; the lawyer and poli- 
 tician simply seek to change and mould 
 the opinions of men; but the soul-winner 
 is dealing with fundamentals. His object 
 is not merely to change the opinions and 
 conduct, but to change character; to work 
 a moral revolution in the affections, the dis- 
 positions, the wills of men; to turn them 
 from temporal things which they see, to 
 eternal things, which they do not see, 
 from all vices to virtues, from utter 
 selfishness to utter self-sacrifice, and often 
 in spite of all present self-interest, and in 
 the face of the combined opposition of the 
 world, the flesh and the devil. His object 
 
AN UNDIVIDED HEART. 93 
 
 is not alone to save them from the guilt 
 and penalty of sin, but from the pollution 
 and the power and the love of sin. Nor is 
 it merely to save men from sin, which is 
 rather a negative work, but to save them 
 into all goodness and love and holiness 
 through a vital and eternal union with 
 Jesus — a union that gives perpetual vigor 
 and energy and fruitfulness in righteous- 
 ness to all the powers of the soul, filling it 
 with grace and truth. 
 
 This is no little work, and can never be 
 the work of a man with a divided heart. 
 It is like turning Niagara Falls back upon its 
 source, or causing the sun and the moon 
 to stand still on Ajalon; it can only be done 
 by God's power, and that power is only 
 fully bestowed upon, and only works freely 
 in and through those whose hearts are per- 
 fect toward Him. 
 
 The soul-winner, then, must once and for 
 all, abandon himself to the Lord and to the 
 Lord's work, and, having put his hand to 
 the plow, must not look back, if he would 
 succeed in this mighty business. 
 
 He must love his Lord and love his work, 
 and stick to it through all difficulties, per- 
 plexities and discouragements, and not be 
 
94 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 given to change, for there is no discharge 
 in this war. 
 
 Here it is that many fail; they have not 
 a single eye. They make provisions for 
 retreat. They are doubleminded, like an 
 officer I knew, who dabbled in photography 
 till it divided his life and hearty and got 
 him out of the work; like a minister of 
 whom I heard the other day, who reads 
 another man's sermons to his people, while 
 he studies law, saying that when he gets 
 a poor appointment he will fall back on the 
 law and leave the ministry, forgetting Paul's 
 words to Timothy: "No man that warreth 
 entangleth himself with the affairs of this 
 life; that he may please Him that hath 
 chosen him to be a soldier." (2 Tim. 2: 4.) 
 
 By-and-bye such men leave the work God 
 sets them to do, because, as they say, they 
 have not been treated well, when the fact 
 is, their minds being divided, they cease to 
 work well; they no longer give themselves 
 wholly to it, and the people feel a lack of 
 interest and power, hungering souls that 
 look for bread receive a stone, poor sinners, 
 on the road to Hell, and possibly on the 
 brink of ruin, go from their cold and heart- 
 less services unawakened and unsaved. 
 
AN UNDIVIDED HEART. 95 
 
 They lost their grip first on God and then 
 on the crowd, and their superiors, per- 
 plexed to know what to do with them, and 
 where to place them, since the people no 
 longer want them, are blamed. But blame 
 others as they will, the blame still lies with 
 themseK'es. 
 
 No great work has ever been accomplished 
 without abandonment to it. 
 
 Michael Angelo said his work was his wife 
 and the statues he made were his children. 
 
 Edison is so wedded to his work that all 
 other things are forgotten and set aside in 
 the pursuit of his marvelous inventions. 
 
 Demosthenes, the greatest of ancient orators, 
 if not the greatest of all time, was hissed 
 off the platform at his first appearance. His 
 figure was unprepossessing, and his voice 
 weak and harsh, but he determined to be 
 heard. He devoted himself to his studies, 
 shaved one side of his head lest he should 
 be led into society, and practised elocution 
 by day and by night. To perfect his enun- 
 ciation he filled his mouth half-full of peb- 
 bles and practised while climbing a hill; 
 and that he might successfully contend 
 againts the thunders of the Athenian mob, 
 he went to the seashore and strengthened 
 
96 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 his voice by practising it against the thun- 
 der of the waves. 
 
 Lord Beaconsfield stood for parliament 
 five times, and at last won his seat. When 
 he first attempted to speak he was laughed 
 from the floor, but he sat down saying, 
 "You will listen to me yet;" and they did, 
 v/hen, as prime minister of England, he 
 arbitrated the destinies of Europe and 
 crowned Victoria Empress of India. 
 
 "How long did it take you to prepare that 
 address?" was asked of a great speaker. 
 "All my lifetime in general, and fifteen min- 
 utes in particular," he replied. 
 
 When Benjamin Franklin, as a poor boy, 
 opened a printing shop, a prosperous com- 
 petitor said he would drive him out of town. 
 Franklin showed him a piece of black bread 
 from which he dined, and a pail of water 
 from which he drank, and asked if he 
 thought a man who could live on fare like 
 that and work sixteen hours a day could be 
 driven out of town ! 
 
 Who knows the name of that competitor? 
 and who has not heard of Franklin? 
 
 If men engaged in secular pursuits are 
 thus given up to their work and consumed 
 with their purpose, how much more should 
 
AN UNDIVIDED HEART. 97 
 
 the soul-winner be, he who is fighting for 
 righteousness and holiness, for the kingdom 
 of love upon earth, rescuing souls from the 
 power of sin and the danger of eternal burn- 
 ings? 
 
 If God has set you to win souls, O my 
 brother, make no provision for the flesh, to 
 fulfil the lusts thereof. Cut the bridge down 
 behind you. Remember Paul's words to 
 Timothy: "Give thyself wholly to them, that 
 thy profiting may appear to all." 
 
 Let your eye be single, make no plan for 
 retreat, allow no thought of it. Remember 
 Paul's "Woe is me, if I preach not the 
 Gospel." 
 
 Like Jesus, set your face steadfastly 
 toward your Jerusalem, your cross, your 
 kingdom, your glory, when, having turned 
 many to righteousness, you "shall shine as 
 the stars for ever and ever." (Dan. 12: 3.) 
 
 You may be ignorant and illiterate, your 
 abilities may be very limited, you may have 
 a stammering tongue, and be utterly lacking 
 in culture, but you can have an undivided, 
 a perfect heart toward God and the work 
 He has set } ou to do, and this is more than 
 all culture and all education, all gifts and 
 graces of person and brain. If God has 
 
 H 
 
98 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 bestowed any of these upon you, see to it 
 that they are sanctified, and that your trust 
 is not in them. But if He has denied them 
 to you, He yet hath called you to the fellow- 
 ship of His Son, and to His service. Be 
 not dismayed; it is not the perfect head, 
 but the perfect heart which God blesses. 
 For has He not said, "The eyes of the Lord 
 run to and fro throughout the whole earth 
 to show Himself strong in behalf of them 
 whose heart is perfect toward Him"? 
 
 At this point none need fail, and yet, what 
 an awful thing! — some will fail, and after 
 having, as they say, prophesied in His name, 
 and in His name cast out devils, and in His 
 name done many wondrous works, shall hear 
 Him profess, "I never knew you; depart 
 from Me, ye that work iniquity." 
 
 "Let nothing now my heart divide, 
 Since with Thee I am crucified, 
 
 And lire to God in Thee. 
 Dead to the world and all its toys, 
 Its idle pomps and fading joys. 
 
 Jesus, my glory be." 
 
FINANCE. 99 
 
 XL 
 
 FINANCE. 
 
 The soul-winner, to be successful, must not 
 be overanxious about finance, but must 
 laugh at the devil and all his fears, and count 
 God faithful, and trust Him to supply all 
 his needs. He should again and again read 
 over the last part of the sixth chapter of 
 St. Matthew, beginning with verse 19. What 
 could be stronger and more positive than 
 the assurance of Jesus that his needs shall 
 be supplied? 
 
 When I was a little fellow I never worried 
 'Tiy head or heart about my next pair of 
 shoes, or where my breakfast was to come 
 from. My father was dead, so my mother 
 did all that worrying, and I played and 
 trusted her and had a good time. Well, 
 now, Jesus says we are to take no thought 
 
100 THE SOXJL-WINNER's SECRET. 
 
 (by that He means no anxious thought — 
 see Revised Version) what we shall eat or 
 what we shall put on. "Is not the life more 
 than meat and the body more than raiment?" 
 And if God gives you life, which is the 
 greater, will He not give you meat to sustain 
 life? And if He allows you still to live in 
 your body for a season, will He not give 
 you raiment to protect your body? "Behold 
 the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither 
 do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your 
 Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not 
 much better than they? Therefore take no 
 thought, saying. What shall we eat, or 
 what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall 
 we be clothed? for your Heavenly Father 
 knoweth that ye have need of all these 
 things." 
 
 Jesus would have me trust my Heavenly 
 Father as I did my mother. Then I can 
 be a child again, bless the Lord! and all 
 I have to do is to pray and obey and trust 
 the Lord, and have a good time before the 
 Lord, and He will supply my needs and the 
 needs of my little ones whom He has given 
 me. Yes, that is what He means, for He 
 says, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and 
 His righteousness and all these things shall 
 
FINANCE. 101 
 
 be added unto you." And this freedom from 
 worrying anxiety is the privilege and duty 
 of all soul-winners, from the care-free 
 worker who has only to get bread for his 
 own mouth, to him who has a large family 
 to feed and clothe, or the man with a 
 thousand-fold financial responsibility like 
 Moses, or George Muller, or Hudson Taylor, 
 or our God-honored and beloved General. 
 Faith — simple faith, unmixed faith in God's 
 promise — can no more exist in the same 
 heart with worry than can fire and water, 
 or light and darkness, consort together; 
 one extinguishes the other. Faith in the 
 plain, unmistakable promise of God, begotten 
 by the Holy Ghost, so links the soul-winner 
 to Jesus, so yokes them up and unites them 
 in partnership together, that the burden and 
 care is the Lord's, since "the cattle on a 
 thousand hills and the silver and the gold 
 are His;" and He would have His child 
 trust Him, walk the waves with Him, never 
 doubt Him, shout the victory through Him 
 and triumph over all fear and all the power 
 of the enemy in Him. I do declare that ac- 
 cordingto the Word of God this is His will for 
 the soul-winner, and this secret every true 
 soul-winner must and does know. Hallelujah! 
 
102 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 God does not send the soul-winner to a 
 v/arfare at his own charges, but according 
 to Paul, "will supply all your need according 
 to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." 
 
 God's commissary department is abundantly 
 full and runs on schedule time, but the 
 worried and anxious unbeliever wants Him 
 to run ahead of schedule time. No, no ! 
 He may, in order to test and strengthen 
 faith, not provide the second suit until the 
 first one is ready to be laid aside, and some- 
 times after supper he may allow you to 
 go to bed not knowing where the breakfast 
 is to come from, but it will come at break- 
 fast time. "He knoweth that ye have need 
 of these things," so trust Him, as does the 
 sparrow. The wee thing tucks its tiny head 
 under its little wing and sleeps, not knowing 
 where it will find its breakfast, and when 
 the day dawns it chirps its merry note of 
 praise, and God opens His great hand and 
 feeds it. "The eyes of all wait upon Thee 
 and Thou givest them their meat in due 
 season. Thou openest Thine hand and 
 satisfiest the desire of every living thing," 
 said the Psalmist (Ps. 145: 15, 16), and 
 "Ye are of more value than many sparrows," 
 said Jesus. 
 
