PERSONAL WORK – R. A. TORREY

By personal work we mean hand-to-hand dealing with individual men, women and children. This is the most effective method of winning lost souls. The Apostle Peter was brought to Jesus by the hand-to-hand work of his brother Andrew. Andrew first found Christ himself, then he went to Peter quietly and told him of his great find, and thus he led Peter to the Savior he himself had found. I do not know that Andrew ever preached a sermon; if he did it is not recorded; but he did a great day’s work when he led his brother Peter to Jesus. Peter preached a sermon that led to the conversion of 3,000 people, but where would Peter’s great sermon have been if Andrew had not first led him to Christ by quiet personal work?

Mr. Kimball, the Boston business man, led D. L. Moody, the young Boston shoe clerk, to the Savior. Where would all Mr. Moody’s wonderful work for Christ have been if he himself had not been led to the Savior by the faithful personal work of his Sunday School teacher? I believe in preaching. It is a great privilege to preach the Gospel, but this world can be reached and evangelized far more quickly and thoroughly by personal work than by public preaching.

Indeed, it can only be reached and evangelized by personal work. When the whole church of Jesus Christ shall rouse to its responsibility and privilege in this matter, and every individual Christian become a personal worker, the evangelization of the world will be close at hand. When the membership of any local church shall rouse to its responsibility and privilege in this matter, and each member become a personal worker in the power of the Holy Spirit, a great revival will be close at hand for the community in which that church is located. Personal work is a work that wins but little applause from men, but it accomplishes great things for God.

There are many who think personal work beneath their dignity and their gifts. A blind woman once came to me and said, “Do you think that my blindness will hinder me from working for the Master?” “Not at all; it may be a great help to you, for others seeing your blindness will come and speak to you, and then you will have an opportunity of giving your testimony for Christ, and of leading them to the Savior.” “Oh, that is not what I want,” she replied. “It seems to me a waste of time when one might be speaking to five or six hundred at once, just to be speaking to an indi­vidual.” I answered that the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was able to speak to more than five thousand at once, and yet He never thought personal work beneath His dignity or His gifts. Indeed, it was the work the Savior loved to do. We have more instances of our Savior’s personal work recorded in the Gospels than of His preaching. The one who is above personal work is above his Master.

I. ITS ADVANTAGES

Let us look at the advantages of personal work.

1. All can do it. In an average congregation there are not more than four or five who can preach to edi­fication. It would be a great pity, too, should all attempt to become preachers; it would be a great blessing if all would become personal workers. Any child of God can do personal work, and all can learn to do effective personal work. The mother who is con­fined at home by multiplicity of home duties can still do personal work, first of all with her own children, and then with the servants in the home, with the butcher, the grocer, the tramp who calls at the door, in fact, with everybody who comes within reach. I once knew a mother very gifted in the matter of bring­ing her own children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, who lamented that she could not do some work for Christ. I watched this woman carefully, and found that almost every one who came to the house in any capacity was spoken to about the Savior, and she was, in point of fact, doing more for Christ in the way of direct evangelistic work than most pastors.

Even the one shut up at home by sickness can do personal work. As friends come to the sick bed, a word of testimony can be given for Christ, or even an extended conversation can be held. A little child of twelve who was dying in the city of Minneapolis let her light shine for the Master, and spoke among others to a Godless physician, to whom, perhaps, no one else had spoken about Christ. A poor girl in New York City, who was rescued from the slums and died a year or two afterwards, was used of God to lead about one hundred men and women to Christ, while lying upon her dying bed.

The servant girl can do effective and personal work. Lord Shaftsbury, the great English evangelist, was won to Christ in a Godless home by the effective work of the nurse girl.

Traveling men have unusually good opportunities for doing personal work, as they travel on the trains from town to town, as they stop in one hotel after another and go from store to store. A professional nurse once came into my Bible class in Chicago, and at the close of the meeting approached me and said: “I was led to Christ by Mr. [a traveling man connected with a large wholesale house]. I was in a hotel parlor, and this gentleman saw me and walked across the parlor and asked me if I was a Christian, and when I told him I was not, he proceeded at once to show me the way of life. I was so startled and impressed to find a traveling man leading others to Christ that I accepted Him as my Savior then and there. He told me if I ever came to Chicago to come to your Bible class.” I have watched this woman for years since, and she herself is a most devoted Christian and effective worker.

How wonderful would be the results if all Christians should begin to be active personal workers to the extent of their ability! Nothing else would do so much to promote a revival in any community, and in the land at large. Every pastor should urge this duty upon his people, train them for it, and see that they do it.

2. It can be done anywhere. There are but few places where one can preach. There is no place where one cannot do personal work. How often, as we pass factories, engine houses, lodging houses and other places where crowds are gathered, do we wish that we might get into them and preach the Gospel, but gener­ally this is impossible, but it is altogether possible to go in and do personal work. Furthermore, we can do personal work on the street, whether street meetings are allowed or not. We can do personal work in the homes of the poor and in the homes of the rich, in hos­pitals, workhouses, jails, station houses, and all sorts of institutions—in a word, everywhere.

