I do not know how long the Lord will hold the door open for this little service for Him at the bookstore. It is nearly nine years ago that I entered it, and I have not had even a hint of displeasure at my speaking to souls and giving out tracts in the store. This cost me my former position in the book department of a large department store here. I could then have gone in with a wealthy book, stationery and printing concern, with better hours and better salary than here. But as this store has a much more cosmopolitan and less exclusive trade, I felt this was where the Lord would give me the service He had entrusted me with.
My one thought in the store is souls. My prayer each morning on awakening, and I always give my first thoughts to Him, is that He will give me some soul to minister to through the day, and to give me the needed message for each.
It is a feeble service and I seldom see results. No doubt many recipients of the tracts do not profit by them, at least, not at once, but I delight to think of the hidden souls to whom they may find their way with divine blessing.
Once in a while I find some one trying to satisfy the needs of a hungry soul with the husks of philosophy, and to such a one I may give the gospel. Once I witnessed the passage of a soul from death to life through my exposing a “New Thought” book she was intending to buy. But encouragements of that kind are rare. Once a young wife, a believer I feel sure, thanked me for exposing “Science and Health” which she was about to buy. It had been recommended to her husband and herself. It may seem bad salesmanship, but God’s claims come first. It is really in result the best and most enlightened salesmanship, to give a customer that which he needs, not necessarily that which he calls for.
As to Dr. S. I fear his interest in J. N. D. is chiefly intellectual and literary. I could write you a whole letter about this remarkable young man, and I will if I find evidence of a work of God in his soul. A brilliant intellect in a trained scientist is a great snare, though he defends the Scriptures against materialistic evolution and infidelity. His ambition is to bring the scientific world back to God, but the cross seems to have no part in his plans. I have small hopes of him.
My joy in ministering to souls in the store is not with bright minds, but with the common people and the poor. Occasionally a seemingly bright Christian, after a nice conversation at first, turns out to be a Russelite, Christadelphian, or other.
I have grateful remembrance of the blessing to my own soul in my youth of these tracts, and also I love to leave a trail for faith to follow on. If exercised, to know the will of God as to worship and service, instead of connecting them up with half-way stations, or with schism.
I delight to give out ministry that was blessed to my soul in my youth. Like David’s sling and five stones, I have proved them.
I find Mr. Darby’s tracts the most serviceable of all. “Christ for my sins and Christ for my cares,” “The Father and the Prodigal,” “Man’s heart and Christ’s heart,” “How to know the will of the Father,” “How to get peace,” “There is nothing like the cross,” are among my favorites. “The Testimony of God, etc.,” is exceedingly fine. Many that I have given of this pamphlet have gone to foreign lands and to Alaska.
“Introduction to the Bible” is to my mind the finest thing in the English language.
“Either in Adam or in Christ” is a briefer survey of Scripture than, “The Testimony of God, etc.,” but as Mr. H. once remarked to me, “Every word is packed.” And yet there is a simplicity and tranquility about it that is charming.
“How to know the will of the Father” is an acceptable tract for general distribution among Christians. “The Man of Sorrows” attracts and holds the mind and heart of even children with its beauty, its sweet rhythm and cadence carrying the soul from the lowly glory of the Babe and the Child, along the lonely pathway of holy love rising to the ineffable majesty of the cross.
“How to get peace,” was used of God, I was told by an old Scotch Evangelist, to evangelize England.
“There is nothing like the cross” met me as I was emerging from the 7th to the 8th of Romans, the most expressive tract I know of.
“The Sufferings of Christ” has been my refuge in sorrow for near forty years. I treasure every word of it. There is no consolation like the contemplation of His sorrows to hold the heart in times of crushing sorrow of its own. “Presence and operation of the Spirit of God in the Church” is of great value. “Separation from Evil, God’s principle of unity” is most timely now, irresistible in its pure reasoning and stately dignity. One tract that I have not seen for some time is “On Sealing with the Spirit.” One passage reads, if I remember rightly,
“All that is in the Father’s glory, what He is as displayed and surrounds Himself with, according to what He is, was engaged in the resurrection of Christ. Righteousness, holiness, majesty, love of the Son, recognition of what He had done, supremacy above all evil in light and love, and Christ as Man rises by and into it, and that as having perfectly glorified God, where all was exactly contrary to it.”
In this day of declension and indifference and sorrowful ruin, I love to contemplate that divine and sovereign work of God manifesting itself in 1827 in that humble and unnoticed way as Mr. Bellet’s letter shows, the Holy Spirit attracting the hearts to Christ, separating them from human systems, and binding them together in divine unity. And though the work counted for little or nothing in the eyes of men, God had prepared vessels for it which gave us ministry embracing the whole circle of divine revelation of the Scriptures. Ministry which never will nor can be duplicated, priceless above all except the Word it unfolds.
Mr. P. remarked to me once, speaking of the character of the gift or the ministry of these early brethren: “With Wigram, – it was Christ and the church; with Denny, – prophecy; with Bellet, – the Son of God; with Kelly, – knowledge; with J. N. D. – divine righteousness.”
As the years have gone by, the wonderful balance and reach of Mr. Darby’s ministry has been much impressed upon my mind and heart. Still we could not do without the other gifts either. Mr. H. told me once that J. N. D. had said to him there was no one he so loved to sit and listen to as Bellet. Wm. Kelly’s solid, comprehensive and accurate ministry carries our judgment and conviction.
J. N. D.’s wins the conscience and heart. He was a “soul-winner,” hence I find his little tracts so useful.