Linking Personal Ministry to Sermonizing

Now I think we should bear in mind that the difficulty with many is often hidden in the background of heredity, or environment, or education, or fail­ure, and that it is impossible to get at the difficulty from the desk or the pul­pit. The personal touch, the personal contact, is required. And more than that, it is not enough merely to sit down and talk and visit with a person. It is necessary that we approach him in such a way as to convince him of our love for him, for it is the love back of the motive which reaches the heart. We cannot succeed if we do personal work from a sense of duty, but as Paul said, "love never faileth."

A few weeks ago I was holding meet­ings in a certain place, and there was a young man there, eighteen or nine­teen years of age, who was not a Chris­tian, and did not manifest the slightest interest. He was considered some­thing of a problem. The next day after my meetings began I had the opportunity to shake hands with this young man, and I felt a very definite love for him spring up in my heart. A couple of days later I met him again, and in talking to him, I said, "Won't you come up to my room? I would like to get acquainted with you." As he did not seem to know just how to take the invitation, I went on to tell him why I wanted to become ac­quainted with him. I said:

"When I met you a few days ago, I could not help but like you very much; and when I left you, I went straight to my room, and I kneeled down and prayed that God would touch your heart, for I had been told that you are not a Christian. I told the Lord that I loved you, and that I wanted Him to teach me how to encourage you to be­come a Christian."

As I talked to him, he kept looking right into my eyes. He just kept look­ing, until I felt embarrassed. He did not say anything for a long time, and then this was what he asked:

"Do you mean to say that you went right to your room and prayed for me?"

"Yes," I replied, "that is what I did. And I have prayed for you more than once, the last few years." (The case of this young man had been brought to my attention previously, but I had never met him before.)

Finally he said, "Listen! I never saw anybody like you before."

I had the joy of seeing that boy make a very definite, and I believe sin­cere, surrender to Christ.

There are many who can be reached only through personal effort. The representative of Christ must come into personal contact with the person, and seek to discover the key to the man's heart—just what it is that is keeping him from accepting Christ; and the method of approach is largely a matter of loving. Many times I have met young men and women who have seemed to be warped and twisted in their views of things; but as I went on in my investigation, and visited with them until I won their confidence in me as one who really loved them, they have opened their hearts, and I have discovered something, perhaps in their heredity, or in their early en­vironment, or in their secular educa­tion, that blocked up the channel be­tween them and God; and then it became possible to remove that obstruc­tion, and let the light from heaven shine down into their hearts.

So often the difficulty is found to be failure. Thousands of people have tried and failed, and are in despair be­cause of that background of failure. But when you can sit down beside them, and talk with them and pray with them, and show them the way to succeed where they have failed before, many times the barrier is conquered, and there is a complete surrender to Christ. I believe that this work can­not be done through the pulpit. It can be accomplished only through definite personal work.

Referring now to the second point, that personal, heart-to-heart appeal is essential to success in the ministry: the reason for this is that personal work brings a man into closer per­sonal fellowship with Jesus Christ than can be obtained in any other way. We are told that Jesus "ever liveth to make intercession" for us. That is what He lives for,=--to save souls. Now the way in which we enter into closest fellowship with a friend is by becom­ing united with that friend in that which is his highest ambition. It is the same in entering into fellowship with the Saviour. The more deeply we enter into His longing, His de­sign, His yearning over souls, the closer we get to Him. We recog­nize that in our personal experience. Two people who have one supreme am­bition, and unite to attain to that am­bition, are drawn close together. 1 o it is in our connection with Chrtt. The minister who does his work en­tirely from the pulpit is not able to get as close to Jesus as the minister who goes to the individual and through personal contact touches the heart.

God loves us. But He did not just love us from heaven. He could not win the heart of man by loving him from heaven. He chose the way of personal contact. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." God, in the person of Jesus, came right down here—came into your heart and my heart. Jesus, as it were, sat down beside us, put His arms around us, and told us that He loved us. In that way He reached us and won us. And in that way we can reach and win a great many who can never be won through long-distance preaching. We must get right down beside the individual, and speak in a very definite, personal way.

