The Soul Winner

My own commentary on some of the quotes from Charles Spurgeons Book called "The Soul Winner" His quotes are italized, my commentary is in regular font. My commentary is written with the Friday Night Evangelism ministry in mind.

One thing more, the soul- winner must be a master of the art of prayer. You cannot bring souls to God if you go not to God yourself. you must get your battle-axe,and your weapons of war, from the armoury of sacred communication with Christ. If you are much alone with Jesus, you will catch His spirit, you will be fired witht he flame that burned in His breast, and consumed His life. you will weep with the tears that fell upon Jerusalem when He saw it perishing; and if you cannot speak so eloguently as He did, yet shall there be about what you say somewhat of the same power which in Him thrilled the hearts and awoked the consciences of men. pp. 194
It seems obvious to say evangelism cannot be done without prayer, without the going to God. In fact, evangelism is God's mission Yet often we fail to use this weapon of warfare. We MUST all be soaking ourselves in being alone with Christ, in preparation before/during and after fridays, and beyond. How much more ready am I, more intentional, more completly awed by God's graces when I have first tasted them in fellowship with him during the day or days before. Let us be encouraging one another more and more to press deeper into God's heart. To see him in his glory and let him be magnified in our eyes. Then the souls and plight of the lost become to use our dying passion and the needs of our brothers and sisters in keeping their souls becomes our intense desire.

Lastly brethren, I think that those sermons which have been prayed over are the most likely to convert people. I mean those discourses that have had much really prayer offered over them, both in the preparation and the delivery, for there is much so-called prayer that is only playing at praying. pp 83

In our group, and in individual evangelism there can be an emphasis on praying for the people who will be receiving the message of the Gospel. Without neglecting to do that, we should also be praying for the delivery of the Gospel to be spoken in a way most effective to the hearers.



But further, if we follow Christ, He will make us fishers of men by all our experience.
I am sure that the man who is really consecrated to bless others will be helped in this by all that he feels, especially by his afflictions. I often feel very grateful to God that I have undergone fearful depression of spirits. I know the borders of despair and the horrible brink of that gulf of darkness in to which my feet have almost gone. But hundreds of times I have been able to give a helpful grip to brethren and sisters who have gone into that same condition, which grip I could never have given if I had not know their deep despondency. pp228

How thankful I am for recent spiritual turmoil, and for trials! These have bended my knee before the cross. The Lord has brought people recently into my life that are now walking through the very thing I did, and how what joy it has been to comfort them, because I have walked through the despondency and terrors of the soul. If my trials are the avenue to bring many to Christ, than how happy I will be if my life be filled with them.



Did you never win a soul for Jesus? …We must hear the cries of those whom God has given to be born unto himself.by our means. We must hear them or else cry out in anguish, “Give me converts, or I die’..if you love the Lord, get a passion for souls. Do you not see them? They are going down to hell by thousands; as often as the hand upon the dial completes its circuit hell devours multitudes some of them ignorant of Christ and others willfully rejecting Him. The world lies in darkness; this great city still pines for the light; your won friends and kinsfolk are unsaved, and thy may be dead ere this week is over. Oh if you have any humanity, let alone Christianity, if you have found the remedy, tell the diseased about it! If you have found life, proclaim it to the dead; if you have found liberty, publish it to the captives; if you have found Christ, tell of Him to others. Pp 176

What can be added here? If we do not have an intense burning aching love for the lost, to see them come to Christ, we have nothing.

It is a horrible thing for a man to be so doctrinal that he can speak coolly of the doom of the wicked, so that if he does not actually praise God for it, it costs him no anguish of heart to think of the ruin of millions of his race. This is horrible! …Whatever I believe, or do not believe, the command to love my neighbor as myself still retains its claim upon me and God forbid that any views or opinions should so contract my soul and harden my heat as to make me forge this law of love! The love of God is first, but this by no means lessens the obligation of love to man; in fact, the first command includes the second. We are seek our neighbors conversion because we love him and we are to speak to him in loving terms God’s loving gospel, because our heart desires his eternal good. Pp 14

I am ashamed to say I have spoken coolly of the doom of the wicked, as coolly as I might say " I am having spaghetti tonight." Often I have read and studied scripture but have not allowed my affections to be kindled in the manner of love. This indeed has been a great hinderance in the sucess of the gospel. God can use this, even this, but how much more if love and affection abounded. The Gospel MUST change this in my own life, or else my proclaiming be in vain.



