p. 12 | Had to Die to Reform by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 3, 1909

Had to Die to Reform.

By Editor

So a little tale was headed a few weeks ago. A great criminal had reformed, but wherever he went the police suspected and reported him, and he could get no work. His old companions in crime beset him with new temptations, and made life miserable. He went to see a friend of his among the officers of the law who believed in him. "What shall I do?" he asked when he had told his story. "You will have to die," said his friend. "Go off into obscurity again, and I will report you dead." He did so, and the press of that section carried the news everywhere that the great ex-criminal was dead.

Did he reform? — He did, and years after he told the story to an acquaintance who discovered him. "I had to die to reform," he said.

It suggests a great spiritual truth. There is many a man who is trying morally to reform, to live a Christian, but he is continually failing and falling. Troops of demons watch for his fall; good men and women have good grounds to suspect him; his old companions harass and tempt him, and he yields.

While talking with such a besieged soul once, he said in bitterness, "I wish I were dead." "Amen," we responded, "we wish you were." The soul was startled, till we explained that we wished he would die to sin, die to the lusts of the flesh, die to all the chains and bands that bound him to sin and those who love sin. There is hope then, but such a death is necessary to every soul who would live a Christian. It is a useless task for a man to reform a strong appetite for intoxicating liquors while he feeds the appetite upon tobacco. The lust for intoxicants is not conquered till it is crucified to every lustful indulgence. "Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." In so doing there is victory.