“Ho!” says Bartimeus, “I don’t believe you ever got your sight at all. Who ever heard of such a way as that? Why, to fill a man’s eyes with clay is enough to put them out!”
Both men were blind, but they were not cured alike. A great many men are kept out of the kingdom of God because they are looking for somebody else’s experience—the experience their grandmother had, their aunt, or some one in the family.
ONE INQUIRER AT A TIME.
Then it is very important to deal with one at a time. A doctor doesn’t give cod-liver oil for all complaints. “No,” he says, “I must seek what each one wants.” He looks at the tongue, and inquires into the symptoms. One may have ague, another typhoid fever, and another may have consumption. What a man wants is to be able to read his Bible, and to read human nature, too.
Those do best who do not run from one person in an inquiry-meeting to another, offering words of encouragement everywhere. They would do better by going to but one or two of an afternoon or evening. We are building for eternity, and can take time. The work will not then be superficial.
Try first to win the person’s confidence, and then your words will have more weight. Use great tact in approaching the subject.
It will be a great help to divide persons into classes as much as possible, and bring certain passages of Scripture to bear upon these classes. It is unwise, however, to use verses that you have seen in books until you are perfectly clear in your own mind of their meaning and application. Avail yourself by all means of suggestions from outside sources, but as David could not fight in Saul’s armor, so you possibly may not be able to make good use of texts and passages which have proved powerful in the hands of another. The best way is to make your own classification, and select suitable texts, which experience will lead you to adopt or change, according to circumstances. Make yourself familiar with a few passages, rather than have a hazy and incomplete idea of a large number.
The following classification may be found helpful:—
1. Believers who lack assurance; who are in darkness because they have sinned; who neglect prayer, Bible study, and other means of grace; who are in darkness because of an unforgiving spirit; who are timid or ashamed to confess Christ openly; who are not engaged in active work for the Master; who lack strength to resist temptation and to stand fast in time of trial; who are not growing in grace.
2. Believers who have backslidden.