There is nothing academic about getting a layman to engage in Christian service. The most notable example of fruitful lay ministry is the woman of Samaria. After she had entered into the fullness of that wonderful experience found in contact with Christ, with her soul filled with the exuberant joy of what it meant to have a new power transform her sinful life and make her a child of God, it was not necessary for the Saviour to even hint to her that she was expected to begin to do personal work for others. Nowhere in that Bible story do you find any discussion as to her duties along that line, neither is there any suggestion as to methods of approaching the public. In reading that story there is but one conclusion, and that is that it is absolutely impossible for a Spirit-filled life to withhold itself from spiritual service for God.
In the responsibilities resting upon our lay members there is a responsibility which involves you and me personally and directly. The question might well be asked, Under whose preaching do these lay people continue inactive in service? It is our ministry. We are the means in God's hand for leading every one of these laymen into that service which grows out of the experience which God would have them enjoy. There is nothing that brings to me more self-condemnation than such a situation as we are considering at this time, for it clearly indicates that we not only have not found the power to be fruitful ourselves, but we have not found the means of generating that power in other hearts. The starting point of this sad situation centers in us. There is no hope for the lay members except in the leadership of a fruitful, Spirit-filled ministry.
There never was a time in the history of the church when the pace was not set by those upon whom the Lord had laid His hands and whom He had called into His service. That fruitful New Testament church had its birth in the ministry of the apostle Peter. That company of three thousand people, brought to the Lord through the acceptance of the truth, were the means of converting others, and that is how the church multiplied. We can discuss this problem from a great many angles, but the Lord has only one formula; and the more technical we become in our discussion, the more likely we are to drift away from the simple fundamental truths. I am not sure about discovering new methods or better methods. What we need is new power in the old methods. If our methods call for a Sixty-cent-a-week Fund, or a Harvest Ingathering of funds, as the best methods we can devise, then we must have power for soul winning in those methods.
Take for example the experience of Gideon who, as a very unqualified instrument was called to rally Israel and lead them forth to conquest, and you will find recorded this very significant statement: "The Spirit of the Lord clothed itself with [margin] Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him." Judges 6: 34. Before Gideon could assume the responsibility involved in putting that trumpet to his lips—the call for the assembling of God's forces to war—he had to be a Spirit-filled man; or, as stated, the Lord had to clothe Himself with Gideon. And that is a significant thing to admit,—that a man can become clothes for God; that God can put the human instrumentality on to serve His purpose, just as I put on my coat this morning. Then when the Lord used the lips of Gideon to blow the trumpet, every man who heard the sound had courage come into his bones, and he enlisted and went out to win the victory for Israel.
There is also the forceful lesson taught by the experience of Moses. For forty years he had wandered around in the wilderness as a shepherd. In his hand he had been carrying the shepherd's crook, which meant nothing to him but a stick to assist him in covering the wilderness trails. But when God came into Moses' life, that dead stick was used as the medium for giving evidence to the world that God had taken possession of humanity. To Moses, God said, "Cast it on the ground;" and when he did so, the rod became a serpent. Then the Lord said, "Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail," and the serpent became a stick. Furthermore, the Lord bade Moses put his right hand into his bosom, that right hand which had been his main dependence for forty years, and when he drew it forth, it was "leprous as snow." Then God said, "Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh." Brethren, our shepherd's crooks and our right hands will have a new deftness and power when God clothes Himself with us as He did with Gideon.
We need to recognize simple truths. There are always consequences attached to simple trust in God, and they seem overwhelming. We cannot have faith that is not associated with some barrier and some hindrance; but we must get hold with the hand of faith, and in simple, childlike trust, let God open up the way. We must be perfectly satisfied to seek God's way first of all, and to do whatever God's providence suggests shall be done. Let us hold ourselves firmly to the conclusion that this which we have been talking about must be done, that the tide of our activities must be turned in another direction, and have faith to believe that if we will attempt the task for God, He will show us how to do it. Effort will have its reward. If we will do this, God will help us to get past the barrier; but there is no use of our looking for the removal of the barriers until we attempt this thing for God.
There must come to each of us the great conviction that we must first of all enter into this experience which we are longing to bring to our poor people. And we cannot do it by sitting at our office desks and sending out blue and white and pink papers of instruction to the people to get busy in the Master's service. The conviction which has been on my own heart In this matter has impelled me to leave home and office, and engage in recruiting work. I have sought the closest personal touch with the men in the field; I have gone into a room with a doctor and asked him to shut his patients out until I could pray with him. I have looked into the eyes of my brethren with a challenge, and asked, How is it, brother, between you and your God? The challenge of evangelism lies in the power of one human being over another.
We must get hold of a poor human soul going to destruction, and dominate him by the power of that Personality that has clothed us, and in the conviction and experience that has come into our own lives. It is simple. Thank God for its simplicity. If you will go to the Solomon Islands, you will find God filling men with His presence,—men who have been cannibals, men who could not enter into the breadth of these discussions as to methods of evangelism, but they are men who can go to a neighboring island and win souls from cannibalism to God. That is the power we need in our ministry, and God is waiting for that consecration on our part which will enable Him to clothe Himself with us for the rallying of the forces of Israel at this crisis period.