Our Opportunity by V. E. Prugh

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 4, 1912

Our Opportunity

By V. E. Prugh

THE Lord has graciously given to man the privilege of carrying the last message of mercy to all the world. It is to reach all classes of men, rich and poor, high and low. “Go out into the highways and hedges,” Christ said, “and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

“Millions upon millions have never so much as heard of God or of his love revealed in Christ. It is their right to receive this knowledge. They have an equal claim with us in the Saviour’s mercy. And it rests with us who have received the knowledge, with our children to whom we may impart it, to answer their cry. To every household and every school, to every parent, teacher, and child upon whom has shone the light of the gospel, comes at this crisis the question put to Esther the queen at that momentous crisis in Israel’s history, ‘Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’”

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” is Christ’s command to his followers. Not that all are called to be ministers or foreign missionaries, but all may be workers with him in giving the “glad tidings” to their fellow men. To all, great or small, learned or ignorant, old or young, the command is given.

The little Israelitish maid who was carried captive by the Assyrian king, though not a missionary in the ordinary sense of the term, was able by her simple Christian life to point the leader of that great nation to the Healer in Israel. Time would fail us to tell of all those who by faithfulness in small things have led thousands to acknowledge the love and power of God.

We are not to wait for souls to come to us; we are to go to them. There are multitudes who will never be reached by the gospel unless it is carried to them.

Henry Ward Beecher once said: “Every Christian should be a pilot-boat. He is to cruise about hard by the harbor of salvation watching for the tempest-tossed soul, if perchance he might guide that soul into the harbor of life.”

“The success of the gospel does not depend upon learned speeches, eloquent testimonies, or deep arguments. It depends upon the simplicity of the message and its adaptation to the souls that are hungering for the bread of life. What shall I do to be saved?— this is the want of the soul.

“Thousands can be reached in the most simple and humble way. The most intellectual, those who are looked upon as the world’s most gifted men and women, are often refreshed by the simple words of one who loves God, and one who can speak of that love as naturally as the worldling speaks of the things that interest him most deeply.

“Often the words well prepared and studied have but little influence; but the sincere expression of a son or daughter of God, spoken in natural simplicity, has power to unbolt the door to hearts that have long been closed to Christ and his love.”

The great soul-winner, John Vassar, was waiting in the parlor of a Boston hotel. “A fashionably dressed lady was sitting across the room. Mr. Vassar went over and said, ‘Excuse me, madam, but I feel that I must ask if you are trusting in Jesus Christ.’ Then followed a conversation which deeply impressed this butterfly of fashion. When, a little later, the woman’s husband appeared, she told him of the strange man who had asked her so personal a question. He replied in anger, ‘Why did you not tell him it was none of his business?’ ‘O husband,’ she said, ‘if you had seen that expression upon his face and heard the earnestness with which he spoke, you would have thought that it was his business.’”

God wants us to make it our business to win souls. Neglecting this is failing at the vital point. Nothing can atone for unfaithfulness in this work. “To a great degree this must be accomplished by personal labor. This was Christ’s method. His work was largely made up of personal interviews. He had a faithful regard for the one-soul audience. Through that one soul the message was often extended to thousands.”

My brother, my sister, you are bought with an infinite price. Will you to-day, whatever your occupation may be, decide that you will spend yourself in God’s service, and that your chief business from henceforth will be to win souls to Jesus?

V. E. PRUGH