Meaning Of Soul Winning By Charles Spurgeon

“He that wins souls is wise.”—11:30.

Meaning Of Soul Winning: What It Is Not?

Not Earthly Wins

The text does not say, “He that wins sovereigns is wise,” though no doubt he thinks he is, and perhaps, in a groveling sense, in these days of competition, he must be, but such wisdom is of the earth and ends with the earth; and there is another world where the currencies of Europe will not be accepted, nor their past possession be any sign of wealth or wisdom, and there is another world where the currencies of Europe will not be accepted, nor their past possession is any sign of wealth. 

Not About Winning The World

In the text before us, Solomon does not award a crown for wisdom to crafty leaders or even the most capable of rulers; he does not issue diplomas to philosophers, poets, or men of wit; he only crowns with laurel those who win souls. 

Many people preach and achieve fame and acclaim, but don’t win any souls. They’ll have a hard time in the end since they’ve probably run away and the Master hasn’t sent them. 

Not Talking About Winning Soul

Solomon does not consider anyone who talks about winning souls to be wise because laying down rules for others is easy, but carrying them out oneself is considerably more difficult. A wise man is one who actually, truly, and truly moves men from their sins to God, thus sparing them from hell. 

He may be a Paul, logical, doctrine-rich, able to command all candid judgments, and so wise. He could be an Apollo, grandly rhetorical, whose lofty talent soars into the very heaven of eloquence; and if he wins souls in this way, he is wise; but if he does not, he is foolish. Or he may be a Cephas, rough and rugged, using uncouth metaphor and stern declamation; but if he wins souls, he is no less wise than his polished brother or his argumentative friend, but not else. 

Win Soul Actually

According to the text, the profound knowledge of soul-winners can only be proven by their actual success in winning souls. They are accountable to their own Master, not to us, for how they go to work. 

Let us not compare and contrast ministers. And you judge another man’s servants? Wisdom is justified in all her children. Men are more interested in sublime results than children are in incidental methods. Do these laborers, who come in a variety of shapes and sizes, win souls? Then they are wise, and you, who criticize them because you are fruitless, cannot be wise, even though you pretend to be their judges. Who dares to deny that soul-winners are wise? Let their fellow mortals judge them, but this degree from the College of Heaven will surely stand them in good stead.

First, let us consider the text’s metaphor: 

He That Wins Souls Is Wise

What Winning Is Not?

We use “win” in many contexts. It is sometimes found in poor company, in games of chance, juggling, and sleight-of-hand, or thimble-rigging (to use a plain phrase). Regrettably, much legerdemain and deception may be found in the religious world. 

Not Technique

Some even claim to save souls by clever techniques, complicated maneuvers, and skillful posture-making! A few droplets of water, a few phrases, and the baby is a child of God, a member of Christ, and an heir to the heavenly kingdom! This watery regeneration defies my belief; it’s a trick I don’t understand: only the novices can perform this exquisite piece of magic, which surpasses everything the Wizard of the North has ever attempted. 

Not About Placing Hands On Heads

There is even a means to win souls by placing hands on heads; all that is required is that the elbows of the aforementioned hands be encased in turf, and then the mechanism functions and grace is imparted by blessed fingers! I must confess that I am ignorant of occult science; however, this is not surprising, for the profession of saving souls through such manipulation can only be carried out by a select few who have received direct apostolical succession from Judas Iscariot. 

Not Lip Salvation

This Episcopal confirmation juggling, when men claim it confers grace, is infamous. The whole thing is an abomination. To think that there are men preaching lip salvation by sacraments, and salvation by themselves in the nineteenth century! Sirs, it is far too late to come to us with this drivel! 

Let us hope that priestcraft is obsolete, as is sacramental theory. 

These things might have sufficed for those who could not read and when books were scarce, but there has been too much light for these Popish owls since the glorious Luther was helped by God to proclaim the emancipating truth, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,” with thunderclaps. 

Let them return to their ivy-covered towers and whine to the moon about those who soiled their dark dominion. Shaved crowns may go to Bedlam, and scarlet hats may go to the scarlet harlot, but Englishmen must not respect them. No one can be fooled by modern Tractarianism; it is too harsh, shifty, and double-dealing. We’ll need more than Jesuits and shavelings to win souls. 

Never trust a man claiming to be a priest. Priests are professional liars and deceivers. We cannot, and do not want to, save souls in their theatrical manner, since we know that with such jugglery, Satan will hold the better hand, and will laugh at priests as he turns the cards against them at the end.

What Does It Mean To Win Souls

It Is A Warfare

The term “win” means so much more. It is used in warfare.

