7th OF 9 REASONS WHY MEN DON'T SHARE THE GOSPEL
Seeing it is a duty that the King
has laid upon every man according to his ability to exhort and reprove in the
Great Commission work (Matt. 28:19-20), and with all possible diligence to labor
after the salvation of all about him, judge then whether this work be reasonably
performed. Where shall we find the man almost among us, that sets himself to it
with all his might, and that has set his heart upon the souls of his fellow man,
that they may be saved? Let us here, therefore, question what may be the causes
of the gross neglect of this duty, that the hindrances being
discovered may more easily be overcome.
Another hindrance is self-seeking
and self-minding. Men are all for themselves, and all mind their own things,
but few the things of Christ and their brethren. Hence is that Cainish voice, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Every man must answer for himself. Hence also it is that a multitude of
ignorant professing to believe do think only where they may enjoy the purest regulations,
and from that point they will go over sea and land; or what way of discipline
will be sweetest to themselves, and therefore are prone to groundless
separation but where they have the fairest opportunity to win the souls of
others, or in what place or way they may do most good, these things they little
or nothing regard, as if we had learned of the religious, and were setting up
their principles and practice when we seem to oppose them.
If these men had tried what some of
their brethren have done, they would know that all the purest ordinances and
churches will not afford that solid comfort, as the converting of a few sinners
by our unwearied, compassionate exhortations. Two men in a very cold winter
come where a company of people are ready to starve; the one of them rounds
himself, and takes shelter, for fear lest he should perish with them; the
other, in pity, falls to rub them that he may recover heat in them, and while
he labored hard to help them, he gets far better heat to himself than his
unprofitable companion does.
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