Winning Others to Christ
By Mrs. George A. Paull
WINNING OTHERS FROM WHAT? TO WHAT? AND HOW? So LET our lips and lives express
The holy Gospel we profess;
So let our works and virtues shine,
To prove the doctrine all divine. The Christian who is not winsome loses his greatest power of usefulness. In proportion to the measure of Christ’s indwelling within our hearts will we be able to show forth his love to those with whom we come in contact. If we make ourselves lovable and attractive, we reflect in some faint degree the love and beauty of Christ’s character, and win those to him who might never have known him had not some human hand clasped their own and laid it within the Father’s hand. It is not what we say as much as what we do that will bring others to Christ. “We must preach as we walk.” Many of the best sermons are sermons without words. Francis of Assisi one day stepped down into the cloisters of his monastery, and said to a young monk, “Brother, let us go down into the town to-day and preach.” So they went forth, the venerable father and the young man, conversing as they went. Along the principal streets, around the lowly alleys, to the outskirts of the town, and to the village beyond, they wound their way, returning at last to the monastery gate. Then spoke the young monk, “Father, when shall we begin to preach?” “My child,” said Francis, looking down kindly upon the young man, “we have been preaching; we were preaching while we were walking. We have been seen, looked at, our behavior has been remarked, and so we have delivered a morning sermon. Ah, my son,” continued the saintly man, “it is of no use that we walk anywhere to preach, unless we preach as we walk.” In this way we may all be preachers; in this way we must all walk if we would win souls. Paul said, “For me to live is Christ.” Wherever he went, men saw Christ mirrored in his character, his disposition, his conduct, his temper. We must be Christ to those whom we would win for Christ. Love is the great magnet that will give us the power to win others. If we let strong love continually well up in our hearts toward every one with whom we come in contact, we will find it easier to make of ourselves channels through which God’s love will pour upon them. “He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.” It is not easy to love every one. Dr. Meyer aptly says: “We must love people whom we can not like, with whom we have no natural sympathy, and who seem made to irritate us. It is easy to like nice people. No special grace is required for this. Our affections naturally entwine around the amiable and gentle, and if these alone filled our homes, there would be no education in the divine art of loving. We only learn what the love of God is when we have to deal with people who defy our own powers of affection. The fairest flowers of nature are never so apparent as when they are called in to drape the rents in earth’s surface, or to clothe some unsightly rock, rearing its form amid a paradise of beauty. Is there such a person in your life, the source of constant chafe, annoyance, fret? You feel you can not love, you can not speak gently, or stroke that fretful face, or find pleasure in that uncongenial presence? Anything but that. You could be lovely if only you were thrown with a congenial temperament. Yet how much you would miss of divine education! Do this: fall back on the memory of the divine indwelling, and since the strong Son of God, who is immortal Love, is in you, let him love that loveless one through you; let him pour out a torrent of love through you, as the channel and medium of blessing; let his love speak through your voice, and look through your eyes, and nerve your fingers. Love with his love. You can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth you.” It has been well said that there is no one of so discordant and jarring a temper, to which a tunable disposition may not strike a harmony. Let us each cultivate so loving a character that whoever strikes across our plans, our prejudices, our feelings, may only jar from us a ripple of sweet music. Thus shall we win other hearts to the all-loving Christ, when we manifest his indwelling love towards them ourselves. There are many who are so antagonistic to us in temperament, who can wound us so cruelly by misunderstanding, by blunt and unkind speech, that love seems an impossibility. Only by taking our hearts to the Fountain of all love, where they may be filled to overflowing so that there shall be no room for any other emotions, can we love the unloving, and win them to Christ by the magnetism of his divine Love, manifested in human affection.—Christian Work.