DO THE WORK OF AN EVANGELIST

DO THE WORK OF AN EVANGELIST

“Do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4: 5) I see to be the foundation of all service now. No one could surpass that statement. The greatest evangelical of the hour could not go beyond me in this. I see the servant is directed in a day when all was in confusion, and when ears were turned from the truth to “do the work of an evangelist”. I constantly say every one’s state is determined by the gospel he has received; hence I believe there is no more interesting work than preaching the gospel. I do not feel that I arrest sinners, though I desire it; but you know well how I delight in the gospel, and how I rejoice in helping souls into it. I have often wished that I were free to travel through all England preaching the gospel even as I can, and I long to see it preached to every soul; but I do not think crowded audiences and flaming placards consistent. This is the hitch to me. Preach as much as you can — I should say to every evangelist, but do not seek to make yourself notorious — a person of notoriety. I believe every one ought to help, as far as in him or her lay, to rescue souls, and I think the more you are in concert with the heart of Christ, the more you will do so. I often say — if I were very near Him, I could not get alongside a sinner without telling him of a Saviour, or a saint, without telling him of Christ his life in heaven.

“That by me the preaching might be fully known” (2 Timothy 4: 17), is not, I apprehend, simply the gospel to sinners. I think it embraces more. The Lord make us more zealous to set forth the word of life to lost souls. I feel my heart stirred up at times for these, but I certainly cannot sanction that they should claim all attention to the exclusion of the saints.

^[p. 151] Serving the saints really imposes and demands an extent of self-denial and world-abnegation which occupation with sinners never claims, but I need not add more.