So I think that this personal work brings the minister into closer contact with Jesus than can be obtained in any other way. It gives him the per­sonal touch with the individual life and its spiritual needs, which is so essential. No one ever knew a repu­table physician to give a lecture to a large congregation, and then prescribe for everybody there. The physician finds it necessary to make a personal examination, to find out what the spe­cific disease in each case is, in order that he may understandingly apply the remedy for the condition; and even though all people had the same disease, it is necessary for the physi­cian to study the individual case and make proper application of the remedy. The same principle applies in the work of the minister. I read from the Spirit of prophecy as follows:

"It is in labor, out of the pulpit, among families, that the richest and most valuable experience is gained, and that the minister learns how he can feed the flock of God, giving to each his portion of meat in due season. If there is a backslider, the shepherd knows how to present the truth in such a manner that the soul will be convicted. He will leave the ninety and nine and seek the lost sheep. But if the shepherd does not visit his flock, he knows not their condition, he knows not what truths to set before them, nor what is appropriate to their case."—Leaflet entitled, "Preaching Not Sufficient," by Mrs. E. G. White, 1892.

We cannot put too great emphasis on the need of personal work. I cannot see how any man, it makes no differ­ence how great a work he may be do­ing as an evangelist, can leave the personal work to his assistant and the Bible workers, and not himself have that inside knowledge of those spir­itual diseases which he is seeking to remedy and heal. However thrilling it may be to stand up before a thousand people, and see them deeply moved by the Spirit as they listen to the mes­sage from God, yet the richest and deepest experiences come when we get with^-the one-soul audience,—that per­sonal, direct approach, which Jesus made His supreme method.

It is this intimate, personal, heart-to-heart contact with men and women, in leading them to accept Jesus, which lifts a man's discourses out of the theo­retical into the experimental realm, and makes them practical. It is possi­ble for a man to be a good sermonizer, and yet fail to accomplish, the thing that is needed. In listening to a man's sermons it is possible to discern whether that man is doing personal work,—definitely and earnestly going from house to house, and from person to person, seeking to bring men and women face to face with Christ; or whether he is talking theory, reaching the head but not the heart. In ninety-nine times out of a hundred, a man's discourses reveal whether or not he has personal contact with sin-sick peo­ple, and is dealing with each case in a practical way for applying the remedy.

The third point which I wish to em­phasize, is the value of the example which the minister sets before the believers. The mission of the church in the world is twofold: it is to win souls, and then to train souls to win more souls. Now it is self-evident that all the church members cannot be preachers, and it is therefore manifest that if all the church members are to win souls, they must be taught how to do personal work. How inconsistent it would be for a preacher to say to his congregation, "Now, I am to do all the preaching, and you folks are to do the personal work." People would not re­spond to that kind of appeal very well. The pastor who is seeking to establish a healthy, normal condition in his con­gregation, recognizes the necessity of having every individual working for the salvation of souls; but he cannot expect his people to become enthusi­astic about doing work that they do not see him do.

The minister, as a shepherd, does more than merely to impart truth. He trains the believers in the service of Christ. Now the members may be trained to win souls in various ways. If their training consists in merely knowing how to solicit money success­fully, or to sell literature successfully, that comes far short of reaching the true objective in training for the serv­ice of Christ, as viewed in the light of eternity. The great essential in train­ing, whether it be by the Harvest In-gathering method, the selling of liter­ature, or any other means, is to know how to bring men and women to Christ. And if the members of the church see their minister going from house to house, and in an earnest way making personal appeals to individuals to surrender to Christ, they will read­ily follow his example, and base all their activities in Christian service on true heart experience. But no pastor can consistently ask the members of his congregation to do what he does not do himself. In this situation, ex­ample has greater influence than pre­cept.

I repeat that it is the business of the church, first, to win souls, and second, to train the souls won to win other souls. We read that "the saving of human souls is an interest infinitely above any other line of work in our world. Whoever is brought under the influences of the truth, and through faith is made partaker of Christ's love, is by that very fact appointed of God to save others."—"Special Testimo­nies," No. 6, p. 42. The very fact of becoming a member of the church, places an individual responsibility for the saving of others. Some years ago I came to the place where I decided that I could not conscientiously bap­tize a convert unless he assured me that he had a definite burden to win souls to Christ, and was definitely seek­ing to win some individual. I do not believe that a candidate for baptism can be considered as really ready for baptism until he is working for the salvation of others. I think all the records of souls won under Christ's ministry, and the records of apostolic experience, reveal that when a soul was converted, he went out that same day or hour and won somebody else to Christ. Therefore I do not believe that anybody is ready for baptism and ad­mittance into the church until he is working for some one else.

