Hymns, #921 was written by Fanny Crosby, an American sister who was blind. The first stanza of this hymn with its chorus reads,
Rescue the perishing,
Care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one,
Lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.
Rescue the perishing,
Care for the dying;
Jesus is merciful,
Jesus will save.
For the Chinese hymnal we used the same tune and rewrote the above stanza and chorus, using updated words and expressions to be sung in the meetings concerning the preaching of the gospel. A literal translation of the Chinese adaptation reads as follows:
Rise up for the gospel!
Rescue the lost souls!
Look! Thousands are perishing day by day!
Don’t be without mercy!
Don’t love your money!
Let go and preach the gospel right away!
Rise up for the gospel!
Rescue the lost souls!
How can your heart be like steel
While they are dying?
The secret to singing a hymn for gospel preaching is the release of our spirit. For our spirit to be released, first of all we must be freed and uninhibited, though not unbridled. When we sing freely, our spirit is released and our heart is opened; then spontaneously we will preach the gospel to others. On the contrary, if our spirit is depressed and our heart is closed, we cannot preach the gospel.
In order to be gospel preachers, we have to learn a few points. First, we must be “thick-skinned.” If we seriously look into this, we will see that those who have been able to bear fruit for the gospel have all been thick-skinned. People who are thin-skinned cannot preach the gospel, much less be fruitful. To have the impact of the gospel, we must have a “skin that is thicker than our soles.” Not only so, while preaching the gospel, we must have a face like brass. If we do not have a face like brass, we cannot preach the gospel. I was not a gospel preacher by nature, but due to the Lord’s mercy, I was forced out of my old nature to become a “crazy” preacher of the gospel for the Lord. Forty years ago, from 1940 until 1943, I was a real “gospel fanatic” passionately preaching the gospel for the Lord.
The second point we have to learn for preaching the gospel is to open our mouth widely to speak everywhere. It does not matter even if you speak wildly; as long as it is the gospel, there will still be the effect. If you intend to convince people by reasoning and therefore speak properly with eloquence and persuasion, you will tend to kill them with your speaking. In the past fifty years in China, the most effective gospel preacher was Dr. John Sung. I heard his preaching. While preaching the gospel, sometimes he jumped from the platform to the ground and then used someone as a steppingstone to jump back to the platform. His messages did not follow any logical order. Sometimes he screamed at people and scolded them, and occasionally he even made strange noises in his speaking. Nevertheless, his gospel preaching was very effective.
The third point that we have to learn in the preaching of the gospel is the release of the spirit. To preach the gospel, you must have a spirit that is so released and strong that if you faced the devil, you would convince even him to receive the gospel. This is the spirit of the gospel.
These are the three points related to the gospel—to be thick-skinned, to have an open mouth, and to have a released spirit. You should not be bashful. Some brothers are so “unmanly” in their preaching of the gospel that they appear to be more female than the females. They are timid and apprehensive of everything. In particular, they are afraid of offending others. Their preaching of the gospel is doomed to failure.