CHAPTER VII
_Winning and Holding_
"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,"
2 Timothy iii. 15. Timothy"s inheritance was invaluable. His equipment was superb, and his experience from the day of his birth until the end of his life upon earth, ideal. He had a good grandmother. Evidently she influenced him profoundly. I am quite sure that his parents too must have fulfilled their obligations to their child, and in addition to his own immediate ancestry, he had Paul, the Apostle, who looked upon him as a son in the Gospel, and honoured him by sending him his last message when he said, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them also that love His appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me" 2 Timothy iv. 7-9.
It is a great loss to any child to be deprived of what Timothy had. We may not all be rich, and we certainly cannot all be great, but we may all be true and faithful as parents, and when a child has such an inheritance he is well started in life. It is because children do not have this that many of them drift. Given a good ancestry it is comparatively easy to draw children to Christ, and even to draw them back when once they have wandered. It is the testimony of rescue mission workers that when they have the privilege of appealing to lost and ruined men in the name of a mother who was saintly and a father who was true to Christ, they have a hold upon an almost irresistible force, to bring the wanderer back to the faith of his father and the teaching of his mother.
There is the sorest need to-day of a special and continued interest in behalf of our young people. David Starr Jordan is authority for the statement that "one-third of the young men of America are wasting themselves through intemperate habits and accompanying vices," the conditions in other lands are also very serious. The secretary of the College a.s.sociation of North America has been quoted as saying that there are twelve thousand college men in New York City alone who are down and out through vice. "Talk of the ravages of war. The ravages of war, pestilence and disease combined are as nothing compared with the awful moral ravages wrought in the teen period. The sh.o.r.es are strewn thick with the wasted lives of those who have been wrecked in youth."
"We have been seeking results too far afield and overlooking great opportunities near at hand. If you take a census of a Christian congregation and ask those who were converted before their eighteenth birthday to rise, five-sixths of your congregation will stand. This means that five-sixths of all the people who give themselves to Christ do it on the under side of the eighteenth year. Put beside this the fact that we have more than 12,000,000 children and youth in the Protestant Sunday Schools of America under eighteen years of age and you will see that our great evangelistic opportunity does not lie outside of the Church, but inside, in the Sunday School department.
Here we have a vast army, ready and waiting for the Christian call."[1]
[Footnote 1: Rev Edgar Blake.]
It is one thing to lead souls to Christ, it is quite another thing to hold them when once they have been won. The serious time for drifting is between the ages of twelve and twenty. If we could but safeguard these years we would hold for the Church many who drift out upon the sea of life, make shipwreck of their hopes and break the hearts of those who are interested in them.
"An investigation in the Wesleyan Church of England showed that only ten per cent of the Sunday School were held in active membership in the Church. Ten per cent. were held in a merely nominal relationship.
Eighty per cent. were lost entirely. This is a fair statement of the situation in many churches. We have lost mult.i.tudes of our youth who might have been saved if they had been properly cared for.
"At the very time the Church loses its grip upon the boys and girls the public school loses its grip also. The exodus begins about the fifth grade, and at the eighth grade fifty per cent. of the scholars have departed. At the twelfth grade, near the middle teens, ninety per cent.
of the scholars have gone out from the public schools. Thus these two most powerful forces in the creation of character, the Church and the School, lose their hold upon youth at the same time.
"The home also loses its hold at this period. Up to his middle teens your youth accepts everything on the authority of others, but midway of the critical teen period there comes an awakening. The consciousness of his own personality, his right to make decisions for himself comes to him for the first time. Sometimes spontaneously, sometimes gradually, but always he breaks with authority. He insists upon deciding matters for himself. Parents may counsel, but they cannot determine[1]."
[Footnote 1: Rev Edgar Blake.]
"A gentleman came to a friend of mine at the close of an address which he had delivered and said to him, "I was much interested in what you said about the boys we lose. I teach a cla.s.s of the finished product."