Whatever other price others may set upon ignorance, we are promoters of knowledge, and the more it can be spread the better shall we be pleased. but if the church of God thinks that it is sent into the world merely to train the mental faculties, it has made a very serious mistake, for the object of Christianity is not to educate men for their secular callings, or even to train them in their politer arts, or the more elegant professions, or to enable them to enjoy the beauties of nature or the charms of poetry.
Jesus Christ came not into the world for any of these things, but he came to seek and to save that which was lost; and on the same errand has He sent His Church, and she is a traitor to the Master who sent her if she is beguiled by the beauties of taste and are to forget that to preach Christ and Him crucified is the only object for which she exists among the sons of men.
..their [missionaries] is to save.The same is true of the Sunday-School teacher, and of all other workers among children; if they have merely taught children to read, to repeat hymns, and so forth, they have not yet touched their true vocation. We must have children saved. At this nail we must drive, and the hammer must come down upon this head always- the we might by all means save some, for we have done nothing unless some are saved.- pp. 199,200

After reading this I am wanted to ask; "Who is our audience, so that we might know how to drive home the hammer and nail into their hearts?"

The fisherman is a daring man...So the true minister of Christ, who fishes for souls, will never mind a little risk. pp. 234

What is risk for me? What is risk for our group? Have we gotten too comfortable in what we do, to comfortable in what we ask of God?

Oh that we were altogether rid of unbelief, that we believed great things of God, and with heart and soul so preached that men were likely to be converted by such discourses, proclaiming truth likely to convert them, and declaring them in a manner that would be likely to be blessed to the conversion of our hearers! Of course, all the while we must be trusting to the Holy Spirit to make the work effectual, for we are but the instruments in His hands. Pp 68

You my depend upon it that souls are not saved by a minister who doubts; and the preaching of your doubts and your questions can never possibly decide a soul for Christ. You must have great faith in the word of God if you are to be winners of souls to those who hear it.
You must also believe in the power of that message to save people. Pp41

It must be our intense desire that the Holy Spirit should visit our hearers, and create them anew.. a new and heavenly mind must be created by omnipotence or the man must abide in death. Pp 18

Because I do not see it, I doubt often, instaneous conversion. I expect people to come to God later after I have left, to think about it, to go home and meditate upon the news, if they come upon conversion at all. As this might be the way God saves in some, he does not always. He may use the word I have spoken to be the sickle to get the fruit, rather than the farmer who plants the seeds. I do not come to expect God to actually save the person right then, at that moment, because I feel as if it would not actually be genuine. Though we want to see geninue conversions, this thought has so hindered me, I have not expected ANY conversions, or at least any at that moment of dialogue. I do not ask of God to give them what I have been given, as oft as I should, why?



Now, in the last place, the man whom Christ makes a fisher of men is successful...For instance, here is a brother who says that he is faithful. Of course, I must believe him, yet I never heard of a sinner being saved under him. Indeed, I should think that the saftest place for a person to be if he did not want to be saved would be under this gentlemen's ministry, because he does not preach anything that is liekly to arouse, impress or convince anybody. This brother is 'faithful' so he says.
Well, if any person in the world said to you, 'I am a fisherman, but I ahve never caught anything', you would wonder how he could be called a fisherman. A farmer who never grew any wheat, or any other corp-is he a farmer? When Jesus Christ says, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men', He means that you shall really catch me, that you really shall save some. For he that never did get any fish is not a fishermen. He that never saved a sinner after years of work is not a minister of Christ. If the result of his life-work is nil, he made a mistake when he undertook it.

What does it mean to be a faithful soul winner, if none have ever been saved in your proclaiming? Even if you proclaim the gospel often?

Go thou with the fire of God in thy hand, and fling it among the stubble, and the stubble will burn. Be thou sure of that. Go thou and scatter the good seed; it may not all faill in fruitful places but some of it will. Be thou sure of that. Do but shine and some eye or other will be lightened thereby. Thou must, thou shalt succeed. But remember this the Lord's word, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of me" Keep close to Jesus,a nd do as Jesus did, in his spirit, and He will make you fishers of men. pp.235

Amen.