Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1915 — How to Help Backsliders [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

How to Help Backsliders

By REV. HOWARD W. POPE

TEXT—I will heal their DacksHdfas, I will love them freely.-Hoaea 14:4, Backsliders may be divided into three classes.

L Those who have never been converted, but who have once considered themselves Christians. The churches are foil of people who at some time received a religious impulse, and who perhaps expressed their purpose to Jead a Christian life, bat who never really received Christ Such people

must be shown in a kind and loving way that they have been mistaken or they will never be willing to make another trial. It is well to point oat some of the evidences of the new birth. and let them see that they have never experienced it. Romans 8:1 shows that the Christian is delivered from the guilt of sin. Ask them if they have ever been wholly free from a sense of guilt, and for what reason. I John 3:14 proves that we have passed from death onto life because we love the brethren. I John 3:21, 22 shows that an obedient Christian will have answers to prayer. I John 4:13 insures the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Test a person with such passages and he will soon recognize his true position. At the close of a service I was introduced to a young man who said to me, "I have tried this thing two or three times, and it did not seem to work, and I do not care to try it again.” He spoke of conversion as it it were something like vaccination which did not "take” in his case. “Were you ever really converted?” "1 do not know.” “Did you ever get a new heart?" “I doubt if I did." “You have been trying to live the Christian life without any Christ to help you, haven’t you?” “That just describes it” “It is no wonder you have had a hard time. It is like trying to run a watch without a mainspring. You might shake it and the wheels would run a minute or two, but it would soon stop. Neither is it possible to lead a Christian life without the help of Christ who is the mainspring of it all. “If you had in your heart to help you, the very Christ who gave the commandments, would you not be able to keep them?” “I think I would.” “listen then,” I said, and I quoted Ezekiel 36:26, “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my Judgments and do them.” “This is God’s offer to you—a new heart. Will you accept it?” In a moment or two he was on his knees asking God for a new heart. n. The second class consists of those who have drifted away from God by disobedience, and are not anxious to return. They are like the prodigal before his money was spent They are living a worldly life, and so long as health and prosperity continue, they get along fairly well without God, though they have many rebukes of conscience, and frequent longings for the good old days of fellowship with God. With such people Jeremiah 2:6 Is a good verse. Ask them what fault they could find with God that they have wandered from him. Jeremiah 2:13 is also good. Ask them if it is not true that their present life is evil and bitter as compared with the fellowship and joy which God provides for those who obey him. Show them the Ingratitude and sin of such a course. Quote Jeremiah 2:19 and show them the folly of turning from a fountain of pure water to a broken cistern or a muddy pool. Then ask them if the self life is not a broken cistern as compared with that well of water which Christ opens in every heart that receives' him. 111. Backsliders who are tired of sin and are anxious to return to God, They are like the prodigal after his money is spent, and after months of hanger and loneliness in the far country. For such Hoeea 14:1-4 is a good passage. “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. I will heal their backsliding, I wIU love them freely; for mine anger la turned away from him.” The most effective passage, however, is Luke 15:11-24. This not only pictures the wretched condition of the backslider, but it shows the steps by which he must return, and the royal reception which awaits him. No one needs pity more than the backslider. He is despised by the world, he is » reproach to the church, he Is alienated fro-n God, and he condemns himself. ■

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