Cities and provinces are won by warriors. Winning a soul is far harder than winning a city. The earnest soul-winner seeks his great Captain’s directions to know when to raise the white flag of invitation to the heart to surrender to a dying Saviour’s sweet love; when to raise the black flag of threat, showing that if grace is not received, judgment will surely follow; and when to raise the red flag of dread. As a great captain before a fortified town, the soul-winner must plan his lines of circumvallation, build his entrenchments and install his cannons. He must not go too quickly or he would overdo the battling; he must not move too slowly or he will appear insincere and do havoc. Then he must know which gate to attack—how to plant his guns at Ear-gate and discharge them; how, to keep the batteries firing day and night with red-hot shot, if he may make a breach in the walls; at other times, to lie by and cease firing, and then, suddenly, to open all the batteries with tremendous violence, if perchance he may catch the soul off guard, or cast the soul away. The Christian soldier must be able to advance in small steps, sapping prejudice, undermining old enmities, blowing lust into the air, and finally storming the fortress. Then, with his sabre between his teeth, he must climb up, spring on the man, slay his unbelief in the name of God, capture the city, run up the blood-red flag of the cross of Christ, and say, “The heart is won, won for Christ at last.” This requires a skilled warrior. After many days of attack, many weeks of waiting, many an hour of storming by prayer and battering by entreaty, to carry the Malakoff of depravity, this is the work, this is the difficulty. This is no fool’s game. In order to free Mansoul from its captivity and allow the Prince Immanuel to enter, a man must be wise. This is soul winning.

Winning In A Wrestling Contest

The ancients used the word “win” to denote winning in a wrestling contest. When the Greek attempted to get the laurel or ivy crown, he was forced to undergo a long period of preparation; and when he finally stripped for the battle, you could see how every muscle and nerve had been developed in him in the first few endeavors. He had a tough opponent and knew it, so he didn’t waste any energy. You could see the man’s eye as he observed his opponent’s every move, feint, and how his hand, foot, and body were thrown into the fight. He hated falling and intended to offer his adversary one. A true soul-winner must frequently confront the devil within men. And then he has to wrestle with their despair; he has to grapple with their self-righteousness and then with their unbelief in God. There are ten thousand ways to stop a soul-winner from winning; yet if God sent him, he will not let go of the soul he wants until he has thrown sin’s power and gained another soul for Christ.

Winning Hearts

Also, the word “win” has another connotation that I cannot elaborate on here. We use the word, you know, in a softer sense than these, which have been mentioned, when we come to deal with hearts. There are secret and mysterious ways by which those who love win the object of their affection, which are wise in their fitness to the purpose. I can’t tell you how the lover gets his beloved, but you’ve undoubtedly learned. The weapon of this warfare is not always the same, yet where that victory is won, the wisdom of the means becomes clear to every eye. The weapon of love is sometimes a look, or a soft word whispered and eagerly listened to; sometimes it is a tear; but this I know, that we have, most of us in our turn, cast around another heart a chain which that other would not care to break, and which has linked us twain in a blessed captivity which has cheered our life. Yes, and that is nearly how we have to save souls. That illustration is the most accurate. True soul-winning is achieved via love, not by assaulting the walls or wrestling. Love wins us. We win hearts for Jesus by loving them, sympathizing with their pain, fearing they will perish, praying with God for them, pleading with God for them to seek mercy and find grace. If you want to learn the method, you must pray to God for a soft heart and a sympathetic soul. I believe that having compassion and spirits that can feel human infirmities is a key to gaining souls. Even a preacher carved from granite with an angel’s tongue will convert no one. Put him in the most fashionable pulpit, perfect his elocution, and deepen his doctrine, but a stony heart will never win a soul. Soul-saving requires a pounding heart. It takes a soul full of human kindness to succeed. This is the most natural quality for a soul-winner, and it will work marvels under God’s blessing.

Bird Catching

I haven’t looked at the Hebrew, but I think it’s “He that takes souls is wise,” which refers to fishing or bird-catching. Every Sunday as I leave my house, I cannot help but notice men with cages and captive birds trying to catch sad, tiny warblers. They know how to seduce and entrap their prey. They may teach soul-winners much. We need soul-luring lures that captivate, intrigue and capture people’s attention. We must go forth with our bird-lime, decoys, nets, and baits to catch men’s souls. Their foe is a shrewd fowler, and we must outwit him with the guile of truth and grace. However, the art can only be learned by divine teaching, and we must be knowledgeable and eager to study in order to do so.

It Is An Art

A fisherman must also be an artist. Washington Irving tells us about three gentlemen who read Izaak Walton’s book about fishing. So they must needs enter upon the same amusement, and accordingly, they became disciples of the gentle art. They traveled to New York and got the best rods and lines they could find, as well as figuring out the perfect fly for the day or month so that the fish would bite right away and fly right into the basket. They fished for the entire day, but the basket was empty. When a shabby boy came down from the hills, without shoes or stockings, and embarrassed them to the nth degree, they were disgusted with a sport that had no sport in it. He had a branch plucked from a tree, a piece of rope, and a bent pin; he attached a worm to it, tossed it in, and a fish appeared out of nowhere as if drawn to a magnet. Then another fish came out, and so on until his basket was full. They wanted to know how. He couldn’t tell them that, but it was simple enough when you knew how.

Bond With Listeners and Warm Heart

Men’s fishing is similar. Some preachers with silk lines and fine rods preach eloquently, yet never win souls. How is it that another man comes along with basic language but a warm heart and instantly converts men to God? Surely there is a bond between the pastor and the souls he will save. God gives to those whom He makes soul-winners a natural love to their work and spiritual fitness for it. There is sympathy between those who are to be blessed and those who are to be the means of blessing, and it is largely via this sympathy that souls are taken under God, yet it is as apparent as day that a man must be wise to be a fisher of men. “He that wins souls is wise.”

This article is an edited version of the article “Soul-Winning Explained” from Charles Spurgeon’s book “The Soul Winner”. Check out our related posts for more information on this topic, or get a copy of the book from Amazon.