Now I wish to refer again to that paragraph which I read from the Spirit of prophecy, and to read a little farther:

"But if the shepherd does not visit his flock, he knows not their condition, he knows not what truths to set before them, nor what is appropriate to their case. And more than this, as the preacher manifests so little interest in the souls under his charge, he cannot set an example to the flock of having an interest and love and watchcare for souls. . . . The Lord cannot work for those who are unfaithful, who neg­lect their manifest duty, the most in], portant of a shepherd's duty. . . . Now it is highly essential that men be the right kind of laborers, for they are molding the churches to do as the preacher does; they feel that it is the right way to have just as little interest in the prosperity of their brethren and sisters in the church as the minister has given them an example in their way of laboring. They may raise up churches; but they will always be weak, and inefficient, and unreliable. Such kind of work at such expense will not pay."—"Preaching Not Suffi­eien,t."

If our churches are not in the spir­itual condition they ought to be in, we, as ministers, should do some earnest studying and praying to find out the reason; for we are told that the preacher molds the church to do as he does. Sometimes we visit churches where the people say, "Our minister never visits us;" and the minister says, "I am not adapted to doing house­to-house work; I cannot do that." In such a situation, it is very easy to find the reason for the low spiritual condi­tion prevailing in that church. If we believe the statement that "the work of God in this earth can never be fin­ished until the men and women com­prising our church membership rally to the work, and unite their efforts with those of ministers," then we, as ministers, must put forth efforts with which they can unite, and ever bear in mind that much depends upon our example in the matter of molding the people to become true soul win­ners.

We all recognize that the change which has come to us in these days of rapid transit by automobile—when the preacher drives in on Sabbath morn­ing, preaches a sermon, and then goes on to another church—is not condu­cive to personal visiting with our peo­ple in their homes in a way to talk with them calmly and unhurriedly, and to study the Bible and pray with them, such as was witnessed forty years ago. This is one great source of the weakness which exists today in so many of our churches. May the Lord help us to engage in more effec­tive personal ministry, and to have that love in our hearts which will con­strain us to go after souls.

A few years ago a minister of the gospel went to one of our largest pris­ons in this country, where seven hun­dred men were seated in the chapel, and as he preached to them their hearts were touched by the Spirit of God. When the minister asked how many of those men wanted to turn from their sins and be saved, all raised their hands, except one, a boy fourteen or fifteen years of age, who had seemed to be entirely unmoved, and had the appearance of being a hardened little criminal. The minister then requested the warden, as he took the men back to their cells, to let that boy remain in his seat. After all the men had filed out, and the boy found himself alone with the preacher, he leaned back in his seat with a sneer on his face, as much as to say, "Go ahead! I'm not afraid of you." The minister sat down beside him, put his arm about him and drew the boy up close, and held him there a little while without saying a word. Finally, the minister spoke, and he said, "Charlie, wouldn't you like to have somebody love you?" There was no response, except that the tears came into the boy's eyes and rolled down his cheeks; and then the boy said, "Mis­ter, nobody ever talked to me like that since my mother died." In a moment, preacher and boy were on their knees, and the power of God transformed that rebellious, hardened, sinful life.

Love is the power that wins. It is not mere commonplace words, but ear­nest, brief, heart-to-heart appeal to the soul. God works through that kind of effort, and there comes into a man's public ministry a power which cannot be imparted in any other way.

Discussion From the Floor

H. I. Keate: Not long ago we saw in our conference a demonstration of what can be accomplished through per­sonal work on the part of the minister. One of our ministers spent some time in personal work in a very thorough way, in which he covered the territory of four counties. He visited all the isolated believers, and gave them per­sonal attention in a true pastoral way; and as a result, twenty-five people took their stand and were added to the church. We have found it pays to do personal work.

J. T. Boettcher: I do not see how a man can be a successful minister unless he visits families in their homes. I also believe that ministers ought to invite the people to their own homes, for many times people can get help in that way which they would not get otherwise. When I was a young man, I had an experience which has had an influence on my life and has guided throughout my ministry of forty-five years. It was like this: An invitation had been extended to old Father Hill [a Seventh-day Adventist minister of that time] to come to my sister's home and meet the pastor of the Lutheran church for a discussion on some point of truth. The Lutheran pastor failed to come, but Father Hill kept his ap­pointment; and I was there to hear what he had to say about the Seventh-day Adventists. Well, he did not say very much to me at that time, but he prayed most earnestly in my behalf; and his prayer so touched my heart that I broke down and wept. That visit and that prayer did more for me than any sermon I have ever heard.

