What kind of gospel do you preach, or, as many who read our question do not preach publicly, How do you evangelize? All God's people should in some way or other be evangelizing; therefore the question is of moment.
The character of the crop we raise depends upon the sort of seed we sow; and the character 1 Conversions God grants us largely depends upon the kind A gospel we preach. Indeed we may go further, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh—the sort of gospel we preach depends upon the sort of acquaintance we have with Christ ourselves.
See the zealous, devoted man who, possessed with the belief of heaven and hell, preaches what he believes. He speaks of realities, and in a way that makes men bow to his convictions. What is the result? The Spirit of God uses his word to awaken in the sinner an earnest desire to escape hell and to reach heaven. Thank God for his intense words.
Or look at him whose very being is filled with God's grace in forgiving the sinner; he pours out of the abundance of his heart the God-given words, and God the Spirit graciously grants the longing for, and the knowledge of, forgiveness of sins to the hearing sinner.
No doubt each servant has his special service, as every bird his peculiar note; and we cannot give out one whit more than what by God's work is really within our souls.
If we know forgiveness, we can by God's grace proclaim it; if peace, then we can in His power publish it; but there is more than forgiveness and peace to tell.
Surely the Apostle Paul preached forgiveness and peace in divinely given energy, but he did more. He had seen Christ in the glory; his soul was laden with Christ there; hence he preached for the believer here, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." He was not satisfied that converts should be saved from hell and safe for heaven, but he travailed for them that Christ should be formed in them. He labored—he strove according to God's working, which worked in him mightily—that they might know the riches of the glory of the mystery, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." He longed that souls saved should be free from the law, and from the earth, and be free for Christ, and Christ only. In his deep desires for Christ's glory, and his sympathy for souls and their progress, he had great conflict—even for converts he had not seen—that "all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery" might be theirs.
Does our preaching so bring Christ Himself, as He is, before our converts, that they long to "know Him"? We see, as the fruit of our words made powerful by the Holy Spirit, the sinner, or, shall we say, the quickened soul, longing after peace with God, or peace for his conscience; but do we see the soul who has obtained the peace for which he longed thirsting after Christ Himself?
The joy of having peace does not carry souls very far out of the world. It fails in very many instances even to separate them from their old habits of religious thought. In some strange manner they go on with the law as a rule of life, and with teachings contradictory to peace. Would this be morally possible if Christ were in them the hope of glory? Could they then tolerate law or contradictory teachings? Is there not often a quiet kind of worldliness allowed, while peace—in the sense of no longer doubting the fact of being saved—is known in the soul? We must own that these things are so. Let us ask then, whether the realities of Christ being in the glory for us, and of His being the hope of glory in us, are as forcible in our souls as the facts of His blood having been shed upon this earth for sinners, and of present forgiveness of sins for all who believe on Him.
He "preached Christ unto them," is said of Philip the evangelist. It is easier to preach what Christ has done, than who Christ is, and it is utterly impossible to preach Christ as He is unless the heart be filled with Himself by the Spirit. The evangelist, or evangelizer, has a noble mission; he is freighted with divine compassion to a perishing world; he is burdened with blessings for sinners, and his heart is fitted by God to yearn over the Christless souls dying around him. But his words are formative; by his knowledge of Christ, his hearers learn Christ; he is not a mere trumpeter who blows his blast and goes quietly home.
Alas! that any bearing the power of carrying the gospel of God to men should have for their ambition the number, instead of the constancy, of their converts. And that when told their conversions are not all God's converts, but poor plants withering away, they should, instead of weeping, hand you a fresh list of recent conversions! Ah! ye lovers of souls, where are the souls you love?
"But," say some, "the evangelist's work ceases at conversion; he leaves to others the care of his converts." But who has drawn the line where his work and love should cease? If the father cares not for his children, who shall do so? If he who presents Christ to sinners, does not long to present the sinner God has saved by his poor means to Christ, who shall? The true evangelist is a nurse to his converts; gentle, affectionate, filled with love for them; willing to impart to them, not the gospel of God only, but his own soul, because they are dear to him.
He who knows that he is safe for heaven preaches safety; he who knows God's grace in forgiving his sins, preaches forgiveness; he who rejoices in peace, preaches peace; and he who has Christ dwelling in his heart by faith—Christ as He is—Christ the hope of glory—preaches safety, forgiveness, peace, but all colored by his own personal acquaintance with Christ. The less does not include the greater, but the greater does take in the less.