One at a Time | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 12, 1856

One at a Time.

FALSE systems of religion group men in masses, and sink the individual. A true faith, apprehending the worth of the soul, individualizes man, and seeks to bring the gospel in contact with each heart. Its work is only accomplished when that heart is renewed by the Holy Spirit, and salvation is made a personal concern. It is in this light that labors for the spiritual benefit of those out of Christ, whether by the ministry or membership of the churches, increase their power in proportion to the directness given to them. He that would win souls to Christ, must concern himself with one at a time. Our blessed Saviour gave us the example, when he sat at the well-side, and labored kindly for the salvation of a poor and wicked woman.

Some important hints to ministers on this subject are contained in John Angell James' preface to the London edition of Dr. Spencer's admirable "Pastoral Sketches." "How much do we all lose," he writes, "for want of the notice and treatment of single cases,

How much of our ministry is unsuccessful for want of this kind, judicious, and persevering attention to individuals. True, there is not the excitement produced in our mind by the public address to the congregation; true, there is often more difficulty felt, and more patience required in dealing with one single soul, entangled and bewildered in the meshes of ignorance, doubt, and despondency, than in composing and delivering a whole discourse from the pulpit; true, it might seem a wider sphere of usefulness to touch by one sermon hundreds of minds at once. Yes, but how many of these minds are in a state not to be efficiently touched by that sermon, but which can be, and would be, efficiently touched by the private conversation? We little know what hearts in our congregation are longing, almost to bursting, for a little personal intercourse with a kind and judicious minister. I can recollect the early days of my own conversion to God, when I yearned for such an interview with the minister, and stood at the corner of the street, watching him with tears to his own home, silently exclaiming, 'Oh, that he would speak to me,' and yet I had not the courage to go to him. Had he given only a public notice that he would be glad to converse with any who were anxiously inquiring after salvation, I should have hailed the notice as water to a thirsty soul.

"This shows that ministers should let it be known and felt that they are easy of access to all who are burdened with solicitude for their conversion. They should, they must, and they can, if they try, find out such cases; they are not faithful if they neglect to do so, and cannot be said to watch for souls as they that must give account. The scrutiny which Christ will make at the last day, will not only be into the manner in which we have dealt with the congregation as a whole, but with the individuals of which it is composed. It is an alarming idea that our responsibility extends to every single soul."