Minister’s Responsibility
25
A Burden for Souls
God’s ministers must come into close companionship with Christ,
and follow His example in all things—in purity of life, in self-denial,
in benevolence, in diligence, in perseverance. To win souls to the
kingdom of God must be their first consideration. With sorrow for sin
and with patient love, they must work as Christ worked, putting forth
determined, unceasing effort.
John Welch, a minister of the gospel, felt so great a burden for
souls that he often rose in the night to send up to God his supplication
for their salvation. On one occasion his wife pleaded with him to
regard his health, and not venture on such exposure. His answer was,
“O woman, I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, and I
know not how it is with them.”
In a town in New England a well was being dug. When the work
was nearly finished, while one man was still at the bottom, the earth
caved in and buried him. Instantly the alarm was sent out, and mechan-
ics, farmers, merchants, lawyers, hurried breathlessly to the rescue.
Ropes, ladders, spades, and shovels were brought by eager, willing
hands. “Save him, O save him!” was the cry.
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Men worked with desperate energy, till the sweat stood in beads
upon their brows and their arms trembled with the exertion. At length
a pipe was thrust down, through which they shouted to the man to
answer if he were still alive. The response came, “Alive, but make
haste. It is fearful in here.” With a shout of joy they renewed their
efforts, and at last he was reached and saved, and the cheer that went
up seemed to pierce the very heavens. “He is saved!” echoed through
every street in the town.
Was this too great zeal and interest, too great enthusiasm, to save
one man? It surely was not; but what is the loss of temporal life in
comparison with the loss of a soul? If the threatened loss of a life will
arouse in human hearts a feeling so intense, should not the loss of a
soul arouse even deeper solicitude in men who claim to realize the
danger of those apart from Christ? Shall not the servants of God show
as great zeal in laboring for the salvation of souls as was shown for
the life of that one man buried in a well?