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A SUCCESSTUL SOUL WINNER
Holv a Prominent Philadelphia "Business Man Was Aroused to an
Unprecedented Enthusiasm For Soul Winning
By Edlvin H. Bookmyer
Y their fruits ye shall know them,”
were the Master’s words, and this is
true of Mr. H. Wellington Wood, a
prominent business man of Phila
delphia, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Wood began his soul winning
work about ten years ago, and, during
that period has succeeded in winning
very nearly eight hundred men by defi-
B
nite personal work besides several thousand having
accepted Christ definitely in meetings where he has
made addresses. Mr. Wood started his soul
winning in a mission at Eighth and Vine streets,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where one night he
laid his hand on the shoulder of a noted character
and persuaded him to take Christ as his personal
Savior.
Shortly afterward Mr. Wood succeeded in get
ting a man to take Christ who had during the
day gone down to the Delaware river, where he had
made a decision to commit suicide that evening, and
had already written a letter to his mother and
little daughter, six years old, that he had made up
his mind to put an end to liis miserable existence,
but, because of having only a penny, requiring
another one to buy a two cent stamp, he deferred
the rash act, and that evening was persuade'd to
take Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Work in London.
Mr., Wood while in London, by invitation of
Hugh Price Hughes, Esq., visited St. James Hall,
Piccadilly, where he succeeded one evening in
winning a sergeant, and three of the Queen’s
Guards for Jesus Christ. These guards shortly
after their decision for Christ went to South Africa
to uphold the flag of their country and two were
shot down in the Boer War.
Mr. Wood has made it a rule of his life to speak
to at least one person each day regarding a decision
for Christ. Wherever Mr. Wood travels, whether on
railways, tramcars, steamboats, in hotels, restau
rants, homes or churches, he never loses an opportu
nity of speaking to someone about his soul. Mr.
Wood, has a unique way of getting everyone inter
ested, and very rarely leaves his home without two
or three interesting books. In sitting down in the
cars he will take one of these books, which is a
pocket edition, and will read part of same, and as
it is always the custom of people sitting alongside
of each other to have a curiosity to know the title
of a book Mr. Wood frequently will turn to his
seatmate and ask him if he has ever read such and
such a book and then will quote a very interesting
paragraph, and with a rifle shot at the theme he
will ask the person if he believes in the author of
the book. Invariably the reply is in the affirmative.
Uses a Note Book.
In this way he leads his newly made friend up to
a definite decision and a full surrender. He carries
with him what he terms a small order book, in
which he has the names of several hundred con
verts which he has made in the past few years, by
definite hand to hand work. Among this number
is included millionaires, editors, reporters, champion
middle weight pugilists, saloon keepers, ticket
agents, brakemen, conductors, grave diggers, farm
ers, policemen, detectives, criminals, etc. Mr. Wood
invariably meets with the most cordial reception,
and it is rarely that he does not succeed in
winning his man. In addition to his getting men
to make a full surrender one by one, Mr. Wood has
given a great deal of his time outside of business
hours to speaking at churches and missions on the
subject of Personal Work. In speaking of his soul
winning work, Mr. Wood said:
Mr. Wood’s Words.
‘•The rush and strife of the world are so great
today that only those who abide with the King can
do His service. It is by getting to know God’s
wonderful heart of love that one can even bear to
The Golden Age for March 19, 1908.
care, know and yearn over the unsaved, in whose
midst we walk day by day. Many today are living
in the church for its services only; others are
afraid to do personal work. No man can keep up
physical strength without exercise, and no man
can keep up his spiritual strength with any other
method. The working Christian is the happy
Christian. If you wish to have happiness
never let a day pass without doing’ some definite
work for the Master, and make your life a blessing
by doing some definite work for Him. Go to
others and tell them what your Savior has done for
you and urge them to accept the Savior, and show
them how to do it. There is no other work so
fruitful as personal hand to hand work.
