I now send you again an assortment of tracts. In answer to your inquiry — How are you to know if you are called to preach the gospel? I would say, Is it real love to souls? Do you desire to earn your own bread and serve the Lord in the gospel? If you are sent of the Lord you will win souls. Jesus said to Peter, the fisherman, “From henceforth thou shalt catch men.” What a fisher of men he was in Acts 2. Yes, a fisherman is a man who catches fish. A sent preacher of the gospel is a man who catches men; who wins souls to Christ. Now I send you a parcel of tracts, these are baits for lost souls. A good fisherman would not throw his baits into the water, and think no more about them; he would try to use each bait to catch a fish. Do not throw these tracts into the sea of humanity, and think no more about them, but seek to use each tract to catch a soul.
If you catch souls you are a fisher of men. Do you see that man with rod and basket? you will find he goes where he hopes to catch the fish. There is a likely place for a trout; see how carefully he puts the bait in the water. See, he has got a nibble; does he say that is enough and leave it? No, how carefully he seeks to land his fish. Ah, the fishers of fish are wise in their work. We might learn a lesson from them. You might find a quiet, suitable place to try these baits for precious souls. I will tell you a quiet fishing place — The cemetery. You need the wisdom of God which bait to use. It may be that little fly-leaf — “Your dying hour,” or “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” or for some fish a larger tract.
Watch the effect of each bait. Is there a nibble — is there manifest interest? Now you need the wisdom of God to deal with that soul; such wisdom as He gives to those He sends. Then it is a mistake to suppose the fish will come to a room always, or a chapel. Oh, go and sow beside all waters. God may use in divine sovereignty the broad-cast sowing.
And He may use the gospel net in the open air, or in the preaching room; but there is a field of labor, and especially in the use of tracts, which has been little tried. From house to house; in the street, or lane, or court, or village; and in not throwing a lot of tracts, as it were away, like fisherman’s bait, in the water, but in seeking to use each one as a bait, or an introduction to one individual soul. If you will tell me how many souls you have won to Christ by this parcel of tracts; I shall then know pretty clearly if the Lord has sent you to catch men.