Co-Workers with Christ
65
knowledge and abilities as skillfully as possible in order to gain this
object.
There is a vast amount of rubbish brought forward by professed
believers in Christ, which blocks up the way to the cross. Notwith-
standing all this, there are some who are so deeply convicted that
they will come through every discouragement and will surmount every
obstacle in order to gain the truth. But had the believers in the truth
purified their minds by obeying it, had they felt the importance of
knowledge and of refinement of manners in Christ’s work, where one
soul has been saved there might have been twenty.
Again, after individuals have been converted to the truth, they need
to be looked after. The zeal of many ministers seems to fail as soon
as a measure of success attends their efforts. They do not realize that
these newly converted ones need nursing—watchful attention, help,
and encouragement. These should not be left alone, a prey to Satan’s
most powerful temptations; they need to be educated in regard to their
duties, to be kindly dealt with, to be led along, and to be visited and
prayed with. These souls need the meat apportioned to every man in
due season.
No wonder that some become discouraged, linger by the way, and
are left for wolves to devour. Satan is upon the track of all. He sends
his agents forth to gather back to his ranks the souls he has lost. There
should be more fathers and mothers to take these babes in the truth to
their hearts, and to encourage them and pray for them, that their faith
be not confused.
[69]
Preaching is a small part of the work to be done for the salvation of
souls. God’s Spirit convicts sinners of the truth, and He places them in
the arms of the church. The ministers may do their part, but they can
never perform the work that the church should do. God requires His
church to nurse those who are young in faith and experience, to go to
them, not for the purpose of gossiping with them, but to pray, to speak
unto them words that are “like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”
We all need to study character and manner that we may know
how to deal judiciously with different minds, that we may use our
best endeavors to help them to a correct understanding of the word
of God and to a true Christian life. We should read the Bible with
them, and draw their minds away from temporal things to their eternal
interests. It is the duty of God’s children to be missionaries for Him,