"Where do you teach?" said I. "In the State prison" he said. A few years ago seventy-five per cent. of the inmates of the Minnesota State prison were boys who had once been in Sunday School and had been permitted to drift away. The later teen age, sixteen to twenty, is the criminal period. It is an appalling thing that 12,000 children were brought before the courts of New York in 1909, and in the same year more than 15,000 boys and girls suffered arrest in Chicago. Our criminal ranks are added to, at the rate of 300,000 a year, and in the vast majority of cases the criminal course is begun in the teen age. Is it necessary? Is this awful waste--this moral havoc--unavoidable? I believe not. Recently a young man in his teens was convicted of theft in the court of Milwaukee. When the judge asked him if he had anything to say before sentence was p.r.o.nounced upon him, the young man arose, pale with excitement and said, "Your honour, my father and mother died when I was three years old. I never had anyone who loved or cared for me. I have been kicked about all my life. Judge, I never would have been a thief if I had had a chance." This is the pitiful plea of thousands who have been wrecked around us. They were not shepherded and they went astray."
There is a way to hold the majority of those whom we may win to the Saviour. A friend of mine led to Christ a young man who had gone to the very depths of sin and shame. He was a drunkard; he had disgraced his father"s name; had broken his wife"s heart, and when his little boy died he did not have enough money to bury the child decently; when the mother put the child in the grave the father was wild with drink, and he was buried without his father being present. But my friend won this man to Christ. After he was saved, every day for three weeks he went to sit by his side and talk with him; he guarded him at the critical time; he kept him from growing discouraged; he hindered him from drinking.
To-day this man is himself one of the most noted rescue mission workers in the world, and is being used of G.o.d to save mult.i.tudes of men who like himself had gone down through drink.
It is what we are ourselves that largely counts in the holding of our friends for Christ. Paul wrote to t.i.tus saying, "In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works ... that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you," which is only another way of saying that a Christian life is an unanswerable argument in favour of Christ. When our lives are right with G.o.d; when we keep ourselves unspotted from the world; when we quickly confess our own failure or wrongdoing; when we have a concern not only that others should be saved, but that they might do something for Christ after their salvation, it is comparatively easy to hold them, and to keep from drifting those who have just started along the way.
When my friend S.H. Hadley, the great rescue missionary, was lying in his coffin, a timid knock was heard at the door of the room where the body was resting. When the one who had knocked entered the room it was found that he was a drunkard, he had fallen from a high position to the very depths of despair, and as he stood timidly in the presence of the sorrowing friends of the great man, he said, "I thought I would like to come and look into his face and if I might be permitted to do so I would like to touch his hand. He did his best to win me while he was living and now that he is dead I cannot let his body be placed in the grave without coming here by the side of his casket to yield myself to Christ. All that he has said has followed me and I cannot get away from it."
Timothy knew the Scriptures, and a familiarity with G.o.d"s Word is one of the best preventives in the case of drifting. One verse of Scripture committed to memory each day would help us to overcome the tempter; would keep us in loving touch with Jesus Christ; would inspire us to higher and holier living; and these suggestions made to those whom we win to Christ would keep them from wandering. It is the man who does not know his Bible who finds himself an easy prey to the wicked one.
The ability to pray is also a G.o.d-given force which keeps us from drifting. When we read the Bible G.o.d talks to us; when we pray we talk to Him. We cannot always speak plainly of our condition to those about us, but we may tell Him what we are and what we wish we might have been. And while it is true that He knows before we speak, it is also true that in the telling we draw nearer to Him, and drawing nearer we absorb a little bit more of His spirit, and in that spirit we stand.
Service is also one of the surest preventives from wandering. It is when the brain is idle that evil thoughts master it; when the heart is given up to impure imaginations that we find it easy to fall. And it is when we are busy lifting others" burdens; making the way easier for others to travel; comforting those who are in distress; speaking a word of cheer to the cheerless, and above all, when we are seeking to lead others to Christ, that we ourselves grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If these things are true, and we know they are, then it is the duty of every Christian not only to seek to win another to Christ, but by all means to seek to hold him when once he is won, and that which we know holds us will keep others from stumbling.
The suggestions made above are for the young as well as the more mature. Young people will be interested in spiritual things if we have sufficient interest in them ourselves to make them attractive.
If we would show as great interest in helping to keep those whom we may have won for Christ, as we revealed when we were seeking them, fewer of them would drift.
CHAPTER VIII
_A Practical Ill.u.s.tration_
It will be a great day when the Church is aroused to the responsibility and privilege of personal work.
In Swansea, Wales, with Mr Charles M. Alexander, I had the satisfaction of conducting a mission in which I preached for an entire week on Soul Winning. I then urged the people to go forth and labour, and asked them to come back with their reports. These reports were thrilling. Often ten or twelve people would be standing at the one time waiting to speak. The following are only a few testimonies taken from the many:--
A minister said: "I spoke to a bright young fellow, under the influence of drink, as I was going home in the car last night. He got off the car when I did, so I stood at the street corner and talked with him for a few minutes. He told me that he had been a follower of the Lord Jesus many years ago, but had fallen away through bad company. I asked him to pray for himself. He said he could not, but asked me to pray for him.
And there on that street corner I put my arm around his shoulder and we prayed together, and he has promised to come to the meeting to-night."
"About three years ago," said another, "I came in touch with a man who has been the biggest and most hardened scoffer I have had to contend with. He had such a sarcastic way of ridiculing the Lord Jesus Christ.
But this last fortnight I have seen a distinct change in that young man"s life. Last week, as we were working near to one another, I spoke to him and his eyes filled with tears. He said, "I have decided to come out and accept Christ." I could hardly credit it, but it has proved to be real, and when I see G.o.d moving in such a hard case as this, I have hope for every sinner in this city."
Another said, "I came to the Lord three years ago, one of the worst drunkards in Swansea. Since the Saviour found me, I have spoken to men on their death-beds. I have spoken to drunkards all over Swansea, but I neglected my own charge that G.o.d had given to me. Dr Chapman woke me up to approach my own household and children. It was the greatest struggle in all my life. I went to my two boys and put my hands on their shoulders saying, "I want you to do something for Jesus and for your father." They said, "Father, we will do it." Two of my boys came to the Albert Hall yesterday and gave their hearts to Jesus. This has been one of the most blessed weeks I have had since I was saved three years ago."
"On Thursday night I had been asking the Lord to lead me to the right one to speak to. He led me to a young man of sixteen years of age who was under tremendous conviction. He said, "I think I will make a clean breast of it. I have done something," and he told me his story. This young lad, in his employer"s service for four years, last week, for the first time, began to steal. He turned out his pocket and showed me what he had. He said, "What shall I do? I go to bed at night and I cannot sleep, it is haunting me." I said, "Look here, laddie, do this. Go to your master to-morrow morning, and make a clean breast of it and get the victory." "What about my situation?" said the boy. "I will pray for you," I said. "If your master is so unkind as to dismiss you, come to me and I will see what I can do." It was a long time before he gave in, but eventually he said, "I will." I prayed for him, and last night I got this letter: "Victorious! Devil conquered; overjoyed. I cannot very well explain what I experienced so will be pleased to meet you on Thursday next in the mission at Albert Hall.""
A week later this gentleman said: "I have a lot to thank G.o.d for these last ten days. I have had a glorious blessing. I can say with all humility, I have been on fire for Jesus. I had a letter yesterday from the young man whom I was talking about last Sunday. He says, "Dear Friend, My only regret now is that I did not accept Jesus as my Saviour years ago. It would have saved me so much trouble. I explained everything to my master and handed him the article back. Then he gave me two-thirds of this particular article and burned the letter. So that is what I got for owning up.""
Another said: "I do thank and praise G.o.d this morning for the great things He has done in my home. He has brought my children to trust in the Saviour. I have great pleasure in reporting that a brother at the works, to whom I spoke a week ago, has decided for Christ. One of the workers presented me with a Testament to give to that brother, who was in very poor circ.u.mstances, and he received it with joy. The following day he came to tell me that he had read a chapter to his wife. His wife is travelling the wrong way. They have five little children, and on Thursday I took them to the meeting. On Friday morning he came to thank me for taking them there, and told me that during his absence from the house, his eldest boy, of about ten years of age, had got into a Bible Reading Circle, led by a Christian boy, and he asked his father if he could spare sixpence for him to buy a Testament. What joy filled my heart and soul from the fact that I could present that little lad with a Testament, and I sent my own lad back a mile, yesterday, with it.
"I spoke to a dear Christian brother last night at the works. I asked him if his household were saved. "I have one boy of sixteen not saved,"
he said "Brother, will you promise me to speak to him when you go home?" He went home and put his hand on the shoulder of the lad and gave him the invitation. The boy gladly promised to accept Jesus."
Continuing with the reports, one said: "Last night, in one of our public houses I spoke to a woman about Jesus. Years ago she had lost her husband and instead of going to G.o.d for comfort she had turned to drink. She became a drunkard and had separated from her children. When I spoke to her she said, "I know I am a sinner. I am the worst woman in Swansea, but I want to be good." "Will you decide now?" we asked her.
