Papers on Service
John Thomas Mawson
Table of Contents
Papers on Service
Every Christian is the bondsman of Jesus Christ; simply accept that, and it will be a great help to you. Has Christ the right to you? to all yours? Yes, you are His slave. Paul delights to call himself bond-slave. People in their natural amiability talk of the emancipation of slaves, but they carry it much further, they emancipate themselves. There is a very great claim connected with being a slave. Your master has full right over you. All yours belongs to the Lord. If you are a slave you cannot claim anything for yourself. Well, this is a great principle to get hold of, and you do not understand service until you do.
Very often we act as if we thought we were volunteers, that we may serve or not, just as we please. Not at all! You are slaves and have no option.
If you are a slave, you have no right to do anything but at the dictation of your master. “Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” He has bought us (therefore He is the Savior of the body in that sense), and you ought to be glad that He has; the more you dwell on it, the more pleased you will be to be His slave. We ought to be able to answer all who ask, why do you do so and so? I am doing it righteously, I am Christ’s bondsman to do His pleasure; not what I like, but what He likes. To establish this turn to 1 Corinthians 7:22-23. “He that is called in the Lord, being a servant (slave), is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men.”
You should be glad that you are a slave, because He is such a wonderful Master. It is here believers fail. They do not start with the fact, that they have a Master, who has a full right over their whole life. It is not what you think you can spare Him. If you are honestly and fairly in His hands as His slave, you may be quite certain He will take much better care of you than you could take of yourself.
People talk of fidelity, but do they begin with fidelity to Christ? If you are not right with Christ, you will be feeble elsewhere. If you are not right at the top, how can you be right anywhere else?
BE not so anxious to give out, that you never take in. Be not in so much hurry to do, that you forget to be. This is the haste that makes no speed. Old Nat had a large wood pile before him, and he sawed very hard to make that pile smaller. His saw needed sharpening and re-setting so badly, that it was dreadful work to make it go at An honest neighbor stepped up to him, and said, “Nat, why don’t you get that saw sharpened? If you got that put to rights, you would do a great deal more than you are doing.” “Now then,” replied Nat, “don’t you come bothering here, I have quite enough to do to saw that pile of wood, without stopping to sharpen my saw.”
It is needless to point the moral of that anecdote; take note of it, and in future act accordingly. It is a waste of time, not an economy of it, to dispense with study, private prayer, and due preparation for your work.
Those who serve the Lord have more cause to pray and read their Bibles, than any other people in the world. It was a very wet day the last time I was at Cologne, and I occupied a room in the hotel, which presented me with a highly picturesque view of the public pump. There was nothing else to see, and it rained so hard that I could not shift my quarters; so I sat and wrote letters, and glanced at the old pump.
People came with pails for water, and one came with a barrel on his back, and filled it. In the course of an hour that individual came several times; indeed, he came almost as often as all the others put together, and always filled up his vessel. I rightly concluded that he was a seller of water, and supplied other people, hence he came oftener and had a larger vessel than anyone else.
And that is precisely our condition. Having to carry the living water to others, we must go oftener to the well; and we must go with more capacious vessels than the general run of Christians. Look then, ye who would be Christ’s servants, to your personal piety, and draw largely from the source and spring of all good.
Going through the famous factory of Sevres the other day, I noticed an artist painting a very beautiful vase. I looked at him, but he did not look at me; his eyes were better engaged than in staring at a stranger.
There were several persons at my heels, and they all looked at him, and made various observations, yet the worker’s eye never moved from his work. He had to paint the picture on that vase, and what benefit would he get from noticing us, or from our noticing him? He kept to his work. We would fain see such concentration and abstraction in every man who has the Lord’s work to do. “This one thing I do.” Some frown, some smile, but this one thing I do. Some think they could do it better, but this one thing I do. How they could do it may be their business, but it certainly is not mine.
The Condition of Men
You will not attempt to teach a tiger the virtues of vegetarianism; but you might as hopefully attempt that task as try to convince an unregenerate man of the truths revealed by God concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment to come. These spiritual truths are repugnant to carnal men, and the carnal mind cannot receive the things of God. Gospel truth is diametrically opposed to fallen nature; and if I have not a power much stronger than that which lies in moral suasion, or in my own explanations and arguments, I have undertaken a task in which I am sure of defeat. Except the Lord endow us with power from on high, our labor must be in vain, and our hopes must end in disappointment.
