Godly Tracts and Spurgeon’s Example
“Ewww!”, cried out one of the teacher interns at my training school in disgust, “Somebody has invited me to her church!”. It should not surprise us that unsaved people sometimes act or think this way. Every sinner is born spiritually dead. They are lifeless. They are bound in the kingdom of darkness. They have a deep distaste for the things of God. It may feel too that when we witness, we are hitting a brick wall – that our efforts are futile. Indeed, we often see little immediate fruit. How discouraged we can quickly become. Yet, remember Jesus’ words to Paul: “I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:10). We do not know who God’s elect are, and so we must speak to all sinners about the Gospel. Woe to us if we don’t.
Presbyterians are not to be cold-hearted, indifferent Christians. As Spurgeon rightly said every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. As a part of the broader evangelical church we are compelled to reach the lost.
Spurgeon counsels us: “It must not be tolerated that Christ should be unknown through our silence, and sinners unwarned through our negligence.” And yet, though many of us know that the road is wide that leads to destruction, we feel powerless to know what to do. How can we reach the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ?
Spurgeon suggests that one way ordinary saints can reach the lost is by handing out Gospel tracts. Everyone in the church can do this. Spurgeon argues: “[Tracts are] adapted to those persons who have but little power and little ability, but nevertheless, wish to do something for Christ. They have not the tongue of the eloquent, but they may have the hand of the diligent. They cannot stand and preach, but they can stand and distribute here and there these silent preachers…They may buy their thousand tracts, and these they can distribute”.
Some Christian commentators have argued that tract giving is a useless activity; that times have changed. True, many a tract may end up unread and crumpled up in the trash bin. Yet, we must trust in God’s providence. It is likely you will never be able to meet every person in your neighbourhood or even on your street – they are unlikely to ever hear the Gospel told to them in their lifetime. The giving of a tract may be the seed that God uses in His providence to cause them to come to Christ. We may never know this side of eternity.
As Spurgeon wisely says, it is only in Heaven or on Judgment Day that we will discover that the giving of a gospel tract led a stranger to Christ. “I look upon the giving away of a religious tract as only the first step for action not to be compared with many another deed done for Christ; but were it not for the first step we might never reach to the second, but that first attained, we are encouraged to take another, and so to the last … There is a real service of Christ in the distribution of the gospel in its printed form, a service the result of which heaven alone shall disclose, and the judgment day alone discover. How many thousands have been carried to heaven instrumentally upon the wings of these tracts, none can tell.”
All Christians should carry with them their Bible and several tracts. Pray to God that He will give you an opportunity to speak to someone about the Bible and Christ. Look for opportunities to give a tract to someone or to leave a tract for someone to read. In my travels around Asia, I often left a tract or booklet in some obscure valley café or retreat, praying that the locals would find them. I reasoned first that God in His providence may lead a person to this tract; and second it was my solemn duty to do all I possibly could do to tell others of Christ. This is something that all Christians can do.
When Spurgeon was a young teenager he did all that he could possibly do to tell others by handing out tracts and Bible verses. It was a small thing, but it was far better than doing nothing at all.
Many of us have printers at home or we can visit local photocopy shops. Create your own gospel tracts or print out the many that can be found online. Print out short salvation Bible verses and Bible promises with the addresses of your local evangelical churches.
Australians are basically biblically illiterate – a secular culture has divorced many of us from any reference to God and the Bible. Most have never read any Bible verses warning them of their danger and pointing them to find safe refuge in Christ.
Where do we distribute tracts and Bible verses?
Distribute them wherever you can – in letterboxes; at medical or dentist clinics; cafes; schools etc. You cannot meet everyone, but you can sow Gospel seed wherever your feet tread. Follow not only Spurgeon’s motivation but also his example below.
Spurgeon recalls that after he came to Christ, he spread tracts and Bible verses far and wide. “The very first service which my youthful heart rendered to Christ was the placing of tracts in envelopes, and then sealing them up, that I might send them … And I well remember taking other tracts, and distributing them in certain districts in the town of Newmarket, going from house to house … I used to write texts on little scraps of paper, and drop them anywhere, that some poor creatures might pick them up, and receive them as a message of mercy to their souls”.
“If I walked along the street, I must have a few tracts with me; if I went into a railway carriage, I must drop a tract out of the window; if I were in company, I must turn the subject of conversation to Christ, that I might serve my Master.”
What tracts should I get and where can I get them?
All of our churches should have good Gospel tracts at the front door. Every Christian should have several tracts in their home, backpacks and handbags. Pastors and elders must train their congregations to be able to explain the Gospel when they witness and leave a tract.
Ray Comfort counsels that there are many bad tracts out there. We must be careful when we select tracts. Comfort advises Christians: “There are many tracts available. However, make sure they contain the whole counsel of God. The most popular of tracts fail to open up the moral law as Jesus did, to mention the fact of Judgment day, or the reality of hell. Instead, they promise a wonderful new life in Christ. The promise is one of happiness rather than righteousness.”
There are many excellent tracts you can purchase online or in Australian Christian bookstores such as Reformers Bookshop or Koorong. You can receive excellent Reformed tracts from www.chapellibrary.org or good evangelical tracts from The Navigators or from Ray Comfort’s Living Waters. Great booklets Christians can purchase for serious seekers include John Blanchard’s Ultimate Questions (available in 50 plus languages) and Two Ways to Live by Matthias Media.
Useful tracts can be found for children; for Christmas and Easter seasons; and worldly topics online or at well-known Christian bookshops. Ask around for effective tracts or ask your pastor.
– Troy Appleton