FINANCE. 103 
 
 O my anxious brother, trust Him! He 
 will not fail you. In this, as in all other 
 things, the assurance holds good, that "there 
 hath no temptation taken you but such as 
 is common to man ; but God is faithful, who 
 will not suffer you to be tempted above that 
 ye are able, but will with the temptation 
 make a way of escape that ye may be able 
 to bear it." (i Cor. lo: 13.) Hallelujah! 
 I have proved this in times past, and I may 
 have to prove it again, but "God is faithful." 
 Glory! Glory! Glory! And the devil is a 
 liar and always will be. 
 
 Finney's clothes got threadbare, but he 
 was so intent on getting souls saved that 
 he didn't notice it until someone came along 
 and measured him for a new suit. I had an 
 almost similar experience once. God knew 
 when the old suit needed replacing by a new 
 one, and He sent it along on time. 
 
 Who can read Muller's "Life of Trust," 
 without seeing God's hand in the supply of 
 all our needs? And if the experiences of 
 the officers of The Salvation Army were 
 written, it would make a book equally inter- 
 esting, showing the unfailing faithfulness 
 of God in supplying daily need. Oh, that 
 soul-winners would not lose their simplicity 
 
104 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 and forget these mercies and past faithful- 
 ness, which are certain pledges of future 
 ones ! 
 
 Many a man loses his love for souls and 
 his power to win them by allowing covet- 
 ousness or financial anxiety to crowd 
 childlike trust out of his heart. "Who is 
 there among you that would shut the door 
 for nought? neither do ye kindle a fire upon 
 mine altars for nought," cried the Lord to 
 the backslidden, covetous prophets of old. 
 They would do nothing until they knew 
 they should be well paid for it. It was not 
 souls, but money, they worked for. 
 
 Contrast with this Paul's unselfish, 
 disinterested devotion. He says: "I have 
 coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel; 
 yea, ye yourselves know that these hands 
 have ministered unto my necessities and to 
 them that were with me. I have showed 
 you all things, how that so laboring ye ought 
 to support the weak and to remember the 
 words of the Lord Jesus, how He said. 
 It is more blessed to give than to receive." 
 And again he says: "I seek not yours but 
 you." He even goes so far as to say when 
 they gave him anything, "Not that I desire 
 a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound 
 
FINANCE. 105 
 
 to your account." It was not the benefit 
 that he derived from receiving, so much as 
 the benefit they would derive from giving 
 that rejoiced his heart. In writing to the 
 Phih'ppians, who had sent him a donation, 
 he gives us a bit of his inner experience. 
 He says, "I rejoice in the Lord greatly that 
 now at the last your care of me hath 
 flourished again, wherein ye were also careful 
 but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak 
 in respect of want, for I have learned in 
 whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. 
 I know both how to be abased and how to 
 abound ; everywhere and in all things I am 
 instructed both to be full and to be hungry, 
 both to abound and to suffer need. I can 
 c^o all things through Christ which strength- 
 eneth me." And in writing to Timothy, he 
 says : "A bishop must not be greedy of 
 filthy lucre," and Peter says we are to "feed 
 the flock of God not for filthy lucre but of 
 a ready mind." 
 
 In all this I do not contend that God would 
 not have the soul-winner amply supported 
 and relieved of financial burden and care by 
 the people for whom he gives his life. God 
 says: 'The laborer is worthy of his hire;" 
 and He forbade the muzzling of the ox that 
 
106 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 trod out the corn ; and by the tithing system, 
 which all Christians ought to adopt, every 
 Jew was to assist in the support of the 
 ministry. 
 
 But what I do contend for is, that the soul- 
 winner must not be anxious about his bread, 
 but must beware of covetousness, must seek 
 to save souls, and if they do not support 
 him as he would wish, must still love them 
 unto death and seek their salvation, and 
 cheerfully and triumphantly trust the God 
 who fed Elijah and rained manna from 
 heaven for forty years to feed a million 
 Israelites to find a way to feed him. I 
 maintain against all devils and all unbeliefs 
 that God will not disappoint him, but will 
 "feed him with the finest of the wheat and 
 satisfy him as with marrow and fatness." 
 
SAVING TRUTH. 107 
 
 XII. 
 
 SAVING TRUTH. 
 
 All truth is precious, but not all truth is 
 adapted to secure the immediate conversion 
 and sanctification of men, any more than all 
 medicine is adapted to cure heart-disease or 
 rheumatism. 
 
 There are certain truths which, preached 
 in the power of the Holy Ghost, are as much 
 adapted to convert and sanctify souls as 
 food to satisfy hunger, or fire to melt ice; 
 while there are other truths, equally Biblical, 
 that will no more secure such results than 
 will the truths of the multiplication table 
 comfort a broken-hearted mother while 
 mourning for her lost children, or those of 
 astronomy quiet a guilty conscience roused 
 from the slumber of sin. 
 
108 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 Some time since I read the amazing and 
 humbling statement that "there were over 
 3,000 churches in two of the leading denom- 
 inations of this country that did not report 
 a single member added by profession of faith 
 last year." Well may the writer add, "Think 
 of more than 3,000 ministers in two denom- 
 inations world-renowned for their schools 
 and culture, preaching a whole year, and 
 aided by deacons and Sabbath-school teach- 
 ers and Christian parents and church 
 members and prayer meetings and Sabbath 
 schools and Christian Endeavor Societies, 
 and helps and helpers innumerable, and all 
 without one conversion !" 
 
 Why this stupendous failure? It cannot 
 be that truth was not preached and taught 
 in the Sunday schools and prayer meetings. 
 These preachers and teachers and parents 
 were orthodox, cultured, and skilled in 
 Biblical lore. No doubt they preached and 
 taught truth from one end of the year to the 
 other, but it was not the truth — the truth that 
 saves, the truth that first smites the con- 
 science, lays bare the secrets of the heart, 
 and arouses the slumbering soul until, self- 
 convicted, it feels that every man it meets 
 is acquainted with its guilt, and every wind 
 
SAVING TRUTH. 109 
 
 and every footfall is an accusing voice, and 
 no cover can hide from God's searching eye, 
 and when conviction has wrought its purpose, 
 and penitence is complete, whispers of for- 
 giveness and peace, and offers mercy and 
 salvation full and free through the bleeding 
 Lamb of God, "before the world's founda- 
 tion slain." 
 
 Such truth preached faithfully and con- 
 stantly in these pulpits and churches — ^not 
 timidly and feebly, like powder and shot 
 hurled by a child's hand, but rather with 
 power, like thunderbolts from the cannon's 
 mouth — might have set the nation in a blaze 
 of revival fire. 
 
 The fact is there are different kinds or 
 grades of truth for different classes of 
 people, just as there are different medicines 
 for various diseases, and food for different 
 ages and constitutions. Jesus declares this 
 when He says, "I have yet many things to 
 say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." 
 (John i6: 12.) The soul-winner must 
 recognize this fact, and seek rightly to divide 
 the word of truth. The Christian needs a 
 different kind and application of truth from 
 that needed by the sinner or backslider, and 
 the sanctified man can receive the strong 
 
110 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 meat of God's Word, while babes in Qirist 
 must be fed on milk. (i Cor. 3: i, 2; 
 Heb. 5: 12: 14.) 
 
 With the sinner, the principal attack 
 should be made on the conscience and the 
 will; he may be moral, and more or less 
 amiable in his family and social relations, 
 and honorable among his business associates, 
 but be sure that under this is secret selfishness 
 and heart sin. He seeks his own way, is 
 disobedient to the light, careless to the dying- 
 love of Jesus. And in reality, if not in 
 profession, he is an enemy to God, and must 
 be convinced of these facts, and faithfully 
 and lovingly and firmly warned of his utter 
 ruin if he does not repent. Repentance, 
 deep, thorough and heartfelt, that leads to 
 a confession and an utter, eternal renuncia- 
 tion of all sin and a complete amendment 
 of life and a making right as far as possible 
 of all past wrong, must be presented as tTie 
 "straight gate" through which alone he 
 can enter the highway of Heaven. We 
 must insist on an immediate and uncondi- 
 tional surrender to all the light God 
 gives, and offer him mercy and tender 
 love through Jesus Christ only if he 
 yields. 
 
SAVING TRUTH. Ill 
 
 The motives that lead to repentance are 
 drawn from eternity, and there is a whole 
 armory of truth with which the sinner can 
 and must be bombarded to bring him to 
 terms, such as the certainty that what he 
 sows he shall reap; that his sins will surely 
 find him out; that death will speedily over- 
 take him; and that if, refusing mercy, he 
 presumes on the goodness of God, and con- 
 tinues in selfishness and sin. Hell shall be 
 his portion forever; while a life of peace 
 and joy here, a happy death-bed, and eternal 
 glory can be offered to him as the alternative, 
 on condition of obedient faith. 
 
 About the same kind of truth is necessary 
 for the backslider, except that the propor- 
 tions may have to be varied. If he is 
 stubborn, thunder the law at him until he 
 hoists the white flag and sues for mercy. 
 If he is sorry he has backslidden, but fears 
 it is vain to try again, then he should be 
 encouraged in every possible way to look 
 up and trust, and the infinite love and pity 
 of God revealed in Jesus should be pressed 
 upon his attention, and he should be urged 
 to cast himself upon God's mercy. 
 
 If these foundation truths of repentance 
 toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus 
 
112 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 Christ are fully, affectionately, and prayer- 
 fully presented, and the sinner or backslider 
 grasps and trusts them, he will be converted, 
 accepted by the Lord, and adopted into His 
 family. He must now be fed upon different 
 truths than those he was fed on before. He 
 will have a tender heart, and so it will be 
 most unwise to thunder the law at him, 
 though he should be fully instructed as to 
 the spirituality of the law, and that it is 
 the law by which God wishes us to order 
 our conduct, and for which abundant grace 
 will be given. Nor should he now be asked 
 to surrender since he is saved ; but he should 
 be intelligently instructed as to the nature 
 and extent of the consecration that is 
 expected from him, and he should be urged, 
 and wisely and tenderly encouraged to make 
 the consecration, presenting his body a living 
 sacrifice and yielding himself to God, "as 
 those that are alive from the dead," 
 
 He should now be instructed as to the 
 fact of inbred sin, which he will soon find 
 stirring within him, and the importance and 
 possibility of having this enemy cast out. 
 Holiness should be presented not so much 
 as a stern demand of a holy God, but rather 
 as his glorious privilege as a child of God. 
 
SAVING TRUTH. 113 
 
 He should be taught that it is an experi- 
 ence in which "perfect love casteth out all 
 fear" — a rest of soul, in which as our bones 
 and sinews are so covered with flesh as to be 
 nnperceived, so the fact of duty, while still 
 remaining in force, is yet clothed upon and 
 hidden by love. 
 
 Therefore, while the necessity of holiness 
 should be presented, and a gentle and con- 
 stant pressure be brought to bear upon the 
 will, yet the principal effort should be made 
 to remove slavish fear by instructing the 
 understanding, and so drawing out the 
 confidence and affections that the soul which 
 in conversion bowed at the feet of Jesus 
 as its Conqueror, will now intelligently and 
 rapturously yield to Him as its Heavenly 
 Bridegroom and fall so desperately in love 
 with Him by the incoming of the Holy Spirit 
 that it shall cry out with David, "I delight 
 to do Thv will, O God !" and with Jesus, 
 "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent 
 Me." 
 
 If the soul-winner does not keep a clear, 
 warm, tender experience of full salvation 
 himself, there is a danger of driving the 
 people to a legal experience instead of lead- 
 ing them into a "perfect-love" experience. 
 
