Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER THREE SELF AND SALVATION THE individual has very largely been the centre of the Christian objective. To secure the salvation of self has been the aim of Gospel preaching. Evangelists, pastors, personal workers, Sunday School teachers and the rank and file of church members have agreed that the work of Christians is to secure the salvation of individuals throughout the world. Jesus came to seek and save the lost and he has commissioned us to do the same. In order to do this we have arrested the attention of individuals by public mass meetings and by private conversations. The message of these public and private approaches has been in the nature of an appeal to be saved. Christians of one century have perpetuated the appeal of those of the preceding century and Christians of one locality have approached the individual in and about the same way that Christians of another locality have. Up to the present time there has been a remarkable similarity in the nature of this appeal among Christian people the world over. There have been many differences in method but the nature of the appeal has been about the same. It has been an appeal to come and get saved, to be made safe, to become the recipient of that which would be an eternal insurance against any moral or spiritual calamity. Therefore the appeal has been and is, in many-quarters, a selfish one. It is a warning cry to get in out of the storm and protect yourself. It is the call to come and get something and to come for what you can get. It is to look out for number one and do it now. It is impossible thoughtfully to consider the popular evangelistic appeal to be saved without concluding that it is essentially a selfish one. People are urged to listen to the Gospel message and receive Christ in order that they may es...