The person who wins souls is wise.

Proverbs 11:30b The person who wins souls is wise.

This is an interesting promise in the Old Testament; But Solomon was led by the Spirit to write it. Today we can certainly apply the statement to soul winners.

John Phillips tells “a delightful story of Thomas Bilney who lived in the 1500’s. People called him “Little Bilney” because he was a nobody. However, reading the Erasmus translation of the NewTestament opened Little Bilney’s eyes. He turned away from the priests and their penances and pilgrimages and found Christ. He longed to make Christ known to the priest-ridden world of his day, but he was only Little Bilney. Who would pay attention to him?

Then he went to hear the popular preacher Bishop Hugh Latimer, known as the “honestest” man in England. Bilney was enthralled and he coveted Hugh Latimer’s soul for Christ. If he could win Latimer to Christ, Latimer could win the masses.

One day as Latimer was descending from the pulpit, he felt an insistent tug on his robe and heard Thomas Bilney say, “Father Latimer, can I confess my soul to you?” The two retired to the confessional. Bilney fell on his knees and poured out a story unlike any Latimer had heard before. Bilney confessed his long search for peace and his disillusionment with the priests. He confessed to hearing Erasmus and obtaining a copy of the New Testament. He confessed to reading that New Testament and finding something no priest or pope could ever give him: peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Latimer’s soul was taken by storm. Only too well did he know his own soul’s emptiness. To Little Bilney’s astonishment and delight, Hugh Latimer came around and knelt by his side. The “honestest” man in England knelt by the “faithfulest” man in England and opened his heart to Christ. Soon Hugh Latimer’s preaching was swaying the masses. He became the idol of the common people. Londoners cheered him on his way. He was their prophet and he took England by storm. 

Then the political climate changed and Rome demanded its pound of flesh. Hugh Latimer was imprisoned, but that was not enough. His enemies wanted him burned at the stake. He and Bishop Ridley were taken to Oxford, to the open space before Balliol College. Latimer was eighty-four and Ridley was also old. They were to be burned to satisfy the religious bigotry and malice of Bloody Mary, who had recently ascended the English throne. As the fagots were piled around the two men, Latimer addressed his colleague with words that still ring down the centuries: “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man: we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” Both leaned forward as if to embrace the flames, and a chariot of fire carried them to Heaven.

Hugh Latimer was right. A poet has caught the spirit of his last words:
          Latimer’s light shall never go out
          However the winds may blow it about.
          Latimer’s light has come to stay
          Till the trump of a coming judgment day.
Solomon said, “He that winneth souls is wise.” Thomas Bilney has won the soul-winner’s crown. So has Hugh Latimer. So have many other noble warriors, great and small, in the army of faith.”  Source: Exploring Proverbs Volume One by John Phillips