The answer is so simple and should be so obvious that we are apt to miss it.
My beloved friend, D. L. Moody, is not a genius. He has no scholastic training. For many years he sold boots and shoes in Chicago. His power lies in his simple-hearted devotion to Christ. This “one thing” he does. He saturates his mind with the Word of God, he seeks the filling of the Holy Spirit, and then he throws himself into the work of doing good, seizing “whatever [his] hand finds to do” and laboring with those whom God puts in his way.
Butcher to preacher
At a London prayer meeting I met Henry Varley, the “London Butcher,” a man who once kept his butcher’s stall during the week and preached Christ to the masses on Sunday. His work so grew upon him that he laid aside his cleaver and his butcher’s apron, and devotes his whole time to preaching the gospel among London’s one million uneducated lower class. Varley is not a genius either. He has no degree from Eaton or Oxford. Yet hundreds of scholarly graduates from the venerable universities fall far behind the converted butcher in successful winning of souls. His power lies in his fervid zeal, and his prodigious earnestness to see people saved.
Scoundrel to saint
What is true of Moody and Varley is also true of that remarkable man of faith, George Mueller, who has cared for nearly ten thousand children in his orphanages at Ashley Down, near Bristol.
I went one hundred miles to see George Mueller, and reached Bristol just as the evening prayer meeting was closing at Bethesda Chapel. The audience was retiring. I went to the back door, and saw Mr. Mueller standing behind the pulpit and talking to a poor boy. The lad seemed to be telling his story to the great, simple-hearted philanthropist; and as the good man listened, he took down a memorandum on a card. I stood and looked at the beautiful tableau for some time—Mueller and the poor boy laying their heads and hearts together. The countenance of Mueller was benevolence itself.
He also would not claim to be a man of brilliant powers, but he has a tremendous faith in God, and in saving souls by the power of love. His faith, too, works in common-sense methods. He is a capital manager and the very furthest possible from a mere enthusiast. These headlong visionaries who have tried to imitate him, without his sagacity and devout waiting on God, have failed most wretchedly.
And there are others
We might go on and multiply the cases of men and women like these. Gypsy Smith was born in a tent, and, never attended a school even for a day yet is influencing the lives of millions of people for God through his powerful preaching. We might add to that General William Booth and his work among the derelicts, and Harlan Page fearlessly working with Confederate soldiers to bring them gospel hope. Theirs was heart-power; they loved God and their fellow creatures for His sake.
There vocation was not to write treatises, or to utter profound or novel theories. Their only talent was the talent for doing good; their gift was the gift of the Holy Spirit, who taught them what to do and how to do it.
Now there is a blessed encouragement in studying the lives and usefulness of such persons. For the great mass of Christians are not geniuses. Men and women of great intellect and profound thought are a small minority. If the world must wait to be saved through them alone, then it is doomed to perish. But there are simple, sincere, godly people enough in this wicked world today to revolutioize it, if they would only consecrate all they have and are to the Lord Jesus, as these servants of the Lord have done.
The great truth to be taught nowadays is that every member of Christ’s flock is called to Christ’s service in some way or method. The humblest have a share in the work, and may have a share in the glory (the opportunity to show forth the wonders of Christ) at the final day of coronation.
There is prodigious power in single-hearted love of Christ, and honest determination to live as “obedient children” in response to the Spirit’s guidance. The secret of power is Christ being at home in our hearts. It requires no genius, or erudition, or social rank to possess this blessed gift.
Many a modest, moderately endowed Christian has attained a great propelling power in his community simply from the momentum of his godliness. He follows Christ so steadily and so zealously that he carries others with him by his moral suasion. Great as is the result of what he aims to do, he does still more by his unconscious influence. His face shines from time alone with God, though, like Moses, he may be happily oblivious to its radiant glow.