Concern For The Perishing

by Bennison, J. | Category: For Young Believers | Jan 1955

"Even if I were utterly selfish, and had no care for anything but my own happiness, I would choose, if I might, under God, to be a soul winner: for never did I know perfect, overflowing, unutterable happiness of the purest and most ennobling order till I first heard of one who had sought and found the Saviour through my means. No young mother ever so rejoiced over her firstborn child, no warrior was so exultant over a hard won victory." Such are the words of a great SOUL winner of a past generation, and no one who has not had this experience should question the truth of his statement.

How is it that so few of us have this glowing affection, this passionate passion for the souls of the perishing? Would it not be the honest truth for most of us to say "No, I am not concerned"? Let us face up to it, when did we last speak to a soul about Christ? Did we ever cry, "Lord, give me souls or I die " ? The Master's words are as urgent to-day as ever they were."Go, tell what great things the Lord hath done for thee."

Oh, for burdened hearts! Oh, for tears like the Master's, who, when He saw the city, wept over it! Murray McCheyne said, " It is not so much great ability that God blesses, as great likeness and love to Christ." Oh, that " love to Christ " might so grip, control and master our lives, crowding out all that conflicts with it, harnessing everything that would serve in the saving of precious souls! Oh. that we were more like Paul, who loved his Lord so deeply, so utterly that he could not help confessing Him, sacrificing all to serve Him!

One of the most remarkable accounts I have ever read of devotion to Christ was that of a London preacher, John Harper (he was known to some of our brethren), who perished in the Titanic disaster. At a conference in Hamilton, Ontario, a man rose, giving his testimony as follows. "Four years ago, when I left England on board the Titanic, I was a godless sinner. I was in this condition on the night when the terrible catastrophe took place. Very soon, with hundreds more, I found myself struggling in the cold, dark waters of the Atlantic. I caught hold of something and clung to it for dear life. The wail of awful distress from the perishing all around was ringing in my ears, when there floated near by me a man who, too, seemed to be clinging to something. He called to me: 'Is your soul saved?' 'No, it is not! ' 'Then,' said he, ' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' We drifted apart for a few minutes. Then we seemed to be driven together once more. 'Is your soul saved?' again he cried out. 'I fear it is not,' I replied. 'Then if you will but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ your soul shall be saved,' was his further message of intense appeal to me. Again we were separated by the rolling currents. I heard him call out this message to others ere they sank beneath the waters into Eternity. There and then, with two miles of water beneath me, in my desperation I cried to Christ to save me. I believed upon Him and I was saved. In a few minutes I heard this man of God say: 'I'm going down, I'm going down,' then: 'No, no, I'm going up.' That man was John Harper."

Bennison, J. | Jan 1955
For Young Believers