“Study to Show Thyself Approved”
The cause of God needs efficient men; it needs men who are
trained to do service as teachers and preachers. Men have labored with
a measure of success who have had little training in school or college;
but these might have attained a greater measure of success, and might
have been more efficient laborers, if at the very start they had acquired
mental discipline.
To Timothy, a youthful minister, the apostle Paul wrote, “Study to
show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” [
2 Timothy 2:15
.] The
work of winning souls to Christ demands careful preparation. Men
cannot enter the Lord’s service without the needed training, and expect
the highest success. Mechanics, lawyers, merchants, men of all trades
and professions, are educated for the line of business they hope to
enter. It is their policy to make themselves as efficient as possible.
Go to the milliner or the dressmaker, and she will tell you how long
she toiled before she had a thorough knowledge of her business. The
architect will tell you how long it took him to understand how to plan
a tasteful, commodious building. And so it is in all the callings that
men follow.
Should the servants of Christ show less diligence in preparing for
a work infinitely more important? Should they be ignorant of the ways
and means to be employed in winning souls? It requires a knowledge
of human nature, close study, careful thought, and earnest prayer, to
know how to approach men and women on the great subjects that
concern their eternal welfare.
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Not a few of those called to be co-laborers with the Master have
failed to learn their trade. They have dishonored their Redeemer by
entering His work without the needed preparation. There are some
who, becoming wearied by the superficial gloss that the world calls
refinement, have gone to the other extreme, and one fully as harmful.
They refuse to receive the polish and refinement that Christ desires
His children to possess. The minister should remember that he is an
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