If you would have this kind of patience, this kind of spirit, surely within three years you would gain one. If you would have D. L. Moody’s spirit, even within three months you would gain one. It would be easy for you to gain four per year. Today, most of us are not living in small villages but in big cities. These big cities are big fishing ponds. Sometimes I feel that the fish are just longing to be caught, but we do not act, we do not move. So, we must pick up this new way. We are priests of the gospel. We must touch people. We must gain people. We must bring people to Christ. Every year we should bring forth one or two spiritual children that we may present them to the Lord as a present, an offering, a sacrifice.

Since I saw and began to speak concerning the new way, there has been much opposition. But, thank the Lord, most of the churches and most of the saints in the recovery have accepted the new way. However, to accept the new way is one thing; to practice it is another. Because of this, I am burdened to urge all of you who are in this meeting and all the other saints who are in the recovery throughout the world to practice the new way. We all have to learn to practice the new way that the Lord may have a way to go on among us today for the carrying out of His New Testament economy in building up the Body of Christ.

In Luke 14 the Lord says, “Go out into the roads and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (v. 23). Have you ever compelled, forced, somebody to believe in the Lord Jesus? Some people are too spiritual, saying: “We cannot save people. Let the Lord do it. Do not force people. Do not compel people.” Yet the Lord Jesus tells us to “compel them to come in.” It seems more spiritual to say: “Just wait. Let the Lord do it.” But according to the Bible this is wrong.

There are too many things we can see in the New Testament that we do not practice. According to the New Testament, we first have to see that we are priests of the gospel and that we need to offer some sacrifices to God. Please do not say that you are only a sister, that you are old, that you are weak, that you are sick, or that you are not a professional preacher. The Lord Jesus would never let you take any of these excuses. Second, as a priest of the gospel, you must take action with patience. It is not so easy to get one person saved, and it is not easy to raise up one person. I have heard that some have brought many to the Lord, yet they were not able to bring one into the church life. If this is your case, it is because you did it without patience and faith. If you have the patience and faith, surely at least one of them will be brought to the Lord and will be brought into the church life. If you do not have the patience and faith, when you go to visit people, surely they will not believe. You may think: “This one is too shallow. There is no need to bring him into the church life. And that one is very rude.” When you want to save a person, you must love that person. Without love, without care, you cannot bring people to the Lord. Whether this one is lame, crippled, blind, or deaf, you must love him. Some of the saints among us in the past did not like these kinds of persons. They liked “perfect persons,” so they did not have the patience and faith that they could eventually bring people to the Lord. We must learn to exercise our patience and faith. God has assigned us to be priests, but we do not have patience and faith to keep practicing the priesthood. Now we have to pick up the priesthood and practice it with patience and faith that we may eventually offer some saved sinners as sacrifices to God. We must practice this by endeavoring with endurance, with longsuffering, with patience, with love, with care, and with faith.

A blind American sister, Fanny Crosby, wrote the hymn, “Rescue the perishing, care for the dying” (Hymns, #921). That hymn really inspires me. But for you to sing this hymn is only thunder without rain. You only sing; you do not go out to rescue anyone. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have the patience to spend over six thousand hours to get one person. We have the pure gospel, the highest gospel, yet we do not have the increase because we do not go out to get it with patience and faith. You must go out. In one week you may gain nothing. In one month you may gain nothing. But by the end of one year, you will gain one, at least one drop of rain. Yet this is not too little. You have to treasure this one. It is good that the Lord has given us a new start. As priests of the gospel, we all have to go out and practice our New Testament priesthood.
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