The Soul Winner
Devotional Book Reviews
Spurgeon takes up the task of
helping Christians think through what it means to share our faith.
The Soul Winner
by Charles Spurgeon
Whitaker House, Spingdale, PA: 1995.
303 Pages, Paperback.
What does it
mean to win souls? Spurgeon answers this question in his usual pithy
style by expounding the truth housed in Proverbs 11:30, “He who wins
souls is wise.” It is of
utmost importance for the Christian to be a soul winner, no matter what
station in life they have been providentially given.
Spurgeon does not teach the 1,2,3’s of soul winning as if it
was some kind of static evangelistic “explosion” going on, but
rather, how the holy, godly Christian may use his witness to be the
means by which God may save a soul.
It is the chief business of the Christian to be a soul winner.
The first
six chapters were given as lectures to the pastor's college in order that
those being trained up in the ministry would know how to go about
winning souls. The
following four addresses were delivered to Sunday School teachers, and
open air preachers, and the rest were given as simple exhortation to all
men to win souls.
The book is
very easy to read, and very enjoyable.
It refreshes the hum-drum, lazy Christian spirit to act on his
faith instead of treating his faith as a museum replica which sits
stagnated inside a glass case. Spurgeon
excites the Christian to service in 15 chapters which cover “God-ward
Qualities for Soul Winning,” “The Cost of Being a soul Winner,”
“Instruction to Soul Winners,” and “Encouragement to Soul
Winners.” It is one of
the best books on the subject simply because it is not the
“step-by-step” process of formality which pushes the soul winner in
a set pattern of questions of dialogue (though that is not always a bad
thing). Rather it causes the Christian to break from the timidity
which is often characteristics of Christians in order to reach a lost
and dying world.
Some Quotes:
“No man
will win a soul who is not prepared to suffer everything within the
realm of possibility for a soul’s sake.”
"We ought to
regard the Christian Church, not a luxurious hostelry where Christian
gentlemen may each one dwell at his ease in his own inn, but as barracks
in which soldiers are drilled and trained for war.”
“Dear
ones, do be earnest. Put
your whole soul into the work, or else give up.”
“In God’s School the teachers must be masters of the art of
holiness.”
“To
win a soul, it is necessary not only to instruct our hearer and make him
know the truth, but to impress him so that he may feel it. A purely didactic ministry, which would always appeal to the
understanding and leave the emotions untouched, would certainly be a
limping ministry.” |
