BACKSLIDERS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 4, 1876

The churches are full of them. There are tenfold more members who lag behind the standard-bearer than march up to duty and privilege like brave soldiers of the cross. Churches, associations, whole denominations, report a decline. Wherefore? What is the cause? Are there no sinners to convert? Is there no material to bring into the kingdom? Loss of divine power is the real trouble. The cause of this loss is lack of consecration and faith. It is a hard thing to say, but truth and faithfulness require the utterance of the fact, that Christians are generally backslidden, and need recovering.