The Servant's Need
“Who is sufficient for these things?” We are weak, exceedingly weak, every one of us. If there is one weaker than the rest, and knows that he is so, let him not be at all cast down about that: for the best man, if he knows what he is, knows that he is out of his depth in this sacred calling. Well, if you are out of your depth, it does not matter whether the sea is forty feet or a full mile deep. If the sea is only a fathom deep, you will drown if you be not upborne; and if it be altogether unfathomable, you cannot be more than drowned. The weakest man is not, in this business, really any weaker than the strongest man, since the whole affair is quite beyond us, and we must work miracles by divine power, or else be total failures. If, therefore, omnipotence be not within hail, and if the miracle-working power is not within us, then the sooner we give up the better. Wherefore should we undertake what we have not the power to perform? Supernatural work needs supernatural power; and if you have it not, do not attempt to do the work alone, lest, like Samson, when his locks were shorn, you should become the jest of the Philistines.
This supernatural force is the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God Himself. It is a wonderful thing that He should work His marvels of grace through men. It is strange that, instead of speaking, and saying with His own lips, “Let there be light,” He speaks the illuminating word by our lips! Do you not marvel at this, and that He should treasure His gospel in these poor earthen vessels, and accomplish these miracles by messengers who are themselves so utterly unable to help Him in the essential parts of His heavenly work? Turn your wonder into adoration, and blend with your adoration a fervent cry for Divine power. O Lord, work by us to the praise of Thy glory!
Do Your Own Work
Charles the Twelfth of Sweden had his secretary sitting by his side, writing from dictation, when a bombshell fell through the roof into the next room. The secretary, in alarm, dropped his pen, upon which the king exclaimed, “What are you doing?” The poor man faltered, “Ah, Sire, the bomb!” The king’s answer was: “What has the bomb to do with what I am telling you?”
You will say that the secretary’s life was in danger. Yes, but you are safe in any case, for by your side is the Master, whom you serve, and no evil can befall you. Watch on, work on, leave the times and seasons with God. If He has made you a preacher of gospel, or given you service of any kind, you must attend to His work; you must continue to deliver your message even though the earth be removed, and the mountains cast into the depths of the sea.
The Evangelist
There are vacancies in the heart of Christ, and the evangelist is gifted to go out and seek the lost ones to fill these vacancies. He starts from that heart, knowing what a shelter it is. He knows how it loves and cares for them, and so he goes out to seek the lost and bring them there. He is like his Master who came to seek and save the lost, and he knows the delight of heaven over one repentant soul.
A happy and blessed path is his. Himself a gift from the Lord to men, he must be qualified by the Holy Spirit for his work. As God’s herald he takes his stand in the world, and announces the good news of salvation to sinners, for all who will receive it.
It is not a partial amnesty that he is commissioned to promulgate, nor is it a mere pardon, however graciously conceded, that he is sent to declare. He speaks of pardon, but of justification also. He speaks of deliverance from wrath, but he speaks of everlasting blessedness likewise. The threshold of hell shall never be crossed by those who give heed to, and rest in what he proclaims; and he is empowered to tell that the door of heaven has been opened to receive all who believe. The wrath of God is averted, because His Son has endured it for sinners and the favor of God can be enjoyed, because those who believe are now accepted in the Beloved.
In the day of Israel’s deliverance the words of the prophet will be fulfilled: “Beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good” (Isa. 52:7). But beautiful even now, not only upon the mountains, but on earth, in valley, plain, hill or city, on shore or at sea, is the proclamation of the gospel of peace, till the Lord shall descend into the air, and this day of salvation shall close.
Conditions Necessary for Power
Among these conditions I notice, first, a simplicity of heart. The Lord pours most into those who are most empty of self. Those who have least of their own shall have most of God’s. The Lord cares little what the vessel is, whether golden or earthen, so long as it is clean, and disengaged from other uses. Only then is the cup prepared to receive the living water. If there was something in it before, it would adulterate the pure water of life; or if what was there before was very pure, it would, at least, occupy some of the room which the Lord seeks for His own grace.
