There is no Christian who cannot help to bring someone to the Savior. Christ says, “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me”; and our business is just to lift up Christ.
Our Lord said, “Follow Me, Peter, and I will make you a fisher of men”; and Peter simply obeyed Him, and there, on that day of Pentecost, we see the result. Peter had a good haul on the day of Pentecost. I doubt if he ever caught so many fish in one day as he did men on that day. It would have broken every net they had on board, if they had had to drag up three thousand fishes.
I read some time ago of a man who took passage in a stage coach. There were first, second and third-class passengers. But when he looked into the coach, he saw all the passengers sitting together without distinction. He could not understand it till by-and-by they came to a hill, and the coach stopped, and the driver called out, “First-class passengers keep their seats, second-class passengers get out and walk, third class passengers get behind and push.” Now in the Church we have no room for first-class passengers—people who think that salvation means an easy ride all the way to heaven. We have no room for second class passengers—people who are carried most of the time, and who, when they must work out their own salvation, go trudging on giving never a thought to helping their fellows along. All church members ought to be third class passengers—ready to dismount and push all together, and push with a will. That was John Wesley’s definition of a church—“All at it, and always at it.” Every Christian ought to be a worker. He need not be a preacher, he need not be an evangelist, to be useful. He may be useful in business. See what power an employer has, if he likes! How he could labor with his employees, and in his business relations! Often a man can be far more useful in a business sphere than he could in another.
There is one reason, and a great reason, why so many do not succeed. I have been asked by a great many good men, “Why is it we don’t have any results? We work hard, pray hard, and preach hard, and yet the success does not come.” I will tell you. It is because they spend all their time mending their nets. No wonder they never catch anything.
The great matter is to hold inquiry meetings, and thus pull the net in, and see if you have caught anything. If you are always mending and setting the net, you won’t catch many fish. Whoever heard of a man going out to fish, and setting his net, and then letting it stop there, and never pulling it in? Everybody would laugh at the man’s folly.
A minister in England came to me one day, and said, “I wish you would tell me why we ministers don’t succeed better than we do.”
I brought before him this idea of pulling in the net, and I said, “You ought to pull in your nets. There are many ministers in Manchester who can preach much better than I can, but I pull in the net.”
Many people have objections to inquiry meetings, but I urged upon him the importance of them, and the minister said,
“I never did pull in my net, but I will try next Sunday.”
He did so, and eight persons, anxious inquirers, went into his study. The next Sunday he came down to see me, and said he had never had such a Sunday in his life. He had met with marvelous blessing. The next time he drew the net there were forty, and when he came to see me later, he said to me joyfully,