There is a man here at this Confer­ence, Pastor K. Sutta, from Riga—I well remember the first visit I made in his home. They had a big dinner, and I could not tell you how many courses they had at that meal, but it was a marvel to me, and Pastor Sutta and his wife wondered why I did not par­take of all the different dishes they offered. Not long after that, we in­vited him to our home, and we served a hygienic meal. When he got back home, he said to his wife, "We must change our bill of fare. We saw some­thing today which we have never seen before; we did not know it was pos­sible to prepare a meal of that kind." And from that day Brother Sutta's home was changed. He gave up his business, and he has suffered in many ways because of his love of God's cause. He is now a conference presi­dent, and the Lord has blessed his work, so that his conference has grown from a few members to about eight hundred at the present time. I believe in personal visiting in the homes. The pulpit provides for only half our work; the other half must be done through personal contact with people in their homes.

G.E. Peters; In my evangelistic work I find that people often have questions which they would like to ask, but which they are not willing to have answered through the question box. But as I visit them in their homes, they feel free to tell me of their doubts, questions, and perplexities, and through this personal contact I am able to help them, and perhaps lead them to decide in favor of the truth. Even though people become interested through a series of evangelistic meet­ings, there must of necessity be that personal touch in the home. I will refer to just one incident:

A young lady who had attended a series of meetings was engaged to be married to a bishop of the African Methodist Church. She had become very much interested in the Sabbath question, and believed that we had pre­sented the truth; but her fiance made it very clear to her that unless she gave up the idea of keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, their engagement must be broken, and consequently she gave up coming to the meetings. But I went to her home, and I sat down and talked to her, and tried to help her see what was involved in her decision. I re­minded her of the experience of Moses, who chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of Egypt. As a result, that young lady decided to break her en­gagement, and was baptized and united with the church.

F.D. Wells: There is need of doing personal work for people who are not in the truth, but I believe that our own people need this personal touch also. I will relate just one incident from my own personal experience. Finding that there were a number of people whose names were on our con­ference records,—isolated and scat­tered members, concerning whom no one seemed to know very much,—I planned to make a tour through the conference and call on every one of these persons. I arrived at the first address on my list about nine o'clock in the morning, and I found the man I was looking for out in the field plow­ing. I walked out in the field to meet him as he came down the furrow, and as he stopped his team I introduced myself as the president of the confer­ence in which he lived. He dropped the lines on the horses, gripped my hand, and his eyes filled with tears as he said, "I have been on this hill for twenty years, and you are the first con­ference worker to drive into my yard." He put his team in the barn, and for several hours we talked together con­cerning the advance of the message. This was all quite familiar to him, be­cause he was a constant reader of the Review and Herald, but it was a great joy and encouragement to him to come into personal touch with one of the workers.

That was my beginning in this kind of work, but I have been making trips out into the scattered territory for four years now; and on one such trip I called on one hundred and twenty families. I believe these trips accom­plish a great deal. Not only is it a real joy and pleasure to come in con­tact with these persons, but I have seen the tithe and mission offerings advance. Many of our dear people are entirely isolated from others of like faith; they are faithful in sending in tithes and offerings; they send their children to our schools; and they have a claim on the ministry for personal, heart-to-heart contact, at least at fre­quent intervals, for they have their problems and they need encourage­ment.

A.J. Meiklejohn: I want to say a word in regard to including the chil­dren in this matter of pastoral visit­ing. It seems to me that one of the finest things a pastor can do when he is calling on families is to remember the children. Not long ago I was call­ing on a family where there were sev­eral children, and as I was talking to the mother I noticed a little boy, seven or eight years old, sitting on a chair and listening to all that was said. Suddenly the mother said, as she fas­tened her gaze on the child, "Elder Meiklejohn, this is a very bad little boy!"

"Why, what is the trouble?" I asked.

