The Personal TouchChapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilbur)
Religion
The Personal Touch
Chapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilbur)
Evangelistic work; Salvation -- Christianity
If you believe the Bible you cannot be indifferent. But you say, some
would not like to have you speak to them. I have been twenty-seven
years a minister, and have spoken to all classes and conditions of men
and women, and only in one single instance have I ever been rebuked. I
was once asked to speak to the president of a bank. I went into his
office, and was introduced to him by the pastor with whom I was staying.
I said, "My friend is very interested in you, and I wish I could lead
you to Christ." He looked at me in perfect amazement. Then, rising from
the chair, he took me by the hand, and said, "Thank you, sir." I saw
him that night, make his way down the crowded aisle of the church, give
the minister his hand, and say, "I will."
But I had a sad experience at college. I roomed with a man when I was a
student for the ministry, and never spoke to him about his soul. When
the day of my graduation came, and I was bidding him good-bye, he said,
"By the way, why have you never spoken to me about becoming a Christian?"
I would rather he had struck me. I said, "Because I thought you did not
care." "Care!" he said. "There has never been a day that I did not want
you to speak; there has never been a night that I did not hope you would
speak." I lost an opportunity. I fear some day, I must answer for it.
You had an idea that you had no influence, but you must remember that
when you speak in the name of Jesus Christ, God stands back of you;
that when you plead for the salvation of a person, all the power of
heaven is working through you. Some may ask, What is the best time to
speak to my friends about Christ? I should say, speak to them when they
are in trouble, seek them out when others are being saved, but, best of
all, go to them when the Spirit of God says go, that is the best time.
Whenever God says "Go," He is always making ready the heart for our
coming. I was one day walking down the streets of an American city with
a Methodist minister, when he said to me, "What would you do if you
were impressed that you should speak to a man?" I said, "Speak to him."
He said, "But this man has not been in church for thirteen years."
"Nevertheless," I said, "speak to him." He turned and made his way to
the great house where this business man lived. He rang the bell, and
the door was opened by the gentleman himself, who said, "Doctor, I am
glad to see you. I have been in all day thinking you might come." And
in a very few minutes he was kneeling in the library with this
gentleman whom he quickly led to Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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