“I Will Heal You from Backsliding.”
THERE is plenty of evidence, outside the pages of the Bible, as to God’s attitude toward backsliders. Take the case of Jerry McAuley, for example. Jerry was won to Christ while serving a term as a convicted criminal. He at once went to work for Christ, so vigorously that a wonderful revival broke out in the prison, and many were saved. The change in his life was so marked that he was pardoned in the middle of his fifteen-year term. But after he left prison, he fell, and it was then that his reputation was made as a notorious criminal. For four years he was the terror of the police and the public. Then he was brought back to Christ again. After this he fell again and again, five times within eight months. But Christ did not give him up; Jerry kept coming back until the time came when he never fell again. And it was after all this repeated backsliding and reclamation that he founded what is now the famous Jerry McAuley Mission in Water Street, New York. It would seem that God does not intend to block the way of a returning backslider. It is only because the love of God in Christ will not let go of the backslider that he ever returns; and the angels in heaven join in the rejoicing that welcomes him back. One closing thought. Jerry McAuley “stayed saved” after he devoted his life permanently to the saving of others. When men get saved in the Water Street Mission to-day, they are put right to work, and kept at work, saving others. That is the only way they are kept from backsliding, or recovered from backsliding. The editor knows nothing about the particular forms of Christian service which occupy the time of the inquirer whose letter is under consideration. But this question is worth considering: Is he devoting himself persistently, daily, to telling others individually about Jesus Christ and what Christ will do for them if they will but let Him? To triumph over evil thoughts is a very good thing; but it does not compare, in joy-bringing and in dynamic power, with helping others to triumph over evil by leading them, one by one, to their personal Saviour. There is nothing on earth that will dispel doubts, and worry, and gloom, and that will create joy, and dynamic power for Christ, like personal soul-winning. Let us trust God for our salvation, and devote ourselves to winning others to that same trust, while we resolutely turn our backs on our own black pasts that Christ is willing to forget if we are.—Sunday School Times.