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The Ministry of Healing
their manhood, and this they must win back. Many have to battle
against strong hereditary tendencies to evil. Unnatural cravings,
sensual impulses, were their inheritance from birth. These must be
carefully guarded against. Within and without, good and evil are
striving for the mastery. Those who have never passed through such
experiences cannot know the almost overmastering power of appetite
or the fierceness of the conflict between habits of self-indulgence
and the determination to be temperate in all things. Over and over
again the battle must be fought.
Many who are drawn to Christ will not have moral courage to
continue the warfare against appetite and passion. But the worker
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must not be discouraged by this. Is it only those rescued from the
lowest depths that backslide?
Remember that you do not work alone. Ministering angels unite
in service with every truehearted son and daughter of God. And
Christ is the restorer. The Great Physician Himself stands beside
His faithful workers, saying to the repentant soul, “Child, thy sins
be forgiven thee.”
Mark 2:5
, A.R.V. margin.
Many are the outcasts who will grasp the hope set before them in
the gospel and will enter the kingdom of heaven, while others who
were blessed with great opportunities and great light which they did
not improve will be left in outer darkness.
The victims of evil habit must be aroused to the necessity of
making an effort for themselves. Others may put forth the most
earnest endeavor to uplift them, the grace of God may be freely
offered, Christ may entreat, His angels may minister; but all will be
in vain unless they themselves are roused to fight the battle in their
own behalf.
The last words of David to Solomon, then a young man, and
soon to receive the crown of Israel, were, “Be ... strong, ... and
show thyself a man.”
1 Kings 2:2
. To every child of humanity, the
candidate for an immortal crown, are these words of inspiration
spoken, “Be ... strong, ... and show thyself a man.”
The self-indulgent must be led to see and feel that great moral
renovation is necessary if they would be men. God calls upon them
to arouse and in the strength of Christ win back the God-given
manhood that has been sacrificed through sinful indulgence.