114 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 A legal experience is one in which the man 
 braces up to his duty because the law 
 demands it, m which he is prodded and 
 pushed up to it by the terrors of the 
 law rather than led up to it by the sweet 
 wooings and gentle drawings of love. 
 
 In a holiness meeting, where there are 
 sinners and backsliders, there will be a strong 
 temptation to address them, and as the kind 
 of truth they need differs from that needed 
 by converts, if this is done, confusion is 
 likely to result and an uncertain experience 
 engendered in the hearts of Christians. It 
 will usually be found wisest to leave the 
 sinners and backsliders alone in this meeting, 
 and go straight for the Christians, to get 
 them sanctified. The Lord has been pleased 
 to give me victory along this line, and 
 usually I find also there are some sinners 
 saved in my holiness meetings. 
 
 Jesus likens a Christian to a sheep. Our 
 duty then in the holiness meeting is not to 
 club them with the law, but rather to feed 
 them with the promises and assurances of 
 the Gospel, and to teach them to discern the 
 voice of the good Shepherd and to remove 
 all fear, that they may gladly follow Him. 
 
 The staple diet of all saints should be the 
 
SAVING TRUTH. 115 
 
 promises, seasoned with the commandments 
 to give them a healthy relish. 
 
 The promises draw us on in the narrow 
 way, and the commandments hedge us in 
 that we do not lose the way. The promises 
 should be so presented and the fullness 
 there is in the Gospel and in Jesus so be 
 brought to view that the souls of the people 
 will run hard after Him and not need con- 
 tinual beatings to keep them from breaking 
 through the hedge on to the devil's 
 territory. 
 
 To discern clearly and apply skillfully the 
 truth needed by the souls we are set to save, 
 requires heavenly wisdom, and well does 
 Paul exhort Timothy, "Study to show thyself 
 approved unto God, a workman that needeth 
 not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word 
 of truth," But our study will be in vain 
 unless we, in lowliness of mind, sit at the 
 feet of Jesus, seek wisdom from God, and 
 submit ourselves in glad, prayerful faith to 
 the Spirit of truth who can and will guide 
 "into all truth." (John i6: 13.) 
 
 The Bible, which contains the revealed truth 
 necessary to salvation, will surely puzzle 
 and mystify all who come to it in the big 
 
116 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 and swelling conceit of worldly wisdom, 
 but it will open its treasures to the plain 
 and humble men who come to it full of the 
 Spirit that moved holy men of old to write 
 it. 
 
 O Lord, evermore give to Thy people 
 leaders and teachers filled with this Spirit, 
 and clothed with this wisdom! 
 
KEEPING THE FLOCK. 117 
 
 XIII. 
 
 KEEPING THE FLOCK. 
 
 The soul-winner must give much time and 
 thought and prayer and effort to keep and 
 strengthen his converts. He ought to say 
 with Paul, "Now we live if ye stand fast," 
 and again like Paul he should pray "night 
 and day exceedingly that we might perfect 
 that which is lacking in your faith." (i 
 Thess. 3: 8, 10.) Paul's ambition was not 
 simply to get people converted and united 
 with some local corps or church, but to "pre- 
 sent every man perfect in Christ Jesus." (See 
 Col. i: 28.) 
 
 There is danger of spending far more effort 
 and care in getting people to the penitent- 
 form or the inquiry room, than in keeping 
 
118 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 them after they are there. After a baby is 
 born it must be intelligently and constantly 
 cared for, or it will very likely die. Soul- 
 winners are not spiritual incubators, but 
 fathers and mothers in Israel, with all the 
 measureless responsibility not only of saving 
 souls, but of keeping them after they are 
 saved. 
 
 The General once said to a few of us on a 
 New England train, "Look well to the fire 
 in your own souls, for the tendency of fire is 
 to go out." 
 
 And yet a fire will never go out if it is 
 frequently well shaken down and fresh fuel 
 is added. We must look well to the spark 
 of fire kindled in the hearts of our converts, 
 and fan it gently but surely to a flame and 
 help them to care for it, that it may never 
 go out. The saddest thing in all this mighty 
 work of soul-saving is the fact that in so 
 many instances the fire goes out, the light 
 ceases to shine, the salt loses its savor, and 
 the soul that was redeemed and washed with 
 "precious Blood," "made a partaker of the 
 Holy Ghost," and had "tasted the good word 
 of God and the powers of the world to come," 
 falls away and returns to its old sins, "like 
 the dog to his vomit" and the "sow that was 
 
KEEPING THE FLOCK. 119 
 
 washed to her wallowing in the mire." Judas 
 backslid from the very face and ministry of 
 Jesus Himself; and on another occasion, after 
 one of His searching sermons, we read that, 
 "from that time many of His disciples went 
 back and walked no more with Him." (John 
 6: 66.) 
 
 Paul had to mourn the backsliding of 
 "Demas, who loved this present world." He 
 foresaw and foretold the backsliding of some 
 of the Ephesian local officers (see Acts 20: 
 29-30), and after his mighty victories there, 
 which radiated to all the surrounding na- 
 tions, he had sorrowfully to write to Tim- 
 othy, "This thou knowest, that all they that 
 are in Asia be turned away from me; of 
 whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes." "Of- 
 fences must needs come," and backslidings 
 will follow, but the soul-winner must strive 
 mightily against this, until, like Paul, he can 
 appeal to his people and say, "I take you to 
 record this day that I am pure from the blood 
 of all men, for I have not shunned to declare 
 unto you all the counsel of God." (Acts 20: 
 26, 27.) He must not only save sinners, but 
 must keep his converts. 
 
 I. (a). They should be visited. Some 
 time ago I called at a corps in California. 
 
120 THE soul-winner's SEC31ET. 
 
 The Ensign met me at the train, and on the 
 way to the quarters remarked, "We got one 
 of the worst drunkards in town saved last 
 night, and I have seen him twice this morn- 
 ing and he is doing well." Of course he 
 would do well with such love and care as 
 that ! If they cannot be visited at once, drop 
 them a note and inclose a suitable tract. A 
 business man of about fifty years of age, to- 
 gether with his wife, got saved in my meet- 
 ings. I missed him one night, then I wrote 
 him a note telling him I was praying for him, 
 etc. The next night he was present and told 
 how he had been sorely tempted,but that note 
 blessed him and helped him to get the victory. 
 He became a good soldier. In all probability 
 it was that timely little note, written in five 
 minutes and costing only two cents to mail 
 that kept him saved. 
 
 (b.) They should be encouraged to read 
 their Bible daily, together with other good 
 books. The Red-Hot Library is well adapted 
 to young converts. When I was in Boston 
 as Captain I went to the Bible Society and 
 got them to donate me forty little five-cent 
 Testaments, one of which I used to give each 
 convert, after having marked a number of 
 helpful texts and written his name on the 
 
KEEPING THE FLOCK. 121 
 
 fly-leaf. Years afterward I was visiting a 
 corps. A young man asked me if I didn't 
 remember him. I did not. He pulled out a 
 little, well-worn Testament, pointed to his 
 name and asked if I knew that writing. I 
 did. Said he, "You gave me this Testament 
 years ago when you were Captain in Boston. 
 I have kept it and read it ever since, and am 
 to be sworn in as a soldier to-night." 
 
 (c.) They must be taught to pray and 
 urged to much regular and frequent secret 
 prayer, until they know its sweetness and 
 imspeakable necessity and profit. 
 
 (d.) They must be instructed to keep be- 
 lieving and made to see the difference be- 
 tween sin and temptation. 
 
 (e.) They should be patiently encouraged 
 to work for others, especially for their own 
 people. "Andrew findeth his own brother 
 Simon, and he brought him to Jesus," the 
 Bible says, and our converts must do like- 
 wise. 
 
 (f.) They should be patiently, tenderly, 
 firmly led into the experience of sanctification 
 or perfect love. They must not be allowed 
 to stop at consecration, but must be pressed 
 on into a definite experience of full salvation. 
 It was at this point that President Mahan 
 
122 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 says Finney failed during his early ministry. 
 He was unexcelled in getting sinners to a 
 complete renunciation of all sin, to a making 
 right of all past disobedience, followed by 
 a complete consecration of all to Jesus. He 
 would start them off for the future with 
 vows to obey God at all points, while nothing 
 was said to them about trusting Jesus to 
 cleanse their hearts at once and fill them with 
 the Holy Spirit. Our vows are only ropes 
 of sand, until the Holy Ghost has come with 
 consuming fire into our hearts, filling them 
 with perfect love. Mahan says: "No indi- 
 vidual, I believe, ever disciplined believers 
 £o severely and with such intense and tireless 
 perseverance, on that principle as my brother 
 Finney, before he learned the way of the 
 Lord more perfectly. Appalled at the back- 
 slidings which followed his revivals, his most 
 earnest efforts were put forth to induce 
 among believers permanence in the divine 
 life. In accomplishing this, he knew of but 
 one method — absolute and fixed renunciation 
 of sin, consecration to God and purpose of 
 obedience." Not a word about the faith that 
 receives. 
 
 "During his pastorate in New York, for 
 example, he held for weeks in succession 
 
KEEPING THE FLOCK. 123 
 
 special meetings of his church for perfecting 
 this work, and never were a class of poor 
 creatures carried through a severer discipline 
 than were these. Years after, as their pastor 
 informed me, these believers said they had 
 never recovered from the internal weakness 
 and exhaustion which had resulted from the 
 terrible discipline through which Mr. Finney 
 had carried them. 
 
 "When he came to Oberlin and entered 
 upon the duties of his professorship, he felt 
 that God had given him a blessed opportunity 
 to realize in perfection his ideal of a ministry 
 for the churches. He had before him a 
 mass of talented and promising theological 
 students, who had implicit confidence in the 
 wisdom of their teachers, and with equal 
 sincerity would follow their instructions. He, 
 accordingly, for months in succession, gath- 
 ered together these students at stated seasons, 
 instructed them most carefully in regard to 
 the nature of the renunciation of sin, conse- 
 cration to Christ, and purpose of obedience 
 required of them. Then, under his teachings 
 and exhortations, they would renew their 
 renunciations, consecrations and purposes of 
 obedience, with all the intensity and fixedness 
 of resolve of which they were capable. The 
 
124 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 result in every case was one and the same — 
 not the new life of joy and peace and power 
 that was expected, but groaning bondage 
 under the law of sin and death. At the 
 commencement and during the progress of 
 each meeting, their confessions and renuncia- 
 tions, their solemn consecrations and vows 
 of obedience, were renewed, if possible, with 
 fuller determination than ever before. Each 
 meeting, however, was closed with the same 
 dirge songs: 
 
 "Look ho^w we groyel here below," 
 "Return, O Holy Dove, return," 
 
 and as they went out, not their songs of 
 joy and gladness were heard, but their 
 groans ; 'They followed, and followed hard 
 after the law of righteousness, but did not 
 attain to the law of righteousness. Where- 
 fore? Because they sought it not by faith, 
 but as it were by the works of the law ;' 
 that is, by self-originated efforts and deter- 
 minations." (Mahan's Autobiography, pages 
 246-7.) 
 