The Lord therefore empties us, that we may be clear from prejudice, self-sufficiency, and foregone conclusions as to what His truth ought to be. He would have us like children, who believe what their father tells them.
We must lay aside all pretense of wisdom. Some men are too self-sufficient for God to use. If God were to bless them largely they would talk in Wolsey’s style of “Ego et rex meus” (I and my king); but the Lord will have none of it. That straight-backed upstart letter “I” must bow itself down into its lower-case shape, and just look like a little pot hook (i) of a thing, and be nothing more. Oh! to be rid of self! Oh! to quit every pretense of wisdom!
We need, and may the Lord give to us, great humility of mind! It ought not to be an extraordinary thing for us to accept what God says. It ought not to take much humility for such poor creatures as we are to sit at the feet of Jesus. We ought to look upon it as an elevation of mind for our spirit to lie prostrate before infinite wisdom. Assuredly this is needful to the reception of power from God.
The Heart's Purpose
I thank God I was led in anywise to think of serving the Lord. The first thing that attracted my heart from my very youth was that I must serve Him. I know very well how I have neglected it, and wavered from it; but the Lord never lets slip from you a real purpose of your heart; no matter how many years you may be, as it were, unattached, still He keeps it in mind, and as sure as possible it will come, and this is an immense comfort to one’s heart.
"Not in Vain"
Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; if you do not see souls saved today, or tomorrow, still work on. Ours is not the unrequited toil of Sisyphus rolling uphill a stone which will rebound upon us, nor that of the daughters of Danaus who sought to fill a bottomless vessel.
Our work may no more quickly appear than the islands which the coral insects are building below the blue waves of the southern seas: but the reef is rising, far down the foundation of the massive structure is laid, and its walls are climbing to the surface. We are laboring for eternity, and we count not our work by each day’s advance as men measure theirs: it is God’s work, and must be measured by His standard.
Be ye well assured that, when time, and things created, and all that oppose themselves to the Lord’s truth shall be gone, every earnest word spoken and every importunate prayer offered, and every tiny bit of service rendered for Christ’s sake, shall remain embedded in the mighty structure which God from all eternity has resolved to raise to His own honor.
The Gospel
The gospel is God’s power to save: we know that for every case of spiritual sickness we have an infallible cure; we need not say to any man “we have no good news from God for you.” There is a way of getting at all hearts. There is a joint in every sinner’s harness, though he be an Ahab, and we may draw the bow hopefully, praying the Lord to direct the arrow through it. We believe in the Holy Spirit, and feel that He can win a hearing and carry conviction to the hardest conscience.
We do not expect the gospel to be loved by all mankind, it will not become popular amongst the great and noble, for we remember the word, “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called,” but we do not believe that the gospel has become decrepit through old age. When the foolish wise men of this age sneer at the old gospel, they render an unconscious homage to its power. We do not believe that our grand old castle and defense has tottered down because men say it is so. We recollect Rabshakeh, and how he reviled the Lord, and how, nevertheless, it happened to him as the Lord said: “He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there.... By the way that he came, by the same shall he return.” We have seen enough philosophies go back to “vile dust from whence they sprang,” to know that the whole species of them is of the order of Jonah’s gourd. We therefore in confidence wait, and in patience bide our time. Victory is sure.
Power
Power is the ability to act rightly, at any moment in any case. Faith in God always ensures power, and then we act for Him, irrespective of men and their judgment.
Power is never violent; mere strength can be very violent and impulsive, but power is even and equal to the occasion, be it great or small.
Samuel, more than any of the judges in Israel, was a man of power, for he availed himself of the power of God by prayer; he is an example to us. As we pray, we have power with God; so the man of prayer is the man of power. Great, glorious, and most blessed is it to be going through this world in the power of Christ, unswerving in pursuit of our service, and unruffled in our manner, however aggravated. Encompassed with infirmity, and assailed on every side, but made equal to every emergency by His grace and power.
