How May You Help?
“I would very much like to help in the work of the Gospel, but I don’t know how.”
These words, spoken by a young believer, probably voice the desires and exercises of hundreds.
Let me give you a few brief hints that may help you to find an answer to the question.
1. Seek to realize your great responsibility.
“Yours must be a very responsible position.” said a traveler to a man who had charge of the switches at a railway junction where five lines meet.
“Yes,” was the reply; “but it is as nothing compared with yours as a Christian.”
True and weighty words! Pause, and consider them. You, a believer in Christ; you, into whose soul the light of the Gospel has shone; you, who have a knowledge of the way of salvation; you have a great responsibility towards those around you who are still in darkness.
Let the thought of this bring you to your knees. Be not among the number who echo Cain’s question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Own your obligation before God, and pray earnestly for grace to enable you to fulfill it. You may not need grace to cross the seas, endure great privations, and eventually die a martyr’s death. But whatever be the way you are led to set about meeting your responsibility, you will need help and grace from on high. Be much in prayer then, as to your great obligation to help in the spread of the Gospel.
2. Begin with yourself.
In these matters it is permissible, nay, it is absolutely necessary, to begin with number one.
David Dodge, a servant of Christ, was in conversation with a fellow-believer who, like himself, was eager to see the work of the Gospel prosper. They talked together of the fallen state of the Church, the strange dullness and apathy of Christians. They agreed as to the need of more zeal and enthusiasm, more prayer and consecration. Finally, one of them broke in with”Friend Dodge, suppose thou and I make a beginning.”
That is it. Let those who long to be of service make a beginning themselves. Let them give themselves to prayer and fasting in holy and’ fervent desire for the blessing of others. With purpose of heart and in true self-judgment let there be an earnest waiting upon God. Only thus can vessels be made meet for the Master’s use.
3. Do not neglect simple, humble ways of service.
A nurse had lately settled in a home, and placed a card announcing some meetings in the frame of a picture in her room. After it had remained there for two or three days, the landlady asked her what it referred to. The nurse replied that it was an invitation to some Gospel services, and as she could not attend them herself, she had placed it where others could see it who might be able to go. She asked the landlady if she intended going.
!” was the reply. “I cannot even get to church because of the children.”
The nurse offered to look after the little ones if the mother would go. Thanking her cordially, the landlady agreed. She went, and was converted. The change wrought in her induced her husband also to go, and he came home a converted man. Later on, a son and a daughter, influenced by the change in their parents, went to the meetings and found joy and peace in believing. These four were brought to the Lord through the inquiry caused by the little card.
Do not, then, let us overlook the importance of little acts of service like this.
4. Do not leave the work of spreading the Gospel to preachers.
Sometimes people who are left unmoved by the most fervent preaching are reached by a word fitly spoken by a friend.
In a certain place, when the winter ice on the river was breaking up at the approach of spring, a farmer got into a boat to cross to the other side. Hardly had he loosed from the bank before his boat was struck by a floating mass of ice and carried by it out into the swift-running current. A neighbor, seeing his danger, rode with all speed to a town several miles further down the river. Some of the townspeople secured a good many stout ropes and went out to the bridge that spanned the river. Here they spread themselves out in a line from side to side of the river, each man holding a rope over the parapet of the bridge. They could not tell at just what point the boat with the farmer would pass under, so they put a rope down every two or three feet all the way across.
By and by the farmer was seen, wet and cold, standing in the boat, drifting helplessly along with the current. He saw the ropes dangling from the bridge; he seized the nearest one, was drawn up, and saved.
One rope might not have answered the purpose. But with many ropes, each held by a different hand, there was almost sure to be one that he could grasp.
The preachers of the Gospel hang out a rope, as it were, from the platform and the desk. But some sinners do not seem able to lay hold of it. If business men, fathers and mothers of families, young men and young women, Christian friends and neighbors, would all hold out ropes, many sinners would certainly be saved.
See to it that you are holding out a rope from the place where God has set you.
5. Think of children’s souls as well as of those of older people.
It may be that you can gain the ear of some dear young ones where you find it difficult to speak to their elders. Savonarola, the Italian reformer, used to say: “We must fish with nets that have meshes small enough to catch the smallest fish.”
Are you a teacher in a Sunday School? Regard your work as that of a winner of souls. Meet your class, from time to time, not merely to instruct them, but to aim at their eternal salvation. Name them again and again in prayer to God, and seek from Him grace, not only to teach them, but to win them for Christ.
Let each reader make a point of definitely inquiring in the presence of God as to how he or she may best endeavor to fulfill the great obligation that lies upon every Christian to spread the Gospel.