PERSONAL WORE – Charles Spurgeon

I ONCE heard a story of an American, who declared he could fight the whole British army, and when he was asked how he could draw so long a bow as that, he said, ” Why, this is what I would do : I know I am the best swordsman in the world, so I would go and challenge one Britisher, and kill him ; then take another, and kill him. Thus,” said he, “I only want time enough and I would kill the whole British army.” It was a ridiculous boast, but there is something in it which I could not bring out so well in any other way. If we want to conquer the world for the Lord Jesus Christ, rest assured we must do it in the Yankee’s fashion ; we must take men one by one, and these ones must be brought to Christ, or otherwise the great mass must remain untouched. Do not imagine for a moment that you are going to convert a nation at once ; you are to convert the men of that nation, one by one, through the power of God’s Holy Spirit. It is not for you to suit your machinery, and arrange your plans for the moving of a mass as suchj you must look to the salvation of the units.