3. It can be done at any time. The times when we can have preaching services and Sunday Schools are quite limited. As a rule, in most communities, we cannot have services more than two or three days in the week, and only three or four hours in the day, but personal work can be done seven days in the week, and any time of day or night. Some of the best personal work done in this country in the last twenty years has been done on the streets at midnight and after mid­night. Those who love souls have walked the streets looking for wanderers, and have gone into dens of vice seeking the lost sheep, and hundreds upon hundreds of them have thus been found.

4. It reaches all classes. There are large classes of men that no other method will reach. There are the shut-ins who cannot get out to church, the street-car men, the policemen, railroad conductors, sleeping-car men, firemen, the very poor and the very rich. Some cannot and others will not attend church or cottage meeting or mission meeting, but personal work reaches them all.

5. It hits the mark. Preaching is necessarily gen­eral ; personal work is direct and personal. There is no mistaking who is meant, there is no dodging the arrow, there is no possibility of giving what is said away to some one else. Many whom even so expert a Gospel preacher as Mr. Moody has missed have been afterwards reached by personal work.

6. It meets the definite need_y and every need of the person dealt with. Even when men are aroused and convicted, and perhaps converted by a sermon, per­sonal work is necessary to bring out into a clear light and into a satisfactory experience one whom the ser­mon has thus aroused, convicted and converted.

7. It avails where other methods fail. One of my best workers told me a few weeks ago that she had attended church for years, and had wanted to become a Christian. She had listened to some of the best- known preachers, and still was unsaved, but the very first inquiry meeting she went into she was saved because some one came and dealt with her per­sonally.

8. It produces very large results. There is no com­parison whatever between what will be effected by good preaching and what will be effected by constant personal work. Take a church of one hundred mem­bers ; such a church under an excellent pastor would be considered as doing an exceptionally good work if on an average fifty were added annually to this mem­bership. But suppose that that church was trained to do personal work, and that fifty of the one hundred members actually went at it. Certainly one a month won to Christ by each one would not be a large average. That would be six hundred a year instead of the fifty mentioned above. A church of many mem­bers, with the most powerful preaching possible, that depends upon the minister alone to win men to Christ by his preaching, would not accomplish anything like what would be accomplished by a church with a com­paratively poor preacher, where the membership generally were personal workers.

II. HOW TO SUCCEED

Certain things are necessary to do effective personal work, but these things which are necessary are within the reach of every Christian.

1. The first is a clear knowledge of Christ as a personal Savior. Paul was an effective worker because he himself knew Christ as his own Savior. He could effectively bring others to Christ because he could say, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all accepta­tion, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.’ ’

A clear knowledge of Jesus as a personal Savior includes three things: first, a knowledge of pardon through the atoning blood of Christ; second, victory over sin through the risen Christ; third, absolute sur­render to Christ as Lord.

2. A clear and firm conviction that any man who has not accepted Christ is lost. Jesus said, “I am come to seek and to save that which was lost.” It was this clear apprehension and deep conviction that men were lost that drove Him to work day and night to seek and to save them. In like manner Paul tells us that he ceased not to admonish men night and day with tears. It was doubtless the conviction that men were lost that drove him to those earnest efforts, and brought from him those tears of compassion. The conviction that men are lost will fill us with a desire for their salva­tion, will make us tireless in our efforts to save them, and will give pathos and power to our words as we speak with them.

But how can we get this conviction? By the study of the Word and faith in the Word. Deep convictions come through knowledge of the truth. If one would have a deep conviction that men are lost, he should dwell upon this truth as set forth in the Word of God, and ask God by His Holy Spirit to give this Word truth and power in his heart and life. The conviction that all men out of Christ are lost is largely missing in professing Christians and even in ministers to-day, and this goes far toward accounting for the powerlessness of the average church-member and average minister as a soul winner.

3. A practical knowledge of the Bible. The Bible is the one instrument that God has appointed to produce conviction of sin, and to bring men to faith in Jesus Christ, and to regenerate. In order to be used of God to produce conviction of sin, and to lead men to faith in Christ, and to bring about the new birth in their experience, we must know how to use our Bible so as to produce these results. One may have a wide and profound general knowledge of the Bible, and yet be absolutely at sea in its practical use. In an after­meeting I once asked one of the best-known and most useful teachers of the Word of God in America to speak with a woman and show her how to be saved, and he replied, “I do not know how to do that. ” This is something that every child of God ought to know, and it is something that every child of God may know, because there are books that tell very plainly just how to do it.