 Thank God, Finney learned better, and 
 soul-winners should profit by his example. 
 Converts must utterly renounce sin, make 
 
KEEPING THE FLOCK. 125 
 
 wrong things right and consecrate them- 
 selves fully to the Lord to obey Him in 
 all things great and small; but they must 
 understand fully that that is only man's 
 part, and that they must now wait on 
 their Heavenly Father and believe for 
 Him to do His part, which is to cleanse 
 their hearts and fill them with the Holy 
 Ghost. They must continue in glad, believ- 
 ing, wrestling, never-give-in prayer, till 
 the Comforter comes into their hearts in all 
 His cleansing, sanctifying, comforting power. 
 They must "tarry in Jerusalem till they are 
 endued with power from on high." They 
 must believe God and receive the Holy Ghost, 
 remembering that God is "more willing to 
 give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him 
 than parents are to give good gifts unto 
 their children." That is so. Hallelujah! 
 I have proved it. 
 
 n. The soul-winner should so organize 
 his work and train his people that he shall 
 have wide-awake, willing workers and local 
 officers to assist him in looking after the 
 converts. 
 
 It will take patience and tact and prayer 
 to train these workers, but it will abundantly 
 repay all eflFort. "To every man his work," 
 
126 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 is the inspired plan. Moses had such helpers. 
 (See Ex. i8: 21-26.) Paul depended much 
 on such help. (2 Tim. 2: 2; Titus i: 5.) 
 But there must not be too many irons in the 
 fire. Everything must be subordinated to 
 this one end of saving men and making them 
 into valiant soldiers of Jesus Christ. Paul 
 said: "This one thing I do." Organization 
 must not be overdone, lest the workers 
 become like David in Saul's armor, lest 
 they become like a mighty engine that has 
 not sufficient power to run itself. Let the 
 machinery be simple and the divine, Holy 
 Ghost power be abundant. For this there 
 must be much prayer and patient waiting 
 upon God. The power is His and can 
 be had when persistently, believingly, 
 humbly and boldly applied for. Glory to 
 God! 
 
 HI. Love must abound. In England, 
 France, Germany and other European 
 countries, the populations are practically 
 homogeneous — that is, in England they are 
 all English; in France, French, etc.; but in 
 this country we are mixed people, with 
 different ideals, tastes, maxims, prejudices, 
 hereditary instincts, influences and religious 
 training, which make it more difficult for us 
 
KEEPING THE FLOCK. 127 
 
 to combine for religious purposes and work 
 harmoniously together. 
 
 In order to do this we must be melted or 
 heated by a great common passion, and 
 welded together like two pieces of iron, 
 until there is no longer "Greek or Jew," 
 Englishman or Irishman, French or German, 
 American or European, "but Christ is all and 
 in all." Love is the only thing that will do 
 this, and love will do it. I heard one of 
 our officers say: "I got saved in an Army 
 meeting where I could not understand a 
 word spoken. But the love of Jesus was 
 there and I understood that." 
 
 In cold weather men of all nations will 
 gather around a stove in which there is a 
 fire, and so they will gather around officers 
 and soldiers who are full of love. Love is 
 "the bond of perfectness," according to Paul. 
 It is that which quenches jealousies, destroys 
 envyings, bums up suspicions, begets confi- 
 dence and holds men together with bonds 
 stronger than death. Let us have it and 
 have it more abundantly. More love, more 
 love, more love ! Without it we are nothing. 
 
 We may be gifted in speech and song as 
 an angel; we may be shrewd and farseeing 
 and able to accurately forecast the future; 
 
128 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 we may be encyclopedic in our knowledge; 
 we may have mountain-moving faith; we 
 may be charitably inclined and feed and 
 shelter many poor to the extent of using 
 up all our resources and wearing out our 
 bodies, but if we have not the gentle, holy, 
 humble, longsuffering, self-forgetful, unfail- 
 ing, unsuspicious, self-sacrificing, generous, 
 lowly love of Jesus, we are nothing — we are 
 as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, 
 (i Cor. 13: 1-8.) 
 
 It was this love that enabled Paul to 
 write: "I will not be burdensome to you, 
 for I seek not yours, but you . . . And I will 
 very gladly spend and be spent for you; 
 though the more abundantly I love you, the 
 less I be loved." (2 Cor. 12: 14 and 15.) 
 And here is another bit of Paul's auto- 
 biography that ought to be put on the wall 
 of every minister's study and every officer's 
 quarters throughout the land, every word 
 of which is freighted with the love that 
 filled his great heart: "For yourselves, 
 brethren, know our entrance in unto you, 
 that it was not in vain ; but even after we 
 had been shamefully entreated at Philippi 
 we were bold in our God to speak unto you 
 the Gospel of God with much contention. 
 
KEEPING THE FLOCK. 129 
 
 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor 
 of uncleanness, nor in guile ; but as we were 
 allowed of God to be put in trust with the 
 Gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing 
 men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For 
 neither at any time used we flattering words, 
 as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness ; 
 God is witness ; nor of men sought we glory, 
 neither of you nor yet of others, when we 
 might have been burdensome, as the apostles 
 of Christ. But we were gentle among you, 
 even as a nurse cherisheth her children : 
 so being affectionately desirous of you, we 
 were willing to have imparted unto you, not 
 the Gospel of God only, but also our own 
 souls, because ye were dear unto us. For 
 ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail ; 
 for laboring night and day, because we would 
 not be chargeable unto any of you, we 
 preached unto you the Gospel of God. Ye 
 are witnesses, and God also, how holily and 
 justly and unblamably we behaved ourselves 
 among you that believe; as ye know how 
 we exhorted and comforted, and charged 
 every one of you, as a father doth his 
 children, that ye would walk worthy of God, 
 who hath called you unto His Kingdom and 
 glory." (i Thess. 2: 1-12.) 
 
 K 
 
130 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 And again he says : "I kept back noth- 
 ing that was profitable unto you, but 
 have showed you and have taught you pub- 
 licly, and from house to house, ... I am 
 pure trom the blood of all men. For I have 
 not shunned to declare unto you all the 
 counsel of God . . . Therefore watch, and 
 remember, that by the space of three years 
 I ceased not to warn everyone night and day 
 with tears." (Acts 20: 20, 26, 2^, 31,) 
 
 This is the love that will build up our 
 converts, and nothing else will. We must 
 have love, love, love! We must look for 
 love, pray for love, believe for love. We 
 must exercise love ourselves, and inspire 
 all our people to love, and then they will 
 watch over one another, and pray and weep 
 for each other, and bless one another, and 
 be united as one man, and the gates of Hell 
 cannot prevail against us. 
 
 Oh, that we all as soul-winners may have 
 melting baptisms of holy love that shall make 
 us, like Jesus, patient, gentle, faithful, 
 courageous, tireless, undismayed and utterly 
 unselfish. Then shall our spiritual children 
 abound and be strong, and The Army of 
 the Lord shall become more terrible 
 
KEEPING THE FLOCK. 131 
 
 to evil doers than "an army with ban- 
 ners." 
 
 If we haven't this love, God will give it 
 to us in answer to persistent, believing prayer. 
 He surely will. Glory to God ! 
 
132 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE SOUL-WINNER AND THE CHILDREN. 
 
 Not only did Jesus say, "Suffer the little 
 children to come unto Me, and forbid them 
 not," but He gave to Peter the positive 
 command, "Feed My lambs," and in that 
 command laid a responsibility upon soul- 
 winners for the children, for "of such is the 
 Kingdom of Heaven," and in no other field 
 and among no other class can they work 
 with such immediate success, and such far- 
 reaching results. 
 
 Children are not hard to reach with the 
 Gospel, if the soul-winner will but be simple 
 and use common sense in dealing with them. 
 They are not hardened in sin, their con- 
 sciences are tender and their hearts open, 
 their minds receptive, their wills pliable, their 
 
SOUL-WINNER AND CHILDREN. 133 
 
 faith simple; they are keenly alive to the 
 love of Jesus, the glories of Heaven, the 
 terrors of Hell, and the omnipresence of 
 God. They learn readily to pray in faith 
 about everything, and to cast all their care 
 upon God. No eyes are so keen as theirs 
 to see the light that lighteneth every man, 
 and no hands are so ready to do His bid- 
 ding, and no feet so ready to run in His 
 ways. 
 
 And yet effort must be put forth ceaselessly 
 to win them and to keep themi after they are 
 won, for the corruption of their own natures 
 and the evil example and teaching of a 
 hostile world and the wiles of the vigilant 
 and tireless enemy of all souls will soon 
 blind their eyes and harden their hearts 
 and utterly ruin them, if they are not soon 
 won to Jesus and filled with His love. You 
 may feel yourself unfitted for this task, but 
 it is your business to fit yourself for it. if 
 God has called you to be a worker for souls. 
 The first thing necessary is to believe in the 
 possibility of the conversion of the children; 
 and certainly the plain teachings of Jesus, 
 the examples found in the Bible, and the 
 multitude of examples that anyone can see 
 with his own eyes if he will open them 
 
134 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 and look, ought to convince the most 
 skeptical of this possibility. 
 
 Almost from babyhood the Lord spoke 
 to Samuel, and filled his heart and mind 
 with wisdom, so that none of his words 
 fell to the ground. ( i Sam. 2 : 26, and 3 : 
 1-21.) From a child God ordained Jeremiah 
 a prophet unto the nations, and filled him 
 with His Spirit (Jer. i: S-io.), and if this 
 was possible under the law, how much 
 more gloriously is it possible under the 
 Gospel? 
 
 Jonathan Edwards, in one of his works, 
 tells of a wee girlie, only five years of age, 
 going to and from her bedroom looking 
 most sad and disconsolate. Her mother 
 asked her what was the matter, and the 
 little thing replied, "Mamma, when I pray 
 God doesn't come." 
 
 The mother tried to comfort her, but her 
 little heart was filled with hunger which only 
 the Comforter Himself could satisfy, and 
 she still continued to go disconsolately to 
 her bedroom. But one glad day she ran 
 from her room, leaped into her mother's 
 bosom, threw her arms around her neck 
 and cried, "O mamma, mamma, when I pray 
 now. God comes!" 
 
SOUL-WINNER AND CHILDREN. 135 
 
 And up through the years of her child- 
 hood and youth and womanhood she lived 
 such a life of Christian humility and grace 
 and truth as was the wonder of all who 
 knew her. 
 
 Secondly, since they can be won, you must 
 make up your mind that you will win them ; 
 you must put from your mind forever the 
 thought that "anything will do for the 
 children." It will require much prayer, and 
 patience, and love, and tact, and divine 
 wisdom to win them to the Saviour, and to 
 keep them after they are won. They must 
 have "line upon line, precept upon precept." 
 If one teaching of the lesson is not sufficient 
 then they must be taught it again and yet 
 again. "Why do you tell Charles the same 
 thing twenty times over?" asked the father 
 of John and Charles Wesley of the mother. 
 "Because nineteen times won't do," replied 
 the wise and particular mother, 
 
 "Hear, O Israel," said the Lord; "the 
 Lord is one God, and thou shalt love the 
 Lord thy God with all thy heart and with 
 all thy soul and with all thy mind, and these 
 words which I command you this day shall 
 be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them 
 diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt 
 
136 THE soul-winner's SECRET, 
 
 talk of them when thou sittest in thy house 
 and when thou walkest by the way and when 
 thou liest down and when thou risest up, 
 and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon 
 thy hand and they shall be for frontlets 
 between thy eyes, and thou shalt write them 
 on the posts of thine house, and upon thy 
 gates." This was the way that the children 
 of the old Israelites were to be taught, 
 and this must be the standard the soul- 
 winner sets for himself and for his people 
 to-day. 
 
 The children should be noticed; and I 
 am increasingly convinced that in every 
 meeting where there are children present 
 something should be said that is suitable 
 to them, and the invitation to come to Jesus 
 should include them. 
 