I have noticed, too, that if God’s power comes to a man with a message, he not only has childlikeness of mind, but he has also singleness of eye. Such a man is all ear. He honestly and eagerly desires to know what God’s mind is, and he applies all his faculties to the reception of the divine communication. As he drinks in the sacred message with a complete surrender of soul, he is resolved to give it out with the entire concentration of his mental and spiritual powers, and with a single eye to the glory of God. Unless you have but one eye, and that one eye sees Christ and His glory in the salvation of men, God will not use you. The man whose eyes cannot look straight on must not be reckoned as a servant of the living God.
True Faith
True faith will make us independent of man. The man who believes in God, in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, will stay himself upon the Lord alone. He does not wish to be solitary, or singular, yet he can by himself contend for his Master; and when he has most human helps, he sedulously endeavors to wait only upon God. If you lean upon your helpers when you have them, you may have to realize the terrible meaning, of the ancient word “cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.” Let those that have zealous helpers be as those that have none, but let us be as free of all carnal confidence, as if we stood like Athanasius against the world, and had no one to speak a good word for us, or to bear a portion of our burden. God alone suffices to bear up you unpillared firmament. He alone balances the clouds, and upbears them in the heavens. He kindles the lamps of night and gives the sun his flames of fire. He alone is sufficient for us, in His might we shall do His work.
Further, true faith gives us courage under all circumstances. When young Nelson came home from a bird-nesting expedition, his aunt chided him for being out so far into the night, and remarked “I wonder fear did not make you come home.” “Fear,” said Nelson “I don’t know him.” That is a fitting speech for a believer when working the work of the Lord. The Lord is on our side, whom shall we fear? If God be for us, who can be against us?
The Hidden Springs
We must eliminate from our minds and hearts the thought of the quantity rather than the quality of service; one man may be able to accomplish more, and in the eyes of the world altogether overshadow another, but God will go down to the heart and there take cognizance of the motives. Passing through all outside show and to the depths of the soul, and finding it in harmony with Himself, He speaks His approbation, and gives His “well done.”
Taking Men Alive
Every man in the world is going to be “taken alive” by someone; this is evident from two passages of scripture. The Greek word zogreo, which means “to take alive,” is used twice in the New Testament: First in Luke 5:10, where the Lord proposes that those who follow Him should “take men alive” for Himself; and again in 2 Timothy 2:26, where we are told that some are “taken alive” by the Devil at his will. How solemn a consideration is this, for this catching alive is going on unceasingly, and men are being caught either in the gospel net for the kingdom and joy of the Lord, or by the snares of the Devil for the eternal darkness of hell.
Extracts From Letters
“I have been reading the first half of the Acts of the apostles lately, and have been much struck by the simplicity and diversity of the actings of the Holy Spirit. What a complete absence of form or system — Jerusalem, Samaria, the desert, Damascus, Lydda, Joppa, Caesarea, etc., each successively bring out some new feature or some varied display of the mighty power of the unseen Person who had come down to testify of Christ. Yet every acting is perfect in its place, and in divine beauty and order. The very contemplation of it has made one long with increased desire to be more in the power and current of the blessed Spirit, for His actings are as perfect today as in the days of old.”
“Be much with God, so that your service may be toned and matured by the secret intercourse of your soul with Him. I think this is where we most lamentably fail. The evangelists of a century ago had to lace intense opposition wherever they went, and were often entirely without human support or the fellowship of saints. But their very circumstances of isolation cast them upon God. They were men who knew what it was to travail in birth for souls. The midnight hour and the gray dawn often found them on their faces in an agony of prayer. They had power first with God, and, as a consequence, with the people. They learned the value of souls, and estimated the real worth of the world in the secret of the sanctuary, and when they came forth to preach they awed their listeners as they spoke out in burning words and with loving hearts the message of God. The divine truths they knew were tremendous realities to them, and they spoke of them as such to sinners.”
“I fear it is true of most of us that we are more familiar with the presence of men than with the presence of God. Oh! to have the apostolic spirit — ‘we will give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.’ Blessed self-surrender! To be altogether occupied in speaking to God and in speaking for Him! This is the servant’s business. As saints also we need to listen to His word and feed on it for ourselves.”
