STUDY XVII.

EARNESTNESS.

Memory Verse: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
might."--(Eccl. ix, 10.)

Scripture for Meditation: Mark ii, 1-12.


The testimony of Charles H. Spurgeon should have weight here. He said:
"If a man is to be a soul-winner, there must be in him intensity of
emotion as well as sincerity of heart. You may repeat the most
affectionate exhortations in such a half-hearted manner that no one will
be moved either by love or fear. I believe that for soul-winning there
is more in this matter of earnestness than in almost anything else."

When we become as much in earnest to rescue our friends and dear ones
from eternal death as we are to save them from physical suffering and
death, then we shall see the rapid spread of the kingdom of Christ. A
man falls overboard from the deck of a vessel, and his wife screams:
"Stop the boat! My God! My husband is drowning!" But no one criticises
the woman for her passionate outcry, or bids her keep still. It was so
natural for her to cry out for help. And when the Church of Jesus Christ
becomes thoroughly awake to the worth of a soul and the awful danger to
which all out of Christ are exposed, it will be the most natural thing
in the world for them to show an undying earnestness in seeking the
lost. Then propriety, and reticence, and restraint, and rules of