Take Every Opportunity To Witness

B. F. Mills, a preacher from a generation ago told the following story: “I remember going down stairs in a hotel about midnight, with some letters in my hand that I wished to mail. The clerk was not in the office, but a policeman was there, and he said, ‘I will take your letters and mail them for you.’ I thanked him and handed them to him, and started up the stairs. As I went I heard a voice say, ‘Why did you not speak to that policeman about Christ?’

I said, ‘It was because it would not do any good.’

The voice said, ‘How do you know?’ I kept going up all the time. ‘Why did you not speak to him about his soul?’

I said, ‘Lord, he did not look as though he had a soul.’ He was a very fleshy-looking sort of a man.

The voice said, ‘Are you going to preach to others and then be cast away yourself?’

I said, ‘No, Lord; I will go back.’ I started down the stairs, but I heard the door shut, and when I came into the office the policeman had gone. I had a sore heart that night and a sore heart the next day. I said, ‘If I see that man again I will preach Christ to him, if it is a possible thing.’ To my great surprise and joy, he came into the afternoon meeting and sat down on a back seat. There was a throng there, and I tried after the benediction to go back where he sat, but the aisles were filled too quickly and I could not do it. I thought I had missed another opportunity. As I stood talking with some people, in a few moments the aisle was cleared, and as I looked down it I saw the policeman coming up toward the front. The tears were streaming down his cheeks, and he said to me, ‘I have never known what it meant to be a Christian, but if you will tell me I will commence now.’

Oh, I believe that all about us, touching our elbows today, waiting in the store and in the street, looking into our faces across the table, are people who are waiting for the touch of a living, earnest Christian in order to be led into the kingdom of God.”