4. Love. Nothing wins like love. It is the Savior lifted up on the Cross, thus revealing His infinite love, who draws men unto Him, and we, by our love to men, can win them to the Savior. At the close of a meeting in one of the suburbs of Chicago, the first person that rose was a very large man. I was attracted by his appearance, and afterwards spoke to him. He told me that he had attended church and prayer meeting for years, but had only gone to criti­cise ; that when men would get up and speak in prayer meeting he would take out his note book and “keep tab on them,” writing down what they said, and then comparing it during the week with the way they lived. At last he was taken very sick, and was supposed to be dying. A minister of the town called upon him, and asked the privilege of praying with him. He replied, “You can pray if you want to.” “As the minister knelt to pray,” he said to me, “I kept tab on him, too. I thought I was dying, but I lay there with my eyes open watching the preacher to see if he was real, thinking nothing about my own soul, but about him. As I watched, I saw a tear stealing down his face, and I said, ‘This man is real, he loves me, though I am nothing to him,’ and that broke my heart.” This man recovered, and has become an untiring worker for Christ, but he was not won by my sermon, or by my dealing with him, but by the other minister’s love, and that minister did not know that he had accomplished anything by his prayer.

5. Self-renunciation. Jesus said to His disciples, “Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” It is only by coming after Him that we can become successful fishers of men; but He says, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” If we are to be largely used in personal work, or any kind of work for the Master, there must be an utter putting away of personal interest, our own comfort, our ease, our pride, our feelings. Pride is one of the greatest hindrances to effective personal work. Oftentimes it keeps us from attempting work for fear of rebuff. It makes us unwilling to seem beaten in an argument, and so we keep on arguing, when it would be far better for the disputant to leave him alone; it leads us to get angry when the one with whom we are working seems to get the best of us, and nothing is more unfor­tunate than when the worker loses his temper. A cowardly worldling once spit in the face of a converted prize-fighter. He knew that the prize-fighter could whip him very easily, and the prize-fighter felt tempted to do it. The hot blood rushed to his face, but he simply took out his handkerchief and wiped the spittle from his face and said, “The blood of Jesus Christ could wipe away all your sins as easily as I have wiped this spittle from my face.” That con­quered.

6. Prayer, “The effectual fervent prayer of a right­eous man availeth not,” but there is no line in which prayer avails more than in the line of personal work. The worker must pray for wisdom. God has promised to give it to us when we ask Him for it (James i: 5). We need it with every case with which we deal. No matter how thorough our knowledge may be of the Word of God, and of men, each case presents its own peculiarities, and only the wisdom which God gives is sufficient.

We should pray for power. “Power belongeth unto God,” but the power that belongs unto God is at our disposal in answer to prayer.

We should pray for those with whom we are dealing that God will open their eyes to see the truth and move their hearts to obey it. When the work is done

We should pray for God’s blessing upon the seed sown, and oftentimes the work that has appeared fruitless will become fruitful by the blessing of God.

We should pray for the definite anointing of the Holy Spirit that we may become effective workers. Many a man has tried ineffectively for years to be a successful personal worker, but by coming to know the privilege of being filled with the Holy Ghost has stepped out of a place of powerlessness into a place of power. The prayer must be real, earnest, persistent.

7. Perseverance. There is one text that a personal worker needs to let sink deep into his heart: “Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.’’ No work requires as much patience and perseverance as soul-winning. No work is more worthy of it. We should show our patience by the way we deal with each case. Many say a few words to one, and then a few words to another, and then to another. They keep flitting here and there; they are not the successful workers. Others, when they once begin to deal with a man hold on to that man until, if it is in any wise possible, he has been led to Christ. I have workers in my church who if they get hold of a person in an inquiry meeting I feel reasonably confident will lead that person to Christ. If one attempt fails with a man, we should show our perseverance by making another and another and another. We should study how to get at men who are unreachable. There is an avenue of approach to every soul if we can only find it. It is worth much time and thought and study to find it. It took me fifteen years to win one man, but when that man, after several years of effective ministry, lay silent in death, as I stood beside his coffin I was glad that God gave me the perseverance to work fifteen years for his con­version.

We should show our perseverance by seeking another person when we have apparently failed with one, and if we fail again, seek still another, and if again, still another.

8. Constant activity. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. ’ ’ The per­sonal worker’s motto should be, “At it, and always at it,” by day and by night, in the home, in the place of business, on the street, in hotels, in the cars, every­where. Nothing was more characteristic of Mr. Moody, and nothing went further to make him the mighty man of God that he was, than the fact that he was always on the watch for souls, and always sowing the seed which is the Word of God. He would speak to the conductor who took up his ticket on the car, to the reporter who came to interview him, to the servant in the home, to the man he met in business. He was at it and always at it, and so God gave him blessing and victory.

God is calling all Christians to rouse up and go to work, witnessing for Christ and striving by personal effort to bring all within their reach to Christ. Who will hear the call? A glorious reward awaits all who do. They “shall shine as the stars forever and ever.”