 When they do come, they should be dealt 
 with most thoroughly, their little hearts 
 should be probed, their sins searched out 
 and thorough repentance required. Their 
 fears must be tenderly removed by showing 
 them the fullness of God's love, and the 
 certainty of salvation when they give up 
 sin. Their thought should be turned to 
 Jesus and their faith fixed on Him and 
 grounded in His Word. 
 
SOUL-WINNER AND CHILDREN. 137 
 
 Give them His sure promises, such as, "If 
 we confess our sins He is faithful and just 
 to forgive us our sins, and to ' cleanse us 
 from all unrighteousness." ' 
 
 Above all you must be simple and make 
 things very plain for the children. They do 
 not know the meaning of many big words 
 that you understand quite well, therefore you 
 must take pains to make yourself understood. 
 
 The other day I was talking to some juniors, 
 and I gave them this text, "Remember now 
 thy Creator in the days of thy youth," I 
 asked them if they knew what the word 
 "Creator" meant, and none of them knew, 
 neither did they know what the word "youth" 
 meant. So I had to explain that the text 
 meant that they were to remember and think 
 about God and love Him while they were 
 little boys and girls. 
 
 Again I gave them the text, "Behold how 
 pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in 
 unity." But none of them knew the meaning 
 of the word "unity." 
 
 One said that it meant home, and that was 
 a pretty good guess, but I had to explain that 
 the text meant that it was good and pleasant 
 for little brothers and sisters, and big ones, 
 too, to live together in peace, without quar- 
 
138 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 reling and fighting, and they understood that. 
 
 The following story from a Boston paper 
 will illustrate my meaning further: "The 
 songs which were sung for Dewey by the 
 school children included so many references 
 to Columbia that a teacher in a certain South 
 End public school thought that she would 
 find out how many of her pupils understood 
 what the word Columbia meant. She put 
 the question and received these answers 
 among others : 
 
 "A ship." 
 
 "A man that came over from Spain and 
 discovered our country." 
 
 "A bisikkel." 
 
 "A captain." 
 
 Bi;t not one pupil in the class (seventh 
 grade) knew that Columbia was another 
 name for United States of America. 
 
 You will have to put on your thinking 
 caps, and set your brains to work to make 
 your teaching simple for the children; but 
 love will help you. 
 
 Some time ago I heard a Junior worker 
 singing lustily to a lot of juniors: 
 
 Get your baggage on the deck 
 And don't forget to get your check, 
 
SOUL-WINNER AND CHILDREN. 139 
 
 etc., but he didn't explain that it simply- 
 meant that they were to give themselves to 
 Jesus, and throw away their sins, and be 
 sure and get His love in their hearts. So 
 when he got through I felt sure that there 
 was nothing but a confused rattle of "bag- 
 gage, deck, check, quick," in the ears of the 
 juniors, with no useful or saving idea in 
 their little heads and hearts. 
 
 If you will pray to God for wisdom and 
 love He will help you to make the deepest 
 spiritual truths plain to the children. 
 
 Through simplifying my talks God gives 
 me the joy of seeing many juniors seeking 
 Him for salvation, and occasionally I have 
 seen some gloriously sanctified. 
 
 Some time ago, in one of my Sunday after- 
 noon meetings, I had a penitent-form full 
 of juniors, with each of whom I dealt person- 
 ally. I asked one little fellow: 
 
 "What are you here for, darling?" 
 
 "To get saved," said he. 
 
 "Get saved from what?" I inquired. 
 
 "From my sins." 
 
 "And what are your sins?" 
 
 "I fight," and then he broke down and 
 cried. 
 
140 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 "And what are you here for?" I asked a 
 little girl. 
 
 She, too, was there to get saved, and I 
 asked what her sins were. She hesitated a 
 little and then said : "I'm cruel to my sister 
 and brother;" and then she broke down and 
 cried. 
 
 Another little girl swore, and another dis- 
 obeyed her mother. One little boy told lies, 
 another smoked cigarettes, and another was 
 disobedient to his teacher; and so they told 
 of their sins and broke down and wept and 
 prayed, and asked God to forgive them and 
 make them good, and I have hope that most 
 of them got saved. 
 
 In one of my meetings a little girl of ten 
 got saved and sanctified and lived a holy 
 life for about three years and then died 
 happy, sending me word that the Lord still 
 sanctified her and kept her to the end. 
 
 But after we have done all, we must re- 
 member that they are only lambs, and not 
 sheep ; that they are growing children, not 
 grown men and women ; that they are in the 
 formative state, tender and inexperienced ; 
 that life and the world are full of interest 
 to them; that they have a personality and 
 individuality of their own, and are not always 
 
SOUL-WINNER AND CHILDREN. 141 
 
 willing to take the simple word of their 
 elders, nor to yield to admonition and in- 
 struction, but desire to prove their own 
 powers, and to taste and see all things for 
 themselves. Therefore it will be necessary 
 not only to talk much to them about God, 
 but to talk even more to God about them, 
 and to depend upon the mighty, constant 
 co-operation of the Holy Spirit in securing 
 their salvation, and keeping them in the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 We must show all diligence in our efforts 
 until, if possible, we can at least say with 
 Paul to Timothy, that "from a child thou 
 hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are 
 able to make thee wise unto salvation through 
 faith which is in Christ Jesus." 
 
142 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE SOUL- winner's COMMISSION TO THE 
 CHILDREN. 
 
 "Lovest thou Met Feed My lambs." 
 
 Rough and ready Peter, that horny-handed 
 old fisherman, thought he was cut out for 
 and best fitted to be a prime minister or 
 secretary of state, a bishop, a colonel, or a 
 commander, and it seems had several dis- 
 putes with the other disciples as to whether 
 he should not be the greatest among them 
 (Mark 9: 34; Luke 9: 46). How big must 
 have been his surprise then when he got his 
 commission from Jesus as a Junior worker, 
 and received orders to feed the lambs ! What 
 a mighty argument he could have made to 
 prove that he was not fitted for work with 
 the children! To be sure he had at least 
 
soul-winner's commission. 14S 
 
 one boy of his own (see i Peter 5; 13), and 
 maybe several others, but then, he was a 
 fisherman, and the care of the children was 
 left to his wife. In fact, he had no fitness 
 either by nature or training, for that kind of 
 work; all his associates had been with the 
 big, burly men of the sea, and what did he 
 know about talking to children? All his 
 thoughts and desires and ambitions ran in 
 another direction, and was he not too old 
 .ind set in his ways to change now? 
 
 But when Jesus, with infinite knowledge 
 and wisdom and tenderness, looked straight 
 into his eyes and asked him that searching 
 question, "Lovest thou Me more than these?" 
 and then in reply to his answer, "Yea, Lord,. 
 Thou knowest that I love Thee," said,. 
 "Feed My lambs," what could Peter say? 
 So Peter was first commissioned to be a 
 Junior worker. 
 
 "But," you say, "did not Jesus mean young 
 converts, when He said, *My lambs'? and 
 might they not be men and women who were 
 only newly converted?" True, it is probable 
 that Jesus meant new converts, but new con- 
 verts include children, for the children are 
 often converted, too, and did not Jesus say, 
 "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven"? So 
 
144 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 any way we may explain the text, we cannot 
 escape the fact that Peter was commanded 
 to work with and for the children. And if 
 Peter, why not you and I, my comrade 
 officers? Are we not commanded to look 
 well to the flock over which the Holy Ghost 
 hath made us overseers? (Acts 20: 28) and 
 was there ever a flock in which there were 
 no lambs? If so it was a flock doomed to 
 speedy extinction. 
 
 Are we not commanded to do with our 
 might what our hands find to do? And do 
 we not find multitudes of little ones unshep- 
 herded, unloved, untaught, and for whose 
 tender little souls no man cares, nor prays, 
 nor weeps before the Lord, and whose little 
 hands are stretched out towards us, saying, 
 "Come, and help us"? Shall we wait till 
 they are old in sin and hardened in wicked- 
 ness and fixed in unholy habits and bond- 
 slaves of the devil before we work and plan 
 and pray for them and seek their salvation? 
 Is it possible that we have a call to the 
 work of saving souls and yet have no com- 
 mission for the children? No, no, no! To 
 every worker who says to Jesus, "Lord, Thou 
 knowest that I love Thee," in answer to 
 His question, "Lowest thou Me?" Jesus says, 
 
soul-winner's commission. 145 
 
 "Feed My lambs." The worker may feel that 
 he has no fitness, no tact, no skill, no gifts 
 for that kind of work, but the commission 
 lays upon him the responsibility to study and 
 think and watch and pray and love and be- 
 lieve and work himself into fitness ; and by 
 beginning with just such poor, feeble, un- 
 trained gifts as he has, and making the most 
 of every opportunity, and by being diligent 
 and faithful, by courage and pluck and good 
 cheer and faith, and by seeking God's bless- 
 ing day by day, this fitness can surely be 
 attained. 
 
 The poor, thick-headed numb-skull who 
 never dreamed he had any music in his soul 
 or in his fingers till he got converted at 
 The Salvation Army penitent-form, but who 
 sets himself to it and patiently thrums away 
 at a guitar or blows at a cornet for six 
 months or a year until he can play fairly well, 
 can with equal diligence and patience and 
 determination and attention, learn to interest 
 and bless and help the children; but he 
 must put his heart and soul into it. 
 
 I read some time since of a minister who 
 was sure he was called and fitted only to 
 preach big sermons to big folks, but one day 
 he heard a brother minister talk so instruct- 
 
146 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 ively and entertainingly to the children that 
 he determined to acquire that gift, and by 
 thought and prayer and practice he, too, be- 
 came a powerful children's worker. 
 
 Go thou, my brother, my sister, and do 
 likewise. 
 
 Do you ask, "How can I become such a 
 worker?" 
 
 1. Make up your mind that you ought to 
 do so, and that by God's grace you will ; 
 then, make it a matter of daily prayer and 
 thought and meditation. Above all, seek 
 help from God. 
 
 2. Get all the help you can from others. 
 Study their methods, but don't become a 
 vain imitator of anyone. Be yourself. 
 
 3. Study the best books you can find on 
 the subject. There are many bright books 
 that will greatly help you which you can get 
 at Headquarters. 
 
 4. Try to put yourself in the place of the 
 child, and ask what would interest you. 
 Make things very plain and simple. Watch 
 for illustrations that the children can under- 
 stand, and that will interest them. 
 
 5. But above all have a heart full of ten- 
 der love and sympathy for the little ones, 
 and you will be interesting and helpful to 
 
soul-winner's commission. 147 
 
 them whether you can talk much or not. 
 They will feel your love and respond to it, 
 and so you can point them to Jesus and help 
 them in their first timid steps toward Heaven. 
 In the words of Paul, "Meditate on these 
 things ; give thyself wholly to them, that 
 thy progress may be manifest unto all." (i 
 Tim. 4: 15, R. V.) 
 
148 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 DEAL GENTLY, 
 
 Recently in my regular Bible reading I 
 came to that tender appeal of King David 
 to his generals as they were going forth to 
 fight with Absalom: "Deal gently for my 
 sake with the young man, even with Ab- 
 salom:" (2 Sam. 18: 5), and my heart was 
 touched with its likeness to Jesus. 
 
 Absalom was in rebellion against David 
 the king, his father, and had driven him 
 forth from his throne, had outraged his 
 father's marital ties, had sacrificed filial af- 
 fection and trampled upon filial and civic 
 duty, and was now seeking his father's life. 
 But David knew him only as his wayward 
 boy, loved him still, and commanded his 
 warriors to deal gently with him in the com- 
 
DEAL GENTLY. 149 
 
 ing battle. He would have the rebellion 
 crushed, but the rebel saved ; the sin de- 
 stroyed, but the sinner rescued. 
 