“By following the one-by-one plan we are brought
into more sympathy with Jesus, have a wider out
look and the great joy of realizing a soul brought
into communion with God. We are taught by the
Holy Spirit, through His Word, not only to pray
and believe, but to work, personally seeking out
the lost to bring them to Christ as Andrew and
Philip did. Such live with God for the souls of
men and with men for God. The one-by-one method
is no noveltv. Jesus Christ started it himself when
MR. H. WELLINGTON WOOD.
he entered upon His ministry. It is so simple
that the weakest by following it become wise to
win souls. It is full of help to the one that follows
it; to the church of which that one is a member and
to the lost who are prayed for and won. It is a
work constantly opposed by Satan, because it robs
him of his prey. It is a sure way to maintain a life
of communion with God and service to man. It is
a united effort of all sections of the Christian
church to seek and save the lost.
Gives an Example.
“A few days ago I was speaking at a prominent
church in our city, when after the service a digni
fied gentleman come to the front of the church and
said, in a very pleasant but positive manner that
he enjoyed my address and wished that he could
see the Savior’s love as I had pointed it to my
listeners that night. It did not take me long to get
down to business, and show this man the way of
life. While talking with him the choir master and
a number of men gathered about us to listen to the
story, when suddenly I asked the choir master to
kneel down with me and offer prayer. The un
believer to whom I was talking knelt with us. The
choir master led in prayer, this being the first
personal work he had ever done, after which I
followed. I then asked the unbeliever to pray.
“At first he hesitated and faltered, but finally
made up his mind that he would start on the right
way, and made a beautiful prayer, after which
he then and there accepted Jesus Christ as his
Lord and Savior. We then arose and I read some
favorite Scripture to him and gave him a Tes
tament.
“I have since received one of the most beautiful
letters from him that I have ever received from
any convert, and quote part, viz.:
“ ‘As to my belief in the past, I had none. Os
course on considering the wonders of the universe
I knew there must be a higher power than man,
but I was content to call it Nature, and ridiculed
any one who called it otherwise. Christ to me was
merely a good man, one whose precepts it would
be well to follow, though I never followed them.
The Bible was an uninteresting, unreliable collec
tion of mythological tales, unworthy of intelligent
consideration. Now it is more than interesting.
It is simply wonderful, beautiful, entrancing. I
appreciate your kindness in praying for me. May
I ask your further remembrance 1 ? May God bless
you and reward you for the work you are doing is
the heartfelt prayer of your faltering but now be
lieving brother.’ ”
Keeps a Record.
On asking Mr. Wood if he kept a record of his
converts, and the incidents connected with same,
he said: “Since beginning my personal work I
have kept records of many of the important inci
dents which have taken place in connection with
winning men to Christ and the Lord put it in to my
heart to segregate these and put them in such shape
that they can be put in book form, and passed on to
those who are doing Christian work and who have
been more or less timid in approaching a pro
miscuous class of persons.”
Mr. Wood has, I might say, gathered these
incidents and illustrations into a book under the
title “Winning Men One by One,” which is now
being published in the United States and Canada
by the Sunday School Times Company of Phila
delphia.
* *
A Passing Maid.
By Arthur L. Hardy.
’Twas yester e’en I met a maid
Whose very glance and tone
Hath,* like a keen Damascus blade,
Pierced through my heart undone.
She smiling passed all radiantly—
How envious Nature sighed!
It seemed that all the melody
Os heaven had swelled and died.
She bowed as budding lilies lean
Upon a southern wind;
The sun had kissed her hair’s soft sheen,
With all his gold refined.
Her eyes were like the dreamy deeps
Os soft Italian skies,
And gentle as a love that weeps
0 ’er tender memories.
Her voice was like the water-falls
That babble to the woods,
Or like the warbling brook which brawls
To sleeping solitudes.
A sylph, a goddess, or a queen —
My breast her charms hath swept!
’Tis strange that love so wild hath been,
And until now hath slept!
•6 R
The month of April in Atlanta will be a month
of evangelistic meetings. The Baptist churches
and the Methodist churches, about fifty of them,
in the city of Atlanta and its suburbs, will con
duct these meetings simultaneously. It will be an
advance in line of battle order on the embattled
hosts of sin. May the great Captain command and
the Holy Spirit bring in many captives and rescued
ones.
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