“One of the first converts in Europe was found in a prison (Acts 16), and was, possibly, addressed afterward by the apostle Paul as a ‘true yoke-fellow’ (Phil. 4:3). Alas! our poor cold hearts have very little idea of the depth to which grace stoops to find its objects, or the height of blessing to which it brings them. Yet, we might well know something of this when we think of ourselves — what we were in the flesh and what we are, through grace, in Christ and by the Holy Ghost.”
“It is good to have our hearts drawn out in prayer for others. How wretched self clings to us! How soon we find our hearts narrowed up from the wide and blessed circle of Christ’s service and glory, to the contracted circle of our service and our success Oh! for hearts expanded by divine affections to burn with ardent desire for His glory, while we ourselves are willing to be anything or nothing at His pleasure! This is the secret of joy, and liberty, and power in service. For when Christ alone is before the heart, and we have no thought of self, we are morally suited to be vessels of the power of the Holy Ghost. He is here for Christ, and if Christ is simply before us, we are in touch with all the blessed purposes in and for which the Holy Ghost is now on earth.”
“I am mere and more cheered by the thought that every bit of true service — that is, service in the power of the Holy Ghost — will be productive of eternal results. It is not given us to know all the results of our work, but we may be quite sure that so much of it as was God’s work and in the power of His Spirit will be for eternity: Whatsoever God doeth it shall be forever.’ This casts us wholly upon God, inasmuch that everything that we contribute is valueless, and it is only as our sufficiency is of God’ that we really succeed. It should therefore be our great object to have the power of God’ (2 Cor. 6:7) with us in service. Results may not always be manifest, but if God has wrought, something has been effected for eternity, and must be manifested sooner or later. Oh! to be more self-emptied, Christ-filled, and Holy Ghost possessed — earthen vessels, carrying the excellency of the power of God! It is no small thing to sink out of our own sight, to have the heart’s vision clear upon Christ, and to be sustained in every bit of service by the power of God.”
“The sternest things that have ever been said as regards sin’s penalty in the future, first passed the tenderest lips that ever proclaimed God’s love to man.”
“What a change comes over a man when Christ has truly conquered his heart. He will answer insult and abuse with magnanimity, patience, fortitude and gentleness. It is here that he has the advantage over the infidel; the infidel may be smarter in argument, he may have read more books, he may be more fluent in speech, he may be more audacious, impertinent, defiant; but when it comes to the real stress and tug of life the Christian has the advantage. When he is smitten on the one cheek he can turn the other also, and that is an argument that has never been answered. When he is mocked and reviled, he will not revile again; and that is a piece of theology that has never been written down by any of the Philistines who have sought to destroy and defile the heritage of God. By your holiness of life, sweetness of temper, love, meekness and humility you can magnify the gospel, and make men say ‘Well, after all, the gospel, come whence it may, that made that man what he is, is the true gospel.”
“He that cleaves unto the creature shall fall with the falling; he that cleaves to the Lord shall stand fast forever.”
“The apostles appear to represent prayer not so much as the practice of Christian life as its very breath and instinctive movement.”
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Our prayers often resemble the mischievous tricks of town children, who knock at their neighbors’ houses and then run away. We often knock at heaven’s door and then run off into the spirit of the world, instead of waiting for entrance and answer.
Satan seeks either to give confidence apart from Christ, or to hinder from confidence in Christ. He well knows that if a soul is looking to Jesus, he has no power over it, and so cannot use it for his own end; nay, that such an one has power over him.
A Pharisee is a man with plenty of divine light in his head, but no divine love in his heart.
One fatal hindrance to a heavenly walk and conversation is our too frequent disputes. A disputatious spirit is a sure sign of an unsanctified spirit. They are usually men least acquainted with the heavenly life who are the most violent disputers about the circumstantialities of religion. Yea, though you are sure that your opinions are true, yet when the chiefest of your zeal is turned to these things, the life of grace soon decays within.
It is a good thing to be so unsatisfied with self as to feel the, supreme need of Christ alone.
There is nothing too great for God to give — nothing too small to be beneath His care.
