120
Gospel Workers 1915
world. Religion is not to be a subjective influence in our lives. We are
to be wide-awake, energetic, earnest Christians, filled with a desire to
give others the truth.
[144]
People need to hear the tidings of salvation through faith in Christ,
and by earnest, faithful effort the message is to be given to them. Souls
are to be sought for, prayed for, labored for. Earnest appeals are to be
made, fervent prayers offered. Our tame, lifeless prayers need to be
changed to petitions of intense earnestness.
Consistency
The characters of many who profess godliness are imperfect and
one-sided. These show that as pupils in the school of Christ they have
learned their lessons very imperfectly. Some who have learned to
imitate Christ in meekness, do not show His diligence in doing good.
Others are active and zealous, but they are boastful; they have never
learned humility. Still others leave Christ out of their work. They may
be pleasing in their manners; they may show sympathy for their fellow-
men; but their hearts are not centered on the Saviour, and they have
not learned the language of heaven. They do not pray as Christ prayed;
they do not place His estimate upon souls; they have not learned to
endure hardship in their efforts to save souls. Some, knowing little of
the transforming power of grace, become egotistical, critical, harsh.
Others are plastic and yielding, bending this way and that to please
their fellow-men.
However zealously the truth may be advocated, if the every-day
life does not testify to its sanctifying power, the words spoken will
avail nothing. An inconsistent course hardens the heart and narrows
the mind of the worker, and places stumbling-blocks in the way of
those for whom he labors.
[145]
The Daily Life
The minister should be free from every unnecessary temporal
perplexity, that he may give himself wholly to his sacred calling. He
should be much in prayer, and should bring himself under discipline
to God, that his life may reveal the fruits of true self-control. His
language should be correct; no slang phrases, no cheap utterances,