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Devotional Book Reviews - The Soul Winner

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Today, many Christians are turning back to the puritans to, “walk in the old paths,” of God’s word, and to continue to proclaim old truth that glorifies Jesus Christ. There is no new theology. In our electronic age, more and more people are looking to add electronic books (ePubs, mobi and PDF formats) to their library – books from the Reformers and Puritans – in order to become a “digital puritan” themselves. Take a moment to visit Puritan Publications (click the banner below) to find the biggest selection of rare puritan works updated in modern English in both print form and in multiple electronic forms. There are new books published every month. All proceeds go to support A Puritan’s Mind.

Spurgeon takes up the task of helping Christians think through what it means to share our faith.

Devotional Book Reviews – The Soul Winner
Reviewed by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon

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.”

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