THERE are subordinate gatherers, which God employs; particularly ministers of the gospel, whose greatest work lies in winning souls, and gathering people to Christ; therefore they are called, “workers together with God,” 2 Corinthians 6:1. Their principal business is to sound the trumpet, and gather the people to Shiloh. They are to preach Christ, to proclaim Christ, to offer Christ, to invite sinners to Christ – and that is all they can do. They may cast down the gospel net, but they will take nothing, unless the Lord Himself gather in the fish: “Except the Lord build the city, the builders build in vain.” The gospel is the power of God to salvation, that is, the instrument of His power by the ministration of the Spirit: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” Seek then, that His power may accompany the preaching of the word, otherwise it will not be a gathering word.
From the sermon, The Great Gathering of the People to Shiloh, by Ralph Erskine