An All-Round Ministry
God imparts His message to those who are in a complete subordination to Him. It is evident that many have renounced that holy reverence for Scripture which is indicated by such an expression as “trembleth at My Word.” They rather trifle than tremble. The Word is not their teacher, but they are its critics. With many, the Word of the Lord is no longer enthroned in the place of honor, but is treated as a football, to be kicked about as they please; and the apostles especially, are treated as if Paul, James, and John are men with whom modern wise men are on terms of something more than equality. They pass the books of Scripture under their rod, and judge the Spirit of God Himself. The Lord cannot work by a creature that is in revolt against Him. We must manifest the spirit of reverence, or we shall not be as little children, nor enter the kingdom of heaven.
When some men come to die, the religion which they have themselves thought out and invented will yield them no more confidence than the religion of the Roman Catholic sculptor who, on his death-bed, was visited by his priest. The priest said, “You are now departing out of this life;’,’ and, holding up a beautiful crucifix, he cried, “Behold your God, who died for you.” “Alas!” said the sculptor, “I made it.” There was no comfort for him in the work of his own hands; and there will be no comfort in a religion of one’s own devising. That which was created in the brain cannot yield comfort to the heart. The man will sorrowfully say, “Yes, that is my own idea; but what does God say?” Brethren, I believe in that which I could not have invented. I believe that which compels me to adore, and I thank God for a Rock that is higher than I am. If it were not higher than I am, it would be no shelter for me.
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Better risk the dangers of a tornado of religious excitement than see the air grow stagnant with a dead formality. It is far better for people to be too hot than to be lukewarm. “I would thou wert cold or hot” is Christ’s word still, and it applies to preachers as well as to others. When a man is freezingly cold in the things of Christ, we know where he is; and if another is red hot, or even at a white heat, and is thought to be too enthusiastic, we know where he is; but when a preacher preaches in such a way that, at the close of his sermon, you say, “This is neither cold nor hot,” you go away feeling that you have had enough, or even too much of it. You could almost wish to have been made angry rather than to have been lulled by such discoursing. A lukewarm sermon sickens every healthy mind.
But let us test ourselves, our Lord holds the true thermometer in His hands, what does He say of us. How is it with you? Do you say, “Well, I am not the warmest of all, but then I am not the coldest of all”? Then I have a suspicion as to your temperature; but I leave the matter to your own judgment, only remarking that I have never yet met with fire that is moderately hot. The fire with which I have been acquainted has been such that I have never given it my hand without remembering its warm embrace. Fire has never yet learned moderation. I am told that it is wrong to go to extremes, and upon that ground fire is certainly guilty; for it is not only intensely hot, but it has a tendency to consume and destroy without limit.
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“Do not make too many heads to your sermons, lest you may not be able to find ears for them all!” Indeed having the ears already to hand many a preacher by his long sword of intolerable prolixity wantonly repeats the offense of Peter upon the servant of the high priest!
The Lord would not have told Peter to put up his sword if it had been the sword of the Spirit that He had been wielding. The sword of the Spirit lays open the heart while the sword of the flesh only cuts off ears. Now there has been a long succession of Petrine apostles, valiant swordsmen whose principal trophies are severed ears and not converted hearts; who have preached with such two-edged severity as to alienate their hearers when they should have won them. The Lord has not called us to this, we are not theological gladiators, to win applause from the crowd by our skill in cutting and slashing. We are God’s witnesses, not His logicians sent to argue men into the kingdom of God. We are not God’s debaters, sent to discuss theology with men, and to convince them of the truth of Christianity. On the contrary we as Christ’s servants are simply to bear witness year in and year out, using the Word of God and not our own. Our success will not depend on our acuteness, or our eloquence, or our skill, but on God’s Spirit, that accompanies and energizes the word. It takes a strong muscle to throw a handball so that it shall strike a hard blow; but a child can fire a rifle-ball effectually since the propelling power is in the powder and not in the muscle. So it takes a strong man to use an argument effectively, but a babe in Christ can use a text of Scripture with prevailing force, since it is “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” that the text is impelled.
Be more careful to prepare yourself than your sermon.
Feet shod, not with the preparation of the gospel of peace, but with conjecture, tracking an experiment or running in some unexplored “perhaps” — these can leave no path for sin-blinded and truant souls to walk in.
To electrify a hearer is one thing, to bring him prostrate at the feet of Jesus, quite another.