 How like Jesus that is! Is not that the 
 way Jesus feels toward the most desperate 
 backslider, the most careless sinner? Does 
 not His heart yearn over them with unutter- 
 able tenderness? And is not this written for 
 our admonition? Does He not say to us, 
 "Deal gently for My sake"? 
 
 The battle went against Absalom that day, 
 and hard-hearted, wilful, stubborn, old Joab 
 slew him deliberately in spite of the king's 
 wish. And so it often is to-day. Joab's 
 tribe has increased, and while Jesus would 
 have the backslider and sinner dealt with 
 gently, Joab rises up and thrusts him through 
 with reproaches and bitter words and sharp 
 looks, slays him utterly, and the heart of 
 Jesus is broken afresh, as was the heart of 
 David. The elder brother, with his ungener- 
 ous jealousy and cruel words and hardness 
 of heart, as surely grieved the loving old 
 father as did the prodigal with his riotous 
 living. 
 
 There are many reasons why we should 
 deal gently. 
 
ISO THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 1. That we may be like Jesus. When 
 Peter denied Jesus and cursed and swore, 
 Jesus loved him still, and turned and gave 
 him a tender look that broke his heart, and 
 he went out and wept bitterly. And after 
 the resurrection Jesus did not rebuke and 
 reproach Peter, but tenderly asked him, 
 "Lovest thou Me?" and then commissioned 
 him to feed His lambs and sheep. 
 
 Should we, then, who at our best are only 
 "sinners saved by grace," despise the example 
 of our Lord and deal roughly with His 
 sheep that have gone astray? Since He has 
 freely forgiven us our ten thousand talents, 
 shall we not forgive our brother a hundred 
 pence? (Matt. i8: 23-35.) 
 
 2. We should deal gently with them lest 
 we ourselves grieve the Spirit and become 
 backsliders. Paul wrote to the brethren in 
 Galatia, saying, "Brethren, if a man be over- 
 taken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore 
 such an one in the spirit of meekness, con- 
 sidering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." 
 (Gal. 6: i.) I have noticed that when 
 professing Christians bear hard upon back- 
 sliders it is usually only a question of time 
 when they themselves shall backslide. In 
 fact, it is pretty certain that they are already 
 
DEAL GENTLY. 151 
 
 backsliders in heart. In the very act of 
 killing the rebellious Absalom Joab himself 
 rebelled against the expressed wish and 
 command of his king, though he did it under 
 the cloak of loyalty. 
 
 And so men to-day who are severe in their 
 dealings with sinners and backsliders under 
 the cloak of zeal for righteousness and loyalty 
 to truth are themselves rebelling against the 
 example and spirit of Jesus, and unless they 
 repent, the world shall surely soon witness 
 their fall. 
 
 I have in mind now two prominent re- 
 ligious leaders who were unsparing in their 
 criticisms and judgment against a notorious 
 backslider until their spirit became as surely 
 un-Christlike as was his in spite of their 
 loud professions and fair outward appear- 
 ance. At last one of them fell through gross 
 immorality and the other was caught in the 
 same snare, and practically followed in the 
 footsteps of the man he had so fiercely con- 
 demned. "Let him that thinketh he standeth 
 take heed" to his way and spirit in dealing 
 with those who are away from Jesus, "lest he 
 fall." We can only save ourselves as we 
 keep the sweet spirit that impels us to "deal 
 gently" for Jesus' sake. 
 
152 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 3. We should deal gently that we may 
 save the backslider. Jesus loves him still, 
 is married to him, seeks him continually and 
 waits to forgive him and cleanse him and re- 
 store to him the joy of salvation the moment 
 he returns, and we must not hinder, but help. 
 But we shall not do so unless we deal gently. 
 Harsh dealing would not win us, nor will it 
 win him. 
 
 Paul wrote to Timothy, "The servant of 
 the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to- 
 ward all men, apt to teach, patient; in meek- 
 ness instructing those that oppose them- 
 selves, if God peradventure will give them 
 repentance to the acknowledging of the 
 truth; and that they may recover themselves 
 out of the snare of the devil." (2 Tim. 2: 
 24-26.) But this gentleness is not inconsist- 
 ent with great firmness and unswerving 
 loyalty to the truth. In fact it is only when 
 it is combined with these sturdy virtues that 
 it commends itself to the judgment and con- 
 science of the wrongdoer, and is likely to 
 really win him from- the error of his 
 ways. 
 
 Firmness of manner may unite with great 
 gentleness of spirit. I may be as tender in 
 spirit in warning and commanding my child 
 
DEAL GENTLY. 153 
 
 to beware of the fire, as I am in soothing 
 him after he is burned. 
 
 While harshness and severity will only 
 harden the wanderer from God on the one 
 hand, a gospel of gush will fill him with 
 indifference or contempt on the other. The 
 soul-winner, then, must not have the hard- 
 ness and brittleness of glass or cast iron, nor 
 the malleability of wrought iron or putty, 
 but rather the strength and flexibility of 
 finest steel that will bend but never break, 
 that will yield and yet retain its own 
 form. 
 
 It is generally true that holy mothers have 
 more influence with and win more wilful 
 boys and girls than do the fathers, not be- 
 cause the mothers are more ready to com- 
 promise principle and sacrifice truth, but 
 rather because while unwavering in their 
 fidelity to righteousness, they mingle mercy 
 with judgment and a passion of gentle, un- 
 failing love and tenderest solicitude with 
 firmness and loyalty to the claims of God's 
 perfect and holy law. 
 
 But how shall one who has not this spirit 
 of perfect gentleness secure it? There is 
 but one way. It is a fruit of the Spirit, and 
 is to be had only down at Jesus' feet. 
 
154 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 Jesus is like a "lamb slain," mutely gentle, 
 and yet again He is "the Lion of the tribe 
 of Judah" — firm and strong. He combines 
 the strength of the lion with the gentleness 
 of the lamb. 
 
 You, then, that would have His Spirit, 
 confess wherein you have it not. Are you 
 hard, harsh, critical, severe and unrelenting? 
 Tell Him and ask Him to destroy this carnal 
 mind and give you His mind. (Phil. 2: 5.) 
 And as you ask, believe. "All things are 
 possible to him that believeth." 
 
 To maintain this spirit you must walk in 
 the footsteps of Jesus and feed on His 
 words. Only to those who seek Him day 
 by day with the whole heart, and that with 
 joy, is it given to be like Him in these 
 heavenly tempers and dispositions. 
 
 "Let this mind be in you which was also 
 in Christ Jesus." Amen ! 
 
'so spake/' 155 
 
 XVII. 
 
 so SPAKE. 
 
 And it came to pass in Iconium that they 
 went hotji together into the synagogue of the 
 Jeics, and SO SPAKE that a great multitude 
 "both of the Jews and also of the Greeks 'believed. 
 —Acts 14: 1. 
 
 Bless God for such preachers and such 
 preaching! How did they do it? What was 
 their secret? I think it is threefold. 
 
 I. Their manner. They must have won 
 the multitude by the sweetness and grace and 
 persuasiveness and earnestness of their man- 
 ner. They certainly did not offend and 
 shock them by coarse, vulgar, uncouth 
 speech, or by a weak and vacillating, light 
 
156 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 and foolish, or boisterous and domineering 
 manner. They wanted to win men, and they 
 suited their manner to their purpose. 
 
 Solomon said, "He that loveth pureness 
 of heart, for the grace of his lips the king 
 shall be his friend." 
 
 This "grace of the lips" is not a thing to 
 be despised. It is rather something to be 
 thought about and prayed over and culti- 
 vated. It was said of Jesus, "They won- 
 dered at the gracious words which proceeded 
 out of His mouth," and a police captain said 
 of Him, "Never man spake like this Man ;" 
 and doubtless this graciousness was not only 
 in what He said, but also in the way He 
 said it. His manner was authoritative, yet 
 gentle; strong, yet tender; dignified, yet 
 popular and familiar. You can say to a little 
 child, "Come here, you little rascal," in such 
 a sweet manner as to win its confidence and 
 draw it to you ; or you can say, "Come here, 
 you darling child," in such a rough, coarse 
 way as to fill it with fear and drive it from 
 you. It is largely a matter of manner. 
 
 Garrick, the great actor, was asked why 
 he could so mightily move men by fiction, 
 while preachers, speaking such awful and 
 momentous truths, left them unmoved. He 
 
"so SPAKE." 157 
 
 replied, "They speak truth as though it were 
 fiction, while I speak fiction as though it 
 were truth." It was a matter of manner. A 
 woman so far away from Whitfield that she 
 could not hear what he said, was weeping. 
 A bystander asked her why she wept, since 
 she knew not what he said. "Oh," said she, 
 "can't you see the holy wag of his head?" 
 His manner was matchless. Lawyers plead- 
 ing before judges and juries, and political 
 speakers seeking to win votes cultivate an 
 ingratiating manner. Why, then, should not 
 men who are seeking to save souls and win 
 men to Jesus Christ seek from God the best 
 manner in which to do this? 
 
 2. Their matter. I judge that not only 
 was their manner agreeable and attractive, 
 but their subject matter was interesting, 
 grave, and unspeakably important. They 
 preached the Word ; they reasoned out of the 
 Scriptures; they declared that the prophecies 
 were fulfilled, that Jesus Christ, the Son of 
 God, of whom Moses and the prophets wrote 
 and spoke, had come, was crucified, was 
 buried, but was risen again, and that through 
 obedient faith in Him men might have their 
 sins forgiven, their hearts purified and their 
 
158 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 whole being sanctified and filled with God. 
 It was not stale platitudes they preached, 
 or vain babblings about the Seventh Day, 
 about baptisms and feet-washings and in- 
 cense and vestments, or harsh criticisms of 
 authorities and "powers that be," or divers 
 and strange doctrines, but it was "repent- 
 ance toward God, and faith toward our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." (Acts 20: 21.) This was 
 the substance of their message. 
 
 (a) It was a joyful message. It was good 
 news; it was a declaration that God was so 
 interested in men — "so loved the world that 
 He gave His only begotten Son, that who- 
 soever believeth on Him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life ; for God sent not 
 His Son into the world to condemn the 
 world, but that the world through Him 
 might be saved." The war-worn, sorrowful 
 old world needs such a joyful message. 
 
 (b) It was an illuminating message. It 
 showed them how to be saved from sin and 
 made acceptable to God. It also threw a 
 flood of light into the grave and beyond, 
 and "brought life and immortality to light," 
 Jesus was "the first fruits of them that slepit." 
 It robbed earth of its loneliness, and the 
 
"so spake/' 159 
 
 tomb of its terrors. It turned the world 
 into a schoolroom and preparation place for 
 the Father's house of many mansions, and 
 made Heaven real, 
 
 (c) It was a solemn and a searching mes- 
 sage. It called men to remember their sins 
 and repent of them, forsake them, and sur- 
 render themselves no longer to the pleasures 
 of ease, but to the service of God. They 
 must take sides. If they would be saved, 
 they must follow Christ crucified. "Every 
 road leads two ways." If they would put away 
 sin and follow Jesus, He would lead them 
 to Heaven; if they rejected Him they would 
 surely go their own way to damnation, to 
 Hell. 
 
 3. Their spirit. The manner may be ac- 
 ceptable and the message true, but if the 
 spirit of the speaker be not right there will 
 hardly be a "great multitude" of believers. 
 The cannon may be a masterpiece and the 
 powder and shot perfect, but if there be no 
 fire, the enemy need have no fear. The 
 manner may be uncouth and the message 
 fragmentary and faulty, but if the spirit be 
 right, if it be humble, and on fire of love, 
 believers will be won. 
 