She then went on to tell me how Bobby had picked up a mouth harp when he was at the home of a neighbor, had brought it home with him, had been told to take it back, and reported that he had done so. But it turned out that Bobby had not taken the mouth harp back to the place where he got it, but instead had thrown it over the fence. Now when the mother had completed the story, she asked, "What would you do with a little boy like that—who would first steal a mouth harp, and then lie about it?"

The little fellow sat there looking at us, and it was evident that he did not know exactly how to relate him­self to the situation. I smiled at the child, and said, "I don't think Bobby is going to do that again." I went on with my visit, but as I was about to leave the mother brought up the sub­ject of the "very bad little boy" again. By this time the little fellow had slipped up close to where I was stand­ing, and I put my arms around him, and said, "Bobby, I don't believe you are going to do that again." Then Bobby began to cry; and I knew that Bobby would never do that thing again.

Let us keep the older folks in mind, but at the same time do not forget the children. I like to kneel down in prayer with the father and mother and little children, and I want to know the children well enough to call them by name, asking God to especially bless Bobby and Mary and Anna and Joseph. Such personal interest not only draws the hearts of the children to the minis­ter, but it wins the hearts of the fa­thers and mothers as well; and it helps to make our ministry more effec­tual.

Philip Giddings: I would not know how to get along without combining preaching and personal work. Many times people say, I am not interested in your church, but I am interested to see what your life is like. They are more interested in the sermons we preach by our lives than in the ser­mons we preach from the pulpit, and I regard personal contact with the peo­ple in their homes as indispensable in my work as a minister. When people see their pastor among them, visiting and praying with the people, they are convinced that he loves them, and I find that, as a result of this work in the West Indies, many who had be­come careless and indifferent are brought back to the church.

When she learned of the meetings which we were holding, she came out of curiosity to hear what we had to say, and to some extent she had become interested; but this was what passed through her mind when we came to call: "When you came here today, I said to myself, Here is another one of those preachers. Many have come and gone, and none have ever prayed with me, or talked with me and endeavored to help me, and I suppose here is just another preacher of the same kind." She was watching us all during the call, to see if my method of personal work was the same as that of other preachers. Of course I did not know this; but after we had had prayer, her attitude changed entirely, and she was willing to talk to us freely. She said, "For twenty-five years no minister has ever prayed with me. I appreciate more than I can express, the fact that you have been willing to kneel here in my home and ask God to bless me and to help me in the little things that make up my life."

It was prayer in the home that brought the turning point in that woman's life. She became a member of the church. So I think it is a very important matter to come close to the people in the fellowship of prayer.

There is another phase of personal endeavor which should not be over­looked, and that is to manifest a friendly interest, and extend an invi­tation to attend church services. I wonder how many are familiar with that incident of tragic neglect to invite people to meetings. For the good of those who may not have heard the story, I will briefly relate it. When that very able, wise, and brilliant Chi­nese ambassador to the United States, Mr. Wu Ting Fang, had closed his ambassadorial duties, and was about to sail back to China, he received an in­vitation to attend church service. He had gone to New York to take ship, and on the Sunday night before he was to sail, a native Chinese pastor in New York City decided he would venture to ask Wu Ting Fang to attend his meet­ing. He called the ambassador at his hotel, and said, "I have seen by the paper that you are here, and that your boat does not sail until tomorrow, and I wondered if you would be willing to come and attend a Protestant church service."

Wu Ting Fang replied over the tele­phone in this manner: "When I was a boy, I came in contact with Protestant missionaries from America, and was influenced by the Christian religion. But I lost that influence, and after receiving my education and training I became prominent in public affairs; but all through the years I have not forgotten what I learned from those Protestant missionaries. When I was sent as ambassador to the United States from China, I made up my mind that I would accept the first invitation to attend church that I received while in America"—then he stopped talking, and nothing came over the wires for a few seconds. Resuming the conversa­tion, he said: "This is the first time that any one has asked me to attend church here in America: and now it is too late!" Christianity had failed to measure up to her opportunity to extend the influence of the gospel in that personal contact which had been rightfully anticipated.