"Yes," she said. She came out into the cold biting wind and knelt in the open air, and there she sent up this simple prayer: "Oh, G.o.d, although I am a bad woman, please make me good, for Jesus" sake." Later she arose in a crowded meeting and told her story, concluding with this remark, "By G.o.d"s help I am going to be a child of G.o.d.""
Another said: "On the second night of the mission I was led to speak to a dear brother who was a back-slider. I plead with him that evening to turn to Christ, but he did not come to a decision. The next night I went in and talked with him. I asked him again at the close of the meeting would he come back to the Lord Jesus Christ. He told me he could not come back that night. On the following night I went up and spoke to him again. When we got outside the building I said, "I may not ever have the privilege of speaking to you again. Will you kindly give me your name? I will give you a guarantee that no one but G.o.d shall know about it. I want your name that I may pray for you." On Tuesday night in the minor hall at the after meeting I searched for him. I had been praying continually every night and morning, and sometimes during the day. When I found him that night I said, "You have withstood the Spirit of G.o.d long enough. Make a definite decision to-night to return to the Lord. If you do not care about coming to the front, fill out this card, but make up your mind to give yourself to Christ." He took the card and filled it out. Then I said, "You know the way of salvation because you have been that way before. When you get home tonight, will you kindly make a definite decision at your bedside?" And he told me he would."
Another gentleman rose to give his testimony and said: "I belong, as you know, to another city, but I want to speak a word to the glory of G.o.d, and for the encouragement of those who have taken up personal work for Him. Some two years ago in our city I spoke to one who was an inspector in the Police Force, but who is to-day the Chief Inspector of our Police, about the claims of Christ. He told me that I was the first one who had ever spoken to him as to how he stood in relation to these matters for a period of fifteen years. Having once broken the ice and spoken to him, I never gave him up.
"About two months ago I had occasion to go to the Police Court to ask his a.s.sistance on behalf of a woman who wanted an ejectment notice against another woman who was living in the same house. When he heard the name of the woman who wished to obtain the notice he refused to have anything to do with the matter. She had been a bad character. He said, "I tell you candidly, she ought to be drowned for her cruelty to her children." I said, "You knew her once, but you do not know her now.
How long is it since you saw her?" "About nine weeks" he replied.
"Well," I said, "nine weeks ago she and her husband both came to Christ in our mission hall. For the first time in thirteen years they entered a place of worship. She had a black eye that covered over half her face, but both her husband and she are now Christians, and are faithfully following Christ to-day. And yet you call her a lost soul."
He said, "Certainly I do. If there is a lost soul she is one." "Then Sir," I said, striking him on the shoulder, "Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus has saved that woman. When she comes on Monday night, Inspector, just look at her and see what Christ has wrought. I ask you to grant her request." He shook himself free. "Wait a moment, Inspector," I said, "I have never given up praying for you.
You have risen to the position of Chief Inspector, but I want you not to forget Christ."
"On the Thursday of the following week he came to my home. When I saw him there I was glad, for he had kept away from me for a long time. I said, "I am glad to see you in my home." He said, "You will be more glad when you know why I have come. In my room the other night I knelt down and gave myself to Jesus Christ, and asked the Lord to save me." I would ask those of you who are working for souls not to get disheartened and discouraged. When the mission ceases do not give up taking a personal interest in those for whom you are concerned.
"Some months ago I was sitting in the a.s.size Court in your city. I sat next to our Chief Inspector. The case that was being tried was one of attempted murder. As I sat there following the case this Chief Inspector turned to me and said, "Why didn"t they know Him on the road to Emmaus?" I said, "I suppose because their eyes were holden." He said, "How did they know Him when they got to the home?" I said, "Probably in the breaking of the bread." "Don"t you think," said he, "that in the breaking of the bread they saw for the first time the marks of the wounds in His hands and knew Him by them?" What a difference Christ had made in the life of that Chief Inspector."
A man employed in the steel works rose in one of our meetings to say: "I made my covenant with G.o.d last Sat.u.r.day. The burden was laid heavy on my heart on behalf of two souls. One of them was my own little girl.
I spoke to her about Jesus, and she told me she would accept Him as her Saviour. I have been working this week on a shift that ran from ten o"clock at night to six o"clock in the morning. On Tuesday night I asked the Lord to pour out His blessing on our workmen. About one o"clock in the morning I had an opportunity of speaking to a young man.