160 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 Cataline, a Roman citizen, conspired 
 against the State, and Cicero, the matchless 
 Roman orator, delivered a series of orations 
 against him. The people were captivated 
 by the eloquence of Cicero. They went from 
 the Forum praising his oratory, lauding his 
 rhetoric, extolling his gestures and his 
 graceful management of the folds of his 
 toga. 
 
 Philip, of Macedon, was planning to in- 
 vade the States of Greece. Demosthenes, the 
 Athenian orator, delivered a series of ora- 
 tions against him, and the Greeks went from 
 his presence saying, "Let us go and fight 
 Philip !" 
 
 Doubtless the manner and matter of the 
 two orators were equally above criticism, but 
 they were as far apart as the poles in spirit. 
 One sent the people away talking glibly, 
 prettily about himself; the other sent them 
 away filled with his spirit, fired with a great 
 impulse to die, if needs be, fighting the in- 
 vader. 
 
 After all, I imagine it was this right spirit, 
 this white heat of soul, this full-orbed heart- 
 purpose that was the principal factor in 
 winning that multitude of believers in 
 Iconium that day. These apostles were great 
 
''so SPAKE." 161 
 
 believers themselves. They were full of 
 glad, triumphant Hell-defying and defeating 
 faith. They were not harassed by doubt and 
 uncertainty. They did not preach guesses. 
 They knew whom they believed (2 Tim. i : 
 12), and because they believed they spoke 
 (2 Cor. 4: 13), and "so spake" that the faith 
 of a multitude of others was kindled from 
 the fire of theirs. 
 
 This faith had also kindled in their hearts 
 a great love. 
 
 They believed the love of God in giving 
 His Son for them, and their hearts were in 
 turn filled with love for Him. They be- 
 lieved the dying love of the Saviour, and 
 their hearts were so constrained with love 
 for Him that they were prepared to die for 
 Him, (Acts 20: 24; 21: 13.) They believed 
 the love of God for all men, until they loved 
 like Him, and felt themselves debtors to all 
 men (Romans i: 14), and were ready to be 
 offered as a sacrifice for the salvation of 
 men. (Phil. 2: 17.) 
 
 Oh, it was a bright faith and a burning 
 love that set on fire the spirits of these men ! 
 And I think this Christlike spirit moulded 
 their manner and m^ade them natural and 
 gentle and strong and true and intense with 
 
 M 
 
162 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 earnestness, with no simper or whine or 
 affectation of false pathos; no clang of hard- 
 ness; no sting of bitterness, and no chill of 
 heartless indifference. What school of ora- 
 tory can touch and train the manner of 
 an actor so that he shall for an instant 
 compare with the untrained, shrinking 
 mother who is suddenly fired with a 
 quenchless impulse to plead for the life 
 of her child? The best teacher of 
 style in public speech is a heart filled to burst- 
 ing with love to Jesus, and love and hope 
 and fear and faith for men. A love that 
 makes a man feel that men must and shall be 
 won from Hell and turned to righteousness 
 and Heaven and God, will surely, in due time, 
 make the manner effective. 
 
 And it will also shape and control, if it 
 does not make the message. It is marvellous 
 the message men get whose hearts are afire. 
 Someone asked why Mr. Bramwell could 
 say such wonderful things. The reply was, 
 "He lives so near the heart of God and the 
 Throne that he gets secret messages, and 
 brings them down to us." It is pitiable, the 
 flat, insipid, powerless, soulless messages 
 men manufacture when their faith is feeble 
 and their hearts are cold ! 
 
"so spake/' 163 
 
 Can we not, then, sum up for ourselves the 
 secret of these men in the words of Solomon, 
 "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of 
 it are the issues of life?" 
 
164 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS OF BIBLE STUDY. 
 
 If someone had written a book so small that 
 it could be carried in the pocket, and so cheap 
 that the poorest could buy it, and if this book 
 explained simply how anyone who followed 
 its directions could surely, without any 
 danger to themselves or others, gain the 
 highest possible honors, the greatest riches, 
 the supremest joy, all linked with long life, 
 then I feel sure that everyone would want the 
 book. 
 
 If they could not read, they would do their 
 best to learn in order to study it, and if they 
 were too busy by day, I think they would sit 
 up late at night or rise early in the morning 
 to read it and commit it to memory. What 
 they had learned, they would think and talk 
 
BIBLE STUDY. 165 
 
 about through the day. If there were any 
 parts of it that seemed vitally important and 
 yet hard to understand, they would not 
 throw the book away or go to careless critics 
 who took more pleasure in pointing out what 
 they considered errors than in following 
 what they and everybody acknowledged to 
 be true. Instead, they would go for instruc- 
 tion to those who had most closely followed 
 the directions of the book, and most surely 
 gained its prizes. Or, better still, they would 
 go to the author of the book. The Bible 
 is such a book, except that in place of 
 worldly honor and riches and joy, it offers 
 heavenly; instead of long life, it offers eternal 
 life — a life of unutterable blessing and joy, 
 and that without end. 
 
 God is its author. "For the prophecy 
 came not in old time by the will of man; 
 but holy men of God spake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter i : 21.) 
 
 It can be bought for twenty-five cents ; the 
 New Testament can be had for five cents, 
 and it can be carried in the pocket. It is so 
 simple that "the wayfaring man, though a 
 fool," need "not err therein." Children can 
 understand it, though philosophers are often 
 puzzled by it. Like the cloudy, fiery pillar 
 
166 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 that went with the Israelites in the wilder- 
 ness it is light to those who love and obey 
 God, but gloomy darkness and contradiction 
 to those who refuse to obey Him. 
 
 It marks an easy, straight path for hum- 
 ble souls, but it is a rough and tangled 
 labyrinth to proud and wayward men. It 
 has no instruction, or blessing, or comfort 
 for those who despise it, but to those who 
 love it it is sweeter than honey, and more 
 priceless than gold and precious stones. 
 It makes plain the way whereby sinners 
 may become holy, and holiness is an experi- 
 ence which, in turn, makes the Bible plain. 
 It interprets holiness, and holiness interprets 
 it. 
 
 Of course, there are some things in the 
 Bible hard to be understood, but if we will 
 pay diligent heed the Holy Spirit will make 
 it plain to us as fast as we are able to under- 
 stand. The General says that he reads the 
 Bible as he eats fish, eating what he can, and 
 laying aside the bones ; but as the years go 
 by he often finds that what he once could not 
 understand spiritually has now become quite 
 plain to him. Things in the Bible, which are 
 hard for you to understand to-day, may be- 
 come clear as sunlight in years to come. 
 
BIBLE STUDY. 167 
 
 In studying the Bible it will be found that 
 experience in spiritual things makes the 
 Book plain to us. A little ten-year-old girl, 
 who had been much afflicted, prayed to the 
 Lord and found help. Some time later, 
 while alone reading her Bible, she found 
 this text : "This poor man cried and the 
 Lord heard him, and saved him out of all 
 his troubles." (Ps. 34: 6.) It so fitted her 
 experience that her heart was made glad, 
 and she pointed it out to her mother, and 
 had her mother mark it. 
 
 A portion of the Bible ought to be read 
 carefully and prayerfully and lovingly every 
 day. Just as a fire needs fresh fuel, and the 
 body needs new supplies of food every day 
 so the soul that would be strong and holy 
 needs something fresh from the Bible each 
 day. 
 
 I. It is through the Word of God that 
 we get faith. I once heard one of the 
 mightiest men of God I ever knew say 
 that he used to pray and pray for faith, but 
 one day he read this text: "Faith cometh 
 by hearing, and hearing by the Word of 
 God" (Rom. 10: 17), and from that day he 
 began to read the Bible, fulfilling its condi- 
 tions and claiming its promises, and his faith 
 
168 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 grew wonderfully. Although uneducated in 
 the schools, he became full of the wisdom of 
 God, and won many thousands of souls to 
 Jesus, raised up hundreds of workers, in- 
 spired thousands more, and had millions 
 of dollars given to him for the work of 
 God. 
 
 I have often heard people insinuate that 
 if one rose from the dead to add his testi- 
 mony to what the Bible says that they might 
 then believe. But Jesus denies this. He says, 
 "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
 neither will they be persuaded though one 
 rose from the dead." (Luke i6: 31.) The 
 Bible is that which brings faith and strength- 
 ens it, and not seeing departed spirits, or 
 visions, or raptures of any kind. 
 
 When Paul and Silas were driven out of 
 Thessalonica they went to the city of Berea 
 and preached Jesus there, and Luke tells 
 us that the people of Berea "were more noble 
 than those of Thessalonica, in that they 
 received the Word with all readiness, and 
 searched the Scriptures daily, whether these 
 things were so." And then he adds : "There- 
 fore many of them believed." (Acts 17: 
 11-12.) Belief always follows an honest 
 searching of the Scriptures. If, then, you 
 
BIBLE STUDY. 169 
 
 would have strong faith, feed what faith you 
 have on the Word of God. 
 
 2. If we are going astray, the Word of 
 God corrects us. A woman, who was out 
 at service, was always grumbling and com- 
 plaining in spite of the fact that she was 
 treated most kindly. One day, when her 
 mistress was out, she read these words in 
 her Bible: "Do all things without murmur- 
 ings and disputings; that ye may be blame- 
 less and harmless, children of God without 
 blemish." (Phil. 2: 14, 15, R. V.), and she 
 felt as though the dear Lord Himself had 
 spoken tender words of rebuke and convic- 
 tion to her. She humbled herself, apologized 
 to her mistress, and corrected her ways. 
 
 A lady, who had been selfishly seeking 
 her own way instead of God's way, and of- 
 fering the Lord a half-hearted service, was 
 convicted by these words: "If ye offer the 
 blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye 
 offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer 
 it now unto thy governor : will he be pleased 
 with thee, or accept thy person?" {Ma\. 
 i: 8.) 
 
 She saw herself offering to God what no 
 earthly ruler would accept, and it broke her 
 
l70 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 heart, and led her to a sincere repentance 
 and humble confession and an utter surren- 
 der of herself to the Lord, until she felt 
 His love flooding her soul. Truly, "all 
 Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and 
 it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
 correction, for instruction in righteousness, 
 that the man of God may be perfect, thor- 
 oughly furnished unto all good works." (2 
 Tim. 3 : 16, 17.) 
 
 3. If we are ignorant, the Word of God 
 instructs us. David says, "Thou through 
 Thy commandments hast made me wiser 
 than my enemies. I have more understand- 
 ing than all my teachers; for Thy testimon- 
 ies are my meditation. I understand more 
 than the ancients, because I keep Thy pre- 
 cepts. (Ps. 119: 98-100.) 
 
 Again he says, "The entrance of Thy 
 words giveth light ; it giveth understanding 
 to the simple." (Ps. 119: 129.) 
 
 Some time ago, out on the plains of Min- 
 nesota, I found a humble young man, who 
 worked on a farm, who seemed to me to be 
 wonderfully wise. I asked him his secret, 
 and he told me that it was constant study of 
 the Word of God and prayer. If he had 
 
BIBLE STUDY, l7l 
 
 ten minutes to spare at noon-hour, he did not 
 waste it in foolish talk, or in reading stories 
 or newspapers, but he digged into his 
 Bible. 
 
