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Tell It to the World!
| Bro Charles French (Australia)
P
eople of today do not have the serious,
reflective minds of forty years ago and this
mental change seriously militates against the
acceptance of those Divine truths which it is
our privilege to put forth: the Gospel of the
Kingdom of our Lord.
Empty Chairs - Why?
This state of mental apathy is often seized
upon by brethren and sisters to explain the
lack of interest in our meetings and the
absence of strangers therefrom. I have often
heard it said, “Oh, people do not want the
Truth”, and sometimes this is taken as suffi-
cient excuse for sitting back and not putting
the amount of effort which is
needful in the Lord’s service.
Some have even closed down
their lecturing efforts, or
hold such addresses infre-
quently. So this article is
written by way of critical
enquiry. Are these things so?
Is it really the fault of the
people around- their listlessness and indiffer-
ence to things eternal- or is it possible that our
methods may also be at fault?
Avenues of Enquiry
Therein lies a great question. We know that
we have the greatest message, the mightiest
truth: “The Hope of Israel”. But how do we
present this truth? Often the procedure is to
insert an advert of two or three lines in a local
paper and then wait for results. In other cases,
leaflets are given out spasmodically. Here
again arises more enquiry. Is the message
attractive? Does it grip the hearer? Is the title
of interest? Is it timed rightly? Has it got a real
human appeal? Is the speaker one who can
hold attention? These and many other factors
come into this arena of enquiry.
Now let us consider the business field instead.
If we have a commodity which we know to be
excellent, how do we sell it? How do we adver-
tise it? Do we sit at home and wait for people
to come and buy our wares, or do we send out
salesmen whose job is to find prospects? Do we
publish it on hoardings and tell the world
about its advantages, stress its values far
and wide? I think so. The successful merchant
never attained the top place by sitting in his
warehouse, or by placing a small advert in
the local newspaper. He made his advertising
matter interesting, compelling, appealing. He
went about telling everyone about it. He made
a noise about it. If his advertising matter was
cheap, poorly written, lacking appeal and
devoid of interest, it would militate against
successful business. These are facts well
known amongst business
people. I often think that we
find a far greater degree of
efficiency and effort in busi-
ness life than in the Lord’s
service.
Returning to the greater
subject – the field of the
Gospel – the comparison is far above those
mundane matters of daily life. We have been
given the knowledge of something which is far
greater than material commodities: the
message of life eternal. Jesus and his disciples
went out into the highways and byways. They
often preached by the great caravan routes
which ran from Galilee down to Arabia and
many times they must have told their message
to the concourse of people passing by. Jesus
had said to them, “Come, and I will make you
fishers of men”. Most of his followers were
fishermen. They were used to the patient
watching for the sign of fish, those shoals
which come and go. On the other hand, they
often watched the lake in vain and caught
nothing, even after much toil. But the fish-
erman was a patient fellow. He knew the right
bait, the right place to fish and he used all his
skill. We, too, are fishers of men.
I have seen brethren who, on finding someone
I have often heard it said,
“Oh, people do not want
the Truth”, so this article
is written by way of
critical enquiry ...
Are these things so?