G. R. West: I have been getting much help from what has been said, and could relate many personal ekperi­ence2 in personal work. But the thing I need to find out is how a man labor­ing under conditions such as many of us are laboring under, can find time to do personal work. Take, for ex­ample, the case of a pastor of a city church, where there is a membership of between 300 and 400. The pastor has to officiate at weddings, preach funeral sermons, pray for the sick and dying; he must be campaign promoter, and look after the interests of the church school and church affairs in general. I should like to hear the men who are actually laboring under such conditions explain how they find time to engage in personal work. My conviction is that personal work should be made a part of every day in the week; not isolated experiences here and there through the year, but it should be made our business. I am obliged to confess that, in my personal experience, as the problems have in­creased the personal work has been crowded out. When I read what is said by the Spirit of prophecy about pastoral work, I feel that I ought to resign my work as pastor, because I am not doing what we are instructed to do. I have had many workers tell me that they do not do very much visiting. I want to know if these things we have been hearing about are practical; and if they are, I want to learn how to find time to do them in connection with all the duties that a pastor-evangelist has to take care of.

B. F. Bryan: I feel stirred with ref­erence to this matter, and particularly since the question was asked. Before the brother asked the question, I was going to speak on that very point. The pastor who does not find time to do personal work is no pastor. You can­not feed the flock by running cam­paigns. You cannot lead souls to Christ by merely asking for money. Many years ago I was taught a lesson as to the importance of personal work which has stayed by me all through the years. A simple-minded lad, an epileptic, came to me at the close of a service, and said, "I want you to pray with me, pastor." Like all other busy pastors, I found many things to be at­tended to, and I said, "All right, John. Go into the study, and I will come and talk with you just as soon as I can." "Please, pastor," he said, "come now. I need you now." I went into my study and I talked with him. We kneeled down, and we prayed together, and the tears came down the cheeks of the lad when he found the Saviour. I had done the thing which really I did not want to do,—I had dealt with the one-soul audience, but the lad found Christ; and that was the means of bringing his father into touch with God, and that father is a preacher of the gospel today.

I had my lesson! There is never a time, no matter what we have in hand to do, that if anybody asks for prayer, we cannot find time to pray with him. I cannot preach, and I know it. There are some men who cannot preach, and they don't know it. But I know Christ, and I know His power to save. I know that He can put underneath the weak­est of us His everlasting arms; I know that He can lift sinners to God; and I am very sure and positive that He can save; and I am very positive that He can bring men and women into contact with this precious truth which has come to all who are gathered here today. I know of no other way of win­ning souls to Christ but loving them into the kingdom. Let us go back to our churches and do it.

As to finding time for doing personal work, I believe in putting first things first; and that if we seek first the king­dom of Christ and His righteousness, these other things will come. They are bound to come. You will not have to put up charts, and use slides and all the rest of the paraphernalia, as a campaign promoter. Keep prominently before the people that souls are dying, that precious souls need contact with Jesus Christ. That is what will win every time. If you seek to spiritualize all campaign endeavors, the money will come.

Rose E. Boose: Elder MacGuire spoke of finding the way to the hearts of the people, and of the need of find­ing out the nature of the spiritual malady before attempting to apply the remedy. I would like a little further information as to just how to meet the real needs of an individual in a tact­ful manner. Would Elder MacGuire please tell us how to find the key to individual problems?

Meade Macguire: I suggested that the key may be hidden in the back­ground of heredity, or environment, or education, or failure. Perhaps it will be well to mention a personal experi­ence which quite clearly illustrates how the key may be hidden in the background of failure.

At the close of one of my meetings, a young lady came to speak to me. I had noticed that she rose with others, indicating a desire to be prayed for, and I asked her to stay to the after-meeting. But she said she could not do that, and that she would like to see me the next morning. In my personal interview with her the next morning, I recognized her as a person I had known when she was a girl about fif­teen years of age. She started in to tell me the story of her experience, and it was so sad, so repulsive, and so sordid that I felt thoroughly disgusted. She seemed so unconscious of the ter­rible reality of what she had been tell­ing me, that I felt there was nothing to her, and that it was not worth while to waste any time on her, when there were so many other young people need­ing help, who gave evidence of having some standard of character and prin­ciples. But I did not express my feel­ings to her.

A day or two later, this young woman stopped me and asked if she might have another talk with me. I was not anxious to talk with her, and I said, "I am very busy; but of course, if you really desire it, and really mean business in the matter of the surren­der of your life, I will talk with you." She said she would like to have me explain to her how to be converted. So I met the appointment, although rather reluctantly. I confess it all with a good deal of shame now. I read the Scripture, and tried to explain in the most simple manner just how to enter into the experience of the new birth. Finally, she said, "Elder MacGuire, I know what you are thinking: