28 Sermon Illustrations on Soul Winning

The old Scots minister climbed wearily into the pulpit. Bowed and dejected, he had just faced the harsh criticism of one of his deacons. "Sir, there is something radically wrong with your ministry. Only one person has been saved this year, and he is only a boy." The words stung him, for he, too, felt heartbroken that so few had responded to the Gospel; yet still he trusted God for the results. The service concluded, but the weary man of God lingered on in the church, wondering if there was any point continuing in the ministry. A young lad saw him and waited behind. Please, sir... ." "Yes, Robert?" "Do you think if I worked hard for my education that I could ever become a preacher?" "God bless you, my boy," replied the old man with tears in his eyes. "Yes, I think you will become a preacher!" It was years later that an elderly missionary came back to London from Africa. He had pushed back the boundaries of geographical knowledge and brought savage chiefs under the influence of the Gospel of Peace, given tribes the Bible in their own tongues; but most of all, he had followed the Lord with all of his heart. Robert Moffat-"only a boy," won to Christ by a tired old man-had become a soul winner! On one visit to England, Robert told of the need of Africa. Among those who heard him that day was a young Scottish medical student who had given his life to God for missionary service. Robert Moffat's words pierced his heart: "There is a vast plain to the north where I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been." Filled with the vision of what God wanted him to do, the student asked Mr. Moffat, "Would I do for Africa?" The direction of David Livingstone's life had been changed. Who can tell what impact was made through the ministry of the first old Scotsman? "Only a boy" it seemed-yet far-off generations and tribes knew the effect of it! You never know what God is doing and can do through your witness. Do not be discouraged. But trust and pray on!

"Don't write there," said one to a lad, who was writing with a diamond pin on a pane of glass in the window of a hotel.

"Why?" said he.

"Because you can't rub it out."

The glass may be destroyed, but the human soul is immortal. How careful, then, should we be of the impressions we make on deathless souls!

See yonder poor wretches whose ship has gone down at sea; they have constructed a poor tottering raft, and have been swimming on it for days; their supply of bread and water has been exhausted, and they are furnishing; they have bound a handkerchief to a pole, and hoisted it, and a vessel is within sight. The captain of the ship takes his telescope, looks at the object, and knows that it is a shipwrecked crew. "Oh!" says he to his men, "we are in a hurry with our cargo: we cannot stop to look after an unknown object. It may be somebody perishing, and it may not be; but, however, it is not our business:" and he keeps on his course. His neglect has murdered those who died on the raft. Yours is much the same case, only it is worse, because you deal with immortal souls, and he only deals with bodies, which he suffers to die. O my brother! I do implore you, before the Lord, never let this sin lay at your door again; but, if there be one who is impressed and needs a word of comfort, fly on the wings of mercy to such a soul, and help to cheer him as God enables you.

— Spurgeon

A jeweller received a very valuable diamond to be reset. He wrapped it carefully, and laid it away; but, when it was wanted, it could not be found. Its loss would ruin the jeweller. He searched everywhere; day after day, doing nothing else till he found it. At last, he discovered a bit of the paper, in which the jewel had been wrapped, among the ashes of a fireplace. He then sifted all the ashes made after the reception of the jewel, and was overjoyed to discover the lost treasure perfectly uninjured. What diligent search, then, should be made for lost but immortal soul-jewels!

Ah, me! to think of such a soul being made to grind like a blinded Samson at the wheel of your sensual pleasures, when it has a wing scarcely inferior to the seraph's in strength, and might yet prove capable of a flight as high!—to think of its being confined to the duties of the workshop, seldom rising above the question, What wages can I earn? when the boundless universe is its proper field of discovery, and does not afford it a too ample range!—to think of its being made the drudge of the body, knowing no better employment than to pamper its lusts, when it could make the highest world its foot-tool, and, while suns and systems roll in all their grandeur at its feet, could levy tribute from them all! The degradation of such a soul can neither be described nor imagined. In vain do we look around us to find, or exercise the imagination to conceive of, any thing that will adequately illustrate its extent. I have thought of the eagle, which, soaring above the range of human vision, gazes with unfaltering eye on the splendor of the noonday sun, and basks in his golden beams: I have thought of the degradation of the noble bird when chained to a stone in the dungeon wall. I thought of an angel smitten with insanity, its noble intellect deranged, leaving the heaven where in its youth it soared and sang, to find employment in heaping together the dust of the earth. I have thought, too, of the king reduced to the condition of the beggar; and thus have I attempted to picture by comparison the most deplorable calamity, — the waste, the destruction, of a human soul. But I have tried in vain. Its degradation cannot be described by any illustration which the universe can furnish or the imagination create. Landels.

5121. 80UL, Dissatisfied. A great thinker has said, "Give a man half a universe, and he will at once quarrel with the holder of the other half. What he needs is God's infinite universe all to himself." I do not think God's infinite universe would do. I think David comprehended it better, when he said, "My soul panteth for God, for the living God." There is that in man which the knowledge of the living God only can satisfy, which having God, has all things in him. J. B. Brown.

5122. 80UL, Doors of the. The door by which the world enters the soul, in the act of opening shuts the door by which heaven enters. Hence, it happens that those who have their door constantly open towards the world have their door constantly shut towards heaven. While worldly gains and pleasures, scenes and sounds, are freely entering the soul by an open door, the King of heaven stands knocking at the shut door. On the other hand, when the door freely opens to the Lord Jesus, and to heavenly gains and joys, the door by which the world enters closes. The worldly door being shut, the Lord Jesus and the soul banquet together. The soul is then in her glory: she is dead to the world, and the world is dead to her. J. Pulsford.

5123. 80UL, Emblem of the. A city which was strongly besieged by a potent enemy, by holding long out, was brought to extreme want. No hope of relief appeared. Famine and sword attended, — the one without, affighting, and the other within, dismaying the poor inhabitants; insomuch that they were at their wits' end, and held a serious consultation what was best to be done for their better safety. The result was this, that there should be a considerable number of dead bodies (of which there were many lying starved in the streets) clad in armor, and set on the walls in the still of the night, that so, in the morning, the enemies, upon sight thereof, might be amazed; which fell out accordingly: for it was thereby conceived that some fresh supplies had been brought in to their assistance; and thereupon the siege was raised and the city relieved. This distressed city, so strongly besieged, is the soul of man: the potent enemy that lieth before it is the Devil, that great commander-in-chief over all such regiments as the world and the flesh can possibly raise for his service. Spencer.

5424. 80UL, Enemies of the. Love fools her, ambition mocks her, covetousness rusts her, lust enflames her, hope tickles her, pleasure melts her, despair depresses her, anger burns her, hatred sours her, envy gnaws her, jealousies prick her, revenge exasperates her, cruelty hardens her, fear freezes her, and sorrow consumes her. N. Caussin.

5425. 80UL, Funeral of a Lost. What, if it be lawful to indulge such a thought,—what would be the funeral-obsequies of a lost soul? Where shall we find the tears fit to be wept at such a spectacle? or, could we realize the calamity in all its extent, what tokens of commiseration and concern would be deemed equal to the occasion? Would it suffice for the sun to veil his light, and the moon her brightness? to cover the ocean with mourning, and the heavens with sackcloth? Or, were the whole fabric of Nature to become animated and vocal, would it be possible for her to utter a groan too deep, or a cry too piercing, to express the magnitude and extent of such a catastrophe?

Robert Hall.

5426. 80UL, House for the. What if a man should see his neighbor getting workmen and building-materials together, and should say to him, "What are you building?" and he should answer, "I don't exactly know. I am waiting to see what will come of it." And so walls rush up, and room is added to room, while the man looks idly on; and all the bystanders exclaim, "What a fool he is!" Yet this is the way many men are building their characters for eternity; adding room to room, without plan or aim, and thoughtlessly waiting to see what the effect will be. Such builders will never dwell in "the house of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Many men build as cathedrals were built,—the part nearest the ground finished, but that part which soars towards heaven, the turrets and the spires, forever incomplete. A kitchen, a cellar, a bar, and a bedroom: these are the whole of some men, the only apartments in their soul-house. Many men are mere warehouses full of merchandise: the head, the heart, are stuffed with goods. Like those houses in the lower streets of the city which were once family dwellings, but are now used for commercial purposes, there are apartments in their souls which were once tenanted by taste and love and joy and worship; but they are all deserted now, and the rooms are filled with earthy and material things. Beecher.

A city is nothing when weighed in the balance against a human soul. Phidian Jupiter was a statue of gold and ivory so magnificent, that a man that died without seeing it might be commiserated; and a man that had seen it might say, "Now let me die in peace." That statue, whose annual disclosure was so august, that men and women in their enthusiasm fell before it with outcries and exclamations; that statue, which I would willingly have made a pilgrimage to see, if it had been saved from medieval violence and iconoclasm, — was wonderful beyond all description. But one poor soul dragged out of the slough, and saved, and beginning to speak the language of heaven, and to shout the praises of God, is more wonderful and more glorious in the sight of angels and of God than the lordliest statue of the greatest of all artists; and I would go farther to save one soul than to see a million Phidian works of art. Beecher.

It is said of the learned John Smith, "that he had resolved very much to lay aside other studies, and to travail in the salvation of men's souls, after whose good he most earnestly thirsted." Of Alleine, author of "The Alarm to Unconverted Sinners," it is said that "he was infinitely and insatiably greedy of the conversion of souls; and to this end he poured out his very heart in prayer and preaching." Bunyan said, "In my preaching, I could not be satisfied unless some fruits did appear in my work." "I would think it a greater happiness," said Matthew Henry, to gain one soul to Christ than mountains of silver and gold to myself. If I do not gain souls, I shall enjoy all other gains with very little satisfaction; and I would rather beg my bread from door to door than undertake this great work." Doddridge, writing to a friend, remarked, "I long for the conversion of souls more sensibly than for any thing besides. Methinks I could not only labor, but die for it, with pleasure."

After a Roman army had won a victory, various rewards were given to the soldiers whose services had been most distinguished. He who had first mounted a rampart, he who had first sealed a wall, he who had first entered the enemy's camp, — each of these received an honorable public recompense; but the highest reward of all — the highest which any soldier could receive, — was given to him who had saved the life of a citizen. This reward was the civic crown made of oak-leaves, and adorned with this inscription, "ob civem servatum." This crown was bestowed by the prince himself. The person who received it was admitted to peculiar social honor. He sat next the senate on grand public occasions. When he entered, the entire audience rose as a mark of their respect. It was an honor which even Augustus himself was proud to wear.

— Rev. J. R. Berry

A teacher had among her pupils a young man of reckless habits. At length, when she heard that he was fast drifting to ruin, she found courage to speak to him. The young man was much affected by her earnest appeal, influenced as he knew she was by love for his soul; and, when he had mastered his emotion, he said to her in a tremulous voice, "Had any one ever before spoken to me as you have to-night, I might have been a Christian long ago; but no one has thought me worth saving."

— S. S. Times

As the pilot-boats cruise far out, watching for every whitening sail, and hover, through day and night, all about the harbor, vigilant to board every ship that they may bring safely through the Narrows all the wanderers of the ocean; so should we watch off the gate of salvation for all the souls, tempest-tossed, beating in from the sea of sin, and guide them through the perilous straits, that at last, in still waters they may cast the anchor of their hope. Beecher

Pyrrhias, a merchant of Ithaca, seeing an aged man captive in a pirate's ship, took compassion on him, and redeemed him, and with him bought likewise his commodity, which the pirate had taken from him, being certain barrels of pitch. The old man, perceiving that not for any service that he could do him, nor for the gain of his commodity, but merely out of charity, Pyrrhias had done this, discovered to him a great mass of treasure hidden in the pitch; whereby he grew exceedingly wealthy, having obtained an answerable blessing for so good an act of piety. How much greater shall be the reward for rescuing souls! Spencer.

The excellent Rev. T. Charles, of Bala, England, informed the general meeting of the Sunday School Union, in 1813, that, throughout the country in which he resided, they received most of the members into their churches from Sunday schools; and that, during the preceding year, nearly one hundred persons had been received into Christian communion from the Sunday schools in the town of Bala.

Rev. Mr. ——, of H——, Mass., in August, 1830, thus wrote: "Since the 1st of February, of the present year, 161 persons have been admitted to this Church, most of whom have generally attended my Bible class instruction, for the last six years, and nearly 60 of them have been members of the Sabbath school. I have a class of twenty children, all of whom are members of the Sabbath school, who are cherishing the hope that they have passed from death unto life. These children are from eight to fourteen years of age. The object of bringing them into a class, has reference to their making a profession of religion.

“A class,” says the report from F—, Mass., “consisting in all of six scholars, usually numbering three or four on the Sabbath, was left vacant by the removal of its teacher, who might be denominated a good commonplace teacher. Her place was supplied by one who felt the solemn responsibility of her station and the worth of souls. Her influence was soon seen and felt. Numbers flocked to her class. In a short time it increased from six to fourteen, and others were necessarily denied admission. A deep interest and general seriousness soon pervaded the whole class. This was evidently the result of direct and personal conversation with them on the subject of their salvation. In a short time this devoted teacher was obliged by ill health to resign her place to another; the class has now lost much of its interest in spiritual things, and has gradually dwindled away to nearly its former number. This instance goes to show that even the thoughtless have a disposition to covet and listen to the instructions of those who deal faithfully with their souls.”