By Gipsy Smith
Acts 1:8 -- "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me."
I wonder how much personal work you have done for Jesus Christ? I pause that you may put the question intelligently to your own heart. How many people have you tried honestly, definitely tried to bring to the Lord Jesus?
Because you know the world is not going to be saved by big preachers. It is going to be saved by personal testimony, by the power of the grace of Christ in the individual heart.
Jesus said: "Ye shall be witnesses unto me." And what God wants you to do is to be a witness bearer. If you really love Him, you won't let any one do or say anything against Him in your presence without a gentle, tender rebuke. And if you will keep it up, they will feel the smart of the insult they offer Jesus Christ.
How many people have you written a letter to since this campaign began? How many people have you gone to see? How many people have you prayed with?
I have been a personal worker all my life. I believe in the public declaration of religion, but I am a profound believer in personal work. Personal work results in hand-picked fruit and it fetches more in the market.
It is easier to preach a sermon to 500 or 1,000 or 5,000 than to get down and talk to one person about spiritual things. That is where your test comes in. That is where your real spiritual life comes out.
You know Peter was the great preacher of Pentecost. Peter and John had been through Pentecost in the morning and they were going to prayer meeting in the evening. They saw a beggar at the gate of the Temple. They had preached to the multitude out of which 3,000 were converted. The men who are willing to sit down and help one soul, the women who are willing to help one soul are the ones that God can trust with the multitude.
Peter and John were on their way to the Temple when they saw the beggar. They said, "Look on us, look on us." And the beggar looked on them and began to expect something. And the world is looking to you -- it expects something from you. They see you going to church and coming from church, but do you ever stop and speak to them?
Many people are standing outside the Temple who will never get inside unless some one helps them. That beggar would never have got into the Temple if it had not been for Peter and John -- if they hadn't stopped to help him.
I say to Christians, Don't miss the personal effort. Speak to that boy; speak to that girl; speak to that man; speak to that woman. Concentrate on one soul. If you save one soul, you have done something to deck the brow of Emmanuel.
When you have tested the luxury of saving one soul for Jesus Christ, you will never rest until you have saved another one, because there is nothing in the world like it.
What do you know about personal work? The Lord is going to save the world through individual testimony. God expects me to serve the world just where I can reach it. He expects me to reach just as much as I can cover, and to evangelize that portion of the world with which I can come in contact.
Personal work -- and I want to say to you that your work doesn't stop with the preaching of the gospel. What would you think of a doctor if he stood up and gave a lecture on health and then left all his patients. I know such a plan wouldn't do for me. I need somebody to come and get a hold of me and to take up my own case. And men and women, who are longing for the gospel, will respond to the personal touch. He is going to save the world by the testimony of men and women who have been brought from darkness to light.
I was traveling to a certain valley in Wales, during the Welsh revival and two preachers accompanied me part of the journey. And when we parted, one of them said, "The Lord go with you, Brother Smith." And I replied, "If He doesn't, I will speak well of Him behind His back."
I remember the morning I was converted. My heart was bursting to tell what Jesus had done for me. It is no use to try to keep it in when you have found Christ. Tell the sun to stop shining; tell the mighty rivers to stop flowing; tell the wind to stop blowing; tell the birds to stop singing; tell the angels in high heaven to stop the shouting of Hallelujah. It is no good to tell Christians to be quiet. Well, they can't, that is all, and if you are quiet, it is because you are not a Christian. If you have anything to talk about it will come out.
I knelt the night before in that little church alone, and nobody came to me, and nobody wanted me, and I heard somebody say, "That is only a Gipsy boy, no use to be concerned about him." But I cried out, "Lord Jesus, nobody wants me, but I am hungry for Thee." And somehow or other, my boy's heart was strangely warmed and I went home to my father and said to him, "I am converted." And the next morning I went out with my wares in my basket and the very first customer I had I began to preach to her, I couldn't keep it in. I had got Jesus and I must tell of Him.
Listen! If God is in you, and you know, it will come out. The sun shines. The birds sing, and the joy of the Lord just bubbles over and flows out. And you needn't worry about people who are properly converted. They will preach for Christ. If they didn't speak at all their lives would tell the story. They just shun evil and place their trust in Christ. He having the light, just shines out.
It isn't big preaching that is going to save the world. It is personal work for Christ and a witness to His glory, of salvation full and free.
I went up into Scotland -- and you know some of the greatest preachers are Scotchmen. One of these ministers had a man in his congregation who was not a Christian. He was a brainy man, a lawyer. And the minister longed for that man to come into the Church. So he organized a series of sermons to convert that lawyer. He preached on them for an entire winter, and when the services were all over, the man came to him and said, "Doctor, I want to join the Church."
"Thank the Lord," said the minister, "which sermon did it?"
"None of them at all; the sermons never interested me."
"What in the world ever influenced you to come into the Church, then?" the minister asked.
"You know that widow in your Church -- the one who has to walk with sticks?" "Yes," replied the minister.
"Well, she was going out of the church one morning and one of her sticks fell from her hand and I caught her just in time to save her from failing. And when I had held her up and given her her sticks again she said, 'Thank you, sir. I hope you love my Jesus.' Your sermons didn't do it, but that dear old widow's kind words did it."
It is your personal testimony that will do it. Are you so filled with the Spirit you must tell somebody about Jesus? The consciousness that you have helped a soul to Christ will bring you more joy than anything else in the world. It will bring you more joy than all the decorations and honors that the world can put upon you.
I have had lots of honors in my life. My King honored me and sent for me to come to Buckingham Palace and decorated me. And I don't think of it once in a year unless I need the incident to illustrate my text. But I will tell you what gives me more joy than all such decorations. The joy I am talking about will live when the sun and the moon and the stars go out like sparks from the blacksmith's anvil.
I was sitting in a railroad carriage one night in England. I was conducting a revival in a little town about twenty miles west of Plymouth and I was going up to Plymouth for a little holiday. I was early in the train and sank into a seat behind my newspaper. The train was filled with country folk returning from the market. A dear old granny sat in front of me and as soon as the train started the topic of discussion became Gipsy Smith.
The revival I was conducting was arousing quite a bit of discussion and it was only natural for these folks to talk about it. I was glad I was behind my paper. I heard some very helpful things about myself. And sometimes it would help all of us if we could see ourselves as others see us.
The old granny said: "You can say what you please about Gipsy Smith, I pray for him twice every day, and pray the Lord for the success of his meetings. I will tell you why. You all know our Jack. When his father died, he took his share of the estate and went to South Africa, and lived a fast and loose life and went literally to the Devil. He broke his mother's heart and turned my own hair a little grayer.
"When the news came one day that Gipsy Smith was going to South Africa, I praised God to help him to find Jack.
"One day, long after that, Jack came home. And he knelt at his mother's knee and said, 'Mother, I am converted. I heard Gipsy Smith and he told me to come home and put flowers in my mother's hands while she could enjoy them and not upon her coffin.' Our Jack is now a preacher and a Sunday School teacher and everybody loves him, and whatever any one says about Gipsy Smith, I would like to write on his coffin with my own fingers, 'A friend of sinners.'"
I would rather go to heaven with that character than be a millionaire or a multi-millionaire.
There are some folks in your city today without God and without hope in the world. Go and talk to them. Go and love them to Jesus Christ. And some day He will say to you, "Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, ye did it to me."
