The Value of Individual Effort
Those who have been most successful in soul-winning were men
and women who did not pride themselves on their ability, but who
in humility and faith sought to help those about them. Jesus did this
very work. He came close to those whom He desired to reach. How
often, with a few gathered about Him, He gave His lessons, and one
by one the passers-by paused to listen, until a great multitude heard
with wonder and awe the words of the heaven-sent Teacher.
The Woman of Samaria
Christ did not wait for congregations to assemble. Some of the
grandest truths He uttered were spoken to individuals. Listen to His
wonderful words to that one woman of Samaria. He was sitting by
Jacob’s well as the woman came to draw water. To her surprise He
asked a favor of her. “Give Me to drink,” He said. He wanted a cool
draught, and He wished also to open the way whereby He might give
to her the water of life.
“How is it,” said the woman, “that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink
of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans.”
Jesus answered, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is
that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of Him,
and He would have given thee living water.... Whosoever drinketh of
this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that
I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him
[195]
shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
How much interest Christ manifested in this one woman! How
earnest and eloquent were His words! They stirred the heart of the
listener, and forgetting her errand to the well, she went into the city
and said to her friends, “Come, see a man, which told me all things
that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” [See
John 4:7-30
.]
167