 People told him that he would get narrow 
 if he did not read other books, but he found 
 that they were the ones who got narrow, and 
 when they became confused by the assump- 
 tions of evolution, spiritualism, the new psy- 
 chology, Dowieism, and the like, he, although 
 not educated in the schools, had no difficulty 
 in solving all their problems through his 
 knowledge of the Bible. Like David, he 
 found himself wiser than his enemies, his 
 teachers, and the elders, through God's 
 Word. 
 
 Jesus said to certain people who were in 
 error about certain doctrines, "Ye do err, 
 not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power 
 of God." Ignorance of the Scriptures and 
 of the power of God leaves one exposed to 
 all sorts of error and cunning craftiness of 
 men, but when we hide God's Word in our 
 hearts, and have the genuine experience of 
 holiness, we get filled with His great 
 thoughts and are truly wise, and if we hum- 
 bly watch and pray we are safeguarded from 
 error. 
 
172 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 4. The Bible gives us great and loving 
 thoughts of God, and makes our hearts tender 
 toward Him. I have read the Bible through 
 many times, but there are some parts of it 
 that so reveal the love of God in Christ to 
 me that I can never read them' without 
 tears. 
 
 A friend went into the quarters of two of 
 our Swedish officers, and found them sitting 
 at the tables with open Bibles, weeping. He 
 thought they were in great sorrow, and asked 
 them what was their trouble. They said, 
 "Oh, we are weeping for joy at the goodness 
 of God ! See here what we have read : 'The 
 very hairs of your head are all numbered.' 
 Think how good God is, and how He cares 
 for us to number the very hairs of our 
 heads." 
 
 I found a dear young friend weeping one 
 day, but they were tears of joy. "Look here/* 
 he said, "at what the Lord has said to me to- 
 day: 'Come unto Me, all ye that labor, and 
 are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
 Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, 
 and ye shall find rest to your souls.' My 
 father died," he said, "and my eyes were dry, 
 and my mother died, and I couldn't shed a 
 tear. My heart was hard, but God has made 
 
BIBLE STUDY. 173 
 
 my heart soft, and now I weep for joy as I 
 read His tender, loving words." 
 
 Truly God's Word fills the humble, believ- 
 ing heart with joy. 'Thy words were found, 
 and I did eat them ; and Thy word was unto 
 me the joy and rejoicing of my heart," said 
 Jeremiah. 
 
 The truth is, that we love the Lord no 
 better than we love His Word. In propor- 
 tion as the Word is precious to us, so is 
 He Himself precious to us. 
 
 5. Do you want to know Jesus better? 
 Read the Bible. The Bible, under the il- 
 lumination of the Holy Spirit, reveals Him 
 to us. It is there that we see Him a tender 
 babe, born in a manger, in a stable among 
 the cattle, and hunted for His life by cruel 
 Herod. 
 
 It is there that we find Him humbly toil- 
 ing at the carpenter's bench, fasting and 
 praying, and tempted by the devil in all points 
 like as we are, doing good, easy to be en- 
 treated, full of mercy and of the spirit of for- 
 giving love, having compassion on the poor 
 and sorrowful and sinful, preaching the 
 Gospel, warning men of the judgment to 
 come, declaring both the love and the wrath. 
 
174 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 the goodness and the severity of God, and at 
 last laying down His life a sacrifice for our 
 sins. 
 
 It is there that we see the open grave, the 
 risen Saviour, the ascending, glorified Lord, 
 into whose hands is given all power in 
 Heaven and earth to be used in behalf of His 
 holy ones on earth; to be used for their de- 
 fense, their guidance, their spiritual educa- 
 tion, their deliverance, their support, their 
 warfare, their uttermost salvation, and their 
 final triumph over all the power of the enemy, 
 over all earth and Hell. Read the Bible to 
 see and know Jesus. 
 
 6. Do you want to pray with more faith 
 and power? Read the Bible. It is there 
 that you will learn God's will, become ac- 
 quainted with His mind, and find His prom- 
 ises to encourage your faith. 
 
 7. Do you want to speak to the hearts of 
 saints and sinners with more effect? Read 
 the Bible. It is there that you will get truth 
 that is sharper than a two-edged sword, that 
 is like a fire and a hammer. It is there that 
 you will get truth that will comfort mourners, 
 arouse the careless, instruct the ignorant, 
 enlighten the perplexed, lead the blind, en- 
 
BIBLE STUDY. 175 
 
 courage the fainthearted, rest the weary, 
 steady the young, renew the old, that will 
 convict and convert and sanctify and fill 
 the heart with perfect assurance. 
 
 8. Do you want to hold out faithful to the 
 end, and not make shipwreck of faith? 
 
 Read the Bible, and "observe to do accord- 
 ing to all that is written therein ; for then 
 thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and 
 then thou shalt have good success." (Josh, 
 i: 8.) 
 
 A recent writer has well said, "Of course, 
 it is much easier, and therefore much more 
 agreeable to our spiritual laziness, to go to a 
 convention or revival meeting and claim a 
 filling of the Holy Spirit than it is to peg 
 along day after day, month after month, year 
 after year, digging into the Word of God. 
 But a 'filling of the Spirit' that is not main- 
 tained by a persistent study of the Word, 
 will soon vanish," just as a fire that does not 
 daily receive fresh supplies of coal will go 
 out, or a man that is not properly fed will 
 starve. Oh, the blessings that have been lost 
 because they have not been renewed day by 
 day by a loving study of God's blessed Word ! 
 
 "Search the Scriptures," said Jesus. Do 
 
176 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 not think you are too young, or too ignorant, 
 or too busy. Do your best, and stick to it, 
 and the Holy Spirit will become your teacher, 
 and you shall become wise unto everlasting 
 life. (2 Tim. 3: 15-17.) 
 
USE OF HIS BIBLE. 177 
 
 XIX. 
 
 KING DAVID S USE OF HIS BIBLE. 
 
 David said, "Princes also did sit and speak 
 against me; but Thy servant did meditate in 
 Thy statutes. Thy testimonies are also my de- 
 light and my counsellors/' (Psalms 119: 23-24.) 
 
 What a picture! Evil men are plotting 
 against him, digging a pit for him, gnashing 
 on him with their teeth, but he sits quietly- 
 meditating on God's statutes. These statutes 
 are his counsellors. He talks over his affairs 
 with them and finds out what they have to 
 say. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and 
 Moses and Joshua are his advisers. To be 
 sure they are dead, but they live more vitally 
 in the truths they spoke and exemplified than 
 they did in their bodies. 
 
 Paul says, in writing to the Romans, 
 "Whatsoever things were written aforetime 
 
 N 
 
178 THE soul-winner's secret. 
 
 were written for our learning; that we 
 through patience and comfort of the Scrip- 
 tures might have hope." (Rom. 15: 4), 
 David discovered this blessed secret for him- 
 self, and although his Bible was much more 
 limited than ours, he made glorious use of it. 
 Here are some of the blessings he got from 
 it. 
 
 I. Wisdom and understanding. We are 
 very foolish and shortsighted, but the 
 wisdom and foresight of God are at the dis- 
 posal of our faith. David says, "Thou, 
 through Thy commandments hast made me 
 wiser than mine enemies ; for they are ever 
 with me. I have more understanding than 
 all my teachers; for Thy testimonies are my 
 meditation. I understand more than the 
 ancients, because I keep Thy precepts." I 
 have often been amazed and delighted at the 
 keen insight and uncommon common sense 
 of otherwise ignorant and illiterate men and 
 women who have been full of the Holy 
 Ghost, and who were lovers and diligent 
 students of their Bibles. They have more 
 wisdom than their teachers, and easily outwit 
 and confound all their enemies. Paul in 
 writing to Timothy said, "The Holy Scrip- 
 tures are able to make thee wise unto salva- 
 
USE OF HIS BIBLE. 179 
 
 tion through faith which is in Christ Jesus." 
 (2 Tim. 3: 15.) 
 
 2. Joy. "The joy of the Lord is your 
 strength," said Nehemiah. 
 
 "But how am I to get this joy?" you ask. 
 By receiving the Lord of joy Himself into 
 your heart, which you do by hearty faith 
 in what He says. Once upon a time my 
 wife said "Yes," and because I believed and 
 acted upon my faith, that filled me with joy 
 that has been increasing for years. God has 
 said great things, given us "exceeding great 
 and precious promises." If we believe them 
 and act upon our faith He will come into 
 our lives and our joy shall be full, (i John 
 1:4.) Hear David, "I have rejoiced in the 
 way of Thy testimonies as much as in all 
 riches." "I rejoice at Thy Word, as one that 
 findeth great spoil." 
 
 The Word of God was the well of salva- 
 tion from which David drew water with joy. 
 There is the outer shell of the letter and 
 the inner kernel of spirit and life in the 
 Word of God. Those who have learned the 
 secret of getting at the kernel in a text and 
 hearing the whisper of the voice of Jesus 
 in it, and have caught the flash of the love- 
 
180 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 light and tender sympathy of His eye through 
 it, will understand David's joy. 
 
 3. Hope. Faith has to do with the pres- 
 ent, hope with the future. Many a man 
 fails, not because of the present trouble, but 
 because the future looks dark and his hope 
 fails, and in discouragement he casts away 
 his shield of faith and gives up the fight. 
 Well does Paul name hope as one of the 
 three graces. He who wins in the battle 
 of life must "hope to the end." During the 
 darkest days of the Revolution, Washington 
 never lost hope. Amid the awful suspense 
 and uncertainties of the Civil War, Lincoln 
 remained confident and hoped on. And so 
 it was with David. He passed through dark 
 hours. Taken from the quiet, sheltered life 
 of a shepherd, he was placed in a palace 
 and made son-in-law to the king, only to be 
 hated and hunted for his life for years, while 
 his wife was given to another. His own peo- 
 ple murmured against him and would have 
 stoned him.. His own son rebelled against 
 him and sought his life, until in the agony 
 and perplexity of his soul he cried out, "All 
 Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over 
 me." 
 
USE OF HIS BIBLE. 181 
 
 But then he remembered God's promises 
 and cried out again, "Remember Thy word 
 unto Thy servant, upon which Thou hast 
 caused me to hope." My soul fainteth for 
 Thy salvation ; but I hope in Thy word," and 
 then he questions and assures his soul, "Why 
 art thou cast down, O my soul? and why 
 art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou 
 in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is 
 the health of my countenance and my God." 
 
 4. Comfort. The idea of comfort in the 
 Bible is not simply to soothe, but to aid, 
 strengthen, inspire and encourage. And 
 when God comforts us He draws nigh to 
 us and draws us nigh to Himself, and wipes 
 away our tears and assures and strengthens 
 our hearts and fills us with a sense of His 
 presence and almighty sufficiency, until our 
 poor little fears and sorrows vanish and a 
 great calm, a river of joy, and a holy courage 
 take possession of our souls. In youth we 
 start out strong and defiant, asking only a 
 platform on which to display and prove our 
 powers, but sooner or later we each come 
 to that pathetic spot where our heads droop 
 and our hearts fail and we want comfort. 
 It was so with Paul, and he cries out, 
 
182 THE soul-winner's SECRET. 
 
 "Blessed be God, even the Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and 
 the God of all comfort, who comforteth us 
 in all our tribulations. . . . For as the 
 sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our 
 consolation also aboundeth by Christ." And 
 even our blessed Lord Himself was strength- 
 ened by an angel in the days of His flesh. 
 (Matt. 22: 43.) 
 
 Shall we not follow David in his diligent 
 study of God's truth, and shall we not thank 
 God for His immeasurable and unspeakable 
 gift, and prize as never before the infinite 
 treasure He has bestowed upon us in His 
 Word? 
 
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